Open your Bibles, if you will, to Colossians Chapter 2. Colossians Chapter 2 is where we're going to be this morning. And just to give you an update on our yearly Bible reading, trying to read our Bibles through. Hopefully, you know, only 19 days into January. You haven't forgot about it already. Right? You're usually not supposed to break your New Year's resolutions, at least until the end of January. But just to kind of help keep us on track a little bit, if you calculate 19 pages, or 19 days at 4.6 pages, roughly 87 pages. So if you started in Genesis, you should be somewhere around Genesis chapter 43. And again, these are my Bible's pages, so they're going to be a little bit different than yours. For consistency, we'll use mine. If you started in the book of Matthew and you continued on, you should be all the way to Mark chapter 13. And again, now is the time to catch up, because as the year goes on, it gets harder and harder if you fall behind. So I'd encourage everybody to continue trying to read through your Bible. If you have a little bit of makeup work to do, please try to do that. One of the hardest things to do is to break an old habit. or start a new habit. Amen? You know, we're creatures, we kind of get in a rut, and we kind of just get used to doing things the way that we've been doing. And that's great if your habit has been read your Bible on a consistent basis. Praise the Lord, this is easy for you. And you're probably ahead of the game here. The struggle is if your habit hasn't been to read your Bible on a consistent basis. That's what this really is all about. This is, hey, just a little bit of encouragement, a little bit of a nudge, a little bit of a push to try to encourage you to say, hey, it's worthwhile to start trying to build a new habit in your Christian life. And I promise you, building a new habit in your Christian life of being more involved in your Bible is going to be beneficial for you. It'll do wonders for you spiritually. The devil is going to try to fight you every step of the way, you know that. But it's a great habit to build. So I'd encourage you, do everything you can to try to continue. And I was talking to somebody, do you have to do 4.6 pages a day? And the real answer is no. This is just kind of a target for trying to get through the Bible in one year, right? But have you done any pages in a day? That's the test that you're after, all right? So we're in the book of Colossians. We're in the book of Colossians. Take a look in chapter 2. And I actually was intending to get or hit a completely different topic today, but this one just kind of came up and seemed to override, and so I think this is what the Lord would have us do here this morning. So Colossians 2, take a look down at verse 6, and let's read. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer and then we'll begin. Father, we thank you once again for an opportunity to be here. I know that These folks have endured the cold weather and vehicles, I'm sure, that were groaning when they started this morning, that type of thing. Appreciate them being here. I ask you to give them a blessing. Father, minister to them in the way that you know how. You know what each individual needs. Pray, Father, that they might receive that here this morning. Again, just thank you for a warm place that we can meet, nice chairs we can sit in. And Father, Pray that we might always be thankful for those things. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. And I was doing just fine until I started getting up here and singing and talking in large stretches. So maybe I'll shut up quicker. Nah. But we talk about the Christian life being a race. And of course, that is a very common picture and type that we have with the Christian life. The Christian life is like a race. Paul talks about it. He says in 1 Corinthians 9, he says, not that they which run in a race run all. but one receiveth the prize, so run that ye may obtain, right? The Christian life for you and I is like a race. But in Colossians, we see here something a little bit, or I should say, another picture of the Christian life, and that is the picture of a walk. of a walk. It says in verse 6, as ye therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. And that is a very simple thing. We know that. Like I said, that is another type of the Christian life, walking. And the reality is, folks, when you think about walking, I don't know how much you do, uh... but uh... uh... when you think about walking you you you think about an awful lot when you're around really really really young people and they're just learning you think about it a lot when you're older and you're trying not to forget your body doesn't want to cooperate. But I don't know how much other than those times in life, I don't know if you actually think about walking very often. I don't know how often you enjoy sitting back and just watching people walk. Maybe it's the martial arts instructor in me. I don't know what it is. My wife and I have always enjoyed doing this. When we were young in 29 Palms, California, we used to drive to San Bernardino and go to the mall. We didn't have any money to spend, but we'd go to the mall. And we had a lot of enjoyment out of just watching people in the mall, just watching them. And one of the things that I catch myself doing and have always done is watched how people walked. Right? There's all kinds of different ways that people walk. Sometimes I look at people walking, and inside, you kind of cringe. Right? Not necessarily because they're, quote, doing it wrong. But some people, when you watch them walking, you know it is an effort. It's a struggle. It's a labor for them to walk. You look at them and you think in the inside, you go, ouch, that hurts. Amen? Am I the only one that watches people walk? I don't know. Maybe so. But I watch and sometimes you see people walking after they've been injured and you see them try to struggle. Sometimes you watch people walk when they're impaired and they're having a difficult time. Now, don't get me wrong. Listen, I have great admiration Somebody that has been injured or somebody that is impaired one way or another and you see them out there doing the best that they can Just to walk Amen You know hey, I'm much rather. I have a lot of great admiration for that for that I would much rather see that than to see somebody that just give up and sit down and say well forget it and It takes a lot of guts, it takes a lot of work to go through and to try to walk when you're coming back from an injury. Again, I'm gonna get into next week's topic here, but again, I notice little things also about people when they're walking. Like I said, I don't know if you notice these things, but have you ever noticed that some people walk with their toes pointed out? Just slightly. Right? Do what the toes pointed out. I noticed this when I, after I was out of boot camp, I was a marine for a while and I noticed that I picked up this habit of walking with my toes at a 45 degree angle. or I guess closer to about a 30 degree angle. Because when you're standing in attention, when you're standing in parade rest, all that, your feet are slightly angled. And you ask, well, how did you notice that? Of all things, doing karate. I was doing karate sitting there doing a front kick and I noticed instead of my foot being pointed forward, it was actually pointed out to the side just a little bit. And I'm looking at my foot as I'm kicking going, how did that happen? What took place in life that made my foot go crooked when I'm doing this front kick because I know what it's supposed to look like? And then it dawned on me as I'm watching myself walk, I noticed now I'm walking with my toes pointed out. And I literally took, I don't remember how much time, but it wasn't a day or two. It was a struggle to remind myself to bring my feet back to correct position to begin walking again. You pick up habits like that as you walk, and you don't even realize it. Some people walk on the inside of their foot. It's called pronation. i watch people walking sometimes you can see it you can literally see this right you can literally see this when they walk They walk, and you can just see that buckle in a little bit. Some people, you know, the opposite way, supination. There's just all kinds of different things that can happen when people begin to walk, and when you begin watching them, you look at that, and inside, you kind of cringe, because, folks, if you begin walking on your feet like this, well, look what that's doing to your knee. Right? You're going to wear out your knees much sooner than they're already normally going to wear out. And so what you find is that if somebody is walking in less than an optimal fashion, it's going to hurt them in ways they never intended. Amen? Sometimes you see people walk and you see them flop their foot. Sometimes you see people walk and they walk and they don't completely straighten their legs Just all kinds of there's there's all kinds of little nuances that you can see in people's walk Right? It's an amazing thing. Now, there are people that know way more about this than I know. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a nurse. I'm not an occupational therapist or a physical therapist. But I know enough to know this. I know enough to know that when doctors evaluate you, when they watch you, one of the things they do is they watch you walk. And they talk about your gait. If you ever hear them referring to your gait, that's what it is. They talk about your gait, and that is the way that you walk. And there are several different classifications that doctors, people that know what they're talking about, give. There is what they call a spastic gait, which is kind of pointing that toe and dragging the toe a little bit. There's a scissor gait, a propulsive gait, a steppage gait. a waddling gate, and then there's another classification, a limp, and then there's all kinds of subclassifications. But doctors watch, and you're evaluated and looked at based upon sometimes your walk. It helps them get an idea of what is going on. Amen? So I just titled this message this morning very simply, a walk. Now, I know that you know I know that looking at somebody's walk is a is a very physical thing and you can you notice it and the reality is Nobody has a perfect walk all the time Right? Every one of us has got some sort of little glitch that if you were to try to optimize the perfect walk, I don't know that you could ever find anybody that would have a perfect walk, especially on a consistent basis. So don't freak out and walk over here and go, oh, pastor's watching me walk. Right? The reality is it's one of those things where, hey, nobody has it down perfect. It is a great picture of the spiritual life. Amen? It's a great picture of the spiritual life. There's a whole lot of different influences that can come in. There's a whole lot of things that can go wrong that can mess up your spiritual gate. And the walk, the walk that you see on the outside when you're watching somebody physically doesn't tell you everything about them. by any stretch of the imaginations. Right? It's just one little piece of a grand puzzle. But it is a little piece of a puzzle. And just like you can look at somebody's walk and tell at least a few basic things that they may be struggling with or they may be doing right by evaluating their walk, so too you can look at a person's spiritual life and get a measure or an evaluation by their walk, by their spiritual walk. Like I said, nobody has a perfect walk, but we all have our Christian walk. And I'd just like to ask you this morning as we're getting into this and as we're thinking about this is this. If somebody, if the Lord was to evaluate your spiritual walk this morning, What would it look like? Right? Hey, some people, you see some people, you know, I remember Rex Harrison on crutches and, you know, had polio as a kid. His legs were completely paralyzed and, you know, that walk was completely different. But think about, think about that thing in a spiritual sense. You can be anywhere on the spectrum from having a perfect walk at least for a while while you're maybe sleeping, while you're doing well, throughout the day you're in the middle of prayer and you're walking perfectly with the Lord. You can have anything from that to a very handicapped walk where your legs are completely paralyzed and don't work at all when it comes to your spiritual life. So I'd just like you to think about your walk your walk as a spiritual life. In Colossians 2, 6 it says this, as ye therefore, as ye have, excuse me, therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. So walk ye in him. Have you ever heard of, have you ever heard of race walking? Right? That's kind of cool. That's kind of cool, race walking. I learned a little bit, I don't know much about race walking but I looked it up and you know there are two rules in race walking. Right? There are two rules in race walking. Rule number one is as you're going there always has to be one foot touching the ground at least as far as the human eye can see. The other rule is as you step forward your knee has to go straight and it has to remain straight as it passes under your body. Those are the two rules for race walking. And you watch them walk, and it's really weird. But it's pretty impressive. In 2017, there's a gentleman by the name of Tom Bosworth. And he was at the London Diamond League. It was a big championship in 2017. And he set the world record for a mile in race walking. You know what his time was? His time was five minutes, 31.06 seconds. This guy walked a mile in five minutes, 31.06 seconds. He's walking a mile that matches my fastest time running a mile when I was younger. Right? Or almost matches my fastest time. And he's doing it technically walking. Like I said, he walked a mile that matches my fastest time. Nowadays, it takes me five minutes and 31 seconds to drive a mile. My wife is disagreeing. Don't listen to her. She doesn't know what she's talking about. I plead the fifth. And I think in a court of law, your spouse is not allowed to testify against you, so I'm safe. But we're talking about in the Christian life, listen, your walk. So he won that race, obviously, set a world record. And he smashed the world record by about five seconds. It was pretty incredible. So as a Christian, when you turn this over, when you begin to look at your spiritual life, how are you supposed to walk? How are you supposed to walk? Well, easy things, probably you remember a lot of the verses, but here's some things that I'd like you to think about this morning. Number one, if you're a Christian here this morning, if you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you should, because it's good for you, walk in obedience. It says in 1 John 2, it says, Hereby we do know that we know Him if we, what? Keep His commandments. In verse 6, a little bit later in the passage, it says, In other words, if you're a Christian and you say, yes, I'm following the Lord, yes, I'm a Christian, yes, I'm living the Christian life, then you know what? You ought to walk like Jesus Christ walked. Amen? You ought to try to strive to walk like Jesus Christ walked. If you're going to claim to be a Christian, you ought to at least try. Now, again, nobody has a perfect walk, I understand. But you ought to at least try to walk like He walks. Now, before I go any further, let me make one thing very clear. What we're talking about here today as far as your walk, we're talking to people who are already a Christian. Right? It's how we live after we become a Christian. You don't become a Christian by having a good walk. Most people, spiritually, when they become a Christian, they are crippled and they can't hardly walk at all. The reality is you don't become a Christian because you somehow or another magically have this great walk and you just, I'm just good enough that I don't sin anymore. I'm obedient all the time. Nobody would get it that way. You know what, you become a Christian because the Lord Jesus Christ loved you enough to die for you. You become a Christian because even though, even though, and we'll talk about this in just a minute, even though you were a sinner, even though you've committed all kinds of sins, the Lord Jesus Christ looked down on you and he said, you know what? I love that individual anyway. And I'm going to die so that they can have a way to have their sins forgiven. And the Lord Jesus Christ came down to this earth, he was perfect, he was God, manifest in the flesh, but men took him and crucified him, nailed him on the cross, And when they did, his blood was shed. He was bleeding from his back, from his head, from the wounds in his hands and his feet. They stuck a spear in his side. He was a bloody mess, if you want to know the absolute truth. It was an ugly thing to look at. It was not appealing at all. But when he shed that blood, listen, that blood was for you and me. That blood was because Jesus Christ knew none of us would ever have a perfect walk. And so he said, you know what? They're never going to have a perfect walk, but I'll give them a way out. And he shed his blood for us on Calvary's cross. And the Bible says if we realize that, hey, I've sinned, but I can't have a perfect walk like he did. But you know what? He died for me, so I'm going to trust him to be my savior. The Lord Jesus Christ takes that blood that he shed, and he takes it, and he pays for all of your sins. Amen. Not because you have a perfect walk, but because you asked him for it as a free gift. And He loved you that much. And for those of you that have done that, those of you that have been saved, been born again, listen, you're now, now you're a Christian. You're saved, your sins are washed away, and the truth of the matter is, you're going to heaven no matter what you do. Right? Hey, listen, you can refuse to walk at all. You can trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior by faith if it's real from your heart, and you can lay down and take a nap until you die spiritually, not do a thing when it comes to serving the Lord, and you know what? Technically, you're still saved. Your sins were still paid for. Now, there's not much for you at the judgment seat of Christ as they were, you know, learning in Sunday school class. But you could technically do that. But brethren, who wants to go to heaven like that? You know what you ought to do, brethren? You ought to walk as He walked. In obedience. In obedience. You know how you shouldn't walk? I'll tell you how you shouldn't walk. You shouldn't walk after your own ungodly lusts. It says in Jude how that they told you there should be mockers in the last times, who what? Who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. Jude said, hey, there's people out there, there's people out there, especially in reference to the last days, there's people out there who are gonna be walking after their own ungodly lusts. You say, what are ungodly lusts? Oh, do I really need to tell you? I think everybody knows what that is. I think everybody's well aware of what they struggle with, what you struggle with. I think everybody's well aware of what ungodly lusts are. It doesn't, it wouldn't be nice for me to list them. It's what you think about. It's what you see. It's what you say. It's how you talk. It's where you go. It's what you did last week. It's what you're thinking about doing next week. And you know, but those ungodly lusts can sure come up and get you, can't they? Right? And you know what the Bible says? The Bible says when it talks about walking like the Lord Jesus Christ, it says we ought to walk like Him, not in ungodly lusts. You know what men's struggles are? Men's struggles are, listen, we have such a hard time not walking in our ungodly lust. Why? Because it's a habit that you've gotten yourself into. And they come back and they attack you. And sometimes you think, well, they're fun. It's a lot of fun. Man, I'm having a good time. Everybody's doing it. My friends are doing it. It's great. You know what our biggest challenge is in the flesh? To stay away from our own ungodly lusts. Right? I mean, that's part of walking. If you're going to walk like a Christian, if you're going to walk like the Lord Jesus Christ wants you to walk, one of the big things to do is to try to stay away from your ungodly lusts. Why? Jesus Christ did. He didn't fall prey to them. I understand he's perfect. I understand he's God. But you know what? He's our example. He's our pattern. And we ought to at least try, right? We ought to at least try. It says in Hebrews 12, it says this, Wherefore, seeing we are all so encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which death so easily beset us. And let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Yes, I know that verse is talking about a run. But you know what? We have a common saying. You have to learn how to walk before you can run. Amen? You know what you and I ought to do if we're going to walk? Listen, you and I ought to make sure that we don't get bogged down by the sin that hinders us from walking. Hey, it can be anything. It can be the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Listen, the devil has all kinds of ways of getting to you and you know what they are for you. But the reality is, the reality is, the Lord Jesus Christ is trying to get you to walk like he walked. And the devil in your flesh and, you know, unfortunately sometimes a lot of your friends and all the world out there is trying to get you to walk any other way than how he walked. What are we talking about? We're talking about a walk. Let's go back to what we were saying before. You know what you can tell a lot of times? You can tell how a person's doing by how they're walking. Right? And the problem is, in our Christian life, in our spiritual life, if you get bogged down with those things, and those things become consuming on you, and those things become, you know, they become a part of your habit, and then they become a part of your character, and then they begin to be, you know, they begin to ooze out of your pores, and those things, you know what they do? They show off. It's not hard to see somebody that has a glitch in their walk. Now, I am not saying, nor am I suggesting that you ought to look around spiritually at everybody else and look for the glitches in their walk. I'm saying you should look around at your own walk and check it for glitches. Amen? Right? I mean, once you got your walk perfected, then we can worry about other people's walk. I have a hard enough time watching my own walk. Right? I have to watch my own walk all the time. And I fail at that more than I would like to even admit myself. But the reality is, if I'm paying attention to my walk, I can see those indications. And you can, too. Right? I think it's a good thing if you begin to examine, if you begin to examine your walk. It says in Hebrews 12, a few verses down in verse four, it says this, ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. How many of you here have been persecuted to the point of being tortured and bleeding because you were trying to stand up for what was right? I'm not asking for a show of hands. Maybe there is somebody in here who's had that happen. But probably not very many of us. Amen? You know what that thing says? It's saying, hey, we haven't struggled that hard against it. But the idea is you ought to be struggling against it. Why? Because the Lord wants you to have a walk that's like Him. I mean, that's everything. That's from what you think, from what you say, from what you eat, what you do, what you see, what you listen to, where you go, who you hang out with, how you dress, how you... It's everything. It's all part of your walk. And the idea as Christians, if we're going to say that we're Christians and we're abiding with Him, we ought to at least strive to have a decent walk. He's a great God. Right? I'll tell you something else about your walk. Your walk should not be disorderly. It says in 2 Thessalonians 3, it says, for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly. working not at all but are busybodies. Your walk should not be disorderly. You have a general idea of what disorderly is. It is lawless, it's contrary to the law, right? Akin to disobedient. But I'll tell you something else disorderly is, another definition. Disorderly is this, inclined to break loose from restraint. Think about that for a minute. Inclined to break loose from restraint. You know what you and I should have around us? I mean, the Bible, our testimony that we're trying to keep clean, our love for the Lord, our desire to live a good life, that should be at some level a restraint to us. Hey, I gotta be careful. Hey, I have to maybe take an extra step and go above and beyond. Why? Because I know the Lord wants me to walk like Him, so I'm gonna restrain myself so that I don't fall into walking disorderly. That's a great thing. Those restraints that you put on yourself, those things that, you know, hey, you know, I was talking to somebody a while back and, you know, we're talking about, we're talking about, well, we're talking about alcohol is what we're talking about. And the conversation was back and forth and that individual said this, you know what, well I know that it's just best for me to completely stay away from it. Because I know where I would go if I went down that road. That's a good restraint to know of yourself. Now I don't know what things you may need to be restrained from. Maybe it is the computer. Maybe it is where you go. Maybe it is your friends. Maybe it is alcohol. Maybe it is something else. I don't know what things you need to be restrained from, but I promise you there are things, there are weaknesses that you face in your walk that you need to be the one that restrains yourself. Lord, help me to stay away. Lord, help me to restrain. You know what? You don't need to be going around telling everybody else where they need to restrain. until you got all your restraints taken care of. Right? Now, I understand. I understand there's an element of encouraging and helping somebody else and parenting and pastoring or Sunday school teacher. There's an element where, yes, you're going to have to tell other people. Not a problem. But be careful because the tendency for human beings is to forget about themselves because they're so worried about telling everybody else. You know what the key is? The key is, hey, put the restraints on yourself. And you know what walking disorderly is? Walking disorderly is nothing more than saying to yourself, oh, I don't want to be restrained. I want to do what I want to do. You can't tell me what to do. I don't have to listen to you. I don't have to follow your guidelines. Hey, I'm not asking you to follow my guidelines. The problems I have may not be the same problems you have. I'm asking you, do you have your own guidelines? Right? If we're gonna walk, if we're gonna walk for the Lord, if we're gonna walk, you know, pleasing, I know we hit it back in chapter one, but it came up again in chapter two, so here we are. So if we're gonna walk pleasing unto the Lord, you know, there's some restraints that you're gonna have to put on yourself. You say, I don't want to listen to mom and dad. Hey, fine. All right, then be big and bold and bad enough to put some restraints on yourself. And you know what? You won't have to. Mom and dad will be perfectly happy. OK, well, maybe not. Mom and dad are never happy. They're always going to encourage you to do more. That's OK. But it sure would go a long way if you put some restraints on yourself. Amen. You say, what should those restraints be? Hey, that's between you and the Lord. Right? You know what you ought to do as a Christian? If you're going to walk, if you're going to walk pleasing unto the Lord, you got to go to the Lord and say, okay, Lord, where would you like my restraints to be? You know me better than I know me. Where would you like my restraints to be? You ever tried that? It's our, it's our walk. And it says in 2 Thessalonians, for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly. That is simply this. They don't want to be restrained. That's how we're not supposed to walk. There's a lot of things that restrain us. Fear of being caught. Hey, that's a good one. Amen? Yeah. Fear of punishment. Hey, that's a good one. Fear of the consequences, okay, yes. The price is too high, it costs too much. Those are good things to help restrain us. But man, we gotta be careful that we don't let those things go. All right? It says in, says in 2 Thessalonians 3.7, a couple verses prior to this one, it says, for yourselves know how you ought to follow us, this is Paul speaking, for we behaved not ourselves disorderly. Paul says, hey, you know what, I tried to be an example for you. I tried to be an example and I tried to make it so that you could see, hey, it is possible to walk without being disorderly. You look around at other Christians, listen, and the reality is you struggle with that and sometimes you begin fighting it and sometimes you get to the place where you just think, man, there is no way, forget it, I just give up. You know what Paul said? Paul said, hey, I gave you an example. I gave you an example of some people that walk disorderly. You know what I bet? I bet you know somebody. in your family or your friends or your sphere, I bet you know somebody that you're at least somewhat aware that they've struggled with some of the same struggles you've struggled with, and they overcame them. You know what that person is? That person there is an example for you to say, hey, you know what? It is possible. Amen. So that you keep striving. Amen. So that you keep striving. In fact, when it comes to this, the idea of disorderly, you know what, it's not so much, I don't think the Lord is as upset with people that just fail, even on a regular basis. The Lord's patient, he puts up with an awful lot, you have to admit that. I think the Lord is more upset when a person gets to the point where they just say, hey, forget it, I'm just gonna take away the restraints. I'm not even gonna try anymore. You can't tell me what to do. I think that's where you start crossing into major, major trouble. It says in 2 Thessalonians 3.6, again, just a couple verses up from this, it says, now we commend you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. 2 Thessalonians 3, 6. You know what that is? That is, brethren, you're in and around a whole bunch of people. And if you're gonna walk like a Christian, if you're gonna try to walk like Jesus Christ walked, there's gonna be people around you who are not interested in doing that. And you know it. And you're well aware of it. And you know what you gotta try to do? You're left here to decide, hey, do I go hang out with that person? or not because when you decide to go hang out with that person you know what you're doing you're pulling off the restraints because you know what they're all about hey listen if if if you're struggling with if you're struggling with you know whatever smoking And then the Lord has been talking about you, saying, ah, you know, you ought to quit that. And, okay, that's between you and the Lord. And the Lord's been pricking your conscience about quitting that. And, you know, you've been fighting it and battling it. Maybe you've been fighting it and battling it for years. Okay, great. I understand people fight it and battle it for years. That's pretty normal. But then you find yourself in a position where, okay, I'm going to go hang out with all my other friends who are smoking all the time. Guess what you're doing when you decide to do that? You're deciding to take off the restraints. I'm going to walk disorderly. I'm not going to try to refrain from what I know the Lord doesn't want me to do because these friends are more important. You'd be far better off, you'd be far better off looking, looking for a different group of friends. You'd be far better off spiritually in your spiritual walk, in your walk with the Lord. You'd be far better off in your walk with the Lord looking for a group of friends, you know what? That none of them smoke. And then when you decide what you're going to do and what restraints you're going to put on yourself, you look at those true groups of friends and you go, OK, Lord, you don't want me to do that. I'm going to hang out with these people that don't do that because I've got a much better chance of beating it if I'm around this group of people. And really, folks, a lot of it really is that simple. Being in and around people that are going to encourage you and they're going to help you in the right way. They're going to walk the right path. They're going to walk the walk that you want to be walking. We have another old saying, right? Birds of a feather flock together. All right, so what kind of birds you hang out with? Hang out with the kind of birds that are walking the way you want to walk. Amen? It's all about the walk. I'm never gonna get done. I'll tell you another way that you and I ought to walk as a Christian. And again, I'm not talking about walking this way to get to heaven. I'm talking walking this way because I'm already going to heaven. You ought to walk in truth. I have no greater joy, John said, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. You know what every parent loves to hear? That their children are walking in truth. You know what every parent loves to hear? Stories about somebody else that comes up to them and tells them how their kid did something right. how maybe their kid did something where they overcame temptation, or maybe their kid was an example to somebody else, or maybe their kid took the high road and just made a huge impression or was a help. Every parent loves to hear that when somebody comes up and tells them, hey, your kid did a great thing, let me tell you about it. That's a great thing. You know what you ought to strive to be? You ought to strive to be one of the kids that does that. You gotta strive, you gotta strive to be, you gotta strive to have a walk as a Christian that, you know what, and again, please don't misunderstand me. I'm not talking about trying to be boastful and proud and puffed up, and that's a whole nother struggle. You can't let that happen while you're doing right, because we as human beings, we have this, the devil's got us whichever way we go. If we try to do right, we get proud because we're doing right. Yay, look at me. That's bad. But that's not an excuse to not try to do right. Right? The object is, hey, try to do right and try to stay humble about it. But having said that and put that in your mind, what you ought to try to do is you ought to try to be that person that, you know what you ought to try to do? You ought to try to at least three or four times a year catch wind that somebody said something about you, how you've been an encouragement to help to somebody else. How that you've been that child. Right, we're all children of God. You're saved. Right, we're all somebody's child. Rather it's literal, you know, you're literal kids. You and I, even adults, parents, we're children of the Lord, so same thing applies. You ought to strive to have a walk with the Lord such that every now and then you kind of get this feedback that, hey, you've been an encouragement or a help to somebody else. That's a great goal to have is a walk. That's how the Lord Jesus Christ walked. Right? Everybody looked at him and said, oh, what a great example he was. Well, you ought to strive to have a walk where you can be an example to somebody else. You're going to have glitches in your walk. But hopefully, you're going to have enough of a good walk that it's going to affect a whole lot of people. And I promise you, unless you're in the category where you just kind of take off the restraints and don't care, you've got a good chance of accomplishing that. And that's how Christians should walk. They should walk in truth. It says in John, it says, you shall know the truth, the truth shall make you free. Amen. Truth sometimes is hard to swallow. Truth sometimes isn't always pleasant. But you know, when you find truth, man, it'll set you free. When you finally give in to the truth, when you finally accept the truth, when you finally look at the truth and you go, yay, Lord, that's me. Yay, Lord, you're right, I'm wrong. You know what, that's so liberating. You gotta strive to have a Christian walk that is constantly open and tender for the truth. It says in 2 Thessalonians, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, why? Because they receive not what? The love of the truth. If you don't love the truth, brethren, your walk is going to spiral down and down and down and down through the drain. I'm gonna hit a couple of these very quickly. I didn't, didn't, uh, this list is by no means exhaustive. But it is, it is worth thinking about. You ought to walk in wisdom. Walk in wisdom towards them that are without. Hey, have some, have some sense. We could spend a lot of time talking about that one. Here's one that I'd like to hit just a little bit. You ought to walk circumspectly. It says in Ephesians 5, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. You know what circumspectly is? Circumspectly is watchful. It's with attention to guard yourself against danger. That's circumspectly. That is, I know the devil's out to get me. And I know that every step I take, he's there to throw a trap in my way, so I'm going to be on guard, I'm going to be watchful, and I'm going to be looking for that because I know it's coming. The devil went to the Lord when he was tempting him and threw all kinds of things at him. And the Lord said, oh yeah, got that one covered. I knew you were going to say that before you said it. The Lord Jesus Christ walked circumspectly. You ought to walk circumspectly It says in Colossians it says this beware there you go walking circumspectly lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit Boy the world is sure trying to do that They're trying to get you to think completely opposite of how you should think in so many different areas You gotta be circumspect about that. Be careful about it. Why? Because, well, you should know that it's happening. Finally, and I gotta wrap things up, you oughta walk in love. It says in Ephesians 5, too, 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 sweet-smelling savor. It says in 1 John, when it comes to walking in love, but whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. So now, folks, we've come full circle. We come right back around to the very thing. You know what you hear people talk about all the time? Love, love, love, love, love, love. Oh, the love of God, the love of God. And that's all they want to talk about. You know how you get there? Through obedience. You get there by walking the right walk. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. You know what you'll have if you walk that walk, the walk like Jesus Christ? You will have the love of God in you perfected. Not just something that you can brag about, or boast like clouds without rain, according to Jude, right? Clouds without water. People talk about the love of God and having the love of God and, oh, the love of God. But it may not necessarily be what you think it is. But I promise you this, if you get that way through obedience, You know what you're going to find? You're going to find that you have a love of God that surpasses anything else that's out there. You're going to have a love of God, ladies and gentlemen, that is perfected. Isn't that what we're all after? You can't skip to the last step. Right? If you don't take care, and there's other things, and I didn't have time to completely go over all of it, but you get the general idea. If you don't take care of the basic fundamental things of walking, you're not gonna have a perfect walk. But when you do, there's something so much greater ahead of you. And that is that love of God perfected that everybody claims to be searching for. I hope you're looking forward to. Amen? What are we talking about this morning? Your walk. Just simply your walk. And I just ask you this as we bow our heads and get ready to pray. How is your walk? Amen? How is your walk? Father, we thank you. You're a great God. and lord you've given us a life you've given us this life to live quite frankly how we choose to live it we can walk how we want to walk we can walk where we want to walk and father yeah you try to nudge us and you try to guide us along but you've given us a free will to walk as we would choose to walk i pray father that everybody here would make good choices on how they should walk. I pray that they would strive to walk like you walked. Father, give us the strength and the heart to do that. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.