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.
(Ephesians 2:8-9)
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?”
(Luke 10:25)
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.
God does not have a real place in their every day life.
They may be really good people, give to charity, not murder, cheat, steal or have bad thoughts, but, they have no desire to seek God’s will or really love Him.
So, what is a real Christian?
How does someone become a real Christian?
The Apostle Peter sums it up in Acts 3:19
Now turn from your sins and turn to God, so you can be cleansed of your sins. (Acts 3:19)
It’s that simple, turn away from your sins, that’s called repentance, ask for forgiveness and turn to God.
That’s the entrance requirement for Heaven,
that’s the guaranteed free pass granted.
Simple enough? turn away from your sins, ask for forgiveness and turn to God.
Lets go back to the question:
If God had to mark the exam of your life would you get an A, or a B, or a C, or a D, or an F?
If we were the ones assigning the marks we all know who the A list Christians would be:
Billy Graham, The Jeffries brothers, Luthor, Matthew Henry, Spurgeon, John Bunyon, John Glass, Dave Redbond.
We could name some B Christians.
Some of us know some D Christians.
Maybe you even know some F Christians.
The As, Bs, Ds, and Fs - they are easy to spot they have all made their choices.
They were or are very dedicated to the Lord, dedicated or just don’t care.
Many decide exactly what grade of Christian they want to be and live with their choice.
The A, B, D and F Christians are content to be where they are.
What about the C Christian, the average Christian.
Out of necessity there will be average Christians.
In exams the C’s outnumber the A’s B’s D’s & F’s.
Isn’t that what average means?
Let me suggest to you this morning:
We all want to be normal but none of us wants to be average.
In some areas of life we have to be average - think about it - if we were all above average then that would be average.
And most times being average doesn’t hurt.
The Collins dictionary defines average as “the mean value or quantity of a number of values or quantities.”
I prefer John Maxwell’s definition he said that “Average is the best of the worst and the worst of the best.”
Actually, Maxwell once preached a message on being a success and after the message a lady came up and demanded to know what was being wrong with being average.
Maxwell responded with this statement.
“If you’re not a Christian, nothing is wrong with being average.
If you are a Christian then you must not be content until you develop the potential which God has given you to it’s fullest extent.
In so doing you will bring glory to God and be lifted above average.
You won’t be better looking or more intelligent because you have become a Christian - When you become a Christian your attitude toward every day life should change, and your consecration in every day service, your every day love for others and your every day love and service to God should all become above average.
The question remains then,
So what does an average Christian do?
Well to be truthful, not much.
They don’t pray much,
they don’t give much,
they don’t study God’s word much,
they don’t love much,
and they really aren’t all that dedicated.
The average Christian has the entrance requirements for Heaven secure
because of what Jesus has done for them, but they haven’t gone much further
They are like the people Paul was writing to in Hebrews 6:1, He wrote: let us stop going over the basics of Christianity again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start all over again with the importance of turning away from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. (Hebrews 6:1)
Most of us have the every day basics, but do we allow the Holy Spirit space to work in us - are we growing?
Are we maturing in our understanding?
It’s scary but if I wasn’t a pastor I’d probably be very average in my faith, and that’s wrong.
Why? Because God doesn’t expect more from pastors then he does from everyone else.
God is not a God of mediocrity.
God demands the very best of us.
So how do we rise above being average?
To be More then Average We Need Determination and we need to allow the power of the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us.
Today you may not be what you want to be, hope to be, dream of being, but the one key to achieving your dream is a determination to not quit.
I would take an educated guess that over the years there were times when you thought about throwing your hands up in surrender and walking away but you are still here.
Make the dream a reality with your determination.
Being a Christian isn’t a destination it is a journey. It is a marathon not a sprint.
We begin our Christian walk and sometimes we want immediate results.
When we pray, we walk away disappointed if God doesn’t immediately drop our requests in our laps.
You don’t quit school the first time you can’t solve a problem,
you don’t leave university simply because you don’t like studying.
Well you don’t do those things if you want to succeed.
And if you are going to succeed in your Christian life you need determination.
To be More then Average We Need Faith.
The average Christian has just enough faith to die with but not enough to live with.
What I mean is that we believe that God can have an effect on our eternal life
but we’re not really sure that he can do anything about the life we live every day.
Listen, if you want your prayer life to be above average then your faith is going to have to be above average.
If you want to get more out of reading your bible then your faith will have to be above average.
And bottom line is that if you want to please God, then you are need to have faith, because Hebrews 11:6 says it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that there is a God and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him.
It doesn’t say it’s tough to please God without faith or that it’s difficult to please God without faith, it says it’s impossible to please God without faith.
Faith is being able to see what isn’t seen.
When we meet here as church do you just see this place as somewhere people visit on a Sunday morning?
Or do you see this place as somewhere where lives will be touched and eternities will be shaped?
Do you believe that God can perform miracles in the life of this church?
Do you believe that God will perform miracles in your life?
If you are a real Christian this morning, real in the sense of making a personal decision to ask Christ for forgiveness and accepting Him as your saviour - you have already demonstrated that you have enough faith to die a Christian, the question is do you have enough faith to live as a Christian?
Don’t be content with average.
Ask God to give you fresh fire, ask God to work in you and through you every day.
Ask God to empower your determination, your faith, your love, your life.
Be all that God wants you to be every day.
