The fourth and final misplaced priority of Christians that can reflect negatively on the image and brand of Christianity is philosophy-driven Christians.  Philosophy-driven Christians are people who ascribe to Christianity is merely an academic pursuit.  They see Christianity as a great philosophy to be observed, studied, and debated.  It is not a bad thing to study the Bible or Christianity academically.  The problem arises when the academic pursuit becomes such a priority that it causes you to miss the relationship with Jesus Christ that the Bible is all about.  This is embracing the thoughts of Christianity without embracing the core – Jesus Christ.

The problem with the Christian brand that philosophy-driven Christians present is that they present an academic, knowledge-driven Christianity that can be completely void of any relationship with Jesus Christ.  You can know the Bible and know a lot of academic knowledge about Jesus but not know Jesus as your Savior and Lord.  Philosophy-driven Christians need to see Jesus Christ as the core of their Christian studies and come to him for a relationship in which Jesus transforms them into His image.  Then they need to continue to pursue their academic studies driven by worship and reverence for a God who that cannot wrap their minds around.

The third false priorities of Christians that reflect negatively on the image and brand of Christianity are cultural Christians.  Cultural Christians are very similar to the legalistic Christians that we looked at yesterday in only one point.  Both the cultural Christians and the legalistic Christians have never embraced Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and become Christians.  They are merely impostors who are playing Christian games merely because they think that it will bring some benefit to them.  Cultural Christians are people who are Christians only to the fact that they have no true religious affiliation and live in a nation like the United States that chooses to embrace Christianity.

These are people who celebrate Christian holidays such as Easter and Christmas without having the relationship with Jesus Christ to embrace the full meaning.  They may also go to church, as I heard a pastor once say, as CEOs – Christmas and Easter only.  This minimal church attendance is only to make them feel like good people for going on the special days.  

These cultural Christians may also use there religion to benefit them.  By claiming to be a Christian, cultural Christians may be able to avoid conversations about faith that may be uncomfortable because they have an answer and a church name, that they attend twice a year, to end the conversation.   Cultural Christianity is seen very frequently in politics.  Candidates will be quick to claim that they are Christians and get some good photo opportunities in some churches in order to become friends with the extremely political Christians that we explored on Tuesday.  

Even though cultural Christians may play the Christian card to get ahead, they are the ones that really need Jesus.  They need to realize that claiming Christianity without knowing Jesus is not true Christianity.  They need to repent of their sin and Christian games and run to Jesus.  This will allow the name, brand, and image of Christians to be defined not by a buzz-word that gets personal benefits but rather a name that defines followers of Jesus Christ.

The second false priority of Christians that gives a negative brand to Christianity is legalistic Christians.  Before we begin, let me define legalism.  Legalism is not good moral living and following the commands and laws of scripture in order to live in a way that pleases God and seeks holiness.  Legalism is a life of embracing the rules for the only purpose of proving to the legalist and to others that the legalist is better than everyone else because the legalist keeps the rules and others do not.  The legalist loves to be seen doing good deeds and loves to point out others failures in doing good deeds.

This false priority of legalism leads to forgetting grace.  A legalist loves to follow the rules to the point where they feel like they do not need grace.  ”Why would Jesus have to die on the cross for them?” they think.  ”I am such a good person who follows all of the rules.  I will make heaven a better place just by my presence there.  I do not need Jesus because I am a good moral person with no real sin to speak of.”  The legalist does not stop with not needing grace personally but goes on to totally fail to extend any grace to others.  If someone else falls in their good works, the legalist will be the first to point out the flaw and make sure that everyone sees this great show of failure.  Then only to look for a place to note to others how good the legalist is at morality and how the legalist would never fall like that.

Legalism causes problems because it presents a picture of Christianity that does not need Jesus.  There is no reason to tell someone about Jesus because to the legalist Jesus is functionally a moral judge that the legalist is trying to impress rather than a rescuing Savior that the legalist is falling down in worship before.  The life of a legalist also projects that sin is not a personal problem that effects everyone.  Sin is something that “bad people” do in the mind of the legalist.  It is not something that everyone struggles with and needs to be rescued from.  

Legalist Christians need to realize that, if they truly believe that there morality sets them in right standing before God, they need to repent and run to Jesus and receive salvation.  The way that the life of a legalist is structured has no room for sin, repentance, and Jesus.  Christians who embrace legalism are not really Christians.  They are just copy-cats trying to act like Christians without truly embracing Jesus and coming to him to be their salvation.  These false Christians need to repent and stop putting a stain on the Christian name and brand that they copy in outward appearance but fail to embrace.

Since the presidential election is only a week away, I figured that we would begin with the first misplaced priority that has negatively reflected on the Christian brand in the eyes of many people.  Politics is something that many Christians have taken to become the core priority of their faith.  This is something that happens more unintentionally than they even realize.  There passion and desire for Jesus Christ that was at one time at the core of their faith and what defined them as a Christian seeps slowly into the background as they take up to fight for a government that legislates Christian morals and priorities.  

I am not saying that politics are a bad thing, or that you should not vote for candidates that you think reflect the values and priorities laid out in scripture.  The problem becomes when the American flag takes the place of the cross in our churches and the Battle Hymn of the Republic is played over Amazing Grace.  Our place of triumph, victory, and focus as Christians should be a hill called Calvary where Jesus Christ defeated death, hell, and sin not a battle field where our freedoms were won.  The second is definitely something to be remembered and celebrated but never at the expense of minimizing the cross and the gospel.  

We as Christians are called to be focused on another world.  We are to live as aliens focused on eternity.  When we make our Christianity focused entirely on politics and defending morals in America, we are living in a way that is so focused on now that we do not live a life focused on the temporary mission with eternal consequences called the Great Commission.  Our ability and opportunity to share Jesus with people can be greatly hindered if politics are the heart of our Christianity.  Politics stands between us and the person we are trying to introduce to Jesus as another point of division and debate.  

If your life is totally defined by and wrapped up in what happens next Tuesday, you need to pray for an eternal mindset and that God would open your eyes to see that no matter what happens next Tuesday He still sits on the throne as sovereign over all nations and rulers.  Let us not live in a way that defines our Christianity by our politics that are temporal decisions that can cause major divisions and take away from the gospel.

In the marketing and business world, there is a very important item called a brand.  A brand is something that is hard to define, but it is basically what people think about and connect with the name or logo of your business.  It is the initial reaction to your product or company.  This reaction is built off of past experiences with the brand (i.e. your company or product) and includes both the positives and the negatives.  

This week I want to take this concept of a brand and apply it to each one of our lives as Christians.  When people interact with us since they know that we claim to be a Christ-follower, they will begin to define the term or brand of Christian by the way that we live.  I think one of the major issues that we will explore this week is that false brands of Christianity come first and foremost from misplaced and misdirected priorities in the lives of Christians.  This discussion will begin by defining four false priorities that many Christians embrace and will end with a story of someone who fully embraced the gospel.  So this week, lets reflect on our priorities as Christ-followers that help to brand the concept of Christian in the eyes of people around us.

Truth 5: Relationship with Man Is the Driving Force In God’s Relation to Man

Another phrase that comes up frequently in the book of Leviticus is God saying that He is the God who delivered the people from Egypt “to be your God.”  He also consistently refers to Himself as “the Lord your God.”  This is a personal connection that is being communicated between God and man.  The great display of God’s glory and might in delivering the people from Egypt was simply so that the Lord could be their God and they could live in communion with Him.  The driving force behind what God is doing and communicating through the laws is that He desires a relationship to His people.

The laws were not written and intended to be a list of moral rules to be obeyed to earn God’s favor.  The laws were intended so that the people of God could live in a way that was free of sin and distraction from their relationship to God.  The laws focus on freeing the life of the people from clutter so that they could focus on the best thing, which was their relationship with God.  So, our take away question from Leviticus today is: What do I need to clear from my life so that I can live life focused more clearly on my relationship with Jesus Christ?

Truth 4: God is a God Who Santifies

The theme of sanctification and holiness is very frequent in Leviticus.  From the laws of cleanliness to the laws of what to eat, Leviticus is filled with standards about how to maintain outward holiness.  The interesting part, however, is that there is a phrase that comes up several times in the book that seems to be contradictory to the people trying to following these legal standards.  The phrase is “I am the Lord who sanctifies them.”  This is seen six times in Leviticus 21 and 22 in relationship to the role of the priest.  If there are all of these rules regarding personal holiness and sanctification, why would God say something like this?

God is the one who is sanctifying the hearts of the priests and people of God.  He is doing an inner work of setting the peoples hearts apart for Him.  The laws and rituals are just an outward reflection of the inner change that has been made.  God is calling them to live in a way that is radically different to reflect the inward radical change that has been made by God in the heart.  So, our take away question from Leviticus today is: Does our lives reflect the change that Jesus Christ has made in our hearts?

Truth 3: God Is a Faithful God Who Rescues

Another phrase that is repeated frequently throughout the book of Leviticus is that God is a God who brought the people out of Egypt.  God continually reminds the people of the rescue from slavery that He had done for them in delivering them from Egypt.  God is a God with a history of faithfulness with His people.  

We have not been rescued from slavery in Egypt, but we have had a rescue of our own from sin and other struggles.  We have a personal history with God and His faithfulness.  So, our take away question from Leviticus today is: Upon reflecting on God’s history of faithfulness to us, how do we live in a way that shows the world that we trust God to be faithful to us?

He does this to keep them from the frequent and easy tendency that each person has to forget God and what He has done.  In light of what God has done for them, His laws that he places before them to obey seem like a small sacrifice compared to the great rescue that God had done for them in delivering them from Egypt.

Truth 2: God Is a God Who Demands Holiness

Throughout the book of Leviticus a major theme is the holiness of God.  There are a ton of seemingly random rules and laws that are set before the people and are followed up by the command that is summed up well in the first part of Leviticus 11: 44 ESV which says “For I am the Lord your God.  Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.”  This theme is not just stated in this passage, but it continues to come up over and over throughout the book of Leviticus.  God is calling the people to live a life of holiness that reflects His holiness.  So, what does holiness mean?  Why is it so important that we live holy lives?

The word holy means to be set apart and different.  All of the laws and rules laid out in the book of Leviticus are intended to make the people stand out as different.  All of the laws, from wearing clothes without mixed fibers to going through many steps to keep from becoming unclean, helped the people to be separate and different from the world just like God was different and set apart from man.  The laws made a clear mark on the lives of the people of God that they were God’s people.  So, why did the people need to be set apart?

The people were set apart and different so that the other peoples of the earth would notice them.  The people of God were not intended to be noticed simply to make them seem weird to others, but they were intended to be noticed so that the people could have an opportunity to talk about the great and holy God who had set them apart.

When Jesus calls us to be holy, He is calling us to live in a radical way that causes people to ask about Him.  I my life I have seen my decision not to drink alcohol as an opportunity to live a life that is set apart.  This one decision has opened up so many opportunities for me to talk about the Jesus who I know.  Our take away from Leviticus today is this simple question: How can we be set apart and different to cause people to ask about Jesus Christ?

Truth 1: God Is a Jealous God Who Is Serious About Sin

The first seven chapters of Leviticus focus on the laws regarding burnt offerings and sacrifices.  These are laws regarding the responses that people take after sinning unintentionally to make themselves right before God.  Sin has been clearly established from the time of the Ten Commandments and the people are clearly aware that sin is an issue that is of great offense to God.  So, the idea of presenting a sacrifice to make a person in right standing before God is something that is not entirely foreign to these people.

The depth and reality of the heinous nature of sin is seen by a person each time they go to the temple to offer a sacrifice to God.  The people are instructed to pick an animal “without blemish” to be taken to the temple for sacrifice.  The physical perfection of this animal is something that the Levitical law continually emphasizes.  This animal must be spotless to be able to serve as a substitute for the person who was clearly with a blemish due to his or her sin.

The animal was then presented to the priest.  The person offering the sacrifice would then place his hand on the head of the animal signifying the iniquity passing from the person to the animal sacrifice.  The person then was responsible for killing the animal.  The bloodiness of this sacrifice must have been appalling.  This revealed to the person in a very tangible picture the serious penalty for sin.  Sin from the smallest white lie to the most heinous crime brought death.  Not a nice and clean death, but a death that would be horrifying to modern readers.

So, what is God’s reaction to the murdering of these animals?  These acts of sacrifice that would cause us to want to look away were sweet pictures of justice to God.  The key phrase that is repeated over and over in the first seven chapters of Leviticus is a “pleasing aroma to the Lord.”  These offerings and sacrifices were pleasing to God.  Is God pleased because he likes to see animals suffer?  Does God like blood and guts to be spilled and run down the altar of the temple?  

God sees sacrifices as a pleasing aroma because He wants justice to be made so that restoration can take place.  God cannot fellowship and have a relationship with people due to their sin.  He is holy and cannot tolerate sin.  So, when God sees an animal being slaughtered in the temple on behalf of a person’s sin, He smells the aroma of a justice that can restore a relationship.  And that justice, no matter how bloody and messy it may be, not only shows the seriousness of sin but also the greatness of the relationship. So, our take away question from Leviticus today is: Do I realize the serious consequences of sin on my relationship with Jesus Christ?