Redeeming the Time During a Pandemic
COVID-19 Sermons • Sermon • Submitted
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· 53 viewsWe need to be wise and understand the Lord's will during this pandemic.
Notes
Transcript
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Introduction:
In a Forbes article published April 6, 2020, the title was “Americans are excessively eating, drinking, smoking pot, playing video games, and watching porn while quarantined.” Millions of people have filed for unemployment, it is predicted that 50 million will lose their jobs by the summer time, classes canceled, children at home, on top of adding the stress of when will life return to normal. Jack Kelley writes,
It looks like Americans are collectively channeling their inner-slacker attitude. People are consuming more alcohol, smoking weed, playing video games, eating a lot of junk food, binge-watching Netflix and adult films more than ever before.
In a quirky irony that highlights the craziness of the times, liquor stores are open as they’re deemed “essential.” According to Nielsen, a nearly 100-year-old marketing research and ratings firm, studies show that “alcohol sales were up 55% in the week ending March 21.” Nielsen also found that amount of spirits sold—such as tequila, gin and pre-mixed cocktails— skyrocketed 75% compared to March 2019. Wine sales rose 66%, beer sales popped 42% and online alcohol sales grew by an astounding 243% from last year at this time.
According to investment advice site Motley Fool, “During the first few weeks of the month, cannabis sales were soaring and spiked around the middle of the month as fears heightened that people would be confined to their homes in an effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic.” Marijuana sales are high in a number of states where it's legal.
Pornhub, if you can’t tell by its name, is a popular online adult film site visited by roughly 120 million viewers every day. Now that Americans are self-quarantining at home, Pornhub has seen a large rise in traffic—up 11.6%.
Due to school closures, kids and young adults—from elementary school to college—find themselves home. As you can imagine, video games are the go-to diversion and a way to play online and still socialize with friends. To capture the amount of time spent gaming, digital magazine Mic claims, “So many people are gaming in quarantine, servers are struggling to keep up.”
It will be interesting to see what happens as the weeks and months pass by and we’re still on lockdown. Could this trend of eating, drinking, smoking weed and watching television and porn continue?
Fallen Condition Focus: Believers can sadly also waste time. Instead of being sober-minded, the temptation for us is to be foolish and waste our time as we seek to alleviate our fears and anxieties by escaping to entertainment, food, drugs, or immorality.
Main Proposition: In our passage this morning, Paul wants us to be wise and sober-minded in all seasons, especially during this time. He wants us to pay careful attention to how we live, so that we can redeem the time and understand the Lord’s will.
Question: We have been quarantined for over a month now and we do not know how long this will last, and the question for us is how can we redeem the time while we are at home and life is not normal? Will we come out more godly through this trial, or will we have wasted our time and come out more foolish? Will we grow in wisdom in this season with God’s strange providence or will we grow in foolishness?
Proposition:
Paul gives us three strategies to help us live wisely during this pandemic. Let’s turn to Ephesians 5:15-21. He wants us to
Guard our Time
Guard our Minds
Guard our Worship
Recap
Remember, the Apostle Paul was in prison as he wrote to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon. Yet, even under house arrest, the Apostle could still live wisely and redeem the time the Lord had given him.
Ephesians teaches doctrine in the first three chapters and applies the doctrine in the last three.
Chapter one describes God’s glorious plan of salvation in predestining, adopting, redeeming, and sealing us with Holy Spirit.
Chapter two describes what God did in making us alive even though we were once dead in our sins, bringing us into his body.
Chapter three describes Paul’s ministry and prayer for spiritual strength.
Chapter four through six describes what we are to do in light of the doctrine of redemption, we are to walk worthy of the gospel.
We cannot separate doctrine from living anymore than separate our living from doctrine. All doctrine is practical and our lives must be informed by doctrine.
Scripture Reading:
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use 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 your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
If you want to live wisely during this pandemic, you need to guard your time.
I. Guard Your Time (vv. 15-16)
I. Guard Your Time (vv. 15-16)
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Are you paying careful attention to how you live?
Look carefully can also be translated pay careful attention to. Walk refers to a believer’s way of living. You are growing deeper in dependence and love of God, or you are growing farther in independence and pride.
COVID-19 does not give you an excuse to be foolish and living in sin. The commands are grounded in what Christ has achieved for us through the gospel. Because of Christ’s death and resurrection and ascension, we can live holy lives as God foreordained and walk in the good works that God has prepared for us beforehand (Eph. 2:10). The word walk is used several times throughout Paul’s letters.
Walk worthy of the Gospel:
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
Walk as a Believer
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
Walk in Love
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Walk in the Light
for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
In other words, because Christ as saved you, you are to live worthy of the gospel by not acting like unbelievers who do not know God, walking in love just as Christ loved us, and walking in the light while the world lives in darkness and ignorant of the eternal realities set forth in Scripture. Paul wants us to walk in wisdom.
The First Contrast: Not as unwise, but as wise...
There is a first set of contrast: wise/unwise
Wise people according to the the Bible, refers not to a person with many degrees, or has a lot of knowledge, but one who knows how to live rightly in God’s word. A wise person according to proverbs, is one who knows how live skillfully in all seasons. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (1:7), and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (9:10).
What do wise people do?
Wise People Redeem the Time
making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 1. Redeeming the Time (vs. 16)
The Greek word for “redeeming” is a market term meaning “to buy out” or “purchase completely.” “Time” is the translation of a Greek word that came to mean something rather like “opportunity.” To “buy out the opportunity” is to make the most of one’s time, to pay the price in effort and exertion that is necessary in using it. TEV has “make good use of every opportunity.”
The Message of Ephesians 3. The Nature of Wisdom (Verses 15–17)
The verb exagorazō can mean to ‘redeem’ or ‘buy back’, and if used in this way here, the appeal is to ‘ransom the time from its evil bondage’. But probably it means rather to ‘buy up’, in which case RSV is right to translate making the most of the time, ‘time’ (kairos) referring to every passing opportunity.
Making the Best Use of the Time. Redeeming the Time. Take hold of every opportunity given by God. The idea is a financial metaphor meaning to use every penny. To squeeze the lemon to the last drop. To get as much mileage as possible in my 2006 car. Use up every minute of the day.
It has been said:
“When you kill time, there is no resurrection.”
Time is precious and cannot be recovered. And many of us do not know when our appointed time will come. How many have been surprised in this season that they would meet their maker?
Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.
“Walking with wisdom means taking full advantage of every opportunity that comes our way. It is not enough to sit back and merely try to avoid evil.” Merkle, ESV Commentary
The Message of Ephesians 3. The Nature of Wisdom (Verses 15–17)
Jonathan Edwards, the philosopher-theologian who became God’s instrument in the ‘Great Awakening’ in America in 1734–5, wrote in the seventieth of his famous Resolutions just before his twentieth birthday: ‘Resolved: Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.’
Application: What will the Lord find you doing with your time?
If the Lord would return today, and called you to give an account for your time? What would you say?
Would you say I was seeking the the things above. I was devoted to prayer. I was devoted to sharing the gospel to the lost. I was devoted to be faithful at work and to my family. I used every minute you gave me on earth to glorify you.
Or would you be surprised. I spent most of my days binge watching netflix and social media. I spent my days high and under the influence. I spent my days thinking of myself and complaining because my life was not the way it was supposed to be. I spent my life watching porn as described in the Forbes article.
And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
The Reason: Because the Days are Evil
making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
The present age is characterized as the evil age in which we live waiting for the return of Christ. It is the period between the first and second coming of Christ. This present evil age is described as lawlessness, and difficult times. This present age is subjected to physical disasters and diseases. Time is short and eternity is long. Use up every minute.
Our Lord lived about 33 years of life on earth and he used every minute of it to glorify His heavenly Father. He was our example.
Christian—Don’t live like a fool during this pandemic. Don’t give yourself or the devil a foothold to make you spiritually lethargic and sleepy while we are to be living in the light. I’ve listened to John’s Piper recent audio book Coronavirus and Christ, and he said this:
Coronavirus and Christ Chapter 9 Realigning Us with the Infinite Worth of Christ
The coronavirus is God’s thunderclap call for all of us to repent and realign our lives with the infinite worth of Christ.
Discipline yourself---A pandemic does not excuse you from seeking God. Set aside time for yourself to feed your soul with God’s life’s giving and comforting promises. Give yourself to prayer. Pray for the medical workers and government. Pray for members of the church.
Set a Schedule—Have a schedule and rhythms to help you be disciplined. Think of the various levels of responsibilities God has given you: Spiritually, as Husband or wife, family, work, school, or the church. Find creative ways to serve the people of God.
Identify what is distracting you from eternal realities—Is it wrong to play video games? Is it wrong to watch a movie? No it isn’t. What is wrong is to be dominated by these things that it distracts us from eternal realities and prevents us from fulfilling our God given responsibilities as citizens of a heavenly kingdom to make disciples and proclaim the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let the Lord’s coming motivate you to redeem the time. Stay Awake! There will be many birth pains like disease, plague, earthquakes and wars before the return of our Lord.
Non-Christian—Your life is not in your hands. You are not in control. You do not know when your time has ended and it is your appointed time to meet your maker. Some may not even make it next year. Therefore, let this pandemic teach you wisdom as you are confronted with your own mortality and helplessness.
Pandemics and diseases and deaths are in the world to give us a signpost of the utter evil of our rebellion against God. We experience what we are experiencing to show us how horrible sin is and what we deserve.
But God sent His Son into the world to be a sacrifice for our sins. And he rose again from the dead that if you turn away from your sins and call upon him, he will deliver you from something worse than contracting a disease, the wrath of God.
and call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
Transition: Wise people guard their time, but secondly…wise people guard their minds...
II. Guard Your Mind (vv. 17-18)
II. Guard Your Mind (vv. 17-18)
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,
I just find it mind-blowing that liquor stores and marijuana dispensaries are considered essential while bookstores, schools, and churches are deemed non-essential. That is another discussion.
But Paul gives another contrast: foolish and wise.
Drawing from OT background, most likely from the wisdom literature, the apostle exhorts us not to be foolish.
The fool in the OT lived as if there was not a God.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
there is none who does good.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
there is none who does good.
He was arrogant, had wicked friends, lazy, did not control his tongue, given to immorality, and did not fear God.
In contrast, Paul calls us to understand what the will of the Lord is. Theologians distinguish between the eternal decree of God and God’s revealed will. The eternal decree is something that God knows from eternity and nothing can stop his will. The revealed will is what God chooses to disclose to his people in His words.
Understand means to comprehend, to think, to analyze, to seek to understand the things of God.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Christian—How you can live wisely in this pandemic is spend time in God’s word. Open up your Bible and understand God’s salvation plan from Genesis to Revelation. When you understand how everything is going to turn out as God makes his promises to his people, this should give you peace. Continue reading your Bible.
Read a good book. One of the silver linings of this pandemic is that it has allowed me to read more books than I usually read. And there are tons of resources online that are free that can help you seek the things above. I like what C.S. Lewis said in regards to reading,
“You are not, in fact, going to read nothing, either in the Church or in the line: if you don’t read good books, you will read bad ones. If you don’t go on thinking rationally, you will think irrationally. If you reject aesthetic satisfactions, you will fall into sensual satisfactions.”
What Lewis is saying is that if you are not engaging your mind with good content, you will fill your mind with garbage instead.
If you are not giving yourself to the Word or good books, you will give yourself to twitter or clickbait with the latest breaking news.
Theology matters. Theology matters, especially in a time like this. If your views of God are shallow, then you will be given to fear and anxiety. If your views of God are informed by the Bible, then you will have a peace that surpasses all understanding.
Expository Preaching. Expository preaching helps us understand the will of God. Listen to sermons where a preacher unfolds a text of Scripture. It teaches you how to read the Bible yourself contextually, historically, theologically, and with Christ as the theme of the Scriptures. There are sermons online you can listen to throughout the week.
World—While the world seeks to numb its fears through mindless entertainment or drugs living as if this is the only life we have here on earth, we are to live with eternity stamped on our eyeballs as one famous puritan preacher put it.
Mindless vs. Mindful. Stimulate your mind and pursue to love God with all your heart, mind and soul during this season.
Transition: Wise people not only know how to guard their time, their minds, but finally, they know how to guard their worship.
We saw the contrast between wise and foolish. Now we look at the contrast by those who are drunk vs. filled with the Spirit...
III. Guard Your Worship (vv. 18-21)
III. Guard Your Worship (vv. 18-21)
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 your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Here Paul issues two contrasting commands, one negative and one positive.
A. Do Not Be Drunk with Wine
“In some Greco-Roman religions, drunkenness was part of the worship experience. The cult of Dionysus (or Bacchus), was prominent in Ephesus, used the vine as its cultic symbol” Merkle, ESV Commentary
Worshipers during this would get drunk and try to engage in union with this god by losing self-control and engaging in immorality with temple prostitutes in Ephesus. Whether Paul was thinking about the Ephesian context, Paul’s exhortation to us is not to lose our minds and self-control by giving our minds and bodies to substances.
That is why you can still get a ticket for drunk driving. It’s called a DUI: Driving Under the Influence. Alcohol is classified as a depressant. And many people can turn to drugs in order to numb their pain and their fears as life as changed in the past few weeks.
Paul says we are not to be drunk with wine, for that is debauchery.
Debauchery “behavior which shows lack of concern or though for the consequences of an action.”
“The basic idea of the word is wastefulness and is often used in contexts of moral exhortation to describe a life that is devoid of virtue and representing a waste of time (contrasted to the one who ‘redeems the time’).” Arnold
The classic illustration of this is that of the prodigal son who wasted his father’s inheritance in Luke 16. Debauchery is reckless living. We don’t want to be a reckless people who live like fools during this time.
B. Spirit—Filled.
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,
I do not have time to get into this. But the verb to be filled is a command. All Christians are to be filled with the Spirit. It is plural referring to the whole congregation. It is present meaning we are to be continually to be filled with the Spirit. And it is passive. Meaning the filling happens to us by God.
What being filled with the Spirit is not.
Being filled with the Spirit does not mean the second baptism of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13, Romans 8:9). All believers have the Holy Spirit at conversion.
Being filled with the Spirit does not mean losing control over oneself because the fruit of the Spirit is self-control.
What being filled with the Spirit is
The contrast is being drunk or under the influence of the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit is to have the mind of Christ. It is to have the Word of God affect us in every area of our lives. And we can only let God’s spirit influence as we let his Spirit-inspired word dwell in us richly.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
A group of pastors planned a citywide evangelistic campaign. The pastors favorably discussed the possibility of inviting D.L. MOODY to be the speaker. But one young preacher complained, “From the way some of you talk, you would think Mr. Moody had a monopoly on the Holy Spirit.” “No,” another pastor replied, “Mr. Moody does not have a monopoly on the Spirit. But the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on Mr. Moody!”
The filling can happen multiple times. And we want to be master’s by God’s Spirit. There is a trintarian dimension here. We give thanks to God the Father through Christ as we are under the influence of God’s Spirit.
The more spirit filled a person is, the more he is going to look like Jesus. And the world needs to see calm and peaceful Christians as we hold out the word of truth.
The Description of a Spirit Filled Believer
A. Encouragement
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs....
I believe that this is one of the things of what I miss gathering with the local church. It is encouraging one another through song. We sing to God, but we also sing to encourage one another.
There are a variety of songs: psalms OT, hymns, and spiritual songs.
And even though we can’t gather, we can still sing to the Lord.
B. Singing and making melody to the Lord in your heart....
There is not only a horizontal dimension to worship, but a vertical element. Singing can bring great encouragement even in dark times and as we encounter sufferings.
It Is Well
When Trials Come
Whatever my God Ordains is Right
Hymns and songs remind us of God’s precious truths. I encourage you to get a hymnal and sing some of your favorite songs as your affirm your faith in Song.
C. Thanksgiving
giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Echoes 1 Thessalonians 5:18. We are to give thanks always and for everything. This does not mean we thank God for evil, but there is always an opportunity to thank God knowing he works out everything for good for those who love him.
Notice the trinitarian formula: as we are Spirit-filled, we are giving thanks to God-the Father through Christ, who offered himself as a sacrifice on our behalf, to give us the Spirit and enable us to live above our circumstances by trusting in our loving God.
There is so much to be thankful for: union with Christ, all things work together for good. God’s sovereignty, the sacrifice of people who are still going to work, time at home with the family, time to read, time to pray and think, time to reflect on eternal realities.
D. Sumbission
submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Submission is a military word that refers to soldiers under the authority of another. Just like Christ was under the authority of His Father, we too are under authority by those whom God has placed over us.
For husbands, it is is Christ.
For wives, it is the husband.
For children, it is parents.
For slaves or employees, it is your master or employers.
For members, it is your elders.
For citizens, we are to submit to the government.
We choose not to gather because we want to be submissive to the government because we believe that in the meantime, God has placed those in authority over us for our good.
And notice that this Spirit filled living is exercised in the home. Your home can either be strengthened during this time, or it can be weakened if you are not living by the Spirit.
Church—We are strengthened in corporate worship. One of the things that has been taken from us is corporate worship. Let us not take the church for granted and learn in this season to be grateful for the local assembly of believers and pray that we can encourage one another, sing with one another, give thanks together, and submit to one another out of a fear or reverence for Christ.
The fruit of the Spirit is self-control. And Spirit people are joyful people, encouraging people, thankful people, and submissive people who rely on their Lord and live in close proximity to Him.
Let us seek to be filled with the Spirit during this time by letting God’s word dwell in us richly.
Summary
What do wise people do in a pandemic? How do they live when the world is fearful and panicking?
They guard their time.
They guard their minds.
They guard their worship.
Conclusion:
C.S. Lewis, in 1948, “On Living on an atomic age”. After going living through two world wars, people were wondering on how to live in such age of uncertainty. ..reminded us that we always lived in uncertainty.
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
So let us redeem the time during this season. Let us redeem the time during this pandemic by guarding our time, by guarding our minds, by guarding our worship.
Only one life, soon will past. Only what is done for Christ will last.