Pastor David shares a sermon on the role of standards in the Christian experience.

<p>Pastor David shares a sermon on the role of standards in the Christian experience.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

David Shin

What is the Role of Christian Standards?

Father in heaven, we thank You so much for this opportunity that we have to spend time reflecting on Your Word.

And today as we talk about the internal struggle and the role of Christian standards, we pray that You would bless us, speak to us, we pray in Jesus' name.

What do you think of when you hear the term Christian standards?

Any of you here have a positive response to that?

Get a lot of endorphins when you hear standards or Christian standards.

Well, typically, within the evangelical community, when you hear the term Christian standards, it really raises the blood pressure, doesn't it?

There's usually a negative response when you hear the word Christian standards.

Many times in some circles, maybe for some it's a little bit differently, but I think I'm pretty close to this idea, at least for me, when I heard the word Christian standards, I'm like, oh no, here we go again.

Because it's a bunch of dos and don'ts, you can't do this, you can't do that, and these requirements and conditions and all these types of things that come into play when you hear the term Christian standards.

And a lot of times, Christian standards has been used as a weapon or a hammer to beat people into submission and into compliance.

When I was in Adventist academies, There'd be a lot of talk about Christian standards and you need to be this way and you need to do this thing.

And our teachers sometimes were, many, all the time, I believe, were well-intentioned, but sometimes the way they administered it left a lot to be desired.

People have been abused by standards, and it's been used as a hammer.

And I think of this woman caught in the act of adultery in the Gospels.

You remember that story, that woman that was caught in the very act?

I always ask the question, where was the man in this situation?

And anyways, this woman is dragged through the streets, cast before Jesus.

But were those men that dragged her through the streets in the wrong as well?

You know, the way that you administer things is important.

1 of my professors said, the way that you preach the gospel is as important as the gospel.

This woman caught in the very act was treated in an unchristlike way, and I think that that's the same way with standards.

Many times, sometimes, standards has been used and administered in an unchristlike way.

People have been hurt, people have been abused by standards.

There's a lot of people that are recovering from this type of abuse, legalism.

You can't live without water, but water can be abused.

Do You know that you can drink too much water?

Seems like every time we have a marathon, a Chicago marathon, someone's hydrating and they overhydrate.

They flush all the electrolytes out of their body and they die from drinking too much water.

You can torture people with water, waterboarding.

But does that mean that we go out and we say, okay, I'm going to do an abstinence from water, no water anymore, I'm going to drink Coke and Pepsi the rest of my life, Which has water in it, by the way, sugar water.

But my point is this, never judge something by its abuse.

Just because standards has been abused does not mean that standards does not have its proper use.

And I want to make this Important statement before we have our study for today, Ephesians 2, verse 8 through 10, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves.

It is a gift of God, not of work, so that no 1 can boast.

I mean, no matter what you do or don't do, None of those things make any sort of contribution towards buying your salvation.

So this needs to be out of the entire conversation when we talk about standards.

And I used to think that if I ate something that that was like earning my salvation in my struggle with legalism, I'm a recovering legalist, and I would feel guilty if I ate that thing as though my standing with God was predicated on my diet.

And we struggle with this, or if I did this thing, I thought that I was earning God's love and God's favor, and I really struggled in my Christian experience, and this was liberating for me, that you can't earn salvation, you can't buy it.

So when we talk about standards, there's nothing that you can do that can buy your salvation.

If standards do not save us, then why do we need standards?

If standards do not earn us our salvation, if they can't buy our way to heaven, then why do we need standards in the first place?

This is a question that we need to ask ourselves, and I think that when we talked about standards, we haven't reflected on this question very well, because sometimes it comes into people's administration of standards, the implication that if you do this, you're going to earn salvation with God.

Standards usually is referring to our bodies and our minds.

Our bodies, What we put into our bodies, diet, substances.

What we put on our bodies or what we don't put on our bodies okay, dress, adornment, those types of things.

That's typically what we talk about when we talk about standards.

What we put into our bodies, what we put on our bodies, and the clothing and things like that, that typically is standards.

And what we do with our bodies, how we relate, typically in terms of sexuality and morality and things like that, what we do with our bodies.

So there's standards in reference to that.

What you should wear, you heard that before, what you should drink, what you should not drink and all those types of things.

Now going back to our earlier statement, What you wear and what you drink and what you do does not earn our salvation.

Standards has to do with what we do with our bodies and what we do with our minds as well.

What we put into our minds, media, Okay, what we listen to, there's standards in terms of that aspect as well.

So why do we need these types of standards?

And let's go on this journey together, and I've cobbled this together out of my own reflection, my own experience, I wish someone had told me this early on after I accepted Christ.

It would have just liberated me of a lot of angst in my own experience.

And let's go in our Bibles to Romans 7, verses 14 through 21, and we're going to hopefully, by the grace of God, answer the question, why do we need standards?

That's the question, and we're going to go into our study today hoping to answer that from the Word of God.

Romans 7, verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

For what I am doing I do not understand, for what I will to do that I do not practice, but what I hate that I do.

If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

For I know that is in me that is in my flesh nothing good dwells for to will is present with me within me But how to perform what is good I do not find But the good that I will to do I do not do But the evil that I will not to do that I practice.

Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin who dwells in me.

Verse 21, I find a law that evil is present within me, that the 1 who wills to do good, for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin that is in my members." And look at the way that Paul ends this.

O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." What is he talking about here?

Paul is talking about this real battle that all of us face within us.

And I think that the easiest way to illustrate this is every time that we eat.

You've eaten a wonderful meal And the host, let's say you're eating at someone else's house, the host conveniently did not tell you that there was dessert.

You stuffed yourself, okay, thinking that there was no dessert.

And then you're just, you're bloated, you're comfortable, and perhaps you need, for the men, you need to unbuckle the top of your, you know, anyway, sorry, unbuckle your belt a few notches and so forth, and you sit there comfortable.

And then the host says, oh, I forgot to mention, There's dessert, and it's your favorite dessert, whatever it is, German chocolate cake, whatever, apple pie, okay?

And they bring it out, the aroma's just wafting in, and you're just like, oh wow, this is incredible.

And immediately the battle begins, right?

There's a part of you that tells you, David, you really shouldn't eat that.

And then there's another part of you that says, I've got to have it.

What is the Role of Christian Standards?

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