A Discerning Life
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I’m Pastor Gary Combs.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. What better place to be on your birthday, right?
I’m glad to be here today, and I’m thankful to our teaching team that for the last 5 Sundays have done such a wonderful job on this series, Built Different. And I already got the drum roll. I’m good.
And thankful for that team. And I think they all did just a wonderful job. And I hope that I can finish up this series as well as they’ve delivered it up till now. And we’re thankful for that. And you might be, you know, looking like, did they decorate for my birthday?
No, they did not decorate for my birthday. This is for KidsFest. And if it’s your first time here, you’re like, what a strange church. This is, well, we love kids. And we recognize that young people have the most receptive, sensitive hearts to the gospel.
And so we don’t want to waste the opportunity to reach out to young people. And so our church gets really fired up and works really hard to reach young people. And so we make no apologies about that. And so we just go crazy for KidsFest every year in order to reach our kids. There’s something going on up in here.
I feel like there’s something trying to break in. I don’t know what it is.
It’s really like causing the floor to vibrate. It’s wonderful. Okay, so our series has been based on the book of Romans chapter 12 and the first couple of verses. And what we’ve kind of done is we’ve taken a portion of those 2 verses and let that be the theme of that sermon each week.
So, so maybe we can turn off the subs. Is that possible? I think that’s what I’m feeling is subs underneath the stage. Have we cut them off now? Let’s see what happens.
All right. And so from the book of Romans chapter 12, we’ve taken a phrase each week and unpacked it by looking at other places in the Scripture in order to enlarge that thought. And so it’s left to me to deal with the last phrase. So let me read it to you, and then we’ll focus on that last phrase. Romans 12:1-2, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. And here’s the phrase that we’ll focus on this week, That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. And so the result clause here for these 2 verses, having offered your life to the Lord as a living sacrifice and having no longer being conformed mentally to the, to the world’s way of life, but allowing yourself to be transformed and renewed in mind, now let us have a discerning life. Let’s have a discerning mind that knows and follows the will of God. So today’s message is A Discerning Life.
That’s where we’ll be focusing today. The dictionary says discernment is discrimination, acuteness of judgment, and understanding. It’s the idea of having wisdom to know what’s good and what’s better and what’s best. Dr. Charles Stanley said this. He said, spiritual discernment is the ability to see life from a godly vantage point.
It helps us navigate decisions with confidence. Through his Spirit, we can better distinguish between right and wrong, good and best, truth and error. That’s a really good definition of biblical Christian discernment. And it’s, it’s really the idea not only of knowing good from bad, good from evil, but even more than that, to know good and better and best, to be able to discern what is the very best that God has for you. Now we all face decisions in life that Scripture doesn’t explicitly answer, and, and we have in Scripture all that we need to have the will of God given to us.
And a lot of people, they’re searching for God’s will when they’re already not obeying what he already said. I would start with what he already said if you’re trying to figure out what God’s will for your life is. But there are questions that we deal with every day that that we really need discernment, the idea of being able to take God’s Word and to have God’s Spirit living in us so that we know how to discern. Can I give you a couple examples? One is, whom should I marry?
Like, do I look this up in the Bible? Can I find her picture here somewhere? Like, no, you have guidelines. 2 Corinthians 6:14, do not be unequally yoked with an unbeliever. So, no missionary dating.
You’re supposed to marry someone who believes that you share Christ together. That’s a good guideline. Proverbs 31 points out some great qualifications for a godly wife, and there are great other examples of what a godly man and husband looks like. There’s a lot of instruction about principles, but then is this the right one? Is he the right one?
You need discernment. You need godly discernment. And so you’ve got God’s Word, God’s knowledge, but you need discernment to apply it like that. There are other kinds of questions like that. Should I take this job?
I’ve got this job offer. Should I take this job? Should I speak up or should I be quiet? Usually the answer is you should zip it. That’s usually, I think 9 out of 10 times, you probably should be quiet.
But there are times you’re supposed to speak up. Like, God, tell me, like, what’s— when should I speak up? Should I say yes or no to this opportunity? And our young people today actually have something that makes them afraid to say yes to anything or make a decision about anything, and it’s called FOMO, the fear of missing out. And so then they’re afraid to say yes or no to anything because they might miss— because if you say yes to this, then you’re automatically saying no to that, so I better not say yes to anything, so now I’m doing nothing.
And so that’s not good. That’s, that’s fear of missing out. That’s living your life based on fear, not discernment. Should I make this purchase? Should I buy this car?
Should I buy this house?
Discernment. Why am I going through this trouble? Why am I going through this trial?
Have I sinned? Have I— did I get over here and I did— made a wrong turn and that’s why I’m suffering? Or is it— is this suffering something that God’s taken me through for my sanctification? Do I need to be corrected here? These are complex things that, that deserve our consideration, and we need the Holy Spirit’s discernment to help us.
As we look at this world full of competing voices, we desperately need more than just information. We need wisdom. We need discernment. We need spiritual discernment. And now Paul is going to show us what a life shaped by this renewed mind looks like, what this discerning life looks like.
In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he urged believers in that day and in this day of, of when the days are evil to live with spiritual discernment regarding the will of the Lord. And I believe that we can live with spiritual discernment and know God’s will for our lives. And as we look at the text, I think it reveals 3 marks for living with spiritual discernment. So let’s look. We’re going to be just looking at 3 little verses today that are just power-packed with these 3 marks of what it looks like to live by spiritual discernment.
Ephesians 5:15 and following. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. This is God’s word, amen. I like taking on 3 verses like this.
There’s so much we can say about these 3 verses. It’s just so full, and so I’m excited about it today. Let’s look at verse 15 first. We’ll look at that first verse. And we’ll look for the first mark, which is this: the first mark of spiritual discernment, of living with spiritual discernment, is watching your walk.
Watching your walk. Look at the text again. Look what Paul says: look carefully then how you walk. Look carefully then how you walk. This is not just a warning sign that says watch your step.
It’s more than that. I remember on a trip to London some years ago, we we were riding on the subway and you would hear this sound every time the doors would open on a subway car. It would be, mind the gap, mind the gap, because there’s just a little gap right there between the sidewalk and stepping onto the subway train. Mind the gap, watch your step, right? It’s more than that.
What’s this idea of walk? It’s something Paul’s been talking about all throughout the book of Ephesians. The cool thing about the book of Ephesians, and this is Paul’s practice in nearly all of his letters, is he starts off with propositional truth, he gives you doctrinal truth, and then he gives you a prescription on how to live it out. And so if you look at the book of Ephesians, it’s evenly divided, 3 chapters of propositional doctrinal truth and 3 chapters of prescriptive truth. He writes you an Rx right there for the last 3 chapters.
Okay, here’s how you do it. But he introduces this idea of walk back in chapter 2, early on, and he carries this out. And so then as we look at verse 15, we could almost see that in these 3 verses, he’s given us a summary of what he’s been talking about so far about the Christian walk. And how do you see it’s a summary, Gary? Well, look carefully then.
That word then could have been look carefully, therefore, or you could move it to the front of the line, therefore, look carefully how you walk. And so that’s a mark in the Greek text that says he’s summarizing something or he’s told us something that equals this thing, okay? And so look carefully then how you walk. How long has he been talking about it? Since chapter 2, verse 1, where he talked about how we used to walk.
Before Christ, he says in chapter 2 early on, he says, we used to walk according to the course of this world. We used to walk the way the world did. We used to walk according to the course of the world. That’s how we used to walk. And then he says, as he gets later into chapter 2, he actually talks about how we came to Christ and how we got saved and how it had nothing to do with us, but it had to do with putting our faith in what he said.
And he says, for by grace you’ve been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, but as a gift of God, so that no one should boast. Chapter 2, verses 8 and 9. And then he says in verse 10, that’s the verse we often leave out, we forget to say that one. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that we’re to walk in. So we’re to walk out these good works, not earning salvation, but as a result of salvation.
And so he says we’re to walk out good works. Then he says in chapter 4, verse 1, he says, walk worthy of your calling.
Then when he gets to chapter 4, verse 17, he says, need to walk differently than the pagans or the world. Our walk should look different. Verse 2 of chapter 5, now we’re in chapter 5, he says, walk in love. And then verse 8, he says, walk as children of light. And now he summarizes, he goes, you should walk carefully.
You should keep your eyes on your step, keep your eyes on your walk. Now when he uses the word walk, he’s using a well-known Hebrew idiom that we see in the Old Testament and the New Testament. He’s not literally talking about this, but he’s talking about your conduct of life. He’s talking about how you live your life, and, and he’s given you all these word pictures, but now he’s summarizing. He goes, you should walk carefully, you should watch where you walk.
He says look, and it’s in the Greek imperative. It’s the idea of to look carefully, to, to, to live an examined life, that, that you, you should be aware of of what you’re doing, not just blindly going through life, not just going through the motions. You ever said that? Just, how you doing? I’m just going through the motions.
No, but to live with purpose and clarity, to look. The word look that’s in the Greek here could be translated to see with the mind’s eye or to discern. To just, to really clearly have the power of knowing where you’re walking. And then he says, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise. You’re to walk with discernment, with, with wisdom.
And wisdom, if you think about it, it’s not how intelligent you are. Intelligence might have to do with how much knowledge you’ve you’ve attained. You’ve ever heard someone say, well, he had book knowledge but no common sense? You heard that? That means there’s somebody, they knew a lot of facts, they just didn’t know how to apply them.
And so wisdom is knowledge plus experience. And, and the experience could be your experience, which usually means you went through the school of hard knocks and you made a lot of mistakes and you know what not to do. And as a result of knowing what not to do, now you know what to do. Except for some of us who just keep beating our head against the wall and doing what we shouldn’t do.
Or it doesn’t have to be self-experience. It could be you read God’s Word, which gives you knowledge, but it also gives you the experience of others, and you can see how it worked out for them based on whether they followed God’s will. You can see that. You can see what’s going on there. And you could— so you can learn from the experience of others from God’s Word.
You can also learn from the experience of others and your fellow believers through wise counsel. So walk carefully, looking carefully where you walk, not as unwise but as wise. Now notice what Paul doesn’t say. He doesn’t say watch everyone else’s walk. Look carefully how everybody else is walking.
No, he doesn’t say that. He says, look carefully at how you walk, not how other people— we’re already pretty good at looking at how other people live. Oh, I don’t think she should have wore that to church. What was she thinking? Right?
I cannot believe he said that, etc. You know, we’re good at watching other people’s walk. I wouldn’t have done that. Can you believe the way they let that little one talk back to them? I would have given that child a spanking.
But no, that’s not the way they do things today.
We’re good at watching other people’s walk, not so good at watching our own. The book of Proverbs says, give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left. Keep your foot from evil. Look, look where you’re walking.
Watch your walk. This is, this is not just self-examination by your own reasoning, however. This wisdom we’re talking about is from God. James tells us how we can get this wisdom. He says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
When’s the last time you asked God for to be involved in your decision-making and how you’re living, to say, God, should we buy this? Should we do this? Is this what you want for us? To just really invite him in so that we pray without ceasing and that we’re continually asking God to give us wisdom about how to discern what’s going on in our lives and looking at our lives. And when we’re talking about this idea of living an examined life, so that we’re aware of how we’re living.
I can’t think of a better prayer than to pray the prayer of David in Psalm 139, to say, search me, O God, and know my heart. Just like, show your holy spotlight on my life. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me. In other words, if there’s anything in me that, God, that grieves you, doesn’t please you, expose it to me so I’ll know.
And lead me in the way everlasting. You just kind of think about that prayer. If you prayed that like daily, your accounts wouldn’t get so big. The accounts wouldn’t get so big that it would take a long time to pray about. If you prayed every day, you would only have a shorter list.
And so what if you started every morning by just doing something like this? And sometimes I like to do physical things to make me— to align my thinking so it doesn’t wander. And so sometimes before I get out of the bed in the morning, before I put my feet on the floor, just to cup my hands down like 2 cups and pour out and say, God, this is what happened yesterday, and this is a relationship that I’m praying about, and Lord, search me and know me, and just kind of pour out. And just kind of pray yourself empty, and then, and then say, Lord, now direct my path today in the way everlasting and fill me up afresh with your Holy Spirit. And maybe something like that before you get your feet on the bed and start heading into your day with you in charge.
Because every day you have an opportunity when you get out of the bed. Who’s in charge today, me or the Lord? And I want to, I want to live my life discerning with a renewed mind and the Holy Spirit guiding me. This idea that the Apostle Paul’s giving, this idea of walking and looking carefully and watching where you walk and choosing right paths and walking with discernment reminds me of walking on a mountain trail. And I grew up in the mountains, the Appalachian Mountains.
I grew up in the Bristol area and there was this place called Abrams Falls that was kind of a secret. Not many people, it wasn’t like a park, it was on private land. But the farmer who owned it never— he never cleared it, and it was really— you couldn’t really farm it because the mountains were so steep and these cliffs, and then this huge fall that went over that you could walk behind the falls and stand behind it, and this water would go over you. And it’s just the coolest place, but it was dangerous to get there because the path was really narrow. You couldn’t walk 2 abreast.
You had to walk in single file, and there were places where you stepped where the trail would give away and you would be going down the mountain, which you didn’t want to go. And then there was this other thing going on there. It was infested with copperheads. And there was just like snakes. And so you could step on something that moved because the rock rolled or something that moved because it was alive.
And so as a teen, we used to go there so much. And I took my, I took my 3 kids there when they were young, and my little brother led the path. And he was a police officer. He was unafraid. He was an amazing strong man, but he did not like snakes.
And he apparently stepped on one, and he was leading the path, and instead of turning and saying to the rest of his family and saying, there’s a copperhead, He jumped about that high and took off running. And so I’ve got 3 kids here now with a copperhead. And anyway, we lived to tell the tale. But let me say to you, you didn’t walk looking at the sights.
You kept your eyes on— and you looked closely then how you walked.
And so we’re called to live an examined life, a reflective life and asking the Spirit to help us. Socrates famously said, the unexamined life is not worth living. He also said, know thyself. And this is good advice from a Greek philosopher, but Paul urges something better, something deeper. He says, examine your walk not by your own reasoning, but with God’s wisdom.
To examine your walk with his help, with God’s help. Search me, O God, and know me. He’s not just calling for navel-gazing. He’s not just calling for introspection. He’s called for an examined life by the wisdom of God.
To look into the mirror of God’s word, as James calls it. He says that God’s word’s like a mirror, looking into it and seeing what reflects back about you. Are you watching your walk? What habits are forming your heart? What influences are directing your decisions?
The discerning life begins with a humble willingness to look carefully and humbly, to lead an examined life. And that leads us to the second mark: redeeming your time. Redeeming your time. We’re at verse 16. He says, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.
Making the best use— that’s a good— it’s a dynamic translation. It’s a good interpretation of the text. The Greek text literally uses a marketplace word which means to buy back or to buy out of or to redeem, as the King James translates it nearly literally at this point, to redeem. And so to make the best use of, to buy back the time. And so if you think about what time is, time and money, the way you get money, which is just a paper symbolic or a coin, it’s just a symbol of how you have spent your time and your effort.
That’s what money is. Money is a symbol of— it’s an intangible thing, but it’s based on how you spent effort and over time, right? And so somebody thinks it was worth it, so they give you in exchange this symbolic gesture, which now you can exercise to get somebody else to spend their effort and time to give you something. And so the idea of buying back your time seems very accurate. In fact, we use this kind of language in the English language all the time.
We go, how did you spend your time? Don’t waste your time, right? We, we use this kind of thinking time, redeeming your time. So looking at the time, here’s the one place that we’re all equal: 24/7. You can say he’s got more money, less money, he’s got more talent, less talent, he’s stronger, she’s, she’s prettier.
You can say we got all these different gifts, but when it comes to time, each day we have the same amount. How, how do you redeem it? How do you spend it? How do you make the, the best use of it? And this is about discernment.
How do you spend your time? Now this word time, it could have been one of two words in the Greek. Greek’s a very accurate language. It could have been chronos. Chronos is like tick, tick, tick, like your watch, like that.
But that’s not it. That’s not the word. That would have been time. It would have been translated time. The word here is kairos, which is more like opportune time.
More like the right season, the right opportunity. He goes, redeem your kairos time. It’s a decisive moment. It’s an open door that will only be open for a season. It’s an opportunity that will pass if you don’t discern it and see it and act on it.
And so he goes, Make the best use of your opportunities. I’m now believing it’s all connected to me somehow, so I’m trying to figure out how to not move that body part while I’m preaching. We’re going to— it’s going to be good for all of us to figure this out. And so how to make the best use of every opportunity. Some people say, well, that was a coincidence, but I don’t believe in coincidence.
I believe in a sovereign God. I believe in God-incidents. And I also believe that God is constantly placing opportunities in front of his people for us to walk in them. I believe that God’s working in advance of us, and our role really is to look for where he’s already at work so we might join him there. So that we’re to look for these kairos moments, especially in the life of other people.
Life is so short. Don’t, don’t waste those opportunities. Don’t, don’t, don’t waste your life. Spend your life, spend your time with God’s wisdom. Psalm 90 says, so teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Number our days. Count your days so that you can get a heart of wisdom. What a perfect verse for my birthday.
Right now, I don’t need to count what I’ve already done because I already spent those. Can’t do anything with those. I can give them to God and say, God, thank you for those, but going forward, whatever you give me, I want to discern the kairos opportunities, the moments that you want me to do what you purpose for me to do. I want to live redeeming the time. And I think, young people, as you get older, you become more aware of this.
You become more aware of, I wonder how many more of these I have. If you see your parents once a year because they live out of state and they’re already in their 70s or late 60s or something like that, you might see them 5 to 10 more times before they graduate to heaven. You start counting, you start counting those kind of things. You go, 5 to— like, like if your mother calls you to talk to you about some stuff. My mother used to call me, and she’s been with the Lord now since 2001, and I still miss her when I think about her and her voice and her place in my life.
But she used to call me and And I was a young man, and I was so impatient. And she would call me and she’d say, hey, Gary Wayne, I love you, and it’s been— we haven’t talked since. You haven’t called me. And I’d always feel guilty, like, okay, yeah. And I’m like thinking, why are you calling me right now?
I was doing something. But okay, it’s my mom, I’m talking to her. And she’d say, well, your granny said this to tell you she loved you too, and oh, she’s not feeling good lately, you know, she’s got that thing. And start telling about that physical thing, and then she’d start telling me about my Aunt Betty, and then it’d be about my Aunt Betty’s son, and then it would be— then she’d be 3 generations over here somewhere, and I didn’t know who she’s talking about. But she would give me a complete report on everybody’s health and who was doing what with who and what was happening.
And I’m just thinking, I wish— I got things to do, Mom. But I wouldn’t say that to her. She’s my mom. And then the Lord took her home. And I remember the first few months that I would pick up the phone and dial 703-446-2819, and she didn’t answer.
And I just wanted to hear her tell me about Granny and Aunt Betty, and about— I just wanted to hear her tell me all of that. ‘Cause there’s only a few times, there’s a finite number of times that that happens.
And it’s wisdom to think about that. Not to be depressed, not to cry about it, but to take every opportunity and redeem it.
That’s what he says, redeeming the time. And then he gets real specific when he’s writing to the church at Colossae, Colossians 4:5, he says, walk in wisdom toward outsiders. He’s talking about the walk, about this lifestyle of conduct. Making the best use of the time. It’s that same turn of phrase.
It’s still redeeming the time. And he goes, when you’re with people that are outside the faith, don’t waste it. Because that’s why you’re still here. That’s why I haven’t brought you home already. I’m still expecting you to live out my purpose to declare the glory of God and the grace through Jesus Christ alone.
That’s why you’re still here. So when you’re with lost members of the family, lost people in your neighborhood, lost people at work, people that are far from God at the school, in your classroom. Don’t waste it.
Be careful about how you walk in front of them, because you are Christ’s ambassador to them. Whatever they know about Christ, they’re learning it from you.
Redeem the time.
A farmer understands this kairos time. He recognizes there’s a small window that he has to plant the crops and get it in the ground in order to bring a harvest. I found this chart. You’re not going to like it. I don’t like it.
I’m going to show it to you anyway. It’s called A Human Life in Numbers. It says that the worldwide average life expectancy is 71. In my study group this week, I was told, well, looks like you got 3 more years, Dad.
Make the best of it. Like, I need to, I need to bear down. 71, okay. Do you know that you spend the first 24 years of this, the largest portion of your life, you spend sleeping? 24 years of your life.
If you live to 71, you spent 24 years sleeping. If you live to 71, and this is a new phenomenon, this is a modern phenomenon, you spend 13.3 years looking at a screen.
Some of you are looking at Reels right now and still listening to me.
13 years of your life looking at a screen. We’re launching a new series next week called Connected. We’re going to talk a little bit about that. I’ll save that. Being sick almost 12 years.
I think a lot of that, you sort of racked that up at the end, but some of us have gotten it along the way. Working 10 years. Commuting, just being in a vehicle traveling somewhere, 4 years. Eating, 3 years. That’s not so bad.
3 years of just munching. School, right at 2 years. You say, well, I went to school for 16 years. No, you didn’t. There was just a few hours per day.
You add it up, comes out to about 2 years. That leaves you about 2 years to do what you wanted to. About 2 years to do it. Is it that bad? Okay.
I’ll just cut it off. Let’s see what we got here. Y’all like that better? Now I’m a one-handed preacher, though. That’s a problem.
I’ve been at the deathbed of people in the hospital many times. I’ve been a pastor 34, almost 35 years now. And I’ve never heard anybody say, I wish I would have answered more emails.
I wish I would have watched more reels. I have heard people say, I wish I’d spent more time with my family. I wish I’d told more people about Jesus. I’ve heard that.
I’m a pastor, so I just— I don’t play around when somebody’s been told, hey, you know, call the family in.
I go, hey, hey John, is there any unfinished business with anybody? Anybody in your life right now? Anybody you’re sideways with that you just want to get that straight before Jesus calls you home? And I’ve had people say, yeah, I need— can you help me get such-and-such in here? They— people just start thinking about the stuff that we probably should have been thinking about our whole life.
There’s wisdom in numbering your days. C.T. Studd, this famous statement: only when life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last. I think that’s true. Instead of asking, what, what do I need to get done today?
Ask, Lord, what opportunities, what divine appointments have you put in my path today? Give me the discernment to see it. So don’t merely count your days, make your days for Christ count. And this leads us to our 3rd mark, and that’s understanding the Lord’s will. Understanding the Lord’s will.
Watch your walk, redeem your time, understand the Lord’s will. Paul gets to the goal, verse 17.
Therefore do not be foolish. That’s the opposite of wisdom. Don’t be foolish. Watch your walk, redeem your time, therefore understand what the will of God is, what the will of the Lord is. This word understand literally has the idea of to put it together like a puzzle.
Like, take God’s word, pray for the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom, and help him to piece the puzzle together so that you walk in wisdom. And we can do this. We can know the will of the Lord. I have young people often come to me and say, can you pray for me? I just want to know God’s will.
And it’s usually one of those top decisions, you know, like, Is she the right one? Is he the right one? Is this the school? Is this the major I should major in? And once again, I would say, as I did at the opening, those are discernment questions, that we have God’s word to give us knowledge and to shape our way of thinking, but then we have the Holy Spirit living within us to give us discernment in order to choose not only what’s good, but what’s better and even what’s best.
And then having discerned it— this is the challenge— then by the power of the Holy Spirit to obey it, to actually do it. Here’s what Paul writes to the church at Corinth about this. He says, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. So who’s the natural person? That’s the person without Christ.
That’s an unbeliever. That’s someone without Christ. They, they can’t understand God’s word. They can’t understand this. They follow a different way of thinking.
But then he says, the spiritual person judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one. Why? Because there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so you You can have the mind of Christ. And then he quotes from the Old Testament rhetorically here.
He says, for who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? Like, nobody can understand the mind of the Lord. We can’t tell him what to do. Well, that’s true. You can’t tell him what to do.
But can you know his mind? Paul concludes, but we— do you see it? We have the mind of Christ. Did you know that? That when you have the Spirit of Christ living in you, You have the mind of Christ available to you to discern what’s good, better, best.
Right? Isn’t that amazing? That you have him walking with you and helping you to make these decisions? Which is why I think the next verse— and we stopped at 17, but Paul didn’t stop at 17. He goes on to verse 18, and he says this, Ephesians 5:18, and do not get drunk with wine, wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.
And we say be filled with the Spirit, we’re not talking about like there’s a cup that you used it all up and now it’s empty and you need to get more of it. That’s not the, that’s not the metaphor. The metaphor is instead of being under the influence of alcohol— he’s using that metaphor, isn’t he— be under the influence of the Holy Spirit. That’s the metaphor. That’s the right understanding.
And so instead of being filled with with some chemical or some fleshly or some other kind of outward influence or even your former old life influence. Be filled with the influence of the Holy Spirit. Be filled with Scripture because you’ve put it in there by reading it and hearing it preached and hearing it studied and being in a small group and being everywhere you can to get God’s Word in you, rewriting the hard drive of— so your way of thinking is new. You’ve got a transformed, renewed mind because you’ve given your life to Christ. And then you’ve got the mind of Christ living in you by the Holy Spirit so that you, you can pray without ceasing and talk to him about what you’re doing moment by moment.
And so you can live a discerning life, a life of wisdom. It’s a wonderful thing. Understanding God’s will is not the achievement of the strong-willed. It’s the fruit of the Spirit-filled life. It’s the final mark that drives us back to grace.
Saturate yourself with God’s Word where his will is revealed. Pray that God would fill you with the knowledge of his will, and then bring specifics to him and say, how would you like me to do this, Lord? And then if you’re in the moment and somebody that you’re just talking to— maybe it’s a friend, maybe somebody you’re just meeting— and And you go, how you doing? And they go, fine. But because the Lord’s living in you and he’s given you the mind of Christ, he says to you, that person’s not fine.
And you go, how are you really? And boom, they break down. You start living an adventure because you have the mind of Christ to discern what’s going on around you, what’s going on inside of other people, and you begin to to live as Christ called you to. We’ve seen 3 marks of the discerning life this morning: watch your walk, redeem your time, understand the Lord’s will. But may I say to you, there’s really only one person who ever lived it perfectly.
Think of it— that’s Jesus. So as you’re leaving here, these 3 marks are not 3 steps or 3 rungs on a ladder that you need to go work at. But there’s— they’re a gift to receive. There are 3 marks that you could— that could be your life allowing the Lord to do it. Because look at how the Lord Jesus lived.
He watched his walk with perfect care. He said in John chapter 8, I always do the things that are pleasing to the Father. He always— he never grieved the Father. He lived perfectly. He walked perfectly.
He redeemed every moment of his time. It says in John 9, we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. He, he always knew what time it was. His brothers said, you, you should go up to Jerusalem with us.
And he goes, any time is good enough for you. But he’s living according to the Father’s timing. When his mother Mary said, they’ve run out of wine at the wedding, he goes, mother, it’s not yet my time. But because he was submissive to his mother, he performed his first miracle in the book of John. He always had this sense of kairos, timing.
He always did it at the time in God’s timing. And then when it came to knowing and obeying the will of the Father completely, He’s the one in the garden on the night before his crucifixion who said, not my will, but yours be done. So he stretched out his arms and he said yes to the Father’s will. No one’s ever lived like that. No one ever is able to live like that but Jesus.
But that’s where the gospel lands. That’s where the good news lands, is having heard about these 3 marks, The Spirit of Christ lives in us when we invite him to take our lives. He comes, and when the Father looks at us, when he looks at me and he looks at you, he sees Christ in us, and he sees a life lived perfectly. And so his righteousness is credited to my account and to your account. And so when we live a life of discernment, it’s really Christ in us living out through us.
That’s the gospel. The examined life is not something— it’s not like these rungs in a ladder that we climb. The discerning life, it’s more like surrender to the Holy Spirit and to the Spirit of Christ in us. For 6 weeks, we’ve traced what a life on Christ is built like, and we’ve said it’s a surrendered life, it’s a sacrificial life, a worship-filled life, a countercultural life, a transformed life. And now we see that it leads to a discerning life so that we can know and live according to the will of God.
We can live wisely and we can live a discerning life in Christ because of Jesus. Let’s pray. Lord, I just lift up, first of all, that person that’s here today and you’ve never given your life to Jesus, you’ve never turned your life over, you’ve never said as an act of the will, I give you charge of my life, I, I recognize what you’ve done, Jesus, that you died on the cross for my sins, that I’m a sinner and I repent of that. And I believe that the Father raised you from the grave on the 3rd day. I believe that.
Come and live in me by your Spirit. Forgive me of my sin. Adopt me into your family. I want to be a child of God. I want to follow you.
Come and live in me by your Spirit so that I know how to live. If that’s you, my friend, you, you can pray that prayer right in your seat. It’s not so much the words of your mouth as it is the attitude of your heart, that you’re placing your faith in Jesus, surrendering your life to him. And if you’re doing that right now, he’ll save you.
It’ll change everything. Others are here today and you’re, you’re a follower of Jesus, but you’ve been making some decisions on your own lately. You know, you know what I’m talking about. You say, Lord, thank you that in Jesus I’m forgiven, but Lord, I want to put you back on the throne in my life right now. I want you back in the driver’s seat.
Forgive me for taking these steps without discerning your will. And the great thing is that we can, in Christ, have him redirect our path. Lord, search me and know me. Try me. See if there’s anything in me that’s grievous to You.
Set me on the path of life everlasting. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Read transcript
Hey, we’re finishing up our series called Built Different. If you’ve missed the previous ones, don’t worry. You’re okay. We’ve been taking on a different text every week. But wrestling with this idea of what it means to be built different in Christ Jesus.
In fact, what we have been arguing for is the idea that if you’ve placed your faith in Christ and you’re trying to found. If you will, build a foundation on Jesus. Your life is going to be built different. The way you think. The way you act.
The way you interact with others is all going to be really drastically changed by the fact that Christ is in you and is your joy, is, as we argued last week, is your life. And so Christ is all and in all. And we’re going to be digging into the last piece of this series today, but I want to pause for just a moment and get you to be in prayer with us this week for our teachers, for our workers. This is not— if it’s been a while since you’ve been with us or you’re new today, This is not how it normally looks, so don’t worry. This is unusual.
This week is our Kids Fest week, our week where we bring the children in and teach them the gospel, teach them a bunch of Bible stories. Last year, in fact, we had 6 young people come to faith out of the 43 that attended last year. This year, right now, we have 76 preregistered. So give the Lord a hand. That’s right.
But if you will be in prayer for us, That the Lord would really bless our ministry. That we would be able to speak truth to those kids. And that they’d be able to receive it in a way that would move them. And so if you haven’t yet registered your kids, don’t worry. We got room for you.
We think we can hit 100 before we start getting scared. And so if we break that, we’ll be scared together. We’d be happy. I’d be happy with that problem. But if you haven’t registered your children, please do so.
If you’re not volunteering yet and you know you’ve got some time this week, We could certainly use your help in raising up the next generation to know the Lord Jesus. So I’m very excited. We’re going to have a great week bringing the kids in down into the deep in our little aquarium with them. So here we go. We’re finishing up this series called Built Different.
This whole series has been based around the book of Romans chapter 12. And we’ve been taking little bites of it as we go. Today we’re going to conclude it. It says in Romans 12:1, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed then to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
And here’s the section we’re going to cover today. That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Now here’s the great news. This is a good spot for us to conclude our series about being built different. Because Really, it all hinges around whether or not we’re walking in and understanding and living in the will of our Father.
The will of the Lord. And so this idea of we can reach a place where we can discern and understand what God desires for us. What is good and acceptable and perfect. Now I found something out in my time in ministry. And I would say even longer than that.
That this is really on the minds of so many people. Maybe some of you in the room today is like, what does God want me to do next? There’s these decisions that you’re trying to make constantly. And there’s— I’ve had so many people say, I wish I could just hear the will of God, that I would know his desires for me. And the truth is the Lord wants you to know these things.
He’s not hiding from you. And he has every desire to show you this, but it requires at least for some part us to learn to discern as Paul here writes. So what is this idea of discernment? In the circles I run in, most of the time it seems like when people talk about discernment, they’re talking about this idea of like being able to read people. Like, I’ve discerned that this person’s in a bad mood.
You know. Or, I can discern that that person’s not going to be good for you. Like it’s a relational term for a lot of people. That’s true. But discernment is more about At least in a spiritual sense, it’s about seeing things as God sees them.
I like what Charles Stanley, Pastor Stanley, once wrote. He said, spiritual discernment is the ability to see life from a godly vantage point. It helps us to navigate decisions with confidence. Through his Spirit, we can better distinguish between right and wrong, good and best, truth and error. I love that last piece.
Like, As believers, we feel like to some degree the Bible teaches, and if we walk in the Lord, we’re going to see, hey, this is right and this is wrong. This is good and this is bad. But discernment is more than that. Discernment is seeing this is good and this is best. That there are things in which God has called me to that are better than other things that are offered to me.
So constantly we’re facing decisions that Scripture simply does not specifically speak to. So there’s all kinds of principles in this book about things that you’re making decisions about. Who you will marry, what job you will take, where you should live, what kind of friends you should put around you. Like there’s this stuff, there’s principles in scripture, but there’s nowhere in there, and I looked, there was nowhere in there that said, Jonathan Combs, you should ask Nicole to marry you. There was nothing in there.
Jonathan, you should probably have 4 kids and this is how it’s going to go. There were principles, but there was not specifics. So that’s the stuff we face, right? Who should I marry? Where should I go?
Where should I live? How do I respond to trials and troubles? There’s decisions constantly, and we live in a world with a lot of competing voices. A lot of competition for where you should go. In fact, where Paul is going to lead us today, he says that the days are full of evil.
There’s a constant push or temptation to do things that are not best. Now you might say you’ve come in today and perhaps for you, your difficulty is actually, I have a hard time deciding between good and bad. I am tempted to do wrong. And that’s where you’re still at. And the Lord is going to work through that today, I pray.
But so many of us in the room, the real issue is, I don’t know whether or not this is good or this is best. And that’s where spiritual discernment can come in and really guide us. The good news is God does not leave his children to just figure it out. He’s got his word for you and he’s speaking into your life. So here’s where we’re going to be.
We’re going to be in Ephesians chapter 5 today. In this section of scripture where now Paul is moving from— in the front half of Ephesians, it’s very much about teaching. Now he’s moving into what you might call prescription. These are very applicational words he’s saying from chapter— really chapter 4 on in the book of Ephesians. So we’re going to be in Ephesians chapter 5, and we’re going to see here Paul urging believers, hey, the days are evil, but you can live and a spiritual discernment that walks with the Lord.
That hears His voice. And that walks according to the will of your Father. We can learn this too, church. That we can have the kind of spiritual discernment that Paul is speaking of here. That the saints of old have had for centuries.
We can have this too. And I believe the text will show us clearly 3 marks for living with spiritual discernment. So let’s go. We’re in Ephesians 5. Just a handful of verses.
Verse 15, it picks up saying, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. God bless the reading of his word. Amen. I pray this helps you today.
I pray this encourages and challenges you where you need it. But more than anything, I think the The spirit of this verse is we have the Holy Spirit. We can walk in Him. And we can discern the will of the Lord. So I pray that’s how you experience this message today.
There are 3 marks for living with spiritual discernment. The first one’s really plain in the text. I didn’t make a huge change here because Paul the Apostle here, his wording is already very specific. I didn’t need to manipulate it too much. So here’s your first mark.
It is to watch your walk. Watching where you walk. Now that’s a weird thing to say. I mean, honestly, most of you in the room are not tripping over stuff constantly. Some of you might be.
You might want to get that looked at. You know, just there’s some clumsier people. I had the case of the dropsies when I was a young kid. Like, my parents knew, do not let Jonathan pour his own drink because he will spill it. In fact, my dad used to call us— he had nicknames for the 3 of us.
I have 2 siblings. But I was Slimer. It was Whiner, Slimer, and Gatling Gun Mouth. My brother, he’s Gatling Gun Mouth. To this day, the boy’s got a lot to say.
He’s got a lot to say. And my sister was a bit whiny when she was a baby. Y’all don’t— if you see her, don’t lay that on her. But I was Slimer. I’m likely to spill a drink at the kitchen table.
I mean, that was me. But here, this is not really what Paul is talking about. He’s not talking about being clumsy. He’s not talking about, hey, you You know what you need to work on? He’s talking about an old Hebraic kind of idiom about walk.
This word walk, I think even today we get this. It’s about a way of life. Be careful the way you live. Be careful the way you think. It’s this all-encompassing, this is how we live.
So he says, hey, I want you to look closely at the way in which you live, the way in which you move about in society, the way you think about things. And the command is in the word look. This word really means to see, but it also means to perceive, to observe, and you’re not doing it passively. He adds this word on, this word carefully.
So the Christian walk then, friends, is not this just kind of passive flowing through life. I know there might be a part of you that really just wants to Just kind of float through life. I feel that. I understand that. Like just kind of, I want to let everything roll off my back.
And there’s some positives to that way of thinking. Like I will say, believer in the room, there should be a spirit on you of joy and of peace and of hope that is without fear. These are good things. But if they draw you to a place where you’re apathetic, where you’re not looking at your decisions with care, where you’re not looking at the opportunities you have with others with careful care, then that’s in fact not very Christlike at all. It’s just kind of going through the motions at that point.
So he says, no, Paul writes, he says, look carefully. Be diligent in your work. Be diligent with other people. The way you speak to them, be aware. Be discerning about the way in which you work and speak and think.
He says, look carefully. And then he goes on to say, in the way that you walk. This is— if you could argue that one word is really the theme of all of Ephesians, I would encourage you this week, if you’re looking for something to study, go through Ephesians this week. It’s a quick read. It’s powerful.
Here’s what you’re going to find in those 6 chapters. You’re going to find the word walk. All in there. It’s perhaps the central theme of Paul’s writing. He’s saying, I want you to learn to live according to this great grace you’ve been given in Jesus.
Here’s some of the phrases from all of Ephesians. He says, I want— before Christ, this is chapter 2 of Ephesians, before Christ you walked in the course of this world, but then he goes on to say, but now you walk in good works created in Christ Jesus. Now in chapter 4, you can walk according to your calling. And then where we’ve been coming up to the section of scripture we’re in now, he says, walk now in love. Walk now as children of light.
So look carefully where you walk. Essentially, the argument of Ephesians is you’ve been saved by this amazing grace of Jesus Christ. It should cause you To walk different. It should cause you to think about things differently, to interact with people differently. The ways of this world are no longer particularly interesting to you.
Instead, you want to be as Christ was. He says, not as unwise, but as wise. That you would be introspective, if you will. You would be discerning. Now notice something that Paul doesn’t say.
He doesn’t say, watch everybody else’s walk. Now, there’s a few of you in the room, you know who you are, and if it’s your spouse, don’t jab them right now. But there’s some of us that are incredibly good at noticing where someone else is misstepping. Oh, I would have never done it that way. Like, you might be the person that’s sitting at a restaurant watching other people parent their kids and you don’t have kids yet.
I just want you to know you don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s harder than it looks, and maybe you will do better, but just be aware. Be aware when you’re in their shoes, it’s different than that. And that’s in fact not what Paul is arguing at all. He doesn’t say, hey, look carefully at everyone else’s steps and be judgmental.
Look carefully and make sure that your spouse or your kids or your friends, make sure that they’re walking in steps. Not what he says. In fact, that’s not even where you should begin in this life. It says, look carefully where you walk. Start there, friend.
Where are you going? What are you thinking? In fact, I could go to a proverb here to really make this and drive this point home. Proverbs chapter 4. It says, give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.
Do not turn to the right or to the left. Keep your foot from evil. Be careful. And it’s not mere self-examination. It’s beyond that.
This is, this is what the writer James puts. James chapter 1, he says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. Ask. What a thought. What a thought.
The Lord actually grants wisdom to those who ask. Wow. This means the Lord actually intends to share with you his will if you would ask, if you would spend time with him and say, Lord, where are you leading me? Maybe you’re not asking that question with any regularity. Lord, where are we going?
Where would you have me speak? Where would you have me go? What would you have me do? Maybe you’re simply not asking that question. So don’t be surprised when you don’t understand the will of God.
You’re not even asking for it. He says, ask if you lack wisdom. The psalmist writes in Psalm 139, search me, O God, know my heart, know my thoughts, and see if there is any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Lead me, search me, know me, guide me. Such power in just this, just in your prayer life.
Incredible power. As you’re seeking to understand and discern, to have a discerning life that knows where God is leading, it must— friends, there’s no escaping this— it must begin in prayer. And before you come to me and say, hey, I’m trying to understand this. I want to know what the will of the Lord is. And I ask you, hey, have you spent time with the Lord Jesus?
And you say, no. I’m going to say, come back later. Because I can’t help you in an area where God needs to speak. Don’t come to me and think, well, I know he speaks to you, Jonathan. Yeah, but not always on your behalf and not always in the timeframe I’m expecting either.
You know what the Lord does? I don’t know what his reasons are and maybe one day I’ll understand this, but there are times where he makes me wait and I don’t always know what the waiting is about. Sometimes I see it later and go, that was why. But I don’t always know. But if you come saying, hey, pray on my behalf that the Lord will speak about my life.
Why are you— I’m not your middleman. You already have one. You have Christ Jesus. You don’t need me, the mediator. Now, if the Lord is speaking and it’s confusing and you need to talk to me, let’s talk because I’d love to be confused with you.
I’d love to try to solve it. But this is where we begin. Lord, I need wisdom. Lord, search me, know me, guide me. It’s a beautiful picture here.
Now I know this about probably everyone in the room. If you’ve lived in a certain place for a while, you get to a certain point in your home where you can walk around it with the lights off. You get to a place at some point where you’re living in a home where you can get all the way to the fridge. You can make a meal with the lights off. You know, some of you have gotten to that place.
But if you’re anything like me and you live with other people, little kids or a wife, sometimes they put stuff where you least expect it. They put stuff in the darkness and you think, I’m just going to go through the house. Every night I have this routine, y’all. I’m normally the last one up. I check the doors.
I turn the AC down because I can’t sleep in hot, y’all. It’s just not me. I ain’t about it. And I know they’ve recently said, hey, y’all need to sleep at like 78 degrees. I said, I’d rather die.
Forget that. I’m turning it. If it has a 7 at the top, I’m not sleeping in it. That’s just me. You do you.
So I’m doing all this. I’m walking through the house. By the time I’m doing my last little bit, it’s completely dark. I’ve got all the lights off. But if by some chance the kids have left something somewhere I least expect, there’s going to be something on me that’s going to get hurt.
In fact, I’ve hurt many a pinky toe on a night like this where a piece of furniture was not where I expect. And you do that thing where you hook it. You ever done that before? Where you hook that pinky toe on something and go, what? First of all, what’s he doing out there?
Why isn’t he tucked in with his friends? And he found a doorway or a piece of furniture to hook. But we’re walking around our house in pitch black and we think we got it all together. This is the case of the human life. Do you understand this?
You think you’ve got this. You’re going through life. I have done this so many times, Lord. I’ve gone to this job. I’ve interacted with these people.
I’ve been married for 20 years. I’ve got all these kids. I know what I’m doing. And we’re walking blindly in the dark. And there’s stuff constantly moving.
Don’t get mad at God when you broke your pinky toe again. That’s all I’m saying. You’re trying to discern the will of God in the darkness. What would it look like for you instead to say to the master of the house, would you turn the lights on in my life? Please.
Because I don’t see where I’m going. And I don’t have this.
I am a mess.
And this, church, I want you to hear this. This never stops. There’s never a day when you wake up and go, today I got it. False. Today I need you again.
Turn the lights on. Guide my steps. This is what the psalmist is writing. Search me. Know me.
Guide me every day. This is why the Apostle Paul, the one writing this lesson, he says, I beat my body daily and make it my slave that I might serve you. Every single day I come under the authority of God. Turn the lights on.
The famous philosopher, I don’t quote him much, Socrates, he once said, the unexamined life is not worth living. He’s on to something there. He goes on to say a phrase that most of you have heard. He says, know thyself. Know thyself.
Paul takes this a step deeper. Not merely know thyself, but know thy Creator. Know the one who made thyself. Introspection is important, but it’s more than that. Lord, help me to walk in your wisdom and not my own.
This changes everything when I start my day in prayer and my prayers start to look a little different. They start sounding more like, God, this is my agenda that I think I need to be doing. But you’re leading. And you guide these steps. And guess what God does?
He’s so good at this. He’s going to send some interruptions. And if you’re anything like me, you get mad at the interruptions. Those are the God-given moments. I’ve got to do better.
We’ve got to do better of saying, hey Lord, show me those moments. Those moments where somebody walked in. Like, this is crazy. I know y’all are going to think I’m nuts. Because you think being a pastor is all about the people, and you’d be right, but I’m a broken man.
All right? So there are times where I’m trying to write something or I’m trying to check my email or something, and somebody comes in who needs help. And my first thought is, I was almost done with this email, instead of thinking, people are the mission. This is the brokenness. I’m not saying this is right, but this is you in You and I. I’m not alone in this, friends.
So before you go, oh man, he’s messed up. You know it too. I was right in the middle of this and then such and such showed up with great need. Yeah. God sent them.
They’re here to talk to you. They’re here to talk to you. That’s a baffling thought.
God has lined up this occasion for this moment, which is perfect to lead us to this second mark that Paul gives us. He says, Watch where you’re going. Look carefully at the way you live. And then he goes on to say, and make the best use of your time. That’s your second mark.
Redeem your time. Watch your walk. Redeem your time. This is the phrase that Paul uses here. He says, making the best use.
That is all one word in the Greek. It’s very interesting. The English was trying to get its head around this word. This simple word, exagorazo. In the middle of that word is the word agora.
The word agora means market. So it’s literally ex, meaning out of. Out of the market. He is saying that our time needs to be bought back. I don’t know if you’ve realized this yet, church.
Maybe you’ve come to this conclusion already. Your time is your greatest asset. There’s nothing more valuable on this planet than your time. You can make more money. You can do a lot of— but you cannot— tomorrow’s gone.
It’s gone. You can’t get tomorrow back. And some of you are in this place where you’re living in the past, whether it’s your greater days are behind you or you’re living in so much regret based on what’s behind you, but you cannot go back. You cannot. So time, this incredible asset, he’s saying, if you don’t make— if you don’t buy it back and make the best use of it, it’s going to go somewhere.
It will be spent. There’s no way you can’t— here’s what you can never do, church. You can never say pause. It’s not an option. I know you love it for your shows.
I’ll come back to this one. You can’t do it on life. There’s no pause button. To this, the scriptures say, make the best use, redeem it, buy it back. This means your time is constantly being snatched up.
There’s no doubt about it. Everything in this life is trying to steal Your time, and it is your job to purchase it back for something useful. He says, for the improvement of time, for the improvement of your days. Why? Because the days themselves, verse 16, he says, the days are evil.
I like what one commentator writes on this. He says, the times in which we live are evil. This means there are allurements, there are temptations that would lead you away from the proper improvement of time. That’s a cool thought. And they will actually draw you into sin.
So there is constantly something tempting you to use your time poorly. I bet you’ve already become aware of this, right? I’m not telling you something new. If left to your own devices and you’re not walking with the Lord, you will waste time. You will.
I will. We will. In fact, we will go through our kids’ entire childhood wishing for this or that, wishing that they would grow up or wishing that they were still small and missed the whole part.
Or if we’re at, you know, I’m starting to see it looks like my parents are getting older. That’s a mind-blowing thing. Like suddenly it dawns on you, wait a minute, they might not be here forever. And it starts to go, oh well, now I’m looking at this differently, but for years I just took it for granted. He says, no, make the best use.
Buy it back because if you don’t, you will waste it. This is a very common biblical thought. The psalmist writes in Psalm 90, he says, teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Teach us to look at our days and say, I don’t know how many more opportunities I’m going to have. Now, this isn’t meant— church, I’m not telling you this to guilt trip you or make you feel down today.
I’m trying to get you to think, as I believe the scriptures are trying to get you to think, that every moment of every day has such incredible potential. Such opportunities. You have opportunities right now. You have chosen. Let me say, you have chosen this morning to be with the people of God in worship.
I think that’s a great choice. You chose to use this time in that way. I think that’s a good way to use it. But you’re going to get another opportunity over lunch. Some of you are going to eat out.
There’s going to be opportunities there. Opportunities for you to really treat someone well or really mistreat someone. I used to work in restaurants. O’Charley’s. Y’all remember O’Charley’s back in the day?
They had really good bread. But anyway, I was a terrible, terrible waiter, y’all, because again, I’m pretty clumsy. So no business waiting tables. I was a great busboy. But anyway, what I discovered as working there is there’s one particular time that no waiter or waitress wanted to work at O’Charley’s.
Do you know when it was? Sunday lunch. Do you know why? Because they don’t tip and they’re mean. Now that’s sad.
That actually breaks my heart to hear. So friends, if you’re going to go out today for lunch and act a fool, don’t let anyone know you’re a believer. And certainly don’t tell them you go to church here. Don’t do that. And if you’re going to drive around in your car and act like some kind of rage monster flicking everybody off or whatever, whatever it is you do, take the sticker off please.
If you got one, take it off. I don’t want the sticker on there. I did something hilarious a couple of weeks ago, y’all. I don’t really have road rage, but I was on 95 and someone was going astronomically slow up there and it was hurting my feelings, y’all. And as soon as they finally pulled off, I was saying things in my head that I should— that I needed to repent of.
I did repent of. I was saying them up here. And that person pulled off and had an Eastgate sticker on the back of their car. I said, Lord, help. I’m so sorry, Lord.
I’m glad I didn’t catch that person, whoever that was. Oh man. Life is short. We ought to be a blessing. Every moment is an opportunity.
You’ve got several more opportunities today. There’s parents in the room. You’ve got opportunities today. Do you see? Do you really see your children?
Do you really see them? Are you just overlooking not just days, months, and years of them growing and changing? Are you watching? Look carefully. Redeem the time.
Paul writes to the Colossians when talking about best use of time. He says, walk in wisdom towards outsiders. This is what the caveat he gives to the Colossian church. He says, think about how you’re treating outsiders, nonbelievers, and make the best use of this time. A couple of thoughts on this.
Like a farmer, for instance, there’s no getting around this. Those of you in the room who are gardeners or you like to work on this kind of stuff, you know there’s certain times of year you can plant and you don’t plant most things right here in the middle of July. And this year, I don’t know, probably you’ve observed this. It didn’t matter what you planted this year, it probably dead. I mean, this was a crazy year of hot, no rain, and sometimes that happens.
But if you don’t plant, you can guarantee you ain’t going to grow nothing. You can guarantee it. A farmer who decides, I’m not going to plant my crop, is a farmer who’s going to be broke and looking for a new job. And some of us, this is how we look at life. We see an opportunity and maybe there’s even a voice in our head that says, this is it.
Hey Jonathan, this is it. This person has come in. They’re having trouble with this or that, and this is your chance. You say, ah, I don’t know if I want to talk about that at work. I don’t know if— then the opportunity’s passed and it might come back, but it may not.
Plant when it’s time to plant. I want to pop up an image for you. I don’t know how easily this is to see, but let me just talk about a few things here. Again, just to get you thinking. Do you know the global life expectancy is 71 years?
That’s pretty terrifying for some of you in the room. Are there anyone who have already crossed the 71? I had a few in the first service. All right. No one’s crossed the 71.
But some of you are coming up on it. Right? It’s getting near. And you’re like, well, I guess if I only hit the average, I got like another year or two. My dad turns 68 today.
Today is my dad’s birthday. He’s turning 68. We were writing this sermon this week. And he said, well, I guess I got 3 good years left. I said, Dad.
Lord. So I looked up the US average to make him feel better. The average US male lives to 76. The average US female lives to 81. Y’all handle stress better.
You know what it is? You vent. Men just kind of bottle it up generally and just— you vent better. You have better relationships too. Anyway, that’s a whole other sermon.
That’s a whole other sermon. But think about this. The average global expectancy is 71 and you will spend 24 of those years sleeping. 24 years. Now don’t feel bad, friends.
God made us that way. I think that’s a reminder that you think you can use your time however you want, but you will devote some of it to rest. There’s nothing you can do about it. You try to take a few days off of sleep and see what happens. You’re going to start seeing stuff.
It’s going to get weird in your life. 24 years you will spend sleeping. Here’s the scary stuff. 13 to 14 years on average we spend online. This is TVs, phones, games, and that number is rising.
It’s rising, not decreasing. You will spend nearly 12 years being sick.
I feel like I’m beating that average at the moment, but I know those late years, those late years are tough. Those final years on earth can be difficult for a lot of people. You’ll spend about 10 to 11 years working. You’ll spend roughly 4 years commuting. That one made me want to vomit.
Ugh. I hate driving, y’all. That’s not for me. I’d much rather walk somewhere. I wish I could walk to work.
Commuting 4 hours. I could walk to work. We’ll think about that.
Spend 3 years eating. Now I want to say. I want to up that. I’m thankful that there’s going to be feasts in heaven. Because I want to up the amount of time we eat.
At school, around 2 years. About 2 years of your life. If you live to 71. About 2 years of it. Is doing something like a vacation or going to see stuff.
Only 2 years perhaps doing those things you’ve been itching to do. Partially because you spent almost 14 years online. Here’s what I’ve observed, church. I pray you can hear this today. Don’t waste your life on silliness.
Don’t waste your life. I have never sat at a bedside of someone who was soon to meet Jesus, and I’ve been there for a few. I’ve never sat there and heard someone say, man, I wish I’d have spent more time scrolling. I’ve never heard anyone say that. I wish I’d have just played one more game or watched that final season of that show.
I just didn’t ever get to finish that show. I’ve never heard anyone say that. I wish I’d have worked more. Never heard anyone say that.
Not that you shouldn’t work, friend, but You know what I have heard people say almost every time? I wish I’d have spent more time with my family. I wish I’d have reconciled to my dad. I wish I would have talked more about Jesus. I wish I would have made that more of a serious center aspect of my life.
That stuff I’ve heard.
Don’t waste your life, my friend. This famous writer, he’s got a great name. His name is C.T. Great name. He once said, you only have one life.
It will soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last. One life. It will soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.
I just encourage you today, church, not merely to count your days, not merely to try to extend your life, because some people really get hung up on that. I’m going to eat better. I’m going to do better. I’m going to work out better. Those are good.
Those are good. You should take care of the temple of God that he has given you. You should take care of the body. But if you’re all about, I’m going to extend my life, but I’m not going to add value to it.
There’s more to life than this. Don’t merely count your days. Make your days count for Christ. I pray you will do this. Here is— this leads us to the 3rd and final mark that you would understand the Lord’s will, that you would understand the Lord’s will.
Watch your walk, redeem your time. And then he says, final verse, verse 17 today, he says, don’t be foolish. Here’s his command. Don’t be dumb. It’s like, that is a hard command, Paul.
You come out the gate with, all right, watch where you’re going and make good use of your time. Okay. Okay. And don’t be a fool. Uh, okay.
I don’t want to be a fool. Help me not be a fool. He says, so that then if you’re not foolish, you will understand the will of the Lord. Here’s what I think Paul is making an argument for. He’s already spent 4, almost 5 chapters saying, you have been redeemed by Christ Jesus.
You are a new man. You are a new woman. You get the opportunity to walk in love and walk in light. So watch where you’re going and you won’t be foolish if you walk in Christ Jesus. If you understand the will of the Lord, and you might be saying, well, I don’t understand the will of the Lord.
That’s not totally true, my friend. It’s not totally true. For so many of us in the room, we really want God to give us his specific will. Tell me, Jonathan, what you want me, Jonathan, to do. And God does do that kind of stuff, but here’s what he always does.
He always gives us his general will. And the problem with you not hearing his specific will is because you said no to his general will. Here’s a few things. And I know this might hurt your feelings a little bit. I pray that if it does, that you’ll be able to hear it and say, okay, what do I do about it?
If you’ve been saying, Lord, I want to know where you’re leading me. I want to know who I should— what relationships I should— what job I should take. Where I should live. And you’re asking these questions. But at no point did you make the decision to just follow God in the sense of knowing God, enjoying him, spending time with him.
Instead of, God, I just want to be in your presence. I want to know you. I want to be your humble servant. No. Instead of all that, we just, God, will you give me the answers to the test?
I don’t really want to get to know you. I just want the cheat sheet. If you’re wondering why you’re not getting his specific will, that’s the way in which you’re treating him. This life, friends, this life, I want you to hear this. This life is about knowing and enjoying your Creator.
Period.
There’s a lot of things we can do in this life that are good things, but number one is to know him and to worship him because eternity, friends, eternity is a long time and heaven is a place where where God rules as King. And is going to be worshipped. And is going to be our habit of spending time with. We need to get used to it now. This is the precursor to heaven.
The kingdom of heaven is upon us. And we need to get used to what it looks like to spend time with him now. So before you start wondering, why does God never tell me where to go? Because you don’t spend time with him. How can you expect him to tell you what decisions to make, when you’ve made the determination, I only want the cheat sheet.
I don’t want you.
I mean, I’m not a perfect father. He is. But even in my imperfection, I would never want the kind of relationship with my kids where they come to me for handouts, but they never come to me for wisdom. That would be a relationship that would really break my heart. That my kids would say, hey dad, I’m here because of what you can give me, but not, I don’t want to hear you speak.
I don’t want to hear you talk about how I should live my life, where I should go to college, what relationship. Dad, I don’t want to hear any of that. Can you just give me what I need?
Everybody’s kind of looking away. I don’t blame you. I feel it too. It’s a heavy point. You don’t get to understand the specific will of God when you’ve made the determination that you’re not going to spend time with him.
It starts there. I want to know you. I want to hear your voice. I want to see your face. I want to spend such time with you, Lord, that even if you never tell me where to go, I still am so thrilled to be in your presence.
You got to get there, friend. You and I. God, I don’t need you to give me another thing. I just need you. Are you there, friend?
You want to understand the will of the Lord? Get in that place. Lord, I don’t know where you’re leading. But I know this. I got to have you.
This is what Moses basically says when the people of God are sort of turning against Moses and turning against the plan. And God basically says to Moses, hey, y’all go on. Y’all go on into the Promised Land.
I’m not coming with you. Moses, here’s what he says to him. He says, hey, I’m not going anywhere without you. If you’re not going, I’m not going.
I pray this would be the way in which we live our life. I’m not going unless you’re going. Unless you’re leading, Lord Jesus, I’m not going. That’s what it looks like to understand his will. That it begins there and then the specifics may begin to come.
The Lord’s been favorable to me at times. There was this little girl I wanted to marry some years ago. And I used a strategy that flat out shouldn’t work. I’ve probably said this before. I said, Lord, I think I want to marry this girl.
And I did one of these. Show me in your word. Bleh. And I went to Psalm chapter 20 and it says, he will give you all the desires of your heart. I said, I’m taking that.
I’m taking that as gospel. 20, almost 20, about to be 21 years. It’s worked out. The Lord sometimes is very gracious. That was a silly thing that God decided to help me with.
But this I know, that only occurs because I’m spending ample time with him just trying to hear his voice. That he would lead me. Paul writes to the Corinthian church. He says, the natural person, they do not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are folly to him. He is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
But hear this, church, the spiritual person judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of the Lord as to instruct him? But we, hear it, we have the mind of Christ. You want to know how to hear from God? You got to be in his presence and you’ve got to access it in the sense of, Lord, I know you’ve saved me.
You’ve shown me grace. Help me to have the mind of Christ that I could hear you. He goes on. I didn’t include this passage today. Ephesians 5:18.
The very next verse of our text. It says this, do not be drunk with wine, for this is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. Now I didn’t include it because there’s a lot to unpack there. And that wasn’t my plan today to deal with that. However, he does end this thought by saying, you want to know how to discern the will of God?
Be filled with the Spirit.
You want to know what it looks like to walk carefully? Walk in the Spirit.
Praise God, He doesn’t say, hey, figure it out on your own. No, He says, walk with me.
As I close, I want to just think about one of my favorite, one of my favorite stories in Scripture. Solomon, if you go back and read about him, he doesn’t turn out so well, y’all. But he starts really well. He started great. Now I would say, if you had to choose, friend, if you had to choose, let’s try to finish well.
Starting well and finishing well would be good. But let’s try to finish well. He doesn’t finish so well. But here’s how he starts. And I really am just— I’m blessed by this.
When the Lord comes to Solomon, who’s becoming king, Solomon’s the son of David, and he’s the one that unites the kingdom, builds the temple. God does a lot of great things through Solomon, but it all kind of unravels in the end. But to start, he comes and he says, Solomon, whatever you desire, I will give it to you. Now that’s a pretty cool blank check from God. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard such a blank check.
I haven’t. That’s amazing. I don’t know what I would say, but it probably would not be as smart as Solomon. Solomon says, I want wisdom. I want the ability to discern your will for your people.
Is actually how it’s phrased in the text. I want the ability to discern how to lead your people. Give me wisdom. To which James, as we read earlier, said, you want wisdom? Ask for wisdom.
So friend, before you come to me again later saying, I want to be discerning. I want to understand where God’s leading. Please begin an ample prayer. Ask. Ask.
God, where would you lead me? Now as we close down this and come to a conclusion of this whole series, I want you to hear this truth. Everything that Paul has instructed here, we first saw in the person of Christ. What I love as much as anything about our faith is that the very things that Christ Jesus commands us to do and to follow, he himself first did. And I find that a blessing.
That we are not only obeying his command, but we are imitating Christ. I want you to hear. Here were our points today. Watch where you walk. Redeem your time.
And understand God’s will. All 3 of those things Jesus did very well. Here’s a few. Jesus watched where he walked with perfect care. John chapter 8, it says, I always do the things that are pleasing to him.
Do you hear those words? I always do the things that are pleasing to him. I wish I could say that. I want to live like that, friend. I want to live in such a way that what I do, what I say, what I think is pleasing to my heavenly Father.
That’s what Jesus said. He redeemed the moments that he could redeem. John chapter 9. I love this scripture. He says in verse 4, we must work the works of him who sent me while it is still day, for night is coming when no one can work.
There’s a time coming where our chance, our opportunity will be over. So we’re going to work hard in the moment. And then lastly, one of the most famous passages of scripture. We know that Jesus understood and obeyed the will of the Lord completely. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Luke chapter 22, he says, not my will, but yours be done.
Now, if you got nothing else today, but you could live a life that says, not my will, but yours be done, Lord, you’d start living in a discerning life. You’d really start to understand where God is leading by just simply saying, this isn’t my life. This is your life. Show me where to go.
So I pray today as we conclude this series that you might have a surrendered life. A sacrificial, worshipful life. A transformed life. And certainly a discerning life. Let’s pray now together, friends.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your goodness to us. You are not only a good God. You are a loving and merciful God. You show us such incredible grace. It’s unbelievable.
Unbelievable how much favor you have shown us. That in spite of our brokenness, in spite of our mess, you would die for us. You would sacrifice everything for us that we could be free. And you don’t leave us there, Lord. But you now encourage us to walk in faith.
Encourage us to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit that then we might know your mind. That we could have wisdom if we would but ask. And you’re leading our steps and you have a plan. You have a purpose for us. It’s amazing to me.
Not only did you love us enough to save us, you loved us enough to give us a purpose and an eternal future. It’s incredible. I recognize today that someone may have come in today and None of this is true yet for them. This is you, my friend. You’ve come in today.
Maybe you’ve heard the gospel before that Christ died for you. Maybe today though you’re hearing clearly and plainly, I need to know this Jesus. I need to know him. I need to be able to spend time with him. I need to know how to pray with him.
I need to receive this wonderful gift of salvation. If that’s you, my friend. That’s you today. You’ve come today. I don’t know what caused you to be in the building.
But this is an appointment. And there’s a There’s a reason you’re here. I pray that you would hear the Word. You would hear the Lord’s voice today and say, yes. Here’s what that might look like for you.
A simple prayer of confession that leads to a life change. If that’s you, my friend, would you pray with me this? Jesus, I believe you died on the cross for my sin. Jesus, I believe you rose from the grave and that you conquered sin and death. And that this was all to save me and set me free.
And I believe that today. Thank you. Now, Lord, give me wisdom to walk your way. To be— to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. To treat people different.
To think different. To act different. Because I’m walking in the Spirit. God, guide my steps. Help me to make decisions based on your wisdom and not worldly or human wisdom.
Lord, thank you for saving me. I pray.
Dear friend, if you prayed that prayer with me, I’m thankful today to get to be a part of this with you. I’m so encouraged. We’re praying with you. Lord, give us wisdom. So many of us in the room, we have big decisions on the horizon.
So many of us. Lord, help us to walk in wisdom. That we would hear your voice. That we would spend time with you. So that we would hear and know your voice.
And be led by the Holy Spirit. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
We all face decisions that Scripture doesn't answer explicitly. Whom should I marry? Which job should I take? Speak up or stay quiet? Say yes to one good thing, knowing it means no to another? Should I make this purchase? How do I respond to this trial or trouble? Decisions, decisions…
In a world full of competing voices, we desperately need more than information. We need spiritual discernment. The good news is that God doesn't leave His children to figure life out alone. Through Christ He gives us His Spirit, renews our minds, and teaches us to recognize His will. If you are in Christ, this life is available to you. Paul now shows us what a life shaped by that renewed mind looks like.
In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he urged believers, knowing the days are evil, to live with spiritual discernment regarding the will of the Lord.
