“Walking with Christ Really Means Walking with Christ”

Main Idea:  Walking with Christ is not something we have to do; it is something we get to do.

I want to share with you three huge benefits that accompany walking with our living Lord:  1) The Life of Christ Himself,  2) Supernatural Ordinary Days and 3) A Heavenly Buffet

“Duty”: “A moral or legal obligation; a responsibility; a task or action that someone is required to perform.”

“Honor” “Something regarded as a rare opportunity and bringing pride and pleasure; a privilege.”  It is my honor to walk with Christ it is not just my duty.  It is an honor that Jesus would choose me as one of His followers.  Who am I?

I. The Life of Christ Himself

• The life we experience in Christ is not separate from Christ Himself.
• The love of Christ is not separate from Christ Himself. To experience His love is to experience Him.
• The joy of the Lord is not separate from the Lord. It is the joy of the Lord; not joy from the Lord.  You could say the joy of the Lord is the joy of the Lord’s presence.
• The glory of the Lord is not separate from the Lord. When we are experiencing the glory of the Lord – in its multiple ways – we are experiencing the Lord. To experience the glory of the Lord is to experience the Lord Himself.
  • Exodus 33. “When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
  • 2 Chronicles chapter 7 The glory that so filled the temple that the priests were no longer able to minister was not just smoke. It was the presence of the Lord Himself.
• You are not just experiencing peace from God but the peace of God Himself. You are experiencing the God of peace.
• The New Testament is explicit about this:
  • Colossians 3:4 Christ is your life. The experience of life in Christ we share with each other is the very presence of Christ Himself.
  • 1 John 5:11 – Life is in the Son.
  • 1 John 5:20 – He is eternal life.
  • John 1:4 In Him there was life.

II.  Supernatural Ordinary Days

• Another day to celebrate Your presence in me.
• Another day to grow in my knowledge of You.
• Another day to receive Your coaching and instruction.
  • We are products His work and we are His work in progress.
• Another day to develop a deeper trust in You.
  • Trust makes us invincible. Psalm 125:1 “Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.
• Another day of Your care.
  • “We all have our ‘moments,’ (of unbelief, doubt and struggle) but we get to have our moments with Him.”
• Another day to experience Your affection.
• Another day to be blessed with awareness of Your glory.
• Another day to anticipate partnership with You.
• Another day of Your craftsmanship as You uniquely customize our relationship.
• Another day of Your creativity in all Your doings.
• Another ordinary day to remember that I have marvelous You in my life!

III.  A Heavenly “Buffet”

Why do I say, it’s not something we have to do but something we get to do?  Listen to these descriptions of the Lord who is our life, who bids us to follow Him…

• Psalm 27:4 (NIV) ⁴ One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek… to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD…
• Psalm 34:8 (NIV) ⁸ Taste and see that the LORD is good;
• Psalm 36:7 (NIV) ⁷ How priceless is Your unfailing love!
• Psalm 36:8 (NIV) ⁸ They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.
• Psalm 43:4 (NASB77) ⁴ God my exceeding joy;…
• Psalm 63:5 (NIV) ⁵ My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
• Psalm 65:4 (NIV) ⁴ Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts! We are filled with the good things of your house of your holy temple.
• Psalm 81:10 (NIV) ¹⁰ Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.
• Psalm 81:16 (NIV) ¹⁶ But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock, I would satisfy you.”
• Psalm 84:10 (NIV) ¹⁰ Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere
• Psalm 107:9 (NIV) ⁹ for He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
• Isaiah 55:-2 (NIV) ¹ “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.  ²  Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
• Jeremiah 15:16 (NIV) ¹⁶ When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty.
• Jeremiah 31:14 (NIV) ¹⁴ I will satisfy the priests with abundance, and my people will be filled with my bounty,” declares the LORD.
• Jeremiah 31:25 (NIV) ²⁵ I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”

And Jesus said all of this could be found in a relationship with Himself with these simple words:

• John 14:6 – “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  I am the Life.
• John 6:35 (NIV) ³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
• John 7:37 (NIV) ³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
• John 7:38 (NIV) ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

Walking with Christ is truly walking with the living Christ and it’s not something we have to do; it is something we get to do.  For it gives us access to the life of Christ Himself, to Supernatural ordinary days and to a Heavenly Buffet served fresh every day.