Learning How to Walk
Isa. 30:18-26
Introduction:
Lance Armstrong won 7 Tour De France titles. His training regiment for the sport of cycling did not begin just prior to the Tour De France but began long before the race. Even in the off season training was essential. It has been estimated that in the off season cyclists, if they want to maintain their top race condition, can only afford to cut down on training 20-30% during off season. That means if you train during the season 6 days per week in off season, to maintain form, a cyclist can only drop to 4 days per week instead. Condition specialists in the field do not recommend falling below 3 days per week if one wants to maintain the racing edge
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The same goes in all sports but also in all walks of life
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In 2000 I served as an adjunct professor of Christian Education at a Christian College. In one class during the Spring Semester, a main portion of the grade was to take a missions trip to Belize in Central America. This was going to be my first time in the village where we were going to be serving. During the preparations for taking the class to Belize I found out that the nearest restroom/shower facility to where we would be staying was a mile away. I decided I needed to be in shape.
So I joined a local gym with a walking track and began to walk a mile everyday in anticipation of my trek to the restroom in Belize. Much to my surprise my stamina increased and found that one mile, after a period of time, was not as difficult as I had originally imagined.
Many times we have no problem (nor do we give a second thought) in keeping ourselves in physical condition but when it comes up to our walk with God….well, that’s another issue.
Question, what is the #1 priority in your life? Researcher George Barna in 2006 asked pastors what they thought was the number 1 priority in the lives of their congregations. Pastors responded that 70% of their peoples #1 priority was their walk w/God. Keep in mind that Barna is asking pastors about people who regularly attend worship. When laypeople were asked the same question only 15% responded their walk/relationship w/God was their #1 priority. That’s a huge difference!
How many of us in prayer ask God for guidance in decisions that will affect our lives? How many of us go through our day with the thought and goal of pleasing God and to further our walk with Him? If the research is correct, not many. Why?
Could it be that in our lives we are satisfied and self-sufficient? Could it be that we live compartmentalized lives where our lives during the work week is one thing and our church life is another and the two shall never meet? Could it be we don’t understand what God is offering us in relationship with Him? Or, is it that we do understand what is required for this relationship and have decided the price is too high to pay?
Thus it comes down to priority. I tell the guys I work with in the prison system there are three questions we can ask ourselves to determine where our priorities lie.
--What do I think about?
--How do I spend my time?
--How do I spend my money?
Answering those questions honestly will lead to an honest inventory of what is most important in our lives.
Or, finally could it be that we are so busy DOING the work of the church that we have forgotten how to BE God’s people?
A story is told of a Chinese Christian who visited one of the great mega churches in the U.S. The pastoral staff of the church, with great pride, showed this brother in Christ the facilities and explained to him all of the programs the church was involved in DOING the work of the Lord. When the tour was over he was asked what he thought about the church and its programs. He replied, “This is amazing how you can have so many programs and God isn’t in one of them.” What he picked up on was this church was so busy doing church the people had forgotten how to BE the Church.
Throughout scripture we see that God is always more concerned with our BEING than He is with our Doing. God wants us, you and me, to BE His people…to Be in daily relationship with Him…to walk with Him.
God offered that over and again to the nation of Israel. At times they clung to the offer. When times were good and smooth--when they were satisfied and self-sufficient--they wanted their own way. This is the context of our scripture passage from Isa. 30.
Once again the people had turned their focus away from God and placed it upon the false god’s of the people around them, specifically in this case, Egypt. Do you see the irony? Over 400 years the Hebrews had been beaten, mistreated, and killed while in slavery in Egypt. Through God’s servant Moses, God by miraculous signs and power releases them from captivity and leads the people out as free. God’s desire, God’s heart was to be their God and they would be the people of God. God offered them security…God offered them a future…God offered them relationship.
Many had turned away and refused to remember how God had intervened on behalf of the nation. God never gave up. Look again at Isa 30 starting in verse 20. (READ)
God says to His people the time will come when you will turn your focus, your hearts back to Me. When that day arrives God’s people will be restored and God’s blessings will once again be upon them because they will again walk with God.
God desires that for us in the church today. Look at verse 21 again. “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ’This is the way, walk in it’…”
Walk in the way. What does it mean to walk with God? The Hebrew word used for walk in this passage is interesting. It means…
I. TO COME AWAY
God invites us to come away, take a respite from the pressures of life and be refreshed and renewed within our inner, our true selves.
A pastor was making visits one morning and went to the house of a godly woman. When he arrived at her door her 10 year old daughter answered and told the pastor that her mother was unavailable to visit because she spent an hour each day from 9:00 to 10:00 in her prayer closet. It was almost 10:00 so he decided to stay. The pastor said when this woman emerged from her prayer closet “she glowed with the presence of the Lord. It wasn’t difficult to understand why this woman was the mother was the mother of one pastor and another in the mission field. Her relationship with the Lord was real and vibrant.” Everyday she took the time “to come away.”
Has day to day life ever wanted to make you scream out, “Stop the world, I want to get off?” Let’s be honest. All of us, from time to time, have thought “if only things could slow down I could catch my breath.”
God offers us the time to come away, to regain our bearings for the purpose of seeing what truly matters in life.
If we allow--people will make unrealistic demands on our time. Some years ago, Charles Hummel wrote a small book entitled, Tyranny of the Urgent. How many times have you had people burst into your daily life with something “urgent” that needs to be handled NOW! Hummel simply says there is a difference in what is urgent and what is important. The two may be very different. Others crisis’ may not be what is important at the moment. That’s not to sound cruel and uncaring but God is the one who gives rest and refreshing in our lives. Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you…and you will find rest for your souls.”
The bottom line is that I must see the need in my life and decide that I will take God up on the offer to come away. In the same way, each person must see the need and decide in his or her life to come away. What’s the priority?
II. PURSUE GOD BECAUSE GOD PURSUES US
The second use of the Hebrew word is to “pursue God” because “God is pursuing us.” Years ago the church I am ordained in developed a national campaign with the catch phrase, “I Found It.” I must admit I was uncomfortable with this “slogan” because human-beings don’t “find” Christ. Christ finds us. Or, put another way, God is not the one who is lost, we are!
In Luke 15, Jesus teaches the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. In both parables something is lost. Another common theme in the parables is that the “owner” of what is lost searches and searches until that which is lost has been found.
This is how God deals with our “lost-ness.”
God pursues and pursues and pursues longing for us to respond to his work and offer of grace. When we respond to this pursuit of relationship, this pursuit of holiness--God begins in us this work of restoration. We are able to respond because the Holy Spirit has drawn us and shown us our need to be found and forgiven.
The Holy Spirit doesn’t stop there. The desire and longing is given that moves us in the direction of growing in Christ. As God has pursued us, we now pursue God. Learning to walk with God is to pursue Him with everything within us.
Do you remember your first girl or boyfriend? I remember mine. The one thing that I was set on was to impress her so that I could get to know her. I’ll never forget. I was in the 8th grade. We were going to meet up at a basketball game. I had found out that she really liked the fragrance of British Sterling. I went and bought a bottle. As I was getting dressed I figured, “if a small amount of British Sterling is good, a lot is better.” I smelled like I dove head first into the bottle.
I was willing to do what I thought was necessary to pursue her because I wanted to get to know her.
When we come to Christ, that desire is placed within to know Christ as much as we can know Christ. That is learning to walk with God. God’s desire, God’s pursuit, is for us. He desires relationship with us. He longs to walk with us.
III. CONCLUSION
How is your walk? Are you taking the time to “come away?” Are you pursuing relationship with God? (knowing this is His great desire--a relationship with you)
*Note to proclaimer--Close the sermon as the Lord leads as is appropriate in your congregation*
