Everyday Church
How We Should Walk
(upbeat music) - Hello, friend. Welcome to today's podcast, Everyday Church, with Pastor Jason Kiefer. Everyday Church is a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. - Hey, my friend. It's great to be with you again today on the Everyday Church podcast. And I hope you're off to a great day in the lawn. And we'll be praying for you today, and I just hope he blesses you as you go throughout the day. Hey, what does that come in at before we get into the scriptures? And just, I always do this at the end, but I know how it is. A lot of times, once you get past the content, people tend to disengage a little bit. And so I'm gonna take just a minute and just share with you. Again, if there's ever questions you have or just a discussion you wanna have, or maybe something you'd like for us to discuss on these podcasts, shoot me an email. You can do that at everydaychurchabc@gmail.com. And shoot me an email, I'd love to hear from you. Of course, if you have a number, you can always text me. That's a way to get a good way to get hold of me. Then also, if you haven't done this yet, share comments on this, share the podcast, share an episode, you can share an episode on Facebook, any social media, you can share that. And it just kind of, it helps get the word out, helps get the gospel message out, and it helps us help one another. Also, you can go to astatulababdas.com, astatulababdaschurch.com. And you can go there and you can find all kind of information about our church, our ministry, our school, daycare, anything that you're maybe searching for. We have people there that you can reach out to that can help you. You may have questions in life in general. And we just want to be a helping and blessing to you and share all those ways to be an encouragement to you. Amen. So last time we were together, we talked about how we can know, how it is that we can know that we're in Him, that we're believers, that we're saved. And today, we want to take this thought from verse six. And so we're just going to use one verse today. And the thought is this, how we should walk, right? How we should walk. So verse six says, "He that saith, he abideth in hymn," also, "Himself also so to walk, even as he walked." Let me say that again. So first John two and verse six. "He that saith, he abideth in hymn, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." So the scripture is saying, you know, if Christ dwells in you, if the spirit of Christ is in you and lives in you, it makes sense that we would walk as he would walk. So the scripture is not telling us, look, you need to figure out what Jesus did and go do it. I think sometimes that's the approach we take to Christianity is everything we see in the scriptures, it's like Jesus did that so we should go do that. And I think you can get way off out in the weeds there, if that's the approach you take. I think what happens is we can identify the life of Christ, we identify the ways he walked, and some of the things he did, but it's not us trying to do that, remember it's Christ that lives in us as the believer. And so the true believer will walk as he walked. So because we're flesh and we're dealing with this fleshly body and we're, you know, it's prone to sin, it's prone to wonder, it's prone to do its own thing. So there is commandments there and there is instruction there that helps us to give guidelines to us. So do I need to know what Christ did and do it? Yes, do I need to know that Christ love people and love and then love people? Absolutely. Do I need to know that Christ had compassion on people and then have compassion, 100%? Do I need to know that he walked in holiness and therefore I should walk in holiness, 100%? But I think you have to be careful and understand it's not you doing it, it's not me doing it. Again, it's no longer I, but Christ, the things that I do in the flesh, I do by the faith of the Son of God, Paul said. And so what's he saying? He even said, oh wretched man, that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death. Like, in other words, I couldn't, I wanna do it, but I can't. And so I think what you find in Paul's life is later on. In fact, interesting, interesting that my thoughts will go here in Romans chapter seven. Think about this for a minute. In Romans chapter seven, we have that scripture, the point of the scripture where Paul is, he says everywhere I went to do good evil is always present. He says in verse 18, for I know that in my, I know in me that is in my flesh, well, it's no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. He said, I want to do good, the desires there, but I can't figure out how to do it right. Paul didn't stay there though. I think sometimes we see those scriptures and it's like, man, even Paul couldn't get it right. So I know I can't get it right. It's interesting that when you go over to Philippians, you can go over to Philippians chapter two and interesting scripture there. Philippians chapter two and verse 13, Paul says this, okay, later on in his life, he says, for it is God which worketh in me or in you, both the will and to do his good pleasure, right? So Romans, he says, I have the wills there, but I can't do it. But in Philippians, he says, it's God. It's God that changes the desire and the heart of man. It's God that changes the will of man, but it's also God that works that in you, right? And so you have to be careful when you read John, John's not telling us, look, here's the list, go do what Jesus did and you'll get it right, you're gonna be more holy, you're gonna be, no, that's the approach we take sometimes, that's the wrong approach. As we grow in Christ, there's just this crater evidence of Christ coming from us through our walk. And so real quick, and we identified these quickly a second ago, but let's kind of walk through some of them, right? So if Christ is in me, one of the ways that I walk would be walking in love, Christ walked in love, he loved people, he loved sinners, and he loved those that were down and out, he loved those that were, that struggled, he loved those that seemingly couldn't get it right, he loved them. So what does that tell me? Well, if I walk as Christ walks because he's in me, I'm gonna love people. We talked about that last time we were together. One of the things that we know is this, that Christ walked in truth, he walked in truth, his life was an evidence that he knew truth, think of when Satan tempted him in the wilderness, and he come and Satan used scripture against him, which is often what Satan will do, right? He did it, he twisted God's word in the garden, and that's how he works, and so how did Jesus come back? So Satan comes and says, hey, if you're the son of God, you're hungry, you've been fast and turned these stones into bread, and Jesus said, is it not written, or it is written, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Oh, what did Jesus do? He used truth, he combated a lie with truth, and that's what you and I have to do. So he walked in truth, you and I, as we walk in Christ, we're walking in truth, that's how it's evidence. I always think of this one here, he walked in submission to the Father, he walked in submission to the Father. In fact, we were just referencing Philippians chapter two, and that passage there, just a great chapter, as he empties himself and submits himself to the Father's will, and Paul in that chapter says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So walking in submission, you can go on and on, because he walked in submission, we know he walked in humility. There was no pride in him, there was no pride in him, and so he walked in humility. Well, that's something that every one of us struggle with, but if my life is defined by that, right, my life is defined by pride, that's a problem. But as I believe her, as I'm walking in Christ, my life becomes more and more defined by humility, by because it's Christ that's working in me, both the will and to do his good pleasure. And so, another one I think of is compassion, compassion. Think of Jesus out there as he's been ministering, and just a heavy part of ministry, a really chaotic couple of days, and he goes to take his disciples away and to rest a while, into the wilderness. And those people, they followed him. And as Jesus stood on that mountainside, and he began to look out over all these people, I love that passage. The Bible says he was moved with compassion. Very easily could have been frustrated, very, in fact, his disciples were frustrated. Many times they were frustrated and they were just tired, and they just wanted the people to go away for a while, and they wanted a break, and the Lord was moved with compassion. So what do we know is he walked with compassion, he walked in compassion. Think about the woman, the adulterous woman, the woman caught an adultery that they bring to Jesus, and they just cast him out of his feet and say, "Hey, Rabbi, the Moses says that this woman's to be stoned." What do you say? Trying to tempt him and catch him. And so Jesus just says, "Hey, he which is without sin cast "the first stone." And he looks at that woman and says, "Where are the in accusers?" And the words he says is this, "Words of compassion. "Neither do I condemn thee, go and send no more." And I just, I think that sometimes we miss out when all we do is look at the immediate application to things in the sense of, "Oh, if I did this, if I did that, "if I didn't, I don't know." If I went to church three times this week, you could come up with 100 different things, right? If I prayed this long, or if I read through my Bible this year, there's so many things you can come up with, and they're good things. I think that we make that walking as Jesus walk. And I think we miss out on the love, the compassion, 'cause you can do all those things and not have love and compassion. I could read my Bible every day. I could read through my Bible every day, if I had time and not have compassion, right? I could pray for hours a day and make it this list that I check off and not walk in love, right? And so that's the key. That's the key is walking as he would walk. And this is how we should walk. We should walk in love, we should walk in compassion. So as you go throughout the day, you're probably going to come up into a situation where your flesh is gonna have this opportunity to act like it itself, act like the flesh. I wanna encourage you, even now, when we get off here, take a moment and pray, Lord, when those times come up, Lord, if you would, just would you use the Holy Spirit to guide me and to help me walk as Christ would walk through that situation? Maybe you're going through some struggles today. Maybe you're doubting and you got a lot of things that cause fear in your life. Jesus said, "Don't be afraid." Said, "Be not afraid." And so walking as Christ would walk. Maybe there's something God's dealt with your heart about and you're having a hard time obeying, right? Submission, walk as Christ would walk, walk in humility. And by the grace of God and the power of his Holy Spirit, you can do that, amen. So I hope you have a great day today and I'll be praying for you. It's always great to see people here. Again, be sure to share this, like it, pass it on, get it out there and let's help one another as we're the church daily. Let's just help one another grow and Christ, amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, thank you for your mercies, for your goodness to us, for your love for us. And Father, thank you for these folks that tune in day after day and just desire to grow in your Word. I pray you'll bless them and strengthen them. We love you in your name, we pray. Amen. (upbeat music) Thank you for listening to Every Day Church, a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together and serve together. If this episode was an encouragement to you, be sure to hit like, share it, and subscribe for future content. (upbeat music)