Proverbs 1

Making the Most of the Time We’re Given

Making the Most of the Time We’re Given

Dave Riddle - 1/15/2023

Key Passage:  Ephesians 5:15-17

Look (Ephesians 5:15)

  • Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk.

    • Literally “look carefully”

    • blepo (Greek: βλέπω) literally: to see. Metaphorically: to see with the mind’s eye. To turn the thoughts or direct the mind to a thing; to look at; to weigh carefully; to examine, consider and/or contemplate.

    • How you walk = peripateo (Greek: περιπατέω) literally: to tread all around, walk at large. Figuratively: to live, to make one’s way, to regulate one’s life, to conduct oneself

  • How? (v. 15)

    • Not as unwise people but as wise

    • sophos (Greek: σοφῷ) - Wise. To have skill or expertise. To best form plans and use the best means for their actual execution. 

  • Proverbs 1:1-7

    • If we don’t pay careful attention to the way we live our lives, then we are living as fools!

Seize (Ephesians 5:16)

  • chronos vs kairos

    • Greek: καιρός: No direct English equivalent 

      • The right time

      • The critical time

      • The opportune moment

    • Implies, not the convenience of the season, but the necessity of the time at hand.

    • “Kairos is when eternity steps into time”

  • To make wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good.

Know (Ephesians 5:17) 

  • So don’t be foolish, but understand.

    • syniemi: to put together (mentally) to comprehend, to set or join together in the mind. To understand and act piously. Having the knowledge of those thing which pertain to salvation.

  • How do we know the will of God? 

    • Romans 12:2 

    • Francis Chan: “What is God’s well for my life for the next five minutes?”

    • Jim Elliot: “Wherever you are, be all there; live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”

    • MLK Jr. “It does not matter how long you live, but how well you do it.“ & “We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always right to do right”

Racism and Our Response

Racism
• 2 Chronicles 20:12

Racism exists.

Racism is wrong.
• Genesis 1:27

Repent.
• 1 John 1:9

Listen.
• James 1:19
• Proverbs 1:5

Pursue.
• Galatians 3:28
• Ephesians 2:14-15

Embrace.
• 1 Corinthians 13:7-8a Strategize.
•1 Chronicles 12:32
• Amos 5:24

“In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted on the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sideline and merely mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities.”
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.