Obey the Signs

In one paragraph

Pastor Ray walked through Ephesians 5:15-21, picking up where he left off the week before and pressing into what it looks like to live wisely in days that are working against you. The sermon moved from a simple question about traffic signs to a set of plain contrasts Paul lays out: not this, but that. Three pairs of opposites gave the sermon its shape. Pastor Ray opened with traffic signs and why...

Read together

1. Psalm 92 sung responsively as the opening act of worship
2. Ephesians 5:15-21 primary text for the sermon, read and expounded throughout
3. Ephesians 5:10 cited as Paul's earlier call to discern what is pleasing to the Lord
4. Ephesians 4:17 noted as the beginning of the large instruction section that runs through chapter six
5. Colossians cited as the parallel passage about redeeming the time and letting the word of Christ dwell richly, with psalms hymns and spiritual songs
6. Philippians 2 quoted from memory as an example of an early Christian hymn about Christ's humility and obedience
7. 1 Timothy 3:16 mentioned as one of the earliest Christian hymns about God breathing out

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ray compared traffic signs to the instructions Paul gives in Ephesians, saying signs exist for safety, protection, reassurance, and direction. Where in your own life have you ignored a clear warning and paid the price for it, and what did that teach you about the value of those kinds of warnings?
2. Pastor Ray said that the days themselves are evil, so the current is flowing toward sin and despair, and that like a shrimp carried by the tide you have to be actively swimming against it. What does that look like practically in your day-to-day life right now?
3. On the command not to get drunk, Pastor Ray said that clarity of mind is what the Lord is looking for, but that guilt and unresolved sin lead many people to self-medicate so they do not have to feel it. How have you seen avoidance, whether through alcohol or something else, make a problem worse rather than better?
4. Pastor Ray pointed to addressing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs as one of the ways we are filled with the Spirit, and he said that when we learn things in lyric form we hold onto them better. Is there a hymn or song whose words have stayed with you and shaped the way you think about God? What is it, and why has it stuck?
5. Pastor Ray called giving thanks always and for everything possibly the hardest command in the Bible, and he quoted Charles Stanley saying that thanksgiving stabilizes your faith when you are in doubt. Can anyone testify to a time when choosing to give thanks in a hard situation actually changed something in you?