Real Christianity
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Every week we talk about becoming a follower of Jesus, a Christian. But I am always afraid that we make it too casual. Becoming a Christian is totally by the Grace of God, but the Bible doesn’t’ say it stops with a prayer or a single event.
Becoming a Christian is when you give control of your life over to God.
Becoming a Christian is when you give control of your life over to God.
There is more to being a Christian than the prayer we pray to become one. A lot of people pray the prayer and nothing changes. Jesus told His disciples to follow him.
Jesus never hid the fact that there was a cost to following Him. Paul said this about following Jesus in Phil 3:8
8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ
Paul says that everything he had… education, social standing, money, family… was nothing compared to knowing Jesus as his Lord.
Many people say they are trying to find themselves, but they never do because they are looking in all the wrong places. They look to work, relationships, money, substances…
The biggest thing we have to get past is ourselves. We are our own biggest obstacle to following Jesus.
It is only through the transforming power of the Word of God working through us that we can be a follower of Jesus.
It is only through the transforming power of the Word of God working through us that we can be a follower of Jesus.
Being a follower of Jesus means that we act like Jesus did.
5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. 6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.
When we decide to follow Jesus and act like He acted, we will grow in our relationship with Jesus. We do this by allowing God to transform us into the people He wants us to become.
Three Transformations God Does in Our Lives
Three Transformations God Does in Our Lives
1. A follower of Jesus has a transformed mind.
1. A follower of Jesus has a transformed mind.
Why do we need a transformed mind? Look at what Paul said,
6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.
2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
I’ve been doing this a long time, and too many people have let their minds become a garbage dump. It’s become a place where they dump past failures, bad information, broken down relationships, things people have said about them…
They can’t become fully devoted disciples because they will not allow God to clean out their garbage dump. They may be saved… they may love God, but they are always experiencing spiritual defeat after defeat. They want God to bless their lives, but they allow their minds to remain a garbage dump.
The garbage we carry is like luggage on a trip. Have you notice how much luggage people take on a trip? We carry all this garbage from the past so it’s no wonder people are too tired and exhausted to follow and serve the Lord. The baggage they carry wears them out.
Some of the garbage God wants to take out of our minds is unforgiveness, guilt, shame, discontentment with life, fear of the future, and everything else that restricts them from following Jesus wholeheartedly.
Cleaning out the garbage dump of our life doesn’t happen over night.
Cleaning out the garbage dump of our life doesn’t happen over night.
It’s taken your whole life to get to where you are and it will take time studying His Word, and applying Biblical principles to fix your problems. It will take spending uninterrupted time in prayer. It will take time for God to clean up the garbage issues in your life.
In one sense, we will never be completely fixed in this life. But in a spiritual sense, we are made as white as snow. But it doesn’t happen overnight.
2. A follower of Jesus receives a transformed heart.
2. A follower of Jesus receives a transformed heart.
In our culture today, most people are just too busy to follow Jesus. To follow Jesus you have to have the heart to do it. Most people don’t want to follow, they want to lead, especially when it comes to their faith walk. They want to be in charge of their lives… not have Jesus in charge. Look what Jesus said,
29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.
45 A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.
Someone described true follower-ship in three words. Curious, Convinced, and Committed.
These are heart issues, so let’s look at them.
A follower of Jesus will be curious.
A follower of Jesus will be curious.
A follower of Jesus will want to listen to Jesus as he speaks through His Word. They will continue to investigate the deep truths in the word and apply them to their lives.
A follower of Jesus will be convinced.
A follower of Jesus will be convinced.
Followers of Jesus will be convinced of their sin through God’s word and the HS and make transformational lifestyle change. Their desire will be to line up their life with the standard of Biblical Christianity.
A follower of Jesus will be committed.
A follower of Jesus will be committed.
A follower of Jesus will be committed to the teaching, proclamation, and personal application of the WOG.
A study several years ago showed that only 10% of Evangelical Christians lived any different than non-Christians. They determined that Sunday school was ineffective and many churches, dropped Sunday School and looked for other ways to train disciples.
A later study showed that it got worse after that because the number dropped it 9%.
The problem is not SS or SG. There are churches that do both of these very well. The problem is one of the heart. Every week we feed you solid, practical Biblical truths and knowledge, but many are not receiving a transformation of the heart… a transforming of your spirit.
We can teach Biblical knowledge and truth but heart change is the work of the Holy Spirit. We want to create an atmosphere where the HS can move and work in people’s lives. We want to see Him transform each of us here so that he can use us to draw people to him and to our church.
We want to see the Holy Spirit bring non-believers and non growing Christians into active, refreshing, life in Christ and in the Body of Christ.
We need to mentor stagnant and growing believers through discipleship making principles and in the Word of God. But, we must set the example by experiencing radical heart transformation in our own lives. We must make sure stagnant and growing disciples can witness first hand a flourishing hunger for Christ in us.
Unfortunately it’s become too easy to get caught up in the busyness of life… the worries of life… and the conflicts of the day that we neglect living the abundant, full of joy, filled with passion lives for Jesus Christ.
I am reminded of the logger who became so busy cutting logs he failed to take time to sharpen his saw: There was once a logger who told himself repeatedly that he needed to stop and sharpen his saw, but he continued to cut anyway. Unfortunately at the end of the day, as night began to fall, he sat exhausted next to a sizable pile of uncut wood. This man wasn’t stupid. He knew that his saw desperately needed sharpening. He also knew that the more he cut, the duller the blade would become. Yet he could not bring himself to sharpen the saw.
How many of us are like that man? For most of us, the pursuit of tasks drives out any thought of self maintenance. We have to sharpen the saw!
If we are going to maintain spiritual health and grow in our spiritual lives to remain faithful followers of Jesus Christ we must experience the radical transformation of the heart. A heart that has experienced radical transformation will never be satisfied when the spiritual journey begins to stagnate. They will be broken by their own sinfulness. They will realize that if anything good is to come, it is only because of God’s grace working in them and through them. They will receive no satisfaction in personal recognition when God blesses them, for they remember, they are only one beggar telling another beggar where to find the bread of life. song - I’m just a nobody trying to tell everybody about somebody who saved my soul…
If you’ve never had a heart transformation, You are probably frustrated with spiritual things and not experiencing any spiritual growth or victory in your life.
All of us need to grow. All of us need someone speaking into our lives and we need to be speaking into other’s lives.
If you have a heart transformation, you will desire to grow as a follower of Jesus.
If you have a heart transformation, you will desire to grow as a follower of Jesus.
Warren Wiersbe said this,
“To deny self does not mean to deny things. It means to give yourself wholly to Christ…
We often tell our kids to grow up, but they can’t because they have never been there. We as parents have and we can help our kids go where they have not gone.
It’s the same in growing in your relationship with the Lord. We need people who may be further down the road than we are to help us go down the road we have not been on yet… to help us to grow.
We are all on a journey. We all have a next step we need to be ready to take… Baptism… tithing… Bible study… SG
3. A follower of Jesus will live a transformed lifestyle.
3. A follower of Jesus will live a transformed lifestyle.
Check out these verses.
22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.
5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.
7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language.
12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.
We have to be willing to get rid of the old and put on the new…
21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’
I find it interesting that the ones who cried “Lord Lord” in this verse are the ones who thought they were ok. They knew what to say and they called Jesus their Savior… their speech had been transformed somewhat, but their minds, hearts and life styles have not changed.
Being a disciple means living a transformed lifestyle. It’s walking the walk. Too many Christians don’t.
Surveys show that people who claim to be Christian are just a likely to purchase lottery tickets, watch X-Rated movies, be addicted to porn, drink, do drugs, just as much as non-Christians.
These lifestyles don’t show a person to be a real Christian.
Paul instructs us to putt of the old and put on the new… Ephesians 4:22–24 “throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”
We are to put to death the things from our old nature. Someone once explained the difference betwen Christians in USA and those in persecuted parts of the world.
In our country (USA) we talk about commitment, but in the persecuted countries they talk about sacrifice.
It’s common for Christians in other parts of the world to sacrifice their lives for Christ. For the most part, especially here in the USA, believers will not be asked to die for Jesus, but he does expect us to live for him.
Wrap
25 A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, 26 “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. 27 And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. 28 “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? 29 Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. 30 They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’ 31 “Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him? 32 And if he can’t, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away. 33 So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own. 34 “Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? 35 Flavorless salt is good neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown away. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!”
The cross was a cruel form of execution used by the Romans. When a criminal was forced to carry his cross to the place of execution, he was saying good-bye to everything. At that point, there was no turning back. Jesus uses this illustration with the intent of demonstrating to us that following Him demands that same type of farewell to our own will and desires as we commit ourselves to HIm.
A disciple will have a transformed mind, a transformed heart, and a transformed lifestyle.
A disciple will have a transformed mind, a transformed heart, and a transformed lifestyle.
When we live our lives our way, we will fail every time. But if we live God’s way we will thrive and succeed every single time. Now listen to me though. When you make this commitment, Satan puts a target on your back and he will attack. But greater is he who is in us…
You are a child of the King. God is your protector and defender. Satan will attack you and he will win some battles, but God will win the ultimate victory in you and through you if you become His disciple.
Altar
Salvation
Transformed Mind - get rid of garbage… put WOG in…
Transformed Heart - Salvation… 90% or the 10%
Transformed Lifestyle -
