Are We Live or on Tape?

Are We Live or on Tape?

by Don Kelly

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

Now, Lord, except Thy Spirit take control, we can close up shop right now. But, Lord, I’m here to be Thy messenger. I’m not here to give a performance, but to minister in love Thy Word. So own this message and this messenger. Own this congregation. Have Your way, Spirit of the Living God. We put it all in Your hands. And give You the praise for what shall be accomplished in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now, before I start talking, I want to say something. I would be remiss if I didn’t let you know how I really feel about being back home in Cedar Lakes. It’s a delight, it’s a privilege, it’s an honor. And my wife and I can only thank You from the bottom of our hearts for having us here.

Not only that, I am enthralled and thrilled through and through by the beauty around me. These fall colors mean something to us Floridians. We don’t have it that way. We have nice palm trees and beaches and mosquitoes and a few things. But the beauty of this… God must be having a lot of fun out there.

Splashing all that color around. It’s delightful. It’s beautiful. It’s euphoric to me to see all of that. It’s a delight. All right. Now, when my wife started speaking this morning, you remember she put a clock out? Well, this is October. This is October.

This is October, isn’t it? I just want to put that… Now, about my face… All I can say is… If you can’t grow it on top, you’ve got to grow it where you can. Now, my wife also had a stack of notes. I speak from notes. Here’s a notebook. See it? But don’t be frightened if most of those are empty pages. I identify a little bit with the old country preacher who was asked to take a pastorate. He had been retired, but he came to this country church. And he had difficulty seeing because of cataracts and thick glasses. And he was a preacher that preached from notes. He read his sermon word for word. Because he couldn’t see, he had a high ream of notes. You know, eight and a half by 11 stack of notes that high every Sunday. And this one Sunday, this was before air conditioning, and the church was open and the wind was blowing. And as he started to come up to preach his sermon, a little whirly wind came in there and caught those sermon notes. And there was snow all over the place. Sermon notes all over the church. Some of them went right out the window.

Well, the poor man was stunned. And the congregation didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He stood there for a moment, finally got his composure together. He said, “Well, brothers and sisters, you see what’s happening, don’t you?” He said, “This morning, I’ll have to depend upon the Lord. But next Sunday, I’ll come better prepared.”

Now, I’m going to depend on the Lord. I had to depend on the Lord. These notes didn’t come here automatically. I’m not like the preacher that used to… Every time he got up to preach, before he started his sermon, he’d go… And he’d preach a long, beautiful sermon, and at the end of the sermon, he’d go… And finally, his board… I’m on a short leash here.

Finally, his board got to him and said, “What’s this deal? Every morning, he used to go this way, you preach a good sermon, and you go this way.” What he was doing was he was copying these sermons, word for word, out of a book, and these were the quotation marks.

Well, as they say in the trade, seriously, I find some similarity. I told my wife this morning, she done good. I enjoyed that message. But I find that the Spirit of God was leading me just like it was her. And we didn’t compare notes. So much of what I have to say is very similar to some of the things that she has had to say.

Of course, we work as a team, you know. But not like the man who said, “Well, my wife and I, we’re a team, too. I work like a horse and she nags a lot.” Well, I’d like to get down to business and talk to you about the importance of practice. Or let me change it. The word importance is not strong enough. Let me say the imperative of practice. We have a mandate from the Almighty to practice the presence of Jesus on a consistent day-by-day basis.

And I try, when I speak, to back up everything I say, or most everything I say, with Scripture. If you have your Bibles, turn in Luke 10. We’re going to come back to this Scripture a little bit later. So you keep it around, and we’ll get back to it. But for now, I want to lift just a verse.

If you recall the story here, this expert on the law came to Jesus and said, “Which is the greatest law?” Jesus told him, “Love God.” You know the story, the background of it. And then Jesus said, “That’s right. You’ve said rightly. Now, do this and you shall live.”

And when Jesus said, you’re to love your neighbor as yourself, well, the fellow said, “Which neighbor do you mean?” And then we have that familiar parable of the Good Samaritan. At the end of the parable, Jesus asked him again, “Now, which of these three fellows in the parable showed pity, compassion to this man that had been mugged on the road?” And the man said, “Well, of course, the one that helped him.” Jesus said, “Now, go and do the same.”

Go and do the same. You know, there’s no place in the Christian ethic for a Christian who is not willing to practice the presence of the Lord on a continuing basis. If I read my Bible correctly, we’re supposed to be real. We’re supposed to be genuine.

Speaking of being real, I came across something the other day in a little paper. Jasper says… And if you want to know who Jasper is, ask my nephew, Wesley. He’ll tell you. But Jasper says… Phony baloney looks just like the genuine, but is full of artificial ingredients just under the skin.

Now, God wants us to be real. Incidentally, I’ve been reading a tremendous book by a well-known Episcopal clergyman, Morton Kelsey. The book is entitled Reaching for the Real. It has to do with being real human beings. I recommend this book. It’s not a large book. Tremendous book. Reaching for the Real.

We’re supposed to be real Christians. James puts it very succinctly when he says we’re to be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves. No true believer in Jesus will ever whisper or even imply that people should do as he says and not as he does. Now, here again.

These are some of the games that people play. Parents often play this game with their children. “Now, Johnny, you do what I tell you. Don’t you do what I do. You do what I tell you.” Why should there be the double standard? We have in our society what we call adult entertainment.

X-rated movies. We have adult bookstores. And no one under the age of 18 is allowed in there. I say, if it’s going to pollute somebody under the age of 18, why in the world would it not pollute somebody who’s 19?

Or 29? Or 59? Why this double standard? We’ve got to be real. Little was watching television so much that he began to pick up the jargon and he could use all the terminology like this is a rerun, this is a replay, this is a delayed act, and so on. And in their busy home he came up to his mommy and said, “Mommy,” he said, “are we live or are we on tape?”

Think about it. Do you know anybody who is not exactly live but just might be on tape? Who might be a rerun and an old one at that? There’s so many things that are imitation in our world. I even came across one time, have you ever heard of imitation ice cream?

I saw that once, I couldn’t believe it. And I didn’t have the guts to taste it either. Well, if we’re going to stand up for Jesus, if we’re going to stand up for the gospel that He proclaimed, then I say we must practice what He preached.

And if we want to represent Jesus and witness for Him and using the Bible as the basis of our message and our testimony, then we’ll need to practice what we preach. And I’m very mindful of that whenever I stand behind the desk. I’ve got a tremendous responsibility. Paul caught this, didn’t he, when he said, “Woe is me if I don’t preach the gospel.”

I’m responsible for what I tell you and you’re responsible for what you do with it. I say again, if we want to represent Jesus, then let’s practice what He preaches. Otherwise, we’d be doing God a favor and we’d be doing everyone else a favor if we just kept quiet.

I preached myself under conviction some time ago. This was a year ago last summer. I had the privilege of speaking regularly at a senior citizen center in the next town to us, Palmetto. It was an integrated place. There were about 50, 60 people there every day, but my turn to speak would be on a Thursday and I’d go there, speak to them, and then have a meal with them. Meals on Wheels brought in the vittles and we had good food.

And this particular… And it was easy to preach there because they really… It’s like priming the pump. They said a lot of amens. You know? That helps to preach. Priming the pump. “Right on, brother. That’s right. Go ahead.” Easy to preach to them. And I thought I brought a very good message that morning on the command that we’re to love one another and if you see your brother in need, you know you’re supposed to go help him. I thought it was a real good sermon. Good preaching.

Then I sat down and we had the meal and the director of the place was a woman that I know very well, a Negro woman, a tremendous Christian woman, tremendous influence in that community. And in our conversation, she often confided in me and I was sort of her confidant and she’d tell me things that she needed and she said, “You know, Donnie,” she said, and it was so hot then. Florida gets a little warm down then. Hot and muggy. And this was one of those hot days. She says, “I have a number of little old ladies here that live in these houses that don’t have any insulation, no screens, certainly no air conditioning and they’re just suffering from the heat. Do you know maybe, could you know of any place where I could get a hold of a few electric fans? We could give them out to these people.” I said, “Well, I don’t know now but I’ll certainly take it under advisement.” I don’t think I was foolish enough to say at the time we’ll pray about it. But I let it go at that and went home in my air conditioned car.

My wife wasn’t home. She was at another meeting so I lay down on the bed a while in our air conditioned apartment. Very comfortable. Oh, I tell you, wasn’t it great? I did a real good job this morning. I wasn’t there three minutes on that bed till God nudged me and said, “Kelly, yeah, you brought a good message but don’t be a hypocrite. Do what you have to do.” Now, I didn’t hear any voice but I knew what I had to do. I jumped off that bed, I grabbed my checkbook, put it in my pocket, went downtown to a store run by one of the men of our church, an appliance store. They sell GE appliances. I told him what I wanted. I wanted some electric fans. I was hoping he’d give me a real good, you know, wholesale price. He didn’t. And that was his problem. He did give me some discount. He could have given me the whole thing and never missed it but I didn’t ask for that. But he gave me a fairly good price and I looked at my checkbook. I was only able to buy four. These fans, they don’t come cheap. Beautiful. 12 inch oscillating fans with a white base and the blue plastic blade. Oh, they’re beautiful.

Don’t make any noise. So I went home and assembled them all. That’s a little difficulty. When everything else fails then you read the directions, you know. And then I took them out all assembled back out to this retreat center. You know what this woman said? Her name was Anna Gale. She didn’t say, “Kelly, you’re a great guy. I sure thank you for doing it.” You know what she said? And it so pleased me. All she said was, “Praise the Lord. God answers prayer.” That’s all she said. Now later, later she did thank me, of course. But you know, God wasn’t through with me yet. Four. So I went back to the church and we have at our church what they call a discretionary fund. When people come to the altar every month for the communion they leave money at the altar rail and that goes into the pastor’s discretionary fund. And I went into his office and I said, “Look, this is what I’ve done. I need more money.”

So I had him write me out a check and I went back. I couldn’t get them at the one store. I had to go to the other branch at the other end of town. Got four more. And I assembled those and took them back out. Well, now there were eight homes where these little ladies would not have to sit in the sweltering heat.

Well, we’ve got to quit pretending if that’s all our Christian profession amounts to. Genuineness and consistency is what’s called for in our daily walk with the Lord. I think that’s what it means to be a born-again, spirit-filled child of God.

Now, this means nothing more, nothing less than obedience. And I don’t mean just a slavish, religious adherence to some laws that we find in sacred writ. They may be good laws. They’re good laws. Of course, if they’re in the Bible, they’re pretty good. You know, somebody tells me every once in a while and I preach, “Oh, that was a good sermon.” I said, “Yeah, I’ve got good writers. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul. Good material.”

But we just don’t profess an adherence to certain laws and let it go at that. Because I’ve read here in the Scripture that what Jesus is trying to get across to us is when He tells us to do something, when He shows us what His will is in a given situation, He now says, “Go and do it.” Period. Over and out.

The Pharisees, you know, these were these scrupulous religious types that were always on Jesus’ back. They were religious right up to here. And they did know the Scripture and they claimed to honor it. They claimed to revere it. They knew it forwards and backwards. They were experts.

You know, an expert is anyone who gets up to speak after he’s gone 50 miles away from home. He then becomes an expert. Any closer, well, not too sure. But these fellows were experts in the Old Testament Scripture. But you know, knowledge of truth isn’t going to do too much regarding our salvation, is it?

Mere information makes no one righteous, does it? It only makes us responsible for what we know and more particularly for what we do. Knowledge must automatically translate into action and obedience. And believing should go on to become doing. Now, had the Pharisees really believed in Jesus and really believed what they said and what they claimed they believed, they would have accepted Him as their Messiah. They would have worked with Him. They would have worshipped Him. So you see, an attempt merely to obey the laws of God, it isn’t good enough.

We need to obey Jesus Christ and acknowledge His Lordship and His mastery over us in everything. Didn’t Jesus tell us, “If you love me,” what? “Keep my commandments.” Just another way of saying, why don’t you do what I tell you?

And again, may I say that the motive for our obedience is almost as important as the act of obedience itself. God requires heart obedience, motivated by a genuine love and a devotion to Him. That’s what He wants. Just obeying a set of rules, that isn’t what it takes.

But when I’m motivated out of a heart of love and devotion to Him, that’s going to result in a willingness to be used by Him whenever and wherever. I say again, just obeying the rules on a superficial level in order to try to present a facade of piety. Well, that’s nice. That’s religion. But that’s not practicing the presence of Jesus. There’s a big difference. I’m a little allergic to the word religion anyhow.

Religion is man’s effort to try to please God and build up a few brownie points so that God will say, “Hey, he’s not a bad egg. I think I’ll take him in.” That’s religion. Man taking the initiative. But when it comes to God’s love through Jesus Christ, He takes the initiative there. And He comes seeking and saving us as a big difference. Now, God wants total access to our person. And by our person, I mean our spirit, our soul, which includes the mind, the emotions, and the will, and the body. God wants it all.

I remember a woman in one of our groups one time. We had some strange groups. This group, there were not too many of them in the group that were Christian, yet they wanted to meet together and discuss these kind of things. One of them used to sit there. Of course, the room was full of smoke. That kind of goes hard on me because I’m allergic to it. And the one fellow came a couple times. He’d sit there with his can of beer. We were having discussions about the Bible, about God.

We were invited to this home, so we went. And one of the women, she was a member of a church, I won’t mention the church. She called God a very bad name one night. I don’t know whether she did it to try to shock us or not. Of course, God can take it. I mean, He’s been called all kind of things. But he said, God, and if she used some strong language, I won’t repeat, He doesn’t want anything from me much. He just wants my whole life. I said, “That’s exactly right.” And she was mad at God.

That’s right. He does want to. He has a right to our life. We’re His. Somebody said, “Well, gee, God acts like He owns us.” I got news for you. He does. He does. You’re bought and paid for. All of us.

Now, why in the world does He want total access to all there is to be? And by the way, that’s what the lordship of Jesus is in a nutshell. Well, I was going to bring a message here. I changed the other night in the middle of the night. I do some of my best thinking at night when I don’t sleep. I was going to talk to you about the lordship of Jesus. This includes it in this message. But to me, the lordship of Jesus is nothing more than nothing less than just letting Him have the whole works, guts, feathers, and all.

Or if you don’t like that, how about lock, stock, and barrel? Either way. But He wants all of me so that I can really know Him on a deeper level of communication and fellowship. Now, in the New Testament, when you see the word fellowship, it’s usually the Greek word koinonia. It means harmony. It means togetherness. It means union. It means community. And the Greek word for it is koinonia. I throw in a few Greek words now and then to let you believe I’m educated, you see. I know a little Greek and a little Hebrew. One runs a restaurant and the other in a clothing store.

But anyhow, we’re not to obey out of spiritual pride either. That’s what the Corinthians were doing. You remember? Remember the arguments they had? Oh, they had little groups bragging. I guess they were vying for the bragging rights of the church. “We belong to Apollos.”

“Hail Apollos. You guys don’t know where it’s at.” You know, a preposition is something you never end a sentence with. “We belong to Paul. Paul. He brought us in and we’re Pauline followers. We got you Apollos people beat.” Doesn’t this sound like the Baptists arguing with the Methodists? Or the Presbyterians arguing with the Episcopalians or the Catholics arguing with the Protestants? And some of them say, “Oh, you’re all… We’re from… We’re followers of Peter. He’s the one that led us.” And then, to top it all off, the ones who thought they had them all beat said, “We belong to Jesus.” They were just as wrong as the rest of them.

I’ll tell you, spiritual pride can be a terrible thing. It’s the worst kind of pride. We obey because of who God is and the wonderful work that He’s done in us and is still doing in us. And will do in us through the Holy Spirit working His will. Now, Jesus clearly calls us to be accountable to God. I believe my wife mentioned that this morning. I’m a great believer in being accountable.

Oh, I get so tired of hearing people say, “Well, I can’t help it. I was… I had a bum rap when I was a kid or I… I didn’t have a good environment or I had this and I didn’t… I had that.” And they want to goof off and pass the buck. I say we are accountable to God for our life, our actions.

And a lot of people want to present arguments. Well, God doesn’t present arguments. God doesn’t make suggestions. He doesn’t even give us options at this point. There’s no in-between here. He doesn’t require us to learn some certain techniques for successful Christian witnessing or for doing the King’s business in a wonderful way. No.

He simply says, and I’ve read it to you, “Go and do. Go and be.” You ever have trouble doing the things you know you ought to do? I’m not talking about the big things now. I’m talking about something like carrying out the garbage.

Many a argument has arisen over that mundane chore. We need to begin to put into practice what we understand God wants from us. And if we don’t understand, then ask. We need to be responsible to the light that we’ve received up to now. And then look for more. I always ask people, “Oh, would you pray with me? I need guidance.” My first question is, “Brother, sister, what are you doing with the light you already have?”

It’s important. Jesus doesn’t expect us to achieve excellence in mastering Christian doctrine and learning all about divine law and theology and church dogma and ecclesiastical polity and all the rest of it. That isn’t what He’s asking us. He just wants us to begin doing what He says.

Sounds like a broken record, doesn’t it? But that’s my point. We’re talking about the imperative of practice. Meeting this mandate we have from God. You know, if God had been one of these permissive parents, He would have, when Moses went up on the mountain, He would have given Moses ten suggestions. He didn’t give him ten suggestions, He gave him ten commandments. And when Jesus boiled it down into the one, we have the whole law in capsule form there in our text. You love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself. That’s the whole ten squeezed into one little capsule.

Now, John 14, 23, and 24 says, “I will only reveal myself to those who love me and obey me.” Jesus is talking here. Take notice who’s talking. This comes from the highest authority. This is right from headquarters. This is a communique from headquarters. Attention.

“I will only reveal myself to those who love me and obey me. Anyone who doesn’t obey me doesn’t love me.” I mean, how are you going to make anything else out of that but what it says? Now, there’s some pretty heavy stuff here in the Scripture about practicing what the Word of God preaches. I think particularly in the book of James, James chapter 2.

By the way, I better put this out. You know, a little boy asked his father, grandfather, what it meant when the preacher laid his clock watch on the pulpit and grandfather said, “Not a thing.” Now, I don’t mind you looking at your watches either. The thing that gets me is you shake them, see if they’re running.

That bothers me. Okay, James, we’re talking about practicing the presence and putting into practice what God tells us to do. Here’s a little for instance here. Beginning with verse 12, James chapter 2. You will be judged on whether or not you are doing what Christ wants you to do. So watch what you do and what you think.

Then we go on down to verse 14. Dear brothers, what’s the use of saying that you have faith and are Christians if you aren’t proving it by helping others? Will that kind of faith save anyone? If you have a friend who’s in need of food and clothing, you say to him, “Well, ta-ta, old boy. Things are tough all over. Goodbye. God bless you. Stay warm. Eat hearty.” And then you don’t give him clothing and food. What kind of nonsense is that? That’s a free Kelly translation there.

So you see, it isn’t good enough just to have faith. You must also prove that you have it. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good works is no faith at all. It’s dead. It’s useless. Someone will argue, “Well, you may say the way to God is by faith alone plus nothing.” Well, I say that good works are important too for without good works you can’t prove whether you have faith or not. But anyone can see that I have faith by the way I act.

Yeah. Jesus’ theology unlike some of our western theology was not over intellectualized. It wasn’t all theory. His teaching was intimately connected with action and living in the now. I like to think of Jesus as the now Jesus. And He is that.

He places a lot of emphasis on the importance of practice. Don’t pontificate. Demonstrate. Talk is cheap. It’s the walk that counts. Our learning this concept of practicing the presence of God is important. There’s a beautiful book written by Brother Lawrence by that title. A little booklet. I recommend it to you if any of you have read it. Practicing the Presence. There’s a man who did it.

But if we’re going to learn this concept it doesn’t depend upon how many books we read. It doesn’t depend upon how many journals or how many notebooks we fill. Or how many scripture verses we memorize. Or how many hours we spend in meditation and prayer. That’s all good. If you haven’t done it I recommend you start it. If you’re doing it keep on doing it. But all I’m saying is that isn’t where it all lies.

If we’re really open to the leading of God’s Holy Spirit and if we’re learning anything at all about Christian discipleship then it will most certainly be seen in our daily walk, in our daily lives. Now Jesus took His cue regarding the theology of being a doer and not a hearer only from the Old Testament scriptures. That’s all they had then. Let me give you one example. An Old Testament, it’s really a prophetic utterance that was fulfilled by Jesus in the New Testament. The Old Testament verse is Psalm 40 verse 8. Here’s the way it reads. “I delight to do Your will, my God, for Your law is written upon my heart.”

Now here’s what Jesus had to say in the New Testament. John 4:34. Jesus says, and He said the same thing on a number of occasions in a little different way, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work.”

Well, that makes it pretty clear where we stand, doesn’t it? Where we ought to be standing. Because obedience to God is critical because it reveals a harmony of purpose between the divine will of God and our human wills. And right here there’s a big area of theological discussion and controversy. I don’t personally see too much controversy, need for controversy here. I’m talking about the difference between the sovereignty of God and the free moral choice of man.

Of course, God is sovereign. Of course, God knows what He’s doing. And of course, God knows what we’ll are doing and will be doing. But that in no way excuses me one iota from obeying God and walking in all the light that I have. I can’t say, “Well, you know, que sera. You know? What will be, will be.” The Africans were… we ministered a number of years in Africa, my wife and I. And they were very much fatalistic. I remember I used to have medical clinics. I’m not a doctor, but over there I was the only thing they had. And God help them. He did. I never killed anybody. And they got well, perhaps in spite of their treatment. But I was… I used to have medical clinics. I knew pretty well what I was doing. I never would go in over my head.

But this year, they brought a young… the big Mohammedan teacher, the biggest Mohammedan man around there with tremendous influence, came with his… one of his wives and his little daughter was very ill. And as far as I could determine, she had a serious kidney infection. And I was giving her the medicine I had. I had some antibiotics, but I told them this little girl needs to see a doctor and go to the hospital. Now, it would have taken them five days walking to carry her down to the nearest hospital. We were back in the interior where it took a dollar and a quarter to get a postcard. But anyhow, it was pretty far back.

And I would keep telling them this. Now, in their culture, you weren’t supposed to say something might happen like that. It was kind of a taboo, but I talked to them like a Dutch uncle. I’m not Dutch, but I’m an Irish uncle. Ask Wes.

And I told them, “If you don’t get this little girl to the doctor quickly, I’m afraid she may not survive.” And they said, “Well, now, don’t say that. Don’t say that. We’ll wait and see.” Well, they waited too long. The little girl died.

And the mother, of course, was heartbroken. This was one of this man’s wives. He had a number of wives and lots of children. But what was the attitude, particularly of the men? I can show you. See if you can understand what they meant.

“God willed it.” God did no such thing. And sometimes we do the same thing. We say, “Oh, God took her.” Or “God took him.” I’m not so sure God takes people like that. It isn’t God’s fault that a little child got out on the street and some drunk driver ran over her. Don’t blame God for that. That’s human stupidity.

Well, obedience to God is critical. And God decrees that we obey Him in all things. But we alone, you and I alone, decide whether or whether we will or whether we won’t obey Him. Now, God has placed us in that position. And the challenge of the Word of God is always directed toward the will. You don’t read in Scripture, “Now, if you will study hard and go to school and get a degree in theology, maybe you’ll understand this and you’ll prosper in your Christian growth.” Or, the other extreme, “Now, if you’ll just let yourself go and get on a high emotional jag, you’ll feel good and you’ll make it.” It isn’t the intellect, it isn’t the emotions. Not that they’re not important. They’ll come into the picture, of course. But the challenge of Scripture is always toward the will of man. Whosoever will may come. And the implication is, whosoever will not, okay, don’t come.

Whenever God reveals His will to us in a given situation, He’s saying, in essence, “You don’t have to understand everything about it, you don’t have to feel good about it, you don’t even have to like it. Just do it in my name and leave the rest with me.”

That’s what He said. Now, I say again, Jesus’ emphasis on faith here, followed by obedience, is important. It’s basic in our salvation, certainly. And it’s basic in our being filled with the Holy Spirit. Too many people believe that a Christian is someone, that, well, they pray a little prayer somewhere, and they make a decision for Jesus, and they sign a pledge card, and they join a church, or something like that, however it goes. But I say, maybe, a lot of those Christians, well, not maybe, it’s usually true that they don’t live as if they’re under new management. And the status quo remains in effect.

And if there’s any movement, it’s oftentimes backward. And the contents of the package don’t match the label. You talk to some people about being a Christian. “Well, I try. I go to church. I’m this denomination, or I’m that denomination, and I’m going to turn over a new leaf, and I’m going to reform, and I’m going to do this, and I’m going to do that.”

Well, and I might add, incidentally, maybe it isn’t so incidental, that it doesn’t do any good to change the label on an empty package. You know, it’s like Zenith commercial. They say, “The quality goes in before the label goes on.” And I don’t receive any commission from Zenith, either. But listen, apply that to our own Christian life. If we’re wearing the label Christian, that’s supposed to mean that the quality’s on the inside already.

It’s a sorry state of affairs, as I say, when people can say one thing and refute it by their actions. When we go through the door to a new and a fuller life, and by the way, Jesus is that door, as we know, we’ll then need to become meaningfully involved in the new life that’s on the other side of that door.

I think of a scripture that Paul used to his people he was preaching to one time. He said, “What you’ve seen… No, let’s put it this way. Those things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do.” Now, that’s saying quite a bit. My question to you and to myself is this. Are we practicing enough Christianity to be able to honestly say that to someone? Think about it now.

Can I say to someone, “What you see and hear and learn from me, I want you to do that”? Can we say that and wouldn’t it be safe to say it? I could say it if I was really living so close to God that they could see Jesus and Him only.

Paul said it. Paul was allowed to say it. Or does it boil down to a do as I say not as I do proposition? I mean, that’s the other alternative which isn’t too nice. Paul says further in 2 Corinthians 5:17, when someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He’s not the same anymore. A new life has begun. Yes. Thank God.

A true disciple of Jesus is one who is doing what Jesus tells him to do. He obeys the will of the Father. And I repeat, Jesus calls us to be accountable to God, to practice what He preaches, to begin living for Him as He desires, by His standards, by His rules.

Now, a genuine relationship with Jesus means a relationship to His purpose in history. Now, what do I mean by that? Simply this. Why did Jesus come to earth? Well, let’s let Him answer it. “I came,” He said, “to seek and to save that which was lost. I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” That’s why He came. He came.

Okay. That’s hard work. If we’re to become, as we sing so often, His hands extended, reaching out to the oppressed, we’ve got to know too that we’re co-laborers with Him in this tremendous kingdom business. And we ought to be in the same business of seeking and saving that which is lost. And using every means that’s available to us. You’ll say, “Well, I’m not an educator, I’m not a preacher, I’m not a Bible student, I’m not something.” Well, I know one ability we all have.

Availability. Are you there when God needs you? Will you be there when He needs you? Will you be available to do and to be and to become a person for others? That’s what Jesus has been and still is. A person for others.

Are we practicing our God-given trade? You say, what’s that? Well, I read in the scripture we’re to be servants of God. We’re ambassadors for Jesus. We’re witnesses for the Lord. We’re workmen for God. God? Can we say that we’re about our Father’s business?

Let me give you a couple more for instances that demonstrate what a practicing Christian ought to be doing. And by a practicing Christian, I mean one that is born of the Spirit, one that is filled with the Spirit, one that is led by the Spirit. That’s what I’m talking about. That’s my definition of a practicing Christian. And here’s what we practicing Christians ought to be doing. Let me read it. This is from the book of Galatians, chapter 5, verse 13, and a few verses on beyond that. Listen. Again, I’ve got words from headquarters. Special communique has just come through. Special bulletin. Now hear this. For, dear brothers, you’ve been given freedom, not freedom to do wrong, but freedom to love and to serve each other. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command. Love others as you love yourself.

But if instead of showing love among yourself, you are always critical and catty, catty people, those are the kind of people that take their milk out of a saucer. Watch out! Beware of ruining each other. I advise you to obey only the Holy Spirit’s instructions. I underscore that.

Forget everything else I said. Mark this in your little book. Obey only the Holy Spirit’s instructions. He will tell you where to go and what to do. And then you won’t always be doing the wrong things that your evil nature wants you to. For we naturally love to do evil things that are just the opposite from the things the Holy Spirit tells us to do. And the good things we want to do when the Spirit has His way with us are just the opposite of our natural desires. Sounds like Paul in Romans chapter 7, doesn’t it? He was having a civil war. All the things I do I wish I didn’t do them. Have you ever been there? I have. Ooh! Man! The things I don’t do I wish I had done them. I’ve been there recently.

There are two forces within us that are constantly fighting each other to win control over us and our wishes are never free from their pressures. When you are guided, verse 18, by the Holy Spirit you don’t need to force yourself any longer to be bound under the law. On into the 6th chapter. Dear brothers, if a Christian is overcome by some sin you who are godly should rush over and read him the riot act and tell him what a… No, no. No. It says you who are godly should gently and humbly help him back onto the right path. Remember the next time you may be the guy in the soup.

That isn’t exactly what it says but it’s close. Of course close is only good in horseshoes I guess. But it’s close enough. You may be the one that’s wrong the next time. Share each other’s troubles and problems. And so will be our Lord’s command. This is something we shy away from. I pointed this out in our prayer group today when it says in the book of James, Christians, we ought to pray one for another. Then it also says in that same verse, and confess your faults one to another.

That doesn’t come as easy as the pray part, does it? Well, it goes on to say, and I like the way that section closes there, it says, none of us is perfect. How true. I want to challenge you and I want to encourage you, and of course, I’m encouraging myself to reach out to God in a new way, in a fresh way. Reach out to the Father. I like what Norman Renshaw says. All the time he just uses the word Abba. He talks to Abba. Who’s Abba? That’s Daddy. That’s Dad. You say that’s sacrilegious. It is not. It’s in the Scripture. Abba. It’s simply a term of endearment for your father. What do you call your father? We used to call our dad Pappy. Pappy. Some of you call him Dad. Daddy. Papa. Abba. What a beautiful, close, loving relationship between Abba and you and me, His children. We’ll talk more about that tomorrow.

But I want us to open up in a new way. In the light of what I’ve been saying about practicing, fulfilling, meeting the conditions of this mandate that God has given us to serve Him and practice what He preaches. Practice the presence of Jesus.

Abba, the Father. And then there’s, of course, Jesus, the Son, who is the Christ. His name isn’t Christ. I sort of have a little hang-up with it. I don’t know why it is. People are always talking about, they’re praying in Christ’s name. Christ is not His name. Christ is a title. He has a name. His name is Jesus. He and I are on a first-name basis. I call Him Jesus. He calls me Don. And we get along fine.

He is the Christ. Yes. The Anointed One. The Messiah. Yes. He’s Lord. Then, of course, there’s the Holy Spirit. The Comforter. The Alongside One. The Inside One. Our Helper. Our Guide. Our Teacher. Let’s be open and fresh. Let’s hear Him with our ears in tune.

Let’s get in alignment. Did you ever see a car go down the road like a dog? Front end, out, the back end? It’s out of alignment. That’ll ruin the car. It certainly will ruin the tires. Let’s get in alignment. With God.

Let’s be sure we’re walking straight. It’s an old cliche. We talk about it. People make jokes about, “Oh, you ought to be on the straight and the narrow.” Well, there’s no joke. We better be on the straight and the narrow.

And I ask you to put God to the test. You do what He says and see if He won’t do what He says. God won’t mind that at all. He doesn’t mind if we put Him to the test. “Try me,” He says. Doesn’t He? “Try me and see if I won’t do what I tell you I’ll do.” Our problem is we don’t try like we should.

This is the kind of communication that demonstrates that God is alive. That the Holy Spirit is moving in our midst. This shows us that we’re in the mainstream of the love of God, the grace of God, the power of God.

This is living by our belief that the kingdom of God is at hand. Yes, it is within us. Of course, there’s one translation that also puts that the kingdom of God is among us. Now, the kingdom of God is only going to be within us if that’s where the King is.

You can’t have a kingdom without a king. And you can’t have a kingdom unless the King is allowed to be King. You know, sitting on the throne, running the show, calling the shots. That’s kingdom living. We’re called to be children of the King. We’re children in the kingdom. I like that concept. I think my wife mentioned that too, how she first felt in her first CFO. And I felt the same thing.

I was… When we went to that first CFO umpteen years ago in Grand Canyon, Colorado… No, Arizona. Excuse me. I moved to Grand Canyon. That’s not… That’s not easily done. It’s still there in Arizona. When we first went there, I was all uptight. I was a hospital chaplain at the time. And… I was rather rigid and frigid. There are those kind of Christians, you know.

Saved, sanctified, petrified. And when I got to CFO, I didn’t know what to make of it, especially when I saw those people cavorting out there at rhythms. And Bebe Anderson, of course, you remember, dear Bebe, she was the leader. She’s a good one. Well, you know where I was? I was conspicuous by my absence when the rhythms were going on for a while. But gradually, I began to fall out.

And now I wouldn’t miss it for the world. God has to take some of the starch out of us. And I wasn’t feeling too well at that time. We’d been working pretty hard. And my wife and I both… I had my job as a hospital chaplain. She was the senior minister’s secretary at the First Presbyterian Church there in Santa Barbara, California.

I… Someone said, “How do you feel?” Well, I said, “I feel like a tortilla run over by a truck.” I was down. You can’t get much lower than that. But you know, God blessed us there and we begin to both kind of feel our oats. And we begin… And I begin to appreciate myself more. You know, I’ve always had a hard time liking me. But one time, I realized that if God loves me, I better start loving me too. And I do.

And I thank Him every day for the privilege of being His child and being able to serve Him. So we begin to grow at that point. But we need to learn and we needed to learn and we still need to learn that Jesus Christ has every right to our life at every facet of our person. We are His.

And of course, He’s not arbitrary about this either. I mean, He loves us so much. He wants to do for us so much if we’ll just let Him. And the aliveness and the nearness of God must permeate our Christian living as we accept this challenge to practice in our daily lives at every level of our living. In every circumstance, the fact of the presence of the Lord working in us, working through us, and our working with Him as His servants. Now, we’re chosen to be servants. I said that a while ago. We’re servant sons. We’re more than just servants. We’re also sons. And you women don’t feel let out about that. When I use the word, the masculine word, for sons of God or men of God, what I mean is man, the male, and the female. That’s the way God made man. God made man male and female. Didn’t He? You ladies shouldn’t feel too bad anyhow about being included when it says man. Think of us men folks. We’re included as the bride of Christ.

See there? So, I guess you should feel pretty good about that. I do. We’re chosen. Now, quickly, I close. There’s a vast difference between servitude and servanthood. Servitude is involuntary. When someone is compelled to serve someone else as a slave or a servant, that’s servitude. A servant, that kind of a servant, he’s not his own man. He has no rights of his own. He has no choices to make. He does what he said, what’s told him to do. And there’s no recourse whatsoever.

That’s servitude. Servanthood is quite another thing. That’s voluntary. I serve served by choice. And that’s the way I serve God. And it’s a two-way… This choice is a two-way street. First, God chooses me. I know I’m so glad He has. “You’ve not chosen me, but I’ve chosen you and ordained you that you should go.” That’s for all of us, you see. Let none of us say, “Well, let’s let the preacher do it. That’s what we pay him for.”

Well, if you expect him to do all that he needs to be done, you better pay him a little more. He’s underpaid. But, what I’m saying is, I believe in the priesthood of all believers. We are called. What’s the function of a priest? Well, he talks to God about the people and he talks to people about God. You can do that. You don’t have to have a theological degree to do that.

Now, I love preachers because I guess I’ve been one a while. But, you know, sometimes preachers, they get up on the pedestal and that’s because the congregation puts them there, unfortunately. And they get so educated. Somebody told about one preacher, he had degrees along your arm. All kinds of degrees. But I never saw him run a temperature.

Well, God chooses us. We’re called to be saints. Did you know you were a saint? You better start acting like one. So should I. We are called to be saints. And then, the other side of that equation is this. I also choose to accept that call. I also choose to react to what He wants from me.

It isn’t so important how I act. That isn’t what spells out my Christian witness. Whether or not I’m genuinely Christian. It doesn’t depend so much upon how I act. But it depends a great deal upon how I react.

In given situations. I can put on an act and fool you, fool all of you. We’re not called to be play actors. We’re called to be the real McCoy, the real thing. I said that a while ago. We’re live. We’re not on tape.

At least, you aren’t. I am. Maybe I better rephrase that. Anyhow, what I’m saying is I choose to respond and act in accordance with the will of God under His direction and obedience to His law, His word. That’s all I’m talking about here. That’s what it means. This imperative of practice, this meeting, the mandate of God. We have a mandate to serve the Lord and to practice our Christian profession. Let me close now with getting back to the text. I want to read it just as it’s there for us and then I promise you it’s like, who is it? Phil Downey was always saying, “I promise you, I’ll get back to you.” I promise you he never gets back. I’m going to get back but quick.

We’re back to Luke 10 here. I want to read it just as it’s… this is the Living Bible. One day an expert, and I have that in quotations, we have a lot of experts today, he was an expert on Moses’ law, came to test Jesus’ orthodoxy by asking… he didn’t want to know the truth, he just wanted to test Jesus. “Teacher, what does a man need to do to gain eternal life and get to heaven?” And Jesus said, “Well, you’re a teacher of the law, what does the law of Moses have to say about it?” Well, then he gave Him the quote, which is correct. It says, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your strength, your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said, “Right on, man. Do this and you shall live. You’ve got the theory, now put it into practice.” I throw that in there at no extra charge.

Now, the man went on to tempt Jesus or test Him and said, “Well, you said we’ll love our neighbor. Who do you mean? Who is my neighbor?” Which neighbor? The guy next door? I don’t like him too well. Or, no. Jesus went on then to give him that most familiar of parables, the Good Samaritan parable. This fellow was taking a trip from Jerusalem. It says here he was a Jew. Going from Jerusalem to Jericho, he was mugged by some thugs. They stripped him of his clothes. We acted this all out this morning in rhythm. If you miss rhythm, you won’t know what I’m talking about. And they beat him. They left him dying. He was half dead. And then the priest came by. He was going to a religious service somewhere in the church, no doubt. Saw the man lying there across the other side of the road. He wasn’t going to get involved. No way. Not with those new white robes on? Huh. No way. One of the temple assistants, a Levite, he came by and he looked him over and said, “Too bad. A rough road.” He went by. He was on his way to a committee meeting, I guess. We have committees to form committees.

This so-called despised Samaritan came by. And when he saw the man, he felt deep sorrow and pity. And he knelt beside him and soothed his wounds and poured in the oil and the wine and bandaged him up best he could and put him on his beast of burden. It might have been a donkey, it might have been a camel, could have been a Mustang, I don’t know what it was. But he put him on his beast and walked along beside him and took him into town to the inn, stayed with him through the night. You talk about love, you talk about practicing Christianity. Hmm.

The next day he handed the innkeeper a couple twenty-dollar bills. Right now it would take about a fifty. A hundred? Night, that is. Holiday Inn, or whatever. “Now you take care of the man and if you run out of money I’ll pay more when I come back.” Funds any higher. Oh. Okay, so much for that. “Which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the bandit’s victim?” And the man replied, “Well, of course, the one who showed him pity.”

Jesus’ simple reply was this. “Now go and do the same.” Pray. Lord. Thank You. First of all, for the faithfulness of the Holy Spirit. We’re grateful that it is our high and holy calling not only to be children of the King but to be and joint heirs with Jesus but to be co-laborers with Him in the work of the kingdom. You’ve given us some tremendous responsibility, Lord, and Frank, to say I can’t handle it unless help. No, I have that help. Depend upon the Holy Spirit. We can depend upon the presence of Jesus. Praying that You’ll enable every one of us to be so open to You as we examine our hearts, as we examine in a new way, bring it up to date, Lord, our relationship with You with relation with respect to this idea of our practicing the presence of God in our life. It’s real to us. Touch every one of us to live up to our privileges in Christ Jesus because we’ve got so much going for us. All powers die and You’re sharing it with us in the work of the kingdom. Help us to practice what You preach and we’ll give You the praise in the wonderful name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Amen.