Walk Like You Have a Purpose - August 4th, 2022

August 04, 2022

Pastor Ken Brown Jr

Hi this is Pastor Ken and these are my thoughts on a Thursday…”Walk Like You Have a Purpose” My maternal grandfather had many sayings, some were repeatable, most are not. No matter which of those two categories they fell into, almost all of them had some truth or consequence he was trying to convey. I shared one of his grandpa-isms in a podcast a year or so ago. In that episode I shared that he taught me, while I was learning to drive to “Watch where I was going or I would end up going where I was watching.” That was one of his better repeatable quotes. One that I heard more than a few times as a boy, especially when I was doing what he liked to call “Lollygagging” was “Boy, you need to walk like you have a purpose”. I don’t think grandpa considered the biblical truth behind that one when he used it on me, he just wanted me to keep up with him and not “Lollygag” There is however, some real biblical truth in that grandpa-ism. When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior there is some expectation on God’s part that we will begin to walk like we have a purpose. Prior to coming to an understanding of our need for Him to lead and to guide, each of us made our way through life “Lollygagging”. Believe it or not, the Miriam-Webster dictionary actually offers a definition for the term Lollygagging. It is defined as: Fooling around or wasting time. When we walk through life without a personal relationship with our Creator, we are doing little more than aimlessly and foolishly wandering through, and wasting our lives. However when we begin that relationship in earnest everything changes, and in the words of my grandpa, we have to walk like we have a purpose. So what does that look like? Just how should we walk? For starters, we need to walk differently than we did before…no more lollygagging. Romans 6:4 says: Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. In a sense when we accept Christ as Lord and Savior we should begin to walk like we have a new lease on life. In reality, our entire creation has become new, and likewise our walk should look new. It should appear to us and others to be different than it did before. But how? We can now walk in wisdom. As people made one with Christ, we now have access to some things we never did before. The Bible says that now we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) Ephesians 5:15-17 tells us to See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. God gives us the ability to walk not as fools (as before) but as wise. As we walk in that wisdom He promises to redeem the time or help us correct past mistakes and missteps and even sometimes see the results of those past poor decisions reversed and reconciled to our new walk with Him. We can even walk in wisdom when we don’t know the right thing to do. James 1:5 in the New Living Translations says: If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. So walk like you have a purpose and walk in wisdom. According to God’s word, we can walk in Love. In Ephesians 5:1-2 Paul exhorts us to walk in love as Christ did. Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. God is love, and when we love others, it is evidence that we know and are connected with God. (1 John 2:10) So walk in love so you can walk like you have a purpose. The Apostle John goes on to encourage us to walk in truth. In 2 John 1:4 he wrote: I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father. In his third letter to Gaius he wrote: For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. When we have a personal relationship with God, the source of all truth, we have the ability to walk in truth. So walk in THE TRUTH so you can walk like you have a purpose. When we are connected with God we can also walk in the Spirit. Romans 8:1, 4 says: There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit…that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Paul went on to write to the Galatians, I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, and If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Galatians (5:16, 25) so walk in the Spirit so you can walk like you have a purpose. Finally walking as Christ would have us to means that we walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7) It means that we will do what God has created us to do. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10) Ephesians 4:1 says that we are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling on our lives in Christ I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. Ephesians 5:8 encourages us that our walk should be completely different than it was before…For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. So why are all these new ways of walking important? In Colossians 1:10 Paul wrote that it was so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Finally, Paul went on to say in Colossians 2:6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. So now, walking in Christ, walk like you have a purpose…and go be awesome!