Walking Wisely

Turn to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 5 is where we're at. The title for today's message is "Walking Wisely." Walking wisely is what we'll discuss here for just a brief few moments, and I'm thrilled to continue through this book of Ephesians.

We have now entered into the most practical part of the book. We have dug into the theological aspects of Ephesians. The first half of Ephesians is theological, the last half is practical. And so the first three chapters have enlightened us to deep theological truths, and we've grown so much in our faith and our understanding, especially in regards to soteriology — what it is to be saved by God's grace. And then also now we'll continue in what it means to be sanctified. And so the last three chapters are going to continue to teach us how to be sanctified in Christ. And if we think that perhaps the first three chapters are difficult and the last three chapters are a bit lighter, you may find that to be backwards, because it is harder to live out what you know. And so this practical aspect of living out your Christianity is most important, as you'll see today.

Ephesians chapter 5, verses 15 through 21 is the beginning of our text, but I want to start in the very beginning of chapter 5 and help get our theological wheels rolling on how we practically live these truths out. And so today I want you to know upfront that if you want to be a dynamic disciple for Jesus Christ, one of the most practical things that you can remember from today's message is that you cannot mismanage your time. That may seem very simple to think about, but it's hard to apply. And you'll see in the text today that we should be good managers of the time that God gives us.

And I'm very excited to get to the marriage section coming up in the weeks to come. So men and women, study ahead so that perhaps the Word of God would minister to you in your personal time just as much as the preaching time, and you can apply the difficult truths that are called for at the end of Ephesians chapter 5 in regards to being a godly husband and a godly wife. And these reveal Christ's love for us. And so if you're not married, it doesn't matter. What matters is understanding the metaphor of marriage so that you know how much Christ loves you, and then in return you can love Him in return.

And so in today's passage in Ephesians chapter 5, the main subject of imitating Christ is mentioned in verse 1. Read with me: "Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children." God loves you. And you as beloved children are to act like a child of God and to imitate your Father. This is specific conduct based upon your understanding of God and His attributes. We have taken a lot of time on Wednesday nights to dive into the Bible all over and extract who God is and talk about Him and His character. We have a theological conviction here that we want to be focused on God and not man. We are God-centered, not man-centered, in our philosophy of education, our philosophy of preaching and living. And so if we know more about God, then we know how to better imitate Him.

"Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children." And in verse 2 it says, "And walk in love." And so this is the first instruction on how to walk. There are three total, and we are on the third one today. So the first one is to walk in love, "just as Christ also loved you and He gave Himself up for you, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma." That's Old Testament language from Leviticus.

Verse 3, "But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. But there must be no filthiness or silly talk or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks." And so we see here in verse 4 that you are to displace the sinfulness in your life with gratefulness. And so at the point where you are engaged in sin in your life, replace that particular time with gratefulness. You are to sing to the Lord. You are to count your praises and your praise reports and to give praise — whether you're praying, whether you're praising — replace the time when you fail in your Christlike walk with gratefulness. So this displacement principle is seen here in the text. It's very practical. And so verse 4 says to "rather give thanks."

And then verse 5, "For this you know with certainty that no immoral person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. And let no one deceive you with empty words, because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." Verse 7, "Therefore do not be partakers with them." Okay, so there is a clear line between those who participate in immorality and darkness and those who are saved. You're not to participate. You're not to be partners with them. You're not to be best friends. There's a difference between being friendly and being friends, being close friends. If you hang out with them, their character will rub off on you. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:33 that bad company corrupts good character.

And verse 8, it says, "For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light." This is the second illustration of how to walk. The first one is to walk in love. The second one is to walk in the light, and we studied that last week. And so we're to walk as children of light. Verse 9, "For the fruit of light consists of all goodness and righteousness and truth." It's so good to study the New Testament because oftentimes the outlines are just there for you. What does it mean to walk in the light? Well, it's described for you there — goodness, righteousness, and truth. You walk in these things, you speak these things, you dwell on these things, you live these things out. And then in verse 10, "Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord." So we are ever learning and ever conforming to Christ to figure out how to be pleasing unto Him, to be a child in whom He delights.

And in verse 11, "Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them." So we were challenged with the fact that not only are we to be faithful in our walk to Christ, but faithfulness in our walking to Christ actually means that we're going to speak up and expose darkness. And so we cannot remain silent. And we talked about how it is a qualification for a pastor — for an elder, synonymous terms there — to be one who is capable, able, and actively exposing that which contradicts true faith.

"Now we do not participate in verse 11 in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them." For verse 12, "It is disgraceful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret, but all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says, 'Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'" And this is the heart of the evangelist, in that no matter where you are as a Christian, as a Great Commission Christian, you are calling people to Christ. You're saying, "Awake, O sleeper. Be born again. Come to Christ. Repent of your sin. Turn. Turn from your wicked ways. Come to Jesus. Believe. Confess Him as Lord and Savior." And so we bring people to Jesus. We bring them to the foot of the cross.

And like Paul — right here in the middle of this practical section in Ephesians — he says, "Awake," and that is good Old Testament language from the book of Isaiah, a gospel call to call people to come out of that dead grave, to come out of the darkness, to come out of the deadness and into the light of Christ. This pulls people to Christ from a standpoint of their own personal responsibility. And so we know and understand sound doctrine. We know how soteriology works, but the heart of the evangelist also calls the person to personally respond to the gospel, respond to the call. And so right here in the middle, you see, "Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

And you know that darkness is dispelled by light. And when Christ shines on you, the darkness that is still in you — those areas that we just hate about ourselves, that we are trying our best to crucify, those things that exist, the old flesh, that old man that hangs on for dear life — we've got to crucify that. And there is a sense for the true Christian of dying on the inside. Christians who are conforming to Christ are living a cross-like lifestyle in that the flesh that is still alive and well inside of us — because we are not perfect yet — has to be crucified. And so that flesh that is still in us, when we crucify it, we actually feel the death and the dying aspects of that on the inside. That is good, because we're being refined. And Paul said, "I die daily."

And in addition to that, Paul also said that he has fellowship with Christ through suffering. And so this is important for us to understand — the light of Christ exposes darkness. And therefore, as children of light, we also are exposers of darkness, starting with ourselves. Nobody knows us better than us. We know what goes on inside of our minds and inside of our hearts. We know how to repent and confess our sins as we do them so that Christ can not only forgive us but also cleanse us. 1 John 1:9 says that if you confess your sins, He will forgive you. That's one aspect, but the other aspect is also that He will cleanse you — not just forgiven so that you do not have a payment to pay, but also that you can be sanctified. You can be cleansed. The remorse can be removed. The agony of making wrong decisions in the past can be removed. The guilt and the shame of sin can be cleansed. Your conscience can be alive and well. And so be ones who confess your sins regularly.

And verse 15 starts today's text. "Therefore, be careful how you walk. Be careful. Be very careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation. But be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus to God, even the Father. And be subject to one another in the fear of Christ."

I hope to get through all eight practical points of today's message, but you'll have to come back for the rest next week. Perhaps two of them is what we can get through today. So the title of today's message is "Walking Wisely." And to explain this a little bit, we have warmed up to this idea of how we are imitators of God the Father. And in doing that, the way that we imitate God — first of all the text helps us to understand that we are to walk in love because God is love, 1 John 4:8. And then we're also to walk in the light because God is light and in Him is no darkness at all, 1 John 1:5. And then now we see that not only are we to imitate God through walking in love and walking in the light, but also we need now therefore to walk wisely — verse 15. Walk wisely to imitate God because He is all-wise, He is omniscient, He knows everything, and therefore we need to seek Him for true wisdom. Proverbs 4:7 instructs us to get wisdom.

That's a wise saying. If you'll be wise, then you'll get wisdom. The wisest man in the world said, "Get wisdom." And so if you're wise, then Proverbs 4:7 says, "Get wisdom." And wisdom belongs to the Lord, so we should seek the Lord. His Word reveals His wisdom, so we should be not only seekers of the Word, rightly dividers of the Word, but ones who study and dwell and live by the Word. James 1:5 tells us how to get wisdom. It says, "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask it of God, who gives it generously without reproach, and it will be given to him." And you may think that perhaps your guilt and shame and stains would keep you from God imparting some of His love and wisdom to you. That's not a right theological view of God. He's going to give you wisdom if you ask, without finding reproach. He's not going to say to you in prayer, "I'm not going to give you My wisdom because..." and then condemn you. The Bible says in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And so get wisdom. The way that you get wisdom is you ask God. Proverbs 2:6 says that the Lord gives wisdom.

These are basic truths, but we need to remember that it is God who gives wisdom. Do not usurp this fatherly attribute of our God. He gives wisdom. Seek Him in the Word of God. For wisdom in all areas of life, do not be guilty of leaving the Father's influence in your life and seeking wisdom in some other way. "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." And in the context of Matthew 6:33, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things that you're perhaps worried about will be added unto you" — food, shelter, and clothing. That's the context of Matthew 6. Pretty much all of life can be summarized into those three things. Seek God first and He'll provide for you. And so get wisdom from Him first.

James 3:17 states that pure wisdom is from above. And so the wisdom from above is, first of all, pure. If you want to get pure wisdom, go to the source — go to God. These practical truths are easy to abandon in our life when we are not seeking first the kingdom of God. Remember that God gives wisdom. Wisdom is from above. It's not found from within. You cannot seek what you feel on the inside of your heart to perhaps discover what is true. Truth and wisdom are external. They belong to God, they originated with God, and they come down from heaven. We must get what is true and right and holy from Him. It does not have a starting point inside of our heart and soul.

You see, this is the exact opposite of the philosophy of the Department of Education of the United States of America, which tells children to be like a turtle and to go into their shell and to look at the inside of their soul and inside of their heart and figure out what they think is true and right and what they believe — to discover what gender they are, who they believe they are, what they want to do in life. And that is so humanistically driven that you can't even wrap your mind around how evil that truly is. Jeremiah 17:9 says that the heart is desperately sick. Who can trust it? We need to know that our feelings are not where truth is found. But God is a dispenser of wisdom, and if you want to be a Christian who walks wisely, you're going to seek first the kingdom of God. You're going to be one who believes in the sufficiency of the Word of God and you're going to yield your life to it. This is how you walk wisely and walk carefully — seek God for wisdom.

Even in all kinds of areas, especially finances — Proverbs 16:16 combines a financial statement with a spiritual statement. And essentially, the interest accrued from finances is not anywhere close to being as valuable as wisdom. Hear me again — it's a financial statement. The wealth, the interest that can be accrued from wealth is nowhere near as valuable as God's wisdom. Proverbs 16:16 says, "How much better is it to get wisdom than gold?" Get wisdom rather than gold.

Now, a biblical worldview of wisdom will work its way down to how you live your life. And the Apostle Peter said of trials that they were more precious than what? Gold. Now that requires us to be wise in God's eyes and apply a philosophy of life — a biblical worldview — to our daily lives in the areas for which we often abandon God. And when we are hurting or suffering, a lot of times the last thing that we think of is, "This is the most valuable thing that I could possibly possess." But that is the wisdom of God. It's not the wisdom of man.

So why is today's message important for you? So glad you asked. I'll give it to you in a positive statement and a negative statement, starting with a negative, and I'm simply going to repeat what the text has to say. And so God wants His children to be very careful in how they walk. This is how you walk wisely. And this message is important to you because in the text we see that we are not to waste time, we are not to be foolish, we're not to get drunk, we're not to be grieving the Holy Spirit, we're not to be speaking or singing dishonorably, we're not to be allowing our hearts to become hardened, we're not to be ungrateful, we're not to neglect one another, and we're not to lose our fear of Christ. If you reread the text, those are concepts right out of the Bible for how we are to walk wisely. Now that's stated in the negative, and I wrote those statements.

Now I'd like to restate those in the positive. Maybe you respond better to positive affirmation. Positively stated, God wants His beloved children — Ephesians 5:1 — His beloved children to walk in love and walk in the light and live in the light and do what's right. That's wise. Positively stated, this passage tells us to be careful, be careful Christians, to be wise, to be efficient with your time — verse 16 — to be smart — verse 17 — to be in God's will — verse 17b, the last half of verse 17 — to be filled with the Holy Spirit — verse 18 — to be saying what the Scriptures say — verse 19 — to be singing hymns — verse 19b — to be worshiping God in your heart — verse 19c — to be thanking God always — verse 20 — to be helping each other humbly all the time — verse 21a — and to be reverent to Christ — verse 21.

Let me read the text to you again and maybe you'll hear it afresh and anew. Starting in verse 15: "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus to God, even the Father. And be subject to one another in the fear of Christ."

And so if you are taking notes, take-home truth number one is walk intentionally. Walk intentionally. If you are going to be ones who are walking wisely and walking carefully, as the text says, then you are going to take intentional steps in your life, because steps add up and they take you somewhere, and you will be somewhere as a result of the steps that you took.

In the text, "careful" in the original language means mental perception. And so when we say "walk carefully," we are not talking about, "Don't miss a step as you step down the steps. Walk careful." That's not what the text is saying. The text is saying, "Have a mental perception of what to do next." Think before you speak. Think before you walk. Align yourself with biblical convictions and take steps intentionally so that you're living on purpose and you're living as a child of God in the light of Christ, doing things that are pleasing unto the Lord.

And so we are to be very, very careful. In other areas of the Bible that have the same root meaning, it uses phrases like "to take heed." So it's not only a mental perception, but you are to take heed of yourself, take heed of what the Scriptures say, and do these things. Matthew 13:13 is an indictment. It says they "see not and they hear not." They see not and they hear not. They have no mental perception of what is wise. And they do not hear — they do not understand what is wise, and therefore they do not do it, and their cycle of repeating mistakes continues.

And so this parable about seeing and hearing is simply about mental perception. It's about understanding. It's the same concept that we're talking about here in Ephesians — to be wise and to be careful. Those who are not careful have no regard for their life, no regard for the words that they say, no regard for the steps that they take. They are living in a careless way, which is to be foolish — very foolish — with their life and disrespectful to the Father. And then at the same time, perhaps they are living a defensive life like the Pharisees, who would say, "I'm good. I don't need anybody else's wisdom. I already know what I need to know."

And so this whole train of thought is flowing through the passage on how to imitate the Father: to walk in love, to walk in the light, and now to walk in wisdom. John Calvin connects the Christian's careful walk to the previous verse. Look in the text with me. In verse 15 it says, "Therefore, be careful how you walk." He connects this concept with the gospel call of salvation, which is simply to say: you cannot walk in God's wisdom unless you are a child of God. Amen. You must be saved by God in order to truly, from the heart and from the mind, live out the wisdom of God. Those who are saved love their Father and they follow His ways.

And so this train of thought is continuing to flow. And so now because these Ephesian new believers — I mean, seriously, these believers here in this text, at most are like three years old as Christians. Three-year-olds in the faith, they're baby Christians. Three years they've been saved. So that means that they recently have been living a paganistic life. They recently have been given to adulterous lifestyles. They recently have been doing all kinds of things that were mentioned in verses 3 and 4 up here — immorality, impurities, greed, filthiness, silly talk, coarse jesting. It's just not fitting. All of these things and more is what their life used to be characterized by. But now they see that they are being conformed to Christ and being made holy.

And because of who they once were, they recently know that lifestyle well, which gives them not only conviction to live rightly, but now also they see their right walk as a duty. Let me explain. They have all of these lost Ephesians around them and now they've been saved, gloriously saved. And now they see the fact that Christ has saved them and radically changed them. They see their holiness, their changed life, their walking in the light. They see that they must do this and live as an example, as those who are indebted to the lostness around them, because it is their new life that is evidence of being changed by Christ. And so they are now placing themselves as ones who are indebted to the lostness around them. They feel compelled to live holy lives because it is an opportunity to be a demonstration of what Christ can do. It's beautiful.

And so with this conviction and with this indebtedness, they now are walking circumspectly, not as fools but as wise people. And this accurate living requires them to make decisions based upon their Christlike convictions and the wisdom of God. And so they are carefully living biblically. Martin Luther said that verse 15 can be summarized like this: "Carefully imitate God." Carefully imitate God.

Unwise walking results then in a stumble. Unwise walking results in hardships that are preventable. Unwise walking results in displeasing God. Verse 10, "Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord." If you are walking unwisely, you're not pleasing the Lord. But even more than displeasing the Lord — if you are walking unwisely, then you are being deceived. Verse 6, the Bible says, "Let no one deceive you." So if you're walking wisely, then you are in the light of Christ, but if you're walking unwisely, you're being deceived.

But did you know that also if you're walking unwisely, that means that you would be falling, which means that the lost around you would discredit you? It's really hard to convince someone of the light of Christ if you're living in the darkness, because they have deemed you a hypocrite. And so the result of not walking wisely and dabbling in the darkness means that you have lost your ability to witness to the lost. That's shameful.

But not only should we be ones who are walking intentionally, but the second take-home truth for today — and I close with this for the sake of time — is maximize your time. Did you see the urgency in those words there? Maximize your time. Take-home truth number two. Read with me in verse 16. Really — maximize your time? Yes. Verse 16 says, "Making the most of your time." A peculiar proof of wise Christian living is that they maximize their time. That's peculiar to me. If you observe the lifestyle of a Christian and you want to see proof of one who is yielding to the Lord, then they have the urgency within their heart — as ones who have been given the ministry of reconciliation — to be calling people to be reconciled to God. They have the urgency to be obedient to Christ in His Great Commission. They are not foolish with their time in allowing endless TV series to waste away the days. They're not being foolish with their time to take on more meaningless hobbies that just simply waste the days.

Faithful Christians see that "this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it." People who are saved see this day as another opportunity to serve the Lord Jesus Christ with all of their heart and soul and mind and strength, to love Him with all of their being. Why? Well, the text gives us the conviction as to why we do this. In verse 16 it says, "Making the most of your time because..." — because what? — "the days are evil."

Evil's everywhere. Evil destroys people's lives. And you can be a part of the solution in someone's life so they're not destroyed. The Bible says in John 10:10 that evil's game plan is to steal, kill, and destroy. But the light of the gospel can prevent the destruction in their life. And so you as a Christian want to maximize your time to be able to be evangelistic, to be making disciples, to be a worshiper of God. And you know that worldliness is just a waster of time. Sin is never satisfied. It will grab onto your life and it will waste all kinds of time. Days and days — days turn into weeks, into months, months into years. Those who have lost large seasons of their life because they were trapped in sin look back and they say, "Man, my 20s — what did that amount to?" They look back and say, "My 20s and my 30s, what did that amount to?" But the opposite can be true for one who is wisely walking in the Lord, because we are commanded to make the most of our time, because the days are evil. Let no one deceive you. Instead, make the most of your time.

And the way that you make the most of your time is, first of all, get in the Word of God and study God's Word. Rightly divide God's Word. Grab onto these concepts and lodge them deep within your heart, and then your motives will be made by God. God will actually write the motives that you have on your heart. He will give you the desires of your heart if you delight yourself in the Lord. "Delight yourself in the Lord." Delight yourself in the Word of God, and He will give you those desires. And I'm just going to speak to you by personal testimony that there is nothing better than Bible study. And then as a result of Bible study, there is nothing better than being able to truly, authentically do what you desire.

The desires that God gives you from Bible study are His desires for you in your life, and so you're actually doing and living out the will of God for your life, and it's an enjoyable time with Christ. Every single day is like walking with Christ. Every single day is glorious. You get another day to walk with the Lord because you are exercising and doing and living out the desires that He has given you, because you have done your due diligence to study the Word of God. The psalmist knew that this was true. That's the reason why he said, "Delight yourself in the Lord." Place your affections in the Word of God. Place yourself as one who is submitted to Christ, in Christ. We're not in worldliness. We're not dabbling in the things of the world trying to find sufficiency or a good time. We're not going outside of Christ to try and make our lives valuable. In fact, we're doing the exact opposite. We're disciplining ourselves for the purpose of godliness — 1 Timothy 4:7. We are actually doing what we know the Bible says to do, because the end goal, the end means, the end everything equals life more abundant and free life in Christ. It's truly wonderful to be in Christ.

Everything else is going to rob you of your time. Everything else is going to destroy your life, and everything else ends in destruction, division, death. Everything else is darkness. But the light of Christ, walking wisely — these little steps add up, I promise. If you will make the right decisions daily in light of the Word of God, you have no clue what God will do in your life in a year. You have no clue what God would do in your life in five years. It's amazing to see restoration in people's lives. It's amazing to see Christians come back to life. It's amazing to see how powerful the Word of God is. And so instead of dabbling in darkness, walk wisely in the light of Christ.

Turn with me to just one reference — Colossians chapter 4, verses 2 to 5 — to explain how this concept of time and time management is to be wisely managed for the purposes of what this text proclaims: prayer, the Word, and witnessing. Colossians chapter 4, verse 2 to 5, and I close with this.

Colossians 4:2 says, "Devote yourself to prayer." That's a wise use of your time, by the way — to be a prayer warrior. "Devote yourself to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open a door for us for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned, that I may make it clear in the way that I ought to speak." Guys, this is incredible, because Paul being behind prison bars is not defeated. In fact, he truly believes that the mystery of Christ, the Word of God, can go forth even while he is in prison. And so with this high view of God's ability in and through his life, he says to the Colossian church, "Pray that that happens. Pray for the impossible to be made possible. Pray that God would be a mighty God in our lives and spread the Word. Pray." So it starts with prayer.

And then in verse 5 it says, "Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders," and here's the reference to time, "making the most of the opportunity." Now I know that you, as I have, have missed opportunities to share the gospel with someone who was right in front of you, and as you were not bold enough to share the gospel at that opportunity, you lost that opportunity, and you walked away from that opportunity, and you felt guilty that you did not maximize your time and utilize that opportunity to share the gospel. I know that you have felt that the same as I have felt it.

And so with this urgency to maximize our time for the glory of God — to spread the gospel, to be prayer warriors — let's pray for one another that we are truly able to walk wisely and maximize our time for the purposes of witnessing, for the purposes of Bible study and spreading the Word, and for the purposes of prayer. Those things are found in the text right here. And especially when you are in front of a nonbeliever, verse 6, "Let your speech always be with grace, as those seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person."

And so I think you see quite clearly that worldliness will waste your study time. If you want to study the Bible, what will take away your study time? Worldliness. And what will also waste your witnessing time, the time that you intend to spread the gospel? Worldliness — anything that includes walking in the darkness.

And so I encourage you to take a look at these two concepts today and how you can walk wisely by better managing your time and maximizing the moments for Christ, and being able to walk as ones who are very careful with the steps that you're taking. Reflect with me, if you would, upon the very steps of your life that you are taking. Can you add a year or five years to that and determine where you'll be spiritually? I think you can. We're all able to reflect and think upon our lives and we're called to do so. And so now as you walk circumspectly, I beg you to reflect upon your life and think clearly. Where will you be in five years with the things that I'm doing now? Am I living wisely? In every aspect of life, whether you're eating or drinking, do all to the glory of God, right? Your work, your occupation — Colossians 3:23, "Work is unto the Lord and not unto men."

Your philosophy of life — if you continue to think the way you're thinking and do the things that you're doing, does that take you to God's will for your life? Are you abiding in the vine? These things are very practical and very simple, but now it just takes a little bit of diligence for you to think about: is it God's will for me there in five or ten years? I think so, to the best of my ability to discern what I'm doing and where it's going to take me. Am I walking wisely? Am I walking in the light and doing what's right, and therefore having confidence that it'll be all right?

Let's pray together. Lord, thank You for today's text. I pray that as we continue to learn what it is to walk wisely, we will enjoy the future messages on what it is to walk wisely, because there are some glorious things here — especially being filled with the Holy Spirit. And I pray, dear Jesus, that You would help us to reflect upon our lives and to make the necessary corrections that we may need for pleasing You.

Lord, if anyone is not saved here today, I pray, dear Jesus, that just as the Apostle Paul said, "Awake, sleeper," and "Arise from the dead and Christ will shine upon you" — I pray, dear Jesus, that You would draw that lost soul to conviction even right now, dear God. Help them to see their sin in such a way that they are incredibly sorrowful for the things that they have done, because they have been ultimately done and committed against You and You alone. And therefore, You had to pay the penalty for their sin by dying on the cross and taking the punishment of the wrath of God in their place. And so, Father, if a soul here is not saved, help them to comprehend why You sent Your Son to die on the cross and to pay the payment of sin, so that they now see their sin in light not only of the law and that they have broken Your righteous law, but also that they have participated in putting You on the cross. And they're guilty, guilty, guilty. But at the same time, they can be saved, saved, saved.

So, dear Jesus, I pray that You would draw lost souls unto Yourself. Help them to respond to You and to confess You as Savior and Lord. Help them to be saved, dear God, and only saved. Help them to be baptized and publicly proclaim what You have done inwardly. I pray as well, Lord, as You give new hearts and a new spirit to those who are lost and You save souls, that they not only would be saved and baptized, but they would join perhaps this local church or any Bible-believing, Bible-adhering church and become a member and be dedicated in all areas of life, and that they would be able then to have fellowship with the brethren, to have prayer meetings, to worship You in truth and in spirit corporately, to hear the Word of God preached and taught, and to give of themselves in every way possible. Dear God, I pray that You would help them to be able to study the Bible and then also to make disciples.

Lord, these are tall orders and high requests, but they're exactly what You have commanded us to do by way of Your Great Commission. This is no shallow task. This is not a drop-everything-and-go. This is a take-your-time, share-the-clear-gospel, draw-the-net, and walk with people wisely and make disciples until they then can go and make disciples. Help us to apprehend Your vision for us — to be able to spread Your glory, to spread Your kingdom, to see souls saved, sanctified, and then serving You with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength. God, we do love You and we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.