The Look of a Disciple
II. "What Your Treasure Says About You"
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
I have decided what is wrong with our church. The problem is we come to mass gatherings of worship and get excited and blessed but the problem is we expect an immediate change in us and all that goes on around us. We think that because we got Jesus that our mean boss should change and be nice to everyone. We think that because we got Jesus, everything should be just great in life and then when we find out everything is not great, we get rid of Jesus. For most people, change takes time! That requires a long-term commitment using tried and true methods found only through trial and error. Look at the
What we need to do is remind ourselves that we must move beyond singleness and look at wholeness. In order to look at wholeness we have to check our loyalties and make sure we have them focused in the right direction. Our loyalties must be towards the
Each of us can check to see where our loyalties lie by examining three areas of our life: Where are our commitments, what we are training for, and where are our actions?
I. Lets look at commitment first:
When you finally found that someone special in your life, or when you do find that person, and visions of marriage started immerging, what did you expect from your spouse? There are many things I am sure but the one common theme in us all is the fact we wanted the same level of commitment from our spouse as we had or have towards them. That was the one thing I realized about Robin – she loved me as much as I loved her. She was committed to me just as I was to her and we still are. Look at Christ’s commitment to us:
JOSHUA 1:5 “I will never leave you or forsake you.” That is a bold statement don’t you agree. Look at: Romans 8:38 “Nothing can separate you from my love.” Another huge statement!
Do we have that same commitment to Jesus? It is questionable. I dare say that I will never leave Him but I can’t say I will never forsake Him because I am a sinner. No matter what I do in life I will always be a sinner and sooner or later I will forsake Him. Yes – I will return and ask His forgiveness, but nonetheless – I will hurt Him.
Matthew 28:20 “I am with you always”
God is serious about His commitment to us. He lays it all out there on the table for us. What are you holding back? What is keeping you from being totally committed to God? What is keeping your from presence from the church? Giving your whole tithe? Going to visit that person in the hospital or telling a friend or neighbor about Christ. Knocking on a door or being on a planning team? What is keeping you from the blessings returned to you when you make a commitment?
II. Next, we have to ask ourselves is what are we training for?
1 Peter 1:13 “Prepare your minds for action.” When I trained police officers we trained in the most grueling and the most lifelike conditions. We trained for the worst and hoped for the best. IF it was summer we made sure we practiced in the heat. If it was winter we periodically trained in the snow. We ran for miles although a typical foot chase only lasted a few blocks at the most. We dressed in our normal gear so as to be comfortable with what we wore everyday. We role-played and did scenario training. We even used bullets fired from real guns, called simunition, and are plastic tipped or paint filled bullets. Brothers and sisters I am here to tell you that they hurt! When we used those it gave you a whole new healthy appreciation for fear and pain. I shot at a guy once and it ricochet off a light fixture and hit him in the facial cheek. 7 stitches later he began to recite to me a whole different version of “Vengeance is mine”.
Look at your own jobs and hobbies and play time. Golfers practice a lifetime. Woodworkers are always trying to perfect. Employees are hopefully trying to become more productive and efficient. But Christians think that Sundays for an hour is all it takes. That is wrong! We need to practice all week in preparation for one hour on Sunday. Worship should be a lifestyle! You should worship God day in and day out. Worship and practice Christianity at home, at work, in your car, in your conversations. That doesn’t mean the word Jesus has to be in every other sentence but his spirit does.
Do you know how we change the lives of those in the community around us? We each have to have a lifestyle reflecting Jesus Christ and worship Him each and everyday. You won’t even have to ask people to come because the spirit of the Lord will draw them here. They will want to be here. Commitment to Christ and constant training as Christians.
III. Finally – Where are your actions?
What are you spending your time on? You want to know where your treasures reside? Look at your calendar. Where are your loyalties? How many cat lovers are here today? How about dog lovers? Our loyalties can be summed up in the characteristics of these two distinctively different animals: You are either “Cat-loyal” or “dog-loyal”. Now I don’t mean you are either a cat lover or dog lover. No, I mean you are either loyal like a cat or loyal like a dog. Cats are loyal to the house. Dogs are loyal to the master. Cats will turn their nose to you in the blink of an eye. I grew up with cats and dogs. I know how they act. You can treat a cat like royalty: a feather bed, with silk sheets, kitty litter that smells like roses, and food by Fancy Feast with a side of star-kist tuna and they will still walk right by you to go lay in a ray of sunshine on the living room floor. A dog on the other hand; you can leave out in the snow and ice for week without food and make him eat snow for water and as soon as he sees you begins running for you, wagging his tail, before you even call him.
Do you actions follow your words or vice-versa? Do you say, “I am Christian and your action show you are not? Do you try to act like Christ but speak against him?
1 Peter 1:15, “But just as he who is called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.’”
Yes, you can be holy at work. You can be holy in your car. You can be holy on the golf course or in your garage or shop. You can be holy at football games and band rehearsals. You can be holy at bunko, aerobics, art class, math class and practices of all varieties. We should be like a player who has practiced just as hard as all the others but sitting on the bench just waiting for his turn. It is a choice.
For many people, the church has given this image of Jesus as one who never smiles, doesn’t laugh, and really wants us to follow a bunch of rules. They think Jesus hates loud music, cute clothes, and frowns upon fun in general. Somehow for many people the church has turned the Word of God into these ancient writings that now have nothing to do with our world today. Many people, some of you even, may have come to this place with some burden and what you experienced did nothing to give you any hope or peace. My fear is that maybe some (again, maybe you) come to here hopeless, confused and scared but we are too busy with our traditions, too caught up in teaching lessons, singing songs we know but others don’t, that we don’t even notice the pain (your pain). I am sorry for that. If we cannot comfort the brokenhearted, put our arm around a person who is lonely, give a lifeline to a single mom or dad who is overwhelmed, give strength to the addict who struggles everyday with their addiction; If we cannot be a family to a widow who struggles with loss or a person going through a crisis in their health or give hope, peace, and purpose for this journey of life then we need to call ourselves something else, but don’t call us the church.