Ephesians 5:15-20 Pentecost 13 B
Ephesians 5:15-20 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.
The second summer I worked in Glacier National Park as a tour guide, we started the summer with a massive flood that washed out bridges, railroad tracks and roads all around the park. For the next three weeks, the park was closed, even though every hotel had a full complement of employees ready to go to work. So we had lots of free time on our hands.
On day the sun was shining bright and it was about 75 degrees - a perfect day for a hike. Seven employees decided at breakfast to take the trail up to Summit Peak and be back by supper. Off they went in shirt sleeves and sweatshirts. Not one of the seven even carried matches. After all, the sun was shining. When they got to the peak, they were supposed to take a small trail off the main trail that would have brought them back to the hotel. Somehow, they missed that trail. By the time they realized they weren’t going in the right direction, it was seven o’clock and almost dark - too late to look for the trail back. Then it started to rain. The rain turned to snow. They huddled together to try to keep warm. In the morning they had to walk through three feet of snow and a blowing gale on the pass. Six barely made it back. One had to be airlifted out by helicopter. All of them were lucky to live through experience.
All because they didn’t watch the trail carefully. Paul says in our text, “Be very careful, then, how you live.” The Greek literally says, “Watch closely how you walk about.” Because if you don’t watch closely the path of life that God has set before you, you might get off onto a trail the devil has set before you for your destruction. This morning we want to consider this thought.
Choose Your Path Carefully!
I. watch out for detours!
Why do we have to be so careful? Because Paul says simply, “The days are evil.” Christians living in Paul’s day faced many of the same temptations that we face today. There was sexual immorality. There were intellectual elite who pushed their philosophies and laughed at the idea of a resurrection from the dead. There were weekend orgies in the temples. There was the press of every day business and life, which burdened the Christian with worries about things that weren’t important. If all those temptations were around in Paul’s day, the Christian walk is even more dangerous today. Jesus and the apostles warned that the world would become even more evil in the last days. “Walk carefully,” Paul says, “because the days are evil.”
Paul writes, “Not as unwise, but as wise.” With these words Paul is telling us to look down the road before we make our choices, to consider the consequences of our actions before we act. Let me give an example. It might be something as simple as buying a new car. I look around at the cars people are driving, and part of me (the sinful flesh) wants to keep up with my neighbors. After all if my neighbor is driving a $30,000 car, why can’t I? Six months later, the burden of car payments may become more than my budget can handle. So I have to make some adjustments. I can get another job, which will take precious time away from my family. I could decide to not send my children to a Christian school, which may affect their spiritual lives. I could cut my church contributions in half, which itself is going to say something about the path I’ve chosen to walk. That’s just one little decision. Young people choose an occupation. They choose friends. They choose a spouse. They choose where to live. Paul says, “Don’t be unthinking when you make those choices. Think! Be wise! Look out for detours that take you away from God!”
Paul says, “Making the most of every opportunity.” Literally, the phrase means to “redeem the time.” Everyone in this community is now well accustomed to detours. If there is one thing you learn about detours, it’s that they always take twice the time as the regular route does. I wonder how many hours I’ve wasted trying to get to church in the last month! Are we following some of those time-consuming detours in our lives? It’s easy to get so involved in a hobby, or pursuing a sport, or in something else that we just lose track of the time. And maybe the devil’s only purpose is to keep us from spending time growing in our faith and doing the Lord’s work! Stay away from those detours that keep you from making the most of every opportunity you have to seek the good of God’s kingdom!
Paul himself gives a good example of getting side-tracked. “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.” The man who stops for three or four drinks after work before he comes home tells his children, “I don’t have time to play” or “I’m too tired.” He has little energy to be help his wife with the housework, and little patience to listen and be a good companion. Nor is it just the habitual drinking Paul is warning against. When you drink too much, even just the one time, how good are you at keeping an eye on your path? The devil knows all too well that it’s harder to say “No” to temptation when alcohol has deadened our good sense and reason. Paul says, “Don’t get drunk on wine!” because you won’t be watching for the devil’s detours!
Friends, how well have you watched the road the Lord has set before you? How carefully have you been walking the Christian’s walk? How many detours did you take? Most of us are better at watching the sights in this world than watching our feet on the path.
Isn’t it amazing that we are still God’s children? It is not by our own thinking and choosing. It is only by the grace of God. We have a God who cares about his people. We have a Savior who died to forgive our sins and who now sits on his throne in heaven as our Good Shepherd to carefully watch over us. When we strayed from our course, the Good Shepherd looked for us and found us and restored us to our walk with God. Don’t ever think that Jesus is going to make you walk this walk alone! He will always be with us!
Having such a God and Savior, though, is no reason not to carefully watch the path before us. How do we do that? It’s when we
II. walk with the Spirit in the Word!
Paul says, ”Do not be foolish but understand what the Lord’s will is.” It’s interesting that Paul puts “foolish” in direct opposition to “understanding the Lord’s will.” You can be the most intelligent person on planet earth, but if you do not know what God’s will is, you are a fool. You know nothing.
Paul adds, “Be filled with the spirit.” Literally it says to keep on being filled with the Spirit. If a person is a believer in Jesus, it is because the Holy Spirit has entered that person’s heart and created faith there. Consequently, everyone who is a believer in Jesus is filled with the Spirit of God.
Why does Paul say, “Keep on being filled with the Spirit?” It’s very simple. Imagine that your heart is like a tank - a gas tank, if you will. When you were born, that tank was empty. You had no faith. You did not have the Spirit of God. But through the word of God and the sacrament of baptism, the Holy Spirit entered into you and your heart was now filled with the Holy Spirit. Your tank was full. Only there is one small problem with the human heart. It leaks. If it is just sitting around and doing nothing, eventually the faith will leak out and the Holy Spirit will depart. So you have to keep on filling the tank and keeping the heart filled with the Holy Spirit.
How? Paul tells us. “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.” First, he says, talk to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. I don’t know where that happens better than in a Bible class where you talk with other Christians and study God’s Word together, or in a family devotion where God’s Word is read and discussed by the members of the family.
I want to take a moment to push our Bible classes this fall. This fall we are going to start a two year program of adult catechism instruction. How long has it been since you studied God’s Word systematically and reinforced what you learned when you were confirmed? Now’s your chance. It will be offered Sunday mornings, Wednesday mornings, and Wednesday evenings.
Paul says, “Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.” I like to think that this is what happens all day long with us. You’ve read a portion of God’s Word when you got up in the morning. Perhaps you didn’t have time to think about it thoroughly. But all day long you remember what it said. Or maybe you remember a passage or two you memorized that day. Then you meditate on it. You reflect on it. It becomes a song in your heart.
The result is that you never lose sight of your foot on the path that God has placed before you. One of the Easter stories that I have always appreciated is the story of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. As the two disciples trudged along in their sadness and in their confusion, they met Jesus who disguised himself as a stranger. When they told him the story of Jesus’ death, the stranger started to show them from the Holy Scriptures how all this had to happen, and how Jesus had to rise from the grave. They were so excited! They thought that maybe they had been walking down the wrong path by believing in Jesus! Suddenly their faith was restored. They invited the stranger to eat with them and spend the night. At the meal, when he broke bread, they saw it was Jesus!
But it was the Word of God that first opened their eyes! It was the Word of God which put their feet on the path of God! What does it mean to “walk with Jesus” or to “walk with the Spirit?” It means that we are using God’s Word and the Spirit is filling our hearts.
Friends, I began this sermon with a story about some friends who almost lost their lives because they choose the wrong path on a simple walk into the mountains. Don’t get lost on your walk through life! Choose your paths carefully! Stay away from the devil’s detours! Walk with the Spirit and in the Word. Amen.
