A disciple is…A person who is learning to worship Jesus as God, walk with God and His family, work for God in ministry, win their battle against sin and witness to outsiders about Christ.
Key Question: What does it mean to ‘walk with God’?
Walking With God Means Working With His Spirit.
I Corinthians 3:16:
“Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
Jesus explained to his disciples that after He would ascend to heaven, He would send another one to enter their lives and be their helper.
John 14:16-18 tells us:
“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever, that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
This third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is meant to walk with us, be with us, to act as our companion through out our journey here on earth.
And walking with God means essentially working with His Spirit.
Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22:
“Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.”
Christian, you have the Spirit of God in your heart this morning. What a blessing!!!
This is great cause for worship.
God has sealed you and given you His very own Spirit to walk with you throughout this life on earth.
This is a spiritual reality for every true disciple of Jesus.
And a disciple is one who is learning how to walk with God’s Spirit.
So, walking with God begins as I understand that He has placed His Spirit within me.
Walking with God continues as I learn to distinguish between God’s part and my part in growing in Christ.
Did you realize that when it comes to living the Christian life, there’s a part God does and then there’s a part that He expects you to do?
Paul, talking to a bunch of Christians, was teaching this principle of how walking with God is a partnership with God’s Spirit.
Listen to what Paul said in I Corinthians 3:6-7:
“I (Paul) planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.”
He goes on to say in verse 9 of that same chapter:
“For we are God’s fellow workers...”
So whenever someone says that they are learning to walk with God what they mean is that they are learning to work with God’s Spirit who is inside of them.
So we understand that God has a part in my growth and I have a part.
Paul explains this two part process in Philippians 2:12c-13:
“…work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
First of all I want you to notice that Paul does not say, “Work for your salvation.”
To work for something means to earn it, deserve it, or merit it.
But the Bible is clear: Salvation is something you and I cannot earn.
Salvation is the free gift of God based upon His grace.
Paul says, “work out not work for.”
“Work out your salvation…
Well, this is what walking with God’s Spirit is all about.
Walking with God means working with His spirit.
Working With His Spirit Involves Working Out Our Salvation.
Now what does it mean to work out our salvation?
What’s Paul talking about here?
He’s talking about a spiritual workout.
What do you do when you work out and exercise physically?
You build muscle. You tone muscles God has given to you.
To work out means to cultivate, to make the most of what you have.
Paul is saying you and I need to cultivate our spiritual lives.
How do we work out our salvation?
Working Out Our Salvation Involves Working Through Our Questions.
I believe that working out our salvation involves working through our questions.
• Do you have any questions you would like to ask God?
• Are there any questions that you would like to know the answers to?
The longer I walk with the Lord the more questions I seem to have.
When you first decide to become Jesus’ disciple, His follower, it is exciting.
You are riding the wave of salvation.
But then reality hits you and you discover that living by Christ’s principles is harder than you first imagined.
And you begin to develop questions.
Like, “God, if you’ve really saved me, how come I still struggle with my old habits?”
Now there’s a question.
Here’s another question.
“Now that God has given me eternal life, is it possible for me to lose my salvation?”
All I’m saying this morning is that walking with God involves this process of working through questions you have about living the Christian life.
God has set up this process for you and me to go through.
He wants us to ask questions. He wants us to wrestle with issues. He wants us to search for the answers. He wants us to think.
This is how we love God with our minds.
Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38 NASB)
A disciple loves God with his mind by working through the questions he has about living for Christ.
This is what walking with God is all about.
Now, an interesting experience begins to take shape within you as you work out your salvation and work through your questions.
Working Through Our Questions Involves Working On Our Weaknesses.
As we begin asking questions issues begin to surface in our lives that are not as they should be.
Asking questions is like looking in a mirror. You look into the mirror and see things that need fixing.
Asking the question, “Since God has given me eternal life, can I ever lose salvation” surfaces an issue that needs to be addressed in my life, which is, “Exactly how did salvation come to me in the first place?”
In other words, “Did I find God or did God find me?”
Now, if you don’t immediately know the answer to that question in your life, then you have a weakness.
Your weakness is a lack of knowledge.
You don’t know whether salvation can be lost or not, which constitutes a weakness in your spiritual life.
It’s a simple thing really. If you don’t know the answer to that question, then you have just identified a weak area in your life that you can work on to improve.
For instance you could pick up your Bible and look for verses that talk about salvation and you could think about what the Bible says about getting and preserving salvation.
Working through our questions involves working on our weaknesses.
That’s walking with God.
The other day in my office, as I was working on a task, I suddenly had a thought flash through my mind.
I felt that God was interrupting what I was doing.
How many of you know when God interrupts you that you should stop what you’re doing and listen?
I decided to get out of my chair, get down on my knees and pray.
I pulled out a notepad, grabbed my pen and quieted my heart before the Lord.
I heard one word. The word ATTITUDE.
I wrote down the word attitude on the paper in front of me.
I could sense there was some significance attached to that word and that God was trying to communicate with me about that.
I continued to focus in my mind on the word ATTITUDE.
I felt that Jesus was pressing into my mind this idea of attitude.
Kneeling there the faces of people I know began to stream across the screen of my mind.
I began to think, “Yes, Lord, you’re right. They sure could stand to have a better attitude.”
As I continued silencing my heart before the LORD the conversation suddenly took a sharp turn.
God turned our discussion away from others and onto myself.
I sensed God saying to my Spirit, “No, Brad. It’s your attitude that I want to talk about.”
So, I wrote down this question:
“Is my attitude an asset or a liability?”
Now, remember what we’ve just been talking about.
Working out our salvation involves working through our questions.
I asked, or perhaps closer to the truth, God was asking me a simple question about my attitude.
I wrote down my answer in my notepad:
If I am honest I would have to say that it’s more of a liability.
Through a process of introspection I realized that lately my attitude had begun to slide downhill.
As I continued to quiet my mind before God, situations, scenes, specific instances began to flood my memory and I began to feel that my attitude had been disappointing to the LORD lately.
I began recalling moments when I had grumbled or complained about something I hadn’t wanted to do.
As I kneeled there before the Lord it became clear God was speaking to me about the importance of my attitude.
Now, this time spent with the Lord was painful yet satisfying.
I felt in these moments, as God’s Spirit was speaking to my Spirit about the subject of attitude, that I was really close to the Lord.
You see, I was walking with God. I was talking with God. I was hearing from God and responding to His voice in my heart.
I was working with His Spirit, who was speaking to me.
I was working out my salvation, as I thought about what kind of attitude a follower of Jesus should have.
I was working out my salvation by working through my question.
I asked myself, “Is my attitude an asset or a liability?”
And as I worked through the question God began to work on my weakness.
As I admitted to myself and to God that my attitude had stunk, I began to repent.
I prayed, “Lord, I have sinned against You. I have grumbled and complained. I know that your word says, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing” and I have grumbled and complained. I need your forgiveness. Will you please forgive me?”
As I prayed and sensed God’s forgiveness, I moved from repenting to resolving.
I felt motivated. I felt energy flow through my body. A new determination coursed through my spiritual veins.
And I committed, “I’ve got to have a better attitude.”
Friends, I submit to you this morning that what I have just described to you is a real life example of walking with the Lord.
Can you see how this process works?
Working with God’s Spirit hearing Him speak to you, Working out your salvation by working through questions, and then allowing God to work on our weaknesses.
