Ephesians 5:15-20 As most of you know, this month I
celebrated a birthday--and not just any birthday—but my 50th
birthday. I look back on 50 years of
life and give thanks to Almighty God for his blessings and tender mercies—most
especially for the blood-bought gift of forgiveness that I have in
Jesus—because I really need that gift!
I confess that I
have made some serious, sinful mistakes in my life. As I reflect on my life, I feel like there
were some wasted years and some missed opportunities. I made some foolish decisions.
Having lived half
a century, I know that I have almost certainly lived the majority of my life so
that the time I have left, is less that what I have already lived. And that inspires me to make the most of
these years I have left—whatever they are.
Fifty years marks
a milestone in any life, but we don’t have to wait on a milestone to: take stock of our lives, confess our sinful
foolish failures, and resolve to do better in the future.
Each of us has
that God-given, grace-filled opportunity today as we hear our heavenly Father
call us to use our time wisely. The
Bible says: Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise…
It’s about this
time every year when Harriett and I say to one another: “Good grief!
Where did the year go? It seems
like it was just yesterday that we were beginning a new year and here it is already
time to start thinking about the holiday season!”
So much of our
lives seem to just slip away and we don’t even know were it went. I would hate to add up all the hours I have wasted
watching Gilligan’s Island, Laverne and
Shirley, and I Love Lucy!
That is why we
need this reminder from God to think carefully how we walk—in other words, to be
thoughtful about our lives. Time is
short and eternity is long and even Christians are not immune to letting life
pass them by without having really being thoughtful about the direction of
their lives.
The Bible uses the
word “walk” to describe our life of faith and that’s a good word picture. When we go for a walk, we’re not going to get
very far if we are walking in the dark.
We want to make sure that we don’t trip or fall down a hole. We don’t want to wander “off-track” and get
lost before we even reach our destination.
That’s the way it
is in our life of faith. We want our
journey guided by the light of Christ.
We don’t want sin to trip us up.
We don’t want to wander off the narrow way and miss our destination of
heaven. And so we have to think
carefully about our life of faith and journey to heaven and make sure that we
are using our time wisely. The Bible
says: make the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Paul
looked around the world of his day and said that the days are evil. Can you
imagine what he would say about our time?!
Yes, the days are evil but God has graciously and providentially ordered
our lives so that these are the days
we live in and we are not to simply go along with the flow.
I remember taking
the rowing merit badge when I was a boy scout.
I learned to row on the Brazos
River which would not
have normally proved to be a problem except that summer had been wet and the
current was strong. And so when we
pushed off from the bank in our row boats we were immediately swept down
river. It took a lot of work to make
that boat go in the right direction.
So it is in our
Christian lives. It is much easier to go
with the flow of time and get swept along with the evil of the days. It’s a struggle to do the right thing. But we are called to go against the current
and make the BEST use of time.
The King James Bible
says it better: that we are to REDEEM
the time and use it for something good. We
are to lay hold of our days and claim them for Jesus Christ and live our life for
him. The Bible says, Whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have no idea
whether I will live to be 51 or 101 but what I do know is that I have this
day to live for Jesus: to be
strengthened by his grace—to bear witness to him with my life—to prepare for
that day that will not end. And so do
you!
Yes, the days are
evil—but that doesn’t have to mean that MY days are evil and in fact they must
not be! Instead, we claim each and every
day of our lives for the Lord Jesus Christ and make them his own by doing his
will. The Bible says: Do not
be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
The
days are evil and life is short and I know that I have made some foolish
choices. Perhaps you have too. I cannot count on the world to lead me in the
right direction. I cannot count on
myself to use my time wisely. And so, where
can we turn so that our life is marked by wisdom rather than foolishness? To the Bible!
We learn the will of the Lord
from the Word of the Lord.
God’s
will for you first and foremost is that you believe in Jesus as your Lord and
Savior. The Bible says: These
things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God, and believing have life in his name.
This is God’s will for you: that
you would live with him as his child here on earth and forever in heaven.
God cares for
you. You are his child. He has done everything in his power to bring
you to himself and keep you close to him all the days of your life. Don’t you think that your heavenly Father
then also cares about your work life and your emotions and your marriage and
family? Of course he does!
That is why he has
revealed his perfect will for every part of your lives. We have the wisdom of Almighty God at our
fingertips in the Bible but to our great shame we rarely seek it out.
When I think of
some of the sinful, foolish mistakes I have made over the last fifty years I
cringe—and even more so because I know that God has something to say about
those things if I had only listened.
We cannot get the
guidance we need from the world or from our friends or even from our own
intellectual resources—it is found only in the Word of God and so we need to
renew our commitment to be students of the Word of God so that in every
situation and decision we can say: this
is the will of God! And that applies
even to what we count as the joys and blessings of earthly life. The Bible says:
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 all your heart,
The Bible does not
forbid the consumption of alcohol. A
good meal with a glass of wine is one of the earthly blessings that God bestows
upon his people. But again and again the
Bible condemns drunkenness, listing it among those sins that will keep people
out of heaven.
And so the rule
for he Christian is that if alcohol cannot be consumed in moderation (and many
people cannot) we must abstain completely.
To abstain from
anything that our flesh wants seems like a terrible imposition—as if God is robbing
us of the joys of life. Nothing could be
farther from the truth! Instead, God
wants us to be filled with the Spirit rather than spirits. He has created us and redeemed us by his Son and
given us the Holy Spirit to enrich our lives and make them infinitely better
than they would be without him.
That’s what the
gift of music does for us—it makes our life richer and more beautiful and
deepens our faith—which is why our music in church must not only be beautiful
but also truthful and faithful to the Word of God.
For thousands of
year believers have been using the language of the psalms as their hymnbook and
there are a number of our hymns that are simply the psalms given a metre and
set to music.
But whether our
hymns and songs are ancient or modern they are ultimately sung to the Lord, the
praise of our hearts for who God is and what he has done for us. The Bible says that we are to: give thanks
always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ,
When
I look back at my life over these last fifty years I confess that there are a
number of failures—there are times what I acted foolishly—times when I did not
use my time on earth in Godly wisdom.
Perhaps the same is true for you.
But what stands
out even more vividly than my failures is the goodness and graciousness of
God. He has made me his child and kept
my in faith and provided for all my needs of body and soul. The same is true for you. In gratitude for the life that comes to us
through Jesus Christ we are called use our time wisely: grounded in the Word—filled with the
Spirit—and thankful to God.
