Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “A life of service”
Our Bible verse for today: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled on by men.” Matthew 5:13 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Christians should be the glue that holds society together.”
Last Sunday Scott Lacy preached an excellent sermon at Oak Hill Baptist Church about the importance of Christian values in our society, and the impact the church should be having in our nation. You can hear that sermon online at www.oakhillbaptist.net.
His sermon reminded me of a passage I read recently in Os Guinness’ latest book “Impossible People”. In the book Os makes the case that God’s people often seem “impossible” to society because our Christian values make us counter-cultural. But that’s a good thing. The world needs to see Biblical values in actual practice in the lives of Christians. There should be a noticeable difference in how we live. That difference should capture the attention of the people around us, appear compelling and winsome to them, and cause them to want what we have.
In Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus shifted metaphors and explained that our example can and should have the same effect on society that light has on darkness. Just a little bit of light chases away a whole lot of darkness. Likewise, just a little bit of Biblical truth will defeat and overpower a lot of demonic falsehood. If we will just boldly proclaim our faith and live our values in the public square we can have a profound impact on society.
Unfortunately that’s happening less and less these days. To a large extent Christians are embracing cultural values more and more, and Biblical values less and less, and are therefore no longer the force for good that we should be. Os explains in his book that since America was founded on Biblical principles, and since we have now drifted far from those foundational values, our society is decaying and collapsing, and Christians are largely at fault:
“The former Jewish and Christian covenantal agreements that were the center of American life have been assaulted and have collapsed. The covenant is broken … so America is presently decentered, centerless, unbonded or unglued …”
Christians professing and living Biblical values are intended by God to be the glue that holds our society together. But since as a Christian community we’re no longer doing a good job of practicing and promoting Biblical values, our influence in society has greatly diminished and our nation is becoming unglued.
What does this have to do with living a life of service? There’s an old saying that goes, “They don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care.” One of the best ways to earn an audience with people so we can tell them the Good News about Jesus Christ is to first serve them. If we go out of our way to meet a need the person has, they are much more likely to listen to what we have to say. This is why Jesus taught us to be servants of all. We are to pay attention to the needs and struggles people have, find ways to help and serve them, and then use that act of service as an opening to share Jesus.
By living and promoting Biblical values Christians should be the glue that holds society together. Kind and compassionate acts of service can provide us the opening we need in order to have that kind of influence in the lives of others.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 