"A New Walk Part III" By Jesse Rairdon January 18th,
2015
Welcome
to Christian Fellowship
Great Lakes. If
this is your first time,
please come back; every Sunday’s not the same.
It’ lively. This
month we’ve been doing a
series, “A New Walk.” The
Scripture for
the month, the man that was healed, speaking John 5:11
He
answered them, He that made me whole, the
same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. A
new walk. A
different walk. Before
we get into the message, I
would like Brother Ed H to come up and lead in prayer specifically for
the
message, that I would get out of the way, and let God have His way. Amen? Ed H:
Please
bow your heads for the word of prayer.
Lord Jesus, we just thank You, Lord, for Your
love, for the worship, and
just being a great God, Lord Jesus.
Lord
Jesus, right now, we’re going to hear a message, Lord, that’s anointed
of You,
Lord; we ask, Lord, that You anoint our brother, Jesse, Lord. Lord, anoint him with
wisdom, knowledge and
understanding, Jesus; just speak through him, Lord.
Lord, I ask that Jesse moves out of the way,
Lord; that Your Spirit has full control over Jesse, Lord, as he speaks
Your
word, that You would speak through him, Lord.
We ask, right now, Jesus, that You would anoint
everybody here in the
congregation that’s going to be hearing that message.
Lord, clean up our hearts, our minds, Lord;
give us clarity, Jesus, to hear from You, Jesus.
Lord, right now, Lord, we ask, Lord, in Your
name, Jesus, we bind Satan and rebuke him, in Jesus’ name. Lord, You’ve cast him out
of here, Lord. Lord,
we want to hear Your message, Lord,
that You’ve prepared, Lord, that You speak through Your servant Jesse,
Lord. We ask that
the message we hear,
Lord, that we’ll hold onto it, Lord, that it will take root in our
lives, Lord,
that we’ll learn from it. In
Jesus’
name, that this will be a start, that it will add to our faith, Lord. Lord, that it will help us
understand more of
Your love, Lord, the things that we need to hear, Lord, on how to have
a better
walk with You. Jesus,
and that we would
learn through Your word, Jesus, how much You love us, Lord Jesus. We love You, Lord, we
thank You, Lord, we
thank You for the message we’re going to hear, and the things that
we’re going
to receive from You today, Jesus, and from now on, for the rest of our
lives. We thank You. We ask all these
blessings, Jesus, in Your
name. Amen. Giving
honor and glory to God,
first of all, who is the Head of my life, who saved my soul, redeemed
my
soul. Surely, I was
going down the wrong
path, and only the blood of Jesus, only
the blood of Jesus could save me.
Anybody that saith so, let them say, amen. We’re
going to cover five points
today; maybe more, but these are just some things that God has been
dealing
with me about, even this morning.
About
two o’clock this morning, He said, “These are some things, too.” The points that I had
originally are: Point
#1- God Has a History Of
Giving You Where He Sends You. Point
#2- We Need Joy In the
Journey. Point
#3- We Need Patience to
Endure to the End. Point
#4- If It Seems like You’re
off Track, Get Back on Track. Point
#5- We Need to Walk In Love. I
think, just because that’s point
number five, that doesn’t mean that it’s the least important. Point #1 - God
Has a History of Giving You Where He Sends You. He’s
not just going to send you
anywhere, blindly, that He has not prepared for You to go. Every place you go, He
already knows what
you’re going to go through. Joshua 1:1-9
Now
after the death of Moses the servant of
the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of
Nun,
Moses' minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise,
go over
this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give
to them,
even to the children of Israel. Every
place
that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto
you, as I
said unto Moses. From
the wilderness and
this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the
land of
the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun,
shall be
your coast. There
shall not any man be
able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with
Moses, so I
will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good
courage: for unto
this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I
sware unto
their fathers to give them. Only
be thou
strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to
all the
law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the
right hand
or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This
book of
the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate
therein day
and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is
written
therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou
shalt have
good success. Have
not I commanded thee?
Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou
dismayed: for
the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. God
set them up for success. God
set them up for victory. God
set them up for a land, to give to them;
just as He told Moses, He told, now their leader, Joshua, “This land
I’m going
to give to you. This
promise hasn’t
faded. This promise
is still real. Everywhere
you walk, I’m going to give that
to you. All the
enemies that you think
you have, that are going to try to stand before you, they’re not going
to stand
up. I’m God; who
are they? Did I not
give that to you? But,
there’s a condition on that: You
have to meditate on something. You
have to be led. You
have to walk with God.” The
Bible says, “Can two walk together except
hey be agreed?” (Amos 3:3) So,
if Israel
wasn’t walking with God, would they get these things?
No. “This
book of the law,” says verse number eight, “shall not depart out of thy
mouth;
but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe
to do
according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy
way
prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”
We all want great jobs, good success, and all
that stuff, money to pay the bills, money extra in the bank, nice car
to drive,
but we’ve got to put first things first.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness (Matthew
6:33). You ever
been passed up for a job
that you think you should’ve had?
Maybe
you need to seek first the kingdom of God, and see what’s right where
you’re
at, and minister to the people that you need to minister to, and then
you can
get onto the next place. It’s
really all
about the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, ad all these things
will be
added to you as well. God
will not take
you to a place He hasn't already prepared you for, either. You’re not just going to
wonder, “How am I
here? Why am I
here?” He’s already
been preparing you; He’s going
to prepare your heart, He’s going to prepare your mind, He’s going to
prepare
you through the meditation in His Word, He’s going to open up doors
that no man
can close. The
world looks at success in
what you wear, or what you have; God looks at success in who you see
saved. Especially
yourself, amen? The
Word of God says—some of these
Scriptures I’m going to go through fast, so you could just make a note
of them,
and go back to them later. That’s
what
you should do, for maintenance. Don’t
just take my word for it, go back and study the Word yourself. Ezekiel 36:27 And I will put my
spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall
keep my
judgments, and do them. So,
He’s not going to leave you
alone; He’s going to put His Spirit in you to kind of give you a
guideline, to
kind of help you walk along the way.
Amen? So,
the promise is there,
and the way to get there is there. John 8:12
Then
spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I
am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in
darkness, but
shall have the light of life. Get
into God’s Word and
meditate. That’s
where your light,
that’s where your path, that’s where your directions going to go. Yeah, it’s great to get
advice and good
counsel from friends, but the best counsel you’re ever going to get is
right
from God. Other
counsel is going to
confirm that, if you’ve been with God and they’ve been with God. It’s going to show. In the mouth of two or
three witnesses is
every word established (Matthew 18:16), so let God establish it first,
and then
others confirm it, amen? Pastor
Paine called, and did share
some things with us, and one of the things that I really got, and
recommended,
and reminded me of, he recommends to a new Christians to read about 30
minutes
a day in the Bible. Why? Is that in the Bible? Is that one of the
commandments of God? No,
it’s just a good tool; a good
guideline. I’ve
done a lot more,
myself. For the
first three years—not
everybody can do what I did, but—every waking moment, any time I had
spare
time, I had a small pocket Bible with Old and New Testament, I was in
that Word.
You know
what? that gave me a foundation
that is still leading and guiding my walk, even to this day. The things that I teach,
the things that I
share, the things that minister to me when I’m going through the
struggles of
my life, those things come back to my remembrance and I meditate on
them, and
I’ve got a direction, I’ve got a purpose, and I can get up and walk
again. Point #2- We Need
Joy in the Journey. That’s
something else he brought
up. These are a lot
of good reminder
things. A lot of us
know these things,
but, sometimes, we kind of let the joy go away, and walk around like
someone’s
poked little holes in our joy-bucket.
It’s all kind of empty, all the time.
The more people try to pour in, well, you know, it
just gushes back
out. We’ve got to
get that joy and keep
that joy; spread that joy. The
only time
that joy should be leaving is when we’re sharing with others. Amen? Nehemiah 8:10 Then
he said unto
them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions
unto
them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord:
neither
be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
You
know what’s going to keep you
strong? that joy. That’s
kind of like
gas in your tank; you want to check that—if you go on a long trip, you
want to
keep an eye on that gas tank; if it gets close to empty, you might want
to pull
over and get some gas in that tank.
So,
joy is like that fuel for the journey, it gives us strength to do the
right
things. Make sure
you’re doing it for
the right reason, amen? Psalms 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy
presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for
evermore. Get
back into God's presence if
you need joy. If
the only time you’re
getting into God’s presence is Sunday—yes, that’s good, I’m glad you’re
doing
that—but that’s not the only time you should get into God’s presence. There’s a lot more time,
fellowship
opportunities, special time with God; just set aside everything else,
even turn
off the Christian radio station. Just
sing unto God, worship God, meditate on His Word.
You’ve got plenty of time.
Sometimes you’ve got to steal away at work,
even if you’ve got to take a bathroom break, you know?
Talk to God.
He’s there. He’s
not ashamed if
you’ve got to that place to speak to Him.
Amen? You’ve
got to break away;
you’ve got to be in God’s presence, that’s where you really fill up the
tank. You ever get
lost, and you try to
fill up at the gas station, and all the lights are off at the first gas
station, and all the pumps are closed; or some of those ‘cash only’
places, and
you’re like, “Awww!” God’s
not like that;
the lights aren’t off, the lights are always on.
You can always get that joy fill-up whenever
you need to. Amen? David said, in his prayer
of repentance, “Renew
the right spirit within me,” and “restore unto me the Joy of thy
salvation.”
(Psalms 51:10-12) Restore;
when you
restore an old car, you’re trying to bring it back to where it was. “God, I knew what it was
where I had
joy. Bring me back
where I was.” I
understand, I have tasted of the Lord’s
joy, I’ve seen how good it is. Maybe
stock up on the worship today, and the testimonies today. There’s more things I
think we need here
today. John 16:24
Hitherto
have ye asked nothing in my name:
ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. There
again, ask and you shall
receive. Brother
Armand shared about his
heart to teach children how to pray.
The
three basic things that I see in prayer, ask, seek, and knock; they’re
all
action things. If
you want that, you’ve
got to really strive after it. It’s
not
one of those things where it’s like, “Oh, God I could really use a shot
of
joy. Amen. Have a nice day.” Sometimes you’ve got to
really pray it
through, amen? So,
if you need a Joy
fill-up, ask God; He has more than enough.
How much joy does God have?
It’s
like going to the ocean and filling up a thimble, and saying, “I only
have this
much; it’s the size of my container,” but you could use a tanker truck. The ocean isn’t bothered,
it never runs
out. You could keep
filling up that
tanker truck. Amen? Keep backing up that
tanker truck; more
joy. You decide how
much joy you’re
going to have. Really,
you do. Point #3 - We Need
Patience to Endure to the End. This
is one that’s really hard for
me sometimes. Patience. I tell you what, I don’t
know how brothers
work with me sometimes. Amen? Some of you really know. Hebrews 12:1-3 Wherefore
seeing we
also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay
aside
every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run
with
patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author
and
finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured
the
cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of
God. For consider
him that endured such
contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint
in your
minds. I
think we all fight weariness a
lot. Sometimes it’s
in our job,
sometimes it’s in our faith. It’s
e3asy
to get weary. A
good example of running
a race with patience is a marathon runner. They
don't just sprint out ahead, to the
front, and keep running as fast as they can.
They take their time, and pace themselves and
understand that they’re in
for the long haul. It’s
sort of like
counting the cost to see if you really have it to make it to the end
(Luke
14:28). If you’re
not a Christian today,
you’re not saved, washed in the blood of Jesus, still kind of
considering this
whole Jesus thing, count the cost, first.
Are you really going do to it to the end? consider
that first, because
it’s a long race, but he that endures to the end, the same shall be
saved
(Matthew 24:13). I
tell you what, when
you have that patience, and you have that understanding, you’re going
to make
it. Patience is
what keeps us in the
race to win it. If
you have no patience
you will burn out quickly. How
many
times have you seen those Christians that are so on fire, they run,
run, run,
run, run, then hit a wall, and then they’re done; you don’t see them
anymore? We all
understand we’re going to hit the wall
sometimes. We’ve
got to take those times
of refreshing; we’ve got to take those times of renewing so that we can
get
back up again. Galatians 6:9 And let us not be
weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Don’t
get weary in giving people
rides to church. Don’t
get weary in
coming up here to play an instrument.
Don’t get weary in being an usher.
Don’t get weary in serving communion.
Don’t get weary in saying your prayers.
Don’t get weary in aching your children.
Don’t get weary in encouraging your neighbor. Don’t get weary in doing
things that are
right. You shall
reap, in due season, if
you faint not. Point #4- If It
Seems like You’re off Track, Get Back on Track. - Have
you ever been on a road-trip
with a group of people, and all of the sudden, someone says, “I know a
shortcut?” Now
you’re wandering around
in the hills of nowhere, running out of gas, running out of joy. There’s a lot of amens to
that. That must be
true story. So how
do you get back on track? First
of all, you need to fill up your
tank. Find the
first gas station and get
some more gas in that tank, and maybe find somewhere to get a map and
find some
guidance, because if everybody in your car is lost, all you’re going to
do is
keep wandering around in circles and wind up in the same place. Then you could be in one
of those movies,
‘The Hills Have Eyes,” or something; stop here and you might not live. This
is how you get on track
initially, in case you were wondering: Romans 6:4
Therefore
we are buried with him by baptism
into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. A
new walk. A newness
of life. I don’t do
the things I used to do before,
because I have a new walk. If
I get a
pair of shoes, that are wearing down, especially on the sides, because
I kind
of walk on the sides of my feet a little bit—I don’t know if I’m
bowlegged, but
that’s what I do, the sides of my shoes wear out—but I’ll get a pair of
shoes
and I’ll wear those things all the way through, but, my wife, God bless
her,
she’ll buy me a pair of shoes before I’ll buy myself a pair of shoes,
but I’ll put
those shoes on, and—oh man!—I’ve got a new walk.
It’s almost like I’ve got new feet. They feel good. That’s how it is with
Jesus. It’s a new
walk; you feel good. All
them weights, all them worries, all them
burdens are kind of lifted off. It’s
like, “Wooo! I can
dance a little bit
now.” Amen? We all have been
given a new walk. We are
different, because we have a new lease on life.
You’ve heard that saying, “You have a new lease on
life?” I have a
different way of thinking. No
more stinking thinking. People
say "I don’t want to become a Christian,
they might brainwash me." My
brain was
quite dirty, it needed a lot of washing.
I don’t know about yours, but mine needed a good
washing. I
like the Scripture Sonia shared
this morning—this is one of the additions we had to the sermon this
morning: Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with
all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge
him, and he shall
direct thy paths. Amen. To get back on track,
acknowledge God in all
your ways. Trust in
the Lord with all
your heart. Sometimes
it’s hard to trust
people, but it’s easy to trust God, because God’s always looking out
for the
best for you. Sometimes
people don’t look
out for the best for you, and they break that trust, amen? Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t
still love them,
but God’s the One that’s got your back the whole way through. He wants to see you in
heaven, amen? Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that
seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Seemed
like the right job; seemed
like the right place to live, but I find myself totally out of the will
of
God. How did that
happen? Go back to
what Sonia was talking about,
trust in the Lord with all your heart, in all your ways acknowledge Him. Even if you think it’s a
small way, a simpler
way, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.
Amen?
I’ve made bad decisions.
I’ve
made wrong decisions. Took
a wrong turn
and got lost before. Even
in the county
of Otter Tail, Minnesota—that’s kind of a funny name, but that’s where
I kind
of grew up in my teen-age years—but I got lost on those back roads. I had to call someone to
get directions. They
said, “Didn’t you grow up in this
area?” I said,
“Yeah, but I never went
back in these roads.” I
got directions
to get back out, found my way to a main highway and get back in the
right
direction. Be
careful who you get your
instructions from. Be
careful who you
get your guidance from. You
ever have a
GPS that kept trying to turn you in the wrong direction? Maybe there was some
construction going on
there… One time I
was so mad, I took and
ripped it off and threw it in the backseat.
My wife looked at me…
It kept
talking to me, but I knew it was giving me wrong directions. Sometimes you have to get
that thing out of
your sight, out of your mind, whatever is giving you wrong directions. Psalms 119:105 Thy
word is a lamp
unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Did
you ever stumble around in the
darkness, and, all of the sudden, you add some light to the picture,
and you
can kind of see a little better? Here’s
a good quote I heard recently this week:
“Slippery morals will cause you get off the path.” “Slippery morals will
cause you get off the
path.” So,
sometimes, when you think a
little bit of error in judgment is okay…
It’s like that ice on your driveway, and you have
a little bit of steep
slope, and you’re trying to climb up it, and you’re slipping, slipping,
slipping… You’ve
got to get rid of those
slippery morals. Put
them out. Amen? Read
and study God's word, He speaks to us in His Word and from His Word. When I find myself off
track, I pray and get
into the Word. Proverbs 4:18 But the path of
the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the
perfect
day.
If
you find your path getting darker and darker and you’re kind of not
understanding
where, why, or what you’re doing, you might not be on the right path. The path of the just—when
you’re letting God
lead you and you’re trusting in Him, is getting brighter and brighter. It’s getting g lighter and
lighter; you have
more understanding. You’re
like, “Oh,
wow. Now I
understand it even more. I’m
not clueless anymore.” Amen? Point #5- We
Need to Walk in Love Ephesians Chapter 5:1-2
Be ye
therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love,
as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering
and a
sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
It's
easy to say “I LOVE YOU." The
words just kind of roll off your
lips. Those that
have been married a
long time, it’s kind of easy, “Oh, I love you,” “I love you, “I love
you.” If you stop
showing it in your actions,
sooner or later, that person is going to wonder if you really love them
or
not. If all I did
was say I love my
wife, and I didn’t prove it in my actions; I didn’t try to seek and
understand
what really pleases her and makes her happy and show her why I love
her,
eventually, our love is going to grow cold.
There’s a book we read before we got married, it’s
called “The Five Love
Languages,” it slips my mind the name of the author (Editor’s note: Gary Chapman) but I
recommend all those that
plan to get married, and maybe if you just plan to work with people and
want to
understand love better, it’s called “The Five Love Languages.” It’s kind of cool; look it
up. Understand that
sometimes we speak different
languages in love. Sometimes
we receive
and give love differently, based, sometimes, on how we were raised. So if someone else
receives love by acts of
service, but you give love by words of affirmation, that’s different;
you’re
not talking the same language. You’ve
kind of got to get on the same page.
God’s love totally encompasses all that; it’s a
totally different kind
of love. So, we are
to love each other
as God loves us, and walk in that love. Phil
was sharing with me a
testimony about the military, he shared with me Friday night that one
of his
co-workers came up to him and said, “You know, Phil, you don’t just say
the
words, ‘I love you,’ or, ‘I care about you,’ you mean it. You always follow up with
us. You always
check on us and see how we’re
doing.” So, Phil
you are bearing that
fruit, already, in your testimony at work and in your life. The boss came to the
office and shared with
everybody in the office, “This is a man of God.”
That doesn’t happen all the time at
work. So, you’re
bearing fruit. That’s
the kind of fruit, that’s the kind of
love—we’ve got to have that kind of care for everybody we come in
contact
with. You
can do everything else right
and miss the mark on love. We
can do
everything else right, we can go through the motions, we can come to
church, we
can give people rides to church, we can do everything that seems right,
and
miss the mark on love. When
we sin, does God hold it
against us? After we have repented and He has forgiven us, does He kind
of hold
it against us? No? So why do we do that to
one another? Why do
we hold so many things against one
another? Why do we
have division amongst
each other? I, one
time, I got a call
from Pastor Paine. It
was one of those
calls we don’t really want to hear.
I
had offended Parrish so much that he couldn’t even speak to me any more
that
day. It was long
before he became a
fellowship leader and everything, but, we got past that, didn’t we,
Parrish? I forgot
about that until just today, because
when you move one, you move on. If we would have held that against one
another,
we wouldn’t be able to work with one another.
Yeah, we’d have smiled and come to church, and
said all those nice
things to one another, and greeted one another with a handshake, said,
“God bless
you,” but if that bitterness is still there, it’s still there. So, if you have that with
someone here today,
maybe you can resolve it, because you’re going to miss the mark; you’re
not in
a good walk; you need to get back on track.
Amen? Give
the Lord a
praise. Sometimes
offenses can have a
real effect. We’ve
got to work through
those things together, amen? Especially
those of us who have been on the road a while together, amen? 1 Peter 1:22
Seeing
ye have purified your souls in
obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the
brethren, see
that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Unfeigned
means un-faked. People
can tell if you hug them, and didn’t
really hug them for real. If
you just
hug them out of obligation, “Yeah, I’ve got to hug this brother or
sister
because they’re my brother or sister.”
People can tell the love; they can feel the love. Most of all, it’s already
going to be known,
because, when you’re in need, they’re going to be the first person to
drop whatever
they’re doing and be there for you.
They’re
not going to leave you out in the cold; they’re not going to—they’ll
rearrange
their schedule, they’ll do whatever they’ve got to do to help you get
where you
need to go, or do what you need to do, or stop and pray with you, or
take some
time to fast for you. 1 John Chapter 4:7-21 Beloved, let us
love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born
of God,
and knoweth God. He
that loveth not
knoweth not God; for God is love.
In
this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent
his only
begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that
we loved God, but
that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved
us, we ought also to
love one another. No
man hath seen God
at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love
is
perfected in us. Hereby
know we that we
dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do
testify that the
Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son
of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
And we have known and believed the love that God
hath to us. God is
love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made
perfect, that we may
have boldness in the Day of Judgment: because as he is, so are we in
this
world. There is no
fear in love; but
perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not
made perfect in
love. We love him,
because he first
loved us. If a man
say, I love God, and
hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother
whom he
hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
And this commandment have we from Him, That
he who loveth God love his brother also. Amen. I think that spoke for
itself, so I’m going
to leave the message right there.
God
bless you.
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