Are you sharing the Gospel? Or…..are you making excuses? We do often make excuses about why we cannot live up to our expectations or the expectations of others, but I want to clear up some things, mainly, that we are called to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
One enormous problem is in our misunderstanding of exactly what we are supposed to do as Christians. We either have such high expectations of ourselves that we never do anything because we know we will fail. Who gives us these high expectations? Sometimes we get these unreasonable expectations from priests, pastors or teachers. Sometimes we get these expectations from parents or other relatives and it causes us to live in fear of always failing God and other people. We can withdraw and resign ourselves to simply living the bare minimum life so we won’t let people down. The worst part of this is that we believe these things and so we have unreasonable expectations of ourselves and we can constantly condemn ourselves. Anytime we fail, we simply say, “see, it is true, I cannot succeed as a good Christian, I cannot please God with a holy life.”
Let me tell you that these super high expectations are not from God. We cannot live perfect lives and HE knows this. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and to judge us but we often choose to judge ourselves and to punish ourselves. It is wrong for us to try and prove that we are sinners and worthy of suffering and judgment. Christ came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly, John 10:10. Christ came to seek and to SAVE the lost, Luke 19:10. Christ came that we might be free from sin, Romans 6:18, 22. The spirit of Jesus is with us to lead us to truth, John 15:16-18 & 16:13 We are sealed with His spirit unto the day of salvation , Ephesians 4:13. It is God at work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure, Philippians 2:13
If we depend on our strength, we will not succeed. If we trust in the Lord, then we can succeed. God expects us to grow, day by day, little by little, and to work on the weak areas of our lives.
Let me tell you that Biserica Calea Credintei is a safe place for you to grow and mature. You will make mistakes, as we all do, but as we work together, you will see that our expectations are not unreasonable for you but we believe that with God all things are possible and it is He that is at work in each of His disciples. We cannot form you into our image, but we all work together to be more like Christ and to live in His image.
There is another danger to have unreasonable expectations, and that is to strive so hard that you begin to believe you have earned special rights or privileges with God and His people. You may feel worthy to condemn others and to preach a hard, mean Gospel (which is NOT the good news of Jesus Christ). Some say, “My church is the best, we have the best music, best preaching, etc.”. This is not our jobs as Christians.
Just as we are not supposed to live in fear, condemnation and constant punishment of ourselves, we are not supposed to live in pride, condemning others and trying to punish them for not working as hard as we feel we have worked. Life is hard for everyone and we need to work together, help each other, and to live in peace and love.
At “Calea Credintei” Church, we are not about condemning others or trying to find fault and blame, but to seriously work at being better disciples of Christ.
My question then is, are you sharing the Gospel? Or…..are you making excuses? Maybe you are saying, I am not good enough (not true, Christ makes us good enough by His goodness). You do not have to keep living to prove you are a Christian, if you just know that you are and live to please God. His goodness becomes our goodness, even when we do not do things that are good and right.
Maybe you say, I don’t know enough (not true, if you know that Christ forgave your sins, washed you clean and made you a new person, then you know enough). You do not have to preach every time you share the love of God, just gently let people know where you stand in your relationship with the Lord. You can do this in public, at work, in school, on the bus, or wherever you are. You can smile and say kind words, say thank the Lord, and so on. When the time is right, open a discussion on how Jesus has changed your life.
Maybe you say, I cannot speak well, I get tongue-tied (probably not true, because we talk about anything we WANT to talk about – the weather, sports, gossip, politics, problems, and complaints). Do we want to talk about Jesus? We should WANT to talk about Him. If your attitude is one of the main problems, then work on changing your attitude toward people and ask the Lord to give you a love for them.
Sharing the Gospel is as easy as talking about anything else. Sometimes you share by living right and speaking about God when the time is right. Sometimes you share by doing a good thing for someone. Sometimes by inviting them to church or sending them a link to this blog via e-mail. And, sometimes you need to share the full gospel and Christ’s love and redemption and the need to escape from the wrath of God and eternal punishment.
Please understand, Biserica “Calea Credintei” is a safe place for you to learn truth, grow and mature and to learn how to help others in need.
God bless you richly and continue to grow into His likeness.
Pastor Matt Elliott
