The greatest danger to Christianity in our world today is not the lost world outside of Christ. We hear this far too often. The church will at times, look on at the outside world in judgement and disgust while patting themselves on the back for their efforts at being more moral than everyone else. The lost world is not a danger to Christianity, because they are the ones that Christ sends us to share His love with. The greatest danger to Christianity is Christians who have a misunderstanding of the Gospel.

 We Preach Jesus, Not Morality

Christianity is not based on the external, but rather the internal. Too many people inside of the American church preach plenty against sin, but very little on things like the attributes of God, the mission of God, and the Cross of Jesus Christ. Telling a person who does not know Christ to stop sinning is like telling a bird not to fly. Sinning is human nature.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Ephesians 2:1-3.

This is a description of mankind without Christ. We are dead in our sins, and by nature we run to sin. So if we believe the Bible, that we are spiritually dead and we have a sin craving nature, do we honestly think that a creature can go against its nature? Evangelist Paul Washer says it like this;

“Man is a fallen, radically depraved, spiritually dead, morally corrupt, sin-loving, God-hating creature. In the very core of his being, he is as opposed to God as the devil himself. He cannot change and has no desire to do so. He loves a lie and will do everything in his power to restrain and suppress any and every truth about God and the more he knows about God, the more he hates Him, because God is righteous and man is evil. Now, how do you expect a creature like that to all of a sudden hear a Gospel message of self-denial and turn his back on absolutely everything he is and at all cost follow the Christ?” –Paul Washer.

Also, if all it takes to convert someone to Christianity is to tell them to stop sinning, then we really have no need for Jesus! If man has the ability to clean himself up and turn from his wicked ways, then that would make us fully capable of saving ourselves! However, this is not the case. We are by nature sinful. Enemies of God. Spiritually dead in our trespasses. We are children with no hope.

And we are in desperate need of a savior.

Take the sin of gluttony for example, which is the over consumption of food. Good food is tempting to eat. But God has said overconsumption is a sin, because it leads to idolatry, which is finding our joy in things other than God. Imagine if in my good intentions to assure people kept themselves from gluttony, I made a mandate that food was a sin, so everyone should get their nourishment from protein shakes. The Pharisees actually tried to do this! Not mandate protein shakes, but rather, create new rules to keep people from sinning.

There were many laws in the Old Testament regarding cleanliness and eating. Food was not to be unclean.

“And if any animal which you may eat dies, whoever touches its carcass shall be unclean until the evening, and whoever eats of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. And whoever carries the carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening.” Leviticus 11:39-40.

And if you read Leviticus, this was just a small example of the extreme nature that the law spoke to cleanliness. With good intentions, and to guard people from breaking this law, the Pharisees added a law of their own on top of God’s law. That law being that you must wash your hands before eating. In fact, they thought so much of their man made rule, that they actually would deem it a sin if a person did not wash their hands before dining. But God never blamed sin on the externals, He judges sin according to a mans heart. If you add anything to the Gospel, it is no longer the Gospel. Jesus exposed mans error in creating rules on top of God’s law.

“While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. Luke 11:37-41.

The Pharisee was astonished that Jesus did not wash His hands! And Jesus knew that this would stir up controversy! But He did not wash His hands so that He may have an opportunity to point out their love of legalism and straying from the Gospel. Jesus said it is not the externals which make a thing sinful, it is mans wicked heart and perversion of that which God made.

Furthermore, if we believe that the law was given so that we may attain our salvation by checking off the ten commandments, then we totally miss the point for which the law was brought in the first place!

The law was never given to save us! The law was given by God to show man that he cannot save himself!! The law was given to point man to his utter depravity, and show him that he has no hope.

The law was given to show us that we need a savior.

Paul said as much to the Judaizers in Galatia. These false teachers were telling the Galatians that they could attain salvation only by keeping the law perfectly and being circumcised. Basically, abiding by a moral checklist. But look at what Paul has to say to these false teachers.

“I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” Galatians 5:3-4.

Paul basically said, “If you are going to preach externals as a means to salvation such as circumcision and keeping the law perfectly, then you have made the law your savior. And in order to be saved, you better be able to keep every single law perfectly.”

Sinful man cannot keep God’s perfect law. Not only can we not keep it, we don’t want to keep it! By nature we love sin and hate God. We easily forget that God’s standard is perfection. God owes no man anything except wrath due to our sin. God is perfect and a God of justice. So the question that lay at the very center of the true Gospel is, “How does a perfect God save spiritually dead, incapable of doing good sinners like us and still remain a God of justice?

“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:3-4.

To bring this verse more into context, I always tell my congregation to read the verse again and insert their names everywhere they see the phrase “the flesh” or “flesh.” Do you see it? The Gospel is that we are incapable in and of ourselves of doing anything right. We are lovers of sin by nature. In our unconverted state, our hearts have no desire to walk according to the law or even to seek God.

The law was given to show us that we can’t, and that Christ can. He is the savior, not us.

It is useless and legalistic to preach morality to the lost world! Do we inform them of what sin is according to God? Absolutely! But we don’t add rules to keep them in check. And we don’t preach morality in hopes of changing their ways. Because as John says, flesh cannot give birth to flesh. That which is born of Spirit if from Spirit! It is God who transforms a mans heart! Using the sin of gluttony, we now see that the food itself is not the sin. Rather it is man’s naturally evil heart that can easily make a God of that food.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” Ephesians 2:4-5.

Notice this verse was preceded by Paul telling us that by our nature, we are sinners. Now look at the first two words in the above verse. “BUT GOD..” It doesn’t say, “But man, you cleaned yourself up and decided to start living right.” Because again, that is something that by nature, man cannot do! Man cannot merely chose to go against his nature and become holy. Holiness must be attained and driven within the person not by himself, but by the indwelling grace of God. D.A. Carson summed it up best in this quote below;

“People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.” -D.A. Carson.

God is the one who supernaturally changes a mans heart from fallen to righteous. I love the example in Matthew when Jesus distinguishes between false teachers and true Christians.

“You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. Matthew 7:16-17.

We are all thorn bushes and diseased trees bearing bad fruit simply due to our sin nature. Can a thorn bush turn itself into a fig tree merely because it decides it would like to bear fruit? Absolutely not! By nature, it is a thorn bush! In order for a thorn bush to become a fig tree, a supernatural acts must occur!

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5. 

Can moralism be preached to a sinful man and he find it in himself to change his ways? According to Jesus, apart from Him we can do nothing! Therein lies the beauty of the Gospel. That our hope is in Christ alone. That we do not have the power to save ourselves through self improvement. Because thorn bushes don’t just become fig trees. This is the Gospel. That Jesus saves and He alone transforms the naturally sinful heart of man and causes Him to supernaturally walk in His ways.

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Ezekiel 36:26-27.

The Gospel is scandalous. It is greatly offensive to even the most religious men. The Pharisees hated this Gospel. Because it robs man of taking any credit, or boasting in any act of the flesh. God alone receives the glory. Men hated this Gospel then, and they have a disdain for the message of salvation by grace alone even today. Because in our wicked hearts, we desperately desire to take some credit and not be viewed as the bad guys. None the less, this is the Gospel.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9.

But to those who truly understand this Gospel and have been humbled by His amazing grace, what a beautiful Gospel this is! Therefore I boast in the fact as did Paul that there is nothing good in my flesh! I boast in the fact that I had no hope to deliver myself from the bondage of my sin nature. And that Christ saved me from myself!

“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” Romans 7:24-25.

Adding rules to the law will save no man. Putting up new fences around externals in hopes of keeping man from making idols of them will only provoke sinful man to find a way to climb the fence. Spiritually dead man will not and cannot respond to a list of do’s and don’ts. Only showing preaching of the Gospel can transform a dead soul. Only God the Father revealing the fullness of His glorious Son has the power to change and save a man. God makes no man follow Him. All He must do is reveal Christ in all his beauty, and man will gladly follow. Consider the Apostle Paul, who was a murder of Christians before the Father revealed Christ to him.

“But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles” Galatians 1:15-16.

What did God do to get a sinful murderous man like Paul to preach Christ among the Gentiles? Did God reason with Paul or tell him to stop killing people? No. The Father simply revealed the Son to Paul, and that caused a supernatural change in him. Man cannot save man. Only the Lord our God has the power to bring the dead to life. We must have a right understanding of the Gospel. Saved by grace alone, so that no man may boast. What a beautiful Gospel.

Football season has reached its peak. Time for the National Championship game is drawing near. Seriously, its hard to walk into a room full of guys without the topic of conversation veering towards the topic of college football. But have you ever asked yourself what the point of football really is? You may be thinking, “Well, the point is that I enjoy it and it makes me happy when I relax and what the games.” True enough, but if you were actually on the team, what is the point of the game? Basically to score touchdowns that ultimately lead to Championships! To a football player, that is the goal. To play the game with all their might, and to score.

Now imagine that I approached you to have a conversation about football. But I had some ground rules before we began conversing. What if I told you, “If we are going to talk about football, I have one rule. You cannot mention winning, losing, or championships. Other than that, we can talk about football.” That would narrow down our conversation on the game quite a bit! If we were going to have a talk about the game of football, yet we couldn’t talk about the goal of the game, then we really cant talk about football!!

Ive been doing quite a bit of thinking during this Christmas season. I have asked myself what the true meaning of Christmas is. More than that, what is the goal of being a true Christian? Whenever I preach a sermon or teach a class, regardless of the text Im in, more times than not I touch on the topic of missional living for Christ. I talk a lot about mission. Some would say almost to a fault. Ive actually heard people comment that they would prefer to hear sermons that don’t talk about missions.

But to me, this is exactly like trying to have a conversation about football without talking about touchdowns.

If we are students of God’s word, then we would realize that the goal of Christianity is Glorifying Christ through obedience to His mission. Jesus Himself was sent by God on a rescue mission to save His children from their sins.

“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Romans 5:8.

In Genesis, God sent Abraham on mission.

“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” Genesis 12:1.

God sent Moses on mission.

“Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:10.

God sent the prophet Isaiah on mission.

“And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” And he said, “Go…” Isaiah 6:8-9.

God sent Nathan to King David on mission.

“The LORD sent Nathan to David.”  2 Samuel 12:1.

God sends Jonah on mission.

“Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” Jonah 1:2.

God appointed and sent Jeremiah on mission to be a prophet to the nations!

“Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:4-5.

God told Malachi that he would send John the Baptist on mission.

“Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.” Malachi 3:1.

God sent the disciples on mission.

“Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.” Luke 10:3.

God sent the rebellious Saul (who became Paul) on mission.

“But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” Acts 9:6.

God sent Ananias to Saul to cure His blindness and minister to him.

“So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Acts 9:17.

I could keep going, for these are just a few examples. On practically ever page of scripture, in every story, we cannot get away from the fact that the God of the bible is a God of mission! God sends people to accomplish His will! And if you are sent with a task, you are on mission! The whole point of being a Christian is living your life for Christ! And living for Jesus is not just being a good, moral person. Living for Jesus is putting your desires behind and living for His mission.

To grow tired of the mission of Christ is to make Christianity about us and not Him.

So how can is it that we have grown cold  and almost indifferent to the message of missions? I am always drawn to examples from my everyday life with my kids. My kids love it when I tell them that I love them and tell them how good they are. My kids love it when I give them gifts! However, when I ask them to do something for me, like chores or helping out around the house, they don’t like those talks so much.

In the same way, much of our culture has made Jesus more about themselves. We love the messages about God loving us and God giving us eternal life. But when it is brought to our attention that God wants us to do something, we get uncomfortable and would rather hear a message about how good we are.

We love hearing about what Christ has done for us, but we shudder at the thought that we might actually be called to do something for Him.

Much of this false Gospel is due to the ever popular prosperity gospel that is widely televised today. We have grown numb to the true message of the gospel and sought out a false version that doesn’t convict or interfere with the desires of our flesh. Yet in this, culture has forgotten the words of Paul.

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.

Paul plainly states that once we become Christians, our old selfish ways die. They are crucified with Christ, because He died to save us from living for ourselves. Therefore, if we are truly regenerate, we now seek to live for Him!! We put the desires of our flesh behind.

So what is the mission of every believer in Christ? What does Jesus call us to do?

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Matthew 28:19.

If you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, you cannot escape the topic of mission. And to grow tired of the mission of Christ is to openly walk in disobedience.

“Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” John 20:21.

God sends those whom He calls on mission for His glory. And this should excite us! And if you profess Jesus as Lord, He is sending you.

It is my prayer that God will use these verses I have listed above to awaken some to the reality that you cannot separate the mission of Christ from the Gospel. The good news is that Jesus was sent to save us from our sins. And now, He is still being sent through His followers. We have a mission as the body of Christ. It is an inescapable fact that is found all throughout scripture. The problem many times is that we don’t want to see it.

There are those who would call this obsession with living missional for Christ radical. Ive even heard it said to me that Jesus didn’t call everyone to live so radically for Him. But according to scripture, I only see two classifications of Christian. Those that are radically on fire for Him, making the point of their lives the mission of Christ. And those that don’t know Him. Harsh words to think about, but let us consider scripture.

“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! ” Revelation 3:15-16.

You are either hot for Christ or cold. What about that middle ground? What about those who don’t want to be too radical for Jesus, they just want to profess Him as Lord and try to lead a moral life? Well God would consider them to be lukewarm in their faith. Ive often heard people use the term, “lukewarm Christian” to describe someone who really isn’t living for Christ. But notice in the verse above that the word Christian is not mentioned after lukewarm. In fact, God says that if a person is lukewarm, he wants to spit them out of His mouth! That is to have nothing to do with them! To be lukewarm is to be separated from Him. Do we go through dry seasons where we are not living as close to God as we could? Absolutely! But for the true Christian, God will not allow you to stay there. The true Christian is marked overall with a life of passion to serve on mission for His glory!

““Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it..” Matthew 7:13-14.

Two roads. One that is narrow, meaning it is hard. It takes denying our flesh to stay on this road. And then there is a broad road that most people will travel, because it is easy and pleasurable to us. Notice there is no middle sized road. There is no road where you can live in the narrow way when we want and then broaden out. The road to life is narrow, and few will find it. Why will few find this road? Because it is our human nature to make everything all about us, including Christianity.

The startling things about the above verse in Matthew is that when Jesus is speaking of few people finding the narrow road, He is not talking about people who don’t come to church. Jesus is saying that out of those who would say they profess Him as Lord, few of them will actually find eternal life!! Again, this is scary to think about! How do we know this?

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Matthew 7:21-23.

Notice that Jesus says many will say to Him Lord, Lord! Many will begin to spout off all the good works they did in His name during their lives! Think about this. A person that never professed Him as Lord would not be emphatically saying, “Lord, Lord!” In the Hebrew, if the writer or speaker repeated himself, making a strong statement! Also, a non believer would not be boasting to God about all the church activities he or she was involved in.

Here is what we should take away from this. Does our profession of Christ match up with the life that we live? What is the goal of your Christianity? Is it do come to church once a week and just be a good person? Or is it truly to give your life away? Do you merely pray for those who don’t know Jesus, or do you feel a responsibility birthed out of a broken heart over their lostness to actually go to them? Not to just invite them to church, but to build a loving friendship with them and to point them to Christ. We all thank God for the gift of eternal life given through Jesus during the Christmas season. But have you realized that because Christ was sent to you, you also now have been sent?

The goal of Christianity is not to be moral and hear nice sermons about how to improve our lives. Although this is part of the Gospel, it is not the goal. The goal of Christianity is mission driven. Only a spectator would think that the goal was about making him happy. One who is actually on the team knows that Christ was sent, and now He sends those who are His. The true Christian is not a spectator, but he or she is now on the team. They are agents in God’s global plan of the reconciliation of the world.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:18-21.

There is the game plan, the goal, and the mission. So the question we must ask ourselves is, “Am I just a spectator, or am I on the team?”

You cannot talk about football without talking about the goal of scoring. And until professing Christians begin to realize that the goal of Christianity is the salvation of His children, and that we have been given the ball by coach Jesus, then we only prove that we do not understand the Gospel. You cannot begin to live for Him until you have the end goal in mind. Christianity is not about us. The goal is to glorify God to the ends of the earth in everything that we do. It is all about Jesus.

Did you ever play the whisper game as a child? It goes by many different names, but the concept is the same. You get a line of people, and the person at the front of the line whispers a sentence or phrase to the next person. The next person whispers what they heard the first person say to the third person, and the process continues down the line until the last person receives the message. Usually, the phrase has been so taken out of context from its original wording by the time the last person hears that it sounds nothing like it did at the start.

Now imagine for a moment that the original message happened to be instructions on how to assemble a car. And by the time it reached the last person, it had become totally different. The person at the end of the line would receive the instructions, but would fail in their efforts to assemble the car, because the original instructions had become all jumbled as they traveled down the line.

I wrote a blog earlier this week regarding our backwards approach to missions in contemporary Christianity. Particularly, in our programmatic approach to missions. Jesus sent the original disciples out on mission. The original message was simply to go and make disciples. How did they know how to do this? Because they had been walking with Jesus for three years and had witnessed Him on mission. The original method for living on mission was lived out in front of Jesus disciples daily. Making disciples was never about numbers to Jesus. He was never trying to get a higher head count so he could boast about what a huge following He had.

Living on mission was greatly personal to Jesus. Living on mission and making disciples centered around building relationship with people who didn’t know Him.

We live in a world where many Christians with good intentions actually think that being missional is for them to invite their friends and neighbors to church. And as I pointed out in yesterday’s blog, inviting people to church is a wonderful thing to do. But it is not missions, at least as defined by Jesus. Sadly, many churches think that the invite is missions. And we think this way because the message of what Jesus meant when He said to go has been greatly misconstrued down the generational line. Inviting someone to church accompanies missions, but by itself it is not missions.

Missions is about loving people and forming personal relationships.

Jesus predominantly went not to His friends and neighbors, but to those people who didn’t know Him. People outside of what we would call a comfort zone. People outside of the church. Here is something else to think about. Ask yourself, “Why did Jesus go to the outsiders? The answer seems obvious. But let me show you where I’m going with this.

In many churches today we have a thing called visitation. That is, to go to visit someone at their house on a specific day of the week that has been penciled into the church calendar. If you would ask some churches why they do visitation, their answer would be, “So the people we visit will come to church!”

Although that sounds good, if we look at the missional model Jesus gave us, that is the wrong motivation for mission, and the wrong answer.

If you were to ask Jesus why He reached out to the disciples, or visited the house of Zaccheaus, He would not respond by tell you that He did it so they would add to the increase in the number of people following Him. Again, it was never about numbers. Jesus pursued intimate relationships with people because He genuinely cared for them, and wanted to know them.

People will not desire to know Jesus because we tell them they need to be saved. Their desire to know Him will come from  being witness to the supernatural love of Christ flowing through His disciples and to them.

So looking at the modern-day church, our motivations for missions should never come with a price tag of growing our churches. So how do we do Biblical missions? The answer has been in front of us all along.

By loving God first, and then your neighbor.

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31.

Notice something in this verse. Loving your neighbor is not so much a command as it is an overflow of who you now are in Christ. When you truly love God, you are given a new heart and a new nature (Ezekiel 36:26). Therefore, the true Christian never looks at building relationships with others as a duty or burden. A true believer would never make the comment, “Well I better go and share Christ with this person because the Bible says I should.”

In Christ, you are given His spirit and nature! According to scripture, one of the marks of a true believer is that they want to seek out other people, not in order to check off Christian duties, but because they genuinely love people and want them to know Jesus through them! I fear that we have forgotten how it is we as believers are justified before God.

“But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:11.

We all agree that all Christians have been justified before God. Justification is a legal term, meaning to be seen as having right and pure standing before the judge. So the question we must ask ourselves is, “How do we receive this justification?” In other words, how are we made right with God?

“..so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:7.

“So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. “Romans 11:5-6.

In Titus, we see that the believer is justified by the grace of God. And in Romans, we see that by no means do our works have anything to do with our justification. Again, what does the grace of God do to sinners like us? It radically changes our hearts. So we can easily conclude that if you do missions with your motives being to grow the people who attend Sunday morning church, you have totally bypassed the Biblical example of loving people and building relationships.

And if you don’t love people and desire to reach out to the lost world around you, it could be that you know a lot about Jesus, but have yet to know Him in a personal relationship.

The declaration of righteous is not based on the good works you’ve done but who you are in Christ. Righteousness is an outward overflow of the power of the Gospel within you.

Jesus will declare us righteous standing before God, not by telling God to look over our track record of good deeds. No, Christ will go much deeper for evidence of our Justification. Jesus will put our hearts on trial before God. Justification will not be, “Charlie did good deeds because I told Him too.” Rather it will be, “Charlie did good works not because he had to, but because his works were an overflow of His new nature in Christ.”

Reaching out to the poor, visitation, and witnessing to the world around us are as easy as breathing for the regenerate believer in Christ. Because those works are merely a natural overflow of our new nature in Christ. You don’t have to teach a fish how to swim, because its their nature. In the same way, you don’t have to teach a Christian how to love people, because once they meet Jesus, loving people just becomes part of who they are in Him.

Good works are not requirements for Salvation. They are evidence of salvation.

Newly elect president of the International Mission Board David Platt said;

“Making disciples is the supernatural overflow of being a disciple. Proclaiming the love of Christ is the overflow of sharing in the life of Christ. And I’m convinced many people in our churches are simply missing the life of Christ.”

I saw a television show the other day about people who’d been rescued from deadly situations. In one segment, a life guard had rescued a young man from almost drowning in the ocean. The lifeguard pull the man to shore and began doing CPR on him immediately. Finally, the young man began to spit up the ocean water he had swallowed. The lifeguard reminded the young man to breathe deep breaths. This wasn’t necessarily a command from the lifeguard so much as it was him reminding the victim how it is he has life. Breathing is natural for a person. But one that has been in a near death experience sometimes must be reminded and coaxed to do what comes naturally to them.

In the same way, when Jesus says for His followers to build relationships, love thy neighbor, and make disciples, it is not only an order, but a reminder of who they are as a new creation in Jesus. The lifeguard would say to the victim, “You were practically dead, but then I breathed life into you. You are a human being so breath!!”

Jesus too, through Paul, reminds us that we were dead, but He did CPR on our soul and made us new.

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous, sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.

Do you see the reminder? Paul so much as says, “And such were some of you…spiritually dead. But remember who you now are!” Christ breathed new life into us, and now a mark of our new nature is that we’ve been justified. We no longer walk the same way we once did. It’s not that we have to live on mission. It’s not that we have to try to love people. These characteristics are the overflow of Biblical justification.

Adding numbers to our churches should never be the immediate goal. Reaching out to people in hopes that our efforts will pull them into the church building is the wrong motive. The church of Christ grows through His mission to love others well. Disciples are made by loving people enough to invest in their lives with no motives other than to be like our Heavenly Father, and live out the natural passion to serve them we now have in our justification. Discipleship and mission cannot be something we guilt people into from a Sunday school class or pulpit.

God declares us justified based on our new identity and the new fruit in our lives.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Galatians 5:22-24.

If these are the fruits, the nature of a regenerate person as given by God, then they will not be able to help loving others. It will merely be a spilling over of who they are!

Consider the below passage in James regarding our faith and works.

“What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?  Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing,  and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Evaluate your motives for doing ministry. Do you do it out of Christian duty, or out of a transformed heart for people? Mission begins and only happens when we truly love God first. And when the love of God penetrates and breaks our hearts, our works will be an overflow of our new nature. It is not a burden for the Christian to serve Christ, it is what we desire to do. It’s our God-given passion and a mark of genuine salvation. It is who we are.” James 2:14-17.

Do you see his point? If we say we have faith but do not have a heart to do good works, then our faith is dead? Why? Because the mark of genuine faith is a regenerated heart that mimics Christ, and now begins to desire to do the will of the Father! If we say we are Christians, yet feel as if it is a duty or inconvenience to care and serve for others, then our hearts testify against us that we dont really know Jesus! We do not witness to others in hopes of increasing our Sunday morning attendance. We witness to others because we have a new heart in Jesus that truly desires to love them and share about our Heavenly Father!

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” Galatians 5:6.

Notice the last line of the above verse. Nothing matters but only faith working THROUGH love! How is our faith shown? Through the love the overflows out of our new heart in Christ! Living on mission for Christ is not something that the true believer feels obligated to do or guilted into. Living missionally is a symptom of being a child of God! The goal is not to fatten the role at our churches! The goal of a disciple of Christ is to seek out people to love daily. The poor, the sick, those that are outcast. Jesus did not commission us to merely be the invite committee. He commissioned us to invest our lives in people, and to point them to Him.

“But if I say I’ll never mention the LORD or speak in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it!” Jeremiah 20:9.

What if you were told that you could never tell people about the love of Christ? What if you were told that you couldn’t live your life on mission for Him? Sadly for many professing Christians, this would be no different than how they are currently living. They profess Jesus, yet have no concern to reach others for the Kingdom. They are content to just come and sit on Sunday mornings and live a moral life. But the scripture gives a different example of what a true believer looks like.

Are you as Jeremiah was in the verse above? Where if you were told not to live pursuing people for Christ, that it would be impossible for you to hold inside? Jeremiah had a passion to proclaim the Gospel that He could not stifle. And this passion was again, just a side effect of the Lord changing heart! It is not a burden to want to proclaim the Gospel. It is an indicative of this unquenchable fire that is the love of God within us

“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”1 John 5:3.

Our motives for mission should be birthed out of a changed heart and genuine love for people.

When our kids were babies, we had this little wooden toy with shapes cut of in the middle. The boys could remove the shapes, and put them back in place. This gave an all new meaning to the phrase, “Putting a square peg into a round hole.” This was a great instrument for the boys to learn their shapes, but I also noticed that they would become easily frustrated. They would pick up the square peg and begin to try to place it in the circle cut out, twisting and turning it every which way in order to try and fit it in.

But no matter how hard they tried, that square peg just wouldn’t go into a round hole. It wasn’t made for that.

As their parents, Lacy and I would come along beside them and show them the proper fittings for the pegs. They didn’t always get it immediately, but over time the light began to come on, and they got it. We went through this process with Andy and Lincoln, our two oldest boys. And when their younger baby brothers, Abel and Luke came along, Andy and Linc were able to teach them the proper placement of the wooden pegs just as they were once taught.

I opened up with this little analogy because that is how I’ve been feeling in my own walk with the Lord per the last few years. Particularly in how we do ministry. Something just doesn’t seem to fit. I read the scriptures, and then I see how the American church does evangelism. We have our neatly organized weekly Bible studies, our Sunday morning service that is cleanly tapered to a sixty minute time slot, and we take a few yearly trips to missions. And there is nothing wrong with any of this! In fact, these things are great tools we use to proclaim the Gospel and live on mission for Jesus!

But my soul has still been restless in the past few years. And Ive not been able to pin point why that is until recently. I look at the square peg that is scripture, and grow frustrated that our sphere shaped ways of doing ministry dont see to look at all like what is seen in the Bible.

Square peg, round hole.

We have organized the events of the church so very much that I fear that the routine may be keeping us from living the reality of what Jesus has called us to do.

Take Jesus for example. He never walked through Jerusalem advertising that on Sunday morning, He would be holding a church service and would love for everyone to join Him. Evangelism was not based around a single event or even a building. Jesus did ministry by building relationship. And He built relationships by going outside of what we would call a comfort zone and reaching out to those that He didn’t yet know.

Jesus reached out to people not to invite them, but to genuinely get to know them personally.

Jesus took it upon Himself to go out and meet His future disciples! Again, He didn’t pass out flyers or merely invite them in passing to a service. He literally invaded their lives! He met them on their turf, and joined in activities that we’re important to them in order to relate to them.

“When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.”

“Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear! A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking.

When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m too much of a sinner to be around you.” For he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were the others with him. His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed.

Jesus replied to Simon, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!” And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.” Luke 5:4-11.

Jesus met the disciples in their own back yard. And they followed Him not just because He told them to do it. Rather, they followed because they could see that Jesus really cared about them, and wanted to get to know them.

Who could forget the story of the wee little tax collector Zacchaeus was a greedy tax collector who got rich off of taking more from people than necessary. That being said, Zacchaeus was not very popular, and probably not a person you would want to be seen associating with. But Jesus didn’t care what people thought of Him. In fact, when Jesus did begin to speak to Zacchaeus, others in the crowd began to gossip.

“And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” Luke 19:7.

Jesus, unaffected by the quiet jeers of the self righteous people around Him, took it a step farther. Not only did He seek out Zaccheaus in the town, but He actually went to his house to get to know him!! This is huge! Who does this, even in our world today? Jesus could have merely invited Zaccheaus to come and listen to Him preach. But Jesus wanted more than just another groupie. He wanted more than just another face in the crowd that followed Him.  He wanted a relationship. It was not about adding one more warm body to the list of people He had listening to His sermons. His ministry was done in the midst of real life situations, not from the comforts of a Sunday school class.

Samaria was a Gentile town, and the Jews hated the Gentiles. In fact, they even refused to travel through Samaria because they didn’t want to interact with these people. Yet Jesus, a Jew, chose to travel through Samaria. And in the process, He met a Samaritan woman at a drinking well. Not only that, Jesus began to talk to her by asking her for a drink! This blew her mind! Jews didn’t talk to Gentiles! Wasn’t He afraid of who might see Him? This interaction could greatly damage His reputation!

“The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)” John 4:9.

Jesus went on to have a discussion with her. But it wasn’t a “hows the weather”, superficial discussion. Jesus addressed the areas of her life where she was hurting. She was an outcast of her town that none of the other women wanted to associate with because she was known as the town whore. In fact, she’d had five husbands, and currently she was involved in a relationship with a man outside of marriage. Because of her reputation, she had to come and draw her water at noon. Most of the other women drew their daily water early in the morning, before the heat of the day had come upon them. But this woman had to go draw her water in the hottest part of the day due to her shame.

Again, Jesus didn’t just invite her to an upcoming church function. Jesus built a relationship with her. And the effect on her was epic! After meeting Jesus, this woman, who’d once been shamed to be seen in town, ran back to her town and began to tell everyone about Jesus. And the Gospel was advanced that day because a relationship was built.

“Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” John 4:39.

There are so many more instances of Jesus doing relational ministry throughout the Gospels. He didn’t base His ministry on a weekly schedule or a church calendar of events.

He was driven daily to seek out people and love them.

Even after His resurrection,  we see Jesus followers mimicking His example of how to do ministry. Take Paul for instance. Paul and Silas were severely beaten and thrown in prison for preaching the gospel. Things were hard at this point in his life. They could have been worried about their circumstances and said, “We don’t have time for ministry, we are in a pickle!” But that is not what happened.

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.” Acts 16:25-34.

Heres the take away. No matter where they were, regardless of the circumstances, they viewed the people God had placed in front of them as an opportunity to build relationships! Trials in life were viewed as an opportunity to love even their enemies and build relationships!

They preached the Gospel to this guard who’s job it was to keep them in chains, and He was saved! Now once God had freed them, they could have said, “Alright, now we need to get as far away from here as possible so we don’t get caught again.” But that was not what they did. Instead, they chose to go to the house of this guard and build relationships with his family.

The blueprint for reaching the lost was never to be predominantly in an organized setting. Ministry was to be sought as we go along our daily lives!

“And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 10:7.

Ministry is not about trying to invite as many people as we can to attend a church service. It never was!  It is sacrificing our time to build relationships with people that are outside of our comfort zones. Although inviting people to church is always a good thing, I think many of us have neglected the “as you go” part of doing ministry!

We have so neatly organized and sanded off the sides of our squared church calendar, that it no longer fits the circular mold of the original way Christ called His followers to do ministry. Look at the people Jesus has placed in your life. Look at the poor areas of town that you drive past every day. Look at the community that you live in.

Are you actively seeking to daily develop new relationships with people? Who among us would be brave enough to take time out of their day to just drive to a poor area of town and ask the people living there if they would be interested in doing a weekly Bible study where they live. Maybe just show up with a grill and burgers to being to cook for them.

Who among us would invite your co worker who no one really likes or associates with to have dinner with you and your family? Mothers who would seek out weekly play dates with mothers who are struggling or single in a hard area of town in order to build relationships.

My fear is that we are not being the church that Jesus had intended. I read the scriptures and see this intentionality towards people in Jesus and his followers, yet today, church is a twice a week event. And in a great majority of Christians eyes, being missional is maybe inviting someone to church if they can muster up the courage.

No relationship building, no Gospel sharing, just inviting people to church. That is not ministry, thats advertising. Ministry is about relationships. Ministry is about Gospel proclamation.

My fear is that we have become too self reliant on a building, a church calendar, and even ministerial staff and have therefore become complacent and ineffective in being true Gospel agents of reconciliation.

My fear is that in our current programatic way of doing ministry, we have become too civilized for the Jesus of the Bible.

The square peg will never fit the round hole unless we begin to listen to the words of our Heavenly Father through scripture. Listening is different than just reading or memorizing a verse. Listening is really putting yourself into what scripture is saying and taking to heart the actions of His followers. The beauty of listening is, once the light comes on and we realize the proper placement of these ministry pegs, then we can go to other believers to allow God to bring their ministries to life.

It’s Called Making Disciples.

I don’t want to play church. I don’t care about fitting into the mold of what is socially acceptable or how the world thinks the church should operate. I just want us to look at the Bible and follow the examples we have been given. We will all stand before God one day to give an account of what we did with the breath that we were given. We will not be able to use the excuse that, “I thought that was the way ministry was done because thats how all other Christians did it.”

“But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant!” 2 Corinthians 10:12.

We weren’t called to be like other Christians. We are called to be like Christ.

Standing before God, we will be pointed to the words of the Lord through scripture and asked, “Did you really know me, or just know what you were told about me.” If we say we truly love Jesus, we cannot afford to be wrong about this! We’ve been given the model. The question is, are we using it? Much of current Christianity has ceased to fit the mold of scripture, and its because we’ve stopped listening and grown bored in the routine.

Are you seeking out new relationships daily in hopes of personally sharing Jesus with them?

Like an infant who grows frustrated trying to fit that square peg into a round hole, so many Christians are bored and frustrated with the routine of church. And its because this routine ministry that is much of American Christianity was never the mold given to us by Jesus. We have forgotten that mission is not just something to be talked about on Sundays, its a lifestyle to be lived! And Gospel centered mission cannot be had until genuine relationships occur. We must begin to develop a love for people outside of our comfort zones daily. Search the scriptures, pray, and let God define your ministry. The call from Christ was to make disciples. And making disciples begins at the point of personal relationship.

We use phrases in Christianity that really have no meaning behind them, because they have not impacted us personally. These phrases are just things we say to fit into the Christian mold. One of these phrases I’ve always heard is the war cry, “Stand up for Jesus!” It’s easy to merely say stand up for Jesus, but if your heart has not been personally impacted by the Gospel, these words are empty.

Standing up for Jesus is a great thing to the average believer, just as long as it doesn’t upset any apple carts so to speak. Standing up for Jesus is fine, as long as it doesn’t fly in the face of any man-made traditions. You see we place price tags on standing up for Jesus.

American Christianity says, “Amen to standing up for Jesus, as long as what Jesus says doesn’t offend me or threaten to alter the way I live my life.” What we are really saying is “God not offending me is more important than me not being offensive to God.”

It is a sad day indeed when the Gospel begins to penetrate darkness in our world, but we slink back into the shadows because the darkness was more of a comfort to us than the radiant truth of the light. I don’t understand why so many people in our world today profess Jesus as their Lord, yet fight so hard to not let the Gospel change anything about them. This is seen especially in our current Christmas season.  During Christmas, many professing believers will use the phrase, “It’s is all about Jesus.”

But in reality, if Christmas were a beautiful steak dinner with all the fixings, Jesus would just be the garnish on the side.

Our world puts so much emphasis on the glitz and glamour of the season and making sure that all the age-old traditions that accompany Christmas are in place, and Jesus just becomes sort of something we feel obligated to mention sprinkled throughout the month. Kind of like the green kale on the side of a fancy dinner or that pink ginger substance on the side of a plate of sushi.

Jesus is not the main course, and not even a part of the meal that is looked forward to. He just makes the plate look nice.

Standing up for Jesus is a radical thing. It’s a dangerous concept. Its scandalous. Because when the Gospel collides with modern-day culture, it literally changes everything. When a person has been truly impacted by Christ, they cannot help but see the world through a different lens. Every aspect of life is filtered through the Gospel. Its more than just memorizing scripture. It’s so much more than church attendance. Gospel transformation is actually taking to heart what the word of God says and then applying it to every area of our lives, even if it threatens to disrupt the way we’ve always done things.

Here is an example from scripture of what happens when the Gospel collides with tradition. Paul and his disciples had been preaching the gospel, which was contrary to a lot of Macedonia’s tradition. And this Gospel that Paul preached caused a big disturbance in the culture.

“About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way.  For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.  These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth.  And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods.” Acts 19:23-26.

Demetrius made his living by making statues that some people worshipped, and Paul had come to Macedonia preaching against worshipping any other God or making an idol into a God. But this was the way they had always done things! Who was Paul to come in and disrupt their way of life? Demetrius gathered together some of his buddies and began to gossip and slander Paul for how serious he was taking the Gospel.

When the Gospel collides with our traditions and our idols, it disrupts everything. Because everything we thought we knew by the worlds standards proves to be wrong. And we are a people that doesn’t like to be told we’re wrong.

Demetrius had always made idols, and they were more important to him than the Gospel. And like Demetrius, we have idols that we’ve always had and may seem as innocent as statue making seemed to Demetrius. But in reality they stifle the gospel.

“And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition.” Mark 7:13.

Read the above verse once more. Then read it again. Let it sink in. Is there something in your life that you’ve been holding higher than God? Notice the verse mentions tradition. A tradition is something that has been passed down through the years. We have many traditions in our world today. And many of them are seasonal. Granted, not all traditions are bad. But when tradition collides with the truth of the Gospel in your life, which one wins?  Is the word of God canceled out in your life by a love of holiday tradition?

All the great things that come along with the Christmas season are great, but if they steal any of the focus off of Jesus, then they are merely idols that we’ve made into Gods.

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” 1 John 5:21.

Christmas can become an idol if we are not careful. Idols are seemingly good things in our world that have become more important than God and His word in our life. Idolatry is when a good thing in your life becomes a God thing. So how do you know if Christmas has become an idol for you?

Examine yourself. When traditions are exposed for stealing glory away from God, do you fight and rationalize in your mind how it’s really not a bad thing? Or do you simply submit to the word of God, repent, and turn back to the Lord?

Human nature is that when our idols and traditions are confronted with the Gospel, we begin to try and speak up for them and in some way justify them. We defend our idols passionately. But look at what Isaiah would say of those who speak up in defense of their idols.

“All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame.” Isaiah 44:9.

What bold truth there is in that verse. We are naturally blind to our idols. Because to us, they are harmless and have been just something that everyone does. But how often do we actually stop and examine what we are doing laid up against scripture? Isaiah says if we are unwilling to do that, then we are ignorant people. In standing up for our idols, we take a stance against the Gospel.

“Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.” Isaiah 2:8.

Some would say I’m taking God too seriously. Perhaps. However, I would rather stand before the Lord on judgement day and Him say to me that I was taking Him too seriously rather than Christ say that I had not taken Him seriously enough. 

I’m a literalist. I think the Bible means exactly what it says. When Jesus said to turn from sin, I literally believe He meant for us to flee from sin. When Jesus said that a person who lies is an abomination to God, I literally believe that God cannot stand a liar, and that we should not lie, even if it is just a little white lie.

“The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them!” Psalm 135:15.

Like silver and gold, many of the idols we have in our world were created by man. But the thing about man made idols is that they have no life in them. And according to scripture, when we put our trust and give importance to any idol, we become just like them…lifeless. We have so many idols in our world from how we live our daily lives, to how we do church, even how we do holidays, that are built on untruths. Yet we continue to pass them down throughout the generations for the sake of honoring tradition! Read once more the verse above and think about what it is saying.

God pointing out our idols is not Him trying to hinder our fun, but rather it is God saving our life.

Therefore, when God through Christ and the writers of scripture continually warns me to be on look out for idols, I do not take offense, because I see the serious nature at hand. The example I use quite often is of my child playing in the street. If I scream at him to get out of the street, Im not trying to hinder what seems fun to him or hurt him in any way. I see the seriousness of the situation even when all he may see is daddy ruining his fun. I love my child enough to chance ruining his fun in order to save his life.

Why is Jesus so urgent in warning us of the dangers of material and traditional idolatry?

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ” 1 Corinthians 6:9.

These are damnable sins mentioned that if practiced as a regular way of our lives, without any turning from them, will restrict us from entering the kingdom of God. Notice the second sin mentioned is idolatry. And Jesus warns us over and over about the dangers of idolatry because it is one of those sins that can come in the guise of seemingly good, ordinary things that all people do.

“Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.” Jonah 2:8.

“Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” 1 Corinthians 10:44.

“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.” Galatians 4:8.

Christmas is a joyous time full of special moments with family and friends. The stripping away of our traditions and idols that have become so cozy and comfortable to us is hard and at times painful. But here is the beauty. Once we submit to the Gospel, the blinders come off, and we are set free to experience an even greater joy than the traditions of our world could ever offer. There is an unexplainable, supernatural joy that accompanies deeply knowing Christ and making it your life’s pursuit to glorify His great name! This joy supersedes all the great holiday food, all the presents, and yes, even the age-old Christmas traditions that have been passed down through the generations. There is no greater joy than Jesus. This Christmas season, don’t miss the beauty of Jesus due to being blinded by seasonal idols.

They say that confession is good for the soul. I have a secret. One that has made many people gasp at just the thought of it. This secret is extremely scandalous, especially during the Christmas holiday season. Are you ready for my secret? Brace yourselves, here it is;

We don’t tell our kids that Santa is real!

This was a decision my wife and I made even before our first child was born. It wasn’t a popular decision with those closest to us. And I heard some great rebuttals to this decision from close friends. They would say things like, “You’ll ruin Christmas for them” and “Taking Santa out of Christmas is almost un-American!” No doubt it was a tough call. But we didn’t base this decision on the happiness of our children or on what other people might think.

We pulled Santa from Christmas due to scripture.

Many people say they feel so uplifted reading the Bible. Although this is true, Ive felt more convicted in my time in the word than anything else. I read the scripture about Jesus and His disciples, how they faced bitter persecution. How they left the comforts of home and sought the approval of God rather than man. I read of men like the apostle Paul, who actually counted suffering as a blessing and material things as garbage all for the utter joy of knowing Christ. And I see in the Bible I’m not the point of the story but rather Jesus Christ is the point of everything.

And then I look at Christianity in America today. And I don’t see the same commitment. I don’t see the self denial that were characteristic of the great men of the faith in scripture. Instead, we have become a consumeristic culture, and Christianity has become molded into a weekly routine and a seasonal event that makes us feel good. Our society is not built around downsizing for Christ, but upsizing for self.

This is especially obvious during Christmas. Sure, we have our Christmas themed church services, and we sing about the baby Jesus, but ultimately, Christmas in our country has become more about presents, the Christmas tree, and a mythical fat man than it is about Jesus.

The decision not to do Santa with our kids was a decision that didn’t come easy. But the more I read the Bible, the more convicted I became that Santa was overshadowing Jesus. Here are some things to consider regarding Santa.

1.) We tell our kids, “Santa sees you when your sleeping and knows when your awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good as well!” So from this, we can take away that Santa is omnipresent, or able to be everywhere and see everything at one time.

“Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord..” Jeremiah 23:24.

Jesus is omnipresent as well. In fact, while we tell our kids the myth that Santa makes all the toys, the truth is even more amazing that God made everything!

2.) We tell our kids that they will be rewarded for their obedience with toys and if they are bad, punished for their rebellion.

The Bible says that the obedient children of God will be rewarded as well by Jesus Himself, while those who rebel to His Lordship will be eternally punished. Jesus is the true giver of all good things, not Santa.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” James 1:17

3.) We tell our kids that Santa is eternal.

So is Jesus.

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Timothy 1:17.

We’ve taken the attributes of God and placed them on an imaginary figure named Santa.

“Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.” Proverbs 12:22.

A person who lies is an abomination to God according to the scriptures. Think about this for a moment. When we tell our children that a man dressed in red, riding high in the sky with flying reindeer will bring them gifts if they are good, what are we doing?

We are lying to them.

We are lying to our children. I’ve had people try to rationalize this one way or another, but as nice as we try to make it sound, the truth of the matter is we are telling our children something that we know is not true.

No doubt this bothers some who are reading. And the fact that you are disturbed is totally understandable. This is how backwards our society has become in terms of Christianity! We are more comfortable with a lie and would rather do things like they’ve been done for hundreds of years rather than really look at scripture and come to the conclusion that just because we’ve done things one way for a long time doesn’t mean its right.

When I was in first grade, the other boys and myself would play fight. I would ball up my fist and pretend to throw punches as if I was a superhero. However, when I made a fist, I would always tuck my thumb inside of my fingers instead of wrapping it across the top. I did this for years until someone finally told me the proper way to make a fist. At first I thought my way had to be right because I had been doing it that way for years. But then I began to see that if I would have gotten in an actual fight and threw a punch with my thumb tucked in my fist, I would probably break it.

Im not saying that doing Santa is sinful or wrong. Im just asking that we would begin to filter everything through scripture and not tradition. If taking Santa out of Christmas ruins the holiday season, then that should show us that our focus has been severely wrong all along. Ive found that for the most part, people are more offended by the thought of Santa not being in Christmas than the thought of Jesus not being glorified during this season. Some would say we are taking this too seriously. Then again, Jesus took me pretty seriously when He exchanged His life for mine on the tree of Calvary.

Lacy and I gather the kids together like everyone else and decorate our tree as a family. We hang stockings from our chimney. We get our boys reasonable presents. But we don’t make it all about the presents. Instead, we use this time to point everything to Jesus. If we truly claim to be followers of Christ, it is imperative that we take His word seriously.

We always hear during this time the phrase, “Jesus is the reason for the season.” If that is true, then why do we make so many others things the point of Christmas? Enjoy the Christmas season, the presents, the tree, and all the captivating things that accompany this time of year. Just don’t make them the point. And in regards to our kids, whether you do Santa at your household or not, be sure to use Christmas as an opportunity to teach them the Gospel. That Jesus was sent from God, born into flesh just to die for our sins, rising again victorious having defeated the evil one eternally so that we might be saved. That is the greatest gift of all.

This year has made it official. I’m no longer a young man anymore. The white hairs began appearing first just beside my temples, right above my ears. First so scarcely I could hardly notice. Then as the weeks began to pass more and more of their little friends began to join them. Now they have moved on from the sides of my head and have begun sprouting on my face in certain areas. “How can this be happening?” The inner voice inside my head began to ask. “I’m not even thirty-nine years old yet!”

I turned on the television last week to see my all time favorite movie, Rocky on the screen. Sly Stallone was always my hero growing up. Later during a commercial break, they had a current interview with Sly as he talked about the making of Rocky. And looking at the current Sylvester Stallone, I asked myself the question, “When did Rocky get so old? It seems like last week I saw him training in snow and doing jumping jacks for the first time to the tune of Survivor’s ‘Eye of the Tiger.”

I can still remember graduating from high school. It seems like only yesterday that I was living off of Raman Noodles and midnight Taco Bell runs in college! I can vividly remember the very first time I laid eyes on my wife, exactly what she was wearing, and the goofing pick up lines I tried on her! I looked yesterday at my oldest child Andy, who is eight years old, and felt almost perplexed at how he’d gotten so big! I mean, wasn’t it just last week that we were teaching him how to walk?

Have you ever just stopped and marveled at just how quickly life passes by? Today I’m 38 years old. And when I’m 78, today will seem like yesterday! And the older I get, the faster the years seem to pass by. This realization has greatly begun to impact me in many areas of my life.

Our two oldest boys, Andy age 8 and Lincoln age 5, always want to be held at night. More than anything, I pretty sure its just an excuse not to go to sleep. It’s so easy as a parent to grow numb to this nightly request and tell them to close their eyes. Rather than looking at this as a brief moment in time that will too soon be gone. My oldest is eight. How much longer until he begins to think hugs and kisses from daddy are gross? How many more nights will I have that he would allow me to snuggle up to him? Even though they are getting so big, I still see them as those little babies in the delivery room. We bypass the gifts of God thinking that they will be here forever, when in reality, they are gone in an instant.

“What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” James 4:14.

In the span of eternity, our lives are like the disappearing morning mist. The question is not, “Are you living your best life now?” The question we should ask ourselves is, “With the brevity of life that we have, what are we living for?”

One summer when I was in college, a friend of my parents offered me a job doing construction type labor in his warehouse for one week. The job would end after that week, because the construction would be over. I accepted the job, even though it was short. It was one of the hardest working weeks of my life. From sun up to sun down, I was lifting, stacking, and moving heavy metal pipes and platforms around a musty old warehouse. My body ached all over each night. And every night as I lay in bed, I contemplated quitting. “Surely there were more fun things I could be doing with my time.” But I kept reminding myself of two things. First, I kept telling myself that it was only one week. Before I knew it, the week would be over. And secondly, I respected the man who gave me the job, and knew that if I worked hard this week, he would give me his stamp of approval. And a recommendation from this man, on my resume, would open many doors in my future.

Our lives are much like a one week job. We could easily have the mindset that, “We only live once, so live for the moment.” But our Father in Heaven has created us, and offered us a one week job that is this mist we call life. And the measure of our hearts in this task will determine our eternities future.  We were created to live for Him. To filter each breath we take through glorifying Christ.

There is one difference between the analogy I gave of a week of construction work and doing a lifetime of Gods work. I never really grew to love construction. I did it because I had to. However, if you are a child of God, the Lord’s work is what you were created, I dare say WIRED, to do. And in seeking and living a life for Him, you will find your deepest joys in serving Christ. Because again, it’s what you were created to do. And it’s never a burden to do the things that bring you joy.

“Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.” 1 John 5:3.

A big problem with the human condition is that we tend to think we are the center of the universe. It is our nature to put ourselves in a place of importance, at least in our minds, and think that God desperately needs us. I remember my first job in ministry as a youth pastor in Florida. What an awesome church it was. And we had an amazing youth ministry of great kids who genuinely loved the Lord! When the time came for me to leave the church in order to take a lead pastor position elsewhere, I remember worrying and thinking, “I hope that this group stays strong for Christ when I leave.”

Looking back, how arrogant minded this was of me. To think that this great youth group had in some part been accredited to my leadership. How quickly I had forgotten that God had spoken in Numbers 22 through Balaam’s donkey. The Corinthians said this of the Apostle Paul;

“For some say, “Paul’s letters are demanding and forceful, but in person he is weak, and his speeches are worthless!” 2 Corinthians 10:10.

Basically they were left in awe and wonder by the powerful, Gospel centered words that Paul could write, but in person, the Apostle’s speech and appearance was weak and feeble! God receives all the glory and credit for our good works. And just like cuddling with my kids, we get the great privilege of being a part of that brief moment in time. To to be in that moment, we have to be available, and we must realize that we are not the center of the universe. We are, as scripture says, only a mist that is quickly evaporating.

Have you ever noticed how funerals happen in scripture? In Deuteronomy 24, the scriptures spend only two or three verses stating that Moses died. The next paragraph reads in verse 9, “And then Joshua…” As great a leader as Moses was, he is no longer a focal point in the biblical narrative. How humbling this is in a world where we want plaques and memorials built for us after we are dead. Even in thinking of death, we still want to be noticed. But God humbles us and reminds us that we are but a footnote in HIS story. He reminds us that the story is not, nor has it ever been about us.

I had the opportunity to be an extra in a movie that shot in Atlanta a few years back. I had my part as a cop, and I got to dress up and even throw a punch. I was told that I would have no lines, and that Id literally be on-screen less than five second, and even then you’d have to look for me to really see me. But that didn’t matter to me. It was such an honor to be asked and to play the part Id been given. I didn’t care that it wasnt about me, I just wanted to hear the director tell me I did a good job. I wanted to be the best inconsequential, no talking, five second appearing cop in that movie that I could be.

In this grand movie we call life, we are on-screen for a second as an extra in the background. No lines. No importance. In fact, if we were not in the movie at all, it would not change a thing. We are not the stars of the show. How silly I would have looked if I would have gone to my friends and bragged that I was a major player in this movie. They would have said, “Who do you think you are?” Our role in God’s timeline is so brief. And we have nothing to boast in but only the fact that He allowed us to participate. It may be just a bit part, but what a privilege it is to be chosen by God our Father, and given even the tiniest role in His story.

“But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD.” Jeremiah 9:24

If you are a child of God, you’ve been given a script. And that script is not the starring role that you might want. It’s very small in the scope of the big picture. We have been called to live our lives for Christ. Sacrificing a self-deluded existence where we live life thinking that our happiness is the point. Those white hairs will come quicker than you may think. There are many things that a person on their death-bed will regret. Many wasted moments and passed by opportunities. But as the last vapors of mist exit their lives, no one will ever regret the hours they prayed, the moments they served, or the material things that they sacrificed so that Jesus would be more glorified. Standing before the Heavenly director on that day, many of the wasteful things we thought we so important here on this earth, we will regret that we spent so much time on them. Standing before the Lord, everyone will wish they had prayed more, served more, and given up more in light of the beauty of Jesus.

John Piper once told of a time that his father was preaching in church and a very old man who had been attending for years finally walked down the aisle to give his life to Christ. The old man was crying uncontrollably after Jesus became Lord of His life. The pastor asked the old man, “Sir, you have just been saved! Why on earth are you so upset.” The old man look up at the pastor through streaming tears and said, “My life…Ive wasted all of it!” How heartbreaking to realize that we wasted our lives on fleeting, inconsequential things and missed out on the great adventure of serving Christ!

So think of your life and this moment right now. Today you may be in your twenties or thirties. Tomorrow you will be in your seventies or eighties. It will go that quickly. Ask yourself, how radically are you living for Jesus now? How passionately are you leading and discipling your family for Jesus now? How fervently are you seeking to know Him through scripture now? It’s easy to make empty promises to yourself.

“I’ll begin leading my wife tomorrow.”

“I’ll start going to church next week.”

“I’ll start praying with my kids tomorrow.”

“I’ll start thinking about serving Christ on mission one day.”

Empty promises and professions to make ourselves feel better turn into wasted years and regretful memories of what might have been. Life is short. Do not waste the life and breathe you have been given on living for yourself. In this you will only find temporary highs that are based on circumstances. This opportunity to serve Him is short, but it sets the stage for eternity. Live for Christ in all that you do now!

There is a verse that has occupied my every thought as of late. One of the most asked questions I receive as a pastor is, “How do I truly know that I am saved?” Some may answer this question by saying back to the person asking, “Was there ever a time in your life that you professed Jesus as Lord? If so, you’re saved!” But if this were so, then to be a Christian all one must do is to repeat a boy scout like pledge, and that would be that. Jesus says that there are certain signs of a true Christian. The apostle Paul urged believers to constantly examine their lives.

“Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” 2 Corinthians 13:5.

The verse which God has placed on my heart as of late is indeed one of these tests of faith.

“Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” 1 John 2:4-6.

Its more than just keeping his commandments. Cue in on the last sentence of the verse above. “...whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

This is a major indicator of true faith. Don’t just read this verse. Meditate on what John is saying to us. If we claim to know Jesus, as most people in the Bible belt do, then the fruit of this profession is that we will begin to walk like Him! Please don’t miss this! For anyone who has doubted their salvation and wondered how to tell if they truly believe, here it is. True faith begins a process of sanctification in the life of the Christian, where in they begin to take on the characteristics of their Heavenly Father!

When I was a child, I looked up to my dad so much. My father is an amazing man and was a great dad. I can remember as a child wanting to be just like him. I remember one afternoon watching him shoot a game of pool. He knocked everyone of those balls in the pocket he was aiming for flawlessly. I recall attempting to do it like dad, and I couldn’t reach a perfect game like he did. But I always kept striving for perfection. When I messed up, it broke my heart and I tried even harder, as my dad continued to encourage me.

This is much like our relationship with Christ. We will never reach perfection like our Heavenly Father. However, the true believer strives for this in every aspect of life, and it breaks his heart when he fails in sin. And in light of that failure, the true child of God tries even harder.

They don’t strive for perfection so that God will love them. The true believer strives for perfection because God already loves them, and is their Father.

The true believer strives to walk like Jesus, because they truly want to be like their dad.

Are you asking “Am I truly saved?” Let me answer your question with a question. Are you striving to walk like your Heavenly Father? Are you heartbroken when you fail? I pray you examine yourself in light of scripture. Salvation is something we cannot afford to be wrong about.

So very briefly, I want to take some time to take a small glimpse into how Jesus walked. One of the most distinguishing marks of how Christ walked was his love for people. Specifically, his love for fellowshipping and gathering with the saints.

Yes, Jesus also fellowshipped with the lost. But fellowshipping with the lost really isn’t a problem in our world today. In fact, most folks know more lost people through interactions at their workplaces and lives outside of the church than they do saved people. Church people struggle to make fellowshipping with brothers and sisters inside of the church a priority. We fall into the trap of thinking that if we just make it to the main Sunday morning service, then the other activities of the church are not that important.

Activities such as Sunday school, or a fellowship time before Sunday School are staples in many churches today. However, it is so easy to make excuses as to why we don’t attend. The biggest excuse we come up with centers around a Sunday morning schedule. Years ago, the church I was a member of had a early Sunday morning gathering and fellowship time. I hardly ever attended. When asked by my pastor why I didn’t attend, I began to point to my schedule, saying, “Well I just cant get the family ready by then.” Even saying this I knew how paper thin my argument was.  We had our kids and ourselves dressed for school and out the door by 7:30 AM every weekday, but when it comes to God’s day I can’t do the same?

Another excuse I used was, “Well I just don’t get anything out of early morning fellowship.” But I failed to realize that God’s day is not always about my preferences. And more than that, I failed to realize the importance of gathering with my church family. I failed to realize the importance of deepening my relationships with my spiritual brothers and sisters. I failed to realize that in Christ, these people in the church are my eternal family. So why on earth would I want only a casual, superficial relationship with them where we nod to each other before and after service?

 “We should not stop gathering together with other believers, as some of you are doing. Instead, we must continue to encourage each other even more as we see the day of the Lord coming.” Hebrews 10:25.

This verse couldn’t be any clearer. It is apparent the writer of Hebrews was seeing that some believers were neglecting to fellowship and gather. And he was writing out against this.

Jesus Himself was constantly going to the lost, but always surrounded by his brothers and sisters in the faith. Developing relationships with others was important to Him. Gathering with believers was just one of the ways in which Jesus walked.

Examine yourself. Do you enjoy the fellowship of other believers? Or do excuses come easily as to avoid such gatherings? Again, if we are seeking to walk like Jesus, then this is a major heart check that we must all take.

“Therefore, encourage each other and strengthen one another as you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11.

Gathering to fellowship with our church families is not always convenient, but sometimes we must deny ourselves and realize that fellowship is not always about us. Its about an opportunity to gather and encourage and strengthen others in Christ.

 “All the believers kept meeting together, and they shared everything with each other.  From time to time, they sold their property and other possessions and distributed the money to anyone who needed it.  The believers had a single purpose and went to the temple every day. They were joyful and humble as they ate at each other’s homes and shared their food.  At the same time, they praised God and had the good will of all the people. Every day the Lord saved people, and they were added to the group.” Acts 2:44-47.

What an amazing picture of what the true church is to look like. Notice it says they were joyful and humble, and they desire to share things with one another. This attitude is a byproduct of what we see in the beginning of the verse.

“All the believers kept meeting together.”

Building strong relationships takes work, sacrifice, and at times, self denial. Sometimes that means not sleeping in so late on Sunday mornings. Sometimes that means missing a certain television program. But over time, this intentional gathering of believers leads to deep, meaningful relationship that is ultimately glorifying to God.

As a parent, there is nothing more joyous than to see our four boys actually playing and getting along together. More than that, it warms our hearts that our boys actually want to be around each other! We are but images and shadows of Almighty God. For we are made in His image. How much more true that it should please the heart of God to see His children desire to love one another?

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” 1 John 4:11-13.

There you see the image of God in man. For if God so loved us, then if we are his image, we should also love one another. Notice the verse mentions no one has ever seen God, but His love and image can be seen in us through our fellowship! Here is the test again, “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us.” By what? By our love shown for one another!!

“..complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” Philippians 2:2.

Paul had this love as a father watching his children fellowship. He wrote to the Philippian church and said that it would bring him much joy to hear that they had a deep love for one another, and that they were of one mind. How do you get to be of one mind? In a world where everyone has a different opinion on all things. What Paul was saying is that in spite of our personality differences, the Christian would have one thing in common that made every other difference pale in comparison, that being their unity in Christ. And this can only come about by the gathering of the saints in fellowship.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” 1 John 4:7.

There are many things that defined the walk of Christ. And if we say we know Him, we must evaluate ourselves by comparing our walks to His. Jesus walked in a manner of constant fellowship and love. Church was never meant to be just an institution on par with the school PTA meeting or the Town Hall assembly. Church was meant to be a family. Do you have a genuine love for your church family? Do you desire to surround and encourage them? If not, you are missing out on an enormous blessing, and missing the point of what it means to be the body of Christ. I pray that we would all seek to walk as Christ walked, and begin to put aside our flesh in order to be a picture of God through to the outside world by expressing our love for gathering together as brothers and sisters in Christ. A love for the saints is a mark of true love for God.

What is this calling that the true Christian gives their lives to? After we have pledged our lives and our allegiance to Jesus, what then? Do we come to Christ in order to receive grace and mercy? Or do we come to Christ because we have already received grace and mercy? Examine these questions in your heart of hearts. I beg you to meditate on and think about this. If the Bible speaks truth, particularly Romans chapter 3, then it is apparent that we cannot come to Christ to receive grace and mercy, because in our basic human nature, we don’t want it. By nature, we are haters of God, every one of us. God must first ignite our hearts with a passion for Him.

We’re called to reckless abandonment.

In college, in order to graduate it was required that I take Algebra. I have no love for algebra. It would be safe to say that I strongly dislike anything math related. But I went to Algebra class and never skipped out. I was faithful to attend algebra class. Why? Not because I was so passionate about the subject, but because I wanted something from the class, which was a diploma. Once I got my diploma, I have never looked back at algebra nor have I missed it.

Sadly there are many people who view church like I viewed algebra. They really have no interest in it and no true love for Jesus. They come because in some way, they think their attendance equates a passing grade, equating a diploma that will grant them eternal life and escape from Hell. But unlike college, where even the haters of algebra like myself can squeeze by, those that have no love for Christ will be judged by their hearts, not their external actions.

If we do not delight in Jesus now, then we wont delight in Him in eternity.

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the lamb of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” Psalm 1:1-2.

Only those who delight and are passionate for Jesus on this earth will be counted as righteous. Passion will not all the sudden be birthed within us upon entering the Heavenly realm.

We must ask ourselves, “Do I truly love Jesus?” Because its more than simple lip service. Love is passion. I love my wife and my children. Every decision I make, ultimately is made with them in mind. I want the best for my family. I want them to be safe and cared for. I would gladly do without to keep them safe. Thats passion. Thats love. Love is sacrifice.

When it comes to Jesus, is he priority? Not in your profession or in your church attendance, but in every aspect of your life?

“No matter if you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all things for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Don’t just read verses like this, put yourself in the shoes of Paul. Feel the passion behind his plea. The term Christian was never to be just a mental nod or a title we check in a voting booth. It is literally to define everything we do in life. Every decision we make should be gleaned through glorifying God. Even down to praising His name for a simple glass of water we drink down.

This life we live in the flesh is so very short in the span of eternity. Today I’m 38 years old. Tomorrow I’ll be 78. It will seemingly go that quick. Here is the question we must concern ourselves with this side of Heaven;

“Am I living life for myself, or in light of eternity?”

Is Jesus more to you than just a Sunday morning God? Have you ever found yourself awake long into the early morning hours, searching the scriptures because you must know Him? This was the traits such men as King David possessed, when he compared himself to a dehydrated animal, that only God could quench his thirst. Do you look at the material possessions you have in your life and consider yourself blessed? Or do you, as the apostle Paul, look upon the trinkets and toys of this world and count them all as garbage in comparison to knowing Christ? Would you rather suffer persecution if it meant Jesus receiving glory rather than have your best life now living in comfort?

Reckless abandonment.

Talk such as this is considered mad by the world, and even by the majority of professing Christians. But again, I submit to you that these reckless passions were the result of the men of scripture who walked with Christ the most closely. We read about this passion throughout scripture. And then compare it to modern-day Christianity. Where Jesus is praised for who He is, but we would rather ignore the parts of scripture that command us to go and make disciples. We read about Jesus calling us to go to the ends of the earth for His glory and leave the comforts the world behind, but we easily pass it off as being someone elses job.

I am becoming more and more burdened for our world and for myself. I am not comforted by the scripture as much as I am convicted. And lately, the more I read the Bible, the more I am convicted. That our culture of professing believers looks nothing like the church of scripture. Our passions are misplaced, and we make Gods of comfort. I feel my flesh draw to the materialism of our world as a child would be drawn to the neon glow of a hot stove, and I hate it. Do we notice how easily our affections are drawn away from Him, where we like Paul would say,

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” Romans 7:15.

What is this thing called Christianity? If we try to obey Christ in order to be saved, we will fail miserably. The truth is that we cannot make anyone obey Jesus by simply telling them, although we are to tell all creation. Obedience comes from knowing Him. Obedience comes from loving Him. Obedience comes from having a changed heart that only Christ can do in a person.

Before I met my wife, I couldn’t stand running. It just wasnt fun to me. In fact, you would be hard pressed to ever find me on a track running circles for the joy of it. My wife Lacy is a runner and loves the sport. And thirteen years ago, I fell passionately in love with my wife. And as a result, I grew to love running. Because I was doing what she loved. I was a participant in what brought her joy. And in running, I had the chance to be near to one I loved so much. I grew to love what I once hated because of passion. True passion changes everything.

In the same way, when you truly fall in love with Jesus, your desires change. Because to be near Him, to please Him, to draw closer in relationship to Him makes everything else pale in comparison. Christ calls us to mission so that we will know more deeply this God who left the comforts of Heaven as a missionary to come give Himself for we who are so unworthy.

I write this not in condemnation of anyone. I write this from an overflow of my own heart, and the area God is currently dealing with me right now. If anyone stands condemned or guilty of these charges and must ask these questions of himself, it is I. But is it not true of all of us? Standing before the Lord, there are many things we will regret. But no one will ever say they regretted praying more, serving more, and seeking Christ more. The book of Revelation says that there will be tears wiped away in Heaven. I believe many of those tears will be shed when we realize how beautiful Jesus is in light of how sinful we are. Tears of regret that we didn’t pray and serve Him more diligently while we drew breath.

So great is our salvation. Such a high price our savior paid for us. So in the words of Francis Schaeffer, I ask the question, “How then shall we live?” In light of shed blood of Jesus Christ, how then shall we live?

With such a passion and zeal for Him, that to the outside world, our dedication would seem strange.

My fear is that we have been lulled to sleep by the enemy. My fear is that we have become so mesmerized by the things of this world that we are numb to what it truly means to follow Jesus. Much of current Christian culture has boiled Christianity down to a neat little formula. Reciting a prayer, being baptized, and then just trying to live your life as a good person. But when we realize that Jesus never asked anyone to pray Him into their hearts, and that the scriptures attest that no one in their human flesh can be good in and of themselves, we are left with a problem. If a prayer doesn’t save us, and merely being a moral person doesn’t make us Christian, then what are the marks of a true believer?

“You will recognize them by their fruits.” Matthew 7:16.

Apples spring forth from an apple tree. They cannot help but produce apples, because that is what the tree is. The apple tree would not be able to produce thorns due to the nature of its make up. An apple tree cannot help but produce apples. Now apply this simple teaching to the marks of a true believer. A true Christian does good works. But it goes far beyond works. The true believer is burdened for others to know Christ. They view the world through an eternal lens. Everything is filtered through living on mission for Christ, and glorifying their God is more important than the breath they breath.

And like the apple tree, the Christian cannot change their nature. They live for Jesus because they cannot help but live any other way due to what they are. They cannot rid themselves of this burden for the lost because they are just a branch that is connected to the true vine, which is Christ. And we, the branches, produce the fruit of the vine.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5.

This is what Jesus was telling the disciples. You will know a true believer by the fruit they bear! You will know them by the overflow of their regenerated nature in Christ! We have so watered down the scriptures in our culture that we have forgotten that salvation is not a work or decision of man, but a supernatural work of God! Jesus teaching on knowing a believer by their fruits, and His teaching in John regarding the vine and the branches are intertwined! They go together. The nature of the true Christian is different. And it goes far beyond morality. They begin to take on the very nature of Christ Himself. And they become drawn to missional living and sacrifice like a moth to a flame. Because it is their new nature.

If you were a tree, and someone were to examine your fruits, would they be bent more towards your own comforts and worldly desires? Or is your life marked by a reckless abandonment of the comforts and things of this world? If we truly believe the Gospel, then we do not have time to waste our lives on ourselves.

The apostle Paul, John the Baptist, the disciples, the prophets, even the evil tax collector Zacchaeus, who upon meeting Christ practically began giving the majority of his money to the poor….all of these men were radically changed after an encounter with Christ. Their life was marked by this radical level of sacrifice. Where is this reckless abandonment in our modern day church?

This is the consistent pattern that we see in those who follow Christ throughout scripture. How can we say today that this half-hearted, self focused, view of Christianity that is so prevalent today is even the same thing as what we see in scripture? You see we read stories about these great men of faith, but I’m afraid we have neglected to closely examine their lives and actually realize how very different they were.

This is just one pastors burden. And I pray that this burden will grow stronger. As sinful and as flawed as I am, I feel as though God is opening my eyes to a greater reality of what it is to know Christ. And the more I seek Him, the more I see that knowing Him surpasses all worldly comforts. Knowing Jesus is not simple a moral nod. To know Jesus in truth is to have every aspect of your life effected. This is how the disciples turned the ancient world upside down. They didn’t go through the motions of church as an organization. They lived it, even if it cost them everything. Recklessly abandoning the desires of their flesh, because the desire of their spirit in Christ was greater than the flesh. Genuine revival will not spring forth from an event. Genuine revival will only happen when we as the people of God begin to see Him as more precious than anything.

To dress up, or not to dress up; that is the question! At least in evangelical church circles today it is. There are so many great theological deep wells to dive into and discuss in God’s Word. Topics such as Eschatology, Ecclesiology, the Trinity, Soteriology, the Lordship of Christ, and many more. But none have been more heavily discussed within the Bible belt than the church dress code. As believers, we should be willing to discuss any topic; under one condition. This condition being that opinions and personal preferences are left at the door, and we can filter our conversation through scripture alone.

The problem with discussions regarding things inside of the church is that by nature, we look more towards personal preference or what has been done rather than going to the true authority of God’s Word. Our preferences do not matter. So regarding the Biblical doctrine of church dress code, lets see what God’s word has to say about the matter.

Before we dive in, let’s be clear that there are two sides to every story. Two opposing opinions. And each side deserves a fair representation. But again, the word of God needs to be what we base our opinions upon. When discussing this matter of dress in church, those that are in favor of a dressy dress code almost always quote something like this…….

“The Bible says we are to give God our best in all we do.”

When pressed to validate their claim with scripture, most will begin to quote Ecclesiastes.

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might,” Ecclesiastes 9:10.

However, if we read the full context of this chapter, we realize that Solomon was writing about our work and toil, not the church. It would take a great deal of stretching, bending, and theological gymnastics to get a dress code out of that verse. As the saying goes in the South, “That dog won’t hunt.” Do we need to give God our best? Absolutely. But that best should come out of an overflow of our hearts, not our wardrobe. When it comes to dress code, it gets down to an issue of intense semantics.

We would need to ask the question, “What is considered dressed up?“

Coat or no coat? Tie or suspenders? Dress slacks or khakis? And if khakis, pleats or no pleats? Dress shoes or Dockers? And if dress shoes, tassels or no tassels? Cuff links or plain buttons? Solid color shirts or mixed?

You see, one persons idea of dressed up may not be another’s. And then, with all these factors, a simple decision ends up turning into legalism. The pharisees in scripture always had to be wearing the nicest clothes and hats, and they were the ones getting rebuked by Jesus the most.

So what is the verdict? Which is the right way to come to church? Dressed up or dressed comfortably and modestly? The answer is both. Neither way of dressing is wrong. If dressing up is your preference, dress up to the glory of God. Just don’t tell others that they should dress like you, because your way is right. Again, that is the same mud hole the pharisees kept stepping into. So again, lets consider what God’s word says on this issue of dress.

“For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7.

God is not concerned with us honoring Him with externals. We so often forget that God is not like man. We can clean up the outside of our appearances and look like we have it all together while our hearts are in darkness. But God sees inside. Some may say, “Well thats an Old Testament passage, not Jesus.” Which on a side note, honestly makes no sense seeing that the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New, Jesus. But just for kicks, lets see what Jesus in the New Testament would say about clothing preferences.

“And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.  For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.” Luke 12:22-23.

To contextualize His point, Jesus tells us not to make issue of these things such as clothing. Because life, death, and the implications of the Gospel reaching the lost world are far more pressing concerns than what we will wear. So based on this text, what if someone were to ask Jesus, “Slacks or blue jeans?” His answer to them might sound something like this, “I don’t care, eternal life doesn’t hinge on this.”

Think about John the Baptist. Many of the religious despised him because of his bold preaching, and also because of his external appearance. Look at what Christ said of his cousin.

“When the messengers of John had departed, He began to speak to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?  But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in kings’ courts.  But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.  This is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” Luke 7:24-29.

Jesus points out that John the Baptist wasn’t clothed in the finest things. But Christ goes on to call him the greatest of all prophets. Jesus didn’t see Johns outward appearance. He looked much deeper into his heart.

Consider the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians. In the verse below, Paul describes his poor conditions.

“To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless,” 1 Corinthians 4:11.

Many churches today would sooner bar the doors than let a “poorly dressed” person inside. Can you imagine the Apostle Paul being banned from entering a church due to the dress code? I have actually met and invited people to church before who have never stepped foot into a sanctuary. Do you know what their number one reason for not coming is the majority of the time?

“I cannot come to church, because I don’t have nice dress clothes.”

This is the impression much of our modern church culture has given off to the outside world that we are suppose to be reaching! Now lets be clear about something. When Paul states in the verse above that he was “poorly dressed” this is not talking about being immodest with dress. Paul is talking about not being able to wear the nice robes and hats that the pharisees had made so fashionable in his day. Paul was saying he didn’t have a nice Louis Vuitton suit. He couldn’t afford it! If it were today, Paul may have been saying, “All Ive got is an old pair of cargo pants and a polo.”

When it comes to how we should dress, Paul gives us just a few guidelines.

1 Timothy 2:9 says ” Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments,”

Modesty and discretion. In short, we are not do dress in a way that would draw attention to our bodies. This could be dressing so casually as to draw attention to our flesh, or dressing so fancy that we want to impress others with how proper we are. Paul mentions not dressing in “costly garments.” So if anything, Paul is saying don’t go all out and get the most fancy clothes for church, and don’t dress immodestly. Why would he say this? Because when we do this, we are saying without saying, “Look at how nice I look” or “Look at my body.” Church becomes more about putting the focus on us rather than Christ.

Sadly, many can hardly hear the message on Sunday mornings all around the globe because they are more concerned with the church dress code rather than God’s word being spoken.

There was a story circulation on the internet a while back about a new pastor being hired on at a church. None of the congregants had met him, and they anticipated the upcoming Sunday morning in which he was to preach. During Sunday school before the Sunday service, a poorly dressed man entered and sat at the back of the room. Everyone in the class whispered and complained about his poor dress. When the class was over, some were even irate that a person would dare come to church without a dress coat. No one so much as spoke to the poorly dressed man.

After Sunday school, everyone filed into church to hear the new pastor. The chairman of the Elders walked up to the pulpit and said, “I would like to introduce our new pastor.” With that, the poorly dressed gentleman made his way up to the pulpit. He had proved his point, and the congregants knew it. Our dress is a poor indicator of what really lies in our hearts. In fact, Jesus said the same thing to the pharisees in the verse below.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Matthew 23:25-28.

The Pharisees were great at setting rules and telling others what to do based on their preferences. They appeared to wear all of the most fancy clothing and looked so amazing. But Jesus wasn’t impressed or honored by their extravagant dress. He was more concerned with their hearts, which were filthy.

Consider Peter’s words on the matter below.

“Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.” 1 Peter 3:3-4 “

Again, Peter echo’s Paul’s letter to Timothy in saying,”Don’t get hung up on your outward appearance.” What matters to God is what is inside our hearts. Yet so often we tend to put more emphasis on the outward because of decades of man made traditions that over time, we have made religion.

Church dress is a matter of preference. Some people like to feel more dressed up and others more casual. And both styles are fine and acceptable forms of dress in church. We  just need to be cautioned not to make our clothing preferences Gospel. The nature of our hearts will drive every aspect of our lives. Modesty and humility are our guidelines for dress, nothing else. Don’t make worship and living for Jesus about secondary matters. Because its the little things that tend to divide churches. And if you find yourself offended by the dress of others within the church, let this verse speak to your soul.

“Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” John 7:24.

We honor Christ with the purity of our hearts, not with the external.