Candidating Sermon

How To Be A Christian

Hook

But my purpose today is to give a sort of TED Talk titled: How To Be A Christian.

A lot of the Christian life (especially if you grew up with it) is filled with learning stories in the Bible or ideas about God the father and Jesus his son. Maybe you learned about what it looks like to be a Christian – what to do and what not to do. What to believe and what not to believe. But a lot of what we learn is by example. From childhood, we copy what we see. Believe it or not, that’s what playing “house” is as a child. Kids act out what they believe it means to be a mommy or a daddy, and virtually all of that is based on the example they grew up with.

For example, my daughter Ella (who some of you have gotten to meet this week) watches me and my wife Ashley very closely. She picks up on everything, and I’ve realized she is a sort of “mirror” of me at times.

One day about a year ago, we were trying to rush out the door. Athan, about two, didn’t have his shoes on. I’m not sure why I thought this was a good idea, but I asked Ella to help him get his shoes on while I got other things together. After about a minute, from across the house, I hear Ella yell at her brother, “Buddy, work with me here!” We are all imitators.

Let’s talk more about the importance of watching others as an example.

“In his book A Hidden Wholeness, Parker Palmer relates a story about famers in the Midwest who would prepare for blizzards by tying a rope from the back door of their house out to the barn as a guide to ensure they could return safely home. These blizzards came quickly and fiercely and were highly dangerous. When their full force was blowing, a farmer could not see the end of his or her hand. Many froze to death in those blizzards, disoriented by their inability to see. They wandered in circles, lost sometimes in their backyards. If they lost their grip on the rope, it became impossible for them to find their way home. Some froze within feet of their own front door, never realizing how close they were to safety.”[1]

I asked a few farmers in this church if they’ve heard of this happening, and they said it has. Albeit, back in the day. But this got me thinking…

Imagine if you helped a farmer tie a rope from their house out to the barn… but you didn’t know why you were doing that.

· Are they mad?

· Concerned the barn will float away?

· Setting up a tight rope or slack line?

Notice how the same action (tying the rope from the house to the barn), while not knowing the purpose behind it, leads us to think all kinds of crazy things.

The same is true when we talk about being a Christian. Very often the *actions* get passed down but not the *heart* behind the actions. Naturally in this situation you could just ask, “So… why are we tying this rope from the house to the barn?” And you would get the answer. Yet, oddly, when it comes to Christianity, many of us *don’t* ask that question. We just copy others because “it’s what you’re supposed to do.”

What is the result of trying to copy behaviors without knowing the heart behind it?

Let me coin a term for you, “Nebraska Nice Christians.”

I probably don’t need to define what that means… because we all know what it means. It means “Nebraska Nice Christians on the outside only.”

On the inside… I might still

I look out for myself more than others. I'm only joyful when my circumstances are good. I'm more focused on drama than peace. I'm not always patient or kind. I struggle to do what's good and right. I'm not very faithful to God. It's hard to be gentle. I struggle to control my own feelings or actions.

After a while, many who live this way come to this conclusion: This isn’t worth it.

· I would rather do what I want and stop calling it sin.

· I would rather try to get rid of my guilt by walking away from my faith.

· I would rather stop caring because I’m burnt out from trying so hard.

TRANS: But something is missing. Why would Jesus talk about “the abundant life” if all he meant was “the good life?” This morning I have one aim: to show you the one ingredient to your faith that, without it, would leave you burnt out, frustrated, and stuck.

Book

Galatians 3:1-3

Imagine getting recruited to a professional team by the sport’s best coach. Pick any sport. You get there and your coach welcomes you and begins to tell you how he or she is going to prepare you to be ready for the season. You say, “nah. I’m good. I’ve got this.” How successful will you be at the sport?

The same is true with our faith. We are given salvation by faith, nothing that we’ve done. So what comes next? Paul here is arguing that we make a grave mistake by acting like we can leave God behind once he’s saved us. But like saying that to a coach, you are abandoning the one person who can help you grow and be successful.

In this case, the person you are abandoning is not a human, but God. The Holy Spirit, as mentioned in the text, is the third person of the Trinity. God. The one whom the father sent to be our Helper. Not in a way like, “oh can I give you a hand with that?” but more like gas in a car – you aren’t going anywhere without it. Maybe for a little while, and maybe you could even get out and push the car yourself, but you will soon find out that without that essential component you can’t get to where you’re going.

The only way to successfully live the Christian life is in the power of the Holy Spirit. TRANS: So what is the role of the Holy Spirit?

He is The Sealer

Ephesians 1:13-14 says [read passage].

One of the ways the Holy Spirit works in your life is to affirm to your heart that you are in God’s family. You have a guarantee of an inheritance when you die and go to be with Jesus in Heaven. The “sealed by the Holy Spirit” language should give us the image of a ceasar using his seal on wax. This shows ownership and authority. When the Holy Spirit “seals” you, this shows you are in God’s family because of what God has done by his own power.

A few months after my oldest, Ella, was born, we went out shopping. There she was in her car seat laying on top of the shopping cart, and a strange thought crossed my mind: what if someone walked up to me and asked me “prove to me this is your child.” Now that has never happened. But I realized the one document that would be helpful in that situation: A birth certificate. The Holy Spirit signs on the dotted line of our Spiritual birth certificate, and his in dwelling in our hearts is the ongoing confirmation of that decree, “This child is now in my family.”

He is The Teacher

When you become a Christian, you receive the Holy Spirit. This happens in a moment. Then the Holy Spirit begins His work that lasts a lifetime. He works in and with you to heal you of sin, repair brokenness, and produce Christ-likeness, rebuild your damaged identity, clarify your purpose, and affirm your value and dignity as one made by God – his masterpiece. All of this is a result of the Holy Spirit’s work of reordering your heart to align it with the truth.

[Read 1 Corinthians 2:14-16]

No wonder those of the world think Christianity is insane – they do not have the mind of Christ. We are operating off of an entirely different set of values, purpose, identity, and destiny.

· Where the world says “grind, hussel, gather as much as you can.”

· Christ says, “work, but as to the Lord.”

· Where the world says, “your primary purposeis to be happy – however you define that for yourself.”

· Christ says, “by pursuing the things of God, you will find greater joy than anything else the world has to offer – even if that means you will suffer for my name’s sake.”

· Where the world says, “achieve! Achieve! Don’t fall behind. Make a plan for yourself and make it happen.” Christ says, “Follow me and trust me, and I will make your paths straight.”

· Where the world says, “You create your identity.”

· Christ says, “In order to find yourself, you must lose yourself in me.”

· Where the world says, “freedom is found in living your truth.”

Christ has a different answer. And this answer is worked out in the third role of the Holy Spirit that we are focusing on this morning…

He is The Leader

Becoming a Christian takes a moment but learning to become like Christ takes a lifetime. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings about salvation by grace through faith. He seals you into the family of God. But then so many Christians are functioning without the Holy Spirit’s help in their life.

Turn to Galatians 3:1. We will be in Galatians for the remainder of our time. Look at what Paul says to the Galatians when they fell into the mistake of trying to be a Christian without the Holy Spirit: [read Galatians 3:1-3]

He asks a rhetorical question here, one that should lead us to see the error in how we have been living. “beginning in the Spirit” refers to the moment of being born again and brought into the family of God. Being “perfected in the flesh” is us trying to live the Christian life on our own terms, and in our own power. It is obvious by the question that we make a serious mistake in trying to live the Christian life apart from God!

But the Holy Spirit’s job is to lead you in your faith. And when I say faith, I don’t mean the small sliver of life that we carve out for religion. I mean the driving factors that your entire life’s

Where is the Holy Spirit leading you? Freedom. Check what Paul says in Galatians 5:1.

5:1

When the apostle paul talks about freedom here, he is talking about freedom as defined by God – not the world. There is only one type of freedom that is truly free: freedom to be who God designed us to be. All other “freedoms” that come from sin have its source in rebellion from who God designed us to be. This is yet another example of wisdom from God that sounds foolish to those of the world: freedom comes by submission to God, the Maker.

Ironically, all other kinds of “freedom” turn out to be slavery. Paul makes this contrast very clear by showing us what the fruit of the flesh is and what the fruit of the Spirit is. By “flesh,” Paul means, “the inclination to sin.” Let’s read what both look like:

[Read 5:16-24]

Look

Cultivate Two Habits

Pursue Christ-defined freedom.

Galatians 5:26

In the forward to Neil Postman’s Amusing ourselves to Death, he compares George Orwell’s 1984 to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. He writes, “In 1984… people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.”[2]

Pay attention to what you love, because you will find out what you believe will give you freedom. This is why the greatest commandment has to do with love. What we love is what we will be drawn to and what we will be taken in by. It is often the christian who says he loves God but acts as if he loves the world that finds himself still enslaved to sin — at war with himself, being pulled in opposite directions. Allow the Spirit to bring order to your soul, to be aligned in mind and heart, so that you can experience the freedom of walking in the truth. For when we define freedom on our own terms, we always misjudge what is good, true, and beautiful. But when we lay down our arms and align ourselves with the Maker and His definition of freedom, we come home. His will is done on earth as it is in heaven, through our willing heart.

I bring this up because the next step is impossible if one does not first embrace God’s definitions of goodness and virtue. This leads to our final point:

Walk by the Spirit.

Amos 3:3 says, “can two walk together, except they be agreed?”

Two people who voluntarily walk together are in a sense, one. This is what A.W. Tozer says about those who want to walk with the Spirit. They must be in alignment with each other. Why do many of us not know what it is like to walk with the spirit, or we may not know how?

Here is how — long for all that Jesus is, in all of your life. Our problem is that we want “some” of Jesus, not all of him. All of him requires obedience, sacrifice, and humility. But the scriptures warn of double-minded people! How unstable they are, being pulled in two different directions. We must be single-minded, directed toward Jesus. Then we will be in agreement with the Holy Spirit.

Remember the rope between the house and the barn? Let us think about this in regard to how the Holy Spirit is our sealer, teacher, and leader.

The Holy Spirit ties himself to us. This is not something we do, this is a gift that is given to all people who are born again. Our eternal promise is secure, because of who He is and what He has done.

Second, The Holy Spirit is who we can get a firm grasp on in the middle of the storm. When we cannot see, we need to hang on to something. In this case, what we hang on to is the Holy Spirit. He guides us into all truth. He never contradicts Jesus, he never teaches a new truth, or reveals some hidden knowledge. No. but he does work in our hearts to apply the truth in Scripture.

The Holy Spirit ties himself to us, and he is who we grasp onto for truth. This leads us to our third point: He is the leader. Where is the other end of the rope tied to? One end is to us, so where does the rope go? No one knows. But wherever he leads us is good. Further, The Holy Spirit is our guiding rope that lives inside of all Christians. He works in the deepest parts of our being to give direction, dig up sin, lead into truth, bring about good fruit (obedience), produce a love for God and our neighbors, and much more.

When we try to do things on our own, we experience only the works of the flesh: the old habits from our old life.

Took

If this sounds entirely foreign to you, there are two possibilities why: you have never received Jesus as your savior and been sealed by the Holy Spirit, or you have done that but you are still living with old fleshly habits. Only the Holy Spirit can do that Spiritual diagnosis. Ask him to search your heart and ask him what to do. Give your life to Christ for the first time? Or, in the power of the Holy Spirit, shed the old fleshly habits that are destroying your soul: single-mindedly aim for Christ, and walk in agreement with God.

In the Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lucy is talking with some of the animals about who Aslan is. There was a buzz about him because the rumor was that “Aslan is on the move.” Feeling a bit nervous about the unknown, Lucy asked a talking beaver, “Is Aslan safe?” The beaver chuckled. “No no no. He’s not safe.” He beaver said, “But he is good.”

Graduating class of 2022. To answer our opening question: How do you be a Christian? In the Power of the third person of the Trinity: The Holy Spirit. He is good. Cultivate a relationship with Him and allow Him to be your guide. Walk in agreement with him, and though you may not end up where you thought you might be, He will use you to bring about truth, goodness, and beauty in the world. Our lives are not our own. Surrender to Him, and He will make your paths straight.

Pray

[1]Cited in Pete Scazzero’s Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Updated and expanded edition, 139. [2]Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Forward.