Fan or Follower, Part 2

The last time we were here, we considered and discussed the concept of Christians, whether they're Sabbath-keeping or not, in the world today, falling into a continuum that went from an enthusiastic admirer, as what we termed a fan on one end, to a follower on the other.

And we examined what defined someone as a fan. And we concluded that a fan was an individual who was hesitant to make the necessary commitment to the way of life that Christ has called us to lead, that they were interested in the benefits provided, but maybe not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to obtain them. They profess to love God, to love their neighbor, but the weightier matters of the law are truly lacking in their lives. On the other hand, the follower was the person whose life and actions truly matter to them.

On the other hand, though, the follower was a person whose life and actions truly reflected their beliefs. Instead of putting on a mask once a week, going to church, and going through the motions, the follower truly lives the way of life that they profess to believe in, not just in public, but behind closed doors when they're accountable to no one else but themselves and God. Their beliefs are reflected in their actions. And we took a look at various examples within scripture of individuals who filled both camps, from Abraham and Elisha, to Nicodemus, Simon, and others.

The overall purpose of the last message, the first one in this series, was to simply introduce the topic, get us thinking about it, and allow us to take a look at that continuum, and to conclude where exactly do we fall on it from fan on one side to follower on the other, and diagnosing where we would be along that continuum. As the message progressed, we visited a number of passages that showed us time and time again what Christ desires in His disciples and therefore us.

He wants committed followers. He wants committed followers. He wants followers who will put the self to death daily, each and every day, and choose to follow Him, not just when it's easy, not just when it's convenient, and most importantly, not on their own terms.

In this relationship, God gets to define the terms, and we don't get to see other people. The final thing that we left off with last time was the idea that we're all called from very different places and very different backgrounds. Some get the ball on the 50-yard line, others might get the ball on the 10, but regardless of where we got the ball, we were expected to move that ball forward. We're expected to grow, as we heard in Mr. Kubik's letter today. So where the focus of our last message on this topic was diagnosing, figuring out where we are on that continuum, the focus of this message is how do we move the ball?

How do we progress forward? How do we get from wherever we happen to be? Whether we're clear up here or clear back here, how do we move that ball in the right direction? Importantly, and also, just how do we pick ourselves up in the struggles of this life and the difficulties and march upfield, gaining spiritual ground? So during the sermon today, I'd like to dig a bit further into this topic, but this time with a focus on examining tangible things that we can do that will help us to make the spiritual gains that we need.

The title of this message today, if you're one who likes titles, it's the second part in the series, fan or follower, the title is moving the ball. What does it take to move the ball? So in the time that we have remaining today, we're going to look at three points, and all of these are ways to move the ball forward, really ways for us to work towards being a more dedicated follower, and then never looking back. Never looking back. Recognizing full well that there is always room for improvement in this life, we're expected to grow up until our very last breath.

That's the expectation. We don't ever get to a point where we plateau and we say, we got it figured out. We're always growing. We're always moving forward. So that level of dedication requires us to become three things. It requires us to become unencumbered. Unencumbered, and that's our first point. Unmasked and, lastly, unified.

So unencumbered, unmasked, and unified. And so we'll start with by looking at what it takes to become unencumbered. And we're all called with a certain amount of baggage from our past. We're all called with baggage from our past. Some of us maybe have a carry-on. Others might be hauling around three suitcases to carry on in a personal item. But we've all got baggage from our past. And regardless of the amount of baggage that we're carrying, no matter what, no matter what, we all bring some degree of our past life with us when we've been called. We all bring some degree of our past life with us. And this can be a strength. This can definitely be a strength because we've all had different experiences. We've all had different education and backgrounds, life experiences, jobs. But if we're not careful, it can be detrimental too. It can be something where that past life and its encumbrances can crop up and cause us to struggle and cause us to flail.

Several years ago, a movie came out with Will Smith playing the lead role in that or the lead character. The movie was called Pursuit of Happiness. You guys end up ever seeing Pursuit of Happiness? Some of you probably did. It told the real-life story of Chris Gardner. Chris Gardner was a young African-American man whose early life was extremely difficult. He's written a few books about his success and the different struggles that he's beaten. But when he was eight years old, Chris Gardner's mother tried to burn their home down in order to kill his stepfather. She was discovered in the crime. It was found out. She was arrested and thrown in prison. She was really the only stable force in Chris Gardner's life was his mother.

And when she was incarcerated, as you might imagine, his life began to just spin out of control.

He bounced from home to home for the next four years as she served for prison sentence.

And he did manage to graduate from high school, though, despite the chaos of his home life. He married and had a young child. Things started to look up. He began his pursuit of a job as a stockbroker. In the process of working for this job while raising his young son, his wife left him.

He lost his home. And while taking care of his son on the streets, he started working to become a partner at a brokerage firm. They hired him on as an intern at this brokerage firm. He finally passed his test. He was offered a position. He ends up getting the dream job, which he accepted. And we fast forward to today, and Chris Gardner owns his own brokerage firm.

He overcame all of that past. He overcame all of those circumstances. And he didn't let his past define him. He didn't let his past define him. And, brethren, we have two choices when it comes to our lives. We can either continue to reflect on the difficulties of our past, dragging it around like a big ball and chain attached to our ankle, or with God's help, we can choose to move past them, to walk away from our past, and to keep our focus forward, moving that ball upfield. We have to live a life that is unencumbered, a life that allows us to leave that past where it belongs in the past.

Let's turn over to 2 Corinthians for the first scripture today. We'll start in 2 Corinthians verse 5. So 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and we'll pick it up in verse 17. 2 Corinthians 5, 17.

2 Corinthians 5, 17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. God planned for our reconciliation to him. He knows our past. He knows we're not perfect, and he knows that we might have come from very difficult circumstances. But you know, he called us anyway. Despite our circumstances, despite our background, he called us anyway. He called us to walk away from that, to overcome it, and to become a new creation. He extended to us an invitation, kind of like he invited Matthew, kind of like he invited Matthew. You know, when we come across Matthew in Matthew 9 verse 9, we see that he's employed as a tax collector. And you got to understand, tax collectors in this time period were one of the most despised people in the entire land, one of the most despised people in the land. They were viewed as traders, they were viewed as Roman lackeys, and in a way they were both, traders and Roman lackeys. So here's how this worked. It's interesting how, I mean, the Romans actually had a brilliant system. I mean, it's brilliant from that standpoint. It's definitely not a good system otherwise. But they would levy a tax on the area based upon their formulas, and they would conclude that this whole area owes a certain amount of tax, whatever that number may be. Then what they would do is they would auction off the right to collect that tax to the highest bidder. And so the person who bid the highest would get the right to then collect that tax. And they were to collect this much. Now, the hard part with this is not like the U.S. We have a uniform tax code here where the tax rates are fairly set in stone. You make this much money in your tax at this rate, etc. But in those days, the tax rates weren't set in stone, and tax collectors could arbitrarily change them. They could inspect goods that you were transporting through town and decide right then and there that they would just levy a random tariff on whatever you were bringing through or tax you in whatever way. And really, this is where the system is, well, where it kind of falls down a little bit. Anything you collected above the actual tax that the Romans levied went right into your pocket. And so an unscrupulous person could become very, very wealthy. Even if you were an honest tax collector, it didn't matter because you were still working for the Romans. And because those Romans required that collection at the end of the year, according to the histories and some of the things that were written down, some of these tax collectors were known to use force in order to get the money out of their out of their own countrymen. But they used every tactic they possibly could to hustle their own countrymen out of their money for the Romans. So as a result, tax collectors were not well-liked.

They were considered to be living a life of sin, and as a result, those that were of Jewish persuasion weren't even allowed to attend services at the synagogue. And so to a certain extent, they were even worse off than Gentiles were at this time. So we have the example of Matthew in Matthew 9 verse 9. You can go ahead and turn over there if you'd like. We're going to get to there in just a second. So Matthew 9 verse 9. And when we look at the writings that were recorded by Matthew, we learn a few things about him that are really interesting. There are more references to the Old Testament in the book of Matthew than any other book of the Gospels, which indicates to us that very likely he knew the Scriptures to a very high degree. Very likely he knew the Scriptures to a very high degree. He was well-educated. His Gospel is written in Greek despite the prevailing language at the time being Aramaic. So we have a Greek manuscript, Aramaic language, and we know that he spoke and wrote Hebrew. Additionally, there are certain details recorded by Matthew that are not recorded by other Gospel writers, things that are included in his Gospel that the others just left out. Now, interestingly, there are things like facts, figures, contract details, things that would be interesting to a tax collector. So he brought his own perspective into his writing a little bit, but there's facts, figures, things like that. But Matthew 9 verse 9... Actually, I take that back. Let's go to Mark 2 first. Let's start in Mark 2. I'm sorry, I sent you somewhere I didn't want to send you just yet. So Mark 2, and we'll pick it up in verse 14. I want to bring one more thing out before we go to Matthew 9. The Bible doesn't want to cooperate today. There it is.

So Mark 2 and verse 14 says, as he passed by... this is the same thing we're going to see in Matthew 9. It's just Mark's account. He saw that Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at a tax office, and he said to him, follow me. And so he arose, and he followed him. We see here that Matthew was the son of Alphaeus, and he had another name. His other name was Levi, who's known as Levi. And this could explain the reason for his education. If he was given the name Levi, given the significance of that name, it's entirely possible that Matthew's life was set aside from birth for service to God, that he could have been destined to enter into the priesthood. If that were the case, he would have known the Torah at a very young age. He would have learned to read and write well, in various languages, likely. And in his teen years, he would have become the disciple to a rabbi somewhere along the line, learned the ropes, and became a member of the priesthood. But we see in Matthew's life that wasn't the case. Matthew's life, that wasn't the case. When we first see Matthew, he's a tax collector. Something went wrong in Matthew's life. Something went wrong. Now, in the book that we mentioned last time, not a fan, the author, Kyle Eitelman, speculates that it's possible, and again, speculation, we're not 100% sure, but it's possible that when it came time for him to join a rabbi, when he got to their teenage years, they kind of auditioned with a rabbi to become part of the Talmadim, which is their little circle of followers, their disciples. It's possible that he may not have been able to make the cut, that for whatever reason there was something about him that just he could not get on with one of those rabbis. Maybe it had to do with where he was from, his Galilean descent, maybe, don't know. But again, we don't know for sure, but it does offer an interesting possibility. If that were the case, and if it were unable to get a rabbi to take him on, his options would be severely limited. He trained his life up to that point, seeking out, you know, God's word, and seeking out more knowledge, and a rabbi to follow. But up to that point, if that didn't work, his entire life's work was gone. What we do know for absolute certain is that somewhere along the line, Matthew began to serve himself rather than serve God. He became a tax collector. We can imagine that he probably became an incredible disappointment to his parents. I mean, you imagine you'd be able to tell people what his or her son do? Oh, he's a tax collector! It's an awkward conversation in those days. Joining a profession that was really a byword among his own people, and kind of hustling his own people out of money for the Romans. But in Matthew 9-9, we see a pretty interesting account. Matthew 9 verse 9. And it really is incredible the way that Christ calls Matthew. Matthew 9 verse 9.

In Matthew 9 verse 9, we see Matthew's account. It says, as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. So we can almost guess that his preferred name was Matthew, that he went by that rather than Levi. But sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, follow me, so he arose and he followed him. Christ knew exactly who and what Matthew was, and he called him anyway. He knew exactly who and what Matthew was. Christ walks up to Matthew, and maybe he'd heard some of the amazing things that Christ had done. Maybe he even witnessed some of them. Maybe he saw him, you know, healing the blind or the leper or the lame. Maybe he'd seen him walking in the streets, heard this new rabbi that's doing things differently than the other rabbis had done before. And instead of having to seek him out, to prove your worst, to prove how how good you were and whether you could be a disciple of him, instead this rabbi walked right up to him at his tax-collecting booth and uttered two simple words, an invitation. He walked up to Matthew and he said, follow me. And we see Matthew's response at the end of verse 9. And in verse 9, so he arose and he followed him. There were no questions. He said, okay, let's go. And then we see in verse 10, now it happened as Jesus sat at the table in the house that behold many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. So we see that he left his table, he chose to follow him, and then what we see is he invited Christ to his home and threw a big old feast and celebration. Now, what's interesting is we need another scripture to show that because Matthew was really humble in his account. He just said, now while he sat at the table, we have to go to Luke 5 to see what this was all about. So let's go to Luke 5 real quick.

So Luke 5 describes it just a little bit differently. Matthew was pretty humble in his account. Luke 5 verse 29 says, Then Levi gave him a great feast in his own house, so he went and he threw a huge banquet in Christ's honor here.

And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with him. And it's likely, I mean, very possible these were some of the only people that he had an opportunity to be friends with. Can you imagine if you're a tax collector, it'd be hard to find other people that would be willing to be associated with you other than, well, other tax collectors and sinners. People that weren't really worried about what other people thought about him at that point. So in Matthew 9, though, let's go back to Matthew 9. I apologize, I got you jumping around just a little bit. Matthew 9 verse 10. I should have had you keep a finger in there. I wasn't thinking.

Matthew 9 verse 10. Once we get in past the dinner and once we get in past the feast here, we get into verse 11, we see the Pharisees called him out on it. The Pharisees called him out on it. He said, And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? And when Jesus heard that, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, but go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but instead sinners to repentance.

Christ informs the Pharisees here that when it comes time to whom he was planning on calling, that he was planning on calling sinners, that he was planning on calling the spiritually broken, the ones that were actually in need of a doctor. And brethren, that's us.

That's us.

We sometimes get this idea that we're so righteous that God has called us. Take that world. We get this kind of pedestal type look sometimes at the calling that we've been given because of the truth and the and the grace that God has given to us. But we were called because we were broken. And we were called because we're not the mighty of the world. And so that God can do amazing things through our weakness. Matthew was broken, and God put him back together. He walked away from his past. He left his tax collecting days in the dust.

And he went ahead and undid the chain that was wrapped around his ankle from his past that he was dragging around with him.

All of his baggage, his failures, his shortcomings. He became a new creation in Christ, and he moved the ball forward.

In addition to being unencumbered, it is extremely important that we unmask.

The second point is unmask, and it's extremely important that we unmask.

Sadly, religion and hypocrisy go hand in hand. It's been that way for a very long time. It's nothing new. There's a very famous quote from Mahatma Gandhi that when asked why he didn't convert to Christianity, as much of his teachings and his ideas about peace and about all of the in love and all of these things were very Christian in their nature.

His response was sobering and thought-provoking. He said to the reporter that asked him the question, I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

And Mahatma Gandhi could see it, and so can we. You could see it in the world around us all the time. Many professing Christians today are nothing like Christ.

And really, that was the entire essence of this book. When it came to interactions with our fellow man, when it comes to when we deal with other people, it's unnatural for us to turn the other cheek.

It's against human nature for us to take a lump from somebody and not want to give back. That's human nature. It's unnatural for us to not seek revenge, sometimes to do good to others. It's foreign. Human nature is me, me, me, self, self, self. But it's God's Holy Spirit in us that allows us to begin making these gains in the areas of our life. But if we're not letting that spirit lead us, or we're ignoring it, then what we see is a life that looks a lot like the rest of the people in the world around us, only labeled Christian. Christ had a word for these folks in Scripture.

He called them hypocrites. It's not a nice word, but he called them hypocrites.

And that word comes from the Greek word, hupokrysis, which means to play a part or to be an actor.

To play a part or to be an actor. And so a person in a Greek play that was one of the actors was hupokrysis. They were playing a part. They were acting a part out. And Greek plays were famous for their use of masks. In fact, the symbol that we use for theater today came from Greek theater. The happy face and the sad face. It was tragedy comedy. And that was from Greek theater. What they would do is they would, when they had a different character to play, they would put the mask up to indicate which character was being played. And that way, you didn't see the actor behind the mask. You saw the mask and you saw the character. But under that mask was the real person, the actor.

On the front of that mask was the character that they were playing.

And such is the world in which we live today. Many people today walk around wearing masks.

I teach at a very low-income middle school. Very low-income middle school. You know what astounds me, and I love my kids, I do, but they drive me crazy at times. They will come in, they abject poverty. I mean, abject poverty. You know, some of these kids are coming out of places where they're not sure if they're going to have dinner that next night when they go home. I mean, really rough, rough circumstances in a lot of these kids' lives. But they'll come into the classroom and they're wearing a $140 pair of sneakers. They're wearing the brand new clothes that they can find, brand name everything, brand name this. You know, they've got this perfectly brand new hat with a sticker still on it, no creases, no nothing. You know, and everything, carrying the brand new iPhone 5, brand new Beats headphones, and everything says, I am so much better off than I really am. I'm wearing this mask to show you that I'm not dirt poor. And that's what they do. They project this different person out there to the world around them, and they hide the real them. Our kids at school, they come from the other side of the tracks, so to speak. They have this reputation as being really tough and scrappers and fighters. And at their core, they're just, they're lovers, not fighters, for lack of a better term. But they put on a good show. They put on a mask that shows that they maybe are a little bit tougher than they are. Well, sometimes in religious circles, sometimes the mask is worn to make someone look more righteous than they really are. On the outside, that person may look very pious. They may appear to be living right, and they may be living godly, but behind closed doors, the mask comes off, and it's a facade. To find out the reality, they're just fans. They're not truly following God. They just work really hard to make it look that way. Now, I've been there. There was a time in my life where my church attendance was mostly a facade. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't living anywhere close to the life God had called me to lead. Six days a week, I did what I wanted to do, contrary to what God wanted me to do. And then one day a week on the Sabbath, I'd put my church mask on, and I'd go and I'd do what God wanted me to do. I cleaned up my act, put on a great show, went home, promptly took the mask off.

I once chose—this is kind of hard to admit—I once chose to attend the Feast of Tabernacles in Kelowna because the drinking age was 19. That was the reason that I had chose to attend the feast in that location that year. And when I look back on my life at that point in time, I just shake my head how lost I was at that point in time. And I felt like I had everybody fooled. I felt like I had—I was doing such a great job of playing church that no one knew. It turns out I was actually wrong. Kind of a funny story. When I was baptized at the Feast in Bend that following year, there's this little older woman from the Spokane congregation who comes running up afterwards—they announced it in church—she comes running up, gives me this huge hug, and she goes, we thought you'd never make it and gave me this big old hug. So I don't think I was—the mask I was wearing in retrospect may not have been as good as I thought it was. But from that moment forward, I have worked hard to eradicate those parts of my life that are not in line with what God has instructed me to do. And that's a fight I'm sure many of you can relate to. Pruning hurts. Pruning hurts as you're lopping pieces of your life off to encourage fruit to grow in other places.

And I still have work to do. But a hypocrite is not just someone who doesn't do what they profess to do. Often they're the ones that are doing the exact opposite of what they profess to do. And again, this is nothing new. Christ was very clear in Scripture as he spoke out about the hypocrisy of religious leaders at that time. Gospel accounts are full of his attacks on the Pharisees, the Sadducees, in calling them hypocrites. And he's very clear in these passages that hypocrisy is not tolerated. Whether they're making themselves appear more pious than they really are—you know, trying to kind of self-exalt a little bit and make themselves look better—or self-exalting and sounding the trumpet to announce their deeds—the point is the same. They were acting. They were playing a part. They truly didn't do what they professed to do. They were playing a part because that wasn't their true character. They were hypocrites. Let's scroll over to Revelation 3.

And we've seen this passage read quite a bit. It's nothing new. But Revelation 3—and we're going to pick up the words to John here about the church in Laodicea. Revelation 3 and verse 14.

Revelation 3 verse 14 says, "...and to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, these things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.

So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

Because you have said, I am rich, I have become wealthy and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich, white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesave, that you may see. Because they were lukewarm, because they were neither hot nor cold, God told them, you make me sick. I'll vomit you out of my mouth. And that level of disgust that God views that particular church with is palpable. Notice, too, as we look through this, if you go through these two sections of Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, this is the one church in the entirety of that section that God has nothing positive to say about. The other ones are something positive, and then he gets into the things that he has wrong that he has against them. This one, there's nothing positive given. People of Laodicea thought they were something pretty special. They were wealthy. They had money. They didn't need anybody. In fact, it's actually interesting you back into the histories. When the city was destroyed by an earthquake back in 60 AD, there was a massive earthquake leveled the city, and they had to rebuild. They refused help from the Roman Empire to rebuild. The Romans offered them money, offered them, offered them help to get things rebuilt. They said, no, we don't need you. We've got this. We have enough wealth here in Laodicea. We'll rebuild it ourselves. If you think about it, that attitude translated over to the church as well. Despite their perceived wonderment, they had a slight problem with their city. It was a really bad place to build a city, kind of like New Orleans is today. By all rights, we shouldn't have New Orleans where New Orleans is. It's just a really bad place to put a city.

But if you think about the way that their water would have had to have been piped in, they didn't have hot springs or a real cold water source where Laodicea was. They were piping water in from a hot spring through aqueducts from a distance. And as that water traveled along that aqueduct, it started to cool off. By the time it got to town, it was tepid. It was warm and gross. Same thing with the cold water. It had to come from a different location. By the time it got there, open air aqueduct running down, it warmed up. By the time it got there, it was lukewarm, nasty water, tepid. And so with the Romans, the way that they were set up, the baths that the Romans had were famous. They had these big famous things. And if you're a wealthy visitor to Laodicea and you can't get hot or cold water to do anything with, that's a point of contention for the people of Laodicea. Big point of contention. And God gave it to them on all fronts. He attacked their pride via their water sources, their wealth, their famous ice ab, their notable black wool. And what he did was took them down a peg or two. The message that God gave the church of Laodicea was, you're not as good as you think you are. You're not as good as you think you are.

And through that passage, you know, we often hear that, you know, we're in the age of the era of Laodicea. And I don't believe in one church necessarily being Laodicea, like one church of God group or whatever being. It's an era, and it's throughout the churches. But God is telling His people in this age through this passage, essentially, get off the fence. Make the call.

Either you're in or you're out. And that's the decision that needs to get made. Either you're in or you're out, but stop playing the part. Stop acting. Take off the mask and make the call.

Take off the mask and make the call. Go on in verse 19. As many as I love, I rebuke and I chase him. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

May God chastens those whom He loves, and He clearly desires His people to be zealous and to repent. He's standing at the door and knocking. He's putting out that invitation. And He desires, like Matthew earlier, that we accept it. That we accept it and that we're all in. There's that poker term. You know, where you've given up on any kind of like background strategy, you put all your chips at the center of the table and you're all in. Obviously, God doesn't want us to leave, but He also doesn't want us playing games. That choice is before us. And He wants us to choose either be a follower or be done. Being a fan isn't going to work. Can't wear the mask. Can't not live the life that you profess to live. You can't play the part. Take off the mask and make the call. Be real. Because until we're real, until we're honest with ourselves and honest with God, we can't expect to move the ball. It's going to be a sideways movement. You're just running down towards the sidelines and that's it. Being real moves the ball. Being real moves the ball. And forward or backward, it moves the ball. So, lastly, it's extremely important that we become unified.

It's extremely important that we become unified. And not just with men. Not just with men. Our unity with one another is important, but our individual unity with God is far more important than being unified with each other. Because if we're truly unified with God, we will be unified with our fellow man spiritually. Now, the definition of unified means to make or to become united, to become uniform or whole. And some synonyms for the verb unify are to marry, merge, fuse, integrate, bind. God has invited us to be part of a long-term relationship with Him. And as we mentioned earlier, God gets to dictate the terms of that relationship. God gets to tell us how that's going to work. We don't get to chime in after we look at it and go, ah, I don't know about this part right here. Like, I'm good with all of this other stuff.

Let's change the terms of this contract right here. Can we do that? It doesn't work that way.

God has invited us, and God has said, here are my terms. This is what I require of you.

Are you in or not? And it's a very specific question. Are you in or are you out? There's an old country song like this, and I don't remember who sings it, but the whole idea of giving somebody a note and saying, you know, do you love me? Check yes or no. I can't remember the name of that song, but it's kind of like that. God says, look, here is the relationship that I want with you. And if these terms are okay with that, wonderful. That's great. But these are the terms, in or out. Let's go to Deuteronomy 30. Deuteronomy 30, we see the context in this particular case is ancient Israel, but the message today is as important to us now as it was to them then.

Deuteronomy 30, we'll pick it up in verse 15. Deuteronomy 30 and verse 15 says, See, I've set before you today life and good, death and evil. In other words, here are my terms. One road leads to life and good, blessings. The other road leads to death and evil, cursings. And God tells them, look, make the choice. Verse 16, In that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God will bless you in the land in which you go to possess. But, but if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and you're drawn away, and you worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. God's telling them, the choice that I want you to make here is to follow me. The choice that I want you to make is to follow me. I want you to be my people, but that choice is up to you. And if you choose rightly, I will bless you exceedingly. You will be my people.

But if your heart turns away, and if you, in other words, if you choose to see other people, I will denounce you and you will perish. Verse 19, I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both you and your descendants may live. Verse 20, that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him. Many translations have the word cleave there rather than cling. For He is your life and the length of your days, and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.

God wants us to choose to love Him, to obey Him, and to cleave or cling to Him. And that word is the Hebrew word daabak. And it's rendered specifically to cling, to hold fast, to kind of bind yourself to, or to join with. And it's a utility word. It's used in a lot of different contexts and a lot of different ways throughout the Old Testament. In fact, one time in 2 Samuel 23, it's used to describe the sword that got stuck to Eleazar's hand. It clung. It cleaved to his hand, so it joined to his hand. Ruth to Naomi. In Ruth 1, it's when Ruth refused to leave Naomi and just held on to her so tightly she wouldn't let go. That's the same word, cleave or cling. But it's also used in a little bit of a different context. In a few isolated examples, in an intimacy of relationship like we find in Genesis 2. So let's go over to Genesis 2 really quickly.

Genesis 2, and we'll pick it up in verse 24. One of those scriptures that we hear every church wedding you've ever been to. Genesis 2 verse 24.

Genesis 2 verse 24. Genesis 2 verse 24 says, Between two individuals, this word seems to signify a unifying or a binding and a closeness of relationship. God desires that we cleave unto Him, that we cling to Him, that we unify with Him, and that we establish an intimate close relationship with Him. And this kind of relationship can only come through love, obedience, and service. Those are the three ways to show that you love someone. If you think about it in a marriage, you prove your love through being willing to listen to them, to do the things that they've asked you to do, and to serve them. In fact, in my marriage, if I completely ignore my wife Shannon from the time I wake up until the time that I go to bed, you know, she's talking to me and just in here in one ear, and I'm going, yeah, uh-huh, uh-huh, yep, uh-huh, uh-huh, yep, yep, uh-huh. She asked me to maybe help out in some way around the house, and I just go, nah, I'm not really interested. Thanks, but no, I'm good.

Or she needs me to go cut the lawn, because our back lawn grows really fast, gets to be like three feet high, and I just let it go, and I don't do it. She's bugged me week in, week out, week in, week out to go and do that. Every time she asks me to do something, I blow it off. What does that tell her about the level of commitment in my relationship? What does that tell her about the way that I feel about her? It sends a pretty poor message. It tells her that I could care less, what she's asking me to do, that our relationship is not at that point where I'm willing to necessarily do that. And likewise, if God has given us the terms of his relationship, in other words, these are the things that you're going to do. This is the terms that you've agreed to in this relationship. Our obedience to those things show our willingness to cling to him and to cleave to him. Our willingness to do them illustrates our love for him and a level of service to that way of life. How we serve him and his people shows him that we're in. But consequently, on the other hand, if we blow him off and we go, yeah, I'm not going to mess with that Sabbath, no, I'm not going to keep that holy. I've got stuff to do. And lying? I'm not going to worry about that either, because really, who's it hurting? I mean, seriously, the person, yeah, you know, maybe that does look terrible on him, but I don't want to hurt their feelings, so I'm not going to say anything.

Love my neighbor? Why? I can't stand that guy. He's always making noise.

Turn the other cheek. You know, we get forget that. That guy's getting knocked out. I mean, if this is what we're telling God, you know, study, nah, I don't have time. Prayer? I could do without it. If that's the consistent message that we're sending back to God, after a while, God's got to start wondering where our relationship lies.

It's got to start wondering where our relationship lies. Let's go to Matthew 25.

Matthew 25. Again, another of those well-known passages. Matthew 25, we'll take a look at the parable of the virgins, and we're not going to go there for the reason that we may think we're going there. There's a little thing in here that we don't often bring out, and I want to make sure that we really highlight it today. But Matthew 25 verse 1 says, Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. So even those that were prepared slept. Even those that were prepared slept. And at midnight a cry was heard, Behold, the bridegroom is coming! Go out to meet him! Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out.

But the wise answered, saying, No, lest there should not be enough for us and you, but rather go to those who sell and buy for yourself. In other words, look, you didn't do the preparation that you needed to do up front. We did. So you go figure that out. We're going to go and do what we're going to go and do. But no, we're not going to give you ours because we won't be enough for all of us. Verse 10, and while they went to buy, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding and the door was shut. Afterward, the other virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and he said, Assuredly I say to you, I do not know you.

I do not know you. I had a really interesting experience happen several years ago in the middle of the night.

We were living in a house in a really rough neighborhood near the school that I teach at. It was not a great neighborhood. And there was all kind of police activity and stuff all the time going on. But at two o'clock in the morning, there was a banging on our front door. And so I came to the door, I looked through the peephole, and I saw a woman standing on the front steps.

I quickly kind of assessed the situation. I didn't see any obvious weapons. But I guess if you're going to rob somebody, you don't knock on the door with a gun in your hand. So in retrospect, we had a security chain on the door. So I thought, okay, we're probably okay. I mean, she doesn't look that strong. We'll put the security door in, I'll stick my foot behind the door and then try to find out what's going on. Because if she really is in need, I don't want to turn her away. So I opened up the door, a crack, and it turns out the person was looking for money for gas. They were driving down the road, and for whatever reason, the car just died right then and there. And as she's talking to me, though, I see a little bit of movement out of the sidewalk.

And I see past her, and in the light of our porch light, I can just barely make out the outline of two additional people out there. I couldn't really get a good look at them or anything.

But I'm looking around. It's two o'clock in the morning. I can't find my wallet. I'm like, I am. And I'm looking, and I open my wallet up. I've got no money to give her. And so I came back to the door, and I apologize. And I'm just like, I really don't have anything that I can give you. I'm so sorry. So she asked if she could come inside to use our phone. And at that point, I told her, absolutely not. And it wasn't anything personal, but I have no idea who you are. I don't know who you are. And I had no idea what your intentions were. I didn't know that if once she got inside the door, she pulled a knife or a gun, and all of a sudden my attempted assistance becomes an armed robbery. I didn't know them, and there was no way they were coming into my house.

Now, I had roommates at the time, and so what we did manage to do, though I told her, hang on a second, we went and turned the couch cushions and found as much possible change as we could scrape together and put together about five bucks. And I said, this is the best we can do. I'm sorry. You know, I hope it all ends up working out okay. But we didn't know who they were, and we did not know their intentions. And the unwise virgins in this parable, those who didn't prepare themselves properly, who had no oil in their lamps, they're like, they're doing this. They're banging on the door in the middle of the night, demanding to be let in, saying, Lord, Lord, please open the door for us too. And Christ's response is sobering. I don't know you. I don't know you. You haven't done anything to establish a relationship with me up to this point. You haven't even made an effort.

But now that the time is at hand, now that the end is near, you're trying to worm your way in, I'm not opening the door. The relationship that we establish with God regularly through prayer, through study, through meditation, through service, love, and obedience is absolutely critical.

Because those are four words that we do not want to hear. We don't want to hear, I don't know you when it comes time. So we can see that on one hand the unwise virgins didn't prepare properly, they didn't do what they were supposed to do, and hoped at the 11th hour to find their way in, despite their lack of preparation. But on the other hand, we can also see that in Matthew 7, others relied on their actions to get them in, yet their heart was nowhere near where it should have been. Let's go over to Matthew 7. Matthew 7. And we'll pick it up in verse 21. Matthew 7, verse 21.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied in your name? Haven't we cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name? These individuals are crying to God, but Lord, look at all of the things that we did. Look at all of these things. Look at the actions we prophesied. We did all these mighty things. We did all these mighty works. Don't those actions and those works ensure us a place in your kingdom? And we see in verse 23 Christ's response, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me those of you who practice lawlessness. Christ informs them, despite all of their works, despite all of those things that they did in his name, he never knew them. They didn't have a relationship at all.

Our heart is so important because it's by that heart that we do our actions for the right reasons.

If we're doing things to be seen, if we're doing things to be considered righteous, we're in serious danger of getting it wrong. Our salvation and our eternal life is a gift that we can't earn. It's freely given to us by God, to those whom he chooses. You know, we know that James also wrote that faith without works is dead, but because what we do is absolutely essential.

But we don't earn it through our works. When we have enough, a strong enough relationship with God, when we love him, when we obey him, and when we serve him, our works will follow.

When the relationship is right, the works will follow, and they will come because of our relationship with God. And that relationship is purposeful on our part. All relationships take work. They all take work. Marriages take work. Friendships take work. Our relationship with God is no different. God's given us an invitation. He's asked us, are you in or are you out? And, brethren, that's a question that's been offered to us all. And wherever we are on this continuum, whether we're down closer to the fan side of things or whether we're up here closer to the follower side of things, that's a question that's been given to each and every one of us.

Whether we have that ball in the 10-yard line or the 50-yard line, God wants to know, are you mine or not? Will you work to move that ball forward? Will the actions of your life reflect your belief in me? And will you show the world through your life whom you serve?

Will your actions shout loud and clear whom you serve? And really, that is the core of this concept. You know, the fan has a lot of knowledge. They have a lot of understanding of the things of God. They know Scripture. They know concepts. But the application is non-existent or for the wrong reasons. They might be able to rattle off quotes in scriptural locations and concepts, but at their core they may not be living what they know to be true.

Let's go ahead and turn to James 1, verse 22.

James 1, verse 22. We'll go to the last passage of the message for today. James 1, verse 22. We'll pick up 21 as well. James 1, 21.

James 1, verse 21, says, Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls, but be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. The follower lives the life. They walk the walk, so to speak, in today's vernacular. They don't just talk. Only through walking the walk will we move that ball forward. Talk doesn't move the ball. There's actually a really famous saying that goes along in sports today. Any of you that are sports fans may have heard it, but it's the concept of put up or shut up. In other words, look, you're going to talk, you're going to sit up here and talk smack, but can you actually play? Here's the ball. Show us. You know, that's the concept of that, and we have to walk that walk. Our actions move the ball. Our hard work moves the ball. Obeying God moves the ball. Loving God moves the ball. Loving fellow man, denying the self, serving God, turning the other cheek, forgiving, not repaying evil for evil, giving, reconciling. All of these things move the ball.