Watch Carefully and Redeem the Time — A Call to Wise Living (Eph 5:15-17)

Good morning and welcome to the

broadcast service of Dillingham Moravian Church. My name is Pastor Simon.

Our goal here at DMC is to make disciples of Christ through the study of God's

Word as we trust in Christ Jesus our Lord together.

When I was about 20 years old, my family built a house in Hillspring, Alberta, Canada.

When my father had first had the hole dug in order to put in the foundation of concrete blocks,

he could not get the hole excavated early in the fall, but rather had to get

someone from way out of the area to dig it right before wintertime.

However, when the spring came and all the snow melted, we realized that the

hole that we had gotten dug for the foundation of the house was completely full of water.

We ended up getting rid of the water by pumping it out with sump pumps,

but unfortunately the hole that was now waterless was now half full of mud.

My dad was in a hurry to get the foundation in as quickly as possible,

and so all of us spent a number of days in that hole shoveling out mud.

When we finally got to the place where we could lay the foundation,

we built all the forms and then the concrete block basement for our house.

The difficulty was that when things started to dry out and we began to build

the wooden walls and the main beam supports for the house upon the foundation,

we noticed that one side of the foundation had sunk down at least six inches.

Now, my dad shimmied up the foundation as best as he could, but still,

even with the foundation being adjusted, when we got to the floor and the frame

up for the house being shimmied,

every measurement was off by at least two and a half inches on that one side of the house.

And what that meant was that every beam, every joist in the house had to be

changed to consider that we were two and a half inches off on that one side of the house.

My point with this illustration is that, like it being essential to be precise

and careful with every measurement that we make,

in a house or another structure, a building. It's also extremely important for

us as Christians to be precise and careful how we live in our day-to-day life

under Christ Jesus our Lord. Let's pray.

Father God, we come before you and we thank you for the privilege and joy it

is to be able to hear from your word, from your truth.

And Lord, as we hear what you are teaching us today,

help us not to just hear and have the sound waves come out or into one ear and

out the other, but rather we hear and obey as the Lord has taught us in his word.

Help us, O Lord, to do this. May we trust you and may we cling to you,

Lord Jesus, who is our life. In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Here at Dillingham Moravian Church, we have been studying for some time through

Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

The main theme of Paul's letter was the unity of God in the Church of Christ

and how the Church is to display the unity of God to each other and to the world.

Last week in Ephesians chapter 5, God through Paul taught us that believers

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

in Christ are not to take part in sinful activity.

Rather, we are called to humbly and lovingly expose the unfruitful works of

darkness, especially within Christ's church.

The second truth that we learned from Paul was in two parts.

We as Christians are to lovingly and gently reprove our brothers and sisters

in Christ using God's Word when they are being disobedient to the Word.

Moreover, Christ also calls believers and unbelievers to wake up from the darkness

of sin and repent, trust Christ as our Lord and Savior, and the result will

be that Christ shines his favor upon us.

And today we're going to continue in our study in Ephesians 5,

Ephesians 5:15–17

verses 15-17, where Paul wrote, Therefore look carefully how you walk,

not as unwise, but as wise,

redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

On account of this, do not be foolish, but understand.

The will of the Lord is. There are two main points that I want to bring to your attention today.

The first truth is that as Christians, we have been made light in the Lord,

and as such, we must live carefully for the Lord with God's wisdom.

Paul, Ephesians 5, verse 15, proclaimed, Therefore look carefully how you walk,

Ephesians 5:15

not as unwise, but as wise.

In verse 15, Paul taught the Ephesian congregation that they were to look carefully how they walked.

There are two words I would like to share with you to help us understand what

Paul was teaching in this verse.

The first word that Paul used was the word to look, to watch carefully,

meaning to be vigilant, to be on the lookout or be careful.

This reminds me of going upriver in a skiff hunting for moose.

Everyone is quiet. Everyone is vigilant, scanning for any movement with our

eyes and the binoculars and with our rifles at the ready, waiting for an eligible

moose to walk out towards the water.

Moreover, the pilot of the boat, and us as well, are scanning the water for

debris, for rocks, shallow water, to make sure that we don't wreck our prop

or run into rocks or logs or other dangers.

Paul also used the word.

For mindfully, or in a careful and deliberate manner, paying attention to every

little detail, or precise.

And this is similar to the illustration about being mindful and precise in measuring

and cutting and construction work.

Thus, Paul was communicating to the Ephesians that, as lights in Christ,

they were to watch carefully or be on the lookout over their lives and live

precisely according to the standards of God.

Christians are not to live as unwise, but to rather live with the wisdom that comes from God Himself.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 16.13 commanded, Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

Again, Paul taught in Philippians 1.27, Only live your lives in a manner worthy

of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent,

I will hear about your circumstances,

that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, contending together

for the faith of the gospel.

God, through Paul, is calling us as believers in Christ to keep watch over our

lives, being careful to live according to the ways of the Lord.

This is an area where the modern church has quite the difficulty.

I say this because our culture has been pushing and influencing the church to

act and think according to our emotions.

Now, don't get me wrong. Emotions are very helpful.

Through our emotions, we as human beings can do marvelous things.

Our emotions can give us the drive to succeed against overwhelming odds.

Our emotions can give us the ability to empathize and understand what other

people are going through.

Our emotions can help us be compassionate and loving towards others in the name of Christ.

On the other hand, emotions can also lead us to make terrible decisions that

have long-reaching consequences for us and for everyone around us.

Just think of Hitler, whose fear and hatred of the Jews and his pride in the

superiority of the German race led him to rise in the German ranks and become

the Fuhrer or leader of Germany, and then attempt to take over much of the known world,

causing the death of millions.

Emotions can also lead us to

make decisions on what feels good to us or to please the people around us.

In today's society, we are busier and more hectic than ever And with our busy

lifestyles comes a great deal of stress And stress if we're not careful.

Can cause many emotions to overcome us and cause us to hurt our families and

to those around us with our words and actions.

And yet God, through Paul, calls us to keep watch over every aspect of our lives,

meaning our thoughts, our emotions that govern our speech and actions.

Paul encouraged Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, verse 7, For God gave us a spirit not

2 Timothy 1:7

of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

I want to encourage all of us who believe in Christ as Lord,

that Christ did not give us a spirit filled with the emotion of fear.

Rather, Christ gave us the Holy Spirit who indwells us.

And the Holy Spirit has all the power in the universe.

The Holy Spirit is the communicator of the love of God to us in His Word.

And the Holy Spirit is the one

who teaches us and reminds us of the infinite love that God has for us.

Moreover, the Holy Spirit is complete in and of Himself.

Never does the Spirit do anything that is not what God's will is.

You and I, as Christ believers, have Christ in the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.

And as we trust Christ in faith, Christ will operate us as a pilot would operate

a plane or a skiff or a snow machine.

Through trusting Christ, God will give us the power and love to be in control

of ourselves and live God's ways.

This leads us to the second point I want to bring to your attention,

and that is, as Christ followers, we are to redeem the time because the days are evil.

As we have been meditating on how we make the best use of the time that we have,

I would like to give you three examples of Christians who did just that.

George Mueller founded an orphanage in Bristol, England.

Not only was he able to establish an institution that could provide care for

2018 orphans, but he did so without ever asking people for financial support.

He chose to only ask God, and God provided abundantly.

In 1874, he testified that he fed 2,100 people every day of that year.

In addition to that, he had supported 189 missionaries, sent 10,000 pounds to support missionaries.

And by the way, 10,000 pounds was a lot more money then than it is today.

Paid the school fees of 9,000 children, and published 4 million tracts and thousands of Bibles.

Another man who made the best use of his time for Christ was John Nelson,

nicknamed Praying Hyde, was an American missionary who worked in the Punjab region of India.

He left for India in 1892, and on the way there he read a letter from a friend

who spoke of praying that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit.

This initially angered John, but he realized later that God was speaking through

his friend, and he seriously sought for God's help.

It wasn't easy for John to be a missionary

because he was deaf and he had difficulty learning the language.

At first, there were few converts and much persecution. To change the spiritual

tide, John began praying for God's blessing to come upon the missionaries,

including spending entire nights in prayer for the mission.

He attended the first Sialkot Missionary Conference in 1904.

Afterwards, he started up the Punjab prayer union in which members agreed to

pray for 30 minutes each day for a spiritual revival in India It was while praying

that he felt impressed that one convert would be one each day Later,

he prayed for two converts each day.

Eventually, he felt impressed to pray for four converts each day.

The end of his life, he returned to America, where he died in 1912.

For those of you who are not professional missionaries or pastors,

here's an example of a woman to whom every moment counted for her Lord.

Susanna Wesley raised ten children, two of whom were John and Charles Wesley,

who went on to lead the Methodist revival.

Despite her incredibly busy life, Susanna made a habit of spending two hours every day in prayer.

She would pull her apron over her head to create a prayer closet,

signaling to her children that it was her time with God.

Her story is proof that no matter how chaotic life gets, we can still make space for prayer.

I share these examples of Christ followers who redeemed their time for Christ

to remind us that we also, as Christ followers, are to make use of the time

that we have being given for the glory of God.

Paul continued on in Ephesians 5, verses 16-17, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:16–17

And on account of this, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

I want you to see in this verse that Paul was explaining to the Ephesian Christians

that as they watch carefully over their lives and live precisely according to the standards of God,

they were to redeem the time that they had.

The word that Paul used for redeeming meant to utilize, redeem,

to efficiently use something, perhaps as compensation for waste.

Conceived of as buying it back.

The word for time specifically meant the opportune time or the time that is

suitable or advantageous for a particular purpose.

So for what purpose are we to use our time efficiently and advantageously for?

The Sunday school answer would be that the Lord's will be done in every moment

of our lives and the lives of those around us.

And that answer would be correct.

In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus modeled what prayer should be at its fundamental level.

This is what Jesus said in Matthew 6, verse 9-10. Pray then in this way.

Matthew 6:9–10

Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come. And here it is. Your will be done. Where?

On earth as it is in heaven. And what is God's will?

That our Father's name would be hallowed or worshipped in His holiness everywhere.

That the kingdom of God would come to every person of this world.

This is why Paul continued on in Ephesians 5, verse 17.

Ephesians 5:17

On account of this, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Accomplishing the will of God was the Apostle Paul's focus while he was on earth,

Let's look at Colossians 4, verses 2-6, where he wrote,

Colossians 4:2–6

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving,

praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open to us a door for

the word, so that we may speak the mystery of Christ,

for which I have also been bound, that I may make it manifest in the way I ought to speak.

Walk in wisdom towards outsiders. And this is it.

Redeeming the time. Let your words always be with grace, seasoned with salt,

so that you will know how you should answer each person.

There's also another reason why we are to make most of our time for the glory of the Lord.

That reason is because the days are evil.

The question is, what in the world does that mean? We know that God has created

time and the movement of the sun and the moon and the tides which gives our seasons and our days.

And if God has created our physical days and God is the epitome of good,

then our days must also be good.

So, what was Paul getting at? There are two aspects of what Paul was trying

to teach us at the end of verse 16.

First off, due to Satan's tempting of Adam and Eve, who then fell into sin and

caused all of creation to be affected in its basic nature by sin,

all of creation, to use my Canadian word, is wonky.

Paul taught in Romans 8, verse 19-22, For the anxious longing of the creation

Romans 8:19–22

eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subject to futility, not willingly, but because of him

who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself would also be set free from

its slavery to corruption.

Into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth, together until now.

What Paul meant was that every aspect of creation is enslaved to corruption brought on by sin.

Thus, even our days are corrupted by evil.

The second aspect to understand what Paul was getting at in Ephesians 5, verse 16,

Ephesians 5:16

by the days are evil, is to remember that because of sin, without the grace

of God, all of humanity is depraved and unable to live according to God's standard

of what is right and good.

And thus, every human system, every institution and government is fundamentally

corrupted by the evil of sin.

There is no nation, no people, including America, that has escaped the corrupting

infection of sin. Moreover.

The Bible teaches us the closer we get to the return of Christ,

who will overcome the forces of darkness here in this world and will set up

his reign over the earth,

evil is going to become increasingly pronounced.

This world that is temporarily controlled by Satan is becoming and will become exponentially eviler.

Paul in 1 Timothy 4, verses 1-3 wrote to Timothy saying this,

1 Timothy 4:1–3

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from

the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrine of demons,

by the hypocrisy of liars who have been seared in their own conscience,

who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God created to

be shared in with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

Jesus in Matthew 24.37-39 promised.

For just as the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be.

For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking and marrying

and given marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,

and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all the way,

and so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Back in Ephesians 5, verse 16, Paul was teaching the Ephesian believers in Christ, and us,

Ephesians 5:16

that since the days are evil and the human systems and societies that surround

us are going to become even more evil before the end times arrive.

Christ believers are to make the most of the time that we have left to advance

the kingdom of Christ to the glory of the Father.

Due to our limited time left before Christ returns, we, you and I as Christians,

are to use all of our available time and resources to further the kingdom of

Christ here on this earth, while we still have the time.

Christ is returning. Satan knows this, and he cannot stop it.

That is why Satan is working so hard to corrupt Christ's church with persecution

in many parts of the world, and here in the Western world, perhaps more effectively,

through the cultural onslaught of sexual immorality, consumerism,

changing believers' minds through Satan getting us to focus on what each other

think is best or what feels good for us, rather than on the sovereign God through

his objective word of God.

While Satan has us, the church, focused on ourselves, we are missing Satan corrupting

sizable portions of Christ's church, whittling us away.

But here is the truth. We, you and

I, must be on alert and watchful over ourselves and our local churches.

But we need not fear Satan. Christ has overcome the world.

Moreover, for us who are in Christ, Christ is in us with all his overcoming

power, his fortitude, and his love.

With Christ's power, love, and enduring strength in the Holy Spirit,

we, you and I, are called to focus our time on abiding or staying in Christ,

leading and loving our families to abide in Christ,

strengthening our local families of Christ to abide in Christ and go out and

make disciples for Christ to the glory of God.

Years ago, I met a family who gave of their vacation time every year so that

they could bring medical supplies to Haiti and share the gospel.

During their spare times through the rest of the year, they would spend their

time amassing medical supplies and Bibles that they would use on their trips.

The money the family would spend on vacations and on more possessions they spent

on medical supplies, on Bibles, and the families that they adopted in Haiti.

Even the children were taught to save their money for this ministry and were

involved in every step of the ministry.

All the children grew up to be active in the ministry, and they were sold out for Christ.

In our culture, we spend a lot of time with frivolous things and events that

can be good, but are not always the best use of our time from the perspective of the kingdom of God.

Yet the deep question that many of us do not want to ask of ourselves is this.

Who is our treasure? because where our treasure is, that is where our priorities

will be. I'll say that again.

Where our treasure is, that is where our priorities will be.

There are two main truths that God through Paul has taught us today.

We are called as believers in Christ to keep watch over our lives,

being careful to live our lives according to the ways of the Lord.

Secondly, we have learned that since the days are evil and our human systems

and societies will become even more evil before Christ returns,

we as Christ believers are to make most of the time that we have left to advance

the kingdom of Christ to the glory of the Father.

I want to give you courage today by reminding you of the wonderful news that

we do not have to live life alone.

Almighty God, Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, is with us.

He is with you, and He has overcome the world, and He will help us straighten

out our lives to where Christ is our focus.

We, you and I, have been chosen to be ambassadors and messengers of Christ to this dark world.

What a great honor that is for us.

Again, I want to leave you with this question. Is Christ your only treasure? Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the joy it is to serve you.

The joy it is to be in your presence and to abide in you.

But we know we cannot do that by our own.

We cannot be saved by our own, but we cannot grow in sanctification,

grow in knowing you and loving you and abiding in you without your grace.

And so, Lord, we plead that you would help us to that end.

Help us to grow in you and to stay in you and lead others to do the same.

Thank you, Lord. You are our God and you are our King.

May we use the time we have to share your kingship, your lordship,

with everyone around us.

In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

I'll leave you with this benediction from Ephesians 3, verse 17-19.

Ephesians 3:17–19

May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, that you.

Rooted and grounded in love, may have the strength to comprehend with all the

saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, to know the love

of Christ that surpasses knowledge,

that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Amen.

Have a wonderful Sunday, and may the Lord bless you.