A Personal and Peripheral Faith Only? No Way!

This was from a sermon by Robert Arbogast at Olentangy Christian Reformed Church in Columbus Ohio. The sermon was delivered September 13th and entitled: Satan’s Stand-in:

“In so many ways, we have reduced the Christian faith to the merely peripheral and personal. Not that the peripheral and personal don’t matter. They do matter. But they are not the point, the main point. You don’t think, do you that Jesus died so that you would be nice to your neighbor? Or so that you wouldn’t look at internet porn? Sure, those things matter. But they’re not the main point. Here’s a clue about that. Will being nice to your neighbor put you on a cross? Will abstaining from internet porn put you on a cross? Of course not! But get caught hiding your neighbor from Nazi occupation forces, and you will feel a cross on your shoulder. Stand with Martin Luther King Jr. to announce a biblical vision of justice and to demand it for all, and you may wind up on a cross. Or a cross may wind up on your front lawn, in flames. I wonder how Jesus wants us to deny ourselves today. And I wonder what crosses we may have to carry. Can we avoid those questions? Aren’t they essential questions for people who follow Jesus, or claim to follow Jesus? Aren’t they central questions? Self-denial and a cross certainly were central and essential for Jesus.”

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