Living with Conviction
Romans 1:1-6
Ro 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—
Ro 1:2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures
Ro 1:3 regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David,
Ro 1:4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
Ro 1:5 Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.
Ro 1:6 And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
Church Trends
Seeker-sensitive; Self-help; Purpose driven; Emergent; Missional
As you can imagine most of my reading is on spiritual and church related topics. From time to time, I see patterns in the current writings. The first one I recall was the cry of books and articles to have Seeker-sensitive services. Next self-help books were on everyone’s must-read list and magazines were loaded with articles to help us develop a “biblical” perspective on ourselves. Shortly after that Pastor Rick Warren wrote a book, The Purpose Driven Church suddenly writings instructing pastors and churches to be calculated in ministry spring up everywhere.
In the past couple years, articles and books about the Emergent Church and the Missional Church have been abundant. To explain the Emergent Church succinctly and not all that accurately; the Emergent Church as one which has rejected the traditional church culture. Church buildings and church lead ministries are minimal; replaced by rented facilities and individual involvement in community helps organizations rather than church led ministries. Missional Churches see themselves as a part of God’s mission to reach the world. They are churches that have abandoned a Come-and-see mentality for a go-and-do mentality.
Whether a church identifies itself as seeker-sensitive, purpose-driven, emergent or missional is an important issue to those who try and keep up on such things. But in many ways these titles are nothing more than the latest fad, advertised and promoted much Calvin Klein or The Gap promote their latest and greatest product and ideas.
These books, articles and ideas sell because they are right. All churches should be driven by Christ’s purpose. All churches should be seeker-sensitive. All churches should be emergent, in that they should not be inappropriately attached to building or pet projects. All churches should be missional in understanding that we are sent by God to minister to the lost world and not visa-versa.
These church organizational strategies are developed because churches get lazy. Because we choose to take the easy-way rather than the best-way. But something interesting has been showing up in much of the literature I am currently reading: a call for Christians not to reorganize, but to repent. Not just to repent in word, but in deed and in lifestyle. The call to back-off from playing Christian or just doing Christian things to actually forcing ourselves to live the Christian lifestyle.
This is a call for both laymen and ministers to align their lifestyle to be consistent with the teachings of the New Testament. The problem with churches is not poor organization, poor planning, or poor strategies. The problem with churches is a lack of conviction about the faith we believe.
Conviction & Belief
James 2: 19, 17
Encarta World Dictionary defines conviction as a firmly held belief. There is a difference between believing something and being convicted that your belief is true. In James Chapter 2 under the heading Faith & Deeds James writes in verse 19, You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that…. Belief by itself is not the entirety of the Christian calling. James adds in verses 17, In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Our belief in God has to be more than a hope or a wish. We must be fully convinced, fully convicted that our belief is true and our conviction must press us to make necessary changes in our lives and proclamations in our speech.
Peter Cartwright
Daniel, Dan. 1:9
Paul, Rom 1:1
The story is told of Methodist evangelist named Peter Cartwright who was known for his uncompromising preaching. One day the President of the United States, Andrew Jackson, Old rough and ready himself, came to Cartwright’s church, the elders warned the Pastor not to offend the President.
Content, that their Pastor would not say anything to discredit their church, the elders retired to the sanctuary. When Cartwright got up to speak, the first words out of his mouth were, "I understand that President Andrew Jackson is here this morning. I have been requested to be very guarded in my remarks. Let me say this: "Andrew Jackson will go to hell if doesn’t repent of his sin!" The entire congregation gasped with shock at Cartwright’s boldness. They wondered how this young preacher could dare to offend the tough old General in public.
After the service, everyone wondered how the President would respond to Cartwright. When Andrew Jackson met the preacher at the door, he looked him in the eye and said, Sir, If I had a regiment of men like you, I could conquer the world! Believing the message of the gospel of God is a nice thing; but being wholly convicted that the Bible “is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). is a powerful life-changing spiritual transformation that causes people to speak with conviction and confidence.
What is it you are convicted of? What is it that moves you to throw caution to the wind? What are you so certain about that you would die over? Your God? Your Church? Your Family? Your nation? Your good name? If you wouldn’t lay down your life for these things, what changes would have to be made to convict you that these things are with fighting for?
Someone might say, Well if the nation does this or that, or the church does this or that, or if my family does this or that then I’ll fully vest myself into it. Odds are it’s not our nation, church or family that needs to change, it’s us. It’s our hearts that need change. It’s us who need to accept the life and world God has given us, and us whom need to change in order to bring change.
What is it we want from our Church, our faith and our God? Do we want to be recognized as a happening church? The place where only the coolest Christians go? Would you fight for that church? Are we willing to accept a plastic fish on the back of our cars as, plenty of personal witnessing? Or are we willing to allow some conviction to boil up in our belief and hit the world head-on with the truths we hold?
Take the Prophet Daniel as an example, he was taken as a slave to serve in the courts of the king of Babylon. The King chose to provide food from his own table for Daniel and a few other slaves, but Daniel refused to eat it. Daniel was in a sense saying the King’s food was not good enough for him. The slave had dietary requirements beyond anyone else in the kingdom. In Daniel’s day, this was as good as signing a suicide note. But what happened? Da 1:9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel. Then Daniel was given a special diet as per his request. Daniel was a man that not only believed in God, but one who was convicted that his behavior made a difference to God. So Daniel changed his behavior to align with God’s will. Daniel was convicted that he needed to take that stand.
I began this message by reading from Romans chapter 1 and I would like to go back a visit verse 1. Ro 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—
Let me ask you this, if I wrote you a letter and stated that I was a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be a pastor and set apart for the gospel of God—would you be okay with that or would you think that I was being a little pushy? I find it interesting that the Apostle Paul was willing to define himself, without apology, in such a manner. Was it Paul’s behavior that made him willing to make such a grand claim about himself? No. Though his behavior certainly factors in, it is his conviction concerning the things that had been prophesied over him and spoken to him that established his belief in who he was. So Paul was without apology the man he claimed to be.
The Counselor
John 16:7-8
Who are you? I don’t mean your name or your age or vocation, apart from those things what could we say to define who you are? A person of Christ? A person of wisdom; of mercy; of love; of kindness?
The call to repentance that is popping up in Christian writing is a call to living out the instruction of the New Testament. A call to resist just looking good. The call to being the person God has called you to be and the person the church needs you to be.
In John 16:7 Jesus said this, But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. Why on earth would we need a Counselor? Jesus explains it in verse 8,
Jn 16:8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. Here the word convict is not used to describe conviction of a belief, but conviction of a crime. Jesus said we will be better off having the Counselor, why? So we will be convicted. Why do we need convicted? Because we keep doing things wrong! We keep putting Judgment ahead of Mercy and Mercy ahead of Wisdom and Wisdom ahead of Faith and Faith ahead of Love. It’s not that we try to get it wrong it is just so easy to be wrong.
But, if we are willing to enter through the narrow gate, take the hard road, follow the way of the Cross, then we will find ourselves content, not content with who we are, but content with who Christ has called us to be.
I am not saying everyone here has needs conviction in our faith. I am saying every one of us need to from time to time take inventory of our faith and conviction. Because when we have a belief worth dying for we have a life worth fighting for, then we will be at peace to call ourselves servants of Christ and set apart for the gospel of God.
People who like those we remember this weekend who are willing to die for what we believe in.
