Program: Take off the Mask <br>Friday, October 19, 2012 <br> <br>The roots are pagan, yet most Christians celebrate it. Halloween headlines warn of tainted candy, candle fires and even child abductions. Real Halloween headlines are rarely about any of the above, but what are the dangers in celebrating Halloween? <br> <br>At the University of Delaware, Joel Best says tragedies related to the holiday typically involve trick-or-treaters hit by cars and those accidents are few. October 31st is approached by Christians in different ways. Some just suit up their kids and make it a fun night. Churches hold safe events for kids and families. Lutheran and Presbyterian churches turn it into a reformation party, since that’s the date Luther nailed those 95 thesis on a door in Wittenburg. In Florida and California there are Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. In Chicago, they’re confiscating Halloween contact lenses. They’re dangerous and sold without prescriptions. The roots ARE pagan, so if you’re a Christ-follower, why not make Halloween a pretext to share living in Christ alone with your children and with others? He can make every day a holiday. Why not as scripture teaches, make every day the Lord’s Day. <br> <br>Welcome to HT, I’m CM sharing the GS that’s all about Jesus and a program called <br>You may not believe in donning a mask at Halloween, but what about the masks that we always wear? I’m speaking to Christians, too. We wear those masks in our churches. We wear those masks every day. We’ll get to that in the next few minutes. <br> <br> <br> <br>Benefits <br> <br>Hopefully you get the chance to worship and grow with other believers once or twice a week, but what about those times in between your church schedule. When you're simply trying to live out your faith in Christ? <br> <br>These moments happen all the time … When you wrestle with those questions that don't have easy answers. Or when you share exciting news with a friend over lunch. Or when you need to reexamine something you've always taken for granted ... this is when we need the light of Christ help us to simply trust and obey him. <br> <br>And this is why the now-famous Irish couple - Keith & Kristyn Getty (who penned In Christ Alone many years ago) recorded uniquely practical and encouragement song on their brand new album Hymns for the Christian Life. <br> <br>This is one of those rare CDs that has both music you enjoy listening to over and over, and lyrics that point you to Christ. These songs were written to help you walk with your Savior and make practical life-decisions that honor Him. <br> <br> <br>Special Thanks to our new Monthly Giving partners <br> * Cheryl in Puyallup, WA <br> * Evelyn in Zion, IL <br> * Kerube in Chino, CA <br> * Belinda in Dimmitt, TX <br> <br> <br>Song 1: Nothing But the Blood <br> <br>Gettys Clip about In Christ Alone <br>Song 2: In Christ Alone <br>A special thanks to Keith and Kristyn Getty for sharing with us about how they wrote this amazing hymn. They'll be back with us in a moment to talk a little more about In Christ Alone. <br> <br>What does it mean to live In Christ Alone? We say it. We sing it. But what does it mean? <br> <br>People wear masks at Halloween. But what about you? Have you ever thought how Christians wear masks – especially at church, but also in between? Aren’t you afraid if your mask falls off, if the dark corners of your closet spills out onto the floor, others would see what you really are? That’s why I think all of us prefer to wear the mask and try to be known as a good Christian. <br> <br>But sometimes the Spirit works in our hearts and we are convicted. Haven’t you come clean and said, “I don’t pray as often as I should“? Or maybe you’ve felt guilty and said, “I’ve quit ready the Bible and I know I should.” Or maybe you were really honest and at least said to yourself, “I wonder if it’s really true.” And surely all of us have said at one time or another, “I guess I’m just not a very good Christian.” It often seems like the Christian life is one of constant pressure to “be a good Christian.” We often feel low, down, discouraged, and deflated when our Christian living hits a bump, don’t we? Well, I’ve got good news for you and I learned this from a pastor friend in Pennsylvania who is now with the Lord. “Cheer up, you’re worse than you think!” I know, that probably doesn’t sound like good news, but stick with me. <br> <br>The Christian life is supposed to be a life of joy and gratitude to our heavenly Father who loves us beyond our wildest dreams. But we so easily twist the Christian life into a life of defeat, heaviness, and shame. And it’s killing us. <br> <br>The truth of the matter is that sin has infected who we are as humans. No single part of us is unaffected by sin. Zero percent. Consider Romans 7:18, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.” That sounds like zero percent to me. Or Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Again, zero percent. Think about this: Jesus himself said in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” As humans who have fallen into sin, we are no more able to seek God or grow in faith than as Augustine described it – an empty glass cannot fill itself with water. That’s the truth. <br> <br>You’re worse than you think. But hang on … that’s good news. And here is the good news: Not only are you worse than you think, but you are more loved than you can possibly imagine! <br> <br>There was a time when the Apostle Paul thought of himself as a good religious person. Here’s how he put it, “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more…” Boasting he said said he was, “…circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee.” In other words, “I was one of those people who you’d look up to in a church, put on a pedestal, and of whom you’d say, ‘We should all be more like him.’ I was that man,” says Paul. He continues, “… as for zeal, persecuting the church…”Nobody can say I was lukewarm in my response to God. “... as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” The legalistic requirements among the Jews at that time were extreme! <br> <br>But listen to Paul after he met Jesus, after he began to live in Christ alone and not in himself. Philippians 3:7: “But whatever was to my profit (to my gain) I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.” Paul is saying, “All those good religious deeds and actions, which I used to put my faith in…I now realize are worth nothing. They don’t help me…they can only hinder me when I base my confidence in them.” Paul now realizes that in Christ Jesus is the only hope he has for salvation and life. <br> <br>Philip Yancey once wrote that if, when you preach the gospel of grace, it doesn’t sound too good to be true, then you’re probably not preaching it right. The thing that is so hard for many Christians to believe is that we really are saved by grace alone. Or maybe not just that we’re saved by grace alone, but that we’re also transformed and live the Christian life by grace alone. God wants us to take our masks off and we want to leave them on. We think that, now that we’ve been saved, it’s now our job to mature and grow in holiness. We wrongly think that our Christian life is up to us. <br> <br>If you’re more holy today than you were 2 years ago or 20 years ago, praise God. And I hope that’s the case. But it’s not because you’ve done it! It’s happened because you’re alive in Christ. If you think otherwise, you need a pride check. The reason that our children love Jesus is not because they’ve found a way to love him; it’s because God has planted faith in their little hearts by his Holy Spirit, and has caused their faith to bear fruit. May we all seek faith as a little child. Yes, God call us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling?” But finish Philippians 2:12 with verse 13 “…for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (2:13). Whose work is it? God’s work. <br> <br>But doesn’t God call us in the letter of Jude to “Keep [ourselves] in the love of God?” (Jude 21) Yes. But don’t forget the introduction to the letter of Jude, where the author addresses the letter “To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ.” (Jude 1) What we see God doing in us, we do in response--but it is God’s work the whole way through. The Christian life at Halloween and any time is God’s work, and we get to cooperate with him in it. Take off your mask. You don’t need it. We participate with God in his work of renewing the whole creation, and also in his work of renewing our lives. We certainly are partners with God in his plan of redemption. But it’s God’s plan, and God is the one who will accomplish it. <br> <br>So many of us become discouraged when we encounter a bump in our life of faith. It wears us out, it gets us down. But God’s love doesn’t stop. Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Maybe we wouldn’t be so legalistic if we truly believed the gospel of grace, which says that we are saved by grace alone, which says that we are loved more than we can possibly imagine by Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. <br> <br>First, preach the gospel to yourself. When you find that you’ve fallen into sin…again…remind yourself that you’re worse than you think. Say to yourself, “You think this sin is bad? Ha! You don’t even have a clue how sinful you are. Are you really surprised that you’ve fallen into sin again?” Don’t fool yourself with pride; you’re worse than you think…but don’t stop there. You’re more loved than you can possibly imagine. Again, say to yourself, “Even though you’re so sinful, God still loves you. Jesus Christ still died on the cross for you. ‘God demonstrates his own love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom 5:8). He has taken away your sins, and forgiven you, at great cost to himself.” <br> <br>So the two point sermons is first: Preach the gospel to yourself. This takes the pressure off because you are reminded that it does not depend on you. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Take God—and his Word—very seriously. God says he’ll take care of it, and he’s big enough to follow through. The Word of God says you are saved by grace, and not by pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. <br> <br>Second, in the blood-bought freedom of the cross of Christ, repent. Not in a spirit of heaviness and shame, which actually is more characterized by resignation than sorrow. Sin dominates our lives when we don’t repent. James 1:15 warns us that, “After [evil] desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” Don’t give sin a chance to wreck more of your life; bring it to the cross and leave it there. Galatians 5:1 declares, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” <br> <br>Do you see sin gaining a foothold? Good! Thank God that you recognize it. Now turn away from it. Don’t beat yourself up because you’ve fallen again. Given that you’re so sinful, is it really all that surprising that you’re trapped again? God has provided you a way out: the gift of repentance in Jesus’ name. You have been given the freedom to repent and in God’s strength to start again on the road of redemption. God doesn’t lose patience with us the way that we do with ourselves. <br> <br>Allow God’s grace to relieve the pressure you put on yourself. Eventually what you’ll find is that God’s grace and patience with you begins to transform the way you look at yourself, and at others, and at life in general. It helps you take a pagan holiday like Halloween and give that day and every day to the Lord. “If anyone is in Christ, the old is gone, and the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17) If we think God is constantly angry at us, then that makes it sort of hard to love him, doesn’t it? But if we know from the gospel that the love of our heavenly Father never fails and that he is patient towards us, then it’s easy to love him. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God. And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1) <br> <br>Many of us are ashamed that we’re “not good Christians.” But the bottom line: there is no such thing as a good Christian…but there is such a thing as a good God. God has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to save us, along with the whole creation. All who believe in Jesus have salvation and new life. This salvation, this life in Christ, it does not depend upon you! It is God’s work, and he is big enough to do it—in Christ alone. <br> <br> <br>Song 3: In Christ Alone - On the clip Charles asks: Can we just hear one more verse? . . . Kristyn says: A little snippet? And then they sing. Charles says thank you at end. <br> <br> <br>Close: <br>It's been a wonderful week with The Gettys. I want to thank them both for taking time out of their busy schedule to share their new album with us An album of encouragement. An album of hope. An album for the Christian Life that is lived between Sundays. Our lives are full of blessings and struggles as we simply try to live out our faith in Jesus. <br> <br> <br>We often wrestle with questions and doubts that don't have easy answers. But at the same time we get good news about a job promotion or a new baby on the way only to turn around and find out that a loved one has been in a fender-bender... These are the times we need the light of Christ help us to simply trust and obey him. <br> <br>And this is why the now-famous Irish couple - Keith & Kristyn Getty (who penned In Christ Alone many years ago) recorded uniquely practical and encouragement song on their brand new album Hymns for the Christian Life. <br> <br>This is one of those rare CDs that has both music you enjoy listening to over and over, and lyrics that point you to Christ. These songs were written to help you walk with your Savior and make practical life-decisions that honor Him. <br> <br>I want you to have a copy of this CD. We're offering it for the last time this week. <br> <br> <br> <br>
Hymns For The Christian Life
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