In today’s sermon, I honor the man that showed me how to walk right.  We all have a spiritual choice to make in this life – two paths – have you chosen to walk down the right path?  Are you walking right in this life?  Here are the key verses from which I will preach today’s sermon from.

15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:15-16 NKJV

Don’t Drag Your Feet

My dad was a man that was big on work ethic – you could not be lazy around him! Growing up, you could not drag your feet around my dad. When I was little, I liked to hear the sound of my shoes hitting the floor as I walked, but the way I would walk drove my dad crazy! He would say to me, when he would hear the sound of my feet dragging, “stop walking that way!” He would say to me, “dragging your feet is a sign of laziness.” I tell you, that man was big on not being lazy and from that point forward, I stopped dragging my feet because I didn’t want to come off as being lazy.

The way you walk says a lot about you. We, as believers, have to watch the way that we are walking and make sure that we are not dragging our feet in our walk! In other words, we cannot be lazy in our walk, spiritually speaking now. I want you to now realize that when we talk about the “way we walk” that we’re now talking about the way that we carry ourselves and the way we live. The spiritual walk is about how we choose to live.

Paul teaches in this chapter of Ephesians, on the ways in which a believer should walk (live). He says in the very first verse (Ephesians 5:1), “Be followers of God as dear children.” The word followers can better be understood with the word imitator being substituted in its place. So, this scripture is better understood as, “Be imitators of God as dear children.” Children, we know, have a habit of copying or mimicking what they say – they’re good imitators. This is why we have to watch ourselves around our children because they’re watching to see what you do and say, and then they will turn around and do the things that you do or say the things that you have said around them.

As the children of God, we, the believers, should imitate God! We should copy the ways of God and live as God lived. Some will ask, “when did God live?” We, being the good Christians we are, should show them that God dwelt among His creation (mankind). In the first chapter of John’s gospel, we are told that in the beginning was the Word, and that the Word was with God, and that the Word was also God (John 1:1). In that same chapter, we are told that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among the chosen people (John 1:14). Jesus was God in the flesh and in Him, we have a role model that was set before us.

God’s way is based on goodness, righteousness, and truth (Ephesians 5:9). Therefore, if we are going to imitate the way Christ walked in this world, our walk should be in goodness, righteousness, and truth. We should not look to follow in any other way but the way of Christ! Today I ask you, are you walking the right way or are you going the wrong way? Don’t drag your feet!

We, Paul says (Ephesians 5:15), should walk circumspectly. In other words, we should live fully aware of our walk. The believer should be very watchful, very cautious, and very prudent in his or her spiritual walk. Now you may wonder, “why the concern? What is it that I should be cautious about in my walk?” Paul mentioned in the following verse (Ephesians 5:16) that the “days are evil”, however, this is not going to be our concern on this day. We know good and well that the days are evil and it would be very easy to preach another sermon on the evil of our days, but I want to focus on “us” today.

When Jesus talked about how we live, He often would bring up these two paths that we must choose to walk on in this life. We can’t walk on both paths at the same time (Matthew 6:24); we eventually have to choose a path to walk. In the gospels Jesus talks about these two paths – I am going to use Matthew’s gospel to break down what Jesus talks about. Jesus tells us (Matthew 7:13-14) that there is a wide path and a narrow path. The scripture reads:

13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and [b]difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Matthew 7:13-14 NKJV

Let’s notice the first path that Jesus expounds upon – the broad path: is a path that has a wide gate, and you will notice that there are many who choose to walk this way. Now, I begin to wonder, in my finite mind, why so many would choose to walk on this path. I believe that this path looks absolutely beautiful and safe to walk down. I also believe that many choose to walk down this path because they see others walking down this path and so they choose to follow them. There are many people who have the “everybody else is doing it” mentality and so they join in with the crowd. This can be a very dangerous thing to do, spiritually speaking.

Now, let’s take a look at this other path that Jesus talks about – the narrow path: it is a path that is “difficult” and only a few people go down this path. Once again, in my finite mind, I begin to wonder why only a few choose to go down this path. I believe it is very clear that this path is a tough and dangerous path so folks choose not to go down this path. I picture this path like a narrow cliff out in the desert and there’s no railing to hold to prevent someone from falling off the cliff. In other words, it takes faith to make it across this path – there are no guarantees that you will make it to the gate. People would say that you are “crazy” to walk down such a path.

Let’s look at the end results of both paths. The wide path and gate: Jesus tells us that going down this path leads to destruction. This destruction that Jesus talks about is not a physical destruction but a spiritual destruction. If you choose to walk down this path, it is made clear by God that this is the wrong path to take! Even though many people walk down this path and this path is not “dangerous”, it leads to spiritual destruction – that is spiritual death.

The end results of the narrow path and gate: Jesus tells us that though this path is dangerous, this path leads to life – that is spiritual, everlasting life. The danger of this path is the devil, Satan, who will make going down this path extremely tough to those who go down this path in faith. However, we need to know that Jesus is both the way and the gate! Jesus said (John 14:6), “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” The devil thought he had knocked the apostles off the way, but the Lord never let them be destroyed – they were simply ushered through the narrow gate. If you walk down the narrow path, keep the faith, you’re going to go through the narrow gate.

The concern is the way in which we choose to walk. My biggest concern is that many people will jump off the narrow path onto the broad path because the grass appears to be greener and the way isn’t so dangerous. The concern is that many people are following others down the broad path and that path will ultimately lead to the destruction of many souls. Do not imitate others that walk down the broad path if you seek life!

We as believers must be wise in our walk. Yes, the day is certainly evil, but that doesn’t mean we should be overcome with evil and hop off the narrow path because following it “doesn’t get us what we want”. Though the day is evil, we should continue to be resolute in our way and stand steadfastly in our faith! Paul says to us, in these evil days we still have an opportunity to witness (to minister) to those that are going the wrong way.

We have an opportunity to continue to walk the right way and let our way be an example to those who are going the wrong way. There are many who are going the wrong way but feel that they are indeed going the right way. I tell you, don’t let the devil deceive you into believing you are going the right way because he doesn’t make your path dangerous. Yes, that grass may be green, but that grass may be artificial turf – that’s to say it may be fake! Sadly, in our day, goodness is mocked; righteousness is mocked; the truth is also mocked. However, if enough of us witness to goodness, to righteousness, to the truth, then maybe some will realize that they are indeed walking the wrong way.

Only a fool will see “wrong way” signs and continue going the wrong way. However, I say to you, that the one who chooses to follow the fool is even more foolish. We, as believers, must not imitate the way of the fool that continues to walk the wrong way. We must continue to walk circumspectly in this day, always aware that we are still on the narrow path that leads to the narrow gate – the gate that leads to seeing the Lord’s beautiful city.

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