Watch Their Walk

This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. We're in Philippians 3 this morning, verses 17 to 19.

! You can tell a lot about a person just by watching them walk. One of my favorite things to do is to see babies as they grow up and they start to scoot and crawl and they start to walk.

It's such an amazing thing to watch as they stand up and they're kind of shaky and holding on. They take a step and they take a second step and eventually they take several steps.

It always amazes me watching little ones walk, how often they fall. And you think about how discouraging in some ways it would be to fall that much. And yet, though they're falling, they've got all this new freedom because they're able to walk and they're low to the ground.

They don't have far to fall. They get back up and just start going. But it doesn't take long at all until a baby who's learning how to walk begins to gain some confidence.

And one of my absolute favorite sights in the world is seeing a little one who's just learned to walk when they are confident. And they hold their head up high and their arms start wailing back and forth.

And they're walking fast and maybe not in a straight line, but they're going. And they are just thrilled with this new freedom they have to be able to walk. And you watch a little one learn to walk and you're seeing progress and life and excitement.

It's such a fun thing. There's the other side of that, though, that's hard. When you watch a senior person who for years have been on their own strong walking, and all of a sudden walking becomes a challenge for them.

Their walk gets slow. Pace becomes more of a shuffle and stepping up on stairs or curbs becomes more deliberate.

It's hard to watch one whose legs were once strong that are now weak, whose knees were sturdy and now are feeble.

In fact, you can tell a lot about a person's health just by watching how they walk. Not even just simply about strength, but about all kinds of things that are happening internally.

The biomechanics scientists and physicians tell us reveal a lot about the health of a person. There's speed, power, energy, balance, coordination.

All these things that are expressed as you watch a person walk. It's one of the things that even physicians can use to assess a number of things that may be going on inside someone that would be largely undetected.

The way somebody walks reveals a lot of what's going on. It's true for a baby as they learn to walk for the first time.

It's true for adults as they age and begin to struggle. And it's certainly true not just in the physical realm. It's true in the spiritual realm.

The Bible uses this metaphor of our walk to describe our life with Jesus. Our relationship with Christ. And just as you can look at someone physically walking and discern something about their strength and their power and their balance.

So you can watch the spiritual walk and the spiritual lives of people. And you can discern a lot about what's happening that's unseen in that way too.

We can learn a lot from observing each other. Admittedly, some of the things we learn when we watch each other, sometimes it's very good.

Sometimes it's disheartening. But it really is a biblical concept for us to learn the way of wisdom to be able to watch people who walk with the Lord and emulate them.

I hear a lot of times, particularly around the holidays, when people find themselves at stores or shopping malls more than normal. Or you'll hear it sometimes at airports. People talk about how they like to people watch.

Well, there's something to be said in the spiritual world. In the realm of walking with the Lord about watching and observing the way people walk with the Lord.

And to strive to do what the godly people do and to learn by the way of wisdom to avoid what the world would do. Our text here in Philippians 3, 17-19 speaks of that.

Let me read it to you. Verse 17 says, Brothers, join in imitating me. And keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.

For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly. And they glory in their shame. With mindset on earthly things.

These short three verses break into two simple categories I want us to look at this morning. First, examples worth following. And second, enemies worth avoiding.

Just using the language right here from the text, we look first at the examples that are worth following. He says, Brothers, join in imitating me.

Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. So we are told to watch how they walk. To be aware of the way that they live their lives.

And this isn't new to us as we've been studying in Philippians. He's already held high the example of Timothy and of Epaphroditus back in chapter 2. Go back to chapter 2, verse 22.

But you know Timothy's proven worth. How as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. Timothy says it's a proven example for you.

Look at his life. Follow his example. You see it in verse 25 of Epaphroditus. I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier and your messenger and minister to my need.

These two men, Paul has already put in front of the reader's mind to say, Watch how these men live. Observe them. Notice them.

He says that with Timothy. He says that with Epaphroditus. Now in chapter 3, verse 17. He says, Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.

All of this takes us back to chapter 1, verse 27. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel. So there's a way that we are supposed to watch how we walk.

Not just only that you would be careful how you walk, but that you would actually look at the lives, the walk of others, so that you could follow their example. And two specific things I want you to think about when you consider what it means to follow their example.

Number one, participate with them. In other words, you don't just simply watch what they do. You watch what they do, and then you join in doing what they do. That's verse 17.

Walk according to the example. We want to emulate what the faithful are doing.

1 Timothy 4.12, pretty familiar text to us. Let no one look down on you, or let no one despise you for your youth, but set an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.

You're to set an example, and we pray that others would follow your faithful example. In the same way, you too are to be looking at others who are faithful and walk according to the Scripture and join and participate in what they do.

This reminds us that the Christian life is never only about what we speak or teach. It certainly includes that, but that's never the end of it.

We are to live in such a way that people, if they were to follow us, would become more like Christ. This is exactly what was in Paul's mind when he wrote 1 Corinthians 11.1, Imitate me as I imitate Christ.

Our lives ought to be such that we remember that people are watching us, and that if they were to follow the pattern of our life, that it would help them become more like Christ.

This ought to be enough to cause every one of us to carefully consider how we're living and to make sure we are confessing our sin, that we are walking in righteousness before the Lord.

And certainly for every parent raising kids at home, this is a reminder that those young eyes that see what you're doing and those young ears that hear what you're saying need an example in the home so that they can learn to participate with you and follow your example.

We need to not only participate in the way of living, the faithful live, but a second thing to think of that is we keep learning from them.

Remain a student. Don't ever think that you're too old to learn from somebody else.

It's been said that Christ is the goal and Paul is the model of how to pursue that goal.

Moms and dads, those of you who are raising kids in your home, your children are going to have other role models besides just you. You're not the only one that your kids are going to look up to.

They're going to have school teachers and Sunday school teachers and grandparents and aunts and uncles and all kinds, hopefully, of good godly influences in their lives. But moms and dads, make sure that your children don't have to look outside your home first to see the example of what it means to walk like Jesus.

It's not that you're the only influence, but you are the primary influence. You're not the only one who's going to teach them, but you are the one whose lives are going to be lived out in front of them day after day after day.

And you want to make sure that your children, as they listen to you and watch you and live like you and imitate what you do, that it's an example worth following.

And it's interesting when you're raising kids, isn't it? Because our kids go through stages. There's times where they mimic us, and there's times they want to be just like us, and times they want to dress just like us, and then something happens overnight, and all of a sudden, parents become just exceedingly, you know, out of touch, and all of a sudden, we don't know anything.

And even those days where you feel like your kids aren't listening, even those seasons where you feel like it's just not getting through, they're watching, they're listening, and their spiritual growth isn't perfectly linear, neither is yours, neither is mine.

It's sometimes up and down, it's sometimes forwards and backwards, there's seasons. But you remain a faithful, steady example worth following for them.

And for adults that are here this morning, let me just encourage you that while I hope and pray for each of us that we are walking in a way that's worthy of being an example, that we also have other people we're still looking up to.

We don't ever want to stop learning and stop growing. It's good for us to have role models in our lives. It's good for us to have people in the church.

It's good for us to have people in the business world. It's good for us to have people in whatever industry that you're a part of. It's good for us to have friends that we can look up to. It's good to have people who have been through what you're going through.

It's especially a great blessing if you've got someone that maybe is a season of life ahead of you. They've experienced your joys. They've walked through your sorrows.

And you're able to look up to them and to say, that's how I want to live. That's how I want to handle blessing. That's how I want to handle persecution. That's how I want to handle success. That's how I want to handle disappointment.

All the different facets of life to be able to say, here's someone I still am learning from. I remember hearing Pastor Charles Swindoll talk about how to choose role models in your life.

He said three things. One is he said, choose them slowly. Number two, he said, study their private lives carefully. And three, he said, as much as you can, spend time with them regularly.

You want to choose your role models slowly. Don't be too quick to follow and emulate someone who just burns bright real fast. Sometimes those who burn bright burn out.

We want to choose role models who are faithful. Role models who have been tested. Role models who keep pursuing the Lord no matter what.

And as we choose them slowly, we also want to study their private lives. We don't want to emulate somebody just because of how they look, or just because of their success, or just because of their influence.

We want to make sure that their private lives are right. You need to see how they treat their spouse. You need to see how they treat their children. You need to see what they're like behind closed doors.

And as much as possible, spend time with them. This is the whole idea of the New Testament church. That we're not individuals, we're a family. That we don't just simply show up once a week to a certain place, but that our lives are intertwined together so that we can help each other and teach each other, and the older teach the younger.

We need trustworthy, faithful examples. And I hope and pray you have that if you are at home, that your parents, I pray, are faithful examples.

I hope that you see your Sunday school teachers as faithful, godly examples for you. The pastors of a church ought to be faithful examples to you.

Hebrews 13, verse 7 says, Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God. Listen in to verse 7. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

Imitate their faith. The pastors, the shepherds of a church ought to live their life in front of you in such a way that you can know us and imitate our faith.

We don't have the same gifts, don't have to have the same personality, don't have to have the same interests in all things. But if we all love the Lord, then you ought to be able to look at your leaders and say, I want to have faith like they have.

I want to trust Jesus like they do. I want to love as they love. 1 Peter 5, 1, 2, and 3 speaks of this again. I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, going to verse 2, to shepherd the flock of God that is among you.

Verse 3, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. The elders in 1 Peter 5, the pastors, the shepherds, have a biblical mandate here to be an example to the flock.

Not to be perfect, not to be flawless, but to be faithful. Which reminds us in the church that the pastors are not celebrities, they're not CEOs, they're not people who are to live their life distant and separated.

You ought to know them, and talk to them, and interact with them. You ought to be able to see how we treat our wives, and again, how we treat our kids. You ought to be able to see the way that we conduct ourselves.

Not because we're perfect, but the biblical mandate is that the elders in 1 Peter 5 are living their life among the people they're shepherding, and are an example to the flock.

If I don't treat Marcy in a godly way behind the scenes, you really shouldn't listen to anything that I say. And you ought to feel free to ask my wife, what is Michael like behind the scenes?

You ought to feel free to ask my wife, how does he treat you? Because if I don't hold up under the scrutiny of how my own wife sees me, and the way that I treat her when no one else is watching, it's not a faithful example.

And those of us in our church that are leaders, or our pastors who are here, or our deacons who serve, or Sunday school teachers who open the Word, all of these in our church who are leaders need to all remind ourselves that we are to be faithful examples to the flock.

not for the sake of people simply holding us in high esteem, but because we are saying to them, imitate me as I imitate Christ.

Children in fourth and fifth, you know, fourth and fifth graders, they get ready to go on to the youth group. They ought to have some students in our youth group that they already know a little bit and look up to. Our middle schoolers ought to have some high school students that they look up to and say, when I'm in high school, I want to walk like that.

I want to imitate that. Our high schoolers ought to have some college students they look up to and say, when I go off to college and have some freedom like they have, I want to handle it that way. I want to live like Christ.

And our college students ought to have some married friends and say, if the Lord wills for me to be married, I want to have a marriage like that. And it just keeps going up and up and up. All of us ought to have faithful examples and role models that we're looking up to.

I remember hearing one of my mentors one time, he was an older man before he went to glory, and he said, one of the harder things about aging and getting old is the people that you've looked up to are gone.

And it's just a reminder that we need to always be looking up to those, and even those who get up in years where many of their mentors or role models are gone, what they can understand is that they have lived their life looking up to others, and now they want to finish well so that people looking up to them can have an example of what faith looks like until the very end.

We want to finish well. And the church needs examples of how to finish well. It's just a reality that there are certain parts of our church campus you can go to, and you see youthfulness, and you hear noise, and you hear conversations because you've got babies crying, and you've got little kids jumping, and you've got teenagers talking, and there are certain parts of our church building, and it's just brimming with youth, and excitement, and joy, and fun, and energy.

There's other classrooms you can go to, and the members move a little slower, and the conversation's not so much about all the ball games you had last week, and the conversation is more about how you feel, or doctor's appointments, or diagnosis.

It's just the truth of life. But the reality is, every room in our church is so helpful for each other.

If our church only had the young people, only had those with energy, and life, and excitement, that's a great thing, but those young people desperately need some older people to look up to to be able to live how they live, and to walk how they walk.

Praise God for our senior saints at our church. We need every one of you. And I realize that as you get older, and you lose some of the strength, and freedoms, and abilities that all of us used to take for granted, and I understand that that can be hard and discouraging, but please understand this, your primary ministry, not your only, but your primary ministry in this church is as a faithful example of what it means to trust God all the way to the end.

And it's hard to see faithful people when they get to the end of their life, particularly those who are losing a spouse that have been married 40, or 50, or 60 years. That's hard to watch.

And yet, for the church, there is still something sweet to be able to say, that's an example of how you're faithful till death do us part. We need examples.

We need examples worth following. And one of the greatest decisions you'll ever make is to choose to be so ingrained ingrained in the life of the local church that you have people younger than you, that you are leading and mentoring, and people older than you that you're looking up to and emulating.

And when you get so ingrained in the life of the church that you've got meaningful relationships younger and older, that's when you really begin to enjoy the benefits of the body of Christ.

And so one of the things he says to us is to keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.

We want to have examples worth following. That's the positive side. There's also a negative side. Not only are there examples worth following, number two, there are enemies worth avoiding.

Verse 18, For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, they walk, same motif, walking the way you live, as enemies of the cross of Christ.

So there are some who their walk is an example, verse 17, and others whose walk shows that they are an enemy. We don't follow them.

We avoid that kind of life by the way of wisdom. Paul is weeping here over the reality of those who are enemies of Christ. I now tell you, he says, even with tears in verse 18.

Let me just pause for a minute because tucked away in that little phrase, I think, is a very helpful word for us. If you read books on Philippians or if you pick up a book or a commentary through Philippians, the words you're going to hear most often associated with the book of Philippians is the word joy.

Because joy or rejoice is all throughout the letter. It is an epistle of joy. You'll often hear Philippians referred to as the epistle of joy.

And it is. It talks about rejoicing in the Lord. The joy that Paul has for the church. The joy he has for the Lord. The joy that people have for each other.

This letter is full of joy. And yet, verse 18, he says, now I tell you this even with tears.

which tells us that the joy we have as Christians is not a life immune from tears.

It also tells us that just because there's tears in your life does not mean that we can't still be joyful. And we need to understand both sides of this.

Because if you think that true joy and true trust means that you never cry, that you never have your heart broken, that you never feel the weight of the burdens that's going on around you, that's not what real joy is.

Real joy includes tears. And if you think that because your heart is broken that somehow you can't have the joy of the Lord, then you've missed what joy is all about.

Joy is not in any way the absence of pain. Joy is the presence of Christ in the midst of everything that you go through. And that tells us that even though we're joyful, there's going to be times we grieve.

And it tells us that even when we're grieving, we can still be joyful. Something, I'll never forget this, it's been a while ago now, but a very, very faithful lady in our church.

One of the first senior adult ladies that befriended me when my family moved here. She was such a dear, dear lady and faithful, taught the Bible to ladies, loved people, was such a faithful example.

faithful. And I remember getting a phone call on the afternoon when I was home eating with my family that she had passed away. It wasn't unexpected. She had been sick.

Been to visit her. We knew it was coming. And I remember getting the phone call that she had just gone to be with the Lord. And it really, it shook me because she was such a faithful lady in our church and had been such a good friend to me as a young staff member here.

I remember after preaching her funeral, a very well-intentioned person came by when I was out with the family out in the lobby.

And I know what she meant by this, but the lady came by and she goes, oh, pastor, she said, I know that was an easy funeral to preach there. That was an easy one for you. And I know what she meant.

She meant that we know that she was with the Lord. We didn't have any questions about her faith, her sincerity. I remember that moment what was, I just said thank you or something, I was pretty silent, but what I was thinking was there are no easy funerals.

Because while we rejoice there with the Lord, these are people we love. And for someone who goes to be with the Lord, there's a spouse that was left behind or children who are left behind, there's grandkids who are left behind.

And the way they served in the church, there's now something missing. You get to know where people sit and you get to know where to expect them to be and you find yourself preaching and glancing in that chair that used to have that faithful saint every single Sunday is now unoccupied.

And there's real tears in the Christian life. And just about every funeral I ever preach, I experience great joy because they're with the Lord and we experience real tears because as the family and the church, we love and miss these.

Joy doesn't mean we pretend everything's easy. Joy doesn't mean that if we can't ever have our heart break, it just means that we're never in despair.

You see that right here in the text, Paul has just been talking about the faithfulness of Timothy and the faithfulness of Epaphroditus and the glory of knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection and keeping your eyes on the faithful examples and yet right in the midst of that, verse 18, he says, look, I've got to warn you that there are real enemies out there and I'm doing it even with tears.

Why? Because it breaks his heart to think about the reality of those who would be opponents of the gospel. Sometimes the real measure of our faithfulness is the willingness to let our heart break for things that aren't the way they should be.

If you read the book of Philippians, you're going to read an epistle of joy, but it's not a letter without tears. It breaks his heart to think about the way that these people, some of them, are living.

Specifically, he says, I have told you often of those who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. And there's some different ideas that theologians and scholars have about who he has in mind.

Some think he's talking about the Judaizers, this group of people who would try to impose law-keeping upon Gentile Christians. Others think it's the opposite, think it's the antinomians, those who would pretend as if there are no commands and they just live their lives simply by lawless indulgence.

Some think it's talking about those who just blatantly deny the gospel. But he says that as you look at their lives, you need to know there are those who are enemies of the cross.

Most often those who are enemies of the cross aren't those who just blatantly reject the gospel.

Because people like that don't tend to have a lot of influence over Christians in the church. If someone just stands up and says that they deny the scriptures, they deny the deity of Christ, they don't believe in God, they don't believe in heaven, if someone just blatantly denies those things, that doesn't tend to have nearly as much impact and influence over believers as those who would pretend to hold to at least some kind of what the Bible says a form of godliness but denying its power.

Those who you can hear them in a song and it sounds like they're believers but the way they live their life betrays that. Or those who would give an interview and talk about something spiritual and think well maybe they really are believers and so you start to look up to them and then you watch the way they live their life and it shows that they actually don't love the Lord.

And what Paul is saying here is you've got to watch their lives, look at how they live, choose your role model slowly because there are some who may seem to be good examples but if you watch them closely he says they're actually enemies of the cross.

Anybody who denies salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone is someone who is opposed to the gospel. and churches fall prey for this all the time.

You get a famous athlete who quotes a Bible verse or who in some interviews says something that sounds kind of Christian and all of a sudden everybody wants to emulate them and put them on some spiritual soapbox to look up to listen to what they're saying and put them on a pedestal and then you watch their lives like there's no faithfulness here at all.

But people get enamored with their power or their fame or their wealth. And Paul says you know watch how they live.

Don't be so impressed by their words. Watch how they live. He says in verse 18 they walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

And then he gives us a few quick examples of why we avoid living like them. We don't want to emulate them. Number one he says there verse 19 their end is destruction.

You might write down this is their destiny. You don't emulate those who are enemies of the gospel because their destiny is destruction. Matthew 7 21 not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven.

Christians should never emulate the lives of people whose end is destruction. And he gives a second warning. their God is their belly.

You can just put down here that's their desires. Their desires give them away. It's interesting in the original Greek text here for this sentence there's no verbs.

The verbs are added in English so that the sentence makes sense to us. It literally just reads this the God the stomach. It's just short succinct staccato bullet point kind of rapid fire.

The God the stomach. Their desires. Their earthly desires always win the day with them.

Ephesians 4.19 says they have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

Don't look up to those who continually indulge themselves in the things of the world. Even if they still occasionally say things that sound spiritual or occasionally say something that sounds right.

If they are indulgent in fleshly, worldly, sinful desires, that's how they walk. And he says, to avoid those who are enemies of the cross.

There's a different way that Christians should live. 1 Corinthians 9.27 he says, but I discipline my body and keep it under control lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

He says, I don't let my flesh win. Discipline your body, he says. You bring your passions, you bring your cravings, you bring your flesh under control.

There's a third thing that gives them away. Their end is destruction, that's their destiny. Their God is their belly, that's their desires. And they glory in their shame.

This speaks to their delights. This is what they delight in. as in the previous clause, in this right here, they glory in their shame. There's no verbs in the original.

It just says the glory in the shame of them. The glory in the shame of them. They delight in the things that should make them ashamed.

They've lost their ability to feel conviction, to feel shame. The things that should humiliate them to do before a watching God, instead, becomes things they strut around and parade in.

Jeremiah 6.15 If ever there is a word for our culture today, Jeremiah 6.15 Were they ashamed when they committed the abomination?

No. They were not at all ashamed. They did not know how to blush. They no longer even feel shame.

Don't make your role models people who openly and blatantly oppose the things of Christ.

But this is where the church community becomes so important. Because if you take a 14-year-old student, they're going to have no shortage of the world telling them who to look up to.

Athletes, musicians, actors, online celebrities, they're inundated with people who are in front of them begging for their attention.

But it's through the life of the church that they ought to be able to say I've got my role models chosen. Because I've got godly people that I see their lives.

I know them. I talk to them. They teach me in Sunday school. They taught me in Awana. I see them sing in the choir. I see them as they talk to my parents.

We need role models in the church that our young people can say I'm not tempted to give my life to follow some ungodly person because of their fame or fortune because I've got the real thing in my life.

which speaks to the necessity of intergenerational friendships. This is why one of the greatest things you could do is teach preschoolers and children and youth in Sunday school to teach them in Awana, to teach them in PDO, to teach them in our kids choirs, to sponsor at kids camp, to be able to have people who are in their 20s and 30s and 40s all the way up that these children and teenagers can say I know them, I can watch them, I can study them, I can see how they talk, I can see how they act, and that's such a better place for our young people to find examples worth following in the church than it is for the older people just to stick to themselves and the young people just stick to themselves.

We need people who you're looking up to and the older people need people you are investing in. That's the way the church family should work.

There's a fourth thing that gives them away. Their end is destruction, that's their destiny, their God is their belly, it's their desires, they glory in their shame, that's their delights, with minds set on earthly things.

This speaks to their dreams. What is it that they dream of? They dream of earthly things. Their goals go no higher than the earthly things.

So let me challenge you today. What is it that you really dream of? if your children dreamed of the same things you dream of, would it make them more like Christ?

If the teenagers in this church got to know you better adults, if they got to know you more, and to watch what you're chasing and pursuing, and if they were to chase and pursue the same things you're chasing and pursuing, would it make them more like Christ, or would it make them more worldly?

He says, don't emulate the lives of those whose biggest desires are just merely treasures of this earth. Examples to follow, enemies to avoid.

Let me close by just giving you a few implications from this brief text this morning. Just a couple of quick things to think about. Number one, be careful who you look up to.

Be careful who you look up to. Now, don't miss the blessing of having godly role models. Don't say to yourself, you know what, I don't trust anybody.

Don't say to yourself, I don't want to have any examples because they might disappoint, they might let me down. The text is very clear. Join in imitating us, verse 17 says.

You are supposed to have godly role models in your life. I'm just begging you scripturally here, to be careful who you look up to. Second, never be envious of those who oppose the Lord.

Never be envious of those who oppose the Lord. Don't be jealous of their money, don't be jealous of their fame, don't be jealous of their influence.

teenagers, don't be jealous of their popularity, do not be envious of those who oppose the Lord. Because they're chasing something totally different.

And every delight they accumulate, if they don't know the Lord, they lose all of it when this life comes to an end. third, if I could just sum up verse 17, 18, and 19, trust the Lord and obey His word.

Trust the Lord and obey His word. I was at the house Friday afternoon and just by myself singing and playing through my piano some of the hymns that were in my hymnal I was playing through.

And I came across a hymn I hadn't sung in a long time. It's not one that gets sung much these days. But it struck me as I was reading the lyrics and singing that in my living room and it really sums up exactly this passage.

We trust the Lord and we obey His word. The hymn says, when we walk with the Lord in the light of His word, what a glory He sheds on the way.

While we do His goodwill, He abides with us still and with all who will trust and obey. And the chorus says, trust and obey.

For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Keep your life simple.

There are examples worth following. There are enemies worth avoiding. Surround yourself with people who help you walk well.

And if I can just close with where we begin. We talked at the beginning about two kinds of walks. The little ones who are just learning to walk and the older ones who are struggling to walk.

walk. What you'll most often always see in either season of life, the toddler learning to walk or the senior struggling to walk.

You see somebody right by them. For the little one, it's a mom or dad holding their hand.

Maybe mom and dad holding both hands. And sometimes that little one tries to break free. And sometimes they fall.

Mom and dad pick them up. And on the older season of life, much harder to watch. As people struggle to stand and sit, you most often see a loved one right around them too.

Helping them, holding on to them, guiding them. We start this life needing the hands of people to help us walk well.

We in this life, with people who love us, supporting us to walk well. It's a good picture for our life as Christians.

We need the hands of people near us as examples to help us to walk. And we need to put our hands near the lives of others to steady them so they've got someone to look up to.

You can learn a lot about a person by watching how they walk. I pray that our lives are worthy to be followed. Lord, we thank you for your word today.

So much richness in this text. I pray that it would be an encouragement to us. Lord, for those today who find themselves in a place of need, I pray they would find your grace more than enough.

Thank you, Lord, for sending your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died in our place, for taking upon Himself our sin. We rejoice in the truth that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved, that it's not by our works, it's by His.

We want to live the rest of our lives in the faithful pursuit of knowing Him more and helping others to follow Him faithfully. May that be true for us. In Christ's name, Amen.