“…Instruction in Christian Living.”
Deuteronomy 6:1-9
(August 12, 2001)
Introduction
Talk to some people about “Christian living” and you’ll have them wondering. To them, Christian living means just the opposite of living. They see living a Christian lifestyle as not really living at all, and they would lump the term “Christian living” in the same group of oxymorons as “jumbo shrimp” or “congressional budget cuts.”
“You can’t live and be tied to living a Biblical lifestyle,” they would claim.
Well, I’m here to tell you that they are clueless as to what it means to live for Christ
I pray that our time today will be a blessing for you as we look at what “Christian living” means.
And, as we have done these last weeks, I want to have us look at the front cover of your bulletin, and read aloud the statement of purpose, which has been the basis of our messages for the last number of weeks.
Please read along:
Our purpose is to bring unchurched people to God, and to offer worship that lifts up God, ministry that heals hurts, a home for fellowship, and instruction in Christian living.
My guess is that when this statement was developed, you folks meant it. And based on that assumption, I purposed to bring a message that would help us move on that.
I want to look at the concept of Christian living, and look at how this church can truly be a home for instruction in Christian living.
Please turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 6:1-9, which is found on page 130 of the Bibles in the seats.
These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
My purpose this morning is to give you a new look at what “Christian living” means, and to urge you to a deeper appreciation and excitement for it.
In doing that I want to point out the commandment of instruction, the contexts of instruction, and the continuum of instruction, as we seek to be people who encourage and foster and atmosphere for growth in living for Christ.
You could also call these the proposal of instruction, the places of instruction, and the process of instruction. I would have called them that, but I didn’t think of it until I had printed out the bulletins.
May you leave here encouraged by what God has for you as you live for Him.
First, lets look at…
I. The Commandment of Instruction
God makes no bones about the fact that He desires and expects us to live in ways that please Him. Yet He doesn’t leave us hanging, wondering what we need to do to please Him.
He lays it out pretty clearly in the pages of Scripture.
I want to look at two aspects of the commandment of instruction, and the first is…
A. The Why (vv. 4-5).
You may remember a time in the gospels where a lawyer asks Jesus what the greatest commandment is. Jesus replied by quoting verse 5 – to love the Lord will all your heart, soul, and strength.
Just prior to this verse, Moses gives a glimpse of the heart of God, when He mentions that as we obey, we can expect God’s protection and blessing.
The “why” is that we honor God and receive His blessings. And I don’t know about you, but that’s an awful big motivating factor to me.
I want to honor God and Lord knows I need His blessing and protection.
Let me be quick to say that while He bases some of His blessings on our obedience, He does not base His saving grace on our obedience.
The fact is, we cannot earn our way to heaven by obedience. We obey because we love Him and want to honor Him, and desire blessings beyond salvation.
At the end of the message I will give you what the Bible says about how to get into heaven, so hang on!
Let’s move on from the “why” to the…
B. The How (vv. 6-9).
The how is what we will basically spend the rest of the message discussing.
Moses tells us that we are to impress the laws and commandments of God into our own hearts and into the hearts of our children and grandchildren.
How do we do that? Well, basically it is to continually expose ourselves and our children to the Word of God.
That’s the bottom line.
We can do that in a number of ways, and to help us get a grasp on those ways, I want to move right on to…
II. The Contexts of Instruction
What I mean by “contexts” is “places.” In other words, where can instruction for Christian living take place?
There are a number of contexts, but I want to focus on four in particular. The first is…
A. Home.
This is where it really where it begins and ends, especially for our kids.
No matter what they hear at church or school or anywhere else, if Mom and Dad, or whoever is at home reinforces the teaching, it is wasted effort.
Billy Graham could be preaching here today, but if Mom and Dad don’t agree with what the preacher says, then the preacher’s words are of little effect.
How can our homes be places of instruction for Christian living?
Spend time in the Word together. Pray together.
I confess that I need a lot of work in this area, and I purpose before you this morning that I will make a concerted effort to make my home a place for instruction in Christian living.
We home school our kids and the materials we use are Biblically based, but it’s not enough if we don’t take time as a family to look at the Word together and pray, we are missing out.
And you are welcome to hold me accountable to that, no excuses.
The home is the primary place for instruction in Christian living.
Next let’s look at the…
B. Church.
Believe it or not, the church is not the primary place for instruction in Christian living. As I’ve just said, the home is the primary context for that.
But the church is an important place for instruction in Christian living, and I think we have an obligation to offer as much as we can.
That’s why we believe in worship services that point people to Scripture and how to apply it.
That’s why we believe in Sunday School and Wednesday night activities for kids.
And that’s why we are offering (trumpet fanfare) the Firm Foundations class on Sunday nights.
By the way, if you would like to participate, but Sunday nights don’t work for you, let me know. If there are enough people, we will form a second group to meet at a different time and place.
The church must not be the only place for instruction, but it must offer some, and facilitate the rest.
Along with the home and church, a third context of instruction is…
C. Fellowship.
We talked about fellowship last week, and this week I just want to mention it again, this time as a place where instruction can take place.
This can happen a number of ways, but one of the best ways it can happen is to have home Bible studies, either sponsored by the church or just to encourage each other in a specific area of study.
It doesn’t have to meet in a home; you can meet in the park, as my wife does with some other women, or in my favorite, a local donut shop.
Fellowship is a great place for instruction in Christian living.
The fourth context I want to mention is rather specific to us here, and it is…
D. ACHS.
In just a matter of a couple of weeks, the students will be walking the halls, looking to become young men and women who love the Lord and live for Him.
I will be teaching two classes: Gospels, and the Discipleship class.
In the Gospels class, we look at a harmony of the Gospels, to examine the life of Jesus, not primarily for knowledge, nor for the ability to chart out His life, but rather to learn how we can reflect Christ in our own different life situations.
That is the kind of curriculum we can have as a Christian high school. It is a wonderful opportunity to impact young people for Christian living.
And one of the best parts about it is, the school seeks to affirm the instruction that takes place where? In the church? No. In the fellowship? No. In the home.
Instructors are specifically directed to affirm the authority and instruction of the home, and that is a good thing.
The home. The church. Fellowship. ACHS. Those are the contexts of instruction in Christian living.
Let’s move on now to…
III. The Continuum of Instruction
What do you mean by “continuum?” Basically, it means the progression of things, and I think you will get the grasp in just a minute.
The first part of the continuum of instruction, or the process is the…
A. Bible.
Surprised? I didn’t think you would be. That is where everything must be based, ultimately.
We could focus on our denominational handbook, but in the final end of things, the Bible is where it rests.
After all, if the goal is Christian living, then we need to know what makes it Christian.
And what better place to learn that than the primary source?
The term “Christian” means to be like Christ, and where do we learn about Christ?
Wow! You guys are sharp! I could just see your eyes gleam with the answer!
We start and end with the Word of God.
Next, we need…
B. Behavior.
Some of you were hoping we wouldn’t get into that, huh?
Sorry. James tells us we need to be doers of the Word, not hearers only.
In fact, listen to this from James 1:
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does.
We need to allow what we find in Scripture to impact us to the point of faithful obedience, trusting God that He will take care of the results.
Let’s move on to the third part of the continuum,…
C. Blessing.
That’s right! Blessing! Isn’t that a kicker? If we obey, we are blessed.
You see, folks, obedience is not a straightjacket meant to rob you of freedom. It is freedom to experience the blessings of an almighty God.
Listen again to the last part of the passage from James:
25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does.
Look back at our passage from the first part of the message, Dt. 6.
Verse 2 tells us that with obedience we may enjoy long life.
A popular song by Billy Joel says that “only the good die young.” Don’t believe it folks. God says obedience is one key to a long life.
That’s not to say that there won’t be times when righteous people won’t be taken before we want them to be.
That’s not what God is promising. He is saying that you will not taken prematurely through disobedience.
Verse 3 says to be careful to be obedient so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly.
I think that as we purpose to be a home for not only instruction in Christian living, but also a home of obedience, we will be blessed by God to increase our impact in this area.
We didn’t read verse 24, but let me read it to you.
The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.
There is blessing in obedience!
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had about enough of what the world would call happiness, amen?
I’ve tried what the world says should bring me happiness, and it doesn’t last.
The world is the straightjacket! And more than that it is a cord strangling the life out of anyone who lets it.
Break free from false notions about obedience, and let God show you firsthand the wonderful life available to you in living for Him.
So the process is: the Bible, which tells us about how to adapt our Behavior, which in turn leads to blessing from God.
Why not try it out and see if that’s not the case? It will change your life. Take it from someone who’s tried living with and without God.
Conclusion
I mentioned in the introduction that some would say that Christian living is not really living at all.
I respond, “Don’t knock it until you have tried it.”
But, I want to be quick to say that trying it on your own is an exercise in futility. You can’t do it on your own. Obedience merely for obedience’ sake and on your own power is dead, useless, and really, impossible.
You need the help of God.
Bob Foster owns Lost Valley Ranch in Colorado. One time we had the opportunity to visit with Bob when visiting his ranch, which is a guest ranch.
He told us the story of a guest with whom Bob was able to talk about spiritual things. The guest was a Jewish man, and was convinced that following the Law was all that was required to get to heaven.
The next morning, as Bob was gathering the guests for a trail ride, this man showed Bob a piece of paper. Bob asked what it was, and he answered that it was a copy of the Ten Commandments.
Bob said, “What are you going to do with them?”
The man answered, “I’m going to keep them!”
Bob replied, “I’ll bet my whole ranch that by the end of the day you will have broken every single one of them!”
Before the day was over, this man approached Bob and confessed he was not successful in keeping the commandments.
This allowed Bob to show him that only through the grace available in Christ can one hope to lead a life that honors God and brings blessing.
A few weeks later Bob received a phone message from this man telling Bob that he had become a “born again Jew.”
Instruction in Christian living is meant to give us the “equipment” to please God in our lives.
But we cannot view Christian living as a hopelessly list of do’s and don’ts.
This was one of the issue for the Jews of Jesus’ time. The people were burdened with the laws not only of Moses but also the laws and traditions of the priesthood imposed on the people in an effort to keep from defiling themselves.
It was in the midst of this that Jesus offered this invitation:
MT 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Christian living is not a burden. It is relief. And when we come to Christ we allow Him to take the burden and take on His load.
If you are tired of trying on your own to please God, to live a moral life, or to live up to what you think others expect of you, let me give you a simple piece of advice: give up.
Lay your burden on Christ and let Him give you rest not only from the burden of other’s expectations, but also rest for your soul.
Leave here today knowing that Christ wants to work with you and in you to live for Him.
But it starts with you coming to Christ in faith, trusting in His death on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins.
His death made eternal life possible for you and me. Come to Him, turning from your sins, and asking Him to make you a new creation and give you a place in heaven.
Then allow His people to come alongside you to help you live for Him, through our efforts to facilitate instruction in Christian living. Shall we pray.
Offering.
Closing Hymn #472 – Standing on the Promises
