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Message: A Walk with God is Just, Kind & Meek

       Or is it? You see there are those who believe once they choose to invite the Lord into their lives, everything becomes enveloped with Justness, Kindness, and humble Meekness from all those that you live with or know. Egh… I’m sorry you do not win the Gin-su knives.

No, the reality is that regardless of other people’s behavior, the further down that faithwalk path we go with God, the more that being just, kind & meek are attainable in our own lives. That we actually learn to filter out the bogus stuff from others and learn to love people in spite of their challenges, like God loves us in spite of us. This doesn’t mean we don’t still struggle with our challenges, it’s just that we have discovered our world’s transformation begins within our own attitude adjustments with God’s help.

Today, I am excited to talk with you about how our lives can be transformed, and what life can be like for those who ask to walk with the Lord in and with God’s Royal Family, the Body of Christ. Opportunity is available!

And many of us are wondering, just how do we begin to be more like the person we want to be, and then walk down that path that leads to eternity with God and those we love in the here and now.

       I guess for some of us, we have to realize that even when we call ourselves Christians, some of the stuff we hear on a Sunday morning can seem foreign and uncomfortable. Well, sometimes that’s what Sundays are supposed to do to us. Meaning God is calling, because the Lord loves you, and wants to build your life with you.

By waking us up from our lives of Christian autopilot, the Gospel can convict us, then reclaim us from being Christians in name but lacking a real relationship in and with the Lord and other people. And if you are feeling defensive that this message is being aimed at you…Good! Because it’s aimed at me too. All of us require a good kick in the backside from time to time. And, whether today’s words are convicting you, is completely up to you, as on any given day you spend with God and His family.

Here are some basic steps for how we might begin or re-begin that walk with our Lord and God’s family the Body of Christ, more closely. Please remember this is my list for today. Tomorrow the list might evolve, so feel free to work on a list that reflects your hopes and that works for you as you seek to be closer to your Lord;

1. Realize our God is serious;
   1. About sin, and will not tolerate us living in muck.
      1. Only you can determine your level of muck
      1. This is begun by fearing that our state of sin distances us from God. Which is death!
2. Repent;
   1. Once we have asked for forgiveness and begun to trust in our Lord, fear is replaced with fearlessness.

I want to use scripture to back up these steps, and so here is step 1). We must: Realize our God is serious about our sin. Leading me back to today’s Call to Worship, Psalm 112;

¹ Praise the Lord.

Blessed are those who fear the Lord,
    who find great delight in his commands.

*Interrupting to say; Yes, this is,

Step 1. Realizing God is serious;

Being able to understand God is serious about our sin problem, and our fearing to disappoint our Father should drive us to repent and try again to walk closer in and with our God. Continuing, verse 2;

² Their children will be mighty in the land;
    the generation of the upright will be blessed.
³ Wealth and riches are in their houses,
    and their righteousness endures forever.
⁴ Even in darkness light dawns for the upright,
    for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous.
⁵ Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely,
    who conduct their affairs with justice.

⁶ Surely the righteous will never be shaken;
    they will be remembered forever.
⁷ They will have no fear of bad news;
    their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
⁸ Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear;
    in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.

**Cutting in again to say; We are now into;

Step 2) Repenting

Because we are now trusting God and that’s only when fearlessness, can replace genuine fear and terror from the majesty of the divine!

Now, we’re not only receiving from God, we are now giving to others in need of compassion, which is;

Step 3) Loving God & others;

As described next in verse 9;

⁹ They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor,
    their righteousness endures forever;
    their horn will be lifted high in honor.

¹⁰ The wicked will see and be vexed,
    they will gnash their teeth and waste away;
    the longings of the wicked will come to nothing.

Just like all of the glitz and glitter in a world of faux prosperity, and countless chasses after worthless junk. No, our horn (power from God, grace from God, and discernment from God), is lifted in honor, because we have shown God, other people, and ourselves that we know what to do with the gifts God gives us! And the Lord provides even more accordingly.

Those who deny our Lord, those at war with our God, those who bring others into rebellion with our savior (the wicked) will waste away into nothing in the course of eternity. Ours is a much different future. The eternity that you and I with as many as we can bring to the Lord, will share in an existence of pure wholesome ecstasy, and bliss beyond our poor capabilities to comprehend.

So now we begin to treat others as God is treating us, our faithwalk is further developed by;

1. Learning to be just, kind & meek

Learning to be more just, kind, and meek, is not a poof and you are healed kind of proposition. For many of us this will require a lifetime of work, and rework as we learn.

Being just, kind, and meek, are explained to us throughout scripture. For today, I would like to use the examples in the letter to the Hebrews, but you can find examples of how we are to treat other people and respond to God, everywhere in both testaments of scripture. Here is an example from Hebrews 13: 1-8,

¹ Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. ² Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. ³ Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

⁴ Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. ⁵ Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you;
    never will I forsake you.”

⁶ So we say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
    What can mere mortals do to me?”

*I am interrupting to say; God has just brought us in scripture today, instruction on how to love Him, and other people, and because God is with us, we do not need to be afraid to give of ourselves freely to both.

In fact, when our writer of Hebrews just instructed us about marriage, I believe we could apply the instruction to being wedded to husbands and wives (spouses), and each other in the Body of Christ (our church family), and most important our marriage to God. Because when we cheat on our Lord it is adultery and idolatry all rolled up into our selfishness.

When we get this figured out in our lives, we will be on our way to;

•   Loving God and other people.

And if we need a reminder, the author of Hebrews instructs us in verses 7-8;

⁷ Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. ⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Our God uses the way He loves, cares for, and forgives each of us, as a template for learning, so that we might live in harmony with each other in this life. And this kind of consideration of God and other people, leads to a good life in the here and now, and on into life eternal!

Now that I am beginning to go down that path of loving God and other people, God will show me how to do just that. Our Lord will give us more instruction on how to make our commitment to follow Him, a deeper more vigorous Faithwalk in the Lord, and with others within and outside the Body of Christ our Family in God.

For specifics, we have today’s Message Reading from Luke 14:1, 7-14;

¹One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched…

*Please let me cut in to say; just how many of us could stand up to that kind of scrutiny of people observing your every movement? Well, with Jesus, what you see is what you get, someone who gets you because even though He is human like you, He shows us what the standards in life can be in God. Continuing now at verse 7;

… ⁷ When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: ⁸ “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. ⁹ If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. ¹¹ For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

**Cutting in to say; Learning to walk humbly with our Lord, takes some of us constant work for it to become a way of life. The rewards become apparent when others begin to emulate our behavior, and before you know it, our little corner of the Earth become more wholesome and Godlike in the face of a society that has always sought to climb over the sad remains of others. Continuing now at verse 12;

¹² Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

In other words, giving to those who you know will do in kind for you back, is not giving, but hedging your bets in life. When we truly are looking to please God by serving others, we are looking at the real needs of our society. That is when we are really Loving God and other people, c). And putting others first before ourselves.

       I wish I could report to you that I have perfected this sentiment in my own life, but I like you, am a work in progress. I think what is important is that we continue to work on these teachings of God in our every day lives. Perfection will come, when we are glorified and in His presence in eternity. Until that time, God gives us the grace to keep working on those things that battle within us.

       Today we looked at just one of many three step ideas about how to grow in our faithwalk in and with our Lord and each other.

• Realize our God is serious about our sin;
• Repenting;
• Loving God & others;

 Each of those steps are obviously easier said than done, but with God, all things are possible. Because; A Walk with God is, Just, Kind & Meek and sometimes we even get a little closer to what it means to walk in our Lord’s footsteps.                                                   

Amen!