Choose Wisdom
Today we honor Mothers. We do so for a variety of reasons. Mostly we do so because of their love for us and because of their wisdom.
They aren’t always wise!
Consider Mrs. Monroe who lives in Darlington, Maryland. She’s the mother of 8 children. She came home one afternoon from the grocery store and walked into her home and everything looked pretty much the same, though it was a little bit quieter than usual. She looked into the middle of the living room and 5 of her darlings were sitting around in a circle, exceedingly quiet, doing something, with something in the middle of a circle. So she put down the sacks of groceries and walked over closely and looked and saw that they were playing with 5 of the cutest skunks you can imagine.
She was instantly terrified and she said, "Run children, run! Each child grabbed a skunk and ran, in 5 different directions. She was beside herself and screamed louder, more frantically, with great gusto. It so scared the children that each one squeezed his skunk! As the writer put it, "Skunks don’t like to be squeezed!"
Mostly though, mom is pretty wise. Wisdom is a matter of chosing well in life.
Paul says it this way: Ephesians 5:15-21
Eph 5:15 ISV So, then, be careful how you live. Do not be unwise but wise,
Eph 5:16 ISV making the best use of time because the days are evil.
Eph 5:17 ISV Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
Eph 5:18 ISV Stop getting drunk with wine, which leads to wild living, but keep on being filled with the Spirit.
Eph 5:19 ISV Then you will recite to one another psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. You will sing and make music to the Lord with your hearts.
Eph 5:20 ISV You will always give thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Eph 5:21 ISV And you will submit yourselves to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Be careful How you live - Don’t be unwise but wise
Eph 5:15-16 ISV “ So, then, be careful how you live. Do not be unwise but wise, making the best use of time because the days are evil.”
He begins by saying "Make the best use of time"
The word "Time" = kairos, or the critical moment. Redeeming time means to make the most of each moment.
Chuck Swindoll offered this illustration of it’s importance. He said, "Let’s play ’Let’s Pretend.’ Let’s pretend that your banker phoned you late Friday night and said he had some very good news. He told you that an anonymous donor who loves you very much has decided to deposit 86,400 pennies into your account each morning, starting Monday morning. That’s $864 a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.
He adds, "But there’s one stipulation... you must spend all that money that same day. No balance will be carried over to the next day. Each evening the bank must cancel whatever sum you failed to use."
With a big smile, you thank your banker and hang up. Over that weekend you have time to plan. You grab a pencil and start figuring; $864 times 7 equals over $6,000 a week... times 52. That’s almost $315,000 a year that you have available to you if you work hard to spend it all each day. Remember, whatever you don’t spend is forfeited.
So much for ’Let’s Pretend’. Now let’s play ’Let’s Get Serious.’ Every morning Someone who loves you very much deposits into your bank of time 86,400 seconds of time ---which represent 1,440 minutes ---which, of course, equal 24 hours each day.
Now you’ve got to remember the same stipulation applies, because God gives you this amount of time for you to use each day. Nothing is ever carried over on credit to the next day. There is no such thing as a twenty-six hour day. (Though some of us wish there were).
From today’s dawn until tomorrow’s dawn, you have a precisely determined amount of time. As someone has put it, "Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you want to, but you can spend it only once."
Every thinking person has goals and dreams he longs for, plans for, and even begins to reach for.
Sir Walter Scott’s last words written in his diary were, "Tomorrow we shall...." But there was no tomorrow for him. He died with good intentions to accomplish a certain goal -a goal that he never attained. Most people never make it.
Yet there are many people who fall short of their goals simply because of limited time or opportunity. And that is why it is always important to get busy and do the right thing immediately.
Let me give you Two rules for wise living. They were guidelines I learned from my Grandmother. She said, "Never delay that which needs to be done today."
and "Do the heavy lifting first" Good rules for good living.
Paul does not end his advice about wisdom here. He says "Do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is, Stop getting drunk with wine, which leads to wild living, but keep on being filled with the Spirit."
Stop getting drunk with wine. Now, I’m probably going to have some of you upset with me but I don’t enjoy country and Western music - especially the old twangy kind.
James Schaefer of the University of Minnesota did a ten-year study of a bar in Missoula, Montana. (He followed it up with a three-year study of 65 bars around Minneapolis.) His startling conclusion: country-western tunes and alcohol go together.
He found that the lyrics tend to be sad laments about love gone sour, personal freedom, and solace found in the bottle. "Particularly powerful drinking inducements" are songs that "celebrate heavy drinking by making heroes out of drunkards."
Dr. Schaefer heads the University of Minnesota drug and alcohol abuse program. His studies found "slower music went with faster drinking," adding, "Hard drinkers prefer listening to slower-paced, wailing,
lonesome, self-pitying music."
His conclusion: "No doubt about it, country and western can be a prescription for trouble among people with little self-control."
If you don’t believe this is true consider the following top ten list of real song titles and lines from Country Western Songs. (Read like reverse order)
Top 10 List
1) If My Nose Were Full of Nickels, I’d Blow It All On You
2) I’d Rather Have A Bottle In Front Of Me Than A Frontal Lobotomy
3) If Love Were Oil, I’d Be A Quart Low
4) My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend, And I Sure Do Miss Him
5) If The Phone Don’t Ring, Baby, You’ll Know It’s Me
6) I’m Just A Bug On The Windshield Of Life
7) I Fell In A Pile Of You And Got Love All Over Me
8) I Don’t Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling
9) You Done Tore Out My Heart And Stomped That Sucker Flat
10) How Can You Believe Me When I Say I Love You When You Know I’ve Been A Liar All My Life?
Without a doubt alcohol is a depressant. The Spirit of God is a stimulant! Alcohol brings out the worst, the Spirit brings out the best.
Alcohol leads to debauchery, making us animal-like,
while the Spirit makes us more human, which is to say, more like God!
That’s Why we are tol to "Be filled with the Spirit" Let me share with you four simple facts about being filled with the spirit of God.
First: It is a command, not a proposal.
Second: It’s addressed to everyone. You don’t have to be a preacher or super spiritual.
Third: It is in the passive voice. This isn’t something you control. It is something you allow to happen. You give control to God. Maybe that’s why it’s so tough.
You "Let the Spirit fill you." There is no technique or formula. In fact the parallel passage is in Colossians 3:15 - When you let Christ’s word dwell in you richly that’s how you let the spirit fill you. Stay in the word of God. Stay connected to him. We need church and Home Groups.
Fourth: It Describes a continuous action, rather than a single one. Filling is ongoing and it needs to be. Why? Because we are leaky. We’re cracked containers. The spirit leaks out. We leave church full but given a couple of days and we’re empty again. We need to be filled on a regular schedule.
Now understand this. We are sealed with Spirit of God for eternity by the blood of Jesus. You can’t add to it or subract from it. It’s over. It’s complete. It has to do with the cross of Jesus Christ. That’s being sealed. Filling is different - its every day!
When we are filled with the spirit instead of being drunk with wine there are very definite results. That is what the rest of the chapter is about.
Result #1: There is a different kind of singing! And it’s not country western! We sing to one another - that’s hymns. We sing to God. That’s Psalms, spiritual songs.
Result #2: There is a different kind of attitude. There is an attitude of giving thanks and of joy. We give thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
I heard a story about a little boy in grocery store with his mother. He asked her repeatedly and loudly through the store for cookies. Everyone in the store was aware of this little boy and his poor weary mother.
Finally they arrived at the checkout counter to the relief of all present, when the little boy said in his loud outside voice “In the name of Jesus Christ, please buy me some cookies”. The others in the store bought him cookies – in all he got 28 boxes!
We give thanks for what we’ve already received - not to get! We already have the blessings of abundant life!
Third Result: There is a different kind of relationship with others. It is a relationship of submission.
It’s not about who’s first. It’s not about your rights. It’s captured in a simple phrase that you need to say to your self very often. "I’m third". God is first. Others are second. I’m Third.
Turn to someone near you and say it... "I’m Third. Now remember that all day.
Submit yourselves to one another out of reverence for Christ and see the difference that it makes in your life.
It all comes from choosing wisdom. And you do thay by - are you ready for it? - Choose Jesus. Choose him today and every day and you have chosen well.
