Ephesians chapter five beginning in verse 15 reads,
pay careful attention then to how you walk,
not as unwise people but as wise,
making the most of the time because the days are evil.
So don't be foolish but understand what the Lord's will is
and don't get drunk with wine which leads to reckless living
but be filled by the Spirit speaking to one another
in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making music in your heart to the Lord,
giving thanks always for everything to God the Father
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.
This is God's word.
Now most of us know something
about making a New Year's resolution.
Anyone make a New Year's resolution of any sorts?
Maybe it's a business plan,
maybe it's a personal resolution,
maybe it's something related to,
I'm going to do this this year.
I wanna hit the gym more, I want to save more money,
I wanna eat less cake.
Or more cake.
Yeah, it doesn't always have to be less, right?
Or more cake or lose 20 pounds
or do more with the kids, whatever it is,
we seem to use the New Year as this perfect
and most obvious place to evaluate our lives,
to wipe the slate clean and to make a fresh start.
For many of us it's like, hallelujah,
I get to do a do-over here again.
Did you know there's a history to New Year's resolutions?
One of the oldest stories dates back all the way
to the Babylonian Empire.
They had a 12 day festival to a god
and to mark the New Year they held this festival
which was somewhere around March in our calendar.
And during this feast people would make promises
and commitments for the coming year to their gods
in order to appease them.
And so fast forward when Julius Caesar
establishes January 1st as the beginning of the New Year,
he did so in honor of the Roman god Janus.
And Janus is a two-faced god.
One face is looking forward and one face is looking backward.
And Romans would make promises of good conduct
for the coming year to the god Janus.
And so there we have this precursor
to our modern New Year's resolutions.
But there's another day we should all know about
and it's coming up, you can put it on your calendar,
it's this Friday.
This Friday is Quitters Day.
Quitters Day, the second Friday of January is Quitters Day
because by this time over 25% of people
who've made resolutions have abandoned them.
By the end of January almost 50% have quit
and by the end of the year 92% of people
have abandoned their resolutions.
Go 8%, wow, elite, right?
Well whether you've made a resolution or not,
that's not why we're here and what we're talking about.
But as believers we are called to live every day
of our life with special care and intentionality.
Too much of our time is lost,
wasted on what is haphazard,
wasted on reckless living.
And today we're going to let the word of God
impress upon us the importance of how we live each day,
redeeming the time.
That's the series we're in for this week and next week,
redeeming the time.
And we're gonna walk through Ephesians 5
under four main points.
The first one being if you're taking notes,
write down look to live, look to live.
Verse 15 says pay careful attention then how you walk,
not as unwise people but as wise people.
Look to live.
This passage starts out with what is called
a present imperative.
Pay careful attention or more literally keep on looking.
Present imperative meaning always present, keep on looking.
The Christian life that we are called to live
is a thoughtful, attentive life.
Christians don't drift about.
Christians don't coast through life
and aren't passive or reactionary.
We are called to a life of keep on looking,
keep on looking.
But looking at what?
Well verse 15 goes on to say how you walk,
not as unwise people but as wise.
Now Paul uses the metaphor of walking
a few times in the book of Ephesians.
In chapter four verse one he tells us to walk
worthy of the calling we have received.
In 417 to no longer walk as the Gentiles do
and the futility of their minds.
In chapter five verse one we are to walk in love
and in chapter five verse eight to walk as children of light
through a dark world.
And finally in this passage to pay careful attention
then how we walk.
So we're called to walk worthy of the calling,
not as Gentiles and the futility of their mind,
in love to walk as children in the light.
And then the final reference to walking in Ephesians
he says be careful then how you walk.
Look, keep on looking.
And to walk is a metaphor for life.
But not just life, it's a life in action.
Life in action.
Not simply the inner life or the contemplative life
but life lived outwardly.
Keep on looking.
Christians are called to look carefully
in order to live life in all wisdom.
It doesn't just come to us,
it isn't a life of mere intuition.
We're just gonna know when it's time.
There is an intense thoughtfulness required
for the Christian life.
Have you ever engaged in an activity
that required extraordinary concentration?
Whether it's a small, miniature activity
where you have to be very careful.
I'm thinking of guys who make fly fishing lures, right?
And you have to be very careful how you do it and wrap it.
And some guys use magnifying glasses to do it.
Well, I remember one time I went,
I took a group of youth on a hiking trip.
And we went up a path that was fairly steep.
It was on a pathway but the pathway was riddled
with rocks and stones sticking out.
And going up was fairly easy.
You're climbing, ascending.
The problem was after we were done with our time
up at the top of the hill,
we had to turn around and come back.
And down was also downward.
It wasn't as steep so it wasn't as hard on the legs
in that regard.
But because of the rocks sticking up,
you had to pay careful attention
to every single step you took.
Otherwise something was going to happen.
Well, it just so happened that on the way up
I was leading the charge.
On the way back I wanted to make sure
no youth were left behind.
And so I was at the tail end of it.
And at one point in time the kids rounded a corner.
I got distracted.
And as soon as I got distracted my foot hit a rock
and I was tumbling down the path.
And by the time I hit the bottom of this section
and I looked at my legs,
they were completely covered in blood.
And they hurt like nothing else.
But I knew I had to get up and get down the hill
so I got down the hill.
And as soon as I got down,
I kept my composure until I got with my wife.
And then it's like, I think I'm dying.
Amputee my legs, I don't want them anymore.
That path required intense attention to navigate.
And all it took was getting distracted for a moment,
missing a rock and finding that I was on the ground.
And then I was in pain.
The Christian life requires us to give
extraordinary attention in order to live it out wisely.
We'll talk a little bit more about wisdom in a minute,
but verse 16 then adds to this,
making the most of the time because the days are evil.
Again, if you're taking notes,
the second point I'll have you write down is snatch it up.
Snatch it up.
Look to live, snatch it up.
Another activity that requires attention
and great concentration is the catcher position
in Major League Baseball.
You guys seen the catcher who's behind the plates
when the pitcher is pitching the ball?
Well, calling plays via the signs that catchers throw
can definitely help them know the general area
the ball is going to be thrown to or supposed to arrive at.
It doesn't always work out that way in true reality.
And a major part of a catcher's job in baseball
is to track with the pitch, to snatch the ball,
sometimes traveling at 90 plus miles per hour,
out of the air.
The focus, the timing and skill all come together
at the moment the ball is within the catcher's reach,
allowing him to make the most of that moment
by snatching the ball from the air.
The one moment too soon and he'll miss it.
One moment too late and he'll miss it.
When Paul says making the most of the time,
it comes from this Greek word that was used mostly
in commerce and business exchange.
And it literally means redeeming or purchasing back.
Redeeming or purchasing back.
And it was used to describe purchasing
or buying up something.
And in its form here in the scripture,
it means to buy up for yourself the time.
To redeem the time.
The other part of that phrase is the word time.
And in Greek there are two words for time.
One is chronos, from which we get the word chronological.
Chronological time.
And that's the idea that time as a flow,
one minute to the next minute to the next minute.
We live our life in chronos or chronological time, right?
But the other word that the Greeks would use for time
is kairos.
And kairos means an opportune moment.
A special time.
A special moment.
Separated from all other moments.
A moment in chronos that stands out
or is ripe with opportunity.
And so Paul is saying, look with careful attention
at your life, your life in action.
Snatching up, buying up, redeeming the special moments
or the opportune moments that come your way.
If you're not paying attention, you will miss them.
You don't know when they will appear,
but when they do, you must be watching to see them
or they will pass you by.
They are like moments of becoming
that you cannot prepare for,
or you don't know when they will be there,
but you can prepare for them in advance
to be watching in the area where they might be
or to be looking.
They don't show up with neon signs,
broadcasting them ahead of time.
I'll be there in a week, but they're there
ripe for the opportunity to snatch them.
But is he talking about any and every opportunity
when he says, make the most of the time or snatch them up?
Well, let's read a little bit before in Ephesians
to get a little context for Ephesians 5, 15 through 21.
If you'll go back in chapter five to verse six,
we read, let no one deceive you with empty arguments.
For God's wrath is coming on the disobedient
because of these things.
Therefore do not become their partners.
For you were once darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light.
For the fruit of the light consists of all goodness,
righteousness, and truth.
Testing what is pleasing to the Lord.
Don't participate in the fruitless works of darkness,
but instead expose them,
for it is shameful even to mention
what is done by them in secret.
Everything exposed by the light is made visible,
for what makes everything visible is light.
Therefore it is said, get up, sleeper,
and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
The context that Paul is writing to us in
is instruction to believers on how to shine
as children of light, how to bear the fruit of light,
how to test what pleases God,
and not participate in what is the fruitless works
of darkness.
And so the opportunities that Paul is talking about,
that we need to be open-minded and looking intently
to redeem our opportunities to live as children of light.
Opportunities to live as children of light,
moments, kairos moments are going to come along this year
for you to live as a child of light.
And if you're not paying careful attention,
you'll miss them.
Opportunities to expose the darkness
by shining the light of Christ on it.
Opportunities for you to resist evil
and let Christ shine through you
are going to come this year.
You need to pay careful attention,
you need to look to live and you need to snatch them up.
Are you ready to snatch up the time in 2025?
Number three, put it together.
Put it together.
So don't be foolish,
but understand what the Lord's will is.
Don't be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.
One of the definitions for the word foolish here
is a reckless and inconsiderate habit of the mind.
A reckless and inconsiderate habit of the mind.
Reckless is defined as without thinking or care
about the consequences of an action.
Without thinking or care about the consequence of an action.
Rest assured that every one of us
regularly engages in an action or a habit
that is done without thinking or caring about the outcome.
Amen.
A reckless action is an action
that hasn't been scrutinized or evaluated,
held up to the commands, teaching,
and wisdom of God's word to see if it's good and right.
To say that again, a reckless action is any action
that hasn't been scrutinized and evaluated,
held up to the commands, teachings,
and wisdom of God's word to see if it is good and right.
And to understand what the Lord's will is
is literally to put it together.
That's what the word means, put it together.
To understand, to put it together.
Or piece it together.
Like a puzzle. Any people do a puzzle?
Right?
The pieces all spread out, you're bringing them together
and then pretty soon, ah!
Have you ever tried to do a puzzle without the box?
Like, you're guessing, right?
And there's a surprise at the end, at least, right?
To understand what the Lord's will is
is literally to piece it together or put it together.
God's will for every action of the believer's life
isn't a mystery.
It isn't hidden from us.
It isn't some special knowledge for special people.
It is present for every single believer
in the form of wisdom.
God's will is to be present.
God's will for every single believer is present
not hidden in the form of wisdom.
And wisdom is like a puzzle.
All the pieces are there.
Nothing is hidden from you.
But you must pay careful attention
to bring them all together in the right fashion.
Wisdom is seeing the opportunity or action before you
and working through it choice by choice.
And let me tell you, there are a lot of bad choices.
My foot made a bad choice on the way down that hill
and I paid the consequences of it.
So knowing that there are a lot of bad choices
should heighten the level of sensitivity that you have
to scrutinizing and evaluating choice by choice
because there are a lot of bad choices you can make.
You must test each choice against the insight of God's word.
You must piece together the choices,
each tested against the insight of God's word
to bring out the wisdom of God
for every decision and moment.
And divine wisdom is separate from wise instinct.
Some of us are just naturally more wise than other people.
It's not about our gut intuition.
Divine wisdom is learned through a spirit renewed mind
that takes the first step of no longer conforming
to the pattern of the world, the choices of the world,
the behaviors of the world,
but positions themselves in a place
to begin to scrutinize the choices they're going to make
according to the word of God.
The renewed mind first draws itself away from the world
and that puts it in a place where it can then
begin to evaluate according to God's wisdom.
A bunch of sticks, we oftentimes have to clear cut
our property and gather sticks for firewood.
And if you ever try to carry a bunch of sticks together,
especially different kind of shaped ones
that are going different ways, it's not always easy,
especially the larger the bundle is.
And so if you set that bundle down on its side,
on the ground, it's just going to fall everywhere.
But imagine if you take that bundle and you begin to
lash it around with a tie of some sort, a rope of some sort,
some way to pull those sticks,
all those different sticks going different directions
together into a unit, into harmony.
Wisdom is like binding that brings together our lives
and holds them together, shapes them and fastens them.
Reckless living, on the other hand,
is a loss of moral binding, a loss of wisdom
that binds us together.
It falls apart, it becomes disconnected,
it doesn't have a togetherness to it.
It seems to go every which way, nothing to hold onto.
And we are called to piece wisdom together
as God has laid it out for us so that we can know
what God's will is, not hidden from us,
accessible to all of us.
We look to live, we snatch it up, the opportune moments,
we put the wisdom of God together so that we can know
what to do in our decisions and choices.
And finally, number four, we choose our place,
or you choose your place.
Choose your place and don't get drunk with wine,
which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit.
Just as you can consciously take a drink of wine,
so you can allow the Spirit to fill you.
Just as you can consciously take a drink of wine,
you can go home and pour a glass of wine
and bring it to your lips and drink it,
so we are told, instructed here,
that we can allow the Spirit to fill us.
That's extraordinary. That's extraordinary.
In the same way that I can pour a glass,
I can say, Spirit, fill me, I can allow Him to do that.
To be filled by the Spirit is when a believer
allows the indwelling Spirit that is with every believer
to direct and control their life,
to fill every part of their life,
and to draw life from the Spirit's presence in their life,
to fill every part of their life,
to draw life from the Spirit's presence in their life,
to find their sustenance and life in the Spirit,
to allow it to direct and guide.
But where you choose to live your life,
where you choose, the place you choose
affects what you let control your life.
Where you choose to live your life
affects what you let control your life.
Drunk life is one, and certainly literally,
one that consumes alcohol to the point
of loss of rational thinking,
loss of the ability to pay careful attention
to one's life's choices,
a wastefulness of what is supposed to be
a light displaying, God-glorifying being
here on this earth.
The environment that is conducive to reckless living,
reckless and wasteful living, is drunkenness.
If you want to live reckless or wasteful,
choose the life of drunkenness.
But the environment that is conducive to Spirit-filling,
to Spirit-controlled living, what is that environment?
Why should a person who is tempted to drunkenness
never go to a bar?
Because the environment of a bar is conducive to drinking.
And why should a man never go to a strip club?
Because the environment is conducive
to sexual lustful sin.
Why should a gossip avoid other gossips?
What happens when you get a couple gossips together?
They gossip.
The environment is conducive to promoting
the sin of gossip.
So what environment is conducive
to a Spirit-filled, Spirit-directed, Spirit-controlled life?
Well, Paul says it's this one.
Speaking to one another in Psalms, hymns,
and spiritual songs, singing and making music
with your heart to the Lord.
Giving thanks always for everything to God the Father
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.
That's the environment conducive to a Spirit-filled life.
That's the environment.
In this environment, you hear truth.
In this environment, you give thanks to God for everything.
You acknowledge Him, prosperity or want,
pain or joy, suffering and peace.
God is the object of your affection.
God is the object of glory.
And He receives all.
And here in this environment, you submit to others,
or literally, you let others outrank you.
You let others outrank you.
Why?
Because you have reverential awe of Christ
who made Himself nothing for you and me.
He let us outrank Him so that He might save us.
And so we submit to one another.
And so we submit to one another and let others outrank us
because we fear Christ.
We're in reverential awe of what He has done for us.
The filling of the Spirit isn't mechanical.
It's not do this and get this.
You know, like going over to a soda fountain
or something, right?
You push the lever, you expect to get the soda,
you queued up.
It's not mechanical, but activities,
certain activities are more tuned to receive it than others.
And today we're invited to look to live,
to pay careful attention to how we walk,
to snatch up and redeem the opportunities
to shine and live as children of light in 2025.
We're to put together and understand
the will of God in every situation and choice
and to choose the place where we will stand.
The environment of reckless wastefulness
or the place of a Spirit-filled and directed life.
And you may have noticed that description Paul gives
sounds very much so like church.
Sounds like being with other believers.
It sounds like being here with one another.
This is kind of like where, you know,
you go to the bar to get a drink,
you go to church to be filled by the Spirit,
to be surrounded by the songs of praise,
to hear the word of God, to give thanks to Him,
to have your perspective reshaped.
You may have gone six days down in the dumps.
Woe is me filling six days.
Woe is me filling self-pity.
And it can take a moment talking to a brother
or sister here at church to get a whole new perspective,
light shined on darkness, flip the switch,
and pretty soon you're walking out of here going, wow.
It's not a place of condemnation.
This idea of light, it's just exposing.
That's all it is.
We have to expose what is there in order to begin
to see what the Lord will do.
To begin to piece together the actions
that need to be taken in wisdom
so that we can know what God's will is for our lives.
It's just let the light shine.
It's hard to put together a puzzle in the dark.
Turn the light on.
Where you stand, the place you choose matters.
Do you run to media?
Do you run to the things that this world glorifies?
Do you run to the places that this world assures
will bring relief that don't bring relief?
The place that this world says will give you
a kind of wisdom, but it's not this kind of wisdom.
Or do you run to the place where the spirit of God
is present and moving and active
and can shape and change your life and help you
to leave behind the reckless, wasteful life
that we all have lived and begin to lean into
and allow yourself to be filled by the spirit,
directed, controlled, renewed mind
so that you can know the will of God
and you can bring glory and honor to our King.
A.W. Tozer says that it may be said without qualification
that every man and woman is as holy
and as full of the spirit as he wants to be.
He may not be as full as he wishes he were,
but he is most certainly as full as he wants to be.
I don't have a view of God that he's hiding things from us,
he's trying to make it as difficult as possible,
he's making us guess and second guess and doubt ourselves.
I have a view of God who has laid out his truth before us
and says feast if you will,
eat as much as you want or as little.
I pray that 20 years later,
that we can all be as full as we want to be
and that we can all be as full as we want to be.
I pray that 20, 25 is a year for us to feast
at the table of God and his wisdom
so we can know what his will is,
we can make the most of ever to opportunity