"Who Lives In You?"
sermon by Pastor David Layman
June 13, 2004
Galatians 2:19-21, Ephesians 4:17-24
1. We know the temptation of vanity
Does every work place, campus and organization have someone who's arrogant, self-centered, and thinks they're wonderful? While many others think they're a pain to be around? People remark "He thinks he's God's gift to women." Or "She thinks she's so smart!" An implication of the New Age movement is that people are divine... ."There's a beautiful you deep down inside waiting to be discovered. Look within for truth." The Bible shares a different message. It begins with the serpent tempting humankind to partake of a certain forbidden fruit, "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God " (Genesis 3:5) New age religion is curiously similar to this ancient temptation! Yet when Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit, and their eyes were opened, they realized they were naked! They saw their vulnerabilities, and hid in the garden. If God was seeking background music for the Garden of Eden, he could have started with Carly simon's "You're So Vain" during temptation, and then continued with Ray Steven's "The Streak" when Adam and Eve realized they were naked! "The emperor" has no clothes, but the vain fool just doesn't realize it! We don't become great by discovering some beautiful "me" deep inside us. We don't become great by aping the values of the world.
2. It's not imitation, but inhabitation that makes us into what God intends!
Our world wants to think we can become great by imitating the rich and famous. Yet it's not imitation but INHABITATION that makes us into what God intends. God wants Christ to "inhabit" our lives. Paul put it this way: Paul "died" to his old self: "I have been crucified with Christi and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me."
(Galatians 2:20). In I John 3:24 we read "All who obey [Christ's]
commandments abide in him, and he abides in them." Our obedience to God unlocks God's power to move into and inhabit our lives. There are scary movies called "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" where sinister forces inhabit people's lives. But when Christ begins to live in and through us, it's not a scary or bad thing... .it's a good thing for us and others!
During the crusades, some soldiers heading off to the Holy Land were baptized, but they held their sword and arm outside the water, so that they could say "This sword has not been baptized", and engage in violent conquest with a "clearer conscience." A major problem today is that believers in Christ only allow Christ to inhabit a portion of their lives--perhaps an hour a week on Sunday! And that's just if there's nothing "better" to do on that day! vic Pentz once attended a fund-raising banquet for a homeless shelter. He sat at the head table with a very successful businessman who said "For the longest time I did very well in business and very badly in my personal life." He confessed to getting caught up in shallow and self-destructive patterns of living that wealthy people at times fall prey to. The man continued "In 1990 I gave my life to Jesus Christ. But honestly, nothing much changed as a result of that." He continued "A couple of years later, I gave my business to Jesus Christ." The businessman reached into his wallet and pulled out pictures of 5 schools he had started in zimbabwe. vic could tell this man was displaying his pride and joy, the greatest accomplishment of his life. He was helping educate 1500 school children in an impoverished nation. In 1990, the businessman had in reality just given part of his life to Christ, not letting Christ touch the wealth he had accumulated. It was when he let Christ into the part of his life relating to how he ran his business and spent his money, that the greater transformation began to take place! (May 18, 2003 Peachtree Presbyterian sermon "It's Plan 'A' All the Way".)
3. Growth in discipleship takes time!
In Ephesians 3:17, Paul wrote "Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." How is it that Christ begins to live within us? We need to put away our old self and make room for Christ to dwell within us, not just make an occasional visit.
We commonly excuse our flaws by saying "That's just the way I am!" But spiritual growth begins to take place when we stop making excuses for our old selves, and begin to ask Christ to inhabit our lives and begin the long process of making us into new creations. Our third purpose is discipleship, becoming more and more like Christ. Christian maturity is not the result of a single experience, but a continuous process of letting Christ indwell us and change our old nature into the new person He desires us to be. A church has no power to draw others if its members are content with themselves as they have always been. Growing churches are those with members who demonstrate changed lives. That attracts the attention of others!
We know of people that are becoming new creations because God is at work through them. This never happens overnight. I've participated in many Emmaus Walks, and I know that God has often worked through this 72 hour period in positive ways. But people fool themselves if they think one 72 hour spiritual experience is enough to do the job of spiritual growth and transformation! I worked on a Walk where one participant confessed to me, in tears, that he had been lazy at work, and this weekend was going to change him into a different person. sometime later, I asked someone who works with him if they saw a new creation in the making. Sadly, they responded he was still lazy! It's this lack of growth in discipleship that can give religious experience a bad name! It's not enough to get a warm and fuzzy feeling in worship or on a spiritual retreat. We need to let God dwell in our hearts through faith, not just make an occasional visit! Imagine making an occasional visit to a friend, who shall we say, is "neatness and tidiness challenged". There's only so much you'll try to do to change a friend's surroundings if you only see them occasionally. But if you're going to move in and live with this friend, day after day, you'll insist that certain things need to be changed! That's the way it is when Christ begins to live in us. The only way Jesus will continue to dwell in us is that we begin to clear out the clutter of self-centeredness so that there's room for Him!
4.Obedience to God is the prerequisite for spiritual growth!
Our obedience to God unlocks God's power. Paul expounded upon this thought when he wrote the Ephesians: "You must no longer live as the Gentiles live... .You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God." Put away your old self, Paul wrote, to make room for Christ to live within you.
When Joshua was faced with an impassible barrier, the floodwaters of the Jordan River receded only after the leaders stepped into the rushing current in obedience and faith. Effort has nothing to do with our salvation, but it has a lot to do with our spiritual growth. We don't have to do anything for our salvation, but we're expected to do a lot because of it! Too many people are waiting around for a feeling of God's power or confidence before they begin to obey Him. But the secret to spiritual growth is to move ahead in our weakness, doing the right thing in spite of our fears and feelings. Nike has a motto: "Just do it." Don't sit on the shore waiting for God to convince you that you can make it to the other side. Put both feet in the water, put away your old self so that Christ may take residence within. Our obedience to God unlocks God's power!