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I would like to tell you a true story about a man named Richard Coss. His story is an amazing one.
By the age of 25, Richard had spent more than 15 years in prison or adolescent detention centres. He never considered going straight, so he accepted that prison would always be his second home—if not his first.
As a career inmate, he worked hard in prison to earn the respect—and fear—of the other prisoners. He was in more than his share of jail yard fights, and he could take any punishment the guards dished out.
But one day, Richard did something totally unexpected. He listened to a preacher who had come to preach at the prison.
To his surprise, what the preacher said made sense and it wasn’t long before Richard gave his life to Christ. Overnight he experienced a radical transformation.
Richard was telling his story to a pastor named Stephen May, and this is what Stephen recounted about that meeting.
When he was telling me his story, I interrupted him at this point (about his radical transformation) to ask,
"How did the other prisoners treat you when you gave your life to Christ? Did they lose respect for you?"
I asked the question because I knew that it was tough trying to be a Christian in high school. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like in prison. I wondered how hardened criminals would treat someone who refused to fight back. Richard’s answer surprised me. He said,
"My fellow inmates respected me even more after I gave my life to Christ. They respected me because I walked the talk."
Then he said, "After a while, when they saw that I meant business about following Jesus, they began to listen to what I had to say. Eventually, I was able to win many of them to Christ."
Richard Coss is one of those people who has made a huge difference in the world. Hundreds of men left a life of crime to become followers of Jesus Christ—and productive members of society—due to the influence and impact of Richard Coss. Richard Coss, a one time career crim truly made a difference.
You see, Richard successfully lived a transparent life, of which we are also called to live.
You know, it was the early church who made a difference in its world. In just a few years, they turned their world upside down. People were drawn to their message.
Why?
Because, like Richard Coss, many early Christians were committed to walking the talk. Their lives lived up to their message.
You see, just as we discussed last week, a true relationship with Christ, where He is allowed to enter one’s life as both Lord and Saviour, and not just Saviour, brings about a transformed life that effects, to the positive, people who come in contact with that person. They live out their new nature - in other words they are transparent, not trying to conceal themselves from others - and others see the witness of their new life-style.
If you and I want to make a difference in our world—as individuals or as a church—we, too, must be committed to walking the talk - walking a transparent life. Remember Jesus’ words to the disciples in Luke 8:15-16:
But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
16"No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.
The world isn’t interested in hearing intellectual arguments about Christianity, they want to see it in action. There is no use for religious hypocrites, but when someone walks the talk - live out the new life-style transparently and honestly, the world pays attention.
This is why people like Mother Teresa, and Billy Graham, are treated with such respect—even by our critical and biased media. You just don’t hear many people criticise these individuals. You may not agree with Mother Teresa’s theology, but you cannot help but respect her integrity. When a person walks the talk, the world is ready to listen.
What Jesus calls us to be is people of integrity - and we must be this if we are going to make a difference in our world. That’s what holiness is: living out transparently the life-style Jesus calls us to live. If we do then people will listen. If we don’t, they won’t.
It is a fact of life that when what we say doesn’t measure up to what we do, people find it difficult to take us seriously.
A few years ago a fellow was about to get married. He and his fiancée went through a series of counselling sessions with their pastor in order to prepare for married life. They discussed how to handle conflict, how to communicate, the importance of sharing values, how to stay in love, and so on. As the final session concluded their minister said,
"Look, there’s something I need to tell you. My wife and I are getting a divorce."
The fellow said a friend of his who was also a pastor, "Hearing this was a tremendous blow. It caused us to question the validity of everything he had said. My fiancee wondered if we could make it ourselves. We wondered if anything he said would work."
The point is, when our lives don’t measure up, we lose impact. Unless we live holy lives, we cannot make a difference. If we are truly willing to be accountable to each other, to truly allow Christ to not only be our Saviour, but Lord as well of our lives, if we truly are living life in obedience to Christ, and not concealing these things, but transparently living them out before others, then our new lifestyle in Christ will make a difference.
I guess the question is, how, then do we do this? How can we learn to live the lifestyle Jesus calls us to live? Well, we will at three ways in which this can occur. First of all…
Each of us are capable of doing more than we do. In fact, our greatest limitation is our unwillingness to try to do more. Essentially we don’t lack ability, we lack ambition.
One evening while a man was driving down a country road, he lost control of his car and wound up in a ditch. He walked to the closest farm house and asked for help to pull the car out of the ditch. The farmer said,
"Sure. Let me hitch up Dusty and you’ll be out in no time."
A few minutes later the farmer appeared with Dusty—an old and almost blind mule.
After Dusty was hitched to the car, the old farmer cracked the whip and said,
"Pull, Buck, pull." Nothing happened.
The farmer cracked the whip again and said,
"Pull, Clyde, pull." Nothing happened.
He cracked the whip again and said,
"Pull, Dusty, pull." Dusty began to pull until finally the car was out of the ditch.
The man thanked the farmer, then said, "But I’m really curious. If your mule’s name is Dusty, why did you say ‘Pull, Buck’ and ‘Pull Clyde’?"
The farmer said, "Well, you know Dusty’s old and he doesn’t see too well, and he doesn’t have much confidence. If he thought he had to do all the work himself, he’d never even try."
That’s our greatest limitation—our unwillingness to try. Many people are afraid to believe in themselves. They say,
"I’m only one person, what can I do?" or
"I’m nothing special, I can’t make a difference" or
"I’m just a sinner; God could never use me."
We these things over and over until we believe it more than we believe the Gospel.
According to the gospel, we were created for greatness. In the New Testament we see that we have unlimited potential. John said, in the passage we are looking at today:
(v. 2) Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
We are God’s children, and we’re destined to become like Jesus. How does the significance of that grab you?
We cannot afford to put on false humility and claim less for ourselves - and please don’t confuse this with the other side of the spectrum which is self pride. The fact is, we can have pride in the power of Christ.
If we make the effort to live up to the potential Christ has created us with, there is no telling what God can do through us. You may not be Mother Teresa or a Billy Graham, but you can make a big difference in the lives of others, just as Richard Coss had done under extreme circumstances.
We must begin to hold ourselves to a higher standard and not be satisfied with mere mediocrity as we live out before others our lives in Christ. Instead we must say, "I will not settle for mediocrity—in my spiritual life or any other area of my existence. I am God’s child and I am going to live up to the potential He desires me to live."
That’s the first step to learning how to live out the lifestyle He has given to us—get serious about living up to your potential and serving Christ in whatever He calls you to. Secondly…
There’s a verse in this passage which is easily misread or misinterpreted. The verse says…
(v. 5) No one who abides in Him sins.
It is easy to read this backwards to read,
"No one who sins abides in Him."
If we read the verse this way it would be easy to say,
"Well, that rules me out! I sin everyday!"
Therefore, when we do sin it would be easy to think that we had forfeited our chance of "abiding in Jesus" for the rest of the day. We might say in despair, "I hoped that some day I would stop sinning and learn to abide in Jesus."
That is not what the verse says at all. Let’s look at it again. It says…
(v. 5) No one who abides in Him sins.
This may sound too simple, but this is what that verse means:
If you want power and victory over sin, if you want the ability to live a holy life, if you want to be able to consistently live the lifestyle, then spend time with Jesus. When you spend time with Him your lifestyle is transformed. Your thoughts and actions become Christ centred - not self-centred, therefore, rather than fighting against sin, you are abiding in Christ who conquers that sin through your abiding in Him.
Have you ever come across someone who has moved from another country. We’ve all seen that add on TV where a family is hosting a teenage Asian girl for lunch. I can’t remember the whole add, but I do remember the end of the add where the Asian girl speaks in a very Aussie accent saying she lived in Ballarat.
My guess is, if this girl came out from Asia when she was younger, her English would have been heavily accented as she learned the language. But after years of living here her old way of talk would have disappeared to the extent that she now sounds like she lived in Australia all her life. Not only would the accent have gone, but also she would have picked up Australian terminology.
So, in effect, after some years of "abiding" in Asia, she has forgotten how to speak with an Asian accent.
That’s what happens when we spend time with Jesus. When we’re with him, we do not sin. "No one who abides in him sins."
That is why we must make an effort to be with him every day. We should spend time with him in prayer, and spend time with him in Bible study, and spend time with him in fellowship with other believers, and spend time with him going about daily activities. Doing these things in his presence gives us the strength to walk the talk - live the lifestyle that gives credibility to our claims of being a disciple of Christ.
The third aspect is…
John Wesley said, "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."
The fact is, we can’t build a reputation on what we’re going to do. At some point we’re going to have to take action. Good intentions alone are not good enough. John said,
(v. 7) Let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous.
There was an eager young evangelist who approached an Amish man and said,
"Sir, are you a Christian?"
The Amish man said,
"Why ask me such a question? I can tell you anything. Why don’t you visit my banker, my grocer, my farm hands, my children. Ask them if I am a Christian. If I am or not, they’ll certainly be able to tell."
There comes a time when we have to put up or be quiet.
Walking the talk means that we have to look for the chance to do good.
Ephes. 2:8-10
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
There’s more to living the Christian life than just not sinning. We must pursue good works. These good works aren’t going to get us into heaven, but they will help us make a lasting impact on our world, and that is why we were created.
So what kind of works am I talking about?
This is where it gets tough, because it isn’t a case of simply involving ourselves in some charity organisation each Saturday afternoon or to part of a church ministry each Sunday afternoon.
What I am talking about is good works that happen spontaneously around the clock on any given day of our life, whenever the chance arises.
Now of course we should be involved in organised ministry. But if we really want to make a difference, it can only happen in the day-in, day-out reality of our lives that flows out of who we really are in Christ.
In the story of the Good Samaritan, a man walked down a secluded road and was beaten, robbed, and left for dead. As he is lying there, three men passed by. The first two were religious—one was a priest, the other one a Levite. These men passed him by. They were both involved in organised ministry, but they didn’t know anything about compassion. Then a Samaritan came by. He had compassion and helped the man. He bandaged his wounds, took him to an Inn, and paid for his stay there until he was fully recovered.
One obvious point of this story is that the Samaritan’s kindness wasn’t the result of a scheduled act of charity. It was a spontaneous response of love. The priest and the Levite were religious, but they didn’t walk the talk. The Samaritan did. When the opportunity to do good presented itself, he was ready for action.
I’m sure that most of us to make a difference. Remember that your greatest opportunity to do good most likely will not have been pre-scheduled into your daily-planner; it will just pop up one day and take you by surprise.
As I have said, I’m not against organised ministry, as it is critical to our ministry as a church both internally and as we reach out to our community. But organised charity alone will not change the world. That is not how the early church did it.
Certainly, they implemented social programs and organised methods of outreach. But, the early church changed the world because so many of its members were committed to round-the-clock radical holiness—they were always looking for the chance to do good - to serve Christ in the lives of others. When a person encounters that kind of commitment, he or she can’t help but be attracted to Christianity.
In the second century, a Roman General discovered there were Christians in his army—40 of them. He had them arrested and ordered them to recant or die. They refused to back down. It was the dead of winter, so the General stripped the soldiers naked and placed them in the middle of a frozen lake. On shore was a heated bath house. He told them that at anytime they could reject Jesus and find shelter in the bath house, or they could die on the frozen lake. As these soldiers stood together in the bitter cold, they sang, "Forty brave soldiers for Jesus, Forty brave soldiers for Christ. We’ll be true to our God and stare death in the face though we perish on this lake of ice. We’re forty brave soldiers for Christ." The bath house attendant sat in the warmth of the bath house and listened to the soldiers sing hymns. Finally, one of the forty broke down and abandoned the pack. He ran into the bath house. The soldiers were quiet for a while, then one began to sing "Thirty nine soldiers for Jesus…" The attendant was so moved by the determination and commitment of the thirty nine that he ran out of the bath house, onto the lake, stripping off his clothes, singing at the top of his lungs, "Forty brave soldiers for Jesus…"
That’s what happens when we walk the talk and live out transparently the lifestyle Christ wants us to live. The world can’t help but listen, and we truly make a difference.
By Scott Douglas, Burdekin Baptist Church, 11th January 1998