“You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32).

One of the things I say to our staff and our session is, “Truth is our friend. You cannot build a desirable future based on wishful thinking. You can only build a desirable future based on truth.”

Some of us are terribly out of shape. We can’t even jog fifty yards without getting out of breath. If that’s the case, it’s good to know that. And based on that truth we can put together a plan to building a better future where we are in better physical condition.

Some of us our spending is out of control. We keep buying things we don’t need. We have no ability to distinguish between those things we need and those things we would like to have. And, if that’s the case, it’s really good that we know that.

Some of us haven’t grown or matured in our faith since we came to know Jesus. We’ve been going to church and doing churchy things, but we are no closer to Jesus than we were when we first came to know Jesus. If that’s the case, it’s good that we come to terms with that so that we can make a plan to mature and grow up in the faith.

You see, the degree to which a person can grow is directly tied to the amount of truth we can accept about ourselves.

Truth is our friend. You cannot build a desirable future based on wishful thinking. You can only build it based on facts.

“The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 1:7).

Call yourself a Christian and our world ignores you. Christians don’t make much difference anyway.

BUT…

• Keep the Lord’s day the Lord’s way gathering with old and young every week
• Worship the One who was despised, rejected, and betrayed
• Pray to an invisible God
• Give yourself to serve people you don’t even know
• Give your money for the sake of people you’ve never met
• Serve and honor all people
• Treasure God’s word by reading, meditating, and memorizing

Do these things and the world thinks you’re a crazy radical fool.

The word radical comes from the Latin rabix, literally meaning “root.” That’s where we get the word radish. It has to do with getting to the root of things.

When the world calls Christ-followers radical, they are actually correct. We are radical. All those things that were listed are the normal practices that get to the root of what it means to be Christian. Christians are radically different than anything this world has ever seen. It’s always been and will continue to be that way.

“The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11:26).

Christians.

The way we use this word today is as a self-designation. We call ourselves Christian. But that wasn’t the case in the early church. The disciples were called Christians. People of the time knew who the Jews were. They knew pagans. They knew who the Romans were. But these guys…these followers of Jesus…these disciples…what are they? They were unlike any people they knew. These were a new category of people. They behaved differently. They loved differently. They worshiped differently.

So, the people of the day called these disciples Christians.

Is there enough evidence in our lives where people look at the way we live, love, worship, serve, give and cannot help but call us Christians?

If this title is only a self-designation, we have a problem.

People ought to know we are Christians because they see Christ-honoring life in us.