Watch Your Steps

Read The Word

Ephesians 5:15–17 NLT

So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.

Intro

Paths of Life in the Decision Forest: Wanderers vs. Worriers

When we are walking through this life, we are going to have many chances to make decisions. And I think that people, especially your age, this junior high, high school season, there are 2 different ways that you can stress and and be either underwhelmed or maybe overwhelmed by life and the choices you need to be making or ones that you're worried about making. The way to describe this that comes to my mind is that you were walking on these paths of life, right, through the decision forest, okay? And there are 2 different types of people on these paths. You have the wanderers, right? You can see this quote from Lord of the Rings, all over people's Jeeps, and on books and everything else, right? Not all those who wander are lost. Well, some of y'all are lost, okay? Some of y'all are just wandering around. You're not paying attention to what's going on. And so when you're walking down the paths of life, when we're, when you're going through this decision, Forest, you're so consumed by everything else you're looking at. Uh, and you don't see the importance of making sure that you're taking the right path. And so as you kind of meander and mosey through the forest, you end up maybe going directions that you wouldn't have chosen to take if you would have actually paid attention, right? The, the wandering uh, is an issue that we can have uh, in this life that we can just Think that everything's just gonna turn out okay or focus on so much other stuff that really doesn't matter that we, that we miss out on helping ensure that we are living life, uh, that is appropriate, that, that lines up with the way God wants us to live our life. And then the other side, is that we have people who are worriers, who have wanderers who don't care about anything, right? We're just kind of going through the forest and you have warriors who are going to be people who are so focused on every step that they're taking. Uh, and worried that they may be making the wrong decision that ultimately, at some points in their life, they will just make no decision, because they're so concerned that they may take the wrong step or the wrong path. And so tonight, I want to look at these scriptures and I want to show you the way that God wants you to make decisions in your life. And this sermon, this lesson is called watch your steps. Because we need to pay attention, not be worried about the decisions we're making or worried that we are going to mess something up. But, but to be diligent and focused on making sure that our lives are lived in a proper way, and that the decisions we're making line up with what we say we believe and who we serve. So let's dive a little bit deeper into these verses.

Main Points

Make choices wisely, but confidently

Here's the 1st point I want you to write down. When we're watching our steps, listen, this is what we do. We make choices wisely, but confidently. And here's how you do that. Here's how you make a decision. I am not always good at making decisions. I struggle with the worrying side of things. I have to go through every option. And look at all the research before I can make a decision, because I want to be very confident in what I'm doing, right? So I need to follow this just as much as I'm asking you to follow this. And if you're on the wandering side of things, just know that this also applies to you that you need to take the initiative. to make decisions. And to make these choices wisely, but make them in confidence.

Examine your motives

And so the 1st thing you do is this. You examine your motives. You want to listen to me, I'm going to say Psalm 139 verses 23 through 24 says, search me, 0 God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. This psalm is also the psalm where we get things from David that say, you know, before you knit me in my mother's womb, you knew me, right? You know all my thoughts, right? We understand and believe that God knows everything. And in doing that, he also knows our hearts and what's inside of us. So when we are trying to make a decision, We need to ensure that our motives are pure and that we are doing it for the right reasons and intentions. If we're trying to claim that we're doing something um, and making a decision, um, because we believe that God's telling us to do it. Yet, it's really because we want to. We are in a huge violation, right, of what is appropriate, what is okay for us to do, because now we're claiming that God is complicit in us making selfish decisions. that's not how this works.

Pray for clarity

Second thing you do is this, you pray for clarity. James 15 says if you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. It's not bad to ask God to clarify and to give you wisdom about decisions that you need to make. It's not something that you have to wait for some audible voice and some kind of sign in the clouds to spell out every decision that you need to make. But we want to make sure that we are living wisely, right? We're making those choices wisely. Um, because if not, then we can lead ourselves down some really bad paths. So we need to pray for clarity to make sure that we are understanding the complete picture of the decision we're wanting to make.

Take Action!

And the 3rd thing that we do, when we make choices wisely but confidently, is that we take action. We cannot just sit back and think that God is going to just hand everything over to us in our life. There are actions that we need to take. Proverbs 134 says lazy people want much, but get little. But those who work hard will prosper. Look, if you are a wanderer, right, and you're just assuming that your life is just gonna turn out amazing just because of who you are or that, it's just all gonna work out. Um, you are gonna end up in a position one day where you're gonna have your back against the wall because you're going to find out that, that you're gonna have to make decisions and take the initiative to do things. Because if not, you're going to want things out of life later on that you are now not going to get. Because you want these things and it is now time to take action. And if you do not you will not. The ones who work are the ones who make the decisions and plan properly, and seek God's guidance, those are the ones who God is going to help guide, and it will be that much easier to make decisions in this life.

Time is a gift, don’t waste it

Second thing is this. Time is a gift. Don't waste it. Look, limited time on earth can be overlooked by some, right? If you're a wanderer, you're not really thinking about the fact that you don't have unlimited years. You're not thinking about the end of your life could happen at any second. And then it can be over a stressed by others. If you're on the worrying side, you're so stressed, right? That you only have one life to live, and that every decision is the biggest decision of your life, because you never know, which the decision may actually, you know, take your life a different direction than you wanted to go. But listen, we have to take our time and remember that it is a gift. We are not promised tomorrow, but we are given right now. So we need to use that wisely and not overlook the fact that we have time, but not overstress about it either. And if you look in the verses, it talks about the days being evil. And what this is saying, right, is that although we live in an evil world, like these are evil times that we live in because of sin that has infected this world, right? Everything is tainted by sin. But although we live in an evil world, we can actually redeem our time, making the most of the time, that phrase is like redeeming our time by living as God intended. The world is evil. The world is tainted by sin, but as believers, as Christians who have been redeemed by Christ, we can now redeem that time back. We can buy it back from evil by doing good works in the face of an evil place that we live in.

Evaluate instead of hesitate

The 3rd point is this. When we're trying to watch our steps, we need to evaluate instead of hesitate. This is an important distinction between evaluating, taking time to process, right? And hesitating, the definition of hesitate is this to pause before doing something or saying something. Usually because of uncertainty, fear, or indecision. So hesitation is different than evaluation because while evaluating you do take time to consider what you should do, hesitation is because you are pausing from making a decision, not necessarily considering what the best option is or what the Lord would want you to do. But, but you become overwhelmed by fear or the uncertainty or, again, the indecision. You just can't decide. And that hesitation can keep us from making the decisions we need to make. And so how can we make sure that we are evaluating instead of hesitating?

Look up, down, and around

And so the 1st thing we need to do is regularly look up. And down and around. Okay, so we, we need to take time to pause and we evaluate, we, we look up first, right? We look to the Lord, we look for guidance, we look to seek his answers like we've talked about before, right? But then we look down at our feet and we go okay. When I looked up and I saw this is what God says, God's word says, this is how God wants me to live my life. Am I doing that? Like, am I walking on the path that lines up with this? Okay? And so once we do that, then after we have done that, after we have examined what God's word says about how we should live, and then we examine our life to see if it is lining up with it. Then, we can look around and see what paths are available, and then, from those evaluations of each path, make a decision that makes sense and lines up with what we saw when we looked up, and making sure that when we look down, it looks the same, right? We're going the same direction.

Avoid Distractions

Another thing that we can do to evaluate, instead of hesitate, is avoid distractions. Our hesitations in making decisions sometimes come from the fact that we are so distracted by everything else in this world. that we don't take time to truly consider what we are doing and what our purpose is. If you want to know the top thing that is distracting you right now, it is your phone. If you have a phone, That is a distraction machine. I recently deleted all of the social media off of my phone. I still have social media pages, but I think I've maybe looked at social media once or twice since I've done this in the last couple weeks and may even be up to 3 weeks now. I don't know. But I have been so blessed by not having that distraction. I've been able to read more. I've been able to focus more. I still get distracted, don't get me wrong. distraction didn't get invented by Instagram, right? But, I do believe that if you are a person like me, who becomes very addicted to things and very, uh, wants to be distracted when there is a tough decision to make or something that you don't want to do is gonna have to be done. You need to find ways to put guardrails on your life so that you can avoid the distractions that keep you from making good decisions. And the last thing that we do, and we're trying to, to, to hone in on evaluating our decisions versus versus hesitating and just picking something, right?

Take time to rest

The last thing that we do is take time to rest. There's a story that is in the gospels, where there's 2 sisters, Mary and Martha, and Jesus is sitting there in their living room and Martha is working. And she's trying to get the house cleaned. She's trying to be prepared for Jesus. They believe he's the Messiah, right? They, they are trying to, she's trying to get everything up to speed, right? She's trying to make sure that it is great for Jesus, but Mary is not doing that. She's not taking care of anything. She's sitting on the floor listening to Jesus. And so Martha comes up to Jesus and says, Jesus, hey, can you get married to come do something? Look how much work I'm doing. Look how many things I'm trying to take care of, and Mary's not even helping. She's just sitting here. Jesus then looks at Martha and says, Martha, listen. Like, Mary's chosen the better thing. Why would he say that? Are you just supposed to sit around and listen to sermons all day or, you know, listen to podcasts, about Jesus, and just taking all the information, sit at home, and not take care of anything, just read our Bible. Why is Mary choosing the better thing over a mother who's trying to get things done? And the reason is because Martha, who is trying to take care of all these tasks, And is so worried, right? She's made decisions. that are actually keeping her from doing the better decision. Because those tasks could have been done later. Jesus was not worried about if the dishes were washed. Right? He he wanted to talk with and spend time with Miriam Martha. So Mary chose the better thing, not because she didn't help out and do things, but because she saw the options of what was most important, and she took the time not to neglect the tasks that would need to be done later, but to 1st rest in Jesus. We rest in Jesus. That is what we need to do so that we can evaluate things that we can be better at making decisions that we won't have hesitations in life because if we look and we see that there's time to spend with Jesus and it is not keeping us from doing something absolutely immediate at that moment. We should take that opportunity. We should always be looking to rest in Jesus, and then from that, We'll then be able to take care of the task necessary.

Understand God’s will is from God’s Word

The 4th point is this. When we're watching our steps, we need to understand God's will from God's Word. That verse 17, so don't be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. The will of the Lord has been one of the biggest hurdles that I have had in my Christian walk, especially early on. Because again, I'm a warrior, right? I'm the guy who is worried that I'm going to miss something that I'm supposed to do because I'm not paying attention or because I made the wrong decision. And so when I read passages like this, I would get so concerned that I, you know, don't know what the Lord's will is for me in my life, or I know that God wants me to do this, but I don't know if I'm supposed to apply for this or do that, or should I wait? What am I supposed to do? And so if you're struggling tonight with trying to determine what the Lord's will is for your life, or maybe tonight is the 1st time you've ever had the thought of, hey, what does God want me to do with my life? We need to understand a bigger picture of what Paul is saying here in Ephesians about understanding the Lord's will, and in the context of this chapter, what that means, like, this is not a secret knowledge. First off, if it's God's secret knowledge, we're not gonna know it anyway. There are gonna be plenty of things in life that you will never understand why they happened. There are plenty of things that we don't fully understand right now about God, and that's okay. We have to learn to live with some mysteries of God, because they're just not for us. So we're not talking about a secret will that we have to seek out and try to find or that he's hidden under a rock somewhere, and if we would have just looked over here and done this thing and done that, we could have found his will for us, but if you look earlier in Ephesians, we actually went through this verse, I believe, in verse nine. Look, he made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ. What is the mystery of his will, right? The mystery and the will of God. Was Jesus. Like, God wanted Jesus to fulfill this prophecy of the Messiah. He he ordained this to happen so that people would come to know Jesus and be saved and be able to live a life that is different than the evil world around them. That is the will of God, that we live like Jesus. I am a firm believer that unless you have had some specific knowledge from the Lord about why you believe you should go to, one college or the other, I don't think he cares. Not because he's not invested in your life, not because he is not concerned. But because there are all kinds of choices that you can make. On the other side, if you just think that you can just go wherever and do whatever, you're also missing out on the fact that our lives need to be aligned a certain way and that there are some colleges maybe that aren't the best decision for you. Because if you go there, you know all you're going to do is party and not study and you're going to flunk out. Okay, that's not a good decision. That's not making a decision that is going to follow what the Lord wants you to do. If you know that about yourself, right? So we need to understand that our lives need to be aligned with the will of the Father, which has been revealed through Jesus. And our lives need to be centered around Jesus.

Applications

And when we do that, this is the application of all of this, okay? When we make our decisions while closely following Jesus and living how the word tells us to live, if we live as Jesus is our example, we take up our cross and follow after him. It will generally lead us in the right direction. I can't think of any time really, but I'm just leaving open like, hey, there are times where God may, you know, point you a completely different direction than you thought you were going to go and you just got to follow, right? But that comes from following closely after Jesus in those decisions that maybe don't have specific answers from the Lord, and also following after Jesus and allowing Jesus to be the center of our life, helps us know when it's time to change direction as well because if we see that, Our lives are not lining up because of a situation we're in, we may need to leave that situation. And that's the decision you gotta make. Like, Ultimately, this this whole message and this section of scripture that we're talking about versus 15 through 17. This is focused on us making sure that we are not just going through life. And living like the world, or like everyone else, basing our decisions on logic that's made outside of the Bible that has no basis in the gospel, right? It's talking about the difference of our life and how it should look and how we make decisions looks different than the world because in the world, people make decisions based off of either what's best for them. Or what's best for a company. What's best for their family? And some of those are okay. But they ultimately have to fall underneath the authority of Jesus when we make decisions. That's who we follow 1st and foremost.

Closing Statement

In closing, is what I want to say. Life is going to present you with many choices. By living a gospel centered life, you are able to make decisions confidently, knowing the Lord is with you wherever you go. Pay close attention to your life. Watch your steps. And you won't miss out on the awesome things that God wants to do in your life.