GOD’S PEOPLE LIVING AS WISE PEOPLE

Ephesians 5:15-20

Preached at Belmont Baptist Church of Broomall on August 29, 2010

Today can be considered either a milestone or a mill stone. This is my 13^th sermon and the completion of three months of serving as your Interim Pastor. Depending upon your perspective, it is either a milestone or a mill stone. (I won’t ask for a show of hands to see where the majority stands.) However you see it, it is a special time in the life of Belmont church and it is a special opportunity that God has given you. That is why I selected Ephesians for beginning my preaching ministry here because it includes this emphasis found in verses 15-16: “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.”

In these words, we can almost hear echoes of the words of Jesus: “the wise man built his house upon the rock.” Paul is underscoring what he has said in this long paragraph that begins back in Chapter 4:17: don’t live like those who are separated from God but rather live as children of light. This could apply to the entire book. But let’s focus just on this short passage. There are three simple points that God is communicating to us. 1—Be wise in making the most of every opportunity. 2—Be wise by living our lives under the control of the Spirit. And 3—Be wise to worship.

The wisdom that I need and that you need is not specifically related to formal schooling or some intellectual achievement. So what kind of wisdom is this? Perhaps you have had in the back of your mind something you really needed (not just wanted but really needed). But you also knew that you could afford only so much which meant that you couldn’t buy it right now because it cost too much. And then one day, you happen to run across that item and it is on sale…at a price that is lower than the maximum you are willing to pay. What do you do? Well, the wise person snaps up this bargain immediately. It is this kind of wisdom—recognizing opportunities and taking advantage of them as they arise. Or, you have this regular responsibility that just wears you out. One day, someone comes along and shows you a better and easier way to do the same job and you actually get better results. A wise person will stop doing it the old way and use their time and energy with the new way. It is that kind of wisdom.

For instance, seminary trains potential pastors to study and reflect and to discern. And many people who go into ministry after seminary spend all their time studying and reflecting and discerning. Then they wonder why the church doesn’t grow. Most church consultants say, “If you want to grow your church, you need to spend more time with people outside the church study.” The wise pastor who wants to grow the church will change his work habits. When I worked with church planters for our denomination, I often told church planters that they needed to spend over 50% of their time out in the community getting to know people and building relationships. One very intelligent person who was starting a new church in the Tribeca section of Manhattan did just that in the first two years. The church numbers increased steadily. A couple of years later, he asked me “What can I do to get the church growing again?” After asking him what he was doing, I then said “What did you do to grow the church initially?” And the light bulb went off in his head—he had stopped doing what had worked to grow the church.

So in verses 15 and 16 of this passage, God calls us to be wise people in taking advantage of opportunities. God then calls us to living our lives under the control of the Spirit. This is not like living by impulse. In one church, a member attended a seminar on revitalizing the Sunday school and he heard that one church broke up their Adult Sunday School classes once each year and regrouped the people into different studies. His impulse was to apply the approach to his own church. He latched onto that process as the solution. It may have worked one place, but what is God’s will for this church at this time? We only know God’s will as it is unfolded little at a time by the Spirit. It is a process wherein we must continually question our easy answers and seek what is God’s plan. Little by little, we can discern our foolishness and God’s wonderful plan. It requires discipline on our part, a growing self-control, a continual submission to God’s Spirit whom Jesus has sent to lead us into all truth.

So God calls us to be wise in taking advantage of opportunities, in living under the control of the Spirit, and then, thirdly God calls us to worship. In worship, we remember God’s character and work on our behalf. In worship, we encourage and support each other to live as Christians in our daily lives. In worship, we express our feelings of hope and fear and our struggles knowing that we are not alone—that we are in a community where God’s love is known and shared and we get the help we need.

There is a strong connection between worship in verse 19 and giving thanks in verse 20. When we give thanks, we are acknowledging God’s goodness and grace. When we give thanks, we are admitting our dependence upon God for all that we are and all that we have. When we give thanks, we don’t loose our fears and struggles and problems…but we do have a whole different relationship to our fears and struggles and problems. You see, most of the time those things control us. When we give thanks in the midst of whatever it is we are dealing with, we begin to relate to that problem differently—that we don’t have to allow these things to control us. We confess that God is ultimately in control and that these things, however big or overwhelming they may seem, are small in comparison to what God has available to help us.

Now what does all this mean for us in Belmont Baptist Church? Let me take these in reverse order. First of all, it means that what we do here in acknowledging God, expressing our feelings and encouraging one another affects what we do throughout the week. And the opposite is also true: we carry our everyday experiences back into worship which become our testimonies of how God has worked and our thanks for God and God’s goodness to us. Our worship spills over into everyday life and our everyday life is carried with us into worship. That is why I believe it is so crucial for every believer to worship every week—we simply cannot ignore worship and expect to experience God’s presence in our everyday lives. If you are truly wise as a Christian, you will worship.

Secondly, God calls us to live our lives under the control of the Spirit. Some of us go through life with our mental facilities fully in control. Some of us go through life with our emotions in control. There is nothing wrong with using our minds, nor should we shut off our emotions because they are part of how God made us. But at every turn, the only thing we can fully trust is God’s Spirit. As much as people may like their pastor and trust their pastor, we need to be trusting and following the lead of God’s Spirit. Every human leader and is a false substitute for living under the control of the Spirit.

Finally, God calls us to wisdom so that we can take advantage of every opportunity. What are the opportunities before us? I have talked with Earl. For longer than we want to admit, it was impossible for the church to pay its bills and support two full-time pastors. No one will fully know all the financial juggling that he had to go through month to month. At this point, you don’t have two full time pastors. Now I know how some people think: with not having a second full time pastor, I won’t give as much. However, now is the opportunity to give—to take care of needs here at the church, to get prepared for the next pastor, to provide funds that will enable us to continue vital ministry.

So what are the opportunities before the church? A couple of weeks ago, I talked with Gary about how warmly you have welcomed and supported me. Then I added that I am concerned the church will be so satisfied with my being here as Interim that the church will just settle down into a comfort zone and nothing happen. Will that be the case? I hope not. Because God is giving this church wonderful opportunities right now. We have opportunity to prepare for the future. We have opportunity to look at the church and ministry in fresh ways. We have opportunity to develop new relationships, new patterns of doing things, new ways of planning and working together. We have opportunities to develop partnerships with other churches and other organizations to increase our work in this community and around the world. There are opportunities before us and all around us. Let’s be wise, making the most of every opportunity.