Full Effort

Philippians 3:13-14 NIV

… straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

What has your full attention?

The other day I was at a very nice restaurant with a good friend and we had a great time together.  The food was delicious and honestly I ate far too much.  I gained a full pound just having lunch there.  As we were leaving, the Lord prodded me to go to a couple with a newborn child and start a conversation with them.  I was not sure why He wanted me to do it; I didn’t know them and it could have seemed odd to the couple but I was certain the Holy Spirit was pushing me to approach them.  Now it could have been that this was just something I wanted to do…they had a cute baby and perhaps I was happy for them and wanted to let them know I was happy for them.  Maybe I just wanted to try to sell the young couple on our church; I am a pastor and that is my job.  It might just well be that it is my personality to talk with people I don’t know and start conversations at random places.  I know anyone who was watching me could have made any of these same deductions.  But I was sure that the Lord in some way that is beyond my ability to explain or prove wanted me to approach the couple who were busy enjoying their lunch and their baby and visit with them a minute or two.  What outcome there might be, I did not know nor did I have any idea what the Lord wanted me to say actually.  So there I was, about to leave the restaurant, with the Lord’s insistence that I stay just a bit longer and inject my life into the lives of two people who were perfect strangers.

Is it true that we each are being moved along by an unseen hand of one who has designs upon us that we may or may not know or care to know?  Do we have a purpose to our lives, a reason why we are here?  Is it to get an education, to work hard and do well in school?  Are we here to be successful in some career or at least make a good living at what we do?  Are we here to buy a house, get a car, pay off our debt?  Is there a purpose to our lives?  Are we here to gain US citizenship, make sure our kids get a quality education, pass along what we have learned to the next generation, aggravate people, watch as much TV as possible, find a husband or wife, develop an addiction, look good when we are old, stay healthy?  What is our purpose here?

There is an interesting account in the Bible that gets at an important consideration if we do think there might be a reason why we are on this planet for a certain period of time.  Most of are not under the illusion that we are going to stay here one hundred years or more and certainly are not going to have thousands of years to get everything done that we think we need to do before we die.  So there is a certain level of urgency each of us faces when it comes to doing what we feel we should do.  David, who already was king of Judah, was invited by the northern tribes of Israel to be their king also.  Their previous king, Ish-Bosheth had been murdered, and so the popular choice to replace him was David.  David eagerly agreed to the offer but the armies of the northern tribes had to sign off on the deal as well. It was not long before nearly three hundred thousand men came to meet with David, soldiers representing all twelve tribes of Israel, and pledge their support of him as king.  In fact, they were fiercely decided on this. They came to Hebron fully determined to make David king over all Israel. All the rest of the Israelites were also of one mind to make David king.  (1 Chronicles 12:38-39 NIV)  “Fully determined” implies an unwavering sense of direction or purpose.  They came to David’s camp for a reason and intended to accomplish the task they had decided upon before leaving.  The army was full of purpose; it was not a spontaneous excursion so they didn’t treat it as such.  They were in Hebron to make David king over Israel and and they did it.

You are not randomly placed where you are without direction.  There is a point to who you are and why you are what you are.  Each of us faces a moment when we realize we really are sinners.  It is not that we have done a few things wrong; we are sinners through and through and we cannot fix that about us.  Some of us then discover that Jesus Christ alone gives us a way out from our sinfulness.  When He died on the Cross, Jesus took into His own body our sins and when Jesus physically died, those sins and their permanent effect died with Him.  To be forgiven of your sins, you must believe Jesus did that, He took your sins into His body and they died with Him and after that, three days later God raised Him from the dead.  Nothing about your sinfulness changes in your life until you decide this is so.  Your sins remain your death, they separate you from God and in the end you are without hope.

But when you by faith accept the work Jesus Christ did in dying for your sins, something astonishingly supernatural occurs.  Christ physically becomes a part of your life.  He enters you and joins you in all you do.  He empowers transcendent life changes that mark how you do things.  You change in ways noticeable and discreet.  Every Christian experiences this, a new life with Jesus Christ in the totality of life.  Jesus called it being “born again”.  If your life doesn’t change, then perhaps nothing is different with you.  You are not born again and not living with Christ in your life.  But if you have been remade by God through faith, then there is a different you in place, a “you” that includes Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul put it this way regarding the union of Christ and any true Christian.  We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. (2 Corinthians 4:10-12 NIV)  Jesus Christ crucified becomes part of us, who we are, what we think and what we do.  Not only that, the life of Christ is there in us too.  What this does for us is make us dead to sin…sin no longer controls us like a slave master.  Christ crucified makes sure of that for our sins were killed in His body.  But because Christ alive lives in us too, His vibrancy and power are always ready to spring from us, show themselves in us.  We become alive with the personality and will and ability of Jesus Christ and that Christ-part-of-us will not remain dormant.  It like a seed planted in soil will eventually poke out of the ground and you are the soil where that seed is planted.

We have in the book of Acts a case study of what happens when Jesus Christ crucified and alive lives in you and becomes a part of your decision making, will and behavior.  In Acts 4: 13 is an interesting aside regarding the Christian people.  When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. (NIV)  There is something tangible, something different about those who have become intimate with Jesus, who live with Him.  The ones observing it may not be able to put a finger on exactly what they see but it is recognizable.  Sprinkled throughout the book of Acts are some examples of how Christian people who are living with Christ in them look.

In Acts 7: 59-60 is the terrifying account of Stephen who was martyred for his faith crying out for God to forgive the very ones who were murdering him.  While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."  Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep. (NIV)  To use a metaphor that could make some squeamish, Jesus Christ was seeping out of Stephen as he faced his death squarely.  That mercy he had for his killers was not his own, it was the nature and will of Jesus Christ living within him.  As you are being crushed by skull shattering stones, what you are comes out of you, not an imitation of something.  Stephen felt pity on his attackers because of the one living within Him, Jesus sincerely loved them.

When Paul, on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians, was converted by the personal work of Jesus Christ it was no small matter for the Christian Ananias to approach Paul and offer to baptize him and pray over him.  The prejudices he held were legitimate and based on factual information.  Paul was a real threat to him and his family.  To overcome this fear, Ananias had to possess Jesus Christ living in him who was fearless.  We know Ananias was afraid because he protested the demand of Christ that he go see Paul. "Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.  And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name."  (Acts 9:13-14 NIV)  Ananias the man felt the very natural panic at the mention of Paul’s name; Ananias with Jesus Christ unafraid living in him went courageously to Paul and prayed over him.

Something we have talked about before popped up in the Christian community that first few years after Christ ascended to the father.  Spontaneously and without coercion or any sort of Church direction, Christians started selling off their property and giving the proceeds to the work of the Church.  They weren’t pressured into doing it.  They weren’t even asked.  They just gave generously and sacrificially and it had a stunning effect upon other Christians as well as the community where they lived.  All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. (Acts 4:32-35 NIV)  The reason why this was such an established practice is not because of the strategic training and pressure tactics in the Church; it occurred because the resurrected Christ lived in these people and His nature came out of them in tangible ways.  When Jesus Christ lives in you, your will moves in the direction of generosity and away from a drive to acquire possessions and gain for yourself stuff to hold and keep.

The point is that if you are actually Christian you have Jesus Christ, who suffered the Cross to take away your sins and rose from the dead and is not bound by the constraints of this world, living in you and undoing the constraints of your common thinking.  He makes you aware of the miracles that are possible. He opens you up to blessing people who hurt you and take from you and use you.  He gives you a determination to give up what you have to bring God glory.  He makes you courageous and confident and willing to die if you need to die for the Lord’s honor.  Jesus Christ living in you gives you the ability to quit judging people, quit deciding you don’t like them or won’t trust them or don’t want to have anything to do with them and gives you the determination to bless and pray for each person you encounter.  This does not come from you; it comes from Christ living in you.

We waste a lot of time and make ourselves miserable trying to fight off what Christ resurrected is in us.  Essentially we war against ourselves when we act selfishly, react angrily and refuse to love someone we dislike.  Because Christ resurrected has become a part of us, part of our personality…that is who we are.  The most miserable people in the world are those who war with themselves, who will not let Christ resurrected come out of them, show Himself in what they do.  Non-Christians can be perfectly content avoiding mean and irritating neighbors and co-workers and family members but Christians who have Christ resurrected living within them will be miserable if they try to be that way and the same is true when it comes to keeping too much for themselves and being afraid to trust God in stressful situations.  If you want to be unhappy, cranky and discouraged, then do your best to avoid who you are…Christ resurrected living within you.  If you want to be free of care, contented and courageous in your life with God, then let Christ resurrected have His way with you in what you do.  You cannot be at peace if you fight against who you are…but you will have perfect peace if you let Jesus Christ have complete sway within your personality.

Spend a week praying for God’s blessing upon someone who has treated you badly or someone you just don’t like.  Let Christ seep out of you.  Buy a sandwich for someone you don’t know and who doesn’t deserve your generosity.  Let Christ resurrected show Himself in you.  Do something nice for someone and never tell that person it was you who did it.  Let Christ resurrected show up where you are.  Announce your Christian faith in Christ where it isn’t known and see what God does with your courage.  Somehow find a way to give Christ resurrected room to live through you this week.