Not long ago I was at my 2nd office – Starbucks – and someone came up to me and said, “Do you ever frown? You’re always smiling!”
I replied, “Don’t ask my wife.” But I was thankful that they thought that about me, because wherever I go I want my face, my life and my spirit to communicate that there is Someone greater living in me.
Faith.
When we get up on Monday morning and go to work, our workplace needs us to have life-giving faith. If our churches are truly going to win their cities for Christ, they must have life-giving faith. It has to be alive and real, so people experience that faith. It can’t be a statement, it has to be reality, and if it’s going to be reality in our church, faith has to be growing in our heart.
We can’t afford to have weak faith if we want to win our cities for Christ.
[Tweet “Every Christian should continually looking for those who are searching.”]
Once we’ve found them, we need to help them move from searcher to inquirer! This happens when the searcher meets someone whose life is filled with faith. It’s not what you say with your mouth, but what they see in your life! When they see the Spirit of God alive in you, and that your faith isn’t religious they will ask, “What is different about you.”
And we will answer, “It’s Jesus living in me!”
Hopefully then we can help them moving from inquiring to discovery.
If we are going be life giving Christians, where faith is not just in our heads, but lived out everyday from our hearts, we have to know the Living God.
One thing I am seeing more and more, even in those who say they believe the Bible, is people saying, “Don’t we all worship the same God? We’re all seeking God, right?”
Well, lets take a cursory look at some of the gods.
Amy Carmichael went to India and rescued girls – and later boys – from temple prostitution. Because in the Hindu religion they have child prostitution
Mary Slessor went to Calibar, West Africa. And she saw the spiritism there required child sacrifice and even some adult sacrifice.
Look at Shinto in Japan. Their main god is the goddess of the sun. But they have goddesses of dawn, wind and fertility.
Buddhism has some 8-million gods
Islam instructs to kill those who will not convert, or torture them until they convert. And they train their children to be terrorists from a young age.
The Latter Day Saints teach that god is an exalted man and you, too, can become a god if you develop yourself enough.
Or the god of Jehovah’s Witnesses says that Jesus is a created being – but not almighty God.
Is this the same God we worship?
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD” Deuteronomy 6:4
“And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.” – Leviticus 18:21 refers to child sacrifice.
“If there is found among you, within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you, a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing His covenant,who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded,and it is told you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination has been committed in Israel.” – Deuteronomy 17:2-4
There is only one true God!
If our faith is going to be strong an life-giving; we have to know Him, his character so our faith is anchored in Him and who He is.
To hear this sermon in its entirety: A Church on the Move
You can follow the entire series, “Back to the Beginning” here.
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Discovering Jesus: A Discipleship Manual (Discipleship Series) (Volume 1)
The Joy of Becoming Like Jesus: A Discipleship Manual – Discipleship 101 (Discipleship Series) (Volume 2)Becoming Ambassadors for Christ: A Discipleship Manual – Discipleship 102 (Discipleship Series) (Volume 3)
