This weekend, Pastor Mike Fabarez gave our church a sermon entitled How to Get Eternal Life: Things that Stand in the Way. It was part 3 of his sermon series on finding true salvation. You can read and hear more at howtogeteternallife.com.
Using theabove passage, Pastor Mike first reminded us that, in order to be a true disciple, or Christian, one must count the cost. His first illustration reminded us how we think of becoming a Christian too lightly. Imagine if he went into the high school ministry and married all the kids who were dating. Parents would be irate, because we all know most kids of that age are not ready for a lifetime commitment of marriage or the humility and service that comes with marriage. How much greater is the eternal decision to follow Christ and make Him in charge of you life, your future, your everything? Yet, instead of asking if people are truly counting the cost of that relationship decision and understanding the commitment they are making, we just nod our heads when they say a simple prayer. Few of us rarely follow through with fruit inspection and taking the time to see if the commitment was real and true. We don't tell them that becoming a Christian means losing everything. God becomes Master. He is now in charge of our lives, not us."Then Jesus said to his dicsiples, 'I tell you the truth, it is
hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you it is
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to
enter the kingdom of God.' When the disciples heard this, they were
greatly astonished and asked, 'Who then can be saved?' Jesus looked at
them and said, 'With man this is impossible, but with God all things are
possible.'" Matthew 19:23-26
Then the most painful conviction came. Pastor Mike's second point was to identify our own idols. We all have them. Sometimes our idols are "things", but they can also be people. An idol is anything we value more than God. It is something you wouldn't be willing to give to God. In our current American society, we often idolize family, especially kids. How many of us would be willing to lose a child, have a child get sick, or not have kids if that is what God asked of us? Do I love God more than I love Carter? I need to look at my ability to release control over Carter and his future.
Ryan and I faced this dilemma of idols when we were considering a job change for him last year. On the salary offered at a potential new job, in Orange County, we would most likely have had to sell our house and move into a townhome or a MUCH smaller home. This was agonizing. It took months for Ryan and I to get to the place where we could say, "Okay. Whatever God's will for us is, we are willing to give up our financial security." The job door was closed on us, so God never required this sacrifice of us. It was an eye opening experience as to the idols we grasp in our hearts, though.
Pastor Mike used passages such as Matthew 10:37, which says, "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." He made an excellent point of stressing that God is not asking us to hate our "things" or our loved ones. We just need to love God MORE. God is in control of our lives, not any person, place or thing. Pastor Mike ended this point by saying that our ultimate idol is ourselves. Ouch. He read from II Cor. 5:15. Take time to look at your own life and see what idols you hold above God. Is it looks, family, spouse, job, house, education, time, traveling, image, financial savings and security, weight, health, or popularity? Identify your idols.
Finally, we heard the good news. We all have idols, and we all fall short of placing God first in our lives. We CANNOT do it on our own. However, we can ASK GOD FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE. We can ask God to exchange Christ's perfect life for our sinful one. In being born again, God is in control, we have the help of the Holy Spirit, and we have a DESIRE to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. God alone can make this possible in our lives. It requires faith and trust and accepting Him as master of our lives no matter what He asks or what circumstances we face.
Quoting our pastor's famous tagline, "Anything, anytime, and anywhere, Lord."
5 comments:
Thanks for the recap Chiara. I was going to finish watching today. Ben said it was great, and I am looking forward to finishing it. Identifying those idols can be gutwrenching, but God did not promise that our Christian life would be easy.
Have a great week!
Pastor Mike's sermon was GREAT yesterday. I was glad I was there even though I was only running on a few hours of sleep. Every time I think I've conquered my idols, a new one seems to pop up in an area I wasn't expecting...conquering idols is an ongoing thing in the Christian life. Thanks for the recap!
The point about idols was a great one. I was convicted about how often I shy away from service (at church or wherever) because I need "family time." That, if it gets in the way of God, is an idol
Chiara, thanks for the great reminder of yesterday's sermon. Very convicting. I was so encouraged by the hope of asking God to do the impossible. That's what He's done in me and I need to be praying for Him to do that work in others, maybe even using me to speak that Biblical gospel to them!
Did you have name it American Idol??? I'm such a nut about that stinkin' show! ;o)) Sounds like an amazing sermon and I'm going to go to your church's website to check it out.
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