Faith In Motion Part 1

The Real/The Rub

Have I told you guys about my New Years Resolution? To live a healthier life? To eat better? To exercise more regularly?

I’m doing really good with it so far. In fact I went to the gym the other day, after eating an incredibly healthy breakfast, and had a PR on number of crunches in a minute and bench press. I did 75 crunches in 60 seconds and I did 10 reps of 230 pounds.

Now who believes that? Does anything about me look like I can realistically see numbers like that?

No absolutely not! I haven’t ever had a flat washboard stomach. And these gun are more like pea shooters. I’d be embarrassed to find out what I can lift or can’t lift.

But we make claims all the time that don’t match reality.

One of my favorite memes on the internet are the ones that show a person who looks like they have no clue what they are doing and it says, “When you lied on your resume.”

Here are some examples. (show slides)

Clearly those are meant to be humorous but I think that there are probably people who truly do make false statements on their resumes to help get a job.

Or what about this guy? (Uncle Rico clip)

Nobody thinks that guy could have won state.

People say things all the time that don’t match reality. Some of them are funny and they make you roll your eyes.

But sometimes this is a much bigger deal because sometimes people say that they are a Christian, but nothing about their lives makes that seem like reality.

The Read

According to Paul though this isn’t the way that its supposed to be.

(ESV) 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Paul says that when someone has been introduced to Jesus and has trusted in him as Lord, that person is new. The old way they lived life is gone. He uses the language that the former way of life has passed away. It has died. For the person who is truly following Christ, you can’t find that old life.

I had this friend out in Woodward that came to our church and got saved. He had a pretty rough past that include drug addiction, prison, and several children with several women.

When he started coming to church or events he would always wear long sleeves even when it was h hundred degrees outside. Turns out he had a really questionable tattoo on his forearm that he didn’t want anyone to see. Now this isn’t a matter of are tattoos ok or not. I think they are fine, but this was definitely not ok just based on the content.

Anyways, he told me one day that he was having it removed and that it would take several sessions of basically cutting it out with a laser, which he described as the most painful thing he’d ever done, but that’s neither here nor there.

Now suppose he told me that he had it removed but he still continued to wear long sleeves in summer. Or suppose he said he had it removed but you could just see it there on his arm. I would say, “No you didn’t. I can still see it. You still cover it up. There’s no evidence to back up what you are claiming.”

When we claim to be in Christ, our life should be new. We should be a new creature with a new nature.

Now as a side note, he did get his tattoo removed but it left some scars. Sometimes even when you begin following Christ, your life can still have some scars from the past. People will bring up the scars. The scars will probably have an effect on you. But you are a new creation. The old has died. The new has come.

Let’s look at another one of Paul’s writings.

(ESV) 17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

The New Life

17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Paul makes two very distinct points in this passage of scripture about the person who finds new life in Christ.

The first point is that there should be a difference in your life and the lives of the non Christians around you.

If you are in a crowd of non Christians, and you have claimed the name of Jesus, everyone should be able to see a difference in your life. They should see different language being used. They should see different actions being taken. They should see you bowing out of certain actions. They should see you not going to certain places. They should see you having a different kind of joy and hope. The bottom line is, they should be able to tell that something is different about you even if they don’t know you are a Christian.

The second point Paul makes is the reoccurring theme that when we become Christians, our new life looks drastically different than our old life.

The Ready

So why are we talking about this tonight? Well it isn’t to beat you up or to try and make you feel guilty. However, if the holy spirit in convicting you of sin in your life, don’t quench it. And don’t feel bad. He convicts me and molds me every time I open his word.

The reason that we’re talking about this is because I’ve felt lately that we really need a new approach to what we are teaching here.

The scriptures tell us that we need to move away from spiritual milk and move onto whole foods. We are supposed to continue in our growth and maturity as Christians. And as a matter of fact that’s something very important for us as a church. One of our core values here is, “We will grow up and grow deep.” We want to see people grow in maturity as they get older. This is part of the discipleship process.

(Chair illustration)

We want to see you get to that last chair.

So for the next several weeks we’re going to be on this series called “Faith in Motion.” We’re going to look at the book of James with a very broad perspective. We aren’t going to be really digging out a bunch of theological truths although that’s important. We’re going to just look at and learn some practical steps that we as Christians can take together so that we keep growing and keep pursuing maturity in Christ.

The book of James is very practical in nature and its almost always the first book of the bible I tell people to read when they want to start studying scripture. If there is one section of scripture that sums up the entire book and I would call it the focus scripture its found in James chapter 2.

(ESV) 14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Faith Without Works Is Dead

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

Let our words of faith be accompanied by action. Let’s commit to growing together.