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Living Hope SDA Church

The Strength of Allegiance

Christian Martin

The Strength of Allegiance Part 1

A God with that much of a desire to have an intimate relationship with us is worth trusting.

Church attendance, giving tithe, even saying prayers and running and reading a devotional on our way out the door.

All that means nothing apart or outside of a relationship with Jesus.

And yet many are those that live this kind of Christianity.

And what is Jesus trying to do in the meantime?

Getting our attention, but many of His callings and warnings are disregarded.

We profess to be something that we're not.

And all Jesus wants, all that He longs for, is for us to discover and experience the strength of allegiance.

I invite you to bow your heads with me as we open the word of God, our Father in heaven.

Here we are in your holy, holy, holy presence.

And we feel so welcomed, as unholy as we are, Because you're a God that we can trust.

And we pray, Lord, that as we open your word, that you would speak to us.

A few months ago, marked the 35th year anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle explosion that killed 7 astronauts shortly after takeoff on January 28th, 1986.

The space shuttle exploded 74 seconds into the flight.

As many Americans watched the takeoff from Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida, it was later reported that NASA managers had disregarded warnings from engineers about the dangers of launching in such cold temperatures And they had failed to adequately report these technical concerns to their supervisors.

7 astronauts believed that they were fully prepared to make history in space.

But if only the warnings had been taken seriously, then a high school teacher and 6 mission specialists would not have had to close their earthly history.

Invoking yet another sobering thought is an impactful sentence that I found in the book Christian Service, written by Ellen G.

It is a solemn statement that I make to the church that not 1 in 20 names registered upon the church books are prepared to close their earthly history and would be as verily without God and without hope in the world as the common sinner.

Not surprisingly, this inspired statement that was written several decades ago corresponds with recent findings by researcher George Barna.

He discovered the disturbing fact that people who call themselves Christians, but have not experienced a dramatic conversion to faith in Christ Jesus, are quote, a group that constitutes a majority of churchgoers.

In his years of research he came to discover this reality about the countless thousands that go to church.

And they're good people who in some cases have been attending church for a long time.

And they'll say, I know I'll go to heaven when Jesus comes because...

And then they'll give their reasons why they have that assurance that they'll be in heaven when Jesus comes.

Those reasons include, I'm a law abiding citizen, or I'm baptized.

Or I'm a member in good and regular standing.

I read a devotional book as I'm eating my Wheaties.

But I'm here to tell you, breaking news, that 1 can have all these good characteristics, don't get me wrong, they're good characteristics and even practices.

But the question that remains is to whom have I given my allegiance?

And the sobering reality is that many are sincerely lost In the church.

You thought I was going to talk about those out there.

According to Christianity Today magazine, there are 5 kinds of Christians in the church.

We could say they walk the walk and talk the talk.

Let's just say that they know how to talk the talk.

Then you have the ritualistic Christians and they simply go through the motions, and they do it very well.

And then you have the cultural Christians.

Some cases, second, third, fourth, fifth generation Christians.

But frankly, all these terms for me personally, they sound too politically correct.

They're just a little bit too labeled, too formal.

You see, Jesus, He was a master storyteller and he taught that there's really only 2 kinds of Christians, not 5, not 10, not 20, really just 2, 2 kinds of Christians, Only 2 kinds and therefore 2 classes of people in every church.

Like I said, he was such a master storyteller.

Using object lessons to illustrate his point.

And in 1 parable, he spoke of the wheat and the tares.

If you have your Bibles, come with me to Matthew 13.

Whether you have your Bibles or your devices, come with me to Matthew chapter 13.

Another parable he put forth to them, saying, "'The kingdom of heaven is like, ' he often started his parables that way, like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but well while men slept his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?

And he said to them, an enemy has done this.

The servant said to him, do you want us then to go and gather them up?

But he said, no, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.

The Strength of Allegiance Part 2

I invite you to bow your heads with me as we ask him to speak to our hearts.

Father in heaven, today, Lord, we have already experienced worship Through our songs of praise, through the scripture reading, through the baptism, a testimony of your amazing grace, Lord, you are good.

And now, Lord, as we open the word of God, we anticipate that you will have a word for us, that you will speak to our hearts.

Speak Lord, for we do want to listen and we pray that the Holy Spirit would give us that discernment to recognize that voice and take to heart what you say today.

Thank you Lord for answering our prayer in Jesus' name.

Samuel Clemens, known by his pen name Mark Twain, once said, we are all like the moon.

But today I thank the Lord, praise be to the Father of Lights who dispels the darkness.

A God who calls us into his marvelous light to experience the strength of allegiance.

It is written, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out.

You know, the Greek word, meaning the called out ones, the called out, ekklesia, is where we get the word, by the way, the Spanish word Iglesia.

They're both translated into the same English word church, the called out ones.

So that is to say that in the truest sense of the word, in the truest sense of the word, Church is made up of men and women of all ages who are coming out.

They're coming out of a dark place, and they're stepping into His marvelous light in response to His call.

Or rather, the church ought to be made up of such light seekers.

For though God calls everyone, believe me he does.

The Bible is true when it says that God desires that all be saved and all come to a knowledge of the truth.

For God so loved the world that whosoever whosoever believes.

He calls everyone but not everyone answers.

It was Jesus who said to Nicodemus, You know the story, do you?

There in John chapter 3, Jesus is having that conversation with Nicodemus, and he told him, he said, Men love darkness rather than light, Because their deeds were evil.

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light.

Jesus is simply saying that we who have the freedom of choice will make a choice.

And that choice for Many is a love for darkness, if only because they know that if they step into the light, they will be truly known.

Though they do not come to the light, they come to the church.

And this is where God starts feeling a little nauseated.

John received that inspiration when he wrote Revelation.

It's not when we say that God feels nauseated, feels like throwing up.

He's sick to his stomach that you don't owe him and He doesn't know your surrendered will.

Yet many stubbornly continue to refuse the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.

Because after all, after all, we all, many, play the godly role very convincingly.

You know, Christians attend church and we'll take on the name, we'll take on the label.

Going even as far as taking his name, Christ, I am a Christian, taking his name in vain.

We considered in part 2 that according to Christianity Today magazine, there's 5 types of Christians in the church.

There's the active Christians that we can say as the common line is, they walk the walk and talk the talk.

There's the professing Christians, they'll just talk the talk.

There's the ritualistic Christians, they simply go through the motions, the rituals, and they do it very well.

And then there's the cultural Christians.

You know what's interesting is as we take a look at these 5 terms, there's 1 that stands out.

They walk the walk and talk the talk and we can say though that the rest of them all but that 1 could be summarized in a single term.

They could all be summed up with the biblical term of lukewarm Christians.

This is Christianity's today's terminology, but God would just simply say lukewarm.

It's the revelations faithful It's the revelations faithful and true witness that pronounced many in the church is lukewarm.

And it's lukewarmness that makes God feel like throwing up.

But God, why do I make you feel like throwing up?

Maybe someone will say, oh no, no, I've never prayed that prayer because I don't need to ask him that.

Because he continues in Revelation chapter 3 verse 17, because you say, I am rich, I have become wealthy, I have need of nothing.

But he continues with the diagnosis, he says, but you do not know that in fact you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

So as we considered in part 1, there's really only 2 kinds of Christians.

This passage that we just considered would say hot and cold, but many are lukewarm.

But then there's the saints and the hypocrites.

There's the wise and the foolish, there's the sheep and the goats.

Termed in different ways in the Scriptures, but yes, there's only 2 classes.

Last in part 1, we looked at the 2 classes using the terms wheat and tares.

But the thing is, is that all these individuals of both classes congregate together every week.

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The Strength of Allegiance

The Strength of Allegiance Part 2

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Parts

The Strength of Allegiance Part 1

59m

The Strength of Allegiance Part 2

52m

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