labors into his harvest.
Go your ways.
Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.
Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes,
and salute no man by the way.
And into whatsoever house ye enter first,
say, peace be to this house.
And if the son of peace be there,
your peace shall rest upon it.
If not, it shall turn to you again.
And in the same house, remain, eating and drinking
such things as they give, for the labor
is worthy of his hire.
Go not from house to house.
And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you,
eat such things as are set before you.
And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them,
the kingdom of God has come nigh unto you.
But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not,
go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say,
even the very dust of your city which cleaveth on us,
we do wipe off against you.
Notwithstanding, be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God
has come nigh unto you.
But I say unto you, that it shall
be more tolerable in that day for Sodom
than for that city.
Woe unto thee, Chorazin.
Woe unto thee, Bethsaida.
For if the mighty works that have been done in Tyre
and Sidon, which have been done in you,
they had a great while ago repented,
sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
But shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon
at the judgment than for you.
And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven,
shall be thrust down to hell.
Ye that heareth you heareth me,
and he that despiseth you despiseth me.
He that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.
And the 70 returned again with joy,
saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us
through thy name.
And he said unto them, I behold Satan as lightning
fall from heaven.
Behold, I give unto you power
to tread on serpents and scorpions
and over all the power of the enemy,
and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
And I was standing in this rejoice not
that the spirits are subject unto you,
but rather rejoice because your names
are written in heaven.
That hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said,
I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
that thou hast hid these things
from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them unto babes.
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.
All things are delivered to me of my Father,
and no man knoweth who the Son is but the Father,
and who the Father is but the Son,
and he to whom the Son will reveal him.
And he turned him unto his disciples and said privately,
Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see,
for I tell you that many prophets and kings
have desired to see those things which ye see,
and have not seen them,
and hear those things which ye hear,
and have not heard them.
Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him,
saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
And he said unto him, What is written in the law?
How readest thou?
And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind,
and thy neighbor as thyself.
And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right,
and this do, and thou shalt live.
But he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus,
And who is my neighbor?
And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down
from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves,
which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him,
and departed, leaving him half dead.
And by chance there came down a certain priest that way,
and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.
And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place,
came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed,
came where he was, and when he saw him
he had compassion on him, and went to him
and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine,
and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn,
and took care of him.
And on the morrow, when he departed,
he took out two pence, and gave them to the host,
and said unto him, Take care of him,
and whatsoever thou spendest more,
when I come again I'll repay thee.
Which now of these three thinkest thou
was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?
And he said, He that showed mercy on him.
Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
Now it came to pass, as they went,
that he entered into a certain village,
and a certain woman named Martha
received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary,
which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.
But Martha was cometh about much serving,
and came to him, and said, Lord,
dost thou not care that my sister
hath left me to serve alone?
Bitter therefore that she help me.
And Jesus answered and said unto her,
Martha, Martha, thou art careful
and troubled about many things,
but one thing is needful,
and Mary hath chosen that good part,
which shall not be taken away from her.
Let's pray.
Lord God, we thank you again
for everything you bless us with,
and just ask that you be with our pastor now,
please strengthen him,
and fill him with your Holy Spirit
as he preaches your word,
and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
I would say that the Christian life
would hinge upon this very thing
that I'm gonna talk about this morning.
And in fact, your longevity as a practicing Christian
is contingent upon this.
And I would say that I've actually never met
a successful Christian who didn't master this first.
And I've never witnessed a backslidden Christian
who prioritized this specific discipline.
This morning, I wanna preach on the subject
of walking with God, walking with God.
Now what does it mean to walk with God?
It's a phrase that we commonly see in the Bible,
and it's a metaphor to describe
fellowshipping with the Lord, okay?
To fellowship with God, to walk with God.
And if we were to take that phrase
and just put it in its most practical sense, description,
we would say that it's essentially referring
to prayer and Bible reading, right?
Prayer in a sense that we talk to God,
spend time talking to God,
and Bible reading where we allow God to speak to us.
This is essentially what it means
to fellowship with the Lord, to walk with God.
And obviously there are subcategories of this specific topic.
We can think about how about singing psalms, right?
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your hearts unto the Lord.
That is a manner in which we fellowship with God.
That is a manner in which we walk with God.
We could also talk about the subcategory
of just serving God and making sure
that we are fulfilling his commands,
loving the Lord by doing what he tells us to do.
But I'm gonna say this this morning
that when it comes to the Christian life,
this is actually the most important thing
that you could ever do.
It's actually more important, listen to this,
more important than soul winning
and more important than your church attendance,
more important than anything, it's walking with God.
You say, I don't know about that.
Well, let me just say this is that
in my experience as a Christian,
I've actually never met a Christian
who goes soul winning and comes to church
and lives the Christian life and does not walk with God
and remains in the Christian life.
So I've known a lot of Christians who go soul winning,
they go to church, they serve God,
they're present in the visible things
that we see here in the local New Testament church,
but because they don't really have a walk with God,
they don't really have a whole lot of endurance
and so they only do it for a short period of time.
But I will say this, I've known people
who walk with God, they have the discipline
of fellowshiping with the Lord in their private life
and what they end up doing is actually surviving
or enduring the hard times
and they actually end up soul winning
and coming to church and just adding to their life.
They're the ones who actually end up
succeeding in the long term.
You do have a lot of Christians who do the soul winning,
they do the service, they do the church attendance,
which are important, I'm not saying that they're not,
but typically if they're not walking with God,
if they're not fellowshiping with the Lord,
they don't last very long.
They actually fizzle out within a few months,
even a year, even a few years
and then they end up falling out of the way.
And I would say this, when it comes to your service
for God, when it comes to soul winning
and church attendance, I would illustrate it
as a vehicle, whereas walking with God is the fuel,
it is the oil that goes into the vehicle
to get you from point A to point B.
And anybody who's ever blown out their motor
in a literal sense knows that you messed up
because you didn't put oil in that thing,
there's no maintenance on that vehicle.
And so walking with God essentially helps us
to maintain the Christian life.
It helps you to serve God, but it also helps you
to continue to serve God, but it also helps you
to continue to serve God,
even when you're going through hard times.
Because one thing Christians fail to understand
is that God expects you to serve Him
in the good times and in the bad.
When it's really easy to serve God,
but also when it's really hard.
He wants us to continue to serve Him
in all of those seasons and instances,
but the only way you can assure
that you're gonna do that is if you actually
legitimately have a walk with God.
If you're actually fellowshipping with the Lord.
And as a pastor, I just wanna ask you
this question this morning.
Do you know the Lord?
I know that you know Him in the sense of
you're saved, you know who the Lord Jesus Christ is,
and you know all the right doctrines,
but let me say this.
Can you pray and get a prayer answered from God
because you know Him that well?
Let me ask you this, are you a friend of God?
Do you know the Lord?
I know that you're saved,
I know you go to a fundamental Baptist church,
I know you go to a new IFP church,
I know you're solid on your doctrine,
I know that you go to church,
I know that you love the Lord,
but let me just ask you this,
but do you know the Lord though?
I know you serve Him, but are you a friend of God?
You see, it's one thing to be saved,
and that's the most important thing,
but you know what?
There's like another level,
and it's called being a friend of God.
It's being able to pray unto the Lord
and ask Him for something,
and know full well that you're gonna get it
because you know the Lord, right?
It's being able to open up the Word of God
and understand the Word of God,
and know that God is speaking to you specifically
about a specific subject in your life,
specific instance, something that you're going through.
It's to know the Lord personally.
And I know a lot of these liberal churches,
the liberal fund centers,
and to a certain extent,
a lot of fundamental Baptists have marred this concept
of having a relationship with God.
You know, we're kind of sick and tired of that,
but it's because they have marred that definition.
They've perverted it in such a way
where like anybody could just have
a relationship with God, dude.
And it kind of has like this surfer type
of translation to us,
where it's just like,
well, I'm a follower of Jesus as they don't go to church,
as they don't do any soul winning,
as they don't read the Bible,
as they hate biblical preaching.
It's just, you know, it's like a, it's just a,
it's a, I don't know, it's stupid.
It's hypocritical.
It's contrary to what the Bible actually says.
But the reality is, this is the,
a relationship with God is a real thing though.
You know, to have a relationship with God,
the biblical term would be fellowship with the Lord.
And I don't know about you,
but I want to know the Lord personally.
You know, I know the Lord knows me because I'm saved,
like I'm a child of God,
but I want to be able to like know the Lord though.
I want, listen to this, I want God to like favor me.
I want to be able to go to God
at any given time in prayer for a specific need
and know full well that he's going to provide
for that need.
And he's going to answer it because I know him,
because I am his friend.
And in fact, you know, the Bible says,
henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth,
but I have called you friends
for all things that I have heard of my father
I've made known unto you.
The Bible tells us in Jeremiah,
let him that gloryeth glory in this
that he understandeth and knoweth me,
that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness,
judgment and righteousness in the earth.
For in these things I delight saith the Lord.
And so this morning, I want to talk about the subject
of the most needful thing in the Christian life,
the most important thing in the Christian life.
And that is walking with God.
And in fact, look down at your Bibles at Luke chapter 10.
You're like, I don't know, you know,
sowing is pretty important.
It is, no one's saying it's not.
We know that it's important.
I'm just saying walking with God is more important.
Well, you know, don't you say like coming to church
is important?
Yes, but walking with God is far more important.
And in fact, I would even say people would more readily
go sowing and come to church
before they even read their Bibles.
They would actually prioritize those things
over reading the word of God.
And I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands,
but I guarantee you that someone here this morning,
you're in church, you sang the hymns,
you're probably gonna go sowing after,
but you actually didn't read your Bible in the morning.
I'm not gonna look at anybody, you know,
because then I'm gonna get awkward stares or whatever,
but you know it's true.
It's fact.
You know, I guarantee you there's people
in this building right now that came to church
and you know what, God bless you.
And this is why you need this sermon, amen.
But I guarantee you woke up and you didn't pray.
You didn't crack open your Bible.
You didn't spend time thinking upon the Lord.
It's showing you that your priorities
are kind of out of whack.
And it's good that you're in church,
and it's good that you're gonna listen to the sermon,
and it's good that you're gonna go sowing,
but here's the thing, I'm here to remind you,
walking with God is far more important.
Reading your Bible and praying and knowing the Lord,
having a personal relationship with God
is far more important.
And if you don't think so,
then you're contradicting the Bible.
Your life contradicts the Bible.
How so?
Well, look at Luke chapter 10, verse 38.
Now it came to pass as they went
that he entered into a certain village,
and a certain woman named Martha
received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary,
which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.
But Martha was cumbered, overloaded is another word
for that, about much serving.
Now, notice that it says that she's cumbered
about much serving, not cumbered with sin,
iniquity, being backslidden, the things of this world,
the lust of other things entering in.
She's actually just busy about serving,
and in this context, it's probably like serving
the Lord Jesus Christ, making food, cleaning the house,
getting things ready, you know, God is in your house.
And she's just kinda like making sure
everything's up to par.
I mean, what she's doing is good.
Says Martha was cumbered about much serving
and came to him and said, Lord,
here comes her hyper-spiritual attitude,
dost thou not care that my sister
hath left me to serve alone?
Bitter therefore that she help me.
Now what she's doing isn't wrong,
it's good that what she's doing,
because serving God is what we're made for, amen?
The Bible tells us we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
I mean, essentially the entire Bible,
but specifically the New Testament,
places a heavy emphasis on serving God.
And if you don't serve God,
you're not right with the Lord, amen?
And so obviously, this is not a sermon against serving.
What I'm saying is,
if you're gonna serve God in the long term,
you better make sure you're walking with the Lord.
We see Martha here, she's kinda critical,
she's being critical of her sister,
because she feels like she's serving alone,
and Martha's just, Mary's just, you know,
listening to the words of Jesus.
Verse 41, Jesus answered and said unto her,
Martha, Martha, thou are careful
and troubled about many things.
Now he doesn't condemn her for serving,
he doesn't condemn her for her service
and for what she's doing, for her work,
he's just saying, he's just making this observation
that she's full of care,
she's troubled about many things,
and he doesn't even tell her to stop serving.
He says in verse 42, but one thing is needful,
and Mary hath chosen that good part
which shall not be taken away from her.
And what is that one thing?
Sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing his word.
And he didn't tell her like, hey, stop serving,
you need to come listen as well.
No, it's more like Mary had the right priority.
And you know what?
Just because Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus
listening to his word,
doesn't mean that she's not gonna serve thereafter.
But you know what?
All of us need to fuel up as Christians every single day,
lest your motor should burn out,
you blow a gasket, and then you're out,
out of the fight.
We all need to go home and read our Bibles.
Not at the exclusion of coming to church,
not at the exclusion of serving God,
but everything has to have its place.
And obviously I know,
and I'm speaking in a very general sense,
and so I understand that we have mothers here,
we have people with different schedules here,
and so not everyone's gonna wake up in the morning
and read their Bibles and pray.
People have various times
in which they fellowship with the Lord,
but the point is this,
do it sometime throughout the day though.
I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands,
but I'm sure there's a lot of people
who are not mourning people.
I'm one of them, okay?
But I still read the Bible in the morning,
that's just a habit that I built into my life.
But if that's not you, that's okay,
you just gotta make sure you're fellowshipping
with the Lord at some point in the day,
making it a priority in your life.
Why, because one thing is needful.
Walking with God is needful.
This sermon is simply me as a pastor coming to you
to just remind you of the importance
of you walking with God.
You're not gonna have a successful marriage,
you're not gonna have a successful child rearing,
you're not gonna have a successful job,
you're not gonna succeed in the Christian life,
you're not even gonna be here
in the next five to 10 years.
I will not see you in the next five to 10 years
if you do not walk with God.
If you're a person who does not prioritize
fellowshipping with the Lord,
it was nice knowing you.
I love you, but I probably will not see you
in the coming years, because it's fact.
This is the most important thing.
You know, the Bible tells us of Enoch,
one of the most famous passages,
that Enoch walked with God
and was not for God took him.
It says of Noah in Genesis chapter six
and verse number eight,
but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
These are the generations of Noah.
Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations,
and Noah walked with God.
Turn with me, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 11.
Hebrews chapter 11, I'm gonna read to you
from Deuteronomy chapter five and verse 33.
It says, ye shall walk in all the ways
which the Lord your God hath commanded you,
that ye may live,
and that it may be well with you,
and that ye may prolong your days in the land
which ye shall possess.
The encouragement, the challenge this morning,
is for you to pick up that Bible again
and start reading it on a daily basis.
And it requires a level of discipline, does it not?
It requires a level of prioritization
where you make it important to yourself.
And say, starting on Monday, and from here on out,
I'm gonna read the Bible.
And obviously, you know, quantity is important,
but quality in this point
is far more important than the quantity.
And you know what?
Put in the quantity after you discipline yourself
to get the quality.
If it takes you, if you could only handle
five to 10 minutes of Bible reading,
hey, something is better than nothing.
If you could only handle 15 minutes of Bible reading,
five minutes of prayer time, just do it.
And once you've established that spiritual habit
of reading the Bible to the point, listen to this,
where it's just a part of your life,
then you can add quantity.
And that's the goal this morning, folks,
is to remind you that Bible reading and prayer,
walking with God, it's not just something that you do,
it's what you are.
When you get up in the morning,
you brush your teeth, hopefully.
When you get up in the morning, you change,
there's certain things that you just do naturally
every single day, right?
Certain things that you just
really don't even think about.
Some of you get up in the morning,
you just reach for your phone, you know,
or you get up, there's certain habits
that you already have locked into your life,
because it's just a part of who you are.
You don't even have to think about it,
you just do it.
Well, you know what?
You want walking with God to be one of those things.
Where it's just like, after a while,
it's spiritual muscle memory,
and you don't even have to think about it,
it's just what you do.
It doesn't matter what's going on that day.
It doesn't matter if you have work,
if you have church, if you have an activity,
if you're gonna go hang out with friends,
no matter what you do, it's just like,
I need to go read my Bible first,
because it's just what I do.
That's what I do, is read the Bible.
But if that's not you, then you need to make it you.
Because walking with God is the most
needful thing that you can do.
And you know, if you're in here
and you think to yourself, oh man, I don't do that.
I just barely dragged myself to church today,
like it's just, it's hard to just make it to church.
Well thank God that you made it to church
to hear a sermon about walking with God.
That's what it's for.
This morning I'm gonna give you five points
on how to walk with God.
We already know exactly what we're supposed to do
to walk with God, which is to read the Bible and pray,
and then all these other subcategories
that you can add to that.
The most primary ones is reading the Bible and praying,
but I'm gonna give you some elements
of how to walk with God.
You're in Hebrews chapter 11.
The first thing is how to walk with God.
The first of all is this, with expectation.
How do you walk with God?
With expectation, expecting something in return.
Look what the Bible says in Hebrews 11 verse five.
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see
death and was not found because God had translated him.
For before his translation,
he had this testimony that he pleased God.
Now obviously this is a callback to Genesis chapter five,
where the Bible talks about that Enoch walked with God
and was not for God took him.
The New Testament translates that
as him being translated into heaven.
He's essentially raptured.
Now this is not a glorification rapture.
It's just a bodily translation.
He has not yet received his transformed body, so to speak.
Jesus Christ is the first fruit,
but this came about because he walked with God
and he pleased God.
Look at verse number six.
So this is all in context of him walking with God.
It says, but without faith,
it is impossible to please him.
I want you to notice, for he that cometh to God
must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek him.
What does the Bible tell us?
When we walk with God, we're walking with God in faith
that he's gonna reward us for walking with him,
seeking him out, reading the Bible, praying unto him.
It's a spirit of expectation.
When I open up the Bible, I'm just like,
oh man, I hope I just find something.
No, I know I'm gonna find something.
It's just a matter of like,
how long it's gonna take for me to find it.
When I pray, I'm not praying like, oh man,
I don't know, we'll see.
I pray and I think to myself,
he has to answer one of these.
Something's gonna happen because he's commanded me to pray
and I'm not praying in vain.
Something has to happen, why?
Because we're supposed to approach our walk with God
with expectation, not with the lack of faith.
Oh, you know, that just sounds like prideful.
It sounds arrogant.
No, it's called faith.
He that cometh to God must believe that he is
and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him.
Sounds to me like God wants you to seek him out.
Diligently and with expectation
that we're gonna get something in return.
That's what the Bible's telling us here.
Go to 1 John chapter five.
Hold your place there in Hebrews chapter 11.
Hebrews chapter 11.
And I'll give some practical points
regarding this specific point of walking with God
with expectation.
But let's talk about prayer for a minute.
Look at 1 John chapter five and verse 14.
It says, and this is the confidence that we have in him
that if we ask anything according to his will,
he heareth us.
So if you ever want God to just listen
to what you're saying,
just make sure that what you're praying is biblical.
Just make sure what you're asking for is not the lottery.
Something that is contrary to the will of God.
If you wanna catch his attention,
you wanna get his ear,
you better make sure that you know
what you're praying for.
Cause the Bible says this is the confidence
that we have in him.
That if we ask anything according to his will,
he heareth us.
So if I know what his will is,
which by the way, the way you find out what the will is
is by what?
By reading the Bible.
So the way you know what the will of God is
is by walking with God.
And once you know his will,
you know what God's will is for your life.
Then you ask for those things
that he already wants for you.
And it's just like, it's a win win.
A win is a win.
Cause you're praying according to his will.
It says in verse 15,
and if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask,
we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
That's amazing.
So in other words,
if you pray according to the will of God,
just mark it down, you have the prayer answered.
God's gonna give it to you.
Now obviously it's a matter of when, right?
And sometimes people pray according to the will of God,
they become disillusioned
because they don't get their prayers answered
in the timely manner that they want,
and then they become discouraged
and then they cease praying.
But here's the thing folks,
is that God didn't say you can choose the time and date
of when you'll get your prayers answered.
Just pray for it and God will answer that prayer
and you just have to wait upon the Lord.
What does it mean to wait upon the Lord?
Or what does a waiter do?
He serves.
So as we're praying, we're waiting upon the Lord,
we're serving God,
waiting for him to answer that prayer in his time.
And if you pray for something that's according to his will
and you don't get it at this moment,
just know that sometimes people just can't handle
God's blessing at this time.
Sometimes it requires a certain level of virtue,
spiritual discipline to be able to enjoy,
use and receive God's blessing.
But we know this,
this is the confidence that we have in him.
I hope that you're praying with confidence and expectation.
And I hope that you have a prayer life,
not just a prayer time.
I hope that there's a time and day
where you sit down and or you're taking a walk
and you're praying unto the Lord,
worshiping God, petitioning.
But I hope there's also times throughout the day
when you're working with your family
and you just bust the Nehemiah
and just pray unto the Lord, thus within yourself,
when you're just doing other activities.
Like, well, that's not really me.
Well, you need to make it you,
that's what it is to walk with God.
Walking with God means
to walk with him throughout the day.
It means that you're mindful of the presence of God
throughout your life.
As you're driving and someone cuts you off
and you wanna give them that thumbs up without the thumb,
tell them that they're number one,
you pray like, Lord, help me restrain myself.
Help me to have self-control.
Help me to have temperance.
You're driving or you're working
and one of the church members comes to mind.
Maybe you need to pray for them.
You think of someone who's sick
or someone who's going through a hard time
or someone who's been backslidden,
hasn't been in church.
You think upon them, you say, Lord,
please work in that person's life.
God forbid that I should ever go down that path, Lord.
That's what it means to walk with God.
And sometimes we're so saturated
with distractions in this world,
it just robs us of quality time
that we can literally just be praying
in times of isolation or times of work.
We're just distracted and that's why we don't do it.
Pray for the big needs,
but also pray for the small needs as well.
Pray for parking spots.
Pray for the red light to turn green.
Well, that's, I don't know about that.
Why?
Pray for everything.
I don't know about that.
Well, I just know my Bible says
that he's a rewarder of them to diligently seek him.
The Bible says in Matthew 21,
go with me if you would to Luke chapter 24,
Luke chapter 24, Matthew 21, 22 says,
in all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer,
listen to this, believing you shall receive.
He said, whatever you ask for,
as long as you believe it, you can have it.
Well, I'm just praying this
because I know I'm supposed to and I don't know.
I don't even know if God's,
I don't even think God really wants to give this to me.
Okay, then you're not going to get it.
Because you're wavering.
The Bible says you need to believe it.
And folks, this is one manner in which
you can increase your faith exponentially as a Christian.
How's your faith today in the Lord?
How is your faith today in the Lord?
Do you have faith in God that he can provide,
protect, and do all types of wonders in your life?
Well, I'm not a pastor.
You don't have to be a pastor.
But the way you increase that faith
is by increasing your prayer life
and asking him, Lord, show yourself strong on my behalf.
Do something great on my behalf.
And you know what, make sure you actually
bring a list of things with you.
Don't just ask generally.
Pray for something specific.
It's always got to be specific.
You say, why?
Because when it's specific and he answers specifically,
then you know, whoa, this is from God.
Yeah.
Now, particularly when we talk about expectation
when walking with God, you know,
there's two things you should be looking for
when you read the Bible.
Okay, because we talked about prayer,
but when it comes to reading the Bible,
here's two things you should be looking for,
inspiration and information.
Now, you know, I used to go to an old IFP church
and they emphasized the importance of walking with God
quite a bit, but the only problem was
they would often say, look for inspiration, not information.
They would always say there's like,
inspiration, not information.
And what they mean by that is that
you should read the Bible so that the Bible
can exhort you to continue in the faith,
to serve God, to not quit,
but at the expense of like looking for information.
So they were very much sometimes against
just learning the content of the Bible.
But folks, that's not biblical.
Now, sometimes I think Christians,
and I would even dare say even in our church,
they often read the Bible for information,
but not inspiration.
And that's equally bad because you have to have both.
Look at Luke 24, verse 30.
And it came to pass as he sat at meat with them,
this is after the resurrection,
he took bread and blessed it and break it
and gave to them, and their eyes were open
and they knew him and he vanished out of their sight,
verse 32, and they said one to another,
did not our heart burn within us
while he talked with us by the way,
and while he opened to us the scriptures?
What's that called, inspiration?
He gave them heartburn, amen?
They're hearing the word of God
and they're just inspired.
I mean, what a beautiful way to describe that.
Did not our heart burn within us?
That's not like they learned eschatology,
they didn't learn any deep doctrine,
they're just inspired by the word of God.
This is what David said in Psalm 119
when he stands in awe of his word.
And you know what, I'm glad you're learning information,
but I hope that when you read the Bible,
you're also gaining inspiration.
You're fellowshipping with the Lord in such a way
that yes, you're learning the content,
but folks, you also need to like,
get a couple tears every now and then
of how beautiful the word of God is.
Stand in awe of his majesty, of his glory.
Well, how's that gonna help me in the Christian life?
Well, I'll tell you how it helps you.
You know, when you're inspired by God through his word,
you realize how big God is.
Because our inspiration comes from the fact
that we realize how grand the Lord is,
how majestic he is, how glorious he is,
and then all other problems seem minuscule in comparison.
But if you're only learning information,
what does the Bible say?
Knowledge what?
Puffeth up.
If you're only reading the Bible
because you just wanna be this scholar,
you just wanna know all the,
you wanna be able to refute all the false doctrines,
hey, kudos to you, but if you have no inspiration,
you're gonna fall out of the way in no time.
It's not gonna take much to get you out of church,
out of serving God, and what good is that information
refuting whatever false doctrine
if you're not even in church?
Inspiration is when our hearts burn within us.
You know what that requires?
It requires just a little bit of time in the Bible.
It requires you turning off the social media,
you know, getting alone and no noise,
just isolated with the Bible,
reading the word of God,
saying, Lord, open down mine eyes
that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law,
help my heart to burn within me
so I can increase my love for the Bible.
I'm not saying that every morning you're gonna wake up
looking forward to read the Bible,
but there should be instances when you do, though.
When you wake up and you're just like,
I can't wait to read the Bible.
I'm looking forward to my walk with God,
because I expect God to inspire me.
I expect him to make my heart burn within me.
I wanna walk with God.
The Bible also says, though, in 2 Peter 3, 18,
you don't have to turn there,
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
So when you walk with God, you should expect inspiration,
but folks, you should also expect information.
And this is where a lot of churches grayly err,
where they only wanna be inspired
to make it through the week,
but they disregard some of the most important doctrines
of the Bible.
So you have all these inspired Christians
with very shallow doctrine.
They don't know what they believe.
They don't even know how to convey their doctrines
or what they believe.
That's dumb as well.
You need to make sure
that you're learning the Word of God, too.
This is why it's important that when you read the Bible,
you don't just read John in Proverbs,
or Psalms in Proverbs.
You need to read Leviticus, 1 and 2 Chronicles.
You need to read the Minor Prophets.
You need to read Songs of Solomon.
You need to read whatever book you think is,
oh, how is this gonna help me?
It's not gonna help you in an inspirational way.
It's there to teach you something, though.
If there's passages in the Bible that seem dry to you,
it just doesn't seem as interesting,
it just doesn't seem as inspirational,
read it anyways, over and over again.
And if you don't like it,
then tell God, ask God to make you like it.
Pray according to his will and say,
Lord, help me to mature enough
that I would desire this type of food.
Because you need information as well.
God is not interested in raising simpletons as Christians.
He's not interested in raising God's children
who are simpletons regarding the doctrines of the Bible.
He wants us to know what we believe.
The Bible tells us to study,
to show thyself approved unto God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
He wants us to be students of the Bible,
to gain the information.
And you know what, when we walk with God, it's both.
It's not only being inspired to make it through the week,
it's being inspired to love our wives
as Christ also loved the church,
it's being inspired to raise our children
in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord,
it's being inspired to hate the things that God hates,
it's being inspired to endure afflictions,
to endure hardships and tribulations,
but it's also information.
I need to learn end times prophecy.
Well, how's that gonna help you in your Christian life?
You know, it may not, but who cares?
He wants us to know it.
Who are you to tell God what we should and shouldn't learn?
Well, that's not very profitable.
All scripture's profitable.
For doctrine, for proof, for correction
and instruction in righteousness.
That the man of God may be perfect,
listen to this, thoroughly furnished into all good works.
So that's even the dry parts of the Bible,
you need that.
And you know what, a lot of churches out there,
a lot of old IFB churches that will refuse
to read the book of Daniel, the book of Revelation,
the book of Zechariah, because they think,
well how's that gonna help us practice?
Oh, then let's just tell God
to rip those pages out of our Bible then.
God, apparently you made a mistake
by putting Zechariah, Daniel and Revelation in the Bible,
because how is that supposed to help me as a Christian?
What business do we have
standing in judgment of God's word,
saying that certain parts are not as profitable?
All scripture is profitable, my friends.
Now obviously there's certain scriptures
that are more profitable than others,
but in general, the entire grand scope of the Bible
is profitable for all, and we need it all.
Which is why the Bible tells us to give attendance
to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
Give attendance means make sure you're there, present,
reading the word of God from cover to cover,
and let me just put this plug in,
I hope you're reading your Bibles
all the way through this here.
We're halfway through the year,
and typically at this point, people are just like,
well, 2025, that'll be my year.
This time around, I'm only gonna read through the Psalms.
I'm only gonna read through the Book of Proverbs.
Read through that thing in the next six months.
You can do it, but I only have six months.
You can read through the Bible twice in six months
if you really wanted to, and in fact,
I guarantee you, you read enough Instagram
and Facebook posts to make up an entire Bible.
You probably read enough articles
and listen to enough podcasts
and watch enough YouTube channels
to read the Bible through like five times.
So you know, if you just kinda subtract
some of those other things,
you can definitely read through the word of God
all the way through.
Well, my attention span,
we'll work on your attention span then
and ask God to help you with your attention span.
Well, I'm just really busy, then you're too busy
because one thing is needful.
And again, quality over quantity, but you know what?
At the end of the day,
a lot of Christians seem to be suffering
from the quantity of other things entering in
that are choking the word
and making you unfruitful in your Bible reading.
Amen?
I know you wanted some other subject
to be preached on today,
but I'm gonna hit on your particular sin,
the sins of Christians,
which is their lack of Bible reading,
their lack of walking with God.
And shame on the Christian who doesn't walk with God,
shame on the Christian who is solid on their doctrine,
shame on the Christian that is solid on everything else,
but they just neglect the most important thing
which we're created for, which is to walk with God.
The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians,
A, you don't have to turn there,
go back to Hebrews 11,
therefore as ye abound, meaning grow in everything,
in faith and utterance and knowledge.
What does that mean?
God wants us to abound in our knowledge.
I hope that you know more Bible today
than you did last year.
I hope you increased at least by 1%
in your knowledge of the Bible today than from 2023.
I hope you abounded in that area.
And you know what?
If you think to yourself,
well, I feel like I've regressed,
then pick it back up again.
Adjustment follows seven times and rises back up again.
It's easy to just get back into it,
get into the swing of things,
start reading the Word of God,
and even things that you've learned in times past
that you've forgotten,
you can regain that knowledge once again.
There's muscle memory there, amen?
You've been out of the gym for quite some time,
it's okay, get back into the gym,
you'll awaken those muscles
that you haven't awakened in a long time.
It's the same thing spiritually.
Pick up that Bible, read it again,
develop and cultivate an appetite
for the Word of God again.
Have expectation though when you read the Bible.
Have expectation when you pray.
Tomorrow when you wake up,
pray expecting something in return.
Tomorrow when you wake up,
read the Bible expecting something in return
because he is a rewarder of them
who diligently seek him.
Number two, how to walk with God,
one, with expectation,
and two, we mentioned this already, but with diligence.
He says without faith,
it is impossible to please them, verse six,
for he that cometh to God must believe that he is
and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him.
What does that mean?
Consistently seek him.
Now this is an issue with a lot of Christians
is that they'll hear a sermon like this
and they're like, you know, I'm gonna pray tomorrow.
And they come up with all the lists and they say it,
but then Tuesday they pray again,
but then Wednesday comes around
and then they're just like, well, it's not here.
And then Thursday comes around and they're like,
well, you know, maybe I should pray again.
And then they'll pray again,
but then Friday comes around and they don't pray for it.
And then they become inconsistent in their walk with God.
Or they're like, I'm gonna read my Bible tomorrow.
I'm gonna read it.
And then Tuesday comes around, they're reading their Bible.
Wednesday comes around, they're reading the Bible.
Thursday comes around, Friday comes around,
Saturday comes around.
Oh man, church is on Sunday, I gotta read my Bible.
And it's just this up and down
of just inconsistently reading your Bible.
And let me just say this, if that's you,
you know what, we've all been through that,
myself included, as a Christian, as a young Christian,
I had instances in my Christian life
where I would miss out on Bible reading.
And you know, because of a lack of discipline,
a lack of character, my priorities were out of whack.
There'd be times when, you know,
there'd be a couple days even
where I wouldn't read my Bible.
But I will say this, after a couple of days,
you just feel like crap.
And I just remember thinking to myself like,
I'm in the flesh, the old Bruce is coming back,
he's revisiting me again, I feel carnal,
I'm just, I'm grieved.
And then I get a sermon like this,
and then it's just like, okay,
I gotta get back on track.
But there comes a point where
you're not constantly telling yourself to get back on track.
And that's the point where you've made Bible reading
and walking with God a diligent thing that you do,
to the point where it just becomes a part of your life.
Because you don't want your walk with God
to be something that you feel like you have to do,
to feel like you have to remind yourself to do it.
You want to just do as though it's just second nature
to you.
Because once it becomes second nature,
you don't really have to stress about it anymore.
You're not like, oh man, I forgot to read my Bible.
No, it's just like, that's just what I do.
I forget everything else because I'm reading the Bible.
Diligently seek Him.
Go to Luke chapter 11, if you would, Luke chapter 11.
When it comes to walking with God,
you should walk with Him with expectation,
but also with diligence.
And obviously, on a practical level,
you might need help with that.
You might need an accountability partner,
someone who checks up on you.
And we have enough technology today
where if we want, we could put a camera on your Bible
where it's just like, hey, you're reading your Bible?
Hey, I don't see those eyes moving, man.
There's probably something out there like that.
There's enough technology out there
to just keep you accountable.
I mean, I think there's like the Holy Bible app
where you can create like a group
and a leader can check if you've read your Bible.
Well, that's too much.
Well, is it too much though
if you don't read your Bible?
Is that, maybe that's what you need.
Is that really too much if you're inconsistent?
Is anything too much if we're trying to gain
the most important discipline
that a Christian could ever obtain,
which is walking with God?
It's not too much.
When I struggled reading my Bible as a young Christian,
I needed accountability.
But there came a point where it was just like,
you know what, I'm not gonna be a child anymore,
spiritually.
And I refused to have someone check up on me
to do something that I should, as a Christian,
just naturally do, and I just made myself do it.
And it got to a point where I consistently did it
for such a long time that at that point,
I was keeping other people accountable.
And that's really the goal of Christian life.
I remember being in Bible college,
and I was over a group of teenagers from the junior high.
I had a group of like five young teenage men
that I would literally consistently call every single day,
and I would call their parents,
and I would say, is Johnny,
I need to speak to Johnny about his Bible reading.
All right, here he is.
Did you read your Bible today?
Yes, all right, just make sure you're not lying to me.
What did you read?
This is what I read.
All right, great.
Did you pray?
Yes, all right, see you tomorrow.
And just call it like a couple minute conversation.
And you know what?
Those guys, they basically,
there's times when they didn't want to read the Bible,
but they didn't want to say,
they didn't want to have a conversation with me
and say, no, I didn't read my Bible.
So what they would do is like,
oh man, I know brother Mahi is going to call me,
so I'm going to read my Bible,
so I actually don't look like a derelict of a Christian
because I didn't read my Bible.
And you know what?
They all gained that discipline of reading the Bible,
and I guarantee you many of them
are still walking with God today.
If you need accountability, then get the accountability.
Even as an adult, if you need accountability,
get accountability.
Don't be so prideful to think that,
well, you know, I'm married, I have kids.
You know, it's just embarrassing.
No, it's embarrassing for you not to walk with God.
That's embarrassing.
So get the help if you need it.
There's no shame in that whatsoever.
Look what it says in Luke chapter 11, verse five.
It says, and he said unto them,
Which of you shall have a friend
and shall go unto him at midnight
and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves,
for a friend of mine is in his journeys,
come to me, and have nothing to set before him.
And he from within shall answer and say,
trouble me not, the door is now shut,
and my children are with me in bed,
I cannot rise and give thee.
I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him,
because he is his friend,
yet because of his importunity,
he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
And I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you,
seek and he shall find,
knock and it shall be opened unto you,
for everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth,
and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.
What is it saying?
You know, when it comes to walking with God,
you need diligence, you need importunity,
you need persistence in prayer.
Persistently pray for your needs.
And you know what?
Pray for needs that you probably don't even have yet.
Pray for rain in the latter rain.
You're like, man, I just want to learn more Bible,
then ask God every single day for that then.
You're like, man, I really need this raise.
You know, on a practical level, work harder,
but also pray.
Let the Lord provide for me, and come back the next day.
Lord, I need that raise.
Just every single day, go to the gates of heaven
and say, Lord, here again,
just want to remind you, I need that raise.
You're like, I don't know about that.
Yeah, you don't know about that, huh?
You don't know anything about that.
Because you don't do it.
This is why this example is given, my friends.
He's saying being importuned means be persistent.
Just keep going back.
I need that loaf.
Can I get that loaf?
I need that loaf.
We need this.
I need this raise.
I need this particular possession.
I need this.
I need, and you just keep going back.
And the Bible says that God,
He's going to give it to you,
and He abrades not.
I need wisdom.
I need understanding.
He's going to give it to you, liberally,
and He will not abrade you for it.
Why?
Because importunity is an expression of faith.
It's like, you go there,
you ask Him for that particular need,
He doesn't give it to you,
and you go back anyways.
Like, I'm here again.
Want to remind you that I need that.
And you come back the next day,
even though you didn't get it,
you say, here again,
just want to tell you that I want that,
and I need that.
Just every single day,
it's an expression of faith.
And what was that first point?
Oh yeah, He's a rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him.
Some Christians just need endurance in prayer.
They need to be persistent in prayer.
And you know what?
Sometimes it takes,
listen to this,
I know this is going to scare you,
years.
You have the endurance
to pray for something for years,
every single day.
Pray, walk with God expecting something.
Walk with God with diligence.
That means you have to read the Bible every single day.
It means you have to pray
and petition for those needs every single day.
Go to Amos chapter three.
Amos chapter three.
Amos chapter number three,
I'm going to read to you from Proverbs chapter one,
as you're turning there,
regarding this particular point of diligence,
it says, my son, if thou wilt receive my words
and hide my commandments with thee,
so that thou incline thine ear into wisdom
and apply thine heart unto understanding,
yea, if thou cryest after knowledge
and liftest up thy voice for understanding,
if thou seekest her as silver
and searches for us for a hid treasure,
then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
Well, you know, I read the Bible a couple of times,
I just don't get it yet.
It says you got to seek for it as for silver.
That means you have to go, you have to dig deep.
We were in Northern California last week
and we went to Old Town Sac
and the guy there was explaining
some of the historical facts regarding the city
and the town and how it was a major mining place
for gold.
And he was saying that there's still a lot of gold
in Sacramento.
It's just deep in the mountains.
And it's just, you know,
the reason I haven't pulled it all out
is because it just requires a lot of work.
But what if I told you there's like a billion dollars
in your backyard and it's buried
and you say, well, how deep?
I said, I don't know, but it's there.
You would probably just do everything possible
and keep digging throughout the night
at a practical level.
We're not saying, you know,
you're like, we're not preaching on green
and covetousness right now, all right?
This is just an illustration.
You would dig and dig and you know what?
If all you got was dirt,
but you had the confidence that that was there,
you don't care how dirty or how much dirt you pull up.
You're going to keep digging until you get it.
Well, the Bible says,
that's how you should look for the knowledge of God.
And so walk with God with expectation,
walk with God with diligence.
Number three, walk with God with harmony.
Harmony.
So what do you mean?
Look at Amos three, verse three.
Can two walk together except they be agreed?
What does that mean?
It means you actually have to agree
with what God says in the Bible.
Don't be a cherry picking Christian
or just like, well, I agree about this part,
but this other part I don't really agree with.
Then you don't agree with God.
Cause how can two walk together
except they're in complete union
in agreement with one another?
And you know, obviously you're not going to have
Christians that say, you know, I agree with this,
but I don't believe this part.
What they'll do now is they'll say,
well, I agree with this,
but I think you're misinterpreting that.
That's a different interpret.
No, just say you don't agree with the Bible.
Because some, look folks, I get,
like tonight we're going to go through
some end times Bible prophecy
and there's certain things that are just kind of obscure,
but not everything in the Bible is obscure though.
Some things it's just like,
you could literally just quote the verse
and I don't even need to explain it.
You just know exactly what it is.
For God so loved the world.
So what does that mean exactly?
If you don't know what that means
that you need to learn English,
then you probably need some ESL classes
if you don't get what that means.
Because there's certain verses in the Bible
that are self-explanatory.
And so some people say, well, I agree with that,
but I don't agree with this.
Okay, then just say you don't agree with the Bible.
But you need to be in agreement with God.
And you know what?
There's some sermons that you're going to hear
from the pulpit here at First Works Baptist Church,
and you're not going to agree with what I'm saying.
But at the end of the day,
just say you don't agree with the Bible.
Because I'm not going to preach anything
that's contrary to the word of God.
Well, yeah, but you're preaching your interpretation.
Yeah, but here's the thing, folks,
is that at the end of the day,
whatever doctrine I give you,
out of the mouth of two or three witnesses,
every word shall be established.
And when I show you five different scriptures
that teach that, then that's what the Bible teaches.
And unless you have five to 10 other scriptures
that refute that, then this is the primary
interpretation then.
Gotta be in agreement with God.
You have to agree with God regarding sin.
You have to agree with God regarding
the roles in the home.
You have to agree with God regarding a man's role,
that he's the head of the household.
Amen?
You're like, well, yeah, see,
that's the thing I don't really agree.
Then just say you don't agree with the Bible.
How can you walk with God
if you don't like his institutions
that he set up?
We have to come into agreement with that
and say, you know what?
It goes against the grain.
It's not what I've learned,
but I just have to renew my mind
and believe what the Bible says.
Because I think pretty much everyone here,
because how many of you
are second generation Christians?
One, two, three, four?
Okay, how many of you would say
I grew up in a Christian home?
One, two, three, four, five, six.
Don't be ashamed.
You kids don't count, I'm just kidding.
How many say I'm a first generation Christian?
Yeah, the vast majority of people here
are first generation Christians.
Do you know what that means?
It means a lot of the constants of the Bible
are very much foreign to you, initially.
They're just foreign to you.
So when you hear something,
it kinda bothers you
because whatever your high school taught you,
whatever philosophy you've been getting
through this world has taught you.
And so a lot of it goes against your grain.
But you know why it goes against the grain?
Because it's God's word.
If it was a book written by man,
it would just completely capitulate to our desires.
But because it's written by God,
and it's seeking to make us more godly
and more like unto the Lord,
it's gonna contradict us.
And you know what?
We need to pray, Lord,
bring me into alignment with what the Bible says.
If the Bible says that a wife's
supposed to be a keeper at home,
don't, don't flinch at that.
If the Bible says that having children
is a blessing, don't flinch at that.
If the Bible says that being effeminate is a sin,
don't flinch at that.
If the Bible says that sodomy is an abomination,
don't flinch at that.
If the Bible, I mean,
we could just go on and on and on and on,
walk together with God in agreement.
So when you hear something
from the preaching of God's word,
but it's based in the Bible,
and you kinda flinch at it,
you have a knee jerk reaction to it,
just look at it and say, well, it's right there.
If I'm gonna walk with God, I gotta agree with him.
I gotta be in unity with what he says.
And you know, I think about this one time,
it was a couple years ago,
we were at the old building,
and we had some visitors,
and I was preaching a sermon against sodomites,
or it probably wasn't even a sermon,
I think it was like a point on sodomites.
And I was just kinda like ripping on it,
and I was going off on it,
and I was angry about something.
I don't remember what it was.
But I was thinking to myself,
this person picked a heck of a service
to bring visitors to.
Cause they were just like,
there's just Sunday morning,
so I went to go talk to him after the service,
because at the end of the day,
I'm not screaming and yelling after the service,
like I'm preaching,
but after the service,
I'm very kind and cordial, I think.
And so I went up to him,
and I just shook his hand,
I was like, hey, thanks for coming.
And the person said,
what you said up there is true.
She was like, I've never heard anything like that,
but it's actually in the Bible.
So I agree with that.
And you know what?
I was impressed.
Because that person has the right disposition
about the Bible.
Because deep down,
I think what she wanted to say is like,
that was kinda rough.
Like that was like, ugh,
that was a little too much.
But the thing is,
she didn't express that because she said,
oh, it's in the Bible.
Okay, if it's in the Bible,
then I'm in agreement with it.
And if you wanna walk with God
for a long period of time,
if you want longevity in the Christian life,
you gotta agree with the Lord.
And in fact, you know,
the Bible describes walking with God
also as being yoked up with God.
Right?
Like a yoke of oxen.
They put that contraption on the necks of oxen,
of oxen,
and it basically keeps them from separating.
Keeps one from going in the wrong direction.
It just helps them to go in the same direction.
And it would be very difficult
if one of the ox seeks to pull to the right.
It's like, how can they walk together?
They have to be going in the same direction.
You have to go in the right direction spiritually
if you wanna walk with God.
Meaning you have to make God's priorities
your priorities.
You have to make church a priority.
You've gotta make winning souls a priority.
You have to make having a Christian home,
listen to this, a priority.
Cause the Lord is not just the God
of First Works Baptist Church,
He should be your God of your home.
Where He is preeminent in your household.
Like I'm the lowercase Lord of my house,
but Jesus Christ is the Lord of my house though.
Like He's the boss of my house.
So therefore we run our house,
I run my household as unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, I don't know about that.
I think we should do the Christian thing
when we're here, but when we're out there.
Folks, you know, God is not confined by walls.
He's the God of the whole earth.
And when it comes to us as His people,
you know, we don't compartmentalize God.
Be in agreement with Him.
And I'm not just saying blindly follow what I say,
prove all things, hold fast to that which is good.
This is why when you come to church,
I tell you, turn to this passage, go to this chapter,
go to this book, cause I want you to see it for yourself
so that you can be in agreement with God
or disagree with Him.
Go to Deuteronomy 23.
Deuteronomy 23.
I got two more points and I got like five to 10 minutes.
So five point, five minutes each, okay?
I got five more points and I got 10 minutes.
No, I'm just kidding.
Number four, walk with God with imitation.
What does that mean?
Well, let me read to you from 1 John 2, verse three.
It says, in hereby we do know that we know Him
if we keep His commandments.
He that saith, I know Him
and keepeth not His commandments is a liar
and the truth is not in Him.
So before I read on, I love that verse.
Like, I know Jesus.
I'm a Jesus follower.
Then why don't you keep His commandments?
Why are you constantly criticizing His commandments?
Why are you constantly making excuses for His command?
Why are you apologizing for what the Bible says?
Try to excuse it away.
If you know Him, keep His commandments.
It says, but who so keepeth His word in Him
is the, excuse me, in Him
verily is the love of God perfected.
Hereby we know that we know Him.
He that saith He abideth in Him
ought Himself also so to walk even as He walked.
So you know, walking with God
is praying unto the Lord,
reading the Bible with expectation, with diligence,
but it's also with the agenda
that we wanna be like unto the Lord.
Be more like Jesus.
What would Jesus do?
More like, you know, what is Jesus?
Who is Jesus?
And let me be like unto Him.
I mean, this is literally,
the purpose of the Christian life
is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
To take His divine, you know,
characteristics and experience
the power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of His suffering.
You say, well, you know,
you're speaking too like loftily.
Like, well, practical.
Give me something practical.
Okay, you know, are you more of a Christian?
You're better Christian this year
than you were last year.
Have you improved as a Christian
within the last six months?
Have you improved as a Christian within the last week?
And you know what?
You might be here and be like,
well, I've only been back for the last couple of weeks.
Okay, then have you improved in the last couple weeks?
Are you more like unto Christ?
Because the goal of the Christian,
if we're to just make it as easy as possible,
we say it's to be more like Jesus.
So well, how do I know if I'm more like Jesus?
Well, here's a good way.
People just start hating you.
Start criticizing you.
You don't have to like,
you don't have to like wonder,
am I being more like Jesus?
Other people will tell you in not so many ways.
They'll just like separate you from their company.
You'll see it.
And in fact, let me read to you from Acts 4, 13 says,
now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John
and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men,
they marveled and they took knowledge of them
that they had been with Jesus.
Like, oh man, these guys have been with that Jesus.
And you know, one thing I've seen as a pastor,
I've seen some of the most timid introverted people
just be bold in the Lord when they're out soloing
or when they're talking about the Bible,
they just become like another man.
And that's an indication that they've been with Jesus.
Why don't we walk with God
so we can walk like he walked?
You know, I have children and my son
seeks to imitate me as much as possible sometimes,
even in the way I dress, the way I act,
everything that I do, they just wanna be just like me.
And that's like a natural thing.
But you know what, it should be a supernatural thing
for us that when we walk with God,
we wanna like do things the way he wants it to.
We wanna love the things that he loves,
hate the things that he hates,
be burdened with the things that burden him,
love souls the way he would love souls,
love and exalt truth the way he loves and exalts truth,
love the brethren as he loves the brethren,
think upon the righteous and virtuous things as he does,
live as he lived, right?
So with imitation.
And then lastly, is how to walk with God?
Here's the last point, very important, with purity.
So what do you mean by that?
Well, the Bible says,
God are the undefiled in the way
who walk in the law of the Lord.
When you walk with God in your daily Bible reading
and prayer, one of the first things you should do,
and this is very important, is you clear yourself.
Come before his courts for praise and thanksgiving,
and you just kinda just clear yourselves
of any wrongdoing.
This is what like confessing your sins is all about.
And no, you don't have to go to a priest.
Some godless, baser, sword, priest,
to go, cause he wants to hear about all your sins.
Wicked.
You can bring that unto the Lord.
Well the Bible says confess your faults one to another.
Yeah, confess your faults, not your sins.
You know, I don't wanna hear about,
I mean if you need to talk to someone, I'm here,
I don't wanna discourage anybody,
but you know, there's no booth inside my office.
When was the last time you heard your confession?
And then you just hear your deepest, darkest secrets
or something like that.
Obviously, if you have things that you need to talk about
because you need help, that's a different story.
I'm just saying, I'm not a priest.
I'm not those kind of priests.
And in fact, you're a priest.
Cause we're part of the royal priesthood.
It's for that reason that we can go to God
directly and clear ourselves.
So when you walk with God, you know,
you meet up with the Lord in your office,
in your room, or wherever it is, you meet up with God.
Before anything else, you should,
Lord, I would just wanna clear myself.
Because I've sinned, you know?
Maybe I thought a bad thought, I mistreated my wife,
mistreated my children, you know, I did wrong.
And that's important to do.
Why?
Because of the fact that God wants us to come
before him with clean hearts.
And you know, this is something you always have to do.
So like any time you meet up with God,
you just clear yourself of that.
Now, here in Deuteronomy 23,
I actually thought about this
at the Red Hot Preaching Conference
because Pastor Shelley preached on
the subject of gross people, it was a great sermon.
And he brought up this particular passage
and it made me think of something else.
But look at verse 12 of Deuteronomy 23.
It says, thou shall have a place also without the camp,
whither thou shalt go forth abroad.
Now what does that mean?
He's basically instructing the children of Israel
that when they have to use the restroom,
they go outside the camp.
They use it outside of the camp.
They don't defecate or urinate in the camp.
This is what it means to go forth abroad, okay?
Says in verse 13, and thou shall have a paddle
upon thy weapon, and it shall be,
when thou ease thyself abroad,
thou shalt dig therewith and shall turn back
and cover that which cometh from thee.
So it's just good, you know, good advice, amen.
It's just like, when you go do your business,
just bury that thing, no one wants to smell
or look at that, okay?
Be sanitary.
You see, God helps us in all types of ways, right?
Christianity just improves society drastically.
So, you know, good advice here.
Verse 14, for the Lord thy God walketh
in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee
and to give up thine enemies before thee.
Therefore, shall thy camp be holy,
that he see no unclean thing in thee
and turn away from thee.
Go to 2 Corinthians, if you would,
2 Corinthians chapter six.
So he says, you know, when you use the restroom,
go outside the camp, and when you go outside the camp,
make sure you bring a paddle, cover that thing,
don't defecate in the camp,
don't urinate in the camp,
do all that stuff out there and cover it.
Why?
Because God walks in the camp.
And he doesn't want it to be like San Francisco,
where there's needles and, you know,
just filth everywhere.
Okay, you're just like,
he's like, he wants to walk freely in the camp.
That's where the tabernacle is.
It should be holy, amen?
Well, in the New Testament,
we are the temple of the Holy Ghost,
which we have of God, and you're not your own.
This is what the Bible says.
Look at 2 Corinthians six, verse 16.
In what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?
For you are the temple of the living God,
as God had said, I will dwell in them,
and walk in them, and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
Wherefore, come out from among them,
be separate, sayeth the Lord,
and touch not the unclean thing,
and I will receive you.
What is it teaching us here?
It's teaching us, you know,
this Old Testament principle of cleanliness,
of not defecating or, you know,
putting this filth inside the camp,
do it outside the camp.
Why?
Because God walks in the midst of the camp.
You know, when we walk with God,
it's good to clear ourselves,
confess our sins, so we don't have no crap inside of us.
God doesn't have to walk in this tabernacle
with all this crap inside.
Well, I don't like the way you said that.
I mean, that's what it is.
Dung, it's spiritual dung.
The sins, the filth of this world
that cleave unto you, be cleansed of all those things,
confess those things, bury those things,
so that God can walk freely in this camp.
If I regard iniquity in my heart,
the Lord will not hear me, the Bible says.
If I'm keeping sin and iniquity in my heart,
if I'm not confessing it before,
and let me just say this,
you know, when we talk about confessing our sins,
it's not like God doesn't know about it.
You know, it goes back to the point
where we're just like telling him
that we know that he knows.
Okay, we don't want to be like Adam here,
where Adam is just like hiding in the trees,
you know, and he thinks like he can literally
hide from the Lord or something like that.
He wants a confession.
You know, the Bible says that if we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So when you walk with God,
clear yourselves of all the crap.
Clear yourselves of all the dung.
And you know what that sometimes requires?
It requires a little bit of soul searching.
It requires a little bit of examination.
It requires something that, it requires this,
something that people don't like to do today,
and that is meditation.
That means you just sit there quietly
and you think upon, Lord, what have I done
to displease you?
Are there any sins in my life?
Have I regarded iniquity in my heart?
Is there something you're not happy with?
And you confess that.
Why?
So he can freely walk in the camp when you walk with him.
You don't want to be walking with God
and he's like, oh, covetousness, okay.
Oh, greed, all right, oh, oh wow, lust, okay.
Oh man, oh, gossip, oh man, effeminate, whoa.
You don't want to have to just step over all that.
Clean all that up so he can walk freely in the camp.
Last passage, go to Micah chapter six, Micah chapter six.
Let me read to you from first John one six.
It says, if we say we have fellowship with him
and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another
and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us
from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he's faithful
and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sin,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
Clear yourselves before you walk with God.
One of the greatest practices you can have.
And you know what, it's just good for the soul too.
You'll feel a lot better about it.
You won't feel guilty when you're walking with God.
You won't feel guilty the rest of the way.
You can just confess it unto the Lord.
And you know what, you're not
catching him off guard either.
He knows about all the inner recesses of your mind.
He knows about all your temptations, all your desires.
He knows it all, he just wants to hear it from you.
What's the sermon this morning?
The sermon's simply this.
You know, this is how you walk with God.
Folks, let me just say this.
I hope that my church members know the Lord.
I hope you know the Lord.
I hope you become a friend of God.
I hope our church never becomes this shallow church
where the Christians in this building
don't even know what it is to walk with God.
I hope every person here knows the Lord personally.
I hope that you have the confidence
to pray unto the Lord,
to petition for the needs that you have,
to read the word of God.
And I hope I see you in 20 years.
This is important.
Look what Micah 6-8 says.
We'll close with this verse.
He hath shewed the old man what is good,
and what doth the Lord require of thee,
but to do justly, to love mercy,
listen to this, and to walk humbly with thy God.
This is what God requires of you.
Don't take it lightly.
Walk with him.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word,
and thank you for giving us the privilege
to walk with you, Lord, every single day,
to pray to the God of heaven,
to come before your gates with praise and thanksgiving,
to petition for our needs, Lord.
You're the creator, you're the maker,
and you have freely given us this privilege, Lord,
to come boldly into the throne of grace,
to obtain mercy, to help in the time of need,
but you also have given us the spirit of truth
that dwells within us that helps us learn the Bible.
What a privilege it is to be able to open up
the word of God, not have to go to a third party,
not have to go through a particular religion.
We can literally just read the word of God on our own
and know what the Bible says,
and hear you, hear the voice of the shepherd
on a daily basis.
Lord, may you cultivate a greater desire for us to do both,
that it would become second nature to us
who may not be consistent in these areas.
Help us, Lord, to prioritize walking with you,
more important than anything else,
because if we love soul winning,
if we love church attendance, if we love the brethren,
if we love serving you,
we absolutely need to make this a priority in our lives.
We love you, we thank you,
pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
These are your song books, the song number 372.
Song number 372, let's go.