Which Cross Are You Living By? Part One

As we approach Easter in the church we begin to focus more on the cross, how Christ died for our sins and how great that is for us.  This is all good, I can’t help but wonder are we too focused on the wrong cross.  In three of the gospels Christ tells his followers this, ““If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me.”  This recorded in Mark 8:34, Matthew 16:24, and also Luke 9:23.  Not just one but all three, this tells us that it must be important that we do this.  If we claim to be Christians then we are saying that are disciples, followers, and if that is the case then we are to be doing as Christ told us.  Why is it so important that we die to ourselves?  Why not just accept the truth of the Gospel and live as we want to?  The thing is one simply cannot take part of a truth and ignore the rest.  It would be like someone walking into a store that has a sign that say shoes and shirt required, they tell the owner the store, “I accept that you must wear shoes but I don’t believe in shirts.”  Then the owner saying “that is good enough for me happy shopping.”  Yet so many Christians are saying that to God, “I accept that you sent your son to die for my sins, thanks for the forgiveness.  I don’t really accept that I have to pick up my own cross and die to myself that is just too hard.”  Then they figure God will be ok with that. 

We have to begin to realize that if we want to be Christians we have to begin to die to the Gospel.  We cannot treat God as just a consultant, as someone we get advice from which we may or may not take.  We must begin to allow our lives to be dictated by God.  This may sound a bit much but it is what Christ is telling us, we have become so focused on the Cross being our salvation we have forgotten that we to must die and begin to allow God to change us from the inside.  In her interview with Christianity Today Kate Bowlor says this in response to being asked it the church needs to lament “Jesus dying for my sins is fundamental to my salvation. But that’s actually not what I need to hear right now. What I need to hear is about the breaking of the kingdom. What I need to hear about is the sense that after the resurrection Jesus breaks the power of death and wants to transform us from the inside out.”¹  So many times we just want to go live our lives, feel good about who we are, we don’t want to be changed. We desire to be us and not worry about what pleases God.   We don’t want to ask the tough questions like do my political stances line up with the gospel, are my actions and words showing God’s love, do I treat people as God would want them treated?  Is God really changing me from the inside out?

We have to be working at growing stronger in God’s word, in our prayer life, and growing to know God better.  We are His children but at the same time we are also His servants, ever notice how many of the letters written started with so and so, a bond servant of Christ.  Peter tells us this, “So, dear brothers and   sisters,  work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Doing this, you will never stumble or fall away. And God will open wide the gates of heaven for you to enter into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”(2^nd Peter 1:10-11)  This leaves us with the question which Cross are you chasing after

1 On Dying and Reckoning with the Prosperity Gospel

How church historian Kate Bowler's cancer diagnosis brought her face-to-face with the beauty and terror of the popular movement.



Interview by Morgan Lee/ FEBRUARY 23, 2016

I'm I As Great As I think I Am?

Have you ever known that person who stands around and criticizes those around them, talking as if they are better than everyone else?   I think we all know that person, the thing is that person really isn’t any better than those they are complaining about.  Most of the time the thing they compline about is the same thing they do.  Paul warns us not to become that person, in chapter six of Galatians he tells them this about correcting another Christian.  “Dear brothers and sisters, if another Christian is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s troubles and problems, and in this way obey the law of Christ.  If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself. You are really a nobody.”(Ga 6:1-3)  He reminds them that they also may fall into the same temptation as those who they are trying help.  He says to them, remember in this be humble and do not think to highly of yourself.  He also reminds them that they are above no one.  It is our job to be obedient to Christ and help those who need help, while not looking down on them.

Paul is once again reminding his readers not to be focused on thinking of how great they are.  It’s their job to be humble in Christ to not be overcome with themselves as being the one who is great and awesome, but to be the person who is always striving to improve their relationship with God.  He tells us this in verses four through five; “Be sure to do what you should, for then you will enjoy the personal satisfaction of having done your work well, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.  For we are each responsible for our own conduct.”  Paul tells us, we are not to worry about what others may be doing, that’s not our responsibility, we are to be a living for God by making it a point to grow stronger in God.  The way we conduct ourselves and live our lives is showing the world around who Christ is.  God is not going to judge us on the standard of how others have lived but on how we lived our lives.  We cannot go before the throne and say “well, I may have had my faults but Floyd over there was much worse.” (I really do not know anyone named Floyd)  Paul tells us we must start building a foundation on which our faith is going to grow deeper, and we continue to do good when we can. (Want to see what Christ had say about all this read Luke 6:27-49). 

Let us stop being concerned with what others may or may not be doing right, let us be more concerned about how we are living our lives.  Are we focused on the word God, and prayer as we should be? Are we going to be easily mislead by corrupt teachers, and bad theology?  Paul leave us with this thought: “As for me, God forbid that I should boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross,  my interest in this world died long ago, and the world’s interest in me is also long dead. It doesn’t make any difference now whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people. May God’s mercy and peace be upon all those who live by this principle.” (Ga 6:14-16)

How Does Living By The Spirit Work?

As we looked at being made free by the Gospel last week, this week as we look at the second half of Galatians we find out that we are to live by the guiding of the Holy Spirit.   This sounds simple yet it is a real struggle for most.  Why is this such a struggle as Paul points out there is an ongoing struggle between our sinful nature to do what it has always done and the Holy Sprite working in us to change us.  How do we even know if we are living in the sprite of God or by the sinful nature?  Paul tells in verses 19-22 of Chapter five.  “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.” 

As we look at this list of what sinful nature is and is not I could not help but notice at the end, what happens to those who are living by the Holy Spirit.  Paul says we produce fruit, what does that mean?  It means that we are not living for ourselves anymore we are living to produce God’s love and peace in our lives.  It means that instead of us living our lives for our own benefit, we live to see God’s Kingdom grow.  But How does this happen? How do we become more like Christ and have this love and peace flow through? Christ answers this question for us; “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” (John15:4-5) We do not have a relationship by following a bunch of rules, but by coming to God and giving Him our lives, through prayer and reading His word.  As we draw closer to God His power and strength is going to begin to strengthen us and we are going to have new desires. We are going to become more self-controlled, and relay on His Holy Spirit to give us wisdom and strength.

As we look at this Idea of following God and living not for our selfish ambitions but to live for God, to go out and come into a deep and meaningful relationship with God, we must realize that this is not what the world is going to understand.  Have you ever decided that you want to begin to change things in your life, to maybe start eating healthier?  What are the reactions of those around you?  Some may say good for you that’s not really for me.  Others are going to possibly try and make it difficult for you and taunt you.  While others may come alongside you and help you.  This is very much like coming to Christ, many are not going to understand, some may taunt you, others may try to lead you astray, while some may come alongside and do what they can to help.  The thing is, how are we going to respond to these people? Are we going to become discouraged and walk away, or are we going to say I may have to walk away from some old friends in order to draw closer to Christ.  I am going to leave you with what Christ told Peter when Peter thought he was correcting Christ after Christ told them that He must be killed.  “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s.” Then Jesus said to the disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me.  If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.  And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul^* in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul? For I, the Son of Man, will come in the glory of my Father with his angels and will judge all people according to their deeds.  And I assure you that some of you standing here right now will not die before you see me, the Son of Man, coming in my Kingdom.”  (Matthew 16:23-28)

Do The Rules Really Apply To Me? Part One

There is this idea that we as Christians need to go out and do certain things to please God, that it is in our abilities to please God.  We have to go and dress a certain way, talk a certain way and follow a bunch of rules, that are not even talked about in the bible.  This is what Paul was coming against as he wrote to the Galatians, there was a group of people who came and told them they had to follow all of the old Jewish laws, as we come to chapter five Paul begins to explain what it means to be free in Gospel and to live by the Spirit of God.  When Paul wrote to the Romans he told them that everyone is under the power of sin, “Well then, are we Jews better than others? No, not at all, for we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin.”(Romans 3:9)  Paul is reminding the Galatians readers that we are to not be living by the law but by the Sprite.  “But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive everything promised to us who are right with God through faith. ⁶ For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, it makes no difference to God whether we are circumcised or not circumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love”(Ga 5:5-6)

 

The Galatians had fallen into the trap of being fooled into thinking that they needed to do something other than having faith that God’s Grace was more than sufficient for their salvation.  Christ warned His followers of this, in Matthew 16:6, “How could you even think I was talking about food? So again I say, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”  Christ was explaining how false teaching can spread like wild fire and fool people.  How do we keep ourselves from being fooled and how can we figure out how we as Christians are to live our lives?  Paul said we are to “live by the sprite” (Ga 5:5), “what is important is faith expressing itself in love” (Ga 5:6).  For the next two weeks we are going to be looking at this idea of being free in the Gospel by living in the Spirit.  This week let’s talk about what it means to be free.  Galatians 5:13-15 tells us “For you have been called to live in freedom—not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if instead of showing love among yourselves you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.”

Paul clearly tells us we are called to live in freedom, but that freedom is not a freedom of doing whatever we want.  We are called to serve one another; we are free to love everyone.   When asked which commandant is the most important Christ said ““The most important commandment is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^* No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mark12:29-21)   Notice that it is love that is to drive us as Christians, not rules but love of God then for people.  Paul told them that they were not showing love but instead they were, “biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.”  When we begin to get caught up with rules and regulations we start to care more about looking good and we start comparing ourselves to one another.  God desires that we love Him, that we follow Him, and share His love with others.  If we want to live for God we must love God with our whole heart and our actions are going to show the Love we have in God. “Let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions. It is by our actions that we know we are living in the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before the Lord, even if our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”(1^st John 3:18-19)