Quitters

Quitters

Christian

Last week Pastor Tim started our new series called, “Christian”.

We’re going to be looking at what a Christian is.

And if “Christian” is really the word we should be calling ourselves.

You see the Bible only says the word Christian three times.

And followers of Jesus never called themselves that.

“Christians” was a word that people on the outside would call them.

However, the Bible does show us a word that followers of Jesus called themselves on multiple occasions.

It’s the word “DISCIPLE”.

And the reason that’s important is because I believe they can mean two different things.

You see the word Christian isn’t really defined in the Bible.

And if I were to ask you to give me a definition of the word “Christian”, I would probably get a bunch of different answers.

Maybe you would say it’s just believing in God?

Or it means that you go to church or read your Bible?

But “Disciple” has a real definition.

The Greek word for disciple is “Mathetas”.

It means, Learner, Pupil, Apprentice, Adherent, Follower.

A disciple is someone who is wanting to learn and get direction from someone.

They are learning from this person and doing the things that they do.

And the answer, even before they ask the question, is always YES!

And when I really look at the difference between the two I have to ask myself, how many people in our country are “Christians” and how many are “Disciples”?

Anne Rice is a famous author.

She’s known for writing Gothic fiction.

One of her most famous books is, “Interview with a Vampire.”

She’s sold over 100 million books in her life.

She grew up in the church but at some point turned away from God and became an atheist.

Later in life she came back to God.

She was doing research on Judaism and read the gospels and realized this was written by real people who were eyewitnesses to these events and gave her heart back to the Lord.

She then wrote a book called, “Called Out of Darkness”.

This book is her story of coming back to God.

In this book she has an interesting quote.

She tackles a lot of the questions that people have about God that keep them from following Him.

She says, “He (God) knew how or why everything happened; He knew the disposition of every single soul. He wasn’t going to let anything happen by accident. Nobody was going to go to Hell by mistake. This was His world, all this! He had complete control of it; His justice, His mercy - were not OUR justice or OUR mercy. What folly to even imagine such a thing. I didn’t have to know how He was going to save the unlettered and the unbaptized, or how He would redeem the conscientious heathen who had never spoken His name. I didn’t have to know how my gay friends would find their way to Redemption; or how my hard working secular humanist friends could or would receive the power of His saving grace. I didn’t have to know why good people suffered agony or died in pain. He knew. And it was His knowing that overwhelmed me, His knowing that became completely real to me… And why should I remain apart from Him just because I couldn’t grasp all this? He could grasp it!”

She tackles some big questions that we often have.

And I love her perspective.

She’s saying, why would I remain separated from God just because I might not fully understand God?

So many people have a hard time coming to faith in God because they can’t understand why He does what He does.

And if I can’t understand it then I can’t believe it.

This is why a lot of intellectual people struggle with faith.

Because intellectual people have to understand things or KNOW the answer to questions.

But with God you will NEVER fully grasp and understand why He does what He does.

So Anne Rice has been a Christian for about 10 years when she posted this on social media in 2010.

“Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity.”

WHAT? Can you do that?

“It’s simply impossible for me to belong to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group.”

Anne Rice is saying, I love Jesus and I’m going to follow Him but I am NOT a part of this quarreling, hostile, disputatious group of people that call themselves “Christians”!

She continues…

“For ten years I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else. My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn’t understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me. But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become.”

She later wrote after people were questioning her on this post…

“My commitment to Christ remains at the heart and center of my life. Transformation in Him is radical and ongoing. That I feel now that I am called to be an outsider for Him, to step away from the word, “Christian” and “Christianity” is something that my conscience demands of me.”

In other words, I’m committed to following Jesus, but not this idea of “Christianity” that’s out there.

And some of you are hearing this and thinking, “Amen, preach.”

Some of you are cringing in your seat because this sounds almost blasphemous to you.

But if we’re being honest, Anne Rice hits the nail right on the head.

You see like I mentioned earlier we can define the word “Christian” to mean anything we want it to mean.

That’s why you will see “Christians” on every side of every issue.

The civil rights movement had “Christians”/ churches on both sides.

Issues like abortion and gay marriage have “Christians” on both sides of the issue.

Why? Because we can define “Christian” any way we want.

But then there’s that other word I mentioned.

This word is extremely scary.

It’s scary because it is VERY well defined.

The word “DISCIPLE”.

And Tim mentioned this last week where Jesus is talking to His disciples and He tells them the most important thing they need to know as His disciples.

John 13:33-35 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

The greatest message Jesus wanted to leave with His disciples and the lesson He wanted to teach them about how people will know they are His TRUE disciples wasn’t, by how much you read your Bible.

It wasn’t that you SAY you're a Christian!

It wasn’t how often you go to church!

It was by HOW YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

You mean it’s not just by what we believe?

People can’t SEE what you believe.

But it’s HARD to love one another.

Being a disciple is hard.

Being a Christian is easy.

And John’s not done with this issue.

At the end of his life he writes 1 John and look at what he says.

1 John 4:7-12 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

John tells us in this passage why we must love.

It’s because God showed us the example of what love is.

He sent His son to die on the cross for US.

Did you catch what he said in verse 10?

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

John is reminding us that every person you come in contact with, GOD LOVES!

That includes your inlaws, your boss, your co-workers, your crazy neighbor!

EVERYONE!

So because of that, and because we want to be DISCIPLES, we follow His lead

“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

We should be so overwhelmed by God’s love for us, that He was willing to make such a great sacrifice for us.

That we owe it to God to love others.

It’s this feeling that if Jesus was willing to be tortured and killed for EVERYONE, because He loves them so much…

Knowing that not everyone will acknowledge Him as the Son of God.

That the least I can do is love others as well.

It’s the mindset of, I owe it to God to love you.

God is wanting His church to NEVER be known for being “hostile, quarrelsome, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group.”

And the way to do that is to LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

This isn’t an option if you want to be disciples of Jesus!

THIS IS HOW THEY WILL KNOW YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES!

The world should look at you and say, WOW look at how they treat people.

Even when they’ve been stabbed in the back or betrayed, they still treated them with love.

I want to work for that person because of the way they treat their employees.

The problem is “Christians” interpret loving others as condoning their behaviour.

We think that if we treat someone with love and respect when we know they are doing things that are wrong that we are accepting their sin.

Why do we think that?

Why do we think that if I treat you with love I’m basically telling you to continue to sin?

The reason why you love is because that is what will open the door for you to share the truth and give them the opportunity to receive forgiveness and turn from their sin.

But if we don’t love they are going to want nothing to do with us.

Think about how many people have left their faith in God because of the way “Christians” treated them.

How many people have left churches because they’ve felt betrayed by a Pastor.

Christians have caused other Christians to fall away simply because we have not loved the way God wants us to love.

But that’s why it’s so important as believers that we don’t put our trust and faith in people but God.

That’s why I LOVE Anne Rice’s quote about how following Christ doesn’t mean following His followers.

Just because a Christian hurts you doesn’t mean God approves.

I believe God’s heart has been broken countless times because of the hurt “Christians” have done to other people in the name of Jesus.

If you’ve been hurt by someone, don’t hold that against God.

Press more into Him and let Him show you how much He loves you!

So my question this morning church is how are you loving people?

Do you only love those who agree with you?

Do you go on social media and blast everyone else and tell them how terrible and dumb they are?

Or do you share your thoughts and beliefs in love?

This church will be known by our love

I don’t want a church full of “Christians”

I want a church full of DISCIPLES!

If we all committed to that, I believe we will see life after life changed in this community.

Altar Call