In this sermon, I also shared the Text Illustration: The Rich Family in Church by Eddie Ogan
Read story of a martyr – short one. I chose the story of Nichomachus, from Foxes Book of Martyrs.
You’re living your life for Jesus Christ, but are you ready AND willing to die for Him? Could you make the ultimate sacrifice?
Not long ago on the television, there were images from the Middle East. Images of Christians who, after being tortured, were hung on crosses and left to die. Christians crucified by the Islamic terror group, ISIS.
These Christians, Christians throughout the Middle East, are killed for their faith. They are killed for professing their faith in Jesus Christ. Many of these Christians, however, are given a choice: Renounce their faith, deny Jesus, and convert to Islam. Or die.
Renounce your faith or die.
As Christians, it’s an easy choice. Or it should be.
Thinking about those Christians in the Middle East, subjected to brutal torture, and then hung upon a cross to die, but given a choice: Just deny Him. Say with your mouth that you don’t believe. Or die. I cannot help but ask myself: Is my faith that strong? That I could readily and willingly CHOOSE torture, then death, when all I would have to do is say no.
We can easily as Christians say Yes, but is our faith really that strong? Are we really that ready and willing? It isn’t in that moment when faced with the choice of death by which we measure our answer, but in the life we live leading up to that moment.
You see, the easy answer for many people is, well, we just don’t know what we would do at that moment, until we’re actually there. But as I said, that is the easy answer.
The harder question is, what are we doing now? What are we doing in all THE moments leading up to THAT moment.
Okay, I hear you saying, “Of course I would die for Him.” Really? Well, let me ask you something. What did you do the last time He asked you to give up a sin? The last time He spoke to you to give to someone in need? The last time HE asked YOU to sacrifice something?
As Christians, how can we hope to choose to die for Him if we don’t make daily the choices to live for Him?
Now when I say Christian, I don’t mean say Christian. I don’t mean you own a Bible, go to church and listen to gospel on the way to work. I mean Christian. I mean you’ve ALREADY chosen to die for Him. By dying to your own desires and reactions. By allowing HIM to live HIS LIFE through YOU.
Gal. 2:20: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
I live by the faith of the Son of God.
Living by faith in the Son of God, it isn’t just a choice, it’s not One and Done, it’s choosing each and every day, to sacrifice. Living by faith. What is that?
James 2:14-17:
14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Faith without works is not faith at all. All too often, I will hear it said, “Sure, I believe in God,” but their actions say otherwise. If they were on trial as Christians, there wouldn’t be enough faith to convict them.
People hear what you say, but they believe what you DO. They REMEMBER what you DO.
Believe means literally to have FIRM FAITH. (If I BELIEVE my house is on fire…)
You can say, Sure I believe. You can shout it out, write it down, or wear it on a tee shirt. You can even tattoo it across your forehead. But if it isn’t written on your heart, and spelled out in your life it’s all for nought.
Speaking of tattoos. My husband has tattoos. He is actually tattooed literally from head to toe. He has not only gotten them, but given them, for a time even working as a professional tattoo artist. For my husband, it wasn’t just a profession, I was his passion. When he gave his life to Jesus Christ,
though, he gave up the tattoos. He sacrificed his passion. But that isn’t where I’m going with this.
Some years ago, before he was my husband and long before he was a Christian, he witnessed first hand, superficial faith. And he shared with me a story of faith without works.
A client had come to him for a tattoo. This person claimed to be a Christian and wanted a tattoo covering his entire back of Jesus hanging on the cross. After a few sessions and many hours of pain, with only one leg of Jesus left to be shaded, he tapped out. He gave up and left with the tattoo unfinished.
I’m not sure it was any coincidence that it was the leg left undone. He wanted a tattoo to represent his faith, but when it came time to sacrifice and take the pain, he was OUT. He talked and talked, but could not walk the walk.
1 John 2:6: He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
Going back to the Christians in the Middle East, when faced with the choice, you might ask in thinking about that, Well, what if they just said they didn’t believe in Jesus? JUST saying you don’t believe is the same as just SAYING you do.
Hebrews 13:15-16: By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
16 But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
Continually.
Day in and day out. When it’s good, when it’s bad, and when it’s in between. It’s trusting and having faith in HIM. It’s not just there at the end, in that moment, when faced with THE choice, but way back at the beginning, and all throughout the middle with THE CHOICES.
Romans 12:1: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Living as sacrifices – it’s not choosing to die for Him, but choosing to LIVE for Him. Choosing to live IN HIM. Choosing to let HIM live THROUGH US.
Living a life FOR HIM that is sacrificial, not superficial.
