Living As Though
You Were Special
1 John 1:5-2:6
The tall order for living a Christian life is established in two short verses by Peter: But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ’Be holy, because I am holy’ (1 Peter 1:15-16).
We are called to be holy. We could call this being "victorious over temptation" or "conquering self-destructive habits" or even "living in righteousness." I’ll just call it "living as though you were special."
Some of you are probably asking how God’s call for us to be holy means we are special. I say that because that what holiness is. It is being special. Holiness in the Biblical sense means to be untouched by the normal, the routine, or the ordinary, which is marred by imperfection, corrosion and decay. Holiness means to be set aside for God’s special purposes. We’re to be set apart and different, not blending in with the crowd, yet not being different for the sake of being different.
It is October 14th, and the sun is reflecting mirages of water on an Air Force base runway in southern Florida. The silence of the scene is interrupted as a long-winged plane touches down on the runway and taxies to the hanger. A thousand planes a day go through this same routine, but this one plane’s payload is different from all the others. Its payload is just a few rolls of film, but the information on that film will shape the events of the world. It will shift the balance of power in the world. The film is transported to a top-secret laboratory and developed. It is sent to the Pentagon and then to the Oval Office in the White House.
The date is 1962, and a young president, John F. Kennedy, just 44 years old, sits at the desk. The decision he makes moves the armies of the most powerful nation in the world. The crisis he faces is one of immense proportions.
The photos taken were from a U2 reconnaissance aircraft. One picture in particular revealed that the Soviets had placed medium-range missile silos in Cuba. These missiles were capable of reaching strategic targets throughout the United States.
The risk of world conflict hadn’t reached this level since WW2, and it involved the two greatest superpowers in the world. The president moved decisively, ordering Premier Khrushchev to halt all further deliveries of weapons and to immediately dismantle the missile sites.
A broadcast to the American people let us know the gravity of the situation. The president said, "This secret, swift, extraordinary buildup of communist weapons is a deliberate and unjustifiable challenge to our national security, and it will not be accepted.
America braced for what was to come. President Kennedy ordered an immediate naval and air blockade of Cuba.
Premier Khrushchev decided he would test this young president’s fabric. He would challenge this nation’s resolve. He would confront the standard of our convictions. The Soviet ships sailed on toward Cuba.
The world held its breath in nervous anticipation as hours crept by and ships grew closer and closer to one another.
As kids we played a little game. We called it ’chicken’. You want to see who is going to flinch when challenged. In national politics, you call it ’brinkmanship.’ Brinkmanship is the willingness to expose oneself to risk, to press the limits of safety for a cause. It is the walking of the tightrope of disaster.
The Soviets were going to press the boundary, walk the line, and see just how much they could get away with.
The Soviet ships were 100 yards away from our American ships. Our Navy was on full battle alert with orders to stop the Russians at all costs.
Some of you recall those moments as people were glued to the radios and TV’s to see who would flinch, who would fire, or what the world would look like in this latest age of nuclear war.
With just feet to spare, at the brink of disaster and destruction, the Soviets turned.
This incident in world history has a living parallel in our daily lives. Many are involved in a dangerous game of spiritual brinkmanship. We walk the very boundary of sin in our lifestyle. Balancing precariously, we move toward the cliff’s edge. Dangling our toes over the abyss, we tempt the fall. We struggle with bad habits that become self-destructive patterns. At the same time, we are saying, "Oh, don’t worry about me’ it’s okay, I’m a Christian." We tempt the fate of disobedience to God’s call to righteousness. It is as Fred Allen once quipped, "Some Christians spend the first six days of each week sowing their wild oats, then they go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure." There is a myth that exists that says we can live comfortably in our world of faith and then flirt with the world. God calls us to another standard.
50 - Day Theme: Were Christ to be bodily present in our church this Sunday, we would embrace righteousness and renounce evil. Let me offer these guidelines for living a life that is special.
First, know your vulnerable areas. In other words, we need to be aware of the sins we are susceptible too.
Now maybe it is quite possible that you think that righteousness and holiness is not a problem for you. If that is you than I think a couple of verses in that passage in First John speak directly to you. Look at those verses again, verse 8: If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And verse 10: If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
Did you see it? John’s finger is pointing square at you. He is saying, "Now be honest. You are not as good as you like to think you are. Admit you struggle with sin just like the rest of us."
Think how many temptations you and I face in an ordinary day. Staying in bed late - the temptation to laziness. Growling at the breakfast table - the temptation to unkindness. Arguing over who should change the baby this time - the temptation to selfishness. Starting work 10 minutes late - the temptation to slothfulness. Losing your temper when a co-worker crashes your computer - the temptation to impatience. Flirting with that good-looking woman, taking a second look at the good-looking man - the temptation to lust. Refusing to speak to a person who has hurt you - the temptation to malice. Repeating a juicy story of your neighbor’s misfortune - the temptation to gossip. Lying awake at night thinking sensual thoughts - the temptation to impurity. Taking your anger out on the children after a hard day - the temptation to cruelty. Going out the eat when you can’t afford it - the temptation to self-indulgence. Having a second helping and then a third - the temptation to gluttony. Firing off a hasty letter to a friend who hurt you - the temptation to revenge.
You see living a life that is special, a life that is righteous and holy, is not just about avoiding sexual impurity and taking someone else’s life, or any other evil we may place up there. It is as Chuck Colson has written in Loving God: "Holiness is the everyday business of every Christian. It evidences itself in the decisions we make and things we do, hour by hour, day by day."
What self-destructive pattern have you targeted to reverse during these 50-days? A critical spirit … materialism … arrogance … a short temper … perfectionism … profanity … workaholism … pornography … gossip. Those kinds of evils are what resulted in the scars on the hands, the feet, and the side of Jesus. Remember that fact as we sense him here with us.
In order to live a life that is special, not only do we need to know our vulnerable areas, you need to know your vicarious model
John didn’t keep the spotlight on us, and our sin. He pointed the light toward the one who could lead us out of our spiritual darkness. Look again at 2:1: But if anyone does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
What qualified Jesus for such an act on our behalf? I think the writer of Hebrews gives us an indication, when he wrote, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin (4:15).
Often we rob this verse of any meaning because we tend to have ourselves convinced that Jesus was incapable of sinning. Yes, he was tempted, but there was no real chance that Jesus could have accepted Satan’s offer.
Well, if he was incapable of sinning then he was not tempted in every way, just like you and I. Jesus must have been capable of sinning. Temptations, if they were any temptations at all, must have held some allure. There must have been some pull in Jesus to feed his hunger by turning stones to bread, to feed his popularity by having the angels catch him, to feed his authority by bowing down to the devil, or even to feed his self-preservation by coming down from the cross. In the vernacular of today, "He’s been there, done that!" yet was without sin.
That is how Jesus could become the atoning sacrifice for our sins. He experienced the pull of evil, yet remained true to living a life special before God, and he opens the possibilities of that life up for you and I by offering to cleanse us from sin. But before we can be cleaned up, we have to be aware of our sin, and trust the one who has conquered it.
Lastly, let me suggest that you need to know your victory plan
How do I remain ’holy’ or ’righteous’? How do we live life as though it were special? Let me have you turn your attention to the screen as we view a brief clip that gives us a simple three-step plan.
1) Identify your self-destructive pattern.
2) Chart your behavior.
Remember - rate yourself as Jesus would!
3) Focus on the positives.
Have you ever been out walking in a field and come across a skunk? In a way, they’re cute little animals. I actually had neighbors when I was growing up who had a pet skunk. As far as I’m concerned, skunks are not my choice of pet. Skunks are to be avoided. Coming unexpectedly across a skunk, I wouldn’t say, "O little skunk, come here. You look so darling." I’d stay clear of him because his potency would be beyond that with which I could cope.
What would you think of someone who, after being sprayed by a skunk, allowed it to happen again? If in time he or she came to say, "Oh the smell isn’t so bad once you get used to it"? I know your response.
And I sense this is what Christ would say to a congregation of people who are happy living a life that is not special, righteous or holy. Something is wrong when anyone gets used to the smell of that great skunk. Instead, learn to deal with him quickly. Don’t allow him to do his work in your life. Certainly don’t get accustomed to him!
In his book Quest for Renewal, Walter Kaiser writes that in all Old Testament revivals:
There was a deep sense of sin and an overpowering desire to separate themselves from it and from all its sponsoring causes. Such divinely induced anxiety and agonizing conviction of sin needs no prompting or psychological maneuvering. The work is uniquely that of the Holy Spirit. The failures of the past, even those that have been forgotten, suddenly become so real and so painfully present that no amount of comfort or personal rationalization will assuage the terrible pressure of individual guilt and heartbreak. Accordingly, so spontaneous and thorough should be the conviction and simultaneous hatred of sin that there will be no need to plead with men and women to make any decisions.
I am captivated by a vision that I believe can transform our church. Specifically, I believe that during our Adventure, the presence of Jesus will bring this same conviction of sin to our body.
