From
a message by Pastor David Schmaltz (pictured above with his wife and four children)
Jesus “offended the
religious and inspired the hungry,” said David Schmaltz, senior pastor of
Valley Community Church in Weldon, N.C., as he spoke on July 1, 2012, at Grace
Church in Southern Pines, N.C.
Valley Community Church is
located in North Carolina’s Halifax County and is part of the Roanoke Rapids,
N.C. “Micropolitan Statistical Area.” According to Wikipedia, a “Micropolitan
Statistical Area” is an urban area in the U.S. that is based around an urban
cluster (urban area) with a population of 10,000 to 49,000.
Schmaltz’s wife, Andrea
Schmaltz, a keyboardist and vocalist who serves as Valley Community Church’s
music and fine arts director, led the Grace Church worship before her husband
preached on July 1. Their two daughters sang in the service, and their two sons
helped with Grace’s children’s church.
Randy Thornton, Grace
Church’s senior pastor, said he and Schmaltz had known each other since they
worked together at Manna Church in Fayetteville. Schmaltz said he remembered
when Thornton “came to Southern Pines” to plant Grace Church.
In his sermon, Schmaltz
discussed concepts found in “Not a Fan,” a book by Pastor Kyle Idleman. The
book proposes that being a fan of Jesus is not the same as being a follower.
Here is a statement from
the book’s promotional material: “You may indeed be a passionate, fully devoted
follower of Jesus. Or, you may be just a fan who admires Jesus but isn’t ready
to let him cramp your style. Then again, maybe you’re not into Jesus, period. In
any case, don’t take the question – Are you a follower of Jesus? – lightly. … ‘Not
a Fan’ calls you to consider the demands and rewards of being a true disciple.”
Grace Church’s small groups
have been studying “Not a Fan” during the summer of 2012.
Schmaltz titled his sermon “Surrounded
and Surrendered.” He told about the story of the rich young ruler, which is
recorded in Matthew 19:16-28:
Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what
good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
“Why
do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One
who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
“Which ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not
commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor
your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I
still lack?”
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell
your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because
he had great wealth.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you,
it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell
you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly
astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is
impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Peter
answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be
for us?”
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of
all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have
followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Israel.” And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or
mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times
as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and
many who are last will be first.
“Jesus went after
something that was very deep – the heart,” Schmaltz said. “He went for the
jugular.”
There was an area in
the rich young ruler’s life that was not fully sacrificed to God, Schmaltz noted.
“You can’t follow
Jesus without denying yourself,” he said. “For Americans, that doesn’t fit so
well. … Becoming a follower is a true test of the heart. We all think the Devil
is our problem. … The greatest deception is self-deception. It’s one step after
another of dealing with internal motives of our hearts.”
Committed followers are willing to choose Jesus over
personal comfort.
“When you seek
personal comfort and make it a goal in your life, you begin to avoid
difficulty,” Schmaltz said. “We have to learn to choose Jesus over personal
comfort.”
Money is one of the
biggest tests of the heart.
Schmaltz said he
gave his life to Christ at age 17 and began tithing.
He said he asks some
college students what they plan to do with their lives and they tell him many
things. When he asks them “Have you asked God about that?” they appear stunned.
“They look at me
like I’m an alien,” he said. “Like, ‘I’ve asked the guidance counselor.’”
Maybe we really don’t
deny ourselves the way Christ has called us to, Schmaltz said.
“In the area of
indulging the flesh, we still haven’t learned that lesson,” he said. “To be a
committed follower of Christ, we can’t choose the comfortable lifestyle –
learning in many cases to give what you could have to somebody else.”
He told of a lady
who poured Pepsi for her husband and herself. A small bit of Pepsi remained in
a large bottle. That portion was “flat” and had no fizz. She poured that into
one glass and poured fresh Pepsi from a newly opened large bottle into another
glass. Her husband watched as she kept the old Pepsi for herself and gave him
the glass of fresh Pepsi. The husband said to a friend, “I never felt more
loved.”
“A lot of little
things add up to big things,” Schmaltz said.
Our “workaround” – we compartmentalize.
“We are not quite
ready to have Christ shine his light on some area,” Schmaltz said.
He told of a nice
couple that began attending Community Valley Church. They were “believers,
confessing Christ, worshippers,” he said. They became involved in the life of
the church, but he soon realized they were living together and not married. He “gave
them time” and then talked with them about marrying.
“They left; kind of
broke our hearts – they compartmentalized,” Schmaltz said. “We start creating ‘truth’
that fits our lifestyles. They call that ‘Existentialism.’”
He talked about
vegetarians who “eat meat they like.” They are sometimes called “flexitarians.”
“Christians do that
to avoid personal pain and discomfort,” Schmaltz said. “Shall we go back and
rewrite the words of Jesus? If we want to be committed followers, we have to
examine our motives … stop compartmentalizing.”
We’ve been given the highest calling of all.
In the Old
Testament, slavery began involuntarily, Schmaltz said. But at times, slaves
could become free, and some chose to stay with the families they had served.
“In the Bible, they
call it a ‘bondservant,’” he said. “And that’s what Peter and Paul were saying
about serving Jesus.”
[From “goodnewsarticles.com”:
“There is a word the Bible uses to describe the true character of one who
serves God in the proper attitude of surrender. That Greek word is “doulos.” Romans 1:1: ‘Paul, a servant (doulos) of
Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God … .’
The word translated ‘servant’ in this verse is more properly rendered ‘bondslave.’
This Greek word, ‘doulos,’ is the most servile term in the New Testament. It
speaks of one whose will is swallowed up in the will of another … a slave who
is bound to his master unto death. He is one who has only the will of his
master in mind. A bondslave does not belong to himself. He has no rights.”]
“Becoming a ‘bondslave’
is the path to true freedom,” Schmaltz said, adding that Bob Dylan, who
reportedly became a Christian convert, wrote and sang “You gotta serve
somebody.”
Schmaltz said “Lord”
means “you’re my Master.”
“But when you
understand who Jesus is, it all makes sense,” he said. “Jesus has our past and
future covered. If we’re going to become enslaved to anyone, it’s him. To try
to live our lives without God seems ‘right.’ But living a life without Christ
is painful. You may have been walking with God many years, but are you a
bondslave?”
Schmaltz said
Millard Fuller was a successful and very wealthy man, but his wife left him. He
found her at a motel, weeping, saying she couldn’t handle it [the wealth and
lifestyle] anymore.
“They gave their
lives to Christ and served God,” Schmaltz said. “They later formed ‘Habitat for
Humanity.’ That took a choice on their part.”
He said that freedom
without God will bring “a leanness to your soul.” Serving Christ will cost you
something – yes, it’ll cost you everything, he noted.
We should not look
at the things we don’t have, he said.
“Thank God for the
things he’s spared you from,” Schmaltz said. “I thank God for the simplicity of
my life. … Do this everyday, say, ‘I’m giving it all back.’ Let’s think about
what Jesus has done for each of us.”
Schmaltz closed in
prayer, saying, “Lord, you’ve called us to deny ourselves, and we know that’s
not easy. … Lord, you will provide everything we need. … Lord, that high
calling … to be bondservants to you. … Lord, I give up. I’m surrounded by your
truth. I give up. Lord, teach us, lead us, in Jesus’ name.”
