Walk with Me 1985

And, you know, to think about the cry of that prayer, the cry of that prayer, as I understand it, is, you know, Lord, I want to know that you're walking at my side. I want to know that. I want to be aware of your presence, not just with my imagination, but with certain knowledge.

Most of us have had some experience with the risen Lord. We've had our moments of vision, seasons of vision, times when we've heard the voice of the Lord, and it was that voice that raised us from the dead and brought us to life. But what we're asking for, many of us are urgently pleading for right now, is a day in and day out, steady, consistent, real consciousness, awareness that Jesus is with us, not just by feelings, but by certain knowledge.

You walk with my brother, walk with me, walk with my sister, walk with me, Lord. I want to know that you're with me on Monday. I want to hear your voice speaking to me on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

You promised that if I came to you, you would give me rest. You promised that if I got onto the yoke with you, you would teach me. You promised to be with us all the days, even to the end of the age, and to be with us not as an idea, but as a life-giving, burning, real spirit.

Reading from John chapter 16, starting at verse 7, Jesus is speaking to the disciples. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they do not believe in me.

Of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no more. Of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak. And he will declare to you things that are to come.

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. These words were spoken to the disciples in the upper room, just before Jesus was betrayed. And in them is the promise.

When the Spirit comes, there are lots of things I have to tell you, but you can't get them now. You're not ready for them. But when the Spirit comes, then I'll be able to make them clear.

I will speak to you through the Spirit. When the Spirit comes, you will know that I'm walking at your side. And the Spirit will take my words and make them alive to you.

And you will understand what they mean. And you will have the power to do them. And this promise, which he gave them in John 16, was fulfilled.

The Spirit came, and these believers in Jesus became wonderfully conscious of the fact that he was with them. This characterized their lives. We see this in the Book of Acts and all the epistles in the New Testament.

These people were conscious that the Lord was with them. They knew he was there. And again, it was not by using their imagination.

It was by a certainty which is even deeper than the senses, the five senses. They knew. And they knew in such a way that they ended up at the right place at the right time.

They were guided. And they also had the power that they needed to get done what needed to get done. For instance, if you read the letters of Paul, you find that every one of these epistles begins with a statement at the beginning of confidence that he has been called and empowered and anointed by the Lord.

He knows who he is. He knows that there is a call on his life. He knows that there is a power at work within him.

He knows that Jesus is there. That's a certainty. The rock-bottom certainty for Paul was that Jesus was walking at his side, definitely guiding him.

There was no question in his mind about that at all. And we see this especially illustrated in the first few verses of the Book of Romans. I'm just going to read the first seven verses of Romans 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.

The gospel concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about obedience to the faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including yourselves, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. I have this apostleship.

I've been given this power, and I'm going to bring people to the obedience of faith under that apostleship, under that anointing, to all God's beloved in Rome who are called to be saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. These words that we read here and in other letters of Paul manifest a living relationship.

This guy has something going, alive with the Lord. It's not a bunch of religious platitudes, but this is a peek into something that's blazing and alive. This is a man who gets up in the morning with Jesus.

Goes through the day with Jesus. He's obsessed with Jesus. Everything he touches, he touches in the name of Jesus.

And this obsession with Jesus in Paul does not lead to insanity or to delusion or to any kind of sickness. This obsession with Jesus in Paul causes this man to leave behind him a trail, just like the trail left behind Jesus himself, of healing. Changed lives.

The kingdom of God. Resurrection power. Everywhere he goes.

Nobody can accomplish the things that Paul accomplishes and countless others like him down through the centuries without this consciousness, this absolute awareness that the Lord is walking at my side. I have to know that. That has to be a priori.

That has to be absolute. And we say, well, Lord, that's what I'm looking for. That's what I want.

You walk with my brother, walk with me. I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.

For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Now, these words spoken to the twelve in the upper room are now addressed also to the body of Christ on earth, specifically to us. When the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth. Meaning, when the Holy Spirit is come, you will know that I am walking at your side.

He will not speak on his own authority, but what he hears from me, he will speak. He will take what is mine and he will declare it to you. Meaning that, when the spirit comes, you will hear me speaking to you and you will know that it is I who speak.

The spirit will take my words and cause them to be a burning flame inside your heart that will make it clear and that will also give you the power to do them. Now, the spirit has come, is coming, and will come, but to be very specific, the Holy Spirit is at work among us, even at this moment. Even as he is at work in the body of Christ all over the earth, but very specially, he is stirring and moving, if we only have the eyes to see it, in a unique way at this hour all over the world.

And he is stirring here. The spirit comes to us and answers to this prayer, I want you to walk with me Lord. And he says, the first thing he says to us is, yes, I will walk with you, if you will walk with me.

I will walk with you, but I can only walk with you if you let me lead the way. I cannot walk with you as your mascot or as your lackey. I can only walk with you as your shepherd, as your Lord.

See, and the problem for many of us is that all through our lives we have tried to get a relationship with Jesus in which we are the boss. And he is like the mascot, you put him in your pocket and when you need good luck you rub. You know, we want a relationship with Jesus like the genie of Aladdin's lamp.

Aladdin takes his lamp, he rubs the lamp and up pops the genie and says, whatever you want me to do, here I am. And we think we can have a Jesus like that who can run around and perform supernatural errands for us at our beckoning, at our beck and call. Any Jesus who is at our disposal is an idol, a false Christ, a front for the Antichrist.

The real Jesus always is Lord, we are at his disposal. He's the shepherd, he calls the shots. We're under his authority, he leads the way because he alone knows the way.

We don't know the way. So, if we come to him and say, Lord, walk with me, he says, I will. I will walk with you if you let me do the leading.

Again, a familiar passage from Matthew 11, 28. Jesus speaking to the disciples and to us. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. In other words, here I am, you call for me.

You cried out, I come, and I will walk with you if you will walk with me. The first part of that statement of Matthew 11, 28. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, means that we can only expect to be guided by the Holy Spirit, who always conveys the word of Jesus to us and brings the presence of Jesus to us.

We can only expect to be guided by the Holy Spirit if we draw near to the vision we already have been given of Jesus. And we somehow want to be able to have him come right down to our easy chair so that we can remain exactly where we are, holding the attitudes we hold, doing the things which we do. And he's supposed to indulge us and he's supposed to walk with us.

That's not how it works. He says, I have come to you. I've come as close.

I've come all the way down here. I've died the death that you should have died. I've shed my blood for you.

I've made myself one with you. But now you've got to come this far. You have to come to where I stand because where I stand is the doorway to the kingdom.

And you have to leave that attitude. You can't have me at your side if you're holding that grudge. You can't have me at your side if you insist on remaining bitter.

Whatever it is. You know what it is. Come to me, O you who labor and are heavy laden.

I'll give you rescue. You have to come to me. The light has come.

Draw near to the light. Open your heart to the light. Yield to the light.

Obey the light you have. And that involves for every one of us change. The word traditionally is repentance.

See, and we want to have communion with no repentance. See, and repentance is not a once and done thing that happens at the moment you gave your life to Jesus. And now you're all set.

You never have to repent again. Sanctification, being changed into his likeness involves continuous repentance. Constantly leaving my fishing boats.

My tax collecting. You know, my pile of money. My dreams.

My vanity. My great position in the body of Christ. Or whatever we think we have in coming with him.

Come to me. Come to me. Then I can walk at your side.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I'm meek and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your soul. Meaning that we can only be guided by the Holy Spirit when we put ourselves under his words.

Get under that yoke. Get under the words that I have given you. I have given you words.

And those words are light. But you have to put yourself under them. We've been talking a lot in the last year and a half about the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Which are really the basics of the Kingdom of God. Now, you read Matthew 5, 6, and 7. You soak up these teachings of Jesus. You make them part of your life.

In the sense that you begin to understand them. But then you have to put yourself under them and do them. The Sermon on the Mount.

These teachings are not just poetry. Not just absolutely beautiful music. Not just wonderful art.

They are all that. But they are something that we do. And as we begin to do them, we experience his fellowship.

You bring your gift to the altar. Then remember that your brother has something against you. Your sister has something against you.

Leave your gift. Go. First be reconciled to your brother, your sister.

And then come and offer your gift. That's an action. And hard as it may be, when I get up and do it.

I find Jesus walking at my side. And for each of us there may be some specific thing in our life right now. Where he's putting his finger on it for our good.

And it may seem so hard. I just can't let go of that. If you can make it, he'll help you.

You're not alone. See, come to me. You've got a burden there.

It's a burden because you're thinking it's so hard. You're trying to do it alone. Come to me.

I'll help you. Get under the yoke of me and I'll enable you. And you will do it.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Meaning that we can only be guided by the Holy Spirit. When we follow with free hearts.

Brother Tom stood up in Sunday school this morning. And talked about freedom in an absolutely beautiful way. Those words just came straight from heaven.

And Jesus' words, see, are not a burden. They are grace. They're not legalism.

They're not made of lead. They're absolute light. The scribes and Pharisees kept putting burdens on people that were so heavy.

Nobody could carry them. And they wouldn't help them with their little finger to carry the weight. But Jesus' words, heavy as they sound, are as light as a feather.

Live with a single eye. Pray for your enemy. Love your enemy.

Seek first the kingdom of God. Don't try to be serving God in manner. Get the log out of your eye.

On and on and on. These commands which seem so difficult. When we walk at His side, become as light as a feather.

You know, they're easy as pie. They're rest. They're life.

Because I'm walking with you. Just start. Take hold of the thing that you know you've got to do next.

There's one specific action that's required in each of our lives right now. A change in attitude. A letter we have to write.

A phone call we really need to make. A word of apology that we need to make. A word of forgiveness we have to offer.

Maybe we have to dig down in our pocket and send some money to an uncle or an aunt or a cousin. Or send it anonymously to a next-door neighbor. We've got to do something.

He'll show us. And in the doing of this thing, we experience His fellowship. So today, as we come to the table of the Lord.

Let's come, turning Brother Benny's song into our own prayer. I want Jesus to walk with me. Lord, walk with me.

Visit me in the life of your Spirit. And even as we partake of this feast at His table today. He will answer.

The Spirit will come. And we will hear Him say, I will walk with you. If you will walk with me.

Come to me. Get under my yoke. Learn from me.

Do my work. And I will transform every day of your journey through this world. Into a foretaste of a coming glory.

And you will manifest my kingdom on this earth. You will do my will. You will glorify my name.

You will feed my sheep. And I will be walking at your side. And you will know.

Let's just take some time in silence.