Luke 6:43-45 “A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. ⁴⁴A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. ⁴⁵A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.

⁴⁶“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?

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What’s life all about?  The things you do?  The places you go?  The people you know?

Or is it who you are?

Or does it go even deeper than that?

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CHAPTER FIVE – Do You Want The Good News or The Bad News First?

Have you ever notice how things can completely change depending on your perspective?  For example, imagine that you’re asleep–a nice comfortable sleep filled with sweet dreams and somebody slaps you in the face so that you wake up to a very sore cheek.  How do you feel about that person?

Ok, now say the same scenario happens, but once you’re awake the person who hit you explains that the building you’re in is on fire, and you need to get out before you’re trapped inside.  Now how do you feel about that person?

The Bible can bring about different reactions from different people.  For example.  If you don’t love God, and your life demonstrates a disregard for how he has told us to live, much of the Bible is going to sound pretty harsh–and even frightening.  But if you’ve been saved by God, and your life shows it through living the way he tells us to, then you’re going to read the same Bible with a lot of thanks and joyfulness.

So what do you get out of it–good news or bad news?

PS. I don’t know what happened, but this one has terrible sound quality too.  The others are better.

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Do you think you’d get a better report on the Civil War from a modern historian or by spending some time with Abraham Lincoln?  Do you think you could get a better picture of what the Apollo 11 moon landing was like by checking out the NASA website or by sitting down with Neil Armstrong and having him tell you the story about when he took that small step/giant leap?

Obviously, if it were possible to talk to the people who had been a part of events in the past, you’d get some amazing stories about those events.  You could get a feeling for what it was like by talking to the people who were there when it happened.

Did your parents ever tell you about when you were born?  Did your grandparents ever tell you about what it was like to live through the Great Depression or to watch the Apollo Moon Landing on live TV?  Wasn’t it cool to hear those stories from the people who’d seen it happen?

So along those same lines, would it be better to learn about the history of the world from somebody who was never there but had made a guess about what might have happened as the world started or from Someone who was there, Someone who actually built the Earth, Someone who designed the universe as a star spangled backdrop for His favorite creation to enjoy when the sun went down?

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I’ve heard people say they think Jesus is cool–he was a nice guy, a good teacher, a miracle worker–and they say they believe in him because he was all about love and peace and helping people.  But some of those same people say they don’t like church or they don’t like Christians or they don’t like the Bible.

The sad thing is that there is only one Jesus.  In spite of all the opinions about him today.  There are cold, hard facts about who Jesus was and what he taught.  And a lot of people who are confronted with that truth don’t want to follow Jesus–just like a lot of people who heard Jesus speak blunt truth and walked away from him.

Jesus is great, but he also taught hard truths, like real love for Jesus is shown by total obedience to his commands, and you aren’t worthy to follow him unless you are willing to walk away from everything else.

Don’t get me wrong.  I think Jesus is awesome.  And the benefits of knowing him totally outweigh any sacrifice you might make to follow him.  But if you REALLY want to know Jesus, you have to accept him on his terms, not yours.

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Do you know what you believe in?  Can you explain it?  If someone has serious and complex questions about your faith, can you put it in terms that anyone can understand?  Can you answer deep questions about the Bible?

1st Peter 3:15 says if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.  Are you always ready to do that?  Or do you not know what you really believe?  Do you know what the Bible teaches?

Did you know that rat poison is mostly good food?  It’s made of 99.5% wheat, fillers, sweeteners, solvent, flavor enhancers, and coloring.  And it’s only 00.005% poison.  So it doesn’t take much of a toxic substance to make something really bad for you.  If you claim to believe in Jesus, you ought to be 100% informed on who he is, what he teaches, and what he requires of his followers.

Always be ready to give an answer!

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Have you ever run a marathon?  Have you ever thought that would be a cool thing to accomplish.  Did you know the guy who ran the first marathon died after running the distance?  Isn’t that crazy?!  And now it’s a race that thousands and thousands of people run it!

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You are what you eat.  I think it’s crazy how many different kinds of diet plans there are.  People will do some crazy things and spend some crazy money to lose weight and get in shape, when all they really have to do is eat less and be active more.  Every ounce of fat on your body, got there through your mouth.  But so many of us don’t want our stomachs and tongues to go without.  We keep hoping the diet pills and foods that replace fat with corn syrup will somehow magically turn us into the people we see in the magazines who starve themselves and take steroids.   And we do that in spite of the glaring common sense that simply cutting back on portions and going for a walk instead of watching TV will make more real impact than all the fads put together.

There’s another common sense thing lots of people ignore and that’s the requirement of God that we live holy lives by his power.  We are called by God to turn away from selfish desires and not be controlled by a hunger for immorality.  We are to be controlled by God’s Spirit and live the way he commands.  Jesus Christ gave his life on the cross as an atonement for our old, rotten, sinful choices.  But his grace is not just a technicality.  His gruesome death ought to be a terrible reminder of how painful and destructive your sin was so that you stop doing it and walk away from your old life and live as a new creation.  Christians aren’t called saints in the Bible just for fun.  We get that title for living righteous lives by the power of God’s Spirit.

So…whichever way you are living reveals what you truly believe.  You can make any claim you want about what you believe or don’t believe, but your real life choices you make (including the choices you make behind closed doors and in your own mind) expose the truth of what you have faith in.  If your faith is in the world, you will live life the way the world tells you to.  But if your faith is in God, you will actually do what he tells you and live life his way.  And if you say one thing and do another, you’re simply a hypocrite.

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Have you ever stopped to think about what it must have been like when God created people?  I picture Creation as a kind of artistic event—where God stands back looking at a blank canvas and formulates his ideas and then says “Let there be…” like an artist brushing strokes of color to create the image held in his mind.  Then he steps back and says “It’s good.” and keeps adding more and more to the picture.  But when he had finished everything else and was ready to make people he became the sculptor.  It’s like he got down on his hands and knees and picked up the dirt on the ground and shaped it into a man.  This part of his creation he wanted to do more than just speak into existence.  He wanted to mold Adam with his own hands and then breathe life into him.

And it seems that the farther we drift from God (as individuals and a culture) the less we care about Human life.  It tends to become less important to us.  A thief can wind up serving more time in jail than a murderer.  Old people, unborn children, and the disabled are seen as less valuable.  And we suffer as a people because of it.  Perhaps it’s time to take a fresh look at what it means to be a human being with the breath of God in our lungs that sustains us and makes us alive.

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Christmas is a great time for cute little stories.  I’m sure millions of people’s e-mail inboxes get filled with forwarded emotional drivel to make people go “aaaww.”  But the real Christmas is not cute things on cards and in movies.  The real Christmas is about God who so loves the world, that he was willing to come to Earth and make the biggest sacrifice possible to save the people who turned their backs on him and lost themselves in sin.  The whole world needs to hear about the real meaning of Christmas and how it can completely change their lives!

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