(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

And the verse that I want to focus on is there in Micah 6 and verse number 8. He have showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee? And I love this little summary that Micah gives us here. Micah's telling us, O man, or the children of Israel at that point in time, what is good, right, and what the Lord requires from us. So, I mean, like, you know, God's will, sometimes people don't understand what God's will is in their life. It's really not that complicated. Honestly, like, if you look at God's word, just do what he says, right? And one of the things that is good and God requires from you is this, but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God. Okay, that's it. Like, you know, if you can just do justly, just do what is right, okay? Be just, all right, be able to determine what is right and wrong and do that which is right. To love mercy, understand that you need mercy from God because you mess up and others need your mercy because they mess up in life. It's good to show mercy, God showed us mercy, which is why we're even saved to begin with. But also, what I want to focus on is to walk humbly with thy God. The title of the sermon tonight is Walk Humbly with Thy God, Walk Humbly with Thy God. And, you know, an important part of your Christian life is your walk with the Lord, all right? And when I talk about your walk, I'm not talking about coming to church. So that is part of your walk, okay? I'm not just saying when you're out door to door soul-willing, though that is part of your work. You know, everything that we do in our service for the Lord is essentially walking with Him. But I don't want you to miss out on your personal one-on-one time that you have with God. You know, in other churches that I've been at, they call this your quiet time with God, where it's just you, it's God and no one else and no distractions. You just take a hold of God. You say, God, I want to walk with you. I want to be with you. I want your presence in my life. I'm going to pray to you, God. I'm going to open your word. I might even sing a few tunes to glorify you, Lord. I want my time with you and me alone, God. And God is such a great God that He actually wants to spend that time and to walk with you in fellowship, right? I mean, how many billions are there of human beings on the earth and that have ever been? Yet there's one God, and God is able to walk with each one of us as though it's just you and Him alone, which is amazing, all right? And so we understand what it is to do justice. We understand what it is to love mercy. But I want you to think about the importance of you humbly walking with your God. Why is it important that we walk humbly with God? It tells us that we can actually walk pridefully if we try, right? Sometimes we might think that we walk with God, but we're actually full of ego, full of pride. Pride is the opposite of humility. And so when we want to have that quiet time with the Lord and walk with Him, we need to remind ourselves that we need to do it humbly. Why is it so important that we do it humbly? Again, it's without the pride. We're lowering ourselves, right? Instead of going, we're at your level, God, we're with you, we're walking. Actually, Lord, I'm a sinner, right? Actually, Lord, I've messed up today. I've messed up this week. You know, I've not opened your word as much as I should have, Lord. I've not done your service. I've not done your righteousness, Lord, this week as much as I should have. You know, lowering yourself, just remembering, of course, that our God, our Savior is the creator of all things. He is above all things. He's mighty and He's holy and He's without sin. And, you know, those that refuse His Son, He's going to cast into everlasting fire. You know, we need to remember the concept of fear in God and acknowledge Him, who He is, the Holy Creator, and lowering ourselves. And that's what the importance of being humble, lowering yourself before the Lord. And this is why. Because if we're going to walk with the Lord, we're going to walk in the direction He wants us to walk in, we need to be led, right? Instead of us walking with God and saying, God, we're going this way, we're going that way, when you humble yourself, you're asking yourself, God, which way do you want me to go, right? That's important of being humble and having Him as your leader, walking in the direction that God wants you to walk. That's why it's important. It's important to learn, right? Because if you're full of pride, and you think, I know everything, and I'm just walking, you know, perfectly, I'm just the best Christian that's out there, you're not going to be in a position to be able to learn from Him. Because to learn is to admit that you have holes that you need to fill. You have areas that you need to grow in. When you humble yourself, it's easier to receive rebuke. Sometimes we need to be rebuked by God in our walk with Him. And when you're prideful, you're going to reject or resist that rebuke that comes from the Lord. And it's also important to humble yourself because it takes down the flesh. It takes down the weaknesses that we have in our nature as a human being. And so I really want to focus on humbly walking with the Lord and the advantages and why we need to do this on a daily basis. Why you need your quiet time with the Lord. So I'm only taking the title there from Micah 6-8. But can you come with me to Psalm 23? And we'll just turn to a very familiar passage. Let's start with probably the most famous Psalm there is, Psalm 23. Psalm 23. So I want to focus on why it's important to walk with the Lord. Why it's important for you to have your quiet time, okay? You know, one of the challenges with a quiet time is that it's unseen. You know, if you turn up to church, people know about it, right? And if you're not at church, people know about it, right? If you don't turn up to soul winning, people know about it, right? Like a lot of our service and ministry is in the public eye. But you having your quiet walk with the Lord is just you and Him. No one else sees it. And so it's an area of your life that can easily fall away because you may not feel the same kinds of pressure of walking with the Lord as you do with other areas of your Christian life. But in Psalm 23 and verse number 4, it says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you might say, Psalmist, you shouldn't be there in the valley of the shadow of death. Well, no, no. He's not walking without the Lord though because it says this. He says, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. So we see a reality of the Christian life. Even when we're with the Lord and walk with the Lord, sometimes as we go through life, we're going to find ourselves in the valley of the shadow of death. This is when you feel, man, you know, things are falling apart. The shadow of death, you may even feel the, you know, suicidal thoughts. You might feel like, man, it's just better that I just don't exist anymore. It's better if I just go home with the Lord right now and just take me away, Lord. And, you know, things are just falling apart in your life. And I understand, you know, we all have, you know, times that we're cast down and depressed and things don't go according to our way. And it doesn't matter how well you're serving the Lord, you're going to have hardships in life. But why it's so important to be walking with the Lord is that when you find yourselves in the valley of the shadow of death, that you can get to the point where you say, I will fear no evil. Because when you're in the shadow of the valley of, you know, in the valley of the shadow of death, that's when there's a lot of fears, a lot of concerns, lots of worries about what's going to happen, what's going to happen tomorrow, I don't want to face all the problems and concerns. And you start being fearful of all these issues. But when you're walking with the Lord, you have no need to fear of evil. Why? Because thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. You know, this is a, you know, I know this is going to sound really ignorant. Okay, really naive. But there was a time in my life when I would attend, go to church, that I thought some Christians never had any problems. Okay, because you're younger, you don't really, you know, you may not have experienced life, you know, all the life experience that you have. And it's kind of like, you know, parents with kids. Until you have kids, you really don't know. Like, you just don't understand. You're like, ah, those parents, I'm not going to be like them. But then you find out later on, you could just like them. Or worse, because you don't realize just how hard it is, right? And so I used to think, because I, you know, you'd see people week in, week out at church, and they're always happy, they're always smiling, they're always having a great time, they're always an encouragement, you know, and you go, man, this person just never has any problems. But then you find out later on, no, they have a bunch of problems. But because they're walking with the Lord, they're fearing no evil, and they're comforted. And so they come into church, the whole life is falling apart. You don't even know about it, okay? Because in their mind, they're like, God's got in control. It's, you know, they're a blessing, they're happy. You're like, you've got no problems. But you don't realize behind the scenes there, the whole world is falling apart. They're actually in the valley of the shadow of death. But because they've walked with the Lord, they're comforted, they have no fears. Have you ever found Christians like that? I'm not thinking that. I just, I know, so naive, so ignorant to think that. But I used to think that. And then, you know, actually becoming a pastor is when I realized, I know it sounds silly, but that's when I realized everyone has problems. Believe it or not, every family, every individual has hardships and problems and struggles. And I didn't know about it until I became a pastor, and then people are willing to share things, and can you pray for me about this and that? You go, wow, everyone's having a hard time. And praise God, everyone's still able to turn up to church and to go soul winning and do great things, because we know that if we're walking the Lord, He's going to be able to help us through that valley of the shadow of death. Come to Psalm, please, Psalm 1. You're in Psalms already, so come with me to the first Psalm. Psalm 1 is also a very famous passage. So I want to show you that there are advantages to walking with the Lord, because it helps you to overcome fear with comfort. It helps you to overcome fear with comfort. What else do we learn when we walk with the Lord here in Psalm 1-1? It actually stops us, when we walk with the Lord, it actually stops you from fellowshiping with the ungodly. Because it says in Psalm 1-1, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. So we know we should walk with the Lord, but we also learn here that we should not walk with the counsel of the ungodly. We should not sit and be in deep fellowship, yoking ourselves with unbelievers in that sense. But this is why this man is blessed, because look at verse number 2. It says, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. In his law doth he meditate day and night. Let me ask you brethren, do you meditate in God's laws or God's word day and night? You might say, well I do my five minutes of reading in the morning, praise God. Are you doing your five minutes at night though, or your ten minutes at night? You know, this is the blessed man. You know, because he walks with the Lord, he says, I'd rather be with God. I'd rather be thinking of his laws and meditating on his laws, rather than spending my time with my ungodly friends, my ungodly co-workers that are actually pulling my heart away from the Lord and bringing me to love the world instead. Meditating day and night. You know, meditating is more than just reading a portion of scripture. Meditating is stopping on that scripture and considering how does that scripture affect my day right now, my life right now. How can I implement this scripture into my life? You know, so you're focused, you're thinking, Lord, I've read this passage. All right, I've read it. Now how do I apply it to my life? And that requires meditation, requires thoughts. It requires the repetition, maybe even memorizing that scripture. So it comes to your heart and mind when you need it at your most desperate times. But see, walking with the Lord encourages you or stops you from seeking to walk or fellowshiping with the ungodly. Come with me to 1 John. It's a bit of a Bible study tonight. We're looking at different references of walking and how we need to walk with the Lord and we want to walk humbly with the Lord, right? We want to walk humbly with the Lord. 1 John, please. 1 John chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1. And so my challenge for you tonight is are you walking with the Lord? Are you walking humbly with the Lord, right? Are you spending quality one-on-one time with God in your life? Because there are so many advantages to it. I mean, you know, to enjoy God's presence. I mean, we all enjoy fellowship, don't we? We all enjoy getting around friends and people and having a good chat. And it's important. It's an important part of, you know, we're social creatures is what we are. God's created us to desire to fellowship and to walk with people. But do you have that desire to walk with God, though? I mean, he's the best person to fellowship with. He's the best person to just spend time with. He can share your worries and concerns and he's not going to criticize you. He's going to help you. He's going to actually give you real help in life. Well, 1 John chapter 1, verse number 6. It says, If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. This is important. We walk in darkness, walk in our own ways, walk in contrary to the Lord, walk in our sinful desires. And then you turn around, Oh, I'm fellowshiping with the Lord. I'm having great fellowship with the Lord. You're a liar. And I'm a liar when we say that. Okay. It says in verse number 7, 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 cleanses us from all sin. Do you notice how walking the Lord is associated here with fellowshiping with the Lord, right? We're walking together side by side. We're speaking to one another. I'm sharing my concerns to God and God has given me his wisdom. Of course, I'm not literally walking, but, you know, opening his word, praying to him, you know, just so important brethren to find this time of sweet fellowship with God. Do you have it? You don't have to answer the question, but, you know, is it something that you yearn for? Is it something that you have? Say I do it once a week, Pastor Kevin, every day is what you need the Lord to do. You need him every day of your life. You know you walk in darkness, you know, you mess up in life. And so when you mess up, you need God's forgiveness. Drop down to verse number 9. It says here, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So you say, Pastor, I am walking in darkness at the moment. How can I walk in the light? Confess your sins. Not to me, to the Lord. Confess your sins to Christ. Say, Lord, I've messed up. Lord, again, I've been failing you, you know, and I know because I failed, I'm in darkness. I can't be in fellowship with you right now. Lord, so can you please forgive me for my sins? What's the date today? Anyone know? 28th of November. Lord, the 28th of November 2024. These are the sins that are on top of my head right now. And Lord, if there's anything else that I've forgotten about, all the foolish thoughts that I haven't even considered to be foolish just yet. Lord, whatever it is that has offended you this day, Lord, can you please forgive me because I want to walk with you. I want to have fellowship with you. Lord, you've asked you. All you want is to ask to walk humbly with you, Lord. Of course, to be able to confess your sins requires humility, right? Oh, no, I never sinned. I was doing perfectly today. I was walking at the level of Jesus Christ today. Yeah, right. That's pride. That's why you need the humbleness. That's what God accepts. And he wants us to walk with him and talk with him and spend time with him and confess our sins to him. He's so loving, he just wants sweet fellowship with you. Do you know that? That's what God wants. He wants sweet fellowship with you. Are you giving it to God? He doesn't ask that much, all right? He has showed the old man what is good and what the Lord doth require of thee. He wants to walk with you. He wants to fellowship with you. And so the importance of being able to walk with him, of course, is it's a means and it's a reminder that we need to confess our sins to the Lord, okay? It's a means by which we can confess and it's a reminder that we need to confess our sins before the Lord. And look, you know, it doesn't have to be, you know, Roman Catholic style, you know, you enter into a booth. Father, forgive me for I have sinned. What have you done, my daughter? Oh, I don't know, whatever. Just, you know, we obviously made, there are major things that probably plague your mind that you know you need to say, God, forgive me. You know, empower me not to make the mistake again. Lord, and if I do make the mistake again, be merciful to me because I'm still a sinner. I still struggle with the flesh, you know? And the Lord just tells us immediately that he cleanses us from all sins, that he, what's to say, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. You know, as soon as I go to God and say, God, I've messed up. Here are my sins. As soon as I've done that, like, I'm just, I feel like, I don't know about you. I just feel like, okay, like, okay, like it's been settled. It's been forgiven. He's faithful to forgive. I'm not walking away going, I think God's still a good old grudge against me. I'm like, I'm holding to his promise of his word here that he's faithful and just to forgive me. I'm now in the light. I can walk with him. I can spend time with him. And, you know, I can learn and grow from him. So walking in the Lord is a means and a reminder to be able to confess your sins to the Lord. Can you come with me to Romans 6? Come with me to Romans 6. While you're turning to Romans 6, one thing that I forgot to mention in my introduction, and it's a passage found in Amos 3.3. You don't need to turn there or just read it to you. Amos 3.3, it's a pretty famous verse as well. But it says, can two walk together, except they be agreed? Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Can you and I be, like, if we both jump in a car, you know, whatever it is, and we say, okay, let's go and have some dinner together. But we don't agree where we're having dinner. We're going to find ourselves in some random restaurant. It's like, you know, where's brother Ash? And he's like, he's waiting for me at the Maryland's Kabul Sydney or something like that, right? And I'm waiting at a Frango chicken or something like that. It's like, we haven't agreed where we're going to meet, right? And so it's important that we agree. And this is why we need the Lord to, we need to walk with the Lord. We need to ask the Lord, where are we headed? What direction are we going? Because if we're not in agreement, Lord, how can we walk together? And this is why, again, it's so important that you humble yourself. Because instead of telling God, God, this is where I'm going. You say, God, where are we going? You lead me. You're in charge. You know where the best place to eat is, Lord. I'll go after you. I'll follow you, Lord. So that was a point that I forgot to mention earlier. But this is why it's so important when we think about walking with the Lord, we need to say, I need to agree with Him. He's the boss. He knows exactly the best place to go, the best direction to walk. Can two walk together except they be agreed? But you're there in Romans 6, Romans 6 and verse number 3. Romans 6 and verse number 3. Know ye not that so many of us, as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into His death? Now we understand, you know, water baptism, when you enter into that water, let's go backwards, that's a picture of burial, right? You bury a body, you know, when you bury a body, normally they're face up. So that's why we do baptisms like this. We put them down, right? That represents death into Christ. And when you take Him out of the water, that represents resurrection. You know, it's a public confession that we've put our faith and trust on the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so, you know, it says here, know ye not that so many of us as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into His death. So we understand that, okay? But there's more to it than just that. Verse number 4. 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, look at this, even so we should walk in newness of life. So we get new life, the verse for new life Baptist Church, we should walk in newness of life. Because when we come out of the water, we're saying, look, Lord, we're dead to the flesh, we're crucified in the flesh, coming out of the water signifies that, you know, the new life that you have in Christ Jesus, you know, the new spirit, the resurrected spirit that you have in Christ Jesus, you're making a decision, Lord, I'm no longer going to walk in my flesh, but I'm going to walk according to the newness of life that you've given me. That's what baptism should be, that's why we call it often the first step of obedience, okay? It obviously plays no part in your salvation, you know, you're already saved without baptism, but that's what it represents. I associate myself with the death, the burial resurrection of Jesus Christ, but also that my flesh is now dead and buried, and I've been given newness of life by which I should walk, okay? And then it says in verse number five, four, if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. This is the constant battle that we have, the old man, the new man, right? The newness of life, the new life, the new man versus the old man, the old flesh. And we need to remind ourselves that spiritually speaking, that old man is crucified. Now, it's not really crucified, it's still here, here it is, okay? There's no marks of crucifixion on this body anyway, but spiritually though, it has been, because God's given me a new life by which I am to walk. And so this is another reason why it's so important that you walk with the Lord, because it gives the power to not serve sin. It gives you power over sin. Look, I know you don't have to tell me, but I know there are sins that you struggle with that are just constantly pestering your life day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, things like, there are sins that you've overcome for sure. And there are things that, you know, you live in more holy life, more righteous life. There are things you struggled with in the past that you've overcome, but there are still things that, you know, just plague you day to day to day to day. How do I get victory over those things? You walk with the Lord. You walk in the newness of life that God has given you. You know, it's so important, like when you're facing temptation, right? Whatever the temptation is. And again, it's not, it's not, to be tempted is not to sin. To give in to the temptation is to sin. Okay, because we're all tempted. And, you know, to tempt the pleasures of the flesh and the old man. And you know, when that happens, you have a choice to make. Do I give in to the power of sin? Do I give in to this old man that is supposed to be crucified? Or do I walk in the newness of life? And I just stop and think about that for a moment, right? Just like, okay, I've got a choice here. Old man or new man, I've got a choice. God's given me power in the new man to not give into this temptation. But it requires me to walk with him. And so you say, Lord, I want to walk with you. Lord, I'm struggling right now. I'm being tempted right now, Lord. Could you imagine, like, if you just pick up your Bible there and then, or you just start singing a hymn, some song of praise to God. I'm telling you, because I've done it in my life, somehow that temptation, the power of that sin, of that temptation goes away. But it's because you're making a conscious decision to walk in the newness of life that God has given you. Because when you remind yourself, okay, Lord, I'm going to walk with you. I'm being tempted right now. Lord, I'm going to walk with you instead. And your walk with God is there side by side with you. That temptation, it just goes like, if anything, mentally you're like, I can't just, I can't just do that. I'm now walking with God. I can't just, I just can't leave my walk with God. Oh, sorry, God, I've got more important things to do right now and go and commit some sin. Walking in the newness of life gives you power over sin. Look, you're still going to mess up. But, you know, we shouldn't get to this point where we just say, oh, I just mess up all the time. This is how I am. We need to find victory over sin. And God's given us that power in the newness of life. It's why it's so important that you spend your quiet time and your walk with God. Don't ignore that. It's an important part of your Christian life. Come with me to Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians two, please. Ephesians two. Why else should we walk with the Lord? Ephesians two. And you guys know very famous verses here. But let's read it very quickly. Ephesians two, verse eight. For by grace are ye saved through faith. That's a good, man, that's such a blessing, right? Saved through faith and that not of yourselves, man, it is the gift of God, yes. Not of works lest any man should boast. Praise God that salvation is not by any works, just simple faith in Christ Jesus. It's a free gift, all right? Not of you. Jesus Christ paid for it all by his sacrifice. Now, we focus on the verse on the line, not of works. And of course, salvation is not of works. It's important. That is the true gospel. The true gospel is without works. It's not just not of works. It's actually without works, okay? Because some people think, well, I've worked this much and I realize I can't do it. So the rest of the way, Jesus is going to save me. No, no, forget any works. It's without works. It's all Christ alone. And of course, we need to emphasize the clarity of the gospel. But we don't want to miss out verse number 10, because now that we're saved and we ought to be saved, it says, for we are his workmanship. So there is someone actually doing works and that's God. He's working on us right now, right? We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God have ordained that we should walk in them. Reverend, as much as we emphasize the clear gospel without works, we also need to emphasize with clarity what we should do now that we're saved. We should do good works. We should walk in those works. So again, that walk, the walk of our faith, the walk of the life. And we notice there that it's God and his workmanship. God enables us. He gives us the ability to do these good works. So, brethren, this is why it's also important for you to understand this need for walking with the Lord. Why? Because it makes you accomplish good works or great works in the sight of God. Good works, not in the sight of man, because man has a strange view of what is good, right? But good works in the sight of God. And to be able to be enabled by him and strengthened by him, equipped by him, will cause you to do things beyond your imagination. Amen. Because we all have weaknesses, right? Every single person has a, we all have a different personality, right? And, you know, I'm not really into too much with personality studies, but different personality traits have different types of strengths and weaknesses. And one thing about, and look, we should play to our strengths and we should work on our weaknesses. But one of the things as a Christian is that weaknesses cause us to depend on God, right? And this is where God can shine through and do marvelous things with your abilities. And, you know, without, again, I'm only speaking for ourselves, all right? But, you know, you guys know the story, right? My wife was told before we got married that she'd not be able to have any kids, right? Medically speaking, no kids at all. So it's a weakness, all right? So who's gonna strengthen her ability to have kids? Who's gonna fix that? It's only God, right? Only God. You know, I never thought I'd be able to preach a sermon. I never thought I'd be a pastor. I never thought I'd pastor three churches. It's crazy. But who enables, it's not, it's not, there is nothing in my flesh. There is nothing in my personal strength. There is nothing in my personality traits that shows me to be someone who can lead free groups, free churches, you know? Being a candlestick for God in Australia, there is nothing. Because I'm an introvert, I'd rather not fellowship. I'd rather just be in my bedroom, door closed, not talking to anybody. That's me, all right? So who gives you the ability to preach and to lead? It's God, okay? I am His workmanship, creating Him, that I should work in these good works that God has ordained me to do. And again, I'm not just, I'm just, I'm using that example, not that you all have to be pastors and blah, blah, but what you think you can't accomplish, I'm telling you, you can in Christ Jesus. He strengthens you, but you have to walk with Him. You have to spend time with Him. Say, Lord, I can't do this. God's like, I'm going to make you do it. I'll be the one that does it through you. He's working on us. He's building us, right? He's accomplishing a work in us. Like God's going to finish His work, isn't He? Like, I'm the kind of guy that starts projects and I forget about it. And my wife is like, are you going to finish that? I'm like, I don't know. I started something else now. We're men, maybe we're like that, but God's not like that. He starts a project and He finishes the project. He knows how to get the job done. And He can get the job done in you, but He requires you to walk with Him, spend time with Him, quality time with Him. Come with me to Galatians 5. Galatians 5. Galatians 5, verse number 15. Galatians 5. Actually, verse number 16. Galatians 5. This one's really important, especially in a church amongst brethren where you're very knowledgeable in the Scriptures. You know what's right and wrong, often for others, but not always for ourselves. You know, brother Matt preached a great sermon on Sunday about something like that, right? The hypocrite, we know how to look at other people's failings, but we often don't want to look at our own. But what happens in a church full of great knowledge, sometimes, like I said, we can criticize each other. We can look down on brothers and sisters in the Lord. We can think, well, I've only been saved for six months. Look what I'm doing, and this person has been saved for five years. Why aren't they doing as much as me? Kind of like that kind of attitude, right? But I want you to notice here in Galatians 5, 16, it says, This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I've already covered that a little bit, right? But walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But I want you to notice the verse that came before that. In verse 15, it says, But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. You know what this flesh lusts for? To be recognized, to be seen greater than other men. That's why we knock them down, we criticize. You know, why aren't they doing as much as I am? What about that other church, IFB church over there, even though they're our brothers in the Lord, hopefully. They're still stuck on this doctrine, they don't know like we know. They're not doing as much sowing as we're doing. That biting and devouring, brethren, we can destroy ourselves, we can destroy the brethren which Jesus Christ saved. And it's just the flesh is all it is. This is why walking in the Spirit is so important. Because this is what's going to bring unity amongst the brethren. All right, it's going to bring unity. We're going to support and encourage and motivate one another, rather than just criticizing them. And I've seen them my whole life. For some reason when Christians are struggling and failing, other Christians like to kick them while they're down. I don't know why. I don't know why. Because if anyone needs support and encouragement, I just think it's surely my brothers in the Lord, like my brothers and sisters in the Lord, surely it's them. Even when they're failing, even when they're backsliding, even when they're struggling. That's why I need to come alongside and just be a help and support. I love you, brother. I love you, sister. I'm praying for you. It's a lust of the flesh that causes the offenses and divisions amongst us. But you know what's going to stop that? Is walking with the Lord, walking in the Spirit. I'll tell you why. Because when you do it humbly before the Lord, again, when you compare yourself... Because that's the issue. We compare ourselves one with another. You know, we compare our family with that family, and these children with that children. But when you stop doing that, and you humble yourself before God, and you compare yourself to Jesus, and all of a sudden when you compare yourself to Jesus, you go, oh man, I am not at his level. Then you're no longer comparing yourself to others. You're just like, man, I got to work to be more like Christ. I'm not like, oh man, they got to be like me. Everyone's got to catch up to be like me. It's like, no, what a poor standard next to Christ. So walking in the Spirit, walking with the Lord will bring unity amongst the brethren rather than divisions and offenses. Come with me to Colossians 1. Colossians 1. Colossians 1. This one has many positive attributes, but I'll just focus on a couple. Colossians 1, verse number 9. Colossians 1, verse 9. Colossians 1, verse 9. For this cause, Colossians 1, verse 9. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and desire that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. This is great. This is, you know, Paul and the other leaders, they're praying for their church brethren. Do you pray for each other, brethren? You know, do you throughout the week remember each other and the struggles that we're going through? And he's like, maybe I don't even know what struggles they're going through. Okay, don't worry about that. How about you're just praying that they be filled with God's knowledge? Pray that your brethren will be filled with the wisdom and spiritual understanding that God wants to grant them. This is why, verse number 10. That ye might walk worthy, walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. Man, you know, gaining this spiritual understanding, this knowledge, and walking worthy of the Lord, it brings God, like it pleases the Lord unto all pleasing. Being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. So you see what, you can see all these positive attributes. When we walk with the Lord, it pleases him, it causes us to be fruitful in every good work, it increases our knowledge of God. Verse number 11, strengthen with all might, it strengthens us according to his glorious power unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness. Walk with the Lord adds patience, it adds long suffering, it adds joyfulness to your life. How about that? When you're cast down, you're depressed, and you're not feeling happy. How about you just spend time and say, Lord, I just want to walk with you because I need some joy in my life right now. I need some joy. God, can you grant me some joy? I want to walk worthy of you. Boy, I mean, look at all the benefits there are. We're just walking with him. We have Paul praying for the Colossian church there. It reminds me, I should be praying more for our church here at Blessed Hope Baptist Church, that we would walk worthy of him, that we would please him, that we would be more fruitful in the works that we do for him, that we would be strengthened in his might. How many positive attributes? Walking Lord increases your knowledge and your spiritual strength. It increases your knowledge and your spiritual strength. We want to make sure that the knowledge we receive is God's knowledge. You know, the knowledge we receive is clothed in the righteousness of God, right? Because we know how knowledge puffs up. We want knowledge puffed up. We want knowledge of God. We want his wisdom. We have all these other attributes, being fruitful, his glorious power, patience, long-suffering, joyfulness. We need it all, the whole package. And this is what you get when you walk with the Lord. Come with me to the next chapter, Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2, verse number 6. And this kind of just builds off chapter 1, but you know, you gain more knowledge and you're strengthened. What's going to happen in your spiritual life? You're going to grow, you're going to mature, you're going to develop. And in verse number 6, Colossians 2, 6, it says, As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. All right? So you've received Christ as your Lord. All right, good. Walk in him. All right? This is why. Verse number 7. Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abound in therein with thanksgiving. What do you learn that when we walk in the Lord, when we walk with him or in him, we get rooted, built up, we get established, we get grounded. It builds our spiritual foundations. That's what knowledge does. Good knowledge. Fundamental knowledge. Right? The milk of God's word is not a bad thing. It's what a baby needs to establish his strong foundations. Milk has calcium. We often talk about the strengthening of the bones. That's what God's word is like. You know, it establishes those strong bones, those strong foundations in our Christian life. And this is why. Because in verse number 8 it says, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. After the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. This is why it's important that you walk with the Lord. You get grounded. You get established. You get rooted in the faith. Because we learn here what the world is going to present to you. The philosophies of man. Okay? And many times the philosophies, sometimes, like if you're into philosophy a little bit, I mean, I don't think it's a bad thing in of itself, but a lot of good philosophy, you'll notice, is just grounded on biblical doctrines. I like reading books. I like listening to podcasts. I like to educate myself on certain things. And many times, like I learned a lot of great truths, but I'm like, I already knew that from the Bible. It's just God's wisdom is God's knowledge. And then the things that man brings in, it's just, it doesn't compare. It's so inferior. Like the wisdom of man, the philosophies of man, it's so inferior to God's methods. Vain deceit. Traditions of men. You know, these things, rudiments of the world, these things is what society brings to you to bring confusion in your life, to bring deception in your life. I don't know what's right and wrong anymore. I don't know what's true. I don't know what way to walk. I don't know what to do in life. I don't know what church to attend. I don't know what Bible to read. I don't know what doctrines to believe. I don't even know if Pastor Kevin's a believer yet. I don't know if he's even a, I don't know. The world's going to throw all kinds of strange things at you, right? But when you walk with the Lord, that's why you need that wisdom and the strengthening because it gets you rooted and grounded in the faith where you become unmovable. It's easy to be swayed from the truth, you know? And sometimes, and I want to be careful what I say, but sometimes people believe doctrines because they heard a good argument or they heard a good sermon. I'm not against sermons. I'm not against arguments. But when you hear something, you want to be able to go back to God's word in your walk with him and say, Lord, I heard this doctrine. I heard this, this, this, and say, Lord, I heard this doctrine. I heard this, this, this position. Can you help me ground myself? If this is true, can you help me get grounded in this great truth that I've learned? And if it's just a tradition of men, if it's just the philosophies of the world, then Lord, let me be able to separate that into maybe it's okay. It's decent, but it's not up to the standards that you have laid out from in your scriptures because when you chase everything else, it's going to distract you. It's going to sway you from the solid truth that God wants you to have, the solid knowledge that God would have you to have. But you can only do that by walking with him. Brethren, your one-on-one time, your quiet time with the Lord is so important in your life. The psalmist, we say he meditates day and night, right? Rather than walking with the ungodly, he says, you know what? I've been invited to hang out with these ungodly friends. And I'm not against having unsafe friends, but obviously ungodly friends that are trying to drag me into wickedness and drag me away from the Lord. I don't want to spend time. I'd rather the Lord just open my Bible and spend time with you, God, day and night. That's what we need to get to in our life. It's so sweet, so beautiful when you spend quality time with God. And I know life is distracting, right? I've got to get up, I've got to go to work. Quick five minutes, Bible, read the chapter, okay, ready to go to work. Did you really spend time with the Lord though? Did you really spend time with the Lord? Did you really speak to the Lord? Or did you just say your quick five-second prayer, your quick chapter, just to feel good that you've done something? I mean, look, it's better than nothing, right? But I'm just trying to say to you, brethren, we need to meditate with the Lord. We need to walk with you. We need to spend time. I know life in Sydney, one of the reasons I got away from Sydney is just the mad rush of Sydney. Sunshine Coast is much more quiet. Everyone's more slowly paced. You know, shops close where I live at three o'clock in the afternoon. Which is frustrating when you're used to the city. But anyway, like everyone's just, you know, it's mellowed out. You've got more time to just open the Bible and spend time with God. It's one of the advantages of living away from the big city. So I know what it's like in the rush, you know, of Sydney. But I want you to say, I need to prioritize this time with God. I need to walk with Him. Okay, I'm going to church, good. I'm going soul winning, good. I'm doing this and that. Good, good, good, good. By spending time with Him, just you and Him alone, walking with Him faithfully, being strengthened by His wisdom, being grounded so you would not be swayed from the truth. I've got two more passages. Come with me to 3 John. 3 John, please, 3 John. And there's only one chapter there, of course. Or there's no chapters really. But 3 John in verse number three. 3 John in verse number three. I wanted to show you something else. Because so far, everything that I've pointed out here, it's your benefits for walking with the Lord, right? But there's also benefits to others when you walk with the Lord. In 3 John, verse number three, John says these words to a church. He says, For I rejoice greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear my children walk in truth. I want you to think about that for a moment. This is John writing these words. He has no greater joy than when he hears his children or his fellow brethren here of this church walking in truth. You know, I really, again, I don't want to talk about myself all the time, but really as a pastor, you want to make me happy? You really want to make me happy as a pastor? Just walk in truth. Just walk with the Lord. Like, just do what is right. Just keep God's commandments. Just grow in wisdom and strength and understanding. Like, when you do that, when I see your spiritual growth and I see your excitement to serve the Lord, there's nothing that gives me greater joy as a pastor, honestly. Like, it gives me more joy than you actually being a church. I want you a church, but more joy than you being a church is seeing you mature and grow in your faith, in your understanding, in your desires, in your passions toward the Lord God, in your mindset toward eternal things rather than temporary things. Like, it's true, like, one of the things that I could desire the most as a parent is just seeing my kids love God, just wanting to read the Bible, just wanting to learn God's Word, just wanting to be in church, just wanting to sing songs. I mean, what more could I want? I mean, I hope my kids get a great education and a great job. I'm not against those things, but what's even superior to that is that they love the Lord. They walk with the Lord. That's so much more important to me than anything else they can do carnally on this earth. So, another advantage that walking the Lord gives you is that it gives joy to others. It gives joy to others. You know, I mean, for you guys that have gone out and locked doors, I mean, pretty confident most of you have seen souls saved. All right? And many times, most times, 99.9% of times, you're never going to see them again. But what if one of your converts comes to church, gets baptized, loves church, reads his Bible, starts attending every week, becomes a regular member? How much joy would that give you? So much, right? So much. You go, wow, not only did this guy get saved, but look at him go, you know? And maybe his zeal will outpace your own zeal. But even then, you're like, man, praise God for him, right? Let him continue serving the Lord. The thing about the joy that it gives, that's the joy that it gives me as a pastor when I see you guys excited for God. The great joy that I have, you know, I'm going to Port Macquarie this coming Sunday, but the fact that some of you are like, pastor, I'll travel four and a half hours to go and preach to those people. You know what joy that gives me? That you guys have a love for God's people, even in other places, that you'd be willing to sacrifice four hours, nine hours, four and a half hours, four and a half hours back. You'd sacrifice nine hours of your weekend, because you work Monday to Fridays, most of you, right? To go and serve other brethren because you love them, because you're thinking about the kingdom of God in another place. You know, a candlestick that needs to shine the light of Jesus Christ. Boy, that gives me great joy when we see others serving the Lord faithfully. One more, please. First Thessalonians chapter four, last one. First Thessalonians chapter four. And I kind of already touched upon this. I kind of went ahead with my notes a little bit by mistake. But anyway, First Thessalonians chapter four and verse number one. First Thessalonians chapter four, verse number one. First Thessalonians chapter four, verse number one. So this walk, what's the best part of it? It pleases God, walking with him, spending time with him. It pleases the Lord. I mean, I don't know about you, but I want God to look down tonight at Blessed Baptist Church and for him to smile at this church, for him to be pleased by this church, to be pleased by the singing, to be pleased by the preaching, to be pleased by the learning, to be pleased with a fire in your heart, to say tonight that, you know what, I better walk with the Lord. I better not set this aside. If you've not been walking with the Lord, you better say to yourself, I got to start doing this because the blessings are so massive. And if there's anything I'm going to take at it tonight, I want to put a smile on God's face. I want to please him. I mean, he's done so much for me. The least thing I could do is just to spend some quality time with him, just to walk with him, humbly lower myself, recognizing this great God that I love and serve and he always wants the best for me. Man, pleasing God. Just walk with him. I don't know what your idea of pleasing God is, fixing all the world's problems, making sure all the poor are fed. I don't know what people come up with. And God says, you just want to please me? Just walk with me. The verse that we started with was Micah 6-8. He have showed the old man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee. But to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God. One more. We just apply these principles, brethren, and we please the Lord and we have so many blessings and just enrich your spiritual life. You'll grow so much more. You'll be so much more grounded. You'll be so much more blessed when you walk with the Lord. All right, brethren, let's pray.