To begin with, I want to ask y’all a question – Why are you a Christian?  Some will rightfully be thinking “I’m a Christian because God chose me to be one.”  You’d be right of course.  But in the question I ask, “Why are you a Christian”, I’m looking for more of an earthly dimension.  How did God work to make you a Christian here, on this earth?  That’s ultimately how God worked out WHY you’re a Christian.  The strong likelihood is that we’re all Christians because somebody or a group of people taught us about Jesus Christ.  People took the time to explain to us the story of God’s redemptive plan and by the power of the Holy Spirit, it all added up.  It made such deep sense that we can’t imagine life any other way.  Maybe it was a Sunday school teacher or several people within a congregation.  Perhaps it was a pastor.  But at some time, someone met your need to learn more about God by teaching you how to follow this Christ.

  For me, one of those people was David Chadwick.  As I’ve shared with you in the past, I had a great epiphany one morning at Sharon Presbyterian Church.  But as amazing as that was, I don’t know that the experience in and of itself would’ve sealed the deal so to speak.  As a new Christian, I emerged from that spiritual experience with questions – LOTS of them.  Each and every morning Rev. David Chadwick would come into the Starbucks where I was working to get a coffee.  Here I was, just supposed to fix him his morning pick me up and instead I’d inundate him with questions.  I’m chatty, y’all know that, right?  Imagine me with access to unlimited coffee?  So full of questions and all hyped up on caffeine, I’d ask David whatever it was in our faith I was curious about.  If he could answer quickly, he would.  Sometimes he said the questions I had were too big for a snappy answer, so we’d set up a time to talk more about it.  And that just names one person who helped me learn about Christianity.  The fact of the matter is there were countless people who taught Bible studies and shared the language of our faith we me along the way.  One, a son of this church, Mack Sigmon, taught my very first Bible study class – it was on Philippians, I’ll never forget it.    

  So, for me, someone never raised in the church, I answer the question why I’m a Christian by saying that it was the result of ongoing efforts of dedicated Christians teaching me.  Truth be told, people are still teaching me.  When we sit around in Bible study, it’s routine for me to be learning from others just as much as I’m hopefully teaching them.  That’s the way God moved in my life and I think it happens that way to most people who come to faith later in life.  I believe lots of people encounter the power and love of the Lord in such a way that leaves them longing for more.  Sometimes the feeling holds and turns into action left all by itself.  For the most part though, the experience fades quickly away unless informed by something or, more specifically, somebody else.

  I’ll never forget the movie Grand Canyon.  In the film, Steve Martin plays a thoroughly obnoxious movie producer.  He makes the lowest-common denominator type of movie.  Action flicks filled with meaningless sex and violence.  During the course of the movie, he gets shot.  He lives but spends time in the hospital.  One morning, he’s just staring out into the beautiful day from his hospital bed and experiences a taste of the divine.  He explains to his friends that following that experience, he’s a changed man.  He swears he’ll never make another violent movie again.  It seems as though he’s taken a profound turn and he has…for a while.  Then, towards the end of the movie, we learn he’s producing a new flick – “Cyborg Cop Killer” or something of the ilk.  One of his friends asks him “What became of being so profoundly moved that he was going to alter his whole way of doing things?”  “Oh, that” Steve Martin says.  “That was probably just the pain killers talking.”

  I believe lots of people each and every day have a spiritual experience.  One in which their lives are shaken to the core by the power and providence of a merciful God.  But you see, even those grand experiences that only the Lord makes possible are oftentimes left to wither back into apathy unless someone is there to continue to fill in the blanks.