A man dies and goes to heaven. Of course, St. Peter meets him at the pearly gates. St. Peter says, "Here's how it works. You need 100 points to make it into heaven. You tell me all the good things you've done, and I give you a certain number of points for each item, depending on how good it was. When you reach 100 points, you get in."
"Okay," the man says, "I was married to the same woman for 50 years and never cheated on her, even in my heart."
"That's wonderful," says St. Peter, "that's worth three points!"
"Three points?" he says. "Well, I attended church all my life and supported its ministry with my tithe and service."
"Terrific!" says St. Peter, "that's certainly worth a point."
"One point? Golly. How about this: I started a soup kitchen in my city and worked in a shelter for homeless veterans."
"Fantastic, that's good for two more points," he says.
"TWO POINTS!!" the man cries, "At this rate the only way I get into heaven is by the grace of God!"
"Come on in!"
Today we are continuing our church membership course. Before for you wonder if you’re in the right place, you are, we’re all going through this together. Last week we defined church membership as a commitment to worship and serve God together. We also said that church members have shared beliefs. Here at Madison we believe that Salvation is possible because of what Jesus did. We believe that you get salvation through faith in Christ, not what you do but what He did.
We also believe that the authority for our beliefs and decisions comes from the Bible, that this book is the Word of God. It is from the book that we take our main purpose, there are other purposes, other things were are to be doing but, the main thing to keep mind is that we are to be missionaries to our community. We have a mission to reach people for Christ. In Luke 19:10 Jesus said, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” You’ll remember that last week we learned an acrostic as a tool to help us share our faith. It’s not the only way and you shouldn’t use it word for word, it should be personalized but it is a tool that if you’re familiar with it can be helpful in sharing Christ when someone asks you what you believe. Do you remember the GOSPEL? Good ‘cause we’re going to practice it now. It’s called a pop quiz.
God created us to be with Him.
Our sins separate us from God.
Sins cannot be removed by good deeds.
Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again.
Everyone who trusts in Him alone has eternal life.
Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever.
Understanding the Gospel and how to share it is part one of our vision statement. Our statement about who we want to be. The first thing is that we want to be a group of people who focus on “Building Relationships so that people can know God.” Jesus built relationships with people for the purpose of telling them the gospel of grace and so should we. We need to have relationships with a purpose.
The second part of our vision statement is that we are “Building People to grow to be like God.” That means that we act like Christ. Now this requires two things. First we need to know what Christ said, what does the Bible say. We talked a lot about that last week. But the second thing is that we should live like Jesus lived. Understand this is not just about what we don’t do, it is also about how we treat people. You see Christianity is not just about theology it is also about sociology. Theology is the study of God, and sociology is the study of people. What I am saying is that Christianity is not just what you know but how you live. That is what people are watching.
The story is told about a stressed out woman who was tailgating a man a busy street. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him.
He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.
The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.
As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer.
The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed and placed in a holding cell.
After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.
He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. "I noticed the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Follow Me to Sunday School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk.
"Naturally. I assumed you had stolen the car."
People are watching how we live more then they listen to what we say. In fact if we want them to listen to what we have to say we have to live in a way that is attractive to them. In Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” These are the things that should mark the Christian life. In fact what Paul is writing is that if you want to know if God is working in someone’s life then these are the things that will
The first characteristic that Paul says we will show is “Love.” This isn’t surprising most people know that Christians are supposed to be loving. After all that is Jesus said that of all the commandments the most important was to love God and then to love everyone else.
But when we look at the word that was used here I think it’s important to see the entire meaning. This word is Agape it means to love, cherish, esteem. It meets its objective and imparts confidence when expressed without terror. I think that when we look at the word love we call expect to see words like cherish and esteem, but do we expect to see that it imparts confidence? But isn’t confidence part of the essence of the Gospel? Think back to Romans 10:13, that we looked at last week. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” You’ll notice again that it’s everyone, not some, not most, not if you’re good enough. If you commit your life to Christ, if you make Him Lord, capital “L” in other words you agree to let Him be God and you be one of His people then you will be saved. That is something that can give you confidence.
More then just salvation, He promises to work in you to give you the strength and ability to be better and to do more then you ever could on your own. God doesn’t call you to do something unless He’s going to give you the ability to do it. That’s confidence for living today.
Compare that to every other religion. They are all about what you can do for God, or what you won’t do because of God. Then if you do enough, or refrain from enough, when you die, maybe you’ll go to heaven, or nirvana or you’ll be reincarnated as someone really cool rather then a fly. The point is you won’t know until you get there, you die hoping that you’ve done enough. But as a Christian you die knowing that Jesus did enough and because of that you faith is enough, that is confidence.
That sad thing is that for most people when they think of Christianity the list stops there in their eyes Christians are just supposed to be loving. But that is just the beginning of Paul’s list, next he says that God will give us, Joy. The word is Chara it means gladness of heart this kind of joy exists in any situation. The source of our joy, of our happiness is God and we get that despite whatever our current circumstances are. I’m not saying that we never get down, but by and large we are joyful.
I have a number of friends on Facebook, Linda has way more. Here’s what we’ve noticed, most of our friends who are actively living as Christians, meaning they pursue God with their lives, and are actively living for Him within a church are joyful all on their own. They’re taking trips, working on mission projects, doing things with their family and they love it enough to post about it with pictures because they want to share the fun that they are having, in other words their lives are marked by joy. The people that aren’t living with Christ as Lord capital “L” are different. Most of their posts either are complaints or include a reference to how much alcohol they either just consumed or are planning to consume. My point is not that drinking is wrong, the Bible simply tells us not to get drunk, but if the source of your happiness of artificial something is wrong. You want the joy that comes from within you, not something you have to buy and drink and try to block out what you just did to your liver or hope that you don’t drink so much that you’ll do something you regret and don’t even remember doing. If we will follow Christ the Bible says that the Spirit will develop a Joy in us that lasts regardless of the circumstances around us.
That concept flows will with the next word, peace. The word Greek word here is Eirene it denotes a state of undisturbed well-being. This is different then joy but is similar. The best way I can describe it is to talk about funerals. I’ve done way too many funerals already in my life. Funerals for babies, the young and the more experience. None of them were easy. But as Christian can tell you who has been to a number of funerals it is easy to tell if a person and their families are truly believers or not. For those with no faith, there is no hope. Oh they may say the right words, I’m sure he’s somewhere looking down on us. I’m sure there’s a place in heaven for someone like her. But the deep down peace and assurance is missing. Sometimes there’s not even the words, just a deep sorrow and despair matched with unchecked tears.
But those of us who have found the real thing in Jesus Christ, that is different. After you live with Him long enough, you know that you know and you know where you go. A Christian funeral is far different. Oh there are tears, we miss our loved ones while we are separated. Jesus wept when Lazarus died, but there is also an underlying peace, because we’re not hoping that they are in heaven waiting for us, we know it. Because of that, even in that darkest time of our human existence, there is peace that comes from the Holy Spirit.
There is also patience, Makrothymia is the word and it is, “a quality of a person who has power to avenge himself, yet refrains from doing so. His name was Brian he was the school bully. He picked on just about everybody. My paper route went right by his house and one day he jumped me and beat me up pretty good just for being on his street. That changed when we go into high school, he stopped growing and I started. The Friday before school started we were at a football game he saw me first walked up and slugged me in the arm as hard as he could and then looked at me like what are you going to do about it. I snapped, I decided I was going to do something about it know matter what he did to me. So I turned and started towards him, and he ran away. After that I joined the track team, ran way too many miles and lifted a lot of weights, I got bigger, faster and stronger. I started looking for him. I decided that if I ever saw him again, he was worth getting suppended for. He managed to avoid me for years. But then years later, I was driving down the street, right next to his street and there he was walking by himself just like I had been. Everything in me wanted to pull my truck over and repay a few years of suffering. Everything in me knew that I could. But the Spirit of God simply wouldn’t let me. It may have been the first argument I ever had with God. To this day I’m glad He won. Because now I realize that the entire process was part of teaching me what true patience is?
Next is kindness, Chrestotes it is defined as, “usefulness; a grace that pervades the whole nature. This is not just being kind sometimes this is being kind in such a way that it is useful to the people around us. 1 John 3:18 tells us to love “with actions and in truth.” In other words we’re not supposed to just talk about helping other people we’re supposed to actually do something to help them. Here at Madison you’ve heard me talk about our food box ministry, but we also have a clothing information, where people here have generously donated clothing, others have gone through it and organized it and if someone needs clothing we have it in a room where people can come and get what they need for free.
This type of kindness though is not just about what we do for strangers or those in need. It is how we treat people all the time and what we say about each other. We can give away tons of food, we can give away so much clothing that our room is empty, but if we harm one another with our words we’ve still missed an important target. We need to be seeking to build each other up with our words and our actions together, that is what it is to be kind.
The next characteristic is goodness, Agathosyne – the moral quality of goodness. I don’t think that this really surprised anyone but I want you to understand a couple of concepts about this. First do you see where it is on the list? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and then goodness. It’s sixth on the list. So many people trying to be good or thinking that because they are mostly good, they can judge other people and Paul’s writing that love and kindness, both of which exclude judgment are ahead of goodness. I’m better then that person because I’m so good. Yes but are you kind?
Second thing to see about it is that so many people focus on Christianity being about keeping a bunch of rule, a bunch of things that you don’t do. This is talking about what you should do. This isn’t saying don’t do evil, it is saying to do good.
Next we have faithfulness which is the word “Pistis” it means obedience to the faith. It’s faith in action. In other words, we don’t just say that we believe in God, we live like we believe in God. James put the concepts of faithfulness and kindness together in one passage in his letter to the church. James 2:14-17 says, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead.”
This is a clear analogy when you understand the entire concept. It’s not being kind if you see someone who is cold and hungry and you have to power to help them and you don’t you simply say you will. If they’re still cold and hungry you can tell them God loves them all you want but if you don’t try and do something about it you haven’t done anything, except maybe give them a false hope or give the name of Christ a black mark.
In the same way James writes that if you say you are a Christian but you don’t live like it, if it doesn’t show up in you actions, then you aren’t faithful. If you aren’t faithful then James says you don’t have the type of faith that saves you. In other words, if your faith doesn’t lead to action, then you aren’t really believing in God and you are not saved. Paul would say that you haven’t called on Jesus as Lord capital L. You haven’t made him the God of your life and the result is the same, you are not saved. Simply knowing who Jesus is, and what He did does not save you. It is when that become the driving focus of your life that you are saved.
Faithfulness, living according to the faith is what enables Gentleness, the word is Prautes – it is that attitude of spirit by which we accept God’s dealings with us as good and do not dispute or resist. That’s a different idea isn’t it? Until this point we have looked at how we act towards and treat others and ourselves, but this is dealing with our relationship with God.
Let me ask this question, am I the only one here who’s ever had an argument with God? Of course not, we all do. The work that Christ wants to do in us is radical. It is changing us from who we are into His image of who we are the best versions of ourselves. But let’s be honest, we don’t always want to be that person. We want to take vengeance when we see that former bully walking down the street. We want to do bad things. In fact we don’t just want to do bad things, we do them. Because our desires run toward the bad, it takes a radical process to transform us into the good. Sometimes God has to send a Brian into our lives to change us. Sometimes we don’t get the promotion that we deserve, or there is an illness we have to battle or a loved one has to battle. Often these are just things that happen because of the world we live in, but all of the time God can and will use them to grow us into the people that we were meant to be. When we are going through hardships we need to look for the transformation that God wants to do and allow it to happen.
When we learn how to do that, how to be gentle before God, to accept what He sends our way and not fight either with Him or the people around us, then we will have self-control, “enkrateia,” meaning, “one holding control or holding one in, temperance.” It’s when we have learned how to control ourselves in a situation rather then letting the situation control us.
That is the process that we are all supposed to be going through. It is the journey that we are supposed to take together. You understand that we are human. Only one person has ever been all of these things. Our mission is to help one another get there. We take this journey together and when we see someone stumbling our responsibility is not to judge them it is to help them get to where they need to go. Some times we confront, sometimes we encourage, all of the time we are to love one another. Notice that is what came first. Love is not all that we are about but it is the first thing.
One final concept that we need to understand when God begins to work on a person sometimes it takes awhile for what is happening on the inside to show up on the outside. Life with Christ is the process of Him making us more like Him. Processes take awhile, that is why Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, “Take on an entirely new way of life – a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces His character in you.” Being a part of this process together is what we are committed to here at Madison, if you’re here and you’ve never made the commitment to join with us as a family we’re going to invite you to do that in a minute. Maybe you’re here and you’ve never accepted Christ as your savior, maybe you didn’t think you were good enough, or maybe you thought you just had to work hard enough. Today won’t you accept the grace that He freely gives and enter into the freedom of knowing where you go and serving Him out of obedience rather then trying to pay a debt you never could?
