A man was asked to speak to a rather large church congregation. After he strode to the pulpit he said,"There are three points to my sermon." Most people yawned at that point. They'd heard that many times before.

But he went on, "My first point is this. At this time there are approximately 2 and 1\2 billion people starving to death in the world."

The reaction through the congregation was about the same, since they'd heard that sort of statement many times before, too. And then he said,"My second point..."

Everybody sat up. Only ten or fifteen seconds had passed, and he was already on his second point?

He paused, then said, "My second point is that most of you don't give a damn!"

He paused again as gasps and rumblings flowed across the congregation, and then said:

"And my third point is that the real tragedy among Christians today is that many of you are now more concerned that I said 'damn' than you are that I said that 2 and 1\2 billion people are starving to death." Then he sat down.

The whole sermon took less than a minute, but it is in many ways one of the most powerful ones ever given. In no uncertain terms, he was reminding those of us stuck in our pews that we are called to action, not to fancy words. We are members of the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of niceness and respectability.

The Christian life is not what it seems. Oftentimes we can become (sometimes without even being aware of it) committed to our own happy idea about the Christian faith. We become addicted to comfort and convenience, the good life, convinced it is somehow related to the truth of Scripture. Deep down, we want to believe that if we're Christians we should be good people and good things should happen to us.

But that's not what Christ calls us to. The problem with the "success gospel" is that you can't preach it to two-thirds of the world. I am well aware that we don't need more guilt to paralyze us, but all of us could stand a little more honesty and responsibility. In fact, even as I write these words I am also quite aware that I am still much more a part of the problem than of the solution.
Our religiosity, our 'respectability' our 'niceness' can actually get in the way. When we feel the basic purpose of our faith is to be nice and good, we are confusing the expressions of the lifestyle with the purpose of it. Some of us really believe that the point of Christianity is to look good and have a good Christian reputation. But the kingdom of God is a life changing, life transforming experience. It's more than just...respectability and niceness.

Jesus, to the contrary, was shocking, astonishing, loving, daring, revolutionary, kind, caring, compassionate...but nice?

To have experienced Christ, to have encountered Jesus of Nazareth, to have run headlong into the person of God in the flesh must have been like stepping into the path of a hurricane. Jesus promises us at least four things- peace, power, purpose...and trouble. God doesn't promise a carefree life; He promises peace and joy in the midst of trouble (John 16:33). There is danger in the midst of to much security and He knew it.

Sometimes, we are forced into the 'niceness' rut, and find it almost impossible to climb out. Even our spiritual leaders have to fight this mentality.

We have to get out of our comfort zones and be willing to get real with God and respond to His direction and His divine appointments with others that will come about. Be willing to put all our trust and confidence in Him and not in ourselves. Suffer loss of our self made positions and take action without caring about the opinions of others. We are going to serve the Living God.

We are going to re~present Christ to our world. We are not going to try to please everybody, we are going to serve the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 2:4 (New International Reader's Version)
In fact, it is just the opposite. God has accepted us to preach. He has trusted us with the good news. We aren't trying to please people. We want to please God. He puts our hearts to the test.

To preach the gospel message, to evangelise the world around us. Not to just sit in pews doing nothing but listening to others tell us stuff over and over again...

"There is nothing quite so nauseating or pathetic as the flesh trying to be holy."
Major Ian Thomas