“Walking with Your Eyes Wide Open”

Welcome to go your Bibles, Ephesians chapter five. Scripture reading for our texts this morning is verses eight through 17. Ephesians chapter five, verses eight through 17. Follow along in your copy of scripture.

As I read this passage this morning, apostle Paul writes for you were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord walk as children of light for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth proving what is acceptable unto the Lord and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light for whatsoever doth make manifest his light. Wherefore he saith awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light.

See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Let's have a brief prayer.

Our father and our God, may we understand what the will of the Lord is and in so understanding, may we walk circumspectly we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Steve Adams committed one of two serious mistakes on a journey that must be avoided.

Steve had successfully through hiked the Appalachian trail when he was 61 years old. He had never hiked before in his life, never done any backpacking, decided he wanted to do that. So he got all the equipment, got all the stuff, the supplies, and he headed off on this 2000 almost 200 mile journey from Georgia to Maine and he did it.

He succeeded. And that gave him a great boost of confidence as a backpacker, as one might understand. I mean, that was a quite a significant achievement. So a year or two later he thought, well, uh, if he did that, he could certainly do the John Muir trail.

The John Muir trail is on the West coast. It's in California and uh, it's only one 10th of the distance of the Appalachian trail to about 220 miles. The problem is that the John Muir trail begins at an elevation over 4 ,000 feet.

Steve Adams was now 63 years of age. He had grown up in England and lived most of his life in England. In retirement, he moved to the United States and then into Florida. The average elevation in Florida is about six feet above sea level.

So he wanted to do this hike on the John Muir trail, which immediately took him to over 4 ,000 feet and the trail goes to greater than 11 ,000 feet within 35 miles. So what Steve Adams failed to take into consideration was that at 63 years of age, having lived most of his life at an elevation below a hundred foot, uh, this was going to be a significant challenge.

And the result was his body physically could not handle that elevation level. And, uh, in a short time after taking off at that height, he had to throw in the towel. So the mistake Steve Adams made was not considering seriously who he was at that point in his life, his general condition of health and physique.

Geraldine Largay not only committed that mistake, failing to take into consideration who she was, but she also committed the second grave mistake of a hiker. She likewise was hiking on the Appalachian trail.

She had started out with her husband and then also with another friend. Her husband had to get off the trail at one point because of health and then her friend, uh, also had to leave the trail because of an emergency back home.

And she was determined that she was going to continue on and go get to the end. What she failed to take into consideration regarding who she was is that she was, let's say it euphemistically, directionally challenged.

She had a very hard time keeping straight which direction she was headed and was not very good at, uh, at, at directions at all. That was one problem. The other problem was about 200 miles before the end of the trail and not all that long after her friend left, uh, the trail to go home, she was walking through a section of the, uh, of the trail in the, in Maine through a very, very dense forest.

And the trail is a narrow trail at that point. And the forest all around is extremely dense. And she had to go off the trail for a few minutes. And, um, take care of some business. And when she did, she did not pay careful attention to the path that she took away from the trail and that forest was so dense that she turned around to make her way back and she didn't know where to go.

She completely lost orientation and completely lost her way. She died 30 days later, never finding her way back to the original trail. Her mistake was not walking with focused attention on her surroundings and the route that she needed to take to get back on the trail.

Now the apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians has been talking about the Christian life as a walk. I want you to trace this with me again. We've been emphasizing this as long as Paul has, I think in this book in chapter two verse two he says after he says you were dead in trespasses and sins.

He says in verse two wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world. In verse 10 he says, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

In chapter four verse one he says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the calling wherewith you are called. In verse 17 he says, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind.

And in chapter five verse two, he says, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and given himself for us. And now in today's text in verses eight through 17, this same metaphor for the Christian life appears twice.

It appears at the beginning of our in verse eight where he says, walk as children of light. And in verse uh, and in verse 15 where he says, see then that you walk circumspectly. So again, he continues this metaphor of the Christian life being a walk.

And in today's text, I think what he's emphasizing is that as followers of Christ on this journey of the Christian life, he warns us to walk with our eyes wide open and wide open lest we make the same mistake as these ill fated hikers taking our eyes off of who we are and our eyes off of the trail and seriously considering where we are on that trail.

Now I get the idea of walking with our eyes wide open from this verse, verse 15 where he says, see that you walk circumspectly. That word circumspectly, it means to walk with detailed exactness, to pay careful attention to, to be alert, to be alert.

So going back to verses eight and through verse 14, walk this Christian life, being alert to who you are, to who you are. Now, if you are a follower of Christ, if you come to the place where your blind eyes were open, where you were, where you were once dead in trespasses and sins, but God in his grace made you alive so that you could see yourself as a sinner that you are and see yourself in need of a savior who is Christ Jesus and you by God's grace repented of your sin and you put your faith and trust in Jesus as your savior and you became alive in Christ and you're following Christ.

Well, if that's you, you need to be alert to who you are and who you are involves a significant change in your identity and you need to recognize that significant change and that change is brought out in verse 18 the change of your identity.

Notice what Paul says in verse eight. He says, for you were sometimes or in the past you were darkness. You were darkness. Now he doesn't say you were in darkness. He says you were darkness. And what he's referring to there is that state of being that he talked about back in chapter two, verse one, where you were dead in trespasses and sins.

When the body is dead, it is, it is total darkness. It is enshrouded in darkness. It is itself darkness. And Paul says, you were darkness when you were dead in trespasses and sins, you were void of the truth and you were void of virtue in spiritual and moral matters.

Oh, physically you were alive and you were walking around with your eyes open and all the rest of that. But in terms of your ability to connect with God, there was no connection with God in terms of your understanding of and living by the, the virtues of spiritual and moral truth that are brought out in God's word.

That was not your life. You were darkness. You unknowingly be sure exuded darkness and you did so by what you thought and said. The things you would say, the things you would think lacking the true knowledge of God, what you had to say, you could not communicate the truth that was in Christ Jesus.

You didn't know any better. You were in darkness and you were darkness. You exuded that darkness, not only by what you thought and said, but by what you did, your own personal depravity. You do understand this, do you not?

That you sin because you are a sinner. You're not a sinner because you sin. You sin because you are a sinner. You are born in dead in trespasses and sins. You are born a sinner and that's why you sin.

So from the very earliest stage of life, because of your sinfulness, you exuded darkness, your own personal depravity brought forth your own personal expressions of sin in what you did and you exuded darkness and how you lived in utter spiritual despondency.

In Isaiah chapter 42, this prophetic passage regarding the coming of the Messiah. One thing that the prophet says Messiah would do is he would bring from the prison those who sit in darkness, bring from the prison those who sit in darkness.

Now he's not talking about a literal jail or prison house. He's talking about our spiritual imprisonment. We're all in bondage to sin when we're born into this world and what Christ the Messiah has done for you who are Christ Jesus, you are in Christ Jesus.

What he has done is he has brought you from that prison of darkness and brought you into light. But that prison of darkness was a place of spiritual despondency. I know Jim visits the jail a couple of times a week and ministers in the jail and I think he could probably testify that one of the typical characteristics of those who are incarcerated is a certain measure of despondency, just regular normal old despondency just because of where they are and maybe why they're there.

Now that's true for the physical prisoner, but take that truth of the physical prisoner and apply it broadly to all who are spiritually imprisoned in the bondage of sin and all are in this state of sitting in the prison of darkness and you unknowingly exuded that darkness in your former identity and not only did you unknowingly exude that darkness, you actually contributed to that darkness.

Again, not knowingly. I mean that wasn't deliberate. You didn't deliberately say, Oh, I'm going to contribute to the darkness of this world. You didn't need to just by virtue of what you exuded in your fallen condition, you were a contributor to the darkness that is this world and therefore you unknowingly advanced that darkness by your own personal influence.

You advanced the darkness of others by your own influence. You can put it this way. Sinners train sinners in the fine art of sinning. I did it, you did it and every sinner does it. Trains sinners in the fine art of sinning.

That's who you were. You were darkness. Ah, but listen, here's the good news. And this is what you want. You want to be alert to your identity. You were darkness, but now you are light. This is what he says in verse 18, you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

And again, notice he doesn't say you are in the light. He says, you are light and you are light by virtue. Look at the verse, look at the text. You are light by virtue of being in the Lord and the Lord Jesus Christ himself said in John eight, 12, I am the light of the world.

And if Jesus is the light of the world and you are in Christ Jesus, then you are light. In fact, Jesus himself said that Matthew five, 14, he says, you his followers, you are light in this world. You are the light.

So by what you think and say, look at the difference. Now look at the, look at the change. Look at the transformation. When you were darkness, what you thought and said what you did and how you lived.

It exuded darkness. Now as a follower of Christ, as one who is being transformed by the word of God into Christ likeness, you now as light reflecting light, you do so by virtue of what you say and do by what you think, by how you live.

And in that exuding of light, you then contribute to the light by the character of your walk. And as whereas you used to advance the darkness by your personal influence, now you who are light, you have the privilege and the opportunity of advancing the light by your personal influence.

You are light. All right, that's who you are. But now notice in the last part of verse at the very end of verse eight, that who you are, it limits your walk. He says, you are light. Walk as children of light.

Walk as children of light. Now earlier in this text, in verse six, he contrasts you with the child of disobedience. He says, because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

He uses that same term back in chapter two, verse two, speaking of you who were dead in trespasses and sins. He says, he speaks, he talks about that as the spirit that now works at the end of verse two in the children of disobedience.

You are no longer a child of disobedience. In chapter two, verse three, he speaks of those who were by nature, the children of wrath. You were a child of disobedience. You were a child of wrath, but you are now a child of light, a child of light.

And you are a child of light by virtue of your gracious adoption. You see how Paul keeps taking us back to the doctrinal foundational sections of this book. At the very beginning of the book, he talked about how God in his grace has chosen us from before the foundation of the world unto the adoption of sons of children to adopt us as his own children.

And it is by his gracious adopting you who are in Christ Jesus as his own children, that you are now a child of light. But as a child of light that brings with it some parameters. You need to walk as a child of light.

And we understand this on a physical familial level, don't we? How many times have you heard, and maybe you dads have said this to your own children. You've heard of dads who've told their children, maybe as they are heading off to their first day of high school or maybe dropping them off at college and so forth.

And then the father says to his child, his son, his daughter, don't forget your name. Remember your name. Remember whose you are. And what is the father implying in that little exhortation? Walk as a, you know, whatever the last name is.

Walk as a Bice, walk as a Heman, walk as a McCann. You know, you walk by the name and the dad wants to encourage the child to have some parameters built around the behavior because that behavior will reflect upon the name.

You understand it on that level. I was a kid that grew up in a pastor's home and there were many times that I was reminded that I had to walk as a PK and I sympathize with my own kids maybe more now than I did when they were growing up as I reflect back on things.

But, but, but there were certain expectations that were placed upon me as a pastor's kid that other kids in the church didn't have. I think I've told you this story before about, you know, I was in a Sunday school class in a fifth or sixth grade, fifth grade I think it was, maybe even fourth grade.

It was just a, you know, just a kid. And the teacher was teaching about something in the Old Testament and I raised my hand and the teacher said, yes, yes, Brian. And I said, well, he must've been talking about the sacrifices or something.

He said, well, how are people saved in the Old Testament? That's a good question, isn't it? I mean, there are some adults in this room right now or maybe wonder how are people saved in the Old Testament, all the sacrifices and everything.

And so I just asked this question, how are people saved in the Old Testament? And instead of answering the question, you know what the teacher said? He said, well, Brian, I'm surprised you're the, you're a pastor's son.

You should know the answer to that. And he went on, he went on. So I was, I was to live, I was to walk as a PK, meaning that I was to know all the biblical answers to any spiritual question that anybody might have.

That's absurd, but this is not absurd. This is not absurd. Are you a child of the light? Are you a child of light? Walk as children of light, walk within those parameters. Now, verse nine, verse nine shows us that who you are as a child of light determines the character of your walk.

Verse nine talks about some of those parameters and, and what should come forth from you as a child of light. What should be the character of your walk? Verse nine says the fruit of the spirit, or some translations actually have the fruit of light.

And that's probably, uh, the better, uh, translation. The fruit of light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. In other words, what verse nine is saying is this, as a child of light, your walk should be characterized by goodness, righteousness, and truth by goodness, good stuff that just comes from you by virtue of who you are.

For example, you know, you're, you're, you're walking down the hallway, let's say back to the, uh, to the fellowship hall. And, um, you know, somebody is in front of you that is walking slower than you.

Goodness would slow down, be patient, understanding the limitations of the person in front of you. Thoughtlessness, a lack of that fruit would just try to barrel on by, even if you knock them over, you know, it doesn't, you know, you're just more, you're intent on getting back there to the food.

Now, goodness, goodness is the kind of thing where, um, uh, we, we have some young people that help out some of the older folks in the congregation and pick up them, offer valet service for their cars or automobiles.

That's, those are good things. That's the kind of stuff that becomes more and more the norm for you who are children of light. Righteousness, righteousness is that is the doing of that, which is right by God's standards.

And then truth, integrity, reliability, honesty, the opposite of hypocrisy and a sham. These are the fruit of light, goodness, righteousness, truth, and who you are as a child of light, not only determines the character of your walk, but it influences the goal of your walk.

What are you wanting to accomplish as you walk along this journey? Verse 10 tells us that proving what is acceptable to the Lord. There's a kind of a dual goal here that's brought out in verse 10. The first part of the goal is that you want to discern.

That's what that word proving means. You want to discern how to walk. You want to discern how to walk. Okay, here I am on this journey. How do I walk along this journey? Think back of the hikers, you know, and the whole, the whole joy of hiking.

One thing you want to do is you want to figure out how do I walk? And I talked about this a little bit last week. I had a mentor that kind of helped me learn how to pace myself, how to walk over rocks, small rocks and tree roots and so forth.

So as to make the most efficient use of my walking routine, how to walk is an important thing. And as you are walking as a child of light, you want to discern, well, how do I walk along this journey? There's some questions you can ask questions like, is this that I'm doing?

Is this that I'm thinking? Is this that I'm saying? Is this good? Is it good? That is, is it consistent with God's character? Is it consistent with the character of Christ? Is it good? I ask myself the question, is this right?

Is this right? Does it conform to the standard of God's word? And you can look at the things like the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, which are the principles in God's word. You can look to the book of Proverbs and the wisdom that is shared in the book of Proverbs and so on and through throughout the scripture.

Is this good? Is this right? Does it conform to the standards of God's, of God's word, of God's righteousness? And then I can ask myself the question, is this really true? Is this true? Is what I'm thinking true?

Are the words I'm saying, are they true? Is the way I'm walking true? Is it a, is it a walk of integrity? Or am I walking a sham, sham life, the life of a hypocrite? Is it true? Will this help advance or hinder God's truth in this world among those with whom I walk?

I want to discern how to walk, but here's why. I want to discern how to walk so that I might please my Lord, Jesus Christ. Look at our text. Proving or discerning what is acceptable or what is well-pleasing unto the Lord.

What is well-pleasing unto the Lord. Now, to be sure, there are, there are a lot of people we want to please. I, I'm quite sure that those who offer the valet service to some of our folks, um, they want to please those that they're serving.

They bring their car up. They want to be, they want to please that person and help them out. Absolutely. And I'm sure that you husbands, you want to please your wives, you wives, you want to please your husbands and you parents, you want to please your children and children.

I hope you want to please your parents and so on and so forth. And our relationships in life, we want to please our employers. We want to please our employees. We want to please our coworkers. But listen, there's, there's an overriding, there's an overriding goal here.

Ultimately, ultimately there is an audience of one that we are to please the Lord, Jesus Christ, that we may discern what is well-pleasing unto the Lord. And with that as our goal, that we do understand that sometimes I discern what will please the Lord.

And in the doing of it, it may not please my child. It may not please my coworker. It may not please my boss. It may not even please myself on one level, but I want to do it. Why? Because I want to walk in a way that is consistent with who I am.

I want to be alert to who I am. I'm a child of light. I need to walk as a child of light to walk as a child of light. I need to discern how to walk. I want to discern how it is that I might please the Lord.

And I want to walk accordingly. And then who you are as a child of light notice in verses 11 to 14, it affects the manner of your walk, the manner of your walk. Paul goes on here and he talks about not having any fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, rather reproving them.

In the manner, the manner of my walk must be one, which I avoid these unfruitful works. These unfruitful works, that is those that are useless, that have no real benefit. Not just talking about, you know, frivolous frittering away my time and in that kind of thing, but that which is truly unfruitful works of darkness.

Think back on those works of darkness that we talked about earlier, where you exuded darkness when you were in darkness and you didn't even know you were doing so. And when you think back on those ways in which you exuded darkness by what you thought and said by what you did by your influence and all of that, that kind of stuff, when you get right down to it, all of that was unfruitful.

It was not beneficial. Paul says, listen, avoid, avoid those things, those unfruitful works of darkness. And in your manner of walking as a child of light, you want to expose instead of participating in those unfruitful works of darkness, you want to expose them.

That word that's translated reproved here in our King James could be translated and better be translated to expose them. It doesn't necessarily mean that you walk around. It doesn't mean that you walk around pointing out everybody else's faults to them and all their sins and all their works of darkness.

It doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean that you, you harangue them and you batter them and you badger them about all the evil stuff that they're doing. That's not what it's talking about. It's talking about exposing those unfruitful works of darkness.

But how, how you notice in verse 12, he says, it's a shame to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. So one way we don't do it is just by, by, by talking about them in a favorable way.

That's a shameful thing to do. But what we do instead to expose those shameful works of darkness is to shine light on them, shine the light on them. See this in verse 13, all things that are reproved or are exposed, all the things that are exposed are made manifest by the light.

They're made manifest by the light. In other words, who are you? Who are you? You're a child of light, which means that you walk as a child of light. That means you are going to be emanating light from your life.

And as you emanate life from what, from your light, from your life, what you end up doing is you expose sin for what it is. Now you do that more by your life than you do by your words. We know that because Jesus himself said so in Matthew five, verse 14, he said, you are the light of the world.

And then in verse 16, he said this, let your light so shine before men. They may see your what they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. So, so what Paul is, what Paul is encouraging us here to do is to so live as children of light that by our light we expose the darkness for what it really is.

And that can have actually have the effect of transforming darkness into light. You say, what? Look, look at the rest of the verse, verse 13 he says for, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. That which, that which reveals is light.

You go in a dark room, you get this. You go in a dark room, I'll tell you what you can do. Experiment with it. After the services, after the service this morning, we'll close those doors between the foyer and the, and the auditorium.

We'll close the doors. We'll turn all the lights off. And let me encourage you to, let me encourage you to try to walk up here and get up on the platform without any lights on. Now you might make it down the center aisle, and you might think you've reached the end of the pews.

And then when you go to turn right, you'd run into one of the pews. Why? Cause you couldn't see it. But you know something, all you need to do is just flip on one of those lights in the back and, and the light, the light manifests.

That which manifests is light. That reveals is light. Whatever reveals is light. But now look at verse 14, wherefore he saith, wherefore it says, awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light.

Now what's that talking about? Well, this isn't a direct quotation from any passage in the old Testament, but the idea here is he's pulling together some different places in the old Testament. And I'm not going to that.

You can read it and study it for yourself if you want to for your homework. But, but what he is saying here is that you as a child of light, as you live, walk as a child of light, you turn on the light and you're turning on the light of God's truth has the capacity not only to expose sin for what it is, but also to transform sinners into new creatures.

How so? Because what's the first step that anybody has to come to? Before they come to faith in Christ. Do you not have to see yourself as a sinner in need of a savior? You absolutely do. How do you ever see yourself as a sinner?

When the light comes on and exposes your sinfulness, this is what Paul is getting at here. Who you are affects the manner of your walk. So you need to be alert. You need to be alert to who you are. And the rest of our text verses 15 to 17 is the other point.

You need to be alert not only to who you are, but you need to be alert to where you are. Now, where are you? Where are you? See yourself as Paul describes ourselves, us at the end of verse 16, recognizing our place in history.

He says, redeeming the time. Why? Because the days are evil. Where are you? You are in history in days that are evil. You said, boy, I sure know that. I read the news and I, I see what's going on in this world.

And boy, these are evil days. Yeah, they are. But guess what? Paul was writing a couple thousand years ago. And Paul said a couple thousand years ago, the days are evil because here's the thing. The days of Eden paradise are past their ancient history.

And the days of paradise restored, Eden restored are sometime in the undisclosed future. And from the time of paradise lost in ancient history until the time of paradise restored at some unknown time in the future, we're living in evil days, days that are evil.

Recognize your place in history. Recognize that reality. Recognize that where you are is in this time frame of evil days and where you are. If you understand that and recognize that will determine the character of your walk.

Look at verse 15. He says, see then that you walk circumspectly. How, how, what should be the character of my walk? Not as a fool, but as wise, not being content in ignorance, not being apathetic to the danger of walking in evil days, but as wise.

Do you know the name Chris McCandless? You know who that is? He was a young guy right out of college. I don't remember if he graduated or not, but he finished up one of his years at college and he decided I wanted to, I want to get out.

I want to get out on an adventure. And so he took off on an adventure and, and, uh, and he found himself, found himself out West somewhere and he decided he was going to, he was going to hitchhike and get himself up to Alaska.

He wanted adventure. So he got up to Alaska and then he decided he was going to get, put a pack on his back and put food in his back. And he was going to make his way out into the wilderness of Alaska.

And he hitched a ride and he got a ride along one of the few roads in Alaska and he got to a certain point and he said to the guy giving me a ride, he said, uh, okay, you can let me off here. I'm going to head off West.

And the guy giving him a ride said, man, don't do this. You're not ready for this. You're not prepared for this. It's dangerous out there. Now I'm ready. I'm going to, I want to go. I'm going to, I gotta go.

I gotta go. I gotta go. You don't have the right equipment to go. You're not properly equipped for such a thing. I'm ready. I'm going to go. And off he went. And he journeyed off into the Alaskan wilderness and he came upon an old, an old bus of all things out in the middle of the wilderness.

He came upon this bus and it's a good thing he came upon it because it provided him a little bit of shelter for a while. But he eventually died out there in the wilderness. Why? Because he was ignorant of what to eat and he was not prepared for the journey and he died.

And you know, it's really silly. You say, well, that's really foolish of him. Yeah, it is. What's really foolish is there are a lot of people who having read about Chris McCandless, uh, experience in a book entitled in the, into the wild, they've said, Oh man, I want to go find that bus.

And off they went. And this year there are a couple other people who have died trying to do this same stupid thing, same foolish thing. Now listen, Paul says you are to walk circumspectly, not as fools, not in ignorance to what's going on in this, in these evil times and not apathetic to the danger.

You are to walk as wise following the practical wisdom that you gain from insight into God's will and God's works. You walk as children of light, not as fools, but as wise and where you are in this place in history in these evil days also determines the goal of your walk.

What is that goal? Verse 16, redeeming the time, redeeming the time. There's a lot of discussion about what this actually means. Does this mean, does this mean that I have a meticulous daily calendar where I'm, I'm watching every hour and how I spend it?

Well, there's nothing wrong with that. And there can be great virtue in that. There can also be great slavery in it as well. I don't think that's what it's talking about. Does this mean having a good time management system?

It's good to have a good time management system, but I'm not so sure that's what this is talking about. Look at the verse at a whole as a whole and understand what redeeming means to redeem means to buy back.

So if you are walking this journey in evil days and you are to redeem the time and the word time here is not talking about, you know, the time on your watch, the Kronos, the hours, it's talking about Kairos, a period of time buying back the time because the days are evil.

And I think what Paul is getting at is this, as you and I, as God's people walk circumspectly, according to who we are as children of light, we purchased the time from being marked exclusively by darkness and evil.

So there's a little bit of time, time that surrounds us as children of light. There's not marked by the evil days in which we live, but is marked by light. That time, that area, that that arena of the era is light.

It's been redeemed. This is our goal that we might redeem the time in which we live. And then notice in verse 17, where you are also determines the guidance that you get for this walk. He says, wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

You look for guidance in this walk, where you are in these evil days, you look for guidance to the Lord Jesus to understand his will, his moral purpose. Very simply, what does that mean? It means every day you seek to discover what is God like, what does God like?

And as you discover what God is like and what God likes, you endeavor to apply those truths, those discoveries to every day life, understanding what the will of the Lord is. Because Steve Adams tried to cut out, tried to take a path that he wasn't cut out for.

He had to quit and go home. He did not see clearly who he really was at that point in his life. And because Geraldine Largay took her eyes off of where she was, she strayed from the path and perished.