Created to Walk

So as we get into this tonight, we're just gonna go through this, this text that are rare: "but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." This is a promise that we have, a promise that we can all hold on to. It's to each and every person. We have a promise of a renewed strength. You say, "we don't understand. I'm weary. I'm tired." But I do understand that the promise is to you. You can regain strength if we wait upon the Lord.

We're in a society that does not like to wait. You go to the drive-thru, there's nothing you can do about the car in front of you, but somebody's gonna inevitably blow the horn, like that's gonna make everybody just work harder and go faster. And but, but that waiting principle, if we wait up on the Lord, we start to expect patiently. There's another bad word: patience. To wait on the Lord in anticipation. Have you ever had to wait on something? As a kid, Christmas, my mom would always wrapped that one gift, at least one early, and then you're just like, "what is it?" And she had a way of, even if you guessed exactly what it was, maybe do you think, "well maybe not." That anticipation building to the day that you finally get what it is that you asked for, and in anticipation of getting your hands on what it is you desire. Some of you are waiting right now for me to get done so you can go eat. So I understand.

It goes on, talks about, "you shall renew." There's a restoration that's promised, or replenishing, reviving of strength, that's going to come your way. And then after the promise comes the manifest station of the promise. He gives the promise and then he goes into, "they shall mount up with wings as Eagles." That just paints a rich picture, mounting up with wings as Eagles. His wings are so powerful that when a storm approaches, he doesn't have to fly away from the storm, but he can fly directly into the storm, and he locks his direction for the mountain, and he flies through the storm, and those talents, when he reaches his destination at the mountain, he began, he can lock and hold on through the storm.

You say, "well that's pretty impressive." When we hear that part in Scripture about soaring, that's the part I want. That's the part I'm gonna mount it up, and we'll have those, that Eagle ability, and and that, this sounds so wonderful. And we get excited, because when we wait on the Lord, then we're gonna become like the eagle. Man, we're gonna go and fly. Nothing's going to hinder us. We'll just sell above everything. But that's an emotional excitement, and there's nothing wrong with emotional excitement. It's okay. Some of us need to show a little more emotion sometimes. But where we get into trouble is when we become locked in on an emotional experience without a spiritual experience being along with that.

And if we go further in the scripture, says, "they shall run and not be weary." People praise runners. Runners have an ability to endure, to set a pace and to keep going. They carry the torch into the Olympic Stadium. They run up those stairs and people begin to cheer as they enter in carrying that torch. And it's a finish line of a marathon, there's always excitement. There's, there's praise coming to those who are running in. Even if you're not the first one off the line, there's always somebody still cheering everybody that finishes across that line. Praising is an emotional stimulus. It's stimulating to receive praise. Even us as preachers, it's good when somebody says, "I enjoyed what you see it." We're good. I'm glad somebody listened. Put a lot of work into it. But, but just the human nature, we enjoy praise as human beings. You do a good job, you put a lot of effort and work into something, and somebody gives you praise, it's, it's emotionally stimulating.

And then we get to, "they shall walk and not faint." Some days walking without fainting, it seems like a hard task. But walking, there's not a lot of praise. Walking does not equal the soaring eagle. You know, if you're walking down the sidewalk, you're probably not going to have car stopping and just, "man, did you see that guy walking?" However, walking is critical in your relationship with God. It's important that you have a daily walk with God. Soaring and running are comparable to our Sunday experience, so to speak. We come in, we, on Sunday mornings, and we're moved and motivated by the worship and the singing and the praise that's going forth. But walking is the real relationship. Walking is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. So how do you walk all the rest of the week? You try to live off of just soaring on Sunday. In your presence I might be able to fool your show, some excitement, and you think, "man, he's got it all together. He's got it all wrapped up." I can even become emotionally inspired and moving to the music and and enjoying what's taking place, getting caught up in the emotionalism of the service. But where's my walk? My walk tells about my relationship with God. You can't tell if I'm walking or not just by what you see on Sunday morning. You don't know if I'm walking or not. In the natural, you know, you may not can see me walk, but when I go to the doctor, he's gonna know whether I've been taking care of some sort of physical exercise. So I don't go the doctor much. He might tell me I need more. Well, the truth is, when you go and they do that checkup and the tests that they run, and they listen to the heart and they check blood pressures and those kinds of things, they can begin to tell whether or not I've been walking or not, because walking is beneficial to the heart. There's health benefits of walking.

And many in this room, I know, have a routine of walking daily and every other day and weekly, and and I walk to the fridge. So, but studies have shown that those who make that a routine of walking in their lifetime experience have benefits that others miss out on. Walkers are better able to control their cholesterol and their blood pressure and blood sugar levels. They're less risk of becoming diabetic, maybe a lower risk for heart disease, life-threatening diseases, the risk is lower. And so their life expectancy can be longer because of the walking. They have enhanced cardiovascular endurance, which makes it easier for them to move around in daily walking and daily activity. It's easier to pick up babies and to actually pick up what you drop on the floor without all those extra noises.

But in the same way as our spiritual walk, there's things that we have to do in our spiritual walk to remain spiritually healthy, because the truth is we all have an appointment with a great physician, and he's gonna check our heart. And if you want to know, well, this is what checks your heart. This is what you can hear. If it doesn't line up, you may need to walk a little different. You may need to change your pace, maybe a little spiritually lethargic. Because when you walk with him, you can endure the hardness that life brings. You can better deal with those things that make some people's life just fall apart. When you walk with him, things are easier to handle. I didn't say you were exempt from things and trials and difficulties and storms, but walking with him on a daily, intentional walk, an intentional relationship, makes the handling of what life brings a little easier. And when you walk with him, you become like him, and that should be our goal. Our objective in this spiritual walk is to be more like him, to reflect him, and what we say, what we do, and our actions reflect to those around us that we are trying to be like Christ.

The Bible supports the fact of spiritually walking with God. You read through scripture and you find several examples describing lives of individuals that had that walk with God. You see in Genesis 5 and 24, Dena walk with God and was not. Every time I read it I think, what if I was a guy walking beside him and suddenly he was not? Noah's also described in Genesis 6 and 9 as a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. Micah chapter 6 and verse 8 gives us a glimpse into God's desire for us. Says, "he has showed the, old man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Walking with God, not an activity reserved for just a select few. Well, we're all called to walk with God. God desires for all of his children to have a walk with him, a relationship with him. And the walk is more than just an occasional stroll or a few steps here and there.

So what happens when, when we walk with someone? Right now you walk 6 feet apart, but before all this, you are in close proximity. You talked, you laugh, listen. You share your heart's desires and emotions, maybe what you're dealing with, some of your feelings and dreams, ambitions, your likes, your dislikes. You share those things when you're just having a walk with somebody. Your attention is focused on the person. Sometimes you get distracted by an event taking place around here, but most of the time that just creates another conversation with the person that you're walking with. You share things together. You're walking in harmony. You enjoy the companionship, hopefully. If you're siblings, you may starting an argument. But as children of God, sometimes I think we are guilty of trying to outdo the other, rather than focus on our walk with God. But walking with God is like that, and all these things that I mentioned. We focus on the one we're walking with. We get near and close, and we begin to share what's going on in our life, if we truly have a walk with Christ that we want in our life. When we enter into that intimate heart relationship with God, as described in Hebrews 10 and 22, says he becomes our hearts greatest desire. Is that your greatest desire in your life, is your relationship with God? Or have we kind of pushed that to the side and allowed a few other things to kind of get in the way of our walk? You know, it's real easy to to walk when the weather is the perfect weather that that you enjoy. You know, for me it's high 60s is perfect. Sister Pam, she enjoys about 90 or above. And but whatever the perfect weather, it makes it a little easier for you to get outside. But you know, when it's a hundred and plus, you don't see people volunteering to go out and, "I'll just go for a walk." We come up with excuses, and we thought, "I'll do it later." And the devil desires nothing more than to put some excuses and some do it leaders in our life, in our spiritual walk. If he can distract us, then he knows it's going to kill the condition of our heart.

But when we walk with Him, we know his voice. We hear him. We share our hearts with him and seek to please him, because he becomes what we focus on. It becomes intentional. And just like somebody with routine exercise habit, you begin to crave those things. If you can't do it, it even is a little bit frustrating. I got over it. But it can be frustrating to miss those when you've gotten into routine. When he is everything to you, then your main focus is to please him, meeting with him on a daily set time. And hopefully you have that intentional set time each day, that you set aside time to spend with the one who will make a difference in your spiritual walk. It isn't reserved for Sunday, just a couple hours, but it should be every day, a desire that you have, a longing to get into his presence.

Proverbs 18 and 24, this is: "a man that hath friends must show himself friendly." If you don't have friends, try being friendly. But the second part says, "there's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." He's not far off. He's just the mention of his name, and he's right there. We lived to fellowship with him, to spend time with him. And the desire of every Christian B, to live in a state of unbroken worship, celebrating that relationship like no other relationship that you have in your life. And this is only possible when we truly, truly walk with Him.

So all this said, we need to understand four things about our walk with God. We're going to touch on four. There's more, probably, to understand. But your walk with God is important, and you've got a place priority. If something is important in your life, it's so important that your life depends on it, just like your life depends on some form of physical activity in the natural. Your spiritual walk requires intentional exercise to allow it to work and to be effective. Instead of those that sit in front of a computer eight hours a day, that every 50 minutes he should get up and walk for at least five minutes to help the blood circulating, avoid formation of blood clots. Life is in the blood, and the blood clot means that the life blood isn't flowing properly. And it's important that we get the blood circulating, because we all know a clot going to the wrong place means death.

And your walk with God is important, because the devil wants to kill your life. He wants to stop that life from happening within you. He wants to clot up what it is that's driving you and and pushing you with a spiritual walk. He wants to distract you and try to convince you that it's really not that important. Walking is not essential. It's not necessary. But the truth is, your spiritual life depends on your walk with God — the devil hates when you walk with God. He doesn't mind you coming to church on Sunday. He doesn't mind if you're singing and even shouting. But he hates when you walk with God, because he recognizes the importance of a walk with God as well, that daily commune with him, that one-on-one time when you can pour your heart out to him, and he can in turn touch you and strengthen you and renew you, as the scripture that we read.

When we become stuck on the soaring and the running, the emotional experience of the day, and we get hung up on the emotion, and sudden we fall into a category of reckless Christians. You don't mind if you miss a service or not. "I'll get my emotion back on when I can get back to it." It gets easier and easier to let somebody else do it. "I'll get back to it later." But when we have an intentional walk, when we have that dedicated time, "I don't want to miss out on my relationship. I don't want to miss out with an opportunity to get into presence of the one who can make a difference in my life and keep me on a consistent path." Because the truth is, me by myself, I'll train wreck this whole thing. But with him, he can keep me in line. And sometimes those walks are a correction. Sometimes I come into it to tell God how I think you not to go. When his dad used to do, if you ever grabbed your ear, buddy, it was bad news. Number one, you better listen, and you sure don't pull away, because there's correction coming, and you're gonna heed to it or wish dearly that you did. And sometimes in that relationship, in that walk with God, sometimes we need to need a correction. Hey, some things are not right. Like going to the doctor, sometimes they say, "hey, there's too many high numbers. The numbers are going far too fast on the scale. We need to work on some things." But if we don't have that daily walk, we're not going to have that checkup, and we may find ourselves in an emergency that we didn't want. That relationship, making the devil angry, because he knows if you have a daily walk, there's not a whole lot he can do to separate, if you make it on purpose, intentional, and no other option. Just like the song that says, "just a closer walk with thee, granny jesus is my plea, daily walking close to thee, let it be, dear Lord, let it be." Is that your heartbeat today? Is that your desire, got a daily walk with you, just a closer, intimate walk with you each and every day?

The third thing: anything that affects your walk is important. As brother Mitchell would say, look at your neighbor and see anything, anything that affects your walk is important. If you've ever had plantar fasciitis, just saying the word makes it sound serious. It affects the way you walk. If you get up at night to go to the restroom, you may have to hop on one foot just to get where you need to go, because the pain is so excruciating. And sometimes it's even to the point that you have to get a shot, because it affects the way that you walk. When something affects the way you walk, you have to take care of it right away, because when you leave it undone, you can have everlasting, permanent damage affecting the rest of your body, and your walk will become different, and you may not recover.

There's a man, his name's Peter Jenkins. In 1973 he started to walk across the America with his dogs. He walked some 5,000 miles from New York to Oregon. It took him nearly six years. During the six-year journey, he was mugged. He was robbed three times. He was stabbed once. He was hit by a car, and his dog was killed by another car. After he finished the journey, he was interviewed and asked the question, "was there ever a time when you just wanted to quit walking?" He said yes. The interviewer went on, he asked him, "was it the mugging that made you want to quit, or the stabbing, or getting hit by a car, or the death of your dog?" He said no, it wasn't any of those things that made me want to quit. So the interviewer, just a little bit puzzled, said, "well what was it that made you want to quit walking?" He says, "when I got sand in my shoes." Because when you get sand in your shoes, it affects the way that you walk. It irritates you, and it makes the journey uncomfortable. And it doesn't take very much sand, just to, just a very little bit in your shoe, and cause a blister on your foot to quickly appear. A little sand in your shoes has a potential to cause life-changing scenarios to take place.

Now, if you've been around me very long, you know I don't enjoy the beach. I'm just one of those guys. It's very pretty. The ocean sounds wonderful. But I can get what I need from the balcony, and that's cool enough. My wife, she enjoys walk on the beach, and she says it's nice and relaxing. And sometimes, because I love my wife, I walk with her on the beach. But when you get sand in your shoes, it's time to stop walking and take care of the sins, if you're trying to walk with God. Do you understand that the devil is a nuisance? He's annoying, and he's gonna try and do whatever he can to affect your walk with God, because he knows that he can get your walk, then he can destroy that relationship. And understand this, it's not gonna be the big things that he uses to affect your wall. You know, of all the times I've walked on the beach, you know, I never got a big rock in my shoe and like, and I just gotta keep walking, like no. It's those little things, just a little bit of sand, just like Peter Jenkins. It wasn't the muggings of stabbing, but the sand in his shoes. And the devil desires to destroy our walk, and he's going to use that sand to destroy the relationship. The Bible says in Song of Solomon 2 and 15, "the little foxes that spoil the vines." It's not gonna be the big foxes. Satan comes at you with just the little grains of sand. And begins to place them in your, in your life. Discouragement: "Lord, I've been praying for this for a long time, been asking you for this, and I haven't received it." You find yourself in a place of discouragement, and that little bit of sand begins to wear on you. Depression sets in: "nobody appreciates me at church anyway, so I'm just, I'm just not going to go back." We allow that sand to begin to get in to our shoe a little bit. Maybe you misunderstood something in, in Scripture, and the preacher preaches it hard, and it rubbed you the wrong way, and now that, that sand just keeps irritating. The devil keeps placing more and more there to hinder your wall. Or maybe the doctor saw something on the x-ray that just didn't look good, and so now that grain of fear begins to grip you, and it affects your walk, and you begin to question. You kind of come to a point of paralysis: "I just, I can't go on." Or what about the companies allowing over time every Sunday for the next year, and that sand of green begins to set in, because "God wouldn't give it to me if he didn't want me to have it, so I've got to take all the overtime." But remember, we started all this, I saying anything that affects your walk. I'm not saying over times bad. That's the way sometimes God works. If you need an extra financial blessing that comes in the way of work and over time, but when overtime drives you to the point of you're missing those opportunities with God, and those times to be in service to draw strength, maybe you need to check you got a little too much sand in your shoe.

Maybe pastor didn't speak to you on Sunday, and so now the sand of prides crippled your wall: "I can't believe if you didn't talk to me today." And these little grains of sand began to get into our walk, into the shoe, and affect our wall. Maybe laziness is sitting out. You may need to get out here and start talking. "I can just watch service online." Hebrews 10:25 says, "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together." Maybe quit having any gratitude in your life: "I deserve this, or I'm do that." Ephesians 5 and 20 says, "giving thanks always for all things." Gratitude, thankfulness, doesn't cost you anything, but the lack of will drive you away from your walk with God. Worrying about those things you have no control over, worrying about something because you don't have anything to worry about. We know those people. Lustful thoughts allowed to creep in and reside. Gossiping. Too much entertainment. We've got to do all things with our spiritual walk being our guide, in our check mark. Now pastor was talking about the ice cream on vacation. "I understand how much is too much." We all have to answer for ourselves. You know, I think, "well, it's just a small thing. It's just a little bit of sand. Think I can get by." You realize sand can strip the paint off of a car. It just seems like a small thing. It's literally insignificant. "I think I can keep going. I think I can go on, and not, this, this isn't going to affect me." But slowly it's eroding your relationship, because it's effect the way that you walk.

As I said a few minutes ago, walking on the beach, because I love my wife, not the beach. When you leave the beach, they typically have a shower or water hose or something that you can, you reach your feet off and get to sand off. But the problem is, when you raise one foot and rinse it off, and you put it down to rinse the other, when you step right back in the sand, there's just simply no way to get rid of the sand. It's nearly impossible. And then when you think you've got it all off, you get in the car and they're saying in there. And once you get sand, it's always there, and it's just a fact of life. And there are spiritual walk, it seems like I just keep washing away. I keep trying to do this, I keep trying to do that, and the sand of jealousy, it's just still there. Trying to rinse off the sand of pride, it's still there. The sins of lust, they just won't go away. Bad habits, wrong influences. We continually try to rinse off the sand, and only find that it's still there, still lingering.

And we get to that fourth point: think about your walk with God, is God never designed for you to wash your own feet. You have to allow Christ to wash you, to cleanse you. First Peter 5 and 7 says, "casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you." Do you allow him to care for you, or do you guard those certain areas? "I got control of this," and you're walking along, and that blisters just getting bigger, and it's starting to consume. The point where you can't even talk to the person you're with, your whole mind focus, when you have something that's hurting, like a big blister, you're just like, "well honey, even do this because I love my wife, that's why," and we keep hobbling along.

Matthew 11:28 says, "coming to me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, I'll give you rest." When you become weary, there's a place of rest, and it's in the one that you walk with each and every day. He will give you strength. It will give you rest. He will give you encouragement. He will give you what you need.

John 13, verses 5 through 9: "so after that he poured water in the basin, begin to wash the disciples feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter said unto Him, Lord, does thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said in him, what I do they'll know us not now, but thou wilt, thou shalt know Hereafter. Peter said to him, thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter said unto Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands in my head." Let me come to God recognizing, "God, you have a work to do in my life. Don't just wash part of me. Let me all be washed. Let it all be clean. But nothing be lingering that's going to sidetrack my walk with you. Let nothing distract what it is that you want to do in my life, because I've held on to a certain area, I've held on to a certain habit, I've held on to something that's going to hinder my heart relationship with you."

So as we bring it to a close, I don't know what it is that you may be going through right now, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that some in a room like this, someone's got a little sand in their shoe. You say, "well I'm walking okay," but don't let it get to the point of the blister. Don't let it get to the point that it cripples you all together. As we stay in Romans chapter 8 and verse 1, says, "there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit." What are you pursuing in your walk? Have you set your own goals and your own ambitions and your own priorities above what it is God desires for you to do and to accomplish, and his will for your life? Because the sand that's causing you pain and discouragement may be the very check that he's putting — say, "hey, stop. The walk isn't right. It's affecting the way you're walking. You need to let me wash you and let me cleanse you." May be used to point where you're simply about to give up because of too many little grains of sand. Just as Peter said in the scripture, "not just my feet, Lord, also my hands in my head." He realized the parts that touch, the parts that can reach, the parts that can move you, and the part that controls you. God, wash all of those things. And that must be our daily desire, each and every day: "God, let nothing hinder, let nothing distract, but nothing separate me from having a daily walk with you."

David said in Psalms 51 and to, "wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." And then in verse 7, "purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter and no." When we walk with him and we allow him to cleanse us and to keep it all right, we don't have to worry about the walk being hindered. Yeah, we may have some steep hills to climb, but when everything's right, we're hand-in-hand with him, and we'll make it through. So how are you walking? You say, "well I'm doing good." We also have an obligation to make sure those around us know to check their shoes. We need to pray for those around us, that they don't become discouraged, that they don't become distracted, they don't become sidetracked and end up with heart issues, because they've lost out on the walk that God desires to have with them as well.

Yatta, thank you for your word. I thank you, Lord, for your goodness. Your presence is here right now, god. I pray you help each and every one of us, God, and our daily walk with you, God. Maybe we've become a little distracted. Maybe we've lured Jesus, not seeking you out, not seeking that walk each and every day. God, help us, Lord, to find you, Lord, to allow that strength to be renewed in us, God, that we can soar when we need to soar, to run when we need to run. But God, most importantly, each and every day to walk, walk with you each and every day. God, help us, Lord, to hide the word in our heart, God. Jesus, to seek you out, Lord, in all areas of our life, God, to surrender to you, that you can cleanse us, Lord, and make us, Lord, what you want us to be. God, we give you glory. We worship You, Lord. You are good and faithful. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Go with us as we leave this place.