Authentic Faith - Week 1, Day 3

Day 3: Fire Insurance (Evidence of Salvation)

There is one more thing I want to say to you about what it means to be a Christian. There is an idea that some people buy into that I call "fire insurance." Some people want just enough Jesus to save them from hell, but not enough Jesus to change them. 

Bottom line: There are people out there that want to know, "what is the least I have to do to go to heaven?" 

Imagine if I were to go to my wife, Christy, and say to her, "You know, I feel pretty secure in our relationship, so the question I would like to have an answer to is, what is the least I have to do to be your husband?" How do you think that one would go over with my wife? 

I think she might have a lot to say, but I highly doubt she would ever answer the question because the question doesn't need an answer, does it? Now she knows how I feel about her and our relationship. 

There is no assurance in a relationship where a person just wants to do the minimal amount. 

This is important because sometimes, people just want to know what the minimum is when it comes to a relationship with God. 

Once you start trying to define assurance in terms of "what's the least I have to do," then you are just going down the wrong road. The question really becomes, "how do I get to heaven without making God and His kind of life the priority of my life?"

A word of warning. If you don't care much about God, you're not sensitive to sin; you don't care about spiritual things, you don't care at all about doing God's will, you disobey Him without a second thought, then, friends, the Bible would say be real careful. 

If you are a sincere follower of Christ, there should be evidence in your life that you are.How do you know a horse is a horse? I remember years ago, when I lived in Kansas City, I had my niece Nikki in the car, and we were driving by a bunch of horses. She said, "Unkie! Look at all those horses." I said, "How do you know those are horses and not cows." She said, "Unkie, they have hair like a horse, they run like a horse, and they make sounds like a horse." No one confuses a horse for a cow. 

The Bible repeatedly teaches that if you really are a follower of Christ, your life will never be the same. The Bible teaches that you will be able to tell who the "real deal" is and isn't by the evidence of their lives.

A person who is a follower of Christ…

is trusting Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins.

Is in love with Jesus, and they seek to serve Him in everything they say and do.

Has a hunger to pray and be shaped by God's word.

Is growing in what the Bible calls the fruit of the spirit. The ways they used to react in life are different now. They are more loving and kinder, and patient.

Feels conviction for their sin. They are motivated to confess their sin to God and make things right again. 

These are evidence that God is living in you because before you asked Jesus into your life, you never had these abilities. They came from God's Holy Spirit that lives in you. 

1 John 3:24 says, "This is how we know that He lives in us. We know it by the spirit He gave us."

Let me just ask you. Is there enough evidence in your life to convict you of being a Christian?  

Time Out: 

1. Is there evidence in your life that you really are a Christian? If you said yes, write down what some of the evidence is.

2. Look up James 2:14-26 and answer the following questions. 

- What does verse 17 say about having faith but no evidence that your faith is real?

This passage says that Abraham and Rahab had evidence in their life that they were who they said they were. Their actions proved their faith. Make no mistake about it; we are saved by grace through faith. We don't earn our ticket to heaven by what we do. The way we live our life is evidence that we are who we say we are.

- Look at verse 26 again. Finish this sentence. Faith without deeds is ______________?