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Look carefully then how you walk. Now if you're going to look carefully at something, it means you're going to focus on it. Yes? You're going to focus on it.

Transcript

Hello everyone. Thanks for joining with me on another Helping You Become podcast. I pray it's a blessing to you. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness, thank you for your kindness, mercy and grace. And Lord, as we look today into your word, Holy Spirit, we ask for revelation knowledge, actionable intelligence. Please, Lord, Give us something that we can take and understand and apply to our life as we seek to honour you and walk purposely as the wise and sensible people to whom we have been called. And we give you thanks for that, and we ask it, sir, in Jesus' name.

Friends, turn in your Bibles, please, to Ephesians Chapter 4. And as we do that, I want to just talk Again, this is so big of my spirit. I just want to talk again about this idea of living life with purpose, with behaviour that is a credit to the summons to God's service, to God's service. And in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1, Paul writes, I therefore the prisoner for the Lord appealed to and beg you to walk and to lead a life worthy of the divine calling to which you have been called to which you have been called not to which you are going to be called to which you have been called with behaviour that is a credit to the summons to God's service.

Such a big sentence. And we go over to chapter 5 of Ephesians. And Paul says in verse 15, look carefully. Look carefully then how you walk. Now if you're going to look carefully at something, it means you're going to focus on it. Yes? You're going to focus on it.

I had to push a wheelbarrow full of gravel and many, many wheelbarrows of topsoil across some planks that were elevated up on bricks as I was putting soil into my new garden beds that Linda and I built at the back of our house, up in the backyard, and Linda decided that she wanted quite high, elevated, raised garden beds. Well, absolutely dear, happy wife, happy life, no problem. So we organised it all, built them all, did all of that, and then I had to fill them. So I'm wheeling these barrows-full of topsoil up, narrow planks, quite high up, mounted on bricks.

I was looking very carefully where I was walking and looking very carefully where I was pushing the wheelbarrow with, you know, 50 kilos or, you know, more of topsoil, you know, as I'm balancing long, narrow planks up in the air. Not a good thing to be doing, but I was looking carefully, looking very carefully. Look carefully then how you walk, live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as the wise, sensible, intelligent people.

Wow, there's a lot of focus in that. There's a lot of distraction removal in that. the very most of the time, buying up each opportunity because of the days are evil, therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is, understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is.

Let's just go back to Ephesians 4 .1, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord appeal to and beg you to lead a life worthy of the divine calling, to walk and to lead a life worthy of the divine calling to which you have been called with behaviour that's a credit to the summons to God's service.

Look carefully then how you live, how you walk, live purposefully and worthily and accurately, live purposefully with accuracy. Friends, these are big scriptures.
These are really, really big scriptures. And as I was up in the backyard today, you know, with my wheelbarrow and my yute full of topsoil, and I was thinking about all of this sort of thing and accuracy and living purposefully.

And I thought about Ecclesiastes 12. A verse 13, all has been heard. The end of the matter is Fear God, revere, and worship him, knowing that he is. And keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man, the original, the full, the original purpose of His creation. This is the whole of man, the full, the original purpose of His creation, to fear God and keep His commandments, to revere God and keep His commandments. It is the original purpose of His creation. We are His creation. We are to fear God and keep His commandments.

The object of God's provenance. The root of character. The foundation of all happiness. Isn't that big? The root of character is to fear God and keep His commandments. The foundation of all happiness is to fear God and keep his commandments. The adjustment, and this is the kicker, the adjustment to all inharmonious circumstances and conditions under the sun.

That's a big sentence. If you want to adjust inharmonious circumstances and conditions, so inharmonious circumstances and conditions. Anything that's happening under the sun, fear God and keep his commandments. Yes? Something that's inharmonious. Fear God and keep his commandments.

If you want to change it, if you want to fix it, if you want to repair it, if you want to adjust it, Fear God and keep his commandments. And then, you know, we look over here and live purposefully and worthily and accurately, yes? Not as the unwise. Do you see where this is going? Do you see how this is coming together here? Now, think about your purpose, the divine calling to which you have been called.

And Ephesians 4, That's verse one there. Ephesians 5, look carefully then how you live or how you walk. Live purposefully and worthily and accurately. Live with purpose fully is full of purpose. Live with full of purpose, yes? Live a life that's full of purpose. Purpose for what? Okay, purpose for what? Purpose in what areas?
Well, many areas, but the first area, purpose with regard to fearing God, reverencing God, reverencing God, and the keeping of His commandments.

If the keeping of His commandments was our purpose, was our focus, where would that take us? If the keeping of God's commandments in Ecclesiastes 12 is the object of God's provenance, the root of character, the foundation of all happiness, the adjustment to all inharmonious circumstances and conditions, the fearing of God and the keeping of his commandments, the adjustment to all harmonious circumstances and conditions under the sun. Yeah, that covers all the bad stuff, okay?

And the whole duty for every man in Ecclesiastes 12. Now, tie in there what Jesus himself said in Matthew 6. Now, there's a bit of scripture here, but it's worth reading. Absolutely. So Matthew 6 in verse 25, and I'm reading from the Amplified Bible. Therefore I tell you, this is Jesus speaking. Jesus the Christ, the man who gave up his life for you and me, yes, the Lord Jesus of heaven and earth, by whom the worlds were made. And he says, therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy and anxious and worried about your life.

Stop it. Stop being perpetually uneasy, anxious and worried about your life. What you shall eat, what you shall drink, or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater in quality than food? And the body far above, and more excellent than clothing.

I was thinking about that today, the body far above and more excellent than clothing. I was wearing some old clothes and I can get covered in topsoil and gravel and all, you know, all of the stuff that I was wheeling around and off my planks, in my wheelbarrow. And the clothes were getting pretty dirty. They're all my old work clothes. And I looked down at my hand.

And my hand had been gripping the trencher because I'd been putting in subsoil drainage as well and just doing some drainage around my garden beds. And I was looking at the functioning of my hand, the hand closing, the fingers opening and closing, and the functioning of my hand relative to the equipment and the machinery.

How I could just pull this lever and tweak that lever and make the you go and start and stop and, you know, dig trenches and all of those sorts of things was controlled by my hand far, far, far above the actual clothes that I was wearing. And the clothes that I was wearing, you know, were covering my body and, you know, all of that. That's pretty simple. But the functionality of my hand and my eye and brain and hand movements and coordination, far above just mere clothing.

And I thought about this in Matthew 6. Is not life greater in quality than food, and the body, the body, your body, far above, and more excellent than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sown or reap nor gather into barns. And as your heavenly father feeds them, are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure or cubit to his stature or to the span of his life?

And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field. And learn thoroughly how they grow. That's enormous. Do a study on lilies and how they grow and seed plant harvest and all of that. It's absolutely amazing. The power of momentum, incremental progress, first the seed, then the blade, then the corn, then the corn in the air, yes, then the full corn in the air,
then the full corn in the year.

In Mark Chapter 4, the power of incremental progress is incredible. Who of you, by worrying and being anxious, can add one measure of unit to his stature, span of his life? Why would you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field and learn thoroughly how they grow. They neither toil nor spend. Yet I tell you, even Solomon and all of his magnificence, excellence, dignity and grace was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field which today is alive and green and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, will he not much more surely clothe you, oh you of little faith. Therefore do not worry and be anxious saying, what are we going to have to eat or what are we going to have to drink or what are we going to have to wear? For the Gentiles, the heathen, wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things.

Now think that through. Diligently seek all these things. All the stuff, yeah? They crave after. They diligently seek all these things. And your heavenly father knows well that you need them all. Your heavenly father knows well that you need things. Yes? Now the Gentiles, their focus and their purpose is going after things. Now, your Heavenly Father knows that you need things. People say to me, I always say, oh, do you know, Joe, all you need is Jesus. Well, Jesus himself said, the Father knows that you need things.

Yeah? So you need Jesus and things. Okay. Your Heavenly Father knows will that you need them all, but seek. Now this is the thing here, but seek, aim at and strive after, first of all, his kingdom and his righteousness, his way of doing and being right, and then all these things taken together, the things gathered up and taken together will be given to you beside.

They'll just be given to you as well, okay? So why? Because you're seeking first, seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness, his way of doing and being right. Now we go over here to Ephesians chapter four again And he's talking here, Paul, I therefore the prison of the Lord appealed and I beg you, beg you, beg you, to walk, to lead a life worthy of the divine calling to which you have been called with behaviour that is a credit to the summons of God's service.

Okay? And he's saying here, his way of doing and being right, behaviour that is a credit to the summons to God's service. The summons to God's service includes and is made up of and is directed towards your purpose. Your purpose is powerful.
Your purpose is the reason that God puts you on the earth. Okay? We all have a place in the economy of God.

You say, oh, Joe, I'm not that important. Yes, you are. And this is why it's so incredible and so amazing. It was God's, it was his intent. And remember I said Ephesians chapter 1 at the, at the very beginning, my mind flipped over here to Ephesians 1 verse 5. For he foreordained us. God, God, the creator, the Father in heaven, he foreordained us, he destined us, planned in love for us, to be adopted, to be revealed as his own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of his will, because it pleased him and was his kind intent. Because it pleased God, and it was his kind intent to have you, to have you adopted into his family, to have you as part of the kingdom and the economy of God, with purpose, with hope, with future, yes, and all of these things coming together.

And so, verse 33 of Matthew 6, But seek aim at and strive after, first of all, his kingdom and his righteousness, his way of doing and being right. And then all these things taken together will be given to you besides. So all the other things that the Gentiles are seeking after. Now, think this through with me, please. Okay?

Think this through with me. So much of our purpose time, the time that we spend on this earth, so much of our purpose time, where we could be focused on our purpose, our calling, the divine summons, to which we have been called, so much of that time is swept up in temporary things.

Now let me show you what I mean. In Matthew 6:33, Jesus is saying that the things that the Gentiles seek after, the Father knows that you have need of these things, but you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the things will be added to you.

Now, let's look over here in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and I'm still reading in the Amplified Bible in verse 18, since we consider and look not to the things that are seen. So all the things that you can see. We don't, we do not, since we consider and look not. So we're not considering these things and we're not looking at them.

We're not focusing on the things that are seen. But we consider and we look to the things that are unseen. Look to the things that are unseen. Consider the things that are unseen. For the things that are visible, the things that you can see, the things that are visible are temporary. They're temporal. They're brief. They're fleeting. So all of the things that the Gentiles are seeking after, all of the things that the Father knows that you need, if you can see them, they're temporary, they're brief and they're fleeting. If you can see something, it's temporary brief and fleeting. It can be changed. It can be adjusted. Something can happen to it.

Okay? But the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting. So we focus on the things that we can't see. Things like your purpose in Christ Jesus. Things like the service and the summons and the service to the call of God.

Yeah? Now, these things that are invisible, that are not seen, are deathless and everlasting. And as we focus on the seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness, things like purpose, things like, see then, that you walk and you lead a life worthy of the divine calling to which you have been called with behaviour.

That is a credit to the summons to God's service. Look carefully then how you walk and how you live, live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise, sensible, intelligent people. If we focus on those kinds of things, then the invisible, the everlasting, the deathless, we focus on that, then all of the visible things just get swept up and included as we travel along.

Because Jesus said if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all of the other things that the Father knows that you have need of, they just get added to you besides, yeah? Read it. Matthew 6, verse 33, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the other things they just get added to you as you travel along, living purposefully, walking a life that is a credit to the summons to God's service.

Please join with me again next week on this station and we'll look further into this series of living and effective life. God bless. Thanks for joining with us on this podcast. We are dedicated to helping you come all you can possibly be in Christ Jesus. Please do check out the resources at livingsuccess .org.
That's livingsuccess .org. God bless.