Ephesians 5:15-20: HOW TO CLIMB LIFE MOUNTAIN
"Be very careful, then, how you live-- not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Have you ever climbed a mountain before? Mountain climbing used to be a hobby of mine, during my younger years when I was single and had more free time. Every year, pretty much at this time of the year, a group of us would head west to the Rockies with a van full of camping gear and groceries, and we would spend a couple weeks climbing.
Have you ever climbed a mountain before? Do you realize that you are climbing a mountain right now? Living your life is like climbing a mountain. This section of the Bible teaches us all kinds of lessons of how to climb the mountain of life successfully, until we finally reach the summit, which is heaven.
The first thing God tells us it to do here is to "watch your step" - "be very careful, then, how you live your life - not as unwise but as wise." Literally, watch how you walk. Don’t be unwise, be wise. What does it mean? The next verse gives us the answer: "making the most of every opportunity." A Christian understands that every day on this planet counts - every step is important. As I climb this mountain, I come across opportunities to show love to God, and opportunities to show love and kindness to others.
Sometimes when you’re hiking up a mountain, you’re not really paying attention to what’s around you, and you miss some really neat things. You’re so focused on getting to the top, that you didn’t see the moose that was only 10 feet off the path. There’s that beautiful lake that’s just off the path to the right. There’s that waterfall surrounded by beautiful flowers off to the left. Look around you carefully, and enjoy the scenery along the way.
A Christian climbing the mountain of life is always looking around carefully, making the most of every opportunity for that chance to show the love of Jesus to someone else. Maybe it’s an act of kindness to a fellow Christian. Maybe it’s a listening ear to someone who needs to express how they feel. Maybe it’s a conversation with that person in your life that doesn’t believe in Jesus. As I walk through life, God wants me to look for the opportunities he gives me to glorify him and to love others. That’s what it means to be "careful how you live your life, not as unwise but as wise."
Have you been careful with your life this way? The next verse says "Do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is." To be foolish means that I don’t get it. I believe in Jesus, but my faith is so shallow that I don’t know why I’m here in this world. I’m just living my life for the here and now, living for myself. Making my money, focusing on pleasure - that’s what life is all about - a good life. Don’t be foolish, God says. Instead, "understand what the Lord’s will is." How do I understand the Lord’s will? It’s by spending time in God’s Word. There is no shortcut, to easy way around it. It all comes down to reading the Bible, thinking about it, talking about it, listening to others talk about it. Before we went on hiking trips, our group would get together with guidebooks and maps, and we would study and talk and plan what we were going to do. If it weren’t for those study and planning sessions, our hikes would have been disastrous - it would have been foolish to go. A Christian needs to do the same thing - to take time away from the regular things of this world and to spend time by yourself and with others in God’s Word. Don’t be foolish, the Bible says. "Understand what the Lord’s will is."
And what do you do when life starts to stress you out? When you’re hiking up the mountain of life, and your legs start to get tired and your backpack starts to weigh you down? It says here, "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery." Can you imagine trying to climb a difficult mountain, and when you’re halfway up and you’re out of breath, you pull out a bottle of alcohol and start drinking? Anyone that climbs mountains will tell you that this is not only unwise, it can be lethal.
And yet, this is exactly what people sometimes to, including Christians, when life gets difficult. The abuse of alcohol - why does our culture have such a problem with excess? You can get drunk, our culture says, just as long as you don’t drive or hurt anyone. But that’s not what the Bible says. Have you ever done this before? You’re stressed out from the day, and you need something to help you deal with the stress - you turn to alcohol, and one drink leads to another and another.
Don’t do that, the Bible says. It’s a sin. It leads to debauchery, which is a word that encompasses all the bad things that happen after abusing alcohol. If life is stressing you out, if you’re looking for something to help you deal with the challenges of life - then fill yourself up, the Bible says, not with an excessive amount of alcohol - but instead, with the Spirit. Turn to the Word - and fill yourself up with the Holy Spirit. Fill yourself up with God’s promises of strength and wisdom and joy. Fill yourself up with God the Holy Spirit.
So how carefully have you been living your life? How have you been coping with the stress? Have you been making the most of every opportunity to give glory to God, and to love others? Or, have you been hiking recklessly up this mountain, missing opportunities, not sure what God’s will is, and not dealing very well with life’s challenges. Be careful how you live, the Bible says. Have you been wise or foolish? "All have sinned, the Bible says, and have fallen short of the glory of God." Each one of us has fallen down on this hiking trail, too injured by our own recklessness to make it to the summit, too weighed down by our own sins to be able to get up and climb the mountain of life and reach the summit of heaven.
But someone appears on this mountain of life right next to us, and that someone is Jesus Christ. And he takes all of those sins in our lives, all of those moments of regret, and he throws those sins off the mountain. He can do that, because he paid for our sins on the cross. He hiked up another mountain, that mountain called Golgotha, and there he carried on his back the heaviest load anyone has ever carried - the sins of the whole world. And there on that mountain of Calvary he died for all of your sins. Every one of them - paid for, and you are forgiven. And then after dying, Jesus rose from the dead, to show us that there is hope, that we will someday make it to that summit, that we will someday stand at the top of that mountain when we’re in heaven - it’s a guarantee.
When we fall down, Jesus reaches out his hand and lifts us up. And then he climbs the mountain of life with us - "Surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age," he says. Every step we take, he steps with us, our eternal companion, the one we can lean on when we are weak, the one we can rejoice with when we are strong.
And so we climb, and as we do, we encourage each other: "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs." When you’re hiking, you gotta keep the conversation going - it keeps your spirits up, when the backpack gets heavy, when the legs get tired. We need each other, as we climb this mountain of life. And we need more than just the small talk about the weather or the Brewers. It’s a nice place to start, but we also need to hear from each other that thought from the Psalms - that God is my refuge and strength - we need to hear that thought from the hymnal - what a friend we have in Jesus! Speak to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Encourage the Christians that you live with, that you work with, that you worship with.
Sing and make music in our heart to the Lord, the Bible says. We sing to God as we walk through life. And what do we sing about? "Always giving thanks, in everything" - Can you hear the emphasis here? ALWAYS give thanks, IN EVERYTHING. When the hiking trail is nice and level and there are beautiful views and the weather is perfect - I give thanks. And when it’s uphill and rocky and there are no good views and it’s raining, I give thanks. Because even in those difficult times of life, God brings blessings - the challenges of life cause the promises of God in the Bible to become more real to me. My failures and shortcomings cause the Lord’s Supper to mean more to us. When we face problems, when we feel lost, we appreciate our baptisms more, we pray more passionately and fervently. Isn’t it comforting to know that no challenge comes our way unless God allows it for our good. And so that is our song to the Lord every day as we climb this mountain - ALWAYS giving thanks to God IN EVERYTHING.
And all of this, "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." What a great thought to end our lesson! To keep the cross of Jesus Christ in my mind every day, to keep my goal as heaven in front of me - nothing is more important than this. When you’re trying to climb a mountain, it’s probably not going to work out when the top, the peak, is covered by clouds. Statistically, most climbers do not make it to the summit of a mountain when the top is covered by clouds. Typically the group loses focus, becomes discouraged, negative - they fight with each other, things like that. But when you can see the summit, when you can see the top - then, the pain, the fatigue - you fight through it - because you’re almost there.
Let’s keep our eyes on our goal. Don’t let the world obscure it. Our goal is heaven. And the entrance is the cross of Jesus Christ. Keep your eyes focused on that goal. And may God bless you as you get close and closer to the summit. Someday, I’ll see you there. Amen.
