Grace for Your Day July 26

The story is told of the time a pompous looking deacon asked the children in his Sunday School Class: “Why do people call me a Christian?” To which one little boy replied, “It is because they do not know you very well.”    While that is a funny story, it provides a chilling reminder of what a hypocrite is. It is someone who pretends to be something they are not. They claim to be a Christian when, in reality, those who know them would testify otherwise which is a major problem in the church today.

According to the latest figures, there are two to three billion professing believers in the world. This means that one out of every four people on the planet are “saved.” Twenty-five percent of the population claim to know God but that cannot be right. It must be a mistake because the world is still as wicked as ever. However, how can you tell? How can you spot a true Christian from a false one?

Jesus answers that question for us in John 15:1-2, 6, 16:To explain the context for that, John 13 tells us that Jesus spoke these words as He was washing the disciples’ feet. In other words, He said it as He was doing the most humiliating thing imaginable. It was so humiliating that it would take Him several chapters just to explain it to them so, in John 13, Jesus says that He did this because He loved the disciples. In John 14, He says that He did this so that they would not be troubled. In John 15, He says that He did it so they could tell the real thing from the fake because the real thing serves people. The point of this chapter is that you can identity a true believer from a false one by the fact that they do good deeds for others.

The Lord also uses this chapter to remind us that this is what the church is here to do. We have been “chosen” and “appointed” to go and bear fruit. The Lord has saved us so we can show the world a different sort of life which is what we are going to talk about this Sunday morning at Grace Fellowship Church.

What is the mission of the church? If you think about it, that question has been asked a lot throughout the years. It is a subject that has sparked a lot of debate but the answer is simple. It is our mission to bear fruit. The Lord has placed us on the earth so we can stand out from those around us by washing one another’s feet. We should be willing to do the most humiliating thing imaginable so Jesus Christ can be glorified which is what we are going to study in the sermon hour.

The sermon will be preached at our 8:30 and 10:15 services. It will also be available Sunday morning on our You Tube Channel and website for all who cannot be with us in person. Please join us as we learn more about this fascinating passage. We all need to be challenged in this department. We could all use a little encouragement to be a better fruit-bearer to the glory of God. – Jeremy Cagle