This story deals with a rather old fashioned lady, who was planning a couple of weeks vacation in Florida. She also was quite delicate and elegant with her language. She wrote a letter to a particular campground and asked for reservations. She wanted to make sure the campground was fully equipped but didn’t know quite how to ask about the "toilet" facilities. She just couldn’t bring herself to write the word "toilet" in her letter. After much deliberation, she finally came up with the old fashioned term "Bathroom Commode," but when she wrote that down, she still thought she was being too forward. So she started all over again; rewrote the entire letter and referred to the Bathroom Commode" simply as the "B.C.". Does the campground have its own "B.C.?" is what she actually wrote.
Well, the campground owner wasn’t old fashioned at all, and when he got the letter, he couldn’t figure out what the lady was talking about. That "B.C." really stumped him. After worrying about it for several days, he showed the letter to other campers, but they couldn’t figure out what the lady meant either. The campground owner finally came to the conclusion that the lady was and must be asking about the location of the local Baptist Church. So he sat down and wrote the following reply: "Dear Madam: I regret very much the delay in answering your letter, but I now take pleasure of informing you that the "B.C." is located nine miles north of the camp site and is capable of seating 250 people at one time. I admit it is quite a distance away if you are in the habit of going regularly but no doubt you will be pleased to know that a great number of people take their lunches along, and make a day of it..... They usually arrive early and stay late. The last time my wife and I went was six years ago, and it was so crowded we had to stand up the whole time we were there. It may interest you to know that right now, there is a supper planned to raise money to buy more seats.....They plan to hold the supper in the middle of the B.C., so everyone can watch and talk about this great event.....I would like to say it pains me very much, not to be able to go more regularly, but it is surely not for lack of desire on my part....As we grow older, it seems to be more and more of an effort, particularly in cold weather..... If you decide to come down to the campground, perhaps I could go with you the first time you go...sit with you...and introduce you to all the other folks..... This is really a very friendly community.....
Illust: Yet membership in a confessing body is fundamental to the faithful Christian life. Failure to do so defies the explicit warning not to forsake "our assembling together." His understanding of this prompted Martin Luther to say, "Apart from the church, salvation is impossible." Not that the church provides salvation; God does. But because the "saved" one can’t fulfill what it means to be a Christian apart from the church, membership becomes the indispensable mark of salvation.
"So highly does the Lord esteem the communion of His church," Calvin wrote," that He considers everyone a traitor and apostate from religion who perversely withdraws himself from any Christian society which preserves the true ministry of the word and sacraments."
Charles W. Colson, The Body, 1992, Word Publishing, p. 70.
Illust: The church is the only cooperative society in the world that exists for the benefit of its non-members. \
William Temple
(v.13) People need the Lord and they need someone to tell them. Faith and love for God will cause a person who is naturally shy and timid to come out of their shell to share the message of the gospel with the lost. Paul says in this verse, “if we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God.” Those who are open with sharing their faith are often times referred to by the world as “crazy Christians”. We should not be as concerned with what people think about us as we are with their soul’s condition.
(v.14) CHRIST’S LOVE COMPELS US. The person who has been born again is under the influence of the Holy Spirit. When someone is under the influence of a drug or alcohol it affects his or her behavior. They walk, talk and act differently. When a person truly has been changed by the power of God it will cause them to do things they normally would not do under the control of their natural self. Our motivation as Christians should be to serve God as a result of the love of Christ in our hearts. Some people go to church, read their Bibles and work for God trying to earn His favor and or blessings. The love of God is not earned, nor salvation it is a free gift which should compel us to love and serve him in return.
(v.15) The message that compels me;
1. “ONE DIED FOR ALL”.
2. “ALL DIED” spiritually that is, and need someone to give them life.
3. When they receive that life they will “NO LONGER LIVE FOR THEMSELVES”
The message of the gospel is hard for the world to understand. It’s difficult for those apart from Christ to comprehend living good moral lives and dying lost and being condemned to hell. That the Messiah came as God in the flesh and died for all the world’s sins. Then when a person receives Christ as savior they no longer live for themselves. They wonder how can a person get ahead in this world if they don’t live for themselves? When we stop and look at it from their standpoint we should begin to realize how different our message is. It’s cross grain, alien voice, it’s like it’s from another planet. The world will wonder, “Where are you getting this stuff from?” Our information comes from the Bible. Not the church, not a religious doctrine, but Bible doctrine.
(v. 16) SO FROM NOW ON WE REGARD NO ONE FROM A WORLDLY POINT OF VIEW. The Bible will cause us to change our whole perspective. The emphasis of our day is all on the outward appearance. Face, physical condition, clothing, money, grades, athletic ability, car, house, etc, etc. We live in a world that is impressed with the outward stuff. The Bible teaches us to go against the grain of the world and say, “I’m not going to live like that.” Then when we live beneath the superficial and look to the heart the world says, “your crazy, fanatical, strange.” But when you live your life the right way for God to some you will be a magnet. Your outward appearance will begin to reflect your inward joy, peace and love. This relationship with Christ is a life changing relationship.
Illust: There is a true story of a boy who suffered under the Nazis during WWII. This Jewish boy was living in a small Polish village when he and all the other Jews in the vicinity where rounded up by Nazi SS troops and sentenced to death. This boy joined his neighbors in digging a shallow ditch for their graves. Then they were lined up against a wall and machine-gunned. Their corpse fell into the shallow grave and the Nazis covered their crumpled bodies with dirt. But none of the bullets hit this little boy. His naked body was splattered with the blood of his parents. And when they fell into the ditch he pretended to be dead and fell on top of them. The thin covering of dirt was so thin that it didn’t prevent the air from getting to him so that he could breath. Several hours later when darkness fell this 10 year old boy clawed his way out of the shallow grave. With blood and dirt caked to his little body he made his way to the nearest house. And he begged for help. Recognizing him as one of the Jewish boys marked for death by the SS the woman who answered the door screamed at him to go away, and slammed the door. He was turned away at the next house as well as the one after that. In each case the unwillingness to get into trouble with the SS overpowered any feeling of compassion. Dirty, blooded and shivering the little boy went from one house to the next begging for someone to help him. Then something inside him guided him to say something very strange for a Jewish boy to say. When the next family who responded to his timid knocking they heard him cry, “don’t you recognize me? I’m the Jesus you say you love.” After a poignant pause the woman who stood in the door way swept him into her arms and kissed him. From that day on that family cared for the boy as if he were one of their own.
Matt 25:40
`I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
How can I go against a world that screams louder than I scream and can offer more logic than I can offer? Offers more support from people than I can offer?
SEE CHRIST IN THEM!!!
Real Christianity will win out, even though they think were crazy.
(v.17) OUR LIFE IS TRANSFORMED. At the point of salvation God creates a new creation out of our old being. We’re not like we where in our lost state. One set of conditions, attitudes, and lifestyle is set aside. A new relationship a new attitude, a new way of making decisions, and a new lifestyle has come into being. WE ARE TRANSFORMED! You try to explain that to a person who has not been transformed and you will sound weird. So you live it, and you live it, and you live it until no one can deny it.
(v. 18) ALL THESE THINGS ARE FROM GOD. This is not something we work up on our own. This isn’t something we do in our own power; we don’t muster this from our worldly resources. The world sees God as angry. Yet we know his anger was poured out on the cross, satisfied, justified by the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. God’s wrath was satisfied by the payment of Jesus on the cross. God now wants to be more than our God up in heaven somewhere, more than our savior, He longs to be our friend that sticks closer than a brother. It is not God that is angry it is man that is angry. Religion counts sins against people not Christ. Cults count sins against us, frowning God’s that we make with our hands count sins against us and they teach us that it’s only by our works that we can earn our way in. But the Bible makes it very clear that it’s not by works that we’re made right with the one true God.
Eph 2:8-9
8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9not by works, so that no one can boast.
We say to people who have earned their way all the way through life, “here is eternal life and it is a free gift.” And they say, “your crazy, everything I’ve got of value I’ve earned. Every important thing I own I’ve paid for. I must have to pay for this.” And we respond with, “no our ministry of reconciliation is you don’t have to pay for it, Christ paid for it with His life.”
(v. 20-21) WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST.
An ambassador is both a messenger and a representative. He does not speak in his own name. He does not act on his own authority. What he communicates is not his own opinions or ideas. But simply what he has been commanded to say. Ambassadors that are chosen for human affairs are picked on their tacked, dignity and courtesy. Because they are gifted with persuasive powers ambassadors for Christ should show the same characteristics.
This world is not our home we’re just a passin through. Why has God left us here when He has not only paved the way, but many times put a longing in our hearts for our heavenly home? One very simple but profound reason; TO MAKE HIS MESSAGE KNOWN. We’re strangers here, not at home. So when the burdens of this life get you down remember this world is not your home.
