“Be Careful How You Live”

Scripture Lesson: Ephesians 5:15-20

"Focus on Violence/Abuse"

Sermon Transcript for February 1, 2009

By Pastor Andy Kinsey

“Be very careful, then, how you live…”

- Ephesians 5:15

Prayer of Preparation

O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable unto you, our redeemer, refuge, and strength. Amen.

The Message

One of the most well-known, if not famous, television dramas of our time was Hill Street Blues. Do you remember it? Great show! Great characters! Great writers! If you remember the show, you will recall how Sergeant Esterhaus would end the daily briefings before the police would hit the beat. Before closing the briefing, the Sergeant would say, “All right, anything else? If not, be careful out there!” And off they would go!

Who knows what they would encounter!? Drug dealings, murder, theft, arson, gang violence – you name it! The Sergeant knew his detectives and police would encounter all kinds of things on the streets. And they did!

Be careful out there!

In some ways I think what Sergeant Estershaus was saying is similar to what we do at the end of the worship service when Pastor Bob or Pastor Jenothy or I share with the Benediction. The Benediction or Dismissal with Blessing or the Sending Forth – is the moment we share words of comfort and assurance before scattering into the world. “Go in peace!” “May the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” “The Lord bless you and keep; the Lord make this face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.”

The Benediction is simply that “good word” to us as we depart this place; that word of promise to us, knowing that when we leave we will encounter the challenges of the day; we will experience all kinds of things once we cross the threshold of the church door – good and bad.

I don’t want to assume, but I hope we don’t see the Benediction as that moment at the end of the service when we are looking at our watches saying to ourselves, “Whew, I am glad that’s over.” “Well, it’s about time.”

Instead, I hope we can see the Benediction as words of assurance, words of blessing, or words of comfort: that we are not sent out of this place to face the world on our own, but rather, we are sent out of this place with the blessings of God’s Spirit upon our hearts. We are not sent out of this place with no hope, but with the assurance of God’s presence in our lives, knowing there is a great deal to challenge the Christian life and witness, knowing the days are evil (Eph. 5:15b). [See Lee Eclov, “Let Us Stand for the Benediction: Reclaiming the Lost Art of Blessing,” Leadership Magazine (Winter 2009), p. 37.]

Issues of the Day

I share that bit of insight because, over the course of this sermon series, we are addressing issues that challenge the Christian life – issues that cause us to reflect on racial hatred and healing, on relationships in marriage, on taking care of the environment, and, today, on violence and abuse in families. We are taking a moment to look at how the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, not only converts us to the Christian life, but also how it provides the pattern for living the Christian life [See James C. Wilhoit, Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), p. 16].

The Christian life takes on a specific kind of shape, a distinctive way of behaving, especially in the face of violence and abuse.

As we spoke last week when speaking to relationships, the Christian life is to be characterized by virtues, by living out and, indeed, living into the very character of Christ. God’s Spirit brings forth and forms in us these virtues, as we grow more and more like Christ.

How difficult it is, then, to live the Christian life when we contend with matters of violence and abuse!

Nothing is more upsetting and disturbing than confronting the horrors of evil in our own families, than dealing with matters of distrust and betrayal

I share this knowing full well the pain and hurt associated with violence and abuse. We are touching upon a topic many would rather avoid.

And yet, if we as the church cannot raise awareness about and find meaningful ways to speak to the issues of violence in our society and in our families, then I really see know reason why we waste our time and energy here on Sundays! The gospel addresses all of life, and, hopefully, out of our forum today, we can find creative and meaningful ways of partnering with and giving support to those who help in this area.

Therefore, the commandment to be careful how to live is not simply a call to be nice! Rather, it is a call to remember there is a difference between living “wisely” and “unwisely” (Eph. 5:15). There is a difference between living a life of “drunkenness” and a life of sobriety (5:18). There is a difference between living a life of “foolishness” and a life of “thanksgiving, a life “filled by the Spirit” (5:17).

There is a difference, as the apostle shares throughout this passage, between living faithfully and unfaithfully…

Between putting off the old and putting on the new,
Between speaking falsely and speaking truthfully,
Between getting rid of bitterness, rage, anger, slander, and malice
And being kind, compassionate, and forgiving (Eph. 5:1-7),

That’s the point this apostle drives home: because the days are evil, there is a need to understand the importance of living carefully, wisely, soberly, and thankfully. There is a need to live attentively to what God is doing. There is a need to allow the Spirit to fill us with the very love and peace of Christ!

This is the point the apostle wants to make: in a world where sinful behavior seeks to gain the upper hand, every opportunity to speak healing matters! Every opportunity to speak truth matters.

Now, I share this because as I have heard it said over the years that the church no longer speaks of sin. It doesn’t address evil.
To be sure, there is a great deal of truth to this – although what I want to share is not that we don’t address sin anymore; I think we do. Rather, what I want to communicate is that we don’t seem to do so wisely; we do so vaguely. We will say things like “We are all sinners.” True! We are. We all have sinned, and we all have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). That’s biblical. But what we don’t seem to know how to address are the specifics of sin – the denial, the deceit, the manipulation, the rationalization, the justification of harm.

For when it comes to dealing with violence in our families (and we are not talking here simply about physical violence but also emotional and psychological violence), we are dealing with particular kinds of behavior – most notably the abuse of power, especially over those who are not capable of defending themselves.

I believe this is why our passage is helpful. It says we need to understand what God’s will is. It is says we need wisdom to discern what is going on, what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad. It says we need our wits about us to speak truthfully and honestly – to those who suffer from such violations and to those who commit such violations. The gospel has a word to say to both!

That’s why we need to be careful how we live! There are too many spirits telling what is good and what is bad. There are too many other voices telling us to keep our minds on things out there that we don’t attend to matters in here!