Live like you don't belong here

"Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us."   -1 Peter 2:11-12

Christians... our world needs you to live in this world like a foreigner, like you do not belong here.

This is a Spirit-filled, Jesus-centered life grounded in Truth.

National and world events continue to show how desperately our world needs Christians to face the brokenness of this world by being salt and light and by sharing the Gospel.

The downward spiraling condition of our state, nation and world is not a call for Christians to hide ourselves, picket, criticize, or attack. This is a call for all believers to see great opportunities to make a difference in our world through the Gospel.

The world needs followers of Jesus who are totally sold out for Him--those who love God, love people and unashamedly bear witness for Jesus and make disciples.

This call is not only for pastors, church staff, and missionaries. It is for students, athletes, engineers, CEOs, military personnel, counselors, government workers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, restaurant servers, baristas, and everyone else to purposefully live out God's call to bear witness and make disciples for Him wherever we are.

Christians... the world needs you to fully live out your relationship with God.

Too often, our world sees the wrong version of Christianity--diluted and powerless. The world also sees a Christianity that chooses culture over Christ, emphasizes moralism over God's grace, pursues good behavior not a personal relationship with Jesus, and teaches personal happiness over God's Holiness.

That is not the Christianity found in the Bible. Let's be honest, who would want to follow that? Definitely not me!

Have you ever wondered why high school students, college students, and 20-somethings leave Christianity in droves? I would like to take a guess that they are not rejecting Christianity. They are rejecting a weak, flawed and powerless version of Christianity.

Instead of learning hard truths in scripture, centering on the Gospel, and pointing people to life in Christ, many may have been taught that the central message of Christianity is behavior modification or moralism, personal happiness, and easy beliefism based on a shallow understanding of the Gospel.

Those are all good but totally miss the mark because they point people to works and not Jesus.

As a result, many see Christianity through the lens of a compromised, weak and aloof version of it. They do not see the reality of Jesus in people at church, school, work, and at home.

So why do we compromise when Jesus' calls us to obedience? 

#1 Surrendering to Jesus is not easy.
Jesus said that complete surrender to Him is required from anyone who wants to follow Him. Jesus said, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." (Matthew 16:24)

Surrendering to anyone or anything, let alone someone we cannot see, goes against our human nature. We want to be in control. We wrestle with God and compromise because our flesh rejects full surrender to Jesus.

Satan will do everything possible to fool us into thinking we do not have to fully surrender to Jesus. When we do not commit fully to Jesus, we will be spiritually dead, dry and disconnected. Satan will fool you in many ways, making you think that it's ok to be spiritually dead, dry and disconnected.

But remember that a real encounter with God leading to life change happens after we surrender to Jesus. What are you holding back? What are you holding on to that God is calling you to let go?

What do we surrender to Jesus?

• Our lives
• Our sin
• Our will
• Our future
• All of who we are
  

#2 We are afraid of what others will think. 
Although Christians are called to live like foreigners in this world, many of us don't. We would rather be more like our culture than like Jesus. Most Christians feel a greater connection to being citizens of this world than being part of God's Kingdom because the world's tangible realities seem more real to us than God.

Many of us at one time or another tried to appease the world and make Christianity more palatable by teaching a diminished version of Christianity. In the way we live, we attempt to go "undetected" in a world hostile to Christianity.

Even in church, we often find ourselves thinking that coolness, status, platform, abilities, connections, facilities are what draw people to Jesus.

We compromise because we fear what other people will think of us and how people will treat us. We are controlled more by public opinion than by God.

If we do not have strong convictions about God, we will shy away from teaching Biblical truth. In addition, we will falter when our obedience to Jesus is challenged. 


#3 We have not experienced God's transforming work in us.
It would be foolish for me to share about growing pineapples, which is one of my dad's great passions, because I have no experience or passion for it. My dad, on the other hand, can talk about pineapples all day. He used to own a pineapple farm and loves everything about pineapples. With great passion and authority, my dad can tell people how to raise and pick pineapples. I have never worked on a pineapple farm or even picked a pineapple from the field. Still, it is conceivable that I can say exactly the same things my dad says about picking and raising pineapples. But unlike my dad, I will not speak with the same kind of passion, life or authority.

Imagine me doing this day after day, week after week, year after year. Teaching something that I have not experienced and have no passion for. In time, I will burn out, grow weary, and find no life. I will wonder why I'm doing what I'm doing and quit.

In the same way, many teach about Jesus based on what other people say but have not experienced Him personally. Too often, professing Christians will try to give away what they do not have and try to bear witness about a Jesus they really do not know. We pass information we heard from others but we do not share out of our experience with Jesus.

Christianity is not about transferring information. It is about transformation through Jesus because a living God desires to have a relationship with us. When we walk with Jesus, the world will see how the Gospel transforms and gives life. They will see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control through the Holy Spirit.

Christians... the world needs you. There are people in our communities and around the world who need to see true Christianity lived out. Whether it's at school, work, community, or church, the world is dying to see Christianity lived out. Let's go out and live for Jesus, bear witness and make disciples in a world that desperately needs Him.

Will you be a witness for Jesus by living like you don't belong here?

How can we live for Jesus and not the world?
I want to encourage you to please read a book in the Bible called Colossians. As you are reading, please journal what you think God is saying through His word. You can click here to start reading. Here are the five main points from this book that will challenge us to live for Jesus in this world: 

1.  Surrender to Jesus and allow Him to be the focus of your life (Colossians 1:15-23)

2.  Trust that Jesus' payment for your sins on the cross and resurrection from the dead are sufficient to save you and change you (Colossians 2:6-15)

3.  Remember that Christianity is based on what Jesus did for us, not moralism, behavior modification or what we do for God
(Colossians 2:16-23)

4.  Follow what Jesus says through the Bible (Colossians 3)

5.  Pray (Colossians 4:2-6)

One last thing. I want to leave you with this cool song that I hope will encourage you as you live for Jesus. Check it out by clicking on to the title of this very powerful song, "I Got Saved"