Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / The Sermon On The Mount

Living Above Mediocrity 04/22/07

Title: ‘Raising the Bar:  Living Above Mediocrity’

Text: Various

Introduction: The message this morning is going to require some heartfelt honesty. So, I need your help. Raise your right hand and place it over your head. Grab hold of the halo you may have brought with you this morning and take it off, put it down next to you. I’ll let you know when you can pick it up again…Thanks!

Ever struggle with your faith? Not that you’re on the verge of losing your faith, just struggling to keep it alive and vibrant. Do you sometimes feel like you’re just spinning your wheels, spiritually going through the motions of Christianity?

If I were to ask you today ‘How is your spiritual walk with God?’ how would you respond?

·       If you find yourself struggling, then this message is for you.

·       And even if you’re going strong for the Lord right now, the time may come when you set the cruise control of your life, take your foot of the gas and just ‘coast’… through your spiritual journey.

But be forewarned, there’s a great danger in ‘coasting,’ it’s called ‘mediocrity.’ It happens when you’re in a spiritual lull, when you’ve been struggling to keep your faith alive and vibrant… but you stop. Christianity is full of good people, who give up too quickly, and begin to settle for less…

·       It’s not that they don’t believe in Jesus, they just live as if they’re trying to get by on the minimum daily requirement of spiritual nutrition.

·       It’s the ‘Just enough to get by’ attitude that signals the slide into mediocrity.

Those living in spiritual mediocrity have a favorite saying ‘There’s always next Sunday.’ ‘There’s always next Sunday.’ I’m afraid if you find yourself thinking and saying that, more than occasionally, then you’ve slipped headlong into mediocrity.

God, wants so much more for us, and he demands excellence from us. I’m not talking about perfection, just doing your best...for him.

Whenever we settle for and become content with mediocrity, we’re no longer compelled to seek excellence… and we accept less than what God wants for us and expects of us.

ILL: Since 1948, Truett Cathy, the late founder or Chick-Fil-A lost millions of dollars because he closed his restaurants on Sunday. He was a man with a purpose to serve God. Woody Faulk, an orphan who Mr. Cathy put to work, and is now a vice president of the firm says, everyone knows that Mr. Cathy personified James 1:22 "Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."

Listening w/o doing is the sin of mediocrity, of living to ‘just get by’ spiritually.

·       We become complacent.

·       We begin to just listen to God’s Word rather than be motivated to action by it.

·       We lose our passion, our hunger and thirsting for the presence and power of God in our lives.

I’m here to tell you this morning that God wants us to rise above mediocrity, to raise the bar of our spiritual expectations and actions. And rather than settle for less… God wants us to strive for more; more of God and more of what he has for us.

Transition: Turn in your Bibles to Rev. 3:14 (pg. 935 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you). Here we’ll see how God views those of his who have begun the slide into spiritual mediocrity.

1. The Problem    Revelation 3:14-19

Read: Rev. 3:14-19

The city of Laodecea had hot and cold springs the people used to bathe in. Jesus uses common things the Laodecians would understand as he spoke to them about their spiritual condition.

He said they were not hot, nor were they cold, Spiritually,

·       they weren’t passionate about him

·       but neither weren’t antagonistic against him either,

·       they were… lukewarm, indifferent, ambivalent.

Why? Things were good, or so they thought. They had health, wealth and were prosperous…they really didn’t need anything from God…or so they thought. They had become accustomed to the ‘status quo’. They were in maintenance mode, if you will.

But the Christian is either growing or dying.

·       We’re either being constantly nourished by God’s presence

·       or we’re slowly becoming spiritually emaciated by our complacency, by our mediocrity.

Jesus tells the Laodeceans, I have what you need….

·       I have gold refined by fire; that’s spiritual wealth, talents and gifts.

·       I have white clothes of righteousness to cover the nakedness and shame of your sin of mediocrity.

·       I have salve to put on your eyes so you can see me in the everyday occurrences of life and be comforted and empowered by what you see.

Jesus is saying ‘Stop being complacent, stop living on the minimum daily spiritual requirement, stop sliding into mediocrity. Instead, be earnest, strive, work, do my will, follow my Word, but first, repent..’ Change direction.

How? How can we rise above spiritual mediocrity? It starts by what we put in here.

Transition: Turn in your Bibles to Phil. 4:8 (pg. 895 in the church Bibles) Here Paul tells us… we rise above mediocrity by what we think about.

2. The Answer    Philippians 4:8-9

Read: Phil. 4:8-9

How important is your mind? Do you realize that what you think is often lived out in your life? It should be no surprise that we act out what we take in, Psychology 101 tells us that but the Bible said it first.

Read: Prov. 23:7a ‘For as he thinks within himself, so he is.’

So, it part of the problem of mediocrity is what we put in here (mind) what will change our direction and lift us out of mediocrity?

Paul encourages us to look around and discern that which is excellent and worthy of God. Think about those things…and do them!

He gives us a few examples

·       Whatever is True: not deceitful or misleading

·       Whatever is Noble: honorable

·       Whatever is Right: righteous, good

·       What ever is Pure: Holy, morally clean and undefiled

·       Whatever is Lovely: Sweet, gracious

·       Whatever is Admirable: well thought of, commendable

·       If there is anything  Excellent: would God approve?

·       If there is anything Praise-worthy: that which lifts up Jesus Christ.

Paul says if you want to rise out of your spiritual slumber, if you want to live above spiritual mediocrity…. Think about things that reflect these qualities…then do them…live them out… with passion.

Do that and you’ll be blessed. Listen to this promise…  ‘And the God of peace will be with you.’ How cool is that?

But this won’t come automatically and it won’t come tomorrow or next week. Rising above spiritual mediocrity takes intentionally, it’s an act of the will…and it begins today, right now or complacency will swallow up any desire to do it later.

Transition: I know it’s not easy, striving for excellence never is. That’s why we’re going to examine Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount for the next few months.

It’s in this wonderful sermon that Jesus gives us a glimpse of kingdom living…for today. He shows us how to rise above mediocrity as a Christian. But his words, if rightly taken, will challenge your commitment to him.

3. The Practical ‘How To’    Matthew 5-7

ILL: Dennis Guptill tells of a sermon once preached by Wilbur Reese in which he gave a listeners guide to sermons. Reese believed that sermons ought to be rated like movies.

·       ‘G’ rated sermons: are generally acceptable to everyone. They’re nice and make you feel good and they never offend anyone.

·       ‘PG’ rated sermons: are for more mature audiences and contain mild suggestions for change but nothing life altering.

·       ‘R’ rated sermons: are when the pastor tells it like it is. This usually means he has an outside source of income. The sermons contain strong language like ‘sin’ ‘hell’ and ‘repent’ and are intended for those who desire to be challenged in their spiritual walks.

·       ‘X’ rated sermons: contain the explosive ideas that got the prophet Amos run out of town, the Apostle Paul stoned and our Lord Jesus crucified. When you preach an ‘X’ rated sermon, you do so with your bags packed and an alternate place to live because you are hitting the nail on the head, and more than a few heads won’t like that.

In a real way, Jesus’ sermons are ‘X’ rated… especially the Sermon on the Mount because he demands radical obedience and life altering change. And if the Sermon on the Mount hasn’t shocked you, then you’re not reading it as Jesus intended it to be read.

ILL: The great theologian Saint Augustine, described the Sermon on the Mount as the perfect standard for the Christian life.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer based his book ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ on the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount’

R. Kent Hughes in his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount said this ‘As we expose ourselves to the X-rays of Christ’s words, we see whether we truly are believers, and if believers, the degree of the authenticity of our lives. No other section of Scripture makes us face ourselves like the Sermon on the mount.’

Conclusion

So, are you ready?

ILL: Pastor, Robert Simmons tells the following story.

David Livingstone was one of the greatest missionaries who ever lived. He moved to Africa, married his wife Mary in Africa in 1845, and never stopped pursuing excellence for the Kingdom of God during his lifetime.

 

There was a time when Dr. Livingstone was approached about the possibility of a missionary society sending some more men to help him in his efforts to reach the people of Africa. They wrote him a letter that read, “Have you found a good road to where you are? If so, we want to know how to send other men to join you.” Livingstone wrote back, “If you have men who will come only if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”

·       Passion,

·       excellence,

·       rising above mediocrity

is what the Sermon on the Mount is all about.

OK, you can put your halos back on if you like.