Going Deeper - How You Can Walk with God

Let me ask you, have you ever had a deep conversation with a close friend or maybe even your spouse, that when you look back you say, that had a huge impact on my life. Today I want to share about a conversation I had with someone that changed the entire trajectory of my life.

It was a great lesson and turning point for me and I hope it will be for you as well. Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We are a discipleship-driven ministry on a mission to encourage Christians everywhere to live like Christians. Thanks for joining us today as Chip wraps up our newest series, Going Deeper, How to Walk with God 24-7. We pray this short teaching has encouraged you and opened your eyes to the simple practices you can apply to your walk with God. And to help others learn as you have, take a minute after this message and share it with someone in your life, either through the Chip Ingram app or by sending them the free MP3s at livingontheedge.org.

Thanks for spreading the word about how these broadcasts are impacting you. Well, if you're ready, here's Chip with his talk, How You Can Walk with God. I have to go back a number of years to share, I think, the most important walk I've ever taken. You know, some people walk with others all the time.

Others, it's not really a part of your life. Some of you have probably pictures of maybe a vacation or a romantic walk on a beach or a walk through the forest. But there is a walk that I can't forget. I mean, it's one of those that it was during a time where Teresa and I were dating, we're getting more and more serious. We had a lot of issues to really think through. The implications of us getting married were really, really big. And we had met my parents once, and as we were getting more serious, we went to meet them again. And we had done sort of that dance where you meet each other's parents, and God was drawing us together. And yet, we hadn't kind of completely sealed the deal. And as we were with my parents, we decided to take a walk.

You know, you're in love and want to get some time alone. And it was just barely, barely sprinkling. So I had this, it was kind of old, but a huge poncho that had this big hole in the top of it. And, you know, we started outside, and the rain that was light turned to heavier and heavier.

And so I remember it was big enough that both of our heads could get inside of it. And we're holding hands, and we're walking around as the rain is coming down all around us. And as I held her hand and all that rain was coming down, I can't explain it exactly. I obviously knew I loved her.

I thought as best I knew God's leading, and I wanted to marry her, and, you know, all those great feelings that you have. But there was something in that walk. It was like a metaphor of the rain of life, the challenges that come. And there's all that stuff, right? We have all that stuff of life. We have heartaches and challenges and health issues and family problems. And what I remember having this inner sense of, I think there's plenty of rain that we're going to come upon in life.

And I felt sheltered under that poncho. And as I held her hand, it was this sense of, if I'm going to go through life, I want to go through it with this person. It's just a walk that I'll never, ever forget. And we have been on that walk now for a little over 45 years. And I think about it because during these 45 years or so, it's not just about marriage, but there's been a connection. There's been 45 years of support through challenges and hardships and in the midst of an intimacy that's grown deeper and deeper.

You know, offspring, you know, where you have these children and you think they're a part of us. We've become best friends. We've hit huge barriers.

And then we've experienced really big breakthroughs. And we've been walking together. We actually walk together.

I mean, like physically too. It's been one of the most, I think, important parts. And there's something about looking ahead because when you walk, you can't kind of look right at each other. There's something about looking ahead.

There's something beyond both of you. And as you walk and go up a hill and down a hill and for us, it's usually in our neighborhood. And you know, you pause and you look at some flowers or there's a hawk going overhead or there's just something about the pausing of everybody else in life and walking together. And that's been our life journey.

But it's not just been a physical walk. We developed the habit somehow over the years where we get up early and I make coffee and we each grab a cup of coffee. And it might be five minutes, 10 minutes, might be 20. But we spend some time, we start our day just connecting. Just, hey, what do you have going on today? And how are you doing?

And did you sleep well? And sometimes it's kind of funny. We will sit in the same room and we both have our coffee and we might go three or four or five or six minutes and not say anything. But there's something about being in each other's presence. And then in our walk together, we find that just eating meals together really matters.

And so unless we have something going, we're going to eat dinner together. And we did that for years and years with our family. And during those times where you listen and you share and sometimes you cry and there's other times where you rejoice and you say, wow, it's so exciting what's happening in our life and in our relationship.

And is it perfect? Don't hear some idyllic, you know, we walked in the rain and we've had this wonderful idyllic life. This is not a Hallmark commercial. There's been deep, deep challenges. But what I'd have to tell you is that in our personal walk together, the shielding of God's grace, we have been through the rain of disappointment and betrayals and sick kids and cancer and broken hearts. But there's been a bond between us that got created by another walk. And that's been, despite all of our ups, all of our downs, all of our personality differences, all of our heartaches and arguments and challenges in our marriage, the bond has been our own personal walk with God. We both were introduced to a personal relationship with Jesus. And God brought wonderful, kind people into our life that taught us how to walk with God, not how to perform, not how to get him to love us, but to grasp that he loves us and to really walk with him. And it's more than just believing and receiving Christ. It's more than just spiritual activities.

It's more than breaking bad habits and forming good habits. It is a step-by-step walk with God where you experience his presence, where he comforts, where he directs, where he reveals things about you, some that you don't like. But he does it with gentleness, and he provides clarity and direction. You're on mission with him, and you experience him. And you find that for us, we start first thing in the day because he's the most important person in our life. We don't feel bad or guilty if, you know, something happens and an alarm doesn't go off or there's an emergency and we don't get to be with him first.

That's okay. You know, he understands he's our Father. Jesus has called us to be his friend. But it's been the habitual walking with him and then walking with each other that has been the most profound, important aspect of anything in our life.

More than ministry, more than kids, more than success, more than anything else, it's been first and foremost walking with him and walking together. What I want you to know is that he invites you to walk with him. And I don't know your background. I don't know what you're going through.

I don't know all the distractions. We can talk about, I don't really understand the Bible, and I wish I had what you're talking about, Chip. I want you to listen to this invitation. Come unto me, all of you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's Jesus.

That's Jesus speaking to you today. Come. Just come. Not come because you have it all together or not even to get it all together. All of you who are weary, you're just worn down. You're tired of the pressure.

You're tired of trying to please everyone and be everything and be a great this and a great that and do the job and have the family or be the single person and do the, I mean, heavy laden life of pressure. Come. Come unto me.

And then notice, here's the invitation. Once you come, believe, trust in him. Yes, it's repenting of our sin and believing and trusting Christ's work on the cross has paid for our sin, that his resurrection is true and real and he's alive, and that we believe and entrust ourselves to him. That is certainly this coming for salvation. It just so breaks my heart that I meet so many Christians.

I think they think that's the beginning and the end and, you know, I hear why I pray to prayer or I'm trying hard to be a good Christian and, you know, I know I'm saved and they completely miss. The very next part of the invitation isn't just to receive eternal life, not just to receive forgiveness, but it's come and walk with me. Verse 29 of this chapter 11 of Matthew says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Take my yoke. In other words, let's get hooked up together.

It's a picture of a couple oxen and there's a yoke that goes over both of them and Jesus says, Join me. Let's do life together. And, you know, if you know anything about the oxen and yokes is that they would pair an experienced ox with a younger one and they would carry the burden of the load so that that young one learned how to keep in step and that's what Jesus is saying.

I'm stronger. I can handle anything, but I'm inviting you to let's do life together. Let's get in sync. In fact, the Bible uses the word keeping in step with the Spirit. It uses this metaphor, walking with God. And he says, Take my yoke upon you.

And a yoke was both literal, but when a rabbi was being approached by disciples and, you know, Jesus chose his disciples, but in that culture, most young men especially, they were sort of evaluating all the different rabbis and they would ask and they would request, Would you be my rabbi? I want to be your apprentice. I want to learn to think like you and speak like you and know God like you. I want to have the character that you have. So would you be my rabbi?

And they would join him and they would become a part of his team, if you will. And when a rabbi would say, Taking my yoke means, Are you willing to take my instruction and the discipline of walking with me in order to learn from me how to think like me, how to speak like me, how to know God like me, how to do relationships like me. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and he'll be back to continue our series Going Deeper, How to Walk with God 24-7 in just a minute. But let me quickly tell you that we are more than a broadcast ministry. We're supporting pastors globally, developing helpful resources, and sharing the gospel with this next generation. So if you'd like to join us in these efforts, become a monthly partner by going to livingontheedge.org. Thanks for your support.

Well, here again is Chip. So this invitation, he says, is important and vital and critical as putting your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Step one, amen. Praise the Lord.

Press ahead. But the next step is to say, Lord, I want to follow you. I want to take your yoke upon me. I want to learn.

Listen carefully. Lord Jesus, I want to learn what it looks like to do life with you. I want to learn to look at circumstances the way you do. I want to connect with your Heavenly Father the way you connect with Him. I want to experience your power. I want to experience your peace.

I want to learn how to stay connected to you throughout the day. I want to learn to care about other people the way you cared about other people. Lord, I want to walk with you and do life with you. So he says, take my yoke upon you. And so that instruction means you are committed to learning His Word and learning His ways.

This is what the Scripture says. This is how to do life. This is how to manage your money. Not to get this or get that. It's a stewardship. This is how you do relationships. This is how you parent. This is how you treat the opposite sex.

This is how you respond to your enemies. That's what it means to take His yoke upon you. It's a walk, and it's a walk that's step by step. It's a walk where you trip. It's a walk where you stumble. It's a walk where you fail.

It's a walk where you get mad at times and try to rip off the yoke. And then he tells us just such encouraging. He says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. But then he tells us why.

He says, not only will he give us rest, but he says, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. In other words, he's not overbearing. It's not like a cult. It's not like you got to do this, you got to do that.

You got to follow all these rules. It's, I'm gentle. I'm understanding. I get you. I mean, I really get you.

I understand what you're going through. He says, I'm gentle and humble. Some of the old translations say meek.

Not weak, but meek. It's power under control. And he goes on to say, you'll find rest for your soul. And then he, in contrast to your work, they want to put a yoke on you, right?

They want to get everything out of you. He says, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Now, some of you are thinking, the Christian life doesn't feel easy to me. Well, part of that is because so much in our journey is our flesh waging war against the Spirit. And we haven't gone into training to experience a light yoke, to experience God's power, to experience what it looks like to not trying to live the Christian life in your own will and energy, but how to live the Christian life where the life of Christ is flowing in you and through you. And what I would say to you is that, you know what, it is a journey and this is a tremendous invitation.

And it's the invitation that I took the Lord up on, my wife took the Lord up on, and what you know and I know, there's lots of rain, right? There's lots of struggles. There's lots of disappointments. There's lots of pain. It's a fallen world. We're all going to experience. Learning is a process.

Walking is a transfer of your balance. It requires faith. It requires study.

It requires intentionality. And, you know, I could give you, you know, I've talked about Moses and I've talked about David and, you know, I could talk about Mary and that it's never too early to start, right? Here's a 15, maybe a 16-year-old girl that God calls and He wanted to take up residence literally in her, that the incarnation, fully God, fully man, and He speaks to this young girl and her response is the heart of what it looks like to take His yoke upon you and learn from Him. And she says, Be it unto me according to your word. And I want you to know that like in anything, in any walk, if you want to stay in step, if you want to grow, there's discipline.

There is some hard work. There's some times you don't feel like it. Listen to the words of Solomon. This is not only an invitation, but this is what it will take for you to learn how to walk with God. And I want you to know, I would be so honored to spend time with you, the way a bricklayer spent time with me in a way that you could learn how to do this.

And when I hear already in your mind, I don't really know how, or I don't think I have the time, or I've tried that before. I want you to know is that you don't have to have a degree in this or that or been to Bible school or seminary or be a super smart person. The Bible was written for ordinary people. The Bible says that the common people heard Jesus gladly.

But I want you to listen very carefully about what it will require of you and that I want you to listen for the absolutely amazing reward, not only in this life, but forever and ever and ever. He says, My son, if you will receive my sayings and treasure my commandments within you, it starts with you have to be in God's word. Being in God's word on a daily basis is the prerequisite for walking with God. Jesus said emphatically, man won't live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. God spoke, the world came into existence. You look through the prophets. It would be Jeremiah that would say, Your words were found and I ate them, and they became for me the joy and the delight of my heart.

Notice that word they became. When you start getting into the Scripture, it can feel confusing and like duty and it's hard. But that's how it feels when you're first learning to play the piano or the guitar or learn a skill or physics, right? My son, if you will receive my sayings and treasure my commandments within you, then notice the attitude, make your ear attentive to wisdom and incline your heart to understanding. So it's not enough just to, I read a chapter or I read a devotional. Listen, incline your heart. I want to learn. What do you want me to do? I want to have a teachable spirit. For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding. If you don't understand it, cry out to God. Lord, I want to know.

This doesn't make sense to me. I want to hear your voice. I want to lean in.

I want to walk with you. You know, it's a passion. David's passion. This one thing I ask of the Lord, that what? I may know you and behold your beauty. The Apostle Paul would say, what? Philippians 3. More than anything else in all the world, I want to know you and the power of your resurrection and the fellowship of your suffering.

Everything, all my success is like garbage compared to knowing you intimately. You see, there's a commitment to His word. There's a teachable spirit. And then there's this passion and desire. Ask God for it. And then notice the discipline.

If you seek for her as silver and search for her as forbidden treasure. In other words, it's a priority. It's more than making money.

It's more than your kids on the sports teams. It's more than academics. In other words, the priority is you would seek to know God, like someone seeking for silver or for buried treasure. Then listen to this promise. Then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.

Think about that. You'll have a sense of His awesome, reverential presence. You will discover an intimate, real knowledge of God. Your experience, your heavenly Father is just and kind and good and compassionate and understanding. You'll have a sense as you rub up against evil and are tempted that you just know that is not righteous.

That's not a path I want to go on. He goes on to say, when that happens, for the Lord gives wisdom and from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding. Listen to these benefits as you walk with Him. Do life His way. That's what the fear of the Lord is.

It's saying, God, I'm going to do life Your way, not my way. I want to walk with You. I want to submit my will, my emotions, my heart. I believe You made me. I believe You have my best in view.

But my emotions go against that and the world goes against that. The enemy's trying to tempt me. But here's the reward, and this is why it's worth it. For from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He's a shield to those who walk in integrity. He guards your path of justice.

He preserves the way of the godly. Then you will discern what's right and what's just, what's fair. You'll learn every right course of action. Wisdom will enter your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

Discretion, wisdom, knowing what to do, when to do it, how to do it, it'll deliver you from evil. And God's favor will be upon your life. Almighty God, I pray that You would speak to the hearts of every person hearing my voice. Lord, that they would receive Your invitation to come to You, to take on Your yoke, to walk with You, and to experience the life that's really life.

In Jesus' name, amen. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening to Chip's message, How You Can Walk with God, from our series, Going Deeper, How to Walk with God 24-7. To learn more about this ministry or our many resources, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or check out the Chip Ingram app.

Well, Chip's joined me in studio now, and Chip, we're a teaching and discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. But many of our listeners may not know what that means or the impactful work we're involved in. So if you would, take a minute and share some examples of how Living on the Edge supports and encourages people all around the world.

I'd be glad to, Dave. One of the great joys of my life is the letters, emails, Facebook messages that I get from people literally all around the country and all around the world, and they tell me these amazing stories of how Living on the Edge has been a tool used by God to change their life. Maybe you're one of those people that have really been impacted by the ministry. I mean, I hear from people from every age, profession, background, every person imaginable, and what I hear is this same constant drumbeat of God spoke to me, I took a step of faith, now God's using me. And what I want you to know is that that's the heart of our ministry. We want to put teaching and tools and small group materials and downloadable things that we actually give away to help people not just live like Christians, but be ambassadors and agents of change and grace in their homes, their schools, and their workplaces.

And if you're one of those people that God has impacted you and actually you're impacting others because of Living on the Edge, I have a very specific request. Would you consider becoming a monthly financial partner? And of course, it helps us practically. No doubt about it.

It would really help us to know that X amount of dollars are coming in from a monthly partner. But literally, even more than that, it's about a group of people saying, we want to be a part of this mission to make a difference in the crazy world that we're living in. We want to make an impact, and we want to make an impact with you all. God's spoken to us.

God's changed us. We want to help you help others. And so here's my request today. Would you pray and just simply say, Lord, if this is part of your desire for me to partner with Living on the Edge on a monthly basis, will you show me and then show me what that looks like and how much? And what I will say is whatever amount that is, it's perfect, whatever God shows you.

But what I long to see is people who partner that are on the team, a part of the family, and we make a difference together each and every day. Thank you in advance for doing whatever God shows you to do. Great encouragement, Chip. Well, if you want to be part of supporting believers everywhere, consider becoming a monthly partner. Your regular support will go places and accomplish ministry work like you wouldn't believe. So set up a monthly gift today by going to livingontheedge.org or by calling us at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003, or visit livingontheedge.org. App listeners, tap Donate. Well, as we close, if you're looking for a way to get more out of our teaching, let me encourage you to download the Message Notes. Now, this helpful tool is available for every program.

They include a clear outline, all the Scripture references, and lots of fill-ins to help you remember what you're learning. You can get them at livingontheedge.org under the Broadcasts tab. App listeners, tap Fill-in Notes. Well, from all of us here, I'm Dave Drewy, thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge, and I hope you'll join us next time. ...