Walking in Ephesians — Anton Bosch

We spoke about walking in the Spirit from the book of Galatians, and this week I'm going to speak about walking in the book of Ephesians. So let's read together from Ephesians chapter 2 and the first 13 verses, verses 1 through 13 of Ephesians chapter 2.

And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit who now walks in the sons of disobedience.

Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others. But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up together and made us to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you, who once were afar off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Let me just recap for those who weren't in Sunday school that the book of Ephesians has many, many themes.

One of the themes that he has is the theme of sitting, walking, and standing. And here in chapter 2 you read that he says that we have been made to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So our position and our relationship with God, we are seated in heaven.

But then he speaks about the fact that we are walking in this world. And then in the last chapter, chapter 6, he speaks about the fact that we are standing before the enemy. And so when we come face to face with the devil, we don't sit before him, we don't walk, we don't run, but we stand on the grounds of the work of the cross of Calvary, defending the ground which is ours.

And so the middle part of this little theme that you find flowing through is this word walk. And it appears seven times in the book of Ephesians. And there are many patterns and many things that are there by design.

And one of the things that Madeline made reference to in her prayer that we saw in the Bible study this morning is that he speaks about seven reasons for our unity. And she mentioned them in her prayer.

And so there are seven reasons for our unity. Now here are seven things that we need to take note of concerning our walk. And of course, he's speaking about the way that we live and the way that we conduct ourselves.

This is a wonderful book which has tremendous, and I mentioned that it is called the Queen of the Epistles. It is a wonderful book. It's very, very easy to read. And yet it has layers and layers and layers of depth and of meaning and of intricacy and very fine detail.

And so when he speaks about walking, he is speaking about the practical issues of our daily living. The book contains some of these very deep and profound theological ideas as to where we were and how he has translated us into the kingdom of his son and how he's brought us from death to life and how that we who were Gentiles who had no part of the covenants and the blessings of God have been brought into a relationship with him and have been brought into a position of blessing and of privilege with him.

And so he has these very wonderful theological and very deep ideas. But then he also has some very practical things that he deals with. And you remember that chapter 6, he speaks about husbands and wives and chapter 5, and then chapter 6, he speaks about children and parents and masters and servants.

And so there are some very, very down to earth practical issues. And when he speaks about walking, when he speaks about sitting, that's a very profound thought. That's a very profound thing to understand that we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

And yet now when he speaks about walking, that's very down to earth. That's very, very practical. And so the first two of the times when he speaks about walking are in chapter 2, and we read them chapter 2 and verse 2.

Verse 1 says,. And you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world. According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit now works in the sons of disobedience.

So he's reminding us that there was a time when we walked according to the course of this world. And of course, a course is a path, it's a way, it's a road, it's where you're going. And he says once we were walking with the world, we walked the way that the world walked, we lived the way that they live.

We had the same goals and the same destination, we had the same purpose, we had the same everything that the world had. But we have been taken out of that situation and we've been brought into a relationship with him.

And so in verse 10, he then reminds us,. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So once we were walking in the course of the world, we're walking in the direction of the world.

But now he says God has done this wonderful work of saving us and bringing us into his kingdom. And now that we are in his kingdom, we now have a responsibility to walk in good works. Walk in good works.

To many Christians, and one of my concerns is that many, many Christians, whole faith just revolves around the theory. They'll come to church occasionally and they'll read their Bible sometimes and they'll speak about the wonderful things that God has done, that he has saved us.

But it's all theoretical. It's all hypothetical. It's all spiritual. It's all airy-fairy, pie in the sky. There's not very much reality and practical living out of that faith and of the theory, the theology which they believe.

But Paul is now speaking about the real issues and he says that we may walk in good works. Walk in good works. He didn't just save us to stop doing the bad things. He saved us that we may begin to do the good things.

That we may do the right things. You know, so many Christians are so concerned about as long as I don't do the wrong things, then everything is okay. Now Christianity is far more than just not doing the wrong things.

It's about doing the right things. And even if we stop doing all of the wrong things, you never do a wrong thing again in your life, you still will be sinning. Because sin is not just not doing the wrong things.

Sin is also not doing what I should be doing. And in the Episcopalian churches or Anglican churches, every Sunday morning they have a confession which they make as a congregation. And of course we know that it's just a ritual.

There's not much life to it. And yet there is truth in it. And they speak about forgive us for the sins of commission. In other words, sins that we committed. And sins of omission. Things that we omitted to do.

Things we should have done and we did not do. And so those are equally wrong. And so you can say, well, I'm saved. I'm born again. I love the Lord. I don't do this, I don't do that. But if you've done nothing wrong, but you've done nothing good, you really haven't got anywhere.

And so he's saying, we need to walk. Now remember we said last week that walking indicates progress. You can't walk and be in the same position unless you're going the wrong way on the escalator. If you go the wrong way on the escalator or in the airports, they have these conveyor belt things that you walk on, mobile walkway things.

No, no, no, they're flat. They're flat because you have to walk such long distances. They have these flat moving walkways. And so if you walk on this thing, if you just stand, it will take you where you want to go.

And if you really want to get there fast, you walk on this thing and you can really move and get from one terminal to the other. But now if you go the wrong way on this thing, of course you can walk and get nowhere.

In fact, you may even walk and go backwards. Now that's only technology, but generally if you're walking, you're making progress. You're making headway. You're getting somewhere. And he is saying not only should we be doing good works, but we should be making headway.

We should be making progress. We should be moving forward in our good works. Now the next one is in chapter 4 and verse 1. Now for those who were in the adult Bible class, we said that the book was divided into two sections, the first three chapters and then the second three, chapters 1 through 3 and then chapters 4 through 6.

And in the first three he's dealing mainly with our relationship with God and then the next three he's dealing with our relationship with one another and with the world. And so here in chapter 4 verse 1, he says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you are called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with all longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.

That word beseech is a very strong word, and Paul uses it from time to time. Remember Romans chapter 12. He says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.

Now here he's using the same word. He's not just asking. He's not making a suggestion. He's pleading. He says, I'm beseeching you. And that really is the heart of a preacher. Not just wanting people to hear the message, but wanting people to do what they should be doing.

And so he says, I'm pleading with you, I'm beseeching you. And you'll see that he explains who he is as though they didn't know who he was. Paul had spent a long time in Ephesus. He spent over two years in this church.

And even when he was away, the two letters to Timothy, he had written to Timothy while Timothy was in Ephesus. So he had an ongoing relationship with him. And one of the last churches he visited before he went to Jerusalem and from there to Rome was the church of Ephesus.

Or certainly he met with the elders of the church of Ephesus. So he had a very close relationship with them. But why does he say, the prisoner of the Lord? I, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy.

Why does he not just say, I, Paul? Why does he not just say, I beseech you? Why does he say, I, the prisoner of the Lord? Well, he's reminding them that there is a price to be paid if we're going to do what we should be doing.

If we're going to walk in good works, it doesn't mean that everybody's going to slap us on the back and say, oh, you're such a great person. You live such a wonderful life and you do all the right things.

Sometimes when we do the right things, there are terrible consequences. And those consequences are because the devil doesn't like us living the way we should be living, that the world doesn't like that.

And in fact, it was here at Ephesus that there was a riot that broke out because Paul was preaching the gospel and people really, many people didn't like him. In fact, he was thrown out of the synagogue in Ephesus and he had to go and preach in another place.

And so he's reminding them there are consequences and those consequences of living the life that we should be living are not always positive. The world is not always going to slap us on the back and say, you know, that's a wonderful thing.

The world may in fact imprison us. But he's also reminding us of his commitment, of the fact that he was willing to become a prisoner and ultimately a martyr for the faith. So he's saying, I'm not asking you to do something that I have not been willing to do.

He's saying to them, I have preached the gospel to such an extent, I've lived this life, I've walked worthy of the calling that God has placed upon my life and that has resulted in me being imprisoned.

But he's saying, now I'm asking you to follow in my footsteps. And so he says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the calling with which you are called. Now in chapter 1 he speaks about this calling and we have a very high calling.

In Romans chapter 8, remember, he reminds us exactly in very clear words what our commission or what our calling is, what God's purpose for our lives are, that we should become like Jesus. That's really God's purpose for us, that is our calling.

God has called us and saved us, not just so we can be saved and escape hell, but he has saved us that we might become like Jesus. Because this is my beloved son, he says, in whom I'm well pleased. The only one who ever pleases the Father, who ever has pleased the Father, is Jesus.

Now he wants us to be like Jesus. I suppose that in some families you have children are different and in some families there are favorite children. Sometimes mother has a favorite child and I see in the Gutierrez home that doesn't happen, but it happens in other homes.

And sometimes we wish that all the children could be like that child. And I'm sure James has kids in his class at school that he wishes all the kids, if they would only be like this one, working faithfully, never giving him grief, always doing the right thing.

And so the father has a similar desire. Now there's nothing wrong with looking over the congregation and saying, I wish everybody would serve the Lord like this person. Because we're saying not everybody is doing the right thing.

Not everybody is serving the Lord equally well. And some serve better than others. And if we could all serve in that way, that would be wonderful. And the father has a similar desire. He says there's one ideal.

I just wish, he says, that every Christian would be like Jesus. Because Jesus is perfectly obedient. Jesus has that perfect relationship with his father. Jesus never sinned. And so he wants us to be like Jesus.

That's our calling. That's a wonderful calling. That's a high calling that God has placed upon our lives. God has great designs on our lives. God has great ambition and goal and a purpose for us. He doesn't save us just so we can save and just be sort of half-baked, wishy-washy, iffy Christians who maybe make it or maybe don't.

God has a great purpose for us and he wants us to be like Jesus. He wants us to be victorious. He wants us to be overcomers. He wants us to know his word. He wants us to be faithful. He wants us to be obedient.

He wants us to love perfectly. He has so many desires for us. And it's not because he is selfish, but because at the end of the day, Jesus is the highest expression of God's glory. And he wants us to be like Jesus.

Now that's the calling that he's placed upon our lives. And so he says, that's where God wants us to be. But now we need to walk worthy of that calling. We need to live lives that reflect the call of God upon our lives.

We all have our ideas and standards of what is acceptable in the world. And last night on the news I saw, and I forget which city it was, but the mayor of this particular city was sitting in his deck chair outside Singular or AT &T, lining up for the iPhone.

And many people were saying, well, you know, this is not what we expect of our mayor to be sitting on the sidewalk, queuing up or lining up for an iPhone. He has better things to do. Now, that's whatever you think about that.

That doesn't matter. But we have certain expectations of certain people. And what these people were saying is, we don't expect our mayor to be sitting on the sidewalk. And I think that we have certain expectations of the president.

We wouldn't expect him to do certain things. You wouldn't expect him to be sitting in the gutter drinking whiskey out of a brown bag. It doesn't fit with the job. It doesn't fit with the office. And Paul is saying the same thing.

He's saying God has a high calling upon our lives. And there are certain things, there are certain parts of certain lifestyles which are just not fitting for people with this kind of calling. It's just not right.

If God has called us to such a high calling for us to live a different kind of life. And so he's saying we have this high calling. Now what we need to do is we need to match our lifestyle with that calling.

We need to be living as people who have that calling upon their lives. This is something we, I think, understand very well because we often people say, well, it's beneath me. You hear that expression?

It's beneath me to do that. In other words, it doesn't fit my position or my status in life. We all have an idea as to certain things that are befitting people of certain status, certain positions. But you know, the sad thing is that as Christians we often live below our status.

We live below who we really should be. And you remember we spoke about the first few chapters, chapters 1 and 3 this morning, where Paul has two prayers for the Ephesians. And one of the things that he prays both times for them is he says, I pray that you would understand your position in Christ.

That you would just, your eyes just be opened. That you just understand what privilege we have to be saved. What privilege we have to be believers. What privilege we have to be in a relationship with God.

That we just understand how far he has brought us out of the gutter and translated us into the kingdom and into a relationship with his son. That we who are far off without God, without hope in the world, that we have been brought near and that we've been placed within the beloved.

Just that we would understand. And I think that when we understand, maybe we'll match our lifestyle with who we really are. And so, he says, I beseech you, I plead with you. Walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called.

And folks, every one of us, don't tell me, oh no, but I'm just a young person or I'm just this or I'm just that. No, we've been called, every one of us has been called into a relationship with him. Every one of us has been called to reflect his son.

Every one of us has been called to be ambassadors for Christ in this world. And we need to match our lifestyle with the calling that is upon our lives. And then in chapter 4 and verse 17. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness and greediness, but you have not so learned Christ.

And so he says that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind. No longer walking like the Gentiles. Now, that would seem to be a strange thing for Paul to write to these, particularly these Christians.

Because, remember, these guys were the one church that had no problems. He doesn't address any serious issues in this church. No doctrinal issues, no holiness issues, no practice issues in the church.

There were really no problems that he addresses. And he writes to them at a spiritual level that he does not write to other churches. In fact, remember, he writes to the Corinthians and he says, I could not write to you as to spiritual people.

But he writes to the Ephesians as spiritual people. And yet, in spite of them being very good spiritually at what they were doing, at the same time, he feels the need to remind them that they should no longer walk like the Gentiles.

Now, if that was necessary for Paul to write to the Ephesians, then it is necessary for us to be reminded again today. We've been saved. We used to walk with them. We should no longer walk like them. We should no longer walk like them.

And, folks, you know, this is a theme that I keep coming back to, is that so many Christians claim to be saved, claim to be born again, and yet there is no difference between their lifestyle and the lifestyle of the world.

They're walking just like the world. When you watch their behavior in their jobs, when you watch the way that they spend their money, when you watch the way that their families operate, when you watch every aspect of their lives, you say, well, there's no difference between this man and the man who lives next door to him who is not a Christian.

In fact, we should be different. We should be walking worthy of the calling that God has placed upon our lives. We should no longer be walking like the Gentiles. And when he speaks about Gentiles, obviously he's not meaning Gentiles in the sense of Christians or Jews and Gentiles, but he's speaking about Gentiles as unbelievers.

And then he lists some of the things. But he speaks about that we should no longer walk as the Gentiles who walk in the futility of their minds. The futility of their minds. This is something he speaks about in Romans 1.

And he speaks about the fact that they became futile in their thinking. Futile means empty. Going nowhere. Going around in circles. And the Gentiles' way of thinking goes around in circles. It goes nowhere.

It leads nowhere. Their thoughts are not any greater than the little thing that revolves around. And what is that? Me, I, and myself. Every thought they have comes back to one point. Me. Everything that they think about comes back to the same point.

Me. Never leads anywhere. Never takes them anywhere. It has no higher aspirations. Now, we have been translated from this futile way of thinking that revolves just around me and my little world. We've been brought into a lifestyle and into a way of thinking where suddenly God has opened up.

Where eternity we've begun to understand. When the things of God suddenly we begin to have some comprehension of. When suddenly all of the world we begin to see things in a different way. Now he says, why do you want to walk like the Gentiles who walk in the futility of their mind?

They're just going around in circles. Just comes back to me. My desires, my needs, my ambitions, my flesh, whatever it is. No, he says, don't be like that. Don't walk in a futile way that leads nowhere.

Walk with purpose. Head somewhere. It is the most frustrating. A few times in my life I've got lost. Either driving or walking. And the most terrible thing about that is that you come back to the same point.

And you say, but I've been here before. I've been walking or driving for all this time and I've got nowhere. I'm still in the same place. Remember, this was a problem the people of Israel had. Forty years they went around the wilderness.

Kept coming back to the same place. Kadesh Barnea. Year after year they come back to the same place. The same place. Never going anywhere. In fact, this is one of the reasons why many Christians lose interest.

Why many Christians backslide. It's because they don't get anywhere. You remember Samson. When they put his eyes out, what did they make him do? They made him grind corn in the prison house. And so there he was.

And I'm sure you've seen pictures of these big millstones. And then there's a big wooden beam. And normally they have an ox or an animal that pushes this thing around and around. But in this case they had Samson pushing him.

And you're going around in circles. Day in and day out. Just this terrible grind. In fact, there are many Christians whose lives are like that. Day in and day out the same stuff. The same issues. Christianity and serving the Lord just becomes a bore.

It becomes a grind. Because it's the same old stuff all the time. Why? Because they're not going anywhere. Because they're following and they're walking in the futility of their mind. Going around in that same little circle all the time.

And Paul says, you have a great calling. Now walk worthy of that calling. That calling is going to take us somewhere. It's taking us to heaven. It's taking us to be like Jesus. It's taking us into a deeper knowledge of His Word.

Into a deeper relationship with Him. Into a deeper sense of purpose and of meaning to our lives. Why do we want to go around in circles and walk like the Gentiles? Who never seem to get anywhere. I'm sure we're all sick and tired of hearing about Paris Hilton.

And yet there's just such a blatant illustration of the futility of the mind of a Gentile. Because in one word they tell me, she has suddenly become spiritual. And then what's the first thing she does when she comes out of prison?

She has hair extensions. She is so profoundly spiritual that the most important thing in her life is to have her hair extensions done. How small is your world? How futile is your thinking? And yet God has something far greater for us.

Far more important than just my little stupid endless ritual of serving myself. Now in chapter 5, verse 2, He says, Walk in love, as Christ has also loved us, and given Himself for us, and offering a sacrifice to God, Sorry, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

Sorry, verse 1 says, Therefore be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love. Walk in love. And so while we have this great calling, we need to be walking worthy of that calling. We should no longer be walking like the Gentiles, just going around in circles.

We need to be walking in love in our relationship with one another. You see, we can be so goal-oriented. I'm told that there are really two kinds of people. Those who are people-oriented and those who are task-oriented.

People who are task-oriented really don't care much about people, as long as they can achieve their goal. Now it's possible for me as a Christian to become so goal-oriented. I'm so focused on becoming everything that God has for me, that I'm not a very nice person to live with.

I become so spiritual, and I become so condemnatory of everybody around me, and my standard becomes so high. And everybody else, if you can't measure up to my standard of Christianity, you really are not a Christian, and so on and so on.

Now he's saying, while we have this high calling, and we're walking worthy of that high calling, we also need to walk in love in our relationship with one another. Understanding that not everybody can walk at the same pace.

Understanding that not everybody is walking directly to that goal. Many people, and most of us, take long detours. And it's easy for us to condemn those who are on a detour over there, chasing rabbits over there, and going down that way, and somehow not really making a headway in their Christian walk.

And so, even though we have this high standard, and folk, I don't want you to feel that we should lower our standard, that you should lower your goal and say, No, you chase after what God has called you for.

And you chase after the calling of God on your life. But at the same time, walk in love to others who are maybe not as good at walking that walk as you may be. And so, we need to walk with love, and in love with those around us.

Then in chapter 5, in verse 8, For you were once darkness. Notice that, he doesn't say you were in darkness, but he says you were darkness. That's a big difference. It's one thing to be in darkness, it's another thing to be darkness.

But that's where we were. We were once darkness, but now you are light. Now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Walk as children of light. In other words, he's saying, walk openly. Don't walk concealing things.

Be open in your relationship with God. Be open in your relationship with others. And do the things that you're not ashamed of. Remember the scripture warns us that those who do bad things, do them at night.

Burglars don't often break into houses during the day. They do it at night. People don't get some do, but really most drunkenness is at night. Most crime happens at night. But he's saying we're no longer darkness, we're now light.

And we need to walk as those who are in the light. And so we need to be doing the things that we are not ashamed of. That we shouldn't be doing anything that we feel we need to hide. That we need to hide from God or that we need to hide from one another.

All the things that we do, we should be able to say, my life is open. You can look at every area of my life. Including my thinking. My deep thoughts. They should be open. They should be thoughts of light.

They shouldn't be anything that I want to hide and I don't want anybody else to see. And I should be walking before God in that kind of way. And I should be walking before other people in that kind of way.

And folks, as Christians we should be simple. And I don't mean by that stupid. But we should be uncomplicated. We shouldn't need to confuse and hide and manipulate and try and duck and dive. Because we don't want anybody to know our true agenda.

We don't want people to really know how we think or what we feel. We should become simple and open with one another. We should be walking in the light. Here I am. This is who I am. This is what I mean.

This is what I desire. This is my purpose. This is my goal. We shouldn't be hiding things. We shouldn't be hiding things from God. You know, this is a strange thing. Is that we think that we can hide things from God.

We can hide things from one another. But there is everything. Remember the scripture says all things are open before Him with whom we have to do. There is nothing that God doesn't know. And yet sometimes, in fact often I think, we live and we say, well, God can't see this.

And we think He doesn't see. No, He does. So let me be open with Him. And when I sin, let me be open with Him. Let me not try and find excuses and say, well, God, you know. No, let me just be open. Lord, I've sinned.

Remember David? I've sinned. Just as simple as that. So let's walk as children of the light. Let's be open with one another. Let's be open with God. Let's do the things that are done during the day. Let's not do things that we feel we have to do under the cover of darkness.

Or under the cover of that we don't want anybody to see. And then finally in chapter 5 and verse 15. It's the last of the seven. Chapter 5 and verse 15. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

Now you remember one of the previous ones. He says, don't walk like the Gentiles who walked in the futility of their minds. But now here's the other side, the opposite. Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.

The word circumspectly means carefully. That's all. Walk carefully. Now why should we walk carefully? Well, because there are many pitfalls. There are many stumbling blocks. There are many snares. There are many byways.

There are many false signs that point in the wrong direction. And so we need to be walking carefully. Don't just blindly think I'm serving the Lord and everybody else is loving the Lord. And so we're all just merrily going in the right direction.

In fact, the next chapter, he reminds us that we have an enemy who has many tricks. And who's going to do everything he can to dissuade us and discourage us and to tempt us from following this goal that God is in our lives.

And so let's be wise. Let's be careful about how that we live. And so one of the things that he says that we need to be careful about is about the way that we use time. Now you can see how practical he's getting.

And so walk wisely or circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Redeeming the time. You'll see there's no full stop or period at the end of 15. It's just a comma. And so verse 16 is the same continuing, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

What does it mean to redeem time? Remember, redeem means to buy back. So when you put something in hock or in the pawn shop, you go back and you... Suddenly I got somebody's attention. You go back and you redeem the item.

You gave him the watch and he gave you $10. Now you go back and you pay the $10 plus the interest and you redeem the watch. When you redeem the mortgage, you're buying it back. Now he's saying we need to buy back the time.

In other words, he's saying time is precious. Time is valuable. It was Benjamin Franklin who said time is money. Time is valuable. Don't squander the time. Time is a precious resource that God has given to us.

Sometimes we look at time as something evil. We say, well, that's part of this life. Let me just get through it and let me somehow just get to heaven. No, he's saying God has given us the time that we have.

And what I need to do is I need to buy that time. I need to use that time profitably. That's walking wisely. That's walking carefully. Because one of the things that the devil is going to try to do is to steal and to rob us of our time.

Remember, that's what he does. He robs, he kills, and he destroys. And if he can rob you of your time, if he can rob you of opportunities to serve the Lord, of opportunities to worship the Lord, of opportunities to read his word, of opportunities to do the things you should be doing, then he can succeed at his work of destruction.

Don't allow the devil time, an opportunity to steal your time. And we know how easily that happens, how easily we procrastinate and we'll do it tomorrow, manana, and it never happens, never happens. And oh, we have every intention.