09 Mar Happy New Year! (Are you adding another year to your life, or life to another year?): PART 1

When I was about six or seven years old, I slept in the same room as my brother.  At night, I would turn away from him and face the wall and quietly preach myself to sleep!  What is so fascinating about this is I wasn’t even born again!  (I did not surrender my life to Jesus until I was 20 years old.)  I did this almost every night for months.  How could this even be possible?  Well remember, the call of God is pre-ordained by the God who knows the end from the beginning (see Galatians 1:15, Isaiah 46:10 and Ephesians 2:10).

As I grew to be an older child and more and more involved myself in sin, the desire to preach completely vanished.  Then at 20 when I was born again, it resurfaced almost immediately.  Here I am today at almost 60 teaching the Word of God to thousands every week…what an honor!

If I asked you, “Do you think God has a plan for my life?”  Because I am a pastor, you would likely and readily say “Yes!”  However, if I asked you, “Does God have a specific plan for YOUR life?”  You might be a little more hesitant.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  God has a specific and special plan for your life and it is about time you discovered it and fulfill it!  

So what do you say we begin that journey today!  Let’s look at our key verses for this series from Ephesians 5:15-17:  “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.  Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”

Please allow me to break this verse down a little bit.  Notice the word “walk.”  This is the Greek word “peripateo.”  It is a Greek compound word that comes from “peri” which means “around” (we get our English word periscope from it) and “pateo” which means “path.”  Put those words together and it means “to beat a path around” or to be preoccupied with something.  

The word “circumspectly” is the Greek word “akribos” which means “diligently, exactly or straight.”  The Greek word translated “fools” is “asophos” which means “one who has no wisdom.”  Paul by the Holy Spirit, is referring to unbelievers without Christ.  

In verse 16, you find the word “redeeming” which is the Greek word “exagarazo” which means “to buy back, ransom or rescue from loss.”

The Greek word translated “time” is “Kairos.”  There are two Greek words for time:  one is “chronos” where we get our English word “chronology” from.  This word describes normal time as we know it.  However the word “Kairos” is a divine opportunity orchestrated by God. 

The word translated “days” means “ages or time period” and is referring to the culture we now live in.

If you will allow me a little liberty, these verses could be paraphrased to mean this:

“See then that you are preoccupied with walking diligently in a straight line.  Not like unwise unbelievers that don’t know Jesus, but as wise (people who see life from God’s perspective).  Buying back all the Divine opportunities that you possibly can because this culture is evil.  Because of that, don’t be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is!”

In these powerful verses it is clear that God wants you (yes, you!) to clearly understand His plan for your life in 2021 and beyond!

As always, let’s discover how!

Join us this month as we continue in this series…