Walking with God

Introduction—

1. Relationship with God not a sprint but a marathon.

   1. Maybe not a marathon as much as a walk.

2. Talk about biblical figures who walked with God.

   1. Enoch—Genesis 5:22-24

   2. Noah—Genesis 6:9

3. I'm going to read The Greatest Commandment in Deuteronomy 10:12, which is reiterated in many places, And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

4. Godly men and women aspire to having a great walk with God.

5. Psalm 84:11 (is inspiring) For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

6. The following will be some important principles to strengthen your walk with God.

Main Points—

1. Prayer Life

   1. Approach God with confidence

      1. Think of someone in your life whom you can go to with confidence in any type of situation. How does that make you feel?

      2. Let's see how two verses use the word confidence: Ephesians 3:10-12 and Hebrews 4:14-16

         1. Both these passages use the word "confidence" for how we approach God

         2. What does this mean to you?

   2. Learning process

      1. Luke 11:1-4 shows us that prayer had to be learned by Jesus' apostles

         1. It is not a natural thing you just innately do

         2. Like any other training, you need to develop a structure that helps grow

   3. Hindrances to our prayer life

      1. Lack of concentration—1Peter 4:7

      2. Lack of personal righteousness—Psalms 66:18  18 If I had cherished sin in my heart,
                the Lord would not have listened;

      3. Lack of persistence—Luke 18:1-8 persistent widow—many times God is testing us to go the extra bit in our hearts

      4. Praying contrary to God's will—1John 5:14 according to His will He hears us

      5. Lack of faith—Mark 11:24 NEED I GIVE A VERSE

      6. Other verses on prayer look on these notes on our biblestudy blog: Matthew 6:5; John 9:31; 14:13-14; Ephesians 6:18; Colossians 4:2-4; James 5:16-17.

   4. Have a goal to spend time with God before you start every day

1. Read Psalms 5:1-3

2. Example of Jesus—Luke 5:15-16; 6:12-13; 9:18; 11:1; Mark 1:32-36; and Hebrews 5:7-10 -- "Prayer was the atmosphere in which he lived. It was the air he breathed" (G.S. Thomas).

3. How does Jesus' example of prayer inspire you?

1. Rely on God throughout your day

   1. Like Paul praying for the Philippians in chapter one, our prayer life should bring us joy

   2. Philippians 4 prayer melts worries away

   3. 1Thessalonians 5:16-18 "16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

1. Fasting—Matthew 6:17-18 when you fast

1. Studying God's Word

   1. Ephesians 6:18 – strengthening your sword is a key way to fight spiritually

   2. Matthew 4:4 importance of staying in the word—like food, if you don't stay in it you won't stay spiritually nourished + you could die spiritually

   3. We know 2Timothy 3:16-17 and Hebrews 4:12-13 (quote them)--can you make a list of all the areas God's word equips you?

   4. James 1:22-25 shows us that it is not only important to know God's word, but it is important to do what it says

      1. What happens to the man who does not put God's word into practice?

      2. Write down some things you know that are right and that you intend on putting consistently into practice

      3. We know holding to the truth is how you know the truth and be set free (John 8:31-32)

      4. Further convicting Scripture: Ezekiel 33:30-33

   5. So the charge to Timothy is also to all of us: 2Timothy 2:15

      1. 1Peter 3:15 ...be prepared to give an answer to everyone for the hope you profess...

         1. The urgency of knowing your bible is our lost world

   6. Main motivation for deepening our knowledge of God's word...

      1. Is deepening our knowledge of God

         1. God is eager to be known by us, but how eager are we to get to know God?

      2. Psalms 1:1-3 delightful to a man or women of God

2. Dependence on God

   1. Effectiveness for life--

      1. Business principles and humanism will teach you that becoming independent is most effective.

      2. Humanism will also teach you interdependence—working effectively with people is most effective.

      3. Really, dependence on God is the most effective life—the one Jesus lived.

   2. Balance of faith, works, and grace

      1. Faith

         1. Hebrews 11:6 says we need faith to please God

         2. James 2:14-16 and John 8:30-32 show that faith is more than intellectual belief, but also about your actions.

            • Thus, we'll understand the importance of works of faith.

      2. Works

         1. Ephesians 2:8-10 our salvation is not by our doing—WE MESSED IT UP!

            • That does not mean what we do is unimportant!

            • It also doesn't mean that God doesn't expect anything from us!

            • Like Naaman healed of leprosy in 2Kings 5, salvation is an unearned gift conditioned on our obedience.

            • We need to understand the balance of faith and works—understanding grace is the connector

      3. Grace

         1. Titus 3:5

         2. Jude 4

         3. 1Corinthians 15:10 getting grace will have its effect

         4. Titus 2:11-14

            • Walking with God is about growing in that grace

            • God has provided ample grace for the biggest sinner to grow

              • Net illustration

            • Likewise, 2Timothy 2:1 charge to Timothy is also for us: be strong in the grace

         5. We don't confess our sins to get God's grace, but we confess our sins because we already have it and we love it!

            • As we confess our sins...(we can be sure, have confidence)...God is faithful and just, and will forgive us from all unrighteousness" (1John 1:9).

Applications—

Different things will go on this Summer, but know that your walk with God is always the constant—"Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5).

Taking our walk with God to different places, heights, strength, succinctness, will be the main challenge of us all. Above any goal of mine, I want to be more faithful and courageous in my walk with God.

Close with the promise in Jeremiah 7:23 ...that it may go well with you

God wants it to go well with us, so let's trust more fully in Him by growing in these key areas:

1. Prayer life—pray continually

2. God's word—learn new things this Summer

3. Depend on God—strike the balance in your life-style

Greatness through Service

Introduction-

I.        We all want to be great!

1.      We want to hear, "Well done...son...daughter."

2.      We want to find the career where we will be at our best

3.      We want to be excelling at a high potential—be it business, social, family, and spiritual

II.     As we've been reading in Mark, our Lord achieved lasting impact—greatness far beyond any measurement of greatness

1.      Paying the greatest price—a level of sacrifice no one could

2.      Redeeming us out of spiritual death

3.      Great enough to call His followers to give up everything

III.   Jesus shows us the only greatness worth our greatest aim is Greatness through Service

 

Text: Mark 10:35-45

 

 I.     Greatness of the world

 A.   These guys (aka "Sons of Thunder") desired the seats of honor so much that they had the gall to approach Jesus with their request!

 i.      Their thinking was most definitely worldly not spiritual

 ii.   It took the all the disciples until after the resurrection and the Holy Spirit's light before they connected the dots with the spiritual kingdom of Christ

 iii. They desired "greatness of the world"

 B.   They wanted to be great before putting in the level of sacrifice necessary

 i.      Jesus confirmed that they would eventually get there and be great (sum James and John's life)

 ii.   Can't we be like that too—wanting honor before doing anything?

 iii. There are so many works of service in Christ that we have no clue about because we're so consumed by our self being great!

 C.   Vs.42 Isn't that how we see greatness in our world today?

 i.      "Lording over" -- "I'm the boss" mentality

 ii.   We might not be in touch with it, but we all want respect—it can be something we crave more than physical food

 iii. I think in some ways it is a basic human need

 iv.  Philippians 2:5ff puts us to shame—greatly reveals my pride and how much I am more like Satan than God

 v.     I need to become nothing <transition with first point of next point>

 II.  Greatness with God

 A.   There is greatness in the world—follow those principles and you will achieve some level of worldly greatness.

 B.   What does God honor as being great?

 i.      God does not merit greatness like the world does!

 ii.   Not to say the world's idea is totally void of godly greatness (examples of Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King JR, etc.)

 iii. Jesus isn't giving us principles of successful living—not pragmatism or humanism—all about advancing His Kingdom.

 C.   When Jesus used the term "servant," it was a synonym with greatness.  And it was a revolutionary idea at the time.

 III.                        Greatness of Jesus

 A.   His example is the thrust of this passage: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many

 B.   How can we be served by His blood, cleansed by His sacrifice, served by the power of His mighty strength—then not give Him our everything?

 i.      My example of being lazy and selfish growing up with my mom doing so much for me

 a)    She is still an amazing servant, where I can go over to her place and take it easy

 b)   I'm convinced maturing is starting to serve her

·          It is how I appreciate all the ways she has served me

 c)   Whereas I fail to appreciate her when I just sit back and selfishly let her serve me

 ii.   We can be like that with Jesus

 C.   Truth is that we can't out serve Jesus

 i.      But if I don't grow in my service than I'll fail to appreciate what He has done and does for me

 ii.   We never want to take Him for granted

 IV.                        Great Summer

 i.      Let's make this a great Summer by serving one another more

 ii.   The activity we're going to do is a way to get the ball rolling in those efforts

 a)    Write down three things you would like to see us do together this Summer.

 b)   Also write down three disciples in our ministry (not Cahills' or Heins') who you think could "serve" as a club officers.

 c)   Lastly, put a star by the activity in which you would like to serve.

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