Take Time for Your Calling!

Stewardship Sunday, 11/8/09
Ephesians 5:8-20


Take Time for Your Calling!
I. Your calling to light
II. Your calling to love


It’s no secret that we’re on the verge of entering the absolute busiest time of the year. Within days people will race from one day to the next, from one activity to the next, as they prepare to celebrate first Thanksgiving and then Christmas with family and friends. And getting ready to spend time with your loved ones isn’t even the half of it. It’s all the other things that go along with the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas, especially Christmas. I’m not even going to ask you to make a mental list of all the things you’ll be doing in the next 7 weeks, just 49 days.

But when January rolls around, will you look back on the holidays with a little regret? Probably so. And most of that regret will have to do with the way that you spent your time or used your time here in November and December. If only you had taken the time to do this or that. If only a certain loved one had taken the time to be with you. If only you had done this instead of doing that.

And in the middle of it all, you’ll hear mental health experts urging you to take time for yourself. The pressure of the season will build to a point that many people will become completely stressed out and unable to enjoy the season. The solution, these experts will say, will be to take time for yourself.

Today we have the opportunity to hear advice from a different expert about how to use our time. In fact, it’s advice from the One who created time itself. We have the always reliable words of our loving God before us. He speaks to us about our time through his inspired Apostle Paul in the Letter to the Ephesians. We heard those words earlier. And one of the things our God is urging us to do on this Stewardship Sunday is to take time for your calling. Take time for your calling, your calling as a child of God. Let’s see what that means as we take our God’s advice to heart.

Part I.

It’s been said that there’s nothing worse than trying to deal with a liar. There’s probably quite a bit of truth to that statement. That’s because your relationship with that person, no matter how shallow or deep, is built, at least to some degree, on lies. And that only leads to frustration and disappointment.

Paul speaks about a much worse situation involving lies in the opening words of our text, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Many of us probably don’t recall living in the darkness of unbelief, but the Ephesian Christians did. Many of them had lived for decades in their heathen beliefs. They lived under the lies of their false gods who offered them the lie that they could attain life in heaven through their heathen rituals and sacrifices.

And just as bad, their heathen “faith” allowed them to live their heathen life. Paul reminded them of their fruitless deeds of darkness. He spoke about shameful deeds done in secret, things so sinful he didn’t even want to mention them. He mentions drunkenness. These deeds were a way of life for the Ephesians prior to their conversion to Christianity. They were convinced that the purpose of life was to indulge in and enjoy these deeds of darkness. They were living a lie. They weren’t heading to an enjoyable afterlife. They were heading for eternal death in hell.

But now they were enlightened. Paul reminds them that they are now “light in the Lord.” Through the preaching of the good news about Jesus as the Savior, the Holy Spirit had worked saving faith in them. They were now spiritually enlightened. They knew, first of all, who the true God was and, secondly, that forgiveness of sins and eternal life were theirs through faith in what Jesus had done for them. Those are rock-solid, divine truths which lead to eternal blessing, not lies that lead to eternal damnation. We believe those same truths for our eternal life.

And that faith about eternal life impacts the way we live our lives now. Our God helps us see through his word that sin doesn’t bring God’s blessings; it only brings us heartache and frustration. If you play with fire, you’re going to get burned sooner or later. The same holds true with sin. Nothing good ever came out of it, no matter how much we might try to convince ourselves that it will. Obviously the Ephesian Christians were having trouble with that and that’s why Paul urged them repeatedly not to live like they used to. Instead, live as children of light.

Have you ever watched a loved one leading a destructive lifestyle? That’s so difficult to observe, isn’t it? Perhaps you’ve even attempted to intervene, to no avail. They won’t listen to you or anyone else. And they keep living in their sinful ways and bring nothing but harm to themselves and others. It gets to the point that you simply have to put it out of your mind in order for you to get on with your life.

How frustrating it must be for our God when we, as children of light, gravitate towards deeds of darkness. Daily we reason that we can indulge in this or that sinful behavior or we can harbor this or that sinful attitude. We think we can be selfish, resentful, controlling, materialistic, jealous, and still be spiritually OK—at least, that’s what we tell ourselves. After all, what’s one more sin among so many? Stop for a moment and recognize that type of thinking for what it is. That’s believing Satan’s lie that sin will bring us happiness. It’s the same lie he used in the Garden of Eden, and look what happened there—a world of suffering, pain and sorrow. You are a child of the light by God’s grace. You have a relationship with the holy God based on your faith in Jesus’ life and death on Calvary’s cross which paid for your sins and mine. But we still deal daily with our sinful natures which gravitate towards deeds of darkness. Take time for your calling! Paul urges us to use the light God has given us to look at our lives as he does, to recognize what is good and right and what is wrong and evil. And then, with the power God gives us through his word, turn from sin and towards the life God has called you to. Take time for your calling, your calling to the light.

Part II.

Do you believe in love at first sight? I know some people do. They claim that the moment they laid eyes on a person, they fell in love with them and knew that this was the person with whom they would spend the rest of their lives. Other people claim that simply isn’t possible. How can you truly love a person you don’t even know? They claim that love takes time. You need time to get to know the person because you love what’s inside a person, not necessarily what’s outside a person. And to know what’s inside takes time.

Love takes time. I realize that a mother instantly loves her newborn child, but that’s a love that has been developing for 9 months. Couples who are happily married will tell you that their love has grown over the years. One of the reasons couples aren’t happy in their marriage is that they fail to take time for one another. Love takes time.

And the same is true of your relationship with the God who has saved you. It takes time. They are no shortcuts. You can’t buy a plastic card that’s loaded with minutes with your God. If you think you can avoid time with God now with the intention of making up for it later, you’re only going to find that your relationship with him will suffer for it. And the only way you can deepen your relationship with your God is through his word and sacraments. In a very real way, you get out of it what you put into it. Push your relationship with your God down on your priority list and the relationship will suffer. It’s just that simple.

That’s why Paul encourages us, “Be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.” He mentions psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Do they sound familiar? Undoubtedly Paul is speaking about worship. He’s encouraging the Ephesians to gather together for worship. That’s the way they not only show their love for their God, but also their love for one another. Your presence here in worship says to me, “I care so much about you and encouraging you in your Christian life that this is a high priority in my life.” That’s showing love to others. That’s what your God has called you to do.

It’s also the highest form of love for your family. A pastor once said, “If you want to do something meaningful for your family, make sure they worship with you. The benefits are eternal. The rest you do for them only lasts for a lifetime.” How true that is. But that kind of love for your family members doesn’t merely happen without any effort or thought. It takes Christian resolve. It takes spiritually enlightened guidance and motivation. It takes knowing God’s will and the power to accomplish it. That all comes through God’s word—the very focus of our worship each and every time we meet together.

Take time for your calling, your calling to love.

Prior to the recession, many people claimed that they had more money than time. Time had become their most precious commodity. Maybe that’s still true for you. Time is precious to us. Once it’s gone, we can’t get it back. And if we don’t use it properly, we suffer for it.

By his grace your God has given you time on this earth as his child. He has turned you around from heading for a life of eternal suffering without him to headed for a life of eternal bliss with him. He accomplished that through the work of his Son, your Savior and mine. Jesus showed his astounding love for you and me and every sinner when he took the punishment for our sins on himself and died for them. Now we are God’s children by faith in him. That’s our calling. And that calling involves building our loving relationship with our God and others. That takes time. Out of love for God and others, give that time! Spend that time! The blessings you’ll receive in return are out of this world. Amen.