What's Your Sign?

How do you know you're a Christian? Or to ask it another way, How do you know you're saved? What's your answer?  What's the evidence?  What are the signs in your life that point to the reality you belong to Christ?  You might have answered by saying you said a prayer and asked Jesus in to your heart.  But is that really a sign you're a Christian? That you repeated a prayer?  If you go a little deeper I hope an answer might be as a result of that prayer you felt God take away the guilt and shame of your sin. That you felt His presence in a powerful way.  That after your heartfelt confession of faith in Christ your life changed immediately.  These would all be true answers and would be considered inward signs of your new life in Christ.  But what about outward signs?  What changed in your life that someone else could see?  It is those kinds of signs that Jesus referred to in Mark 16.

Jesus gave us four signs to expect from a believer in the Gospel of Mark.

17  "These signs will accompany those who have believed:

in My name they will

(1) cast out demons,

(2) they will speak with new tongues;  

(3) 18  they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them;

(4) they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."  Mark 16:17-20

Those are some pretty BIG signs!  Where are the signs of church attendance?  Or praying over our food?  Or doing a daily devotional?  Now these very well maybe signs of a believer but they are boring and definitely not in the same category of casting out demons.

Could it be possible the reason for many the Christian life is boring and eventless is we have exchanged the God that casts out demons and heals the sick for the God who blesses our food and helps us not to cuss? How big is your God?  Have we shrunk Him?  In C.S. Lewis' book, Prince Caspian, part of the Chronicles of Narnia series, one of the characters sees the lion, Aslan, the Christ figure in the story, and says, "Aslan, your bigger." Aslan replies, "That' because your older, little one."  she replies, "Not because you are?"  "I am not.  But every year you grow, you will find me bigger."  Is God bigger to you today than when you first believed?  If we are not careful, good God-fearing people can let the routines of life and church activity reduce our expectation of God to quiet times and Sunday School.  

What kind of belief do you exercise?  If the signs of tongue talking and divine protection are not in some way a part of your Christian faith then what does that say about your faith?  How do we go from common faith and signs to supernatural faith and the kinds of signs Jesus expects from us?

First we just gotta EXPECT MORE FROM GOD.  Often before healing the sick Jesus replied, "According to your faith."  Our faith is small so God is only able to do small things.

Mark 11:22-24  "Have faith in God.  23  "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.  24  "Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.

What mountains are you believing God in prayer for?

This blog is a small excerpt from my sermon on Sunday, July 31, 2016 titled, "Children of  a Greater God." To listen to the sermon go to http://cwcaustin.org/sermons/.