Sermon Let s Be Honest

Transcription

1 Sermon Let s Be Honest One of our core values is Authentic Community. Authentic Community We genuinely care for one another inside and outside the church s walls by showing acceptance, compassion, and friendship with permission to be honest without fear of rejection. Today s and next weeks sermon is asking you to give others permission to be honest with you, without fear of rejection. I am also asking that you would give yourself permission to be honest with yourself without fear of rejection. I am also asking you to give God permission to be honest with you. Proverbs 27:23 tells all pastors to Be sure you know the condition of your flocks Let us stand for the reading of scripture (if you can) I am sure you know why George Washington didn t need a bed. (Because he would not lie) And you know why Snow White would make a great judge. Because she is the fairest of them all. Let us stand for the reading of scripture, which was birthed out of a prayerful concern for the condition of this community of God s people. Slides: Hebrews 6: 1So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. 2You don t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding. Pastor: The Word of the Lord Congregation: Thanks be to God 1

2 Prayer: Lord, if you are willing, and I believe you are. Help us move forward in our spiritual growth and advancing the Kingdom of God. Anoint us to be and become more mature in our understanding. Help us stop certain behaviors and go on to other, better behaviors. In Jesus name, Amen. Let s Be Honest with God, others and ourself. The Hebrews passage is speaks of the path to maturity as stopping some behaviors and actions and going on to other behavior and actions. But what are we to stop and what are we to go onto. A FB post reminded me that this theme was spoken on three years ago, as well. Three years ago this coming January I heard an important message in a sermon given by Craig Burns... The message was decide today what God wants you to bring forward into this next year and what you should leave behind in last year... The sermon replayed over and over again for three weeks in my head. The message was clear and I knew some of the things I needed to leave behind... God's messages when understood and the route that must be taken are not always easy. Often times once some distance is given there is an undeniable clarity as to why... I look back today with great thankfulness to have heard clearly God's message for me that day. My life is in a really good place with my children doing so well, my parents and siblings near by and in my life, a career that has me surrounded by some of the best people I have ever had a chance to work with and friends that love me unconditionally and have shared life with me. I am thankful for all the blessings God bestows upon me. I close this year with a grateful full heart and look forward to 2017!! Let s be honest with God, others and yourself about what actions and behaviors need to stop and what actions and behaviors need to go onto. Being honest with God, others and yourself is not quite as easy as it may first seem. The complexities of being human make the process of being honest with God, others and yourself an ongoing challenge. 2

3 Self-deception is a process of denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance, or importance of opposing evidence and logical argument. Self-deception involves convincing oneself of a truth (or lack of truth) so that one does not reveal any self-knowledge of the deception. Self-deception is defined as the act of lying to yourself or of making yourself believe something that isn't really true. An example of self deception is someone who convinces herself her boyfriend loves her even though he has told her several times he wants to break up. Being honest, with God, others and yourself, involves facing the very real possibility of selfdeception. It can also be added God, and others deception. The book of James, speaks to some of this. James 1:22 (KJV) But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. It is not the hearing of the Word that matters, it is the doing of the Word. Hearing is what is so vital to building our faith, growing our faith. Faith comes by hearing the Word. (Romans 10:17) Once faith comes, then the Word is to be done. Self-deception leads to others deception. 2 Timothy 3:13 13 They will deceive others and will themselves be deceived. For 2017, let us seriously consider how we can overcome deceiving ourselves, others and God. Ps. 119:119 Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. If we can deceive ourselves, and if others desire to deceive us, and if it is possible to deceive others then let us settle on what won t deceive us. What is that? The Word of God. 3

4 Let us also talk honestly with others who can tell us the truth and not deceive us. One such professional person, whom we need to have in our lives to speak truth to our selfdeception, is a medical physician. To help assist the physician to diagnose a patient, let us analyze the process that occurs before the physician enters the room. Ask: What diagnostics are done prior to the physician coming into the room. What are some of the responses, that are possible, when you step on the scales? The scales are demonic. The scales are not calibrated. If your pulse is elevated: I had to rush up the steps to get here. If your blood pressure is elevated. I got stuck in traffic, and I got so stressed, just to get here What if a patient would grant permission to the physician to be completely honest with them? Would that patient be healthier in the long run? How about a spouse: How about an attorney? A CPA? A politician? A pastor: It is hard to be completely honest with your congregation. Example: Bring out the scales. What if the scales tell you something you don want to hear? 4

5 So, here is why the Word of God is so valuable to help us as we struggle through our own selfdeceptions, and the deceptions of others. On this first Sunday of January, let us fact the current realities of our life, honestly. You are the expert in your life. All the professionals I listed can only recommend. You are the one who ultimately will choose and become the mature. Please, I am not the expert in your life. I am as the hymn says, prone to wander. I am as Ro. 3:23 among the All have sinned. I too am subject to self-deception and self-denial. Please do not take this message, as the pastor is the expert in this, for I too have behaviors and actions to stop and others to go onto. All progress involves both the backward look and forward look. Going on into 2017 towards the Mark of the High Calling in Christ Jesus, is our opportunity. Going on, will involve a leaving behind and pressing ahead. The pressing ahead into spiritual maturity, is best understood as let us be carried on to maturity (or completeness). Moving forward suggests an element of yieldedness to a nobler influence, as if the maturing process is not a matter of our ingenuity. It is not mechanical or automatic. Spiritual maturity is not the kind, which can be had for the asking, but requires higher powers than man s natural endowments. The leaving behind actions and behaviors, and moving forward with actions and behaviors is more than just choosing to be so. The choosing is our role, and is done by faith, but the accomplishment of that is a work of the Holy Spirit. Our role is to be yielded to the Lord, and the Lord does the work. A person cannot be carried on to maturity if that person has no desire to be mature. Let us choose to be honest with God, others and ourselves and follow this pattern. Slide: Repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God This conjunction is important. It is not just repenting it is placing faith. 5

6 Evil deeds are understood as dead works. We repent from dead works, and place faith in God. Let us not repent from the good works. Let us not repent of that which has helped you with your spiritual progress. But let us be honest and determine a dead work, or an evil deed. A dead work is a non-functioning work. A question, I pray you ask yourself, is, how is that working for you? Take all your actions, behaviors, routines, and honestly, ask the question. How did that work for me? If the Holy Spirit can illuminate our self-deception, we may discover a work that is nonfunctioning any more for us. It no longer carries power to transform, and spiritually mature us. Here is the main dead work; I want to be perfectly honest with you about. If our faith is dead, and we are relying on our good works, we have become like the ancient Judaizers. I am asking you, to be completely, totally honest about your faith. Is it dead? Is it working for you? Is it producing spiritual, emotional, physical, financial, maturity, and spiritual progress? By the body and blood of Jesus, let us come forward and yield ourselves to the working of the Holy Spirit so we can move forward into maturity. On this first day of 2017, let us repent of all dead works, and place our faith in God. Holy Communion: I Cor. 11: 23For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread 24and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. 25In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant between 6

7 God and his people an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as you drink it. 26For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord s death until he comes again. 27So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. 29For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God s judgment upon yourself. 30That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. 31But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way. 32Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world. Prayer: 7