Are You Really A Christian?
Tom Shrader addresses the fundamental question of Christian identity, emphasizing that the term 'Christian' has lost much of its meaning in contemporary culture. Using 2 Corinthians 13:5, he presents two essential tests for genuine faith: the doctrinal test (believing Jesus is who He claimed to be and died for our sins) and the moral test (demonstrating life change through having the mind of Christ). He warns against cultural Christianity and stresses that true salvation requires both belief in Christ's deity and virgin birth, and evidence of spiritual transformation in daily living.
“What makes you a Christian is, do you pass the doctrinal test? Do you believe this word? And do you believe this word on what it says about Jesus?”
— Tom Shrader
Series: An Examined Life (2002)
Recorded: 2002 at Cannon Beach Conference Center
Duration: 50 min
Themes: salvation, faith, identity, transformation, assurance, discipleship, obedience, authenticity, questioning faith, new believer, doubting salvation, cultural christian, spiritual confusion, seeking assurance, nominal christian, struggling with identity
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 13:5, Matthew 5:48, John 20:30-31, Matthew 7:13-14, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Philippians 2:5, 1 Corinthians 2:16
Theological Themes: soteriology, salvation doctrine, sanctification, spiritual growth, christology, deity of christ, regeneration, true conversion
Full Transcript
Thank you very much. It is really good to be with you. Jeff mentioned we are from Phoenix, and he was not kidding. It was a hundred and eleven when we left, and to be really honest, that kind of cooled down to get to that. We have had some really hot weather.
It is a dry heat. As my brother says, so is an oven. That dry heat is kind of interesting. For our 20th wedding anniversary, Susan and I flew up to Anchorage, and one of the days we went out on a boat to look at a glacier. I mean that is the definition of a slow day—you are watching something that moves an inch a year. It was slow, and so I am talking to the guy that is running the deal.
It is absolutely true, and he has no idea. He does not know where I am from. Most people never ask. You just ask them, and they are so absorbed in who they are, they never ask who you are or where you are from. So I said, "Have you lived up here a long time?" He said, "Yeah, all my life." I said, "Doesn't it get cold here in the winter?" He said, "Yeah, I mean it gets to 30 or 40 below." Absolutely true, and he says, "But it is a dry cold." I said, "Save it. I have used that all my life."
My Journey from Iowa to Arizona
I was born and raised in Davenport, Iowa, which is right on the bottom of that little hump there if you can get a picture of Iowa in your mind. I lived there for—I have now lived exactly half my life there and half of it in Phoenix. I came out to Phoenix in 1975, and I came really not knowing anything about it. I had never been there.
A friend of mine was moving to Scottsdale. I had no idea where that was. We had been listening—I was kind of a Cubs fan, and we had been listening to Cubs Spring Training, and they were from Scottsdale, Arizona. We had not seen the sun literally in 30 days, and I cannot handle that. I cannot handle a lot of clouds, and I said, "This sounds good," and boom, out I came.
I did not know anybody. I did not know anything. I remember saying goodbye to my mom and to my dad. I left the day after Labor Day and came out not knowing anyone or anything, and my goal was to play golf until my money was gone. That was gone pretty quick. Then I had to go to work, and so I went to work.
My life was interesting and probably not much different than yours—circumstances maybe, but substantially kind of the same. That was just kind of a search for meaning, meaning in life.
The Search for Life's Meaning
Life Magazine, once a year, they used to do it—I do not know if they do it anymore. In December, they always do this special issue that has spiritual things to it. Who is the Virgin Mary? Who is God? A couple of years ago, it was titled "The Meaning of Life," and they asked some famous and some not so famous people, "What is the meaning of life?" Let me share some of these with you.
Tom Robbins, you may or may not know him. He is a writer. He said, "Here is the meaning of life. Our purpose is to consciously, deliberately evolve toward a higher, more liberated, luminous state of being—to return to Eden, make friends with the snake, and set up our computers. Our mission is to jettison those pointless preoccupations and take on once again the primordial cargo of inexhaustible ecstasy, or barring that, to turn out a good, juicy cheeseburger." That was my answer, honestly.
Maya Angelou, you might know her. You can certainly see her around a lot. This is interesting. "Since age two, I have been waltzing up and down with the question of life's meaning, and I am obligated to report that the answer changes from week to week. When I know an answer, I know it absolutely, and as soon as I know that I know it, I know that I know nothing. About 70 percent of the time, my conclusion is there is a grand design. I believe that the force that created life is betting on human beings will do something quite wonderful, like live up to their potential."
What is alarming here is Maya Angelou is one of those ladies that is so close to Oprah and so many people, and people look to Maya Angelou for answers. Here is what she says: "About 70 percent of the time, I think there is a grand design." So in essence, 30 percent of the time, she thinks this whole thing is an accident. The minute she knows what she knows, she knows that she doesn't know anything. That isn't helping me any.
More Perspectives on Life's Purpose
Here you go. Jose Martinez, he's a cab driver. He says this: "We're here to die, just live and die. Drive a cab, I do some fishing, take my girl out, pay taxes, do a little reading, then I get ready to drop dead. You've got to be strong about it. Life's a big fate. Nobody gives a damn. You're rich, you're poor, you're here, you're gone, you like the wind. After you're gone, other people will come. We're going to destroy ourselves. Nothing we can do about it. The only cure for the world's illness is nuclear war—wipe out everything and start over again." I think I was in his cab in Houston not long ago. What an interesting ride.
Mike Ditka says, "I believe we're here for a reason created by somebody to live for something, to return to somebody. I believe I'm created by God to do the job He's given me to do while I'm here, to serve Him and then to return to Him. It took me a long time to understand this." Not much there, huh?
Willie Nelson. Why are you saying that? There you go. You're going to hate yourself in a minute. Here's how we start. Matthew 5:48. Don't you feel bad about yourself now? Don't.
Willie Nelson's Take on Perfection
He screws it up from here. Matthew 5:48 says, "Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect." The purpose of life is to reach perfection. The human experience is much the same—to expand time to much greater because man can reach perfection. To achieve perfection, man must use his imagination to create a mental image of himself as a happy, healthy person, perfect in every way. Wanting to be perfect is all that's really required. God has
a perfect picture in His mind of everyone living in love and peace and harmony. And since God always gets what He wants, it's not a question of whether man will reach perfection, but when. Purely goofy.
What's interesting here, and there's a little sub-lesson here, is although it's goofy, it starts with a Bible verse. You can take that word and make that word mean and say a lot of different things, so be careful.
These last two are my favorite. Frank D'Amafrio, he's a barber. He said this: "I've been asking why I'm here most of my life. If there's a purpose to life, I don't care anymore. I'm 74, I'm on my way out. Let the young people learn the hard way like I did. No one ever told me anything." See Frank and the family around the Thanksgiving table just celebrating there.
The Futility of Human Wisdom
Again, I probably think about this way too much, but what's interesting to me is he said he doesn't know anything, and then he said nobody told me anything, and then let everybody learn the way I did. Well, if we all learn the way he did, we get nowhere.
Leonard Nimoy, remember Leonard Nimoy, Mr. Spock. "I find the question 'why are we here' typically human? I'd suggest 'are we here' is a more logical question." I like that.
We are living in a very spiritual time. If you go into Borders Bookstore, that section on spirituality just grows and grows and grows and grows and grows. Now it's filled with a lot of really bad teaching.
The Problem of Spiritual Confusion
Susan and I are so happy to be here, and part of it is just the temperature change. You can't fathom coming up here. When it got cold today, I said, well, I only brought two shirts and a couple of pairs of jeans. I thought I could teach in shorts and be comfortable, and I don't know, I hope so. It's hard to imagine that it's 50 degrees cooler here than at home. It's just hard to imagine that.
So we came in early. We're not stupid. There's a room up there. We're going to sleep in it. And so we got here yesterday, and we're walking down the street, and we went into the bookstore last night. And if you go into one of the bookstores, I don't know what the name of it was, but there was a whole wall filled with books, just lousy spiritual metaphysical New Age pablum.
We want answers. You deserve answers. I do not say this arrogantly, but you've come to a place that has the answer. We are not shy about this. In fact, we think it's our mission to be bold about this, because our answer doesn't flow from our experience. Our answer doesn't flow from our reasoning. Our answer doesn't flow from our opinion, our conjecture. Our answer flows from the scripture, from the Bible.
A Generation Seeking Direction
Here's one of my favorite Ann Landers. It's an old one, but it sets the tone. "Dear Ann, I'm a 23-year-old college graduate, a business major, and I don't presume to speak for my generation, but I know what I feel. People wonder about us. They say we're materialistic, just out for ourselves. They say we're apathetic, but it goes deeper than that."
And then this person lists all of the problems of the world: mergers, unemployment, nuclear weapons, everything there is. And then the person says this: "It sounds hopeless, but I love this country, and I think there is hope. I don't believe that my generation is apathetic. We just don't know where to start. Signed, Waiting for Guidance in California."
Kind of speaks for the whole state, really. Sorry. One of my favorite lines is when Will Rogers moved from Oklahoma to California, he said that move raised the IQ level of both states. Kind of good.
So here's Ann Landers. Ann Landers says this: "I see no sign of apathy or resignation in your letter. In fact, I sense that you are deeply concerned. I, too, refuse to accept the fact that we're doomed."
The Bankruptcy of Secular Wisdom
Now, here's the lady that millions of people go to every day for advice. Millions of people write her, millions of people read. Here's a simple question: Where do we find hope in the world? Ann goes to the wisdom bank, only to discover she's seriously overdrawn and fires this answer back: "I refuse to accept that we're doomed."
Here's what she answers with: not an answer, but two questions. "But what is going to save us? Any answers out there?"
We got them right here. We got a whole book of answers.
The Authority of Scripture
In a day and an age, even within the church, when this book is kind of under attack, when there are many who are saying, "Well, there's some great stories in there," here's my favorite: "And certainly there's some truth there." Well, all of a sudden, then I'm stumped because I'm not smart enough, if I've got to figure that out, to figure out what's true and what isn't.
I just had a lady who was a little bit offended at one of my messages at church. And she came up afterwards and used words like narrow-minded and all those things that frankly I find flattering. And she said this: I said, "Well, tell me where you are. Tell me what you think. Tell me what you believe."
And she says, "I believe the Bible contains the Word of God." And I said, "No, no, no. The Bible, it is the Word of God. It is the Word of God. It doesn't contain the Word of God. It is the Word of God."
This is truth. If we have to go mining and scavenging in here to try to find the truth, we're in real serious trouble. This is the truth.
The Foundation for Our Study
Now, I know many of you came in today. I know from my experience over the last 18, 20 years of doing retreats and conferences that that first day is a hard day, that you've traveled, you're tired. It feels to me like it's a little warm in the room, so you're starting to doze. You had the big dinner. Did anybody in here go for the cheeseburger or the burger instead of the fish? You idiot. You didn't do that, did you? I'm thinking, I hope they didn't make two burgers. Who's going to take that burger out there?
But I'm sure some of you did, and whatever. But you had a big meal, so you're tired. So I'm going to be really quick and really right to the point.
One of the things we can do in an environment like this is make a fundamental mistake, and it's this:
That everybody in the room is a Christian. That's one of the mistakes you can make. You may be, you may not be.
I'll tell you what we're going to do. We have five sessions together. Tonight, we're going to look at this whole issue of are you a Christian? Tomorrow morning and tomorrow night, I'm going to ask you to take a hard look at your own life. I'm going to ask you to take an inventory. I'm going to ask you to examine your life, to see where you are, to see if indeed your life is where you want it to be, and for you to evaluate your life. I'm going to ask how you're doing.
Tomorrow night, we're going to tell you how to move ahead. We're going to ask you to do something that very few Christians see as a positive asset, yet I believe, if you look at the life of the Apostle Paul, he exhibits it more than any person in the world. On Friday morning, I want to talk from my heart to yours.
A Personal Note
A week ago Friday, so just five days ago now, my youngest daughter got married. I have two daughters, and the youngest one got married. The older one's not married yet. This was not at all how we thought this would happen. When I look around over at dinner tonight, and I see so many of you with kids, and I see you with grandkids, I want to talk to you about that moment, if I can. It's almost my heart to your heart, almost pastoral in nature.
And then Friday night, I'm not sure what I want to do. I think I want to talk to you about the world we live in, and the ingredient that's missing from most people's lives. So that's what we're going to do.
But none of that, and by the way, it's very good. Tomorrow night, Thursday night, Friday, it's very good. And it's very helpful. And if you implement these things into your life, it will make a difference. But if you miss tonight, it doesn't matter.
The Test Paul Gives Us
So here you go. We're going to use a little PowerPoint. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 5. Here's what Paul writes. This is from the Living Bible. Paul writes this: "Check up on yourself. Are you really Christian? Do you pass the test? Do you feel Christ's presence and power more and more within you? Or are you just pretending to be Christians when actually you aren't at all?"
Paul says, here's what I want you to do. I want you to examine your own life. You know why? Because nobody else is really fit to do it, unless you're in blatant sin. If you're involved in blatant sin, you're involved in ongoing, unrepentant sin, then we can see that, we can mark that, we can draw the conclusion at that point that you're not a Christian. But most of us are incapable of really looking into your heart.
Jesus had the ability to look into a heart. We don't have that. God looks at the heart. That was the whole message that we see over and over again. We look at the outside, God looks at the heart. You examine your own heart. Are you really a Christian?
The Meaning of "Christian" Has Been Lost
I guess I feel more strongly about this now than even 15 years ago, because that term Christian has in many ways lost all of its meaning. Larry King is an agnostic Jew. How can this be? You can't be that. I think it means you get the holidays off is what it means for him. But he's an agnostic. He doesn't believe in God. And yet he's a Jew.
Well, what he is is a cultural Jew. He certainly isn't a fundamental Jew. He certainly isn't one there theologically. He's not a monotheist by any stretch of the imagination, because he doesn't believe God exists. But he gets by with that. And my friends that are familiar with Jews tell me there's a lot of cultural Jews. There's a lot of cultural Christians.
You live fundamentally in a nation that's identified itself as a Christian nation. You go to the hospital and they say, it's amazing to me, they still ask the question, what faith are you? And you go, well, what are the options? Muslim, well, I don't want to be that. Jewish, I don't want to be that. Catholic, well, I'm not a Catholic. What else you got? Other, I don't want to be another. What else? Protestant, okay, put down Protestant. And we just say that.
Real Answers from Real People
I am not exaggerating. I'll bet you I've asked a hundred people over the last five, six years, are you a Christian? Here's my favorite, and I've got some great answers. Here's my favorite answer. I said to this guy, because he's at one of my Bible studies. What I do, Jeff mentioned, we're part of a group that started a church, so we pastor, we teach there. But I make my living in the marketplace.
I teach three studies each week out in the marketplace, in a restaurant one morning, in a bar the next morning, and then in a huge hall as part of a church on the next afternoon. That's how I make my living. So I'm out in the marketplace. It's really good for me, because I'm not just around a bunch of church people all day long. It gets me out, and I hear a lot of stuff, and I see a lot of people with problems.
So I'm sitting with this guy, he wants to get together, he's real interested in what we're saying, he's fascinated by it, wants to talk about it, and so it's clear to me that this guy's not a believer. I said to him, are you a Christian? Here's his answer: "Not in the biblical sense." So he's a non-biblical Christian, but at least he's honest about it. Whatever, he's born in Kansas and drives a Chevy or something, and that makes him a farmer, but it doesn't make him a Christian.
What Is a Christian?
Do you pass the test? That's what he said, check up on yourself. So here's the test. Do you pass it? There's two aspects to it. And let me just pound this away a little bit. There's a doctrinal aspect and a moral aspect.
Most people focus on the moral aspect. They'll say, so-and-so is a strong Christian man. He's a good dad. He's an honest businessman. Let me help you out here. There's a lot of pagans who are good dads. There's a lot of pagans who are
The Heart of Christianity: Doctrine Over Good Works
There are honest businessmen. There are a lot of pagans who will come over and shovel your walks in the winter if you're sick or cut your grass in the summer. There's lots of pagans who do things we call good. That's not what makes you a Christian.
What makes you a Christian is, do you pass the doctrinal test? Do you believe this word? And do you believe this word on what it says about Jesus?
The Gospel According to John: Written to Create Belief
Most often, if you're dealing with somebody and they're not a Christian, and as you're talking to them, you want to get them in Scripture and you say, "We're going to try this. Let's see how this could be." You're going to give them a book and you say, "I want you to read, start reading one book of the Bible." What would you give them?
John. Somebody said Mark. Mark is fast and it's good. But John is usually the one we give. If you go to a Billy Graham crusade and they give you a little book, they're going to give you John. You know why? John tells you.
In John chapter 20 verse 30, John says this: "Jesus' disciples saw Him do many other miraculous signs besides the one recorded in this book. But these were written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him, you will have life." John said this is why I wrote the book.
Jesus did a whole bunch of things. You don't think for a second that everything Jesus said is in this book, or everything Jesus did is in this book. You don't think for a second that all of the miracles are recorded here. They're not. So how did we get this? Well, the Holy Spirit protects this, puts this together, and brings it to us. John, in his mind, is saying, "I selected these things because I want you to look at them and see that Jesus is who He said He was."
The Shocking Reality: Even Miracles Don't Convince Everyone
There's a fabulous moment that John records. Jesus' friend Lazarus is sick. The word comes to Jesus. And the disciples are stunned by His reaction. Because what Jesus does is nothing. Jesus sits there. He doesn't move.
Lazarus now dies. And the disciples are saying, "This is an odd thing. Why didn't we go when he was alive so He could do something?" He comes, and now Lazarus' sisters come out, and they say, "Oh, it would have been great if you could have gotten here. You might have been able to heal him." And He said, "No, he'll rise again." And they said, "Well, I know he'll rise again and go to heaven." And He said, "No, no, no. Take me out to the tomb."
So out they go. And then Jesus says, "Roll away the rock." And I don't believe that I have any ancestors in Scripture, direct ancestors, but if I did, they would have been the ones who at that moment contributed this insightful line: "Surely he's stinking." That would have been our contribution to the Scripture. But at least we have an eye for the obvious. Surely he's stinking.
And Jesus says, "Lazarus, come forth." And out Lazarus comes. After you read the Scripture for a while, that doesn't even really surprise you much. You know what shocks me? The next line. The next line says, "And many believed." Not all.
What is it you need to see, my friend? Here you go. He's dead. They buried him. You know he's dead. You've known this guy. You've watched this thing. You look, and he comes shuffling out of there. He's all wrapped up. And out he comes. And you see this thing and you still don't believe. I think that speaks to God's hand in opening our eyes in the process of salvation.
Two Gates, Two Destinations
There's a doctrinal test. The Scripture is filled with this. Open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 7, and we could go anywhere really in the Gospels and in the New Testament and see this over and over again. But I just want you to see that there's a distinctiveness here.
Matthew chapter 7, verse 13. This is the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is talking to these people, to His disciples and those who are gathered, and He's talking about salvation. He began the whole thing in chapter 5, verse 3, when He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." The word poor there does not mean somebody who's out begging. The word poor there means bankrupt, literally. It's a beggar who's cowering in the corner. They wouldn't even look at you. Blessed is the person who's spiritually bankrupt, who absolutely understands that when they come spiritually, they bring nothing. Our hands are empty. We have no good thing dwelling in us.
Matthew chapter 7, verse 13, Jesus is closing out this profound message and He said this: "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there's many of those who enter by it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and fewer those who find it."
The Disturbing Truth About the Narrow Way
So here's the first thing we need to know about this destination. There's two destinations. One to life, to heaven, one to destruction, to hell. One, that one that leads to heaven, is a narrow gate. The other is a wide gate. This wide gate is easily traveled and there's an interesting fact in here.
This wide, easy gate to hell, according to Jesus, which I presume is a reliable source, is heavily traveled. This narrow, hard gate has very few people on it. I personally, this is just me, based on this and based on what I see, I don't think there are a lot of Christians around. And that's very alarming when you live in a country where 75%
The Doctrinal Test: Who Do You Believe Jesus Is?
There's absolutely no way that 85% of the people say they're Christian. The way we know it is through the doctrinal test: Do you believe that Jesus is who He said He was?
Jesus talks about these guys that build houses on different foundations. One builds on rock, one builds on sand. The one who builds on rock is the one who hears the word of God and acts upon it. The Bible teaches us in 2 Corinthians 5:21: "For God made Christ who had never sinned to be the offering for our sin so that we could be made right with God through Christ."
Jesus Christ comes into this world. Who is Jesus Christ? This world is filled with people who would say He's a good teacher or a great moral leader. Mahatma Gandhi said, "I admire Jesus very much. I read the Gospels every day. I believe he was a great teacher, but I refuse to believe that Jesus or anyone else could die in our place." There's no evidence that Gandhi changed that position. If Gandhi clung to that all the way through to his death, then Mahatma Gandhi is the nicest man in hell.
I love to use that illustration because to me it graphically proves a point that we bring nothing to it. Gandhi, in many ways, puts me to shame. There's the classic picture of Gandhi when he dies—what's left? His prayer book, his glasses, his walking stick. That's all there is. This man, in many ways, gave his life for other people. But that's not what gets you to heaven.
Churches are filled with people who are there, just like Larry King, out of some sort of cultural responsibility. So the first test is: do you believe that Jesus is who He said He was?
Jesus' Claims of Divinity
Jesus said, "I am God." That's why the Jews wanted to kill Him. When Jesus said, "I and the Father are one," they picked up stones to throw at Him. He asked, "Why are you doing it?" They said, "Because you have blasphemed. You said you were God." Jesus says He's God.
The Bible tells us that Jesus is different than you and me, that Jesus came into this world born of a virgin. When I was a young man, I went to Catholic grade school, high school, and college. At Catholic college, we had a Dutch priest theologian there. This guy smoked like a chimney.
We were in a room probably about a quarter the size of this one night, and he was smoking like a chimney. They were all smoking cigarettes. I don't like cigarettes—I just can't stand the smell. So I had a cigar. He spoke and said, "Anybody have any questions?" I said, "I got a question. What about the virgin birth?"
He said, "That's a great question. Here's what's key: It doesn't matter the birth. The birth doesn't matter. It's the product of the birth that matters. All that matters is Jesus." I said, "Oh wow, that's really profound." It's profoundly stupid. I missed it. I didn't know. I wasn't a Christian.
The Essential Truth of the Virgin Birth
The virgin birth is absolutely essential, because Jesus is born of a virgin. His father is not Adam. If His father is Adam, what's our problem? He's got sin just like you and me. I don't mean this disrespectfully at all, but if Jesus has a human father, if Joseph is Jesus' father, then I might as well die on the cross for you, or you die for me.
Jesus is born of a virgin. He knew no sin. He had no sin in Him at birth, and He never sinned in this life. He died on the cross, and Jesus did something extraordinary.
We walk around now wearing crosses as pieces of jewelry. Almost every jewelry store sells crosses. If you walked around in that day and age with a cross, they would have thought there was something wrong with you. It'd be like walking around today with an electric chair or a guillotine on a chain. That's what it would be. It was a sign of horrific execution.
The Agony of the Cross
Crucifixion was the most painful, arduous death you could experience. Sometimes we miss what crucifixion really was, because Jesus died relatively quickly. Crucifixion was designed so the person crucified could literally survive for days, even weeks.
Those who were crucified had their feet put together, and there was a little ledge that they would rest on. They would rest on that ledge, and that's why they broke their legs. That's how they died—they suffocated. They would have a hard time breathing, and they would push up. I've read through history of horrific deaths on the cross, where literally the birds would come and begin to pick at the body while they were still alive, hanging on the cross. The animals would come and try to scavenge the flesh and the bones while they were still living.
I think you could argue that there were hundreds, maybe thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people who died a more physically agonizing death than Christ. The agony of the cross is not the physical aspect of it—it's that He who knew no sin became sin.
When Jesus cries out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" Jesus is experiencing that moment when the wrath of all the sin of all of His people is thrust onto Him at that moment. That's the agony of the cross. It's the only time in this world where Jesus refers to God the Father as "God." It was always "my Father." But at that moment, it's "my God, my God, why have You forsaken me?"
When He says, "It is finished," what He means is your sin, my sin, the sin of His people paid in full. Now if you believe that Jesus is who He said He was, and that He died on the cross for sinners like you and me, and if you come to Him in repentance and faith, if you believe He's who He said He was, then you have
eternal life. That's the doctrinal test. You believe? My guess would be that there's some here who don't. So our prayer leading up to this, our prayer now, is that you would come to understand that.
Here's the second part of that test. If you just said yes, then your life must change. There has to be a difference in your life. That's what the whole book of James is about. The whole book of James is about your life changing.
The Cost of Salvation
USA Today did an interesting survey about a year ago. They asked people who were rich what they would pay for certain things. Here's what they said: To be President of the United States, they'd pay $55,000. For great beauty, $83,000. For a reunion with a lost loved one, $206,000. This is the average price. For eternal youth, $29,000. For talent, $285,000. For a great intellect, $407,000. For true love, $487,000. The top of the list? $640,000 for a place in heaven.
Boy, do we have a deal for you here today. We can get you in there for half that. We can get you in there for $320,000 and a new roof on this building. It's free. That's the whole thing.
All religion, all man instinctively wants to somehow do something, buy something, think something. That's what religion is. Religion is man's incessant desire to somehow satisfy a holy God. What I have to do is believe.
Max Lucado writes these words. When I hear that saxophone being played, I say, I'd love to do that. When I hear a singer, I say, I'd love to do that. When I read this stuff, I'd say, man, would I love to write like this. Here's what Max Lucado writes: "Please note, salvation is God given, God driven, God empowered, God originated. The gift is not from man to God, but from God to man. Grace is created by God and given to man. On the basis of this point alone, Christianity is set apart from any other religion in the world. Every other approach to God is a bartering system. If I do this, God will do that. I'm either saved by my works, what I do, my emotion, what I experience, or my knowledge, what I know. By contrast, Christianity has no whiff of negotiation at all. Man is not the negotiator. Indeed, man has no grounds from which to negotiate."
A Life That Reflects Christ
Have you come to Christ in repentance and faith? If so, your life ought to reflect it. People ought to see something different in you. There ought to be times, and they should be frequent, when people say there's something different about you.
I was in a cab two weeks ago in Houston when it was late at night, about midnight. I landed, and there's no transportation, there's cabs, and there's a police officer there at the airport. I said to him, I've just come to town, I don't know anything about Houston, I need to get downtown, what should a cab cost me? Here's what the officer said: Sir, you're in the fourth largest city in the United States of America. There are a lot of bad people here. I suggest you go out and interview each one of those cab drivers and try to find an honest one. I said, wow, okay. It's not exactly Chamber of Commerce there.
So there was a gal standing over there, and she seemed like she knew, and I said, hey, what should a cab cost me to get to the Houstonian? She said, go out there and tell them you want a flat rate. So I go up to the guy and I said, hey, I'm looking for a cab to the Houstonian, I want a flat rate. He doesn't bat an eye, he says 38 bucks. He said, if it's less than 38, you pay what's on the meter, if it's more, you pay 38.
I'm in the cab, we're driving along, and I can barely understand the man's English. I said, where are you from? He says, Ethiopia. We're about three minutes into this, and I do something I never, ever, ever do. I said to him, are you a Christian? He says, oh, yes. Oh, yes, I'm a Christian. You know what made me do that? You could see something different. You could just see the difference.
See, there should be a difference. Your family should be different than all the other families in the block. Your business, whether you're an employer or an employee, should be different than everybody else. Your life should be different. You don't get mad, you get even. No, you forgive and forget your love. If they put you down, you just stay down and glorify in the Lord, and you just let God bring you back up. Everything's different. We see the world differently. Everything is different.
The Mind of Christ
Now, you pass that test. Here's another way of saying this. Do you have the mind of Christ? In other words, do you start to think like Christ? Paul writes it this way in Philippians 2:5: "Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus." That's the New King James. Here's the New American Standard: "Have this attitude in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus." That's the rendering I want to look at.
Have this attitude in you. When we look at the word attitude, here's what we get: one's disposition or opinion, one's mindset by which you evaluate things. In other words, you start to see the world as Christ sees the world. Now, the way we get that is not experientially, though there's some experience to it. The way I get the mind of Christ is to understand God's mind, which is to get it out of this word.
I don't know what you know about George Washington Carver. He was born in about 1864, about the end of the Civil War. His father died right after his birth. His mom was taken by slave raiders. He was a very sickly boy.
So he spent most of the time inside rather than out, spent a lot of time in the garden, and just had a great thirst for these things. In 1891, he became the first African American to enroll in Iowa State, what is now Iowa State University. He actually became the first African American faculty member at Iowa State University, and in 1896, he completed his master's degree, and he was invited by Booker T. Washington to join the faculty at Tuskegee Institute.
Carver did a lot of things, but to short circuit it, Carver's works resulted in 325 products from the peanut, and more than 100 products from sweet potatoes, and hundreds from other plants. Actually, Carver died in 1943, so not that long ago but when you think about it in that time frame. In 1921, he was called before a Senate subcommittee, and he was asked to testify. It's interesting because he had a little background at this point. Henry Ford tried to hire him, and he said no. Thomas Edison offered him over $100,000 income, and this is back in 1910 or something, when $100,000 meant something. And he said no.
The Power of God's Word
Now he's in front of this subcommittee. Listen to these hearings. Boy, would you love to hear a hearing like this now. The Senator said to him, "How did you learn all these things?" Carver said, "From an old book." "What book?" the Senator said. Carver said, "The Bible." The Senator asked, "Does the Bible tell about peanuts?" "No sir, but it tells me about the God who made the peanut, and I asked Him to show me what to do with the peanut, and He did."
That's what this book does. There's something absolutely extraordinary in your life when you tap into the power that's in here. So profound, and yet so simple and understandable.
The Universal Effectiveness of Scripture
Susan and I are whipped. We have really been working hard, and I know you have too, but we've been traveling a little. I had to go to Houston. We took 525 junior high and high school students to summer camp for our church kids. I teach all the time there. That's the deal. What our desire is to not have these kids think that student ministries is over here and the church is over here. They're part of this church. That's why I go to summer camp with them. And I'm too old for this. Way too old for this, but I go.
We take along the dads, because we want the dads two things. Number one, we work them like dogs. Number two, we want them to see student ministries. So I'm in there, and I taught seven times while we were there. After the third message, one of the dads comes up and he said, "You know what, I got to confess something to you." And I said, "What is it?" And he said, "When you started the first two nights, I thought this is never going to work. He's doing this just like he does church. He's just opening the Bible and teaching His kids. This is never going to work. These kids need to be entertained, and they need to dance funny and wear your hair goofy and all this other stuff." He said, "I got to confess to you, I was absolutely wrong."
You know why he was wrong? As I open it up before businessmen, before junior high students, women's groups, it doesn't matter. You just open it up and you look at it, and there's what life has to say. All of a sudden, you want to know the grid that you're supposed to have to live by? There it is.
Having the Mind of Christ
"Have the mind in you that's in Christ Jesus." "Who has the mind of Christ? For who has known the mind of the Lord that He should instruct Him? We have the mind of Christ." We are Christians. If you're a Christian today, you're supposed to think like Christ.
Now the essence of the quality that Paul talks about in that passage in Philippians 2 is humility, which is the absolute antithesis of the world. I don't know you guys from a post. The chances of me getting to know many of you are zero. It isn't going to happen. But having not known you and never met you, I can tell you your besetting sin: Pride! That's the ultimate vice. C.S. Lewis says this—it was through pride that Lucifer became the devil. Pride!
The Antithesis of Pride
Well, if pride is your ultimate vice, the antithesis of pride is humility. And no one is naturally humble. Even when I'm naturally humble, when I'm a natural man, I'm not a Christian, I'm faking it! I'm to have the mind of Christ. Jesus said, "I came not to be served, but to serve."
Here's how this connects together. You too are servants. You will never serve someone you're looking down on. It isn't going to happen. If you do, it'll be out of the wrong motive. It's so at the end of the day, you can go, "Hey, did you see what a servant I am?"
The Essential Question
So here's the question: do you have the mind of Christ? That's all I want to accomplish tonight. I want you to be able to look at your life, to be able to examine your life, be able to take a hard, honest look at it. And I want you to be able to say, "Yes, I'm a Christian," or "No, I'm not."
There's an enormous value in at least saying, "No, I'm not." Because now it's established. Now you know. Now you're done kidding yourself. Now you're done faking out others. Are you a Christian? I pray that you are. I hope that you are.
An Invitation to Honest Self-Examination
What we're going to do, starting tomorrow morning, is ask you to take your life and throw it under the microscope. I'm not going to evaluate you. And it's going to be very, very tempting for you to evaluate the person who came with you. We don't want to do that. That makes for a long ride home. You don't want to be going down that road. You want to examine your own life. So we're going to do that in the morning.
I want you to know, it is really an honor for Susan and me to be with you. Again, the nature of this week is that we're not going to get to know you, but you need to know this: We really do love you. That may sound silly. We really do love you. We really do want what's best for you. And what's best for you is to know the Lord Jesus Christ in a personal, intimate way. And to celebrate with those who joined you here.
He's here with a family. Was it Ween's family? There's like 40 of you or something here. Where are you? You're out there. From all over the place. Look at them. There's like 40 of them. There were 40. Now there's like 45 of them. They're growing like weeds.
But they're from Colorado and Minnesota and all over the place who are here to celebrate together. Some of you came to a family reunion. Some of you came with your kids. These are the people you love. But is it more important for you to love the Lord Jesus Christ than any of these? And you know what? When you love Him, your love for those around you grows deeper than you can ever imagine.
Let me pray. And then I don't know who, do you close, Ted? Let me pray as Ted comes.
Father, we thank You for this moment. We thank You that we can be here. Thank You for those people that have traveled so far and they're tired. God, I pray especially for those who might not even want to be here at all. Somebody made them come or they committed to come a long time ago and a thousand things have come up in the last week and they're sitting there, they're driving saying, I got no business going to this. I got stuff to do. God, help them understand they got nothing more important to do than to be here. God, will You work in their life?
We pray for those that are here tonight that may not know Your son Jesus. There may not be many, but God, we pray that You touch their heart. They talked to one of the staff members here. What does it mean to be a follower of Christ? And you know, you're a Christian.
And God, for those of us who are followers, who are disciples, we pray You would use this time to deepen our love for You and our care and our love for one another. And then when we leave this place, our lives would never be the same. God, we ask You to do that work. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.