Steps to Maturity, Obvious Response, Embarassing Moments, Woke Christian, Peter's Second Chance

10/12/19 Andrew (see HERE)

From time to time in my Christian journey, I’ve been embarrassed to find out that steps toward maturity that seem obvious to other believers weren’t at all obvious to me. We don’t automatically know on our own what sort of behavior is appropriate in response to the great love God shows us. Sometimes more mature believers need to spell it out to us, and even then it can take a while to sink in.

For example, as a young believer I felt proud of myself when I finally made a commitment to giving ten-percent of my income directly to Christian ministry and I told a more mature believer about it, expecting some sort of praise or commendation.

Instead he said, thoughtfully, “That’s a good start”. What he was getting at was that not ten-percent, but all of my income and possessions belong to God, and I am only a manager of what rightfully belongs to Him. Though it shocked me at the time it seems obvious to me now, but I’ve needed the guidance and challenges of other believers to wake me up to the obvious. Sometime I find myself doing that for younger believers I come across during my outreach efforts. When I talk to random people on the streets and in the marketplace, I find that believers are very few and far between. Most people have a great misunderstanding of the Gospel, and many I talk to have never heard it. Yet when I meet fellow believers, like a young man named Andrew whom I spoke with on the sidewalk, many are surprisingly unconcerned about bearing witness to the Gospel of Jesus and reaching out to unbelievers. It seems obvious to me, now anyway, that we need to take the initiative when it comes to sharing Gospel truths. We can’t just sit in church and expect unbelievers to darken the door or come talk to us when they are “ready”. Many people have no idea what it is they are missing, and aren’t interested enough to take active steps toward pursuing it. But many of us as Christians are really only in social circles with other believers, and would be shocked to find out the percentages of people all around us on a daily basis who are unbelievers. We may have grown up in the church and have learned to take the Gospel for granted. In our world, the Gospel has always been available and everyone we know at least has some idea of its basic message. It may only be when we wake up to the great need all around us that we begin to pay serious attention to all the clear commands and instructions we are given in scripture toward sharing our faith and making disciples. Peter, the fisherman, was initially told to follow Jesus and that he would be made a “fisher of men”. Yet following the life-changing events of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, he went back to being a fisher of fish! That’s when Jesus appeared on the shore, affirmed his love and forgiveness following Peter’s three denials, and helped him see how he could affirm his love and commitment to Jesus by “feeding his sheep” – caring for the needs of others. Peter needed the appropriate response to Jesus’ love “spelled out” for him, and so do we at many points in our path to maturity as believers. I hope our random conversation, in the midst of my personal outreach efforts as a living example, might have helped wake Andrew up to the commands and exhortations to actually do the work of making disciples found in scripture. What is the appropriate response to Jesus’ loving sacrifice on our behalf? He spelled it out to his disciples and to us today in John 14:15 – “If you love me, keep my commands.”

See video HERE https://youtu.be/oOEy8oJJx3Y