Watch Your Step

Introduction:

We have chickens. These chickens are free range chickens. If I go to the chicken coop, I make sure that I have shoes on because I know that if I don’t, I will walk out of there with a nice surprise.

However, did I say that these chickens are free range chickens? So that means that sometimes, they wander over towards my house and onto my deck. I’ve learned that they really like scraps or dog food that might be laying around. They also like to drink water from the cats’ water bowl on the deck.

That being said, we have to watch our step when we go outside onto the deck as well. Sometimes, these renegade escapees that don’t know their boundaries will leave us little presents on the deck.

We have to watch our step!

Well tonight, I want you to turn to Ephesians 5 as we learn how to watch our spiritual step. There are a lot of surprises out there that are far worse than what our chickens leave behind that can trip us up and hurt us.

Ephesians 5:15–16 ESV

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

1. Walk Carefully (v.15)

Explanation

Notice a few words that Paul uses here:

First, Look!

The Greek word used here is the word that means to “see”

The first things we need to do is to actually look and pay attention to what we are doing.

This means having goals for our time and our lives

Look carefully

We cannot be nonchalant about how we are living

We will give an account to God for how we live

How you walk

The fact that Paul tells us to look at how we walk means that there are ways that are good and bad that we can follow

We can walk carefully

We can walk carelessly

Proverbs 15:21 ESV

21 Folly is a joy to him who lacks sense, but a man of understanding walks straight ahead.

Some people are having a good time, not caring about the outcome of their lives, but as believers, we are not afforded that luxury.

We must be careful in how we walk.

Illustration

Imagine you are visiting a battlefield in Europe that was used during World War II and you stumble into a mine field.

What would you do? Would you walk through it without a care?

Would you walk through it an hope that you got across with no harm?

What if you had someone that knew where every mine was? Would you walk behind them and follow them exactly or would you just take your own chances?

There are a lot of things in this world that can blow us up.

What are the things that can cause us to stumble?

The Enemy

The World

The Flesh

Application:

For you personally, what are the things that cause you to stumble in your walk with the Lord?

Are you watching out for these things?

We walk in a dark world and are called to be light. We also need the light of God’s Word to help us see the path we walk on.

2. Walk in Wisdom (v.15-16)

Ephesians 5:15–16 ESV

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

We are told to walk wisely and also to redeem the time. Let’s look at these two things separately.

Be Smart

We have an adversary who is crafty. He even disguises himself as an angel of light sometimes.

In the same way that there is an enemy that wants to deceive us, we also must outwit the enemy by trusting in the simplicity of God’s revealed Word.

Proverbs is full of encouragement to walk in wisdom.

Redeem the Time

We waste time on so many different things.

Social Media

Sports

Recreation

Worry and Stress

These things are not all bad and it is not bad to be aware of things and try to have a plan, but we must not waste time on things that are not of any meaningful value.

We only have so much time to use for God’s kingdom.

Do we live life with an awareness that we only have so much time to use for the Kingdom?’

Here are a few things to remember about our time:

We have only so much of it (and we don’t know how much we have).

We have to use all of it (you cannot get a time storage unit).

We have to redeem it for something (kingdom values vs. worldly values).

Illustration:

We’ve probably all been to an arcade at some point in our lives. You know they have the game skiball where you roll the ball into the little holes and get points and then it spits out tickets. You take the tickets to the game room counter and trade them for a prize.

Well, we need to think of our time like that. We only have so much of it to use and we need to redeem every second of it for God’s purposes.

Conclusion

If you were to look at how you spent your time this week, would you be convicted of wasting it?

If you looked at how you were walking in your Christian life, would you say that you are being careful?

Let’s pray and commit our ways to the Lord and seek to redeem our time as best we can.