Ephesians 5:16-17

Walking in Wisdom, Part 2

Ephesians 5:16–17

1935

November 5, 1978

Big Idea

The Christian life is not meant to be an unfinished symphony. God has granted each believer a bounded, God-assigned span of time and a specific course to run. To “walk as wise” therefore means:

Knowing and living by God’s life principles (v. 15),

Maximizing our limited privileges by redeeming the time (v. 16), and

Aligning our lives with our Lord’s purposes by understanding His will (v. 17).

If we waste our God-given opportunities, we play the fool—especially in a world where the days are evil and chances to do good are precious and few.

1. Time as a God-Given, Bounded Stewardship

Ephesians 5. It’s brought home to me more and more all the time that many people never finish what they begin. There are unfinished symphonies. There are unfinished paintings. There are sculptures that have never had the finishing touch, because in each case the master died. There are relationships that never become all that they could be. There are ministries that never really come to fruition. There are dreams that always remain dreams, hopes that always remain hopes, never become realities. And I guess, for a lot of people life can be an unfinished symphony. It can be a dream without a reality. It can be an ideal without a truth. But I don’t think it has to be that way. I think there’s one great reality that we need to focus on in the text that we want you to look at this morning.

Look at the fifteenth verse of Ephesians 5 and I’ll read through verse 17. “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” And we’ll stop there. Now you’ll notice that there’s a major statement made in three simple words in the middle of this text. It is, “Redeeming the time.” If we are ever to turn our dreams into reality, if we are ever to turn our hopes into fact, if we are ever to finish our symphonies and paint our paintings and sculpt our sculpture, it’s going to be when we have redeemed time. I believe God has bounded our lives with eternity and I believe God has prescribed before we were ever born the time that we were to live, and only as we maximize that time can we maintain its potential for its fulfillment.

A. Unfinished Lives and the Question of Time

The sermon opens with the image of unfinished symphonies, incomplete paintings, aborted ministries, and dreams that never become reality. Many lives are like that—full of potential that never matures. Scripture, however, insists that this is not inevitable. The key phrase in the text is:

“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (Eph 5:16)

If dreams are to become reality and ministry is to be fulfilled, it will be because believers have redeemed the time God has given them.

B. “The Time” – Not Just Time in General

Paul says “the time,” not “a time” or “time” in the abstract. The definite article implies a bounded, defined portion of time sovereignly assigned by God.

Key texts:

1 Peter 1:17 – “Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.” Your earthly life is a set “sojourning time” under God.

Job 14:14 – “All the days of my appointed time will I wait…” Job sees his lifespan as appointed by God.

Acts 20:24 – Paul wants to finish “the course” (ton dromon mou – “the course of me”) and the ministry given to him. Not just any course, but his God-designed course.

Hebrews 12:1 – Believers are to “run with patience the race that is set before us.” A race with God-determined boundaries.

At the end of his life Paul can say:

2 Timothy 4:7 – “I have finished the course.” Not “a” course, but the course God ordained.

God has:

Determined the length of our lives,

Set the course we are to run, and

Assigned the ministry we are to fulfill.

C. The Fragility and Brevity of Life

Reading the story about Kefa Sempangi, he and his wife for years ran for their lives, just under the providence of God that they weren’t killed. And finally after this miraculous escape they found their way to Philadelphia to some people who were willing to care for them. And his wife said to him one day, “Tomorrow, I am going to go buy some clothes for the children.” And immediately they both burst into tears, and they said it was the first time they had said the word tomorrow in four years. Tomorrow. And James said, “Tomorrow you don’t know if you have tomorrow.” Time. You see the whole aspect of life is built around time in Paul’s thinking here. Wisdom in verse 15 leads him to think of time in verse 16. Why? Because I believe the greatest squandering of wisdom occurs in the use of time or the lack of it.

David and James underline the urgency:

Psalm 89:47 – “Remember how short my time is.”

Psalm 39:4–5 – “LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days… Behold, thou hast made my days as a handbreadth.”

James 4:13–15 – Life is “a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”

The story of Kefa Sempangi and his wife—who had not spoken of “tomorrow” for four years because death was always imminent—drives home James’s point: we take “tomorrow” for granted, but Scripture warns that tomorrow is never guaranteed.

Conclusion: A wise Christian feels the weight of time’s brevity and lives with a holy urgency: we have one bounded life, one God-given course, and no guarantee of another day.

2. Walking Wisely: Life Principles and Limited Privileges

Now remember what we’re talking about in Ephesians 5, will you? We’re talking about the worthy walk, aren’t we? We learned what it is to be a Christian in the first three chapters. And now in the last three chapters of Ephesians we learn how to live as a Christian. How do you walk? Walk means lifestyle, manner of living. First of all we learned in chapter 4 we walk in humility. Secondly we learned we walk in unity. Thirdly, we learned we walk uniquely, different than the rest of the world. Fourthly, we learned we walk in love, chapter 5. Then we learned to walk in light, chapter 5; and now we’re learning to walk in what? Wisdom. And what does it mean to walk in wisdom but to redeem time, because that is the greatest squandering of potential. For Christ’s sake, he says, for the sake of who you are, use your time wisely.

Now let’s back up and see how we’re supposed to look at these three verses. A wise walking Christian knows three realities. All right? First he has a sense of his life principles, secondly his limited privileges, and third his Lord’s purposes. Very simple but very profound.

First, a wise walking person knows his life principles. Walking in wisdom means you conform to certain standards of living. Now remember this: Wisdom is used here in the sense of the Jewish concept, not the Greek. To the Greeks, wisdom was something you spun off of your brain. Wisdom was an intellectual exercise. Wisdom was nothing more than unrelated sophistry. But to a Hebrew, wisdom was a living principle. That’s what we’re talking about. We’re not talking about thinking; we’re talking about living and walking in wisdom. It’s simply living according to divine principle.

That’s what verse 15 says. Look at it, “See then” – in other words since you have been made alive in Christ, since you are awake from your sleep, since you have come into light from darkness – according to verse 14 – since this amazing thing has happened in your life, “See then that you walk circumspectly not as fools, but as wise.” In other words, there’s a certain life principles commiserate with wise walking. See that you do that. You’re not asophos - a fool. You are sophos - wise, so live it. So act like it. So walk in a manner in accord with your wisdom.

A. Recap: Walking in Wisdom (v. 15)

John Bunyan captured the reality of that in Pilgrim’s Progress. By the time you finish reading Pilgrim’s Progress – and I’ve been reading it to my children now for about six months – by the time you finish reading Pilgrim’s Progress, if you learned on thing, you learned you’d better stay on the way of the king. You better walk with exactness, and you better walk with accuracy and care. You can’t just flip flop in the Christian life. A wise man walks looking at every step.

You know if you read the second chapter of Proverbs, it’s almost a commentary on this verse. If the Old Testament had been written after the New Testament we’d say that Proverbs 2 is a commentary on Ephesians 5:15. All the way through Proverbs chapter 2 he talks about walking the wise path, walking the wise way, not going into the way of the wicked, not straying into the path of the evil people, but walking in the wise way, walking according to knowledge, understanding, and precepts of God. And so we are to walk in wisdom. That’s very simple. And remember wisdom is a synonym for living by divine life principles. Wisdom is a synonym for living by divine life principles. And you know we live in a fool’s paradise in our world, so it’s not easy to walk in wisdom. The world is telling us all the time, “Do this. Do this,” trying to suck us off the way of the King, trying to pull us off the compressed and narrow path.

Paul’s flow in Ephesians:

We have learned to walk:

In humility (4:1–3)

In unity (4:4–16)

Uniquely (not as Gentiles, 4:17–32)

In love (5:1–7)

In light (5:8–14)

Now: In wisdom (5:15–17)

To “walk as wise” is synonym for living by divine life principles. For a Hebrew mind, “wisdom” is not theoretical speculation but practical godliness—aligning life with God’s revealed standards.

Verse 15:

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.”

“Circumspectly” = accurately, carefully, exactly.

The Christian doesn’t meander through life carelessly; he walks a narrow, compressed path (Matt 7:13–14), watching every step.

Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress captures this: stay on the “way of the King” or you fall into destruction.

We now are the wise (in Christ), so we are commanded to live like it. It is tragic and irrational to possess divine wisdom and then walk like a fool.

B. Limited Privileges: Redeeming Kairos, Not Just Chronos (v. 16)

Now let’s look at the second point. Not only are we to be aware of the life principles, but the limited privileges. You say, you mean as a Christian my privileges are limited? Yes. Your privileges are limited in this time. It says in 16, “Redeeming the time because the days are evil.” There are limitations on our privileges, people. If we don’t walk wisely now, we don’t have any other time. All we have is now, that’s it. If I lose this moment it’ll never be back again. Redeeming the time – he’s talking about opportunity here, by the way, because the word he uses is not chronos. Chronos is a Greek word that means time like a clock, time like a calendar, time like a sequence of minutes and hours. Chronos is the word from which we get chronology, the flow of events in history or chronograph, something that keeps time. But the word here is kairos and it means eras or epics or opportunities. We are to redeem the opportunities, the moments that can be grasped for God and for good and for glory for Him.

The Greeks had a statue and the name of the statue of “Opportunity.” In one of the ancient Greek cities the statue stood in the very center of the city. It was carved and chiseled by a man named Lysippos. It had wings on its feet and it had a great lock of hair in the front and it was bald in the back, from the middle back completely bald. And underneath the statue was a great base and carved in Greek on the base was this dialogue: “Who made thee? Lysippos made me. What is thy name? My name is Opportunity. Why hast thou wings on thy feet? That I may fly away swiftly. Why hast thou a forelock? That men may seize me when I come. Why art thou bald in back? When I am gone by none can lay hold of me.” Opportunity. The believer who walks in wisdom knows to make the most of opportunity.

Now listen to me. I want to show you something interesting, and I’ve already hinted at it. Do you notice how Paul says, “Walk wisely,” in verse 15 and then immediately talks about redeeming opportunity in verse 16? Why does he connect those two? Because I am convinced that man plays the fool with time and opportunity more than he plays the fool in any other thing. That is the greatest category of foolishness, the misuse of time and opportunity. I feel this is talking to Christians here. Remember what the Psalmist said in Psalm 90 and verse 12? He said, “So teach us to number our days” – why? – “that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.” It is wisdom that numbers the days. It is wisdom that accounts the limited time. It is wisdom that buys the opportunity. Wisdom walking down that narrow path sees an opportunity for evil and shuns it because that’s the fool’s act. Wisdom sees an opportunity for good and grasps it because that’s the opportunity for God.

“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

Here “time” is kairos, not chronos.

Chronos – clock time, calendar time, minutes/hours.

Kairos – seasons, opportunities, decisive moments.

To “redeem the time” is to buy up every God-given opportunity, to seize every “kairos” moment that can be used for Christ’s glory.

Illustration: the Greek statue of Opportunity:

Wings on the feet – opportunity flies quickly.

Hair on the front, bald on the back – you can only seize it while it is coming, not after it passes.

Paul links wisdom and time because one of the greatest categories of foolishness is the misuse and squandering of time and opportunity.

Psalm 90:12 – “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Wise living is time-conscious living.

Galatians 6:10 – “As we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men…” Opportunities are limited; they must be used, not admired.

C. “Because the Days Are Evil”

And even more important is it as he says at the end of verse 16, “Because the days are evil.” These are evil days, and if we’re going to make anything out of an evil day we’re going to have to buy the opportunity. It’s kind of like this, folks, what he’s really saying could be seen in two or three ways. But first of all look at it from this angle. You know the days we live in, in general, are full of evil. And what he’s really saying is the opportunities for righteousness are few. The opportunities for goodness are few. In the midst of an evil world, when they do come grab them. When God is giving you an opportunity for glorifying Him and in return bringing blessing on you doing something for His namesake, grab that in the midst of an evil day.

Can you imagine what a heartbreak it is for God to create a world like our world and fill it up with every good thing and when it’s all made and done He says, “It’s all good,” And then to see the thing corrupted and debauched and made vile as it is today, as it has been since the fall of man, as it continues to increase in its corruption? Can you imagine how it must be for God to see the days of the world that He made so filled with evil, and then to see a Christian whose given a golden jewel of opportunity after opportunity and after opportunity, who by passes it with never so much as a notice? The days are evil. This is an evil day. And God gives us those times and those opportunities to make things happen that matter, to fill up at least a moment of a day, an hour of a day with something good, something righteous, something for Him.

But there’s another way to look at it. It may be a more direct statement to the Christians who are reading this, who are living in an evil time. It may be a reference to the Ephesians who were living in an evil day. Their society was a debauched society. If you go back to chapter 4, you find, for example, in verse 14 that there were people going around teaching false doctrine. There were those who, using the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, were trying to deceive God’s people. Satan had his false teachers. Satan had his harbingers of evil. Satan had the ones coming around masquerading as religionists who were propagating their lies that would damn men. Further there was evil all about. It tells us in verse 19 of chapter 4, that the people of that time were characterized by lasciviousness, which is a perverted sexual desire, that there was uncleanness, and there was greediness. This is the pleonexia. This is the fulfillment of sexual desire to the point that it’s to the point that it’s beyond any kind of rational thinking.

Further, he says, it’s a day of lying, verse 25. It’s a day of anger. It’s a day, in verse 27, when the devil has a place. It’s a day of stealing. It’s a day of corrupt communication. Chapter 5 verse 3 talks about sex sin, uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talking, jesting, and so forth. I mean, it was a day of evil. And he may be making that major thrust and saying, look, redeem the time because the days are evil. He may have been alluding to the very hour in which those people were living. Persecution and distress was on the horizon. Do you know it was only a hundred years or so from this time that Christians were burned at the stake and Christians were thrown to the lions. It was coming, and it was coming fast, and whatever they were going to do they were going to do then.

I’ll tell you another thing, it was a few years after this, just a few years before the end of that first century, that dear beloved John, the apostle, wrote to the Ephesian church and said, “You have lost your first love.” And you know something, if something doesn’t change, the candlestick is going to be removed, the light’s going to go out, and there’ll never be a church in Ephesus. And you know what happened? They didn’t change, the candle was removed, there never was another church in that city. Their time was shorter than they thought because of the evil of those days. And when the church at Ephesus fell under the spell of the evil, they went out of existence. And today if you were to go to Ephesus you know what you’d see? You’d see nothing contemporary in existence there. It’s gone. The time was short. The days were evil. They fell prey to the time they lived in. You know they realized persecution was coming. They must have. They knew what Jesus had said about the fact that they would be persecuted for His sake.

Why such urgency? Because:

“The days are evil.” (Eph 5:16)

Two layers:

General – The world God made “very good” is now saturated with evil.

God’s heart is grieved to see His world so corrupted.

When He gives a believer a “golden jewel” of opportunity in the middle of such a day, it is a tragic insult to ignore it.

A wise Christian wants to fill at least some portion of each evil day with something righteous, something that glorifies God.

Specific (Ephesus and us) – Their days were evil in concrete ways:

False doctrine and deceitful teachers (4:14).

Sexual sin, uncleanness, greed, filthy talk, and moral corruption (4:19; 5:3–4).

Coming persecution (later Christians burned, thrown to beasts).

Impending loss of spiritual vitality: Revelation 2 shows Ephesus losing its first love and ultimately having its lampstand removed.

Their time as a church was shorter than they knew. When they fell under the spell of the evil day, the church at Ephesus disappeared.

Application to us:

Evil is not only persecution; ease and affluence can be the most dangerous “evil day” of all, lulling us to sleep and blurring our priorities.

Sometimes the church thrives more under persecution than under comfort.

D. The Urgency of Personal Time and Opportunity

And I’ll tell you the time is short because we don’t have long to live. I’m 39 years old. Nobody believes you when you say 39, but I’m 39. And, you know, I have a sense of urgency. I don’t know how long God’s going to give me, but I’ll tell you one thing, I’m going to give Him all the time I’ve got. I have a sense of urgency. I don’t know when Jesus is going to come. One of these days He’s going to split the heavens with His coming, and He’s going to end it all and He’s going to set up His kingdom. And I want that day to come, but I know that there’s a sense of urgency until He comes. And I know the world isn’t getting better. It’s getting worse. Second Timothy 3:13, “Evil men grow worse and worse.” Romans chapter 1 says they invent new sins all throughout human history. The world is blacker. It’s more expressive of its vices than it’s ever been. And we must redeem the time.

The word redeem is in the middle voice in the Greek. It means buy up for yourself and that’s a beautiful thought. It isn’t saying hoard your time for your benefit. It’s saying buy up for yourself the time in this sense: When you redeem the time, you benefit because God blesses you. You walk on the narrow way and you walk circumspectly and you walk accurately and you make the most of your time and the most of your opportunity, and God will pour out blessing to you so that it’s actually true that you’re redeeming the time for yourself. Use it up in the way that can give God glory.

When I was a little guy I played in the Glendale Little League and my buddy on the team was named Eddie. Eddie was a pitcher and I was a short shop. We were good friends. We went to elementary school together and we were both twelve. Eddie was a Presbyterian and I was a Baptist, but we were friends anyway. And Eddie was a good pitcher and a good friend. And Eddie used to say to me, “I’m going to be a pastor.” And I’d say, “I’m going to be one too.” And we talked about both growing up to be pastors. Eddie told me that when he got out of high school he was going to go to college and he was going to study so he could be a pastor. When he was in the twelfth grade in high school Eddie was driving a little Model A that he had. It had a canvas top, going about 40 miles an hour, the wheels locked, catapulted him through the roof and he hit his head on the curb and he was dead.

Eddie never knew the limited time that he had, never knew, never conceived. And all through the years of my life I’ve looked back and I’ve thought there’s two young men, both had the same desire. God took Eddie and left me. Eddie never had the opportunity, but I do. I wonder if I’m doing any more with it than he would have done. In a sense Eddie being dead yet speaks. I want to take everything that God’s given me and use it for Him. I want to make it most of every moment, see, because it’s only His grace that I’m even here, because I got thrown out of a car too. Remember? Only I lived, and God called me to preach and teach, and I just want to make sure that I grab every time and opportunity that He gives me and redeem it to His glory in the midst of an evil day.

The sermon presses this home with stories:

Kefa Sempangi’s church – persecution produced all-night prayer, intense evangelism, and deep urgency. Time was clearly short.

Personal story of Eddie – a high-school friend who wanted to be a pastor, killed at 18 in a car accident. Same calling, same desire—one life cut short, the other spared. That raises the question: Am I doing more with my opportunity than he would have done?

Romans 13:11–14 captures this urgency:

“Now it is high time to awake out of sleep… the night is far spent, the day is at hand… let us cast off the works of darkness… put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Redeem the time is in the middle voice:

“Buy up for yourselves” the opportunity.

Not selfish hoarding, but recognizing that when we use time for God’s glory, we ourselves are blessed.

Missed opportunities:

Time alone with the Lord that we always “intend” to begin.

Time with spouse and children—short seasons that never return.

Ministry responsibilities and spiritual gifts we will “use someday.”

A key thought:

Opportunity is to time what time is to eternity.

Now let me give you a little philosophical to think about. Opportunity is in respect to time what time is in respect to eternity. Say it again. Opportunity is in respect to time what time is in respect to eternity. And what I mean by that is this: The only piece of eternity you’ll ever hold in your hand is the opportunity of this moment, that’s it. You can’t live in the past; you can’t live in the future. It’s now and that’s the end of it. We hold an opportunity in our hands. That is the only piece of eternity we’ll ever hold. That piece of opportunity is to time what time is to eternity. I can hold eternity in my hand when I maximize this moment. Shakespeare said, “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at its ebb, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is drown in the shallows and miseries of life.” Napoleon said, “There is in the midst of every great battle a ten-to-fifteen-minute time period that is the crucial point. Take that period and you win the battle. Loose it and you will be defeated.”

There are many biblical texts which stand as beacons to warn people of limited privileges and application to divine principles. You read in the Bible such a statement as, “The door was shut.” Too late. When Noah and his family were in the Ark, God shut the door. It was too late. Opportunity was gone. When the virgins came with an unprepared lamp, the door was shut. Too late. The marriage would go on without them. The words of the Lord Jesus Christ ring down through history, “The night comes when no man can work.” I hear the Lord say to the people of His day, “You shall die in your sins and where I go you cannot come.” I hear the Lord say to the churches of the New Testament, “I will remove the candlestick.” I hear God call to Israel year after year, time after time, century after century, until that nation finally turned its back on God, and God called out to them through the prophet Moses and through those all the way down to Isaiah and beyond Isaiah, and yet they were a stiff-necked and hard people who wouldn’t hear and wouldn’t listen. And God’s heart was broken, and Jesus finally uttered it when He said, “How oft I would have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her brood, but you would not.” Lost opportunity.

You can’t live yesterday or tomorrow—only now. To waste “now” is to throw away the only slice of time that can be invested in eternity.

Biblical warnings about missed opportunity:

“The door was shut” (Noah’s ark; the foolish virgins).

“The night cometh, when no man can work.”

“I will remove thy candlestick.”

Jesus weeping over Jerusalem: “How often would I… but ye would not.”

Judas—three years with Christ, yet lost forever.

1 Kings 20: “While thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” “Here and there” is the epitaph of a wasted life.

3. The Lord’s Purposes: Understanding God’s Will (v. 17)

Listen to what Paul said in the thirteenth chapter of Romans. “Knowing the time, that it is high time to awake out of sleep. For now is our deliverance nearer than when we believed.” Folks, we’re getting nearer to the coming of the Lord, aren’t we? “The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in wild parties, drunkenness, immorality, shamelessness, strife, and envy.” In other words, people, do you realize we only have a limited time? And we’ve got to live according to God’s life principles with our limited privilege of time. I would call a man a fool who threw away jewels. I would call a man a fool who threw away money. I would call a man a bigger fool who threw away an hour. There’s a world to be won. There’s a church to be built. There’s a God to be glorified and there’s no time for triteness and there’s not time for meaningless activity. Melanchthon, the great reformer, kept a daily record of every wasted moment, and then took it to God in a prayer of confession at the end of the day. No wonder God used him to touch the whole world.

Paul knows urgency alone can produce panic and frantic activity. So he adds:

“Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” (Eph 5:17)

We don’t need more activity; we need the right activity. Redeeming the time isn’t about running in all directions; it’s about spending your limited time doing what God actually wants.

A fool functions apart from God’s will.

A wise believer channels urgency into obedient alignment with God’s revealed will.

A. God’s Will: Clear, Not Hidden

I’ll tell you it’s very simple. If God has a will for your life, I believe He’ll tell you. and if He tells you, I think He’ll tell you in the most obvious place, right here. So one time a few years ago, I just started trying to figure out God’s will and I said, “Why don’t I look and see what He says,” and this is what I found. “God, our Savior, who will have all men to be saved.” Number one he wants me to be saved. That’s his will. Secondly, right here, “Be not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” And what is it? “Be not drunk with wine, which is in excess, but be filled with” – what? – “the Spirit.” Number one, He wants you to be saved. Number two, He wants you to be Spirit filled. That’s His will.

Number three, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 3, “This is the will of God concerning you, even your sanctification.” Saved, Spirit filled, sanctified. Convenient, they all start with S. Peter says, “This is the will of God that you be submissive to the powers that be.” Submissive. That’s that you live the kind of a life as a citizen that is an honor and a respect to Jesus Christ. That you abide by those people in government and in leadership and that you honor the king and you give due recognition to those in authority. Live a submissive life. And then fifth Peter says suffer. You suffer according to the will of God. That’s what it says in 1 Peter.

What is the will of God for you? Are you ready for this? Number one, saved, Spirit filled, sanctified, submissive, suffering, and I’ll add one more. “In everything say thanks, for this is the will of God for you.” Now if you’re living a life that’s saved, Spirit filled, sanctified, submissive, suffering, and saving thanks – you say, “Oh, but that doesn’t help me whether I ought to go here to school or marry this person or” – that isn’t it. I’ve got great news for you. Are you ready for this? If you’re all those things, you know what the next thing is? Whatever you want. Whatever you want. What do you mean whatever I want? The Bible says it. “Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” And by the way, if you’re fulfilling those six things, you’re delighting the Lord and He’ll just give you the desire in your heart. People say, “Well does that mean He’ll fulfill your desire?” Yes, but before He fulfills it He’ll put it there.

People say to me, “Why did you go to Grace Church?” I always say the same thing, “I wanted to.” Oh? You wanted to? What about putting out a fleece and laying out a fleece and opening a door and closing a door and the Lord – and all this. No, I didn’t have a fleece and I never bother with doors. I wanted to. You say, “Where did you get the desire?” I believed in my heart that if I was saved, Spirit-filled, sanctified, submissive, suffering, and saying thanks God was putting the desire in my heart because He was in control. See?

God’s will is not a cosmic Easter egg hunt. He has spoken plainly in Scripture.

Key “will of God” statements:

Saved

“Who will have all men to be saved” (1 Tim 2:4). God’s will is that you know Christ.

Spirit-filled

Ephesians 5:17–18 ties God’s will directly to being filled with the Spirit. “Be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is… be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.”

Sanctified

1 Thessalonians 4:3 – “This is the will of God, even your sanctification.” Holiness, sexual purity, obedience.

Submissive

1 Peter 2:13–15 – It is God’s will that we submit to human authorities and live honorably, so that our good works silence slander.

Suffering

1 Peter 4:19 – “Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him…” Suffering for righteousness is not outside His will.

Thankful

1 Thessalonians 5:18 – “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

If you are:

Saved,

Spirit-filled,

Sanctified,

Submissive,

Suffering faithfully, and

Saying thanks in all things—

then you are walking in the core of God’s revealed will.

At that point, you are free to desire and choose, trusting that God is at work in your desires:

“Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” (Ps 37:4)

Not merely granting desires, but shaping them. So you can say of a ministry decision (as he did about going to Grace Church), “I wanted to”—confident God planted that desire in a heart already aligned with His revealed will.

B. Christ as the Perfect Model

And then when you know God’s will, you function in God’s will with a sense of time and opportunity and obedience to His life principles, you’re going to find your life is going to make a difference. You know who the perfect illustration of this is? Jesus. Jesus always functioned according to divine life principles. In John 5 he says, “I do only the things the Father tells Me to do.” He always functioned according to limited privilege. He constantly said, “My time has not come. My time has not come,” or, “My time is come.” And thirdly, He always functioned according to the Lord’s purposes, because He said, “My meat is to do the will of My Father.” He’s the perfect illustration.

Jesus perfectly illustrates the balance:

Life principles: “I do always those things that please Him” (John 8:29).

Limited privileges/time-awareness: He is constantly saying “My time is not yet come” / “My hour is come.” He knows His timetable.

Lord’s purposes: “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34).

He is never frantic, yet never idle. Always urgent, never panicked. Always redeeming the time, always in the center of His Father’s will.

Application Points

Number your days. Ask God to give you a realistic sense of your mortality so you will apply your heart to wisdom (Ps 90:12; Ps 39:4–5).

Redeem daily opportunities. Each day ask:

What is one opportunity today to honor Christ?

What temptation must I shun?

Whom can I serve, encourage, or evangelize?

Stop living “here and there.” Identify time-wasters and distractions that keep you always “busy” but never fruitful. Confess wasted time and ask God to help you change habits.

Align with God’s revealed will first. Don’t obsess over specific guidance (job, location, etc.) while neglecting the basics: saved, Spirit-filled, sanctified, submissive, suffering well, thankful.

Live with urgency but not panic. Let the shortness of time drive you to focused obedience, not scattered, frantic motion.

Memory Verses

Ephesians 5:15–17 “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”

Teaching Outline (for preaching/teaching)

Introduction: Unfinished Lives and the Question of Time

Unfinished works, incomplete ministries

The key phrase: “Redeeming the time”

The Bounded Nature of Time

“The time” – God-assigned span

Job, Peter, Paul, Hebrews 12, David, James

Life as vapor; the story of Kefa Sempangi and the word “tomorrow”

Walking Wisely: Life Principles (v. 15)

Wisdom as practical godliness

Walking circumspectly—accurately, carefully, exactly

Bunyan and the narrow path

Limited Privileges: Redeeming Kairos (v. 16)

Kairos vs chronos

The statue of Opportunity

Misuse of time as peak foolishness

“The days are evil”: general and specific (Ephesus)

Lost opportunities, Ephesus’s lampstand removed

Stories: persecution in Uganda, Eddie’s death, urgency for us

The Lord’s Purposes: Understanding His Will (v. 17)

Avoid panic and frantic activity

God’s will clearly revealed: saved, Spirit-filled, sanctified, submissive, suffering, thankful

Freedom to choose within that framework; desires shaped by God

Christ as the perfect example of wise, purposeful use of time

Conclusion and Call

Examine your use of time and opportunities

Repent of wasted hours and “here and there” living

Commit to walk wisely, redeem the time, and follow God’s will.

Discussion Guide

Where do you most feel the brevity of life? Does that awareness usually lead to wisdom—or to anxiety, avoidance, or distraction?

In what ways do you see yourself “busy here and there” (1 Kings 20) rather than focused on God’s priorities?

What are the main “evil day” pressures in your context—ease, entertainment, fear, persecution, busyness? How do these pressures tempt you to waste your opportunities?

Walk through the six aspects of God’s will (saved, Spirit-filled, sanctified, submissive, suffering, thankful).

Which is strongest in your life right now?

Which is weakest and needs prayer and change?

What is one specific opportunity (relationship, ministry, habit, spiritual discipline) you believe God is putting in front of you this week to redeem?

How does Jesus’ pattern—never hurried, never idle, always doing the Father’s will—challenge your pace and priorities?

Reference

John MacArthur. https://www.gty.org/sermons/1935/walking-in-wisdom-part-2