Today I want to share a message entitled Just Shy of Jesus. Do you know that we can be followers of Christ and yet fall just short of following Him? It can be detrimental. At the same time there are things that you and I can do that can make sure that we are absolutely accurate and consistent in following our Lord and Savior. How do we live a faith that is of accuracy and consistency versus something that is very inaccurate or very inconsistent? A relationship that is inaccurate and inconsistent is disaster.

So how can we follow the Lord in the way He would want? What relationship is pleasing to Him as He defines it, and what He teaches about it? But not just what He teaches about it but in the heart and spirit with which He taught us. And how does He best teach us? He simply walked it and lived it. So today we will get close to our Lord and get to spend some time with Jesus.

If we ask Jesus this question, “What does it mean to just be shy or fall short of following Jesus?” You know Jesus was not shy of just being Jesus, our savior, Lord, and king of the universe. If Jesus was shy of being Jesus you and I would not have hope. Eternity would be a fleeting thing for us. There would be more and more of a distancing between hope and eternity, and us. But I’m so grateful and thankful that Jesus was not shy of being Jesus.

If we are following Jesus who was not shy of being Jesus and if we are in Him and He is in us then the more we follow Jesus the more we look like Him. When it comes to our relationships we would look more and more like Jesus. We can be just shy or short in other things but when it comes down to the most essential thing in life, we don’t want to be just shy. So how do we live accurately and consistently?

There might be doors in my life and in your life that have been slammed shut in our faces or dreams that are impossible. And you may have given up, you may have thrown in the towel, you may have said “I’m done or this situation is done, the marriage is done, my kids are out of control”. However, when you walk with Jesus - the creator of the universe - the Bible says that there is nothing that is impossible that you can’t do through Christ who strengthens you.

How do we make sure that we walk with accuracy, with consistency, with the heart of Christ? And there is a big difference between just walking according to His teachings and also having the heart and spirit with which He lived them out. If we are really followers of Christ we are not just doing what He says but how He did what He says is what we are about too. He is in us and we are in Him and if we are trying to follow Christ to the best to our abilities, then we received him as Lord and savior. But only in one way. And this must be a principle that never leaves you, is always on the forefront of your head, mind, behavior, actions, and your life. So always remember …

"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know My Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.'" (John 14:6-7)

In other words, the Bible is saying that when we follow the real, true Biblical person of Jesus and His heart for your life and mine God-size stuff happens. When you want to see God-size stuff happen in your future, your faith, your marriage, with your kids - just hang out with real Jesus. You see, there are a lot of versions of Jesus out there. There are good ones, bad ones, ok and average versions of Jesus to follow; but every version will not be the real Jesus. We are to follow the real person of Jesus Christ.

Every single one of us can live an accurate and consistent life in Christ which will always reveal God’s direction, His truth, and you will always be filled with life.

We will be looking at two principles. Two irreducible, essential principals will help you gain accuracy and consistency when it comes to your faith in walking with Christ. Shyness is derived ultimately from fear. And when it comes to Jesus I wonder why sometimes we get shy of the person of Christ when we follow Him in a very simple and pure way. With Christ there must not be any fear. Sometimes we think of God as our dad or an authoritarian, or how someone may have treated us that had power over us in one point in our lives. God is none of those; God is God. Jesus is who Jesus is. But sometimes we can take our experiences and think, “Because of my dad or this authoritarian, and how he dealt with me when I made mistakes and messed up, it is always in punishment, in anger, in ridicule, in rejection, and sometimes I feared that those in authority might do the same and so therefore we shy away at times. But the Bible says in 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

Cross references:

1. 1 John 4:18 : Ro 8:15

God is love. When we come to the Lord, He will never look at your sins, mistakes, frailties, faults and then beat you down because of them. That’s not the Lord. Everything that the Lord does when it comes to a relational exchange comes from love. When we follow Christ, just as he loves us, we should love one another. When we follow Christ in purity, simplicity, with our devotion, then you will always have a way, you will always find truth, and you will always be filled with life wherever you go. And here at New Hope we really believe with all of our hearts that it is just not taking the teachings of God, but it is walking out those teachings with the proper heart. How do we do that?

There are two essential things when it comes to staying accurate and consistent in our walk with Christ …

A. Requires closeness not just a choice.

Often we say, “I want to go to heaven. So I choose to receive You.” The choice is the first step but it requires more than a choice. The beginning is the choice of saying, “Lord I need forgiveness; therefore I am going to become someone who believes that you have hope, a future, and eternity for me.” The next step is moving from a choice to closeness. Choice would be I make a choice to become familiar with whatever God had for me such as to be familiar with the Bible, the Christian walk, and the things of God. Familiarity and intimacy are miles apart. When we understand how important it is to be accurate and consistent in walking with Christ, we will move from choice to closeness.

When it comes to married life, familiarity and intimacy is no substitute for one another. If one is confused with the other we have the basis for major marital unrest. In marriage, familiarity is something inescapable since you will be familiar with your spouse. But intimacy is usually hard to come by for it must be deliberately sought out, opened up and responded to. There must be openness. Familiarity brings a degree of ease and comfort, but intimacy anxiously searches for deep understanding and personal appreciation. Accuracy and consistency is being obedient to what Jesus taught and the heart and spirit to which he lived it out.

* It’s heart work not just head work.

Sometimes we can just come to a place where we gain a certain knowledge of Him and understand His teachings in our head. However, if we are not allowing the Lord to change our hearts, who we are as people and walk in His spirit and heart then we will just be people that know a lot about God but we won’t really know God. We want to be people of New Hope that are not just familiar with one another and with God our savior, but also are intimate with a personal and growing relationship that is accurate and consistent.

In the world of Science, accuracy and consistency would be defined as something called reproducible. When scientists come to findings they want to make sure that their findings are accurate and consistent. Therefore they try to reproduce the results of their previous experiments. If we are not accurate and consistent with Christ then our faith will never be reproducible. Ultimately it will affect our children and the generations to come.

As the Bible says, "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." (Col 2:6-7)

So it’s just not receiving Him but that’s just the start. There is an intimate, growing, continuous, and personal relationship with God. Why? Because God has so much for you and me. And sometimes we stop so short of the person of Jesus and we miss out on the heaven size stuff that God has for us. We can be just shy of Jesus and come up short or we can overshoot him and go way past Him. But instead, try to be consistent by getting close to Jesus.

B.  Must make authenticity essential in your walk with Christ.

* Authenticity requires trust and transparency.

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." (Prov. 3:5-6 KJV)

That word trust is a Hebrew word that means to fall in to or to lean back. I know that when I lean back the Lord will catch me, because I trust him. There is a difference between belief and trust.  It is easy to say that we believe in Christ but another to live like we trust in Him.  We would take risks for Christ because we would trust that He would be there for us no matter what.

Know the differences between:

• CONVICTIONS - Essential To Faith and Life
• TANGENTS - Non Essential To Faith and Life
• FANATICISM - Getting Others To Rally Around Non-Essentials.

"But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:7-9)

When we walk in the light, we hope that we are transparent so that people will see God and not us. That will affect our fellowship with one another. It will open up doors that have been shut and the impossible things will become possible. The Bible says that one can be someone of many sins but you will be purified without sin. But if we deceive ourselves and say that nothing is wrong with us, “I have my life together, I don’t need anyone to speak about this, that everybody should match up to me”, then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we are transparent and we confess and say, “Lord, you know I need forgiveness, you know I make mistakes”, He will forgive you and you will be purified from all unrighteousness. Then the world will see Jesus pure and simple in the heart of Christ and the spirit with which He walked this earth. And when we of New Hope walk out this door we will be a people of simplicity and purity and devotion to Christ which will affect your loved ones first and everyone else; and when we accomplish this then will people see us as they see Jesus.

Questions:

1. What does it mean to just be shy of Jesus?

2.  How do we live accurately and consistently?

3.  How do we make sure that we walk with accuracy, with consistency and with the heart of Christ?

4. What are the two essential things when it comes with staying accurate and consistent in our walk with God?

5.  What does authenticity require?