[Video – taped at a university campus] When you hear the word “Christian” what do you think? “Fanatics and insanists.”  Young adults think Christians are judgmental, hypocritical and anti-homosexual. Is it true? What do you think of when you hear the word “Christian”? “Blatant hypocrite.” “Christians are so quick to send people to Hell for so many different reasons.” When you hear the word “Christian” what do you think of? “Muslims think Christians are like the devil or something.” “Christians are following what they think the rules are, yet a lot of them do judge. I mean that is just the way they think and I think other people are just taking it personally.” “It brings a lot of different things to mind. In so many cases it brings to mind things that annoy me. Like people try to push it on me.” “Like they get lost in their Christianity and kind of lose sight of what God wants you to do. Some Christians just think about themselves.” “I admit I’ve had a few run-ins with some idiots and I had one pretty much get in my face and tell me I was going to Hell because I was Jewish. I just told him I would see him there. You don’t see any Jews going around knocking on your door on the weekends or passing out info telling you that you are wrong to your face.” “Well they come off as being judgmental; they are just really strong in their religion sometimes.” When you guys hear the word “Christian” what do you think about? “Politics.”  “People are judgmental now these days - like people just judge you for who you are not.” “I know more about the Bible than you and then you look at them and they’ll do something that’s completely against the Bible.” Do you think that Christians really care about the world? “Yeah, actually I do think they do. I am just not a fan.” You know there is a study out there that says Christians are judgmental, hypocritical and anti-homosexual. What do you think about that? “To a certain degree they are. I think it’s something that is breed into their culture just like anybody’s culture.” “I am cool with Christians. I am cool with Muslims you know. I don’t judge you by your religions so don’t judge me by mine. If you are supposed to love all people then shouldn’t you love them regardless of what they believe?”

[Mike]Those are people in your own community, and I would say that Christianity has an image problem wouldn’t you? As a matter of fact, we had to spend almost half the day to find an under 35 year old in this area that had something positive to say about Christians. Those over 35 had more positive comments. But with those people under 35, is like everything that you just heard.

Open your Bibles to Matthew 5. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 in the gospel of Matthew are the Sermon on the Mount, and the Sermon on the Mount is about who we are suppose to be as followers of Jesus. It’s more about being than believing. And you have to BE the gospel before other people are going to believe the gospel. Look at Matthew 5:13, the words of Jesus. “You are the salt of the earth but if the salt loses its saltiness how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under foot. You are the light of the world. A city on the hill can not be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp nor put it under a bowl, instead they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way let your shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.”

I shared with Carolyn that I had no idea a year ago when I sat up in our loft and spent hours typing the book, Change the World; the whole denomination was going to pick up the Change the World title and make it a movement. Now there are churches from 13 different countries signed up to commit Saturday and Sunday next weekend to work outside the walls of their church and serve in their community. On Wednesday, I was presented with a check for $50,000. The proceeds from the books or t-shirts you bought generated $50,000 in two months.  That check is the seed money for the anti-malaria campaign. I had no idea this movement, out of Ginghams burg, would generate a commitment from the United Methodist Church. This is the first part of it, which is to raise $75 million dollars by 2015 to eliminate malaria in Africa. Isn’t that amazing? Malaria is both preventable and treatable yet one child dies every 30 seconds from Malaria. A million people will die this year from malaria. Even American Idol has gotten caught up in this. Did you notice their money is going to be donated to help wipe out Malaria? Change the World inspired people in Austin, Texas.  Next Sunday is World Malaria Day in Austin, and they are celebrating it with an event concert. The group Jars of Clay is going to kick off this $75 million dollar campaign in Austin, Texas. This is very exciting.

Now as followers of Jesus we’ve got to really caution ourselves against compassion fatigue. I encourage you to take notes because compassion fatigue is a word that you need to write down. It is really easy when we are out there in the midst of all of the crises that are happening in the world to become fatigued. It seems that you just begin to focus on one, and then a month later there is another major earthquake some place else in the world. We will continue working in Darfur, and we have also put close to $100,000 into Haiti It’s really easy to hunker down in the bunkers of our sanctuary and say "what’s the use?" But God is not abandoning the world. God is not giving up on the world. After the resurrection, Jesus gave the church both a mission and a means to accomplish that mission. You know he hung out with the disciples for 40 days after the resurrection and said this, “All authority has been given to me in Heaven and earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” Jesus said everything, so it is not like we can vote on it. The supreme authority of the universe has given us this mission. So God’s plan is not to abandon the earth or condemn the earth. Jesus said, “I did not come to condemn the world but that the world may be saved through me.” God’s plan is to raise up this community of disciple priests who would be committed to change the world through God’s power. That’s the means. Right before Jesus’ ascension into heaven he said “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you to be my witnesses.” Now when the Bible talks about witnesses, we need to understand the total depth of that word. Too many times Christians limit the meaning of witness to our words - you know, sharing Jesus with another person. But when the Bible talks about witness it goes way beyond words to mean the content of your character and your actions. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. So we become this community of disciples and priests, the demonstration on earth of God’s presence, of God’s character and God’s purpose.

While we traveled through Dayton to understand people’s perspective on Christianity, we realized we’ve got a problem. And for a really good reason. Would you be honest with me and admit that we Christians tend to have a disconnect between our words and actions, our beliefs and our behaviors? Do any of us struggle with that? So even in my growing up experiences in the church, I couldn’t wait to leave the church when I was 18. I was raised in a house where I was forced to go to church, Sunday school and Bible school. Were any of you raised in that kind of home? I hated it. I regularly thank my parents now for making me go to church. But here is the problem. Regardless of what I was taught in Sunday School -  all the cute little songs, Jesus loves all the little children, all the children of the world - church was boring and irrelevant and the people I saw and grew up with in the church were judgmental. They were hypocritical, and most of all in the 1960’s they were racists. So on one hand they were teaching me Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, yet they were using the “N” word, they were talking about everything that was wrong with Dr. Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement. I could see the hypocrisy.

I went to Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1967, when I was 16 years old. Much to my surprise, I ran into a group of Jesus people, black and white, who were demonstrating a totally different value. They were demonstrating Kingdom of God kind of love, and it was the most contagious thing that I had ever seen. And during the next couple of years I ran into a few more of those Jesus types. Notice I said a few because there were not a lot of them. I became one. The reason I am here today is because of the quality of God life that I have seen in other people. Hearing is not believing. I heard that Rogaine would grow hair. It didn’t.  Hearing is not believing, seeing is believing. It is what Jesus means when he says you are not like salt, you are not like light, you are the salt of the earth. You are the light in the world. You have to BE the gospel sisters and brothers before anyone else is going to believe the gospel. Now, look at the metaphor Jesus used: salt, what is salt? Salt is a preservative. It is necessary for the survival of all living creatures. You can’t live without salt. So you see God is not abandoning the earth. God is not judging or condemning the earth, God is preserving. God is redeeming and preserving the earth. He is changing the world through this group of disciple priest who are empowered with his spirit to demonstrate his character in the world. You have to BE the gospel before other people will believe the gospel. Can salt lose its saltiness? No it really can’t because it is sodium chloride. You can dissolve it, but until it is totally dissolved, it is still sodium chloride. But salt can lose its usefulness.

Carolyn and I used to rent a little cottage up in Lake Erie in June every year. Have any of you ever stayed in a summer cottage that is not winterized? We remembered that we would pick up the salt shaker that was on the table and shake it and it sounded like a golf ball was inside the salt shaker. No matter what you did it wasn’t any good: it became like a piece of rock because moisture got into it. Well in Roman civilization when salt became like rock and it was no longer useful for preservative, they would break it up and mix it with stone. It would become part of the pavement because it was no longer useful as a preservative. The only thing it was good for was for people to walk on it. So you see, you can receive the spirit of God and no longer be useful for Gods preservative purpose in the world because your believing no longer matches your being.

Now what is the purpose of light? Light guides right? We are to be Gods guides in a world of darkness. You don’t keep light in sanctuaries of worship. We don’t keep it here, but we shine light into the darkest places on the planet. Did any of you see PBS last week? PBS did a national segment on Ginghamsburg Church, our work in Dayton and Darfur. They showed it all over the nation last Sunday at different times. It is powerful. They spent a lot of money on it. They flew into Dayton twice with the film crews. They allowed us to use it on my blog, www.mikeslaughter.com in high definition for a limited time. Go to www.mikeslaughter.com and click on that segment to watch it. What is interesting is that we are getting emails from all over the country from that segment.

I flew into Baltimore on Monday evening, and the guy that picked me up said I saw you on TV last night. I got a hand-written letter from a woman in Portland, Oregon with a $25 check stapled to it saying she want to contribute to our work in Darfur and she is going to send $25 every month. A professor at the University of Dayton was so impressed she showed the segment in her class on Monday morning. But the most intriguing letter or email that I received was from a young man in Amsterdam, New York. Here is what he said. “Dear Reverend Slaughter, one of my favorite shows is Religion and Ethics on PBS. I saw you the other night and became very inspired to write you. I am not a Christian but if I lived closer I would want to attend your church.”

Now what does Matthew 5:16 say? “In the same way let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” I know many good and loving Christians personally and on television, from many different denominations. However, so few of them agree on anything about Christianity and actually walk the walk. Isn’t it interesting that non-Christians are looking for anyone out there that walks the walk and does not just talk the talk? “Sadly I don’t have a spiritual home but I wish I could try yours. Thank you for what you do.” Not what you say. Thank you for what you do. See we’ve got to BE the gospel sisters and brothers before other people are going to believe the gospel. I will say this again and again. You are the only Bible that most people are ever going to read. It is what the word means when it says you show that you are a letter from Christ, written not with ink but from the spirit of the living God. It is exactly what Jesus meant when he said the Kingdom of God is within you. You have to be the gospel before other people will believe it. St. Francis of Assisi put it this way; preach the gospel always and when necessary use words. Don’t you love that? When necessary use words. The work of the spirit is two-fold.

1) It is personal in that it is transforming our character.

2) It’s social in that the gospel is transforming the world.

Now here is the challenge we have with the transformation of character. We live in a fast-food culture. And like it or not, the commodity of value today is speed and hurry. I mean if you can’t adapt you are not going to survive in this culture of speed and hurry. Here was my schedule just this past week: Last Sunday I was in North Carolina. On Monday I was in Columbus, OH and Baltimore, MD. I was in Baltimore, MD and Nashville, TN on Tuesday. On Wednesday I was in Nashville, TN and Dayton, OH. When I got back I had a whole week of work to do. Some of you have the same stuff going on plus you have little league sports you have to coach. We do all of this stuff, but the problem is that the fast-food culture within us produces fast-food character. It produces characters of superficiality. Now think about it a minute. If you are constantly living on a fast food diet, what does it do to your body? Have any of you seen some of those shows about food and what we eat? How we literally and chemically become what we eat? Well it is the same thing with our characters. We become what we give our attention to.

Do any of you know who Richard Foster is? He writes a lot of stuff about the inner life, the inner journey. He says this, “Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people or gifted people but deep people.” You know what we need to do is begin to notice the symptoms within ourselves when there is a disconnect between our believing and our being. When I get out there and am going at a fast pace I start noticing my character. I was on a flight not too long ago. I boarded the flight in Orlando and flew to Atlanta, GA this past February. I hate getting on a plane in Orlando because it is always filled with kids wearing Mickey Mouse ears, do you know what I mean? It’s like they are hyped up on sugar and then get on the plane. What I really work hard at, because I fly so much, is getting an aisle seat. I always fly economy unless I can bump up through frequent flyer miles so I try to get an aisle seat. So I’m sitting in my aisle seat, amazed at all the languages I hear on an airplane. People come from around the world to visit these theme parks in Orlando. There was a group of Chinese folks flying to Atlanta to take a flight back to Beijing. A woman, who had a young daughter, came up to me and asked if I would trade my seat with her so she could sit next to her little girl. I asked her where her seat was, and she told me she had a window seat. I thought “No way am I trading with you lady. I am out here working hard with Jesus you know…” God is not done with me yet. We have to pay attention to the symptoms of the fast-food culture. There was a guy I had noticed when I got on the plane sitting in an aisle seat ahead of me. He had tattoos on his forehead, his neck and the whole deal. He turned around and told her that he would trade seats with her.  Now when I got on I thought this was a dude who looked like he needed Jesus. When I got off I thought this was probably Jesus teaching me a lesson. It bothered me deeply. I mean where is this selfishness within me because you know with Jesus the lowest job on the totem pole was washing feet. We have to make serving others’ needs more important than our own sisters and brothers. So isn’t it interesting that God will bring that same test back. A week or two later I had a flight from Seoul, Korea to Tokyo, Japan and I got bumped up with my frequent flyer miles, so I got an aisle seat in business class. A young Korean woman, who looked like she couldn’t speak English, sat next to me. Wouldn’t you know it, her husband, comes up and asked if I would trade my business class seat and go back to his in economy so he could sit next to his wife. I was not going to learn this lesson twice. It gave me an opportunity to practice what I needed to learn. All of us need to pay attention to those symptoms where there is a disconnect from our believing and our being. Any time there is indifference to the things that concern God, the things that matter most to the heart of God, the widow and the orphan, when there is complacency to sin or evil in our life. When there is a lack of grace, when we see judgment in our life.

You know right now there is a total lack of civility. Everyone is calling their brother and sister a fool. Now look at what Jesus says right here in Matthew 5:22. Jesus says, “Anyone who says to their brother or sister you fool will be in danger of Hell of fire.” All of these young people we saw on the screen see us as Pharisees – arrogant, focused on materialism. All of our words on the outside give the appearance of godliness but on the inside there is a total lack of God-life. If we are going to change the world we have to give constant attention to character fitness. Soul health. How many of you have a weekly plan for physical health in your life? Now you know I made a commitment to run a half marathon. My son hooked me into it. Yesterday I ran my longest distance so far. I have three weeks to go. I am three weeks from the race, and I ran 12 miles yesterday. A half marathon is 13+ miles. I discovered that you just can’t go out and run a half marathon. A month ago I couldn’t run 8 miles, so I have had to build up. I went from 4.4 to 5 miles for my long run. Two weeks ago my long run was 8 miles. My long run a week ago was 9.1 miles. Yesterday it was 12 miles. You have to build up to it. Now with any change in our life or transformation, compare this with transformation of character, you have to make a commitment. Think physical transformation but also think character transformation. You need a plan. I have had a concrete weekly plan for the last 12 weeks to train for this half marathon. Now we need that same concrete plan on a weekly basis, a daily basis to put into effect a character transformation.

Not only did I make a commitment to a plan, I made a commitment to pain. I am on Ibuprofen this morning. When I got out of bed I was walking like the Tin Man. Did I tell you that my son got me into this and then broke his ankle last week? I have been suckered. When he came in on crutches last week, some people said to him they guessed it meant that his dad was quitting now. No, when you make a commitment with your mouth there is no quitting Jesus. Life doesn’t give us that option. All transformation in any area of our life, whether it is physical transformation or it is character spiritual transformation, involves hurt. So many people in any place of change in your life, let’s say it is diet/exercise, or breaking a bad habit in your life, you quit when it begins to hurt. Am I talking to the right people? But all transformation involves hurt. That’s why I even have a mantra when I am running, when I get to the wall: run through the quit. Run through the quit. So when you come up to something in your life like selfishness or whatever that character failure is, where your being is not aligning with your believing, don’t rationalize it, don’t defend yourself against it, run through the quit.

What is the mission Jesus is giving us? To be disciples, to go out and transform the world. What is the means? The power of the Holy Spirit. The power of the Spirit is not something we just plug into and experience instant results, like a lamp in the wall. This is so important. It is a power that is developed. Just like I couldn’t go out and run a marathon, or half marathon. I had to run 4.4, 5.2, and 6.1 miles and the power of the spirit in our life is developed in the same way. When you were born again you received all the fullness of God. Am I right? But it is just like when you were born physically, you received all of the fullness of human capacity to become who you are intellectually. To become who you are creatively. But when you were born you were a helpless infant. See you have to work the capacity that God has given you intellectually. You have to work the capacity that God has given you creatively. You have to work the capacity of the Holy Spirit to become the Christ-like person that God has created you to be in the world. See that’s why the Bible says work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Yes I have the power of God, but I have to labor in the power of God. Listen to the word, Colossians 1:29, “To this end I labor struggling with all of his energy who so powerfully works in me.” So I labor and struggle with the energy that God has placed in me.

So folks, we have to BE the gospel before anyone else can believe the gospel. Just like I have a plan for physical fitness, I need a concrete, specific plan for the pursuit of godliness in my life. Today is my day off, but tomorrow I hit the gym. When I hit the gym I know exactly what I am working on. Tomorrow I will work on my chest, back, bi’s and tri’s but no running. I know what free weights I’m going to use. I know the machines I’m going to use. So just like machines in a gymnasium that are very concrete, I need concrete disciplines in my life for character transformation. You know one of the concrete disciplines I use is a practice monies use. They call it catharsis; I call it purging. When I am running every day I look at three areas like the monks do. They call it cleaning the house. One is money: the seed of material things in me becomes a force of destruction. It is called the lust of the eyes.

The second thing they look at that can become a real force of destruction in our life is sex. Man, aren’t we hearing this everywhere right now? Everything from presidents to priests to actors to athletes. I mean the lust within us has an incredible potential to destroy. Lust for anything. Too much of anything.

And the third thing I look for is pride. Pride is when you think you are right and someone else is wrong, you defend yourself against that person instead of listening. You lose the humility to listen and grow. I have to work this like physical machines for my body so these become the physical machines for my character transformation. I have three questions for you to work with this week. Here is the first question:

1) How much time in a week do you commit to physical health and how much to character health? How much energy do I give to physical character development and health? Remember what the apostle Paul said, “Physical fitness has value for this life but how much more spiritual fitness for eternity and the life to come.”

2) In the past week, how much energy have you given to your physical appearance and how much to character development? Well, I work on physical appearance everyday. I get up, I shower and shave. Just think of the past week, and ask yourself, how much time have I given to the care of my physical appearance versus the time for character development? Measuring character development can come from reading great books like Richard Foster and great folks in addition to the Bible.

3) Current life strategy. I hope everyone here has a life strategy or focus. Is your focus more on temporal success? You know what temporal success is right? What is happening on this earth right now, no eternal significance. Now this is important; I want you to get this. I want temporal success, but temporal success is a by-product of a life that’s pursuing eternal significance it’s not the goal. When I was writing this book Change the World I prayed the word of Jabez, that God would extend the scope of my influence, not for my sake but for the Kingdom of God. So I had no idea the denomination would pick the book title up and make it a movement. Or that $50,000 dollars for children and malaria would be raised in two months. So you see I want temporal success but temporal success should always be a by-product of the pursuit of eternal significance.

We are going to take some time to pray for each other today. You can’t worship together without praying for one another. The Holy Spirit spoke to me before I came up last night and told me that many of you are in real need right now. God knows the need. Jesus said where two or more us come together in agreement on anything it will be done. What I’d like for us to do is to pray for those of you who have an unspoken need. God knows the need so we are just agreeing for it to be met.

What we want to do is come together in our community of love and fuel God’s heart for you and your concern. God’s perfect will. God is not a God of sickness. God is not a God of disease. God’s not a God of failure. God will allow failure in our lives to turn us back to him.

Father God, I just read in Your word this morning that You met every one of us in our mother’s womb. None of us are accidents and we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Every thought You have of us brings You to light. So I pray for every precious person in this room, that for the need they are offering up to You right now, You bring it in perfect alignment with your eternal purpose and plan. We pray this together in agreement in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.