YOU CAN BE DIFFERENT

Sunday, 10th July, 2016

Program: Message (Sermon)

Bible Readings: Genesis 6: 1-9; Revelation 2: 12-17

Message
Our world today is often described as crazy, not only because absurd things abound everywhere, including inside the supposed houses of God, the Church, but also because of the uncontrollable escalating craves amongst men to want to be part of the crowd. This is the lamentable band wagon effect of our pitiable world. It should not be surprising too that the supposed Church of God is not spared in these orgies as we also try hard to outdo the other denominations. By this, we import myriads of “spiritual innovations” into both our “services to God” and the “worship of the Most High” not minding whether they are acceptable unto Him or not.

The tendency abound, brethren, for people to tag anyone who chooses a different part an outcast, a lowlife or even worst names. There is no gainsaying that such “non-conformists” who are bent on “rocking the boat” by breaking the compliance rules of popular norms are often denied some “benefits” of the popular order. In the past, many who defiled the popular norms were publicly flogged, beaten, fed to ravenous animals, stoned and subjected to many other degrading treatments.

I once read the story of a well-bearded male believer who had a wife and three children. He and his family chose to be different. Thus, they separated and insulated themselves from their sinful environment, and were only concerned about pleasing the Master. One day, his adversary came and seized this entire nonconforming family. As the Scripture says, “strike the shepherd, the fold shall scatter”, so they did. They took hold of the man in the presence of his whole family and began to torture him. The wife and children cried for their own, but urged him not to give in and that they too wouldn’t.

After some real humanly denigrating tortures, they left the man and took to his family members. They beat all of them mercilessly, but none gave in. So, they began to seize them one after the other with a threat to kill them if the man refused to deny Jesus Christ and God and join in their feasts of sin. Yes, they made good of their threats; they killed all the three daughters and their mother. But even as they were dying, they continue to tell their father and husband not to give in. They told him to remember all the teachings they have received and the GREAT joy that awaits them in heaven. So, the man, watched helplessly as his entire family was annihilated.

When his adversaries saw that he was not prepared to give in, they began to remove his beard one after the other. The man began to bleed profusely, but he kept his faith. They kept at this until the last was removed, but the believing man refused to deny the faith. He was eventually martyred.

That is the world in which we live. The world of sin that hates the righteous. The world of lies that hate the Truth. The world of darkness that hates the Light. The world of shortcuts that hates the Way. That is the world in which we have to daily live our Christian lives; at home, at work, at play and even in our churches all over the places. Even in our churches, when some members discovered that one of them don’t; talk as they talk, walk as they walk, dress as they dress, sing their own kind of songs, dance their kinds  of dance, or that the person in question has a superior knowledge of the Bible, they brand such “a holier than thou.” Then, they begin not only to sidetrack such, but also to find faults with such, but the Bible says that “in all these, we are more than conquerors . . . .”
Brethren, if you find yourself in this kind of a situation, I congratulate you because the heavens are rejoicing because of you. You don’t need or have to be perturbed, many men and women of faith faced same and even stiffer persecutions, but they never bulged because of the crown of righteousness that has been set apart for them in heaven.

That we live in a sinful world where everyone and everything have been bastardized to the extent that even people who are supposed to be role models in the Christendom are daily reported to be caught in abominable acts, is no excuse for us to abandon our faith. We are made for a world and time like these (Esther 4:13-14). It is only in these kind of situations that the people of faith in the past were proven to be true children of God. We can not afford to be different from these people of faith. It is only in this kind of situations that we too can be proven, and until we are proven, our services unto God are not heavenly recognized. We also cannot because of God's grace negotiate a better treatment from this sinful world; it won’t work either.

In our first Bible reading, Genesis 6: 1-9, Noah lived in a more terrible world than our own. Yet, he was adjudged to be righteous and to have walked with God. Lot lived in the terrible land of Sodom and Gomorrah, he and his family NEVER became like the inhabitants of the land. Joseph faced tremendous persecutions from his brothers (even his father rebuked him at a point) and temptations in the house of Portipha yet he neither became like his brothers nor abandoned his faith on the laps of Portipha's wife. David was daily persecuted by King Saul, yet even when he had an unrestricted opportunity to kill Saul, he refrained. Stephen died because he stood to defend what he believed. Saint John was thrown into hot oil, yet he never gave up.

In the second reading, Revelation 2: 12-17, the Church in Pergamum was situated in a place that Jesus Christ Himself called “the seat of Satan.” This denotes that the Church was situated in the midst of sin; in a place where terrible sins abounded, where abominable acts were done as the normal norm and order of life. Yet, the Church in Pergamum held on to their faith. They never bulged or denied their faith. They held on tenaciously to the name of Jesus Christ and His testimony plus “they did not cherish their lives even unto the shedding of blood.” (Revelation 12:11)

This is the kind of a mind we are called to have and develop (Philippians 2:5) if we are to be crowned on the last day. The book of Hebrews 10:35 admonishes us to “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.” The God who wants us to old on to our faith says “. . . my grace is sufficient for you . . . .” (2 Cor. 12:9). Brethren, we have been forewarned that “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” 2 Timothy 3:12

Brethren, the truth is that we are in the world, but we are not part of the world. And since we are not part of the world, we have no business being part of the world by doing the things that they do, of which the Bible had forewarned us to stay away from. 1 John 2:15-17 admonishes us to NOT love the world nor the things that are in the world, for if we do, the love of the father is just not in us.

We can be different by renewing our minds (Romans 12:1-2), by obeying God's commands (John 14:13-15), by abandoning the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21), by emulating past people of faith (1 Cor. 11:1) and the other things mentioned above. May God help us, all. Amen.

Till we meet again, keep keeping on in Him!