A Walk That Matches The Talk Series

INTRODUCTION

• Expectations. Life is full of them

• As we live our lives, we come to church and when we come to church we hear a lot about walking the walk, or making sure that our walk matches our talk.

• What do we mean when we say this?

• We are saying that since we who have been immersed into Christ have made a commitment to Jesus that we should take care to make sure that the way we live our lives reflects the commitment we made to Jesus when we voluntarily gave our lives to Him.

• To walk in Him means we live our lives in such a way that we regulate our conduct in accordance with what Jesus wants us to do. It is about daily conduct and attitudes. It is living in harmony with Jesus!

• That sounds really reasonable does it?

• O.K. let us all go out and do that right now!

• Why do we have so much trouble as we try to live for Jesus? Do you find it a struggle to live up to the commitment you made to Jesus when you gave your life to Him?

• SLIDE #1

• Today I hope I can help you to understand what we must do in order to be able to have a “Walk That Matches The Talk.”

• One of the things I believe we fail to recognize when it comes to living for Jesus is the fact that it involves a process.

• There is a process by which we learn to live for Jesus as we grow in Him. If we try to skip parts of the process, we will have a very difficult time living the kind of life that we want and that God wants for us to enjoy.

• Today we are going to be in Colossians 2:6-7 as we look at how we can have a “Walk That Matches The Talk.”

• SLIDE #2

• READ Colossians 2:6-7

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

A walk that matches the talk begins with:

I. BEING ROOTED IN CHRIST

• Paul uses several metaphors in these two short verses to try to convey what God wants from us. We have spoken about the word “walk” already.

• The second metaphor that is used is that of being rooted like a plant. (USE A PLANT IF POSSIBLE)

• The word “rooted” is an agricultural term. It is also used in such a way as to tell us that the “rooting” a present state from a past action.

• This rooting takes place when we give our lives to Christ.

• We are to be rooted in Christ. Just as plants draw nourishment from the soil through their roots, so the believers should draw life-giving strength from Christ.

• This plant will die unless it has something in which its roots can dig into and draw nourishment and stability from.

• There are too many of us that are trying to live like we are not rooted, or we are rooted but we refuse the nourishment Christ offers us.

• In the parable of the sower Jesus talks about spreading the seeds of the gospel to people and He said that some of them would fall away from the word when times got tough because they had no root.

• SLIDE #4

• Matthew 13:5 - 6 (NASB) 5“Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6“But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

• Being rooted in Jesus means that we are allowing our root system to grow deep into Christ. We are connected to Jesus and we are drawing constant nourishment from Him.

• Our live is derived from inward contact with Jesus. The foundation of our character is build from our relationship with Him.

• One of the reasons we struggle so much with living for Jesus is the fact that we do not allow ourselves to be rooted in Him.

• How long do you think this plant will live without being rooted into the ground?

• If you want to successfully live for Jesus, then make sure you are feeding on the Word of God and that you are surrounding yourself with His Word though books, and other media.

• SLIDE #5

A walk that matches the talk progresses to:

II. BEING BUILT UP IN CHRIST

• Once we are rooted in Christ we then move to being built up.

• The word translated “built up” is an architectural term that speaks of the process of putting up a building.

• The building up is a continual process, we are to never stop being built up in Christ.