but we're in Ephesians 5, Ephesians 5. Paul's telling us what's expected of us as Christian soldiers, you know, because we know that this is where the book is going. It's the famous passage, Ephesians 6. We get the full armor of God. That's what we're teaching to the kids and basic training there at the Great Adventure Club. And that's where this is building. And that's what I want for us as a church, that we are soldiers. that we're not on the cruise ship, entertain me until we get to eternity, that we want to be soldiers for Christ, that we want to be active battleship. He's told us where we are. He's told us what's available to us. He's told us our foundation. He's told us our background, but we're getting towards the end where he's about ready to give us our armor. And so he has given us some detailed instructions. It's like, okay, you've been through the fluff and you've been through the things that you have to know. Now here's where it comes down to rubber meets the road, what we're doing. And we're gonna review some this morning, but in verse one, he tells us to follow God, be their followers of God as dear children. It seems like a no-brainer, but sometimes it's nice to be told the things that are even obvious. It's like, yeah, I need to know that. Follow God. Verse 2, we're told that love should be the motivation or the fuel that drives the engine. that we should use love and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and has given himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor that pleases him. And verse four goes on and tells us at the very end, but rather give thanks, that we should be a thankful people, that we should be people who acknowledge God and who he is and what he is doing and say thank you. Because he's all around us. We're seeing him move and work. He is moving and working in our congregation. He is doing things here among us. Do you know what a privilege that is to have God move in our midst? That God is in Trafalgar, Indiana with this group of people at a little church in a cornfield. What is man that he is mindful of him comes to mind, but he is here and he is using us. We need to be thankful. We need to be a thankful and appreciative people. That's the short list of things to do. Verse three, he starts with the longer list of the, some of the vital things that we're not to do. And, He starts with verse two, he says, but fornication, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as become as saints. Fornication's any sex outside of marriage of any kind, that includes pornography and everything else. And then he goes on, anything or everything that is unclean or filthy, And covetousness here, that's like, he's kind of lumped it in here together to show you that it's like unbridled lust. He's like, we're not to have that as Christians. Lust for money, lust for people, a lust for whatever it might be. He says, you're not to have unbridled, we're to have a checked and a balanced and a reigned in life. We're to be governed. It's so important that he says, let it not be once named among you. He says, this is a short list of these things. Let it not be once named among you. And praise God that God has another portion of scripture that says that such as some of you were. And we also have a God who forgives and forgets. So if we have, or if we are, that we can repent of those sins, that we can ask him to forgive us and to bring us into right alignment with him. That's the pleasure, that is the great thing of Christianity. that God loves us enough to correct us, give us time to correct, self-correct before he brings chastisement or judgment, and then wants us to get in line with him, to march in line with him before the judgment day at communion. You know, we have an opportunity to inspect ourselves, to come clean before him, name our sin, and then pledge not to do it again. We have that time. God forgives and God forgets is one of the greatest miracles he has outside of salvation. Not only gives us salvation, but he'll forgive and forget your sin, remove it as far as the east is from the west. Now I just want to read for a little bit, just so we kind of have a big arrow pointing towards a verse. That's kind of how I'm thinking about it, and so I kind of want it fresh in our mind. Verse four. It says, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. Verse five. For this we know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who has an idolatry, hath any inheritance in the kingdom have the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things come with the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. We need to be cautious about vain words, false teachers, because there's always going to be someone that's going to argue that, ah, a Christian can do that, and God's okay with that, and you're all right to do that. I mean, it's, you know, you really love her, so why do you have to be married? and all these different things. He said, it's okay to do that sin or this sin a little bit. Or God really doesn't care. He does care. And he's put it right here to say, I do care. And I want you to be right. And I want you to be in right relationship with me in righteousness. And so he does care. So don't follow vain words. Let's take it as straight as it is. Let's not weaken sin. God doesn't weaken sin anymore. Let us not weaken sin. Plus, do you just want to just get into heaven? Do you just like, as long as I squeak it in, is that really your goal for life? Do you want to be the guy diving as the garage door's coming down and you're rolling underneath, hoping it doesn't trap you in between? Do you really want to be the guy just slid in at the last minute, like, oh, I made it by the skin of my teeth? That happens. God will allow, praise God for it. Thief on the cross, kind of that way, right? You know, you're at the last minute, the last second, you know, he's able to say, remember me when you come into your kingdom? And Christ says, yes, he kind of rolls under the door and barely gets in. But is that what we want? Is that really what you want? I'm not saying this bad. Anything's better than hell, for sure. Separation from God and eternity, suffering for your sin for all eternity. That's something I think you should meditate on every once in a while. What would it be like if Christ hadn't forgiven me? That'll make you stir up and impassion your witness and your thankfulness and your appreciation for Jesus Christ. No, God doesn't want us to just roll in, or skate in, or barely make it, or come into heaven smelling of smoke, like, they just pulled me out of the fire. I was dangling over hill, I barely made it. They're like, yeah, you still kind of smell like smoke, buddy. We don't want that. God wants you to invest in eternity and for eternity. That's what he wants. He's calling you to more. And that's why I wanted to back up and go over these. He's calling us to more. He's not calling us, and I am saying that I don't want for us to be the, hey, we just made it, Christians. I want more. He's calling you to more. He's calling me to more. He's calling us to more. And he's doing that in this book. Verse seven, he continues, he says, be you therefore, be not ye therefore partakers with them. Don't partake with them. We're in the world, not of it. We're to be active and a part of it. We're not to be the Essenes who are garnered and locked ourselves away. We're to be in and amongst preaching the gospel, but we're not to partake. But we're not responsible for all churches. We're not responsible for every Christian, but we are responsible for us. We're responsible for our soldiers, this group, right? So we keep an eye out for one another. And if we have influence on others, we're to do that too. We're to be an encouragement with them. Verse eight says, for you were sometimes darkness. That is a terrifying verse. You were sometimes darkness. But now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. You were darkness, not like you were in darkness. You were darkness, but now you are light. So live or walk as children of light. We're called to more. Be followers of God. Be reflecting the light. Hide it under a bushel. No, right? No, we're to let our light so shine. It's a children's song. But man, I love it when my grandkids give me a no. No, I'm not gonna do that. Yes, instill it in them young. Keep it in us now. Hide it under a bushel, no. We're not to be hidden away. We're to be a candle on a hill. We're to be a light on a hill. We're to be like a lighthouse, right? Shining a beacon, warning them of danger, rocks ahead, death ahead. That's supposed to be our job, warning them. We're supposed to be a lighthouse, a searchlight. He's calling us to higher. He's calling us to more. He's calling us to shine. He's calling us to be like Him. He is an unapproachable light. He is such a bright light that says you can't even approach Him to it. We're to be like that. And how do you get like that? By following God. You'll be like Moses, who after being in the presence of God, comes down shining like God doesn't even know it. And it terrified the others around him to the point where they're like, cover your face. You're scaring us. Wouldn't you like to be that way where you so shine that people are like, man, I see God on you today. It kind of scares me. And it's not because you're there laying down things on them, it's just because you're so like him that they see him. And that reflection of him in you convicts them. I've heard that testimony a few times. I've seen it witnessed by someone who's just so righteous that it puts a damper on evil around them. Yes, that's what he's calling us to. Not to be the ones out yelling and screaming and pointing, Sometimes that is necessary. But just to be righteous and be living for Him. We want to radiate the light of God, the love of Christ, the fuel in the engine. So yeah, He wants us for us. He wants us to radiate because we follow Him so closely. that we are shining and reflecting Him, because we've been in His presence, we are in His presence, that we are speaking with Him through prayer daily, like breathing out and breathing in, a constant communication, that we are His soldiers on patrol, suited up on the full armor of God that He's going to give us, which is an armor of light, Paul tells us in another place. Verse nine, he says, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. proving what is acceptable unto the Lord, that ye have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather approve them. We are to know good, K-N-O-W. We're to know good, we are to know what is righteous. We are to know the truth, because this is an information war. and we're in it more than ever. We are to know what is truth and we're to expose the lies. We are to proclaim truth. We are to stand for truth. We are to represent truth. We're to speak up for truth where truth is not being spoken. We are to try to insult the truth where lies are being propagated. We are to be vessels of truth that is pouring out upon this world and pointing people towards the truth. We are to expose darkness because we are light. We are to expose it. We are to rebuke it and call it out. This is evil. We don't do that. That doesn't go on in our community. No, not here. We don't allow that in the United States even as we speak loud enough and open enough. And we're in a time where it seems like things are going on our side, where we can stand up and we have a facility to say this all the more. Though it shouldn't stop us no matter what kind of condition we are in. We are to proclaim the truth. We're to call it out. And we are to fight against evil. We are to fight against darkness. We're not to be passive in this. You can't be a passive soldier. He's calling us to action. And that's what this whole thing is building us towards. He's like, oh, come on. He's building us to this. Verse 12, he says, for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are not manifest by the light. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, sorry. For whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Some things evil does is shameful. Most things evil does is shameful. Some things evil does is hard to even mention in a setting like this. There's been times when I've had to mention close or paint enough picture that it goes over the younger one's heads that we know that we are talking about. But sometimes the light needs to speak of it and manifest that it says here, basically manifest it, make it visible. Hey, I don't think you guys understand what's going on. See this and we have to make it visible so that you know when you're aware and you see the danger that is there. I could have been down that path. That's why we gathered ourselves together. even more so as we see the day approaching because it's a day of lies and deception so that lies can be exposed and dangers can be exposed. We make it visible so that we don't go down that trap and so that we're not caught up in it because we are called to be different than the world. It's visible as exposed. See they want to remain Darkness. They want to remain behind the scenes. They want to remain like, what do you mean shadow government? What do you mean evil things? The devil's not real. He's not really involved with these things. Sure, there's a Satanist club and school, but is he really real? He sure has a fiery agenda. He's getting in more and more places. We're seeing the effects of it. So yeah, we expose it, we bring it into light and we tell it for what it is, call it for what it is. And so we make evil visible, we expose it. So that way we can resist it and we can fight it and we can say no. The coolest thing is about being a soldier for Christ, resist the devil and he flees. We are just to resist. He is used to people saying yes, following orders, because he is the prince of this world, right? We saw in verse two, they're marching to the beat of this world. They're doing what he has told them to do, the prince of the power of the air. And we say, no, he doesn't like that. But we have the power to say no in Christ. It is by the power of his strength, it'll tell us. Verse 14, it says, wherefore, he saith, awake thou that sleepest. and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. In 2 Corinthians 4, verse four, it tells us that the devil has blinded people. That's why they're the blind leaders of the blind, you know, it's like they're leading each other into a ditch, you know, and that way Jesus told us. And so if the devil has blinded people, our job as Christian is to shine the light of the gospel in their eyes. Matter of fact, in the margin of my Bible, I have a flashlight drawn with light on it. And you're like, yeah, it doesn't surprise us at all. Yeah, but it's like, that's how I remember it. It's like, I am to shine the light of a flashlight in their eye, because they're in darkness. And darkness doesn't like light. They'll repel from it. You know, a bright light, no, you don't want that. They'll yell at you. They won't seem it hard. So, but we are to do that. Shine the light of God. We're to wake them up, it says here. Awake, O sleeper. We're to wake them up. We're to wake them up and realize that you are dead in your trespasses and sin. You need the good news of the gospel. Because see, we have that power, resurrection power, to show someone how they can be from death unto life by repenting of their sins and trusting in him. Chapter one, he told us that, that we have access to resurrection power. We have the good news of the gospel. Take a dead person and make them alive. Take a lost person and make them found. Take a blind person and make them see. We have that, that is available to us and God chooses to use you and me in this. Praise God for the testimony of the Gideons who gave a man a Bible, forgot about seven, eight years. Because he had it, someone was faithful and gave it to him, he was able to go and read it and see the good news of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and come to saving knowledge of him. He had the Bible. I'm glad we get the Bible out. We are to get the Bible out. We are to proclaim the gospel. Verse 15 said, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. This means you are to know your mission. Know your mission. Sometimes I'm just amazed. When I work downtown and they build a skyscraper, I'm like, how's that happen? A house, okay, I can get. But something that big, the things that they do underground before it ever starts to make sure that the top floor has light, power, and elevator, you know, it's pretty incredible to think the organization that they have to have someone's calling the shots that we're putting this in and that in and that in for it to be able to come together and do that. And so they have to know their mission. I think some of the things that we have when you show up new someplace, or you go someplace new, or you do something new or fresh, or you walk into a church you've never been before, is like, you don't know how it flows, and you're out of touch. You're like, I don't know how this is, I don't know where things go, and you just feel like, remember the first day in your job that you've had for years now, and you go there, you're like, I'm supposed to be doing something, I'm like, what? Am I stocking shelves? What am I doing? I can remember like, you're paying me for something. And they're like, wipe this for a minute. We haven't quite figured out your job. Okay, I'm wiping. But once I knew what I was doing, I like coming in and saying, I got jobs to do today. Let's get it going. It's like, let me get some work done. Know your mission. Know our mission in Christ. If you're like, I haven't found my mission yet, then find your mission. Find what it is. Maybe it starts out with you assist someone doing something. God usually does it that way. It's kind of an apprenticeship way in that way. You partner in with a church or someone in the church who has a heart for something and you go with them and you serve that capacity. I'm thankful for the church workers and the other people that help the Great Adventure Club and have consistently for 21 years, or the Lord's Locker, or whatever else is going on that people happened to when we have RU that was made on Friday night, that the church people that were there to do it. It takes everybody, it takes a lot to do anything and everything. The Sunday school teachers, the people who have to do music and the sound and all that. It takes all of us to make anything happen here, the treasurers and everything else to make sure it's all running. We need to have that job, but we need to know our also mission. Our mission is, and our job is to reach the lost. That's the great commission that goes to all of us. Like we're all partnering in this. Now in the effort to do that, we might have different jobs, but it all comes down to us at some point in time as individuals or as a group to make sure the good news of the gospel is going forth, that we are to reach the lost. And so that should make us walk circumspectly, it says here, or purposefully. That means we live our life with a point. We're not just occupying until he comes. We're not just passing the time and burning away the days. No, we have a job. We have a job. People are dying and going to hell. When you think about that every once in a while, people are dying and going to hell. And when you hear of massive tragedies in Los Angeles, you think of it here often, you have these fires and people that die, Megan and Adam. Pray for them, they all have the flu or something right now. Megan doesn't, she's the only one. Pray that she stays, one of them stays healthy. Take care of all the others, but it'll be good for the kids around. But their next door neighbor, house burnt down. And that makes you start, you start thinking about their house. Is our house ready? Adam went out and turned off the light in the chicken coop. I don't want fried chicken. So he's like, no, you start thinking about things differently. They're like, if something happened, can we get from our upstairs down? It's like you start thinking of those things. And so let's not let something close come by us. Let's think about it now. People are dying and going to hell. You need to remember that. But you have to warn them. We have to show them, we have to make them see, we have to shine the light of the gospel in their eyes in a way that doesn't just make them all run away and retreat to the back of the cave, but has some allure to it that there's light at the end of the tunnel, there's hope. We're to do that. If we were at a construction site, and it was a day when they were about ready to test the elevator, And so they were going to drop it for the first time. They had it up at 50 floors, and that battery to drop it down to make sure it worked, make sure the brake worked, and emergency stuff was all going on. And they're getting ready to do it, and they're counting down. And as you're waiting, because you're like, yeah, who doesn't want to watch an elevator fall? You know, the sides aren't on it yet. I'd watch. You know, I'd stand there. And as you're standing there watching, you look, and you see there's two kids at the bottom of the elevator shaft playing in the sand pile. Wouldn't you run to save them? Wouldn't you yell? Wouldn't you scream? Wouldn't you do something? Stop, no, get out of there. Or as you run closer, you'd be like, well, they are having fun. They seem to be enjoying it. That's pretty good castle they got going and they had brought toys with them. Maybe they just wouldn't hear my message right now. Who am I to bug myself and insert myself into their fun and into their life? They're just going on blissfully right now. And so I can't really impose myself into their lives. That would be crude and rude of me. I shouldn't say anything. I shouldn't do anything. It's not my business. No, you would do it, right? You would do it. You would try to get them. You wouldn't think any of those things, and yet we let those thoughts stop us like they're having a good life right now. I don't even know if God's on their radar. They have money and they have a car and they have a job, so I don't even know if God's important to them. Hey, they have an elevator called death that is crashing upon them, whether they're aware of it or not. Our job is to make them aware of it in a way that they see the seriousness of it, that they want to do something. We would do that. Hate cold water, hate cold water. But if I saw a child drowning in cold water, I would get in cold water. A dog, I'd use a stick. I don't know, unless it was our dog and my wife would be beating me. But I would do, I know I might get a dog, I don't know. But I hate cold water. But if it was a child, I wouldn't care. I would get in. And I wouldn't say, well, I don't know. No, I would. If it was a fire, I would go in. We had a house fire near our house one time, and I ran down. I didn't know. I came up from the back because I cut across the woods, and I'm running in looking, and Elaine thought I was in there. She's like, where's my husband? She thought I was dead. Funny story you should ask her about sometime. But people were out. Those are stupid arguments, right? To say that you wouldn't do it. Because we would, and I know all of you would because we would love children enough. We would love someone in a fire enough that it would motivate us to get out of our comfort zone to say, hey, and look like a fool to try to warn them, right? Running and yelling, saying, help, help, help, get them out, pull out, I'm over here. We would do that. That's the same thing with the gospel. Risk being a fool to try to warn them, to try to reach them, to try to get them. I'm willing to do that. And I've got an office full of goofy stuff. I praise God for it. Because I got an opportunity to speak at the Great Adventure Club. I can go in there and lay my hands on it. Here's an example, here's an example. Build another example for this week. So I'll use that in the future. I'll have opportunity. Now I have something else. But it's taken a lifetime in building that, but build those things, do those things. Borrow my things. If you have an opportunity, speak. We would do it. We would do it. Those are stupid arguments to say because people are happy or they don't care. It's not even on their radar. They're not thinking. They're a stranger unto me and they don't know. They're people. Right? Fellow humans. We would try to save them from elevators. We'd save them from drowning. We would save them from bears. We'd put ourselves in front of a bear. Fires, cars, dogs, whatever it might be. We would put ourselves in harm's way to try to reach someone, especially like a child, but anyone. And yet the likelihood of them having a bear encounter or an elevator collapsing upon them are pretty rare compared to the threat of hell that's facing all of them, right? Because there's only two options, heaven or hell. Unless they know Christ as savior, hell is the option. It's the default option. It's the one we're all born with. Praise God for the age of accountability and God's kindness and his mercy. But once we've lived long enough and in this world enough, hell is the default setting. It's like getting your computer. It's the default background. That is where you're going as the destination. You have to go in and manually switch it over to something else. Switch it over to heaven, switch it over to God. It is the most certain thing, and so let your compassion for your fellow man drive you, move you to live a life, what'd it say, circumspectly. Not as fools, as in we don't wanna be something like, I don't wanna be a Christian, look at that weirdo, but in the sense that Now, the world might think we're weird, and they might call us weirdos, and I'm willing to be a fool for Christ in that way, but not because I'm doing silly things with my life. But to make a life that counts, that people see and people know who you are and whose you are, let it move you. Verse 15 again says, see that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. So we're to live with that purpose, a purpose to reach the lost. You're looking for your mission? Reach the lost. We're to rescue the perishing, because people are dying. They don't know it, but I'll tell you this hidden fact. The statistics are one out of one die. It's a point at a man wants to die, and after this, the judgment. Nobody makes that alive except for the few, Elisha, Enoch, and hopefully all of us, because the rapture is happening soon. But other than that, that's our destiny. Our purpose is to warn them of danger. Bridge is out, elevator's coming. We're to do that. We're to expose evil. We're to publish the truth. We're to put the truth out there and then call out evil for being evil. We are to do those things. And I think all that was to build us up for verse 16. I think this was just a giant arrow pointing to this. Verse 16 says, redeeming the time because the days are evil. I think this is what Paul wants us to get right here and now. If you underline in your Bible, this is one, this is one of those. Redeeming the time because the days are evil. When I worked downtown Indianapolis, I had a long drive. And so when I was young, it was music. Yeah, well, singing whatever, doing whatever. But as I longed for more and wanted more and grew and matured, it became, I need to redeem the time. So I listened to Christian books and sermons and things like that. And I used to listen to a lot of books that were put out by Random House, or now it's like Penguin Random House, I think they're combined together. And at the very end of all their Christian audio books, it would say, redeeming the time for the days are evil. That'd be the very last thing, because I'm one of those people, I have to listen to the end, back then it was cassettes, until the cassette quit. Elaine would stop at the end, flip it off, and it'd drive me nuts. What if there was something else? And so they would have this little verse at the end, redeeming the time for the days are evil. The last thing they would say, Audible says, thank you for Audible, something weird. But it's like, I'd have to listen to it. That's just how it was. And so I'd listen to it, but I'd remember thinking, that's true. Redeeming my drive, trying to think on godly things, trying to think on things to better inform me with a ready reason of the answer of the hope that lies within me, so I can snatch them out of the fire, even the garment, smelling like smoke, as Jude tells us. And so yeah, random would do that, so we should do that, redeeming the tongue. I did this detailed review so that we could see this better, so that we would, want to redeem the time that we have, so that we wanna make the most of the time, your Bible might say, or use the opportunity, or make the most of the opportunities of the time that you might have, or use the best use of your time that you might have. That was like the four or five major versions of the Bible, put it in those ways. Instead of redeeming the time, it might make the most of your time, or using the opportunities that are available to you. Here's the thing, we think we have this verse figured out. Okay, yeah, I got you, Brian, move on, no. Sorry. There's two ways this verse applies. One's like we kind of think it when we read it. Make the use of every moment for eternity. That's when I read that, that's kind of how it first hits me. That's how it first lands in my face. Using your time as an investment. I have only so many days left. And they're shockingly going faster and faster. Someone put the brakes on, please. It's going that way. We need to use our time as an investment. How many days are left? Don't waste those drives. Don't waste those conversations with the lost or with the saved that you have. Can we redeem them? Yeah. Can we encourage brothers? Yes. Can we strengthen one another? Do we do a foolish talking as he tells us about earlier? Are we bringing it around to like, how can I encourage this brother? And how can we talk about the Lord? How can I esteem the Lord? Go into a conversation with that mindset. I wanna build up God today. We need to make use of those chance encounters. When the guy across the pump says something to you first, you're like, oh yeah? You're ready for this track, buddy? Because here it comes. It's like, yeah, just that you have it and you're ready and you're gonna give it. You're waiting for your food. Lay your track out so it's there. Using your time. Who can I witness in here? You go in with an attack plan, you're gonna find somebody you can witness to. If you go in there not thinking about it, you're like, oh, no opportunity today. Well, you didn't look for one. Let's look for one. Redeeming the time for the days are evil. Everything. See how you can use it. Think of it as an investment. and eternity. You're sharing the gospel, exposing the evil. You're being an example. Maybe you're encouraging a Christian. Maybe you're warning about a danger. Maybe you're making sure how someone's thoughts, maybe that's off. You're off on this a little bit. Can I steer you around by God's word? God's word has said it and you kind of help them in that way. Cheer them up, be a blessing. On and on and on, we have all these opportunities with Christians and with the lost that we have a chance to stick a little bit in. So when they're desperate and they're in a hotel room and they open the drawer and there's a Gideon book that they'll say that, my friend was a Christian. They find hope in this book, where, how? If you're like me, I hope. I look forward to hearing if anybody ever, any of the ones that I've marked up, because I've marked up plenty of Gideon Bible. I've wrote the plan of salvation in there from the very beginning. Desperate, turn to page, look up the page that John 3, 16 or whatever on and then kind of map them out for them so that they can find it and it is easy. Put a track in there. If you're flipping through, you're gonna fall open on that page and then you can read it there. So many things that we could do. Put them in the drawers, leave some for the maid, anything else? We need to at least warn them that they're dying and going to hell at some point. At some point we have to say the words. It's not just like, let them see your lifestyle, that's good. At some point you have to open your mouth. How are they here except they have a preacher, the Bible tells us. So we can't just leave it, well I hope they see me. I hope they do, I hope that's enough. And we do have a testimony and the light shines before men, but sometimes we have to open our mouth. Because just saying, we have to tell them. We need to invest. We need to focus on our life, we need a direction. We need to make sure that our life is going the way we want it to go, that we are shooting towards, let's look like we have a goal, let's set a goal. Do you wanna win someone for Christ? Is that even on your radar? I'm asking you, put that on your radar. Would you like to take someone and open the Bible and show them how they could be saved? Do you know what it's like to be in the presence of someone who surrenders to their God? There's nothing like it. You're a bystander as God is dealing with the heart of a man or a woman or a child. And then they give their life over to them and see forgiveness come and watch Christ save them. We partner in that with our missionaries and your investment in me and then the schools and everything else. That's all of us. That's partnership together. You know, we are the body of Christ doing that. But do you want that? Do you want to do it? Make it a goal. That'll make you open your mouth. And be prepared. So that's one way to look at this verse. That's one way the verse is meant, to redeem the time or make sure we use the best of the time that we have left. But the Greeks, being the Greeks, which I'm glad I did not have to take Greek class when I wasn't born Greek, it was hard enough passing English. Let alone Greek that has all, it's a very specific and precise language. They have two words for time. There's time, that means the day upon day or hour upon hour, like we think time, you know, as it goes forth and how we first take this first. But now let's look at the deeper meaning. They have a Greek word for time that means a definite portion of time, a definite portion of time. What do you mean? They mean it like it's written, redeeming the time, the time. The time is, they don't just see time, the time, a definite proportion of time. The idea is, That, the time. A season of opportunity is how we best kind of defined it. You have the time, you have a season of opportunity. Are we using it? Redeeming the time that God gives us, yes, trying to use it back and use it for God's good. And then redeeming the season of opportunity that God has given you, the place that God has put you in, the season of life that you're in right now. If you're a parent with children at home, you're having a season of opportunity to invest in those children. If you're a grandparent, you have a season of opportunity to invest in your children and your grandchildren. If you are in a workplace environment, you have the season of opportunity to infect in fact, influence, maybe in fact, influence the people in your workplace. You know, if you have a church, you have a season opportunity with this congregation right now to work who you are and your belief in Christ and your encouragement in Christ in this congregation right now. We have a season of an opportunity right now. Some seasons in life, you're just getting by, just trying to survive. Other times you have a seasons where there's opportunity. Sometimes you have a season in your life where you're young enough and it's appropriate enough that it's time to start a family and you're gonna have kids. It's the season of life you're in, that's where you're focused and your attention and what a great mission field to raise a Christian family. Sometimes you get an opportunity to come to you, I have a chance to invest in a business. There's a little company called McDonald's, I don't know, should we put money, yeah, sorry. How many times, I remember, like, we've looked back and we've talked about, like, our parents, like, oh, a ranch-style house on two acres was $5,000. We're like, why didn't you build a whole place? We're like, well, $5,000 is like $5 million. You know, and so it's like, but you see that you had an opportunity, like, I could have bought two, I could have gotten this business, I could have done that, you could have made an investment. Oh, if I had only bought Atari, you know, back in the 70s, you know, there would be, you know, whatever, you know, or Apple. You all had a chance to buy a house. You had a season or an opportunity to do it, and you either say yes or no. God is telling you right now, it's like, you have a chance to invest in eternity. And now is your season of opportunity. Now is your time, like a businessman. These are the times to do it. Sometimes you get time to do things, sometimes you don't. A little more complicated version of looking at the time, but as in all things difficult, Jesus Christ helps us see it clearly. Let's turn to Luke 16. Real quick, sorry. Luke 16, Jesus gives us a parable to help us understand this. And it's gonna be a confusing parable that redeeming the time will help clarify while this is clarifying the redeeming of the time. And so it's great how the scripture works upon itself. Luke 16, verse one. Jesus is teaching, if you have red letters, should be almost all red. Verse one, it says, and he said unto his disciples, Luke 16, one, there was a certain rich man which had a steward, and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. So a steward, someone who's in charge of this man's belongings. And he's like, he's been accused of wasting this man's belongings. Verse two, and he called him and said unto him, how is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer my steward. He's basically, you better have some good answers or you're fired. Verse three, then the steward said within himself, what shall I do for my Lord taking away from me the stewardship? I cannot dig. And to beg I'm ashamed. He's like, I'm not a. manual labor guy, you know, I don't want to do that. And I'm ashamed to beg. I had my pride. What am I going to do? So verse four, I am resolved what to do that when I put out of the stewardship that they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of his Lord's debtors unto him. And he said unto the first, how much owest thou my Lord? And he said, a hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, take thy bill and sit down quickly and write 50. And he said unto another, how much thou owest? And he said, a hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, take thy bill and write four score, or 80. And the Lord commended this unjust steward because he had done wisely. He says, for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. Oh, he's talking about us, the children of light that we're supposed to be. It's a confusing story. This guy cost his employer 50 measures of oil and 20 measures of wheat because he did something unjust, right? He goes in and says, hey, just say that you owe half or just say that you only owe 80%. And so he basically robs his current employer. And yet Christ says, consider this man. Do you think Jesus wants us to rob our current employer? Do you think Jesus wants us to cheat somebody? No, Jesus is telling us the world is wiser than we are. That's not the point that he's wanting us to do. He doesn't want us to steal, lie, or cheat. While he does want it, he doesn't want us to do these things. He wants us to pay attention to when he's doing these things. That's the point of this parable. Not the what he is doing, but when he is doing it. Verse one through four. He saved these guys a lot of money. And so when you get to verse four, it says, I am resolved to do that, that when I'm put out of my stewardship, that I may be received in their houses. He's like, if I save that guy 50% of his bill and that guy, you know, 20% on his, maybe I'll get a job with them. So he used his current position to try to ensure a future job. That's what Jesus wants us to pay attention to. This guy is doing something where he is right now to make sure that he has a future reserved for him. He has opportunity, he has at least two choices in the future. That's what Jesus wants us to see. He wants us to use the current possession that we are in to make sure that our future is as good and as possible as we can have it, that we have better opportunities. Jesus is saying, use the opportunity that you have now to make yourself good and well off in the future for all eternity. Because now's the time when we do something. Today's the day when we're storing up treasures in heaven. Now's when we can invest. Now's when we can seize the moment. Now's when we can speak and win the lost. We can't do that in eternity because everyone's saved. You can't change your position because it has been set by what you did here and now. But Jesus is saying, use the current position you are in to influence your future. That's what he's pointing out in that, so that you can have a better heaven, a better millennium, a better eternity. That's what Christ wants for us. He's saying, use where you are now. Redeem the time, the opportunity you have right now for investment to affect the future. And that's what Paul's saying. Don't get entangled in the worldly things. Come out from among them. Be children of light. And that's why he says here, the world's wiser than the children of light here. Use your current opportunity. Use your current position. Don't just think, well, it's gonna die, then heaven, then things will be great. It will be better, but it could be better. And God's saying, I don't want you to rob yourself of that. Use your current opportunity to do it. Right now, it might be you're in a situation at the time in your life where it's the opportunity to find salvation. God has drawn you, and you're in a church, and you're listening to the good news of the gospel preached. Now is the time. Seize that moment of opportunity while it was there. Because no one is promised tomorrow. We're not promised another hour. Seize it. Maybe it's the time to ask forgiveness for that. Maybe it's because some of those things we listed earlier in the chapter are things you've committed and done or think about. Confess it and get it right now. Seize the moment, opportunity now to make a better future. Get those things right so that you have a better eternity with God with nothing in between you and Him and you've redeemed the time that you have, using the time to make that opportunity better for the future. It is a time now to seize this moment right here, right now to set goals for our life, to reach the lost, to be bolder in our faith, to do something for Christ's sake. Use this time now. We have an opportunity in front of us right here, right now to redeem the time, to make an opportunity for the future here and now. Determine to use your opportunity now in this, the time. That's what he's building us towards. He's gonna give us some harder directions as we go further before he even gets us to the armor of God. But he is saying now, seize the moment. Be aware of the time we are in. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying. Make an influence, make an investment. Maybe you're like, I don't have the time or the money or my health is gone now. Then you put some money in behind it, put some prayer in behind it, give it in that way. Invest in those things a hundred different ways. God has made us creative. And he likes it best when we are creative. So think of some creative way that you can do it. Maybe there's some new thing, new way. that you can make a tweak and take the gospel and spread it forth. Amen. I look forward to seeing what God's gonna do, but what an opportunity. The time is now.