Sermon Tone Analysis

*/Sermon Manuscript – 8~/20~/2006/**/                         Robert Hutcherson, Jr./*

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*/Sermon/**/: “/**/Watch How You Walk/**/”/*

 

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*/Ephesians 5:15-20/*

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*We have been looking together at the great passage in Ephesians where the Apostle Paul is dealing with the preparation of the Christian for living in a sick society.

We have seen that the problems the 1st century Christians faced were the same problems we face today, and the world in which they lived was essentially the world in which we live.

We now come to the summary passage on this subject, found in Ephesians 5:15-20: *

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*     “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

And 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, always and in everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.”

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*This passage is in the nature of a review.

The apostle is describing how to walk as simply a figure, a symbol, for how to live.

This passage began in Chapter 4, Verse 17, with the apostle's admonition to live no longer as the Gentiles do.

He then describes how that is and goes on to exhort, rather, that Christians live as they have been taught to live in Christ -- that is to put off the old nature and put on the new.

That simple process of putting off and putting on is what the apostle means by walking.

Everyone knows that a walk consists of two steps repeated over and over again.

You never take more than two steps in walking, one leg forward then the other leg.

But do that again and again and you are walking.

This is*

*an apt simile for how to live the Christian life.

We are to be continually putting off the old and putting on the new.

That is what Christian living is all about.

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*Now, as we have already seen, he has gone into some detail in this.

He has shown us something of the practical application of this process in various normal and expected situations of life.

He has come to grips with some of the great issues of his day and ours, especially in the matter of sexual morality, which we have been looking at in the last few messages.

Now he summarizes this for us in an attempt to put the emphasis upon the supreme things.

He begins with one statement that says it all, "Look carefully then how you walk."

That is the supreme thing, not where you walk, but how you walk.

Where you walk is a relatively easy problem, but how you are applying this principle in every moment of your life.

That is what is important.

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*Friday night I drove over from here to Eppley Airfield along I-80.

I had no problem as to where to drive.

The highway was well marked, I knew where I was going, and there was very little danger that I would get off the road.

But how to drive, that was the constantly recurring problem.

How to relate the principles of good driving to every changing situation along the road.

Watch a man walking a tightrope and he has no concern as to where he is expected walk; the rope is there.

But how, that is the problem.

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*This is, then, the exhortation of the apostle here, "Look carefully how you walk."

Then he goes on to give us the two characteristics that constitute walking rightly, accurately.

We can gather them around two wonderful words that describe the Christian life.

The first one is "understandingly," and the second is "overflowingly."

Walk understandingly and then, overflowingly.

As we develop this, you will see how these words describe what he is saying.

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*    “ Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

First, walk understandingly.

Well, understanding what?

Understanding the character of life.

Paul comes to grips here with a problem that is personal and present with all of us.

He is dealing with the matter of the times in which we live and he says, "Understand this, be wise; don't be foolish but act as a wise man."

How?

By making the most of the time, because the days are evil!

Now that is setting forth for us a principle that very few Christians seem to really grasp in practical living.

What he is saying here, essentially, is that evil days create opportunities, and, therefore, understanding this, we must make the most of those opportunities which are created by evil days.

The word for "making the most" is one word that is used in the New Testament for redeeming.

It means to buy up.

It is a word from the market place.

You go down to your supermarket and look for bargains because you know they will not last long; they are passing, changing.

Therefore, make the most of them and buy them up.

This is exactly the word he employs here.

Buy up the opportunities which are created constantly by the evil days.

What a far cry that is from the outlook many Christians have toward evil days!

Most of us look at evil days as obstacles, as defeating circumstances, as pressures which tend to make us unable to be Christians.

We are deceiving ourselves.

The Word of God says that you can be what God wants you to be, regardless of what anyone else is around you.

In fact, it is our /responsibility /to be what we ought to be /regardless/ of what anyone else is.

We cannot blame what others do to us as an excuse for not being what we ought to be."

This is exactly what the apostle is saying here.

We are not to be unwise, but wise, making the most of the opportunity because the situation around us, which seemingly is against us, is really making the opportunity possible.

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*If you were not under pressure, how could you manifest the overcoming grace of God?

If you did not go through trials, how could you ever show that he is sufficient for every trial?

If we are not always needing to make demands upon him for help, how would we know that we can never touch bottom in the resources that are in Christ?

It is the precisely these evil days that create these opportunities.

Now, I know, if you or I had been in Ephesus at the time that Paul wrote this  letter, and we said to the people of that prosperous city, with its great commercial activity and material abundance, "Aren't these evil days?" they would have looked at us and laughed.

They would have said, "Why, we never had it so good.

Evil days?

These are the best days we have ever had."

But the apostle is talking reality.

He is saying that whenever material prosperity abounds, and creature comforts are on every hand, and we live in an affluent society, then there is tremendous pressure being exerted to cancel out the true values of life.

The spirit is often hungry and empty and hollow.

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*This is the explanation for the fact that, in our own affluent society, we find so many who are*

*experiencing an inward emptiness.

These are evil days, not only because of the widespread fears and tension and violence, but also because of the materialism that creates such hollowness and emptiness inside.

But what is the result?

It is the evil days that make people want to know the truth about God.

It is the evil days that give us opportunity to demonstrate Christian life.

Therefore, buy up the opportunities.

Understand, as you look at life, that this is the way life is.

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*These difficulties do not come in order to set us back, they come to advance us.*

*Therefore, look at them that way.

Do not regard them as some strange, unusual circumstance that you alone are called to go through while everyone else has it easy and has a delightful time.

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*Do not feel that you only are being called to be a martyr and must go through difficult and unusual circumstances and live with horrible people.

No, as Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 12, "Do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial of faith which has come upon you as though some unusual thing happened to you,".

Oh, no, these are designed to an end.

We could never demonstrate what it is to be a Christian if it were not for evil days.

Understand this.

Don’t be foolish; don’t strike back and complain and grouse and gripe because of problems.

Understand this.

That is the first important thing about living life -- walking understandingly.

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*The second thing is, "do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is."