INTRO.- Live as children.
ILL.- It was at the end of the school year, and a kindergarten teacher was receiving gifts from her pupils.
The florist’s son handed her a gift. She shook it, held it overhead, and said, "I bet I know what it is. Some flowers."
"That’s right" the boy said, "but how did you know?" "Oh, just a wild guess," she said.
The next pupil was the candy shop owner’s daughter.
The teacher held her gift overhead, shook it, and said, "I bet I can guess what it is. A box of sweets."
"That’s right, but how did you know?" asked the girl. "Oh, just a wild guess," said the teacher.
The next gift was from the son of the liquor store owner. The teacher held the package overhead, but it was leaking. She touched a drop of the leakage with her finger and touched it to her tongue.
"Is it wine?" she asked. "No," the boy replied, with some excitement.
The teacher repeated the process, taking a larger drop of the leakage to her tongue.
"Is it champagne?" she asked.
"No," the boy replied, with more excitement. The teacher took one more taste before declaring, "I give up, what is it?" With great glee, the boy replied, "It’s a puppy!"
Live as children.
Sometimes don’t you wish you could go back to your childhood days when it seemed like your life was much more worry free? Or carefree? You simply trusted mom and dad take care of you and guide you in life. WE HAD IT MADE AND DIDN’T EVEN KNOW IT! Instead, we wanted to grow up and do our own thing! And my goodness, we had no idea what was waiting for us in this world! WHAT A CRUEL WORLD WE LIVE IN!
Live as children of light. Instead of living as mere children in this world we are to live as children OF LIGHT! This world needs some light, wouldn’t you agree? It needs light shed on it. It needs the light of God. It needs Jesus who is the light of the world. It needs Christians to live as children of light.
Jesus said, "You are the light of the world." Matthew 5:14 How could we be the light of the world when Jesus is the true light of the world? I’ve heard it said that we are the reflection of the light of Jesus. I believe this is true. We are His reps in this world. We are His salespeople. We are His advertising in the world.
What are you advertising with your life? What’s the dominant thing or theme in your life? What do you live for? Or whom do you live for? What do people see in you?
PROP.- In our text, Paul tells us how to live as children of the light or how to live as children who belong to Jesus.
1- Seek to the please the Lord
2- Have nothing to do with darkness
3- Make the most of every opportunity
4- Be filled with the Spirit
I. SEEK TO PLEASE THE LORD
Live as children of light 9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10and find out what pleases the Lord.
ILL.- Do you ever watch or did you ever watch the DISCOVERY channel on TV? They have all kinds of interesting subjects that they discover and show us.
They cover subject such as: animals, space, technology, history, planet earth, etc. And all are interesting.
For example, one show was entitled, "Boys Will Be Boys, Even Among Monkeys." A team of scientists of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia decided to offer typical "male" and "female" toys to rhesus monkeys to see if preferences aligned with sex.
Much to their surprise, they did. The 11 male monkeys headed straight for the wheeled toys, such as dump trucks, leaving the plush toys more-or-less unmolested. The 23 females were more curious, and played with both. BOYS WILL BE BOYS, EVEN AMONG MONKEYS.
Now, while all this information is interesting, it carries no eternal value other than making us appreciate our Creator even more! And it should! We must always remember to worship the Creator rather than His creation!
Paul said, "find out what pleases the Lord." If we are going to live as children of light in this world we must find out what pleases the Lord and then seek to please Him!
ILL.- How long have you been married? I bet you have learned some things to do and some thing not to do in your marriage in order to appease or perhaps PLEASE your mate! TRUE? And surely, you want to please your mate, at least to some degree?
Surely, you realize that if you scratch her back she’ll scratch your back?! Or vice versa! Or what you dish out is what you will get in return!
The same is somewhat true with the Lord. As we seek to find out what pleases and seek to please Him, so HE WILL BLESS US! And sometimes He blesses us even when we don’t bless Him!
How do we find out what pleases the Lord? IT’S IN THE BOOK! And then the next thing to do and hardest thing to do is to please Him in our words and actions. God help us to have this goal in life.
I Cor. 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
II. HAVING NOTHING TO DO WITH DARKNESS
11Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead,and Christ will shine on you."
ILL.- After our Friend’s Day meal, Doris Dent came to me and said, "Lexi has something to show you." Do you know what it was? It was a picture of her holding a rather large snake. And the second I looked at it, I threw it on the table and said, "Oooh!" And I acted like I was scared of that snake. And Lexi (age 4) got a kick out of it. But she is not afraid of snakes. Someone said she’s not afraid of anything but Lord willing, as she gets older, hopefully, she will be afraid of some things.
Brothers and sisters, there are some things in this world that we need to leave alone and/or stay away from! CAN YOU THINK OF ANY?
How about saloons, bars where drinking flourishes? And areas of town where drugs and/or other things are sold?
ILL.- When we moved here we were told to stay away from certain streets in Jonesboro at night, because that’s where the drug-sellers were and the prostitutes hung out. THEY HAVE THEM IN NEARLY EVERY CITY. Those are dark places that we need to avoid. Of course, sadly, many young people don’t have sense enough to avoid these kinds of places.
I have joked about my past when I was 18 years old that I often drove to Galena, KS, to drink beer at Nina’s Green Parrot bar. Why didn’t I have enough sense to avoid that place? Because I wasn’t taught better. And because of the example set before me, in that my father drank. And mainly because of peer pressure.
This is why we parents and grandparents need to warn our children of the dangerous, dark places in this world!
ILL.- When my son Shane was only three years old we pulled into the local grocery store just around the corner from our house in Iberia, MO. It was spring or summer and we had our car windows open. When we pulled into a parking space there was a man in a car next to us, smoking a cigarette. Little Shane stuck his head out the window and said, "We don’t smoke cigarettes and drink beer."
How do children learn not do certain things? It’s because of our example and teaching. And God help us to do both for our children! And obviously, our example is the greatest teacher there is!
Most of us are too old and too tired to go to the dark places in this world, but our children are not. God have mercy on them and God help us to direct them.
III. MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY
15Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
ILL.- A certain church wanted to help their congregation cope better with the stresses of modern life, and decided to offer a course in Time Management.
Soon after the course was announced, a member phoned the Preacher. "What time does the course start, Preacher?" The Preacher replied, "Oh... six-ish, seven-ish...."
That doesn’t sound like time was not important to that preacher, does it? BUT TIME IS VITALLY IMPORTANT, ISN’T IT? And we’re all running out of it!
I don’t like being late for anything and I won’t be late for my appointment with death. Nor will any of us. We just don’t know when it will happen or how it will happen.
However, in the meantime we need to make good use of the time that God has given us. ARE WE DOING THIS? Or are we wasting precious time that He has given us?
Why do we procrastinate? Someone wrote these words: "In a nutshell, you procrastinate when you put off things that you should be focusing on right now, usually in favor of doing something that is more enjoyable or that you’re more comfortable doing.
"Procrastinators work as many hours in the day as other people (and often work longer hours) but they invest their time in the wrong tasks."
ILL.- I heard one time that if you have to swallow 10 frogs during the day then you swallow the biggest one first. What does this mean? I guess it means to do the hard stuff first and then do the easier stuff later in the day when you are getting tired and weary. AND THERE IS SOME TRUTH TO THIS.
However, if we Christians are going to make the most of our time in regard to the Lord and His will for our lives, we must start our day with Him! We need His blessing and grace to function and do well in life no matter what we do. Therefore, we should start every day with scripture and prayer or at least, in a season of prayer with the Lord.
Paul said, "Making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." There is much evil in this world and we don’t need to contribute to it or add to it.
And the only way to do this is to seek the Lord’s will, early and often. And strive to do His will no matter what the day holds.
ILL.- I had a preacher in church camp many years ago ask me this question: "Do you work 40 hours a week?" He said there were many preachers that didn’t. AND HE WAS RIGHT.
I know, I know. A preacher really only works one day a week! But I do prefer to get a good start on every day by getting to my office early and praying early! And this is the only way I know to make good use of my time and to learn to make good use of my time!
We all must seek the Lord in prayer and seek to please Him every day in everything we do. This is how to make the most of our time for Him!
IV. BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT
18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
ILL.- She started drinking heavily at the age of 12. And by the time she was 14, Natasha Farnham was told by shocked doctors that she was the youngest patient they had ever seen with liver failure caused by alcohol abuse.
She was drinking up to six bottles of wine a day - and now, at age 18, she has been warned that if she drinks again she will die.
Her descent into a life of ruined health and petty crime again illustrates the perils of cheap alcohol and the culture of binge-drinking that grips Britain.
Natasha said, "I didn’t think my drinking was a problem because all my friends were getting wasted every weekend as well. I suppose I thought I looked grown-up and would drink as much as possible - sometimes even passing out. But now I have no short-term memory and doctors warn me that if I drink any more, I will die. Don’t end up like me.
She said, "I have been a binge-drinker, had liver failure and been in rehab and I’m still a teenager."
If it happened in England, it can happen here. INCREDIBLE, ISN’T IT? Incredible what drinking booze in any form can do to people and has done to many people in our world!
Obviously, instead of being filled the spirits of alcohol we are to be filled with God’s Spirit! How? You study and pray! You ask for God to fill you with His Spirit!
Acts 13:52 "And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit."
I love this scripture and many times I have prayed, "Lord, fill me with joy and your Holy Spirit." And that’s not a bad thing to do. IT ALWAYS PAYS TO PRAY! And ask.
And I believe the more that we get into God’s Word, the more God will get into us!
Ps. 119:11 "Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." If we get the Word of God inside then the outside will get right!
The Holy Spirit is the author of scripture. He is the third person of the Godhead.
II Pet. 1:20-21 "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
The point is this: the more scripture we get into us, the more the Spirit of God we’ll get! And what is the evidence of being filled with God’s Spirit?
19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The evidence of God’s Spirit in us that we’ll sing and praise and pray and point people to the Lord! And this is how we live as children of the light!
CONCLUSION------------------------
We’ve heard it said that "children will be children." And some never seem to mature or grow up. They simply become "childish" adults. But this is not the way it’s supposed for the child of God! We are grow up into Him who is the Head, the Christ.
And only as we look to Him every day and in every way will we grow up and live as children of light.
