(silence) Hello everyone. Before we jump into our Pagan Bible study for today, let's take a moment to look before the Lord and ask for His grace and help, and really understand and apply His commandments. Let's pray. Our God, we do thank you for your work. Thank God many times we have worked in punishments and in corrections.

The Lord we're so thankful for your faith, knowing by the God that your scriptures continue to examine and bless us, and it caused us to walk in that. To abide by your truth, it caused us to be sane, to grow into truth. And that's what we pray for, God, that we would grow to the measure of Christ, that God we would be growing in both wisdom and understanding, but also that I'm being able to apply what you say.

We thank you Lord that Christ can be praised. Okay, so tonight, we're going to be continuing our study of Ephesians in the passage this evening from verse 15 through 21, which I entitled "Walk carefully and wisely." So let's take a moment to read the paragraph, starting from verse 15.

"Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because it pays our people. For then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get drawn to the mind, but rather to the spirit, speaking to one another in a soft and gentle spiritual song, singing in a neat melody with your heart to the Lord.

Always be in thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ." Okay, well, let's briefly have a way of review. We realize again that there has been such a repetition of the admonishment to make sure that our pattern of life and the way that we walk is God-like.

And so, starting all the way back in chapter 4, Paul challenges us, and you've heard the Gospel lessons in all of this radical teaching, for you, you need to walk in a manner worthy of this call. And he describes how our walk should be characterized by humility, by love, by unity, and more.

In chapter 5, verse 1, the Scripture challenges us to imitate God as his children, and to walk in love. In verse 8, we're challenged to walk as the children of life, no longer partaking in deeds of darkness, but rather exposing everything that we're doing to the truth. And here, we're having this call, this command for us to walk carefully, and to walk carefully, and to walk quietly.

Here, out of the message we take a look at it, all these colors, what I've done for you is outline the passage according to the commandments. So what do I mean by that? There are main commandments within this passage, and then there are, I guess you could say, supporting commandments, as you see.

And the way you differentiate is by taking a look at what are the correct imperatives. So here, as I read this, it says, "Be careful how you walk." That is a standalone imperative. We're not going to stop there. It's a complete sentence. He describes that walk by saying, "Not as unwise, but as wise." But if you take "not as unwise, but as wise" by itself, it almost feels like an incomplete thought.

He continues by saying, in John 1, verse 17, the commandment should be, "that you do not walk foolishly, but understand what the will of the Lord is." And to summarize, I can say the second main commandment is, "understand the will." Thirdly, he says, "Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit." This command, "be filled with the Spirit," obviously it's an important one, but there's a lot more to say about it.

But you can clearly figure out one of the main commandments. And then letter D, down in verse 21, the subject of it. So in a simplified way, "Walk carefully and walk wisely," I see as the main heading of the paragraph. And then he says, "Understand God's will, but then be "are walked," so being careful and wise, "be filled with the Spirit," almost.

Commit yourself to it. So we don't have to jot all of this down, but I just wanted to show you that this passage uniquely was just full of commandments, one after another. And I saw a structure where not every single commandment was just that other side of the road.

Rather, you saw four main ones, walked out of the first. Let's take a moment then, and jump to commandment number one. "Walk carefully and wisely." When you take a look at this commandment, it says, "Therefore be careful how you walk." And what we want to observe is just that commandment, "Hey, be careful!" Now, if we just glance over it, we might think the other commandments are more important, we'll come back to them, because they're more consistent.

But I think actually it's good for us to take heed of this general, again, more broader commandment as well. There is an emphasis here. I would like to show you a re-reading here. In the Greek instruction, it has a more, I guess, a weightier-ness, because the way that you would more literally read it is like this.

"See then, accurately, how you walk." "See then, accurately, how you walk." So, the commandment, "Be careful!" actually is several words. "See accurately and specifically." What we're talking about here is that we hear the expectation for us to be willing to examine everything that we're doing. That we have the ability to stop and be assessed, so to speak.

And more so, we'll actually assess ourselves. What we need to be doing is making sure that we are paying attention to the way that we are doing and what we're doing. We should be willing to ask the question and meditate on this. What happened? Is there any part of me right now that I'm not paying attention to?

Am I being kind of careless in the way that I'm approaching or whatever in my life? And to meditate on this further, I have this question. What happens if I'm not asking the question and self-evaluating and asking the question, is what I am doing, why? And I want us to take a moment to think about that.

If in your home, whether you're working on a project, whether you're trying to fix something, whether you're trying to build and then you get to the furniture and everything, if you're not careful, what ends up happening? A lot of times, what ends up happening is we hurt ourselves. We stub our own toes.

We smash our thumbs. Or we hurt other people. Let's take a moment to think about this. If we're not careful, what ends up happening is that we end up wasting our time. If we're not careful to build our furniture in a specific way, or according to the instructions, you end up doing something and then you realize, like, "Oh!

I missed that important part and now I gotta dismantle it." Well, that is a fasting scripture. It warns us, if we're not paying careful attention, we're putting together something that will not last, that needs to be done over again, or altogether scrapped, and it will not have the potential to apply.

What is that? That's called "ending." That's called "wasting." What's more, in our day, if we're not careful right now, we can be really messing up all of our priorities. What do I mean? There are so many different priorities in our lives. There are responsibilities for family, job, church, personal, and the responsibilities continue to stack.

And if we're not careful, what ends up happening is the various priorities that God has given us get turned upside down. The priorities that should be more spiritual, heavenly-like, more important, get split. And the priorities of the world, the priorities of this age, the priorities of next, whatever is urgent, those things have to take place.

I think this is a big source of challenge for us, and for me too, personally. I feel like God has been teaching this, as a layman, through people in our church, through fellowship, that sometimes if we're not careful, we definitely lose sight of what's most valuable, what's most important.

And I think this is the call that is most emphasized in the starting sentence, you need to be careful. For example, to me, you know, I think everybody these days, everybody has lots of messages to get through, everybody has lots of people to text, everybody has lots on their plate.

But again, if you're not careful, what ends up happening is your goal gets distracted. There are times when literally my goal was, you know what, I just need to make sure by the end of the day, my box is empty, and I respond to everything. Or, on the flip side, if I have a bunch of tasks, you know what my goal is, just to make sure that all of those things get checked off.

But then if I'm not being careful, I have to end up answering to God, essentially. Like, God, did I ever do what you wanted of me? Is everything equally the same? And I've been learning this, and I've been being challenged by this. Just from my own trying to get things done, just thinking about how effective, how am I totally actually accomplishing God's plan?

How am I totally actually tending to the need of the day? What kind of fruit is this bearing? These are all very important questions. Why? Because He says, "When you do that, you are then a need-wise person." So we hear this challenge and this demand. Scripture says it all the time.

Watch your writing and doctrine closely. Many other passages tell you, I'm not going to read this whole thing, but if you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul talks a lot about there's a wisdom of the world, and there's a wisdom of God. And what needs to happen is that Christians need to understand the value of things.

And he says, there are things in our lives that the world might see that this is important, and that's important. But he says, the spiritual things are spiritually great, I believe, because we have the mind of God. So, I spent a lot of time on this first one because it was very tight.

We need to be paying much closer attention to what we are doing. In line with that, Apostle Paul challenges us with this next phrase, where he says, "Make the most of your time." And so the second commandment you see is, "Redeem the time." Now, by way of observation, this phrase begins with the hardest part.

It is the I-N-G, ongoing statement. Making the most of your time. And so if you notice, I indented it to show you that it is a second or supporting idea of how we're supposed to be careful in our lives and our day. Now, by way of observation, I want to highlight this idea of making the most of our time.

It is literally translated as offering you a "binding it all." So, if you look at this term in, let's say, other literature or other passages of Scripture, the idea is redemption, purchase. So actually, it is used in Christ when it talks about the dogmas that Christ fully purchased us.

And what's more, in other literature, it is used of an individual by a slave in order to set them free. It is also used in moments when an individual is sold into whatever it may be, they buy it all out. And so I want you to take a moment to think about that when it comes to our use of time.

This kind of mentality then for us is to maximize that time. This kind of mentality for us is to make sure that we try to squeeze every ounce of benefit from whatever we're doing. And now that's not to say, obviously, and you guys can discuss this in your groups, and I didn't think about it a minute ago, that's not to say that you have to be a machine and every waiting moment you should be doing nothing but free-preying abandonment.

I wish you could! But there are moments of rest, there are moments of enjoying the company of your loved ones, there's a lot more. But let's take a moment to think about this idea because Scripture challenges us to do this on an everyday basis. Here, in Colossians, conduct yourself willingly towards the outside world, making the most of every opportunity.

So here, we kind of get the sense of what you talk about. That when we have opportunity, are we actually making the most of it? Or again, are we just passing it first and we hold it? This is just a challenge for all of us. How good would it be to be attached to the opportunity that we have?

Intentionality. In Scripture, it tells us when we're speaking words, those words should be both seasoned with salt and it should actually point beneath the knee of the hour. Wow. What a challenge. Intentional thinking. Careful attention. All that good stuff. What's more, relations. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who are a household of the Savior.

There it is, it builds in with the Scripture definition for us. That as we have this chance to do good, we need to be making sure that there is good being. And I wanted to say, there's another observation we can highlight. Notice how when we go back to the passage, it says making the most of the time.

That term for time doesn't just mean hours and minutes. Time is a set period of time. A lot of times, translated, it is a season. So in this moment, so to speak, we need to make sure we understand that we have obviously a limited amount, a set amount. Scripture says it's not like we have time for every single thing, but you need to make sure that you understand we have but a moment.

And Scripture challenged us to see that we are transient beings. We are like papers and we need to be active in knowing that no, we don't have time to do every single thing, every single hobby that we would like to do. I just want to share another personal opinion.

A lot of people know that I just love learning stuff. I'm not like necessarily a super ambitious person, but nonetheless, I just love learning. I like knowing how to do things. And so if you ask the question about my gift to them, some people have said, "You're kind of like a jack of all trades." And the other part of it is, "Absolutely, I'm not an alpha male." But it's true.

If you have all these different interests, you can't be a bachelor. So what's funny is in terms of sports, when some people are like, "Let's get people to play tennis." I play tennis. I have tennis practice. I played tennis in high school. I played soccer. I'm a soccer ball.

I even have a badminton set at home that I haven't touched in two years. Pretty much every sport you can think of, I have to be a good player. I have softball gloves. I have a baseball bat. I have a baseball glove that I haven't touched in a month.

And I say that not to brag, I actually say that mostly to shame, because the majority of people don't get touched in like years. Now what's really interesting about this is I just want to say, I mean, is it wrong to have lots of hobbies? No. But I want you to think about this.

And we're talking about the idea that you don't have time for this. And so those people who just want to go out and experience everything, and think about this even for parenting, "Do I want my child to experience everything that they possibly can?" And the answer is yes. I want them to know what it's like to go here and there and experience this sport, and that sport, and this sport.

I'm talking about instruments. I'm going right now, like you, you know, we got a piano from somebody. Someone gave us ukuleles, and now we have that. We have a guitar at home. We have a flute. It's crazy to me. But now we have this privilege of having anything that we have.

And yet we realize, "No, we don't have three hours for the guitar, three hours for the flute, three hours for the car, get me started on that. I have pieces of car that I don't have ever installed yet." I'm sure some of us would like that. And I want you to think about that, because King Solomon widely said, "All of man." He says, "I planted my vineyards I had to be dumb.

I grew this, grew that. I bought this, bought that. I had slaves, I had servants. I had just about everything." In the end, man, what was it? And you know what's really interesting? I was going to compare it, because I was going to give a thirdly suggestion. Don't have 50 million hobbies.

Have one that you're good at. Be good at it. And I was going to give that admonishment, but that too is actually worthy of it. And in the end, you know what's really cool right now? People right now on the internet, on Facebook, and thank you to those who coordinated it, they're using their skill, garnering interest, and using that as a means to support issues, to support the evaluator, to support these causes of adoption.

That's a fun one. Excellent stuff. Way to add intentionality to what you're doing. That's a two-thumbs up right there. That was great stuff. Is it always that we have to do that all the time, do everything? Probably not. But should we be thinking about that? Absolutely yes. What a great challenge that has been an admonishment for us.

That we take heed of the fact that our time is absolutely up. That we don't have all the time. And what's more, the rationale that this could give is actually that... I'm sorry. The days are actually even. Now I want you guys to, in your group, discuss what does it mean that the days are even?

And how does that challenge the way that we think about what opportunities are actually happening? It is a very interesting and weird, I guess you could say, discussion that Satan has instilled, I think, in our generation. Opportunities before you. You've got all the opportunity in the world. The answer is yes and no.

The answer is it's a balance game. We are absolutely privileged that we have such great, incredible freedoms like never before. The fact of the matter is you're not. You have limited time, limited opportunity, and you have to make sure you are not squandering and wasting your time. We're going to achieve this in response to us and to the Mass.

Let's move forward to commandment number three. Commandment number three says, "So then, don't be fooled, but understand who the will of the Lord is." The commandment here, I just want to highlight that, obviously is not just to study the will and get to know the will, but the idea is that you would know the will and why you need to know the will.

The wise individual understands God's intent, what God is up to. Here's the way I like to put it. The wise individual knows what is pleasing to God. We talked about this in previous weeks. The wise individual, the individual who's walking carefully, understands this pleases the Lord. You should be able to say, "This is what God is honored by.

This is what God is pleased by." And you should be able to say, "I kind of got that stuff." These are the things that a good son understands. Father's Day is coming up soon. If you're thinking about a gift for your father, the first question you should be asking is, "What does he like?" If you're sitting there like, "I have a good handbook, and now we have a problem.

We have a bigger problem than I need to buy a gift. Your problem is more so than I need to get rid of my problem." That's the point here. I would like to make another observation that the commandment is very clear. Do not be foolish. That part we've already talked about.

Foolish individuals do not walk carefully, do not be attentive, do not be accurate, do not be precise, do not be a point in the knee. You just walk. Just walk and be kind of careless. Here is that I don't understand what the rule is. My personal belief of where this applies, and I've been thinking about this recently, is in men.

Now a lot of people will say this, "You know what the key to marriage is? Good communication." When you have bad communication, that's when things go south. So people talk about how men are from Mars and women are from Venus. We talk two different alien languages. That didn't mean so.

Men just communicate way different. We're not expressive. Sometimes we don't dig into meaning of words and all that kind of stuff. And sometimes we do. We just have a different way of expressing ourselves. Okay. I don't think that's true. Because I've literally seen people speak two different languages and yet still come together.

You know what actually one of the main keys of self-awareness is? When individuals know what they need to adopt. They know their role. They know what they're supposed to do because they know this dishonors the role. You know what's super frustrating? When an individual has no idea what we just got and they just automatically assume, "Whatever makes me happy because the thoughts are just going to do whatever makes me happy." Do you know how much that ruins any institution?

Not just marriage. Churches. Basketball teams. Jobs. Business teams. Whatever they need. When an individual has no idea of their God-given role or objective, all of a sudden it's all messed up. All of a sudden, when you go to a team it does not feel like God. And so what's more worse than that is not only an individual who does not feel like he's a God, but maybe an individual who knows what he's a God, but just doesn't disobey.

I think scripture is very, very clear. One of the most foolish things you can do is know that I am a God and this is me. And that's what this idea of wisdom begins with. You're a God. When you acknowledge this authority and move to a place that's a place.

But when all the hearts are dug, like, "Now I've got to do this right," that's when actually the biggest frustration happens. So he says here, "Don't be fooled. Understand I do the will of the Lord." Okay. Next commandment. It is, "Be filled with the Spirit." Commandment number four, "Be filled with the Spirit." Now, I apologize, because of time we're not going to be able to get into every single element of this passage.

But again, I trust that you guys have done your own observation, done your own question. I'm just going to highlight it. The first thing I want to highlight is clearly we make this observation that there is a contrast here between being drunk off of wine and described as dissipation.

And then in contrast to that "with," "be filled with the Spirit." And you have to ask this question then, I ask this question, "Why do people drink so much?" But the other question really is, "How does Scripture view drunkenness and dissipation?" That summary stated, "This is dissipation." What does that mean?

Those are some observations that we need to have. And in order to answer that question, I definitely think that we have to take a moment to just meditate on it. What is it about getting drunk that this world thinks is so cool? What is it about getting drunk that this world thinks it's so awesome?

Like, when people think about partying, wedding celebration, when you get a hang celebration, when they think about birthdays, when they think about St. Patrick's Day, pretty much any and every celebration you can think of, this world thinks, "Let's get drunk. Let's get alcohol." Why? Well, someone can say, "You know what?

It just feels great." Okay? Other people might say, "Well, this just brings us together." It's like a little joke. Other people might say, "That just brings in that community joy. We're celebrating." And then you realize, "Oh, that's weird." Because some people use it when they're sad, when they're depressed, when they want to escape the pain of this world, they drink it away.

So, that's weird. You have individuals who love the world, and they think it's amazing, and that's what they drink. You have individuals who hate the world, and all the biases and all the rules of the world that they drink, and they're like, "That's a waste." And what's really interesting is when the word dissipates, if you look up the definition, the immediate definition is "extravagant squandering." You're going to hear me say that.

It says, "This is dissipation." You're just getting off on one. The definition of dissipation, you know, when you think about water dissipating, you think about it in an accurate way, but the actual definition that's more literal is "extravagant squandering." And so this term is used theologically and more, I guess, metaphorically, like that codical sign.

The one who just spends much. Perhaps you could think of the rich kid. The rich kid whose father owns a lot of stuff, and so as a brat, he wants it, and he wants to go spend it. And he spends it on all kinds of vices to his own gain.

He is easily under the influences and flattery of others. He's given to temptation, and he surrounds himself with spending free to his lust and appetite. It's debauchery. It's this incredible manner of living that has so won him. These are just some of the things that the theological dictionary has about this term.

"Extravagant." When you think about this term, you have individuals who turn to alcohol as a means to feel like they're full. As a means to feel like maybe the feeling of joy. Turning to it as a means to feel like whatever it is, the psychology of a rich child who feels like they have all the resources in the world in is a choice.

Scripture says those who care in terms of that as a means of their joy, as a means of their pleasure, as a means of their escape, as a means of anything need to be turned to in the spirit of God, who lives in His very presence. We don't have to overcomplicate what it means to be filled with the Spirit.

To be filled with the Spirit means we have, just like a child has his blessings in the Father, so we have our blessings in the Father. We have His power, His wisdom, His purpose, His truth. In Ephesians, we're talking about we have every blessing in the Father, so we bless Him.

We're not talking about any kind of mystical greater measure of the Spirit, we're talking about the very presence of God. Now what the Scripture says, by way of observation, is that when we are filled with the Spirit, we are going to be what Peter speaks of as an observation.

Being filled with the Spirit is described by an ongoing overflow of speech and song of the Holy Spirit. So, the heading should be overflow of joy and thanksgiving. The previous commandment is to be filled with the Spirit, underneath that is overflow of joy and thanksgiving. So speaking to one another in song and in spiritual song, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.

Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God, even in the Father. Think about this as fruits, a description of what it means to be filled with the Spirit. So, if you have questions about what does it really mean to be filled with the Spirit, are we talking about being empowered to do great works?

Are we talking about being filled with the Spirit to do miracles? Are we talking about some kind of, you know, "guess what" scene? Well, here specifically, you're filled with the Spirit is described as an ongoing overflow of joy and gratitude. So, this is an overflow of joy and gratitude.

That's the way it is. Last, B, commandment number six, that is, "and be subject to one another in the fear of anything." I'm going to talk about how commandment number six, humble yourself. Humble yourself. If we're thinking about the logic of being careful, being wise, we completely get all the things that we're talking about so far.

A quick way to do that is to think about your needs. We need to make sure that we're giving people time. We need to make sure that we understand how to live. We need to make sure that we are living this overflowing of joy and gratitude. What is very, very character and very, very wonderful is humility.

Right? All of those to me make sense. If you're wise, if you understand, if you're living in reality, you should be the most joyful and thankful person. Right? You should be the person who is in time. You should be the person who is in the gospel, the truth, the impact, and the wisdom of God is hitting us because we recognize His presence.

All of those to me make sense, especially to the public. To be able to subject ourselves to the fear of Christ. The idea is because we have an understanding of Christ, His authority, His power, His mercy, His kindness, and our reverence for Christ rises in knowledge. The most wise application of that is we are really able to subject ourselves.

Humble ourselves. Even before people are humble. I want you to think about this in your head. I don't think you would be as nobody's like that in our service. I go to God and I'm like, "You know, I'm in it. You make sure you manage it for me." We're not going to say that to God directly.

Does that mean I'm not right? But God says if I talk to my brother in my life, I'm still actually fighting with God. He's in the present. He's watching. And if you've ever, let's say for example, you were the greatest basketball player to ever live in your presence, two rookies going into the sit-down, fighting each other about defense, watching the picture there.

Because you're there, that little victory, that kind of competitive edge, that kind of egging each other, that kind of mocking each other, it's annoying to watch because you still see how foolish they are over what you've done. You're going to talk about who was great in front of you.

So I want you to think about that in the presence of God. When we are frightened, God's looking at us like, "Wow, who wants to be blind?" You must not have seen. And if you're sitting there thinking, "Well, I'm the best," God's looking at us like, "Wow, you're lying." If we're competing with other people thinking like, "Oh, I'm better than that person." He looks at me and he deserves the credit for this.

God's looking at us and thinking, "You have quite the problem." "Well, I've got all the foot seating in your room, Thomas. I do just as few as the mountains above." When we flex in front of our mirror, don't look, don't mention it. Our world is so small we think of the few.

Only when we step outside do we realize, "I'm not that few." See, our view of Christ, our experience with the Lord, empowers us to be humble with each other. To submit ourselves to being with other people. Realize, we don't deserve much. We're not much, right? And more importantly, it also modernizes us.

"I realize I'm the greatest." "Actually, I realize I'm the least." "There's nothing. Please don't even look at me." "You're doing a lot of shaming." "Thanks be to God, I'm less, he's greater." "That's all that matters." "There is no jockeying for position between me and my brother." "When I see God, there's nothing else." "That to us is a great grace." "When we exercise our penitentiality, it's a great grace." So by the way, we realize being filled with the knowledge of God, seeing the world of God's commandments, it causes us to be wiser and more brave on the other side.

It helps us to avoid the foolishness of speaking in English. The foolishness of speaking in the broader morality of seeing life as it is. Let's take a moment. Heavenly Father, God, we hear your time. We want to hear it. We realize that sometimes we do so much in our own time, and we get more of it because it's so fixated on making sure that our priorities are good.

Sometimes we don't realize God, God, you might have a tendency to hurt ourselves or others. I ask God that you can see more accurately what is spiritual. What is of greater importance? What is your priority? Heavenly Father, you have told us. You have told us all this while. We have to be part of care, of humility, of heart for union, and I pray that God will guide us in life.

We thank you. God bless you.