Battle Ready: Walking Through A Minefield Ephesians 5:15-17 Pastor Daniel Reese

Good morning. If you have your Bibles Ephesians chapter 5, is where we're going to be. I encourage

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

you to pull that up on your phone and your Bible. There's one in front of you. Things like that.

I'm sure that most of you know who Bill Gates is. He's one of the richest men in the world.

Founded in Microsoft, plus has done a bunch of other things. In an interview one time,

Gates said that he preferred to hire lazy people to do hard jobs. Because a lazy person will find

an easy way to do it and therefore make it more efficient. But the hardest way is not always the

best way. It's similar to what a lot of criminals do. A lot of them are not dumb people. In fact,

many of them are pretty genius when it comes to concocting a plan. A lot of times if they would

have just put the amount of brain power and effort they put into committing their crime,

they could probably have a really good job and be in prison. Shortcuts are good for a lot of things,

but not when it comes to our relationship with God. I think that we're also, as believers,

tempted at times to take a shortcut when we are walking with the Lord. In our quest for the

quickest, easiest, and most expedient way to God, we're often tempted to follow the latest program

or FAD which promises a shortcut to spirituality. But if there's one thing that we have learned

throughout our journey of Ephesians, it's that because of the destination and because that's

already assured for those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, God leaves us here on this earth

to experience the journey. And when we try to take shortcuts on that journey, we miss out on so

many other experiences that God wants us to take part in. That principle is perhaps no more

apparent and Ephesians than in the passage that we are looking at this morning. And so verse 15

of chapter 5 begins a new section of Paul's letter and extends all the way through chapter 6 of verse

9. Now although we're only going to focus on verses 15 through 17 this morning, it's crucial that we

look at it in its context. And so I'm going to ask Thurston to come on up here and read verses 15

through 21 for us. Come on up here Thurston. Whenever you're ready. Ephesians 5, 15 through 21,

look carefully at how you walk not as unwise but as wise. Making the best use of the time because

the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is. And

do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery. But be filled with the Spirit addressing one

another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody to the Lord with your

heart. Giving thanks and always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus

Christ. So meeting to one another out of reference for Christ. Amen. Let's pray. Father God thank

you for Thurston. Thank you for your word. I pray God that as we study that this morning that it

will seep into our hearts that we'll something in our brains will click as to what it means. I

pray God that you will continue to reveal your word to us. And so God we pray that as we study this

your spirit will fill us and challenge us. We ask all these things in your name. Amen. Thank you

Thurston. How awesome is it that we got kids that are willing to read the word. I think that's awesome.

So Paul begins verse 15 with a command to his readers to walk carefully. This is the fifth and

final time that Paul will command his readers to walk in a manner that is consistent with their

new life in Christ here in Ephesians. And so although the Greek word Paul uses here literally

means to walk or tread around it also came to describe the way that a person conducted themselves

and lived his or her life. And there's no doubt that that is how Paul is using that word here. So

so live is actually a very accurate translation. Paul is telling his readers that we are to walk

accurately. This command is in its present tense which by now we all know that this is a continuing

action. So Paul is commanding his readers. He's commanding you and I to keep on walking to keep

on living in a manner that is consistent with their new life in Christ. The word carefully literally

means accurately. It describes paying careful attention to a standard. It can be compared to

walking through a minefield. And that's how we journey through life. You want to play close

attention to where you step because stepping in the wrong place can be detrimental to your

spiritual life. We certainly wouldn't go barging through a minefield without paying attention to

every step that we took. Now that is certainly not a situation in which we'd want to take a

shortcut. We might have to take the long way around. And what would be even better would be

go would be go to through that minefield following in the steps of someone who is an expert in

recognizing those things. That's discipleship. Following along. When Tina and I first got our

camper several years ago it took us it took us some time to get ready to go when we were leaving

the house or when we were leaving the campsite. We were very careful to make sure everything was

in its place. I would I would check tire pressure. I would make sure things were locked and put away.

I would do everything that was needed to be in place before we took off. Tina would then like

make sure everything was secure inside that bars were up that things were locked and snapped

together and all that stuff. And then once we knew we were secure we would hit the road. It can be

nerve-wracking when you are starting something new. Right. You have checklists and then you go one

by one through these checklists. As we got more comfortable with it we became more efficient and

it didn't seem like such a chore to go on our next trip or to come back home. The problem with that

though is you can sometimes get in a hurry and forget to do some important things. And so you're

driving down the road and you look in your mirror and your door is fleeing open. Right. Or you're

looking in your mirror and you're stinky slinky. For those of you that know what that is it's kind

of bouncing bouncing on the road. And you get back in and everything's just kind of falling off

the shelf or doors are open and things like that. You overlooked something. Right. You got in too

big of a hurry or you failed to communicate with those you're with to make sure that everything

got that got done. Right. And so what Paul is challenging us is to make sure that you're not

getting in a hurry that you aren't taking shortcuts. Walk accurately carefully as you navigate life.

You can never put your guard down when it comes to overcoming sin and staying out of sin. You have

to be careful. You have to stay in the word. You have to communicate with the Lord. You have to walk

in a faith community that's going to hold you accountable. There is not a pill that you can

take to become more spiritual and have a strong relationship with the Lord. It takes carefully

walking through the day recognizing that there are landmines all around you and you have to avoid them.

Maybe those landmines are how you react to a tense situation. Maybe those landmines are time

management and how you're spending your day. It could be spending time alone on your computer

when no one else is around. It can be binging a TV show and then saying you don't have time for prayer.

We have to recognize right. We have to avoid those landmines and in our lives that are keeping us

from being the new creation that we are in Christ. Each one of us has different landmines.

We have to be careful of those. How exactly are we to live that way?

Fortunately, as Paul has done throughout his letter, he doesn't leave us wondering that,

but rather gives us some very practical advice on how to do that. Paul writes that the first way

that we are to live carefully and accurately is to not be unwise but to be wise. That makes

sense right? Don't be an idiot. That's what he's saying. Then he tells us exactly what he means

by this in this particular context. The way that we are to be wise is by making the most of every

opportunity. The word translated there, making the most, is one Greek word and it comes from a root

word that literally means to redeem. It means to buy up. It's a word from the marketplace.

It's having a Costco mindset. We have a family of six and we have three boys that act like they've

never been fed. Instead of going to the grocery store every other day, Sina, a lot of times,

will go to Costco and she will stock up on things that we go through quickly. When you buy in bulk,

all of you know this, hopefully, when you buy in bulk, you usually get a better price per item,

plus it saves time because you can get a whole lot more in one trip instead of a whole bunch of others.

Now, one of our homes in La Mesa was literally right behind a grocery store. You would think,

oh, how convenient is that? It really wasn't. We ended up making more trips to the store because

it was more convenient and we ended up wasting more time because instead of checking out with a

basket full of groceries, we're just going and getting one or two things that we need to get

through the day. The word translated time is also important here. As you might suspect, Greek

has several different words that it uses to describe time. The first main word that you would

probably be familiar with is chronos. It's where we get our English word chronology. It describes

clock time, calendar time, or a secession of time. But the word Paul uses here is a word that

describes a specific and often predetermined period of time or a season. It's kairos. Now,

it represents the best time to do something. The moment that circumstances are most suitable.

And so when you put those words together, it's an understanding that since I am going to the store,

I'm going to get as much as I can to make the most of my time. Paul uses that very same word

in other letters of his in the same context. In Colossians 4, he writes,

walk in wisdom towards outsiders making the best use of time. In Galatians 6, he writes,

so then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are the

household of faith. Now, I don't think any one of us would have a problem with the concept that we

need to make the most of every opportunity. I think we'd all agree, but Paul adds an interesting

qualifier here in this passage. He writes that we are to make the most of every opportunity

because the days are evil. That's a clear reference to the current evil age in which we live and

which were under the influence and dominion of the evil one. That's a clear contrast to the many

other places where Paul is written about the coming age and the inheritance that all of

God's children will share. Paul's approach to living in the midst of those evil days is obviously

is for us not to join them in how they're living their lives, but it's also not meant to isolate

us either. We're not interacting with non-believers. Instead, we are to walk carefully, accurately,

making the most of the opportunities that come our way in the midst of these evil days.

What he is saying here essentially is that evil days create opportunities.

And therefore, understanding this, we must make the most of those opportunities. But unfortunately,

many of us have a very different view of those evil days. Instead of seeing opportunities,

we see pressures. We see obstacles. We see defeating circumstances. But there is a sense in which it

is evil days that causes people to think about the futility of their lives and wonder if there is

something more. It is the evil days that cause people to seek after God. It is the evil days that

give us the opportunity to walk as light in the midst of darkness and demonstrate the abundance

of a Christian life. But far too often, we fail to take advantage of those opportunities because

we want to take shortcuts. We want to get this thing over. We don't want to be inconvenienced.

We don't want to be bothered. We're not willing to move out of our comfort zone because that makes

it weird. And so instead of making the most of these opportunities, we just let them slip by.

That thought is particularly sobering to me as a pastor. Because remember that Paul is writing here,

not to individuals. He's writing to the body of Christ. That's why I want to make sure that as a

body, as a church, we don't fail to recognize those opportunities that we have. I don't want us to

fail to buy up those times because we don't have enough vision or enough passion or enough people

or enough resources or even worse enough faith because these opportunities are all around us.

And as a church, as a body of believers, we need to make the most of those opportunities.

We also need to put the puzzle together. Verse 17 says, do not be foolish but understanding what

the will of the Lord is. It could be literally translated something like this, stop becoming ignorant.

Stop becoming ignorant. The word translated foolish describes someone who refuses to acknowledge

dependence on God and thus acts foolishly. Paul is warning his readers not to return

to their former state where they were ignorant of the ways of God. They were walking in senseless

acts in their past. Instead, they were to become understanding of the Lord's will. The word for

understanding describes the active engagement of the mind in order to assemble individual facts

into an organized whole. That's what the word means. In today's language, we might describe it as

putting together the pieces of a puzzle. In our self-focused culture, there's a tendency for us

to personalize the idea of God's will. And therefore, we begin to think of God's will.

Now, when we think of God's will, we automatically think God's will for my life.

We tend to think of God's will in terms of what job should I take? Where should I live?

Who should I marry? What's God's will for these personal issues that I'm facing?

Now, while there are some places in Scripture that describe God's specific

will for a specific person in a specific situation, the Bible much more frequently

pictures the will of God as his overall plan. Now, Paul certainly takes that approach in the

first three chapters of Ephesians. In particular, I'm going to read chapter one for you, verses four

through ten, where Paul describes God's will. He says, even as he chose us in him before the

foundation of the world, that we should be wholly and blameless before him, in love, he predestined

us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us and the beloved.

In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the

riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us

the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the

fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven, and things on the earth.

God's will, as Paul describes it, is his overall plan for redeeming people for himself,

for bringing his creation, and brings all things together in Jesus Christ. That's God's will.

And I'm convinced that that is what Paul is referring to here in chapter five.

Now, as Paul pointed out in chapter one, God has already revealed his will to all of us who were

followers of Jesus Christ, but it's up to us to move beyond just an intellectual understanding,

like we know it, and come to a point where we start putting the pieces together and grasp

the significance and the magnitude. Everything that Paul has written up at this point in this letter

is an attempt to help his readers do just that. Have you ever heard someone say, or maybe you've

even said yourself, I don't know what God is trying to do in this situation. I don't know what he's

trying to teach me. I had a conversation this week along those lines. They tell me, I don't know why

God spared my life, but he did. I don't know the specific reason either, but I know God has a plan

in it. He is going to use that person to unite all things to Christ. He's a piece of the puzzle.

Now, my wife likes to do puzzles. I don't understand it, but she does. She will stay up late at night

to finish one. Now, when she opens a box, she'll pour it on a table, and there's all these fragments

of a picture that is yet to be completed. She knows what it's supposed to look like, because

that's what the box is. But until every piece is in place, the puzzle is not done. Isn't it the worst

when you are working on a puzzle, and you come to find out there's one or two pieces missing?

I haven't met anyone yet who opens a puzzle and counts the pieces before they put it together,

right? Instead, they started and realized towards the end that there's a piece missing.

It almost, at least for me, it almost feels like a waste if you're unable to complete the puzzle.

Now, two years ago, we began, my family and I began making plans to move to Iowa. We took a leap

of faith on Cornerstone, and you took a leap of faith on us. Now, I have to remind myself of that

often, because when things get hard, it's easy to begin to think, well, this was a mistake.

When we miss being close to family, we have to remind ourselves that for whatever reason,

God called us here to fulfill His plan. I'm just a small piece to what God is doing all over the

world, and so are you. But if we don't realize that we are a piece of a much bigger puzzle that

God has put in together, we can begin to feel that our life is a waste, that we have no purpose.

God has you in your workplace, in your home, in your school, on that team to fulfill a piece

of the puzzle. Now, as believers, we know what the puzzle is supposed to look like. We know what the

big picture is. It's Satan defeated. It's believers reigning and ruling with Him. It's every knee

bowing before Him forever. That's what the puzzle looks like. That's the completed picture.

But we have to understand that for that puzzle to be completed, God is using you to complete that

picture. You are a piece of it. We need to keep God's overall will in mind. We need to recognize

that the difficulties and trials and problems that come into our lives are just part of God's

grand plan, not just for us individually, but for us as His creation. Peter makes that clear in

1 Peter 4. He writes, Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial that you were

suffering as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice that you participate in the

sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. So then those who

suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful creator and continue

to do good. Finally, don't bypass spiritual growth. Don't bypass spiritual growth. We can't

control most of the circumstances that impact our lives, but we can control how we respond to them.

When the trials and the pains come, we can complain and look for a shortcut in order to try to

remove ourselves from that situation, or we can seek out God and ask Him to show us how those

circumstances, how those trials fit into His overall plan and will, and then we can join Him.

We can be a part of it, join Him in His work. Again, that's not something we just do individually.

That's something that we do as a body of believers. We need to accurately, wisely, carefully walk

through the dangers of a minefield together. God's will is that men, women, and children

will come to know Him, and maybe that's in your workplace, maybe it's in your school, maybe it's

in your home. Maybe He spares your life so that you can tell the story of how good and awesome

and powerful He is. Maybe He saves your marriage so that you can declare how good and loving and

powerful He is. Maybe He helps you overcome sin so that you can show it's not my strength, but it's

Him that lives in me. Whatever trials you're facing, whatever circumstances you're facing, don't bypass

the spiritual growth. He's trying to teach you something in it. He's trying to walk with you

through it. And I think every one of us that have gone through the desert, so to speak,

gone through the wilderness where we feel like we're just all on our own. I feel like every

single one of us that has walked through those times could say that we're better off and closer

to the Lord because of it. And so let's walk accurately as we navigate this life, as we navigate

this journey. Let's pray. Father God, I pray that you will, that you will reveal to us where we're

not walking accurately, that you will reveal to us the opportunities that we have missed.

I pray God that you open our eyes. Open our eyes to make the most of those times. We are surrounded

by evil every single day. We are surrounded by minefields every single day. And God, I pray that

you give us the boldness and the wisdom to open our eyes and to walk carefully, not just as individuals

but as cornerstone Baptist church. Help us understand that your will is to unite all things

into yourselves and we get to be a part of that. And so Father, as we get ready to take communion,

as we begin to prepare our hearts to receive this bread and this juice,

I pray Father that we will lay our sins before you, that we will confess our sins before you

and walk out of your hole. And so God, I pray that you move during this time. It's your name,

I pray. Amen.