Loyalty

 

Mark 12:30 NIV

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'

What Is Your Top Priority?

I was either nineteen or twenty.  I did drive and had my own car and although I lived at home I had the freedom to do pretty much whatever I wanted to do as long as I did not make things tough on my parents.  A friend invited me to her house for her party.   I had a great time dancing and meeting new people.  The music was loud and the lights were dim and the adventure of pursuing a romance that evening electrified the moment.  My faith in Christ was developing rapidly and I was committed to following Him so I wasn’t exactly a wild partier…I was not even a partier at all but this was my opportunity to start.  The smell of marijuana floated about and there were coolers filled with a variety of alcoholic beverages.  Never before had I even tasted a beer so I was walking about in a new territory.  Because everyone else was drinking, I grabbed a beer, popped the top and took a sip.  About ten minutes later I took another sip.  As I mingled through the room, I held my beer with a ferocious tenacity, refusing to let go of it but dumbfounded by its presence.  Now you must realize that I did not have any strong opinions about drinking at the time, did not know of any Scriptures that condemned it, was not certain if the Bible was in favor of drinking or not and had never been warned by my parents about the dangers of alcohol.  Although I had grandparents who died from alcoholism, I was not aware of it at the time.  Yet as I danced and visited with girls and guys I was just meeting, a gnawing certainty came over me that this was an important moment in my life.  Somehow, without any mystical or supernatural form of communique, I knew that a line had been drawn in the sand for me.  God was setting before me a call to loyalty and the point of determination was the beer in my hand.  Would I drink or would I walk with Him.  Of course I know this sounds absurd and I did not have a single clear explanation for why God might be calling me to this life-long standard but as the evening went along, I was certain God was demanding this of me.  Give up alcohol and be His disciple.  With a room full of people who barely knew me, the Lord had pulled me into a corner and asked me who would I serve and who would rule my heart.  With no pastor to guide me and not a single friend to counsel me, I had a decision to make on the outskirts of a dimly lit dance floor.

It is funny how few people are even aware of what Jesus meant when He invited Peter and His brother Andrew to “Come follow me…”  (Matthew 4: 19 NIV)  Perhaps He used the same phrasing to call the other disciples and many more even to go with Him but we can’t say because much is left out of the Scriptures regarding particulars.  We know of at least one other person who was also asked by Jesus to come and follow Him but that man turned away and decided he wouldn’t…at least for the moment.  This does not mean that the famously labeled “rich young ruler” did not have salvation but he did decide not to have the sort of life God offered him.  You can decide to not “follow Christ” and still have eternal life.  You can be as rough and self-driven as you wish and the blood of Christ will wash away all your sin if you take Jesus at His word and put your hope in Him for salvation.  Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  (Romans 10:13)  The question before you today is not whether or not you will have eternal life but rather one much simpler and searching.  Will you follow Jesus?

Joshua asked a question similar to this of the Hebrew people as he came to the end of his earthly days.  A world of promise and opportunity rose before God’s people.  They had just conquered many parts of the Promised Land and were settling into their new homes.  All around them were pagan people who lived however they pleased.  Their morality and values were not taken from God and the Ten Commandments were not sacred to them.  The Israelites could live like their international neighbors or be different from them.  It was up to them.  God would not force His own values upon them.  Generations who followed would be impacted by the decision they were about to make though and the direction they headed spiritually could impact the course of history.  Joshua stood before the fledgling nation and spoke for God.  "Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.  But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.” (Joshua 24:14-15 NIV)  If that was you standing in the crowd and you had to give an answer to this challenge, how would you reply?  Joshua made it clear where he stood on this.  “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

(Joshua 24:15 NIV)  God does not demand this of you that you serve Him.  It is up to you what you choose to do with this life!

We have in the New Testament a fascinating peek into the personality of God.  As a great number of followers of Jesus decided to walk away from Him, Jesus asked Peter and the other eleven or so who were standing around what they wanted to do.  “Are you going to give up on me too?”  For any of the rest of us that are broken by sin, His question might hint at a tinge of insecurity.  He wasn’t quite sure where He stood with them.  But Jesus, who was pure in His intentions and clear in His thoughts about Himself, asked them so they could decide if they would remain loyal to God or abandon Him.  Peter was certain of what He was going to do.  Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."  (John 6:68 NIV)  How would you have responded to Jesus’ question?

The last great king of Judah is best known for his tragic decision to take his army and fight against the Egyptians who were on their way to do battle with the Babylonians.  Before that however, Josiah made the most important determination of his life.  Josiah’s father, King Amon reigned only two years but during that time he followed in the footsteps of his father Manasseh who was probably the most wicked and dishonorable king Judah ever had.  

He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done.  He (Amon) walked in all the ways of his father; he worshiped the idols his father had worshiped, and bowed down to them.  He forsook the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord.  Amon's officials conspired against him and assassinated the king in his palace.  (2 Kings 21:20-23 NIV)  Not many move away from the patterns established by their parents and grandparents but Josiah did.  By age twenty-four, Josiah was actively pursuing Godliness and trying his best to re-establish worship of God in his country.  His first major project was to clean out the Temple of God in Jerusalem and make it fit to worship the Lord there once more.  During the renovations, a copy of the Old Testament was found and for the first time in decades, the people understood what God wanted of His people.  The Law was rediscovered and Josiah had to decide if he would follow it or comfortably ignore it.  There was a line for him to cross regardless if any of the people he ruled chose to go with him.  All eyes were on Josiah to see what he would do about the Word of God.  Josiah called all the leaders of Judah together and had the Scriptures read publically at the temple of the Lord.  The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord-to follow the Lord and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.  (2 Kings 23:3 NIV)  Josiah chose to pledge his loyalty to God and follow Him wherever the Lord took him.  Clearly, based upon the record, Josiah was rare among his ancestors and those who followed him as king to choose God as Lord.  How would you have responded to the scriptural call to absolute loyalty to God?

The Apostle Paul made a statement that is nearly always viewed from God’s perspective but never from Paul’s.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 8:38-39 NIV)  God of course will not let His people be kept from Him.  When Christ died on the Cross, God’s salvation became irrevocable and unassailable.  Nothing could stop His forgiveness of Sin or the salvation He provides from reaching those who turn to Him.  Jesus made certain this was understood when He declared, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.  (John 10:28-29 NIV)

Turn the statement around in Paul’s direction.  Is he also proclaiming that nothing can keep him away from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus?  Demons, angels, height, depth, what is happening now or what might happen in the future are all not going to stop Paul or others like him from having the love of God in his life.  It is perhaps too odd to consider this passage this way but could it not be so?  Might it also be that Paul would not let anything stand between him and God?  Consider all Paul suffered following Christ!  Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.  Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without…  (2 Corinthians 11:24-27 NIV)  He went through all this for one reason.  Paul refused to let anything stand in the way of him living for Christ.   Do you have that same loyalty?

The question is not whether or not you have eternal life.  Nor is it, “Are your sins forgiven?”  Salvation is settled for you by what Jesus did when He took your sins from you on the Cross.  Many Christians never go any further than this.  They never want anything more from God than the knowledge that they have a home waiting for them after they die.  Some though want to live with Christ now.  They cannot bear to dishonor God by how they live.  They are hungry for God, thirsty for Christ, they crave more and greater intimacy with the Holy Spirit.  Is that you?  Are you all in?  Will you go with God regardless of what others do.  Are you, like the Apostle Paul, “not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile”?  (Romans 1:16 NIV)  Are you willing to declare your absolute loyalty to Christ as the Lord of your life?  Take your stand with millions of other Christians across the ages and state before God that you will follow Him wherever He leads you and go with Him loyally wherever He takes you.

Guilt

In the United States and many parts of the world, it is considered prudish to have less than seven sexual partners.  No longer is promiscuity considered morally wrong, at least as it pertains to a standard derived from something less than the Bible.  There are other areas of behavior that are morally repugnant to a large portion of the population that would be odd concerns to any era but our own.  Feelings of guilt have not left us; they simply have become attached to new morality tenets that have surfaced in our time.    Would a couple ever before have felt guilty about having another child yet now many do!  Has there ever been an age where so much angst has been suffered over the military strength of one's own nation?  When did we start feeling guilty about expressing faith in Christ?  It is moral to send naked pictures of oneself by text but immoral to pass those naked pictures along to others.  There is a moral code to our world and it shifts about like seismic fissures.  The natural course is to make morality match one's behavior rather than the other way around.  In a social order that decides it is moral, what need is there for a God who dies for one's sins?  A god who powers success might be interesting or a deity that settles emotional instability could garner a following but a true Savior who wrecks ones inner world by becoming Lord is anathema to  moral self-determinists.  Satan does not want a guilty sinner and does his best to keep the fretting over right and wrong from the soul.  But once a man or woman faces the mirror of God's own justice and gains a fresh insight into what really is right and wrong, the sham is uncovered and the healthy guilt of the Holy Spirit descends.    We try so hard to be done with guilt but guilt is a window through which the light of God shines into the heart and reveals the true need of every soul, the need for Christ to bring salvation to the totality of life.

When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 

John 16:8 NIV

Hidden But Never Far From You

The last time we saw an age of "no morality" and "no religion" we witnessed the bloody French revolution.  Rationalism brought with it the loss of religious faith and the era of amorality but there was no freedom in it.  There never is such a species of man who lives outside law; the morals of the whorehouse are just as binding as those of the monastery and the debased sorority is far more dictatorial than any fundamentalist.  Jesus said that out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.(Matthew 15:19 NIV) This is not modern; it is ancient morality that began in Adam.  We all have this mush of values roiling about below the surface of our consciousness and it is our moral baseline.  The myth of our time is that we can live above ourselves somehow, beyond  the values of our grandparents but it is a lie.  The morality of this age is just as rigid as that of the Canaanites and Philistines.  The drug dealer's moral code is more fundamental than a Baptist's and of much greater risk to cross.  Stalin had the morality of Cain etched upon his soul; millions would have wished it were instead the morality of Christ.  One's conscience is nothing more than the biggest values he holds and a conscience is of no use if the morals it knows are of no higher standard than those of Picasso or Jack London.  We do not need a conscience, we need a Savior and it is the Cross of Christ that dips down below our consciousness and raises us up to a new morality, one of love and patience and faith.  The blood of Christ does not make us more aware of right and wrong; it buys us back and transforms us that we can begin to be holy, not out of fear of a rampaging angel but out of a redeemed heart that has been changed with the heart of God implanted within it.  Your thoughts, if you are honest have never been as warm and cool as a teddy bear; you are more like  a snake in your deepest points.  Only Jesus Christ can make your thoughts pure and clean and vibrant with love as you let Him have His way with you.  The Lord is not your polish to bring out your shine, He is the furnace out of which all things are made new.  Never put faith in yourself; but always trust God to make you right.

Trust in God.  Trust also in me. John 14: 1b

Servanthood revisited

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:  Philippians 1: 1 NIV

Let us be specific about what it means to be slave of Christ.  It means that when He says to put your future in His hands, you cling to Him for help.  It means that when you are in class and a classmate tells you she doesn’t believe in God, you tell her how Jesus changed your life.  It means that at work, you don’t take anything from the company that doesn’t belong to you.  It means that you refuse to hold grudges against anyone.  It means that you tell the truth and do not gossip or tear down the reputation of another.  It means that you read the scriptures and pray just as Jesus does. It means that you give one tenth of your income back to God through the local church.  It means that you ask God daily, no, moment-by-moment to guide you.  It means that your life belongs to Jesus and you will not be ashamed to tell anyone that you love Him.  It has been said that the highest honor any of us can attain is to be called, not a leader in the church, not a success story on Wall Street or at Harvard, not the founder of a great movement; the greatest honor we can ever attain is to be called the slave of Jesus.  One day, as Jesus recounts for us how we have lived our lives, our hearts will pound with joy, our legs will tremble and our hands will shake if at the conclusion He says, well done my precious slave.  I told the account in a youth Bible study recently of how Abraham slave of God, was commanded to sacrifice his son of the promise on the altar.  Only when God stopped his hand from striking his son with the knife by calling out to him, did Abraham cease the downward drive of his hand.  Forever, Abraham is known as a man who walked by faith, who refused to allow his personal feelings get in the way of obedience to the God who loved him and gave His own life for him.  And I too, you too, if we walk as a true slave of Christ, can forever be known as one Who Jesus, the Savior of our life calls a man or woman with whom He is well pleased.

Core Values--Courage

Ps 91:5 NIV
You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,


There is a divine purpose every person possesses that makes the coward courageous and it is this. God makes our most feared moments have eternal value. Jesus died we all know for one reason. His death rescued us from the brutality of death brought by the sins we each have cursed God by committing. Nothing we do matters a whit if Jesus does not that moment rescue us from Hell. Everything dies with us and nothing lives that we do, think or say. But if we put our faith in Christ for our everything eternal, then something new emerges. A purpose for everything we fear to do. One example and then we decide what to do with this. Last week I thought about asking the manager of Wal-mart if she would let me sell my book at her store. I dreaded the conversation. My self-esteem was pretty shot, my conviction that anyone would buy the book was pretty low and I was not at all certain I had a good reason that could convince her that she should put it on her shelf. The book after all is a religious book, it is not bound yet so it looks worse than plain and I have no publisher to back what I am doing. But one thing was certain. I had to bring my book to her. So, as I was driving down to the store, one thought kept coming to me. What if this one store manager actually read the book and it convinced her to follow Jesus fully? Would then my conversation with her matter? That is the point. What if the things that frighten us are in fact crucial to God’s plan and key to getting done what must not be stopped! Courage is not bucking up my emotions and doing what I dread doing. It is having a purpose that screams past this life and doing what the Enemy makes seem the worst of outcomes. I die to self and live for Christ. That is courage.