Sermon Tone Analysis

2008-04-13 Ephesians 5.8-21 Making the Most of Every Opportunity

 

          How can we make the most out of every opportunity?

In our series on Ephesians, the Apostle Paul has continually reminded us of who we are in Christ.

Again, this morning, he’s telling us that, by God’s grace, we are God’s offspring.

We are Children of light, so Paul tells us, live as children of the light!

In order to make the most out of every opportunity, we have to know who we are.

There are great hockey players who can readily make the most out of every opportunity, right!

You see them skating toward the opponent’s net.

The defenseman is doing everything he can, within and outside of reason to stop our hockey player from scoring.

But still he drives to the net.

The defenseman is practically standing on his head, but our guy keeps on skating.

So in desperation, the defenseman hooks our guy and drags him to the ice, and yet, somehow, our guy keeps his stick on the puck, his eye on the goal, and long after we’d expect him to be able to get a shot on net, with a flick of the wrist he scores!

How?

How are those plays possible?

Of course, there is skill and ability involved, years of diligent practise and exercise, training and discipline.

But there’s also confidence.

The player believes in his abilities.

He knows what he can do!

So he goes out there and does it!

Paul isn’t just telling us that we’re good players in life.

He’s telling us that we are like Christ!

We are like the perfect one!

We have the Holy Spirit in us, therefore we are in the light, we’re able to live as children of the light!

Therefore we ought to live as Children of the light!

So often, though, we tend to look at ourselves as we formerly were.

We tend to think of ourselves as children of wrath!

But we are not!

We are children of God!  We believe that God has called us!

We believe so strongly in the power of God to transform us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!

But we’re not still sinners; we’re saints who sin sometimes!

We are saints!

Not by our own merit, but by the sovereign, rich, wonderful grace of God, this is so powerful, so sovereign, that we confess our trust in God by baptising our children!

No, we don’t choose God; God chooses us!

          So, as children of the light, God expects us to live as children of the light.

Every day, we live in the attitude of this principle idea.

We need to live in the true knowledge of God, allowing that to shape our daily living.

Our mindset, our thoughts, our speech, our deeds should be characterised by righteousness and holiness, because of who we are: Children of light.

If we are Children of light, do we need to fear darkness?

If we’re children of God, do we need to fear Satan?

If we’re children of light, do we need to worry?

Not at all!

Because we know, we are eternally secure!

Martin Luther wrote in his hymn, /A Mighty Fortress Is Our God/ “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still; his kingdom is forever!”

          Martin Luther understood.

He faced persecution.

His life wasn’t easy.

He struggled.

But through it all he had the Joy of his salvation!

He had the Joy of Christ’s life, Christ’s light in him!

That no matter what he faced, he understood that he was part of God’s eternal kingdom and that he would be going on to glory!

That kept him going!

That enabled him to write those powerful words!

Paul explains that the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth!

So, examine your life.

Is it full of fruit?

Are you abounding in goodness, righteousness and truth?

What are you doing to learn the truth?

Are you reading the Bible?

Are you listening to sermons?  Are you attending Bible studies?

Are you doing devotions, are you praying?

Does your daily living show that you are a Child of light?

If so, praise God!

If not, you need to ask yourself why not.

Is it because you don’t really believe that God claimed you, that your baptism proclaims this reality?

Is it because you don’t really know who you are in Christ?

Are you ignorant of the sacrifice that God made, that your parents made, that your church made, your friends made in order to get you into this place, to tell you the truth?

If you’re not living in truth, righteousness and holiness, you’re like a practise pylon.

You know what a practise pylon is?

A pylon is one of those orange cones hockey coaches put on the ice for the skaters to practise skating around.

When I played shinny hockey at college, I was much more like a pylon than a player, people could skate circles around me!

          If in the Christian life, we’re not living in righteousness, holiness and truth, then we’re not players, we’re pylons!

But according to this passage, we’re not pylons, we are players!

We can do what God has created us to do, do the work he prepared in advance for us to do.

In Christ, we’re like that power forward, who despite being hauled to the ice, still managed to shoot at the net and score!

So, produce good fruit, and then you’ll know you’re in the light, a child of the light.

Paul talks about all goodness, which is Spirit-created moral and spiritual excellence in every way.

Righteousness is the JOY in doing what is right according to God.

It is taking the narrow road, and sticking to it!

We walk, that is, we live, as children of light live.

Verse ten seems strange in this context.

Here Paul’s telling us to live or walk as children of the light, but then he says, find out what is pleasing to the Lord.

Well, don’t we know what’s pleasing to the Lord?

Didn’t he just describe it when he said, truth, righteousness and holiness pleases God?

The way to understand verse 10 is, proving or verifying what is pleasing to the Lord.

Or experiencing, learning, understanding, that what we do in truth, holiness and righteousness is in fact pleasing to God!

And in doing this, we’ll experience God’s joy!

          Look back on your experiences as a child.

What gave you joy back then?

Wasn’t it doing what your parents asked you to do, even if at the time you didn’t feel like doing it?

But what happened when you did the wrong thing?

You felt terrible.

There was no joy, no peace!

You waited to get caught.

So, since we know that what gives us joy is doing the will of God, doing the things that we’re created to do, as children of light, we ought not to have anything to do with darkness!

Darkness doesn’t bring joy!

The deeds of darkness are fruitless.

They don’t produce anything!

The deeds of darkness don’t produce fruit.

The deeds of darkness seem to produce joy and satisfaction, but they don’t really!

They simply leave you desiring more and more.