The Walk: What Does God Want from You?

What does God want from you?

What does He expect from you? Sometimes we may feel like the demands of following Jesus & pleasing God are more than we can stand up under. And while we want to please God, honor God & do everything we can to follow Jesus well, the demands on our time are too great. The expectations the people around us have for us are too much. We simply can’t do it all, keep up with it all & please everyone. We end up feeling as if we’ve failed those around us, failed those we love & worst of all… like we’ve failed God.

But there’s good news for us. In fact, Jesus came to bring good news. What God wants from you, what He expects of you is really simple. The God who gave His Son on a cross for you is with you & in you. He wants way more for you than He wants from you. His deepest desire is to know you & walk with you, come what may.

The question for you is, “Will you walk with the God who wants to walk with you?”

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This is God’s earnest desire.  To walk with you.

Think about it…

In the beginning God walked with Adam & Eve.  Then God walked with Moses & the people of Israel.  God asked his people to walk with Him across a river bed on dry ground to freedom.  Then God walked them through the wilderness for forty years right to the Promised Land.  God said walk with me & I’ll lead you with a cloud by day & a fire by night.  Then God said to Joshua, “Here’s your battle plan. Walk with me around the City of Jericho & watch the walls fall down.”  They didn’t take the city by military might or by strategic planning.  They did it by walking with God.  There’s something there for you & I.

Think about these stories. Whenever the people of God walk in step with the purpose of God, amazing things happen.

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But the opposite is also true: When the people of God don’t walk in step with the purpose of God, they will always have more problems than they should.

Eventually, the people of God stopped walking with God. They stopped following after God. God sent judges.  He sent prophets. He sent men & women who walked with Him to call His people back to Him. But they wouldn’t listen. They wouldn’t walk. So His voice fell silent for 400 years.

But right before His voice fell silent God spoke these words through His prophet Micah…

“With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6.6-8

God’s earnest desire is to walk with you.  After those 400 years of silence, His voice was heard in the cry of a newborn child.  Jesus had come from heaven to earth to walk among us. (John 1.14).  And some of Jesus’ first words?  “Come, follow me.”  “Come, walk with me.”

Maybe the most spiritual thing you can do today is to put on your walking shoes & go take a walk with the God who wants to take a walk with you.

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And when you do, don’t ever stop.

To hear this message, click play.

September 20, 2015

MESSAGE: The Walk
TEXT: Micah 6.6-8