TITLE: The Cost of Social Cost for Following Christ

TITLE: The Cost of Social Cost for Following Christ

• TEXT: John 15:18-25, Luke 14: 25ff• THEME: The cost of following Christ

involves putting him first in our lives.

Were it not for her willingness to make difficult and unpopular decisions they urgently needed the turnaround would not have

taken place.

Sometimes we need leaders who can see the problem, see what needs to be done, and act on it

regardless of how unpopular it is and be willing to accept the risks

that go with it.

Examples of “Mister Nice Guy”

• Wants everyone to like him and is stressed out when they don’t


• Wants everyone to like him and is stressed out when they don’t.

• Children do something wrong because a friend told them to do it


• Wants everyone to like him and is stressed out when they don’t.

• Children do something wrong because a friend told them to do it?

• How many are in jail because they were influenced by the gang and its expectations


• How many people start a bad habit, like smoking, drugs or drinking because the friends were doing it or they thought it was cool


• How many people start a bad habit, like smoking, drugs or drinking because the friends were doing it or they thought it was cool?

• How could Hitler have influenced so many people to support his evil plan for genocide- killing millions?


• How many people start a bad habit, like smoking, drugs or drinking because the friends were doing it or they thought it was cool?

• How could Hitler have influenced so many people to support his evil plan for genocide- killing millions? .”

• How many keep their mouth shut because they don’t want to rock the boat or to be embarrassed?

Why can we expect hostility from the world if we follow Christ?

I. We belong to Christ not the world (18-20).

John 15:18-19

18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”


A. The world hated Christ first.


A. The world hated Christ first. B. The world loves only what belongs to it

John 3:16

• God so love the world He gave his only begotten Son.

John 3:16

• God so love the world He gave his only begotten Son.– The word in that context refers to it

inhabitants.

World

The word “world” being used in today’s passage refers to the corrupt world system of which Satan is the prince- not the physical world or its inhabitants. Of this world we are told in I John not to love it.

Romans 12:2

This passage can be translated, “don’t be squeezed into this worlds mold” or “don’t be cut into this world’s pattern”. Both translations communicate the idea that the world has a mold or pattern that it wants you to conform to.

Evolution

We are pressured to believe in evolution- not God as the origin of life. Evolution is the belief that life began and developed gradually through impersonal, non-directive, purposeless, non-intelligent forces of nature. Darwin was insistent that evolution did not include divine intervention. Man then is not made in God’s image but a cosmic accident- an interesting freak of nature who has no eternal soul


A. The world hated Christ first. B. The world loves only what belongs to itC. We belong to Christ

Morninghawk Apollo

"Ultimately why I left is that the Christian God demands that you submit to his will. In Wicca, it's just the other way around. Your will is paramount. We believe in gods and goddesses, but the deities we choose to serve are based on our wills.”


II. The world hates Christ (20-23)

John 15:20-23

20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.

John 15:20-23

20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me

John 15:20-23

22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.


A. As Christ’s servants we are less than Christ


A. As Christ’s servants we are less than ChristB. The world persecuted Christ- therefore it will persecute us


A. As Christ’s servants we are less than ChristB. The world persecuted Christ- therefore it will persecute usC. They do not know who Christ is

Ethiopian Pastor/Evangelist

“In Ethiopia it is not possible as a Christian to go through a day with praying. I understand in America that it is possible to not go to church, not read the Bible and not to pray for over a week.”


III. The works of Christ affirm who He is. (22-25)

John 15:22-25

24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’


A. They are liable because Christ told them who He is.



B. They are liable because in hating Christ they hate the Father.




C. They are liable because of Christ’s works.




C. They are liable because of Christ’s works.

D. They are liable because they reject Christ for no reason.

APPLICATION

1. Sometimes we have to make a hard choice. The choice is acceptance by God or acceptance by the world. In the end the only words that will matter will be, “Well done they good and faithful servant.”

APPLICATION

2. Healthy conflict- conflict that brings real issues to the surface is better than a superficial peace. While we should not be purposefully offensive understand the truth can be offensive.

APPLICATION

3. Christ didn’t speak to please- he spoke to reveal the truth. He identified deception for what it was (whited sepulchres, brood of vipers). We too must speak out on what we need to be exposed

APPLICATION

4. People need Jesus more than anything in this world. Not telling them due to fear of rejection, fear of hostility , or even fear of life, is cause them to miss out on the easy burden of Christ and the hope and rest He gives.

The Chronicle of Higher Education, William Deresiewicz

We have ceased to believe that a friend's highest purpose is to summon us to the good by offering moral advice and correction. We practice, instead, the nonjudgmental friendship of unconditional acceptance and support—"therapeutic" friendship, [to quote] Robert N. Bellah's scornful term. We seem to be terribly fragile now. A friend fulfills her duty, we suppose, by taking our side—validating our feelings, supporting our decisions, helping us to feel good about ourselves. We tell white lies, make excuses when a friend does something wrong, do what we can to keep the boat steady. We're busy people; we want our friendships fun and friction-free ….


With the social-networking sites of the new century—Friendster and MySpace were launched in 2003, Facebook in 2004—the friendship circle has expanded to engulf the whole of the social world, and in so doing, destroyed both its own nature and that of the individual friendship itself. Facebook's very premise—and promise—is that it makes our friendship circles visible. There they are, my friends, all in the same place. Except, of course, they're not in the same place, or, rather, they're not my friends. They're a [superficial likeness or semblance] of my friends—little dehydrated packets of images and information, no more my friends than a set of baseball cards is the New York Mets ….


"Friendship is devolving, in other words, from a relationship to a feeling—from something people share to something each of us hugs privately to ourselves in the loneliness of our electronic caves."

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TITLE: The Cost of Social Cost for Following Christ