Are You Wiser Than A Fifth Grader?”
Ephesians 5: 15-17
* Portion of this sermon are from a message by Andy Stanley *
OPEN: How many people have ever watched a show called “Are you smarter than a fifth grader?” It’s a television game show format based on asking grade-school level questions to adults, hosted by Jeff Foxworthy. In the history of the show only one person has ever actually won the 1 million dollar prize. Only one adult has ever been able to say the phrase “I am smarter than a fifth grader.” I’ve got to confess that at this point in my life I refuse to even watch the show. - I don’t need to be reminded of how dumb I actually am, thank you very much. Well today we are going to start a series of messages on how to live with wisdom. Now All I really want to accomplish this morning is introduce this topic – we won’t really get very much further than that.
We’ve all done some dumb stuff in our lives we wish we had never done, haven’t we? There is money we wish we had never spent, relationships we wish we had never gotten into, maybe marriages we wished we had never gotten into gotten into, deals you wish you had never made, partnerships we wished we had never formed, investments you wish you had never made, dates you wish you had never gone on, invitations you wish you had never answered, opportunities you wish you had never taken advantage of- and on and on it goes. For all of us the details are different, but all of us have chapters in out life we wish we could go back and rewrite – don’t we?
And the odd thing is as we look back those things we wish we got get a redo on - we can see with absolute clarity how stupid we were to get ourselves involved in those dumb things. We look back at those things and say, “How in the world could I have been so dumb? – so blind – so foolish?” It’s so perfectly clear now, isn’t it? And what’s strange is that we are now running into people who are making similar decisions to the ones that we made and you watch them making the same dumb decisions that you made and you say to them – “You really don’t want to go there – you don’t really want to make that decision – you don’t really want to walk down that road because it is not really going to take you where you think it’s going to take you –I’ve been there, I know.” And do you know how they respond to you? They respond to you the same way you responded to others who tried to warn you. They tell you that it’s none of your business and they feel like this is the right thing for them to do – it’s what their heart is telling them to do. They say silly things like, “But I love him” “I feel like this is what I need to do for me right now.” Years later what seemed like great motivation at the moment seems so absolutely ridiculous now. “How could I have been so blind?” Isn’t it amazing how decisions that seem so appealing then seem so bizarre now? – it is amazing how many time our heart can deceive us and we end doing things we wish had never done? Now we are living with regret and guilt and things we wish we could undo – because we allowed ourselves to do dumb things we can’t erase in our lives.
Don’t you wish that human beings came equipped with some kind of mechanism or system that could kick in with flashing warning lights and noisy warnings that would go off and stop us from doing the regrettable dumb things in our lives? (Remember the robot from that old sci-fi movie? Warning Will Robinson! Warning!) Don’t you wish you had a personal robot that go off like that and stop you from stepping over the line with the dumb things in life? - Actually, God has provided a tool for you to help you avoid doing the really dumb thing in life – it’s not a robot (who would want a robot following them around all the time any way?) but these three verse that we are looking at today are way better. Because you can carry these verses around inside of you and use them as a filter for ever opportunity, every invitation, every date, every thing you are tempted to be a part of, every decision, Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Notice that this passage starts off with a statement of conclusion. Be careful then – how you live. Both the NASB and The KJV start off with the word therefore -be careful how you walk – starting in chapter four everything has been building up to this one idea – live with wisdom. Have a worthy response to what Christ has blessed you with - live as children of light – be imitators of God – find out what pleases God and do it. Add that all up and you have the Lord saying, “be very careful then, how you live - don’t be foolish - live wisely. You see in a way everything has been building up to this idea. – Christians are to live lives that reflect wisdom and not foolishness. You can’t be careless in the way that you live.
be very careful = means “to be on the look out” or “to be on your guard.” The NIV says “”how you live” most translations say “how you walk” The Greek word for walk “peripateo” is a compound word it really means “walk around.” It carries the idea of looking around carefully so as not to stumble. If you are going to avoid repeating all the dumb things you see people doing around you – if you are going to avoid doing over and over all the dumb things you’ve done in your past you have to be on the look out. Be careful about the relationships in your life, be careful about your marriage, be careful about your level of morality, be very careful about the way you re impacting other people, be careful about the way you live your life. You can’t avoid doing dumb things if you are careless.
The opposite of being careful is what? - - being careless. There are two different ways of being careless:
Some people are careless because they don’t know any better. Some people are careless because of age – they are young and naïve. They lack experience or training so as they start to go through life, they just naturally make mistakes because they just don’t know any better. Many people are brought in an environment that is totally void of moral training. So in the area of morals, they are careless. Some people are brought in an environment where they never witnessed how to have a normal relationship. So when it comes to having relationships – they are careless. They don’t know any better. Some people are raised in an environment where they never really had to love others unconditionally. Life for them has been all about loving themselves – so when it comes to reaching out to others –there is this disconnectedness. They don’t know how to do it – so they are careless in that area.
Other people are careless because they couldn’t care less. “I know the difference between right and wrong – but I could care less.” I know this action is not going to take me any place good – but I could care less.” “I know it’s wrong but I could care less” You heavenly father is saying that if you want to avoid doing all the really dumb things people do – you can’t just “zippity-do-dah” your way through life and think that things are just going to turn out OK. KJV says “see that you walk circumspectly” To circumspect is to look carefully from side-to-side to be very alert to what is going on. You need to walk very alert. You’re literally walking through a minefield in the world and you can’t just go traipsing through it like you were lollygagging in a meadow full of daisies
This passage calls us to live by a new standard – Too many of us live by a standard that is very unwise – very careless. We want to see how close we can get to the edge of the ledge without actually going over. We want to see if we can actually ignore the warning signs and some how still beat the system. Ill. Of going on a road trip with Missy on the bike and coming to a dead end. Missy actually made sure I noticed the sign –I said, “I know. I know.” And continued on my way – thinking to myself, “I bet I can find a way around this. This won’t be a dead end street for me! No sir-ree Bob.” Well you know what happened. When I got to the end of the dead end - It was a dead end. I had no way of going forward and had to turn around and backtrack. I had been warned twice – once by the sign – Once by my wife. And thought I could still beat the system. Isn’t that just like the way that a lot of us live our lives? God warns in the Bible – “Do not proceed beyond this point – Stop here – Yield!” – Others come along and say – “You’re going the wrong direction. You need to slow down – you need to change lanes – you’re headed for a dead end.” And we say to ourselves – I know where I am going. I’m going to do what I feel is right for me – what’s right in my own eyes.” What’s the standard we are living by? We are the standard. We are a law unto ourselves. We can care less what the warning signs are. We are the ones who determine what’s right and what’s wrong. We are living in a very unwise way. –end up at a dead end. God says there’s a better way to live. Don’t accept living like this. Wisdom is to be our guide. Not what we feel is right. Not what we can do because it isn’t directly addressed in the Bible. Not what the world is OK – But it is wise?
“making the most out of every opportunity because the days are evil” He’s talking to a first century church - living in a first century context. He says to the people of Ephesus, “Look around your world – these are evil days.” In other words, if you are not constantly vigilant – you are just going to be swept up into the evil that surrounds you. If you handle money the way culture says to handle money, if you handle morality the way culture says handle morality, if you do marriage the way culture says to do marriage, if you set your priorities the same way culture sets its priorities – at the end of the day – at the end of your life, you will not be where you want to be.
NIV is a little weak in its translation here – KJV = Redeeming the time, - has the basic meaning of buying, especially of buying back or buying out. It was used of buying a slave in order to set him free; thus the idea of redemption is implied in this verse. We are to redeem, buy up, all the time that we have and devote it to the Lord. The days we live in are evil – the age we live in will steal our time without our even knowing it.
“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)
Just think of the wasted days – the wasted seasons of our life spent doing dumb things – think of the time you’ve lost because you made unwise choices. Would it really make sense to keep living that way? If you knew you had one month to live, how would you live differently? God wants us to realize that our time on earth is limited so we can spend it wisely. Your time on earth is limited. Isn’t it time you made the most of it? If you knew you had one month to live, you would look at everything from a different perspective.
“These are evil days” he says to the people of Ephesus. Just imagine what he might to us today. If the people of Ephesus had ongoing pressure to adapt to the world’s standards and conform to the world’s way of living – how much more so do we have that today? We are commanded and called to live wisely.
“Therefore do not be foolish” - this is a little wakeup call - don’t be fooled, don’t be careless Don’t pretend – don’t rationalize those really dumb situations you got yourself into – just come to the reality that your carelessness is an indicator of latent foolishness within you.
- “understand what the will of the Lord is” = face up to what the will of the Lord is for you. Would you for a moment, stop all the game playing you’ve been hiding behind –get rid of all the excuses – turn the volume off of all the rationalizations – and just for a moment come back to God’s plan for your life. Would you just for a moment come back to the reality that God has something different for you than the way you are handling your money. God has something different for you than the way you have been handling relationships. God has something different for you than the way you have been handling your marriage. God has something different for you than they way you have been handling your morality. Some of you have been running from that reality for a long time. Some of us are afraid to ask the questions about God’s will for various areas in our life – we re afraid to ask the question because deep down within us we already know the answer. And we’ve been running from that answer for a long time. Some of us just don’t want to come face to face with God’s will. Some of us might be so ashamed of our dumb mistakes that we think God is ashamed of us. Some of us might be afraid that if someone found out some of secret foolishness, that our lives would be ruined. Some of us are still deceived thinking we can somehow manage the foolishness in our lives and that it will stay hidden and somehow still meet our needs.
What is the wise thing to do? As challenging a question as it is – are you willing to face up to the fact that God has something different for you and that you need to make some changes in your life to bring our life into alignment with His purpose for you.
- understand that there are a lot of people who have a plan for your life. The credit card people have a plan for your money. They want you to get as many credit cards as possible and max them out so that they earn exorbitant amounts of interest from you. Ill of Boston streets when school starts. The streets are lined with credit card companies signing up freshmen for credit cards. Most of them charging somewhere around 25% interest. You would think they would have a bit of understanding that the very last person in the world who needs a credit card at 25% interest is a college freshman who really doesn’t have a lot of income available, who doesn’t have any experience handling finances and are very likely to max out that card in the next 2.1 hours and who are in a vulnerable situation in that they somehow think there is social status attained when you get a credit card. You would think the credit card companies would understand that – and the fact of the matter is they do! In fact they are counting on it – and they are also counting on the reality that the average college freshman doesn’t have the wisdom to keep walking by those booths. In fact what the average college freshman does is go from booth to booth signing up for as much “free money” as they can get. But a year later, because of the painful experience of having to go to dad and mom and tell them they can’t make all the payments on these cards – they some how get a little wiser.
The world has a plan for you to adopt their system of morality – they want you reject God’s narrow path and adopt the values of Broadway. Culture wants you reject God’s plan for your marriage that it was designed for one man and one woman for life. Everybody else has a plan for your life and what the Bible is saying to you is stop and push pause for a moment. Don’t be fooled – there’s always been a pressure for the Church to conform to the world’s standard – but you are light – you are salt – don’t just roll over every time the world says “you have to accept this – you have to agree with this – you have to go along with this” Has there ever been a time when there hasn’t been pressure to conform on God’s people? Never! Has there ever been a time when there hasn’t been demands put upon followers of Jesus that are the exact opposite of what our Lord has taught us? Never! See the issue isn’t whether or not we are going to face opposition – the real issue is; are you going to cave into it? The real issue is; are you going to live to please God or are you going to live to please the world or the culture that surrounds you? The real issue is do you want to follow God’s will for your life or do you want to do life according to your own ideas and your own plan?
Living with Wisdom is an Individualized Issue We all have to accept the reality that the answer to the question, “Is this the wise thing for me to do?” maybe different for me than it is for another person. You see there is the large grid that applies for everyone. There are some things that just are not wise not matter what – some things are just dumb period. They are not wise for anyone to do.
Then there is a personal grid that we have to run the question through. Your personality, your temperament, your weaknesses, your past experiences – particularly the ones in which you have made really dumb mistakes should say something to you. Your personal history is language - it is language about you. When you look at your history – it should serve as a kind of a school book and the main topic is you. When our kids were little we had a little book “All about me” Adults need to read the book of me. What you will discover as you read the book about me is that there are some things that are different about me than the person sitting beside me. There are certain areas in my life in which I am (for whatever reasons) slightly more predisposed to doing dumb things. Those things might be tied to a multitude of different issues – the way you were raised, there may be genetic contributors, cultural issues, abuses, poor teaching, poor parenting, family history, disappointments in life- there is probably no end to the list – but your experiences have partly shaped you into who you are today. There are certain blind spots in my life that we tend to ignore. So if there is a pattern in your life - a series of making bad choices in a particular area – learn from that. So when it comes time to answer the question: “Is this wise?” it needs to be rephrased, “Is this wise for me?” It has to be individualized, because something that might be a huge issue for me might not be an issue at all for the person sitting next to me. And something that is an area of weakness for someone else might not hold any attraction at all for me.
Now this question needs to be refined even a bit further: There are Three Specific Areas You Need to Inspect As You Attempt to Answer the Question: Is This the Wise Thing To Do? If you’re going to walk with wisdom, you have to look in three different directions: you have to look behind you, you have to look around you, and you have to look in front of you. What is the wise thing to do in light of the way it has been for me, in light of the way things currently are in my life and in light of my future hopes and dreams?
In Light of the Way It Has Been – what is the wise thing to do in light of my past? Not what is the
wise thing to do in light of everyone else, not what is the wise thing to do in light of culture – in light of current moral norms, or in light of what everyone else seems to be doing around me. But what is the wise thing to do in light of the way it has been for me? “The last time I faced this issue what happened to me? The last time I came up against this – how did I respond?” The last time I faced this particular temptation – The last time this opportunity presented itself to me – in light of the established patterns in my life and the long history of really dumb situations that I allowed myself to get into – in light of the way it has been for me – what is the wise thing to do? Let’s just say that look backwards into your history and the really dumb mistakes in your life seem to revolve around marriage. You regret your first marriage – and your regret your second marriage – and maybe you regret your third marriage – and you just stop for a moment and contemplate “Now what was the common denominator in those three situations?” “Oh yeah – it was me!” So in light of the way it has been for me, maybe it might not be wise to jump into marriage number four until I get a clear handle on how I am not living according to God’s plan in this area.”
Now what’s fascinating about this is if you watch that same scenario being played out in the life of a person you know, and they came to you and said, “I think I’m in love again so I’m going to move in with guy number four.” What would you say to them? “You’re being foolish.” That would be absolutely crystal clear to you now wouldn’t it? You would say, “It’s not God’s plan for you to go though divorce after divorce. It’s not God’s plan for you to go from courtroom to courtroom room arguing over every detail of child support and custody and alimony. You need to be very careful in this area and focus on God’s will in this area and not your feelings of being in love. Perhaps there’s something about God’s plan for relationship you don’t have a handle on as yet. Or perhaps there is something about your need to be loved that clouds your judgment in these areas and is going to cause you to keep making one dumb decision after another. Perhaps in light of the way it has been you need to push pause on the relationship area and focus on getting some guidance from a good solid biblical counselor before making another trip around the block.
You see you have a unique past. Nobody has your history but you. Your history predisposes you to certain things – the way that you’ve handled money in the past, they way you’ve reacted in relationships – they way you acted morally, ethically – in light of your history – what is the wise thing to do in each of those areas? When we talk about God having a personal relationship with you – this is where it gets real. God has a personal plan for you. His plan is designed for you in light of how you have walked in each of those area – in each area where you have walked in an unworthy manner – in each area in which you have walked in ways that haven’t imitated the Lord – in each of those areas in which you have done things that have not pleased the Lord – God has a plan for you.
In Light of the Way Things Currently Are – the second level is to ask the question – What is the wise thing to do in light of the way things currently are? In light of the fact of where you are right now – in light of the fact of where you are emotionally – in light of the fact of where you are right now financially. (the decision you need to make financially might be a good one – but in light of where you are at this present moment, it might not be a wise decision.) The decision you need to make in regard to relationships might be a good one, but right now it might not be because of where you are emotionally. What’s the wise thing to do in light of current reality?
What you’ll find in many circumstances is that there are seasons of life in which it is may be wise to do something later but it would be very unwise to do it right now. I’ve seen lot’s of women who have made decisions like, “Do I work outside of the home or do I stay at home.” When you begin to analyze those kinds of decisions the your answer to the question might be one thing if you’ve got three children under the age of 10 at home and it might be another answer if all the kids are out of the nest and you want to put your professional skills to work. In the area of your finances, it might be OK for you to make a purchase or investment in a certain area in the future – but is it wise at this particular moment? What is the wise thing in light of the way things currently are?
In Light of My Future Hopes and Dreams And then there is another level where you need to ask this question. What is the wise thing to do in light of your future hopes and dreams? When you think of what you want your marriage to be in the future – what is the wise thing to do now? In light of where you want to be in the future financially, what is the wise thing to do now? In light of where you want to be in relationship to your children, what is the wise thing to do now? Lin light of where you want your children to be in relationship to you – to God – what is the wise thing to do now? In light of where you want to be in your relationship with God in the future, what is the wise thing to do now? Do you know what we all know? We all know that the unwise decisions we have made in the past have robbed us of a portion of the blessings we might have enjoyed in the future. Isn’t that right? For some of us, where you are at this point at your age is not where you planned to be, and part of the reason (not all) but part of the reason why is because of unwise decisions you’ve made in the past. You’ve robbed yourself of blessings because of unwise decisions you’ve made in the past. Whenever we’ve deceived ourselves into thinking that “Hey, I did what I had to do at the time – regardless of whether or not it lined up with clearly understood principles from God’s Word” whenever we try to hide behind, “Well there are no verses against it – never heard a sermon against it – it’s not illegal, it’s not immoral, everybody doing it – Most of us have lived long enough to realize that as long as we hide there, we rob ourselves from our own hopes and dreams.
Ill of talking to teens “how far is too far?” when it comes to sex. There is a lot of space between “Hi my name is . . .” and sex. So how far is too far? What they want to know is how far can I go without actually being guilty of stepping over the line? You see it’s the wrong question. Is the answer to that question anywhere in the Bible? No. So they ask, “Is it OK to kiss? How about holding hands? Rubbing a person’s back? Can we watch television in our bedrooms? Is making out sinful? Where is the line? And exactly how close can we get without stepping over it?” But let me make it easy – What is the answer to the question? In light of your future hopes and dreams - What do you want to tell the person you are going to marry some day? In light of your future hopes and dreams – in light of the story that you want to tell your teenage children someday?
- Let wisdom dictate the answer to the question. What is the wise thing to do in the area of morality in light of your future hopes and dreams? Do you really want to compromise your life morally today when you start thinking of your future hopes and dreams? When we talk about people moving in together without getting married– and we hear all kinds of arguments like – “We can save money this way – it’s the only way to pay our bills.” “you have to try on a pair of shoes before you buy them” – In your eyes it might be the expedient thing to do, you might feel like it’s right – but in light of your future hopes and dreams – in light of what you are going to say to some teenager who is going to ask for your advise in the future – you tell me what the wise thing to do is. God has called us to a different standard – it’s not “what’s the expedient thing to do” it’s not what’s the culturally correct thing to do? It’s not what is everybody else doing? – it’s what the wise thing to do? It’s not “If there isn’t a verse on it – I can indulge.” No no no – the issue, what’s the wise thing to do?
You’re Heavenly Father says, don’t be foolish – don’t be unwise. Don’t be wise in your eyes. Live by a different standard. Nobody ever plans to be addicted – nobody ever plans to become an angry bitter person, nobody ever plans to mess up their children so they have to spend years in counseling sorting through the problems of their youth – nobody ever plans to get so deep into debt that they can’t possibly see financial daylight for decades to come. Nobody ever plans any of that (probably in the history of humanity) but the issue is we don’t really plan not to get involved in any of those situations. And the way that you plan not to – is not by asking where is the line – where is the limit – what can I hang on to – how close can I get to the edge of the moral, ethical ledge without actually going over – the way you plan not to is by asking the question – What is the wise thing – in light of what having a worthy walk with my Savior – in light of me being an imitator of God – in light of what pleases God – in light of my personal past – my personal current circumstances – my personal future hopes and dreams – what is the wise thing to do?
Now listen closely – if asking the question makes you uncomfortable – if asking the question makes you want to start defending yourself with all the little arguments you created and kind of makes you want to run and ignore it – you’ve just discovered a gold mine of information about yourself. You’ve discovered that you are setting yourself up for failure – because if you a person who is just absolutely insisting that “I’m going to have it my way no matter what” You’ve just discovered that you really want to walk by your own wisdom - period. You’ve just discovered that the one who is really on the throne of your life – is not Jesus – it’s you. If you know that the wise thing for you do is something different and you refuse to embrace that, you’ve just discovered something about you. You need to start asking yourself the question, “What is it in me that resists this question – what is it in me that causes me to resist something that I know will ultimately take me to where I want to be.” What is this resistance within me? As you wrestle with that question – chances are your heavenly father who has called you to a worthy walk – who has called you to imitate Jesus – who has called you to do the things that please him – he will speak to your heart.
Recognize You Are Not The Only One That Suffers When You Reject Wisdom. He’s going to remind you that there is a better way to live. He’s going to remind you that even if you think it’s your life and you can do whatever you want – you are not the only one that suffers when you reject wisdom. The teenager who says, “It’s my life, leave me alone, I’ll do whatever I want to,” is deceived. Every decision you make that hurts you hurts the people who love you the most. Every man, husband who says, “I’ll do what I want to do, don’t tell me what to do, I know what I want to do and I’m going to do what I want to do” – you don’t understand. At the end of the day, when you finally reap the results of your bad and foolish decisions, you’re not the only one who suffers. It’s everyone who is depending upon you and loves you. There is not any one who makes foolish self-centered choices who pays the price alone. Everyone around you pays a price as well. Are you willing to ask the question “What is the wise thing to do?” But more importantly, are you willing to respond properly to the answer?
Close: “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will be delivered.”
(Prov. 28:26) Make this your memory verse this week. Remember what the passage said – “Don’t be foolish – but understand what the Lord’s will is.” How does the Bible define foolishness? It’s the person who does “what feels right to them” It’s the person who trusts their own heart. What does it mean to trust in your own heart? It means, “I know best” Don’t tell me anything different, don’t point to the evidence – don’t point out anything that contradicts me – I fell as if this is the right thing for me - I trust my own judgment.” Contrast it with the promise of a person who lives by a different standard – he who walks wisely - they will be delivered. Just think – if you would have applied this standard to your life ten years ago – think of the things you could have been delivered from. How about three years ago? – How about last year? – how about right now? Are you willing to begin to live at a different level?
* PowerPoint slides may be available for this message. Some slides I use have copy write restrictions on them - others are slides, which I’ve created. If this sermon has slides I’ve created, I’d be glad to pass them on to you for your use. Please feel free to email me at: timvamosi@charter.net
