Aliens Pt. 1 – Alien ID
Every generation has seemed to be enthralled with their existence. You can backtrack through television and movies and see this interest carried throughout. “My Favorite Martian,” “Mork & Mindy (instead of amening you can say nanu nanu),” “ET”, “Signs,” “Men in Black,” and now “Prometheus”! There has to be another group of beings. Surely there must be extraterrestrials from some other location, planet, or kingdom!
I came to tell you that indeed aliens are here! Aliens have arrived on planet earth. However, this is not new news. All you have to do is crack the pages of 1 Peter 2:11-12 to know that this is true! Peter says this:
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. 12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
11-12Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives.
So in other words, according to Scripture, not only are Aliens living among us (here is the truth that may explain something about your teenage) you/we are the Alien! Look at your neighbor and say, “I knew you were different!” We may not have antennas, one eye in the middle of our forehead, green flesh, or a lit up index finger but we are Aliens! And that is the issue.
See the truth is we are surrounded (the phrase a great cloud of witnesses pops into my mind for some reason) by Aliens but there is a major problem that we are now facing. We struggle to identify Aliens.
I believe there are two significant reasons we struggle to ID Aliens!
1. We are suffering from the blends.
We are supposed to stand out, be different, set apart, and instead we simply blend in! What about
Jesus or the disciples/apostles ever blended in to their surroundings? We have traded in our difference for conformity and bought the lie that we can actually be a camouflaged Christian! Peter says quit trying to fit in! Jesus, Himself, said “They hated me and they will hate you!” You aren’t called to fit in! You are called to be different. You are called to be strange. You are called to be an alien!
Our problem is that we have become culture comfortable. We have become so comfortable in our surroundings that we have forgotten that Jesus didn’t come to this planet to create a sub-culture. Christianity is now just a sub-culture (own language, special attire, special traditions, meetings . . . but still part of main culture) inside another culture. Jesus arrived on this planet and was counter culture! There was nothing about Jesus that was a sub-culture. In fact, He stood for the direct opposite of the culture – totally opposite – lose to win, give rather than get, prefer others, turn the other cheek, last instead of first, love rather than hate. Sound foreign, opposite, or Alien to this culture? We are sojourners, strangers! We should stick out! We should be identifiable. We shouldn’t be able to blend. Has anyone been able to identify you as an alien apart from the sub-culture items we have created (the fish on your car, the sticker on your book, the radio station you choose to listen to – how is anyone going to know you are an Alien if you get away from your car)?
Paul admonishes us in Romans 12:1-2 to be careful that we “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking!”
You are too comfortable in this world. You are comfortable with and placing all your trust in the Republican and Democratic Party! The truth is you are called to be a part of the God party.
We accept the standards, morals, beliefs of this culture and wrap Jesus into it and grow comfortable. There should be some very uncomfortable moments for you when you are told and expected to accept that God has changed His position on alternative lifestyles, that murder is a God given right called choice, that living together is just a trial run, that hate is fine as long as it is positioned behind a church banner. We are too blended!
You are a foreigner. Foreigners have no rights ... your citizenship is not here. You are part of another kingdom. We fit in too well and allow this culture to define us! Where is your weirdness? What is different about you?
If we can’t identify you, if you don’t stick out, if you are incognito then what good is being an Alien?
So how do we accomplish this standing out? Peter answers that and also tells us we don’t just stand out to stand out. There is a specific reason that aliens are supposed to be different.
2. Lifestyle Leads to the Leader.
I think this has two implications for us today. The first deals with our actions, behavior, and attitudes. When you submit yourself to Christ as your leader than you become righteous. Your righteousness is as filthy rags, but His righteousness makes us clean. Nothing you do changes His righteousness. Your righteousness is wrapped up in Him. Your bad behavior, thoughts, actions change nothing about His righteousness. However, we are not only told to be righteous we are commanded to be holy! In other words, since we are now righteous (in right standing with the Father) our lifestyle should reflect who we belong to! People should be able to identify us as aliens by our lifestyle! Our lifestyle should point them directly to our leader. And yet, this goes back to the blends. We look and act more like people in our office, the magazine, and the movies than we do Jesus. People can’t tell if we are Christians, just good moral folks, Mormon, or Hindu by watching our lifestyle!
Just on the two clear admonishes from Peter we fall woefully short . . . abstain from fleshly lusts . . . Keep your behavior excellent. This is why it is hard to identify Aliens!
Christian folks are just as lusty as the next person. Just as involved in pornography, just as wrapped up in addiction, frequent the same establishments, hook up just as often, spend too much time at the buffet, watch the same filth and laugh at it, refuse to clock in early or stay late, press for an A rather than settling for a B, permanently borrow work supplies, give a half day labor and expect full day wage, gossip, fail to honor, fail to keep our word and then we wonder why no one is asking about our leader!
We misrepresent our leader by our lifestyle!
The second implication of this truth deals with how we handled our early possessions.
Why are you acting like this is your home and that you will always live here? You are supposed to be passing through not conducting yourself as If this is it. This world is not our home.
This earth is just a big Hampton Inn for those of us who have made Jesus the leader of our lives. Heaven is our real home.
Some of us have forgotten that we’re just visiting this planet and instead we’ve started to homestead here. Instead of traveling light, we’re seeing how much we can get while we’re here.
Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-20
Aliens understand that you can’t get to attached, controlled by, in bondage to this world if this isn’t our home! Listen . . . people won’t know or care to know if you worship Jesus if they are convinced you worship your car, your house, your boat, or your clothes!
I am not against possessing possessions. I am against possessions possessing Aliens.
Our actions preach more loudly than our sermons! Does your lifestyle point anyone to your leader?
If no one is ever asking you to take them to your leader, then lifestyle evaluation and probably adjustment is needed! Truth is most folks don’t want to know our leader because of our lifestyle!
