John McCracken - Post Falls, June 2007

Jesus must have been a wonderful, wonderful person to know personally, to wake up every morning wondering what would happen. Today we are going to take a walk with Jesus.

Jesus always arose early to pray. Jesus’s days began with prayer; sometimes He went through the day praying and ended with prayer. If we are going to walk with Jesus, we need to pray. "If you are not a praying person you are not walking with Jesus."

There was a couple who were divorced after two years; they no longer come to meeting. We talked to the wife and she said, "I never saw my husband pray and when I prayed, he mocked me.”  Often this man was the first to give his testimony. I will say again, "If you are not praying, you are not walking with Jesus."

Jesus went alone in the mountain to pray and it was evening. Jesus was a praying Man.

We need to use the time He has given us and find the time to pray. Ecclesiastes 3:1-9:  there is a time to laugh, a time to cry...but in all these verses there is no time for God.

Jesus went to pray and got direction for His day. When the disciples came with another thought, He stayed with the thought that God gave Him that morning.

A man gave his testimony at convention. "I have had the best year of my life; I have been faithful for the very first time in my life in reading and praying and my purpose is to keep doing it."  The worker in his field said, “When we went to their home it was like a war zone, but 6 months ago we went and there was peace and we did not know why, today we found out why.”

We can pray to take away guilt, but we know in our hearts that we did not pray. There were times I would get on my knees to pray and as the second knee hit the ground, the first was already getting up...We need the commitment of time and sincerity.

A man brought his children up going to meeting, but he did not bring them up in the Truth. That would be a man who does not pray...there might come a time when we cannot pray for our self, but we want to do it while we can.

Jesus’s walk was in the will of God...Jesus said He who sent me has not left me alone...If we are going to walk with Jesus, we need to walk in the will of God, then it will be safe for others to walk with us.

One of the things we do that takes away unity is when we criticize.  Who do we talk to when we criticize?  Our is not safe and it’s not walking in the will of God...The places we go...Where your feet go your heart goes too....Lot...some of Lot’s heart stayed there in Egypt...Abraham wouldn't have thought of it when he introduced Lot to Egypt....Wherever Jesus took his friends, they were safe places...We want to only take our friends to safe places.

One of the ways Jesus resisted temptation: He just kept on walking, walking right past it...It will be the answer on how we deal with temptation....The Flesh, the human part of us, will not die. We think as we get older the flesh will die...This year we have lost 3 in their 70s.  The first one took a lover; the other two married divorced men.

Keep walking. My human nature will kill me if I don't keep walking.  “Wolf Trap” - one of the friend's traps. We have never eaten one of the animals he has trapped because they’re dead; all he wants is a trophy...The wolf trap is a bone; the Eskimo cuts into the bone so it is sharp, then he puts fat on it; the wolf comes and he licks until he gets past the fat and he cuts his tongue, then he dies from licking his own blood....If the wolf had kept walking, he would have been alive. There are things we can get involved in that will kill us.

Deuteronomy 6 and 8 quotes when Jesus was being tempted.  Maybe this is where Jesus was reading that day...Satan knows the Bible....We need to know the Bible; we need to spend time with it; we need to learn the word of God and learn it well. Jesus said, "Men shall not live by bread alone but by 'every word.'"  Underline every word. False prophets do not know every word or teach every word.

A lady who professed had short hair and after a time it looked like she was growing it out, so I said, “Kohi, why are you growing your hair out?”  She said, “Oh I'm not; I'm going to get it cut.”  So I had to then tell her about those verses in 1 Corinthians 11.  When she saw that verse she said, "Well that settles it; I have to grow my hair out."  It’s easy if we take every word. Her daughter professed at the same time and had very long hair, but her Mom said, “John, you have to talk to my daughter because she is planning on cutting her hair.”  So we told her we would but we never got the chance. When she got home, her daughter met her at the door and said, “Mom, I can't cut my hair and neither can you anymore; I just read I Corinthians 11.”  That's how it is settled, when we take every word of God.

I believe the word of God is so easy that a child can understand it; you don't have to be a lawyer. If you respect His word, you will follow it; if you don't, you won’t follow it. Take the verses on Divorce, and when a child reads, "if a man or women shall put away, etc.," they will know it is not right.

We live in the world, and we are surrounded by the world. A girl who professed in Hong Kong said, "I feel like I have been given a view of another country, but I have to walk through this world to get there.”

How we treat our neighbors...we're so busy we shun others and turn away from those who have a need around us. Matthew 9:18-26:  this lady had a secret one knew. She touched Jesus with a secret need, as He was going to help one who was dying.  Controlled balanced walk.

How many have I walked by because my balance was not right?  All around us there are so many people who are so needy, but if we are not balanced in our walk, we will miss the opportunity to help.

How Jesus dealt with the ungodly:  We are surrounded by them; we have to learn how to deal with the ungodly. Jesus was not afraid when people were mad at Him when He stood for truth. He made some very definite truths. Jesus never had an enemy. A lamb has no enemy. You take every animal and write down their enemy. A lamb has no enemy.

There were those who called Him their enemy because they did not like what He stood for. Mark speaks of Jesus cleansing the temple. The day before, you read nothing about Jesus. I think Jesus prayed that He would do it in the right spirit. He was angry, but it was God controlled. If our anger is God controlled, we will know how to handle the ungodly. We cannot change the world but we can take a stand against it. The stand in our home, in our testimony:  A mother told her boys, "Don't have a wishbone where your backbone should be."  We won’t affect the world, but we will affect our home. There’s no question on what is right in our home. Jesus did not hate the world
but hated the sin...

How Jesus dealt with those who followed Him: He loved them and cared for them; He dealt with great respect and honor towards them. We will see Jesus defending His own. Mark 7, 1-9:  Jesus could defend them because they were doing nothing wrong. Jesus never defended wrong; He will defend us if we are doing what is right. Am I living a life that Jesus could defend, a life my friends could defend? Do we have the kind of testimony that our brother and sister can defend?