This morning, I want to look at what it means
to walk with Christ. We just sang a song about,
and we sang the words that we said, I walk with
the King. And we sang another song at the first
of the service. We said, we sang about taking
time to be holy. That was also about our walk
with Christ. There is so much that is. that we
can look at from the scriptures and we can glean
from the scriptures and understand of what it
means to walk with Christ. And we're going to
take a few minutes this morning to look at this.
There is so much in the New Testament that we
could look at and go different routes of what
it means to walk with Christ. We're going to
look at a few things this morning though and
hopefully help our understanding. In Matthew
chapter 16 verse 24, Jesus then said unto his
disciples. He said if any man will come after
me Let him deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me If we are going to follow Christ,
it's it's absolutely necessary that we deny ourselves
and That we take up our cross and we we follow
him When To follow means that we're going in
the same way We're not leading we're coming after
but we're along the same path and We understand
though that he is the one who is leading If we're
gonna follow him we have to put him first And
this world gets it messed up many times and they
they want to lead and they say Jesus come on
pick keep keep up The times are progressing.
You know, things are changing. We are following
after Christ. The phrase, Jesus uses this phrase,
follow me, 17 times in the gospels. And they're
all found in that phrase that he uses. It's only
found in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John. And as we read the rest of the New
Testament, We see the command to walk To walk
so we're following him. He tells us to follow
him in the Gospels Then after Jesus completes
his mission on this earth. He's in heaven. He's
given his word to his apostles It's been written
down for us to understand and now we can understand
how to follow him by walking after by walking
after him We have to understand that this walk
It starts with with faith. That's the very beginning
of our walk Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 says but
without faith it's impossible to please him for
he that cometh to God must believe that he is
and that he is a rewarder of them that Diligently
seek him Second Corinthians 5 verse 7 says for
we walk by faith and not by sight It's not possible
to follow Christ To live as a Christian without
faith. It's just not possible It's impossible
to please him without it and by this faith is
that's how we walk Starts with our faith and
this faith is the scripture says it's the substance
of things hoped for it's the evidence of things
not seen And then in first Peter 1 verse 9 says
receiving the end of your faith even the salvation
Of your souls our Christian wall it starts with
faith and it ends with an unending faith and
that being and Ultimately the salvation of our
souls That's the end of it if we're gonna put
our faith in Jesus if we're gonna walk with him
Well, then we must then put our faith in His
words how he lived how he told us to live And
in the end we put our faith in knowing that salvation
awaits for us The end of it if we keep this faith
the end of that is going to be salvation This
walk will not continue forever. We will ultimately
reach the goal But we can't give up we have to
keep following after Christ You know ultimately
he's going to come back and we will see him face
to face There won't be no more of this walking
in this this going through these mountains and
valleys and these things we will be in his presence
and The end of our faith will be our salvation.
This is a journey. It's a lifelong walk And it
starts with faith. You know, many people, they
worry very much about getting in their daily
steps. They make sure they wear, you know, you
can track it on your phone or whatever, and you
want to make sure you get in your steps for the
day and you brag about how many steps you got.
But what about our spiritual walk? How many steps
are we getting in with the Lord? How many times
are we opening our Bibles? How many times are
we casting aside our will and letting his will
be done? How many times are we holding our tongue?
Instead of saying what we we would like to say
instead we say what God would rather us say That
is walking with Christ We need to be more concerned
about getting in our spiritual steps If we can
be very concerned about our physical we so much
more should be concerned about our spiritual.
In Colossians chapter two, verse six, he says,
as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the
Lord, so walk ye in him. So this morning, as
we have received Christ, our Lord, we're gonna
look at, I wanna look at five ways of how we
can Walk with the Lord. There's many you can
make this ten ways you can make there is so much
that is in it I would encourage you to Take a
concordance look up the word walk and look at
it and look how many times it's used in the New
Testament It's used over and over Because it's
talking about our life our life in Christ our
walk it's compared to walking with him our walk
First is in newness of life. Romans chapter 6
verse 3 says here, Know ye not that so many of
us were baptized into Christ, and to Jesus Christ
were baptized into his death? Therefore we are
buried with him by baptism into death, that like
as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk
in newness of life. After we have been buried
with Christ in baptism, we're raised to a new
life in Christ. We don't have to wonder about
what this new life means or how we can walk in
this newness of life. We just need to keep reading.
It says, for if we have been united together
in the likeness of His death, certainly we also
shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.
Listen, he says knowing this that our old man
was crucified with him That the body of sin might
be done away with And that we should no longer
be slaves of sin For he who has died has been
freed from sin Now if we died with Christ, we
believe that we shall also live with him Knowing
that Christ having being raised from the dead
dies no more death no longer has dominion over
him for the death that he died he died to see
it once for all but the life that he lives he
lives to God likewise ye also reckon yourselves
to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God in
Christ Jesus our Lord therefore do not let sin
reign in your mortal body that you should obey
it in its lust If we're gonna walk as a Christian,
and we're gonna begin this walk, and we're gonna
have faith, and we're gonna obey His words, we
can't keep doing the same things that we used
to do. The old man has been crucified. A new
man has been raised. There must be a personal
transformation. And this transformation, it can't
begin before you're in Christ. It begins after.
Once he gives you his spirit Then the transformation
can take place and if for some it can it can
happen very quickly for others Maybe it takes
a little more time But God will prune you he
will work in your life He will put people in
your life and your life will begin to change
and your mind will begin to change And you will
begin and you will be walking with Christ in
newness of life. And you will begin to see that
sin is not raining in my body anymore. The things
that I used to say yes to, I say no now. And
the more you do that, the easier it becomes.
And it's not a struggle. It's just part of who
you are. That's walking in newness of life. It
begins when we were baptized into Christ That's
when our old man was put to death and there was
a new man then that was risen up And we walk
in newness of life our walk should be in decency
We're gonna look at this in Romans chapter 13
Romans chapter 13 once verse 11 says and That
knowing the time that now is high time to awake
out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer
than when we believed the end of our faith salvation
Is nearer now than when we first believed because
time more time has gone on We're getting closer
to the Lord coming back. We're getting closer
to our death Because when that comes that's the
end Salvation awaits judgment awaits The night
is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore
cast off the works of darkness and let us put
on the armor of light. And let us walk honestly
as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness
and not in chambering and wantonness and not
in strife and envy. But put you on the Lord Jesus
Christ and make not provision for the flesh to
fulfill the lust thereof. He says therefore do
not let sin reign in your model body that you
should obey it in the lust He says I've got a
cut off there he says he says let us walk honestly
as in as in the day and he says put on the Lord
Jesus Christ and may not provision for the flesh
to fill it for the lust thereof and Then at first
Corinthians 14 verse 40 says let all things be
done decently and in order. The word used in
Romans 13 honestly is the same word as used in
1 Corinthians 14 verse 40 when he says, let things
be done decently and in order. When he's talking
about the assembly of the church, he's talking
about how the men should speak one by one. And
if you have something to say, hold your tongue
until the other finishes. What does this mean
it means that there's not so there's not chaos
So there's not confusion Our lives should not
be lives that are full of confusion and chaos
There is a lot of chaos in this world there's
a lot of dishonesty There's a lot of confusion
this should not be so in the life of a Christian
Our lives should be different Look again at Romans
13 and there and Verse 13 there not in rioting
and drunkenness not in chambering. That means
cohabitation That means living together before
marriage. That's what the world does These things
these these things are chaotic rioting drunkenness
all these types of things This is what the world
does. Let all be things done decently. We should
walk in decency, not in lives that are full of
all these things. Look what he says in First
Peter. He says, for we have spent enough of our
past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles
when we walked in lewdness and lust and drunkenness
and revelries and drinking parties and abominable
idolatries as lives. These things Should not
be so in the life of a Christian our lives should
be clean and and peaceful You know, we may have
come from a life that was full of a lot of chaos
and a lot of turmoil and There may still be some
of that in our even after we become Christians
our lives may still have some of that Much of
that comes from our past life. It comes from
that old man. Some of that fruit is still taking
place in our lives. We're having to face those
things that we did in our past, those past relationships,
and our old way of thinking. But in Christ, as
we begin our walk with Him and we continue to
walk with Him, Our lives should get more peaceful.
There should be greater peace starting first
and foremost inside of here. And that we've made
peace with our God. And then from that we can
then begin to see the world differently. And
we begin to look at things more spiritually and
we begin to look at people. not to try to see
how we can get back at them or how we can, whatever,
think bad things about something, but to think
about their soul and to think about how you can
get them to the Lord. Our lives should be more
and more peaceful. Our walks should be in decency.
In 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17, he says, Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature.
And old things are passed away, and behold, all
things are become new. I love this verse. Old
things are passed away. When something passes
away, we use that phrase, you know, they passed
away, they died. Old things die. Our old things
that we used to do, they passed away, they've
been put to death. And all things are new. That's
the way our life should be in Colossians chapter
2 He says here in whom also you are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands and
putting off the body Of the sins of the flesh
by the circumcision of Christ He says buried
with him in baptism where he knew you are also
risen with him through the faith of the operation
of God Who hath raised him from the dead and
you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision
of your flesh Hath he quickened together with
him having forgiven you all trespasses. God performed
a work in you when you were baptized into Christ.
He removed your sin. He did the work that you
could not do. You only submitted to Him to allow
Him to perform this operation on you. It was
nothing. You just submitted to His will. He did
the miraculous work of forgiving your sin If
you keep reading you go to Colossians 3 I must
have missed it here or there it is in Colossians
3 He says then keep on reading said if ye thee
been risen with Christ seek those things Which
are above where Christ siteth on the right hand
of God. He says set your affections on things
above not on things of the earth We go back to
Colossians 2 verse 12. He says bury with him
in baptism wherein also you are risen with him
When you're buried in baptism, you come up you're
risen with him a new man And then what he says
if then if you are have been risen with Christ,
what does he say? He says seek those things which
are above Seek those things which are above set
your affection on those things above God like
I said, he performed a work in you in your life
when he forgave your sin He did an operation
that you could not do But now what are you doing?
What are you setting your mind on? What are you
casting off? Are you laying aside the weights
and the sins that can so easily drag you down?
God did something in your life that you could
not do now What are you doing in your life that
you have the responsibility? To do through the
power of Christ him working in you. Are you casting
off? Are you setting your mind on the right things?
Are you laying aside those weights as you run
and you walk this this race that we're in that
can so easily drag you down Are we doing that?
That's our responsibility to do that Are we?
Am I? Our walk should be in diligence Ephesians
chapter 5 verse 15 says see you then that you
walk circumspectly not as fools, but as wise
Redeeming the time because the days are evil
We must walk with diligence The word used here
for diligence is circumspectly circumspectly
meaning that we Have diligence and viewing all
around us this, you know, you think about circumspect
or circum circumference is that the you know
and full 360 degrees And you're looking you're
being very diligent all around in all aspects
your life we must be walk circumspectly we was
what we must walk with with diligence and it
takes wisdom it takes understanding and knowing
that there is evil in this world and Satan is
seeking to destroy you he's seeking to destroy
your family our eyes have to be open to these
things that Everything in this world is not good
Everything everyone does not have the best intentions
Satan wants to destroy you. He wants you to he
wants to bring you to hell It takes wisdom and
it takes diligence to see these things in life
So there are so that we can walk correctly You
know, it's very easily to waste our time, to
let our guard down. We have to be aware, though,
of what we're doing, who we're hanging out with,
what we're teaching, what we believe. We have
to be careful in these things and be diligent
and use wisdom. Acts chapter 18. I want you to
look at here Acts chapter 18 verse 24 through
25 And it says here a certain Jew named Apollos
Born at Alexandria an eloquent man and mighty
in the scriptures. He came to Ephesus This man
was instructed in the way of the Lord and being
fervent in the spirit He spake and taught diligently
the things of the Lord knowing only the baptism
of John Says that Paulus was an eloquent man
He was mighty in the scriptures and he taught
diligently what he knew But the problem was that
he was diligently teaching the wrong things He
didn't know of the baptism of Christ he was only
teaching of the baptism of John at this time
Christ Had already been resurrected The gospel
was the good news of Christ and what he had done
and the fact that he had died and was resurrected
and was sitting at the right hand of God But
he didn't know these things but he was diligently
teaching the wrong thing and It says and in verse
26 and he began to speak boldly in the synagogue
whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard They
took unto Him and expounded unto Him the way
of God more perfectly. This husband and wife
team, this Aquila and Priscilla, they heard Apollos
teaching, and because they were walking circumspectly,
because of their diligence, they heard and recognized
this false teaching that was being taught in
the synagogue. And they took Apollos and they
taught him the truth. They taught him of the
fact that Jesus had come and that they were teaching
about his baptism. What if they had heard this
false teaching and they didn't recognize it?
What if they weren't walking diligently in that
and their ears were closed and they were sitting
there in there in the pew and the the the man
was up there teaching false doctrine and they
they didn't recognize it and They would go on
maybe to take that same teaching and go on to
share it with others What if they weren't walking
diligently and they weren't? Having the right
mindset or what if they did recognize it and
they said well Maybe someone I hope someone will
teach him what's actually true about Christ Surely
someone will someday will help him. I can't believe
he's teaching these things What if they had just
done that and not took the time to meet with
him? Apollos this man that started We read about
him teaching the baptism of John, and he was
an eloquent man, he was mighty in the scriptures,
but he was teaching things that were false. Once
he was taught the truth, he went on to become
a very great and missionary for the church. He
spent many, much of his time with Paul traveling
and teaching. And it started with this husband
and wife being diligent. Taking the time to see
this man and to teach him the truth You know
the story goes back further with him with them,
you know, you can read this whole story in Acts
chapter 18 Paul the Apostle Paul He had an earthly
occupation. You know, we know he was an apostle.
He was a Jew He was called by the Lord. He was
an apostle of Christ. But he also made tents.
That's what he did. He was a tent maker. And
so was Aquila and Priscilla. The earthly occupation
that they shared brought them together. And Aquila
and Priscilla and Paul They began to hang out
with together and they would hear Paul teach
in the synagogue every Saturday because he would
go to the synagogue because that's where the
Jews would meet and they would be teaching from
the Old Testament, from the Old Law. And Paul
would go in to reason with them from the Scriptures,
from the Old Law and show them how Christ had
fulfilled the Old Law. And Aquila and Priscilla
were there with him hearing these things. And
they became very close friends with Paul. And
from there, Aquila and Priscilla, they were from
Italy. And we can read this in Acts 18. And they
traveled with Paul on about a 250 -mile trip
from Italy, from Corinth to Ephesus. Became friends
with him. They were following him. They were
doing what Paul was doing They went from Corinth
To Ephesus And in Ephesus is where they made
a policy They were 250 miles away from their
home They were in a very different country But
they were still walking diligently they were
walking circumspectly And in this different place,
some hundreds of miles away from their home,
they heard this man teaching something that was
not true. And they took him, they took the time,
and they expounded unto him the way of God more
perfectly and more diligently. And then Apollos
goes on to become this great teacher. Their common
job brought them It led to this with this being
a tent maker God will use and he can use and
he does things in your life to further his kingdom
But he needs willing people to be his hands and
feet He needs people like Aquila and Priscilla
that are diligent and what they hear and when
they hear something that it's not true They don't
blast him publicly, they took him aside. And
they talked to him on a private level. And this
is also an example. We see a woman teaching.
This was not in a public assembly. This was in
a private setting. And they taught Apollos. And
it was very effective. Apollos goes on to do
great things. They were walking diligently. We
must walk in a worthy manner Ephesians chapter
4 verse 1 says I therefore the prisoner of the
Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you are called With all loneliness
and meekness with long suffering for bearing
one another in love Endeavoring to keep the unity
of the spirit and the bond of peace What does
it mean to walk worthy? It means to be appropriate
to be godly To walk in a manner that's appropriate
for someone that claims to follow the Lord, to
be a Christian, to take on the name Christian,
to follow after Christ, that's a great responsibility.
And if we're gonna walk worthy, it means that
we need to walk in a way that's appropriate if
we're gonna carry that name. It means to be godly,
to be godlike, to be the way He would be. You
know, we may think, well, how am I even able?
How can I be worthy of this, of even being called
a Christian and taking on this name of Christ?
God in the flesh. You know if you think of worthiness
and the fact that well I'm worthy of this or
that Because of me because of what I've done
and what I've accomplished in my my life. I'm
worthy of this I'm worthy of you giving me these
things and or or Getting at this praise because
of who I am and what I've done You're missing
it if that's the idea of thinking of worthiness,
but if you lower yourself Realize that Jesus
Found me worthy even to the extent that he would
die for me You see that your worth to God was
the price of his son and It should cause you
to humble yourself to lower yourself and lift
him up Because he is holy But he deemed you Worthy
enough to die for you What does that mean to
it I mean We should not be prideful of that we
should be in great humility and great have Why
Lord why did you help But you did this for me
and I thank you and I will live for you and I
will praise you and I will give you Glory and
honor because you did this for me That should
be our attitude I Will strive then therefore
to to walk in a manner that is worthy Worthy
of being called your servant Remembering that
you I'm not leading I'm only following I'm only
walking after you Therefore I will be long suffering
with people I will be kind I will be modest.
I will try to make my life decent and in order.
I will strive to show my appreciation to Him
in the way I live, in the way I think, in the
way I dress, and in the way I treat other people.
In all aspects of my life, I will try to be and
live and walk in a way that's worthy of you,
Lord. Because of what you have done because nothing
I have done but what you have done for me Philippians
1 verse 27 says only let your conduct be worthy
of the gospel of Christ So that whether I come
and see you or an absent I may hear of your fears
that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind
striving together for the faith of the gospel
We walk worthy of the Lord when we strive together
For the faith for the gospel We should be a church
without division and without strife Without clicks
We should be working together to spread the gospel
God when we do that God sees us and says they're
walking in a way that's pleasing into me They're
walking in a way that's befitting to my name.
They're walking worthy of me He finds great pleasure
in that Colossians 1 verse 9 says for this reason
also once we also since the day we heard it do
not cease to pray for you and to ask that you
may be filled with the knowledge of it of of
his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding
that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing
him being fruitful in every good work and increasing
the knowledge of God. We walk worthy of the Lord
when we strive to be fruitful in good works and
when we strive to increase in our knowledge of
Him. When we strive to get in our daily steps
for Him and we take His Word and we read it and
as we do that we are increasing in the knowledge
of God. We are then walking worthy of Him. It's
pleasing to Him. That's what He wants. You know,
one of the reasons that we covered the topics
that we did in our recent meeting, in our summer
meeting, was so that we could increase in the
knowledge of God. It should be something that
we strive for all the time. If we have questions
about something, about why we do what we do,
whatever it is, we should look for the answers
in His Word. And when we do that, we're walking
worthy of Him because we're trying to increase
in His knowledge. His knowledge is beyond our,
we cannot fully understand and comprehend fully
who God is. But He finds it pleasing when we
strive to learn more and more of who He is. And
we become more knowledgeable in His Word. And
when we become more fruitful in doing good works,
He finds great joy in those things. And we're
walking worthy when we do those things. Our walk
finally should be in truth. 3 John chapter 1
verse 3 says, and truth. Third John is one chapter
in the New Testament. It's the shortest book
in the Bible, in the New Testament, in Scripture,
by word count. And the word truth is used six
times in this book, in Third John. The truth
is the good news of Jesus. We must walk in a
way that agrees with the scripture and the doctrines
that we profess The Lord says I have no greater
joy than to hear that my children walk in truth
If we're going to walk in truth, it simply means
that we must practice what we preach We must
not give lip service To the Lord There's no greater
testimony than to live out what you say you believe
It's very effective to actually live it out That's
what the other early church did When there was
great persecution, they didn't deny the Lord
They suffered even to death when they were when
they were punished They just spread and they
continued to preach the gospel wherever they
went Just like Aquila and Priscilla they went
some 200 miles away and they were still teaching
the truth even from their homeland There's no
greater thing testimony then we then that we
can give then to live out and actually practice
what we preach People see that and as people
see that conversations develop relationships
can be Started and people can be led to the Lord
Because they're seeing that these people are
real they're not being hypocrites I Heard it
put it I heard it put this way, you know, what
happens when you walk in the dust and the mud
There's been a lot of that this week because
of all the rain what happens when you go out
and you walk in it you get dirty You get that
on you. What happens when you walk in the rain?
Well, you get wet What happens when you walk
in truth It gets over us it gets all over us
it should become a part of who we are It's not
like the mud though. We shouldn't try to avoid
it It's not like the rain, we shouldn't use an
umbrella to try to keep it off. We should want
the word, the truth, to get all around us, all
inside of us, and deep within us, as the scripture
says, so that we might not sin against the Lord.
It should be a part of who we are. We should
want the truth in all to become a part of who
we are. And when we walk in truth, That's what
will happen. It will become a part of who we
are. Second Corinthians 13 verse 8 says, for
we can do nothing against the truth, but for
the truth. Jesus said that he is the way, the
truth, and the life. He is the truth. Our concern
should be what can we do for him? We can't do
nothing against him. What can we do for him?
What can we do for the truth? We shouldn't fight
against it We should maintain our correct position
and are following after him. Make sure we don't
step ahead Make sure he's leading now. We're
following him and we're taking up our cross and
following after him You know truth is much more
than just knowing what is true. It's actually
being true True to Jesus true to his words True
to your conscience true to the way that you live
It's not just enough to know it we have to live
it out and that It's what we're looking at this
morning. When we live it out, we walk in this
way and we walk it in a way that's decent, in
a way that's worthy, and we're striving to gain
more knowledge of Him. In our recent meeting,
as I mentioned earlier, we studied in depth about
how we can and we should be in the business of
restoring New Testament Christianity. You know,
in those lessons, the focus was on our assemblies
of why we have communion the way we do, why we
strive to give the Lord the correct worship in
our music, why we teach the way we teach, why
we don't divide ourselves when we come together.
We study those things depth. But there's so much
more to Christianity than just our assemblies.
It's our lives. Are we living daily for Christ?
Are we walking with Christ every day? That's
the question we need to ask ourselves because
we could come together for the worse and people
did that and we read about that in Corinthians.
We don't want to do that. We need to strive to
walk personally every day for the Lord, to walk
in these ways. We're walking with diligence,
knowing that we have been created a new person.
We have newness of life. So we walk diligently.
We walk in a worthy manner. We walk in a way
that's truthful. We must strive to live every
day In a way that's pleasing to him help we should
wake up with a prayer on our lips and thanking
him for the day and Asking him to guide us To
help us Because this walk will continue on Until
the end and what's the result of our faith the
end result? It's the salvation of our souls as
we read about this morning. Revelations chapter
three verse four says they shall walk with me
in white for they are worthy. In verse 24 in
chapter 21 he says those who are saved shall
walk in its light. We walk in this life we go
through the hills and the valleys and the the
hard times and the difficult times but if we
continue steadfast and if we Maintain that we're
gonna walk with him now. We will walk with him
in heaven He's made that promise He will create
all things new. We will see him face to face
and there will not be no more faith We will be
benefiting from the end of our faith, the salvation
of our souls. I look forward to that day, and
I want you to look forward to that day. If you
have not begin your walk with Christ, you can't
look forward to this day. Your walk with Christ
begins with faith. It begins with submitting
yourself to His will. Allowing Him to perform
a work in you that you cannot do. As was put
in Colossians chapter 2 that we read. The operation
of God. The removal of your sin. You can't do
that. God does that. You just submit to Him.
You repent of your sins. You say, I'm not going
to do what I used to do. I'm going to do what
God wants me to do. You submit to his will you
allow yourself to be buried with him in baptism
you allow then him to raise you and Then once
we're raised with him. What do we do then? We
begin our walk. We begin to set our affections
on things above We begin to cast off we begin
to lay aside those weights and our walk with
him We'll begin. You can have that. God wants
you to have that. We will help you begin your
walk this morning if you need that. If you're
a Christian here this morning and you need prayers
of this church, you can ask for prayers and God
will hear our prayer this morning as we come
to His throne on your behalf. If you have a need
this morning, won't you please come as we stand
and sing.