The Normal Christian Life

Pastor Mike Hendon

• What is the normal Christian life?
• The word normal means conforming to a type,
standard, or regular pattern
• By the world’s standard a “normal” Christian is
far different from the Biblical norm
• The world’s norm…..”A Christian is someone
who….”
• According to a Barna Research Report 6 out of
10 Americans have no affiliation with a
church, house church, or a ministry of any
kind
• Almost 20%(1 out of 5) of those say they are
born again and faith is very important
• (19%) read the Bible and three out of every
five (62%) pray to God during a typical week.
• The numbers consistently point out that those
who live without a regular face-to-face faith
connection tend to be relatively isolated from
the mainstream of society, tend to be non-
committal in institutional and personal
relationships, and typically revel in their
independence. Attempting to get them
involved in the life of a church is a real
challenge.
• What’s wrong with these people?
– Two realities:
• The media has painted a very negative picture of
Christians and the Church
• It is relatively rare to find someone who is an exemplar
of the Christian faith
• Consequently, millions of Americans have less trouble
embracing Christ than they have embracing Christianity,
only in the minds of most it is a package deal
• What’s wrong with us?
– Just 16% of non-Christians in late teens and
twenties have a ‘good impression” of Christianity
– Only 3% of 16-29 year olds have favorable views
of evangelicals
– Common negative perceptions include:
• Christianity is judgmental(87%)
• Hypocritical(85%)
• Old-fashioned(78%)
• Too involved in politics(75%)
• In the words of those polled “Christianity has
changed from what it used to be…and no longer
looks like Jesus..”
• “..something is broken…”
• It is time for the church to do some SELF-
evaluation. “Examine yourselves as to whether
you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not
know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—
unless indeed you are disqualified” 2 Cor.13:5
• The definition of the Christian life: “it is no longer
I who live, but Christ lives in me” Ga. 2:20
• 2 Corinthians 5:21
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for
us, that we might become the righteousness of
God in Him.
• God’s norm: Christ IN me, Christ INSTEAD of me,
Christ MORE me LESS
• It is NOT me living for God—that is futile and
frustrating—making me plastic and phoney
• Ga.2:15-16We Jews know that we have no advantage of
birth over "non-Jewish sinners." We know very well
that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but
only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we
know? We tried it—and we had the best system of
rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no
human being can please God by self-improvement, we
believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be
set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by
trying to be good
• Ga.2:17-18Have some of you noticed that we are
not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?)
And are you ready to make the accusation
that since people like me, who go through
Christ in order to get things right with God,
aren't perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore
be an accessory to sin? The accusation is
frivolous. If I was "trying to be good," I would
be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore
down. I would be acting as a charlatan
• Ga.2:19-21What actually took place is this: I tried keeping
rules and working my head off to please God, and it
didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could
be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and
enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with
him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego
is no longer central. It is no longer important that I
appear righteous before you or have your good
opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God.
Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not
"mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who
loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go
back on that.
• Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old
rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be
an abandonment of everything personal and
free in my relationship with God? I refuse to
do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living
relationship with God could come by rule-
keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily
• God’s answer to everything is JESUS!
• God’s work is GRACE!
• God’s requirement is HUMILITY!
• God’s result: No longer I but Christ!
• The Son of God DIED instead of us for our
forgiveness—He LIVES instead of us for our
deliverance!