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This week our worship leader Hunter spoke. It is the second week in our “core” series about discovering the “core” of Christianity.  Hunter began where we began last week saying there was a time in America when you could assume a Christian worldview, but that time has passed. There was a day when you could be vague in your understanding of Christ, but not today. Everyone is searching for the truth and when they don’t find it they begin creating their own truths which is no truth at all. Our country is littered with religions, cults, and blurs of the truth. In otherwords its become a “land of blur.” Hunter spoke on the law of living in the land of blur: if you are casual in your commitment to Christ, the current of culture will pull you under. 1 Timothy 4:1-10 talks about a time of blur and what we can do to remain focused on the core, the gospel.

If we are casual in our commitment we will be tempted to abandon the faith, by adding to God’s plan of salvation our own philosophies or others around us; by trying to improve on God’s will for our lives, therfore taking us out of His will; or by giving up hope because the current is too strong.  Hunter encouraged us to stay commited to Chist, trust in God alone, that His plan for our lives is perfect and nothing in this world can shake that or stop Him from accomplishing it in our lives! In today’s casual culture there is a clear enemy. It may seem there are just a bunch of options but scripture makes it clear that there is only God’s way and Satan’s way. We are either for God or against Him and if we are casual then our lives are against Him. Consciences are fading in the land of blur and people are teaching that we should eliminate our feelings of guilt and verse 2 talks about that. If we get casual we are liable to fall in that category denying our need for a Savior.

Verse 5 shows us how to stay commited in the “land of blur” by living lives that are set apart through spending time in the word and prayer. If we don’t use scripture as a filter then we will weaken our foundation with all of the imitation found in culture. We must actively “follow” Christ or we will drift away from God in our casual-ness. We cannot drift toward God or drift into heaven, we must commit our lives to following God, therefore abandoning the things of this world. If we allow ourselves to be casual then we trade the temporary for the eternal, as verse 7 talks about, leaving us with an empty life and a God-less eternity. 

Hunter asked us if we had stepped into a “full acceptance” (4:9) of the gospel. Not full acceptance that church was good or Jesus was a good man but full acceptance that we need a Savior and we find that in Christ alone. Verse 10 teaches us that Jesus is Savior to all, both to those who are part of the current and to those of us who may have gotten casual. He will rescue us if we are only willing to commit to Him and ask! We had a good many people respond to the grace of God and commit to following Christ either for the first time

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Pastor began the “CORE” series by asking us if we could create our own religion, what would it look like? And the truth is the majority of American society is doing just that. Yet there is a push back against “religion” in this country. We are open to spirituality, but not religion. How is it that everyone is living out their own religion, yet disagrees with stated “religion?” Religion by definition is a system of belief concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe – usually involving devotion, ritual, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs. There it is. That’s our issue. We all have our own religion, but we rebel against the idea of being governed by it. Spirituality in a sense is free from the governing. 

This throwing off of the “straps” of religion has left the door wide open for hodgepodge of different spiritual ideas and philosophies to be introduced into the mainstream of American society. There was a day when you could assume a Christian worldview in American culture. Not today. There was a time when you could be vague in your understanding. That time has passed. If you don’t understand what you believe and why you believe it, it is only a matter of time before the belief system you have is one of your own making…is one of imitation. Many people live out a Christianity that is based on imitation not foundation. The purpose of this series is to move us from imitation to foundation. 

In Galatians, Paul addresses this exact situation in a church he planted. They weren’t worshipping other gods, but they had so diluted the truth with things not of God that they had begun pursuing a different gospel. Everyone is pursuing something, desperately searching for answers and if we don’t find the truth we will create our own “truth” that is no “truth” at all. You cannot absorb from the culture around you, even that which is proclaimed to be “Christian” and assume that you are building on foundation and not imitation.  

The author A.W. Tozer wrote 45 years ago, almost prophetically, these words:  

“Left to ourselves we tend to immediately reduce God to manageable terms. We want to get Him where we can use Him, or at least know where He is when we need Him. We want a God we can in some measure control. We need the feeling of security that comes from knowing what God is like, and what He is like (to us) is of course a composite of all the religious pictures we have seen, all the best people we have known or heart about, and the sublime ideas we have entertained”  

We have taken the real God and the real gospel and come up with our own imitation. 

Pastor then poured out three types of sugar only one of which was real. He described how they all look alike, act like, taste a little alike, but only one is the real thing. Only one achieves correct results, the others can cause cancer. The problem with imitation is it is superficial, it has undesirable side effects, and it carries no guarantee. We copy the look and attempt to mimic the feel, but we know nothing of the core. Imitation has side effects because true impact comes from the core not the surface-and when you imitate, you may think you know, but you have no idea where your real core comes from or takes its meaning. It carries no guarantee, because it’s not authentic. With imitation you can be as easily deceived as you can be helped… because you have no understanding of the foundation or destination of what you imitate. Lastly, imitation buckles under pressure. What good is your imitation of God if when you need Him most, He doesn’t come through? Embrace the CORE of the gospel.