Do All to the Glory of God

Introduction

Very last lesson of our series today.

1 Corinthians 10:31 KJV 1900

31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

I. GLORIFY: With Our Time - Ephesians 5:15-17

a. Redeeming the Time - Ephesians 5:15-17

Ephesians 5 is through and through a chapter about the Christian life. Every word of this chapter is so clearly practical.

Paul’s grabbing our attention here and just speaking to the issues that we struggle with and also face every day. And coming into verse 14, Paul’s pressing on the issue of how we use our time. Persecution was coming right around the corner, and for all that Paul knew, Jesus could’ve come back any day then. So, he says to them, “Wake up people! The days are evil, God is coming back soon, so you need to treasure every single minute!”

He really breaks this concept of our use of time in vs. 15-17

(Have people read it)

When Paul tells the Ephesians to “walk”, he’s not talking about the evening walk you take with your dog, or like sunscreen man at camp. Paul loves using this term in his epistles, and it has more the idea of our conduct. The way we walk/behave through life.

Q: So, knowing this, what do you think it means to walk circumspectly?

Carefully, mindfully. That we would conduct ourselves with as much care and thought possible.

Paul is calling us to act, not to react. If you’re going to live a life of reaction, you’ve got no expectations about anything. You’re just on for the ride, not thinking about what you should be doing or what could come in the future. “I’ll just think about problems when problems come my way!”

But on the other hand, if you live a life of action, you’ll be walking wisely. You’ve thought through the opportunities for good and bad, and you’ve constructed a plan and a goal for your life. You are prepared for what comes your way.

God wants you to live a life of action, wisely considering what may be next. all this is because of vs. 16

(Read vs. 16)

Q: What does it mean to redeem the time?

Speaks of buying back, wisely and effieciently using time.

Illustration: Chronos vs. Kairos

Chronos: Chronological time = Clocks, calendars, days, months, years, etc.

Kairos (Word used here): Opportunity, appointed time. The present moment God has placed us in; the opportunities in the here and now.

What God is telling us through this verse is to make most of all the opportunities right now! Don’t procrastinate and wait to live for God later, give your life to God now and take advantage of the opportunities He gives you today. Take that opportunity to be an encouragement to your friend, take that opportunity to invite your unsaved friend over. God has given you plenty of opportunities, don’t lose them, buy them back and use your time well!

b. How to Use Our Time

i. Value Each Moment

We never really know what a day may bring (James 4:13-15). We are often quite confident that we know what’s going on today or tomorrow, or even next week. But in reality, we have absolutely no idea what is to happen to us. What we do know for sure that our lives are very brief, so we could be all done in no time.

Illustration: Since I graduated from high school in 2021, 3 of my friends passed away. Don’t think that you’re here forever, we’ve got no idea when our time will be up.

ii. Set Priorities

There’s great importance in being prepared for what comes ahead; we need a plan for battle so that we can go into our day knowing what our goals are and how we’ll meet them.

Psalm 90:12 “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

Figure out what’s most important, and spend most of your time on that. Start with the most important things first. We tend to flip that around and do what is easiest first, but that’s not being very productive since the big things are still undone.

Coin Illustration on the board (Distinguish what is important and what is less important)

Text messages and notifications kill our time because they demand your immediate attention. “Ding” “Hey, didn’t you hear me ding, I need you to pick me up right away!” You pick up your phone just to see the notification was a photo of a wall on snapchat. Phones give us the illusion of urgency and therefore eat away at our time.

We do need to attend to urgent matters, do your dishes, clean up your room, take a shower, just don’t spend all your time putting out fires. If we don’t take time out of our days to chip away at the important things, we won’t grow.

II. GLORIFY: With Our Words - Ephesians 4:29-30

a. Don’t Tear Down - Ephesians 4:29a

The words we chose to use through social media, our speech, and even our body language have a whole lot of power to them.

Proverbs 18:21 KJV 1900

21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: And they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

Our words are incredibly impactful, and Paul recognized this truth. That’s why in Ephesians 4:29 he’s got some guidelines for the way we speak to each other.

Q: Based on verse 30, what are we told not to do?

Grieve the Holy Spirit of God. There are certain ways that you and I communicate that grieve the Holy Spirit.

Illustration: We are snarky and talk back to our mom, the Spirit says, “Ough! Why did you say that?” I talk behind someones back in gossip, and the Spirit says, “Ough! Why did you say that?” Or you tear down a friend and belittle them, and the Spirit says, “Oh!”

This corrupt speech in verse 29 is the total opposite of our goal. If our goal is to glorify God in everything, then you won’t share that hateful text message, you wont share that hateful post.

Illustration: Each and every one of us is like a building. Brick by brick, God is building us to become a beautiful structure. But when we share corrupt words to people, we are working against God and tearing down the bricks that He put up. And this grieves Him!

b. Build Up - Ephesians 4:29b

If we are to glorify God in our speech, we ought to be building each other up!

That’s why Paul says, “but that which is good for the use of edifying”

Edifying means building up, helping that person to be more like Jesus.

Q: What are some ways we can be edifying or building each other up with our words?

III. GLORIFY: With Our Witness - John 4:31-35

a. Have the Right Goal - John 4:31-34

The disciples were out getting groceries as Jesus witnessed to the Samaritain woman, they return right as Jesus’ conversation with her finished and she acccepted Him.

The disciples and Jesus had totally different goals for the day. The disciples main concern was that Jesus would eat and rest. He was tired on His journey and thirsty on a hot day, the disciples cared about that and wanted Jesus’ needs to be met. This is a good thing! But they failed to see things on the spiritual scale. What was even more important that day was the spiritual thirst the lost Samaritains had. The disciples lacked the discernment and maturity to see the weight of the spiritual need.

Jesus’ concern was for the people, yet that was an unknown to the twelve.

The need for the Gospel was so great that Jesus did not want to stop even to eat. There is an urgency to the Gospel! His food was to do the will of the Father; Jesus received a greater sustenance and satisfaction through Gospel ministry than the sustenance that physical food could offer.

b. Have the Right Perspective - John 4:35

The Jews whole means of income was through farming, they were an agriculteral people. And in their area of the world, crops would be planted in November for the spring time harvest in April. 4 months into the process, the crops would sprout up and bloom, and soon after came the time to harvest.

Jesus is saying here, “Don’t tell Me the harvest isn’t here yet, look at all these people hungry for eternal life. Look up and get to work people!”

Jesus says the same thing to us today. “Look up to the fields, there’s so much opportunity out there. People everywhere are just groping for the truth, and you have it! So, get to work.”

The opportunity for us to share the Gospel in this big harvest is unlike any other time in history.

Illustration:

5.07 Billion people use social media every day.

On average over 410 000 new social users/day.

Average time spent on social media = 2h 21min.

Texts and posts cross the world within a matter of seconds.

The opportunities to reach the world with the Gospel is huge with the help of social media. Not everything on social media is bad, and I’d actually say that this is its biggest strength.

You don’t need to have a big following or have perfect content to start, there’s so many ways you can share your faith and the hope of Jesus through social media. Ex: Photos, verses, videos, posting sermons, sharing content, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Jesus told the disciples to look up to the harvest in front of them. The people are here, now go labour, go where the people are at, that’s the priority. You know where people are at today? Instagram, FaceBook, Twitter, etc. Use these tools wisely and we’ll see great fruits for the Gospel

Conclusion

This wraps up our series on social media. I hope this was a practical help to you in your usage of the internet, social media, and entertainment in general.

There’s a world of evil wrapped up in social media that we need to use the Bible to guard ourselves from, and at the same time there’s a world of opportunities just waiting for us to grab onto.