One of the things that continues to concern me as a pastor is how easily it is in our society to hear truth and yet have little to no response to it. Our culture has a Greek mindset in which there can be a separation between what is known intellectually and what is practiced in daily life. This has lead to a false dichotomy among Christians between what is sacred and what is secular. For the true Christian, there is no separation between the two, for the true Christian has been crucified with Christ and no longer lives, but it is Christ living in them (Gal. 2:20). Their lives are being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ (Rom. 12:29). They may not have arrived, and in fact will not reach perfection in this life, but over time they are continually changed and become more righteous. In other words, I may not be what I want to be yet, but I thank God that I am not what I was!

Christmas is nearly here. Here in America, it is a day of celebration with quite a mixture of tradition. Some of those traditions are religious in nature, though not necessarily Christian, and others are purely secular. It would seem though that the secular continues to slowly overwhelm the religious.

This morning we will conclude our series on successful Christian living. We have defined a successful Christian as "a person who has been saved from their sins by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and, as an adopted child of God who worships Him, is bringing glory to His name by being conformed into the image of Jesus by submitting themselves to the will of God in faithfully pursuing holiness and blamelessness along with serving the Lord in doing the good works He has prepared before hand." Each phrase in this definition comes directly from the Scriptures, so these are not my own thoughts, but what God has revealed to us about how He wants us to live. This definition may not be completely comprehensive, but I think it does cover all the basic aspects of living for Christ. Over the last three months we have examined the foundational aspects of living as a Biblical Christian. We have looked at the importance of knowing the Bible, of being self-disciplined and good stewards of the time, talents and resources God has entrusted to us. We have also examined prayer, worship, holiness, fellowship, evangelism, service and dealing with temptation through obedience to God. This morning we are going to conclude by pulling all of these together under an essential term that defines the successful Christian - a disciple.

Are you a Christian? Are you living the Christian life successfully? It has been my purpose of the last couple of months to help you do just that by examining the various elements that are part of being a successful Christian. We have defined successful Christian as, "a person who has been saved from their sins by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and, as an adopted child of God who worships Him, is bringing glory to His name by being conformed into the image of Jesus by submitting themselves to the will of God in faithfully pursuing holiness and blamelessness along with serving the Lord in doing the good works He has prepared before hand."

The chorus of a very popular hymn states a fundamental truth of the Christian life very well. "Trust and obey, for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey." In many ways, living the Christian life successfully can be reduced down to those three words. Trust and obey.

Over the couple of months I have been speaking to you about what it means to be a successful Christian. In the first sermon in the series I spent time explaining what it meant to be a successful Christian. The world speaks of success in terms of wealth, fame, power or achievement, but none of those things are necessary for a person to live successfully as a Christian. A Christian's life centers in their relationship with God. "A successful Christian is a person who has been saved from their sins by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and, as an adopted child of God who worships Him, is bringing glory to His name by being conformed into the image of Jesus by submitting themselves to the will of God in faithfully pursuing holiness and blamelessness along with serving the Lord in doing the good works He has prepared before hand."

Over the course of our current series of sermons, I have given you the following definition that "A successful Christian is a person who has been saved from their sins by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and, as an adopted child of God who worships Him, is bringing glory to His name by being conformed into the image of Jesus by submitting themselves to the will of God in faithfully pursuing holiness and blamelessness along with serving the Lord in doing the good works He has prepared before hand."

Recall that from the start of this series it has been pointed out that you cannot have true success if you do not have a true definition for it. Most people define success in terms of wealth, fame, power or pleasure - materialism, egoism, autonomy and hedonism. In our previous studies on this subject, we have defined true success based on God's revelation of truth in the Bible. "A successful Christian is a person who has been saved from their sins by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and, as an adopted child of God who worships Him, is bringing glory to His name by being conformed into the image of Jesus by submitting themselves to the will of God in faithfully pursuing holiness and blamelessness along with serving the Lord in doing the good works He has prepared before hand." This morning I want us to concentrate on the phrase, "faithfully pursuing holiness and blamelessness."

Over the last five messages I have spoken on the subject of Successful Christian Living. We have given an overview and definition of it while examining some of the essential elements necessary to be successful in more detail including knowing the Bible, Prayer and being self disciplined with our lives (time, finances and energy) so that we can achieve our goals. As I was preparing my message this week, I could see the need modify our definition to place greater emphasis on this mornings subject, worship.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been putting an emphasis upon the responsibilities God has given to us in living the Christian life successfully. Remember that a successful Christian is a person who has been saved from their sins by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and, as an adopted child of God, is bringing glory to His name by being conformed into the image of Jesus by submitting themselves to the will of God in faithfully pursuing holiness and blamelessness along with serving the Lord in doing the good works He has prepared before hand.

One of the pressures on Christians in the United States is the gross materialism of our society. The problem is not the financial prosperity of our nation. You will not find any Scriptures that speak of wealth as an evil of itself. The problem is the sinful heart of man which turns away from God and toward self-reliance and sinful pleasure. Wealth tends to aggravate this problem because the person's needs are satisfied and they have greater resources and time in which to pursue their sinful desires. While we tend to complain about being overworked and under-payed, the truth is that when compared to other nations and history, we are a very wealthy people with an amazing amount of "free" time to pursue our own desires.

Americans have become used to being able to accomplish things with the minimum of effort. This is in great part due to our prosperity. Our time is more valuable to us than the cost of a machine that will enable us to do the job more efficiently. For example, I purchased a small electric sander this past week so that I could prepare the front porch of the parsonage for painting. The electric sander makes the job much easier for me physically, and it also makes better use of my time. Simply put, my time is too valuable to spend trying to hand sand the porch. I think we would all agree with that.

As I stated a couple of weeks ago, I, like many pastors, am greatly concerned about the many that profess to be Christians, but their lives demonstrate that they are not successfully living the Christian life. They struggle along on in life and make little if any impact in this world for the cause of Christ. Their seems to be little difference between their lives and those of non-Christians.

This past Tuesday, September 11, 2001, will be a day much like December 7, 1941. It will be a day that will live infamy. Our nation was attacked suddenly, without warning, and without provocation. There are, however, some very important differences. The attack on Pearl Harbor was by a nation that was positioning itself for war with us and it was against military targets. While the Pentagon was a military target, the World Trade Center was not. The passengers and crew on board the commercial airline jets that were highjacked were not military either. This was not an attack by a foreign government against our government for disagreements with its policies, but an attack by terrorists against the American people themselves. More than 2,400 Americans lost their lives in the attack on Pearl Harbor. The number who died in Tuesday's terrorist attacks is _______ and continues to climb.

I was going to begin our study of the book of Romans this morning. I have been preparing for this for quite some time by doing an initial overall study of the book, as well as of some particular passages in it, so that I could map out a preaching schedule. There is much in the book I am very anxious to preach. However, as I have been preparing for this series there has been something in the back of my mind that has been troubling me. As I began to prepare the first sermon on Romans this week, I became even more convicted that there are some issues that I need to address from a topical standpoint before we start our book study. I believe this is the leading of the Holy Spirit, and I pray that He will use the series of messages we are going to begin to day in your life in a significant way.

This morning we come to the end of our study of the Gospel account by John. Throughout the book John has been true to his purpose of writing down the actions and teachings of Jesus so that you "may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name."

Have you ever felt like you messed something up so badly that you could never get it straightened out? Or perhaps you did something so hurtful that you felt you could not be forgiven for your wrong? I think that is the way that Peter may have felt after denying Jesus three times the night our Lord was arrested and put on trial. Could Peter be forgiven? Could be Peter used again? Turn to John 21 and we will see the answer to these questions and learn several important lessons to apply to our own lives.

One of the more difficult lessons for many Christians to learn is how to wait on the Lord for His direction in life. Over the years I have learned to be more calm while waiting on the Lord, but I have to admit this is still something that I struggle with at times. I am a bit goal oriented and I would like the Lord to spell everything out that He wants me to do in detail, then I can just work down the list and accomplish it in due order. There can be quite a bit of satisfaction in having a list and checking off each thing as you accomplish it. Perhaps you are like that too to one degree or another.

Have you ever considered how hard it is to believe something that is outside your frame of reference? It was not uncommon for aboriginal people to be afraid the first time an explorer showed them a picture of themselves. Some even tried to destroy the picture and the person who took it for fear it had somehow captured their soul. They had no reference to comprehend what we take for granted - a picture. The same is true when such people first saw an airplane. They had no reference to comprehend what it could be other than some sort of strange bird. They had no experience with engines or cars or even hearing a rumor about such a thing being built. For them, it was something thrust upon them suddenly.

Matt 28:5 (NASB) "And the angel answered and said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. 6 "He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying."

In our study of John 19 last week, we read the account of Jesus' death on the cross on Golgatha's hill. The accounts given in Matthew, Mark and Luke are also straight forward in telling of this gruesome event and Jesus' death. In the Bible there are four independent accounts of His death, one of which was written by an eyewitness (John) and another who had "investigated everything carefully from the beginning" (Luke 1:1-4). To these can be added the weight of the ancient historians Josephus and Tacitus who both record Jesus' death. It would seem silly to even suggest that Jesus did not die on the cross, yet that is not just a suggestion, but a belief by many people who should know better, and many others that have been left in ignorance. This effort to deny that Jesus died on the cross is not about His death, but about His resurrection. If Jesus did not really die on the cross as reported in the gospel accounts, then He could not have risen from the dead, and if He did not rise from the dead, then He is not the Son of God, the Messiah, and therefore has no claim on your life. The effort to deny that Jesus died on that Roman cross is not born out of scholarship and an effort to come to truth, but an effort to deny the implications of the truth.

Please turn with me to John 19:16 this morning. We are going to be examining the crucifixion of Jesus, but before we do, I need to remind you of what has occurred to this point. It has been just over a month since we were last in our study of John, and it is important that we understand the context of any passage if we are going to understand its meaning.

This morning I want to go over the two ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper or Communion that we practice here at Grace Bible Church. We live in a predominantly Roman Catholic area and it is important to understand the difference between what they teach and what we teach in these areas.

Quite a few years ago I was able to witness our justice system at work in the case of a friend of mine. As this man's spiritual leader and confidant, I knew what the truth was in the case. If the end result had not been so tragic it would have been funny to watch the two lawyers involved go back and forth trying to convince the jury that they were the ones trying to uphold the law. The tragedy was that neither of them were interested in the truth and having justice carried out. While our system of law may still be one of the better ones in the world, the reality I witnessed proved that it was not really a "justice" system. True justice will only come when Jesus Christ is on the throne as judge. Until then we can only attempt to fairly apply the law.

"Mother's Day" was started in 1908 by Anna M. Jarvis of West Virginia, who by the way, was childless herself. She persuaded local churches to honor mothers. She worked to promote the idea, but actually became embittered as commercialism began to encroach on the holiday. What began as an encouragement to churches to express sincere thanks and honor to our too often "taken-for-granted" mothers in their vital role in raising godly offspring has turned into an obligation for everyone to buy a card, flowers, etc. for whoever. (I am still confused about which "mom" is to be honored - my wife, the mother of my children, or my mom for raising me, or maybe the grandmothers are to honor their daughters who are raising their grandchildren? This does not even get into the confusion of adding in adoptive moms, step-mom's, and foster care moms).

Betrayal. It is an act of treachery in which the trust extended to a person is used by that person against the very one that is extending the trust. All of us here have experienced betrayal to some degree even if only being swindled by a salesman. You trust what they present about the product only to find out later it was a fraud. Many of us have experienced the betrayal of a confidence. What we have told someone in private suddenly becomes a public matter. That hurts even if it was unintentional. I would hope that only a few of us who have been purposely betrayed by a friend, but there are probably more who have experienced this than I would guess. You place your trust in someone and then they use that trust against us as our enemies. That causes a deep heart ache.

This morning we come to the end of Jesus' High Priestly prayer recorded in John 17. This prayer has come at the conclusion of Jesus' Upper Room Discourse in which He gives His final teachings to His disciples just prior to His arrest, trial and crucifixion. As we have already seen in the last two weeks, this prayer reveals the relationship between the Father and the Son and the eternal purpose of mankind.

Most people are very respectful of prayer. If you ask someone if you can pray for them, it will be the rare individual that will not gladly accept your offer. Some years ago one of our missionaries actually used this as a means of outreach into the business community around him. He would go into the business, and after introducing himself, he would explain that he was a Christian and felt that God would like him to pray for the people in his community and then simply asked if there were any specific things he could pray about for them. He developed a lot of good relationships through this and was able to share the gospel with many of them when he went back to see how his prayers were answered. That is still a good idea for reaching people in our own community simply because people like to be prayed for. How much more would it mean to find out that Jesus Christ Himself was praying for them.

This morning is Resurrection Sunday when we celebrate the most glorious event in the history of mankind. Jesus Christ rose from the dead just as He said and in doing so proved His claims to be the Messiah to be true and that all of His promises would be kept.

It was Friday of the Passover week. It should have been a time of great joy as more than a million Jews had crowded into the ancient city of Jerusalem to celebrate God's deliverance of Israel from its bondage in slavery to Egypt. Because of a differing method for accounting the start of the day, most of those from the northern areas had celebrated the Passover the previous night, as had Jesus and His disciples. Those from the southern areas were celebrating Passover that very day. The lambs were being brought to the temple where they would be sacrificed.

This morning our scripture reading and special music have all been related to Palm Sunday in celebration of the day that Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. That certainly was a special and exciting day. But the events of that week passed quickly and the crowd changed from shouting Hosanna to shouting to crucify Jesus by Friday. In our study of John, we are studying the Upper Room Discourse which Jesus gave to His disciples just prior to His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Over the past several weeks we have been dealing with a section of Scripture often referred to as the Upper Room Discourse. Jesus has met with His disciples for their last meal together before His betrayal and crucifixion. Jesus has washed the disciples feet. Judas has left to perform his evil betrayal. Jesus has given new meaning to the elements of the Passover meal they were celebrating. It would no longer be a celebration about freedom from bondage in Egypt, but the bread and the cup would now be a remembrance of Jesus' sacrifice to free them from the bondage of their sin.

Love. Quite a word. It has a multitude of meanings depending on who uses it and the context in which it is used. It is a word that some people understand very well by experience and others have only the report others have told of it. Some have an abundance of it and share it freely, while others have little and keep it to themselves.

This morning we come to another well known, but often misunderstood section of Scripture. Turn to John 15. As we begin our study we must remind ourselves of the context lest we too misunderstand our Lord's message in this passage. Not keeping to the context is the common reason for errors in Bible interpretation.

This morning we will be continuing our study from last week on John 14 and the comfort that Jesus was bringing to His disciples in preparation for the events that would occur later that night that would lead to His crucifixion the next day. The setting for this is the Passover meal which they have now finished. During this last Passover for Jesus, He has set the practical example of the humble service that should mark all Christians by washing the feet of the disciples. Judas has been revealed as the traitor, at least to John, and had already left to do his evil deed. Jesus had instituted what we often refer to as "the Lord's Supper" or "Communion" by taking elements of the Passover meal, and having them represent His body and blood which would soon be given for them. It was in warning them again that He was about to be glorified and go away where they could not follow that left the disciples saddened and somewhat confused.

Last week we began our study of John 14 and Jesus' words of comfort to His disciples as He prepared them for the events that would take place that night and the next day. Jesus and the disciples are now finishing the Passover meal. Jesus has washed their feet and in doing so given them a practical example of the humble service that should mark all Christians. Judas has been revealed as the traitor, at lest to John, and has now left to do his evil deed. Jesus has warned them again that He was about to be glorified and go away where they could not follow. This warning left them saddened and confused.

I am not sure there is anything more comforting than the presence of someone you love. No matter how bad we may feel from sickness, injury or emotional suffering, having someone with us who loves us eases the pain. Often, the loved individual does not even have to be physically present, just the thought of them and of being with them again in the future brings solace. How often that thought has eased the pain of soldiers wounded in battle. They would be going home and would be with their loved ones again. But many soldiers do not come home. For those facing death, comfort can be found in the promise of being with their loved ones again in eternity.

Last week we began our study of John 13 by looking at Jesus' humble example of servanthood in washing the feet of the disciples during that last Passover meal. This was done as an example to them of how they should treat one another. It is a lesson for us as well.