Sermon Tone Analysis

Exalting Jesus in Ephesians (Walk in Wisdom (Ephesians 5:15–17))

In the same spirit of verses 7–14, believers must wake up and live wisely.

Paul exhorts us to walk carefully, to make the most of our time, and to understand the Lord’s will.The verses that follow explain what it means to pay attention to how you walk.

Those who walk carefully do not walk foolishly, like an unwise person.

In the Colossians parallel Paul says, “Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time” (Col 4:5), with speech that is “gracious, seasoned with salt” (Col 4:6).

The believer is to “walk” in front of outsiders in hopes that they may see the life-changing power of the gospel.

English Standard Version (Chapter 5)

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.

18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Look Carefully: This is not a cursory look but a deep look describing how we are to look at our walk.

(this reminds me of James 2:23-24 where James is describing the man who looks intently/carefully into a mirror at his own reflection, however, when he walks away he forgets what he looks like. )

When do we look at our walk with the wrong eyes or motives?

(Unwise) When do we only see what we want to see?

What are the Marks of Wise people?

1. Wise people make the best use of their time.

“Not as unwise people but as wise”

How do we know if we are wise?

First we must define the subject and object of God’s wisdom.

Subject

Paul here is asking the question of the subject of God’s wisdom which he has made foolish the wisdom of the world.

We are the subject that God has chosen to give His wisdom to.

Object

Paul is speaking of those who claim to be wise in worlds eyes but chose to worship an object rather than the creator.

God is the only object of true wisdom.

James 3:13–18 (ESV)

13 Who is wise and understanding among you?

By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.

17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Note: So the one who is wise do not seek anything for themselves but desire to be pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

*Wise people know that time is a precious Commodity.

Redeeming our time is one of the most important things we can invest in today.

Time is one of the things in creation that we can never get back, it is continually fleeting.

Once time has passed it is forever gone never to be repeated again.

I think it’s interesting how many movies are based on people being sent back in time to rewrite a wrong that was done or correct something in the past shows like quantum leap that just got resurrected.

Have you ever made a mistake that you wish you could undo?

Correcting past mistakes is one of the reasons we find the concept of time travel so fascinating.

As often portrayed in science fiction, with a time machine, nothing is permanent anymore – you can always go back and change it.

But is time travel really possible in our universe, or is it just science fiction?

Our modern understanding of time and causality comes from general relativity.

Theoretical physicist Albert Einstein's theory combines space and time into a single entity – "spacetime" – and provides a remarkably intricate explanation of how they both work, at a level unmatched by any other established theory.

This theory has existed for more than 100 years, and has been experimentally verified to extremely high precision, so physicists are fairly certain it provides an accurate description of the causal structure of our Universe.

For decades, physicists have been trying to use general relativity to figure out if time travel is possible.

It turns out that you can write down equations that describe time travel and are fully compatible and consistent with relativity.

But physics is not mathematics, and equations are meaningless if they do not correspond to anything in reality.

This seems to be in reference to walking wisely or choosing to use our time unwisely for things that do not benefit the Kingdom of God.

Time is inseparably linked to God’s acts and humanities response in the story of creation and it’s eventual consummation.

God’s Relationship to Time

We know that God is the author of time, because of his creating separation of day’s and seasons in the Genesis account.

How does God relate to our time?

In what ways does time affect our relationship to Him.

One of the most puzzling doctrines for us as temporal creatures is the timeless eternal nature of God.

God see’s time in a unique manner.

While the creature understands time sequentially - present slipping into past just as future slips into present - the eternal God views past, present, and future in a single, divine instant.

He sees the past and future with equal vividness.

As the psalmist writes in Psalm 90:4: 1,000 years in His sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.

Paul explains in 2 Peter 3:8 that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day.

Some have questioned whether it is possible to have a genuine relationship with time-bound creatures and a timeless God.

But this is not at all the case.

God acts in time because He is the author of time.

God has all of your life in front of Himself every time you kneel in prayer He is there.

He can relate to you in a more real manner than you could ever relate to yourself - He can relate in complete fullness.

We are living in the Last days, so, how you live matters!

Opportune Time: Time that is suitable or advantageous for a particular purpose and reason.

Note: This is a call for us to identify the things that waste our time away and prioritize the things that align with Gods’ will for our lives.

(we must constantly re-evaluate our priorities) why, because this is one of the areas that Satan loves to use to get us off track with the mission of God.

BECAUSE - DAYS ARE EVIL - this is the qualifier of why we should make the best use of our time.

REDEEMING THE TIME

Americans Spend Far More Time on Their Smartphones Than They Think

If you wonder why you never have any time to do anything, you might want to look at the culprit that is causing the time suck: Your smartphone.

A new study asked 2,000 Millennial and Baby Boomer smartphone users to go into their phone settings and record exactly how much screen time they've spent on their top apps.

The survey found that both generations share similarities when it comes to how much time they spend on their smartphones.

The average American spends 5.4 hours a day on their phone.

Millennials spend slightly more time on their phones (5.7 hours) compared to baby boomers (5 hours) on average.

However, 13% of millennial and 5% of boomers say that they spend over 12 hours every day on their phones.

Overall, social media takes up the bulk of smartphone screen time.

Americans spend an average of just over an hour (64.5) minutes a day on Facebook and 48 minutes on Instagram.

One-out-of-three thought their screen time would be less than it actually is, and underestimate how much time they spend on their phone.

Yet, two out of three users do not plan on cutting back on phone usage.

Many are in denial.

Over four-out-of-five (82%) people think their personal usage is below that national average.

How you spend your time is a directly reflects on what is most worshiped in your Life.

Many of us are continually everyday bowing at the alter of the golden calf of this world and missing the greatest adventure of a lifetime that God has given us to live.

2. Wise people discern the will of God.

Don’t be Foolish

To become devoid of good judgement or sense.

When are we the most foolish?

When do we lack any good sense?

Foolishness apparently is not understanding what the will of God is for our lives.

Discernment is defined as “the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure; an act of perceiving something; a power to see what is not evident to the average mind.”

Discernment:

We have professional wine tasters, that apparently have a refined discerning pallet to tell us what wines are the best.

We even have professional coffee tasters they tell us, which I am trying to figure out how to get that gig, they apparently have a refined enough palet to tell us what coffee’s we should buy.

You have professional football scouts, talent scouts and various other’s who are the expert in their fields and apparently have a discernment to find the diamond in the rough that the rest of the world misses.

God has given an even greater act of discernment to His children through the Holy Spirit.

Like spiderman has his spidy tingle you have the Holy Spirit tingle to understand and know the will of God.