07/20/09

Good Monday Mornin!

          When I was a young man I was constantly driven by that latest thing that my friends were wearing or doing. For instance, and this should make you chuckle, when parachute pants came out I had a pair, or when the “rat tail” hair style came out I wanted one. Or do you remember the lines shaved in the side of your head? Yep I had them too! It was just my nature, and it is many other people’s nature to do that as well, whatever becomes popular that’s what we want to do.  

And to this day I still do this on some levels. For instance if I get around someone who is what I believe to be a really good parent, I will try to model some of their ways. Or if I get around someone who I think is good with money, I will try and mock their lifestyle. Of if I see someone with a particular way they carry themselves, I am liable to try and do that so as to model myself after them. You may all be sitting there saying to yourselves, “He has lost his mind”, but let me ask you, have you never noticed that when you hang around with someone an extended amount of time you start to take on their mannerisms? You do, we all do, it is just the way we are wired.  

Now don’t here me say that this is all necessarily bad. As a matter of fact there are some good things that come from you and me taking on the personality of another so that we can be better. But there is one place where this can be extremely dangerous, in our Christianity.  

Paul wrote in Galatians 1:11-12

I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.  

Over my five short years of ministry, I have come to be convinced that the reason so many people come out of the gate strong in their Christianity, but soon die off, is because they are following a man and not God. I believe that we have become a culture that idolizes preachers. And what happens is when we put a man in the place where God belongs we are not following God, we are following man, and when we follow man instead of God we are being idolaters. And an idolater is not a true Christian!  

Guys I want you to understand that your walk with Christ is just that; YOUR WALK! If you depend on me, another pastor, or anyone else to be your “jesus” then you are setting yourself up for failure. And not only that, you could cost yourself in the long run because you very well may not be saved.  

I am a broken, sin sick person, just like you are, who is trying to walk through this life hand in hand with Jesus. God has chosen me to preach, yes. I am to live a life worthy of the Glory of the Gospel of Jesus, yes. But SO ARE YOU! Just because I am called to preach and you are not does not exempt you from living a Christian life! Does the Bible teach that I am held more accountable? Yes it does, but I am held accountable for what I teach, not for how you react to what I teach. Guys you and only you are responsible for your walk with Jesus. I can’t take you by the hand and lead you there, oh how I wish I could. How I wish I could take every one of you that has strayed away from Jesus, how I wish I could carry you like a wounded soldier to the feet of Christ. But I can’t. You have to take yourself there. You have to lay yourself at His feet. You have to live your relationship to Jesus through Him, not me or anyone else.  

I hope you guys have a great week. I love you all.

 Pastor Jason Lyle

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

Hebrews 10:39