TITLE: Oh
Be Careful Little Eyes What You See TEXT: Ephesians
5:1-21
Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see, (repeat)
For the Father up above, is looking down in love,
Oh
be careful little eyes what you see.
Oh, be careful little mouth, what you say, (repeat),
For the Father up above,
is looking down in love,
Oh be careful little mouth what you say.
Oh, be careful little hands, what you do (repeat),
For the Father up above, is looking down in love,
Oh be careful little hands what you do
Oh, be careful little mind
what you think (repeat)
For the Father up above, is looking down in love,
Oh be careful little mind, what you think.
ILLUS: In the 1950s, the conventional wisdom of the day was that crime was
caused…
…
by a person’s environment (how/where they were raised, how poor they were, etc.)
A psychologist by the name of Stanton Samenow,
and a psychiatrist named Samuel Yochelson,
who believed that very philosophy…
…and so they began a 17-year study
involving thousands of hours of clinical
testing
of 250 inmates in Washington D.C. to prove it.
To their astonishment, they discovered that
- the cause of crime cannot be traced to environment, poverty, or oppression of criminals
- Instead crime is the result of individuals making, as they put it, wrong moral choices.
In 1977 they
wrote a book where they documented their research (The Criminal Personality), and they concluded that the answer to crime is a “conversion
of the wrong-doer to a more responsible lifestyle.” Christianity Today, August 16,
1993, p. 30
So, in other words, the solution to crime is…
… be careful little eyes what you see
…
be careful little mouth what you say
… be careful little hands
what you do
… and be careful little mind what you think.
That’s essentially what Paul is telling us
Be careful.
“Be very careful… how you live Ephesians 5:15
Be careful what you
see… what you say… what you do… what you think
Don’t live as unwise people but as wise
Make the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”
Paul goes on to say that
“…God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.
Therefore
do not be partners with them.” Ephesians 5:6-7
Have nothing to do with the fruitless
deeds of darkness….” Ephesians 5:11
IN FACT “… it is shameful
even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. Eph. 5:12
Well, what are these folks doing, that we ought not to
do?
Let’s look first at Ephesians 5:4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse
joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
Be careful
little mouth what you say.
ILLUS: Gregg Nydegger (preacher over Christ’s Church in Monticello) tells this story
When he was a child, he and his brother
Scott walked into the local barber shop.
It was crowded, so, we took seats sort of behind the door where you walked in, sat down, and
started reading comic books.
A few minutes later, a guy walked in and just started cussing and swearing.
To my surprise, it was
one of the guys from his church.
Initially the man never saw Gregg or his bother,
and he soon sat down on the other side of the room.
And he proceeded to tell one
dirty story after another…
… using curse words and the Lord’s name in vain;
…and Gregg & his brother were just flabbergasted as
they listened.
Now
this man wasn’t an elder or deacon, but he had been someone Gregg & his brother looked up to and respected. This
very same man had also gone up front before the church just the previous Sunday to sing a very touching special.
He had a beautiful
voice… but a corrupt mouth.
When he finally realized Scott and I were there, he apologized;
but I never thought the same of him ever
again after that.
ILLUS: I’m told that Billy Graham was
once traveling in an airplane, and found himself seated next to a fairly rude salesman. The man used curse words on a fairly
regular basis.
Graham finally turned to him and asked "Are you
paid anything for all the swearing you do?"
The salesman was startled but he finally replied "No, I do it for nothing."
"Nothing?" cried the Graham.
"You certainly work cheap!
You throw aside your character as a gentleman, inflict pain on your friends,
break the Lord's commandments, and endanger your own soul –
- and you do all that for nothing! You certainly work
cheap -- TOO CHEAP!”
Matthew 12:35-36 The good man brings good
things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell
you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.
Now, folks, you may think that…
… a few curse words and couple of dirty jokes don’t mean anything… but they do.
Whether you tell them at the barber
shop/ on a trip/ in an e-mail to friends…
You really don’t want to do that sort of thing.
Next, look at Ephesians
5:3
“But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of
greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.”
Be careful little hands what
you do.
ILLUS: A couple
of years ago, the Barna research organization did a survey.
They interviewed young adults between
the ages of 20 and 40 and found that
- More than 2/3’s of those interviewed
said “living together” was morally acceptable
- Most of these young adults contended
engaging in sex outside of marriage and viewing porn were NOT morally wrong.
- Almost half of those interviewed believed sexual relationships between people of the same sex were acceptable.
- Over
½ of these young adults said they did NOT follow a set of principles or guidelines when making moral and ethical choices.
- And nearly half of them believed ethics and morals are based on “what
is right for the person” Barna Update 10.31.06
Paul tells us – as Christians - we can’t live
that way
We are called to
be a holy people
Living like
that would be improper for us
In fact people
who live the way a lot of those people interviewed by Barna live/make God angry.
Ephesians 5:6 says “Let no one
deceive you with empty words, for because of such things
God’s wrath
comes on those who are disobedient.
These folks will suffer in this world…
and they’ll not see heaven in the next
Ephesians 2:3 tells “All of us also
lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the
rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.”
The only thing =separate us from the judgment God will bring on others is=blood of Jesus Christ
But now that we have
rec’d salvation by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross…
… now God expects us to live differently than others do.
He wants us to be careful
– very careful – how we live
How are we going to do that?
Well, by being
careful – little minds – what you think
In verse of one (Eph. 5:1) Paul says we should “Be imitators of God…”
We need to think like God thinks
We need to “… find out
what pleases the Lord.” Ephesians 5:10
Well, we know what DOESN’T please
Him
Things like cursing, and foul jokes and such
And things like living together, and viewing pornography, and being greedy.
Those things – we know God doesn’t like
But
thinking like God… there’s got to be more to it than what we don’t do?
… (pause)
Well, there is.
Look again at Ephesians 5:17-18
Therefore
(because =need to be careful) do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s
will is.
(this is where the thinking comes in)
** Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”
Hmmm…. I Wonder what Paul means
by that?
Well,
have you ever seen a drunk?
How can you tell they’re drunk?
(Talk, walk, think, act)
Why do they walk… and talk… and do… the things they do?
Well, because they are controlled by
the alcohol
The alcohol dictates how they behave/ think
In the same way – we who have been saved by the blood of Jesus…
…should be controlled by the Spirit of God.
The spirit of God should control how we think, talk, walk, act
So, how can I make
sure God’s Spirit controls me like that?
Well, some people will tell me that you’ll
know God’ spirit is in control…
… if you have a certain “experience.”
If you “feel” God moving in
your life
If you can “speak” in a language you’ve never learned
Or if you lose control of yourself
& act in ways you wouldn’t ordinarily act
Now… there are a lot of people who believe in Jesus who teach that…
… but that’s not what Ephesians 5 is teaching –
… in fact the Bible NEVER teaches that kind of thinking.
As a Christian you already have God’s Spirit residing
in you.
Peter told the crowd at Pentecost:
"Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
So, if you have believed in Jesus, repented of your sins…
… and been baptized for the forgiveness of you sins… God’s Spirit is inside of you
In fact, you can’t be a Christian unless you have the Holy Spirit living in you
Romans
8:9 says “…if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”
So YOU CAN’T EVEN be a Christian without God’s Spirit inside of you.
… He should also control us… He should fill our every fiber…
… every nook and cranny of our heart and mind.
How can we get Him to do that?
How do we get God’s Spirit to control our lives?
Look at Ephesians 19-21
Speak
to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks
to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
In other words:
- Surround yourself with Christian music
- Learn to be thankful
for everything you have
- Learn to submit yourself to others around you
Now, you might say –
that’s too simplistic.
Well… yeah
But God didn’t mean to design this process to be complicated
He doesn’t want the power of His Spirit to be out of anyone’s reach
He doesn’t want His Spirit to be something “the spiritual” can manipulate…
No… it’s
really simple
It’s
as simple as a little child’s Sunday School song
If you want God’s Spirit to dwell in richly…
…then you have to make your heart a comfortable place for Him to inhabit.
If He’s not comfortable…
you won’t be either
Because when the Spirit dwells comfortably within us – He makes us comfortable
In fact = He’s called the comforter
Jesus said: But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said
unto you. John 14:26 KJV
Part of the reason God’s Spirit dwells within us is to bring us God’s comfort…
… because God love you
CLOSE: You remember the song we started with?
Be careful little eyes what you see
Be careful little mouth what you say
Be careful little hands
what you do
Why?
Why does the song say we need to be careful?
Because the Father up above is looking
down in love.
The Bible is filled with instructions about what we should/ should not do in our lives
It tells us repeatedly
to be careful what see/ say/ do and think
… why?
… because God cares about us
W.A.
Tozer once said: God is holy and holiness (is) the moral condition necessary to the health of his universe…
Whatever is holy is healthy… the holiness of God, the wrath of God, and the health of creation are inseparably united.
God’s wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades and destroys. He hates iniquity as a mother
hated the polio that would take the life of the child.
Ben Franklin once observed
Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, it is forbidden because
it is hurtful."
God
hates sin… but He loves us
In fact, He loves us so much, that He gave His only begotten son…”
