Love Walk
Speaker
Pastor Jacque Clowers. Juniper Church - Knoxville, TN.
Scripture References
1 John 14:16-21, Romans 8:38, Matthew 7:24-26.
Key Takeaways
You must train yourself with your walk with Jesus. It doesn’t always come instantly or easily. It’s like any other relationship - you need to work at it!
Training is different than trying. If you try to do something once, you will not be perfect at it. Training is showing up even after you fail and committing to get better and better.
Jesus needs you just like you need him. He needs you to be an example of and extension of him and his works here on this earth. It’s what we were created to do.
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So we like to, around here when I speak, call it message from mom. So I could be the mom of most people in here and I love that. And so I really did pray this week and last week as I was preparing like, Lord, what do you have that only a mother could say to this group of people today?
You know, what do you have? What do you want? And I know we always, he's our father God and he has a father's heart of love for us, but there's something about a mom who can speak into your life. And I'm just like, Lord, I wanna make sure that today they hear what you would have from a mother's perspective.
And I feel like what I'm supposed to tell you today is if you're trying, you're not failing. If you're trying, you're not failing. How many times do we feel like a failure in life when you're really just trying, right?
You're trying the best you can. And so I hope today as I talk about love, which is my message title, I bought Caitlin, my Caitlin, thank you very much for my shirt. It's my prop for my message today, love.
So I don't wanna leave you just with facts about love. I wanna give you a practical way that you can walk in love. And I hope that my words give you a hope in that. And I hope they give you some encouragement.
And this week when you're like, man, I'm a failure, you hear my voice that if you're trying, you're not failing. I'm gonna say it a few times today. So God is love, right? Don't we all know that? Probably every person in here, if I ask you the one word to describe God, what would it be?
Love, right? The golden rule, we're supposed to love others as God loved us. We're supposed to go about sharing God's love. That is what God is, is love. So I want the love of Christ to be more than just a theory in your life.
I want it to be more than just something you're reaching for, something that you're trying to attain. I want it to be your very being is the love of God. And you know, information, like learning, hearing about it, doesn't cause transformation, does it?
Just because you hear about something, does it transform your life? Right, it doesn't. And then we have the, you're not gonna automatically get this instant download where you're driving home today and somebody cuts you off in traffic, and you're just like, oh, bless them.
You know, thank you, Jesus, for them. You might, you might. Because when God really changes you, you start to look at people different. You start to look at that driver and you start to think, man, what kind of day have they had that they can get so mad over that?
What are they going through? You also start to think, thank you, Jesus, that I don't live that angry. You know, it changes the way you think, but it's probably not gonna be instant. It's probably gonna take a little bit of work.
So I wanna start, I wanna read from 1 John. And John's teaching the church here. So at this time when he's writing this, he's older, they say he's probably the only living apostle at this time. I love researching scripture and learning about it.
So John was the apostle of love, right? I know I've talked about that before where Jesus, I mean, John's like, he doesn't even call himself John in the Bible. He calls himself the one Jesus loves. Right?
At first I thought that was him being so cocky, but really he's so secure in the love of the Father. He's just the one Jesus loves, which is what I want for all of us to get. And you know, a side note to this that I always, this week, man, I found interesting, not at this point, but later he's exiled.
He's exiled to the island of Patmos. So the one Jesus love dies alone on an island where he's been exiled because of his faith. So love doesn't always make our life easy, but there's something about living with that security.
So let's read this. First John 14, 16 through 21. We know how much God loves us. I hope you know how much God loves you. And we have put our trust in his love. God is love and all who live in love live in God and God lives in them.
And as we live in God and our love grows more perfect, so we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear because perfect love expels, or some translations say cast out all fear.
If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first. If someone says, I love God, but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar.
For if we don't love people, those people who cut us off in traffic, we can see how can we love God whom we cannot see. And he has given us this command. Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.
Wow, there is a lot to unpack in that scripture. But there's two words I wanna pull out. The first word I noticed is trust. So in order to fully love God, we have to trust God, and we have to trust his great love for us.
We have to trust that God's not a God of punishment, he's a God of love. Doesn't mean we don't have consequences sometimes, but it's not God up there punishing us, he loves us, and we have to trust him in that love.
And the second one is the one I really wanna point out, which is the word grow. So we, when it says we have to grow, we have to grow in God's love. That goes back to it's not just like this instant lightning bolt transformation that now I'm just the loveliest person of all.
It's something we have to grow in. Who here when they were a kid remembers having growing pains? Did anyone have growing pains in their legs? Like where you wake up in the middle of the night and your legs hurt so bad, I remember my mom coming in and she would massage my legs.
Sorry, Reese was probably afraid to wake me up because I was a grumpy mom in the middle of the night. But I remember my mom doing that for me and it was called growing pains. It's a literal thing, your body, your legs are growing so fast you get pains in them, right?
So it's a natural thing. So growth often comes with growing pains. So today my whole topic that I hope I can leave you with that got me so excited is the concept of training versus trying. What did I say at the beginning?
If you're trying, you're not failing. If you're trying, you're not failing. So who here would think, you know what, I'm just gonna get up tomorrow, I'm gonna run a marathon. Anybody? Well maybe if you've been training, I'm looking at the Neil family because they probably could do it.
But what have they been doing? They've been training. But the average person in this room at the end of that 26 .2 miles, we would be laying on the ground dying, right? Because we have not been training.
Is there a picture that you can put up here? Okay, so there I am. Look at that. Okay, I ran a couple of half marathons. I've never done a full. This was a Thanksgiving two years ago maybe. And I wanted to talk about it for a second.
You can take it down. But I was very proud of myself, right? But let's talk about it for a second. I didn't just get up one day and be like, I'm gonna run 13 .1 miles tomorrow. You know what I did? I trained.
I bought the right equipment. I bought the right shoes. I downloaded the right app on my phone to monitor my speed. I found a training plan online that I followed. I put the right nutrition in my body to fuel it for a run.
I got up early and went on runs before work. Some evenings, I would come home and go on a run because I didn't get to do it in the morning. And you know, I didn't start at 13 .1 miles. I started at one mile.
And I remember calling my daughter Darby because I also ran one before that. And I was like, I just ran a mile without stopping. I'm like, yeah, I bet I could do a mile, a mile and a quarter tomorrow.
And you know what else I did? I took rest days. I took days where I didn't run because my body had to rest. So why do we look at our walk with the Lord any different than training in every other area of our life?
We expect, man, I just gave my life to the Lord. So I'm never gonna pick up a drink again. I just gave my life to the Lord. I'm never gonna yell at my wife or my husband again. I just gave my life to the Lord.
I'm never going to look at porn again on my phone when I know I shouldn't be. I just gave my life to the Lord. I'm never going to gossip again. I just gave my life to the Lord. I'm never going to steal or whatever it is that has you in a bind.
No, we train. I just wanted I felt it was so it was like this moment. I think I mentioned this to Sherry because I'm like, God is like he just wants us to keep trying. Training in his love walk. It's not a he's not up there to punish us that when we fail, when we did that thing that we promised we weren't going to do again.
He's not up there to punish us. He's up there to love us where we try again tomorrow. Something this morning is another example. Tim called me on his way and he's like, hey, can you set a timer? And in four minutes, can you go get this loaf of bread out of the oven?
So I'm like, sure, I go get it out. And he's like, is it done? And I'm like, yeah, it looks good. It smells good. He goes, I'm never going to try that again that way. And it was like, what was he doing?
He's trying to create the perfect loaf of bread. And he didn't just because this one didn't work out. I'm never going to do that again. No, he'll try again tomorrow. He'll try a different way tomorrow, right?
But in our faith sometimes and if I walk with the Lord, maybe somebody hurts you and you're like, I'm never going to, I'm not going to the church again. I'm never going to trust a Christian. I'm not joining a small group.
The last one I did, they hurt me. This whole walk with the Lord is just about trying again tomorrow. Not even tomorrow. Trying again in five minutes, right? And so I just love that the Lord was like, why does our walk with God have to be different than what we put the rest of our life in, right?
Maybe you this week, can a week go by really fast in your life? Like, can you lose seven days? I feel like it's Sunday again. And I didn't read my Bible all week. Maybe that's you. Man, I didn't pray all week.
Okay, try again this week. Try again today. Just try again. That's all God's asking. And as you continually try, you're going to go a little bit farther today than you did yesterday. You're going to feel a little bit stronger today than you did yesterday.
It's a natural thing and it's going to work. So I don't want your faith in God to fail when hard things come. You know, why do we think that by sheer willpower, does willpower really ever do much for us?
I think it was Tim who said, 80% of New Year's resolutions fail by the end of January. 80% fail by the end of January. Gems are so packed, those first three weeks of January, then they're empty again, right?
That's human nature. So why, you know, why do we put such expectation and perfectionism on our walk with the Lord? When he knows we're human, he knows we're human. So, you know, one thing I found is we're either being transformed by the love of Jesus on a regular basis.
So we're allowing Jesus to transform us or we're being malformed by sin and death. So we're either letting the world form us or we're letting Jesus form us. Everyone in this room, you're all letting something form you.
And if you think you're not, you're wrong. Mom is saying that. Because we're all letting something form us, what we're spending our time on. So we can either choose to become agents of God's grace and His love on earth and the world, or we can be carriers of sin and death and anger and friction and unpleasant things.
So I wanna read here, Romans 8 .38. And it says, and I'm convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love, neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons. Not our fears for today. Or our worries about tomorrow.
You know, God's love. If you can really grasp it. Can take those worries of tomorrow away. And the fears of today away. And that's big, the world's not doing that for us, but his love can. Not even the power of hell can separate us from God's love.
No power in the sky above or in the earth below. Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So, I love that. But you know, all that beautiful love stuff, it doesn't work if you don't believe it.
It doesn't work if you're not going after it. It's there for you, but it's not gonna work unless you go after it. And unless you say, God, I want it. If you do that, it's there for you. So I thought, let's keep this metaphor going.
And let's create a training plan for your love walk. Going back to those half marathons. You know, when Christmas came around, I'd be like, I want these new headphones for Christmas so that I can listen as I run.
And I can still hear the street noise. Or I'd be like, oh, it's cold. I want that headband that has, you know, a place for my ponytail to go through. I want that water bottle that I can carry on my waist, right?
We do that for the world all the time. I remember like these podcasts, Jeff Galloway, he was like a, whoo, I like his podcast, I'm Running. Cause he gives you the freedom to walk a little bit if you need to and still call yourself a runner.
But I would listen to it. And he was an Olympic athlete, this amazing runner. Or, you know, there's another mother runners about moms who run that I would listen to, right? I put it in my, I spent time on it.
So let's come up with a training plan to spend time on your love walk. These are simple, but yet not always easy. So number one, I said, let's fill your mind with the right things. Hmm, how easy yet hard that can be.
What could that mean? It might mean turning off your greatest hits on the radio and turning on some worship music. Just try it. I'm gonna try it for five minutes today. Tomorrow I might enjoy 10 minutes of it.
It's a training process. It could mean turning off Netflix and opening a good book. I'm gonna try it for 30 minutes tonight. It's a training process. Get off your phone and go for a walk. Get some fresh air, some sun.
Give God space to talk to you. The Bible calls it renewing your mind. So I feel like we've always said these things, but I really wanted to give it, just think of it like a training plan. Like a train, I am training for this love walk.
So that means today I'm gonna do that for 10 minutes. Just like the first time I got on a treadmill to run or went on the street, maybe I ran for 45 seconds. Right? Did that for three days. And then I'm like, I can run for a minute and a half now.
It's a training process. That's number two. Surround yourself with some of the right people. Training point number two. You could do that through a small group. You could do that through attending church.
You're here today. You could join a club that has like -minded interests. You know, there's literally slow running clubs that you can join and then you're all running together. Right? I really just, this metaphor, like I had this group of people and they called themselves the Corrieton Running Club.
We would get up every Sunday morning at 5 a .m., meet and run the mountainous roads in Corrieton because I needed like -minded people around me. So I'm just here to tell you that if you really want peace on earth and you really want no fear of tomorrow and you really want the peace that comes with loving the Lord, you better surround yourself with the right people.
You want to stop. whatever sin it is in your life, you better stop spending your time with the other people who do those things. It can be as simple as, I wanna lose weight, well, I better stop going to the buffet with the people who go to the buffet.
I'm just looking at my own life, which I live with the bread maker, but we won't talk about that. It's good sourdough bread. But it's true, the people you put around you are the people who will help or hurt your training plan.
Number three, I mean, yeah, number three, remove something that pulls you away from the love of God. That's very personal to whatever it is in your life. But I promise you, if you really take a deep look in your life, there's something that could be separating you, either by taking too much of your time, maybe by it affects your emotions.
So when you look at it, maybe it is Facebook. And when you're on there, you can get so aggravated at people to where then you find you have to take a deep breath, recenter yourself, take it away from you.
It ain't even important. If you wanna train here to walk in the love of God, you don't have to, but if you're wanting to train, you gotta take things that pull you away. Number four, this one's so beautiful.
Just make yourself available to Jesus. It becomes a habit. You know, the word abide and the scripture in the Bible that says to be prayerful at all times and in all things. I used to think, how do you do that?
You do it by just abiding with him. It's became a habit this last year and a half that when I get up the first few moments that I'm awake, I'm like, Lord, I'm yours today. Does that mean I'm perfect?
Does that mean I never fail? Does that mean I never hurt Tim's feelings? Does that mean I never snap at my Caitlin? No, it just means I'm giving him a place and I'm gonna try again tomorrow or in five minutes.
And then the last two, if you fail, just move forward, just move forward. We're foolish to think just because I said yes to Jesus, I can immediately walk away from bad behaviors. And I think that's something that has been taught from the pulpit my whole life.
And I felt like such a failure because I didn't always walk away. Maybe you have an addiction to smoking and you really wanna quit that. You just wanna stop, but then here you go again, you take another puff, don't give up.
You just try again and you say, thank you, Jesus, I make myself available in this training plan called life. And then the last one I said is give yourself grace. And I think there was a graphic that had these points somewhere, totally fine, if not.
And then the beauty of this is that it's not rules, it's just a relationship with Jesus, it's just a relationship. So I wanna close with this scripture about the Sermon on the Mount. It's found in the book of Matthew, chapters five through seven.
And then Jesus, he's teaching to the crowds here. This sermon was like a few days worth of sermons, right? It didn't just all happen in one minute. So these people were sitting on a mountain side, listening to Jesus for days.
I love the thought of that. The Lord's prayer is found in the Sermon on the Mount. I didn't honestly put those things together until I really started studying for this. So if you read the Sermon on the Mount, it's all about sin, temptation, about hard things are gonna come.
So I'm just saying that to say, these things we face today are no surprise to Jesus. No surprise at all. Greed, lust, divorce, helping the poor, being proud, serving the less fortunate, it's all mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount.
He was talking to us back then about the same things we need to be training for today. So I want to read Matthew 7, 24 through 26. And it says, anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like the person who builds a house on a solid rock.
Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it's built on the rock. And that's the rock of Jesus. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey is like the foolish, like the person who builds a house on sand.
And when the rains and the floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash. Well, I want you today to be like the house that's built on the rock, that's built on the truth of God, that's built on His word and His love, that when trials and things come against you, you won't collapse.
You will stand strong. And I just felt like the Lord wanted again me to say that if you're trying, you are not failing. That's all God asks us for us to every day to try again. Just like that training plan.
Just do it. Just because you don't do it perfect, God is not wanting perfection. In fact, no story in the Bible will you find God choosing to use a man because he was perfect. He always went after the weak and the broken and the sinful man.
He hung out with them. He loved them to Jesus. And that's all I want to leave you with today is if you're trying, you are not failing. It's what God wants is our heart. And I'm gonna end with this. There's a St.
Augustine has a quote. And it says, without God, we cannot. But look at this, without us, God will not. Without God, we can't do anything. But without us, God will not do anything. We are the only Jesus, the only love some people will ever know.
Last week Mark talked about the one. Who's the one? Who's the one person that you can touch for Jesus? Well, Jesus, God needs us on earth. Again, he's not calling perfect people. He's calling people who will try again tomorrow to do better.
He's not calling people who are already fixed. We don't go to the doctor because we're already fixed. We go to the doctor because we need help. And he is the great physician. He is the healer. He is the one who destroys jokes and breaks generational curses.
He's the one who can change your life. And he just wants us to come to him broken, honest and available. And I'm just, you know, when I read that in a book this week, I think, I don't remember which book, but it was just like, wow, without God, we can't do it.
But without us, he won't do it. So our part is just to slow down, slow down and train appropriately and make space to surrender to God. Then his part is the transforming part that will transform us from the inside out.
So we just need to offer every activity to God and allow him to fill it. And so I guess my finishing challenge to you is I want you, you know, I can talk about the Sermon on the Mount, but unless you sit and read it, it's just in and in and out.
But I challenge you today, if your love walk is not where it should be, and love walk, man, that is such a big thing to try to put into a 30 minute message. Because yeah, there's the side of love where God is love and he loves us.
And then there's the side of love that we need to be like Jesus and we need to walk in love. But all of that, it's like I feel this inside of your spirit has to be anchored in to knowing that God loves you.
and us trying as hard as we can on this earth, us trying to do better, making plans, filling out our planners, telling the Lord what our day is going to look like has to stop. And you have to get up and say, Lord, interrupt me today if you want to.
Use me today if you want to. I know I messed up. I know I failed. I know I sinned. I know I'm probably the biggest sinner in this room. But man, thank you for loving me. And I promise I'm going to train a little bit harder this week in that love walk.
So I just want to encourage you this week to think of a way just really quick. We'll go back here to my training plan, which is just to fill your mind with the right things. You might need to replace some things, surround yourself with the right people, remove something that pulls you away.
So right now there's some of you in this room that you're thinking of that thing, that addiction, that something that pulls you from the love of the Lord and walking that love walk. I'm not saying that if you fail and you pick it back up, you're wrong.
I'm saying you're trying. Set it down for a few minutes. Just try it. Make yourself available and have grace on yourself. Just have grace that God loves me. Love yourself. He loves you. And I just want to close on that.
My first thing that when you feel this week that man, I failed. You're not a failure if you're trying. I want those words to ring. You're not a failure if you're trying. And so I just want, if everybody close their eyes, I just want to bless and pray over everyone here today.
Lord, what an honor. What an honor, Lord, to be in a place where we can spend time with you. I thank you for every heart that's in this room. For whatever reason, they said yes to you by coming here today.
Maybe it was for a person, maybe it was a hunger, something inside of them that they just need filled and they're having trouble filling it with this world. Lord, I pray that today, right now, the love of God comes down and starts a word bubbling up inside of them, a hunger for you.
And I pray that this week, Lord, when they have those moments where they look in the mirror and they feel so disappointed in themselves, they hear your voice, not mine, saying, you're trying, you're not failing and I love you.
And just get up and try one more time. Get on that training plan. And I just pray that a love fills them in Jesus name. And I thank you for that. We love you, God. I just, I'm so thankful for you. So thankful for how you love us.
We just praise you, Father, in Jesus name. Amen.