What kind of Christians should we be?
“and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch”(Acts 11:26).
Today is our church 36th years anniversary Sunday. As we celebrate our church 36th year’s birthday, we want to give thanks to God as we worship him together. It is by his grace we came thus far. In the midst of our shortcomings and unfaithfulness, God had been faithful to us. It is he who had brought us thus far. In this anniversary worship, I want to think about what kind of Christians we should be. One of the reasons is because even though there are so many people who claim to be Christians it seems to us there aren’t that many who truly shine the light of Jesus Christ. I wonder how many are true Christians. But it is my hope and prayer that VPC, our church members, become true Christians and are able to shine the light of Jesus Christ wherever we go.
Now then who is true Christian? I would like to think about in 3 ways:
First, true Christians give thanks to God.
Look Psalms 100:4 - “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” We must give thanks to God because he is our God. “It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture” (v.3). There is one unchanging reason why we must give thanks to God. That is, he is our God. He is Creator God who made us. We are his creature. So the creatures give thanks to their Creator. We are God’s people. We are his sheep of his pasture. So shouldn’t we give thanks to God? Moreover, we must give thanks to God because “the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations” (v.5). God is good, ALL the time! Since God is good, his will toward us is always good (Rom12:2). As the Bible says “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (8:28). Therefore, as we taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps.34:8), we should give thanks to God in our praise.
Second, true Christians imitate Jesus.
Look 1 Corinthians 11:1 - “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ”(NASB). One of our church purposes is to imitate Jesus. There are 3 things that we should imitate Jesus. They are truthfulness, humility and faithfulness. Jesus said ‘I am the truth’ (Jn.14:6). And he never lies (Num.23:19). No deceit was found in him (1 Pet. 2:22). That’s what we must do too. We should never lie. There should be no deceit in us. We should be truthful to God and to others as well. Jesus also said ‘I am humble’ (Mt.11:29). Like Jesus, we must be humble too. We must humble ourselves before God. And we should commit ourselves to obey the Lord’s commands. Our Lord Jesus is faithful. He is faithful in all his does (Ps.33:4). Even if we are faithless, he will remain faithful because he cannot disown himself (2 Tim.2:13).
Lastly, true Christians love their neighbors.
Look Matthew 22:39 - “And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'” Jesus commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves. And that’s what we are trying to do this year. This year, our church motto is “The Sharing Church”. We want to share the Word of God, prayer request so that we can pray for each other. Also, we want to share materials with others, expressing our love to them. So let us reach out to others, especially to those who are suffering and going through hard time. Let us reach out to our church community as well. I hope you can enjoy serving others and share Christ with those who come to the community outreach after this joint worship. May God bless you.
“Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart, in my heart”,
James Kim