To Walk With God

Weekly Message

February 9, 2014

This is a copy of a sermon I preached in April, 2012. The church was at a turning point and for a while, it looked as if it might not have an adequate number of congregants to continue. But then, in a flash, things changed and people flooded in. I’m not sure of the state of the church at present, but at the time when I preached this message, it was beginning to strengthen in its walk with God.

To Walk With God

We live in an age of micro-managing everything, including our spiritual lives and our church life. We analyze, we quote people with lofty-sounding names and impressive titles; we attend lengthy meetings, we seek, we read,

we form committees. All the while we wander in a spiritual desert while looking for the truth.

But the truth is right there in front of us and has been there all along. It is so simple, though, that we overlook it. “Is that all there is to it?” we ask. Our minds are always busy and so we complicate the simple and obfuscate the obvious.

         

Putting these things aside, all we need do to walk with God and be right with him is follow his greatest commandment. Here it is: “Believe in the name of God’s son Jesus Christ and love one another.”

What could be simpler? Having done this, we can then enjoy the refreshment and rest that God offers to his beloved ones. But sometimes our minds and our determination to do something more or be something more complicates this simple process. It boils down to trust.

Last time we met I spoke on  faith, how to acquire it and how to strengthen it. Today, let’s look at trust. We can have faith, but trusting completely in what our faith tells us is sometimes difficult. Walking with God, or as John put it in his gospel, “abiding in him and he abiding in us,” requires trust and also submission.

We must submit to God’s will in order for him to abide in us. And what is his will? John says to obey his commandments and by doing so we will abide in him and he will abide in us.

Someone will say, “I can’t obey all the commandments…I fail when I try.” True enough. We all fail one time or another. We all have failings and sins. That’s why God provided Jesus, our redeemer, to be our advocate before the Lord in heaven.

Jesus tells us that when we fall, read that to fail, or to sin, we must get up and keep getting up. That means to start over, believing that once we admit failures, sins, the blood shed by Jesus on the cross will erase them. As Paul said, this is by no means a license to continue sinning, or doing wrong. But it does free us to be strong in our faith and to trust in God.

We all have our own wants and needs. And we are told to take these to God in prayer. Does everyone here do that on a regular basis? If not, it’s time to begin. Look to God in all things, both large and small. And then, after handing everything over to God, trust that he will act in our best interests. This does not always mean that things will instantly change and go our way, although that can and does happen. But it does mean that by putting our trust in God, our problems are then in his capable hands and we can go about living a happier life. Simple, yes?

What about corporate, or communal cares and concerns? Let’s take our church. We here have gone through some changes and for a while, our numbers were down and our outlook somewhat grim. We, as a body, set out to do what we could to change that. We did everything that humans can do. We looked at our situation from every angle, we studied and we planned. We did that. We continue to do that. No one can ask more of a small group of believers.

And what do we want as a body? We want more people to share in our church life. We want to be energized and we want to be energizing for others. We want to attract people from the community to come and worship with us. We want to once again have a church filled with young people, to hear children’s laughter. We want to have a Sunday school.

And on a human, nuts-and-bolts level, we have done all we could and are doing all we can. So now it’s time to turn it over to God. That’s not to say that we may rest from our labors, on the contrary. We need to continue, be heads-down chargers, to demonstrate our zeal for the things of God.

But most of all, we need to trust that God sees our work…since as James the brother of Jesus says, “faith without works is dead,” and we need to trust that by putting our situation in God’s hands that he will open the door for us, that he will go ahead of us and make things happen. All we need to do is what we have been doing and then put our complete trust in God. That opens the way for him to do the rest.

We have done good works and we must and will continue to. Now we need to let our light shine through so that others may see the good works we do in the name of God. If we are faithful, God is faithful. That is an absolute truth. And so it is that if we only keep up and trust in God, we will achieve our goals.

If we do these things, people will see it and they will want a part of it. And that is precisely how we as individuals and also as members of the church body need to proceed.

No one is attracted to someone who does not have a glad heart. Our faith and our happiness must be apparent. For that to happen we must let the light of God shine through us. We must smile. We must be kind, gentle and we must let everyone know of our faith and our trust in God Almighty. And then watch out, because once God puts his hand to the steering wheel of this body of believers, he is not going to stop. It will be a long and glorious road trip.

So trust. Trust in God. Trust that Jesus Christ is the only way to the father. Do your best not to fail, but if you do know that you are forgiven. Get up and keep on going. The road may be long but with Christ at the helm, we will reach our destination safely. His burden is light, his yoke is easy.