Winston Salem church of Christ

INTRO:

A.        I do not know what a meta is for, but I do know what a metaphor is.  And walking is one of the most common and powerful of metaphors.  Anatomists see walking as the most distinctive innovation of the human body. Human feet, ankles, hips, ribs, and shoulders are dramatically different from all the other creations of God, precisely to support the novel bipedal style of upright walking that humans employ.  But have we lost real meaning of walking, as a metaphor?  How often do we go on walks just to spend time with people?  How often do we go on walks just to spend time reflecting?  No, today a walk is a drudgery, something forced upon us by a broken car or that mean and nasty bathroom scale.  Or, horror of all horrors, if our parents say, “Let’s go for a walk,” that means they want to have a serious talk!  Man has even invented the paradox of all paradoxes – treadmills, where we walk without ever going anyplace.  We walk to get it over with, not to build a relationship with another.  In biblical language, to walk with God means to have an intimate relationship with God, which is sometimes called fellowship.  We see God’s desire to walk with us in the very beginning:

·        Genesis 3:8  They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

o       I think this is in some ways of the saddest verses in the entire Bible.  God wanting to spend time with His children, walking among them, only for them to hide.

B.        Scriptures:

·        Gen.5:24 ? “Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him.

·        Gen.6:9 ? “…Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.”

·        Gen.17:1 ? “Now when Abram was ninety?nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, `I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless.”

·        Mic.6:8 ? “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

·        Mal.2:6 ? “True instruction was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity.”

C.        There are different ways people try to accomplish their daily walk with God in facing temptation, sin, and God’s works for us that day.

BODY:

I.          “SELF?EFFORT” CHRISTIAN

A.        This type of Christian realizes something true, that is, that God has given to each Christian abilities and strengths.  They go about living their life relying totally on their own strength to get by, to overcome temptation, to live daily pleasing to God.  They realize that “no temptation has overtaken you, except that which is common to man” (1 Cor.10:13).  They also realize that means there is no sin we HAVE to commit.  They are right in all these areas.  BUT…This type of Christian is “on their own.”

B.        Mt.26:33?35 ? “But Peter answered and said to Him, `Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.’  Jesus said to him, `Truly I say to you that this very night, before a cock crows, you shall deny Me three times.’  Peter said to Him, `Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You.’  All the disciples said the same thing too.”

          1.           Maybe it is not “fair” to pick on Peter and the apostles, but I want to paint a picture for you.  These were ordinary men before they met Jesus.  They were fishermen, tax gatherers, common ordinary men.  They had not spent their life in rabbinical schools.  I am not saying they were not religious men before they met Jesus.  I am simply saying they were not members of any formal religious sect.  To put into terms of today, they were not preacher or elders.  They were the people in the pew.  Then all of a sudden, at the words, “come follow Me,” they left everything to be Jesus’ follower.  But during their three years with Jesus they did more than just follow Him around.  They relied upon Him for food and strength, both physical and spiritual.  Now Jesus says He will be gone.  When He is, they are too.  They were on their own (so they thought) and they were scared.  If they had relied upon the strength from the Father, they could have stood. There is no indication they did.  The fact that all of them denied Him indicates they tried to stand alone, and failed.

C.        Are you feeling empty and alone spiritually?  You might even be very busy in the Lord’s kingdom, but be deluding yourself.  Maybe you are so busy because you feel this emptiness inside and you are trying to fill it.

II.          “LET GO, AND LET GOD” CHRISTIAN

A.        This is the other extreme.  It is reactionary.  “Having experienced the futility of the self?effort way, (they) go to the other extreme, deciding to do nothing at all.  (They) just turn it all over to the Lord.” (p.36).  This type of “walk with God” is one that refuses to make any decisions whatsoever, or even try and work toward a goal.  “If God wants me to do that, then He will see to it that I do.”  It is good to place trust in the fact that God does work in our every day life.  It is wrong to suppose that God will direct our lives against our will.

B.        This type of experience is truly a self?delusion.  The person is thinking, “I am totally reliant upon God.”  He will supply all my needs.  He will direct me as His soldier.”  Two problems:

1.         Mt.6:26 ? God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into the nest.

2.         We are not remote control robots.  God has given us a free will.  He leads us, commands us, etc.  He does not however, make us work, nor work for us.

III.         “LORD, HELP ME” CHRISTIAN

A.        “The chief characteristic of this way is a partial dependence on the Lord:  the unconscious but nevertheless real attitude that I can of my own self live the Christian life up to a point but that I need the Lord’s help after that point.”  This is the attitude that prays, “Lord, help me remember nothing is going to happen that you and I cannot get through together.”

B.        My problem with this approach is not that man has no goodness in him at all.  This was expressed by John Owen who wrote, “We do not have the ability in ourselves to accomplish the least of God’s tasks.  This is a law of grace.” p.37.

          1.           This sounds too close to the Calvinistic doctrine of irresistible grace.

C.        My problem with this approach is that some Christians seem only to rely upon the Lord when they are in a crisis.  I call this the “fire escape faith.”  You only exercise your faith in God, by relying upon His strength, in an emergency.

          1.           Scripture Peter walking on water

IV.        “ABIDING IN CHRIST” CHRISTIAN

A.        This approach realizes the “self?effort approach” and the “Let go and let God” approach are both futile.  But he also realizes he needs God’s help not just in the times of crises, but rather even in the tedious acts of daily living.  Instead of asking God to “help me,” his prayer is, “God live through me.”

B.        “The “Abiding in Christ” approach differs greatly from the “let go and let God” approach in it recognition that as renewed humans beings we are called to use all the faculties of our being ? our minds, our affection, and our wills ? in order to live out the Christian life, but to do so in total dependence on the Holy Spirit working in our minds, our affection, and our wills, empowering us with the power of the risen Christ.” (p.38?39).  Not in some over?powering method of irresistible grace; not in some miraculous special grace of God that restores my free will; but rather in a total submission to God.

C.        Compare and Contrast

          1.           Illus. There is a log that is too heavy to lift (the log might symbolize a heavy problem the person is trying to handle).

                        a.         The “Self?effort” Christian:  This person sees the log and tries and tries to lift the log until he suffers from a hernia, lands in the hospital and blames his back for being so weak.

b.         The “Let go and let God” Christian:  This person sees the log and says to God, “O.K., I’m waiting, because if you truly want me to go that way you will remove the log.”

                        c.         The “Lord help me” Christian:  This person sees the log, and after noticing it is too big tells God, “if you get on one side and lift, I think I can lift the other.”

d.         The “Abiding in Christ” Christian: “Lord, You must enable me to lift this log if I am to do it.  To all appearance it will appear as if I am lifting this log, and I truly am, but I am doing so only because You have given me the strength to do it.” 

D.        Scriptures:

1.         Jn.15:4?5 ? “Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine , you are branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing.”

                        a.                     It does no good to try and tack on the branch.

2.         Col.1:28?29 ? “And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom that we may present every man complete in Christ.  And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”

                        a.         Striving ? “to contend in athletic games, to agonize, a favourite metaphor with Paul who is now a prisoner.” Robertson’s Word Pictures, p.486.

3.         1 Cor.15:10 ? “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet no I, but the grace of God with me.”

4.         Eph.3:20?21 ? “Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generation forever and ever. Amen.

5.         Ps.127:1 ? “Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it….”

E.                    Question – Submission – Is there a difference between the following:

·        Obeying God’s Will

·        Our Will Becoming God’s Will

Sermon  idea from: True Fellowship, by Jerry Bridges.