Walking in Wisdom

Scripture Reading: Psalm 90:8-12

Primary Sermon resources:

Cole, S. J. (2017). In Ephesians(Eph 5:1–2). Galaxie Software.

Merida, T. (2014) Exalting Jesus in Ephesians, Holman Reference.

POSB, Galatians – Colossians, Leadership Ministries Worldwide. (1996).

Walk in Wisdom

Ephesians 5:15-21

As I have gotten older, I have come to realize, the most precious thing in life is time. Because it is the one thing that from the moment we are born, we are running out of it. I want to talk to you today about the use of your time.

I realize there are some of you here that will not think that what I have to say is very important. But that is just because you do not understand the magnitude of time. But if you are older and more advanced in the path of life you will recognize just how important this is. Because if we waste our time, we have wasted our life.

God has only given us so much time. From the foundation of the world, He set the parameters in place for time we would have to use for the work of the Lord. And He will not give us any more time.

What we are supposed to do for God is to be done during the time we have been given, and the clock is ticking right now in this very moment. The impact of our life on eternity hinges on the wise use of our time. If we use our time wisely then we are able to be used by God in an extraordinary way.

A wise person is one who realizes the importance of time, and there is nothing more important than investing your life in the kingdom of God because time is running out. There is coming a day when each one of us will step out of time and into eternity. In that moment we will either be in heaven or hell, and we will never step back into time again.

This is the moment in time you have been given to live for God. There are no excuses and there are no second chances. We are to live full speed ahead, for the glory of God. That is what we are going to talk about today. Walking in wisdom is making the most of our time by living for God. (Ephesians 5:15-21)

15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,

16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

17 So then do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is.

18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.

20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.

21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. (Pray)

In our passage this morning we have come to the sixth and final time Paul uses the word “walk” in the book of Ephesians. The word “walk” is a metaphor he uses to describe the way we live our lives. It’s important to understand, in Paul’s day people didn’t walk because they wanted to. People didn’t walk for exercise.

They walked so they could reach their destination. So, this metaphor takes on greater significance, because the picture Paul is painting is of someone who is living in a way to try and reach a goal. Someone who is trying to get to a destination.

What Paul is saying is life is like a journey, and the wiseman uses his time well and makes the most of his life, by living for God. Meanwhile, the fool wastes his time living in sin. And from the moment we are born until the moment we die; we are choosing to either live for God or live in sin. And that’s what we learn from this passage. Walking in wisdom is making the most of our time by living for God.

The first thing I want you to see in this passage is, we are to live carefully, Vs. 15. Vs. 15 says, “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise.” You see, walking in wisdom means being careful how we live as Christians in this world.

I’ll give you an example, littering the area of North Africa between Egypt and Libya, there are an estimated 70 million land minds. These land mines were placed in the terrain some 80 years ago during WWII, but they are still active today. They can still detonate and explode. In fact, there have been 8000 deaths in the last 20 years alone, most of which have been children.

Whenever they want to start a new housing project or build a new community, they have to hire trained professionals to come in and clear the mines. And they wear protective gear and carry metal detectors, carefully walking through these fields inch by inch, moving along slowly in fear of stepping on one of these mines and exploding. Their mission is to remove as many as they can for the safety of the people.

That is the picture Paul is painting for us here. Christians are to walk as careful as professional mine clearers. Why? because we live in a world that feeds our sin nature and we have an enemy that places obstacles in our path to destroy our life.

You can hear the urgency in Paul’s voice in Vs. 15, He says, “Therefore, be careful.” Some translations read, “look, watch out, be careful.” These are battlefield commands. He is trying to get our attention. Remember we just received our wake-up call in Vs 14, Paul said, “wake up sleeper, arise from the dead.”

Well in Vs. 15 he gives us our marching orders. This is a call to arms. After we have been raised from the dead, we are enlisted into service. We are in a spiritual warfare. And that requires that we be careful.

To be “careful how you walk” means to look around every corner. To make sure of every step. To watch out for the most important thing you have, your relationship with God.

This word “careful” is the Greek word “acribos.” It means with precision and accuracy. It’s where we get the English word acrobat from. In other words, as Christians we are to walk a tight rope through this world, like a gymnast.

Vs. 15 describes those who walk carefully as wisemen and not fools. You see it in those moments when we let our guard down that we end up walking away from the path of God. It’s in those moments when we let our guard down that we compromise our life and step on the land mine. So, every decision we make is important.

When I read this, it reminds me of the movie “Raiders of the lost Ark.” Because that movie is full of life-threatening action. Indiana Jones is an archeologist venturing into the jungles of Africa, trying to find the lost ark of the covenant. And every decision he makes leads to explosions, spiders, snakes, and booby traps. Well, that’s the picture of the Christian life. We are walking through the world, dealing with Satan and sin, and we need to be as wise as Indiana Jones.

But wisdom is more than knowledge. It is the skill to use the knowledge we have. It is the ability to process information and make the right choice. We need to be like Quarterbacks in the NFL, playing on Sunday. We need to be able to read the defense, call the audible and in a split second, make the right decision. We can only do that with the wisdom of God for our life.

The next thing I want you to see in this passage is we are to live purposefully. Vs. 16 says, “making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” Walking in wisdom is living purposefully.

The NKJV has the literal translation of this it says, “redeeming the time.” To redeem means to buy something back. The idea here is that our time has been held hostage, and we have to buy it back. It’s the same word we use of Jesus. He is our redeemer. He bought us back with a price. Well, our time has to be redeemed.

The point is, as unbelievers we go through life, living in bondage without a purpose. We go to school, we get a job, we start a family, we retire one day and then we die. Throughout the entire process we spend our life doing nothing of any eternal significance for God. It’s as though our time is held hostage by futility.

But as Christians we can buy back those wasted hours and days by serving God’s purpose for our life and making the most of every opportunity. We can grab every opportunity to grow in Christ. We can raise our children to know the Lord. We can use our work to tell other about Jesus. We can use our time and help people grow. We can invest in the kingdom of God and serve His purpose in the world. And when we do, we have redeemed our time.

But remember that the word redeem means there is a cost. It means we have to say no to things that are not important to God so we can say yes to what really matters. It means we have to say no to the wasted hours of television, video games, and tic tock. So, we can say yes to prayer and bible study, and small group.

Redeeming the time means making the most of your life for God. Many of you heard about the death of Mike Stewart this week. Mike was the director of Faith Riders who came here last year and preached and initiated us as a chapter. Mike died in a tragic motorcycle accident, but his life was no tragedy. He made the most of every opportunity he was given.

Every year, he would ride his motorcycle from Florida to Sturgis, South Dakota for the biggest party in America and the largest motorcycle rally in the world. But Mike wasn’t going there to party. He would set up a booth, pass out tracks and pray with people to receive Jesus. Throughout his life he led thousands to Christ. He is not only going to be missed but he is going to be hard to replace because of his witness to the world.

That is the picture Paul is giving us here. Redeeming the time means being a witness to the world and making the most of our opportunities. That’s what Paul teaches us in Col. 4:5, Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.” We are to seize the moment. We are to live for God, and we are to do it in a way that is a witness to the world. Why? Vs. 16 says, “the days are evil.”

If Paul thought, it was evil in his day I wonder what he would think of the world we live in. The days are evil because we are evil. Just look at the Middle East: hate leads to terror, terror leads murder, murder leads to war, war leads to suffering and destruction. Wickedness has an appetite that is never satisfied until it destroys.

But we have a God who loves us and wants us to love each other. Jesus said, the greatest commandments are to “love the Lord our God with all of out heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as our self.” We are not loving God and Loving our neighbor if our anger leads us to hatred and violence. It is the work of the enemy destroying our lives and wasting our time.

We need to understand that time is precious, and we need to make the most of it. Someone once said, “time is the fruit of eternity. It is the space between life and death we have been given to glorify God. Once it is gone it is gone, so we have to make the most of it while we can. Those who walk in wisdom are those who live with a purpose.

The next thing I want you to see in this passage is we are to live spiritually, Vs. 17-21. Walking in wisdom is living spiritually. Notice Vs 17, “So then do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

The will of the Lord is the GPS that tells us where we are going and how we are going to get there, and if we don’t follow it, we will waste our time lost and searching for nothing in this world.

Just like it would be foolish for the captain of a ship or the pilot of a plane to set out without any course planned, the same thing is true in life. The Lord wants us to understand His will so we can keep our life on course.

To understand means to comprehend with our mind, so that tells us there is going to be some effort on our part. We have to know the Word of God and apply it to our life. So, it would be foolish for us to think we can understand how to live for God, without spend time getting to know the God of the Bible. Yet that is what so many Christians try to do.

Also, living spiritually means being controlled by the Holy Spirit. Paul gives us another contrast in Vs. 18. He says, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.” To be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by the Spirit.

It’s interesting Paul would use the idea of drunkenness here. But I think he does that for two reasons.

First, because being drunk and hung over is an example of someone who is wasting their time and destroying their life.

Second, someone who is drunk is under the influence of alcohol, and as Christians we are supposed to be under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

It is important to understand that being filled with the Spirit is something that is repeated in the life of a believer.

This is different from the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is a one-time event, that takes place the moment we are saved. But we can be repeatedly filled with the Spirit in a way that empowers us to live for God.

In Vs. 19-21 Paul describes 3 things that result from being filled with the Spirit. And you might think Paul would say something like, be a bold witness, or speak in tongues, or perform miracles, or something dramatic. But Paul lists Joy, and thankfulness, and mutual submission.

He says, we should be speaking and singing to one another with our hearts and making a melody to the Lord. That is an expression of exuberance and joy that comes from being filled with the Spirit.

There are some people in church you know they’re not filled with the Spirit because just talking to them is depressing. Paul says we should be full of joy, and it is evident in the way we speak to one another and sing to each other.

And Vs. 20 says we should be thankful. Thankfulness is the opposite of grumbling and complaining. Notice the word “always” at the beginning of Vs. 20. A thankful heart bows before the Lord and accepts God’s will “always,” even if we don’t understand it.

Romans 8:28 says, “God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love the Lord, those who are called according to His purpose.” So, being thankful doesn’t depend on our circumstances, but it depends on our relationship with the Spirit.

Finally, Paul says being filled with the Holy Spirit results in mutual submission. Vs. 21, “being subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” Again, Paul is telling us that our relationship with each other is a reflection of our relationship with God.

If we are treating each other well it is because all is well between us and God. But if we are not treating each other well, it is because we are not submitted to God.

As Christians we should be growing to become like Christ, and that means setting aside our rights and serving each other.

Christ is the perfect example of that because He gave up His rights and willingly became a servant. He was obedient unto death even the death of the cross. The bible says, we should have that same attitude in us.

So, the question is, are you walking in wisdom? Are you skillfully living for God and making the most of your time? Paul says life is like a journey, and the wise man uses his time well and makes the most of his life, by living for God. Meanwhile, the fool wastes his time living in sin.

We walk in wisdom by living carefully. Avoiding land mines and making good decisions in life. Remember it is in those moments when we let our guard down that we walk away from the path of God. So, every decision is important.

We walk in wisdom by living purposefully. We redeem those wasted hours and days by serving God’s purpose for our life and making the most of every opportunity.

And finally, we walk in wisdom by living spiritually. The Lord wants us to understand His will so we can keep our life on course. He wants us to be filled with the Holy Spirit and have a heart that is full of joy, and thankfulness, mutually surrendered to each other.

What we learn from this passage is walking in wisdom is making the most of our time by living for God.