Is your Christian faith, a secret? Does everyone around you know you’re a believer? Pastor Greg Laurie says that this is an important question we need to ask ourselves. We should make our stand for Christ publicly, because Jesus said, If you’ll stand up for me, I’ll stand up for you.
When we see thousands of enthusiastic sports fans at a stadium, are they keeping their team loyalty a secret? No. They yell and scream and wear the team colours. Yet can we say we have the same pride in following Christ?
On this episode of A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us see the importance of making our faith a public declaration instead of a secret.
Surrender to the Word of God
In Nehemiah 10, we see the people surrender to the word of God. All who were old enough to understand bound themselves with an oath, and they swore a curse on themselves if they failed to obey. The Law of God was issued by His servant Moses. They solemnly promised to carefully follow all the commands, regulations and decrees of the Lord, our God.
‘This is why I think it’s such a great thing to make a public stand for Jesus Christ,’ says Greg. ‘You sort of seal the deal when you’re baptised. That’s a public commitment. When you make that first stand in front of your non believing friends at your workplace or on your campus and say, I am a Christian, you know everyone is going to be watching you.’
Non-Christians don’t want us to do well, because when we work closely with the Lord and they see the transformation in our character, it bothers them because they come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. But this is the big question for Christians. Will we surrender to what the Bible says on every single topic?
‘If you want to live a godly life,’ says Greg, ‘you will need to separate yourself from some things and some people. Blessed is a man who walks not in the council of the ungodly or stands in the way of sinners or sits in the seat of the scornful.’
Join Yourself to God
This man loves to read the Bible. He loves to hear the Bible preached. He loves to hear songs that have verses from the Bible in them. He loves the Word of God and he meditates, which means he thinks about it, he ponders it. He considers it day and night. He separates from one thing in order to join himself to another.
‘These are the three most important decisions you’re going to make in your life,’ says Greg. ‘Number one, what are you going to do with Jesus Christ? Number two, what are you going to do with your life? And number three, who are you going to marry?’
Even though Greg says we shouldn’t marry a non-believer, he does believe we need to have contact with them. How can we reach people with the gospel if we don’t have contact with them? Separation does not mean isolation.
‘Paul actually wrote about this to the believers in Corinth,’ says Greg. ‘They’re dealing with some issues that are similar to what we might deal with today. But if we love people enough, we’ll tell them the truth about what the Bible says.’
‘We shouldn’t expect non-believers to behave as believers. But we should expect Christians to behave as Christians. Once you come to Christ, all those other things will get sorted out.’
‘That’s our main objective with non-believers. Bringing them to Christ.’
Listen to Greg’s full message on A New Beginning below, and for more resources visit our Vision Store.
