Sermon
Four Voices
November 21, 1999
Pastor Leigh Bishop

I do have two purposes in the sermon that I'm going to share with you today. The first is to cause you to do some inner searching to be willing to ask yourself the hard questions, and to give the honest answers that are so essential to our growth in Christ, and to face honestly yourself and where you are in your walk with Christ. But the second is to leave you especially with a word of encouragement so as you go out of this place you go out with a firm and solid understanding of who you are and where you are in Christ. 

I've entitled my sermon 'Four Voices', voices that speak to us in our walk with Christ. When God called Moses he called a man who was somewhat fearful and insecure and in fact constantly telling God that he couldn't speak and was not able to do it, and finally God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM". Go and tell the people of Israel that I AM has sent you. And He was telling Moses that whatever you need Me to be in whatever situation you're in at whatever time in your life, I will be more than sufficient. And of course Moses needed that because he really didn't have much support from the people he was leading out of Egypt, almost unwillingly, and throughout those desert experiences he never lost sight of who God was and what God could do. A couple thousand years later, a new covenant came down through the person of Jesus Christ. 

The apostle Paul wrote some powerful words. I'd like for you to join me in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. As we read these words that Paul penned by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, probably some of the beautiful and profound words in Scripture. Beginning at verse 1 Paul writes; Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you – unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. 

I'm going to go back to that key phrase in verse 10 where Paul said, by the grace of God I am what I am. Father we pray as we look into Your word today that it will speak to our hearts, challenge us in new and fresh ways, may the Holy Spirit individualize this message to each one of us so that we go from this place having heard what we need to hear to make us more effective in the cause of Christ. We pray that in Jesus' name, amen. Four voices. The first voice is the voice of memory. The voice that says to you and to me I am not what I used to be. If you're here today and you have identified with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you've invited Him into your life and allowed Him to be the Lord of your life, you are not the person you were. 

The Bible says, if any man be in Christ he is a new creation, old things are passed away, behold all things become new. If you haven't changed since you gave your life to Christ, you gave your life to the wrong Jesus because He transforms you and He changes you. We live in a day and age today when we have what I call easy believism. In the old days we used to say repent and believe. Now we say believe, and because there is no repentance people see no need to change their lifestyles. Basically, what they do is they write Jesus into their calendar, where He fits best. Jesus cannot be a Lord of somebody's life who merely fits Him into their calendar. He must be the one who controls the calendar, but He changes our lives. 

Some of you come from lives that you know how much He changed you. Maybe you were into drugs or into crime or into prostitution, or any number of other things that are so evident of a bad lifestyle, and you know that Jesus changed you. There's no question about it. Others of you may have been in the lifestyle that I was in. When I grew up, I grew up in a very moral home. We weren't allowed to swear. We weren't allowed to cheat or steal or any of those things, and we didn't. The worse lies we ever told was when my Dad would say, did you take the cookie from the cookie jar? And of course you wouldn't admit to that because if you said you did, you didn't get any more cookies. So you had to lie to make sure you got more cookies. That was about the extent of how bas we lied. 

We were taught moral values, and my parents were not Christians at that time. So when I went to church as a young man the church assumed I was already born again because I was living the way they lived, but the Holy Spirit compared me to Jesus and I came up woefully short. And that's what we're all compared to. When we determine our relationship with the Lord, it's how do I compare to Jesus? And if I try to stand on my own good works and my own ability and my own integrity, I lose. But when I stand in the grace of God and accept Him as my Savior and His cross covers me, then all God sees is Jesus and I'm new. 

The apostle Paul understood this because before he became a Christian he was a rotten guy. He was despicable. He was terrible. He had families, Christian families, torn apart. He threw fathers into prison. He had some of them killed. He hated the church. In fact, the Bible says that he wrecked havoc on the church. I don't think he was on very many Christian's prayer list except for maybe for God to kill him, because they didn't like Saul and Saul didn't like them. Now deep down they knew that Christ died for him, but have you ever thought to yourself, well, yea, Jesus died for him, but that guy is so despicable. I don't think any amount of prayer is going to change them. I think that's how they felt about Saul. Nothing's going to change him. And so Saul is on his way to Damascus, and the Bible says, and he's on his way to Damascus. He's breathing out threatenings. 

Have you ever had to go and meet with somebody and knew you were going to have to confront them, and your practicing how you're going to just deal with that, you know. And maybe you're breathing our threatenigns. I don't know, I'm going to get that phone company to get their thing straight and get this bill straightened out. Well, that's what he was doing. He was thinking, man, I'm going get these Christians in Damascus too. If I can get them there I'm going to wipe this thing out. I'm going to be worse than I was in Jerusalem. It's going to be bad. And all of a sudden a light from heaven appears, and a voice says, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Saul goes, who are you? I'm not persecuting you. He says, I'm Jesus whom you persecute. Because you see a powerful lesson is taught there. When you attack the church of Jesus Christ you're attacking Jesus, and Saul was struck blind. The Lord let him just deal with that as he brought him to the street called Straight in Damascus, and then God goes and talks with one of His servants. He says I want you to go and talk with Saul. Now this servant had the usual response that we all do when God tells us to do something that's very dangerous or impossible. We remind God about what He's asking us to do. Lord, don't you remember that this is the same Saul that persecuted the church in Jerusalem? You think God forgot? Gee, that slipped my mind. I guess I shouldn't have you go talk to him now. I'm glad you reminded me that this is the guy. No, God knew that all along. 

So finally the guy goes and Saul is gloriously changed. How long did it take Saul to change? The moment he confessed Christ as Savior and Lord his life was transformed! He became a new creation. That's how long it takes to become a child of God when you sincerely say yes to Jesus. The voice of memory. We all have it. I'm not what I used to be. Then there's the voice of reality. I'm not what I ought to be. Again when we look at Jesus, and even the lives of other saints who have gone before us, and see the commitment and the faithfulness and the integrity that they had to their walk with Christ, we have to sit back and acknowledge that we're not what we ought to be. We're not making the difference we need to make in the world in which we live.

In fact, to be honest with you, I think the church in America today suffers from anemia. We need some more iron in our blood, spiritual iron, because we have become silent to sin. I think a prime example of that is we have a man in the white house who is supposed to be the moral leader of our nation who is a confessed adulterer, after of course, unconfessing it for a number of years. What did the church do? Did we hear a cry from the pulpits condemning the lifestyle of our moral leader? Did we hear the leaders of the Christian realm speak out and say this is wrong? Where is the moral integrity of our nation? No, there were only a few voices here and there, but basically the church yawned and said, well, that's his life. Who are we to both somebody else's lifestyle? I mean live and let live. It's none of my business! Or is it? 

We're not what we ought to be perhaps because we have compromised what we ought to be. There's a Scripture in the Bible, of course there're a lot of Scriptures in the Bible, but this is one I came across a few weeks ago that I probably read a dozen times, probably more than that because I try read through the Bible each year, but when you're reading through the Bible you know you kind of read through and sometimes stuff jumps out and sometimes it doesn't. And this didn't jump out until I was working on this sermon and it was the same chapter that I was preaching from, verse 33, Do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits. Well that's good Pastor, and I agree with that. You associate with the wrong people and they're going to pull you down, but I don't do that. I go to church on Sundays. I have Christian friends. I try to keep my friendships with the people who aren't Christians on a less intimate level. I don't go to places they go or do the things they do. I have determined that I'm going to have the right friendships and right kind of relationships. I don't have evil company! 

Do you own a television? Do you have a computer and are you on the internet? Do you have a radio in your car? It's evil company if you listen to the wrong things or watch the wrong things. And what has basically happened to this generations and previous generations is they've been so saturated by the media with lifestyles that are contrary to God's will, so saturated by that that we have come to accept it as normal. And instead of being offended or bothered or troubled when we see an adulterous affair on TV we just kind of yawn and say well as long as the storyline is good I'm watching. Evil company destroys good habits. 

When I was younger I knew the television had the control of me, but I was also not very rich and I had this TV and I said Lord, I know that this TV is controlling my life, but if I just throw this TV away I'm throwing money down the drain. I could sell it I guess, and He said no you don't have to do that. Just stick it in the closet. Unplug it, put it in the closet, when you're in control of it pull it back out. It was in the closet for two years. TV no longer controls my life. I know how to push the off button. I know how to push the channel change. I know how to plan. The only reason I get a TV Guide is so I can go through and eliminate all the stuff I'm not going to watch, which is a whole bunch because there's not a whole lot worth watching anymore. But I've made sure that the TV is not going to be an evil companion. 

We're not what we ought to be if we let the world influence what we think instead of the word of God. And right now the church is being greatly influence by the philosophy of our world. The voice of reality. But then there's the voice of anticipation. I'm not what I hope to be. I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for more of Jesus in my life. I don't think I have everything that He has available to me. One of the songs we were singing. I remember the chorus, His love has no limit. His grace hath no measure. His power no boundary known unto man for out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He giveth and giveth and giveth again. There is no limit to what God has available for us. The limitation is on how much I'm willing to receive.

Could you imagine having a multi-millionaire walk up to you and say, hey, how much money do you want? I'll give you what ever you want. Ask for however much money you want. I'll give it to you. Well, let's see I'd like $1.50 because I wanted to buy a hamburger down at Burger King. Is that okay? I'll give you whatever you want. How much do you want? I'll give you every bit of money you could ever want, just ask for it. Okay, $10.00. Give me $10.00 because then I can really eat at Baker's Square that way, maybe take my wife. Okay? That's the way we are sometimes in our Christian life. 

Jesus says I'll give you whatever you want, and we go, okay how about this, and there's so much more. We're kind of like the minnow in the middle of the oceans saying; O I wonder if the water will run out. There is no limit to what He has available to us, and He wants us to know that there is more. Even Paul understood this. This is the thing I love about Paul, here after his conversion he became the most dynamic Christian man the world has ever produced, bar none. There's been none his equal in any century. In face, he even said to some of the people, he said, look, if you want to know how to walk and live like Jesus, imitate me. Do what I do.

Now he didn't say that to brag. He didn't say that to be audacious. He simply said, look, I have matured in Christ. I have reached a level in my walk. You're a babe in Christ. Imitate me until you can walk on your own. So we know he lived a pretty consistent Christ life, and he writes these words in Philippians chapter 3 verse 12, Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected. This is Paul writing. But I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. I press on. That's that Paul said. 

Paul said there's more, there's always more. I've not attained. If you get around somebody and they say they've attained, tell them they're wrong. There's nothing worse than a child of God who thinks there no more that they can learn, no more that they gain or achieve in the kingdom of God. If you're satisfied with where you are, don't be because there's more. Hallelujah. And then finally there's the last voice, the voice of faith. I am what I am by the grace of God. We live in a world today of discouraged peoples, discouraged Christians, who are not satisfied with who they are or what they are. They look at themselves and they see this wrong or that wrong, this talent not there, that talent not there, and they say I'm just no good. I'm just no good. God must have made a mistake. 

Can God make a mistake and still be God? Profound question. Can God make a mistake and still be God? I'll give you the answer. No. So He didn't make a mistake with you. He made you exactly as He intended you to be for the furtherance of His kingdom. And it took me a long time to reach that place of accepting me for who I am. And there are even some people who don't accept me for who I am, but God does. The world rejected Jesus. What does the world know? But He loves us.

I can remember as a young man pastoring, I though if only I could play the piano. Because we would start out pasturing, when you're young they put you in these churches, you know, that have been there for 25 – 30 years, and they've been twenty people for 25 – 30 years. And of course when you go there, there's nobody that can play the piano nine times out of ten. We had a guitar guy. It was awful. We always had to pray in piano players, and God always gave them to us, but I'd say Lord, if you'd only give me the gift of playing the piano. And one day we had this preacher come and he sitting down at the piano. He's singing and playing the piano, and he gets up and he says I want you to know that I never took a lesson. I could never play the piano, but one day I said, God, I need to be able to play the piano to further my ministry to glorify You. And I sat down at the piano and asked God to bless me and I played the piano! And I went whoa. Yes. We took him out to eat. I, you know, listened to the stories and stuff and everything and got back to church. We lived in the back of the church, you know and everything, and the church is empty and I walked out and there was the piano. And I said bless God. God shows no favoritism. Isn't that right? 

God shows no favoritism. God shows no favoritism except He knows us. He knows what to give us and not to give us. So I sat down at that piano. Yes I did. And I said, Lord, if You did it for him you can do it. You know Lord that this would really make our ministry more effective. You know Lord that it would be such a blessing to have a piano player in this church. O God anoint me now. 'Boing!' I played for ten minutes the most awful sounds you ever heard. I figured the longer I played sooner or later God would just have to either give me the gift or leave because it was so lousy you know. I'm sure He left. I couldn't play the piano. Still can't. No. So then I thought well if I can't play the piano, if I could just sing. That's the key. You know, you can get taped music and stuff, and if I could sing, man, they'd come in just to hear me sing. So Lord, just give me a great singing voice. Let me sound like, and I'd name somebody you know, and such and I'd sing to their records and stuff, and it was awful. It really was. 

The problem was I loved quartet music so I'd sing to quartets. So whenever I sang a sing in church I would sing four parts. Whatever part the guy was doing, you know, you just can't do that. It was awful. So that didn't work. So then I'd imitate preachers. A preacher would come through and they'd have a certain style of preaching. I'd go; I've got to preach like that. I'll preach the way, look at the way he, wow I'm going to preach like that. The problem is when you imitate people, you imitate their worst qualities because those are what stand out. You become a parody of yourself. And finally the Holy Spirit had to get me alone and say, you know Leigh, I made you the way I made you because that's the way I want you to be. I am what I am by the grace of God. And when I understood that I became satisfied with what God had done. 

It doesn't mean I don't wish I could still play the piano. It doesn't mean I don't wish I could still sing, but I'm not angry at God that I can't. I figure in heaven it will come naturally, but what it does mean is I've come to the place of knowing who I am in Christ. And you need to know who you are in Christ. And he says right now at this moment you are exactly what He wants you to be. He doesn't want you to stay there. He wants you to grow. He wants you to go further in Him, but right now he says to you and he says to me, you are who you are by the grace of God. And you need to understand that God is satisfied with your progress, because He's the one at work in your life. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. He doesn't start something He doesn't finish. He's not like us. Now I finished everything I started, but the results weren't always good. But His results are good. 

There's a last voice, a fifth voice. The voice of truth. A very simple voice, but I want you to hear it. When we see Him we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. There's not a person sitting in this room who has identified with Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior who will not be transformed to be like Jesus when He comes. That's me, that's you, that's our hope, and that's the truth. Let's stand. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. 

Father we are who we are by Your grace. You made us exactly according to Your specifications. You gave us our gifting. You gave us our talents. You gave us our looks. You did everything the way You wanted us to be, and You're satisfied. Lord may we be satisfied. May we not be so discontent that we're not what we think we should be. May we realize that You are at work in our lives and that You will make us exactly what we need to be. Lord we're made in Your image. May we go from this place reminding ourselves today, tomorrow, and throughout the week I am who I am by the grace of God, and by God's grace I will be all I'll ever need to be. We pray that Lord in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. Go in His grace and peace. Amen.