WALK WORTHY
Colossians 1:9-10
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
INTRO
Last year all of the country seemed to be interested in the law that was passed in Arizona requiring people to prove that they were citizens of this country when they were asked.
. Let me read you a headline from a paper there in Phoenix when this law was challenged by the federal govt.
. Court Strikes Down Ariz. Law Requiring Voters to Prove They Are Citizens. The article went on to say.
. A federal appeals court has struck down a key part of Arizona's law requiring voters to prove they are citizens before registering to vote or casting ballots. Tuesday's decision by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the law requiring voters to prove their citizenship while registering is inconsistent with the National Voter Registration Act. That federal law allows voters to fill out a mail-in card and swear they are citizens under penalty of perjury, but doesn't require them to show proof as Arizona's law does."
. As I was preparing this message this week, and thinking about this concept, this command that God has given us to walk worthy, I thought about the concept of having to prove that you are who you say that you are.
. What are we to be walking worthy of?
. Paul is saying that we need to be worthy of the Lord.
. We need to be worthy of our citizenship just like the law in Arizona was requiring people to prove that they were citizens.
. This citizenship that we need to be worthy of is our citizenship in Heaven.
. As Christians we are called to be Christ like. That is the definition of a Christian.
. I have a question for you this morning.
. Could you defend yourself in court and prove to a jury that you were a Christian.
Lets explore that for just a minute.
. Your sitting in court and the attorney addresses you.
Att.- Mr. Smith, you understand that you are here this morning to defend your claim that you are a Christian.
Mr. Smith- That is correct. I am a Christian
Att.- Your guidebook. Your instruction book is called the bible; is that correct?
Mr. Smith- Yes that is correct. I believe that the Bible is Gods Word and His Revelation to mankind.
Att. In matt. 22: 36-38 of your instruction manual, Your Jesus says that there are two commandments that everything kind of hinges on in your faith. It says:
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’[d] 38 “This is the first and great commandment. 39 “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’[e] 40 “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Do you really expect us to believe that you love a being that you have never seen as much as these words say. According to this, this God of yours would have to be the most important person or thing in your life.
Mr.Smith- That is correct. He is.
Att.- Then maybe you can explain these inconsistencies that we have found as we talked to people who know you. We were told that you are consistently given opportunities to share with others this faith that you claim to have but you somehow manage to be busy or find something else that you would rather do. I would think that if you loved someone as much as you claim to do, you would want to tell others about Him.
. If you love someone as deeply as this writing says that you should, I would think that you would want to spend time with that person. From all we can tell, you devote about 1 hour a week to your God. If that’s all the time I gave my family every week, I’m sure I would be looking for a new family.
. How do you explain these things Mr. Smith?
Mr. Smith- Well you don’t understand. I don’t feel comfortable telling people about my faith. I don’t know how. Besides, I thought that was the preacher’s job. Not mine
Att.- What about the lack of effort in spending time with this God whom you claim to love so much.
Mr. Smith – I do the best that I can with that. You don’t seem to understand that I am a busy man and I need my down time just like everybody else. I’m better than most people are.
Att.- I think we have heard enough on that subject; lets explore this loving your neighbor thing.
Att.- Mr. Smith, do you really expect this court to believe that you love your neighbors as you love yourself?
Mr. Smith- Of course I do. My neighbors on either side of me are really good people and I think very highly of them.
Att. Well what about Mrs. Johnson who lives two streets over. How do you feel about her?
Mr. Smith- She’s ok but she knows everything. She gets on my nerves. She won’t let you get a word in anywhere.
Att. What about coach Jones, your son’s baseball coach?
Mr.Smith- I don’t even want to talk about him. He is the reason the team can’t win a ball game. He just doesn’t know what he’s doing. I don’t like him at all.
Att.- It seems that you have some issues in the area of loving you neighbor.
Mr. Smith- You don’t understand sir, some people are just hard to love.
This scenario could go on and on. This concept of “walking worthy of the Lord is something that a person has to work at.
. This worthy walk is not natural for us. It goes against much of our human nature. Our sin nature of selfishness and pride.
. In this scripture, Paul tells how we can “walk worthy of the Lord. Lets look at this for just a few minutes this morning.
I. The first thing we see here is that we should Learn.
. Paul writes that the Colossians should be “filled with the knowledge of His will”.
. We gain knowledge by learning, by studying that which we are trying to learn.
. In his commentary on Colossians John Macarthur writes that for a person to obtain knowledge or to learn, that he must first desire it. You must want to learn. In order to learn Gods will and to walk with Him, you have to want to obtain this knowledge.
. In Hosea 6:3, the prophet writes; “let us know, let us press on to know the Lord”
. I have been coaching wrestling at one of the local middle schools for ten years now and I have seen this concept of having a desire to learn play out year after year. As we start our season, after about three days it’s obvious who our star wrestlers are going to be. We can tell this not by their athletic ability although it does help. We can tell by their desire to learn. These kids haven’t grown up wrestling. They have grown up watching and playing baseball and football. This sport is foreign and not natural to them. In order for them to succeed, they must truly have a desire to learn the sport. Some do; many do not.
. We must have a desire to learn, a desire to obtain the knowledge of the will of God.
Macarthur writes that the second thing a person must do is that “he must depend on the Holy Spirit”
. It is through the Holy Spirit that God reveals himself to us.
. It is the Holy Spirit that Guides us in this walk with God.
. The Holy Spirit that is part of you. That spirit of God That dwells within you if you have accepted Jesus as Lord of you life .
. You must learn to lean on Gods Spirit.
. It’s much like the short chorus that has been out for several years now.
. It goes like this:
LEARNING TO LEAN, LEARNING TO LEAN
I’M LEARNING TO LEAN, ON JESUS
FINDING MORE POWER THAN I’VE EVER DREAMED
I’M LEARNING TO LEAN ON JESUS
. If we are to learn how to walk worthy of the Lord, we will have to depend on the Holy Spirit to help us.
Thirdly Macarthur writes that to obtain or to learn the knowledge of the will of God we “must study the scriptures”
. The wisdom of the ages is found in Gods word
. God’s will is found in His revelation to us
. How we are to live. What He expects from us
. What we can expect from Him
. I hear many people say that they don’t know Gods will for them or how to find His will for them.
. God speaks to us in and through His Word. All we need do is have the desire to communicate with Him, depend on the Holy Spirit to Guide us and look into His word for Guidance.
IF WE SEEK TO LEARN GODS WILL, WE WILL BE WELL ON OUR WAY TO “WALKING WORTHY OF THE LORD”
After we learn and seek the knowledge of Gods will then we must LIVE in a way that will walk worthy of God.
. Paul writes that if we fill ourselves with knowledge of God’s will then we will be fruitful in this walk with God.
. This being fruitful is more than just telling others about Jesus. Yes that a big part of being fruitful but not all.
. Being fruitful is a lifestyle. The way we live and the way that others see us.
. There’s an old hymn in the Baptist Hymnal titled, Let Others See Jesus in You. The first verse goes like this:
While [walking] through this world of sin, and others your life shall view, be clean and pure without, within, let others see Jesus in you.
. If we are to live a life worthy of other Lord, other must be able to see Jesus in us. We must live the life.
I want to close this morning with a story that I read in a sermon by pastor Melvin Newland titled, Mister Are You Jesus.
Some years ago I heard an interesting story about a young boy living in Paris at the end of the World War II. He had been orphaned by the atrocities committed by the German forces. Now all alone, he had to scrounge around the ruined city as best as he could to find food, clothes & shelter.
But nearly everyone was experiencing desperate times, & he found that people either ignored him or had nothing to give to him.
Years before, he had heard someone talk about God & Jesus. But with the hell on earth that the war had brought into his life, he had long since lost what meager faith he once had.
One cold morning, he was wandering down the street, staring into the windows of shops & cafés. He stopped outside the window of a small bakery. The smell of the fresh bread made his stomach ache with pain. He was so absorbed by the smell & sights of the bakery that he didn’t realize an American soldier had come up & was watching him.
The boy hardly noticed it when the G.I. walked past him into the store. He did, however, notice the large bag the baker was filling for the G.I. with rolls, breads, & pastries. And the boy could hardly breathe when the soldier exited the shop, knelt down & handed him the bag.
He looked at the G.I. with astonishment & gratefulness. Finally, he asked the question that was running through his mind: “Mister, are you Jesus?”
To be mistaken for Jesus. To have the life that we live so look like Jesus that people mistake us for Him.
FOLKS IF WE ARE TO “WALK WORTHY OF THE LORD” WE MUST LEARN WHAT HE HAS TO TELL US AND LIVE THE LIFE THAT HE EXPECTS OF US.
INVITATION
