Sermon Central
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Average Or Outstanding Series
Contributed by Dean Courtier on Sep 1, 2012 (message contributor)
Summary: If you were marking your everyday Christian life like it was an exam would you pass or fail? Would you be average or outstanding?
Average or Outstanding
Exam season is over, the results of the A levels and GCSE’s are in.
I was watching Sky News live from a school somewhere up north, Birmingham or Leicester, students stood before the camera with their results still in a sealed envelope.
They were asked the questions what are you expecting? or what are your predicted grades?
And the student would say, A’s, A*’s, etc.
The student then opened the envelope and read their results aloud.
Some students were really happy with the grades they received.
Others were a little disappointed.
For some their results were terrible and the shock on their faces was saddening.
They were so far from what they expected or were predicted many have wondered what has happened.
Teachers and Headteachers have complained about this years grades and many have said the way this years exam papers have been marked in a very tough way.
Others have said that pupils did not revise enough to actually understand or be able to answer the exam questions correctly.
Whatever the real issue is it got me thinking...
If God was to assign a grade to my everyday Christian Life, My every day Christian Walk, or my every day witness would I pass or fail?
Would I be graded as average or outstanding?
Ok, Let me ask you the question:
If you were marking your everyday Christian life like it was an exam would you pass or fail?
If God marked the exam of your every day life would you get an A, or a B, or a C, or a D, or an F?
Some people are happy just to scrape a pass in a course, in the exams some people are happy to get a “D”.
Some people seek no higher than a “C” - average.
Average requires a little more work than a D, but not much more.
Some would say they aim for an A or a B,
but the reality is they make no more than C or D effort.
For the majority of people, nothing really dramatic happened - A students continued to be A students, the B students B students.
Let me share a great truth with you.
What we achieve in every day life is not determined by how smart we are,
what we achieve in every day life is measured by our dedication and devotion to God.
Another great truth is that no matter how much human effort we put in
- in our own strength
- in our own merit
- in our own righteousness
- we can not earn ourselves a place in heaven
Ephesians 2:8-10 says God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
We are not saved by our efforts
we are not saved by grades,
we are not saved by exams,
we are not saved by works,
we are saved by Grace.
By grace alone, in Christ alone
Eternal life is a gift of God to those who know and trust in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.
What does it mean to know and trust Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord?
And how can trusting in Jesus give us eternal life?
That is a question that each of us has probably asked before, and long ago a lawyer asked Jesus the same question in Luke 10:25 One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”
In the Bible, The Word of God, the requirements are spelled out for us clearly.
God states clearly what is expected of each of us in the Bible.
The Bible states how we should live Every Day.
The Bible is clear about many things we should do every day and many things that we should avoid every day. On judgement day, when we stand before God to give an account of our lives, Jesus won’t stand there and say, “Oh, I assumed you knew that was wrong?”
So what do we do to inherit eternal life?
The first thing we need to understand is the entrance requirement for Heaven.
There is no point living like a “grade A” Christian life if you aren’t actually a Real Christian.
If you don’t know and trust Jesus as your personal Saviour and Lord - there is no point pretending.
There are many people in this world who call themselves Christian but they have no interest in Jesus, no every day relationship with God.
