Spiritual Health: Living for Christ

I went to the mountaintop yesterday, literally. Louise was on the women's retreat at Bon Clark and Friday night to Saturday. So I got up early yesterday morning, went to Jones Gap State Park and hiked the Rim of the Gap Trail. Beautiful. You get up real early on a Saturday morning and get out in the woods, it's very quiet, very peaceful.

And part of my purpose for going to the mountaintop was I had one of the questions for assessing our spiritual health I had not decided on. I had six questions. We're doing seven questions to assess our spiritual health. I had six. And there was one question I knew I needed to add to that.

And I was wrestling with what the question should be. There have been several that have gone through my mind. But today, you get the results of my going to the mountaintop to think about this question. Question number six. Let me review first our previous questions.

You remember, we're assessing our spiritual health. Seven essential questions, if we want to know. The first question we ask in assessing our spiritual health, are we broken and mournful over our sin? Secondly, are we increasingly governed by God's word? Thirdly, are we quick to forgive?

Fourthly, are we growing in our compassion for hurting people? Fifthly, are we growing in godliness? Now I know what my seventh question is going to be. The one I've been struggling with is the sixth one. But you know what?

When I finally got my head cleared on the mountaintop, I said this is the simplest of all questions. haven't I already had this one the question is are we living first for Christ usually the most important things are the most obvious basic things and the question I want us to focus on today in assessing our spiritual health is are we living first for Christ Philippians 121a is where I'm want to focus for to me to live is Christ that's where we're going today let's pray Lord I pray that as we step back and ask the question are we living first for Christ

that you will help us to grasp where we stand in relationship to you that you will help us to see where we are torn in our loyalties, where we are distracted, where we are pulled. I pray that you will help us to understand the significance of putting you first in our lives. And I pray, Lord, that we will do that day in, day in, out, year in, year out, and never turn back. For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Are we living first for Christ?

Let me give just a little background we begin. The Apostle Paul wrote the book of Philippians and he gives us a little biography about himself in the book of Philippians. If you turn over to Philippians chapter 3 verses 4 to 6, you get to learn a little bit about the Apostle Paul. And I just want to remind you a little bit about his background. Where Paul says, starting in the second half of verse 4, if anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more.

So now Paul's getting ready to sort of give us his credentials. While he is a person of Jewish background if anybody should have confidence sort of in their status in their position he would be one who should have it because he was a really good Jew so being a good Jew was all that was needed to be saved which some were arguing in Paul's day they were arguing that being a good Jew was important to be saved in other words those Gentile Christians who were putting their faith in Christ some Jewish people were saying oh well that's not enough you got to be a good Jew too follow all the customs and traditions of the Jews. And Paul says, look, if putting confidence in the things of the flesh, in your status, in your position was enough, I would be right at the top. Because, number one, he was circumcised on the eighth day. Verse 5.

In other words, Paul was a Jew from birth. He was not a proselyte, someone who came to Judaism later in life. He was a Jew from the very beginning and followed that custom of on the eighth day, males were circumcised. That was the Jewish custom. He was of the people of Israel, so a descendant of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a tribe that was viewed with a certain degree of status in Judaism.

The first human king of Israel was from what tribe? Benjamin. Benjamin was the favored son of Jacob born to Rachel and the youngest son. Benjamin was an important tribe throughout Jewish history so Paul makes note of that. He's a Hebrew of Hebrews.

It probably means a couple things to say he was a Hebrew of Hebrews. First it means he was a purebred Jew. Both his parents were Hebrews, Jews. so he's not a half-breed in any sense he's from pure Jewish stock and to say he was a Hebrew of Hebrews probably means he was raised in the Jewish culture he was raised speaking Hebrew and Aramaic which many Jews were not raised speaking that in Paul's day they were raised speaking Greek which was the predominant language in the world but Paul was raised in a very Jewish way, speaking Hebrew and Aramaic. In regard to the law, a Pharisee.

Now he is the top of the cream of the crop in Judaism, being a Pharisee. These were the most righteous, zealous people in Judaism. They followed the letter of the law, and Paul was one of them. He was trained by the Jewish scholar Gamaliel, the greatest Jewish scholar of the day. Paul was a PhD in Judaism and he was a Pharisee.

And he goes on to say he was zealous because he persecuted those Christians. And as for legalistic righteousness, he was faultless. This guy knew the law and he followed it to the letter. But then one day, he met Jesus Christ. And suddenly he realized this Jewish tradition, all of this Jewish heritage was not worth anything compared to knowing Jesus Christ. And as Paul writes the book of Philippians, we know that in following Jesus Christ since that Damascus road, he has sacrificed much. Paul has already been flogged five times when he wrote the book of Philippians.

Any of you who saw the passion of the Christ, no flogging is not something that is easily taken. He was flogged five times. He was beaten with rods three times. He was stoned on one occasion and left for dead. Four times already he had been shipwrecked. Over two years he had been imprisoned and he's under house arrest when he writes the book of Philippians. Philippians epistles because Paul is under house arrest as he writes it. And as he writes, he says, to live is Christ. For to me, to live is Christ. And I want us to take apart what that means.

And what I'm going to give you here is what I think we should be doing in our Bible study, in our Bible reading. We should be taking phrases like to live is Christ and meditating on what that means, figuring out what that means. It's not enough just to brush over this phrase to live as Christ. We have to figure out what does it mean to say to live as Christ. So here is David Rogers analysis of what it means to live as Christ. At least these seven things. It may mean more, but I'm going to submit to you to say to live as Christ means at least these seven things.

And when we are asking the question of ourselves, are we living first for Christ, I'm going to submit these seven things should be a part of our lives. Everybody with me? Here we go. Number one, to live as Christ means as a beginning point, I have committed my life to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. This is really salvation.

if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved and to say to live as Christ you must first be able to affirm I have committed my life to Jesus Christ my Lord and my Savior if you have not done that as a beginning point you don't need to go to any of my other points you need to stop right here back up and get your life committed to Jesus Christ it is the foundation or to be able to say to live as Christ. The second thing it means to say to live as Christ is this. I give my highest loyalty to Jesus Christ. That passage I just read where Paul was talking about all his credentials as a Jew. He starts right after he gives all his credentials.

He says, starting in verse 7 of chapter 3, but whatever was to my profit, I now count as a loss. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.

His highest loyalty was to Jesus Christ, I will forsake all my heritage, all my past, in view of the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord. You know, when I came in this morning for the worship service, sometimes the Lord just seems to fit the sermon and the music in the early service with what we do here in class. One of the hymns or the songs we sang this morning is, It's all about you, Jesus. It's all about you, Jesus. That's what it means when it says I give my highest loyalty to Jesus Christ.

If we say that our highest loyalty is to Jesus Christ, it means we have a single, settled, supreme loyalty to Christ. A single loyalty, meaning we have only one master. We don't have this double-mindedness where we're trying to follow a lot of different masters in our life. To say we give our highest loyalty to Christ is to say we have one master. settled our loyalty to him once for all no turning back i'm going to follow him and the loyalty is supreme because we follow him above all others if we say my highest loyalty is to christ it means he's our king we march to the beat of his drum day in and day out you know i think about people John Bunyan, the guy who wrote The Pilgrim's Progress.

Do you remember his story? For 12 years he was imprisoned because he refused to quit preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. He gave his highest loyalty to Christ even to the point that he remained in prison. The authorities had told him, John, if you'll just promise us you won't preach the gospel, we'll let you go. And you can go home to your family, your wife and your children.

blind, which was a very difficult circumstance in his family. But John refused. He said, my highest loyalty is to Christ. If you let me out, I'm going to preach the gospel. They said, okay, we're going to leave you locked up. They left him locked up for 12 years because he refused to quit preaching the gospel. I think of a pastor in Ethiopia who's in one of our training programs there, Pastor Fatina, who came to faith in Jesus Christ at the time when he was serving in the Ethiopian military, when they learned he had come to faith in Jesus Christ, they left him out one night in an area in southern Ethiopia where lions roam, hoping the lions would kill him. And when they did not, they told him they were going to execute him. Pastor Fatina was going to be executed with another gentleman. But as they were preparing to execute these two men, Pastor Fatina and the other gentleman, one of the Ethiopian And executioners recognized the other man who had been a friend of one of the executioners.

And the executioner persuaded the other executioners to let these two guys go. So they just let Pastor Fatenah and this other man go. And Pastor Fatenah says, Christ has twice saved my life. He has twice saved my life. My life is his for whatever he wants of it.

And he gives his life completely to Christ serving in Ethiopia. I think of people like Jim Elliot. Remember the story of Jim Elliot taking the gospel to what we call the Alcas of Ecuador and he along with four other men were killed on the banks of the Cuare River in Ecuador taking the gospel to this savage tribe. He is our highest loyalty to Jesus Christ. If we can say to live is Christ, it must and should be.

Thirdly, to live as Christ means I live to serve Christ at all times, in all places, and in all circumstances. Whatever you do, Colossians says, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. The Apostle Paul, at the end of his third missionary journey, when he was going back to Jerusalem, He should not go to Jerusalem because he was going to be imprisoned. And Paul looked at those who were trying to persuade him not to go back to Jerusalem, to continue the carrying of the gospel to people.

And he said, I count my life as nothing. If only I may complete the task the Lord has given to me, the task of testifying to the Lord's grace. Paul lived to serve Christ at all times, in all places, and in all circumstances, difficulties he might face his life was given in service to the lord i was uh last june when i was in ethiopia i went to a little town well it's actually a large town in the northern part of ethiopia called bahadar there was a small group of about 75 christians that met for worship on sunday morning and i was the one who was the speaker that sunday morning this is a group of 75 christians who for years have met in a small tiny little room people would come by when they knew the christians were meeting and would throw rocks at the church on sunday mornings a pastor in that area not a member of this church but a pastor in bahadar two years ago an evangelical pastor was hacked to death in front of his children's eyes by Ethiopian Orthodox people. It's a place where there's been a lot of persecution, a lot of difficulty. But when I finished speaking that Sunday morning to this group of 75 Ethiopians in Bahadur, a little Ethiopian man came up to me.

And he comes up to me and he pulls out a map. And this Ethiopian gentleman has a map. And he begins to explain to me that he has a mission in life Lord and his mission is to take the gospel to Israel. And on his map he had drawn where he was going. He was going to go up and he was going to go to Jordan and then he was going to go into Israel and he was going to go preaching the gospel. Now folks it seemed almost preposterous as he was talking to me because this guy was dirt poor. He had nothing. I mean he didn't have a bicycle. He didn't have a donkey. He didn't have a car. He had no money. Yet he was sitting here telling me God has given me a mission and I'm going to take the gospel to Jordan and to Israel. I am going to serve Christ. He said, will you pray for me?

So we got down on our knees right there and I began to pray for this little Ethiopian man who said, I'm going to serve Christ in all places, at all times, in all circumstances, even when I have nothing.

I'm going back in January. I hope to find out he's doing where he is what's happening but it's that kind of radical commitment that kind of radical service that is going to change the world for Jesus Christ Jesus is I think a little tired of us meeting with this sort of half-hearted lukewarm sort of approach he's ready for people to say to live is Christ and it means I'll serve him anywhere anytime whatever it takes fourthly I live to please Christ above all others. To say to live as Christ means I live to please Christ above all others. The Apostle Paul in Galatians 1.10 asks, Am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men?

If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. If we're going to say to live as Christ, it means we seek to please Him above all others. You know, isn't it true, it seems like in life there's so many people we have to try to please. We try to please our spouses. Our children.

They want us to do things for them. We try to please our children. We try to please our employers. There are all sorts of folks we're trying to please in life. But if we really say to live is Christ, life is suddenly made simpler in many respects.

because we no longer seek the applause of people. We seek the applause of Jesus Christ. At the end of the day, if Jesus Christ is standing and applauding our service of him and what we have been doing, if we have pleased him, we have done what we are to do. You will find, I think, if we're pleasing Christ first and foremost, we'll please a lot more people better than we often do. But what we have is we get drawn in so many directions, trying to answer to so many people when we need to refocus and say, I'm going to please Jesus Christ first and foremost.

And if I'm pleasing Him, if the whole world is booing what I'm doing, that's okay. I'm going to please Him first.

Fifthly, to say to live is Christ means I obey Christ. I obey Christ. He who has his commands and keeps them, he's the one that loves Christ, John 14, 21 says. So if we say to live is Christ, it means I obey Christ. It's interesting to me as I talk to so many people who profess the name of Christ, both in this church and outside this church, how often, how often when they're dealing with difficulties in life, they fail to follow this fundamental principle that we are to obey Christ.

And people are dealing with all sorts of messes, all sorts of difficulties, because they've forgotten this very simple principle that if we live for Christ, it means we obey Him. So as we live our lives, I think we need to be asking questions of ourselves. What does the Bible say that I should do in this situation? We need to stop and step back when we're facing issues in our lives and ask, what does the Bible say? What has Christ commanded that I do?

What would Jesus want me to do in this situation? What would Jesus himself do in this situation?

And we almost need to develop a reflex action as Christians when we're facing any issue, any decision, any difficulty to step back and say, what would Christ have me do? What does the Bible teach here? And you know what? We then just need to do it. need to do it. Sixthly, it means I live for the glory of Christ. To live as Christ means I live for the glory of Christ. Paul said in Philippians 1 20, I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. As we live our lives, we desire Christ to be to be glorified, Christ to be exalted, for Christ to get the glory. We must decrease, he must increase. So as we serve and live, let's let people know why we serve and live. We live for Christ. He is the one who has changed us. He is the one who has given us whatever skills or abilities we have.

So if anybody wants to give us glory, let's immediately deflect it to the one who deserves the glory, Jesus Christ. And lastly, number seven, to live as Christ means I willingly suffer for Christ. As Paul says in Philippians 1.29, it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him but also to suffer for Him. When's the last time you suffered for Jesus?

Have you ever suffered for Jesus?

If we haven't suffered for Jesus, we need to be looking for ways to do so.

It may mean we give up something we wanted so that we can support Christ's work. Maybe that's a means of suffering. We give up some desire in our life to do what Christ desires. Maybe we go somewhere to take on a challenge that causes us to have to suffer for Christ. just have to stand and bear the criticism of being a follower of Jesus Christ. I had a discussion with a lawyer friend right after this election we just had. Y'all heard we had an election recently, didn't you? And it seems that that election has sparked some debate between people who are people of faith and those who are not, between people who go to church once a week and those who don't.

It seems that there's some different views among those groups. And this particular person is a Christian faith and was letting me know what he thought about many evangelical Christians, they're hypocrites, etc., etc., etc. And he's right. Often we don't live what we should live, no doubt.

But you know what? On that day and in that conversation, I was glad to be able to say, whatever you say, I follow Jesus Christ. I want to be your friend. I want to keep this dialogue going. But I follow Christ.

Here are my lessons for life. Let's get to know Jesus. To live as Christ, if we really sincerely desire to live for Christ, we need to get to know Jesus. I would highly recommend that if you've never done it, you sit down and you read through the Gospel of Luke as a beginning point. See what Jesus was like.

See what he did. Get to know him because I think that will give you greater motivation to live for Christ and will also inform how you should live. Secondly, let's radically reorient our daily lives and our choices around Jesus Christ. How many of us at the beginning of the day or the beginning of our week organize our week around our service to Jesus Christ?

How many of us decide what activities we will engage in because of our relationship to Jesus Christ? How many of us look at things we're doing and say, how does this thing I'm doing enhance my ability to serve Christ? How does this display my radical commitment to Christ?

And I believe if you begin to ask those questions, there are going to be things we're doing in our lives that we're going to say we're going to put them on the back burner are they going to take a much less, far greater low priority than we often give them? Here are my examples. There are some things that we're just going to do. Some of us would never ever miss the football game. Hell and heaven can try to stop us.

But we will not miss it. some of us have a shopping spree planned to commerce georgia hell and heaven will never stop me from being there and you laugh and we laugh because some of us will never put aside things that are very unimportant and worldly they wouldn't we will never put them in second place oftentimes. But then say, well, you need to be here to serve Jesus on this day and this time. Well, man, I think I've got something. Let me see here, you know.

I'll see if it's not raining, if it fits into my schedule. I'm telling you folks, if we step back and look at ourselves, we don't live radically reoriented lives that are oriented on Jesus Christ. I'm not saying there's anything wrong there's anything wrong with the ball game i'm saying what comes first what will we not give up we should never give up whatever it takes to serve christ thirdly remember the cross i think when we remember what christ did for us on the cross it is a motivating factor for us to serve him more fully fourthly let's do something for christ that requires us to make a genuine sacrifice. Do you hear me? I'm saying that we need to intentionally look for ways to sacrifice.

If you want to make a sacrifice for Christ, you can do it. Well, I don't know what the Lord wants me to do. I'm waiting for him to hit me over the head. The commands are present in the scriptures. It can be the use of our money that can cause us to sacrifice.

It can be the use of our time. It can be where we go. It can be who we talk to. But I'm suggesting we need to start to intentionally find ways to sacrifice for Christ. Fifthly, what is hidden in the dark closet of our lives that displeases Christ?

If we're going to live for Christ, it means we need to cleanse our lives of those things that keep us from living fully for Him. So I would suggest that all of us need to maybe step back, take an assessment, and down deep inside, what little door or closet do we have that thing hidden away that we want to keep for ourselves that really dishonors Christ? And it's that thing we've hidden so well, nobody else knows about it, except Christ, of course. But none of our friends know. We've hidden it away very deep.

to be all Christ wants us to be, we have to say, all right, Lord, I'm going to let you in to this little bitty closet and you help me sweep it clean. God does not usually move among people who harbor sin. We need to clean it out. Read stories of people who've given their lives in the cause of Christ. It's a great motivating factor. I would suggest starting with Through Gates of Splendor.

It's the book about Jim Elliot's life. His wife Elizabeth Elliot wrote it after his death. And lastly, be a little crazy for Christ's sake. I thought a long time about this last one. There's a part of me that says we don't want Christians to be weird or try to be oddball in personality.

But I'm submitting to you that if we serve Christ the way we should, people are going to think we're a little on the fringe.

And if nobody ever thinks we're just a little crazy for Jesus, I'm submitting we haven't gone all the way in serving Him.

Okay. Let's pray. Lord I pray for all of us that this day we would affirm to live as Christ may we not be half hearted or lukewarm

I pray for a renewal of your spirit in our midst I pray for your spirit to break our hearts where we fall short I pray for your spirit to open our minds to understand what we need to do to give us the willingness, Lord, the willingness to do whatever it takes to serve and follow you.

And I pray where there is a spirit of unwillingness, a spirit of I'm going to do it my way, I pray that you will break that among us and help us to be all that you want us to be. For it was in Christ's name we pray.