you have been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth wherever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You return man to dust and say return a children of man. For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past or as a watch in the night you sweep them away as with a flood they are like a dream like grass that is renewed in the morning in the morning it flourishes and is renewed in the evening it fades and withers. For we are brought to an end by your anger by your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days pass away under your wrath we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy or even by reason of strength eighty yet their span is but toil and trouble they are soon gone and fly away who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you so teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom return of God how long have pity on your servants satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us and for as many years as we have seen evil let your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to their children that the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us yes establish the work of our hands the New Testament lesson is from the book of Ephesians it's the text we'll look at this morning in the message Ephesians 5 15 to 17 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 our children have been so today's message is kind of an application of the gospel it's it's the practical aspect of Christian living it assumes redemption and so let me just start by reflecting on the gospel we've sung about it it's a part of every service of worship but we we worship God and we know God and we're reconciled to God because he has sought us out he has loved us and he has demonstrated that not only in in keeping us alive on planet earth but inciting his son Jesus Christ the perfect God man who came into space and time born of the virgin born in this world under the law under the Jewish law that God had given his people and he kept it completely he obeyed in every way from the heart not some mere external obedience but internally loving God with this whole heart and mind and strength loving his neighbor perfectly and after doing this as our substitute doing for us what we have never been able to do for ourselves having lived a perfect life on our behalf he then suffered the wrath of God on our behalf when they nailed him to a cross it wasn't merely the Romans expressing wrath on him it wasn't merely the Jewish courts the the chief priests and scribes and Pharisees and elders and Jerusalem expressing their wrath on him but God himself expressed his wrath on the Lord Jesus Christ because God had made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus the great transfer Jesus perfect obedience given to us who by faith receive Jesus and this gift of eternal life and the sin which we deserve to have punished in our bodies Christ took and suffered on the on the cross when he died there God raised him from the dead and when we are reconciled to God by trusting that this is true that God has sent Jesus Christ to us then we're made alive and when God saves us he saves us for good purposes he he redeems us because he loves us and Ephesians 4 excuse me Ephesians 1 4 tells us that he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in fact we can talk about the gospel from Ephesians 2 8 and 9 versus that many of you have probably memorized help me out with this 4 by grace you have been saved through and that not of yourselves it's the gift of God not a result of less than anyone should boast right so praise God we come to him as those who by grace have been saved through faith not trusting in ourselves and not what we have done but trusting in Christ who did it perfectly on our behalf the next verse in Ephesians 2 after 9 comes 10 which is for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them that's kind of what I want to talk about today we have been we are the workmanship of God we who have been reconciled by faith who have been set free from our sins it's not that we don't sin we still struggle with it we had to confess them again this morning but we've been set free from their power we we can change he is at work in our lives not only have our sins been paid for and full on the cross but God's at work in our lives and he has ordained he has planned good works for us to walk in and that's what I want to talk about under the title it's time all right a little message practical application on time management but if you're one who likes Bible exposition stay with me we got we're loaded with that too right we've got plenty of that I want to look at this text before us and make three simple points all right here's the first one look carefully at what you do look carefully at what you do verse 15 look carefully then how you walk not as unwise but as wise look carefully at the way you live your life that's what he means by walk walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects live your life in a way that shows that you belong to God walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called that's that's what our text is calling us to and it tells us to look carefully that's the main verb of verses 15 and 16 look what is the verb carefully is the ad verb it's telling us how to look right look carefully then at what you do it's the main verb and the verbs to to do or to walk and and to look carefully they're in they're in a particular sense which means it's a continuous action we are to live a life of self-examination we should be looking at the way we live and examining it looking carefully at it so that we live wisely instead of foolish foolishly we need to want we need to live of let me try that again we need to look carefully at the way we live it's the main verb and it is a command the God is telling us we who are in Christ Jesus and want to live a life pleasing to him you must you must look carefully at the way you live and that means to not look carefully is a sin it's to break this commandment it's a sin to live your life without self-examination it's a sin to just kind of go along with the crowd and be swept along through life not examining your life but just doing whatever comes naturally or or the way everyone else is living it's a sin to just let life happen any thought given to it without any self-examination it's wrong before the face of God Almighty and so this morning I want to talk about how do we do this how how do we live a self-examination life how do we look carefully at the way we live so that we are effective in doing the good works which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in that right we're trusting in Christ Jesus for our salvation and not just say it from going to hell not just say it from our sins but we are trusting that we are in a in a friendly relationship with God that he delights in us and we delight in him and thus we want to live for him this way and and keep it careful watch on our life this this idea of examining your life and and it being a sin not to it's maybe a good illustration would be a garden if any of you ever keep a garden you know it takes a little bit of work right you once once you prepare the soil you got to plant your plants right or your seeds if you're starting from seed and and God has done that in that he's given us life we have life in Christ Jesus and watching carefully is like the gardener who makes sure there's plenty of water for the garden not too much but enough water that the weeds right takes the weeds out then's out when there's too many plants you know too many seeds and it's too thick and it won't grow prunes and that's watching carefully and you do that so that you'll have a productive garden right and if you're good at gardening if you watch carefully if you make sure it has enough water if you if you prune the plants and weed so that they don't choke it out and such you'll have a productive high yielding garden and that's what God wants he wants our lives to be productive to bear fruit and I'm cared for garden it's not looked over it's just this unproductive I mean there may be some fruit there it's a garden but it's choked by weeds sometimes the plants fail to to produce fruit just because there's not enough water or because they're so thick it hadn't been thinned out it's still a garden and there may be something there but it's not productive we are to to be productive in our lives for our Lord Jesus Christ so I want to give you an application that we'll look at throughout the rest of this message I want to encourage you to keep a time lock now I didn't print these up for you because if you if you made two weeks worth or a month's worth of these it just be too much paper and I'd rather you do that than me do that so I uploaded this to the web right if you check out where go to our church web page it's at least in two different places I know it will be with the sermon and I think it's already there so if you just find out where today's sermon is on there it's not hard just look for the word sermon right you'll find this and you can download this and make copies I've made for myself like 20 copies I'm going to I'm taking my own medicine here today and I want to do this self examination this by the way it's just kind of homemade it starts at 5.30 in the morning the idea to start with when you wake up so if you need to adjust it a little earlier leave me of all people that wasn't the joke anyway if you happen to get up before that just change the times on it if you stay up later than 10.30 you know expand the times on it and make it to fit your your life what what part of the clock you live on and such and then record I've got it in 30 minute increments that's intense enough for me if you are more detailed oriented and want to do it in shorter 15 to 10 minutes okay fine whatever but the idea is just to fill out this time clock this this time log if you have a regular kind of life whether you're in school or you go to work you know probably two weeks is enough if you travel once a month or more than that you probably want to do it a little bit longer maybe just two weeks while you're at home but a couple times when you're traveling for the you know before and after before you travel while you're traveling and afterwards so you have an idea of how you're using your time now if you if you do that that's just the first step that that's not looking carefully it's just recording carefully at least that's what I'm calling to and we'll have to talk about what to look for as we go along this by the way is merely an application right that means if you don't want to download this and you don't want to fill this out no problem it's not a sin it's just a one way to apply the passage you do need to know that you have to look very carefully at the way you use your time that is a command and God wants you to do that so if you use this way use this then just record that information and like I say we'll talk more about it as we kind of go through the our time today the second thing I want to talk about has to do with okay let's say you do fill up this this time log and you've got your time there and you're going to examine it you're going to look carefully at how you're using your time well how do you know if you're being productive or not how do you I mean what's the what's the standard how do we know if we're using our time wisely and that's under number two learn to discern the will of God learn to discern the will of God
if um if the main verb is look carefully at what you do at how you live how you walk then the main way we need to do that is in verse 17 where it says so then do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is right understand what the will of the Lord is that's kind of the main way we know if we're being productive or not are we in the will of the Lord have we been doing with God commands but really the text even gives us more than this uh you'll if you'll bring up that next slide um Paul uses three uh uh adversitives where he says don't do this that's the knot on the left hand side but do this and so he says uh therefore be careful how you walk not as unwise man but as wise making the most uh of your time because the days are evil and then verse 17 so then do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is and I'm saying that's the main thing right there but just to show you it's more than that he goes on and says in verse 18 and do not get drunk with wine for that is dissipation dissipation means out of control you're you're not in control the alcohol is so he says don't get drunk with wine for that is dissipation but be filled with the holy spirit and then he gives several verses on what it means to be filled with the spirit uh no surprise that worship is a big part of that uh but uh we're going to leave that for today and just look at this idea of uh how to be wise and understand what the will of the Lord is uh for this idea of wisdom wisdom is the idea of applied knowledge it's it's not only that you have the facts but you know what to do with them you you you have to think to have wisdom you have to analyze and and such and if you want to just a good application for that let me recommend that for 2013 you each day read a chapter from the book of Proverbs there's 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs they're not every month has 31 days but you can either read extra toward the end of a short month like February or just just let it go not that we should let the word of God go but if you're reading it 12 times in the year you'll get the idea and and its wisdom literature wisdom literature you'll see something of the wisdom of God the the rhythm of his thinking uh the application of his word what the fear of the Lord is these sorts of things because we're not to be unwise but wise and then this do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is what the will of the Lord is I want to talk just about just a couple minutes about this idea of what is the Lord's will one aspect that the text is not talking about and the only reason I bring it up is because often if we talk about what we should do what the Lord wants or I wonder what God's will is for my life or something we're using it in a different way than what this text is using it like if you're thinking I wonder what I should do what you know what classes I should take in college or who I should marry or but you know if you're you get two or three job offers in Israel which one should I take or where should I live or what should I do these kinds of things there's just not a Bible verse that says thus say at the Lord I think the pages should move to Africa and be missionaries or something like that it's just not there it doesn't say who you should marry it does say marry in the faith equal we yoked this sort of thing uh but the scriptures don't and Deuteronomy 2929 talks about that it tells us the secret things belong to the Lord our God and when we talk about the will of the Lord in terms of who we should marry where we should go to school it's the the decreed of will is the theological term what God decrees what's going to happen no matter if you flip a coin or make a choice or whatever what God says is going to happen is going to happen and you really don't have to worry about it if you have two or three job offers and you're and you weigh them out you may use the wisdom of the scriptures to say well this one will provide well for the family and give me more time off or this one will use to better use my gifts better and these sorts of things but but when in the final analysis you can't you can't stress out too much which one is God's will oh no I might make a mistake no the second you take a job it's done that was God's will as it relates to his decrees does that make sense yeah that that's why it really doesn't make sense to say I married the wrong person I'm out of God's will because I married the wrong person no when you said I do God says you're right you did now stay to it right and so but that's a different sermon I'll let that go for now um that's that's the decreed of will of God but this perceptive will his precepts his loss his commands his ordinances that is what's being referred to here we should we should know what God commands us to do we should know how he wants us to live that going back to Deuteronomy 29 it says the secret things belong to the Lord our God the decreed of will perceptive will but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons that we may observe and so on we take what God has revealed in the scripture the will of God is clearly revealed in the Bible that he doesn't want us to still and committed adultery and covet and these sorts of things planly laid out and and we study the scriptures to know that God gives us wisdom to know how to apply these uh his his will in the particulars of our lives uh that's that's for sure uh but that's that's what we want to do that's the grid by which we figure out how we ought to live okay so that brings us to point number three prioritize plan and proceed prioritize plan and proceed this actually is a part of the text this it's application but it really does come from the text we're we're supposed to do the will of God and I want to look particularly at verse 16 here where it says make the best use of the time because the days are evil now remember the main verb is to look carefully at what you do and then we're told a little further how to do that making the best use of your time look carefully at what you do making the best use of your time right that's kind of the flow of it look carefully at how you live at what you do how you organize your time and make the best use of that time so if you're if you're and we do this in whatever age and stage we're in if you're a child as a child you need to look carefully at what you're doing in the use of your time as you go to school as you learn as you submit to your parents and the the authorities above you uh if you're single you you want to look carefully at how you're living your single life for the glory of God so that you make the best use of your time as a single if you're if you're newly married you want to look very carefully at how you're using your time so that as a as a newly married person you make the best use of your time and such yourself out for a long healthy marriage the Lord gives you length of days and such if if you're a parent you want to look very carefully at your what you do as a parent so that you make the best use of your time if you're a grandparent you get the idea you want to make the best use of your time when we say make the best use of your time or when when our text tells us that it's what we call an interpretive translation you know it an interpretive translation is it means they took what the the Greek language said and they say hmm this might be easier to understand if I put it this way so instead of a literal word for word it just gives you the interpretation right what it literally says is redeeming the time King James got that one right new King James has that right too so look carefully how you live not as unwise but as wise redeeming the time now there's there's four Greek words there there's actually the this idea of buying or redeeming is used 34 times right and it means to buy to buy something to buy someone to to redeem Christ redeemed us and and two of the times where the scriptures talk about God redeeming us from Galatians it says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us in those two times it's not only the word redeem but it's redeemed with a preposition heck heck it means out of right exit is kind of how we get it into our language heck redeemed out of the law or redeemed out of the curse of the law and it's only used four times with this preposition heck two of them have to do with the fact that God has redeemed us out of the law and out of its curse and two of them is in using the best making the best use of our time redeeming heck I somehow redeeming out the time making the best use of it now what does that mean how do you I mean time is money right and we when we hire someone we're hiring them because of the time they've spent educating themselves and gaining the skills and then we paid them for that plus the time they actually spend doing what they're doing is what's he mean is it is it something like that well the verse goes on a little bit further he says may be careful how you live not as unwise but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil and I think what Paul is telling us is that we live in evil days I don't think that makes takes too much persuasion not just the fiscal cliff but the church being persecuted churches buildings being burned in Nigeria our brothers and sisters imprisoned in the faith that poor Indian girl who was raped and beaten and died it's we do live in evil days right I mean that I don't need to say anything further I can get a I don't want to name men on that one but you're in at least agreement with me on that that's part of the problem we invest our time and we invest the way we live not under the best circumstances but in evil days and not only that but we struggle with our own evil nature now we've been redeemed God has created good works for us to walk in to live in but as he talks about what it means to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel and of the calling with which we have been called which is Ephesians 4.5 and 6 we're told in Ephesians 4.17 therefore no longer walk as you used to in your sinful flash because you remember we also once were were dead in our trespasses and sins and we followed the ways of this world and the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience we all were children of wrath and so we have this in nature a nice practical sermon we need some hard theology right to just bolster us up Jesus when he's teaching his disciples whom he loves and who love him when he's teaching him about prayer in Luke 11 after he tells him to ask he says if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children and he says want the father to give you more but but the point I'm pointing out is he's able to say to his disciples if you then being evil evil days this this old nature this old way of life that we are to put off it so easily dogs us and if we are not careful if we're not looking carefully at the way we live we will easily revert back to old habits that are no good and if we follow the ways of the world the same thing will be squeezed into its mold thus the scriptures call us to redeem the time to to buy it out to think this is where we come up with the idea of prioritizing and planning if you study the will of God if you say okay what's in the scripture's teach how does Jesus want me to live how does God command me to live it doesn't take much study before you find that there's a first and great commandment right what is the first and great commandment to yeah that's the most important one so there's a sense of priority isn't it and remember there's a place in the sermon on the Mount where Jesus says seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and his righteousness ah seek first his kingdom and his righteousness it goes on and all these things will be added to you food clothing shelter these sorts of things so there's a sense of priorities in the scriptures and in the will of God there's things he cares more about and things he cares less about
if you want to know what that is just pray the Lord's prayer and see how he starts that again that's plenty right there as far as figuring out how do I prioritize my life what is the will of God it's pray it's spelled out for you're nice and easy and then planning this is what what I recommend you do when if you take this and you fill this out at the same time you're recording what you normally do and by the way I find whenever I do this little lesson I make better use of my time I just can't stand the idea of riding down on this paper how much TV I actually walk or how many times I sharpen the pencil and that sort of stuff so it'll help you just doing that but but but the idea is when you fill this out also take note of when you are the most productive I'm a morning person I can get up at five o'clock without an alarm clock my problem is not getting up before five o'clock alarm clock or not you know a little melatonin helps out a lot but otherwise I it's my most productive time what are my highest priorities now I understand if you have a job and it takes this chunk you might not have any control over this chunk but what about the rest of your time what's the best rest of your time and what's your highest priority you know you go through the scriptures here's just some quick cheat sheets on it right God your family working for the glory of God your your church community your community you can just take those categories and see what the scriptures say about them and say this is most important in my life for me in the morning my most important relationship is with God first thing I do after I make coffee I do that for the most important thing it's not the most important thing I go to the scriptures and I either I either pray my way into the scriptures or I read myself into prayer and it's not so that I can have this holy thing done look I spent this much time in devotion my highest priority is love God with all my heart so mine is strength so I give him my best time and I seek to meet him and to let him warm my heart renew my heart renew our relationship so that so that I really want to say Father your kingdom your name be hallowed your kingdom come your will be done and mean it's the highest priority I do it in the morning because I'm a morning person it's my most productive time second most important relationship for me is and thing in my life is my relationship with Sarah my wife we breakfast well we even before breakfast we share what we've read in the scriptures often we pray together and how breakfast together and then even though Lucy our dog is not the highest priority she gets the tag along on the walk right and we take care of that lesser priority called what exercise and lesser priority of walking the dog but she and I have time to talk and we we did it we did it that way intentionally now I you know I'm a lucky Calvinist I can come into the office later than then you know on this flex schedule and stuff just as long as I get my work done and and such you might not have that but the principle of using your most productive time for your highest priorities I should stick that's just wise it's just why same thing least productive time give it to the lesser priorities and things that you might be more effective at like for me at night my least productive time is well it depends if I take a nap right away at 5 o'clock for 10 or 15 minutes then my productivity continues on but barring that from 7 to bed time I'm not very productive and that's where sin so this is confession that's why it's so easy for me if there's not a good show on TV to just pull out the laptop and and pull up the show I want to watch online and just do that till I go to bed that's foolish I mean the scrutinizing of time shows me that I've got a problem here and if I'm going to make the best use of the time I gotta keep going back to the gospel right and say Jesus you have the power to to change the way I'm using my time
but that would that may be a good time for me to exercise I don't need much mental power to exercise just one two three four usually and start all over again one two three four well you get the idea prioritize plan and proceed it is the way we watch carefully the way we live and redeem the time as those who understand what the will of the Lord is let me just close not with with application but with gospel and just remind you you who are in this relationship with God he loves you it's his choice that you move toward holiness and blamelessness you can be absolutely confident that at the right time Christ died for the ungodly that in the fullness of time Christ came that when he hung on the cross and said it is finished he had accomplished all that the Father had given him to do on your behalf so that you will with joy praise him for his mercy and grace his beauty and his majesty his splendor and glory when you see him face to face this idea of time management it's work here but it will make all the more sweeter when we see him face to face that's pray Lord thank you that the scriptures not only teach us about you and how you've loved us and kept us and keep us but how we can live productive lives for you give us your spirit grant us to know that you are at work in us and you're committed to our success so that we may share in your holiness this is profound may may we be diligent not because we want to be better but because we're looking hard at you and finding you beautiful and worthy