Luke 9:23
Preached Wednesday June 16, 2010
Introduction:
Hymns And Heart
1. We sing “Sweet Hour of Prayer” and are content with 5-10 minutes a day.
2. We sing “Onward Christian Soldiers” and wait to be drafted into His service.
3. We sing “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” and don’t use the one we have.
4. We sing “There Shall be Showers of Blessing” but do not come when it rains.
5. We sing “Blest Be the Tie That Binds” and let the least little offense sever it.
6. We sing “Serve the Lord With Gladness” and gripe about all we have to do.
7. We sing “I Love to Tell the Story” and never mention it at all.
8. We sing “We’re Marching to Zion” but fail to march to worship or church school.
9. We sing “Cast Thy Burden on the Lord” and worry ourselves into a nervous breakdown.
10. We sing “The Whole Wide World for Jesus” and never invite our next-door neighbor.
Take a trip with me in your imagination to an average worship service in an average church. People are dressed well. They have smiles on their faces, and people are greeted with many warm pleasantries. All too often those same well dressed, well mannered people change drastically on Monday morning. The things that were forbidden to say at church while other Christians were around, now flow freely from hypocritical lips. The warm cordial spirit is replaced with a short-tempered mood. It would seem that their Christianity is only good one day out of seven.
When Jesus comes into your life, He wants to control all seven days in your life, not just the times that you go to church. This evening we are going to see that living for Christ is a daily commitment. We will see what it is like to embrace everyday Christianity.
I. Follow Jesus daily
Luke 9:23
23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
A. Deny yourself
1. Your goals
2. Your comfort
3. Your priorities
4. Your plans
5. Your sensual desires
B. Take up your cross -endure the burden God has specifically made for you.
2 Timothy 3:12
12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
C. Follow Jesus
Luke 19:10
10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Matthew 11:28
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
A man who lives right, and is right, has more power in his silence than another has by his words. Character is like bells which ring out sweet music and which, when touched, accidentally even, resound with sweet music.
—Phillips Brooks
II. Read the scriptures daily
A. It is our spiritual food, eat every day
Matthew 6:11
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
B. Study everyday
Acts 17:11
11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
1. A ready mind
2. A diligent search
The caterpillar of the cabbage butterfly feeds on cabbage, that of the alfalfa butterfly feeds on alfalfa, the monarch butterfly feeds exclusively on plants of the milkweed family and hence it is often known as the milkweed butterfly. Thus it is that a caterpillar can often be identified through that on which it is found feeding. What would be your identification on the basis of what you feed on?
III. Pray daily
A. Cry out to God
Psalm 86:3
3 Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily.
B. Pray first thing in the morning
Psalm 5:1-3
Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. 2 Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. 3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
Luther, when most pressed with his gigantic toils, said, “I have so much to do, that I cannot get on without three hours a day of praying.” General Havelock rose at four, if the hour for marching was six, rather than lose the precious privilege of communion with God before setting out. Sir Matthew Hale says, “If I omit praying and reading God’s word in the morning, nothing goes well all day.”
IV. Reach out to the lost daily
A. While in church
Psalm 5:1-3
1 To the chief Musician upon Nehiloth, A Psalm of David.
1 Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. 2 Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. 3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
B. Door to door
Acts 5:42
42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
C. In the market place
Acts 17:17
17 Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.
D. Daily fruit
Acts 2:47
47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
Acts 16:5
5 And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.
It is reported that the thing that made William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, such a passionate preacher was the statement of the man who claimed to be an infidel:
“If I believed what you Christians say you believe with reference to the coming judgment and day of reckoning, with the resultant eternal lostness of the impenitent Christ-rejecters, then I would crawl on my bare knees on crushed glass all over London, England, night and day telling men and women to flee from the wrath to come!”
V. Encourage brothers and sisters daily
Hebrews 3:13
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Correction does much, but encouragement does more.
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Conclusion:
Christianity is much more than attending church. One preacher said, it is not how high you jump on Sunday, but how straight you walk on Monday that matters. May God give you strength to enter into a life of every day Christianity.