Title: How To Walk With God
Bible Book: Colossians 2 : 6
Author: Dean Haun
Subject: Some Things Every Christian Ought To Know
Objective:
Introduction
Every Christian ought to know... How to lead someone to Jesus!
How to have assurance of eternal life! How to walk with God!
"As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him."
A few weeks ago I had the privilege of sharing with our singles at Soul Quest on a Tuesday evening. I shared with them about a very difficult and dry time in my Christian experience. It was when I went to Seminary at SWBTS. Pam and I were married. I was going to school full-time, working 48 hours a week as a security guard, we had a new baby, and I had homework to do and bills to worry about. I found myself slowly drifting away from the Lord. I rationalized that since I was in Seminary and studying theology everyday, I didn't need to worry about a personal time with God. But what happened was that it became the driest time of my Christian experience. I began to find myself settling for a settled-for Christianity. I told the Singles that I had become dry and parched in my walk with the Lord. Everything appeared to be OK on the outside but on the inside, I was going through the motions. I remember going to work at the Radio Shack Warehouse and during a break time I went behind some pallets and got down on my knees and got things right with the Lord.
Since that time I have had several "dry" periods in my life but nothing like that time. It was through that struggle that I realized I would never be able to be effective in my Christian life unless I learned the secret of walking with God. The message I share with you today is from my personal experience across the years. There are 4 evidences that must mark my life if I am going to walk with God.
I. I Must Be Converted
(John 3:3,5; 2 Corinthians 5:17; John 7:37-39)
What does it mean to be converted? It means 3 things:
A. It Means I Have Turned From Sin And Self (Repentance)
I have changed directions! Jesus said, Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Lk. 13:3)
B. It Means I Have Trusted In The Sacrifice Of Christ
C. It Means I Am Thirsting For The Lord - For Spiritual Things
Jesus said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink; for he that believes in me as the Scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water"(Jn.7:37-39). Since you have made a profession of faith, is there a thirst for God and the things of God in your life? Paul declared in 2 Corinthians 5:17- "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. Old things have passed away, behold all things are become new." Since you have come to Jesus is there anything new about you life? New heart? New loves? New thinking? New activities? Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Unless you are born again, you will not see or enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
Has there been a time when your life was transformed by God's power? Have you been born again? Converted? You will never walk with God until there has been a conversion of your life from sin and self to Jesus Christ!
II. I Must Be Clean
I need to ask 2 questions:
A. Am I Right Before God
(Psalm 66:18)- "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."
B. Am I Right Before Man
(In Ephesians 4:25-32)- Paul gives a checklist of things that ought not be in the life of a believer: "Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry, and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole, steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he might have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you."
I need to practice what Bill Bright calls "spiritual breathing". Just as you breathe physically by exhaling the used up air and inhaling fresh air, so do we need to constantly exhale (confess our sin when the Holy Spirit convicts us) and inhale (by asking God to again fill us...control us...with His Holy Spirit). 1 John 1:9--"If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." DO NOT wait until Sunday to get right with God and man. DO NOT wait until the end of the day to get right with God. Stay clean before God and man moment by moment!
III. I Must Be Consistent
(Mark 1:35; Eph. 5:2, 8, 15; Col. 2:6) The key to consistency is 3-fold...
A. My Personal Devotional Life
(Mark 1:35).
"Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed." There are 3 keys to a successful personal devotional life:
1. Set A Definite Time
(David said in Psalm 5:3, "My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord.") I am well aware that the morning is not the best time for everybody. I am a morning person. My wife is a night person. Her philosophy is, had the Lord intended for us to see the sun come up He would have made it later in the day. But regardless of the time of day, set a definite time to be with the Lord.
2. Establish A Definite Place
John Wesley's mother had 19 children and yet found time every day to be with the Lord. She would go into a corner of their home, pull her apron up over her head making a prayer closet, and there spend time with the Lord. The kids knew you didn't bother momma when she was in the corner with her apron on her head.
3. Maintain A Definite Goal
Our first and foremost goal should be to worship Him...spend time with him...to know Him...not just to increase our knowledge of the Bible or to boast that we had a devotional time. George Mueller, the man who ran an orphanage in England in the 1800's literally by faith said, "The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by prayer and the Bible in our life and thoughts...Maintain a daily time with God! I look upon it as a lost day when I have not spent time with God."
B. My Private Thought Life
(1 John 2:15-17; Eph. 4:22-24; Rom. 12:1-2)
John reminds us, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Paul said, “…put off the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." (Eph. 4:22-24) Romans 12:2 says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
In 1999 Dr. Duncan Cameron, a family physician in England, treated a little five-year old girl for discoloration of her face and hands. She had been drinking 1.5 liters of Sunny Delight every day. The excessive consumption caused her skin to have an orange tint...which by the way is not all that bad...her blood levels for Vitamin A were off the chart. Proctor and Gamble said her condition was harmless but it goes to show the point that we reflect what we consume.
If we are filled with the Holy Spirit and consume the things of God people will be able to see it in our face (presence) and our hands (actions). On the other hand, you cannot walk with God and at the same time allow your mind to be consumed with evil or lustful thoughts. Guard what goes into your mind. Be careful what you watch and what you look at. Proverbs 23:7, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he."
C. My Public Spiritual Life
(Col. 2:6; Eph. 5:2, 8, 15)
Colossians 2:6- "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." Ephesians 5:2- "Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma." Ephesians 5:8- "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light." Ephesians 5:15- "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise."
An old Quaker lady who apparently never lost her temper, even under the most trying of times, was approached by a young girl one day who said, "How can you stay so cool?
If I had some of the things happened to me that you have had happen to you I would just boil over!" The old lady answered, "Perhaps I do not boil over, my dear, but thee does not know what boiling is going on inside."
Eventually, what is on the inside is going to boil out on the outside, no matter how much you attempt to keep it inside. We need to make sure that which boils over out of us is Jesus!
IV. I Must Be Committed
(Galatians 2:20) I was almost reluctant to use the word "committed" for it implies that I am in control of my life and I am simply doing God a favor by serving Him. Perhaps a better word would be "crucified." Paul said..."I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives within me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me." The unhappiest people in the world are not unbelievers, but rather Christians who resist the will of God for their lives...who refuse to surrender to God. If you are going to live the Christian life, you must first die! Real commitment to God is death to self! If I am dead to self and absolutely committed to Christ I will see great success and have true joy in at least 3 areas of my Christian walk:
A. My Warfare - Against The enemy
The world, the flesh, and the Devil are going to come after me like an unrelenting opposing enemy every day of my life. When I die to self I will see victory in the battles of life.
B. My Witness - To The Lost
Witnessing will become a normal and natural process of just sharing the love of Jesus through my life.
C. My Worship - Of The Lord
The crucified life is also a life of praise and worship and devotion to God. There will be a sense of worshipping Him every day of my life, not just on Sunday.
Conclusion
This past week I had the privilege of preaching at the National FAITH Institute in Daytona, Florida. I met an older man at the FAITH Institute this past week sitting at our table at lunch. There were four preachers at the table along with this man. We were sharing about our ministries and families and we turned to him and asked him where he lived and what he did. He was a layman from middle Florida and he looked at each of us and said, "I have lived most of my life on God's second best." He told us in his younger years that God had called him in the ministry but he turned away from God's perfect plan. He wanted to make some money and have a nice home so he went to a local bank in his area and began working for them. He started out as a teller and quickly made his way up the ladder. He met a young lady...fell in love with her...even asked her what she thought about marrying someone who might go into ministry someday. The woman said, "No way!" I am not marrying a preacher. You will choose between me or preaching." He said, "I chose her." He said, "Our marriage lasted about two years. I remained single for the next 5 years. I met a wonderful woman who loves the Lord and we have been married ever since." "We went to church but I never did what God told me to do when I was younger. My time has come and gone. That's why I am here at the clinic. I believe through FAITH God will give me another chance."
How sad to look back on your life as a Christian and say, "I have lived my life on God's second best." But that is exactly what we do when we do not walk with God.
