back to index2017-01-01 Being Intentional with Our Lives
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Turn your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter 5. I'm going to be reading starting from verse 13 all the way down to verse 21. 00:01:02.000 |
Lord, we want to thank you for being so gracious and merciful. 00:01:07.000 |
And we know, Father God, that each year we're reminded that only by your grace that we can persevere. 00:01:15.000 |
Whatever it is, Lord God, that we have wrestled with, whatever blessings that you've given, 00:01:20.000 |
help us, Lord, to look upon this new year that we may focus our attention on the things that honor and glorify you. 00:01:27.000 |
Help us to live for eternal things, Lord, and not just temporary things. 00:01:32.000 |
We pray that as we give ourselves to focus and examine the areas of our life that we need to really mature and grow in, 00:01:40.000 |
I pray, Father God, that your word would help us, give us strength to focus our energy, Lord God, 00:01:47.000 |
and project our lives and our families toward that direction. 00:01:54.000 |
Yeah, I mean, today is the first Sunday of 2017, and I'm sure, you know, we say it so often, it becomes so cliche, 00:02:02.000 |
but at the same time, time really does fly. It is like a mist. 00:02:10.000 |
And I can't, you know, like, every year it takes me longer and longer to get used to writing 2016, 2017. 00:02:17.000 |
It takes me at least two, three months now, because that's right, it's a new year, 2017. 00:02:22.000 |
2016 was a blur. You know, I could think of maybe a few years in the last 20 years, 00:02:29.000 |
and we're heading into our 20th year of our church, and we're going to have a 20th year anniversary service coming up in April. 00:02:36.000 |
But in the 20 years, I can only think, I can think of maybe one or two years in the last 20 years that was as busy and as crazy. 00:02:44.000 |
And again, there's one particular year that I remember that I won't get into now, but 2016 was such a blur. 00:02:49.000 |
So many things have happened. I can't remember if it happened in January or in December. 00:02:55.000 |
You know, I don't remember if it was something that happened in September or just maybe a month ago. 00:03:00.000 |
I mean, it was such a blur. It went by so quick. 00:03:03.000 |
And then now we're looking at 2017. You know, one of the first things I think about is, 00:03:08.000 |
wow, we've been at this for 20 years, you know. 00:03:12.000 |
And every BCC class and new members class, we kind of go over our church history, 00:03:17.000 |
and we think about how our church got planted. 00:03:20.000 |
Those of you guys who do know, our church was not a typical church plant. 00:03:23.000 |
We're basically just a church that kind of just happened. 00:03:27.000 |
It wasn't just, it wasn't just planned. We were just on a survival mode. 00:03:30.000 |
And God, in His grace, just kind of caused us to survive and persevere through these years. 00:03:35.000 |
And now looking back at it 20 years later, again, just in God's sovereignty, God's been gracious and merciful. 00:03:43.000 |
And by His strength that we've been able to persevere. 00:03:47.000 |
And I think about, as I'm thinking about the 2017 and for our family and for our church, 00:03:54.000 |
you know, what will 2017 look like in the new year? 00:03:57.000 |
And obviously we're in the transition to the new building. 00:04:01.000 |
And the new building is just a facility. It's just four walls. 00:04:06.000 |
I mean, there's a lot of convenience of having a larger building. 00:04:09.000 |
And one of the things that I'm looking forward to is just having our children have somewhere to run around outside, 00:04:17.000 |
You know, every Sunday I see kids running around, especially the ones who hang out on the street over here. 00:04:22.000 |
One of the reasons why we picked this facility over when we first came in here, 00:04:27.000 |
because we were kind of secluded and I thought that would be necessary because we didn't want our kids to. 00:04:32.000 |
There was a there was a building right here on MacArthur and Red Hill that was available. 00:04:37.000 |
And we almost went to that building. But I was concerned about that building because it was it had big we're on Big Street. 00:04:42.000 |
So we thought, well, we come here to be safer for the kids. 00:04:45.000 |
And now that our kids ministry, children's ministry have grown, even being here, I get nervous when I see the kids running around. 00:04:52.000 |
So I'm looking forward to just being in a safe area for the kids, at least for the kids. 00:04:56.000 |
And the parents can kind of relax when their kids are having fun over there. 00:04:59.000 |
But at the end of the day, it's just a building. 00:05:01.000 |
You know, there's a lot of things that's been happening or hoping sometime in the next month or or a year that we can get in there somehow. 00:05:11.000 |
We're at the tail end. A lot of things are going on. 00:05:15.000 |
But aside from that, you know, the building is not going to change a church. 00:05:19.000 |
In fact, it can actually be a distraction to the church if we're not careful. 00:05:22.000 |
You know, all of these things that that could be a blessing could easily turn into a curse if we just relax and forget about why we're here. 00:05:37.000 |
What Paul has been saying through the Book of Romans. 00:05:39.000 |
I think it's been probably over a year that we've been in the Book of Romans. 00:05:42.000 |
But Paul lays out 11 chapters in the Book of Romans about why we ought to live a life that honors God. 00:05:50.000 |
The whole purpose of what Paul says in the 11 chapters isn't simply so that you can say, well, God loves me that much. 00:05:57.000 |
Even for my sins, that I'm absolutely secure in him. 00:06:02.000 |
It's the purpose of him saying that isn't simply so that you can leave the service and say, wow, I love Christ and I feel secure in him. 00:06:14.000 |
That's not the reason he's building up to a purpose. 00:06:19.000 |
I'm not going to be in the Romans today, but it's related to what we've been talking about in the Book of Romans. 00:06:28.000 |
The reason why he wrote the Book of Romans is because he was headed to Spain. 00:06:33.000 |
Paul was hoping to stop by Rome and get some support. 00:06:38.000 |
Get them to maybe recruit some people, make some finances, and so that he can continue his gospel ministry to an area where the gospel is not preached. 00:06:48.000 |
So, the whole purpose of why he writes the Book of Romans is to lay out the foundation of what it is that we have in Christ to recruit them for the gospel ministry, which is stated in chapter 12 through 16. 00:07:01.000 |
The Book of Ephesians that we're looking at this morning has a similar outline. 00:07:05.000 |
He gives in the six chapters, he spends three chapters expositing the depth of the love of Christ. 00:07:13.000 |
How we are secure in Him, that we were elected in His love, that He poured His tremendous love for us, and that's why we're saved. 00:07:22.000 |
That's why he says, "I'm praying that you would know the depth of this love, this width of this love." 00:07:27.000 |
But the point of him saying that isn't simply so that you can leave the reading of the text and say, "Wow, God's love is so good." 00:07:36.000 |
"He really is worth singing about on Sunday." 00:07:40.000 |
The point of it that he gets to in chapter 4, he says, "Therefore, live up to the calling that you have received." 00:07:47.000 |
So, when we talk about justification, justification isn't simply a security blanket so that it would cause you to feel secure in the life that you live here. 00:07:57.000 |
You can continue to live and do whatever you want, and you have absolute security. 00:08:00.000 |
That's not the point of why Paul talks about that. 00:08:03.000 |
He lays out three chapters of our security in Christ in order that you may have a proper response to that security. 00:08:12.000 |
The reason why absolute security in Christ is so important is that if our salvation was based upon you meeting certain standards, 00:08:22.000 |
if you've been a Christian for three, four, five years or longer, you probably would already be defeated. 00:08:29.000 |
What's the point of making New Year's resolutions? 00:08:34.000 |
You've gone through this cycle so many times. 00:08:37.000 |
It's like, you know what, in the end, it ends up in the same thing. 00:08:40.000 |
It's not just me. Everybody's the same. The church is the same. Everything is the same. 00:08:43.000 |
And you just kind of have a very negative outlook on the future. 00:08:48.000 |
See, if our expectation, what God expects from us is, "Well, live up to a certain standard, and then I will bless you," 00:08:55.000 |
or, "I will save you," or whatever it is, then we would already be defeated. 00:09:00.000 |
But the reason why predestination, election, and our security is so important to our walk with God 00:09:06.000 |
is we're able to say every single year, every time we fail, "Get back up," 00:09:11.000 |
because our motivation isn't, "We do this to meet certain standards." 00:09:15.000 |
We do it because He already met the standard for us. 00:09:18.000 |
And that's why He says, "Because you've been made a child of God, because His love has been focused upon you intentionally, 00:09:28.000 |
Now that you're a child of God, now live like a child of God. 00:09:33.000 |
The text that we're looking at this morning is part of that second part, where Paul says, 00:09:37.000 |
"Based upon all of these things, all of this love and His election that He's given," 00:09:42.000 |
he says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, for Christ will shine on you." 00:09:48.000 |
And he encourages the Ephesians to look carefully, then, how you walk. 00:09:57.000 |
If we're not careful, we can kind of think, you know, once we accept Christ, 00:10:01.000 |
and we know justification, sanctification, glorification, just kind of let it be. 00:10:05.000 |
And there really isn't anything new under the sun. 00:10:11.000 |
At least in our church, we've been at this cycle for 20 years. 00:10:15.000 |
So you can almost kind of predict, especially if you're in college, 00:10:19.000 |
you can almost predict your spiritual state in April versus September. 00:10:25.000 |
Where you will be in January versus where you are in July or June. 00:10:32.000 |
You know, you see the guys who are in fourth year in college, they graduate, 00:10:38.000 |
So if you just came out of college and you're working, you're going through a rut, 00:10:47.000 |
The only difference is how long does that rut last, right? 00:10:51.000 |
And if you're a young couple, just had a kid, you know, you go through a rut. 00:10:56.000 |
You're just working hard to kind of adjust to your new schedule, 00:11:01.000 |
and just driving you out of your mind because you just aren't getting enough sleep. 00:11:05.000 |
And like, how do you serve and honor God in this context? 00:11:10.000 |
You see certain patterns in life, and you see it repeated over and over and over again. 00:11:15.000 |
But in the context of all of this, if we just go with the flow, 00:11:24.000 |
And one of the things that are predictable is, if you just go with the flow, 00:11:30.000 |
the end product is going to be what you saw in the previous generation. 00:11:36.000 |
Those of you who grew up in the church, and some of you probably saw a lot of horrendous things 00:11:40.000 |
and saying, "I'm never going to have that, and our church is never going to be like that." 00:11:44.000 |
If we're not careful, they didn't choose to be there. 00:11:48.000 |
All the things that we've seen in the previous generation, they didn't choose to be there. 00:11:51.000 |
It just kind of drifts. Life has a tendency to kind of drift toward that direction, 00:11:57.000 |
And that's why Paul is challenging us and Ephesians to be intentional with our life. 00:12:03.000 |
It's important for us that we make resolutions. 00:12:08.000 |
It could be every single day. It could be every month. 00:12:11.000 |
But there has to be a constant resolution in our life. 00:12:14.000 |
And a resolution basically is recognizing what is wrong, recognizing where I need to be, 00:12:20.000 |
and making a commitment to somehow get to that point. 00:12:24.000 |
If you allow your emergencies and schedules to kind of dictate where you're going to go, 00:12:37.000 |
You think it's hard in college? Wait until you get work. 00:12:42.000 |
Nine to five. Nine to five is if you have a good job. 00:12:46.000 |
A lot of guys are working 50, 60 hours plus, and then at the end, they're getting yelled at. 00:12:52.000 |
And then you think, "Oh, I got this figured out." 00:13:00.000 |
And then you have the first baby, and then, "I can breathe. 00:13:11.000 |
You know, life has a tendency to just kind of drive you wherever it drives you. 00:13:17.000 |
But the danger in all of this is that this life doesn't drift toward God. 00:13:24.000 |
Life, if you're just on this current, and you're just kind of following the current, 00:13:33.000 |
And the longer you just allow yourself to just follow the pattern of this world, 00:13:37.000 |
you're going to wake up one day realizing, "How did I get here?" 00:13:51.000 |
He says, "Look carefully, then, how you walk." 00:13:54.000 |
In order to look carefully on how you walk or how you live your life, 00:13:59.000 |
considering what it is that we have in--considering our whole paradigm of how we look at life 00:14:04.000 |
and what we value has been flipped upside down by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:14:11.000 |
Considering that, he says, "Arise, awake, O sleep, and arise from the dead. 00:14:17.000 |
So the first thing that we need to do when we look carefully on how we walk 00:14:24.000 |
So at the end of every year, and I know whether you are bah humbug about resolutions or not, 00:14:28.000 |
we have a tendency to kind of, as we wrap up, "What happened in 2016? 00:14:33.000 |
Where am I? Where is my physical state? Where is my spiritual state?" 00:14:40.000 |
The danger that we can easily get sucked up on is we can become analysts, 00:14:47.000 |
especially we're living in a generation where we have information at the fingertips. 00:14:51.000 |
You can ask me any question, and I can answer you in about three seconds, 00:14:57.000 |
And so because we have every information, every curiosity that can be answered in a second, 00:15:02.000 |
we have a false sense of security that we know something. 00:15:09.000 |
And so we can spend all of our days analyzing what's wrong with other people, 00:15:14.000 |
and spend very few amount of that time carefully examining what's happening in me. 00:15:29.000 |
Not just the physical condition, but even the heart of our spiritual condition. 00:15:35.000 |
You know, we typically think of, when we ask, "How are you doing spiritually?" 00:15:40.000 |
The immediate thing that we go to is, "I read my Bible," or, "I didn't read my Bible." 00:15:45.000 |
Or, "I went to church, I attend the Bible study regularly," or, "I don't attend regularly." 00:15:51.000 |
And again, not that these things are not important, 00:15:54.000 |
but if that in and of itself is a measuring mark of a mature and non-mature Christian, 00:15:58.000 |
then the Pharisees would have been the most mature. 00:16:02.000 |
We have to examine what's happening in our hearts. 00:16:11.000 |
In order to live carefully, first we need to examine ourselves. 00:16:19.000 |
And no one likes to be in a part of a community where other people are kind of saying, 00:16:23.000 |
"Hey, maybe you should do this, maybe you should do that." 00:16:25.000 |
Part of living in a community, like a church, 00:16:28.000 |
is that when we rub each other, right, when we rub each other the wrong way, 00:16:33.000 |
a lot of times it exposes what's in our own heart. 00:16:37.000 |
And we have a tendency, we're just kind of like, "Well, that person rubs me the wrong way, 00:16:42.000 |
And then we just kind of find a group of friends that don't rub me the wrong way. 00:16:45.000 |
And all of a sudden we get married and realize we can't run from our wife. 00:16:51.000 |
So you've set up this pattern of running from everybody that rubs you the wrong way, 00:16:55.000 |
and all of a sudden you have this covenant relationship. 00:16:57.000 |
Well, that covenant relationship is also in the church. 00:17:00.000 |
But the benefit of being in a covenant relationship in the church 00:17:11.000 |
The body of Christ examines us, but ultimately we come before God 00:17:21.000 |
It judges the thoughts and intentions of our heart, Hebrews 4.12. 00:17:28.000 |
"Search me, O God, and know my heart." Right? 00:17:32.000 |
He's not just asking, "Lord, search me and see if I'm doing the right thing." 00:17:36.000 |
He says, "See if the person that is doing these things, that's coming to worship you, 00:17:41.000 |
search my heart. See if there's any hurtful ways in me. 00:17:47.000 |
See if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." 00:17:51.000 |
That is a prayer a nominal Christian will never pray. 00:17:56.000 |
He will never pray that prayer because he is not committed. 00:18:00.000 |
If God reveals it to him, until he has already committed that, 00:18:04.000 |
"I am committed to you and I really want to grow and mature and honor you," 00:18:10.000 |
You can repeat the prayer. You can always recite it. You can listen to it. 00:18:15.000 |
But to really come before the Lord is to search me and know me. 00:18:20.000 |
Only a person who is carefully examining his life, 00:18:24.000 |
carefully looking at the way he is walking internally and externally, 00:18:34.000 |
A nominal Christian can demand this of everybody else, 00:18:37.000 |
but a nominal Christian would never pray that prayer before God. 00:18:41.000 |
If we're going to walk carefully and intentionally, 00:18:50.000 |
"Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly. 00:18:58.000 |
You don't have to commit to this, to run aimlessly. 00:19:03.000 |
You don't have to say, "2017, I'm just going to run aimlessly. 00:19:09.000 |
I'm just going to wake up and just do whatever." 00:19:14.000 |
All you need to do to live a life aimlessly is just do what you're doing every day. 00:19:21.000 |
Just get up, go to work, punch in, punch out, eat, take care of your family, 00:19:35.000 |
but you can just kind of just go whatever the flow. 00:19:38.000 |
Just put in your time at work and then spend your weekends to recuperate. 00:19:41.000 |
Put in your time at work and spend your weekends to recuperate. 00:19:44.000 |
And you can repeat that cycle over and over again, month to month, year to year. 00:19:49.000 |
And next thing you know, you wake up and say, "Hmm, life was spent." 00:20:07.000 |
Examine carefully to see if you are running purposefully. 00:20:13.000 |
Why you choose to do what you do, what you invest in, 00:20:23.000 |
That's why, again, the author of Hebrews encourages us in Hebrews 12, verse 12, 00:20:29.000 |
"Therefore strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees, 00:20:33.000 |
so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather be healed." 00:20:37.000 |
Examine to see, "What areas of my life have I just been spending instead of investing?" 00:20:44.000 |
Again, we wrestle with the idea of, "Is this sinful or not sinful?" 00:20:59.000 |
But Paul tells us that a standard of Christian living, 00:21:02.000 |
a purposeful Christian living is not, "Is it sinful or not sinful?" 00:21:07.000 |
But is it profitable or is it not profitable? 00:21:10.000 |
Most of the things that causes us to live aimlessly 00:21:13.000 |
are spending a large amount of time on things that are not profitable. 00:21:18.000 |
It doesn't profit anyway, other than it just felt good at the moment. 00:21:22.000 |
It's just something you wanted to do, but it wasn't an investment for long term. 00:21:39.000 |
it's just a security blanket to make us feel better, 00:21:54.000 |
so that we can make it through this tough life. 00:21:58.000 |
But the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. 00:22:07.000 |
It has the power to change how we behave when suffering comes into our life. 00:22:14.000 |
Then what Paul is asking and demanding is actually very reasonable. 00:22:20.000 |
It's only logical response to the Gospel that we profess 00:22:30.000 |
So he says, and I'm going to quickly go through these three things that he mentions here. 00:22:43.000 |
"Not as foolish, but understanding the will of the Lord." 00:22:49.000 |
"But not as drunk, but be filled with the Spirit." 00:22:51.000 |
So he uses these three contrasts to describe how carefully we ought to walk. 00:22:58.000 |
"We ought to carefully walk, not as unwise, but as wise." 00:23:03.000 |
Well, what does wise and unwise life look like? 00:23:07.000 |
Because everybody kind of has their own determination of who's wise. 00:23:12.000 |
Well, that guy, you know, he knew Facebook was going to blow up before it blew up, 00:23:18.000 |
He knew that the market was going to turn down, 00:23:22.000 |
and then he sold it before, you know, and then--so he's so wise. 00:23:27.000 |
So we all have our own determination of what is wise and what is not wise. 00:23:30.000 |
Well, the Bible describes in the book of James 00:23:33.000 |
the distinction between a wise and an unwise person. 00:23:35.000 |
In James chapter 3, if you can turn your Bible to James chapter 3, 13 to 18, 00:23:50.000 |
By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom." 00:23:54.000 |
So first thing that he says, "How do you determine wise or unwise?" 00:24:02.000 |
There's a difference between knowing and having knowledge and having wisdom. 00:24:09.000 |
And anybody who lives a long period of time has a lot of knowledge. 00:24:20.000 |
So naturally, you gain human wisdom or human knowledge just for living longer. 00:24:28.000 |
But the wisdom that he's talking about is the application of the things that you are learning. 00:24:34.000 |
You can live a hundred years and not be wise. 00:24:38.000 |
You can be 50 years old and still be just as foolish as you were when you were 20. 00:24:43.000 |
So the first thing that he says is, "By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 00:24:49.000 |
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, 00:24:57.000 |
He says, "If your life is characterized by jealousy and selfish ambition, 00:25:01.000 |
if you're self-centered, it's all about you." 00:25:07.000 |
The truth he's talking about is the gospel that he's been professing for the first three chapters. 00:25:12.000 |
If your life is lived with you at the center, you deny the truth. 00:25:20.000 |
"This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 00:25:25.000 |
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice." 00:25:32.000 |
How much of our New Year's resolution in the flesh is based upon, "I want to be like them. 00:25:43.000 |
I mean, when we travel the world, we're rich, but we're not as rich as our cousins or our neighbors. 00:25:50.000 |
We want to be fit, and we want to do this, and we have all these things. 00:25:54.000 |
How much of our desire for new things in the New Year is directly linked to this ambition, 00:26:02.000 |
this personal ambition that really has nothing to do with God. 00:26:09.000 |
It's just wanting to make this temporary home a better home. 00:26:15.000 |
He said, "That's not the wisdom that comes from above." 00:26:17.000 |
Verse 17, he said, "But the wisdom from above is first pure. 00:26:28.000 |
And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." 00:26:33.000 |
If you were to summarize what he says in verse 17 and 18, 00:26:35.000 |
basically, these are all fruits of the Holy Spirit. 00:26:39.000 |
A wise person and an unwise person, the distinction is, 00:26:42.000 |
an unwise person is constantly making resolutions for themselves. 00:26:56.000 |
Whatever it is, it is focused on personal ambition. 00:27:01.000 |
Where wisdom coming from above is allowing the Holy Spirit to bear fruit in our lives. 00:27:07.000 |
Again, in Ecclesiastes 9, 13 to 18, you don't need to turn your Bible there, 00:27:11.000 |
but again, it tells us about true wisdom, the wisdom that comes from above. 00:27:17.000 |
Solomon says, "I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun. 00:27:24.000 |
There was a little city with a few men in it, 00:27:26.000 |
and a great king came against it and besieged it, 00:27:42.000 |
Though the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard, 00:27:45.000 |
the words of the wise heard and quiet are better than the shouting of rulers among fools. 00:27:50.000 |
Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good." 00:27:55.000 |
Every single one of us, we want to live a wiser life. 00:27:58.000 |
But what does it mean to be wise in the eyes of God? 00:28:02.000 |
He says, "In all of the world's wisdom, they did not comprehend who God is." 00:28:09.000 |
And God has chose deliberately the weak things, the unwise, the foolish things in this world 00:28:22.000 |
Are we following the wisdom of this world, thinking that we're being wise 00:28:26.000 |
because we know when to jump into the market, we know when to jump out of the market? 00:28:30.000 |
We're timing it just right because we're so wise. 00:28:32.000 |
But what does that have to do with the things of God? 00:28:35.000 |
Are we wise in the things of God, in the way that we live? 00:28:40.000 |
See, Paul describes wise living continually in verse 16. 00:28:45.000 |
He says, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 00:28:49.000 |
making the best use of time because the days are evil." 00:28:54.000 |
So, a wise person and a foolish person, a wise person is able to recognize the times that he lives in. 00:29:02.000 |
2016, we had a presidential election a few months ago, 00:29:08.000 |
and I've heard more chatter about this election than probably any other election that I remember. 00:29:13.000 |
People are literally weeping over who won and who lost. 00:29:17.000 |
People are getting punched in the mouth for saying who they voted for or who they didn't vote for. 00:29:22.000 |
I mean, every election there's passion, but I've never seen it like up to this level, and rightfully so. 00:29:30.000 |
I think there's a lot of big decisions that are going to be made by the new president. 00:29:36.000 |
But we put so much confidence and hope that somehow somebody is going to come into the office 00:29:42.000 |
And if you've been in the political cycle for any period of time, 00:29:46.000 |
I'm sure, to a certain degree, you're like me. 00:29:53.000 |
I was so excited when Reagan got into office because I was a young Christian at that time 00:29:57.000 |
because he was selling himself as a Christian. 00:29:59.000 |
I'm not going to get into politics, don't worry. 00:30:02.000 |
But every single president since then just didn't turn out the way that--at least what they promised. 00:30:10.000 |
And it is foolish for us to think that a human being, in his weakness, in his own flesh and sin, 00:30:21.000 |
No matter who goes into office, there really is only one king. 00:30:26.000 |
And life tends to just play itself out and will prove itself. 00:30:31.000 |
He says, "We live in an age where it's evil." 00:30:35.000 |
And he's not talking about that particular period. 00:30:37.000 |
He's talking about mankind in every single human being that has ever been born into this world 00:30:43.000 |
from the beginning of the fall onto the time where Christ comes and redeems us for eternity 00:30:52.000 |
And as a result of that, if you don't pay attention, if you're not careful, 00:30:57.000 |
and if you're not wise in the way you walk, you may be drifting away from God and not even know it. 00:31:09.000 |
It is not neutral. It is hostile toward things of God. 00:31:12.000 |
The movies that you're watching, they are not neutral. 00:31:15.000 |
The music that you listen to, they are not neutral. 00:31:18.000 |
I'm not saying, "Oh, you can't listen to secular music. You can't watch movies." 00:31:25.000 |
So if you're not paying attention, you're not careful, 00:31:28.000 |
and you just kind of drift along to whatever is happening in our generation, 00:31:33.000 |
whatever political, whatever spiritual, whatever climate you just kind of tend to follow, 00:31:39.000 |
whatever was popular in the world is popular to you, whatever was important to you, 00:31:48.000 |
Our culture isn't, if you just get on that boat and go where everybody else is going, 00:31:56.000 |
See, that's why it says, "Understand the will of the time," 00:32:05.000 |
The word for "redeem" literally means to purchase back. 00:32:09.000 |
Our whole human history, ever since the fall, 00:32:17.000 |
it's creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. 00:32:22.000 |
I just pretty much outlined the whole Bible for you. 00:32:25.000 |
That's Old Testament and New Testament survey. 00:32:32.000 |
I'm not going to go through each one of these things. 00:32:34.000 |
But you and I are active participants in that part of redemption. 00:32:39.000 |
If you thought or you're thinking that redemption basically means 00:32:43.000 |
you were once going to hell, but you're not going to hell, you're going to heaven. 00:32:47.000 |
You have a very elementary understanding of your walk with God, 00:32:54.000 |
But the more you dig into Scripture, you realize redemption begins with you. 00:33:01.000 |
By redeeming you, through your redemption, God redeems everything related to you. 00:33:07.000 |
Meaning, if you're a child of God and you are redeemed, 00:33:12.000 |
and you have a relationship with somebody, that relationship needs to be redeemed. 00:33:18.000 |
If you are a father and you have a child, in that relationship, by your redemption, 00:33:24.000 |
God wants to redeem your family. God wants to redeem fatherhood. 00:33:29.000 |
If you're working as an accountant and you became a Christian, 00:33:32.000 |
God wants to redeem accounting for His glory. 00:33:39.000 |
All of creation chooses to worship an idol rather than God. 00:33:44.000 |
So what it means to be saved as a Christian is not only that I'm saved 00:33:51.000 |
It's that through our redemption, God redeems everything that went corrupt. 00:33:56.000 |
He redeems sexuality. He redeems finances. He redeems relationships. 00:34:03.000 |
All of these things are part of our salvation. 00:34:07.000 |
So when He says, a wise person who lives in understanding the times are evil, 00:34:13.000 |
to make the most of the time that is given, to redeem that time. 00:34:18.000 |
You know, every single one of us, we have a tendency to think, "I'm too busy now." 00:34:28.000 |
Ask a college student. Ask a parent with one kid or several kids. 00:34:33.000 |
And you see a parent with one kid really struggling. 00:34:36.000 |
And then the next thing you're going to hear is a parent with two kids is like, 00:34:42.000 |
You have no reason to complain. You only have one. I have two. 00:34:46.000 |
And you have a person with two people is like, "Ha ha ha ha. You have two." 00:34:52.000 |
And we always think that my situation, I have an excuse. 00:35:03.000 |
But when you were there, you probably said the same thing to the person behind you. 00:35:07.000 |
And we always have a tendency to think, if you're in college, you're like, "Ha ha, high school." 00:35:14.000 |
It's so easy in high school. Wait till you get to college. 00:35:19.000 |
People in their 30s are like, "Oh, you 20-year-olds. You don't know Jack." 00:35:25.000 |
"If you were my age, if you were in your mid-30s, you would know." 00:35:28.000 |
And the people in their 40s are saying about the 30s and on and on and on. 00:35:35.000 |
And suddenly, we're all saying, "Well, if you had the trouble that I had, 00:35:43.000 |
if you had the difficulty and the hardship and the time, you know, the constraint that I have, 00:35:49.000 |
then you'd really have a reason for an excuse. But you have no excuse at that age with what you have. 00:35:58.000 |
You live long enough, you know that there is no next stage. 00:36:00.000 |
The next stage is harder than the next and one after the other. 00:36:03.000 |
See, there's unique things that you can only do as a high school student. 00:36:07.000 |
And you need to redeem your high school, period. 00:36:10.000 |
There's a unique things that you can only do while you're in college. 00:36:14.000 |
Once that, I mean, think about everybody else who graduated college. 00:36:17.000 |
How many times have you thought, "Only when I was in college." Right? 00:36:26.000 |
Then the college students are thinking like, "Oh, only when I was in high school." 00:36:31.000 |
And we're always thinking that I could really live for God if God would just take away these distractions. 00:36:39.000 |
See, there's things that only you can redeem in the situation that you're in. 00:36:46.000 |
Only, you know, I try to, there was a period when I was watching, you know, 00:36:52.000 |
watching my kids when we were young and Esther was working and I got so fed up being home 00:36:58.000 |
and I would take my young one and go to the park and hang out and let him play. 00:37:04.000 |
And then the other moms who would bring their kids always looked at me like, 00:37:11.000 |
Like I was out of place because I was the only dad in the playground during the middle of the day. 00:37:15.000 |
Because, you know, I'm not going to say, "Hey, I'm a pastor. It's okay." 00:37:18.000 |
You know, they would always grab their children and say, "Don't go over there." 00:37:24.000 |
And I remember thinking like, "Oh, it would be great if I was a mother." 00:37:27.000 |
You know, it'd be great to sit there and be able to share the gospel with these people 00:37:31.000 |
because they're just sitting there and spending time with them. Right? 00:37:35.000 |
And every stage of life, there's things that only you can do in that stage. Right? 00:37:40.000 |
If you're single, fantasizing, "Oh, if I'm married, if I'm married, I'm going to do gospel ministry. 00:37:48.000 |
And you're fantasizing all these things and as long as you're fantasizing that, 00:37:53.000 |
like you're not doing anything in where your current situation seems okay 00:37:56.000 |
because you're going to do it tomorrow. Right? 00:38:00.000 |
There's only things that you can do with young children that you can't do when they're older. 00:38:05.000 |
There's only things that you can do when you're single than when you're married. 00:38:08.000 |
There's only things that you can do when you're a young couple than when you're an older couple. 00:38:11.000 |
There's only things you can do in your 40s and 50s that you can't do when you're younger. 00:38:15.000 |
So in every situation that God has placed us in, God desires to not only redeem you from hell 00:38:21.000 |
but redeem everything around you that has become corrupt. 00:38:24.000 |
Isn't that why the scripture says that all of creation has been groaning 00:38:32.000 |
Because He's not just redeeming that person, He's redeeming everything about that person. 00:38:38.000 |
Every situation that person is in, which is everything that you and I are involved in, 00:38:43.000 |
whether it's your work, your relationships with your children, your wife, your husband, 00:38:47.000 |
whatever stage you're in, God desires to redeem that through you and I who are redeemed. 00:38:54.000 |
That's why a wise person and an unwise person is a wise person who recognizes the will of God, 00:39:02.000 |
And so He makes the most of every situation that he or she is in. 00:39:07.000 |
But third and finally, He says not as foolish, but again, second verse, 00:39:13.000 |
not as foolish but understanding the will of the Lord. 00:39:18.000 |
To understand the will of the Lord, it's not like God has somehow hidden His will 00:39:24.000 |
In Ephesians 1, 7-10 it says, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, 00:39:29.000 |
the forgiveness of trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, 00:39:32.000 |
which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will." 00:39:40.000 |
Scripture says that God had revealed His mystery to us already. 00:39:45.000 |
You know, we spend so much time trying to wonder, 00:39:48.000 |
"Is it God's will for me to marry this person or that person? 00:39:51.000 |
Is it God's will for me to be in this career or that career or live here or there?" 00:39:56.000 |
Now all of these things, again, are important, but we miss the whole point when we forget 00:40:01.000 |
that His ultimate will has been revealed already in the Gospels. 00:40:06.000 |
God desires, and this is His heartbeat, God desires to reestablish His glory upon creation 00:40:18.000 |
It is clearly revealed in Scripture, it is clearly revealed in everything that God does. 00:40:24.000 |
So our job as redeemed people is to figure out, "Where do I fit in in God's redemptive plan? 00:40:33.000 |
How does my work, what does that have to do with God's ultimate redemptive plan? 00:40:38.000 |
In the way that I raise my children, what does that have to do with God's ultimate redemptive plan? 00:40:43.000 |
Am I participating in this redemption or am I trying to find a will separate from His ultimate will?" 00:40:55.000 |
So the distinction between a foolish man and a wise person is somebody who understands 00:41:00.000 |
the will of God is living according to His will. 00:41:08.000 |
See, in Psalm 111, 10, it says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." 00:41:14.000 |
In other words, until our lives are centered upon who He is, 00:41:20.000 |
you can't understand the will of God outside of that. 00:41:25.000 |
Well, I know God wants mankind to be saved, but what college does He want me to go to? 00:41:32.000 |
Like, I know He wants to be glorified, He wants to establish the church, 00:41:35.000 |
but, you know, which neighborhood should I live in? 00:41:38.000 |
God doesn't have His big will and then He's got little tiny wills all over the place. 00:41:43.000 |
Every will of His redeemed people is within that larger will of redemption of mankind. 00:41:51.000 |
So the question we have to ask is, what I've done in 2016, does that have anything to do with God's will? 00:42:02.000 |
The things that I do, the things that I invest in, whatever it may be, how is that related to God's will? 00:42:09.000 |
See, it says, Proverbs 9, 10, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, 00:42:12.000 |
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight." 00:42:15.000 |
When we are centered upon Christ and what He has done, 00:42:20.000 |
then all these other things will come together. 00:42:24.000 |
Third and finally, it says, "Not to get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit." 00:42:28.000 |
This verse has been debated and so misapplied. 00:42:33.000 |
Typically, when we talk about the filling of the Spirit, we get into a charismatic argument. 00:42:38.000 |
You know, what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? 00:42:41.000 |
You know, when I was in the charismatic camp, I thought being filled with the Spirit 00:42:45.000 |
is just kind of going to service and somehow catching the Spirit. 00:42:48.000 |
And I realized that's not what this passage means at all. 00:42:51.000 |
And I think it's helpful, the word "to be filled" has so much... 00:42:58.000 |
Hopefully, after we go through this, that it becomes a lot more simpler to you, 00:43:02.000 |
that it's not as complicated as you may think. 00:43:05.000 |
The word "pleru" is the word that is translated into English, 00:43:10.000 |
the Greek word "pleru" is "to be filled," right? 00:43:13.000 |
To be filled with the Spirit. So what does that mean? 00:43:16.000 |
Let me parse the Greek for you, because I think this will be helpful. 00:43:20.000 |
The word "pleru," "to be filled," is in the second person. 00:43:23.000 |
It means "you." Okay? Now, duh, that's what it says in English, so that's nothing new. 00:43:28.000 |
It is in the plural form. It is "you" or "yous," depending on where you live in the country, 00:43:37.000 |
However you want to use the "you" in plural, it's "you," second person, plural, "you all," 00:43:43.000 |
and it is in the present continuous, meaning continuously, 00:43:47.000 |
meaning to be filled with the Holy Spirit isn't an event. 00:43:51.000 |
Like one time that you go into service and it happens. 00:43:54.000 |
It's in the present continuous, that this ought to be, all of us, a continual part of our life. 00:44:04.000 |
It is in the passive voice. Active voice is when you go and do it. 00:44:09.000 |
Passive voice is when you passively receive it, right? 00:44:12.000 |
So it's in the second person, it's in the plural, it's continuous, present, 00:44:16.000 |
and it is in the passive voice, meaning that the Holy Spirit is constantly wanting to fill you, 00:44:22.000 |
and He's basically saying, "Get filled with the Spirit." 00:44:27.000 |
He's not saying, "Find what the Holy Spirit is and go and do these four things, 00:44:31.000 |
and then go grab the Holy Spirit and then bring it in." 00:44:37.000 |
Remember we talked about the Holy Spirit is constantly groaning on our behalf, 00:44:42.000 |
even for the things that we do not even know what to pray for. 00:44:45.000 |
The Holy Spirit has been given as an absolute seal, guaranteeing our inheritance. 00:44:50.000 |
If you don't have the Holy Spirit in you, actively working 24/7, you are not a Christian. 00:44:57.000 |
There is no Christian who has not been baptized by the Holy Spirit. 00:45:01.000 |
So what he's saying is, the Holy Spirit is actively desiring to fill you at all times. 00:45:09.000 |
And that's why the Bible describes going against the Holy Spirit as what? 00:45:13.000 |
Quenching the Holy Spirit, resisting the Holy Spirit, right? 00:45:18.000 |
Because the Holy Spirit is trying to overcome you, and you're resisting it. 00:45:22.000 |
That's why the description here in "to be filled" is in the passive voice. 00:45:33.000 |
And it is in the imperative. It is a command of God, not a suggestion. 00:45:38.000 |
Not for some. Maybe some of you who are more wise, maybe some of you should live this way. 00:45:45.000 |
But here's the understanding of the word "filled." 00:45:49.000 |
I think it's just common sense understanding of this word "filled." 00:45:52.000 |
When we say you are filled with something, what do we mean by that? 00:45:57.000 |
We get into the argument of being filled with the Holy Spirit, it's like, "Oh, we're filled here." 00:46:01.000 |
Maybe you're filled up to here. No, you really need to be filled up to here. 00:46:05.000 |
We look at it as like we're filling a cup or something. 00:46:08.000 |
But when we say, "Well, he's filled with joy," what do we mean by that? 00:46:13.000 |
They somehow got caught, and then the joy just came in, and then they filled them up. 00:46:18.000 |
What do we mean when we say, "He's filled with joy"? 00:46:27.000 |
When we say somebody is sad, or say, "Oh, he's filled with sadness," what do we mean by that? 00:46:33.000 |
When we look at that person, I mean, everything about that person, there's just a dark cloud over that person. 00:46:39.000 |
They're consumed with sadness. That's what they mean. 00:46:42.000 |
So, what does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? 00:46:51.000 |
The command, the imperative to constantly be filled with the Holy Spirit is not simply to kind of dabble in it, 00:47:00.000 |
come to church and hear a good sermon. The command is be consumed with the things of God. 00:47:06.000 |
To absolutely be completely in control by the Holy Spirit. That's the command. 00:47:20.000 |
"You need to pray. You need to give more. You need to serve more." 00:47:23.000 |
These are all little dabbling that we do to cover up maybe the bigger issue. 00:47:29.000 |
But the command isn't just dabble, because if God was pleased with just dabbling, the Pharisees were so good at it. 00:47:38.000 |
When he talked to the Samaritans, he said, "There's going to come a time when God's not looking for this or that, 00:47:44.000 |
or you're going to worship here or there." He says, "He's looking for people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth." 00:47:49.000 |
That's another way of saying, "He's looking for people who are consumed in worship." 00:47:58.000 |
Because you and I live in a lukewarm part of the world, 00:48:04.000 |
right now there's a lot of exciting things happening in the Middle East because of the persecution. 00:48:09.000 |
There's been a greatest percentage of Muslims converting to Christianity than we've known in our modern generation. 00:48:16.000 |
So in the middle of all that chaos and all the horrific things that's going on, the church is coming alive in the Middle East. 00:48:23.000 |
But you and I just watched that from a distance, and we live in an area of the world that if you're on fire for God, 00:48:36.000 |
If you see somebody on fire for God, what's the first thing that we say? 00:48:39.000 |
"Well, you should be in ministry. Why aren't you going to missions? 00:48:44.000 |
Why aren't you doing this?" Almost kind of like, "You're not like us. You're not a normal Christian. You're a Jesus freak. 00:48:53.000 |
See, but the command is second person, plural, all of us, present tense, continuous, imperative, to be consumed. 00:49:03.000 |
That we don't just look at the 2017 and say, "I'm going to read my Bible more. 00:49:09.000 |
I'm going to serve more. I'm just going to do a little dabble here and there." 00:49:13.000 |
God's desire for us is to be consumed with Him. 00:49:19.000 |
Now, the only reasonable response to the gospel that you and I profess is to be consumed. 00:49:28.000 |
The message of the cross isn't simply that those of you who are having a hard life, that God's going to make it easier. 00:49:35.000 |
The songs that we sing isn't simply about when we die, we're going to have a nice place to go. 00:49:43.000 |
The gospel that we profess to believe in and sing about and we memorize and we go long distances to preach and teach, 00:49:54.000 |
says that God of the universe is angry with this world. 00:49:59.000 |
Even though they knew God in every way, considered worshipping God not worth something to pursue. 00:50:07.000 |
We all live in a fallen world and as a result of that, people die and will be condemned for eternity. 00:50:22.000 |
And I hear a lot of people say, "Oh, it's sad. They died too early. They did so many great things for the world. 00:50:29.000 |
We're going to miss their music. We're going to miss their talent." 00:50:32.000 |
They say all of these things and completely miss the point, the Christian perspective. 00:50:38.000 |
That whether they died at 5 or 50 or 90, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:50:47.000 |
You and I profess this gospel every single Sunday. 00:50:51.000 |
You and I can't live a normal life and say we believe that. You can't. 00:50:59.000 |
I would even say it is immoral to profess to believe that people that we care about are going to hell and just dabble in the Holy Spirit. 00:51:11.000 |
It is the only reasonable response and that's what it says in Romans chapter 12. 00:51:15.000 |
"In view of this great mercy, present your bodies as a living sacrifice." 00:51:20.000 |
A living sacrifice is not a sacrifice that's given just your toe or your leg or your arm. 00:51:25.000 |
A living sacrifice is your life put on the altar as a worship. 00:51:33.000 |
And that is the command that is given in this passage. 00:51:37.000 |
Be careful how you walk. Examine carefully how you walk. 00:51:40.000 |
Not as unwise, but as wise. Not as foolish, but knowing the will of the Lord. 00:51:45.000 |
Not being drunk with the whole, drunk in the things, with wine, but being filled with the Holy Spirit. 00:51:54.000 |
As we wrap up and as we again head toward 2017, I'm going to reflect on this this whole year. 00:52:04.000 |
And I'm hoping and praying that we would evaluate our church with the same light. 00:52:10.000 |
With this one evaluation, with this one plumb line, am I on fire for Jesus Christ? 00:52:20.000 |
Am I consumed? Am I filled with the Holy Spirit? 00:52:24.000 |
Am I just dabbling? Am I just satisfied with just doing my part? 00:52:31.000 |
And just doing something instead of giving everything? 00:52:37.000 |
I pray that our paradigm of our life would change so radically 00:52:43.000 |
that it would be weird not to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Amen? 00:52:48.000 |
That we would make it strange not to be in love with Christ. 00:52:52.000 |
Go against the flow of our generation and commit, not simply to read your Bible, not simply to pray, 00:53:02.000 |
Let's take some time to pray together as we welcome the worship team to come back up. 00:53:10.000 |
And again, we can say these lofty things and be challenged, 00:53:14.000 |
but at the end of the day, you and I in our flesh don't have the power to do that. 00:53:19.000 |
We can get stirred up and then just be frustrated even today. 00:53:25.000 |
So that's why it's important for us to recognize the Holy Spirit in us 00:53:38.000 |
It's constantly desiring to overpower you, to give you this life that God intended. 00:53:49.000 |
Pray a prayer that a nominal Christian would never be able to pray. 00:53:52.000 |
Search me and know me. See if there's any hurtful ways in me. 00:53:55.000 |
And Lord, reveal these things so that I may repent and come to you, 00:53:59.000 |
that I may worship you in spirit and in truth. 00:54:01.000 |
So let's take some time to pray as we prepare ourselves for 2017.