I don’t come to try and make sense of the Bible in the light of my opinions and experiences.
I come to my life and my experiences and make sense of them through the Bible!
I’d like to start today by telling you a little bit of my story
and I’m going to go back 50 years to the year 1973.
That was the year when both Fiona and I found Jesus.
We were in different parts of the country -
we weren’t going to meet each other for another five years.
The same month in May 1973 -
we had an encounter with Jesus Christ.
And to say that it changed my life is an understatement!
Because for me, I knew nothing about Christianity -
I’d never been into a church in my life, when I was 15.
I thought I was an atheist.
Actually, I was just a young, growing teenager
who was very mixed up and needed God.
I found myself attending a Bible study at school every week.
Now, at that time it was fashionable to be a rebel - to be rebellious.
And like all teenagers of that time, I was trying to work out
whether I should rebel against everything that went before -
my parents, everything!
Or whether I should conform with what seemed to be the standard.
But there was something about these Christians that really caught my attention!
Because on the outside, they seemed quite ‘straight’.
They didn’t act in a rebellious way.
But they were actually different!
And I realised that the people who were conforming with the crowd
were all these people who were rebelling!
And the different thing about these Christians is they were actually happy!
So, I went on a journey of asking lots of questions.
They gave me a copy of the New Testament - I didn’t know it.
I’d never seen it before; I started to read.
Most of my questions - they were not able to answer.
But one night - I remember it still today -
over 50 years ago, a friend of mine said to me,
‘You need to ask Jesus, to show you that He is real.’
And so that night, on the bus going home,
I decided I was going to pray.
For the first time in my life!
I said, ‘Jesus, if You’re real, please show Yourself to me
and I will give my life to You!’
Now, something happened!
I can’t really explain it, and I don’t know what happened naturally
but when I said that prayer,
a physical and a spiritual light came over me.
God changed my heart!
And what I noticed immediately - and I still remember it was while I was sat
on the same bus before it reached home -
I decided that I now believed the Bible.
So, I was no longer trying to work out whether it was true or not.
I decided I believed it was true, as an act of faith
because I believed Jesus had showed me He was real.
I believed it was true, and I was going to try and live my life according to it.
Now, at that time, as I said, I didn’t know very much about Christianity.
And there was probably quite a lot that was wrong with my life.
But as I look back now, over those fifty years,
that was the most important thing that I ever did.
I believe I made a lot of mistakes and still do.
But there’s something about meaning it.
This is something where we are dealing with reality -
we are dealing with truth.
And that’s a matter of the heart.
And this is a mystery really, but when you mean it, God comes in!
My parents didn’t quite know what had happened to me
and thought it was a new hobby!
Because at that age, I had a number of things I got enthusiastic about,
whether it was collecting stamps or watching football
or going to rock concerts -
there were all kinds of things I’d been enthusiastic about
and they thought this was another of those things.
But the title of the message I want to bring to you today
is ‘Christianity is not a hobby’.
So, please tell your neighbour - Christianity is not a hobby!
One thing about a hobby -
you can be very passionate about it.
But in the hierarchy of important things in life, it comes below your preferences and opinions.
So, if you change your preferences, or change your opinions -
you can change your hobby.
Christianity is not at that level.
It’s at this level!
It’s above my opinions, and it’s above my preferences!
It’s possible to read the Bible, looking for things to justify our opinions.
But you need to open the Word of God, and let God speak to you.
One of the things I love that Prophet T.B. Joshua said is,
‘The Bible should be the database for our personal opinions.’
So, I don’t come to try and make sense of the Bible in the light of my opinions and experiences.
I come to my life and my experiences and make sense of them through the Bible!
God’s Word is a direction for life, not just advice.
So, we need some humility.
True humility is total dependence on God for everything.
Now, another thing about a hobby -
a hobby can also coexist with other priorities.
It can be one of those things that we are interested in.
Christianity is not one of those things -
it’s the whole thing!
Does that mean that I have no interests?
I talk about nothing else but religious language? No!
But I understand everything - my relationships, my work,
what I feel about myself, what I feel about other people,
what’s going to happen when I die -
everything about me, I understand through the God who created me.
For the first Scripture that I want to read today, I want to read Matthew 6:24.
“No one can serve two masters.
Either he will hate the one and love the other,
or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and mammon.”
It’s not only money; I think it represents everything that money can buy -
this physical world we all physically engage with.
The god of this world and God, who created us - you can’t serve both of them.
Your life direction is either decided by things eternal and what God is saying,
or it’s decided by things here, which your senses are telling you.
And if you’re a true servant of God, you’re not a servant of the world
and if you’re a servant of the world, you’re not a servant of God.
You may have done the same as me -
you may have declared that commitment to Jesus, and you meant it -
you were going to follow Him!
But there are still daily decisions as to whether we obey God, or mammon.
People who don’t believe in God will think you’re crazy!
And the reason is, because you’ll be making decisions on the basis of something you can’t see!
But Jesus said further down, and I’m just going to read this verse as well in verse 33.
“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be given to you as well.”
It’s because God is real.
He may not be visible but when we obey Him,
we get in line with the One who created this whole universe.
It’s no problem to Him to give you what you need.
If you give your life to searching for what you need, you won’t find it.
You may find the physical things but you won’t find peace.
Because peace only comes from a relationship with the One who created us.
Now, I want to turn to a Scripture in the Old Testament, and this is in the book of Joshua.
Because this is one of the many examples in the Old Testament
where the people of God at the time thought they could serve God, and also serve other gods as well.
They saw some benefit in serving God, but they also tried to serve other gods as well.
It’s a temptation for all of us!
Sometimes, the devil, instead of trying to get us to just deny God,
will try to get us to shift and follow something else as well.
If there’s one thing I’ve observed -
in mixing with lots of people over the last fifty years of being a believer -
it’s that when you add something else to your Christianity,
it’s not long before you become focused on that ‘something else’, and God takes a lower position.
I’m warning you, this happens!
You start off being 100% for God -
then you’re 90% for God, and 10% for your own enjoyment.
Give it a couple of years; you’ll be 90% for your own enjoyment, 10% for God.
Because you can’t serve two masters!
Having said that, let me read Joshua 24 -
and I’m going to read from verse 14.
Joshua said, “Now therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him wholeheartedly and faithfully.
Remove the gods that your fathers served in the region across the river and in Egypt,
and serve the Lord.
But if you see no benefit in serving the Lord, then choose today whom you are going to serve,
whether the gods your fathers served beyond the river,
or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.
But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)
Joshua was giving them the same challenge that Jesus gave His disciples and the Pharisees
who were listening to Him, when we read Matthew.
He said, ‘Look, make your mind up,
you have to choose who you are going to serve - you can’t serve both.’
Verse 16 says the people responded, saying,
“Far be it from us to forsake the Lord and serve other gods. We are going to serve the Lord.”
That is what they said.
Joshua said to the people,
“You are not able to serve the Lord, because He’s a holy God; He’s a jealous God.”
Joshua could have rejoiced and said,
‘We have a revival! The people want to serve the Lord!’
But he knew what was in their heart -
that their commitment at that time, was not total, but partial.
So, it was actually true when he said, ‘In this state of heart, you can’t serve the Lord’.
Those people were only convinced; they were not yet converted.
So, you can be convinced that Jesus is the Lord.
But you’re not converted until the Word of God becomes living inside of you,
and starts to affect your behaviour, your actions and your attitudes.
There is another Scripture I would like us to read, also in the Old Testament - Isaiah 58:2.
“They seek Me day by day, and they are delighted to know My ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right,
as if they had not forsaken the just ways of their God.”
Let me jump to verse 3, where it says that they fast,
but “on the same day you fast, you do whatever you please.”
There’s something interesting about this case because on the outside,
what it says about these people was great - they were seeking the Lord,
they were apparently delighting in God - or at least in things associated with God.
but the prophet is telling them that it is not real.
That’s another thing about a hobby -
you can be very enthusiastic about it but you don’t have to really mean it; it can be a fake.
You can’t fake faith.
You can pretend to be good, you can learn the language,
you can learn the style of worship,
but faith can only arise in your heart in response to the Word of God.
Now, God allows us in life to be able to observe whether we really have faith or not.
Because one thing I can guarantee is that faith is always tested!
Faith is not faith if it is not tested.
The kind of tests that God sets are not like the examination where we know the day,
and we prepare, and we go into the examination to see if we can pass the test.
It’s in the middle of doing something else, completely unexpected, that a test will come.
But when the test comes, we sometimes realise that we don’t actually have faith.
Prophet T.B. Joshua said something very challenging:
“You can tell whether you have got faith by your daily life.”
But this is not a negative thing; this is wonderfully positive!
It means we have a chance to put things right!
I don’t want to get to the end of my life and discover I was a fake!
I thank God for the tests now, so I can find out now!
And I can come to Him to put it right!
Because God allows things in our life which are stronger than we are.
To put it another way, you cannot save yourself!
He allows passions to arise in us which are stronger than our will-power.
How can we overcome?
With a living God!
So please, whatever kind of challenge you are having - don’t fake it.
Don’t pretend everything is okay.
Let me read from Luke 9:23.
Jesus said to all of them,
“If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Me.
For whoever wants to save his life, will lose it.
But whoever loses his life for My sake, will save it.”
It’s a matter of life and death - that’s why Christianity is not a hobby.
Because we are giving our lives for this.
And you know, it’s possible - if we have a partial commitment, the problem is
we’ll have enough Christianity to make us miserable, but not enough to make us happy.
You cannot take eternity out of Christianity.
The God who created us, and who is going to judge us at the end of our lives
has made a way for us to be reconciled to Him,
and to live a life that is full and free.
He doesn’t promise it will be easy, but it will be full, it will be free
and in eternity, it will be, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’
I want to read one more Scripture.
And this one is in 2 Chronicles 16:9.
“The eyes of the Lord go back and forth over all the earth
to offer strong support to the hearts of those who are completely committed to Him.”
This is talking about God - the living God.
He’s here.
He’s looking at our hearts!
He wants to show Himself strong!
But He can only do it for those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.
So let’s stand and pray together.
Lord Jesus, I am given up to Your will.
Lord Jesus, I am ready.
I am ready to go where You want me to go.
I am ready to say what You want me to say.
I am ready to be what You want me to be.
Time is short.
Jesus is coming soon.
I don’t want to waste my time.
Tell me what I should do.
Give me Your orders.
I promise to submit myself to all You desire of me,
and to accept all You permit to happen to me.
Let me only know Your will.
In Jesus’ name. Amen!