A New Year's Word: Walk in Wisdom
Advent 2021: The Light Has Come • Sermon • Submitted
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Sermon Text: Ephesians 5:15-17
Sermon Text: Ephesians 5:15-17
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
This year we chose the theme, the Light has Come, for our annual observation of the Advent season, and every week through December, we’ve been focusing on one of the traditional themes from Advent: HOPE, PEACE, LOVE, and JOY
These are the attributes that much of the historic church through the years has closely tied to Jesus’ arrival to Earth. When Jesus, the Light of the World, broke through the darkness of this cold and sinful world, TRUE HOPE, TRUE PEACE, TRUE LOVE, and TRUE JOY all broke through with Him.
However, Advent is not only about what Jesus brought at His arrival. It is also about what his arrival did to us. What happened in us when the Light came into the world?
Ephesians 5 gives us some answers and I want to put my attention on one of those answers this morning. Because those answers set a very important course for us as we enter into a new year.
Let’s start in verse 7...
7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
For those in Jesus, Paul gives this message:
“At one time you were partners with those in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. So, WALK as CHILDREN of light...Don’t participate in the works of darkness any longer but expose them. Now that the Light has come. Those who have embraced Christ as Lord are no longer walking in darkness, we are walking in the Light. We are awake from our slumber and Christ is shining on us and in us...”
So, the Light has come, making us children of Light, so we should take part in shining light in the World.
Here at City Light, our anchor text for why we exist is Matthew 5:14-16
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
The Light has come into the world bringing us not only a chance to be delivered from darkness but a commission to actually go and be Light in the world.
So, in Ephesians 5, Paul points to this truth of us having the Light of Christ shone on us and then he begins to unpack what it looks like for such a people to go and shine on behalf of Christ.
As we put a close to 2021 and move into 2022, I’ve grown more troubled by what I’m seeing too prevalent in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. What I’m seeing in me, what I’m seeing in us. I’ve mentioned to my wife a couple of times, that I am deeply concerned about the kind of people we are forming in the church. Something is off in our discipleship or maybe something is completely missing in our discipleship.
We are consumed and captured by the wrong things. We are aligned and committed to the wrong ideas.
Our time is most occupied by the things that matter the least in the eternal kingdom.
And so in our last sermon of the year, I wanted to set the stage for 2022 by pointing us to one way in which Paul urges us to walk as children of Light.
By walking in WISDOM
Picking up in verse 15...
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
I picked these words to close out the year because I wanted them to serve as an anchor of sorts for us as we move into 2022, Lord willing.
Paul is saying as children of the Light who are no longer sleep in the slumber of darkness, unrighteousness, sin and death, we are to walk WISDOM!
You’ve been awakened! At the arrival of Jesus into your life, you should now see the entire world differently: Your purpose in life, your pursuits in life, your values and your identity all should have been RADICALLY ALTERED.
Our status as children of Light should reveal to us a new pattern of behavior...
Darkness to Light (which is a status and/or position) should also move us from UNWISE to WISE (a pattern of conduct and/or behavior).
Paul is saying you are no longer LIKE everybody else so you should no longer ACT like everyone else.
So what does WISE conduct look like?
“Look carefully then how you walk”
The King James bible says to WALK CIRCUMSPECTLY
The Christian Standard Bible says to “Pay careful attention then, to how you walk”
We must walk with a NEW AWARENESS that we have real enemies in world, the flesh, and the devil.
And they have a real mission to DISTRACT us and/or DERAIL us from God’s purpose and mission for us while we are here on this earth.
Those who are truly in Christ cannot be taken from Christ. We cannot be robbed of our destiny of eternal life with Him.
Jesus will keep those of us that He has truly saved, but saints of God, if the devil cannot destroy those who are in Christ, he will work to accomplish the next best thing. He will move towards DISTRACTING US with lesser pursuits and/or DERAILING US from God’s Light-shining work for our LIFE!
Therefore, Paul call us to live CAREFULLY! What does that mean? That means that our lives should be lived with GREATER SCRUTINY.
Living carefully means that we ask ourselves the question more often:
Is this conduct and behavior in line with the will and purposes of God for my life?
23 Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding.
Living carefully means that we ask ourselves the question more often:
Are these words useful for edifying and building up those in my presence and in my life.
29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
[Quote]: The Great Christian Thinker John Stott says of this verse:
The Message of Ephesians 3. The Nature of Wisdom (Verses 15–17)
We all take trouble over the things which seem to us to matter—our job, our education, our home and family, our hobbies, our dress and appearance. So as Christians we must take trouble over our Christian life. We must treat it as the serious thing it is. ‘Be most careful then how you conduct yourselves: like sensible men, not like simpletons’
[Challenge]: How often are you asking yourselves these kind of questions?
Not simply do I have the right to do it, but does it draw my heart closer to Jesus?
Not simply do I have the right to do it, but does it point those around me towards Jesus?
Not simply do I have the right to post it on Twitter and Facebook, but how will it aid in forging unity, drawing the lost to Jesus, building up the church, and deepening my love and adoration for Jesus
Not simply am I entitled to think it, say it, or do it, but is this thought, these words, or this action forming me into the type of person that I want to be and that God desires for me to be.
This is part of what is meant when we Paul says to us we must walk CAREFULLY.
But there’s more...
16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Walking in the Light instead of the darkness and walking in wisdom, instead of foolishness calls for us to make the best use of our time!!!
In the KJV, they capture this phrase from Paul as “redeeming the time”
[ILLUSTRATION] Have you ever been to an arcade where they have the games that give you the tickets? Maybe you’ve been to a Dave and Busters, Chuck-E-Cheese, Gattitown??? FUNTRICITY??? Did I go to far back for some of y’all!
Nevertheless, you play a basketball game where you’re trying to make as many baskets as possible within 60 seconds or you play this ski ball game where you’re trying to skillfully roll the ball into the right hole for points...
Well as you’re playing those games you’re getting tickets and when you finished collecting all of your tickets you supposed to take them to this location that was sometimes called the TICKET REDEMPTION CENTER!
If you have kids or if you were a kid, you know the redemption center is a place where the GREATEST ACCOUNTING in the world is performed.
Maybe you’ve won 300 tickets…You carefully survey the prizes looking for the prize that is in your best interest. The one that you feel like you’re getting the biggest bang for the buck.
And you’ve finally settle on your choice, so spend 275 out of 300 tickets on a fresh new Hot Wheels 3 Car Set, GREAT JOB YOUNG TICKET HOLDER
But you’re not just going to let that 25 points slide are you? No! You’re going to dig deep and try and find something to do with that last 25. Yeah, you could get that rubber spider but you know in your heart of hearts, you’re not going to do much with it or you could just let that 25 tickets just go, but why would you waste them! You want to use every single one you can!
So what do you do? You settle on that 25 ticket? RING POP!
It’s nothing spectacular but at least you didn’t completely waste your tickets. YOU REDEEMED all of them for something...
This is what is meant by REDEEMING the TIME! Making the best possible deal with this limited resource that we’ve been given…
Children of the Light, Walk in Wisdom by treating time like the precious commodity that it is...
In fact, it’s not just simply precious it is one of the most precious commodities God has given us...
I can’t remember ever hearing of someone dying and their parting words being “I wish I had more money!” I’m sure people have said it but it is not a thing you’re going to hear often.
However, on the flip-side, I can think of PLENTY of stories of people dying and their parting words being something along the lines of, “I wish I had more time!”
I wish I had more time to spend with my family.
I wish I had more time to serve the Lord
OUR TIME IS PRECIOUS…Why is time precious?
I love the reasons one theologian gives for “why” time is so precious
Reason #1. Because eternity depends on our good or bad use of it. Our state in this life depends on whether or not we make good use of time. We can use our time to study or use our time to goof off. We can use our time to work diligently or use our time to be slothful. How we decide to use it will have an lasting impact on our livelihood. However, it doesn’t stop in this life. You see if we squander the moments that we’ve been given to embrace Jesus Christ as Lord we will miss out on ETERNITY and experience eternal suffering! If we use the time that we’ve been given to turn to and embrace Christ, then we will enjoy eternity with Him in the New Heavens and New Earth where there will be no pain nor suffering.
Reason #2. Time is very short.
You never seem to have enough. So it becomes all the more important that you make the most of what you actually do have!
Reason #3: We don’t know how much of it we actually have! Even as short as it is, we don’t know how much time we actually have, Priscilla Shirer makes this beautiful point that there’s some 21 year olds sitting at home right now saying to themselves I’m not quite ready to serve the Lord fully yet but I will later and there’s some 60 year old sitting at home right now saying it’s too late for me to accomplish much for Jesus, my time has past, but if the 60 year old is going to live until they’re 85 then they’re just getting started and if the 21 year old is going to live only til 22 then they better get started!
The Gospel Greats, The Winans, use
I'll give my life tomorrow
I thought about today
But it's so much easier to say
Tomorrow, who promised you tomorrow
Better choose the Lord today
For tomorrow very well might be today
Reason #4: We cannot get our time back when it is past...
You don’t get a chance to raise your children in the fear of the Lord when their grown. You only have the time to try and make the most of pointing to Jesus at a later age...
You don’t get a chance to invest in Christ in your more youthful and vibrant years when those years are gone. You only have time to make the most of your old age in Jesus...
The time is not replaced…it’s lost…TIME is a LIMITED COMMODITY! It is a PRECIOUS COMMODITY!
[CHALLENGE] In light of how precious our time is? How are you using it?
How much of your time is spent in FACEBOOK splurges and NETFLIX Binges?
How much of your time is spent in endless arguments about politics out of your control or mask debates that will never end?
Let me be careful to say this…I’m not simply talking about time management...
Ephesians 5:16 (ESV)
16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
We are talking about Gospel Productivity...
Using our time in such a way where we are growing more like Jesus and pointing more and more people to Jesus with our lives and our words...
We can be efficient and still not be making the best use of evil days...
We can be efficient and still not resting in Christ...
We can be efficient and consumed by Greed...
Application
1. Commit this coming year to surrounding yourself with Godly Counsel
In order to walk carefully, we must look for people who are walking carefully in the Light and dedicate more of our life and time with them.
I’m not just talking about people that know Bible. The Scribes and Pharisees who orchestrated the murder of Jesus knew their Bibles.
Neither, am I just talking about people who are successful in this world. Scripture shows us time and time again that money is not truest indicator of Godliness. In fact, Paul tells Timothy that those who believe that Godliness is a means to great gain are those who have been robbed of the truth.
I’m talking about people who emanate the fruit of the Spirit from the depths of their being.
I’m talking about walking with people who radiate Christlikeness.
I’m talking about people who when you leave their presence, you leave more encouraged to walk in the light of Christ, to pursue holiness, to love both those that love you and those who do not.
It’s been said, show me your friends and I’ll show you your future. However, King Solomon said it a little better in my opinion:
20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
We surround ourselves with hyper judgmental people, we become people who paint over our pride and gracelessness...
We surround ourselves with people drunk with ambition and endlessly and relentlessly chasing wealth, then we become people who overlook and excuse our greed.
1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
2. Commit this coming year to protecting your time.
The late great preacher and theologian, Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones once has this very keen insight into the use of our time:
The wise man who walks in the light is not like the man who says he is so busy that he really has no time for Bible study and for reading good books. But how is he so busy? Does he spend more time with his newspaper than with his Bible? Then, he has no excuse any longer. Let him give the time he was giving to his newspaper to the law of the Lord instead. The Christian meditates on the law of the Lord day and night. This is his delight. He says, I want something that will build me up and help me and enable me to function as light; so, he is a man who is very careful about the portioning of his time. He does not fritter away his time and find at the end of the day that he has not read his Bible, scarcely prayed to God or done anything else because his time has gone with the frivolities of the things of this present world. No, no, this is the man who buys up the opportunity. He has to discipline himself. He says, “I must do this, I insist on this. I am doing so at all costs.” Never was this more necessary than it is today.
This year did you have time to watch the entire seasons of all of your favorite TV shows…but enough time to make a steady habit of reading your Bible??? Spend some time reflecting on why is that the case?
Keep up with all of the latest political news but didn’t have time to build a steady habit of prayer?
Spend some time reflecting on why is that the case?