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Wise Living
Text: Ephesians 5:15-21
We parents know that we cannot always be there for our children and grandchildren.
More than likely we will die many years before them.
But there is a way to help them even after we are long gone.
The key is to pass on to them what God has passed on to us.
Hopefully this message will help us see clearly what God has passed on to us--principles from God’s Word on how to lives wisely.
Kids learn more from watching us, than they do from listening to us.
So if we learn to live wisely, according to God’s Word, they will learn to do the same.
Can there be anything more beneficial to us, our children, and grandchildren than being equipped with principles for making quality decisions, wise living is nothing more than making wise decisions.
Wise decisions can save us all a lot of heartaches and pain.
Our heavenly Father cares about what we go through in life.
He cares about the hurt and pain that comes our way.
In Jesus said, “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?
11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
Just as we parents want to give good things to our children, even more so does God want to give blessings to His children.
It is not God’s will that we experience loss, pain, and heartaches due to foolish mistakes and unwise decisions.
He wants to help us.
He wants to protect us.
He wants to equip us.
But will we let Him?
Many refuse to do so.
He has given us valuable principles in His Word to help us make quality decisions.
It is not God’s will that we experience loss, pain, and heartaches due to foolish mistakes and unwise decisions.
He wants to help us.
He wants to protect us.
He wants to equip us.
But will we let Him?
Politicians, big name movie producers, hall-of-fame coaches, and police officers can all be found in recent news stories of having made bad choices and are now paying the price for those unwise decisions.
And sadly many in everyday life do the same, including church members.
Many refuse to let Him.
Politicians, big name movie producers, hall-of-fame coaches, and police officers can all be found in recent media accounts of having made some bad choices and are now paying the price for those bad choices.
We live in times of deception, therefore, nothing can be more relevant, or important than making wise decisions in our lives.
Good decisions benefit us physically, financially, emotionally, and spiritually.
Good decisions bring glory to God, benefits others, and rewards us.
This is true for Christians and non-Christians, for religious and non-religious people, for everyone benefits from making wise decisions.
The damaged lives of the young and old, the rich and poor, the famous and not-so-famous can all be traced back to poor decisions.
Listen to what God says through the apostle Paul who wrote the book of Ephesians.
Turn with me to or turn to page 1244 in the Bibles provided in the pews.
But this doesn’t have to be the case.
This should not be.
We can be wise in an age of evil.
We can be wise, when all those around us are being foolish in the decisions and actions.
There is no one passage that provides all the principles we need to embrace, so we will be jumping from one passage to another in our message.
We begin with Ephesians 5:15-21
Read Ephesians 5:15-21
God is telling us here how to make the best use of our time.
We do it living wisely in an unwise and evil world.
Life is too short to spend it in jail, in debt, consumed with emotional and relational hurt, or fighting an illness that could have be avoided.
We live in a sin plagued world, so there will be some unavoidable sorrow, pain, and heartache , but a large degree of the suffering in society is brought on by bad decisions.
Jesus said in , “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Jesus was not only referring to eternal life, but an abundant life prior to our eternal life in heaven.
The principles provided us in God’s Word helps to make this abundant life possible.
Our text says that key to living wisely and not living foolishly is to understand what the will of the Lord is.
He further explains what he means by saying in verse 18, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,...”
It so that we will bring glory to God, and we do that by not making decisions that will bring offense to the Jews, Greeks, or the church of God.
In day that this was written, the Greeks represented all people outside the Jewish faith.
With the establishment of the church, we had three groups of people, the Jews, the Greeks, and Christians—followers of Christ.
He’s not just saying don’t get drunk, he is saying, instead of letting your life be controlled or influenced by the stuff of this world, let it be controlled by the Spirit of God.
But sadly, the church has allowed the world to impose it’s idea of what it means to be filled with the Spirit rather than what the Bible teaches.
To be fill with the Spirit means to be filled with His Word.
It means to live your life according to the principles in God’s Word.
And the first principle for living wisely is to understand what the will of God is.
The Jews represented the religious people of that day, and the Greeks represented the intellectuals, the philosophers of that day.
As Christ followers we need to live our lives in such a way to not offend the religious people and the intellectuals of today.
While it’s impossible to totally not offend, because the Gospel itself will be offensive to both groups, we will be better received and will offend a lot less people if we base our decisions on the principles of the Bible.
Consequently, we need to ask this question before making major decisions, “What’s My Motivation?”
I. Examine Your Motivation
NLT says, “People may be pure in their own eyes, ut the LORD examines their motives.”
2 People may be pure in their own eyes,
but the LORD examines their motives.
We need to examine the motive behind our decision.
Is my decision likely to be in God’s will?
Am I motivated by something outside God’s will, like anger, or greed?
Is my decision based on false information?
More than once I’ve made comments about a news story on the internet, only to learn that it was a lie.
It’s not God’s will that we promote lies or spread unfounded rumors.
Now before I make a comment about something I check it out through snopes.com.
Christians should be people of truth, so confirm before conveying it to others.
We need to examine the motive behind our decision.
Is my decision likely to be in God’s will?
Am I motivated by something outside God’s will, like anger, or greed?
Is my decision based on false information?
More than once I’ve made comments about a news story on the internet, only to learn that it was a lie.
It’s not God’s will that we promote lies or spread unfounded rumors.
Now before I make a comment about something I check it out through snopes.com.
Christians should be people of truth, so confirm before conveying it to others.
4. What Possible Motives Are Driving My Decision?
A decision made out of anger is usually wrong.
An decision made in the midst of high emotion, is usually wrong.
All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, but the Lord weighs the motives.
Who can say, ”I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin”’?
Who can say, ”I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin”’?
We need to examine our motives for the decision we are about to make.
A decision made out of anger is usually wrong.
An decision made in the midst of high emotion, is usually wrong.
Emotions are are designed to motivate us, not direct us.
So ask yourself, is this an emotional decision or one based on truth?
For instance, do you want a newer car or a bigger house because you need it, or because you need to feel better about your life, about yourself, or about your marriage?
If so, in no time you will be making another bad decision to make you feel better about your life.
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