WALKING THE TALK
Text: Revelation 21:5
Revelation 21:5 : And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are worthy and trustworthy and true” (NRSV).
A lady by the name of Wilma Reed once said, “Religion can offer a man a burial service, but Christ offers every man new, abundant and everlasting life”. (Vernon. McLellan. Timeless Treasures. Raleigh: Heaven Word, 2000). Something that is new is good because it is better then the old. In the New Testament understanding of the word good, God not only wants to give us that newness that is good in character, God wants us to exhibit how that newness that is attractive because of how it satisfies. How well do our lives demonstrate our walk with God? Better still, we could ask ourselves how well do we walk our talk? How well do our words match our actions?
Revelation 21:5 says in the King James version “Behold I make all things new . … II Corinthians 5:17 says “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new (NRSV). Galatians 5:17 says I say then: Walk in the Spirit… ” (NKJV). As the Apostle Paul said that is easier said than done because of how the flesh opposes the Spirit (Galatians 5:17). It seems that the flesh would have us to embrace the old whereas the Spirit helps us to embrace the new life that comes from being a new creature in Christ. Consider also Romans 12:2 where Paul reminds us that we are not to be conformed to the world but rather transformed by the renewing power of God which comes through the work of the Holy Spirit in us.
How well do we walk this talk of these scriptures in our lives? How well do we keep those New Year’s resolutions that we make each year? How quickly do we take steps backward and quit striving for the progress that we hoped to achieve?
How well do we walk with God? Do we make New Year’s Resolutions every year that we fail to keep? When it come to our spiritual lives, how well do we walk our talk? Are there goals that we fall short of reaching? If we are honest with ourselves then we have to admit that we just do not measure up to what we should be and could be. As someone once put it: “I have never heard anything about the resolutions of the apostles, but I have heard a great deal about the acts of the apostles”. (Vernon. McLellan. Timeless Treasures. Raleigh: Heaven Word, 2000). How about our acts as modern day disciples? How many things change because of changes necessary changes we need to make in our lives? How many things change because we fail to make necessary changes in our spiritual pilgrimage----our walking with God?
Wayne Gretzky, the hockey player, reported the comment of an early coach who was frustrated with his lack of scoring. The coach told him, "You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take." (Steve May. The Story File. Peabody Hendrickson Publishers, 2000, p. ). The same is true for all of us! There is another way to say sort of the same thing. Someone has dubbed this different way of understanding as “The definition of insanity: “If we do the same thing old things the same old way and expect different results”! Now, how many of us find ourselves going insane because of our failure to make the necessary changes we need to make? How can anything be new when our resolutions revert back to the same old way of doing things?
TRENDS AND STATISTICS
One of the worst trends that we have is thinking in the box. Why does thinking outside the box scare us so badly? It scare us because it challenges us to step outside of our comfort zones. God never meant for us to stand in one place. I once read somewhere about a culture somewhere in the world about how it is considered a great curse to say to another “May you stand in one place forever” (Dr. Alan Lloyd McGinnis). Does “thinking only inside the box” not share something in common with “standing in one place?” There is the story about a college professor who used the same lectures for 25 years in the classroom. A bystander made an observation that this professor never seemed to grow because he repeated his first year of teaching 25 times. It seems that the proverbial “box” had become a prison because he “stood in one place”. How would you like to have been one of his students?
Another one of the trends that we hear a lot about is based on an a statistic that someone once concluded from his/her research. We hear about those kinds of things often. When the thing observed was a positive trait and we are on the mark, we boast. What do we do when we miss the mark? Consider some of these trends based on some statistical research.
1) Performance and teamwork: I have heard it said many times in conversation, in print that we Christians do not always give our best. Someone’s research once concluded that we have 20 percent of the people doing 80 percent of the work. Now when we hear about a trend that is based on a statistic such as that, we are a) comfortable if we are in the favorable crowd who works to reach their potential and b) we are ashamed and change the subject when we are in the crowd of spectators. Now take this statistic and compare it with the parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. If we are honest with ourselves, then we would have to admit that sometimes we bury what some of the talent that God gave us to invest.
How well do walk the talk?
2)Planting and watering:
A) I have often heard that people who come to church came because someone invited him/her. How often do we invite people? How often do they come? How often do we follow up on those invitations? I have read that statistically it takes 25 people to lead someone to Christ. (Royal Spieidel. Evangelism In The Small Membership Church. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007, p. 38). Now that means that someone plants the seed of the gospel and perhaps 24 other have to water it but we have to remember that it is God who brings the increase (I Corinthians 3:5 – 9). How well do we walk the talk?
B) I read of another statistic that when we invite someone to
come to church that it may take as many as 7 times before that
person responds. How well do we follow up? How well do
we walk the talk?
3) Our membership vows as United Methodists: Our memberships vows---prayers, presence, gifts and services. How well do stay on the mark or miss the mark? We are responsible for giving God our best. We are the keepers of our brothers and sisters. We do have our mission to go and make disciples. Our prayers, presence gifts and services are all involved in our mission to go and make disciples. That therefore means that God wants us to give him our best! How well do we walk the talk?
4) Opinion polls: “Numerous national opinion polls indicate that the Christian Church is losing influence in the lives of many people. In the same polls, it is clear that the same people truly want a deepening spiritual life. But they are unconvinced that the institutional Church can lead them to it”. (Reproduced from The Minister’s Manual 2008. with permission of the publishers. Copyright 2008 by Lee McGlone (Editor). Published by Jossey- Bass, A Wiley Imprint. Lee McGlone. “Epiphany.”, p. 23).
PROGRESS AND PRACTICE
How often do we go back to the comfort zone rather than embrace the challenge of new things? How many times have we started off to do something new only to go back to the same old strategy? Did the same old strategy bring new results? How many of us prefer the horse and buggy to modern modes of transportation---cars, planes, trains and boats? How many of us who use modern computer technology prefer the type writer? How many of us would prefer old surgery methods of the 1920’s as opposed to modern day? We could go on and on, but we can see how progress is determined by the ways we choose to accomplish things. As I have heard its said, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
Think about these following questions.
How well are we making progress?
1) What is it that is holding us back from progress?
2) How well do we do as Christian disciples in reaching our potential? There is where we are now and where God wants us to be and it is only when we walk with God that we can close the gap between where we are and where is it is He wants us to be. In pondering the answer to these things, consider the following questions.
1) What is it that we need to do that we are not doing?
2) What is it that we do now that we need to do better?
3) What will each of us do to unlock our unreached potential in our prayers, our presence, our gifts and our services?
4) What are the things that we have done the same way every time expecting different results?
5) What are the changes that we need to make to reach our potential?
6) Are we willing to do all that we can in reaching our potential to make this church grow ?
7) Are we allowing God to make us new and be transformed so that others will be inspired by our witness? “Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow”. (R. Daniel Watkins. An Encyclopedia of Compelling Quotations. [Anonymous]. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2001).
How well do we walk the talk? Is our time to serve and make disciples a talent we invest or a talent that we bury?
