No Matter How You Voted, Remember This!

I've hesitated to write again on anything political, as I still have so many questions myself as to what to do on election day.  However, as that dreaded election Tuesday rapidly approaches, I have three encouragements with which I'd like to strengthen us all.   If you've read anything I've written before, chances are you know I try to write with a pastor's heart to exhort my brothers and sisters in Christ.

First, always remember to keep America and the Church of the Lord Jesus separate in your thinking.  You may believe that is a superfluous statement, but I'm not so sure.  Because of America's strong Christian heritage, many have come to see those two as somehow synonymous--but they are not.  I was in a meeting recently when a brother commented, "If Clinton wins, we're doomed." In context it seemed pretty clear the "we" referred to us as followers of Jesus.   I know we all appreciate much of the Christian morality that has permeated our American culture, and as we see that slipping away from our land we feel that loss, but know this--we Christians are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us!  No matter what America does as a nation or as a culture, we the Church are not doomed.  The Church will not only continue strong, but we will be triumphant at the conclusion of all things.

Second, let's not allow this election to steal our unity as followers of Jesus.   It really is amazing to me how passionate believers are, both for Trump and against him.  Unfortunately that passion has led to a division between Christians.   I touched on this in my last article when I wrote about how vitriolic the language and tenor have been by both Clinton and Trump supporters.  Sadly, that same vitriol leaked from the "pens" of many Christ followers, and was even directed at other believers.  I really believe, no matter how strongly you hold to the rightness of your "Trump/No Trump" vote, we would be best served by applying Jesus' admonition to not judge one another, but rather entrust each other to God's Spirit.  For some of us, "A Christian must vote for Trump" or "A Christian should never vote for Trump" seems as clear as high definition, and we can't understand how anyone would see it differently; but they do--with equal conviction.  It would be nice if we all agreed, though personally I can understand why believers fall on either side of this divide.  What we need even now is to stand united in our Savior, even if we disagree on who to vote for.

Finally, don't let fear or despair over take you, but instead be filled with hope and joy.  I realize that it is disheartening to see our culture and our nation move away from Biblical morality, especially at such a rapid pace, and there seems so little we can do to arrest its retreat; but none of that is cause for despair.  Remember that God commanded us to "Rejoice always!"  Did you hear that?  We are to be filled with joy all the time--not just when it's going our way.  Over 150 times the psalmist commands us to rejoice.  Maybe you are wondering how we choose joy when the outlook seems so bleak?  Easy!  Don't forget that God is still Lord and He will never abandon us.  He's given us the power of His Holy Spirit, not only to live holy, but to enable us to thrive even in the most difficult of times.   Even if your candidate loses, the truth is this election may bring about a revival in the Church that sparks the beginning of a national awakening.  So keep that perspective-- choose joy and hope and expectancy!  Remember what the multitude of heaven said in Revelation 19-- “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns."

Why don't I change?

Jesus once asked a group of people who claimed to be His followers, "Why do you call me Lord, but don't do what I say" (Luke 6:46)?  I remember as a young man, that question had a profound impact on my life because I would have said that I was a Christian; but I also knew there was much that Jesus said and did that I wasn't doing and had no intention of doing.  Now, as a pastor for all these years, I find it so troubling that many people who I know claim to follow Jesus, invest such little effort in that following.  Actually, other than claiming to follow Jesus, there hasn't been much change in how they live, what they do, or how they relate to God or others.   Their love for God and others isn't seen in what they do or what they say.   Did you know that God has an expectation, a goal for each one of us who follow Jesus?  Here it is--God is committed to our changing and being conformed to the person who Jesus is.  What that means is God desires us to think like Jesus thought, behave like Jesus behaved, and love like Jesus loved.  Paul, that early Christian leader, said to the Galatian Christians, "I labor until Christ is formed in you" (Galatians 4:19).   We are to be like Jesus.

Well, how does this transformation to be like Jesus take place?  Who's responsible for it?  The truth is that God is--and we are.  Some folks want to make it one or the other, and people often get out of balance; but Paul makes it pretty clear that God is working and we should be working toward the goal of being like Jesus.  Philippians 2:12-13 says, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."  Depend on God whose Spirit indwells you and empowers you, but also recognize your role.

So back to my original question, why are so many of us not being changed?  Why is there so little difference in us now from the time we began to follow Jesus?  Well we know that God isn’t failing in His part, so the issue must be with us.   I want to suggest three reasons why we don't change.

We operate on the basis of felt needs rather than faith.  I've noticed something in my observation of professing Christians, and I've noticed it in my own struggles.  We tend to do only the things that we feel like we need to do.  We are feeling driven rather than faith driven.  Faith says I believe that God's greatest desire for me--and consequently that which would be for my greatest good-- is to be like Jesus; therefore, I'm going to do what God calls me to do whether I feel like it or not.  Feelings, on the other hand says, how do I feel about that?  Do I feel like I need to do that?  And if our feelings don't want to do it, we don't.  If our feelings are up to it, we may do it.  Let's face it everyone--we've bought into the consumer-driven mentality of our culture that says it's all about me, and if I don't feel like it, I won't do it.  Jesus wasn't like that, and we shouldn't be either.  Jesus said to God the Father, "Not my will but yours be done."  Let me put that in our everyday context.  When my feelings say: I don't need to love that person, or I don't need to share my resources, or I don't need to invest that time in serving others, or I don't need to do that task, or I don't need to pull aside to meet with God one on one, my faith says yes you do.  We should walk by faith, not feelings.

We are not willing to put in the hard work necessary.  Maybe this is another way of saying our feelings rule.   In the last part of Hebrews 5 the author says that maturity, or what I would call Christlikeness, comes about through practice which trains the senses to discern good and evil.  Did you catch that?  Maturity comes through practice.  Practice is hard and arduous work.  The world champion platform diver Tom Daley didn't even make it to the finals, and the commentators were suggesting it was because he added a new dive only one and half years ago.  They stated that might not have been enough time to learn it, yet he practices daily.   Remember what Paul said?  "Work out your salvation."  Becoming like Jesus takes work on our part.  It is daily practicing to walk in His steps.  I don't always get it right, but I work hard at it.  Let me ask you, believer in the Lord Jesus,  how hard are you willing to work at being conformed to the image of Jesus?  The Olympians work hard for a piece of gold and earthly glory--are you willing to work that hard to hear our Father say, "Well done!"?

We fail to invest in our minds.  Paul made it clear, "Don't be conformed to this world but be transformed."  Obviously, he meant transformed into the image of Jesus, and then he goes on to tell us exactly how to do it.  He says "by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:1-2).   Furthermore the Bible makes it clear, "As a man thinks in himself, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7).  This is why our worldview, how we think about the world, affects every area of our lives.  Let me be the first to admit that changing the way I think doesn't often feel like a felt need; and if you have ever tried to change your thinking, you know it's hard work.  Most of us have ingrained patterns of thought that have been with us since childhood and changing them is never easy.  But how do I do that?  How do I change my thinking?  How do I even know where my thinking needs to change?  Someone said to me the other day, "Jimmy, you don't know what you don't know," and they were so right.  Now remember, the goal is to be like Jesus and think like Jesus; so if I'm going to change my mind, I need do the hard work of reading Jesus' thoughts, seeking to understand Jesus, and then by faith adopting His mindset.  But don't just read to read; read to understand, and if you are His follower, read so you can begin to think like Jesus.  If this is new to you, start reading one of the first four books of the New Testament--they contain much of what Jesus said and did.  Read other too-- followers of Jesus who can help you understand Jesus.  Ask someone you trust to teach you what Jesus thought.

Even as I type these words I hear God's Spirit asking me, "Jimmy, are you willing to do the hard work of transformation?  Are you willing to stop being led by your feelings and instead be led by your faith in me?  Are you willing to let Me change your mind as you continue to understand My thinking?  Are you willing to let Me change you all the more?"  I imagine God will bring me back here again to these same questions, maybe many times, but in this moment my emphatic answer is, "I am."  What's your answer?

"Christians are such hypocrites!"

"Christians are such hypocrites!"  "The church is full of hypocrites!"  As a pastor I've heard those two statements quite a bit over the years.  Maybe you've said them or at least thought them.  I confess I've always wondered why people have said that when Christians have never claimed to be anything but flawed, failed and fallen people.  Our platform of belief begins with a foundational stone of our own sinfulness and wickedness.  However, the other day I had an 'a-ha' moment and I now think I understand why so many think of us as hypocrites.

As followers of Jesus we teach that we should submit to God's will.  We believe that God reveals His nature, character and will in the Bible so we seek to surrender ourselves to what God desires of us.  In other words, when Jesus called us to follow Him we believe He meant for us to live like Him, and more specifically, we believe it meant for us to follow the morality that God has delineated in the Scriptures.  We truly want to live the morality the Bible lays out for us.

But what I just said is really the second half of our message-- the outflow of the first and primary piece.  The central message of a Christian's faith is that he or she is selfish and thus a sinful person.   We are all morally flawed and thus rightly and consequently under the judgment of a righteous God.  You may manage to be more moral than me, but you still fall short of moral perfection-- especially morality as God delineates in His Bible.  Moral failure includes selfishness as lived out in lying, stealing, bitterness, lust and murder.  We tend to compare ourselves and say, "As long as I'm better than most, God will accept me, forgive me, because he obviously grades on a curve."  Unfortunately He doesn't grade on a curve; just one sin is enough to condemn us before this perfect, righteous, loving God.

So the Christian good news begins by understanding the bad-- I need help.  I can't earn God's forgiveness by being better than others.  You may have heard the old joke of the two friends who come upon a grizzly bear and one starts to put on his tennis shoes.  "You can't outrun that bear!" says one friend.  "I don't have to", replies the other.  "All I have to do is outrun you!"  That's not how God's justice works.  The 'grizzly bear' of God's justice will run us all down-- we need a Savior.

The good news the Christian puts his hope in is that God so loved him (and all of us) that He sent a Savior-- Himself.  Jesus as God came and lived a morally perfect life and then gave up that morally perfect life in exchange for my morally sinful and flawed life.  In dying for me, both physically and spiritually, Jesus became my Savior!  Because of Jesus all my sin is forgiven.  Not by my merit.  Not because now I'm perfect but because I trust in Him to be my substitute.  By faith I rely upon His love and His work for me.

Why would anyone believe that?  Really for one reason only.  Because the testimony of many a man and woman is that Jesus proved it by rising from the dead.  They killed him by hanging him on a cross and they buried Him and thought that was that, but history says it wasn't.  On Friday afternoon He dies and on Sunday morning He walks out of the grave.  The resurrection of Jesus, that truth and that reality, changed history without coercion and force.  That truth is still changing men and women's lives today.

We're back full circle to where I started from.  Because Jesus is now my Savior, I want to follow Him.  I want to live as God desires me to live.  I still fall woefully short.  I'm still capable, and even struggle with, wanting to be just as selfish as I ever was.  But nonetheless, God has given me a new heart and His Spirit to help me-- there will be a change.  Not a perfect change, but a change.  I will be more like Jesus.


But here's where I had the 'a-ha' moment-- people outside the church hear us talking about this change and our desire to follow Jesus and be Biblically moral men and women, and without understanding the primary piece, they think that being a Christian simply means seeking to live as moral people.  That conception is reinforced in their minds as they see Christians fight vociferously and politically for Biblical morality.  And then-- then they see us fail.  They watch us fail morally in about every way a person can fail.  They even see those Christians who have been most vocal about God's declared morality fail, or maybe I should say they especially see those who are most vocal fail.  And because they believe the Christian life is merely about living morally-- they see us as hypocrites.  Think about it for a minute; if you thought Christianity was simply about following a moral code, and you saw people who preach and promote that code fail often and openly, wouldn't you think we are all hypocrites too?

So I conclude this note with two challenges.  To the Christ follower I want to urge you to do your best to help people understand the heart of our Christian faith.  It's not about being moral.  We can't be moral so as to earn God's forgiveness or eternal life.  Jesus died to give us what we need-- He rose from the dead to prove He had succeeded.  Be careful not to confuse the message.

Finally, to the one who might be reading this and thinks all Christians are hypocrites, I want you to know that we all agree with you.  We live hypocritically of the morality that we believe God desires of us.  Even now as we follow Jesus we still fail.  We all too often lie, cheat, steal, lust and live selfishly even as we know that is not what God desires of us.  But please understand that is not our central message.  The primal truth we cling to is that in our moral sinfulness, Jesus died for our sins that He might give us freely, by grace through faith, the forgiveness we need.  It's not earned by living to some degree of moral perfection-- its simply received with a grateful heart.  If you've not understood the bedrock truth of the Christian faith, dig in until you do.  You may still reject it, but don't confuse it with mere moralism.