SERMON OUTLINE

Be Careful How You Live in 2010

Ephesians 5.15-21

See you therefore carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days evil are.           Ephesians 5.3-4 (Literal translation)

Introduction

The big idea in Ephesians 4.17-5.21 is that you were once a sinner under the wrath of God but God has made you into a new person in Christ, so you need to live in a new way according to God’s truth and by God’s power.

Seeing Carefully How You Walk Means…

-Frequent examination of our heart and actions

-Purposeful application of the truth we learn

-Serious undivided attention to being a Christian

A Plan to Walk Carefully By…

1) Buying up every opportunity (kairos) God has give to us to learn and to share the Gospel because these are evil days. Colossians 4.5-6

2) Knowing the will of God through the study of God’s Word and prayer.

3) Being filled with the Holy Spirit by being clean, submissive and totally obedient to God. The results of being filled with the Holy Spirit is speaking to one another, singing in worship to the Lord, thanksgiving for everything, and submission in relationships.

Conclusion

Live carefully not by constant introspective self-conscious examination of all that you are thinking and doing, but by having a preoccupation with love for God and God’s truth and remaining filled with the Holy Spirit.

SERMON NOTES

Careful Living in 2010  (Ephesians 5.15)

Be Careful How You Live in 2010             Ephesians 5.15-21

-This is the last message in this series on careful living in 2010. In two weeks time we will begin a three week series on the armor of God from Ephesians 6.10-20. Pray for that. Then in October to December we have a number of special services coming up such as prayer for the church family, IDOP for the persecuted Church, a baptism, anniversary service, and then Christmas services to end the year. I encourage you to pray on Saturdays for God to prepare your mind and heart each week for worship and the Bible message on Sunday.

-In verses 15 to 21, Paul summarizes what he has been writing about from 4.17. The “big idea” which Paul has been emphasizing in this section is that at one time we were sinners, separated from God, in spiritual darkness, under the wrath of God, living to fulfill the desires of the flesh and the mind, full of impurity and greed. But something supernatural happened. God came to us and made us spiritually alive in Christ and gave us the Holy Spirit to live inside of us. God made us new people in Christ. As a result of God’s work we have a new destiny and a new nature and these changes require a new way of living. We are to put off the old ways that are associated with the old life we used to live, and we are to now live new ways that imitate God and that honor God and that are worthy of God’s call upon our life (4.1). We are to learn what pleases God and do those things. We have the teaching of God’s Word to direct our steps and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us to do what is right, and we have no excuse for living by the old ways.

-Paul writes, “Therefore see carefully how you walk”. The Bible teaches me that as a Christian I am to be very careful how I live my Christian life before God and others. To “see carefully” means two things to me. First it means frequent examination of my life. And second it means purposeful application to my life of the truths I am learning. I am to make sure that my motives and actions express the new man that I am in Christ. As a Christian I am to carefully consider my attitudes, my words, my actions, my desires, my influences, my heart, my mind, my spirit, my emotions, my whole life and my whole Christian walk. I am to be aware of how I am living before God and before others. I am to give my Christian walk undivided attention. My Christian walk is to be my primary occupation. We all need to ask ourselves how serious we are about living the Christian life. Is Christianity some important knowledge I have added to my life because it meets my needs or is my whole life given to becoming more like Christ and seeking to bring Glory to God?

-In these verses Paul provides the Christian with an excellent plan for careful living. Paul outlines three steps to see carefully how we walk. Each step states the negative we are to avoid and then gives the positive we are to pursue. Verses 15-16 command us “not to be unwise but wise by making the most of our time”. Verse 17 says “not to be foolish but understand the will of the Lord”. And verses 18-21 teach that we are “not to be drunk but filled with the Spirit”. All of these commands fit together and form an excellent plan for careful living. Let’s briefly examine each of these commands and how they fit together.

-We are not to live as unwise men and women but as wise men and women by making the most of our time. A wise man in the Bible is a man who has right knowledge and then practically applies that knowledge to his experience and reaps the result of a successful life. A example of Biblical wisdom is found at the end of the Beatitudes when Jesus says, “everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock; …And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand.” (Matthew 7.24,26) The wise man took the knowledge that he had and acted upon it and reaped success. So a strategic move for careful living is to be wise by making the most of the opportunities that God has given us.

-So how do we make the most of our opportunities? Let me explain a couple of Greek words that are used in this verse. That will help us. “Make the most” is the word redeem which means to pay a ransom or buy up. There is a commitment, a cost, a choice to be made, if we are to live carefully as Christians. Then the word for “time”. Greek has two main words for time. One is chronos which means the measure of time. Our word chronometer for example means an accurate watch to measure time. The other Greek word for time is kairos. That word does not refer to the measure of time but to a window of opportunity in time. Kairos is like a “Kodak moment”. That special opportunity that comes and then is gone. So the wise Christian who desires to be careful in how he lives buys up every opportunity that comes his way to learn, to obey, to serve, to grow in Christ. The careful Christian turns away from unwise wasteful opportunities, those things which are not worth buying up, says no temptations to sin, does not keep wrong company, turns away from worldly input to the mind, and wisely seeks every opportunity to put on the new man which is created in righteousness and holiness.

–Right now as we are gathered together for worship and the Word of God is a kairos moment, an opportunity for God can speak to you and for you can grow in Christ. If you are not here this morning you did not buy up the opportunity. Wednesday evenings is a kairos moment, an opportunity to pray with God’s people to strengthen and enlarge the kingdom of God. Every morning is an opportunity to spent quiet time in God’s Word and in God’s presence to be built up in the Lord. Buying up these regular opportunities makes us sensitive to buy up the other opportunities that come along our path each day. You see our relationship with God must be our priority and we are to buy up every opportunity to grow in Christ.

-We are also to buy up every opportunity to serve others. Galatians 6.10 says, “While we have opportunity (kairos), let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” Buy up those opportunities.

-In the same way we are to buy up every opportunity to share the message of the Gospel with those we meet along the path of life. We need to be aware of those windows of opportunity and take a hold of them before they disappear, perhaps forever. As Colossians 4.5-6 says, “Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity (kairos). Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.”

-Why should we buy up every opportunity given to us to become more like Christ and to serve others, and to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with those around us? Because we live in evil days. These are days of spiritual warfare for the souls of men, and attempts to bring down Christians, and to attack the Glory of God. These are days of darkness and if we do not buy up every opportunity to grow then we will be pulled back by the Devil, the world, and especially by our own flesh. If you want to know how evil the days are then start taking advantage of every opportunity to move forward in obedience to Christ and see what kind of opposition you encounter, even from other Christians. Start to share the Gospel message of salvation in Jesus Christ and see how very evil these days are. We need to take our calling as new people in Christ seriously and take hold of all that God has provided for us to grow and to be light in an evil world.

-Paul adds a second step for careful living, “do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is”. The foolish Christian does not study the Word of God and therefore does not understand the will of God. The will of God is the outworking of the character of God and always has the Glory of God as its goal. I include prayer along with the study of God’s Word in understanding the will of God because the will of God is more than decrees and doctrines and commands and how history will end according to the Bible. The will of God is not just theology, it is also what God is up to today in your life, in your neighborhood, in your church, in your workplace. How is God moving by His Spirit in your life and in the circumstances around you. This understanding of the will of God is discerned in prayer and in communion with God as we study His Word. Know what pleases God (v10) and the will of God as you buy up the opportunities God gives you.

-So far we have a serious determination to see carefully how we live, by being willing to buy up every opportunity that comes along for growth and for sharing the Gospel; and the study of God’s Word to know God’s character and God’s will, and prayer to understand God’s will in my present circumstances. These things move us forward in God’s plan to see carefully how we live. Paul now adds one more very important command which pulls everything together. We are to be filled with the Spirit.

-Getting drunk with wine is a mark of being unwise and foolish. Getting drunk does not buy up the opportunities that God gives us nor does it use the resources God has given to grow in Christ. Getting drunk is not the will of God. Getting drunk is wasteful and leads to a lack of self-control. Drunkenness marked the past behavior of these believers but now they must come under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

-“Be filled with the Holy Spirit” is a present passive command. This is a command to let God continually fill you with the Holy Spirit. There are three requirements for God to continually fill us with the Holy Spirit. 1) A clean heart. You need to have a clear conscience so that you know of no sin that is between you and God, and you and another person. 2) A willing submission to God. The filling of the Holy Spirit is about submitting to God. When we come to God and offer our whole life to Him, He will guide us by His Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is not a feeling. It is not speaking in tongues. It is the character of Jesus being expressed through you and the power to witness about Jesus to others. 3) Total obedience. Complete submission to God means we are willing to fully obey God. When the Holy Spirit prompts you to speak, or witness, or repent, or ask for forgiveness, or humble yourself, or confront someone with their sin, or shut up, or give money, or bake a pie for someone, or help a neighbor, then obey. If we do not obey we grieve and quench the Holy Spirit of God and must start the filling process over again with confession of sin, submission to God, and total obedience to God.

–What is filling your life today? Are you filled with the Holy Spirit or are you filled with Self and the things of this world?

-Paul records four of many things that mark the Spirit filled life. 1) Speaking to one another with scripture. This is a reference to the fellowship of believers who encourage and urge one another with the Word of God as they worship together. I am glad that as a fellowship in worship God has led us to include Scripture throughout our worship service. As we read scripture together let us be aware that we are not only reading for ourselves but are encouraging each other in the Lord. 2) Singing to the Lord. This is a reference to worship. The Spirit filled Christian will be enthusiastic to gather with God’s people and sing praises to God. If it is not your desire to join with God’s people every week in worship and to encourage the saints and to be encouraged yourself, the problem may be that you are not filled with the Spirit because of sin and worldliness.  3) Thanksgiving to God for everything in the name of the Lord. A mark of being filled with the Spirit is a submission that acknowledges the Sovereignty of God in all the circumstances of our life and that submission to the Sovereignty of God is expressed in thanksgiving to God. 4) Submitting to one another in relationships is another mark of the Spirit filled life. Paul goes on to outline this submission in our significant relationships from verse 22 through to 6.9.

-So to walk carefully we are to, make the most of every opportunity God gives us to become more like Jesus by studying His Word, prayer, witnessing, being aware of what God is doing in us and around us, and making sure that we are filled with the Holy Spirit at all times. We must take our relationship with God seriously and concentrate on it above all the other things that occupy our life. We need to make choices to feed our minds and spirits on the things of God and then to serve God in the circumstances He has placed us in.

–One caution. The way to be careful how I walk is not through constant introspective self-conscious examination of all that I am thinking and doing. If you spend your days constantly reviewing every detail of your life to see if you are pleasing to God and if you are doing what is right, and if you are following the will of God, you will drive yourself and others crazy. The way to be careful how you life is to have your mind pre-occupied with love for God and with God’s truth, and with learning to be sensitive to the impressions of the Holy Spirit upon you as you walk through daily life. Be filled with the Word of God, spend as much time as you can in the presence of God in prayer, confess sin the moment the Holy Spirit convicts you, turn away from the many influences of this world, serve others, witness of Jesus and His salvation regularly, worship regularly with God’s people, in everything give thanks. Then you will be walking carefully.

-Be careful how you walk today and tomorrow and eternity will take care of itself. Benediction: Quote Ephesians 5.19a then together from overhead Psalm 95.1-7a