There are many questions you are faced with every day. We are all searching for answers
that will make a real difference in our lives. It's hard to imagine
that these answers might be right in front of us. Get ready to discover answers in the
Bible with Bayless Conley.
I'm going to be sharing a message with you today entitled, "Eight Keys to Radical Christianity".
And frankly, I don't think there is any other kind of
Christianity except 'Radical Christianity'. That is 'normal Christianity'. I mean
how can you pass from death to life? How can you change your eternal
destination from hell to heaven and not be excited about that? I mean, that is a radical
thing. To leave the kingdom of darkness and step into the kingdom of
light. To come out from under the jurisdiction of the devil and come into the glorious liberty
of the sons of God. You know, to be part of God's family, that
is radical! How can you not be excited? How can you not want to tell the whole world about
this? Well, we are going to look at eight different things that it
means to follow Jesus Christ. To really have real deal, bottom line, honest Christianity.
And I just dare you to watch. I bet you are going to be challenged
today. But it is going to help you. So let's get into the Word together.
I want to share a very simple message with you. The whole message is contained here in
the eighth chapter of Matthew. And I've entitled it "Eight Keys To
Radical Christianity". Matthew, chapter 8, and verse 1:
When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him.
Key Number One: Follow Him. It takes a decision. And included within that decision is the understanding
that to follow Jesus means that you will abandon all
other religions and opposing philosophies of life. Jesus said this in John 14:6, "I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through Me."
You know, I used to go to the metaphysical church. I chanted all the time. I was involved
in kundalini yoga. I studied and practiced a number of different
new age teachings. But when I accepted Christ, I forever abandoned all of those other ways
and all of those other philosophies. He is the way, the truth, and
the life. There is only one way.
And you've heard me share it before, but it's before I actually embraced Christ I
had had the little boy witness to me in the park, and I ended up at the
home of some Christians. And I remember talking to this guy. His name was Dana. He was maybe
five years older than me, and I still remember leaning against
the fireplace mantle. And you've got a picture: I've got long, long hair. It's generally
braided with a feather in it. I've got a beard, and I'm talking to
Dana. He's this clean-cut Ozzie and Harriett-looking Christian guy. And I said, "Dana, you know,
there's a lot of pathways to God." I said, "You know, I've
got my pathway, you've got your pathway. There's the Christian pathway, but there's
other pathways." And I'll never forget how rude he was. He
said, "Bayless, that's a lie!" I said, "What do you mean that's a lie?"
He said, "There's not a lot of pathways to God." He said, "Jesus is it! He said,
'I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through Me.'" And I didn't say it to him, but I remember
thinking, "You are so narrow minded. Maybe I can help you." But I've come to find
out that he was right. Jesus
said, Himself, in Matthew 7:14, "Narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there
be that find it."
You know, I was golfing one time. The family's on vacation. I went out to the golf course
to get a round in, and they put me with another single that was
there. We're out and we hit it off pretty well until the guy said, "Bayless, what
do you do?" I said, "I'm a pastor."
And it was like… his response was like, "I'm so sorry. What a bummer."
And I said, "It's a good thing, man." And then he went on to try and make me feel
comfortable. He says, "Well, you know, I'm a spiritual person." He said, "You know,
I believe in a lot of
religions and a lot of different philosophies. And what I do, I just take the best of this
religion and the best of that religion and the best of this
philosophy and I put them all together, and that's my personal religion."
Now it sounded very noble and very peaceable, but it was a fatal error. The Bible says in
Proverbs 14:12, "There's a way that seems right to a man, but it's
end is the way of death."
I remember hearing a story about a husband and wife that were coming home one night.
And there was a terrible storm and they had to go this winding road over
a bridge. And when they're approaching the bridge, their headlights came upon this guy
with sort of a crazed look on his face. He's shirtless, got his shirt
in his hand; and as they try and drive around him, he steps over in front of the car, is
waving his shirt. And they have to cross the bridge. It's the only
way for them to get home. And so the guy backs up the car, tries to go around the other way,
and the guy still… they can't understand what he's saying
because the windows are rolled up, the rain is falling. And this guy actually thumps the
hood of their car! And he's waving his shirt, and he will not let
them pass. Finally, the husband said to the wife, "Look, I'm going to get out, find
out what's up with this guy, and whatever happens, do not unlock the
doors to the car." She says, "Okay." He gets out and kind of keeping his distance
from the guy, says, "What's going on, man?" And the guy's like out of
breath, and he says, "The bridge is out." He said, "What?" He said, "The bridge
is out." And he walks over about another 100 feet behind him; and, sure
enough, the bridge had collapsed. And had they continued onward, they would have gone
down hundreds of feet to their death in the river below. And so now the
guy, he sends his wife off to get to a place where she can get phone reception to call
the authorities. There's two guys standing out there shirtless, waving
their shirts, with an excited look on their face stopping everybody that comes.
Now, my friend, every other way leads to destruction. You can't get any more serious than this:
Eternity is eternity, and every human being will go somewhere
to spend eternity. Follow Jesus. We need to be passionate about telling people that He
is the way and warning them about every other way.
All right, look with me at verse 2, if you would:
And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can
make me clean."
Key Number Two: Worship Him. He alone is worthy and deserving of our worship. And worship,
the word as it's found here contains the idea of kneeling down or
laying prostrate before and adoring.
I just imagine this leper. It said there was a great multitude of people there, and I'm
sure they sort of cleared out when he came down to fall on his face
before Jesus. They gave him a lot of room. Nobody wanted to be around a leper! And he
begins to adore and worship Jesus.
I remember I read a little article about Abraham Lincoln. And every day he had a line of people
that were waiting to come in and ask a favor of him… wanting
him to use his authority and his influence to change something for them. One time a lady
came in. She brought him cookies. He said, "What can I do for you?"
She said, "Nothing, Mr. President. I just wanted to bring you some cookies." A little
article I read said Lincoln broke down and began to cry. He said,
"Ma'am, hundreds of people come every day to see me, and everyone wants something.
You are the first one that's ever come to do something for me that didn't
want anything in return. Thank you!"
You know, I used to have what I called "lost Mondays". We… at the time, I preached
three different messages in the church every week: Wednesday night, Sunday
morning, Sunday night… a different message. So all week long I'm preparing three messages.
Just in case you don't know, that's a lot! And I did that for
years and years. So most of my week, it was just full of study and prayer time, and it
was good, and I enjoyed it. And then I would pour my heart out, you
know, on the weekend, and I'd feel like a used dish rag when I'd get done. And it's
like Monday… all week long I'd been suppressing my flesh and praying, and
Mondays, hey! Man, I just sort of let my flesh blow out in the wind every Monday. I didn't
do anything particularly sinful, but I didn't do anything
spiritual. I never opened my Bible on a Monday. I never prayed on a Monday. You know? And
it's just like if I said "Hi" to God, it was sort of over my
shoulder as I was, you know, going to do something that I thought would be fun. And it just hit
me one day that my Mondays were sort of a loss. And I decided
I need to change this. And so for a long time, probably more than a year, I went right over
here to El Dorado Park every Monday. I'd sleep in, get up Monday,
and then grab my Bible and just go to the park. And I'd walk around in the park for
two or three hours… sit on a picnic bench, sit under a tree… and I'd
worship God and read my Bible. And I was just there to be with God. I wasn't praying or
studying for a sermon; I wasn't working; I wasn't doing something to
get ready for something. I was just being with God. And it became some of the most glorious
days that I ever experienced. I looked forward to Mondays where I
just would hang out with the Savior. And you know what? I think it blessed God's heart.
And I want to encourage you: Be a worshiper. Worship Him.
All right, look at verse 3 with me:
Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, "See that you tell
no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses
commanded, as a testimony to
them."
All right, Key Number Three: is Obey Him. Whatever He says to you, just do it. You know,
First Samuel 15:22 says to obey is better than sacrifice. That's
because you could never make up through sacrifice what you lose through disobedience.
My family and I, many years ago, went on a vacation to the Big Island of Hawaii. And
we stayed in this little, it was kind of an old well-worn timeshare, and
right behind it was the YWAM headquarters, Youth With A Mission. And so we decided to
go up there and find out about it. We, you know, Janet and I took all
the little kids in tow, and we met this lady there and said, "Hey, I just wanted to look
around the YWAM campus, find out about it." You know, because they
send young missionaries out around the world. And she said, "Come on! I'll give you
a tour." And so she's showing us the library and where the students meet
and all these things, and I began to ask her questions. Asked, you know, "How did you
find Christ as your Savior?" And she told me and began to tell me her
story. She had been a high-powered secretary for a very, I think it was a Fortune 500 company.
I think she was like the president's or the vice-president's
secretary. Had a very lucrative, influential position. And her husband, he was an engineer/scientist
and had a very, very high up position. But they both
left their careers; and at the time that I talked to them, or at the time that we spoke
with her, they were living in someone's garage and bathing in the
backyard with a garden hose while they're doing their discipleship training, their DTS
there at YWAM. And they had determined they were going to go to this,
and they named the island… I don't recall what it was… a little island in the South
Pacific, somewhere near Papua New Guinea. And they were going to spend
the rest of their lives there bringing the Gospel to those people. And her husband was
working on some scientific things to find out how to get more stuff
out of the coconut, you know, to help the people. And I said to her, thinking about
the careers they'd left and the life decision they've made and the fact
they're bathing with a garden hose at the moment and they're going to go live on a
little South Sea island and work in extremely, you know, what some people
would refer to as a developing country, a third world country, very rural setting, I
said, "You guys believe in radical sacrifice, don't you?" And without
skipping a beat, she looked back at me, said, "No. We just believe in radical obedience."
I've never forgotten that. Radical obedience.
Obey Him, even if it's not easy. I mean, you think you've been cleansed of leprosy.
Jesus said, "Tell no one." That's not going to be an easy thing to obey.
"Go show yourself to the priest." Under the Old Testament when someone was cleansed
of leprosy, they went to the priest. They diagnosed them, went through
this whole little ceremony that, by the way, is all a type and a shadow that points to
Christ and His atonement. But it wouldn't have been an easy thing.
But, friend, even though obedience may not always be easy, there are always blessings
tied to obedience. Isaiah 1:19 said, "If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land."
I have a friend in Australia. He's actually, was an American. He's given up his… gave
up his American citizenship years and years ago. He said, "Bayless, I'm
going to be buried in Australia. God's called me here." And he went over there and began
a church. And it's a great… in fact, one of the world's great
mission churches. I preached for them many times. In fact, that's actually where Joel
Holm and I met. Both of us were keynote speakers in a missions'
conference at this man's church in Australia. And it's very interesting. They have a marvelous
campus. They have a 37-acre campus, a great auditorium. They
have a, I think, like a K through 12 school, all sorts of buildings, tons of parking. It's
in a beautiful area. But it's interesting to find out the back
story. They had been meeting in a bar and said, you know, they'd come in, have to
clean up. And all the church services smelled like, you know, stale beer
and cigarettes. But that's where they were having their church services. And they would
receive offerings because they had a dream, as a church, to buy one
acre of land and to eventually put a little building on it. And so people have been giving
sacrificially, and they had a tidy sum, enough to buy that acre.
And so they were looking at properties. And God spoke to the pastor and to the leadership
there about putting the entirety of their building fund in World
Missions. They brought it before the congregation, and unanimously the congregation said, "Let's
do it. Let's trust God. Let's put our heart where God's
heart is." And they gave the entire amount to World Missions. Just a few days later my
friend gets a phone call from another local pastor, said, "Hey, can
you come over? I want to talk to you." He goes over to talk to the guy, and the guy
said, "You know what? I'm old, and it's time for me to retire. God has
spoken to me, and I've already talked to the leadership here at the church. We feel
like we're supposed to give you our entire church campus. And so they
handed him a 37-acre campus with the auditorium and all the buildings and a functioning school.
So one moment they've got a building fund, no building fund;
the next moment they have a 37-acre campus worth multiplied millions of dollars. Friend,
obedience carries blessing with it.
Now, granted, the blessings are not always that quick and that spectacular. I wish they
were, but how many know they're not? But listen to me: Though they
may not be that rapid and that spectacular, His blessings are sure to those that are willing
and obedient. So 'Obey Him' is Key Number 3.
All right, look with me at verse 5, if you would:
Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him,
saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented."
And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him."
The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my
roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.
For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one,
"Go,' and he goes; and to another, "Come,' and he comes; and to my
servant, "Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said
to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not
even in Israel!
Key Number Four: is Have faith in Him. And I love the centurion. He said, "Lord, all
I need is Your word. Only say the word and my servant will be healed."
The way to have faith in God is to have faith in His Word. Rely on it and require no other
evidence before you believe. "Lord, Your word alone." That's how
we have faith in Him.
I remember Janet and I were overseas. I was speaking, and she came back to the states
early. I had all the documentation, had the boarding passes, passports,
etc. and so I stuck everything she needed… passport, you know, boarding pass, everything
in her Bible and put it in this ginormous bag she carried. And so
she's getting in the taxi going to the airport, I said, "Babe, I put everything… your
boarding pass, everything you need… it's in your Bible in the big bag."
She said, "Okay," gave me a kiss, and off she went. She didn't even check. And
later on, I got home about five or six days later than her. I said, "I just
want to ask you a question. When I said, you know, the boarding pass and everything you
need is in your Bible that I put in the big bag, did you look and
see?" She said, "No." I said, "Well, when did you check?" Says, "Well, when
I got up to the counter and had to check in." It never occurred to her to not
take me at my word. She didn't say, "Well, Bayless, I'll believe it when I see it."
No, she just simply took me at my word. That is faith at its most basic
level. Take Him at His word, whether it's Proverbs 3 that says, "Honor
God with everything you own. Give Him your first and best. Then your storehouses will
be filled with plenty." Just
take God at His word and act upon it. Or whether it's First Peter 3 where it says,
"An unbelieving husband can be won to Christ by the wife's behavior without her preaching
to him." Just do it. Or, "Is there any sick among you?" James
5, "Let him call for the elders of the church. Let them pray over him, anointing him with
oil in the name of the
Lord. And the prayer of faith will heal the sick. And if he's committed sins, it will
be forgiven him." Let's just take Him at His word.
And some of you will probably recall me sharing this. Again, I'm a brand new Christian.
I'm living above a bar in a little one-room, well, it was just a
single room, didn't even have electricity. And no one told me to start reading the Bible
in the New Testament, so I started in Genesis. Genesis, Exodus was
good. I got bogged down in Leviticus. So I'm slogging my way through, you know, Leviticus
and some of these other things. And I decided I'm going to crack
open the New Testament and read a little bit there. And it turned out to be very important
to me because, at the time, I had a terrible, terrible skin
condition. My skin looked terrible, and sometimes I'd just want to pull my flesh off my bones
it itched so bad. And it was embarrassing how bad it looked all
over my arms. I had gone and gotten medication for it, no relief. It just never got better.
And I landed upon James, chapter 5, the verse that I just quoted:
"Is there anyone sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let
them pray over him, anointing with oil in the name of the Lord. And the
prayer of faith will heal the sick." I got so excited! But then I thought to myself because,
again, I'm a brand new Christian. I thought, "What's an elder? I
wonder if our church has them?" I had no idea what an elder was! I went down to the
phone booth, looked somebody's number up that went to our church, called
them, I said, "Hey!" I said, "I've got a question. What's an elder? And does
our church have them?" They said, "Yeah, Bayless, our church does
have them. It's basically a more mature Christian that has carried a responsibility
for a season of time, and
they've been recognized, and they have a certain authority."
I said, "Awesome!" I said, "Tell me who an elder is." And then I explained I
had been reading James 5. And they mentioned the guy's name. And immediately
my heart sank because it was an old farmer in the church that I was afraid of. And I
was afraid of him
because he prayed a lot in the services; and whenever he prayed, he would shake and jerk
around. Like, "Jesus, thank you, Lord. We just thank you for the
Holy Spirit." And it freaked me out! And so… this is truth. I'd go to church because
I know you're supposed to go to church. But if saw him sitting on one…
I'd look for him. If he's sitting on one side, I'd sit on the other side. I stayed
as far away from that guy as I could. He scared me! And it turns out he's
the elder! So, again, I go to the phone booth, look up his number, I called him out at his
farm. I said, "Hey, I'm the young guy with long hair in your
church. I was reading James, chapter 5. I've got this skin condition. I'm just calling
to see if you're home. I want to come out. Do you have oil?"
He said, "Yeah, come." And I had some friends, we drove out there. I remember I
went to the farmhouse door, knocked on the door, he's there with his overalls
on, he's got a bottle of oil in his hand, he said, "Thank you, Jesus!"
Honest. I just… I closed my eyes. He never invited me in. I closed my eyes and just lifted
my hands and said, "Do it." And he put oil on me and prayed a prayer,
and I know he was hurkin', jerkin', but I wouldn't look. And I know you don't
have to feel anything. You know, your
feelings aren't an indicator that God is working. But I felt something. It was like
when he put that oil on me, I felt something akin to electricity go down
through my feet, come back up my body, and it went out my arms. It was the most odd sensation.
And he was done. I said thanks. Still never invited me in. I don't think he liked me.
True. But within 24 hours that skin condition disappeared. There was no
evidence it had ever even been on my body before.
Have faith in Him. Just take Him at His word. Treat God like an honest being.
Thank you for watching Answers with Bayless Conley. Bayless will continue with part two
of his message next week.
I think one of the greatest lessons that I have ever learned in life is that God can
be taken at His word. Your best friend in this life my friend, is the
Scriptures. It is the Word of God. It is living. It is breathing. It is full of life. It is
able to build you up and give you an inheritance among those who
are sanctified. Jesus said when you know the truth the truth will set you free. And God
only gives promises because He fully intends on fulfilling those
promises. And whatever your need is right now… if it is spiritual, maybe your grappling
with some sin… if it's emotional… if it's physical… if it's material…
whatever your need is, there are promises in God's Word that cover your need. So to
begin with, find a promise that covers your need. Start meditating on
that promise and faith will come to you unconsciously. Well, you know what, you're going to want
to join us next week as we continue the message. God bless
you.
Prayer is a vital part of walking with God. It's a deep and desired connection. Prayer
can change lives, give hope, and direction. Yet it's not unusual for
each of us to struggle with prayer. Bayless Conley is deeply committed to helping you
grow in your prayer life, and through his booklet How to Pray, he
shares a blueprint for effective prayer that you can use every day.
It's a framework that I use most of the time when I pray, and it can help you. I think
most of us, if we looked at our prayer lives, they're not nearly what
they should be. And sometimes, something like this can just sort of help us get over the
ridge, so to speak, and get on to a little bit deeper business with
God. So I'd encourage you to request your copy today, How to Pray.
At Answers with Bayless Conley, prayer is the foundation and life of the ministry. Right
now, Bayless' prayer is to reach more people with the saving Gospel
of Jesus Christ. Your support is working in lives around the world. Help us continue to
reach more people. And to thank you for your generosity, Bayless
would like you to have a copy of his booklet, How to Pray. Just request your copy of How
to Pray when you use the information on your screen to give your
gift or when you visit AnswersBC.org. Thank you for helping Answers with Bayless Conley
continue to take a living Jesus to our dying world through your gift
today.
Thank you for watching Answers with Bayless Conley.
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