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The Almost Christian: Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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Thanks for joining us, on beyond the sermon, the podcast.
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First Methodist Church in Collingswood New Jersey.
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Our goal is not only to share our sermons, but to go beyond
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the sermon in conversation about what we're learning and what God
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is doing in our lives, and in our community, this sermon comes
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from our first 2023 sermon series.
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Speaking with a Wesleyan voice, rediscovering our Methodist
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tradition for today. You can find out more
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information about our church fum, see Collingswood dot-org.
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Argh, thanks for listening. Have you ever?
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Ever had an experience in you, much you encountered, someone
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who who based on their outward, appearances fit, the bill of
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what of what they were supposed to be to a tee, all right?
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They had the right appearance, they had all the right skills.
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They had all the mental knowledge.
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They used all the right words and lingo they're able to
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navigate through the context properly.
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There's something just not quite, right?
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There's something you could just tell something was missing.
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You can just tell spite all that stuff.
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They had, right? Their heart wasn't quite in it.
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There is no passion, no drive, no heart for whatever it was
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that they were supposed to be doing, never had an experience
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like that. It could have been any number of
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settings, it could be Sports, it could be music medicine, really,
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any area of life, for whatever reason, they've put all this
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time and effort in to get to that point and you can just
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sense that their heart isn't in it.
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It but they keep doing it because of expectations or
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because of the investment of time and energy they've made in
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it. Sadly, this can even happen in
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our Christian faith in this sermon series.
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We've been looking at what it means to speak with a Wesley and
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voice today, right? Looking back to John Wesley, the
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founder of our Methodist tradition which includes our
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United Methodist Church, but it's not Headed to our United
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Methodist far. Broader than that, includes
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denominations like the Free Methodist the nazarenes, the
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global Methodist Church, the Evangelical Methodist Church
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etc, etc. There's a lot, right?
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And that's just to name a few. But we've been looking at the
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theological Heritage that was passed down to the people called
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Methodist because I believe that Heritage best interprets the
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whole message of scripture and the tradition that the church
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has passed down through the ages.
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One of the ways that Wesley has sought to to clarify and
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preserve the beliefs of Methodist was not to write a
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Systematic Theology, like many theologians do, but to publish a
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collection of sermons, that exemplified the beliefs and
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values of the methodists, these sermons, along with Wesley's
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notes on the New Testament, became the theological
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Foundation. of the Methodist movement and it was faithfulness
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to those doctrines that led Wesley to incorporate a trust
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clause, in the Deeds of the Methodist buildings, as the as
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the movement, spread to ensure that those buildings would be
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used to remain faithful to scripture and to Methodist
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teaching It's been used in other ways recently, but we're not
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going to get into that. So in one of my Seminary courses
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on the Theology of John Wesley, we had to read and outline all
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of Leslie's standard sermons, right?
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So Wesley publish these. These first in the first
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collection of these in a book called sermons on several
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occasions in 1746. And that collection eventually
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grew to four volumes containing 44 sermon Yes, but in that
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initial collection, the first sermon in there was entitled
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salvation by faith. We talked about that towards the
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beginning of this this sermon series, but the the sermon that
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came right after that, salvation by faith, sermon was one called
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The Almost Christian and that sermon that Wesley rotates, the
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background for my message today. This final sermon in our series,
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speaking with a SLI in voice. You see, I'm convinced along
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with Wesley that it's possible to live your life, doing all the
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right things and knowing all the right things in your head and
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using all the right words and phrases looking like, you know,
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what you're doing and miss the heart of the matter, which is
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the work that God, and God Alone can do in our hearts to
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reconcile. All you to himself to transform
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you and to make you holy as he is Holy you can live the outward
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life of a Christian and still miss the heart of God in your
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heart. You can still live as an almost
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Christian. Because as much as Wesley and
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the methodists defined, a method of living that created space for
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God to work in You by his grace, that method was always intended
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to be a means of Grace to us. A means to an end.
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The result of the work that God was doing in us.
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It was never meant to be a way for you to earn your salvation
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or to work toward your own sanctification.
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So today, before we end this series, I want to talk about
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what it looks like to be an almost Christian.
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And then what it looks like, what it means to be an
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altogether. Christian so first, what's it
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mean to be an almost Christian on almost Christian, someone
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who's got the outward signs of a Christian life.
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But hasn't really internalized, Wesley describes him as people
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who have a real concern for both truth and Justice.
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They understand that there's a certain way that we need to live
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in relationship with one another in society, right?
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We can't lie to one another, we can't steal from each other.
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We can't cheat our neighbors. We can't do any of those things.
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The almost Christian expects to love and help one another.
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They know that people are meant to give to the needy to give
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assistance where and when they're able.
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And so, when we hear this kind of idea, shared, when we, when
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people speak about someone being a good person, right?
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They don't do the things. They know they shouldn't do, and
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they do the things then they know they I do.
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But friends, being a good person doesn't make you a Christian.
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But the old most Christian also has what Wesley calls a form of
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godliness that is they have a level of Conformity to biblical
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standards. They don't use the Nate lord's
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name in vain. They don't work on the Sabbath.
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They stay away from unwholesome, talk like cursing and gossip and
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course, joking. They don't get drunk or live.
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The party life and they live at peace with other people living.
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According to that, Golden Rule that says, do unto others, as
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you would have them do unto you. And in living in this way, they
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don't just avoid doing harm to people.
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They actually work for the good of other people even to the
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point of sacrificing of giving up of themselves.
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In order to help they work hard for good causes.
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Those who are almost Christians. Also participate in the life of
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the church. They participate in the means of
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Grace, which we spoke about a few weeks ago, they're active
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and worship they practice family prayer at home.
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They receive the Lord's Supper. They even seek God, sincerely.
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but the problem is the motivation with which they
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participate in all these outward actions and attitude comes from
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a desire to avoid punishment that he'll sermon the Hellfire
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and Damnation that Lorraine was talking about, they want to
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avoid that. Where they desire to gain some
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kind of reward or a reputation. But the almost Christian is
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sincere. They desire to serve God, even
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if the motivation might need some correction Wesley says he
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understands all this about the almost Christian.
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Not just because he's seen, it lived out in other people's
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lives but because he himself lived that way for so long.
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He gives this testimony said I went like this for many years.
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As many here can testify using Diligence to avoid all evil and
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to have a conscience void of offence.
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Redeeming the time buying up every opportunity of doing good
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to all men, constantly and carefully using all the public,
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and private means of Grace endeavoring after a steady,
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seriousness of behavior at all times.
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And in all places, and God, as my record before, whom I stand
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doing all this insincerity, having a real design to serve
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God, a hearty desire to do, his will, in all things too.
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Please him who had called me to fight the good fight and to lay
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hold of eternal life. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?
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He said yet my own conscience Bears witness in the holy
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spirit. That all this time.
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I was almost a Christian see Wesley recognize that even in
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his own life that there's a difference, a dividing line
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between being almost a Christian and being altogether, a
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Christian. And I think that's what James is
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talking about here in this passage from James chapter 1,
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the Jeremy read for us, James says, that we can even deceive
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ourselves thinking that were following Jesus, but missing the
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point of what following Jesus looks like.
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James is coming at it from the other side from Wesley saying
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that if we're really religious if we're really Walking with God
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then our lives ought to look a certain way.
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There are certain better ought to be certain things that are
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fruit in our lives. We're going to live in certain
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ways, we can't just listen to the word.
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We've got to be doers of the word.
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So while Wesley is saying that we act like Like it's saying we
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act like a Christian but might still be almost a Christian.
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James is saying, we can't be a Christian and not do the things
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that a Christian is called to do.
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So what does it take to move us from being an almost Christian
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to being an altogether, Christian, what changed for John
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that night on Aldersgate Street, what set him on fire and
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reoriented his heart? You see the altogether
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Christian? Is someone who loves God,
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wholeheartedly, their heart has been so filled with God's love
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that. It drives out the desire for
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things that don't come from God, because that person has been
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crucified to the world and Made Alive to God.
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Wesley would often speak about how God's love can be shed
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abroad in our hearts. By the Holy Spirit or is The New
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International Version, puts it? God, God's love has been poured
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into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
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So an altogether Christian, loves God wholeheartedly.
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And this wholehearted love for God, doesn't stop with God.
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It becomes a love for others. A love that looks like the love
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that Paul described in the thirteenth chapter of First
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Corinthians when he said love is patient.
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Love is kind. It does not envy.
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It does not boast. It is not proud.
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It is not rude. It is not self-seeking, it is
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not easily angered. It keeps no account of wrongs,
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Love Takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth, it
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Bears. All things believes all things,
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hopes all things and endures all things love never fails.
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That's the kind of love that God wants to pour into our hearts.
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That's the kind of love that God wants to love other people in
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the world through us. But there's another thing that's
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needed to be an altogether Christian, which is at the same
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time, separate from the love of God and neighbor, but also in
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separable, and that is faith. You see, you must believe that
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Jesus is the son of God and that in Jesus death.
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And Resurrection, you can be reconciled to God adopted into
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his family and this isn't just a general faith that believes
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those things are true generically right.
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It's faith that God loves you. That Jesus died for you.
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That in Jesus's resurrection, you can be raised to New Life
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that the Holy Spirit can dwell in you and make you holy and
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holy his. It's not just a faith that gives
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a sent to a head level knowledge about God as James says, later
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in his letter, even the demons believe that God is God and they
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tremble. But they're still demons.
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It's a faith. That leads to repentance.
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Love and good works. Wesley described this kind of
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Faith like this. He said the true and right
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Christian faith is not only to believe that Holy Scripture and
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the articles of our faith are true.
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But also to have a sure trust a confidence to be saved from
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Everlasting damnation by Christ. It is a short rust and
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confidence which a man has in God.
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That by the merits of Christ, his sins are forgiven and he is
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reconciled to the favor of God. We're of death, follow a loving
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heart to obey God's Commandments.
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This is the kind of faith that purifies us and fills us with
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the love, which comes from The God Who first loved us.
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This is that line, that makes all the difference.
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This is the line between being a Christian outwardly and being
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one in release. The line between being almost a
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Christian and an altogether Christian.
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So friends. Where are you this morning?
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Which side of this line? Do you find yourself on?
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Are you just going through the motions?
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Are you full of good desires and intentions?
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But find that your motive for trying to live christianly is
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more about trying to earn God's love, then living out of God's
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love. Is your motive, despite your
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sincerity trying to avoid the punishment, you know, you
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deserve. The road to hell.
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They say is paved with good intentions.
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This morning has the love of God, been poured into your
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heart. Is he the one thing you desire?
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Is love your neighbor as yourself, not just a command
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written down in scripture, but a commandment written on your
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heart. Do you believe and know in your
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heart? That because of his great love
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for us, Christ died for you. Forgiving, you and all who
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repent and turn to him, that you have been adopted into gods,
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family, and been made a son or a daughter.
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If so praise God, praise God. But if not, if you've been
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living the life of an almost Christian that we've described
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here today or maybe you're not even there maybe today you'd say
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you're not at all a Christian. Almost Christian or not at all a
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Christian today, can be the day that you're Justified freely by
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his grace, today can be the day, you're Redeemed by his blood
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today, can be the day. You can know in your heart that
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you are at peace with God, today can be the day.
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That the Holy Spirit can poor God's love into your heart.
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Today can be the day. You become an altogether,
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Christian, So Aaron and the team are going to come, and we're
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going to sing Graves into Gardens to close our service.
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And I want to ask each one of you to take a moment to check
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your own heart to evaluate, where you really are this
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morning. And if you have peace, that that
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you are an altogether Christian. This morning, I want you to pray
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for those in this room or watching online or or other
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people, you know, who need to be honest with themselves.
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And with God about what they need him to do in their lives.
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Lives. If you've been living as an
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almost Christian, I want to encourage you to take all that
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head knowledge, and all the good things you've been doing and lay
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them down before, God and ask him, to give you the gift of
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faith, and invite him to pour his love into your heart. and if
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you're not living as a Christian today, So, I'm not naive enough
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to believe that in a room, this size.
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There are some people who haven't yet given their hearts,
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to Jesus. If you're not a Christian today,
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I want to invite you to pray, until God, you're ready to be
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done living for yourself. And that you want to live for
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him and ask him to give you the faith to believe that he loves
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you enough to die for you, the faith that leads you to turn
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away from your sin and yourself and turn to God.
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As we sing. If you want to come and pray at
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the altar, you're welcome, whether you're coming to seek
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God for yourself or you're coming to pray on behalf of
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others. When people come to pray,
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there's no judgment. We all stand before God on level
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ground. You want someone to come and
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pray with you or for you. Nothing would make me happier
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this morning. So if you're able, will you
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stand as we sing and take time to respond, to the work, God is
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doing in our hearts. The Eagles on play at one.
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They don't play till 6:30. We got plenty of time.
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But let's take a minute to invite God to search our hearts,
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to respond to what he's doing in US.