Today we’re talking about the path God has you on.

When we talk about growing up in this specific area, we are talking more about growing in how you trust God as you go down the path before you.

I think the hardest part of the road is trusting God. Now, that really should be the easiest part, shouldn’t it?

Psalm 37:25
I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.

Why do we have such a hard time trusting God even when he’s been so faithful? Is it because it is hard to know if you are 100% on the path he wants?

Now let me preface all of this by saying that if you want to be on God’s path, it requires you be in God’s family. You can’t be godly by being good, but you can be good by being godly. If you are expecting to reap the benefits of a relationship with God, which includes the path he has for you, but not be in a relationship with him, I have bad news for you: it won’t work. The benefits come with the membership

So I am hoping we can bypass the basics here and simply tell you that if you are not in a relationship with Jesus, as a natural byproduct, you are on the wrong road.

That is a bold statement, and I realize that,
but there is a way your creator designed life to be lived
and that is within a relationship with God.

Deut 30 last week: if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will…

The benefit is the product of the relationship, and you cannot expect the benefit without the relationship. This process also requires you to be able to hear God. We also talked about that last week. The closer you get to God, the clearer you can hear him. You get closer through prayer, reading the Bible, surrounding yourself with believers, and creating spaces where God can speak and you can listen.

Those are the basics, but when it comes to making sure you are on the right path, there are three things I want to highlight today where we can mature in our thinking.

1. Taking the Step
Peter Walking on Water
Matthew 14:28-29
And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.”

There was a moment between the word “come” and Peter getting out of the boat where he had to make a decision.

There’s nothing harder than taking a first step. It is harder than overcoming sin, dealing with addiction, trusting again after you’ve been hurt. Some evidence is in the fact that even AA talks about how the first step is recognizing there is an issue. This is how hard that first step is to take: we can’t even acknowledge we have an issue sometimes! But why is this?!?!

It wasn’t hard for Peter to get out of the boat, it was hard for Peter to trust the water would hold. What it meant was that Peter was going to have to trust Jesus for something that was impossible. He had to trust Jesus while still dealing with his own shock of seeing someone walk on water for the first time in human history. His mind was in chaos:
- The storm was raging
- His heart was troubled
- He’d just been terrified thinking it was a ghost that walked upon them
- And then he had to process internally what his eyes were saying was true but what his mind was saying was an impossibility.

You ever been there? Has God ever said do something but you were so paralyzed by what was going on around you that you could barely even process the situation, much less take a step? If so, you are facing the same thing Peter faced in that moment in the boat.

DO YOU TRUST HIM ENOUGH TO MAKE SURE THE WATER HOLDS WHEN YOU STEP OUT OF THE BOAT?

Let’s get real here…this is really the issue with taking the step. It isn’t can he do it…it is WILL he do it.

- I can fathom Jesus - God Almighty - walking on water, but can I?
- I can fathom Jesus praying prayer of healing, but can I?
- I can fathom Jesus doing what the Father says no matter what, but can I?
- I can fathom Jesus taking up his cross, but can I?
- And I can fathom Jesus being sent for a purpose, but am I?

God is no respecter of persons. He never changes. But if I step out in faith, Jesus, will you be there to catch me? It was never a matter of taking a step. It was just a matter of trusting the one who asked you to take the step.

So what keeps you from taking that step?
Sin
Sin will always separate. Sin will always keep you from trusting God. Sin will keep you in a loop where you are always walking to the confessional booth rather than your purpose.

Apathy
Being apathetic will always keep you from taking a step. Apathy is a (without) pathos (suffering). Most people would rather turn to stone than enter into willful suffering. As water finds the path of least resistance, people will find the path of least suffering. Some of us are not experiencing God’s best, not because he isn’t giving it, but because we are avoiding suffering at all costs.

How much do i have to suffer? Your suffering is always in correlation to how tightly you are gripping that which is keeping you from stepping out. Translation: the harder you grab what you're holding onto, the more it is gonna hurt. And don’t think for one second that God won’t go to extremes to remove from your grasp that which is destroying you.

On top of all of this, if you don’t care, why should anyone else, even God? God will do whatever it takes to get you to the moment of decision, but he cannot make you make it. If you don’t care enough about where God wants to take you to do what needs to be done, why should you expect God to? Does that make God sound mean? I think it makes us sound immature. Have you ever tried to mentor someone who doses’t want to be mentored? Taught or coached someone who doesn’t want it?

What keeps you from stepping?
Distance.
When you aren’t close to the shepherd, you stop hearing his voice, and one day you find yourself standing alone in a field, having been left behind because you wouldn’t stay close. “God leaves the one to chase the 99.” Of course, but he also let the prodigal walk away. Don’t count on getting chased down. Don’t put Jesus in a place where he has to abandon his purpose to get you back on yours. Grow up! Take some responsibility for your life!

These three things spell SAD.
It is sad when you won’t take a step. Let’s overcome our fears, overcome our doubt, and step. Easier said than done, I get it. But no journey ever started without a first step. Don’t be stood there waiting on God to push you. Take the step.

2. Testing the Steps
Ok so you took the step. Now what? How do you know it is the right step? First, are you dead? Well then it can’t be that bad. Was the step done with the godliest of intentions? Were you trying to honor God? Even if it is wrong, at least your heart was in the right place. Sinners fall back. Saints fall forward.

Interestingly enough, there are plenty of clues on how to step properly in the Bible, including how to take the first step, how to keep stepping, and how to test whether or not the steps are godly or not.

VERSES
Psalm 37:23
The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way;
So God already has some steps ready for you. A tale-tell sign that you are on God’s path is that you are delighting in the way God has for you.

Psalm 119:133
Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me.
What is his promise? It is the written Word and his spoken word. Write always trumps spoken.

Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Confused on what to do or where to go? Find a verse on it. Why? The Word will not only shine enough light for you to see where your feet are stepping, but also a spotlight onto the path ahead. If you have no clue what is going on, the Word is the light!

Proverbs 20:24
A man's steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?
Powerful verse and promise here: the only way you are going to understand your steps are if you are all in with Jesus. HE knows the plan, the path, the steps. You CANNOT comprehend them without Jesus. Mainly because if it was up to you, you’d walk a straight line, but God will have you going up, down. left, right, circle, spin, jump, dive, duck, dip, dodge, hang on to this, swim here, dive there, go into this pit and over this mountain, and then you are to your destination. WHY!?!?!?! Because every pit has a promise and every mountain has a moral. Every obstacle makes an overcomer and every trial tests your tenacity. You think you need a straight path. What you need is God’s path. Give me God’s path. It may be harder but at least he’ll be with me.

Isaiah 58:11
And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
God promises that he himself will lead you.

1 Peter 2:21
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
See, he put his money where his mouth was. WWJD? Seriously though, what would he do in your specific situation right now?

One more verse:
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

This is your playbook:
Trust him with EVERYTHING.
If you can’t trust him for the next step how in the world are you trusting him for Heaven? Heaven is a much bigger promise than my next step.

Do not lean on your own understanding.
This helps me when I can’t figure it out, but it helps me more when I am having a hard time trusting him. God never asked you to solve the Rubik’s cube of life. Just do the next step. Those toys are so stupid, but what makes them work isn’t what I can see happening. It is the algorithm. If I trust the algorithm and not what I am seeing, I get a solved cube.

In all your ways acknowledge him
One of the biggest reasons we get into trouble with our steps is because we treat God as a lifeline instead of a life coach. We are slow to ask for direction and quick to ask for relief. What if you asked God what to do before every step rather than asking God to save you after every step?

And he will make your paths straight.
You’ve heard it that way, but also “direct” your paths. The word here in Hebrew means “to be smooth, straight, or right.” BrownDriverBriggs: to make righteous. Not only does God promise to make straight or direct your paths, what if that path he has you on is a part of what is working the righteousness of Christ into you?

So what is the moral here?
- Test the step by the Word
- Follow the blueprint of a good step in Proverbs 3:5-6

3. Staying in Step
It ain’t always going to be peaches and cream, biscuits and gravy. This path God has you on is going to test you to the core. If he didn’t withhold the difficulty from his own son, why would he from you? Jesus prayed in Matthew 26:39, “Father let this cup pass…”

Just ask Paul.
2 Corinthians 11:23-33
I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. 24 Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. 26 I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not.[c] 27 I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. 28 Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger? 30 If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am. 31 God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, who is worthy of eternal praise, knows I am not lying. 32 When I was in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas kept guards at the city gates to catch me. 33 I had to be lowered in a basket through a window in the city wall to escape from him.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10
I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. 8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

If it can be this hard, then why in the world would anyone want to do it? This is why staying in step isn’t nearly as hard as taking the first step. With maturity comes the answer to the question, “Why?”

Hebrews 12:1-3
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people;[c] then you won’t become weary and give up.
That is why Jesus stayed in step. YOU. You were the joy awaiting him.


Here’s why Paul did:
2 Timothy 4:5-8
Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you. 6 As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. 8 And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.

You will never know satisfaction greater than that which you get from walking out God’s purpose for your life. And it isn’t satisfaction like you might think. There is nothing more satisfying than following God’s path in pouring your life out so that other can experience the Kingdom. You get a taste of that and all you’ll want to do is chase God down the road he has for you.

I’d love for you to take a moment today and evaluate your life.

- Are you satisfied with your life?
- Do you believe God has something for you that is bigger than what you are experiencing now?
- Do you believe you are on God’s path for your life?
- Is there something you need to be doing besides reading and praying more to do a better job of following God’s path for your life?
- What is the main thing keeping you from stepping into what God has for you?
- What is one commitment you could make to God today that would get you to take that step or at least closer to taking that step?

And the biggest question of all Jesus is asking you: Do you trust me?

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?