What Should I Do Now?

Introduction

A couple of years ago there was a little girl who was diagnosed at birth with a rare disorder that made her really sick whenever she would be around other people. So sick, in fact that she nearly died from catching a common cold as a baby. This girl was in the hospital most of her early years as the doctors tried to figure out what was causing this sickness and come up with a solution. The solution that they came up with was for her to essentially live in a clean room constantly. Anything in the room had to be deep cleaned and people from the outside world that were possibly sick or carrying in germs had to wear protective gear to enter her room. She lived like this for years and years and was only able to attend school online through her computer. During these years she made a few friends that she would message and talk with but she was never able to go outside and play with them or anything like that because of her medical condition.

Fast forward a few more years and the girl is now 14 years old and the doctors made a breakthrough in her case and were able to treat her condition so that she could not only leave the clean room but now she would be able to attend school with other people and go outside and do things that she hadn’t been able to do before! This was literally a miracle… But the girl was stunned in the doctors office. She genuinely didn’t know how to react. She had lived her entire life thinking that she would be stuck in a room usually by herself for the rest of her life and now she was being told that she would basically be a normal teenager and be able to do what other teenagers did. She didn’t know what to say other than asking her parents, “What do I do now?”

See, this girl had a plan that was now completely destroyed in a good way! But now she didn’t know what to do. Her life had been changed and she had to make a new plan for her future. Whenever you and I become Christians, our life changes. We’ve talked this week about the change that Jesus brings to our life as He saves us and sets us free from the power and punishment of sin. The problem that we can run into at times in our Christian life is this: We don’t know what we’re supposed to do next. Even though we’re saved it’s easy to be confused and to get stuck. Jesus doesn’t want us to get stuck… He wants us to grow! If you’re a Christian tonight, Jesus wants you to be more like Him and to grow in your faith and understanding of the Bible. He wants you to tell others about Him. If you’re not a Christian, Jesus wants you to know Him! He wants you to repent of your sins and place your faith in Him as Lord and Savior.

In Philippians chapter 3, Paul talks about His goal in life. His goal is to imitate Jesus and to be more like Him. This should be our goal tonight too - to be more like Jesus. Let’s read in Philippians 3:12 what Paul shares with us about how we can take the next step in our life today to be more like Jesus.

Philippians 3:12–4:1 CSB

12 Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. 16 In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. 17 Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. 18 For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things, 20 Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21 He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself. 1 So then, my dearly loved and longed for brothers and sisters, my joy and crown, in this manner stand firm in the Lord, dear friends.

The Bible tells us that there are 2 options for us. Whenever you go out to eat and you look at a menu, there are a lot of options and sometimes it can be hard to make up our mind. Whenever you play a game on your phone or computer or x-box/playstation you might be in a situation where you have to make a decision and there’s a lot of options and it can be confusion and stressful! The Bible makes things very clear for us: There’s God’s way and there’s the way of the world. There’s right, and there’s wrong. There’s a way that leads to eternal life and there’s a way that leads to eternal destruction. There are people who are Christians and there are other people who are not Christians. It’s black and white. As we get started tonight, I want you to pray and think about where you’re at tonight… Are you a follower of Jesus or are you still trying to figure out who you are and what you believe in?

Non-Christian? Repent of your sin and trust in Jesus

Some of you are here tonight and you have not repented of your sins and placed your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That’s not me being mean, that’s just what I know is true based on the fact that there are over 100 of us here tonight. At First Baptist Salem every Sunday whenever we have worship, there are people who come to church on Sunday who aren’t Christians. This isn’t a bad thing - we want people who aren’t Christians to come to church and hear about Jesus and be saved! This is what we want for you tonight too if you’re not currently a Christian. We pray that you leave camp not only knowing more about Jesus but actually knowing Jesus and placing your faith in Him!

Our world says that there are about 100 different ways that you and I can get to heaven and worship God. We can be a good person, we can do nice things, we can come to church, we can give money to the poor, we can get good grades in school, we can be religious and it doesn’t matter which religion because everyone goes to heaven… This is what our world says. Is our world correct? The Bible tells us a different story. The Bible says that you are either for Jesus or you’re against Jesus. The Bible says that you’re either a Christian or you’re not. Paul in Philippians 3 says that there are some people who live as enemies of the cross… What is coming for people who live as enemies of the cross?

Philippians 3:19 CSB

19 Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things,

Do you know anyone who is focused too much on earthly things? I know quite a few people like that and I’ll be honest with you all, that used to be me! The Bible tells us that before we were Christians we were not Christians… You aren’t a Christian just because your parents go to church - this is something that you have to do for yourself! For some of you tonight you’re thinking about this and maybe you’ve always come to church because your mom or dad make you go and that’s it… For others, maybe you never come to church. I’m not sure about your past but I do know what the Bible says… The Bible reminds us that we all need Jesus to save us. The Bible reminds us that we are all sinners and without Jesus we are lost. We are enemies of the cross. If you’ve never repented of your sins and trusted in Jesus as Lord, why not? This is the most important decision you can ever make and it’s the best decision you can ever make.

Born once, die twice. Born twice, die once.

Christian? Grow in Your Faith

Read Bible

The Bible, like we talked about on Monday and Tuesday, is true. The reason that the Bible is true is because its author is God! This means that whatever the Bible says is important for us and if we want to grow in our faith, we have to start by reading the Bible. So many people in our world are confused about things. They’re confused about what truth is. They’re confused about why they are alive. They are confused about gender. Our world doesn’t even know what a boy or girl is! Did you know that the Bible addresses these things? The Bible tells us that God created us male and female - He assigns us our gender and He doesn’t make mistakes. If you listen to our world, you’ll grow more and more confused and angry at things… If you read your Bible and grow in your walk with Jesus, while you won’t have all the answers, you’ll have peace. Jesus wants you to read the Bible because the Bible is still true and relevant for us today. How many minutes per day do you think it would take you to read the Bible all the way through in 1 year? 12 minutes per day. If you have a show on Netflix that you like or if you watch sports or if you just like playing video games, you know that 30 minutes can fly by just like that! Imagine if you set a timer each day for 15 minutes and decided to read your Bible for those minutes. You’d read the entire Bible in less than 1 year. I guarantee you that if you do this, in 1 year from now your life will be totally different because you’ll grow in your walk!

Pray

We read in the Bible that God wants us to pray with Him and spend time lifting our requests to Him each day. Prayer is something that we are expected to do as a Christian. Prayer isn’t us telling God what to do as much as it is us asking God to help us understand His plan for our lives. If you want to grow in your faith, one of the ways to do that is to pray and ask God to give you guidance and strength.

Talk with others about Jesus

Another way to grow in our faith is to talk with other people about Jesus. If you’re a Christian, you have a testimony. Do you know what a testimony is? It’s simply your story. A Christian testimony has 3 parts: your life before Jesus, how Jesus saved you, and how Jesus has changed you since! As you tell other people about your testimony, you get more and more confident in what God has done in your life and the more that you share, the more you want to share! Jesus wants us to tell other people about what He has done in our lives - we’re supposed to go and make disciples of all nations. This starts with us simply telling other people that we’re followers of Jesus.

Christian? Walk the Walk

Live for Jesus at school, sports, home

Whenever I was a kid I heard this saying all the time, “Walk the walk and talk the talk.” Have any of you heard that before? What does that mean? It means simply this: Don’t just say the right things but live the right way too. Jesus doesn’t just want you and me to say that we follow Him, He wants us to actually follow Him in the way that we live our lives! This requires our actions to match our words. There is a temptation for us to think that we only have to follow Jesus at church or at church camp and that Jesus doesn’t care what we do at school or at home or at the lake. Jesus wants your all! He wants your heart. He wants you to follow Him wherever you’re at.

If you’re a Christian, Jesus says that you are supposed to be salt and light in the world. Think about what light does - light shines really bright in the darkness. Whenever you go to school or whenever you’re at practice with your team or whenever you’re getting ready for a choir or band concert, you have an opportunity to let your light shine in the darkness. Will you let your light shine or will you fit in with the darkness?

Whenever I was in Junior High I started to make some silly decisions at school and while playing sports. I wanted to fit in with the “cool” crowd at school and part of fitting in with that crowd meant that I had to act a certain way and say certain things and do things that I knew went against what the Bible teaches. Do you know what I did? Not only did I do those things that were wrong, but I’d keep on saying the right church answers. I’d say the right things at church and to my church friends, but my actions at school and at track and during basketball were totally different. I was talking the talk but man I wasn’t walking the walk. Don’t live a double life. Don’t try and fit in with the cool kids if it means that you have to do something that the Bible says is wrong. If you have to bully someone else to fit in, don’t fit in. If you have to curse to fit in, don’t fit in. If you have to watch something that’s wrong or illegal to fit in, don’t fit in. Paul tells us to reach toward the prize and the prize is being more like Jesus. In Romans 12, Paul says this

Romans 12:1–2 CSB

1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

We’re not going to be perfect - Paul even says that he hasn’t figured it all out… But he’s running the race. He’s getting closer each and every day. Ask yourself this tonight: Are you living a life that is like Jesus or are you only talking a good game? Jesus isn’t interested in meaningless words - He’s interested in your heart. If you’re a Christian, make sure that you’re living for Jesus at church, at home, at school, at the ball field, and everywhere in between.

Don’t think that you have it all figured out and point out the speck in someone else’s eye whenever you have a log in your own that you need to remove first.

Stand Firm for Jesus

Paul concludes these verses in chapter 3 and beginning in chapter 4 with a call to trust in Jesus and to stand firm in His Word. Why is it so important to stand firm on God’s Word?

Jared Wilson is a Christian writer and professor who said this, “If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for everything.” The point is that if we don’t stand up for our faith in Jesus, we’ll be led astray by just about everything else. This week we’re talking about growing and standing on the truth of God’s Word. There were people in the Bible times who went to church and heard Jesus preach and they listened to people like Paul, but they didn’t stand up for what they heard. What happened to these people? They were led astray by false teachers who taught them something similar to Christianity but with a tiny twist. Whenever you believe something false, usually it leads to a tiny change in your life or in your mindset. It usually goes like this: You know what, church doesn’t really matter. I can have a relationship with Jesus and I don’t need to go to church and have fellowship with other Christians. A little while later it turns into this, you know what I’m not sure if the story of God creating the whole world is true… Then it turns into, I’m not sure if Jesus really rose from the dead. Then it turns into, I don’t think Jesus was really the Son of God. Then it turns into, I want nothing to do with Christianity or the Bible… It’s all made up. It’s a slow fade. It’s one poor decision after another, after another. Don’t be this person! Stand firm on what the Bible says! If the Bible says it, that settles it! If the Bible calls it sin, it’s wrong. If the Bible says that it’s right, then it’s right and we have to do it!

If the Bible says it’s wrong to be disrespectful to your parents, it’s wrong. Stand firm for Jesus and do what’s right.

If the Bible says it’s wrong to bully other people, it’s wrong. Stand firm for Jesus and do what’s right.

If the Bible says it’s wrong to be rude to another person, it’s wrong. Stand firm for Jesus and do what’s right.

If the Bible says it’s wrong to

What should we all do now? Follow God’s plan and do what the Bible tells us to do. If you’re not a Christian, Jesus wants you to repent and turn away from your sins and believe that He is who He said that He was. Place your faith in Him as your Lord and live for Him as a new creation.