Wake Up! Series

A twelve-year-old Taiwanese boy was visiting an art exhibit in 2015 when he accidentally tripped at a museum. Thankfully he was ok because he broke his fall by reaching out to support himself on a 350-year-old painting valued at $1.5 million. Insurance paid for the restoration, and I am sure he received some counsel on being careful! But the boy isn’t alone.

In 2006, a 42-year-old man tripped over his shoelace in Cambridge, England, and shattered 3 Chinese vases valued at over $130,000. And there’s the time that Steve Wynn accidentally put his elbow through a $155 million Picasso painting. Fortunately, Wynn was a billionaire, and he later bought the painting. Oh my! This makes me think I will never go into an art museum again!

Of all the items that could be damaged, Chinese vases and Picasso paintings are the least of our worries. They are not even close to the most valuable items near us.

Open your Bibles open to Ephesians 5 with me as we continue our study of Ephesians – The Spirit-Filled Life.

Ephesians’ Big Picture

Ephesians 1-3 tells us about how Christ saved us – our position in Christ. The first few chapters details how you enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 4-6 tells us how we are to live now we are saved – our practice in Christ. Let’s zoom into the details of this priceless book, starting in verse 6:

Today’s Scripture

“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

“Awake, O sleeper,

and arise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:6-14).

1. What’s Your Spiritual DEFCON Status?

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:14)

1.1 Spiritual DEFCON Status

Paul wants you to set your spiritual DEFCON meter up a notch. DEFCON stands for America’s defense readiness condition and the alert status of our nation’s armed forces. DEFCON 5 is the lowest state of readiness, where DEFCON 1 is the highest state of readiness. DEFCON 5 is a time of peace, where DEFCON 1 is a time where nuclear war is impending. Paul says that too many Christians are in DEFCON 5 and on cruise control. He wants us to wake up. And Paul wants you to be in a state of spiritual readiness.

Raise your spiritual readiness. Don’t amble through the museum of life with an ice cream cone, unaware that you fall and possibly destroy something valuable. Raise your spiritual readiness.

1.2 Who’s He Speaking to?

Now, keep in mind that’s he’s not talking to those who have yet to embrace Christ. He’s not speaking to those who have NOT experienced the forgiveness of their sins but those who are born again. “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8).

He is speaking to those who were blind, but now they see. He is speaking to those who were lost but now are found. And he is certainly speaking to those who were darkness but now are in the light. So if you call yourself a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, this is for you. When I read this, I need to say to myself, “This is for me.” Say that with me, “This is for me.” So when he says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:14), he’s not speaking to those in bars and honkytonks.

He’s speaking to the church. The church needs to wake up, and believers need to wake up.

1.3 We Can Easily be Deceived

He’s afraid you may be deceived: “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6).

It’s so easy to be deceived. Years ago, I was parking in a Dallas pay parking lot. It was one of those places where you stick your money in the slot as the parking lot was unattended. But this guy appears out of nowhere and takes the money, and I leave. Later on, I realized what had happened. He wasn’t with the parking lot at all – he appeared out of nowhere. I was snookered and deceived out of $20, and I felt like a fool. I’m embarrassed to say that we can all be deceived. And Paul gets this, so he’s alerting us to raise our spiritual DEFCON level. Be on the “lookout” for people who want spiritual deceive you.