Jesus made a lot of claims about himself, and backed up his words with his actions.  On top of that a lot of the things we know about Jesus come through the prophesies that were fulfilled by him–how and where he was born, how he lived, how he died, and even coming back to life.  So the Bible is pretty clear about who Jesus is.

Now, thinking about all the different people who claim to believe in Jesus or to be his followers, can you really believe in Jesus if you don’t believe all the things that he said about himself or if your opinions about who you claim to follow don’t match up with the facts of Scripture?

In Matthew 7, Jesus said that on Judgment Day many people will claim to know him and will claim to have done great works in his name, but Jesus will say “Go away, I never knew you.”  The sad thing is it’s obviously religious people who will be making that claim because they will be telling of all the things they did for Jesus.  So just claiming to know Jesus and doing religious stuff won’t get you into Heaven.

I don’t know about you, but that’s a big motivator for me to make sure I know Jesus for real, for who he claims to be, and to focus on doing what he wants me to do and not just various religious acts.  Lots of people talk about having a relationship with Jesus.  Clearly having a relationship is more than just knowing somebody’s name or doing things in someones name.  So common sense would say, if you want a relationship with Jesus, don’t repeat some empty prayer and expect that will save you, but learn about who he is from what he said.  Then if you’re really willing to invest your life in a real relationship and maintain ongoing communication and caring (like you would for any other real life, love relationship), when Judgment Day comes, Jesus will recognize you and not have to say “Go away, I never knew you.”

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Jesus.  There’s something about that name.  To some it’s a name to be honored and respected.  To others, it’s fodder for cursing.  Lots of people claim to know who Jesus is, but there are tons of different opinions about him.  So how do you figure out who’s right?  How do you filter through all the opinions and get to the real Jesus?  And when you do, what difference does it make to you?  Does knowing the real Jesus make any difference to your everyday, real life?

PS. This talk is, kind of, a response to another talk that I had already come up with.  But I shared this talk (the second talk) first.  That’s why it’s labeled “part 2 – kind of.”  And I’ll post the first talk that I came up with next time.

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How many times have you heard someone say they’re sorry, but their tone clearly revealed that they weren’t sorry at all?  How many times have you been the person doing just that?  It seems like people in our culture have a difficult time actually allowing themselves to regret a wrong action or feel sorrow for hurting someone else or even admit that they did anything wrong.  We always like to come up with excuses for our behavior.  It seems even more difficult for some people to actually forgive when they’ve been hurt.  So what do we do with all that emotion?  And does giving or receiving forgiveness actually do us any good?  What do you think?

This talk I gave last year was an emotional one for me.  I even felt choked up listening to it again.  But I sure am glad to have learned some things about dealing with this stuff in my own life.  What experiences have you had that you’ve learned from?

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Have you ever tried to switch the kind of milk you drink?  Like from 2% to skim.  I used to be a pure 2% milk drinker.  That’s what I grew up on, and the skim stuff was just way to watery.  I would never drink skim.  Or maybe you switched from drinking regular cola to diet.  It’s weird getting used to the different flavors or textures.  I did end up switching to skim milk because I figured I didn’t need that extra pat of butter in every cup.  I also tried switching to diet cola for awhile, but my body didn’t like that at all.  The Aspartame did nasty things in my digestive tract.  I don’t know if it was the aspartic acid or the phenylalanine or what, but after feeling sick every time I drank diet cola I did some research and found that Aspartame can have nasty effects on your bod.  I guess that’s why all the products that contain it have to have a warning label now.

Anyway, the point is that making any kind of change to your diet or routine can be difficult to get used to at first.  But there are some things that are well worth making a change for—like the benefits of regular exercise…and even talking about religious stuff.  Have you ever felt like you ought to change something?

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So the other day me and mi linda esposa, Jenna, were at WalMart to get a couple picture frames and a B-day card for Chris–his birthday is next Sunday!  Anyway, we also were thinking it would be nice to have a couple new pillows for our bed. (You know how pillows get flat and hard after too many years of use?)  So while we were looking at pillows, we also looked at sheets.  We had 1 set of bedsheets that we use all the time, and they have always been a tight fit on the mattress–they barely cover the whole side of the mattress.   So we figured, ‘We’ve got a little extra in the household budget, let’s get some new sheets.’  The really nice 400 thread count, Egyptian cotton sheets were on sale for $35.  So we got ’em.  With the taxes, they were a little less than $40.

Pretty exciting, right?  Ok, here’s where the plot thickens:

This lady starts checking me out…because we had taken all our stuff to the checkout lane.  Anyway, she bags everything up and and we cart it out to the car.  But something wasn’t right.  The total on the receipt was less than what I thought it should be–by about $40.  So we took a closer look, and sure enough, somehow the sheets never got rung up at the register.  So now I’ve got a choice to make; do I keep the sheets as a gift from the benevolent WalMart corporation that was kind enough to put them in a nice plastic gift bag for me…or do I go back in and pay for what the checkout lady missed?  As soon as I asked that question, I already knew the answer.  My conscience told me the right thing to do was to pay for what I wanted to keep.

I grumbled about it.  Even as I walked back into the store, I thought about how much I was spending on being honest.  I wondered how much difference this would make.  $40 is didley to a multi-billion dollar operation like WalMart.  They certainly aren’t going to notice or care about what I was doing.  I wondered how much it mattered to God.  I know he always wants us to do the right thing.  But was this something he’d be really happy about or simply satisfied that I did what was right?  I didn’t do it for a reward or for recognition, but I did plenty of bad things in my life B.C. and it would be super cool to know anytime that I did something to really make God happy.  I would pay way more than $40 anytime I can make my relationship with God closer.  The more I hear from him the better my life gets. So my real question was, did I gain anything for being honest–besides bed sheets?  What does $40 worth of honesty get you?  You can’t buy God–he owns the universe.  His law says to be holy, so being honest was simply my duty to him.  But does the fact that I was faithful in this small matter help connect me any closer with my Savior?

I shared all these thoughts with Jenna on the drive home, and she pointed out the fact that actually listening to and obeying God’s leading on my heart would promote more leading from God.  Jesus said “Those who love me are the ones who keep my commands.”  And he said when we are faithful with the small things he asks us to do that he will bless us with bigger things.  So listening to the still small voice of God’s Spirit in my heart, and doing what was right, demonstrated my love for God and proved to him that I was faithful in this way.  So he now has that much more reason to bless me with more of his trust.  What a cool thought–something as small as that could improve my relationship with the Almighty!  Not that he ever loves me more or less, but to prove my faithfulness in service to God–even in a small way, just makes me feel good all over.

God has blessed us with more than enough to get by.  We can sleep on Egyptian cotton sheets.  When most of the world lives on $1 or $2 a day, I feel extremely blessed.  So we prayed in the car, on the way home that God would help us to always be as honest as he has been generous to us.  He has given an overabundance to us.  So we can give an over abundance of honesty and faithfulness to his commands.  In the grand scheme of our lives $40 is a tiny drop in the bucket.  But the priceless rewards for righteousness are worth more than any bank could hold in its vaults.

I thank God for the opportunity he presented to make that choice to pay for the sheets or not.  It was a great chance to stop and think about all the blessings God has given us and how much doing the right thing is really worth in life.  May your life be filled with moments of doing the right thing in big ways and small.  And may you know an abundance of God’s blessings through your faithfulness!

PS. My father-in-law pointed out that if you want God to bless your marriage bed, you shouldn’t sleep on stolen sheets!