TV 1753 | Just Keep Walking Conclusion

Do you know that God values His people so much that He's willing to put up with this world and all its evil, all that's wrong with it because we are that valuable to Him? Man, I want to ... It needs to be Him and not the world because in a sense that's returned. It's us and not the world from His point of view. That's how He values you this morning, right where you're at. You're not just, oh well, there's another one of them. Put them down. They're just a digit in my kingdom. They are a part of a valuable crop. Jesus paid the ultimate price, not just for a bunch of people, but for every individual to find their place in His kingdom. Wow. What about 1 Timothy chapter ... Well, chapter one I believe it is. There's a scripture there that came to my mind, what mind I have left anyway. Paul is writing to Timothy to encourage him in the ministry. Talks about how all that he used to be and how terrible it was and the grace of God. Verse 14, the grace of God was poured out on me abundantly along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. That's interesting. I never really noticed that before. Where did Paul get his faith and love? It was poured out on him, wasn't it? Where do we get it? We get everything from Him if we just open our hearts and receive it. Praise God. There's another confirmation of a truth that we've heard in other places. But this is where I was getting. There is a trustworthy saying, you can bank on this, that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. The man who used to boast in his own righteousness, defend his position as a law keeper, came

to realize, not only am I a sinner, I'm the worst sinner. But God did something for me that was absolutely astounding and amazing. You want to know, does everybody want to know why He chose me? Because He was looking for an example. Because if He could save Saul with all that he was guilty of, all that he had done, He could save anybody. You need some encouragement this morning? You're just looking in the mirror and seeing all that's wrong with you? How about looking in the Scriptures and looking up to God and saying, God, You saved Paul. You could save me. I have reason to have hope this morning. But listen to how He goes on, of whom I am the worst, but for that very reason, that very reason, I was shown mercy. That's the reason God reached out the way He did. He let Saul do what he did. He let him get into a deep, dark hole spiritually, and then He reached down and pulled him out. And He said, I'm doing this as an example. I want everybody to know what I can do. So if you think you're too far gone, forget it. Look at Paul, all right? For that very reason, I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His immense patience. Now that word immense is kind of a hard word to translate, but basically it's just not patience. This is the ultimate. This is patience to the nth degree, as we might put it. Jesus Christ might display, He's putting on a show for us. Look at Him. You want to know what patience is about? Look at Him.

Look at the patience that I had with Paul as an example for those who would believe in Him and receive eternal life. Praise God. Now to the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. You think? To Him be all of the glory. Praise God. So patience begins with Him, doesn't it? You suppose He wants us to be patient? Yeah. Of course, it has so many different ramifications. I need to be patient in the sense, like I said, that we put one foot in front of another. We don't get discouraged and give up. We don't become weary in well-doing. We know that in due season we will reap if we don't faint, if we don't give up. You know, the Lord knows all about human weakness. Jesus experienced it. Even young men fall, don't they? But those who wait, those who hope in the Lord, will renew their strength. There's always that place that we can go to find what we need. If only we will get this picture in our mind, all I have to do is put one foot in front of another, and I do it because He gives me the strength, and so I always got a place I can go and get what I need to make that next step. He's not telling me to do something I can't do, and I don't have to worry about next week. I can leave the past. Like Paul said, I can go ahead and just reach, but that's all I've got to do. You know, even the world has this idea of laying in the moment because they recognize that you can get so ... your mind can go everywhere, and if we're going to ever have any kind of

rest in peace, we're going to have to get in the moment. Well, the Lord's got a moment for every one of us, but it's in connection with Him, looking to Him, trusting in His strength. You know, there's so many scriptures you could read. I'm going to go ahead and read through one that we've read a number of times in Colossians. Paul's prayer, and remember this is one that God always answers. We have every reason to pray it for one another and for ourselves. Verse nine, for this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives. Boy, we need His wisdom. We can't figure it out. A lot of people think they can dig in here and figure it all out. I need Him. I'm not smart enough to decipher all of this. I need Him to show me what it's about, and He's willing. If I'm willing to do His will, He's willing to talk to me. Praise God, all right? The knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives so that, why? So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might. There's the need for strength. Now why is that? Why do I need that? So that you may have great endurance and patience. Anybody need patience today? We don't have any reason to say, I just can't do that.

I'm so weak. I'm so this. We need to get out of our pity party and say, Lord, you have allowed me to be in this place where I need strength to take that next step that you asked me to take. But because you have told me, you've given me what I need, it's not up to me. You're not dumping this on me and saying, do it. You're saying, I'm here. This is my plan. I want you to understand your part in my plan right now, but I'm here to give you the strength to actually do it too. I'll give you the knowledge and the wisdom, but I need you by faith to put your foot down and move forward. And that's going to take patience. Because of course, like I said, we grow up patient. We all know about the kids taking a trip. Life is a journey, but when kids take a trip, Daddy, are we there yet? Of course, everybody recognizes you've all done it when you were young. I'm sure I did, but you know, the Lord wants us to realize it's not a matter of this impatient, I want to get there. I want to ... something's wrong if I'm not down the road or if I'm not at the destination. Something is wrong. No. One thing is needed. I need to be in harmony with Him. I need to let Him teach me His ways. I need Him to enable me to do what is needed today, and everything is okay. What a thought. I know everybody's been around here any number of years, and you remember Brother Thomas using an illustration, and it had to do with dealing with days one at a time. And it was the young man who was in love with a young lady.

And he asked ... to marry him. And on one level she wanted to, but she knew something about him. He loves potatoes. He loves potatoes. And I hate, if there's one thing I hate in the kitchen, it's the peeled potatoes. And as she thought about this, she just thought about, this is what my life is going to be, it's going to look like. I'm just going to go through my life peeling potatoes. And in her mind she built up this huge mountain of potatoes. That's all she could see. If I marry this guy, that's my destiny. Until somebody pointed out to her, sufficient unto the day are the potatoes thereof. You don't have to think about all that. It's in God's hands to deal with that. All I've got to deal with is today. Doesn't that give you more of a rest? I mean, we can't control the future. We don't know all about that. It's not our job to worry about it or be anxious. We've talked about those things many times recently. But God wants us to have this spirit that, okay, I've stopped worrying about it, and then we go to sleep. That's not it either. Real patience and say, okay, I have one job. We've said this before. Just trust God, look to Him, believe in what He has promised, and we're going to get to the other side. We're going to absolutely go with Him. He's got the process.

He has absolutely planted His life in me. I'm growing up in Him. I can't hurry it along. I can't be what I'm not. And that's okay. That's where we fall down. We look in the mirror and say, something is wrong. I have been a Christian so long, I should be this way. Well, there's two things usually wrong. Number one is a lot of self-effort involved. What was the other thing? Pride. If I have this image of myself, I need to be here, and I'm only here, something is wrong. If you've got self-effort, you've got pride at work. I just need to be who I am and trust in Him. And I'll tell you, there's a peace that comes with that. There's a rest that I believe God wants His people to enjoy, to enjoy their spiritual walk and not to endure it in the wrong sense. It's just some enduring, but it's not like God's demanding something of me that's just not fair. I can't do it. So, until there, you know, these childish attitudes that we sometimes have. Don't look at me like that. You know what I'm talking about. Lord, ever planted thoughts like that in your mind? We're just a bunch of kids, folks. We need the Lord, and He is so loving, and He's such a merciful and loving Heavenly Father. Oh, praise God. You can't hardly go into anything without Romans 8, can you? Romans 8, I'll just look at one part that we haven't looked at so much recently.

But here's where it talks about, well, verse 18. I consider that our present sufferings, this is what we've got to put up with while we're here during this process of our growing up. They're not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Oh, God, give us that sense of putting things in perspective. I get so buried in how I'm feeling today that I forget what's going on and what the Lord wants from me, and I forget all about that. But the Lord says, no, this is not worth comparing with that. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it. In hope, you mean there's hope? In hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Boy, there's so many natural pictures God gives us of the process. This world was designed to give birth to us, and it's groaning. It's in labor. All right? Not only so, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait. So there's the time frame that's involved. It's time and it's persistent effort. It's all baked into this business of patience. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first, we groan inwardly as we wait. But how do we wait? If I'm waiting eagerly, what am I looking at? I'm not looking at the moment and the troubles or the difficulties of the moment. I've got my eyes.

I know where this journey is going and I know the one who's going to take me there and it's happening, folks. And so I'm going to handle what he gives me today with what he gives me in his strength and it's going to be okay. I can rest in him. All right? We wait. We groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship and that's the presenting of a grown-up child, grown-up son. The redemption of our bodies, thank God this one, this body will be gone, I'll have a better one, perfect one. For in this hope, we are saved. Now again, hope is not a wish. Hope is a confident expectation based on the Word of a God, the promise of God who cannot lie. That's pretty solid ground, okay? It's the only solid ground there is. In this hope, we are saved. We were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? You know, I've used a silly illustration. I hope one day I can have a Bible. Well, I've got one, thank you. But hope is something that I don't possess at the moment, but I have a reason, I have a foundation, a basis to expect that I will have whatever it is that I'm hoping for. But here's the deal. If we hope for what we do not yet have, what do we do? We wait for it patiently. And don't ever forget that waiting patiently is not sitting in an easy chair.

Waiting patiently is just take one step at a time. Thank God. Just, I can't remember the title now, but that's all right. Just keep, yeah. Just keep walking. Just keep walking. That probably came from a movie, I think, but that's all right. We won't connect it with that. But the Lord is so faithful to help and to encourage His children, isn't He? By the way, do you think we ought to be patient with each other? Ah, now you're going to mess with, now I'm going to mess with you. Because I mean, I have enough trouble being patient with myself and the world around me, but each other, give me a break. But if we understand that this is a process, that we are not there, even Paul wasn't there, and he's an example, shouldn't we look at each other through God's eyes? If His schedule for the whole of creation comes down to being patient with you and bringing you to the end of the process He has foreordained, shouldn't we look at each other through different eyes? And oh, by the way, please be patient with me. I'm not perfect yet. You know, if we're going to be His children, we need to love one another and be patient with one another and trust one another, trust the Lord in one another. I want to go forward understanding the process. Understanding this is very much baked into what we talked about recently. If I understand what's going on, it's a whole lot easier to cope with it and deal with it and know what I'm supposed to do. But I don't want to sit here and be one of these that's critical of somebody else because they're not this and they're not that and they said something nasty or they did something. God help us to look past all of that and realize that we are everyone works in process starting with you at best.

There's not one of us that can look in the mirror and say, I'm without fault and people don't even need to be patient with me because I'm perfect. Well, not one of us can say that, can we? So how about loving one another and being patient with each other and actually helping one another? Do you know that even the scripture even tells us to be patient with all men? Whoa, because the Lord is going to straighten out everything that is wrong. Whatever is wrong in this world, I don't have to take vengeance. I don't have to worry. God's going to take care of everything, just like He told Habakkuk. Don't you look around here and think I don't care and nothing's going to happen. There's a time on my schedule when it will be taken care of. But right now I have another purpose that's being worked out, and that's where we're at. And I want to know what He wants of me in terms of my character, in terms of my actions, my activity, in terms of how I relate to you. And that's what everyone, every believer needs to needs to see and to walk in. I'll tell you, God is so merciful and faithful. I thought about, I think I will just read this, I thought about an old song. Some of you probably thought about it. And some people call it a children's chorus. I don't know. I thought it was something else when I remembered it. But He's still working on me. You remember that one? Because I remembered the chorus, but there are a couple of verses in this. He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be. It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars, the sun and the earth, and Jupiter and Mars. How loving and patient He must be. He's still working on me. It takes just a little bit more than six days to do what He's doing in us. But He is so patient. Now, verse 1, there really ought to be a sign upon the heart. Don't judge. There's an unfinished part. But I'll be perfect just according to His plan, fashioned by the Master's loving hands. Verse 2, in the mirror of His Word, reflections that I see make me wonder why He never gave up on me. He loves me as I am and helps me when I pray. Remember, He's the potter, I'm the clay. Wow, some rich words in that. He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be. It took Him just a week to

make the moon and stars, the sun and the earth, and Jupiter and Mars. How loving and patient He must be. He's still working on me. God's patient. We can be patient with ourselves in the right sense, not to take advantage of that in the wrong sense and let flesh have its way, but not to be anxious about what I can't be and I'm not and all of this. All I got to deal with is today. I can live in the moment and trust Him, do what He shows me to do, and not be anxious about it or not doubt the process. God, are you really, we're, you know, gazillion ways that the devil has of sidetracking us and filling us with doubt and anxiety. But we've got a faithful God. And His patience, in His patience, He is going to finish every, finish what He's doing in every single one. He is not willing that any should perish. That's His promise to His people. Not willing, but that all should come to repentance. And that means people He's still reaching. I don't know. I don't know how long this is going to go on, but I know God's still reaching some people. And I pray that God will help us to be a part of that, according to His plan and purpose. I know He will. But I'll tell you, God's, God's patience is absolutely incredible. And I want to reflect that in my, the way I see myself, the way I see you. And even the way I see the people of the world. It's not my job to straighten the world out. Any, it's going to be burned up. I need to, I need to reflect His character in the midst of it. Because that's the only thing that's going to save anybody, is Him. It's not me, it's Him in me, and Him in you. To God be the glory. This has been the Midnight Cry broadcast. If you would like a DVD or CD of today's message in its entirety, please request it by program number. While it is not required, a donation of $10 for DVDs and $5 for CDs is suggested to help with expenses. Also, for those who request it, we will send you our quarterly publication, The Midnight Cry Messenger, free and postage paid. Send your requests to Midnight Cry Ministries, Post Office Box 685, Southern Pines, North Carolina, 28388. We invite you to join us again next week at the same time, and may God richly bless you until then.

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