Engaging our World for Christ

Yesterday in my sermon about 1 Pet. 2:11-12, I mentioned that there are two questions that we should ask ourselves to determine if we are truly being missionaries for the Lord. Below are the questions:

1. Identity: How many of your friends know you are a Christian by your behavior?
2. Mission: How many non-Christians do you really know?

In many ways, those two questions can be anchor points for each one of us as we seek to engage and impact the world around us. For if we can answer these questions well, it means others are being impacted for Christ by our life, whereas if we can’t, then we are not letting our light shine.

Last night, I had a member come up to me and tell me about his afternoon. He was impacted by the sermon in the morning (and particularly question #1) and so in the afternoon, he went out and asked some of his friends, “How can you tell that I am a Christian?” He was curious if they knew he was a Christian simply because he came to church or some other reason, or if it was because of his actions and behavior. What a challenging, yet informative question to ask! What if we all asked a non-Christian friend that same question? I think it would give us an update on how we are doing in being “peculiar” within our world. That is your challenge for this week. I would love to hear what you learn in response.

Also, which question do you struggle with the most - #1 or #2? I would be curious to know. Because of my position, I probably struggle with #2 more because I am around Christian people quite frequently. In fact, I have noticed if I am not intentional about putting myself in places where non-Christians are and seeking out their friendships, then my answer to #2 can be pretty small. What about you?

Links to Steve's Sermons

"Know the Nature of God" (June 13, 2010)
www.archive.org/details/KnowTheNatureOfGod

"Claim Your Place in the Spiritual House" (June 20, 2010)
www.archive.org/details/ClaimYourPlaceInTheSpiritualHouse

Some Links to Check Out

To those who want to go deeper and learn more about the idea of “honor” and “shame” within the first century that I mentioned Sunday, here’s a link to a good article on the subject:
www.ivpress.com

Here’s a link to the song about Belle in the Beauty and the Beast. Can anyone find the word “peculiar” in the song?
www.youtube.com

Link to the story in Psychology Today about the impact of peer pressure on young girls in regards to their bodies:
www.psychologytoday.com

Seeing Honor, when Others see Shame

There are a couple directions I could go after my sermon yesterday. But one direct connection is that if God views us with honor, despite what the world thinks of us, should we not view others in the same way? Because God chooses to view us with a different set of values, should not we view other people in a different way as well?

I think this hit me a couple years ago when our theme for Southside was “Lord Open our Eyes.” When I prayed this over and over, I started to observe that there were people everywhere who often I did not even think about or even notice. Grocery cashiers, drivers in the car next to me, fast food restaurant workers, neighbors down the street, and children on a playground. I would see these people on a daily basis, and yet act as if they simply did not even exist. My interaction with them was purely based on their involvement (often, negative) in my life. For instance, if they messed up my fast food order or did not give me the right change, then I noticed who was working there. If they did it all right, I didn’t notice.

Not to mention, other people who I don’t see on a regular basis because my path of daily interaction does not interface with them. Like for instance, people who are homeless, poor, or disabled. These people do not offer me any tangible reward for getting to know them. I am not going to receive any benefits from interacting with them (at least, initially); it is just going to be work on my part. So I can plan my daily path to not deal with them, at least in some way.

Yet, when we ask God to open our eyes, we see the people that I have described. They are there – maybe jaded by the world and shamed by the community. But they are there. I think Peter’s message in 2:4-10 challenges our viewpoint of others. Of all people in the world, the one group who should be willing to look at a person not for what they have accomplished or where they work (or don’t work), but simply for who they are should be Christians. After all, is that not what God has done in us? Simply because of His mercy, He has declared us as “His people.” So the challenge for us is to adopt that same mindset with others in our path (and even outside of our path). To notice a person and see their God-given value when the world does not see it, and maybe they do not even see it themselves.

"Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him." 1 Cor. 1:26-29

Does anyone struggle with the challenge of seeing honor and value in people, despite what they do, where they live, and who they associate with?

Application point: Sometime this week, notice a person during your routine duties and interact with them in a special way because you recognize the value they have as a person.

Holy Fear

Yesterday I mentioned briefly in my lesson the concept of fearing God. Peter says in 1:17, “conduct yourselves in fear” (NIV adds “reverent fear” to soften the term, but the Greek word is “fear”). So what does this mean to live in fear of God? Fear often conjures up negative emotions. We feel fear when a tornado warning is sounded or when we hear a doctor’s diagnosis. We feel fear when the teacher calls our name catching us misbehaving or when the police car starts flashing his lights while driving behind us. Often this is what we can think of when we use the term “fearing God.” We might think of God as a big policeman getting ready to catch us doing something wrong, so we live in fear hoping that we never mess up.

But there is a positive side to fear, as I mentioned yesterday. If the President of the United States was coming over to your house today, probably you would drop everything to get your house ready. You would take out the trash, dust the furniture, wash the dishes, etc trying to make everything as clean as you can for his arrival. Why? Because you know he is a man of importance and you want to show honor and respect for him by making your house presentable. In other words, you fear him in some way. The positive side of fear is reverence, awe, or honor. It is holding someone up in so high esteem that to be in their presence causes you to be nervous – not because you are scared but because you are amazed. Yet it is not just a feeling. True fear – biblical fear – causes us to do something. It causes us to act. A good example is in Ex. 9:20, where it says, “The servants of Pharoah who feared the word of the Lord made his servants flee…into the houses.” Moses had predicted a hailstorm upon Egypt by the hand of God. Those who feared God did something. They acted. They told the servants to get inside. Contrary to Pharoah, they believed in what God could do and revered Him so much that they were going to act in some way. I think that is what Peter calls us to do: to live in such a way, not where we are scared of God, but that we honor and revere Him so much that it makes us want to obey Him. Sometimes we obey God out of gratitude for what He has done, yet sometimes we obey Him because we are in awe and fascination of who He is – that is fearing the Lord.

How do you understand the idea of “fearing the Lord”?

“Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.” Deut. 4:10

Application Point: Ask someone this week, “What are your thoughts about God?” Everyone has an opinion about God and if you ask and listen, they will share. See what people are saying about God and compare it to what Peter said.

A Few Links to Check Out

Born Into A Living Hope Sermon (June 6, 2010):
www.archive.org/details/BornAgainIntoALivingHope
(Under "Whole Item" click on "22MB" to begin the download)

20/20 Shawn Grim Video:
www.youtube.com

Voice of Martyrs Map of Persecution:
Persecution Map

Remember Your Baptism

What a great Sunday we had! As I was preaching on being "born again into a living hope" yesterday, it dawned on me that maybe this is the reason why Paul mentions baptism so much in his letters (see for example, Rom. 6:3-4; 1 Cor. 12:12; Gal. 3:27). I mentioned in my lesson that baptism is the beginning of our identity as God's peculiar people. When we are immersed in water, everything about us changes (from our desires, our dreams, our actions, to even how we treat our spouse). Often when Paul wanted to encourage a church to be more Christ-like, he would remind them of their baptism. To Paul, baptism was a powerful act that permanently changed the identity of who we are. We have acts like this in our society. Maybe a timely one right now is high school graduation. Often the luster of this event gets lost in the fact that there will be college for four more years, then possibly graduate school, etc. But what makes high school graduation so special is the fact that a young person is maturing. They have moved on from being a quirky teenager to a young adult. Have you ever noticed what someone says when a young adult starts acting a little juvenile? "Hey, we're not in high school anymore!" In other words, we have a different identity now. We've matured and so act like it. I think that is what Paul often would tell the Christians he wrote to. "Hey, you've been baptized; quit acting like you haven't been!"

What if we saw baptism less as simply an act where forgiveness is found (although certainly this is true) but more as a boundary marker that would set out a new kind of identity. When someone was not acting like they should spiritually, we could simply say, "Hey stop doing that; you've been baptized! Baptized people don't act like that."

My brother-in-law (who will be speaking in a couple of weeks on a Wednesday night) tells the story of a Middle Eastern man who wanted to become a Christian. Because he came from a Muslim background, the Christians wanted him to weigh the costs of his decision. So they told him, "We do not want you to become a Christian until you are ready to die." He thought about it and eventually decided to be immersed - his love of Christ was too great despite the risks. But what if we warned everyone preparing to be baptized in the same way. It would definitely cement in our minds the change in our identity that comes from being "born again" - the point Peter was trying to bring out in 1:3.

Application point for this week: Ask someone about their baptism/conversion story. Maybe start with a family member or close friend. Ask them about what they felt as they were immersed and how they feel now looking back on that event. If someone hears a good baptism story, I would love to hear it.

Have a blessed week. Live like the baptized people you are!