Hello again I'm Mike Mazzalongo, your instructor for this series,
"Christianity for Beginners." In our sessions that we've
covered so far, last six sessions, just
review those with you before we begin
this last session in the series. We have
looked at belief in God, reasons why
Christians believe in a personal loving
and all-powerful God, that was lesson one.
Lesson number two, the difference between
Christianity and other world religions,
what makes Christianity so special, we
looked at that in lesson number two.
Lesson number three, we examined the history and
the compilation of the Bible as well as
why christians believe that the Bible is
the Word of God, why the Bible is
inspired. Lesson number four was about
Jesus Christ; who He is, what the Bible
says about Him and what He did.
Lesson number 5 looked at the subject of
salvation and how the concept and
promises in Christian salvation are
different than any other religion.
And then our last lesson was about the
church and how the Bible describes the
model or the pattern for establishing
the Church in every generation.
Well, this is our seventh and final
lesson and in this lesson I want to give
you a description of what the Christian
lifestyle is like and hopefully dispel
some false images of Christianity that
many people have had over the years.
So let's start with the misconceptions.
I suppose that the two most popular
misconceptions about the Christian
lifestyle is that first of all you're
not allowed to have any fun; if you
become a Christian that's the end of any
happiness or fun that you have, it's all
serious, no joy. In other words,
when you become a Christian you have to
abandon most of the things in your life
that gave you some pleasure that you
enjoy doing before you actually became a
Christian. The idea is that Christianity
is about obeying a strict set
of rules and so on and so forth. The
other misconception is that if you
become a Christian the only thing
you do is go to church. A lot of people
refuse to become Christians
because they're afraid that they'll be
obliged to attend church services
once or twice or even three times a week.
Now to be quite honest, there's a
germ of truth to these two ideas but in
the end, they're expressed in such a way
that actually distorts the true
lifestyle experience by someone who
becomes a Christian. So let's talk about
the true Christian lifestyle.
When someone becomes a Christian they should
expect a change in their lifestyle for
two reasons. First of all, they
have come under a new circle of influence.
Paul the Apostle explains this idea in
the Epistle to the Colossians chapter 1
verses 13 he says, "For He has rescued us
from the kingdom of darkness and
transferred us into the kingdom of His
Son who purchased our freedom and
forgave our sins."
That's Colossians chapter 1 verse 13.
Now in this verse Paul compares the ideas
and the philosophies, the motivations of
the material world to the teachings and
the revelations and the leadership of
Christ. One he says is darkness and the
other he says is light. And so since
Christians now live by a different set
of realities and values, there's bound to
be a change in their thinking and of
course in their behavior. So when someone
becomes a Christian they come
under a different kind of influence and
of course that influence is going to
change their life in many ways.
Secondly, Christians are motivated by the
Holy Spirit of God, they're not self
motivated anymore and let me explain
that. Before becoming Christians most
people are focused on self or what is
important to self. Our society is filled
with all kinds of programs and books and
experts who promise to help us find
ourselves or improve ourselves.
Governments and movie stars and
scientists and authors and every kind of
expert want to show us how to be
more healthy, more beautiful, more
secure financially, more successful. Any
number of books and videos show us
how to become better parents, better
athletes, better than our neighbor, better
for the environment. The focus, however, is
always on how to maximize our lives here
on earth. In other words, how do we make
the 70 or 90 years that we have to live
the very best here on earth.
Of course the idea underlying all of this
self-motivated improvement is that this
life here on earth is all that
there is and so you'd better make the
most of it because this is all that
you're going to get. Christians however
are not motivated by self, they're not
motivated by the center of
attention being on themselves, they're
not focused only on this world.
Jesus said the following, He said,
"The world would love you as one of its own
if you belong to it, but you are no
longer part of the world. I chose you to
come out of the world." John chapter 15 verse 19.
Christians live in this material world and they're subject to
all of the same challenges and
opportunities and experiences common to
everyone else except there's a
difference, except their motivation is
spiritual, it's not exclusively material.
Their goals are spiritual, not
exclusively material. Their values come
from the Bible. Their focus is life after
this life on Earth is over and their
object of worship is not self, their
object of worship is not things that are
important to self but rather Jesus
Christ, the one who offers eternal life.
And so this difference in life center,
difference in life objectives, is what
creates the unique Christian lifestyle
It's a lifestyle not marked out
by a change in clothing for example. There's no special uniform
that you have to wear, there's no special dress code needed in
order to be a Christian, so you can't tell who's the Christian
simply by looking at how they're dressed.
What Christians actually put on is
Christ Himself. Paul the Apostle said it
this way in Galatians chapter 3,
he said, "For you are all children of God
through faith in Jesus Christ. And all
who have been united with Christ in
baptism have put on the character of
Christ, like putting on new clothes."
Galatians chapter 3 verse 26 and 27.
The Christian lifestyle is the
character of Christ being developed and
perfected in the character of the
Christian on a daily basis. I like the
way Paul says it, you "put on Christ",
like you take off the old life as if the old life was an
overcoat or something and then you take
this new overcoat which is Christ and
you put on Christ and paul
says that you begin doing that in the
waters of baptism. You exchange that old
cloth of sin and death and disbelief and
so on and so forth and you put on the
new coat of belief and Christian
lifestyle as you put on Christ. Now as I
said before, Christians are subject to
all the same experiences as
non-christians but the difference is
that Christians view and react to these
as Christ would. There's a lot
of truth in that saying, "What Would Jesus Do?" A lot of people wear
those little bracelets, "What
Would Jesus Do?" But you know that you
don't have to wear the bracelet, but that
is a key idea in the Christian life
though, we do want to know what would
Jesus do and what does Jesus say about
this or that or the other. A Christian
lifestyle is based on understanding and following through
based on what Jesus has taught us. So for
this reason all the elements of life are
seen through the vision of Christ, not
seen through the vision of men. For example,
the environment is not just for saving,
it's for managing and it's for
witnessing to God's creative
power. And money and power
are not just for hoarding or fulfilling
our self-interest but for the use of
others, in other words, in order to
benefit other people. If we are rich, we're
rich not only to satisfy ourselves, but
in order to serve others with the wealth
that we've been blessed with. Conflicts
are not resolved through power, but
rather through prayer and through
forgiveness. Stress and worry are
replaced with concern and focused prayer.
Poverty and illness are not simply a
curse to be avoided, but an opportunity
for service and generosity. Jesus
said, "the poor you will always have with
you." He wasn't saying, "so you're always
going to have them, so don't do anything
about it." He meant they will always be
there, they will always be a focus for
your service and for your generosity.
Trials and obstacles, not simply to be
overcome, but God's Way of testing our
faith and creating patience and hope
in us. Failure, for example, and sinfulness
are not causes for criticism and shame,
but the opportunity to know God's love
and God's forgiveness. And finally death
is not to be feared and avoided at all
costs, but for Christians expected with
the courage and the confidence of one
who will continue to live after this
life is over. Now these are some of the
attitudes and approaches to life
experience by Christians. Remember we're
talking about the Christian lifestyle, so
I've just kind of listed all of these
things: the environment, money
and power and conflict and stress, all
the normal things that people experience.
As a Christian, we experience those too
but we react to them in a different way.
So these attitudes, these goals, this
motivation, creates a daily lifestyle
that is much different than those who
have not believed and not devoted their
lives to Jesus Christ. Now you may not be
able to detect who is the Christian
simply by the way he or she
dresses because as I say there's no
special dress code, no special mark on the outside.
You can however discover who are the
Christians by the way they live and how
they treat other people and how they
deal with this life here on earth.
When you observe or live the Christian life
style, you'll see Christ Himself living
and acting in that person's life.
So let's review a little
bit here, we're talking about a lot of
things. I said that there is a change in
lifestyle when one becomes a Christian
because, Number One, he comes into a new
circle of influence. And Number Two, he
has a different and a new motivation.
Alright, a third reason for the change is
Christian's lives have a new direction,
not only do we have a different
influence, not only do we have a
different motivation, but we also have a
different direction that we are pursuing
with our lives as Christians. Now the
main activity of most people in the
world without Christ is to consume.
We consume food and entertainment,
money, power, information. We desire to be
served, we desire to be praised, we desire to be cared for
when we are sick. The Christian lifestyle
requires the exact opposite for the
follower of Jesus Christ. The Christian
lifestyle asks the Christian not to
consume but rather to empty himself.
Paul explains it this way in Romans chapter 12,
he says, "And so dear brothers and
sisters, I plead with you to give your
bodies to God because of all he has done
for you. Let them be a holy living
sacrifice --- the kind he will find
acceptable. This is truly the way to
worship Him. Don't copy the behavior and
customs of this world, but let God
transform you into a new person by
changing the way you think.
Then you will learn to know God's will
for you, which is good and pleasing and
perfect. And that passage is from Romans 12:1-2.
And so as Christ was in service to us,
even to the point of offering His life
as a payment for our sins,
Paul says that our own lives should be
spent or he says offered up, same thing,
should be offered up in service to
others in the name of Jesus Christ.
Now the two main misconceptions about
Christian lifestyle, that it's
all about rules and removing any joy
from life or that it's mainly exercised
by attending religious service. These two
ideas are clarified here in Romans chapter 12.
First of all, the true joy comes from
knowing and doing God's will.
Knowing His will, Paul says, is "good and
pleasing and perfect for us."
He explains that reaching this goal
requires Christians not to copy the
sinful and the evil practices of the
world which go against God's will and
God's purpose for our lives.
God wants us to have joy, some people don't understand
that. Some people think that God is out there and He just
doesn't want us to have any type of
happiness or fun, but nothing could be
further than the truth. God wants us to
have joy, He wants us to have true
pleasure and goodness in life and these
come by obeying Him, not from disobeying
Him. So when a Christian avoids immoral
behavior of any kind, when a Christian
makes an effort to be just or forgiving
or generous, he's trying to do God's will
and know the joy that comes from doing it.
Let me ask you something. I have never
seen a whole lot of happiness come from
adultery or violence or dishonesty or
selfishness or pride.
Have you ever seen people who are joyful
and happy and at peace while they are
involved in adultery or violence? Of course not!
So Christianity, it doesn't forbid
anything that can increase a person's
peace and joy and life fulfillment
according to God's will.
What God forbids Christians are those
actions and those attitudes that will take away what is
good, that will take away what is perfect,
that will take away any opportunity
to find peace of mind. That's what
God forbids. He does not want us to
suffer. And so the Christian life style
reflects the manner in which God directs
our lives through the teachings of Jesus
for our ultimate happiness and of course
in the end for our eternal life.
The other idea that Christianity is best expressed by going
to church is also clarified here by Paul
in this verse in Romans chapter 12.
Paul explains that the truest form of worship
is the Christian lifestyle, that
Christians offer themselves to God in
service, that Christians purify
themselves from sinfulness. He says this
is the purest form of worship and very
pleasing to God. Now this doesn't mean
that public worship is not important, it
is, but public worship is a time when
Christians come together to praise and
publicly worship God, it's a time when
they come together to receive
instruction and encouragement from their leaders and
teachers, it's a time to provide
financial support for the work of the
church, also to make a public witness of
their faith in Jesus by sharing the
communion. So there are very specific
things that Christians do when they come
together for public worship. But all of
these public actions are based on the
fact that each Christian in the church
has a Christian lifestyle throughout the week,
otherwise, it's simply public hypocrisy.
If you don't live like a Christian throughout the week, but then
go to church and go through all those
public spiritual exercises, all you're doing is reinforcing your hypocrisy.
No! Christianity is about following Jesus
Christ every single day and your your
acceptable worship to God is based in
that daily living for Christ. And so
this exercise is the source of our strength
and it provides all of the rewards of
joy and peace and life eternal.
Going to church is where and when Christians
come together to share that common
strength and that common joy and peace,
that common hope for eternal life, but as
I said before if a person isn't living
the Christian lifestyle during the week, going to church,
no matter how many times a week, will not
do him a whole lot of good. But for the
one who is truly following the Lord,
church services are a great joy and blessing,
they're not a burden. Well I
hope this lesson has given you some
insights into the Christian lifestyle
and will help you in your daily walk
with the Lord. Whether you are just
beginning your Christian walk
or whether you have been faithfully
following the Lord for many years.
This is the last lesson in this series
and so I thank you for your
interest and participation. If it's helped you,
the only thing I ask is to just pass it along,
share it with someone else. And if you
want more bible teaching, you can go to
our website, bibletalk.tv, and there
you will find more sermons, more bible
series, blog posts, in order to help grow your own faith and to
give you some resource materials so that
you can share with other people. So until
the next class, the next time, I pray that
God blesses you and your Christian walk.
We'll see you again soon, bye bye.