Walk Wisely #1

Why am I here?

What do I do? What should be the conduct of my life? Well, you know, if you think about it, it just couldn't be any simpler or plainer, could it? Your walk should manifest the nature of God's salvation in your life. What is your real purpose in life?

Is it maybe to gain financial security, fame, comfort? Well, on this edition of The Truth Pulpit, as Don Green continues to teach God's people God's Word, he'll remind you that unless walking with God is your main focus, you're not where you need to be. Hi, I'm Bill Wright, and we're continuing our series, As You Walk with Christ. And Don, in a world full of distractions, how can we better keep our focus on God?

Well, you know, my friend, the answer to Bill's question is the same answer that we give to so many different things here on The Truth Pulpit. The answer is found in the Word of God, because it is the scripture that is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work, including the work of keeping your focus through a distracting world. So keep your mind on God's Word, and stay with us as we teach it today on The Truth Pulpit.

Thanks Don. And friend, turn now in your Bible to Ephesians 5, as we join our teacher for part one of a message titled, Walk Wisely. God has ordained a purpose for you to maximize, for you to live out as you go through life. You have a reason for your existence. And here's part of what you need to see about it. It's not some big mystery that can't be uncovered or that you need to ascertain through some kind of mystical experience with God.

No, it's not that complicated, and it's not that remote. Look at the life that God has given to you now. Whether you're a young man and unmarried, whether you're on the tail end of life in your 70s, 80s, 90s, whatever it may be, whether you're a young person on the front end of life, God has given you your life in this circle of relationships that you have, in these circumstances with these skills, and he has given you those things in order to be a furtherance of his purpose of your salvation in Christ. God prepared you for the life that you now have, and your perspective on that is to be, oh, whatever I have, it may not seem like too much, it doesn't seem like much to me. Just understand that whatever it is is what God has given you. He has given you this life in this place, in this time, in this era of history, because there are things appointed for you to do to his glory as you go through life. You say, well, my life's really hard and miserable right now.

Okay? We sympathize with the difficulty of life. We all know something about walking through dark times, walking through the rainy, stormy seasons of life. We understand that.

We sympathize with that. But, beloved, just understand that God's given you that stormy period in life in order for you to say, okay, here's how a Christian glorifies God in the midst of stormy times in life. All of a sudden, your stormy times are elevated with a noble purpose that goes beyond the earthly. Things are great. You're prosperous.

Things are going well. God has given you that prosperity in order for you to be a servant of his and to show the world and to display before the angels how it is that you use prosperity to the glory of God. Whatever your circumstances are, there it is.

It's laid out before you. God has given you your present life in order for you to honor him with it so that you would walk in a manner that is worthy of Christ. Now, Paul uses this metaphor, walk, a lot in Ephesians, and I want to just give you a little bit of a review of it. What is the walk of which he speaks?

It's a figure of speech. It's a picture of step-by-step ongoing progress, steady progress through life, but it's a metaphor for your total life activities. The walk refers to the way that you conduct yourself in life. Understand that what's given to you and the way that you walk is given to you and that your life is a response to the glory of God in your salvation. It's a response to the blood of Christ on the cross, and you are to view what you do.

Here's the thing. You're talking about the whole way that you view life, and that life isn't given to you simply to maximize your pleasure or for you to maximize your profit in your business activities or simply to be completely human-focused in your relationships, as good as the relationships might be. You are to walk with a perspective that says, God has given me this life. God has given me these circumstances, this personality, this realm of ability, and I am to offer it back up to Him as a sacrifice of praise.

And unless you're thinking about life that way, I can assure you you're not living properly. This is to be the defining way that you think about life. And so what Paul has done, the Apostle Paul has done for us in the book of Ephesians is he has given us a comprehensive bit of teaching about the walk. This is one of the primary purposes of the book of Ephesians is to help us think through the walk of the Christian life in light of the great salvation that God has given to us. And so what should your walk be like as a Christian?

Let's start here. For starters, there should be a distinct, clear understanding in your mind. There should be a profoundly deep conviction in your heart that says, my present life as a Christian is going to be distinctly different from the life that I used to live when I was not a Christian. That is very obvious in what Paul says. Look at Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. This is by way of review here, and we haven't gotten to the two main points of today's message yet.

It's all by way of review. Paul says in Ephesians 2, verses 1 and 2, he says, You were dead in your trespasses and sins, notice the past tense, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world. He says, you were dead, you were spiritually bankrupt and dead and lifeless before Christ saved you, and in that spiritually dead condition, you spent your physical life pursuing the things of this world, living in a manner that was consistent with the philosophies and conduct of this Satan-dominated sphere in which we exist. He says, that's what you used to be like. Well, do you understand, beloved, the importance of verb tenses in your Christian life? Do you understand the importance of verb tenses in understanding Scripture? Paul here is drawing a contrast. He says, this is former, this is past tense, this is what it used to be like.

It's no longer like that now, this is what it used to be like. Well, understand that that should be clear in your mind as a Christian, that whether you came to Christ at an early age and you just look back on a few years of settled selfishness and lying in your years as a childhood and now it's different, or maybe you're like some of us and you came to Christ in your adult years and you can remember lots of really dark things about your life. The anger, the pride, the boastful arrogance, the love of an argument just for the sake of an argument, just to be contrary. You remember what all of that is like. Well, understand that Scripture lays that out to you and says, think about that just long enough to realize that you were saved from that, you were delivered from it. That is past tense to you as a Christian, and therefore you say, okay, I've got a new purpose then.

In a negative sense, that's put behind me. That's not why I exist, to fulfill the greed that used to animate my existence. I've told you in times past, I've told others anyway, I don't know if I've said it here from this pulpit, in this place. You know, my defining existence before I was a Christian, what I really, really wanted was to have a really, really good job so that I could have a Mercedes-Benz 450 convertible so that when the time came for my high school reunion, I could drive back to there the model of earthly success and make them all realize, this is true, and it's pathetic, make them all realize how wrong they were not to vote for me for the most likely to succeed. Yeah, I know, it's funny. It's okay to laugh at me, you know, and it is funny, but it's sick that that's what, that's what would motivate somebody in their life was that kind of superficial pride and retaliation for perceived slights in my past. Well, what a blessing from God when I was saved to be delivered from that, for that to be past tense in my life, and to drive a Nissan with a sunroof, you know?

That's cool! But to drive that Nissan to the glory of God as opposed to driving a Mercedes for the glory of Don, you realize that there's different things. That's former, it's past tense. When you came to Christ, that sinful, animating, dominating core of your life died.

Do you realize that? And do you view it as something that you're dead to rather than something that continues to reach its fingers into your motivations? Look at chapter 4, verse 17 of Ephesians. This former, this past tense aspect of the walk. Remember, we're talking about the walk here, Ephesians 4, 17.

So this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind. And so there's a sense in which you look at your past life and say, I'm not like that anymore. You look at the world around you and you see its foolishness and its sensuality and its violence and its sin and its love for everything grotesque.

And you say, you know what, I'm not like that anymore either. I don't belong to that realm. And if you can settle that negative aspect in your life, you've made a big step forward in achieving the purpose of God, which he established for you before the foundation of the world. Just to realize negatively, to have that clear and settled in your mind, I don't belong to that realm. I'm a stranger. I'm a pilgrim. I'm walking through this world, but I don't belong to it.

And so you start to think that way. But that doesn't answer the question, well, what am I then? Why am I here?

What do I do? What should be the conduct of my life? Well, you know, if you think about it, it just couldn't be any simpler or plainer, could it? Your walk should manifest the nature of God's salvation in your life. Look at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1. Ephesians 4 verse 1. Paul says, therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk.

Oh, here we go! Now I'm being told what I should do, what the manner of my life should be. Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

My, my, here it is! As opposed to the proud boastful arrogance of your former life and of the conduct of this world, your life is to be marked by humility and gentleness that reflects something of the nature of the humility and gentleness of Christ when he left the throne of heaven in order to enter into this world and to purchase your salvation. And your heart is supposed to be humbled as you reflect on that, and you reflect on the fact that the sinless, eternal Son of God voluntarily laid his life down on a cross for sinners just like you. And you say, oh, I didn't deserve that.

That's right, you didn't. And you say, how lovely his character must be! What kind of humility does God have that he would do that for a rebel like me?

That's right. Well, see, that's supposed to be like a tsunami force on your heart that sweeps over your prior affections and makes you want to be oriented to be like Christ in his humility, his gentleness, his patience, which he showed to you in such great abundance. And so your walk reflects what the character of God is.

Paul says it's a walk of love, and it's a walk of light. Look at Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians 5, verse 1, he says, Be imitators of God as beloved children. Oh, you belong to the Heavenly Father. You belong to the family of God as a Christian.

Isn't that marvelous? Well, just as a healthy child has a love and respect for his or her parents, well, how much more our respect and love for our Heavenly Father? How much we want to please him? Paul says, walk in love, just as Christ loved you. Look at verse 8. You formerly were darkness.

There it is again, past and present. Formally darkness. Now you are light in the Lord. What do you do with that? You walk as children of light.

Okay? So there's this great pattern that's set before you, this great chasm between your former life, between the nature of the world, and your present life in Christ, and the nature of salvation that God has given you. And you start thinking the cornerstone of truth in your life is a recognition that these two realms have an effect on the way that you think. I've been saved into this realm, and I walk according to it. And so we have to think in very basic, fundamental terms just like that.

A holy God, a God of truth, has saved you. Now, Paul says, apply that to your life. It's very simple.

It's very basic. You don't need to know a lot of million-dollar theological terms to understand this. This is just a common basic decency of response to a great gift that's been given to you that has changed your very fundamental nature. And so you settle things in your mind in principle, understanding that we have to work these things out in application. That's really not our point.

We're talking at a bigger level right now. We're talking about why do I exist? What drives my heart? What is my motivation for life?

What realm to which do I belong? And you settle those things, and when you understand that and when that is anchored in your mind, then you have a foundation upon which to stand. You have a broad sidewalk in your Christian life upon which you can walk with steady steps and say, I know why I'm doing this.

I know why I'm here. This informs my response to everything in daily life. Now, as we come to our text, which is Ephesians 5, 15, and 16, Paul gathers all of this up with a word, therefore, and he says, and he just gives you a very broad general statement about what you do with all of this that we've just been discussing. Paul says, therefore, be careful how you walk. There's our word again.

It's the last time it appears in the book of Ephesians. Be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil. And we saw the evil days displayed on the news, didn't we? It was one illustration among many of that principle. Let me just make a general observation before we get into the text here today. There are four verbal forms in this passage. Be careful in your English text, how you walk, making the most of the time, the days are evil. There's four verbal forms there.

Every one of them is in the present tense in the original language, what's known as the present tense in the original language. And that's significant because these verbal forms emphasize that this is to be the continual pattern of your Christian life. This is to be the habitual course of the way that you live. And it tells you that your approach to life is not supposed to be haphazard, simply responding to whatever the next desire that hits you is, that there's to be an intentionality about it, that what we've talked about frames it in such a way that you walk in this and you're continually repeatedly applying it as situations come up, as relationships wax and wane, as they say. You say, okay, this defines life for me.

This defines why I exist. And here's what Paul wants you to do with it. This is what God wants you to do with it based on what Scripture says. I'm going to give you two commands that flow out of this passage.

Very simple commands, it's going to be easy to remember the structure and outline of today's message. First of all, what do you do with the purpose of God in your life now that you understand that this walk is the appointed means for you to live by? What do you do in response to the fact that you belong to a heavenly Father who graciously saved you through no merit of your own?

What do you do with the fact that a blood-spattered Savior suffered 2,000 years ago because he loved your soul enough to lay his life down voluntarily? What do you do with that? First of all, be wise. Be wise. It's interesting, Paul doesn't go for an emotional hammer here and try to generate and gin up a lot of sentiment. He appeals to your mind.

He says, you think about this. Be wise, be enlightened about how you respond to this. Paul here is cultivating an inner attitude to govern everything else in your life.

Look at verse 15 with me again. Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise. Paul is saying here, be diligent. Be diligent to consider life in light of your salvation. Don't simply think about your existence.

Don't think about your career path. Don't simply think about what you want out of life defined by and informed by purely human motives. It's not simply about how can you live the most comfortable life until you retire in wealth. It's really not about that at all. It's not about having necessarily the most calm and undisturbed existence as if we would move out to some remote area where no one is around and no one can bother us in our contemplations of life. And we don't have to deal with conflict.

We don't have to deal with people who don't know the Lord. That's not it. That's not it at all. Paul says here, you be careful how you walk. Consider what you're doing so that you won't stumble. Consider what you're doing so you won't trip over the enticements of your flesh and the enticements of this world as you establish your priorities and affections that will run your life. Don't do that.

Be careful because so many people fail in this way. Now, you all understand this. That's right, I just used the word y'all.

Never would have done that in California, but I'm happy to do it when I'm just north of Kentucky as I stand here. You all understand this. If you're climbing a steep path, if you're walking on uneven ground, you're walking on unsteady sand on a beach maybe, you watch for obstacles that might make you fall. You kind of slow down and consider what you're doing. You know, if there's a big drop off to the side, most of you have enough sense to say, I'm going to be careful here. I'm going to be aware of my surroundings. I'm going to be aware of the dangers. I'm going to be careful because I don't want to fall off and destroy the purpose of my existence.

Well, it's that same idea. What you understand intrinsically physically is the way that you're supposed to be living life spiritually. Ah, I'm in a hostile environment. Ah, there's remnants of sin in me. Ah, there's purposes of God laid out before me for me to find for the reason that I exist, to do what He's appointed for me to do.

Well, let me be careful to find that. Let me assess what I'm good at. Let me assess the opportunities that are there before me.

Let me assess the relationships that God has given me and say, how can I take all of that and use it to the glory of God in the brief time of life that He's given to me? You know, and if you're on the back half of life, which, you know, if you think about it, the back half of life is 35 or 40 and beyond. That's kind of a creepy thought when you're about that age. You say, ah, you know, I'm young, and I'm not like the pastor who's that old. And you start to realize, middle age isn't the 50s. Middle age is 35.

Wow! All of a sudden, there's a sense of urgency about this. For most of us, you know, you hit 30, 35, most of your life is already behind you. The days are short.

And so there's an urgency to take this and say, I've got to maximize what's left because I've squandered so much, squandered so much of my life in trivial pursuits, squandered it in arguments and hard-hearted refusals to forgive others for what they've done, and I've just squandered life that way. Well, we'll pause there for today, but Pastor Don Green will have part two of his message, Walk Wisely, next time as we wrap up our series, As You Walk with Christ. Join us then here on The Truth Pulpit.

Right now, though, Don's back with us, and he has news of a great resource. Well, my friend, as we bring today's broadcast to a close, I want to offer you a very special gift, a special resource as a gift from our ministry. It's my series called Trusting God in Trying Times.

And this series over the years has proven to be the most popular set of messages that I've ever done. It helps you know how to trust God as you're going through the deep sorrows that sometimes come to us in life. It comes from the book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament, and it comes from some very deep sorrows of my own that were present early in my Christian life. It's very personal. It's very helpful. It's very biblical.

And I would love to see you have it in your hands. It's available in CD album or by download. Transcripts are available if you prefer that. My friend Bill is going to give you information on how to find it. Just visit our website at thetruthpulpit.com to get the resource Don just mentioned. I'm Bill Wright, inviting you back next time as Don Green teaches God's people God's Word from the Truth Pulpit.