The Christian Life

This morning I’d like to follow on from what Andrew Axon said a couple of weeks ago about Christianity being a seven day a week relationship with God and not just something we pick up and dust off on a Sunday morning.

I’ve called my talk ‘The Christian life’ and I want to show why the idea of just having a Sunday faith is completely at odds with what God intends for us.

And I’d like to start by looking at how we initially find a relationship with God because this is key to how we should then continue to walk with God day by day.

According to the bible, our relationship with God starts as we repent and turn to him.

Lots of people think repentance sounds a bit gloomy and negative but actually it’s a very positive thing. And it is simply us reaching a point where we truly want God in our lives and therefore we’re willing to turn to him and submit to him.

We’re willing to say OK Lord I’ve tried life my way and I’m not happy or fulfilled. I want meaning and purpose and forgiveness. I want to know you and why you created me – so please come into my life and be my God.

And we can reach this point in life for a variety of reasons.

It may be because we feel our lives are empty and pointless without God and we are hungry for meaning and purpose.

Or it may be because we are fearful and feel lost and alone in the world. It may be because we are burdened with a realisation that we’ve made a mess of our lives and we realise we need forgiveness and a fresh start.

People come to a point of repentance for a whole variety of reasons – but as we truly repent and turn to God and invite him into our lives – he responds to the cry of our heart and comes into our lives by his spirit – and we come to know him and his love for us.

In other words our relationship with him starts.

And then in order to grow and develop that relationship, just as we received Christ by turning to him and submitting our lives to him – we should continue to live in the same way day by day.

Paul says in his letter to the Colossians – “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him.”

So, each day we should be turning to and submitting ourselves to God afresh - inviting him to guide us and work through us in any way he chooses.

And this what Jesus is saying in today’s gospel reading when he speaks about taking up our crosses and following him.

Jesus lived in perfect submission to his Heavenly Father every day of his life even as he approached his crucifixion.

He chose quite literally to take up his cross in the Garden of Gethsemane when he said; “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

And metaphorically speaking we should do the same. In our case the cross Jesus is taking about is self-denial and choosing each day to do our best to follow God’s will for our lives rather than our own.

This is what Jesus means by losing our lives for his sake and the gospel. He means choosing God’s plan and purpose for our lives rather than our own.

Paul says essentially the same thing in our reading from Romans chapter 12. He says; “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship.”

The true and proper way to worship God is for us to lay our lives down in service to him. In practice this means allowing God to be the God of our lives.

It means being obedient to him. It means allowing him to direct and guide us. It means stepping out in faith if we believe he is asking us to do something.

It means submitting our plans to him and asking him to ensure that whatever we’re planning is in accordance with his will.

Its acknowledging that he knows best and that his way is best. It’s acknowledging that he is our Lord and God – not us.

And as we turn to and submit to Jesus as Lord and King we experience his kingdom – his rule and reign in our hearts and lives and we become a part of it.

And we become ambassadors for it – and our main purpose in life becomes to help extend it because we realise it is an eternal kingdom and it is the very best thing any person can ever experience or become a part of.

So, we walk through life each day in the world but also in the spirit - conscious of God’s kingdom and always looking for opportunities to share it and make Jesus known.

We walk in the world and in the spirit at the same time.

Its interesting that in the Old Testament according to the Law of Moses, the Jewish people could only eat clean animals – animals with a cloven hoof and that chewed the cud, such as cows, sheep, and goats.

In some ways just as an animal with a cloven hoof leaves a double footprint where it walks, so do we as Christians. As we walk through life, we leave a worldly foot print but also a spiritual footprint.

And just as cloven hoof cattle chew the cud – so should we chew and reflect on God’s word in order to get the goodness from it.

Of course we have to live our earthly lives and fulfil our worldly duties – to earn a living, pay our bills, do the washing up, mow the lawn, get our cars serviced – etc - but as we do these things we are conscious that God is with us and that he wants to reach out to those around us through us.

He wants us to be like salt and light. To change the flavour of life around us and for people to see something of his love and goodness in us.

And of course every Christian is a missionary – someone who is sent by God - and has a mission field?

Our mission field is the people we mix with and encounter each day. First and foremost our family. God wants to save our families and to reach out to them through us – through our prayers for them; through our words and the example of faith they see in us.

Our mission field is also our friends and work colleagues and anyone we may meet in life.

God loves each one and we just need to be open to the prompting of his spirit as we go through life.

Now at this point I just want to say that this is what God wants us to do – but as frail and weak and imperfect people, of course we fall short of doing this. I certainly do.

We get side tracked by the world and our busy lives and we can forget about God. We can put him on the backburner – and we miss what he is asking us to do because we’re too focused on stuff we have to do.

We fail to reflect his love and goodness. We have a tendency to be impatient and selfish and to wander away from God.

And this is the great struggle of the Christian life – the pull of God and the pull of the world, the flesh and the devil.

But so much of this struggle and how well we manage to lead our Christian lives hinges on the choices we make each day.

How we choose to feed or starve our relationship with God.

Generally speaking, the more time we choose to spend in prayer and reading God’s word, the healthier our relationship with him will be.

The bible says draw close to God and he will draw close to you.

I can’t stress how important it is for us as Christians to make space each day to spend time alone with God.

I really like doing the Bible in One Year as it gives me a focus for my quiet time each morning. I can lift the day ahead to God and ask him to be with me in it and through it.

Joyce Meyer is a really good American bible teacher – and she believes that Satan’s primary attack on our lives is often on our quiet times.

She says that Satan knows if he can stop or deter us from spending time with God, he can disrupt our walk with God and limit our fruitfulness.

So, don’t be surprised if other things crop up just as you’re about to pray or if you mind starts wandering and you suddenly think about some job you need to do.

Of course as Christians our walk with God is not just personal, its corporate. We need each other. We need the encouragement and prayer and support of our Christian brothers and sisters.

And as we meet and come together with other Christians Jesus is among us in a special way.

He says; “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."

And this is why we come to church and meet together. This is why we join study groups. Its to meet with our spiritual family, to encourage one another and build each other up, in order that as we go out into the world during the week, we can be fruitful.

I know I’ve tried to cover quite a lot of different aspects of our Christian life this morning but as I said I wanted to try and show how far away from God’s purpose for our lives is the idea of being a Sunday Christian.

If we are trying to cram our relationship with God into an hour on Sunday we are miles away from his plan and purpose for our lives.

So, as I tie up my talk this morning, I’d like us to reflect on how we are doing on our Christian walk with God.

Are we submitting our lives and our plans to God – because this was the case when we became Christians? Are we spending time with God each day? Are we reading our bibles and chewing the cud? Are we actively looking to try and help others come to know him? Are we seeking to serve God in some way in our lives?

Of course, he doesn’t condemn us for failing to do these things but he wants us to be obedient and focused on him so that we can experience his life and love and then share it with others because there is nothing we can do that is more important.

I’m going to close now with a time of quiet when we can reflect on these things with our Heavenly Father.

So, let’s all close our eyes and talk to God in our hearts about anything I’ve said this morning which may resonate with us.

QUIET

Lord Jesus forgive us for all the ways we fall short in our walk with you. As we sing this next song we ask you to come among us and fill us with your Holy Spirit. We ask you to fill us with your life and your love and to give us the willingness and determination to follow you. Help us to make a difference in the world, Lord. Amen

Raising Children in the Faith – Talk 2

This morning we have the second in our little series of three talks about ‘family life and faith’, looking at how we – and when I say ‘we’ I mean the whole church family - can be involved in bringing up the next generation of children in the faith of Jesus Christ. If you missed the first talk, there are hard copies available by the font or, of course, you can get it on our website.

Are you a parent, a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle, a godparent? If so, then this little series of talks is for you; for you in order to help you to play your God-ordained role - just as we heard in our first reading of God’s instructions to his people in the Book of Deuteronomy – your role in raising the next generation of Christians. How can we, both as individuals with blood ties, and as the church family with spiritual ties, involve ourselves effectively in bringing up the next generation of children to know and love God as their Creator, Redeemer, Father, Friend?

After the last talk, one or two people did say to me how uneasy what I said had made them feel, but also admitted that it needed to be heard and that it had prompted them to give the subject much more serious thought. And that is surely no bad thing - declaring what God has said about how important it is Christian parents, grandparents, godparents, and indeed the whole church family, raise children in the faith; no bad thing if it wakes us all up to our responsibilities; no bad thing if it encourages us – as it ought – to take some positive, proactive -albeit in some cases remedial - action; no bad thing in the light of that truly sad and disturbing figure from the ‘European Values Survey’ I quoted from: that of those who self-identify as ‘Anglicans’, religious faith was the least mentioned value and was included as a priority only by 11% of respondents. Whereas the most chosen value amongst Anglicans? ‘Good Manners’, picked by a whopping 93%!!!

All the research shows that in every area of life it is parents and families who have the greatest influence on the outlook, values and behaviours of their children: it is the home that is the key place where children are nurtured and taught. As I said previously, that’s as true for faith as it is for manners, values and attitudes -WHICH IS WHY OF COURSE SO MANY CIVIL SERVANTS, POLITICIANS, IDENTITY GROUPS AND OTHERS are trying to wrest it away from parents! We surely would not leave our children ‘free’(!) to discover drugs, sex, alcohol, etc; so why on earth our Christian faith?

This morning I want to give you some very practical tips; tips that have been shown to be so effective in making a vital difference to our children in their faith’s formation.

If we give this our time, quality time; if we create a culture, an environment of faith at home; if we share wisdom with our children – but are also open to learning from them; if we as adults live as if our faith in Christ is the most important thing in our life, then the ‘world’, as Jesus termed it – that is, all those people and forces that find God either inconvenient or a threat to their aims and purposes – will find their task very difficult indeed. And we need to remember that we are not on our own in this: as St. John reminds us in his first letter, ‘He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.’ We all of us need to hold on to that wonderful truth whenever we face the ‘world’, its deceptions, its lies, and its temptations.

Making a difference in our children’s lives, the great difference of faith, does not require a degree in theology; but it does require a desire, as the Prayer Book puts it, ‘to grow in the knowledge and love of God and of his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord’. And rather than desperately trying to find extra time in our already full, fraught, and frenetic lives, why not begin to look at what you already do as a family and ask yourself and God how you could best bring a Christian dimension or flavour to that. I realise only too well that to so many Brits - who prefer not to talk about our faith and to compartmentalise it - because that it what is ‘expected’ - this can sound pretty extreme. But we really must ask ourselves, ‘How much do we value our children over silly social taboos or what other people might think of us?’

Do you say ‘grace’ at meals together? Do you say prayers with your children – at bedtime or whenever is best? Do you make those prayer times enjoyable and an adventure by writing some of them down and then talking about how God has answered them? Do your children have a bible appropriate to their reading age? Do your children and grandchildren hear you talking about God and also with him? Do they hear you singing some of the hymns and songs you sing on Sunday - or is it just your favourite old ABBA or Rolling Stones numbers? Why not, as a family, try, for example, singing ‘We are walking in the love of God’ but change the words for whatever you’re doing; because then your children will quickly get the message! So we are ‘washing, drying, driving, dressing in the love of God.’ These are all very positive and, I think we need to be honest, very simple things to achieve.

Yes, I know that there are many competing priorities. But do you take advantage of them and see them not as problems but as opportunities – opportunities to show your children how vital faith is and that the ‘world’ doesn’t always have to win.

If you have to miss the Sunday service, do you have a little service of your own – later at home, in the car on the way to the relations, on the walk by the fields or by the seashore? A couple of songs, a few prayers, perhaps one of you tells your favourite parable? Pretty positive; perfectly possible!

What about Christian holiday camps, either as a family or for children to go to and be with children who are Christians where they can have tremendous fun whilst deepening their understanding? My three children made and still have some of their best friends from those camps. There are very local summer ones and they start from around 9 or 10 years of age.

I know families who, on principle, will not hold a children’s party on a Sunday morning or even go to one. It’s not about being ‘self-righteous’ or ‘super holy’; it’s about being faithful and, to quote from our second reading. ‘shining like a star in the world’. And of course one very good way of being known as a Christian family is to invite friends to church as well as Sunday lunch. Making our faith visible is a God-given responsibility both at home and in the world; it is the Christians’ principal task given to us by Christ. One mother happened to mention at the school gate that when she prayed with her children they fell calmly to sleep. Another mother, on hearing this said, ’Well, I’d better try that myself ‘cos nothing else is working.’

So how do we start? Are you a parent? You might start by taking an honest look at the culture at home. Who calls the shots? God or ‘the world’? Are you a grandparent? Grandchildren see grandparents as very precious loved ones: make sure your grandchildren know what, deep down, makes you tick. Are you a godparent? What kind of presents do you give your godchildren? Are you a member of the church family? The children here belong to you, just as you belong to them. They may not understand that yet; but you do. Remember; you do not have to be perfect, but you are perfectly placed in those roles to be a tremendous influence on children.

When we read passages such as God’s commands to his chosen people in the Book of Deuteronomy; when we think of his loving concern for us and for our children in a world that so subtly wants to steer them away from him, and from us as parents, to enslave them to priorities, principles, and practices which, without the defence of a robust and living faith, will overcome them; when we think of what is best in life and best in human beings, how can we not do our utmost for our children in terms of raising them in the faith? God wants us to raise children of character, children of charity – that is, of Christian love; children of his Church to ‘shine as stars’ in a world that is trying its hardest to extinguish the light of his saving Gospel of forgiveness, reconciliation, and new and abundant life.

When God says, ‘You shall have no other God’s before me’, why do you think he said that? Was it for his good or for ours? We really do have to ask the right questions about God’s commandments and not listen to the facile, libertarian pontifications of several well known TV celebs in our increasingly destructive and anarchic culture of hyper-individualism. And do we really think that our children will admire and respect us more because we left them alone amongst the wolves to make up their own minds about the Christian faith, or because we followed the crowd, and the social taboos, and the spirit of the age?

Psychologists say that children need 18 years of uninterrupted, hands on, parental love if they are to grow up into well-rounded adults. What better human role model is there to give them than Jesus? It’s the question that stops in their tracks every parent at our local school who asks me why it has to be a Christian school with a Christian ethos and values. But if your children spend more time watching ‘Love Island’ than, for example, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’, what values are they going to take on board? ‘Oh, it’s harmless’, some will say. No it’s not! Have you read some of the background stories to these ‘celebs’? Children need positive alternatives to the barrage of -misguided and misguiding rubbish that surrounds them today. Genuine parenting is responsible parenting; responsible parenting is parenting as God intended it.

I often hear the excuse, ‘But I don’t know enough about the Christian faith to explain it to children.’ Okay, so go on an ALPHA course or come on a course we’re planning to run here on 8 evenings in the autumn called, ’Christianity Explored’. Over 35 years I reckon I’ve heard every excuse under the sun for people not willing to talk about their faith; but never a convincing one. Or perhaps you’re saying to yourself, ’But I’m not a perfect Dad or a perfect Mum or a perfect Granny or Grampa.’ Sure; no one is: but you could take the opportunity to talk to your children about our need for humility and about God’s wonderful gift of forgiveness.

How can I help children grow in the faith? Make sure it’s obvious! in your speech, in your conversations, in your priorities, in your home. The role of the Christian parent is to protect and to prepare our children to shine as God’s ‘lights’ in the world. We need to build character modelled on Jesus and in relationship with him, character that can face and overcome the world with God’s truth and his love, those two things which alone can ‘save’ others and bring them new life, life as God intended it, life as no other person or philosophy can bring.

Now I don’t expect – though I would be very pleasantly surprised – to drive through the village later this week and admire the ten commandments inscribed as per Deuteronomy 6 on your door frames and gates: but I do hope and trust that they will be on your hearts; that you will impress them on your children because you love them; and that you will talk about them with your children as a perfectly natural and normal part of every day.

A few years ago it was not uncommon to see children and adults with little bands on their wrists displaying the letters WWJD? - What Would Jesus Do? That seems to me to be a very healthy and helpful thing not only for those who wear them but also for those who see them and ask, ‘Why are you wearing that, and what does it mean?’

Next Sunday, the Church family. What can this family do to help raise our children in the Christian faith?