Is Christ Real to You? - Tim Conway

Is Christ a reality in your life, or is He just a theory? Don't be content to just go to Christian activities and have intellectual knowledge of Christ. Don't settle for a Christianity that doesn't have a living Christ.

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Excerpt from the full sermon, "Christianity is Christ Dwelling in the Believer": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvc8zPchh64

You get some people,

and I had a brother telling me recently

about his concern for people

who they seem to talk the talk,

but they seem to lack
a sense of the reality.

And you know when your Christianity

is all theory, that's bad.

That's bad because Christianity

deals with more than
just a knowledge up here

of what the truths are.

You know what I see?

I see some people -

and we don't want to be these people -

they know the truth

and they try to persuade themselves

that what is true of biblical Christianity

because it's described in this book,

they try to persuade themselves

that it's true of them.

But we're talking of something -

listen, if Christ indwells your heart

and you're rooted and grounded

in that love that He saturates you with,

and you begin to have some idea

about the breadth and length

and height and depth

and to grab hold of this
unsearchable love of Christ,

and you're filled with
all the fullness of God,

I guarantee, that's not the kind of thing

where you have to sit back and say,

"Well, I don't feel the reality of this,

but because I believe it in my head,

I'm going to try to persuade
myself that this is real."

That's not what's happening here.

That's not the kind of
Christianity we find in Scripture.

Let me ask you this:

is Christ real to you?

Is Christ real within you?

I'm not talking religion and church

and reading your Bible

and singing the hymns.

Is Christ real to you? Him!

Has He come in?

And in the same way

that He would sit down with somebody

and have supper with them,

and you would know it,

do you know that reality?

Because if not, I'm telling you,

don't be content.

Look, if you're not ready
to go further here,

if you're content with this,

you can be content with that.

But I think verses like this

are meant to make us not content

and to take the prayer

as an indication that this is a promise.

If Paul weren't under inspiration,

we might question:

Well, he's fallible.

Could he be praying for something

God wouldn't maybe perhaps

really be willing to give us?

But he is under inspiration,

which means Paul asking this for us

is as good as it being a promise.

This is God telling him,

"Paul, pray that way for them

and let's record it

in the letter to the Ephesians

for all the future generations to see

that this is a very valid and
legitimate thing to ask for

because I intend to give this."

It's a promise.