Hypocrisy and Freedom

Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.” Luke 12:1–3

When people inside or outside of Christianity think about Jesus, they generally think of him as a pretty easygoing guy; loving, accepting, encouraging. While that is generally true, there is one group of people to whom Jesus spoke pretty harshly: hypocrites, those who say one thing and do another. The word hypocrite is used 24 times in the New Testament, 20 times by Jesus, and each of the times with very strong language. Jesus hates hypocrisy, because hypocrisy is a cancer that grows, a yeast which leavens beyond our ability to control it.

God can deal with our doubts, confusion, stumbling, seeking – any number of things. God will meet us in them and engage with us where we are, while he seeks to draw us more and more fully towards himself. In order for him to do so, we need to be honest with ourselves and with him. There is nothing that he cannot do, no problem that he will not enter into with us, no problem that he does not know more about than we ourselves know. It is, frankly, foolishness to live a life of hypocrisy, essentially burying our heads in the sand, wearing a mask that hides who we truly are, and hoping that somehow God will be fooled as well.

If we are honest, we all have areas of our lives that do not align with who we say we are or want to be. Some have bigger areas, some have smaller, but we all have them. In the dark these areas grow in size, strength, and control. In the light, they lose their strength and we become free of their control.

• Is there an area in your life that has more power over you than you ever intended it to have?
• Is there an area in your life where your actions do not align with who you really are?
• Do you feel trapped? 

Jesus is the light and the power that frees us from the things that entangle us. Most often he uses other people to shine the light and free us from the darkness.

• Can you think of anybody who might play that role in your life?
• Is there someone you can ask to help you get unstuck?

 Invite God and invite others into the places. You are not alone in this, each of us needs others

 to truly be free in Christ.

 Peace, hope and love

 

 Doug

The Outworking of Grace

In the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. (Romans 1:17) God will give to each person according to what he has done. (Romans 2:6) It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9) Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:17)

It is a hard task for many of us to reconcile the duel realities presented in the Bible: 

1. We are saved the grace of God, not by anything that we have done or will do; and, 
2. We will be judged by what we do. 

On Sunday I asked folks if they had ever struggled with how to reconcile the seemingly  different messages found in these passages. The near universal nods indicated that most had. 

So, which is it? Do we need to do good deeds or works in order to be saved? Or, are we saved by Christ’s work alone, regardless of what we have done. The answer really is quite simple. We are saved by what Christ has done, period, end of discussion. And the things we do from a heart transformed by Christ are the evidence that we have appropriated what he has done, the evidence that we are indeed his. 

Let's go back to the basics: What is the goal of Christianity? It is not a trick question. The goal of Christianity is Chris. As we seek after him and get to know him more fully, we long to spend time with him, to do the things that bring us close to him and that reveal his heart in us. Jesus is not a means to an end, he is the means and the end. Jesus is not a ticket to go to heaven that we “accept” and then we hold until we need it for the afterlife. Rather he is the end, heaven is about Jesus our King and our life with him in his Kingdom, hear in the now, and forever when we die. Jesus is the means, he purchased our way into a restored relationship with him and he empowers a life that moves toward the way of his Kingdom, lived in and with him. This way of being, the things we do as citizens of his Kingdom, do not earn our status as citizens, but reveal that we are indeed citizens. 

On Sunday I mentioned the story in 1 Kings where two woman asked King Solomon to decide between them who was the true mother of a child. (Read 1 Kings 3:16–27 if you are not familiar with the story). When King Solomon threatened to take his sword and split the child in half, giving each woman a piece, the reaction of the true mother -- her action -- revealed to him the true relationship. It was not that the woman became the mother by her actions, but rather that her actions revealed that she was indeed the mother all along. It is like that with our works, deeds or behaviors. They do not make us fit for an eternity with Christ, they reveal whether such an eternity is really what we desire -- or, tragically, if we are just going through the motions.  So, what do you do with this? 

• Do you see evidence in your life that indicate allegiance to God? 
• Do you allow yourself to be shaped by him? 
• Do you ever make decisions that but for the reality of Christ would not make sense? 

If the answer to these questions is no, the invitation is a simple one. It is not do do more, but to seek more. The solution is to draw near to Christ, to his ways, to his life in you. If you do not know how to go about that, let me know. We are all on the Journey with Jesus together, it is a journey toward life, and it was meant to be traveled together.

Peace, hope and love,

Doug

Desperate for God

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?  Psalms 42:1–2

I don’t know about you, but when I read the beginning verses of Psalm 42, a song comes to mind. If you are like me, that song will now be stuck in your mind for the rest of the day. You’re welcome.

Weather you like the song or not, have even heard it or not, the psalm which it quotes in an interesting one. The song is melodic and slow, peaceful; almost like a scene from Bambi – lush forest and flowing streams. The sentiment of the psalmist is far different than that. The idea of the writer of the psalm is desperation, drought and desert; A deer dying of thirst, longing to find a source of water, panting, searching to find the life saving drops of a stream. The psalmist is painting a picture of his soul, desperate, panting, thirsting for God.

I an convinced that few of us rarely thirst for God that way. I believe few of us seek the presence of God with desperation. When life circumstances go bad, when we get to the end of our rope, we often find ourselves there, but short of that, the busyness, stresses, concerns and distractions of each day leave no room for desperately longing for more of God.   

These past couple weeks in our study of Roman’s we have heard Paul’s words about the wrath of God toward evil and of the sin that so permeates all of our lives. These words are not intended to make us “feel bad,” but to invite us into a better way, a fuller way. That may sound odd, but the reality is that we simply cannot understand the amazing gift of grace and life that God has freely given us if we do not understand the depth of our brokenness, the consequences of our sin and the need for daily need for that grace. We need to see our sin -- and the corresponding grace on God's part -- in order to be desperate for Jesus, to experience the righteousness that is from God and be desperate for it, because it is not in us through ourselves. Desperation for Jesus changes us; it causes us to "pant" for him. It causes us to long for him. It causes us to seek him. It causes us to worship him and to experience the joy, peace and freedom that is found in him. God speaking through the prophet Jeremiah says, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."(Jeremiah 29:13)

- Are you desperate for Jesus?

- Have you been desperate in the past?

- Take an inventory today of every time you seek your way and not God’s.

- When you realize your sin, think about the reality that God sees you as perfect and holy because of what Jesus did.

- Consider taking some time each night this week to walk prayerfully inventory your connection with God each day. Here is a tool to help you do that called the prayer of Examen which I think you will find useful. 

Feel free to let me know your thoughts and experiences. Talk to others about them as well. 

Peace, hope and love

Doug

The Amazing Love and Justice of God

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. - Romans 5:8–9

This past Sunday I preached on the wrath of God, a topic that generally does not get people out of bed to arrive early to church. And yet, it is a very important topic, a very important reality, one that is so often misunderstood and miscommunicated.  During my sermon I shared the words of another pastor that bothered me, they still do. The pastor told his congregation, “Gods wrath is mentioned more than 600 times in the bible. If you have a bucket of verses that say love, I have a bucket of verses that say wrath, and the wrath one is a bigger bucket, deal with it.” Those words bothered me so much because like so many wrong things that get said about God they are on the unexamined surface true yet at the root of who God is, so devastatingly wrong. 

God does have wrath, many verses make that clear. But God is love. God gets angry, but God is merciful. God is not defined by his wrath, but is defined by (and his wrath is set within the context of) who he is. The Bible tells us that God is:

God. Merciful. Mighty. Great. Holy. True. Righteous. Faithful. An everlasting Rock. King of all the earth. 

For us. Our refuge. Our strength. Our helper. Our salvation. God is light, and God is love. 

The Bible also tells us that God has wrath, that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (Romans 1:18) The wrath of God is real a real thing, that is not a defect in God’s personality, but an outflowing of the perfection of his personality, the outflowing of perfection at the evil that corrupts the world -- the evidences of that corruption so visible around us every day (poverty, war, hatred, divorce, murder, robbery, bitterness, unforgiveness, addiction, the list goes on and on). And so could I, far more than the space allotted. 

If you were not at Creekside on Sunday, listen to the sermon You Will Surely Die (it should be available shortly). Ponder the seemingly antithetical and actually beautiful coexistence of God’s love and wrath. Ponder the wonderful words of Paul, -- God’s active and intentional love and sacrifice saving us from God’s righteous wrath. It is an amazing and complex reality. 

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:8–9)

Peace, hope and love

Doug