Hurry Up and Sing Ephesians 5:15-21

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1 Hurry Up and Sing Ephesians 5:15-21 We can live in the illusion that we have time to spare. This is our culture. We can live in the reality that every moment is an opportunity in the midst of evil. We are at war. This leads to an entirely different perspective on our behavior. Not just what does God allow but what is wise and effective. The go-to answer: Love God and His church. Sudden Urgency at Work Going from Marathon to Sprint. Time is Short. Every moment counts. The Danger is real. We have go. There is a limit to how long I can sustain that pace. Unsustainable Urgency We see that kind of energy in life at times. At times we know life is short. Or where we know what is really important and we lean into that. But we can go weeks and months or years in a fog. Letting life happen to do us, or doing everything we can to distract ourselves from it. Where is our sense of urgency and what are we supposed to do with it? God s Urgent Days Ephesians 5: Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

2 Urgency because the days are evil Often in the Bible, the sense of urgency is tied to the return of Christ. This is a different sense of urgency. It is the urgency of war. Because the days are evil. Walking as wise vs. unwise Picking up on walking in a manner worthy of your calling from 4:1, this is kind of a crescendo in the latter half of Ephesians. A Great Summary. Now, piling on top of old self vs. new self, light vs. dark, we have 3 contrasts. The first: wise vs. unwise. The wise are those who not only know the truth, they live it. They have right knowledge applied rightly. In contrast to the Gentiles whose thinking is empty and futile. Foolish vs. Understanding not as foolish but understanding the will of the Lord. Seeking to understand. Searching out and knowing and then living the will of Jesus. The context of will of the Lord throughout Ephesians is less about personal daily guidance like Oh Jesus, where shall I park my car today and Jesus says I saved you a spot near the entrance. It is the salvific saving will of God that has already rescued and redeemed you and remade you and remade you for the purpose of righteousness and holiness. That is, His will is already known, the scope of it, the boundaries of it, the shape of it and the sacrifice of it, you are to understand and LIVE IT. In fact, it is often foolish, given how much of the will of God is already revealed, to pretend as if we are seeking God s will on certain matters. God should I love my neighbor? That s foolish. Yes. Understand it and live it. Should I care for those in need? Drunk on wine vs. Spirit The final contrast is the big one. First because it is often pulled right out of context as a fun little proof text verse. And second, because this last comparison is going to spin on for the next many weeks. Do not get drunk with wine. So clearly beer is okay and whiskey is best! Okay, no. This verse has often been used to say that Christians should not drink alcohol. But it stands in tension with a HUGE number of verses where wine is a symbol of the joy of life and a gift of God. Drunkenness however is associated throughout the wisdom literature with foolish and unwise behavior, which makes a great parallel with the previous two contrasts. Furthermore, the tense of the verb implies on continuous ongoing behavior, something like Stop constantly getting drunk on wine. And that powerfully sets up the next contrast he is going for. Instead, drunk on the Spirit (by the Spirit) Being filled by the Holy Spirit. Maybe with the Holy Spirit, but there s a strong case to be made for by the Holy Spirit and the content with which we are filled is the fullness of Christ mentioned earlier. It parallels how you are made drunk by wine, but it then leads to or is filled with debauchery. This is the parallel. So, get drunk on the Holy Spirit! That s quite an image.

3 Not drinking spirits but Spirit! And the result of the filling by the Holy Spirit are five activities you get to participate in. This again, has the participative element. There is the divine activity: God saves you, redeems you, he really fills you with the fullness of Christ, by His Holy Spirit. But you apprehend that, you respond, and here you respond with these activities: Speaking to one another, singing and making melody to God, giving thanks to God, and submitting to one another. Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs Horizontal component. Singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart Giving thanks always and for everything To the Father, in the name of Jesus Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ I am going to give this one a bit of short shift. I mention it now because it doesn t start a new paragraph, it is one of these results of being filled by the Holy Spirit. Even cutting off the next verse I am stopping in the middle of a sentence. But this verse kicks off in detail the whole next section which is going to dive deep on applying this submitting to one another. But at the very least, this is another act of horizontal connection. An act of mutual love. So instead of being unwise, foolish drunks, be wise, Spirit-filled knowers-and-doers of the Lord s will. And because you re Spirit filled: sing together, sing to God, thank God and submit to one another. Life is too short and too broken t do less. There s No Time, Life Sucks Your days are numbered Your days are evil There is a time urgency. You know that. We constantly hide that fact from ourselves but it sneaks up on us. Here is a sad thought I read the other day. One day your parents set you down and never picked you up again. And our days are evil. Not just a political statement though it could be that. Not just a statement of moral decay though it could be that.

4 We are citizens of the Kingdom of God but it is very clear that we live in a Kingdom of darkness. We live in a shattered world. A broken world. One full of sin and darkness. And this isn t a passive thing. The days are evil. A Company Pulling Together The beautiful thing about crisis at AlphaTRAC is everyone pulling together to do amazing things. There is energy. There is fight in us. There is a commitment to victory. There is focus. There is a setting aside of foolish and frivolous things for the sake of the prize. There is urgency. And that is for a little bitty prize. A Community Pulling Together In our limited time. In our evil days. We pull together. In light of what we are facing God has planted us here and called us together and is shaping and preparing us for victory, for the prize. And Here is what I love. The contrast is so HUGE. It isn t DO MORE. It isn t Finish the product for Jesus. Radically different. Let s get drunk on the Holy Spirit. Fill up on that. There are a million people looking forward to 5 oclock somewhere to drown their troubles away. To achieve a shadow of joy. A distraction. To slow their brain down enough that the night kind of disappears. I know the joy of a beer at the end of a hard day. A glass of wine with a great dinner and good friends. These are beautiful gifts of God. But a far cry from a pattern of drunkenness that seeks to fog the days and feign joy. We have a better choice. Be filled by the Holy Spirit, maybe with the Holy Spirit, maybe with the fullness of Christ. And that leads to so much as a result. There s no time, LET S SING! Life sucks, LET s SING! Let s sing at one another. Here s a challenge, maintain eye contact with someone across the church for one whole worship song. Let s radically connect in music, in art form, in worship, horizontal and vertical. There s NO TIME, the Days are EVIL, Let s Sing. There s no time, life sucks, let us give thanks! For everything. For everything? The bad stuff? It s not good, but God can use that too. There s no time, life sucks, let us submit to one another. We are going to talk about this last one for WEEKS. How it applies to wives and husbands and parents and kids and masters and slaves. It s a good one. But we see this horizontal and vertical elements. Community of Opportunity There s no time. Life is short and we know that. This world is temporary, and we know that. Life sucks. The days are evil and they aren t getting better. We are light, but it is light in the midst of darkness. We are salt, but salt as a preservative slows the process. There is no fix besides God recreating the Universe, and that is what He is going to do. In the meantime, the days are evil. Life sucks. We respond as a Community of Opportunity. We grab hold of the fuller life that God has already created within us.

5 We experience that in worship, so in the midst of our urgency and darkness, we respond by worshiping more! Connecting with God. Connecting with each other. Loving and thanking God. Loving and serving one another. And there s no time left. So LET S SING!!!