This is the third “sermon” I ever preached. It’s a talk I gave to a group of high school students on a Teens Encounter Christ retreat weekend on February 4, 2007, when I was 17 years old. It’s based on a provided outline for the “Christians Called Into Action” talk. I’m posting it online for the sake of having a complete archive of my sermons.
Christians Called Into Action
OK, so, I’m Daniel Flucke, and I am a Christian. So, what does that mean? What does it mean to be a Christian? A Christian is a follower of Jesus the Christ. To be a Christian means that you have accepted God’s gift of forgiveness.
Back on Friday, Die Day, we talked about how we are all sinners, we all need God’s forgiveness, and Jesus died to give us that forgiveness. On Saturday, we talked about how Jesus overcame death by rising again, and how He loves us more than anything we can comprehend or imagine. Today is called GO day, and we’re talking about what to do now. How do we share God’s amazing love with everyone else?
In James 2:14, I’ll try to repeat the Bible verses I’m quoting so you can follow along, so, in James 2:14, the Bible says, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” Those are some strong words. I think the point is pretty clear that we as Christians are called (even commanded!) to live out our faith by our actions. In Luke 9:23, Luke 9:23, Jesus Himself says “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” We’re commanded to always, every day, act the way Jesus would. In short, to be saved, we have to be perfect. Always. Are we going to succeed? Absolutely not! I personally guarantee you are not perfect. Romans 3:23, Romans 3:23 says that every person ever has sinned. That’s where God’s grace and forgiveness come in. So, if we’re guaranteed to not be perfect, does that mean we should we stop trying to live out our faith? NO! God created and redeemed us. Ephesians 1:7-8, Ephesians 1:7-8, says “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” Through Jesus’ blood, God has redeemed us from death and our sins. Our response is to love Him, and loving Him means that we try to obey and serve Him. Even though we might not always succeed, we still owe it to God to try.
When we’re trying to reach out to others, we can talk as much as we want about how great our God is, but who’s going to believe us if our lives are no different than non-Christians? If we’re truly forgiven, we try to live our lives for God out of gratitude for His grace. Sometimes, just living our lives for God is the best witness towards others. On the other hand, if others don’t know WHY you’re a nice person, it doesn’t do any good. Many non-Christians are wonderful, nice people. If no one ever tells someone why they are a nice, quote-on-quote “Christian” person, how is that person going to get to know Jesus? Some say the ideal Christian is someone who beautifully lives out their faith, but never talks about it. Well, how did that person discover God? Of course, at some point, someone told them. We need to be sharing God’s love through not just our words, and not just our actions, but through our entire lives, in both our words and actions.
A great way to share God’s love and serve Him is to go on mission trips. I like mission trips. My first time going on a mission trip was a weekend trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota, several years ago. That trip showed me so much! I’m really not sure if our group actually accomplished much helping other people, but the trip opened my eyes to how some people right here in our nice American world live. It really showed me how blessed I am. It also showed me how much fun it was to go on a mission for God. Then, this last spring, I went on a week long mission trip to Belize, in Central America. That trip showed me a lot of things. I thought it was amazing how people were just hanging around in the streets. They were very open, friendly people. One of the things we did in Belize was hold a vacation bible school for neighborhood children. We put a lot of time and effort into preparing for our VBS, and honestly, my biggest fear was that no one would come. I’m the kind of person who likes to have everything all prepared in advance, and I really doubted anyone would just show up to a VBS with some foreigners they didn’t know. When the time came for VBS to start, I was disappointed. My biggest goal was maybe fifty kids would be there. There were a few people there, yes, but only about 10 or so. We had gone around the neighborhood handing out little fliers to children (an experience in itself), and I knew more than ten people had said they’d show up. But, three o’clock came, and ten children. So we sang some songs, and waited…and waited…and then people started coming…and coming…by five o’clock, when we were scheduled to be done for the day, we had over seventy! And they were still coming. By two days later, we had over 150! And it was a very small church! Anyway, my point is that I thought it was amazing how we could shamelessly just hand out fliers to children in the street, and a few hours later they would show up to a church. Then I started thinking, why does that surprise me? I sometimes have a hard time talking about my faith. I’m not comfortable going up to people I don’t know and talking about religion. But, in Belize, I was able to do just that, and people responded. So, something I’ve brought back from Belize is a willingness to step out of my comfort zone, and share God’s love with others. I’m still not very good at it, but I’m trying.
I do want to be careful not to give the impression that you have to go far away to serve God. Going on a mission trip is a great way to share God’s love, but we also need to serve the people right in our own lives who need Jesus’ love just as much. If your community and high school are anything like mine, you see a lot of people every day who are not Christian. How can you reach out to them? … If you’re involved in a church, there should be ways to reach out through your church. Our church does a community leaf raking project, nursing home visits, community events, something we call Planned Acts of Christian Kindness, food pantry aid, a lot of things. There’s probably some sort of Christian student group at your school, or at least a service group. One of the most valuable things you can do for someone is to just be a friend to them. Micah 6:8, Micah 6:8, says “and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” God can use anything you do.
Serving God is not easy. Again, back in Luke 9:23, Luke 9:23, Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” A cross is not a nice thing. It’s a cruel method of execution. When Jesus says that to follow Him, we must take up our crosses, I think He is making it pretty clear that it’s not gonna always be easy or fun. We’ve already heard, in Christin’s talk, about being in a Christian community and having a network of believers to support you. On the other side, there are definitely people who will not support you. There was a person in my gym class just last month who for a week told me every day how stupid he thought my religion was. I don’t know how to respond to that. I’ve examined the evidence, and I’ve seen God’s love, and I believe absolutely that I’m right. I really don’t know how to tell someone who’s actively against God that God loves them. The best I’ve come up with is to keep trying to act as a forgiven child of God, and to pray for him. I can’t save him. Only God can do that, but I’m trying to be there for God to somehow work through. That’s just a small example, but I can guarantee that there will be people who won’t be happy if you’re a Christian. Maybe even as soon as you step out of this building and try to explain everything that happened here, you’ll start to be attacked. I don’t know what it’ll be for you. For me, I was sick for several days after I got home from my Tec weekend. Not sure if that was spiritual or just related to a lack of sleep… But I pretty much guarantee something will go wrong when you leave here. Don’t forget what this weekend was about! Someone will probably confront you about your faith, especially if this time has been significant for you. Leaving this community and going into the quote on quote “real world” is a sudden, major change. But you know what? God’s out there too. He’s always with you. Even if you feel all alone, God’s there, and there will be other Christians praying for you. I know I’ll be praying for all of you! Coming off a spiritual high like this weekend leaves us vulnerable. Satan’s not happy if you’ve decided to follow God. You’re a target for the devil! Isn’t that encouraging? J But I’ve got some good news. God wins. See the book of Revelation. In fact, God’s already won, about 2,000 years ago on a cross.
But, even though we know who wins, being a Christian is still hard. I know we already heard it in Christin’s talk, but it’s really important to be part of a Christian community. Without other believers around you, you will fall. Other Christians support you. If you’re not part of a church, find one! As Christians, there are things in this world that are fun that we are commanded not to do. Setting an example in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity is hard! But that’s what First Timothy 4:12 tells us to do. First Timothy 4:12 says: “Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.” And then First Corinthians 10:13, First Corinthians 10:13, reminds us that “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” No matter where you go, God is with you. He’s reigning over the world. Sometimes it might not feel like it, but He really is in control.
There’s a lot of evil in the world. A lot of people think that they can’t accomplish anything or do anything worthwhile. Well, if you think that, guess what? You’re right! You can’t do anything to change a thing. Neither can I! But, the reason I’m here right now, is that God can. God can use you. I don’t know if God will use this talk to accomplish anything. I hope so, but I don’t know. I do know that He commanded us to share His love, and right now, this is the best way I can think of to follow His instructions. The Bible’s full of people who weren’t really anything special, but who God chose to use. The only special thing that they did was to let God use them. They heard God’s call to action and they chose to follow it. People such as David, Samuel, Paul, Mary, Samson, Moses, many, many others, the list goes on. They weren’t anything special. They were sinners, just like us. They messed up all the time. They doubted what they were doing. But, they chose to follow God, even when it seemed crazy. Somehow, God chooses to work through fallen people…just like us! Except for Jesus, God’s never used a perfect person! If you don’t go on mission trips, or you hate public speaking, or you miss opportunities to serve God, that means you’re human. Like I said before, we’ll all mess up. God forgives! He’s got a way for you to serve Him. I don’t know what it is. You might not either. But He does. Our verse for the weekend, Jeremiah 29:11, talks about that: “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord. ‘Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” He has called each and every Christian to serve Him. You might not see how what you do affects others, or serves God. But one of the wonderful things about God is that He’s in control. He can take your efforts, and use them in ways you can’t imagine. The most important thing for us to do is to surrender, and let Him use us. Matthew 5:17, Matthew 5:17, says “Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your Heavenly Father.” That’s what it’s about. The most important thing I can say to you, is that you are loved. More than you can imagine. How will you respond to His love? God calls us to accept His forgiveness, and serve Him. It’s not always fun, and it’s not always easy. But it’s the instructions from our Creator. And a lot of times, it’s a lot of fun too!
This is a song called “Shine” from a band called Newsboys. We used it as the theme for the mission trip to Belize I talked about earlier. I’m gonna play a music video that I made of video from the trip to the song. This shows how much fun shining for Jesus can be! Listen to the words of the song. The chorus is straight from Matthew 5:17. Shine, Make ‘em wonder what you’ve got, make ‘em wish that they were not, on the outside looking bored. Shine. Let it shine before all men, let ‘em see good works, and then, let ‘em glorify the Lord.
No matter who you are, God can use you. Shine for Him!
SHINE!
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