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Christian-ish
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Generally speaking, most of us want to do what's right. We want to obey God. But if we're being honest, a lot of times we don't actually want that—at least not in every area of our lives.
Consider the small compromises we make. I was in a grocery store in a hurry, and I saw the Express line that allowed 10 items. I counted mine: 12 items. I thought to myself, "12 is close to 10. Surely this is okay." So I quietly tried to take my 12 items into the 10-item line. That's when a sweet lady wearing a Life.Church shirt said, "Pastor, is 12 the new 10?" I froze. She smiled and offered to take my two avocados so we could "pretend the whole thing never happened."
That moment made me think about how often I do this with God. I know what He wants me to do, and I'll do some of it or most of it—but not all of it. I tell myself, "I'm doing pretty good. There's just this one area. I'm only human. I'm a pretty good Christian. If I do this one thing I know I'm not supposed to, no one will notice. It's really not that big of a deal. God will understand."
We're in a message series called Christian-ish. If you missed last week, we defined it as someone who has a halfhearted faith—someone who wears the label of Christian without truly following Jesus. A sort of Christian. An almost Christian. A kind of Christian.
One of the most common qualities of someone who is Christian-ish is something I call selective obedience. Selective obedience means we're going to do what God's Word tells us to do—as long as it's not too difficult, as long as God isn't asking too much of us, or if we have a better plan, or if we're in a hurry.
Selective obedience is the dangerous illusion that doing some of what God commands is enough—when it's really disobedience in disguise.
Obedience is a tricky subject. Some of you love the rules—following rules is your love language. Others of you, not so much. You might say rules are just dares in disguise. You just want to break them.
Let's look at three verses in the Bible that talk about obedience. I want you to try to figure out what they have in common—specifically two qualities these verses share.
First, Deuteronomy 5:33:
Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper.
Second, Exodus 19:5:
Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.
Third, Job 36:11:
If they listen and obey, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity.
What do these three verses have in common? Two things:
God is asking for our full obedience. Not partial obedience. Not obedience with exceptions. "If you'll do all..." "If you'll obey me completely..." God is asking for our full obedience.
Some of God's blessings are conditional. These verses show us that some of His blessings are actually tied to obedience.
Some of you who are more theologically minded might say, "But Craig, that sounds like works righteousness." Works righteousness is the belief that if we work hard enough and if we're good enough, then we can earn the favor and forgiveness of God. It's working our way to being right with God.
I want to be very clear: this is not good theology. The Bible is ridiculously clear that we are not saved—we're not made right with God—by our good works. We're saved by grace. The grace of God through the perfect work of Jesus on the cross. We're saved by grace through faith and that alone.
Yet we are blessed many times because of our obedience. God might withhold blessings when we are not obeying. We're saved by grace, but we are blessed by God many times through our faithfulness and our obedience.
With God, there are two categories:
If you have a kid, you know the power of unconditional promises and conditional blessings. An unconditional promise is: "I'm going to love you no matter what." I may not like you Monday through Saturday, but I still love you no matter what you do. That's unconditional.
But then there are conditional blessings: "If you do your homework, then you can go hang out with your friends. If you eat all your food and wipe that bad attitude off your face, then you can play a video game."
Take that and apply it to God. There's something theologians call covenant theology. All of God's redemptive plan is structured around covenants—Divine agreements between God and mankind. All of the covenants have unconditional promises and conditional blessings.
There is the Creation Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, the Priestly Covenant, and the New Covenant. Each has an unconditional promise and conditional blessings.
We're in New Testament times. We're not under the old covenant; we're under the New Covenant.
First, the unconditional promise: Jesus died and rose again, offering forgiveness of sins and eternal life for all who believe. We're saved by grace through faith. Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's really good news, and it's a promise to anyone.
Second, the conditional blessings: While salvation is a gift given freely by God through grace, certain blessings flow from obedience to God.
To be really clear: You're saved by grace through faith, period. Only by the grace of God. But God blesses you with special blessings when you obey.
That's why God doesn't want our partial obedience. God wants our full surrender. God wants all of us.
I think one of the most dangerous things in the modern Western church is a whole lot of partial obedience. We're saying, "God, I'm going to do the parts that I like, that feel good. The rest of it? God, you just have to understand." But God is a holy and righteous God, and He loves you unconditionally. He wants to bless you and pour out blessings. For some people, the very reason you're not experiencing the blessings you want to experience is because you aren't obeying some of what God says.
So let's let the Holy Spirit speak to us.
I want to show you one of the people in the Bible who really represents so many of us: Saul in the Old Testament. He started off with really good intentions, but over time he was only partially obeying God.
He starts out as a very humble servant, anointed to be king over Israel. He had a real heart: "God, I want to obey you. God, I want to please you." But over time, one decision led to another. Slowly, slowly, he drifted from God and started prioritizing his own desires above God's will. He rationalized one sin, then another. It started to hurt his relationship with God. It ended horribly for him.
If you watch this story, you see a guy who starts out really, really strong—like a lot of you—and then eventually this old man is consulting witches and listening to demonic voices. You ask yourself, "How did that happen? How do you go from genuinely wanting to live for God and please God and obey God to listening to demonic voices and being completely destroyed in your life?"
The answer is: you do it one step at a time.
One moment of rationalizing a sin. Another moment of saying, "Hey, I'm going to do it my way." Another moment of saying, "God, I know this is what I'm supposed to do, but this just isn't convenient for me. Besides, it's 2025. You've got to understand, these are my needs, and this is what I want to do."
One step at a time.
We see a very powerful example in 1 Samuel 15. God told Saul to go and attack and destroy the Amalekites because they were so evil. God said, "Destroy them. Don't spare a thing. That's how evil they are."
Saul started out obeying. He gathered 200,000 troops and attacked the Amalekites. He was obeying God until he didn't.
Verse 8-9 tells us:
Then Saul attacked the Amalekites...he took Agag king of the Amalekites alive. But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good.
Saul did most of what God asked him to do. Not all of it. But most of it.
He obeyed God, and then he looked up and noticed a perfectly good bunch of animals—nice sheep, nice lambs, fat calves. Very likely, Saul heard a whisper.
Some of you know this whisper. The voice whispers to you:
"Hey, you've done so much for God already. Surely you've already done enough. You destroyed almost everything God asked you to destroy, but those are some valuable animals. There's real value there. Those are some nice sheep and fat cows. Don't you want to be a good steward? Don't you want to waste something perfectly good? Maybe you should keep some of them for yourself. I know—you'll keep them and then make a sacrifice to God. That sounds so spiritual. God will like that. Surely God will understand."
And so Saul compromised.
That whisper—that very same voice—tempts us all:
"You're a pastor and you've got really important things to do. Even though you have 12 items and it says 10, you're important enough to sneak on in there. Nobody else has to follow the rules, but you're special enough."
"Go ahead and look. No one's going to know. Go ahead and take it. You deserve it. Everybody else does it."
"Go ahead and say it. They deserve it anyway."
"Go ahead and do it. Not that big of a deal. It's just this one time."
Here's the problem: Disobedience is rarely a one-time event.
When you do it once, you think, "Well, I've already done it now. I've already crossed that line." It's like, "I lost my virginity, so I might as well have a party." (Some of you laugh because you've been there, right?)
Disobedience is rarely a one-time event. And here's what happens:
What you allow in the moment often owns you in the future.
You think it's no big deal. You let it into your life. And one day you realize that one act of disobedience turned into two, and three, and four. It takes you to a place you never wanted to go.
Not that big of a deal. But what you allow in the moment often owns you in the future.
At the beginning of this message, we prayed and asked God to speak to us and convict us. I want to ask you this question and give you a moment to let God perhaps speak to you:
Where are you letting sin whisper in your life?
It could be that you're partially obeying. You're not taking revenge against the person who hurt you, but you're also not forgiving them as Jesus asked you to do.
It could be that you're not completely neglecting your time with God. You still do your little verse of the day or whatever it is. But it's more of a checkbox for you than it is really seeking after the heart and will of God.
It could be that you're not looking at pornography all the time. You're just going to the explore page, seeing if there's anything interesting because you have to stay current on the latest fashions. And you compromise and look at something that takes you to a place you probably didn't want to go.
It could be that you're not recklessly spending too much. You're just a little bit in debt. And you're still not trusting God with the tithe.
It could be that you're not cheating on your spouse, but you are hiding a few things. You've got some secrets. You're spending money and not talking about it. Or there's someone at work that you're enjoying just a little bit more than you should.
You're claiming Jesus but not really fully obeying Him.
So I ask you: Is there some place that you're letting sin whisper its way into your life?
Once you have an answer to that question—once you name it—I want you to be open to what God might say to you. It is wise to confess to God and then to your life group. If you're not in a life group, you're probably missing out. One reason why you might be struggling is because you don't have a group of people praying for you and supporting you.
The Bible says: "Confess your sins to one another and pray for each other that you may be healed." We confess to God for forgiveness. We confess to people for healing.
Is there an area in your life that you're partially obeying and you're rationalizing it? This is what Saul was doing.
A prophet named Samuel confronted Saul. He basically said, "Saul, bro, you're better than this. You know you love God. Why are you disobeying?"
But Saul didn't repent. He doubled down on his disobedience. He said:
But I did obey the Lord. I went on the mission the Lord assigned me, and I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king.
He's lying. But watch what happens next—he blames someone else:
The soldiers took the sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, and they took them to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.
Look at this carefully: He says "the Lord your God," not "my God." Why is he distancing himself from God?
Because every sin we justify builds a wall between us and God.
Sin never needs a good reason. Sin just needs a good excuse. And he's making excuses. We have to remember: God is a holy God, and that's why He sent Jesus to deal righteously with our sin. But whenever we sin against Him, it's like we're saying, "God, I'm putting something between us."
This is exactly what Saul was doing.
I want to tell you something. Feel this truth: There is an unconditional promise that God loves you. He loves you so much. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you.
And He wants to bless you. He wants to bless your obedience.
So whenever He says in His word, "Keep your body pure," that doesn't mean have sex with eight people before you get married. It doesn't mean do naked gymnastics but don't "go all the way" and call that purity. He means the body is meant for God. Honor it with sexual purity.
Whenever God says, "Don't look lustfully at someone," He's not trying to rob you of your righteous visual entertainment. He's saying that He wants you to have the mind of Christ. There is something way better if you'll protect your heart and your mind and your eyes. There is the blessing of purity in a God-honoring covenantal marriage that can be yours if you'll obey.
When God says, "Let there be no unwholesome talk amongst you," that doesn't mean we're allowed to gossip and call it a prayer request. It doesn't mean we're allowed to cuss and take God's name in vain. It probably means we shouldn't be watching shows that have more bad language in them than the Gospel of Mark has the name of Jesus in it.
When scripture says "Don't get drunk," what do you think that means? Don't get drunk. And for those of you who are technical: don't get high, don't get stoned, don't get blasted. But instead, there's something better: be filled with the spirit of God.
It's like: It's better. It's better. It's better.
Do you think there's any high this world offers that's better than the presence of God directing your steps?
In 1 Samuel 22, Samuel replies to Saul:
Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice.
Why does God love for us to obey Him? Because He loves us.
Because He loves to bless our obedience. God loves it when we obey because every act of obedience is a demonstration of our love to the One who loved us first. "God, I'm loving You by obeying. I'm loving you."
John said this:
This is love for God: to keep His commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.
The commands of God are not confining or restricting. They're freeing and liberating. That's why love and obedience are inseparable in our relationship with God.
Here's how it works:
Then you can test and prove what the will of God is—good, pleasing, and perfect.
You obey God, and He blesses you, and you get to know Him even more. You obey Him not because you have to get His approval, but because you want to. Because He already approved of you through Jesus.
It's not partial obedience. We're not perfect, but we want the Holy Spirit to continue perfecting us and making us more like Jesus.
So I'll ask you again, and just be really open to what the Holy Spirit might say to you. God's been speaking to me all week preparing this message. There are some things He's working on me about.
What's the whisper of compromise that you've been justifying?
Name it. Because partial obedience isn't obedience. It's sin.
And every sin we justify builds a wall between us and the God who loves us.
So how do we end up, one day, saying, "Well, forget the church. I don't really like God. I'm far from God"? One step of disobedience at a time.
How do we get close to God? One step of repentance. One step. God, I'm sorry. One step.
And when you draw near to Him, guess what? Immediately, in the moment, God draws near to you. Because there's an unconditional promise: He loves you, and He always will. He'll never stop loving you.
But there are conditional blessings: "If you obey Me fully, then I'm going to bless you in this way."
So how do we get close to Him? One step of obedience toward Him.
Then we're not Christian-ish in name only. We're not Christian-ish. We're devoted. We're not perfect, but we're being perfected.
When you draw near to God, immediately in that moment, God draws near to you. There's an unconditional promise: He loves you, and He always will. He'll never stop loving you. But there are conditional blessings: "If you obey Me fully, then I'm going to bless you in this way."
How do we get close to Him? One step of obedience toward Him. Then we're not Christian in name only. We're not "Christian-ish." We're devoted. We're not perfect, but we're being perfected. When we mess up, we just turn from our sin and turn back to Him. We're devoted, faithful, and obedient.
God doesn't want our partial obedience. God wants our full surrender.
There's some area of compromise in your life where you're partially obeying God. Today, by faith, you can ask God to help you fully surrender. If that's you, and you say, "I want to be fully obedient to God"—that's the posture God is looking for.
We acknowledge You are the Lord of all, the King of all Kings. You're holy and righteous. Help us to know You as Friend but also to revere You as a righteous King. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We accept Your grace through Jesus, but we truly want to honor and obey You.
There are many who go to church, believe in God, do some kind of Christian-looking things—but are "Christian-ish." They wear the name of Christian but aren't fully devoted to Jesus. You may say, "So you weren't working for Him?" No—I wasn't receiving His grace. I didn't know Him.
You cannot work your way to God. There is an unconditional promise: God loves you—period. No matter what you do, He loves you.
He loves you so much that He sent Jesus, His Son, who is perfect in every way. Jesus paid the price for our evil. He paid the price for our unrighteousness. Jesus died for our sins, and God raised Him from the dead.
Then there's a conditional promise: if you call on the name of Jesus—you have to do something. You can't earn it, but you have to trust it's for you. You receive the gift when you call on the name of Jesus. God hears your prayers, forgives your sins, and you're made right with Him—not because you're good, but because He's good.
Some of you, today is the day of your salvation—to receive the gift. When you truly receive the gift of forgiveness through Jesus, your only reasonable response is not partial obedience but full and total surrender.
If you recognize you're only partially surrendered to Jesus, or maybe not at all—today is the day of your salvation. When we step away from our sin and call on Him, He'll hear your prayer. He'll forgive your sins. He'll make you brand new.
If your prayer today is: "Jesus, I surrender. Lift up my hands and say, 'Here, I'll be the Lord of my life.'" Pray this with those around you:
Heavenly Father, forgive all of my sins. I receive salvation through Jesus alone. Thank you for loving me, for saving me. Now take my life. I want to know you. I want to obey you. I want to live for you. My life is not my own. I give it all to you. Thank you for new life. You have all of mine. In Jesus' name, I pray.
