Making the Most

Good morning and welcome to another week of Church online here at the Bridge. I am so glad we can come together and join together in worship. I was thinking about our lives and i was thinking about something that happens as you get older. I have noticed that it is not unusual that as you get a little older you get more cautious. You look at the world a little different. The first example i could think of with this was the other day Ayndria was hanging upside down like a little monkey on a railing and swinging back and forth. I couldn’t help but as an adult and her father think, “oh i hope she doesn’t fall and hit her head”. Yet, when i was a kid i would probably would have done something similar and enjoyed it.

I was thinking about the other ways we become more cautious and a story came to mind from my days in high school. I joined the stage crew and we often would spend our study hall periods in the auditorium even if we weren’t supposed to be in there. This was because we knew how to get into the room even if the door was locked. To put it simply it might have involved climbing some wall framing and carefully walking across some thin beams to get to the rafters to then make our way down to let our friends in. I mean we weren’t breaking that many rules or putting our lives in danger too much. I mean if we fell it might have been the last thing we ever did. That’s completely safe right?

Its this thought about being safe and becoming more cautious in life as we get older that i connected with the passage for today.

Ephesians 5:15–17 NIV

15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

Living as Wise

The First verse in this passage is a very interesting statement from Paul. There are a lot of things that need to be share with that statement. The first is that there is a danger with this passage being a push for excessive adherence to the law.

There is a term for that in the Christian world that has created struggles for many people. If we are honest one of the great hardship of the church is dealing with Legalism. That strict or excessive adherence to the law. Its this precarious balance between recognizing that the law has things of benefit for us but remembering that Grace and forgiveness exist and that we are also called to practice them as God is practicing them for us. This passage for me reminds me of that balance. WE are called to live not as the unwise but a life as wise. The truth is that we are foolish to think that the Christian life or a life that is not following after God is one that is free from following any of the “rules”.

We are called to walk a life of holiness to be pursuant in our walk of Christ. Not because we are afraid that if we don’t perfectly follow the rules that we fail and will be kept form heaven. The truth is that Paul knew what it mean to be legalistic because we must remember that he was trained as a pharisee.

Paul isn’t calling for the people to be strict in their following of Jesus but to be careful. Its that fine line that we walk in our desire to follow Him and still recognizing that must be wise in the way that we live.

The other aspect of this living as the wise is the fact that living this way, and walking this line is a life that must be marked by the Spirit. It is only through the help of the spirit that we are able to walk the line and be able to find the knowledge and ability that we need to walk the line. It is through our relationship with the Spirit and looking to the Spirit for guidance that we are convicted to challenge ourselves to be better. Yet, we live this way because we must always remember the second verse.

Ephesians 5:16 NIV

16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Making the Most

We are called to make the most of every opportunity. This had me thinking about what this really means. One of the challenges that comes with this statement is it puts some pressure of time on our lives. There are two specific reference that we can look at related to this pressure of time.

The first is—Our lives our short

We must always remember that we really aren’t on this world for a long time and that we honestly don’t know when the end is going to come. There are many things that we can do to help prolong our lives, yet, everything we do can be erased in a moment. We can walk out the door and be gone in an instant. It is a challenging thought but it is there to remind us that our lives are short and we need to make the most of the time that we have in the world. It is also a reminder that we can’t put of living a life for God. This is not something that we can hope we know the exact end of our lives so we can ask for forgiveness. Instead we need to live in a way that we are honoring God because we recognize that our time is short and it should be spent honoring Him.

The second pressure is—He is coming back.

Now i know some people who say that this really doesn’t seem like it is a pressure because it has been over 2000 years and he hasn’t come back yet. yet, the challenge is that we know he is going to come back but we don’t know when. Like the fact that our lives are short he will come like a flash of lighting. It is quick and it will be sudden and without warning. For all the planning or insight we might look for in the scriptures and the signs of the world the truth is that when he returns it will be in a moment. One second he won’t be here and then the next he will be here. This is is to serve as a reminder that we are again living in a way that honors him.

This idea of making the most is also important because we need to recognize the impact we can have on the world if we take an attitude of making the most of the opportunities that are presented to us. We move to a life that is recognizes the opportunities that are presented to us to help and to be a presence of God in this world. To allow the Spirit to fill our lives to share the witness of the spirit in the world and to help others see the power of following Jesus.

The other truth from this passage is that the days are evil. Now i know that we can all at times agree with that or we can get into the game of saying we are living in the most evil of times. Yet, we must also remember that there are many points in history that were filled with very evil times and that evil is not unique to our current day and age. Evil just changes and adapts and moves differently. I have seen this more and more lately.

Surely we are in the end times because x y or z is happening.

When else has there been this much sin and evil in the world?

If we study history we know that there have been many times that horrible evil was present. Yet, the church remains and that we must walk though it. It is because we must walk through it that we must be reminded to live wisely so that we know how to discern the will of God instead of falling subject to the evil in this world.

Ephesians 5:17 NIV

17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

Follow God’s Will

The first line “do not be foolish”, is an important one. The term foolish is a powerful one. Calling someone a fool especially in those times was a significant insult. It means for us to call someone foolish is they are brainless, or witless, lacking wisdom. Yet, there is some interesting interpretation in the original languages that help us to understand exactly what Paul is trying to say in this passage. The word used in this passage doesn’t actually suggest this idea of lacking in essential wisdom but it is more a reference to

Moral Stupidity in action.

When i was reading about this passage and this was the line that i read i chuckled at first. Think about this for a moment what it means for Moral stupidity in action.

For me this is knowing something is wrong and choosing to make the decision to be stupid and not follow the direction from God. We can actually see an example of this in the next verse.

Ephesians 5:18 NIV

18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,

For many people alcohol is a challenging thing. Do we live a life with no alcohol because we want to refrain from the risk of getting drunk or do we allow ourselves the risk of drink and the dangers that can come with it. Honestly this is a decision that many people have to make in light of the spirit for ourselves. the difference between making that decision with the spirit and instead making it one of a foolish choice is that the foolish choices knows the danger doesn't care about the danger and chooses to get drunk despite the clear instruction through out the bible that drunkenness is a sin.

I want to also make something very clear here on where i stand because i think this is important. I have never seen the benefits of alcohol. It is a decision that i felt convicted about for a variety of reasons but the abstinence from alcohol for me is one of value because it allows me to never have to worry about flirting with that dangerous point that so many of us can get to.

This is an example of the Spirit leading in my personal life. This is a conviction that is on my heart and honestly is one that i wish more people to participate in. Yet, i do not look at someone who chooses to drink on occasion as a horrible sinful person. If they are able to control it that is their decision but i can tell you that the moment i would hear of a fellow brother who is in the state of drunkeness than we need to have a conversation because it is a state that we can’t be as followers of God.

It is here that we see the value of pursuing God’s will and seeking God’s will for our lives on a daily basis. it is in him that we find truth and freedom to be able to grow in our relationship with him. It is through the Spirit filled life that we are able to find that growth and live the wise life.

Conclusion

I shared earlier that i see the change in my life where i have become more cautious. Yet, i also recognize that with age and experience wisdom comes and living a life after God is important. We are called to make the most of our lives and to live a life that is glorifying for God. It is in our holiness that he is glorified and it is in that life of the Spirit that we must do everything we can to stay.