Chinese Christians
As many of you know Dani and I are recently back from a five month around the world missions adventure. We had special airline tickets that allowed us to travel to up to 15 places as long as we traveled in the same direction and went all the way around the earth. Many of you prayer for our ministry and I am here to report your prayers were answered. We ministered to hundreds in the name of Jesus.
Our first stop was China. We met some amazing Christians. It is illegal to meet and we had to use extraordinary measures to meet with the underground church so we did not expose them to greater risk. There was one secret house church that God has parked in my heart as a protective father type. I preached to them this morning by using the webcam. I could see and hear our dear friends there and they could see us. Because of the time difference we did this last night at 5pm which was Sunday morning at 9am their time.
These wonderful people of God are an inspiration to me. They risk imprisonment and worship for 6 hours on two days a week. However the greatest threat, the thing that I pray hardest against, is that they would cave in to doubt and sin. That is the biggest issue among the Chinese Christians.
Indian Christians
Next we flew to Southern India. This is where our most intense ministry happened. We have many amazing stories of what God did. Christians in India face persecution from the Hindus and Muslims they live with. It is nearly impossible for a Hindu to convert unless the entire family accepts Christ because of the pressure the family will use to get the believer to renounce Christ as the only gateway to God. But as Jesus said about the rich man going through the eye of the needle, with man this is impossible but with God all things are possible. We saw many conversions of whole families.
The evangelists I had the privilege of training knew they would be abused, beaten, stoned, and perhaps martyred as they went village to village with the Gospel. Still they went. How inspiring to all of us. However every Christian we met struggled between the pulls of the world and their faith in Christ. They are at risk from the pull of sin, the rampant practice integrating Jesus into their Hindu gods, and legalistic dependence on self.
Eastern European Christians
Now let's go the Eastern Europe. In the six weeks we were there we got to minister to Christians in Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia. These folks are still recovering from communism that left as recently as 1989/1990. They are simultaneously grappling with the ungodliness that comes with modern westernization. The threat to these Christians is that they would revert to godless communism or move into godless hedonism.
Something in Common
Are you noticing a trend between all these believers from around the world? They all struggle between their faith and the pull of the world around them. Does this struggle sound familiar to anything we endure? If you ever think an evil thought, or think yourself better than others, or fail to seek Jesus with all your heart than you have the same struggle I have and we share that in common with Christians all around the world. The Apostle Paul was this same kind of struggling Christian. Listen:
Rom 7:14-25
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Faith Ball
Paul was like this ball (demonstrate). He wanted to rise toward God and be fully Christ-like but he was still subject to the spiritual laws of temporal existence. The gravity of sin pulled on his old nature. Paul was Spirit Filled like this ball is filled with air. There has probably never been a Christian as filled with the Holy Spirit as Paul. Yet his outer body added the weight of sin. Paul calls it his sinful nature. In the original Greek the word for sinful nature is Sarka which means flesh. Paul's flesh was of the corrupt earth and therefore subject to the gravitational pull of earthly sin (let ball hit floor).
Paul knew he had two choices, give in to the gravity of sin or live by the Holy Spirit that was in him. He knew that to give up and be pulled down by sin would mean he would abandon grace. Paul feared that possibility. That is why he said:
Phil 2:12
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
1 Cor 9:27
No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Faith Not Works
Let's not be confused by this. Paul knew that fighting sin did not save him, only the sacrifice of Jesus could save him. He said:
Eph 2:8-9
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
If Paul gave in to sin it would be the outward sign he had inwardly abandoned grace. If I am on a soccer team but I show up at a game without my uniform the other players are going to ask me if I am still on the team. If I stop fighting against the sin in my heart you will know I have abandon the grace team. Paul stayed on the team of Jesus until his death. He knew that was the only place where there was hope for him.
Blown By the Spirit
So rather than give in to sin Paul chose the other alternative which was to walk according to the Spirit.
Rom 8:5-8
5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
In John 3 Jesus says the Holy Spirit moving a believer is like the wind blowing.
John 3:8
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.
So Paul allowed himself to be blown by the Spirit of God (demonstrate with shop vac). However notice how this ball hovers in mid air. What makes it do that? Simple, the air blows up and gravity pulls down. The ball is caught in the middle.
The Holy Spirit blows us away from the world while the gravity of sin pulls on that part of us, the flesh, that is still subject to temptation. The result is this miraculous balance that is the true Christian life. An amazing mystery is at work here. The constant pull of sin humbles us to realize we cannot make it to God ourselves. It is the humility of our sinful condition that drives us to depend on faith and the cross and Spirit of Christ; to stay in the middle of His invisible power. We cannot move toward perfection without the Holy Spirit and we cannot have the Holy Spirit without the humility of imperfection. So the Christian life is one of constant tension between two forces.
I want to demonstrate that while faith in Christ alone is essential, grace covers divergent doctrines more than we expect. Notice what happens when we move the ball off the center of the air source (demonstrate how it stays up even at an angle). In matters like the second coming, cessation of gifts, eternal security, eternity of hell, irresistible grace, baptism, and a hundred other non-essential doctrines there is a lot of grace. Only when we get totally off of the centrality of Christ do we fall.
Hovering
Are you frustrated by your own sinfulness? Do you crave more of God but your weakness gets in the way? Good! That is where you should be. If you were not bothered by your sin then you would not be a miraculous hovering Christian. You would either be one who gave in to the pull of the world's sin, moved far away from the true Jesus, or depended on your own good works and godliness to reach God.
- The pull of the world
- Abandon the true Jesus
- Dependence on self
What kind of Christian are you? I pray you are a miraculous hovering Christian. Those are the Christians around the world to whom Jesus says:
Rev 3:11-13
I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. 12 Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
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