Was There Any Jesus in Church?

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 6 Comments

If a Jewish rabbi could have preached the sermon you heard this past Sunday, you didn’t hear from God.

A biblical sermon is always about Christ and the gospel. It’s not about world affairs, personal stories, the latest movie, a list of helps, or a feel-good message.

It’s not, “Do this and live.”

“I don’t know about you, but if a person’s understanding of the gospel isn’t scandalous to my natural way of thinking, if it doesn’t call into question everything I think I know, if it doesn’t subvert the wisdom of this age, then when you preach it I can barely muster the energy to yawn.” — Jason Stellman

As Jesus said in Luke 24 to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the entire Old Testament is about him. The entire New Testament is about him. That means the entire bible points to him. He’s the protagonist of the story.

So not everything you hear in church in kosher.

Listen well.

Have You Repented Today?

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 4 Comments

Your biggest problem in life is not your suffering, but your sin.

The Christian life is one long repentance on your way to heaven. Real repentance goes down to the heart. It’s recognizes the depth of sin, the depravity of the heart, the unwillingness to bend to God’s will. Even as Christians.

True repentance confronts your idols. What are you really trusting in? Your earning power? Your youth? Your intellect? A good reputation? Your personality? Your body? Your talents?

Religion is about performance and performance is about changing bad behaviors.

Life in Christ is putting your hope in him. He is the changer of hearts. He is committed to your heart transplant. And the way to an intimate relationship with him is to keep short accounts. Repent often. Repent daily. And your love for God will increase.

Don’t settle for a cosmetic makeover.

How Content Are You?

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

Q: What is real contentment?

A: An inner poise, a deep seated joy that can handle anything life throws at you.

It’s not detachment or resignation. It’s not a personality trait. It’s not rooted in your circumstances.

Paul had to learn to be content. (See Philippians 4: 10-23) So do you. It’s a life-long lesson, which is not learned overnight. (How wonderful because I’m a failure at it.)

Can your contentment deal with the highs and lows of life? Both the failures and the successes? (My kind takes me on a roller coaster ride every time.)

You try to change your circumstances or fix yourself believing that will make you  content. (A better spouse, a modern kitchen, a new body, flashier clothes, whiter teeth.)

Ask yourself next time you are unhappy: who or what has seized the title to your heart? Mark that as an idol and smash it.

Here’s what true about idols: Idols can’t deliver. They lie. They trap and enslave you. Idols don’t handle the weight of life.

Who is your God? Who are you trusting?

Only Jesus Christ delivers what he promises. He gives you the meaning to the details of your life, even your suffering.

Q: What are the marks of contentment?

A: Gratitude to God for rescuing you from sin and death and giving you new life in his Son, and generosity toward your neighbor.

Contentment is found only in the gospel.

Where’s Your Focus?

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

Q: What does the Christian life look like?

A: The Christian life is a race. (See Phillippians 3:12-21) It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Your focus is on the finish line and so you don’t get bogged down with other things. Your whole life is like an arrow flying toward the target, which is Christ. It’s one, single, focused direction. Christ defines your life.

Q: What if I struggle with my past, which keeps me from that pointed direction?

A: Past failures, mistakes, shameful acts, gross sins–all are forgiven in Christ, therefore you faithfully forget. Even if you have been sinned against. Choose to forget. Forget your successes too. You are no longer bound by your past or your present. You are bound to Christ for your future.

Q: What slows me down and keeps me from this?

A: Spiritual coasting–laziness, apathy, indifference, or spiritual ADD–you are distracted by everything, living for your appetites. Both extremes produce a spiritual fatigue and you lose your white-hot intensity.

Q: What awaits me at the finish line?

A: The new heavens and the new earth with Jesus returning to gather you up with his people. It’s a beautiful renewal. You are going to be made whole.

So fix your focus on Jesus because he has fixed his focus on you!

Can You Say This?

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

We can put it this way: the man who has faith is the man who is no longer looking to himself. He has ceased to say, “Ah yes, I have committed terrible sins but I have done this and that…” He stops saying that. If he goes on saying that, he has not got faith…Faith speaks in an entirely different manner and makes a man say, “Yes, I have sinned grievously, I have lived a life of sin…yet I know that I am a child of God because I am not resting on any righteousness of my own, my righteousness is in Jesus Christ, and God has put that to my account.”

– D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Jesus + Nothing = Everything

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 6 Comments

Q: What is a Christian?

A: A Christian is someone who has shredded his religious resume.

In Paul’s experience, in Philippians chapter three, he had a sterling resume: he was born a Jew, studied under the best rabbis, obeyed God’s laws, and was religiously zealous to the point of persecuting Christians.

Today, a religious resume might include: faithful church attendance, a daily devotional time, running a good Christian home, serving the community or the church, being a good neighbor, and loving your family.

Everybody is building a resume. This world exists on resumes. You need one for a job, to get into a prestigious school, to become a professional sports player, to join an exclusive club. It’s a way of presenting your best qualities for the utmost impact in order to be accepted.

Paul, whose pedigree outshone most people of his day, declared his resume worthless in comparison to what he gained in Christ. He said that he had only one thing on his resume: Jesus Christ and his righteousness. Everything else was spiritual bankruptcy, dung.

Stop trying to be a good Christian!

If you’re counting on your best traits, your sterling character, and your amazing accomplishments to make God accept you, you’re trusting in the dung pile. These are the very things that hinder you from embracing the all-sufficient righteousness that is yours in Christ.

Conversely, if you think you’re so depraved and worthless that God could never accept you, you’re also trusting in the dung pile. You’re unworthiness is no match for God’s grace. Christ came to save sinners just like you.

The truth is there is no righteousness outside of Christ, even if you were perfect in yourself (which you are not) or unworthy in yourself (which you are).

As a Christian, your resume is an alien resume. God gives it to you as a free gift. It’s 100% acceptable in God’s sight. You didn’t earn it. Christ did. And you don’t maintain it. Christ does.

Tell somebody!

 

Get Over Yourself

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

Quit looking  at your sanctification to prove to yourself (and to others) that you are a Christian.

You are a Christian because of the gospel. God found you. God saved you. God changed you.

You are united to Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. Everything that Jesus is you now are, too. Since Jesus is holy, so are you by virtue of your union in him. And it’s the Holy Spirit in you that continues to make you holy.

What did you do to accomplish that? Nothing. It’s a gift.

What are you doing now to sustain this? Nothing. It’s a gift.

What are you doing to insure your safe arrival in heaven? Nothing. It’s a gift.

You’re probably thinking by now, “But wait a minute, what about obedience?”

What about it?

Are you obeying God because you think it’s your way of working toward holiness? Are you obeying God because if you don’t you feel guilty? Are you obeying God because it’s your duty to do so, otherwise how can you call yourself a Christian?

You are a Christian because of what God has done to you. You are a Christian because you are in Christ. God put you there. And you are holy for the same reasons.

It’s out of this new relationship in Christ that we live out our holiness. How? By living a life of gratitude to God and loving our neighbor.

And lo and behold, we are obeying the two greatest commandments!

Quit taking your spiritual temperature. Look to Jesus who has done it all.

And relax.

Gripped by Grace

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What does it look like to be gripped by grace? According to the book of Philippians, chapter two, it begins with thinking of yourself less and thinking of others with more honor. Jesus didn’t hog his rightful place in heaven with God. Instead he left heaven willingly and came to earth as a servant and to die as a criminal. Jesus rejected the honors right, and poured himself out for wicked, selfish and rebellious people who hated him.

What does this tell you?  That the greatest communication about God is being a servant. Jesus spent his capital for the sake of his enemies, men and women who should have been his friends, but instead were traitors. He was the ultimate promiscuous giver of his grace, his life and his death.

Without him, we’d continue in our sins and be stranded without hope.

With him, we are made new in his death, burial and resurrection. We are the only people on earth with hope and a future.

Tell somebody!

Nice!

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world – and might even be more difficult to save. – C.S. Lewis

We live in a world of nice. Nice people, nice houses, nice cars, nice vacations. We tell our children to be nice to other children. We tell our teens to be nice to the relatives. Books on marriage give advice on being nice to one’s spouse. And don’t forget to be nice to your boss.

What does nice mean? For most people it’s pleasant behavior, an agreeable personality, caring and…well…being nice.

Do nice people need to be saved? Most people would say no. They’re nice and nice people go to heaven, don’t they? Isn’t that what the golden rule is about? The Good Samaritan. Now he was nice. How about Jesus who refused to condemn the woman caught in adultery? Wasn’t that nice?

Nice is not a fruit of the Spirit. Nor is it a beatitude from the Sermon on the Mount. God never said, “Be nice as I am nice.” Christ didn’t die on the cross to make people nice.

Nice is cultural. It is meant to help us get along with one another. Nice gives you friends, it even might get you a job, or a girlfriend. But nice will never score any points with God and it will not be your ticket to heaven.

The nice people of the world need to know that they are sinners in need of the saving work of Christ. They need to trade in their niceness for a new life. What they need is holiness and a changed heart. Then and only then will they understand their niceness was filthy rags in the sight of God.

Sin Boldly

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

Martin Luther said,

“God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for He is victorious over sin, death, and the world.”

Christ is for sinners, for people like you and me who have no appetite for God, who prefer ourselves over any other being in the universe, who have a real inclination toward evil, who are rebels, traitors, willful deviants, and who do not want to change. Those are the people Christ goes after.

This predicament is not only in an individual life but it’s universal in scope. Only sinners live on this planet. There are no other kinds of people. No matter what country people live in, or what culture they belong to, their ultimate need is not psychological or emotional, political or economic, or even their alienation from one another. Their true need is to be delivered from God’s judgment and curse. And they are going to be judged on the merits of their own righteousness–or lack thereof–or the righteousness of Another.

This is what makes Christ so relevant to every generation, every culture, and every race.