Christian Conduct

Good morning everyone…It is so good to be here. I know I say this every week, but I truly mean it. Hey, right now our kids get to go out and meet an amazing teacher who will have the opportunity to teach your kids in a way that makes sense to them. It is so amazing that at LRBC we don’t do babysitting, we teach Scripture to kids so that they have the best opportunity to come to a full knowledge of Scripture and not just repeat what mom and dad says…It is so important that kids, especially when they are ready to leave home have developed a faith of their own, and not just a “family faith”. I also want to welcome those of you online as part of our extended spiritual family this morning.

So, I was reading earlier this week and saw an unofficial poll from pastors where pastors from all over the globe were sharing their age. What I saw was that probably around 75% of current pastors are older than 60 years old. Now, after looking at that unofficial survey I read another article from Life way that said the average age of pastors is 58 years old. Now…that is a bit concerning to be honest, and what it tells me is that maybe people aren’t listening to God’s call in their lives. There is debate on whether the problem is that there are not many young men answering the call of pastor, or that the senior pastors aren’t stepping down to allow younger pastors to step in. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter which of these is the answer, becuase the real problem is that men aren’t listening to God and they are doing what they think is best themselves…In other words, they are more focused on their own desires rather than focusing on God’s desires.

Now, maybe another issue is that there are men who are scared to step into the role of pastor. One person made this comment, “Why do I want to work 80 hours a week, constantly being pulled away from my family making very little money to survive to only be told that “I’m a pastor I should be perfect and not have my own issues.”…I can appreciate that perspective as I have definitely had some rough encounters with people over 20 years of ministry. It makes sense that people are potentially scared to step into a role of pastoral leadership, or really any kind of Christian leadership for fear of being called a hypocrite or liar or something like that. However…where is this persons focus…are they focused on God...or on self? You see, all of this really does come back to the idea of where someone is focused.

We can talk about leadership and what it looks like to be a leader within the church, but really we can also talk about what it means to live a Christian life. Listen…there are others some who slay it and some who struggle…The thing is though that so many people struggle to live the Christian life in public because it seems hard, or it seems like others are watching you if they know you claim to be a Christian. A few years ago we did a series where we looked at the book of Titus and we saw what it takes to be a leader within the church. We saw there was a list of various characteristics such as being blameless and not quick tempered. There is a whole list in Titus 1.6-11, you should check it out. What I reminded us though we we looked at that passage is that this is a list for leaders, but really it is a list of how all Christians should strive to live. This is a list of what it looks like when we live a life that is focused on the Lord, and not on ourselves...

Actually as we are in this series on doctrine called I believe we are looking through what we believe as a church. The very next doctrine we are going to look at today is on Christian Conduct, so the timing of all of these thoughts really comes together for me to be able to share with you this morning. However, before we get to deep into that doctrine, let me remind you of what doctrine really is. Doctrine is a set of guiding principles (stop and allow church to finish) that helps us navigate the twists and turns of life. Thats right, when we understand doctrine we can figure out how to deal with the twists and turns that we are definitely going to experience. Now again…I have been saying it every week pretty much, but you should realize that it is still true…I have talked to many of you this week, and there is a whole new group that has entered into some twist and turns in their lives this week, and knowing what you believe about God and about God’s sovereignty really helps as you experience various uneasiness in life. Listen, health concerns, and family concerns can all be answered when we know what we believe and why we believe it.

Thats not the only reason that we want to learn doctrine though. You see, there is more than just the twists and turns that we experience, we need to be able to answer the questions that our family and friends may have about the Lord. That’s what we read in

1 Peter 3:15 (ESV)

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

Yeah, always be prepared…the only way you can always be prepared is if you read Scriptures regularly and base what you believe on Scripture and on Scripture alone.

So…with all of that said, let’s take a look at

The Doctrine of Christian Conduct

What does that even mean? What could this doctrine even be talking about? I mean, are we saying that the Bible actually guides us in how we are to live our lives and how we are to behave and respond to certain situations? Well…in short…yes, thats exactly what we are saying. As a church, there are some things that we believe the Bible says about how we are supposed to live our lives. So…what is it that we believe as a church?

We believe that a Christian should live for the glory of God and the well-being of his fellowmen; that his conduct should be blameless before the world; that he should be a faithful steward of his possessions; and that he should seek to realize for himself and others, the full stature of maturity in Christ. (I Corinthians 6:19,20; 10:31; I John 4:7-12; Colossians 3:1-17; Ephesians 4:11-32)

Wow…now thats interesting…This doctrine states that we, as a church, believe that a Christian should live for the glory of God, and not the glory of self. Now, wait a minute because Im not sure that is politically correct in 2023. You see, now that it’s 2023 we may need to rewrite this doctrine to be a bit more culturally relevant. In 2023 a Christian shouldn’t be expected to live for the glory of God, for the last few years at least it’s been all about self-care, meaning we should be living for the glory, or for the desires of ourselves individually, right? I mean that is what practically every single TV show or add tells us that we need to be doing. We need to be focused on what makes us happy and fulfilled, and on our truth. How can we as a church actually believe something that is so radical in this day and age?

Well…actually, let me tell you something crazy…What we believe as a church is kind of radical in today’s culture…but it was equally radical when Jesus first began teaching this concept. That is why we, as a church believe it. let me give you a little context here. Go ahead and turn your Bibles to

Luke 19:1–10 (ESV)

He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Now this is a pretty short story here, but we learn something amazing. An encounter with Jesus changes people. Yeah, Zacchaeus, was a tax collector which means at that time, he was a little bit like the mob. He was in charge of gathering money from people and as long as he sent what was owed to Caesar, he could collect whatever he wanted. Well, after he encountered Jesus, Zacchaeus said that anyone he defrauded he would repay 4 times what he stole…Thats a pretty big change. Actually we see that throughout Scripture. We see that encounters with Jesus change people, and though that we can see...

The Heart of the Christian

how can we possibly see the heart of a Christian? Well our statement of faith says that we believe a Christian should live for the glory of God. If a Christian is living for the glory of God, I think its safe to say that this Christian has a heart focused on God, right? Now, while there is a change that happens when people encounter Jesus, many times we are left not fully realizing that change because we forget where our focus should be. However, the Apostle Paul remind us of where that focus should be.

1 Corinthians 10:31 (ESV)

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

As a church we believe that this verse should inform everything we do as Christians. If this verse is informing everything that I am doing as a Christian, what does that mean? Well…it means that I need to be thoughtful about what I say and do. It means that I have to actually think before I speak. It means that I cannot fly off the handle and act emotionally. Do you know what else it means…and someone’s about to get mad at me…It means that I can’t blame my circumstances, or my job, or my diet, or even my genetics, or some other disorder you have have, like anger management issues... You see, we all make choices every single day, and it is up to us to make the choice to glorify God, or glorify self. The most important choice that we make is to glorify God or glorify self.

Now, I know what your thinking…but Pastor Billy, you don’t understand my situation…and you might be right…I might not know or understand your personal situation…but I know the one who does. Check out what Paul says in

1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV)

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Do you know what that means? That means that everything that you are dealing with, while the details are different…the temptation to focus on self is not unique. You are not the only person who has ever dealt with a situation like this…you’re not even the only person dealing with it today…There is another passage I want us to look at real quick together. This passage comes from James. Now for those of you who may not know, James, is the brother of Jesus. James originally did not believe Jesus was the Son of God, I would love to hear those family meals when Mary and Joseph tell the story of Jesus’ birth and James as well as the other siblings start to roll their eyes…Anyway, Later in life something happened that made James believe and he wrote this letter based on what Jesus had been teaching over the years. Look over this passage with me at

James 4:1–4 (ESV)

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Let that sink in for a moment....If you wish to be a friend of the world…you are an enemy of God. Now, I have done an entire series on this passage…If you have time go back and listen to Rooted through one of the Podcast options and you will be able to get a much deeper understanding of this passage as a whole. But, this morning what I want to draw attention to is the fact that we are left with the choice to glorify God, or glorify self. James points out that we have a problem with wanting things becuase we want them…for us, and not to glorify God. Now what we want directly impacts the things that we do…or said another way, Why do I do what I do? (wait for response) Because I want what I want… Yeah, I do what I do because I want what I want. So…how do I change my behavior? First I have to change my desires. That is what the first part of this doctrine states, we believe that a Christian should live for the glory of God…If God is my focus, then my actions will follow.

Now many times people will talk about making your actions right, and that your heart will follow, but from what we read throughout the New Testament, we behave out of our heart…so if I want my actions to reflect God…then my heart must be focused on God. So, if the heart is focused on God, then what is...

The Action of the Christian

That’s the big question here isn’t it? I mean the LRBC statement of faith talks about having blameless conduct and being a faithful steward of your possessions as well as growing to maturity in Christ. So, how do we accomplish that? Well, I said the actions come form the heart, but the heart is informed by our knowledge isn’t it? That’s why we are having a push to read the Bible this year together. I know that many of you are still faithfully reading even when it is hard, for others, listen…don’t get discouraged if you have fallen behind…just pick back up with today and keep on going…one day at a time, just keep going. Listen, today is a great day to pick it back up if you have set it down..Today we are starting Lamentations, and you will be blessed by this because its all about complaining…in a Godly way…so check it out.

Anyway, we read that Jesus tells us that our actions come from the desires of our hearts in

Matthew 15:18–19 (ESV)

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

If that is true, then we must realize that our heart must be changed. That is why I did not talk about the actions of the Christian first, I talked about the heart…because the heart is what actually matters. If my heart is focused on God, then my actions will follow that desire. If my heart is focused on self, then my actions will follow that desire.

Now I was talking to someone earlier this week and this person was pretty honest with me saying that they were focused on God maybe 25% of the last week and 75% focused on self…That’s pretty harsh, but honestly Im betting thats better than many of us here in this room right now. Do you know why I say that? Because if we were more focused on the Lord you could not stop us from telling everyone we know about this amazing gift that we have been given. If we were more focused on the Lord then it would be second nature to give Biblical advice and not worldly advice. If we were more focused on the Lord then bad theology would make us cringe every time we heard it. You see…if we were more focused on the Lord then everyone would see the Lord through us in our interactions. Now, let me be very clear here this morning. This is not a sermon saying be more like Billy…no, this is a sermon saying let’s all get our hearts focused on the Lord so that God can use us to transform this community around us. Amen...

So how will you know if your heart is focused on the Lord or focused on yourself…well the easiest way to know that is to look at your actions. Use your actions as a thermometer of focus.

Galatians 5:22–23 (ESV)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

So, this isn’t something you can lie about . I mean You can pretend and use this list as a “to do” list, but you cannot fool the God who you are cutting out. Listen, there are lots of people who are pretending and trying to fool everyone around them, and maybe even trying to fool themselves, but one day those will face the Lord and he will say, “go away from me I never knew you...”So the question is, Does the fruit of the Spirit characterize you, or does the fruit of sin characterize you

So…Why do we do what we do? (wait for answer) Because we want what we want. This morning let me encourage you to make your wants…be for the Lord and not for yourself…The way to do that is easy for me to say, but it is very hard for you to do…Its easy to say because its a matter of admitting that you need a savior in your life. Admitting that you have been focused on yourself, and asking the Lord to change your heart to a heart that is focused on him and not yourself. It’s easy for me to talk about because Im not facing what you are…its hard for you to do because you have to still deal with the consequences of your own faulty focus for so long. Listen, I know trusting the Lord is not always as easy as us pastors makes it sound…but I also know the joy that comes when you finally make that decision to trust the Lord with everything that you have. It’s easy to hang on to a little amount, but trust me folks…Ive tried hanging on and just giving God a little at a time, and He doesn’t work that way…either you trust the Lord…or you trust yourself…there is no in between, there is no almost, there is only God or you…That is a decision that you are faced with every single moment of every single day.

If you are here or online this morning and you would like to connect to talk about what it means for you to trust the Lord then reach out to me and let’s get together and talk about it. If you are here or online and you are confused about what it means to even be a Christian or maybe you are wanting to talk about taking the next step in your Christian faith, then reach out right away and let’s get together to talk about it. Listen, whether your next step is trusting the Lord for the first time, baptism, or making a decision to serve in some way, I want you to know it is so important to focus on the Lord as you grow into your next step of faith with your Lord Jesus. So make the decision that you have been putting off today...

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