March 1, 2022

The Awesome God and What Matters When You Are Dead

From Pastor Chris

Sometimes we need a jolt to cause us to ask the hard questions.

When I was in high school, growing up in an idyllic suburb of Atlanta, the life of Rich Mullins jolted me. I loved Rich’s music from the time I started singing Awesome God in youth group. I bought every one of his albums and pored over his lyrics in the cassette tape’s liner notes. Then I heard that Rich moved from Nashville—the center of the music scene—to New Mexico where he lived in a small trailer on the Navajo reservation and taught music at an elementary school. I also learned that Rich, who never married, asked his financial manager to put all his royalties in a trust account and only pay him what the average American worker made each year. The rest, which built up to millions, would be given away.

At the time I had no great ambitions for my own wealth or notoriety, but I knew that Rich was going in the opposite direction of most everyone I observed. So it caused me to ask some hard questions. What is going to matter when I’m dead? What is worth living for? Why am I here?

This Sunday we begin a 2-part look at the life of a radical believer whose life jolts us to face our assumptions. Stephen, arrested on trumped-up charges, faces the same council that tried Jesus and his apostles. Now it was Stephen’s turn to face the escalating fury of this powerful court. They had threatened Peter and John and, when they didn’t heed the warnings not to preach in Jesus’ name, had Peter and the other apostles lashed 39 times with leather whips. By the time Stephen stood before them the council was seeing red. He knew that execution lay ahead if he didn’t play his cards right.

This is where Stephen’s decision jolts me and causes me to ask some difficult questions. The assumptions I’ve absorbed over the years are that you avoid pain, keep your head down, stay out of trouble, and don’t upset the apple cart. But Stephen does nothing of the sort. As his speech to the high priest and the council goes on, it is clear that he is not there to talk himself out of punishment. He is there to bear witness to Christ and call the wealthiest and most powerful leaders in Israel to repentance. Stephen wasn’t there to stay alive for another day. He was there to magnify God’s reputation.

“Magnify God’s reputation” is more than a slogan. It is a priority that will lead us to some difficult decisions. Whether in ordinary conversations at work or in major life choices, each of us will face a moment when we have to decide whether we are here to make much of our name, build our wealth, and grow our influence or to magnify God’s reputation. Don’t get me wrong. It is possible to be beloved, wealthy, and influential in our world while making God’s reputation your sole desire. But those blessings can become the main thing rather than means by which we make much of God. And then we need another jolt to examine this idolatry and keep the main thing the main thing.

Stephen died in the prime of his life. So did Rich Mullins, who died in a car accident when he was 41. Yet here we are talking about them, not because they played it safe or avoided discomfort or lived very long but because they let the eternal awesomeness of God be bigger than the comforts of this life.

After Rich’s unexpected death the news came out that nine days earlier he had recorded a demo tape of nine of the songs that would be on his new album, Ten Songs for Jesus. The one song he didn’t record was called Man of No Reputation. Rich didn’t record it because he said he could never get through it without weeping. As you read the words of the chorus (written by Rick Elias), ask Jesus to make you more like him. Once this brief life is over and you are in his presence, that is all that will matter.

He was a man of no reputation
And by the wise, considered a fool
When He spoke about faith and forgiveness
In a time when the strongest arms ruled
But this man of no reputation
Loved the weak with relentless affection
And He loved all those poor in spirit just as they were
He was a man of no reputation