Living With Real Faith

{Matthew 7:21-23; NLT}

21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ 

Church families are always interested in increasing their attendance.  This is a good concern to have.

The book of Acts several times records the number of people being saved.  Numbers show us that people are responding to the Gospel.

While numbers are important, they are not what is of ultimate importance. Remember, church attendance and a confession of faith doesn’t make a person a disciple of Jesus.

What is the most important thing for churches?

Jesus gave his followers the task of making disciples. Disciple making is the primary purpose for the Church.

Disciple making is hard work.

Some people understand the truth of the Gospel, it makes sense to them, but somewhere along the line a disconnect happens. The truth which makes sense in their heads never makes it to their hearts. While they agree with what Jesus taught, they don't live the truth.

To be a disciple of Jesus requires more than verbal acknowledgement of the truth. Disciples are to become like their Teacher. Jesus was faithful to his Father’s will. 

Faithfulness is a key part to being a disciple.

I find it interesting that the false disciples Jesus mentioned in the passage above were able to do extraordinary stuff. They proclaimed a word from God (prophesying), cast out demons, and performed miracles of healing.

It would be very hard to call a person who could do such things a false disciple.

In my mind these would be signs that they had a close relationship with God—that they were the genuine article.

I think the truth Jesus wanted his followers to understand with this teaching is that these things are not the evidence of a true disciple.

I don’t know how it is possible to fake those great accomplishments without having a relationship with God, but I do know that it is easy to fake the public side of ministry. It is easy for me to wow people with a great sermon, to write words that reflect Biblical teachings, and to have a “correct” theology to make the people at church believe that I know my Bible.

It is possible to go through ministry without real faith in God.

Real faith makes us step out of our comfort zone to do the things that need to be done. 

Real faith surrenders our lives to God and allow the Holy Spirit to guide our lives. 

Real faith is intentional about making changes to our life styles.  

Real faith is seen in our behavior. 

What makes a person a Christian is not a flourishing public ministry or correct theology, but a Christ-like life of faith. This faith is often expressed through our love for other people.

How does this truth apply to you and me?

We need to approach this passage as a warning for us.

Ask your self questions like:

• Am I too wrapped up with what other people think about me? 
• Do I put on a spiritual or religious mask in front of certain people so they will think I am a good Christian person? 
• Is part of my identity derived from being the spiritual person everyone talks about?

Being a follower of Jesus isn’t about doing “religious” activities and making other people believe that we are “spiritual” people.

Being a follower of Jesus is about aligning our lives with God’s will, being guided by the Spirit, and living a life of faith and love.

This is how we get to know Jesus, and it is how Jesus gets to know us.

The Best Motivation

What motivates you to live a Christian life?

Is your motivation guilt? Guilt is that feeling we get when we have done something wrong. When left unchecked guilt convinces us that we are bad people. This belief tells us that we are not worthy of God's love and that we have to work to earn our forgiveness.

Thus, guilt motivates us to live a moral life, not necessarily a life of faith. Our goal is to clean up our lives on our own rather than trusting God to cleanse us.

Maybe your motivation is fear. You fear the consequences of sin which leads you to be constantly worried about your performance. You wonder: “Am I going to church enough?” or “Am I praying long enough?”  As you judge your performance you begin to see every negative thing that happens in your life as God punishing you. The unexpected bill, the car accident, the sickness, or the job loss all are interpreted as punishment for sin.

Thus, fear motivates us to be strict and disciplined, but we fear God more than we love Him.

What should our motivation be?

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God—for God is love.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. ~ 1 John 4:7-10; NLT

The greatest motivation we can have to live a Christian life is love.

Not our love for God, but God’s love for us.

The reason we should go to worship each week, the reason we should pray, the reason we should study the Bible, the reason we should extend a helping hand, and the reason we should give generously is out of response to God’s love.

No other motivation will be strong enough to sustain us through life.

How do we live a life in response to God's love?

First, we need to continually think about God's blessings. When we lose sight of God's blessings the reality that God loves us slowly fades from our minds.

Second, we daily pray and ask God to reveal His love to us. The more we pray the more we will be aware of the big and small ways God shows His love to us.

Third, we serve people. I believe that one of the reasons we fail to experience God's love is because we are inwardly focused. As we begin to help and serve those around us we begin to experience God at work.

The reality is that if we are to be motivated by God's love to live a life of faith, we need to be constantly be reminded of that love. This is why being part of a local church is essential.

There are numerous motivations for living the Christian life, but the only one that will sustain us through the long haul is God's love for us.

Stay Free

Liberty is one of those ideas that sounds good in theory, but is difficult to practice.

Many people will say they want liberty, but few will actually use their freedom.

Let's face it, in order to be good stewards of our God-given rights requires hard work. Connected to the idea of liberty is responsibility. In a truly free society you and I are responsible for our actions because we believe these choices will affect the direction of our lives.

This is why people tend to turn to law for guidance.

In Galatians 5:1 the apostle Paul wrote; “So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.” (NLT)

In this passage Paul addressed the tendency of Christians to turn to the law for guidance in how they were to live. According to Christian theology one of the weaknesses of the law is that it cannot save people from sin. This is true because once a law is broken it cannot be unbroken.

While the law cannot save, it can provide guidance.

In fact, one of the benefits of the law is that it makes the world black and white. It shows people what to do and what to avoid. The law can even be expanded in the details to bring clarification on how to keep the law.

This is one of the issues Jesus had with the Jewish religious leaders in the first century. They had expanded on God’s law to explain things like what it meant to work on the Sabbath, what it meant to tithe, and even how to wash your hands.

For them, the law laid everything out, so all a person had to do was follow it.

I believe the same tendency exists for political freedom.

The founding generation laid the ground work for a country of limited government and personal liberty.

Yet, even from the very beginning, there were people advocating for the federal government to do something: to pass a law, to intervene in state activity, or to get involved in foreign affairs.

What this shows us is that it is hard work to maintain your personal liberty. The only way for that to happen is for you to truly desire to be free.

One of the issues that we face when it comes to our political freedom is that we often have little say in what happens.

Voting offers us minimal protection of our liberties. Too many people believe that voting provides the majority with a mandate, and therefore they can steer the country in the direction of their choosing .

The result is that the Constitution, which should provide  the parameters for what the Federal Government can and can’t do, is ignored in favor of the “will of the people.”

As Christians what are we to do?

I believe we can do three things:

1. We can pray. In 1 Timothy 2:1-2 the apostle Paul wrote; “I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.” (NLT) Why are we to pray for those in authority? We pray for them so we are able to live peaceful and godly lives. More than asking God to make them do our agenda, I think we are to pray that they will have wisdom to do what is right and that they will leave us alone.
2. We can use what liberty we can. Even though the United States has become a highly regulated and taxed society, there are still opportunities for us to take advantage of liberty. This is seen in entrepreneurs as they start new business and engage in free markets. This is seen in speaking and writing about liberty. This is seen in living out your faith and sharing Jesus with those around you.
3. We can educate people about liberty. One of the main problems we face is the fact that most people are ignorant about what true freedom is. As long as they have the ability to choose their career, to buy the newest gadget, to travel, and to spend their time in leisure activities they are happy. The majority of people don’t understand the amount of regulation that exists that effects their lives everyday.

Stay free!

Those words apply to Christians as we seek to follow Jesus and be guided by the Spirit as well as Americans as we seek to live in liberty apart from the ever growing State. It is not easy to remain free, and in the case of our political freedom, it might prove to be an impossible task, but it is a task that we must engage in doing.

Don’t take the easy way of the law, but do the hard work of living in liberty and exercising your God-given rights. Be free!

A Contrast to the Dark

Jesus taught his followers to be the "salt of the earth" and the "light of the world".

How do we do that?

I think the mistake that we tend to make is to equate our influence in the world with standing up for the truth. When we do this, and I believe our current cultural and political climate reveals this reality, we adopt a more confrontational stance. It really becomes, "I am right and you are wrong".

Certainly, there is a time to declare truth and confront the lies of the world, but I believe the Bible reveals a much better approach. An approach that allows us to truly be the "light of the world".

This is the approach that the Church followed in the first three centuries and it allowed the early Church to turn the Roman Empire on its head (see Rodney Starks' book The Rise of Christianity).

The approach I am talking about is love. Love is what makes the Church different from the rest of the world. Love for each other. Love for our neighbors. Love for our enemies.

The world is a tough place and finding communities and families where we feel loved and accepted can be difficult. The Church is becomes a safe place because of the love we show to one another.

We discover this truth taught throughout the New Testament, especially the Sermon on the Mount. The Apostle Peter also taught it.

Finally, all of you should be of one mind, full of sympathy toward each other, loving one another with tender hearts and humble minds. Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate when people say unkind things about you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God wants you to do, and he will bless you for it (1 Peter 3:8-9; NLT).

As we ponder what Peter wrote we discover that he was talking about living in a way that was different from the rest of the world. It is living in contrast to the darkness of the world that enables us to be lights.

If we are going to live differently from the world we need to:

1. Be of one mind. It is next to impossible to have a group of people totally agree on things.  Each person brings with them their own unique perspective which is influenced by various people and experiences. I think what Bruce Oberst wrote in his commentary on 1 Peter is helpful; “Few of us always agree on how to carry out the thousand details of everyday life. But we should strive to have the same basic goals, purposes and motives, that provide the very foundations of Christianity” (Letters from Peter; p. 81). To be of one mind is about having an agreement on purpose and goals. For instance, the purpose of the church I pastor is to be a Christian community that glorifies God. Our discussions center around how to make that happen.
2. Show sympathy to one another. Each person has their own set of struggles and pain. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain, the greatest pain in the world is the pain that we experience at that moment. I think this same concept can be applied to our struggles. This is why we need to have sympathy for one another. We may not think the struggle or pain is significant, but for the other person it threatens their faith. Rather than passing judgement, we should encourage one another along.
3. Love one another. To love is to treat each other like family. We are to be kind and care for one another, just like what we would expect to happen in a good family. That means we bear each other's burdens, we put up with things that annoy us, and we sacrifice in order to help one another. If a Christian can depend on no one else, he or she should always be able to depend on other Christians. In a selfish world the sacrificial love of Christians should provide people with hope that is built on the love of God.
4. Do not retaliate against those who have wronged us. To repay a wrong with a wrong is the way of the world. If we seek revenge then the Church no different than the world. Remember Jesus specifically taught that we are to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:38-48). When we love people, regardless of what they have done or said to us, we show the world that there is a better way to live. We also provide evidence that the way of God is different than the way of the world. If we retaliate we darken the light of love and compassion that should characterize the Church. We can only be lights if we are different from everyone else.

Peter echoed the teachings of Jesus and Paul by teaching that one of the primary ways the Church is different from the world is how we treat one another. It is crucial that there is a clear difference between how Christians live and the way the world lives.

It is this contrast that allows us to be lights in a dark world.

Jesus called his followers to be the "lights of the world". We become light when we show the world that loving people is the best way to live.