How…
1.
Repentance
– a relationship with God must be initiated. We don’t have it when we are born
– it must be started. The reason that we don’t have it is because of sin. Sin
simply means that we miss the target that God has for us. He demands a certain standard
in the things we do, and, because of the disobedience of the first man (Adam),
we all are completely incapable of meeting that standard. God, being perfect,
cannot let sin go unpunished. Because of His incredible love for us, God sent
His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth 2000 years ago to live as the only perfect man
in history, and then to die as a sacrifice that took the punishment for the
sins of you and me. So, that brings us to how to initiate our relationship with
God. We decide that we want to become a follower of Christ, so we accept the
forgiveness that God offers to us through Jesus. I believe this has been so
trivialized by Christians to tell you the truth. We’ve just made it into some
magic words to say – “say this prayer, and you’ll become a Christian!” I
believe it goes beyond that. We must repent. Repentance means to turn from the
way you are going and head the opposite way. Becoming a Christian means
becoming a follower of Christ. We decide that we are no longer going to live
our lives apart from God, but that we are going to change our lives and become
a worshipper of Him. We ask Him to forgive us, and we commit ourselves to
changing directions. It DOES NOT mean that we will be perfect or that we’ll
give up our bad habits right away or that we quit our jobs and head to Africa.
It DOES mean that we are forgiven for our sins, past, present, and future; that
we decide that we want to forsake the sin in our life; and that we now live our
lives for God’s purposes. So, put simply, to initiate our relationship with
God, we…..
a)
Decide
we want to live God’s way and have a relationship with him
b)
Ask
God to forgive our sin through Jesus Christ
c)
Forsake
the sin in our lives (decide that that isn’t the way we want to live) and
d)
Change
our purpose for living.
2.
Purpose
– the idea of purpose is something that has completely changed the way that I
think of the Christian life. I used to think that the moment of being saved was
the only real important thing, and then after that we kind of hunker down, try
not to sin, read the Bible as much as we can, and wait to go to heaven. This is
so far from the truth though! The Bible calls us to action. Yes, we need to get
rid of sin in our lives and read the Bible, but those are not the end. The
final goal is to fulfill God’s purposes in our lives. Pure living and Bible
reading are just 2 ways to help make that happen. And hunkering down and living
a life of isolation is in direct contradiction to what we need to do. The Bible
says…..
Jesus replied: "
'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like
it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on
these two commandments." Matthew 22:37-40
and….
Therefore go and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. Matthew 28-19-20a
Here we find God’s 5
purposes for our lives……
a)
Worship – “Love the Lord your God…..” – God calls us to
worship him by loving him with everything that we have and everything that we
are. This means we love Him on an intellectual and practical level – we give
our lives to doing His work, we give out of our finances, we understand Who He
is and we give Him the proper authority and priority in our lives. It also
means we love Him on an emotional heart level. We connect with Him. We have
feelings for Him. We decide that there is no desire that will come before our
desire to be with Him and know Him more.
b)
Ministry – “'Love your neighbor as yourself” – ministry means
that we serve others out of a heart of love. Instead of being self-serving and
self-centered, we live a life of giving to others. Worship is giving to God,
ministry is giving to others.
c)
Evangelism – “Therefore go and make disciples….” – evangelism
means that we go out from where we are and, through the power of God’s Spirit,
bring new believers in to the family. The Bible states that we must view evangelism
both on a local level and on a world level – we share our faith with those
around us now, and we take part in the spread of the word through the world, by
doing things like giving to missionaries and taking part in short or long term
world missions projects.
d)
Fellowship – “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit” – baptism symbolizes a new life and adoption
into a new family. When we come into this new family God gives us many
instructions in how we relate to each other. Fellowship involves being deeply
known, cared for, and held accountable in God’s family. It is about deep,
intimate relationships with other Christians – it is not about just hanging out
together or eating together.
e)
Discipleship – “teaching them to obey….” – discipleship is
about growing to model the character and values of Jesus Christ. It is about so
much more than knowledge. Note that when Jesus gave these instructions, he
didn’t say “teaching them the things I taught you”. He said “teaching them to OBEY”
(emphasis mine). Discipleship is about changing the way you act and think, not
just increasing your knowledge.