"The Delights of Discipleship" by Neal Pollard

Typically, on the third Sunday night of each month this year, we are having our monthly

singing and we have done that different ways since the beginning of the year.

This year, this month is what we might call more of the old-fashioned song style approach

in which we're going to have various men to lead a song.

The other part of that is how many of us recall growing up is that folks can submit their

requests for that.

Our 21st century way of doing that is we're going to ask you to email a song request to

either mrneilpollard at gmail.com or to the church email, which I think is ctc.office.

Is that sound?

Yes, you'll find it somewhere.

I'll make sure we get that in there.

Look on the bullets and do a little bit of investigating.

If you really want a song request, you'll find that, but I believe it's on the bulletin.

Just let us know or you can just come up to us and write it and hand it in or put it in

my box or Hiram's box and we'll make sure that those are available.

We'll have that compiled list to Randy and then he'll have those songs and our song leaders

we're asking to, if at all possible, to choose one of your song requests as we lead in the

song service next week.

There's absolutely no life that we could live any better than the Christian life.

I know that the media and entertainment world don't think so as you find yourself watching

increasingly hedonistic and lascivious television commercials or you have the stomach or the

audacity to follow the storylines of the TV sitcoms and dramas.

They are preaching against belief in God and Christ in at least two ways.

First by glorifying sin and second by attacking the integrity, intelligence of anybody with

moral scruples in biblical faith.

And because we live in a culture where a couple of generations have not been going to church

anywhere faithfully, if at all, we have raised some generations that have blindly accepted

Hollywood's preaching without taking the time to question it or the alternative that Tinseltown

so boldly offers.

We are bombarded with the doctrine of evolution to explain how we got here.

The doctrine of humanism, that man is God, and materialism, that things are God, to explain

our purpose.

And the doctrine of Epicureanism, which Paul defines for us in 1 Corinthians 15, 32, let

us eat and drink for tomorrow we die to explain our destiny.

We have been told that we have come from amoeba, that we're nothing more than animals and we're

simply going to wind up as part of the dirt.

Is there any wonder, then, that in a world filled with people who are seeking fulfillment

and contentment on such terms, that we find ourselves surrounded by increasingly miserable

and aimless and fearful and depressed people?

Did you see what Miller read a moment ago in Isaiah 62, verse 1 through 3?

Isaiah 62:1–3

He was talking about something that God foresaw over 700 years before Christ was born.

He was speaking about a name that would be worn by all nations.

It would be a new and a glorious name, which the name of our God would call.

And as we search through history, there is no other name that would fit than the name

that we get to wear if we follow Christ according to his word.

And that's the name Christian.

What's a remarkable thing to me is that as you study in your New Testament, as much as

that word Christian is on the lips of people in religion and in the culture throughout

the world, that it's one of the minor designations for a follower of Jesus in the New Testament.

Did you realize that of all the ways that we are called, the word disciple is found

many times, dozens of times in the New Testament.

We are identified in various means by what we do, that we are workers, as we saw in the

vineyard.

We are citizens in the kingdom, and the New Testament speaks of us in this way, that we

are to be bearing fruit as members of the vine.

We are followers of the way.

We are priests in God's temple.

We find ourselves as individual members of the body of Christ and on and on, but only

three times in the New Testament do we read the word Christian.

The very first time we read the word Christian is in Acts chapter 11 and verse 26.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

There we see that Ananias found Saul and brought him to Antioch, and he continued there with

him for a year, and they taught much people, and the disciples were called Christians first

in Antioch, Acts 11 and verse 26.

Saul's name is going to be changed.

He's there with Barnabas on the first missionary journey, and later on we're going to find

him in prison for preaching Christ, and as he finds himself testifying before one after

the other of world religious leaders all over the world, he says this to Herod Agrippa

that he stands before.

Herod Agrippa responds after Paul's passionate preaching, and he says, almost or in a short

time you would persuade me to be a Christian.

The third time it's used is in Peter's writings.

Peter's writing to the church as it's being persecuted, and as he tries to encourage them,

he says this in 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 16, if anyone suffers as a Christian, let

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

him not feel ashamed, but in this name let him glorify God.

Just three times we find that word, and yet even though we learn what it means to be a

Christian by studying not only the New Testament as a whole, but seeing how the Old Testament

is pointing us ahead to the Christian life, in those three verses we get some introductory

help in thinking about how wonderful the Christian life is.

In Acts chapter 11 and verse 26 we're reminded that a Christian is a disciple.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

A disciple is one who is taught, and when we think about this word or this word concept,

a Christian is one who is following the teaching of Christ.

I say this with all kindness, but there are folks that we meet every day, if we were to

ask them, are you a Christian?

They would say yes.

But if we were to investigate fully, we would understand that they have not been fully taught.

They know some of what the Lord expects of them in order to be a Christian.

Perhaps they have been told that if they'll receive Jesus in their heart by faith, at

that moment they become a Christian.

And what has to happen in such an instance is they need to be more fully taught.

And so we're reminded as we read Acts 11 and verse 26 that a Christian is one who is

led, instructed in the way that the Lord would have him to go.

When we get to Acts chapter 26 and verse 28, we are reminded that becoming a Christian

Acts 26 · chapter mention

involves so often persuasion.

You know, when we go into the mission field and we have the opportunity to teach there,

it's a fertile field and sometimes we'll find quick responses to obeying the gospel, but

very few have been the occasions where you can just come up to somebody and tell them

the plan of salvation, and in response to that they say, sounds good to me, I'll become

a Christian.

It doesn't work that way.

So often we've got to exchange and reason together, Isaiah 1 and verse 18.

There are arguments that maybe there's pushback, there is rationalization, there are questions

to be asked and answered.

There's a process of persuasion.

To become a Christian, we have to be persuaded that it is the best life, it is the alternative,

that there's no life like the Christian life.

And then you think about Peter's words in 1 Peter 4 and verse 16 that reminds us that

we may have to suffer some sacrifice in order to be a Christian.

I know that there are places all over the world when Hyrum and Brittany and the family

went to Nigeria.

They were in a safer part of the country, but there are parts of Nigeria where one may

take their life into their own hands by becoming a Christian.

And there are certainly places across the world like that right now.

And while we don't face that here in the United States, I dare say that when we come into

Christ some of us had to pay some kind of price.

It changed some relationships, maybe with our family, maybe with our co-workers, or

maybe it has hurt us in some way in striving to live the Christian life.

And even though there is sacrifice and difficulty sometimes in living the Christian life, there

is still no greater life to live.

There's no better life than the life of living the Christian life.

If I had to do it all over again, I still would have come forward.

I remember that Sunday night when I came forward and my dad had preached on Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

11 on the requirements of biblical faith.

We had a song leader named Bobby Jones and he led the song, Lord, I'm Coming Home.

I responded with another young lady who came forward.

She was a teenager.

I was a good bit younger than that.

And as I came forward, I remember.

I remember how I felt that evening.

Even though I've fallen short too many times since that night, my faith and love in the

one that saved me from my sins grows deeper and deeper every day.

I have a very simple objection in what I believe will be a relatively brief sermon.

And that is I want you, if you are living the faithful Christian life, to leave here

tonight not arrogantly ever, but with your head held high.

Because you live in a world that tells you that you have made the worst of all possible

choices.

The very fact that you are assembled here tonight at a six o'clock hour and there's

so many things going on, it's beautiful weather, and there's so much to divert us, but you're

here.

They say that this is the worst life possible.

I want to try to persuade you for a few moments that we are living the very best life possible

if you're a faithful Christian.

If there happens to be someone here tonight who's not yet made that wonderful decision,

I want to, I pray, persuade you to make that decision.

To live the very best life there is on this earth.

And if you are, if it's possible that you're not living a faithful Christian life, if sin

has overtaken your life, and you're no longer walking in the light, but you find yourself

having now walked in darkness, and you need to be restored, I hope this will be an encouragement

to you.

I want to give just a few reasons why I believe that this is the greatest life that we can

live.

Reason number one is because our sins are forgiven.

That's why this is the greatest life that there is.

I believe that everybody in the root of themselves understands that they have a sin problem.

They understand that they have something bigger than themselves that they cannot solve.

And they're looking for some solution, some way to get out of the misery and to find happiness.

They don't realize that the burden that's weighing them down is the reality of sin.

Even as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God will impute righteousness

without work, saying, how blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man whose sins God will not remember.

Does this blessedness come upon the circumcision only, and not upon the uncircumcision also?

For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness, Romans chapter 4 verse

Romans 4:6

6 through verse 9.

And Paul's point in this context is to show us that we are saved by faith and not by a

system of works.

And in this context, it's the works of the old law.

But according to Paul, in this context, when we obey Jesus, three similar things occur.

Number one, our iniquity is forgiven.

Number two, our sin is covered.

And number three, our sin is not counted against us.

That means that we don't have to pay the penalty that sin demands.

We don't have to own up to the record of our sins.

In other words, in the court of heaven, we don't have to say guilty because through Christ

we can say not guilty.

And we don't have to face God remembering those sins.

Have you ever felt like that even if somebody promised you that they had, that if you hurt

or violated somebody, betrayed them in some way, that you weren't forgiven?

One of the worst feelings in the world is to feel like you've not been forgiven.

But the Bible's point to tell us is that if we will admit our lostness, we can be forgiven.

God will not forgive us of sins that we refuse to admit exist.

And when we admit our lostness, we will long for the forgiveness that's only found in Him.

And so listen to what Scripture says to us.

In 1 John 2 and verse 12, My little children, these things I write unto you, because your

sins have been forgiven you for His name's sake.

Acts 13 and verse 38 says, Part of the good news is that be it known unto you that through

His name is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.

How wonderful to know that by God's grace our sins are forgiven.

In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches

of His grace.

Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 7.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

When God forgives sins, they stay forgiven.

We don't have to go around wringing our hands or in wallowing in guilt.

The Christian life is the best life there is because in Christ our sins are forgiven.

Number two, there's no life like the Christian life because our joy does not come from sinful

pleasure.

You know, when you think about some of the things that are portrayed in the media and

the entertainment world, it seems to me that any sin that there is is glorified and the

only miserable people out there are that man and woman who are in that monogamous marriage

relationship and they're striving to make it work.

Those are the folks to be pitied, but everybody else is to be gloried, whatever the sin is.

It turns out to be an irony to those who swallow that line.

Spiritually speaking, how many in pursuit of what the world says is the high life have

made themselves spiritual low lives?

Because in living the Christian life, I realize that my joy comes in truly higher places.

Can you imagine how they felt in Peter's audience when Peter writes them?

They're suffering just for wearing the name Christian.

And Peter says, Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are

in heaviness through manifold temptations, knowing this, that the trial of your faith

being much more precious than of gold, though it be tried with fire, may be found unto praise

and honor and glory at the appearing of Christ, whom having not seen you love, in whom though

now you see not yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving

the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

First Peter 1 verse 6 through 9.

1 Peter 1:6–9

And the world by itself can't understand such a state of being that I can have joy, I can

be happy, even with my problems beating down on me and people beating up on me.

That doesn't mean that Christianity is a tears free product, but here's what it does mean.

It means that those who sow in tears shall reap in joy, Psalm 126 in verse 5.

I'm excited to be teaching through the book of Acts this quarter, what a rich study that

it is.

And remember we said this morning that there are a lot of different ways that we can study

every Bible book, and we're studying the challenges that the church has always faced,

but another way you can approach Acts is by seeing what happened when people became Christians

in the book of Acts.

It's uncanny.

But you don't have to go back to read Luke's inspired writings to see that, just think

back to the last few times that there have been baptisms in this building.

When we've all been assembled and together, not that long ago, I remember it on a Sunday

morning that we had a baptism.

Do you remember?

It's just like it was so often in the book of Acts.

Philip goes and he preaches in the city of Samaria, and as he's taking the gospel to

the Samaritans, we read in Acts chapter 8 and verse 8 that when they became Christians

Acts 8 · chapter mention

there was much joy in the city.

How often is it the case that when a Christian is present in the workplace, in the school,

in the neighborhood, that it changes everything?

That light and that salt makes such a difference to the people there, and there's not just

joy felt by the one who becomes a Christian, there is joy by the folks who are around them.

The impact of the Christian life.

And then you remember that Philip leaves the crowd and he goes and he preaches to that

Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8 and verse 39, and after he has taught him the gospel

Acts 8 · chapter mention

and he's baptized, we read in Acts 8, 39 that the eunuch went on his way rejoicing.

It was the natural consequence of becoming a Christian.

In Acts 13 and verse 52, the longest sermon that's recorded by Paul in the New Testament,

preaching to the saints at Iconium, we read that they were filled not only with the Holy

Spirit but they were filled with joy, Acts 13, 52.

And then do you remember that Jerusalem meeting in Acts chapter 15?

Acts 15 · chapter mention

Paul and Barnabas had just gotten back from the first missionary journey, and as they

report to the saints in Jerusalem, they tell them that the Gentiles are hearing the gospel

and they're becoming Christians, and we read that there was joy that was felt when they

heard that other people had become Christians.

That hasn't changed.

Think back to the last baptism that you were present for.

Do you remember the person who was baptized?

Do you remember the smile, the joy that was on their face?

Maybe even tears of joy, and maybe you thought to look around if we're in the welcome circle,

and maybe you saw the faces of others who were present, and you saw that same joy, and

maybe even tears of joy, even though it had been years and maybe even decades since they

had made that decision, and I want you to notice it was not due to lust or greed or

power or money, this guilt-free joy they had.

We have available to us in Christ, and that's why the Christian life is like no other life.

We can have fulfillment and joy and peace, and we don't need sin in order to have that

happen.

But then also, the Christian life is the greatest life because our life is, we have a deeper

purpose in life.

Being a Christian gives us a deeper purpose in life.

Paul says in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 10, you know all about my purpose.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

And what is our purpose?

In Romans chapter 8 and verse 28, Paul says that our purpose is God's purpose for us.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

We know that all things work together for them that love God and them who are called

according to his purpose.

And then I'm reminded in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 9 through verse 11 that God's purpose

Ephesians 3:9

was purposed in his mind from eternity before he ever made you and me out of the dust of

the ground.

Long before time, God had in his mind that the church was going to be established and

his purpose was going to be carried out through the church.

So that means if you're a member of the church, you could not have a more profound purpose

than you do.

And so I learned that my purpose in life is God's purpose.

And I learned that I only carry out my purpose as a member of his church.

And so someone who comes along and says, me and God got our own thing going on, I don't

need the church.

Jesus, yes.

The church, no.

That denies the very purpose of God.

We fulfill our purpose as members of his church.

And so I'm not just, my purpose in life is not just a slave to earn a decent retirement.

I'm not here to just try to give my kids a better life than I had.

And I'm not here just to see how much fun and enjoyment I can have in this life.

As long as we live in this body, there is so much important work for us to do.

We have got to raise our children to be able to live as well-adjusted adults in this world.

And we need to provide for our own.

First Timothy 5 and verse 8 says, if anyone provides not for his own, he is worse than

an unbeliever and has denied the faith.

And it's legitimate for us, within its bounds, to enjoy the beauty and blessings that God

has created on this earth.

The problem comes when any one of these things or a combination of these things becomes our

central purpose.

Paul says, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ

sits at the right hand of God.

Set your affections on things above and not on things of the earth, Colossians 3 verse

Colossians 3:1

1 and 2.

As I prepare my children for adulthood, I've got to make greater preparations for their

eternity.

And as I earned my living in this world, I need to invest in the things that last eternally.

And as I see to my own happiness, I need to be interested in the needs of others, Philippians

2 and verse 4.

And so I want the purpose of Paul.

I mean, Paul is not saying this from an ivory tower of academia.

He is saying this from behind prison bars when he says, for to me to live is Christ

and to die is gain.

If I'm to go on living in the body, that will mean fruitful labor for me, but what shall

I choose?

No, for I desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is better by far, but it's more

necessary for you that I remain in the body, Philippians 1, 21 through 24.

We may be important in this world.

We may be vital to our community.

We may be making a big impact in the history books of this world, but if we're not a Christian,

that's for nothing.

There is no greater life than the Christian life because our lives have a deeper purpose.

If we're not living on the surface of life, we understand why we're here and what we're

to be doing.

But then, fourth, there's no life like the Christian life because in the Christian life,

my problems have no permanent hold over me.

I already know from the Bible I'm going to have problems.

Job was right when he said, man that is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble,

Job chapter 14 and verse 1.

Job 14 · chapter mention

They may be intense in nature.

They may be terminal in duration.

The difference is if you're a Christian, no problem is bigger than the Lord.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 8, we are hard pressed on every side, but

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down,

but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that

the life of Jesus may be revealed in our bodies.

Some who came into this auditorium tonight came in carrying some huge burdens.

In fact, you may be carrying burdens that'd be hard for many of us to fathom, and perhaps

it hurts really, really bad, but here's your confidence if you're a Christian.

No matter how severe that pain is, you won't feel the pain of it in heaven.

No matter how long you have to carry it through this life, it may be like Paul, that you've

got to carry that thorn or whatever it is all the way to the grave, but the thing is

you get to bury it in the grave.

It will only last at its longest through this life.

I love Paul's high watermark of assurance in Romans chapter 8 when he asks us who shall

Romans 8 · chapter mention

separate us from the love of Christ, and then he goes through a litany of things, and at

the end of it he's saying, knowing all these things were made more than conquerors through

him that loved us, and we can have a persuasion that nothing can separate us from the love

of God which is in Christ Jesus, Romans 8, 35 through 39.

There is no life like the Christian life because our problems do not have a permanent hold

over us.

And finally, there's no life like the Christian life because with the Christian life our future

is secure.

Man, the longer I live, the more I realize that the future just seems more and more uncertain.

I mean there is so much in the media world that's just trying to make its living on this

idea that things are so volatile and out of control, and really when we look at the world

stage how quickly things can change, and we don't know what things are going to be like.

I heard it said that if you're a millennial, I'm sorry, this is somebody that was a comedian

actually that said this, that said no wonder millennials are so distrustful.

They came of age and awareness on 9-11, and then they graduated during the economic crash.

And so really every major milestone is some kind of catastrophe, and maybe you understand

better than others how uncertain the world is.

Aren't you glad that there's more to look forward to in life than Social Security and

Medicare, 401k and retirement?

If growing old and the aches and pains that accompanied it were the only thing that we

had to look forward to, it'd be hard to face another day.

Paul said if in this life only we have hope in Christ Jesus, we are of all people most

to be pitied, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them

that sleep.

What does your future hold?

The Bible says we really don't know.

Boast not yourself of tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

Proverbs 27 and verse 1.

There's an old song that says, I don't know about tomorrow, I just live from day to day.

I don't borrow from its sunshine, for its sky as may turn to grey.

I don't worry or the future, for I know what Jesus said, and today I walk beside him, for

he knows what is ahead.

Many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand, but I know who holds the future,

and I know who holds my hand.

Too often, more than we want to, we have to stand by the bedside of death.

Some of our dear family members here have done that this week.

How many of us have done it this year?

And I'm talking about even if the one that you're saying goodbye to, an earthly goodbye,

is a faithful Christian, it is a hard place to be.

Anxiety fills the air, faces are wet with tears, heartache is in the air.

Death is not only the great unknown, it's the great equalizer.

You know what doesn't matter when you go to die?

Doesn't matter what color you are.

It doesn't matter what your portfolio is.

Doesn't matter how many degrees that you earn in this life.

It doesn't matter how well known you are in this world.

You go to die, the only thing that matters is, am I a Christian?

It impacts your look into the future, and your every tomorrow.

But if you're a Christian, do you see just a little sample platter of all the blessings

in heavenly places in Ephesians 1 and verse 3?

That first of all, your greatest problem has been taken care of.

If you have acted in faith in Jesus Christ, and repented of sins and been baptized, you're

forgiven.

Your sins are washed away.

When God looks at you, he sees the blood of his Son.

And you know, guilt being what it is, how wonderful to know that we don't have to carry

that guilt.

And secondly, look, nobody should be having more fun and more enjoyment out of life than

a Christian.

And what makes it better is that we don't have to rely on sin and immorality in order

to achieve it.

And whatever we accomplish in this life is secondary to the things we do in living the

Christian life.

It gives us the depth of purpose that we were meant to have.

And our problems, even though we're going to continue to accumulate them as long as

we're in this body, they don't have a permanent grip on us.

They have to let go when we die.

And our future, no matter what happens on this earth, our future is secure.

Because our future, my future may include a trip to the nursing home, but after that

it is a room in my father's house.

I'm not living for the golden years, I want to walk on that golden street.

And this is what's possible.

And what God has brought his Son into this world to give us, to be able to have.

Again, that should not make us arrogant or look down on another human being.

It should make us so driven to want to share that, so that others that we love and we know

can have it.

It means if we don't have it, that can change.

All it requires is for us to be obedient to our Father's plan of salvation.

And in doing that, we can live the Christian life.

And if we're not faithful, and we've turned away from the Father, we can come back home.

And he longs to welcome us and to restore us to sonship or daughtership.

Maybe that's a need that you have tonight.

If you do, we want to encourage you to come, even right now as we stand and sing.