CHRISTIAN ESSENTIALS
How has your life been? Is it a life that you are willing to document, photograph, and televise to everyone? Is it a life that you are willing to live over again - without any changes? In other words, in totality, are you perfectly satisfied with the life that you have lived? If not, why not?
If the human race had a chance to review it’s life, do you think it would vote in the affirmative of a satisfying life? When we look at history, from the beginning of man to the present, how would you vote? Has the human race had a satisfying existence? I think not and I am sure you agree.
The world has been corrupted by evil. Man has never been satisfied with what they have and have always clamored for more. More land,
more money,
more power,
more riches.
To obtain these items, man has fought,
lied,
cheated,
stolen,
and killed. Not exactly the type of person one would want to bring home and introduce to one’s parents!
We are told however, in the manual of life, that we should be loving and kind to one another. We are also told that we would be provided with everything we need. Where did mankind go wrong? How did mankind become so greedy?
The simple answer of course is sin. When sin entered the picture everything became cloudy and fuzzy. Satan’s effective use of smoke and mirrors belied the true picture of what God had designed for our life.
However, that is not the whole answer. We too, are at fault. How? By not clinging to the truth. By not remembering the whole story. If we truly knew the whole story, the complete truth would be easy to see and Satan’s lies would be very plain.
That leads us to the present. The world outside the doors of this sanctuary is very bad. The worse it becomes, the more time we need to spend in here with God. In order to survive out there, we need to have a vital, meaningful, and very personal relationship with God.
So, how do we define this relationship? We must recognize our great need for Him. We must express our deep gratitude to Him. We must accept His great salvation for us. These are essential elements in a personal relationship with God.
Christianity is not a toy. Nor is it a political tool. Political and religious leaders from Roman times to the present have used Christianity as a means to further their own goals. Pope Urban IV called on Christians to travel to the Holy Land and take back Jerusalem. Thus the Crusades began. How does killing and war-mongering further Christian ideals?
Another Pope called on the Christian order of Teutonic Knights to enter eastern Europe and Russia to conquer the pagans and force them to become Christians. How does that convey Love and Mercy which are central to the Christian beliefs?
Many today say that Christianity is dead. Is it? We only have to look to the aftermath of September 11, 2001 to see the lie in that statement. Church attendance jumped 75%. Although attendance has dropped significantly since then, it is still well above the average from the year 2000.
What brought all those people to church? A great need. A need developed from fear.
As a Christian trying to develop a deep personal relationship with God, we must recognize our need for Him in our life. This is not indicative of any profound weakness on your part. No, it is a sign of strength. It takes courage and personal fortitude to know when you need help.
We go to work because we need money.
We need money so we can eat, have clothes and shelter.
We associate with others and develop friendships because we need companionship.
We explore and read because we need to satisfy our curiosity about our surroundings and the world.
We develop culture and artistic talents because we need to express our individuality. Need is not a sign of weakness, rather it is a sign of an intelligent life-form. It shows that we exist and that we think.
Often the need is developed because of the demands life places on us. We develop a sense of inadequacy in the face of these demands. How hard it is to bear the burden of the death of a loved one? How much more so when it is your child or spouse. How difficult is it to come home and tell your family that you have been fired from your job when they depend on you ,the bread - winner, for all their needs? It is an even more arduous task if the demand develops slowly over the years like an insidious disease.
Need can also come when we recognize our guilt or moral failure. God gave us the freedom to choose. So there we are, free from sin initially, but one day we wake up and discover we no longer are free. We have immersed ourselves in sin. Sin that developed out of our habit of wanting pleasure in our life. Thus, our sin begins to haunt us.
It weighs us down.
It becomes a very heavy hand on our shoulder guiding us from one wrong to another. Worse, our sin can become a burden for others, because we may lead them down the wrong path that we have traveled for so long.
Need, however, is not always generated in us because of life’s demands. Need can also be positive. It can be reflected in the realization of possibilities. When I was a teenager I hated school. I loathed the arrival of the month of September since it meant I had to go back to school. Now, I enjoy school. I relish the possibility of learning something new. I have discovered a need - something that inspires me, makes me content, offers me an incentive to continue. Believe me, when I first attended college, it was only to satisfy my parents. However, once I was their a strange thing happened. I found out I actually liked college. Yes, I had fun. Yes, I fell in love with a woman who became my wife. But, I also fell in love with learning.
Need therefore, can be generated from a positive or negative experience. However it arrives, it is essential to begin a Christian experience. Need causes a revelation in our minds. A revelation that tells us that we need God in our life.
Open your Bibles to Matthew 14. In this chapter we see Christ fulfilling the needs of the people and the disciples. Let’s look at verse 14 to begin with. Here Christ is greeted by a throng of people some of whom are sick. He fulfills their need by healing them. Later as they gather on a hill to hear Jesus it is noted that it is late and they will need to get home and fix their meals. Jesus tells the disciples that instead of sending them away they should collect food to feed the crowd. Thus, Jesus takes care of the need of hunger.
Finally, in verse 25 we find Christ coming to the rescue of the disciples as they are tossed about in their boat by an angry sea. Here Jesus takes care of the disciples fear.
Yes, we can have many needs, but God is big enough to take care of all of them. Turn to Romans 8: 26:
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that
words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the
Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love
him, who have been called according to his purpose.
We are a very fortunate people. Living in the United States allows us prosperity, riches, an abundance of choices regarding material possessions. Most of us have available more food on a daily basis than many people around the world see in a month. Many of us own more than one vehicle while in other countries one vehicle is shared by dozens of families. We have the right to worship whom we choose, and the right to assemble in a group without fear of prosecution.
Yes, we have much to be grateful for. But, are we truly happy with what we have? Are we content? Do we want more?
The Bible tells us that true contentment comes from seeking God, not material possessions. Open your Bible to Matthew 6:33: 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Sometimes, it is necessary for us to re-prioritize our life. We need to seek after God the way we seek after things. Ecclesiastes 5:10 has something interesting to say about our material world:
10 Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
This too is meaningless.
11 As goods increase,
so do those who consume them.
And what benefit are they to the owner
except to feast his eyes on them?
So, how do we achieve gratitude? We must be happy with what we have and who we are. Gratitude generates happiness and thus contentment. What are you grateful for? Have you made a list? You may be surprised to learn what is important to you and what is not.
Turn to Philippians 4:11 and see what Paul was grateful for:
11I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content
whatever the circumstances. 12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it
is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every
situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can
do everything through him who gives me strength.
Everything we have. Everything we are. All comes from God above. For that we should be truly thankful. Your spouse,
your children,
your home,
your job,
everything that defines who you are comes from God.
Have you ever been lost? I mean really lost. So lost that you have this queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach. So lost that you are scared.
Let us carry this scenario even further. Suppose that no matter which direction you turn everything looks the same. You have no compass, no map, no river, no moss, and the sky is covered in clouds so that you cannot judge where the sun is in relation to the horizon. As you sit there pondering your fate, a helicopter flies overhead. You manage to signal it and the chopper lands thus rescuing you from an uncertain fate.
You have been saved. What a glorious feeling! It may even bring you to tears because of the relief you feel.
In a realistic sense, that is the same way we should feel about the salvation the Christ brings to our lives today. We have a desperate need for help. Help to withstand the strains of our daily existence,
to be able to overcome temptation,
to fulfill our possibilities,
and to achieve ultimate victory against Satan. All this Christ brings to our lives. Throughout the centuries, the great needs in people have been fulfilled by the great salvation Christ brings.
In essence, Christ brings us a second chance. A second chance for life eternal. Most of us have tried to achieve perfect Christianity by going it alone. That path leads to certain failure. Remember the Prodigal Son? He tried to do it alone. He failed so bad, he smelled of failure!
We all have failed at something. We all have felt the sting of defeat. We all have questioned our abilities, our self-worth when faced with our failure. We all have wished to be able to do it over and succeed the second time around. We have cried aloud for someone to help us succeed. Christ is that someone. Christ offers us that second chance.
One problem that maybe blocking us from reaching for this great salvation is our stubbornness. We hate to be reminded that we are sinners. We hate to be reminded that we are neither perfect nor capable of rescuing ourselves from failure. As humans we just hate to depend on someone else.
A true Christian rejoices in accepting Christ’s help. A true Christian recognizes their failure and their need. Ephesians 2: 4 tells us an important fact:
4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us
alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you
have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in
the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might
show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in
Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God
Of course to accept this great salvation we must do two things: Confess and repent.
To confess means that we accept God’s way of life and leave our sinful life behind. It means that we agree with God that sin is wrong and harmful and that we need to stop sinning. A proper confession requires three things: looking deeply into our conscience, a deep and honest sorrow, and a spirited determination to not sin again.
Alexander Pope once wrote that a “a man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.”
Confession is not repentance. Repentance is a military term that means to “about-face”. Repentance means that we will turn our lives in a new direction. We will turn from a sinful life to a Christ-like life. We will have a new purpose in life. We will forgo the pleasures of this earthly realm and reach for the life of the heavenly-realm. To repent means that we believe. Repentance means that we will trust in God.
C. S. Lewis wrote, “Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement; he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. . . this process of surrender - this movement full speed astern - is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for years. It means killing yourself, undergoing a kind of death.”
Remember that an unrepented sin is a continued sin.
A successful Christian realizes that to have a deeper, more meaningful relationship with God he must recognize three things:
1. That he has a great need. The need for Christ in his life.
2. That he needs to accept the great salvation that Christ has given him.
3. That he needs to express a great gratitude to Christ for the joy that he brings to his life.
A tourist visited a church in Germany and was surprised to see the carved figure of a lamb near the top of the church’s tower. He asked why it was there and was told that when the church was being built, a workman fell from a high scaffold. His co-workers rushed down, expecting to find him dead. But to their surprise and joy, he was alive and only slightly injured.
How did he survive? A flock of sheep was passing beneath the tower scaffold at the time, and the worker landed on top of a lamb. The lamb broke his fall and was crushed to death, but the man was saved. To commemorate that miraculous escape, someone carved a lamb on the tower at the exact height from which the workman fell.
We have a Lamb that is always ready to save us when we fall. Indeed, He has already been broken on a cross and died for us. How grateful we should be at the Love and Mercy of God to give us that Lamb!
