That Awkward Moment...

We've all been in awkward situations. Blind dates, first dates, getting caught in a lie, wearing the same outfit as someone else at an event, they're all examples of when things get awkward & the tension goes up. In fact, we're all so worried about awkward situations or conversations that we've come up with some social rules to try to keep us from getting into one of those weird, awkward, tense moments. 

Here are just a few examples:

"Never talk about religion or politics."
"Never assume a woman is pregnant."
"Never ask a woman her age."
"Never ask a woman her weight."

Notice how some of these that I just thought of off the top of my head revolve around not asking women sensitive things? That's because most of us men are too oblivious to realize there are some things you just don't do. Therefore rules had to be made to keep us out of trouble. Well, there's a similar rule that is at play in a lot of churches. It's an unwritten, even unspoken, rule, but it's alive & well in most places because it's an issue that always ramps up the tension & makes everyone feel a little awkward. So we end up ignoring this issue, but in ignoring we also ignore an issue that Jesus, whom we claim to follow, talked about a lot. Doesn't it seem weird to avoid a subject our Savior talked about so much & therefore miss out on what He had to say about it? So what is this issue? What is this thing we don't really like talking about, even if it means completely missing out on what Jesus had to say about it?

It's money.

That's right, money. Nobody likes talking about it, not pastors & certainly not the people the pastors are talking to about it. It makes us all a little uneasy. However, not talking about it may cost us more than actual wading into a tense subject.

When Jesus was confronted with the issue of money, politics, & religion in Luke 20:20, he didn't focus as much on money as we might think. The point He made was this, "Give to God what belongs to God." He used the money as a vehicle to teach a powerful truth. The coin was made in the image of Caesar. Humanity is made in the image of God. The lesson: If Caesar asks for the thing made in his image, give it to him, but more importantly make sure you give to God the thing made in His image. In that little exchange Jesus taught us a powerful lesson about money, faith, & the biblical concept of stewardship.

"Stewardship Is Not About Your Money. Stewardship Is About Your Life."

Jesus had an opportunity to go in depth about money in this moment, but instead He chose to look at the big picture. The truth is that it doesn't really matter who you dedicate your life to if you dedicate your life to the wrong thing. God has made us in His image. Therefore, everything about you should be leveraged to glorify Him: your day to day life, your family, your relationships, your work, your ministry, & yes, your money & stuff. As followers of Jesus, we are not only made in God's image, we've been bought with a price by the blood of Jesus. Therefore, we must seek to live a life that in every way declares our faith in Him rather than in ourselves or in the things of this world. Stewardship isn't about money. It's about a journey of faith where we seek to live a life that is constantly more & more devoted to trusting in our Heavenly Father, His Son, & His word.

What step of faith have you been resisting? Reading God's word more consistently? Becoming the godly parent your children need? Being the spouse you're called to be in Christ? Serving your congregation community? Trusting God with your finances? No matter which one of these you're wrestling with, they're all stewardship issues. After all, stewardship is not about your money. It's about your life.

It's Not Either Or, It's Both And

All churches & all followers of Jesus tend to drift. We're human. It's impossible for us to maintain perfect holiness. Even Paul recognized this in himself when he wrote in Romans 7, "for what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." Even with good intentions, the flesh has a way of rising up. That means we have to guard against that drift in our lives & in our congregations. However, that drift isn't just a drift toward overt, obvious sin. In fact, for many of us who have been in church most of our lives, it's the drift toward self-righteous, rule following legalism that we have to fight against. It's that tendency to look at the lost with disgust & say, "why can't you get your life straight?" Then when those who recognize their distance from God dares to muster the courage to enter our churches we think, "I can't believe their here." We think that before we or God can accept them, they have to get some other things right. The good news is that this isn't a new tendency. In fact it goes all the way back to the days of the early church.

In Acts 15, Paul & Barnabas have been reaching non-Jews with the Gospel, & God has been saving these Gentiles & bringing them into His people, His church. However, some Jewish believers from down around Jerusalem show up & say, "Hold on, before you can become a follower of Christ, you have to become a follower of Moses." That means they were adding the Law to the Gospel. They were beginning to make the Law the means by which people were admitted into the fellowship of the Church. This set Paul off. After all, he had been preaching the simple message of salvation through faith in Christ & Christ alone. Now these new converts were being saddled with the burden of over 600 laws & of the men, a small but sensitive surgical procedure. So what's Paul to do? What are the leaders of the early church to do? Who is the Church for? What exactly is the Gospel? What does someone have to do to be saved?

In Acts 15 there is intense debate but the input of two men settled the discussion, & their words should guide us now, 2000 years later. In Acts 15:7, Peter stands up & gives testimony to his own experience of how God led him to take the Gospel to a Gentile family & how he has seen God reach out to the non-Jewish world & bring them in with no distinction between them & the Jews. Regardless of their ethnicity or religious background, God had purified their hearts by faith. If that wasn't enough, Jesus' brother James stands up & says, "we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to Christ." The issue was settled.

Yes, these non-Jewish believers came from a different background without the Law of Moses & because of that they had some habits & customs that the Jews found offensive. However, that had nothing to do with their standing before God in Christ. It had nothing to do with whether or not the church was for them or not. The stand that those early church leaders took that day is vitally important for us today because we have certain issues that we look at & point at & say that people have to get this right before they will be expected, & we usually have a verse to back it up. However, we don't always reflect Christ-likeness in the process. After all, John says in his gospel that Jesus was "full of grace & truth." That means that we should pursue a life full of grace & truth as we pursue a life that looks more & more like Christ.

"Instead Of Drifting Toward Grace Or Truth, We Should Stand On Both."

Personally I know more Christians & church goers who struggle with the drift toward truth than the drift toward grace. We love truth. It draws a clear line in the sand, & when someone crosses it, we can point it out. However, that kind of drift ends up using the truth as a weapon. We should never ignore sin, but we should confront that sin with grace just as Jesus did. Jesus never excused sin. Instead he confronted sin with compassion & graciously invited people to a better way, namely Him. As you look at how you or your congregation engages with the world around you, do you see the drift toward law & legalism in your life? As you think about how you can fight against the drift toward grace OR truth & instead stand on both, ask yourself this:

What Would Happen If The Lost People In My Life 

Viewed Me The Same Way The Lost Viewed Jesus?

Jesus never had a problem attracting or reaching the lost. In fact, they usually loved Him. So if Jesus' people are having trouble engaging lost people, is it the fault of the lost people or the Jesus people?

Inconvenient Faith

Convenience: Americans love it. In fact, much of our lives are built around the pursuit of convenience. Now, there's nothing wrong with convenience; some conveniences make life a lot easier & less stressful. However, most of us have taken our desire for convenience to an unhealthy level. In fact, many of us have crossed over from having an appreciation for the conveniences in life to worshipping ourselves by feeding our desires for comfort & convenience. This is dangerous enough on its own, but when this infiltrates our faith, it becomes deadly to our effectiveness as followers of Jesus. After all, if we love convenience, comfort, & self that much, it will be really hard for us to radically, boldly love Jesus.

When we look at the early church in Acts we see them living boldly, praying for even more boldness, & then living with an even greater boldness. However, that greater boldness wasn't without its consequences. At first, they just spent the night in jail & were threatened, but as their boldness grew so did the pressure, the tension, & yes, even the potential of suffering. In fact, at the end of Acts 5 the disciples learned that the Sanhedrin's threats were not idle threats. The Sanhedrin had them viciously flogged for preaching the name of Jesus. So how did the disciples respond when all of a sudden they not only were a little inconvenienced by their faith but were outright suffering for it? They rejoiced; they celebrated that they had been counted as worthy. However, the suffering didn't end there. In Acts 6-8 we're introduced to an early church leader named Stephen. He was a bold, Spirit filled disciple, & it got him in trouble. In these chapters we see Steven arrested, falsely accused, & murdered for his bold faith in Jesus. In fact, this episode leads to an even greater persecution that was unleashed on the early church. However, look at what happens in Acts 8:1 & 8:4 as the persecution is unleashed.

"On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea & Samaria." 

Acts 8:1

"Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went." Acts 8:4

Notice two things: First, the persecution forced believers out of Jerusalem & into the regions of Judea & Samaria. Now think back to Acts 1:8. Jesus said that His disciples would be "witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, & to the ends of the earth" So Jesus' words are being fulfilled, but perhaps in an unexpected way: suffering. Secondly, notice who went into the regions of Judea & Samaria. It wasn't Peter. It wasn't John. It wasn't any of the big-shot leaders that we would expect. Those guys stayed in Jerusalem. The people who scattered were "regular people". It was people like you & me who broke the Gospel out of Jerusalem & advanced the Gospel into the surrounding world. This supports the image of the church being the Body of Christ where everyone plays a part. Everyone has a place in the church where they serve to help advance the Gospel & make disciples. However, there's an important truth we all must embrace to join with those brothers & sisters who have gone before us.

"In Advancing The Movement Of Jesus, 

We Must Be Willing To Pay The Price To Play Our Part."

You have a place in God's Kingdom. You have a place where your ministry, your witness, your boldness is vital to advancing the Gospel & making disciples to the ends of the earth. The question is "Are you willing to pay the price to play that part?" Boldly living for Christ invites opposition & yes, even the possibility of suffering. Following Jesus will be inconvenient. Following Jesus will cost us something. Are we willing to pay that price. As you wrestle with this & seek to boldly live for Christ ask yourself this question:

"If it depended on my boldness of faith, would the Gospel ever break out of my city?"

Jesus promised that the Gospel would advance, but often it advances when we embrace the inconvenience & even the possibility that following Him could lead us to suffer for Him. However, when people outside the church see Christ followers boldly follow Christ in the face of real sacrifice, it gets their attention. Will we pay the price to play our part in advancing this movement Jesus set in motion?

Blessed Out Of Boldness

Would you characterize most Christians you know as bold? Would you consider your own faith as bold? Many of us wouldn't & in many cases we would be right. After all, American Christians live in a culture that is still the easiest culture in history in which to be a faithful, Bible believing follower of Jesus. As a result we tend to look at bold faith as only that which we read about in the Bible or on the Internet. We read of ancient disciples who endured prison & persecution; we hear of brothers & sisters on the other side of the world who are dying because they confess the name of Jesus as Savior. When we look at how easy it is to be a Christian in America we assume that we can't really have a bold faith. 

The downside of our tremendous religious freedoms is that it seems to have made us less bold which could ultimately lead to the loss of our religious liberties. Of course, none of us think that our lack of boldness contributes to the eroding of religious freedom or cultural decline but we would be dead wrong. When an offended, possibly even anonymous, party writes a letter to a school about the pregame prayer at Friday night's football game & the school responds by caving in, who is really to blame? Is it the school board, the principle, or does a good share of responsibility lie at the feet of those of us who say we follow Christ? What if the people of God were just as publicly bold as those who oppose God publicly? What if we stood up for & spoke out against those who would love to see the name of Jesus removed from public life? See this isn't the first time this has happened, not even close.

In fact, just a few weeks after Jesus' crucifixion, resurrection, & ascension, the Jewish religious leaders tried to eliminate "this name" from public conversation. Go read Acts 5. The apostles were threatened over & over for speaking about "this name". However, they could not stop talking about Jesus. Here we are today, 2000 years later, & "the name" is under attack still. Where is God's church rising up saying, "Sorry this name offends you, but we can stop speaking about what we've experienced in Him."?

Could it be that as American Christians we've been blessed out of boldness? Could it be that we are so afraid of being considered intolerant, mean, or offensive that what we become is weak, whiny disciples who allow the enemy to take more & more ground around us? It's time for the people of Jesus to rise up.

"Boldness Is Saying Or Doing Something 

When It Would Be Easier To Say Or Do Nothing."

What can you do today to boldly speak & live the name of Jesus. In Acts 4 the disciples prayed for boldness, & the truth is that when you pray for boldness what you're really praying for is the opportunities to be bold. When you sincerely pray that prayer, God will send you those opportunities or open your eyes to the opportunities that were there all along. Then what will you do? What will you say? It will always be easier to shrink back & fade into the background, to not risk offending anyone, but the Gospel is offensive. It confronts us with our desperate need, but it doesn't leave us there. Instead it introduces us to our hope, our redemption as we place our faith in Jesus.

What can you do today? How can you be bold at work, at school, at home for the name of Jesus & so that those who need to hear the Gospel will see it at work in you?