MCC Podcasts
Real Christianity
So today's message has actually been introduced through the entire liturgy of our time together, every element that we've seen. It's entitled Real Christianity. What is being a Christian really about anyway? I don't know if you realize it or not, but in watching and referencing the renewal of vows for Ryan and Jackie, renewal of a wedding vow, and then hearing Jocelyn's challenge to deliver children from bondage, you pretty much have your answer. Because Christianity is both a marriage ceremony and a rescue mission. It involves a wedding and a funeral. It's the starting of a new relationship and the ending of an old one. Being a Christian is ultimately about two things. One, it's about what you do with your heart. Two, it's about what you do with your life. And any attempt to separate those two long-term. Now we're in process and growing with each of those. And so while we're in process, things are in process. But any global attempt to define Christianity at the expense of either one of those points is, in my estimation, and I would argue in the estimation of Jesus himself represented pretty clearly in the Bible, a false Christianity, or at least an incomplete Christianity with good intentions. Real Christianity is about two things. What you do with your heart and what you do with your life. We've seen that illustrated in these two elements of this worship. First Christianity is about what you do with your heart. Don't mean to minimize that at all. It's the act of giving your heart to Jesus and acknowledging his heart for you. Specifically, it's becoming Christ's bride. When I become a Christian, I become bride of Christ. I don't the white gown like you saw it worn up here, except when I do it, it's not worn nearly so beautifully as when Jackie wears it. In short, becoming a Christian is about getting married. It's about giving away your heart. In real Christianity, it's difficult to think of Jesus without becoming somewhat overwhelmed with love for him. Now we express that emotion differently and we feel it differently. I'm not trying to paint that with the same brush for every person. You get to express and experience that emotion, that love for Christ in ways that are consistent with your own wiring. But in real Christianity, think of Jesus. If you're Italian, like Jeff and me, it means tears. Think about what Jesus did for you and what he's doing to transform the world and what he honors us as a church by including us in. You get emotional. That's why we find it's a wedding. It's why we find bridegroom language in the book of revelations. You read the book of revelations, especially 17, 18, 19, and then you start hearing about the bride and the groom. It's why Matthew and Luke both use wedding party language to describe it being a Christian because Christianity is about what you do with your heart. It's about getting married. In 1 John 5, we're reminded that we're at the altar and when we have the groom, we have life. This eternal life Jesus came to give. This is the testimony God has given us eternal life. This life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has the life. Whoever does not have the Son does not have the life. Whoever is standing next to the bride on that day has the marriage, has the union. John chapter 6, I have come down from heaven, I'm going to be skipping around a little bit, a gem here, so it's not his fault, it's mine if these don't line up. Come down from heaven, this is Jesus speaking, not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me that I should lose none of those that he has given me. In John 1, we were told that he came to his own and they rejected him. They left him at the altar and so he reached out beyond there. And now he's talking about all those that God has given him. He said, "But the plan is that they be raised up on the last day for my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life. Everyone who takes those vows here, I give you my heart. Till death do us part, here's the good deal, death will never do us part, not in this marriage, and receive that love from Christ. To everyone who does it, I will raise them up on the last day." And then in John chapter 3, John the baptizer talking to his disciples about Jesus baptizing more than John was. The disciples were confused. John the Baptist disciples, "Hey, that guy over there, you just talked about him, but he's baptizing more than you, like if we've been fired. What's going on?" And he uses bride and groom language in his explanation. In John chapter 3, a person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, "I'm not the Messiah. I'm sent ahead of the Messiah." And then he says in verse 20 on the bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom, the one who's sent ahead of the Messiah, waits and listens for him. And his full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice, "That joy is mine, and now it's complete. He must become greater. I must become less." Real Christianity includes a wedding ceremony, where a person gives his or her heart to the one who gave his life in order to earn the right to caress it in the first place. Being a Christian, real Christianity is about what you do with your heart. And if you're inclined toward Jesus, there comes a point when you need to take a deep breath every single person and say, "At this point, with full awareness of what I'm doing, I give my heart to you. I'm yours. Live in me. Be my Savior." The Christianity is also about what you do with your life. Some of us have forgotten that. Some of us, like me, were raised sort of believing whether it was purposely taught or not. We were raised sort of believing that all there is to being a Christian is standing at the altar and saying the vows. Then you get to go live as though you're single. Then you get to keep dating who you were dating before, keep doing what you were doing before, keep the same values you had before, the same habits you had before, no change required. I've got the ring. I'm married. That's that. I stood there on that date and took those vows. How many of you, especially those of you who were married, have learned very quickly that to handle a marriage that way is absurd. Don't raise your hand, but raise your hand. If you're sitting next to your spouse, raise your hand just for the sake of the rest of the day. Christianity is about what you do with your heart, specifically who you give it to. But real Christianity is also about what you do with your life. It's about learning the life and the values of Jesus and then living them out. What did you say Jesus? That's no longer appropriate. My brother came the day that I stood at the altar and gave my heart to Jesus just a little while later. We were working on our trucks in Santa Clara and he came and said, "What's going on?" I told him, "I just prayed a prayer and I made a commitment to Jesus from now on. I'm a Christian. I'm going to be a Christian." Then he dropped a knife where we were cutting a hole in his car and put speakers in and I was in the trunk and it dropped a knife and it hit me right there. I used that syllable. I became aware right then, "Wow, I think I probably can't talk like that anymore." Christianity is about how you live your life, learning the life and values of Jesus, living them out specifically. It's the practice of putting to death one's own agenda and breathing new life into Christ's agenda. In short, it's the constant act of officiating at your own funeral. "I must decrease. He must increase." Christianity is about what you do with your heart, but it's about what we do with our life as well and catch this. In real Christianity, that which turns the stomach of God should always stir the hearts of God's people. Real Christianity said, "As God can't stand to watch that, neither can we." Real Christianity says, "I've been to the altar. I've given my heart to him, but I'm also now doing something with my life. If I discover that God is going to take action in response to some brokenness that he sees in the world, then so will the church." You see, when you've seen the rededication of a marriage vow and you've heard a challenge to care about people who were sold into slavery, you've seen real Christianity or at least been called to it because it's about what we do with our hearts and what we do with our lives. That's why James says things like, "Show me your faith without works. I'll show you my faith by my works." He merges them. Well, they were never disconnected in his mind or any healthy Jewish mind. It's why Jesus said things like, "Unless you're willing to die to yourself and take up your cross and follow me, you aren't worthy to be called my disciples." It's why Jesus said things like, "Look, these things seek first, make the highest priority, the kingdom or the agenda of God." Everything else is going to fall into place after that. In John 14, "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, that person is the one who loves me." John 15, "I am the vine, and you are the branches. Remain in me. You remain in me and you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you're like a branch that's thrown away into the fire. Whether it's picked up, thrown away into the fire and burned. Remain in me and my words in you. Then you can ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you." Then he says this in verse 8, "This is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit." That's how we live our life language. Matthew 7, this is a haunting verse, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But what? Only the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven, who does the agenda of my father, who at least is realigning his or her life so that it comes under the shadow of the agenda of God." Because why? Because when we discover that something turns the stomach of God, you don't have to stir the hearts of the people of God. Not everybody who stood at the altar and said the vows. It's really a very good spouse. The one who gives away a heart and then lives as married is truly married. Christianity is indeed about what you do with your heart. Make no mistake. Don't mean to downplay the verbal commitment to Jesus that represents the true longing of a heart. It's just that it's not all. That's not all it's about. It's also about what you do with your life, how we live our lives. At Marin Covenant, we for some time have been talking about this. You've heard me use other language if you've been here on those Sundays where we talk about Christianity being source of life and way of life. It's the same thing. I'm just using different language. It's how we have new life in Christ because we've given him our heart and trusted him with our heart, our love. It's way of life. It's about what we do with our life. We've got folks in our fellowship who have said, "I get the what I do with my heart part, the source of life part. I've trusted Jesus, asked and forgive my sins, and started a relationship with him. But I've been a little light on the way I live part. You start talking about issues of justice and justice and equity and mercy in the world and opportunity for people. I think I actually haven't thought very carefully about that. I think I need to think more about what I do in response to the person to whom I've given my heart. Then I want to give you a chance to pray silently in a moment and let the Holy Spirit take you the next step down the road of what you do with what you've heard. Or we have people, and we value this, or people say, "I kind of like the values of Jesus. I'm for equity. I'm for justice. I'm for not polluting the environment. If that's what Jesus is about, that's what Christianity is about, then I'm already pretty lined up. I want in. But maybe I've been weak on this. What's this giving my heart to him stuff, this relationship part of that? I like the values. I'm sort of aligned with the values. We have a lot of overlap, but I think I miss the altar. Jesus and I have been sort of shacking up, living together, but not married really, not really. I want to give you a chance to pray too, and your prayer might be the agenda once I really understood it is good, but you don't have my heart yet. I haven't received you. I haven't followed you. I haven't been in love with you. You might say, "Depart from me." We did stuff together, but I never knew you. I'm going to give you a chance to receive Jesus, say, "Come into my heart. Stand at the altar with me. I give you my heart." Or to act on that vow. Take what I know to be true in my heart and give me strength to live, influenced, and yielded to the agenda of God for this world, because Christianity, real Christianity, is about both. Just take a moment in silence before I dismiss you and pray. I'll close us in prayer, and then we'll go away having seen real Christianity.