February 22, 2009

February 22, 2009

Dr. Ron Sumners

A Plea For A Christian Lifestyle

James 1:22-25

        Everyone has a lifestyle. We are particularly fascinated by lifestyles that are new = or different. The Hippies of the 60’s and the Preppies and Punk Rockers = of the 80’s attracted attention because their lifestyles were different.=

        There was a man in the community where I was raised named Fonzie Aldredge. His lifestyle made an impression on me. As far as I know, Fonzie never had a job nor intended to have a job. He rode a bicycle wherever he went, and except = in the coldest weather he went barefoot. His bare feet were so calloused that = he could easily strike a match on the bottom of either bare heel. I know it’s true because I saw him do it. Fonzie Aldredge had style!

        Consider the lifestyle of Elijah. He was a hairy man, given to wearing a loin cloth, running and hiding for his life, eating food brought to him by crows, doing without food for forty days, hunkered over in a miserable little cave, runn= ing ahead of Ahab’s Chariot, and finally caught up by a whirlwind into heaven. His lifestyle leaves you breathless.

        Consider the lifestyle of John the Baptist with his camel hair shirt and his “unappetizing” diet of locust and wild honey. He was a genuine radical voice crying in the wilderness. His was such a brash personality th= at he denounced the people nice enough to hike out into the desert to hear him= as a generation of snakes. He sounded an unsettling, outlandish call for them = to do things to demonstrate that they really loved God and had turned from sin. There was his final awful ending with his head on the platter of Herod. His lifestyle would not attract many imitators.

        Or consider the lifestyle of Peter; apostle, running, cursing, praying, backsliding rededicating, prejudiced, open, opinionated, learning, weak, strong, vacillating, rock, quitter, activist, human, maybe even a little schizophrenic, maybe even Baptist! His lifestyle leaves us gasping like a f= ish out of water.

        We tend to think of lifestyles in very superficial terms. We identify lifestyl= es by clothes, hemlines, collars, hair, music volume, food preferences, sleepi= ng habits, work patterns, conformity to culture. But such variations of lifest= yle are not new, either among the country yahoos or the jet set. They are as ol= d as Methuselah.

        There is no redemptive word in style. There is no word from the Lord on fads, pop movements, punk rock, in-things, preppies, yuppies, fashion, black-power, b= lack culture, youth culture, white culture, WASP culture or even germ culture. N= one of the things that come and go across the stage of life give us a word from God, not really.

        As Christians, we are concerned about a total lifestyle that reflects conformi= ty to Christ. We are concerned about a right relationship to God that causes r= ight relationships to others. We are concerned that our lifestyle exemplify the style of Jesus Christ.

        Today’s world in which Christians live is a fallen, sinful, disfigured, hurting, immoral world. It is preoccupied with throwing litter along the highway of life. By an incredible distortion of logic, the world views immorality as a harmless exercise of the times, violence as the way to solve conflict, raci= sm as a divine right, sexual promiscuity as a right of passage from childhood,= and materialism as it’s just dessert. It firmly believes that a person’s life consists of the abundance of the things he possesses. I= ts master is Master Card and it gives its soul to Sears, JC Penny and GMAC. It= is a world shot through with moral Novocain. Its conscience is no bigger than a bar of soap after a hard days washing.

        We arrive late, leave early and do not want to get involved. We feel no compas= sion to keep our word. We are pathetically wall-eyed, with one eye on the payche= ck and the other on the rear-view mirror watching to make sure we stay ahead of the Jones. We make quantity; king and quality; pauper. Our society seems hell-bent on cutting the jugular vein of decency. Its crime in the street is bad, but the white-collar crime is even worse. It is not our luck that has failed; it is our judgment.

        The world perceives raunchiness and vulgarity as creativity. It has become a wo= rld of unlimited impossibilities. We dance on the edge of the bottomless pit an= d we have lost our faith in God, hope of mankind and love for either God or mank= ind. Our world is morbidly preoccupied with trying to find new nerve endings to stimulate. Instead of making a joyful noise unto the Lord it ends up making= a pitiful whimper to itself.

        It dies the death of a thousand qualifications. It seems incapable of letting = yea be yea and nay be nay. Its convictions are never quite sure of themselves. “What’s in it for me” has become the Bill of Rights! It u= nder produces wisdom and overproduces knowledge. Because it does not understand = the past, it can neither redeem the present nor prepare adequately for the futu= re. To satisfy the appetite of the moment it will burn down a cathedral to roas= t a hot dog.

        For all its education and affluence and leisure and technology, it remains boun= d in misery. It is afflicted with congenital “meism”, blurred vision= and a terrible case of hardening of the sympathies. The world, and the church in the world, is as far from real repentance as Ernest Angley is from the Mayo Clinic.

        Its family life is on the rocks; its racism is unresolved. Its citizenship is characterized by corruption and cowardice in equal parts. Its economics is = an incredible rip-off of the “have-nots” by the “haves” who manipulate the system to shock it to the poor and provide loop-holes fo= r the rich.

&= nbsp;      It lives and moves and has its being in an open Pandora’s Box of polluti= on, pornography, population crisis, hunger, violence, wars and rumors of wars. = To be a Christian and live in such an age and be a part of the church that has adopted this culture, i to be in a moral rage almost all the time. To live = in this community and observe the open immorality and corruption that is toler= ated in private and public lives reminds me of what the old folks used to say ba= ck in Vincent when they saw a dog eating grass. A dog will eat grass only when= he is sick, and it was said, “There is something that dog ain’t getting”. I can tell you with full confidence that what the world ain’t getting, and what Shelby County ain’t getting’ and = what Meadow Brook Baptist Church ain’t getting’ is Jesus Christ!

        I have purposely painted a very negative picture to emphasize that GOD HAS A BETTER WAY! It is the way of Repentance, Faith and Christian Love in action= .

        By repentance, I mean a spirit of teachableness. I mean the acceptance of your humanity with its finiteness and failures, its wrinkles and its warts. I me= an a knowledge of yourself that neither degrades nor deifies the real you. I mea= n a consciousness of sin that makes us dependent on the Holy Spirit.=

        Repentance is not just something you do the summer after you turn nine years old and forget for the rest of your life. It is a continuing characteristic of the Christian lifestyle. Repentance is a complete change of mental outlook and life. It is not only Godly sorrow for sin but also a purposeful turning from sin. We need to repent because the wages of sin is still death and Jesus st= ill promises life.

        Repentance is the keynote of the New Testament. There are 56 direct references to repentance. It is an absolutely necessary ingredient in the Christian’= ;s continuing lifestyle so that self-righteousness is avoided, humility is cultivated and the way is kept open for continuing fellowship with God and renewal by Him. I know some crusty old sinners in the church and some arrog= ant young sinners in the church and at least one jaded, 59 year old pastor-sinn= er, whose recovery of repentance as a lifestyle would bring incredible blessing= s to them and to the church.

        We don’t need to sew fig leaves to cover our sin. They don’t hide our sin from= God any more than they did in Eden= . We simply need to repent! We need to be born again and we need to repent da= ily of the sin that continually haunts our life.

        Faith, like repentance is a continuing characteristic and primary ingredient of a = Christian lifestyle. By faith, I mean trust in God as sovereign, trust in mankind as = made in God’s image and trust in yourself as someone of infinite worth who= se potential is as great as we dare to dream. I mean confidence that God has created a moral universe. I mean the assurance of Rom. 8:28 that “all things work together for good to them who love God and are called according= to His purposes.” I mean being committed to the propositions that love is better than hate; peace is better than war; giving is better than getting; building is better than tearing down; purity is better than filth; characte= r is better than popularity; ideals are better than image; and that it is better= to suffer for Christ’s sake than to compromise with evil. By faith, I me= an the acceptance of the Ten Commandments as still valid for the day in which we l= ive. I mean acceptance of the four-letter words which are as important today as ever: kind, wise, just, good, true, sing, pray, give, obey, help, life and love. By faith, the Christian walks in boom times and depressions, in spiri= tual highs and psychological lows, in joy and in sorrow, year after year. Faith = is not a mere posturing in which we blandly acknowledge God’s existence = or formally pray for direction. Faith is not just an intellectual assent to the facts of Christianity; even “the devils believe and tremble” (J= ames 1:19). Faith is standing at attention in God’s presence and saying, “Lord, what would you have me do today?” Saving faith is the ab= solute commitment to go with God with no exceptions at the bottom in fine print. F= aith is not gritting your teeth and believing something in spite of evidence. It= is living life for the Lord in spite of consequences. It is faith, not knowled= ge nor emotions nor prayer nor tongues, nor charisma nor ecstasy nor worship n= or work nor fellowship nor stewardship, but faith that characterizes the Chris= tian lifestyle.

        As repentance and faith distinctly characterize the Christian lifestyle so does Christian love in action.

        Christian love is altogether different than the adolescent mentality that equates love with sexual activity. Christian love in action is cross bearing; self-sacrifice. In a song in the Rock Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, Judas = begs Jesus not to push His message too hard. “Let’s keep it beautiful”, Judas implores. But God’s purposes can not always be served by keeping things nice and beautiful. The call to Christ is a clear = call for anyone who chooses to come after Him to deny himself and take up his cr= oss daily and follow him. (Luke 9:23) God’s call is not just to repeat old clichés in the church house on Sundays. God’s call is not just= to tithe. It is not just to chur= ch attendance. It may be a call to come to grips with the principalities of the television networks and local television stations and the advertisers who a= sk us to buy their products and pay for the reprehensible television shows with their violence, cheap sex, degraded family life, profanity, perversion and materialism. It may be a call to be involved in a community ministry. It ma= y be a call for legislative reforms and to break down the good-ole-boyism that h= as dominated politics in our state for decades. It may be a call to improve the care for the retarded and elderly. It may be a call to minister to the one = who has fallen by the side of life’s road and to band together with other= s to make the roads of life safer to travel.

        Christian love in action is a pilgrimage. Yet how quickly a pilgrim becomes a tenant, occupying their own special seat on Sunday morning, and we assume that we a= re the owners of the church. We own nothing, not even the life that courses through our veins. It is all of God! Christianity is a movement not an institution. It is a voyage not a safe harbor. You can’t own a moveme= nt you can only become a part of it. This is not your church nor my church, it= is God’s instrument for the movement of His spirit across the face of the earth. And for all of you who have taken up residence here and feel ownersh= ip here; get out of the way or jump on because the movement of God’s spi= rit is active and He is claiming ownership of His church for the purpose He intended and homesteading is not one of them!

        In our pilgrimage we move toward the land God has promised us as He did the Israelites of old. We are an Exodus and sojourning people. We have not arri= ved! When we are a people faithful to our calling, we are people who act in love= !

        We must understand that love for righteousness, truth, goodness and justice cannot substitute for the practice of righteousness, truth, goodness and justice.<= span style=3D'mso-tab-count:1'>

        I stand wide-eyed with wonder at the hope which God is stirring in the church today. Christianity cannot share secular man’s discouragement, despondency, and despair. We have the hope of Christ’s return and fin= al victory in Him. But this hope is no excuse for withdrawal to the comfort of= a Godless acceptance of family disintegration, institutionalized racism, political corruption and loose morality. We have a moral obligation to be t= he salt and light for this world.

        Christians are called in one hope. We confidently place our lives in the hands of God.= We expectantly hunger and thirst after righteousness. We gladly endure for the= joy that is set before us. We faithfully pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will= be done.” We joyfully anticipate the destiny that God has placed before = us. We hopefully envision a day when all men have heard the Gospel and had a ch= ance to respond. We anxiously look forward to that day when the desert shall blo= om like the rose; the wolf shall lie down with the lamb and men shall beat the= ir swords into plows and their spears into pruning hooks.

        We must not be content to gain knowledge about Jesus and who He was. In a wonderfully risky and exciting way we must set our face toward “the m= ark of the high calling God”. We must realize that Christianity is a lifestyle.

        I want us to express that hope today through the renewed commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord. It is a commitment to people and principles. People are fir= st, but we need, like never before, some solid, Ten Commandment, Sermon on the Mount principles to stand on.

        And we express that hope in the conviction that if we ever lose a concern to po= int people to the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world, we have lost= the spirit and the power of God! And if we have not yet come to a concern to br= ing justice and righteousness and peace and goodness to all people, we have nev= er come to God in the first place!

        God has called us to live at the knife-edge of time, where the past meets and struggles with the future, with a lifestyle that expresses our hope on the = One who holds the future in the palm of His hand.

        Today, I am making a plea that we make our Christianity a way of life. I make a pl= ea for Christian lifestyles.