December 13, 2009
Morning Worship
Text: Ephesians 5:8-18
Subject: Living for God
Title: Good Morning Palmyra, Missouri – Time to Wake Up
We are living in a time when things happen often and they happen fast. We don’t always realize it but something may have happened just overnight that will change your life forever. Governments are overthrown. Disasters take place. People are born and people die. Our government passes legislation in overnight votes without even reading what they are voting on. The president takes executive actions on various fronts and they become the law of the land and we don’t even know about it. Devout extremists Muslims are being appointed to high government posts. Companies are extending marriage benefits to same sex partners. Spotted owls and trees are being saved and children are being slaughtered – all this while the church sleeps.
For many of us who grew up in the sixties and seventies, it may seem like just the blink of an eye and the norm for our society went from being church based to entertainment based. The pattern for the normal family went from the Cleavers on Leave it to Beaver, to the Simpsons. The normal morality went from Bible -based to sex-based. But it’s not the seventies any more. It’s worse than we could ever have imagined. Who is to blame? It would be easy to point fingers at the world and blame them, but the truth is the world is just doing what it does – it walks in darkness. The problem isn’t the world – it’s the church’s role in the world.
I want to look today to once again, as I have done in the past, to show you what God expects you (the church) to be.
Lord open my eyes to see and my ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
What happens when the sleeping church is awakened?
I. IT BEGINS TO LIVE IN THE LIGHT 8For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light… Let’s talk about just what this verse is referring to – holiness! That’s not a very popular topic in the church today, mainly because the church has allowed itself to be influenced negatively by society instead of the church being the positive influence on society. It’s kind of like the teenaged church girl who is attracted to a bad boy and thinks that she can change him. It rarely happens. What does happen though is that the Christian ends up being pulled down by the unbeliever. The word that is translated as “darkness” in verse 8 means, “shade or shadow; obscurity” Before Jesus came into your life your spiritual vision was obscured. You walked in the shadow of the enemy. … but now you are light… The holiness I talked about is the reflection of Christ as the light in the darkness. 1 John 1:5-7, 5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. We’ve talked about this before. Darkness does as darkness is. It’s dark by nature. But when light comes near the darkness something happens. John 3:20, Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. Light always dispels darkness. . Live as children of light… Children inherit the gene pool of their parents. If you are God’s child then now you are genetically changed from darkness to light. So live like it. 9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) Do you remember when the rich young ruler came to Jesus and called Him “Good Teacher”? Jesus’ response to him was, “There is only one who is good – God!” So as children of God you have inherited “goodness, righteousness and truth”. It’s not your goodness, your righteousness or your truth, but it is what has been passed down to you to possess. It doesn’t come from you but it belongs to you and you are expected to live in it. 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. Verse 10 could easily read, “discerning what is fully agreeable to God…” What is it that pleases God? Goodness, righteousness and truth. We know that goodness comes from God. Righteousness is our through Jesus Christ. Our righteousness is as filthy rags but His righteousness makes us righteous, Habakkuk 2:4, the righteous will live by his faith… Now, let’s get down to the final characteristic that Paul says pleases God – truth. That doesn’t mean not telling lies. It means that when we stand on truth we please Him. We are in complete agreement with the whole word of God. Jesus said in John 17:17-18, 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. The same way that God sent Jesus into the world, with the belt of truth, so Jesus sends us. We please God when we know His truth – His word - and do something with it. It is knowing God’s promises and your position of authority as His children and then acting on it that pleases God. Roger Staubach who led the Dallas Cowboys to the World Championship in ’71 admitted that his position as a quarterback who didn’t call his own signals was a source of trial for him. Coach Landry sent in every play. He told Roger when to pass, when to run and only in emergency situations could he change the play (and he had better be right!). Even though Roger considered coach Landry to have a "genius mind" when it came to football strategy, pride said that he should be able to run his own team. Roger later said, "I faced up to the issue of obedience. Once I learned to obey there was harmony, fulfillment, and victory." The church has an even more reliable source of truth. You can trust that when God’s word says do this or do that, it is for you right here and right now. The just shall live by faith…
II. IT BEGINS TO STAND AGAINST THE DARKNESS Verse 11 says, 11Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. Let’s do a quick word study. “Have nothing to do with…” could be translated “don’t co-participate with…” Don’t co-participate with whom? With darkness!!! Deeds means “toil”. It has the sense that someone is spending time doing what they are doing. Fruitless means “barren”. Put it all together = Don’t co-participate with darkness because when you spend time “toiling” in the darkness it does nothing but birth more darkness.” You are not to work for darkness but expose darkness. The word that is translated “expose” means to rebuke. Rebuke the darkness. The best way to expose or rebuke the darkness is to live in the light. Romans 6:22-23, 22But now that you have been set free from sin (darkness) and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Real quickly let’s read the next few verses. 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…Making decisions in the dark can lead to some regrettable consequences. It is imperative that you make your choices in the light of God’s word and His promises for your life. Back in the days before electricity, a tightwad old farmer was taking his hired man to task for carrying a lighted lantern when he went to call on his best girl. "Why," he exclaimed, "when I went a-courtin’ I never carried one of them things. I always went in the dark." "Yes," the hired man said wryly," and look what you got!" Ephesians 6:12, 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. In this passage, once Paul identifies the source of the darkness, what does he tell his readers to do? 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then… You cannot stand against an unseen enemy without having your spiritual eyes opened. And you can’t fight that same enemy if you choose to close your spiritual eyes once they have been opened. I’m afraid that is what so many in the church have done over the centuries. It seems that little by little we have fallen asleep to the truth of who we are in Christ. We have dozed and missed out on the authority that has been given us. We’ve been caught napping when it comes to power of God that is at work in us. Even though the light has exposed the darkness the church has become a dim reflection of what we are intended to be.
III. IT BEGINS TO WAKE UP FROM ITS SLEEP. Look at verse 14, “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Could it be that we have become the church of Sardis in Revelation 3? 1“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. 3Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. For too long the church has been led to believe that “what you have received and heard” refers strictly to salvation. This church in Sardis had a reputation. Everything looked good. They were saved but they were in danger of losing everything. Jesus said that what they were doing was falling short of what He expected from them. It is time for the church to wake up. 15Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Three things to see here. 1) Be careful how you live. This is a very clear exhortation to believers. You have two choices in life. You can live a life that is for God, which is wise, or, you can live for the devil. You cannot do both. Living for God id more than just following the commandments. Living for God is trusting Him for everything and believing every word that He has given to you, and then acting upon it. 2) Make the most of every opportunity. In every situation you find yourself in you have the chance to do the right or wrong thing. That is true whether it is talking about the decision to sin or not to sin, to share the gospel or not to share the gospel, to provide a need or not to provide a need, or to pray and expect miracles or not do anything. That is why Paul now writes, 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. The wise thing - the right thing – is always God’s will. Being doers of the word and not just hearers is God’s will. Laying hands on the sick and seeing them healed is God’s will. Sharing the gospel is God’s will. Moving in the gifts of the Spirit is God’s will. Standing in faith as the body of Christ as God’s representatives on earth is God’s will and that is what we must do. 3) because the days are evil… I don’t have to tell you that. If Paul thought the days were evil 2000 years ago, what would he think now? The devil is having his heyday because I believe he knows that the time is drawing near. That is the reason that we must make the most of every opportunity. I want to finish up quickly here with one more verse. Paul gives us a very clear illustration of wise and unwise behavior. 18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Why do you need the baptism in the Holy Spirit? Because the days are evil! Because you should make the most of every opportunity! Because you need to be wise and not unwise! Because you must walk in the light. “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead…”
There is a song by one of my favorite Christian groups (Casting Crowns) called While You Were Sleeping. I’m going to play it for you in just a minute. But I want to give you an idea of what it is about. First it talks about Bethlehem and how it slept through God’s coming to earth. Then Jerusalem slept as their Savior was crucified. Finally it speaks of America and how so many in our country are missing God and will miss the rapture. I’m going to take it one verse further – an unsung verse. The church is sleeping. While we have Jesus as our Savior, we have forsaken Him as our LORD. We have slept through the proclamation of the scriptures concerning all that the body of Christ is capable of and in fact is expected to do. We sleep and wonder how things ever got this bad.
Yet, God is giving the church another chance to “redeem the time (KJV) or make the most of every opportunity. It begins now and it is up to you. You can live in the light. You can be wise and not unwise. You can stand against the darkness. You can understand what the Lord’s will is.
Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead…”
