Rev Bill

I have posted my sermon for tomorrow. It’s based on 1 Peter 2:1-10 and entitled: The Fifth and Sixth Great Ends: Working For Righteousness, Showing God to the World

Here’s a portion of it:

The pollster George Barna has done an extensive survey of people who claim to have a personal, life-changing relationship with Christ, and he finds an appalling lack of distinction from the rest of the population when it comes to lifestyle and behavior.

Christian couples are almost as likely to get a divorce as the rest of the population. Christian singles are just about as likely to be active sexually as single people who are not Christians. Nearly 50 percent of people who claim to be born-again followers of Christ believe that it is morally acceptable to live with someone without being married. That’s only 10 percent less than the general population. No wonder so many people have a hard time taking Christianity seriously—they see no discernible difference in the quality of our lives.

Suppose someone were to follow you around for a week or so.
Would they see a discernible difference in the quality of your life, or would it look pretty much like everybody else’s?

Suppose they were to listen in on your conversations in the hallway or the lunchroom or the locker room.

Would they hear gossip or backstabbing or foul language or sexual innuendo?

What if they sat beside you as you surfed TV channels or the Internet, would they find you lingering over shows or sites that were excessively violent or exploitive or pornographic?

Suppose they were to follow you around as you did your daily work, whatever that happens to be.

Would they find you wasting company time or money, losing your temper when things go wrong, humiliating people, or cutting corners on jobs when no one is looking?

If they were to sit at the dinner table in your home, would they be surprised at the lack of meaningful conversation between you and your spouse, or at how harsh or inattentive you were to your children?

Suppose they were to go shopping with you, would they see you spending money as freely as everybody else on things that really don’t matter and don’t last?

You can read the entire sermon here.

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