Dr. Hugh Hamilton Trinity Presbyterian Church Pensacola, FL August12, th Sunday After Pentecost, Cycle B

Transcription

1 Dr. Hugh Hamilton Trinity Presbyterian Church Pensacola, FL August12, th Sunday After Pentecost, Cycle B OUR STANDARD: JESUS CHRIST Ephesians 4:17-32 Romans 12:1,2, 9-21 One of my seminary classmates asked our worship and preaching professor if it was okay to repeat a sermon. Our professor replied, if it s worth preaching, it s worth repeating, but if it s not worth repeating, it wasn t worth preaching the first time! I preached this sermon in August I now repeat it with some updates. I hope it is worth repeating. A woman handed a little green paint chip to a house painter and said she wanted her living room walls painted the same shade of green. He mixed the color and painted one wall five times, but each time she shook her head and said the color wasn t quite right. She gave the painter one more chance. She then called her mother on the phone to get her ideas on the problem since her mother had used the same color in her house. The phone conversation was quite lengthy, and afterwards the woman went to check on the painter s work. He had painted the wall a sixth time and this time she like what she saw. The wall was a perfect match to the color chip! What she didn t know and what he didn t tell her was that while she was on the telephone, the painter had painted the chip with the color he had already painted on the wall! He changed the standard to match his work. A factory worker blew the 7a.m. whistle at the local factory to signal the start of the work day. He wanted to be precisely on time so he stopped by the local jeweler s window each morning and set his watch by the big clock in the store window. He was chatting with the jeweler one day and he told him how his kept the plant s whistle on time. That s interesting, the jeweler said, I always set my clock by your whistle. Given the public furor over misconduct by leaders and celebrities, given the lament over our lack of standards or morals, I wonder, have we lowered our standards or just our adherence to our standards? Are we lazy in adhering to what we know is right? We excuse our behavior in ways that will ease our conscience and we try to convince ourselves that nothing is wrong as long as no one gets hurt, or as long as nobody finds out what we are doing. Don t fool yourselves: everyone around you has a cell phone camera and video, and the whole world is watching. We deceive ourselves by dismissing moral and ethical standards or twisting them to meet our needs. What are our standards? Whose example do we follow? As disciples of Jesus Christ, our standard is Jesus Christ himself and God intends to make us into persons who reflect his image. To become like Christ, we must take off the old self and put on the new self. Following Christ is a lifelong process of taking off the soiled, tattered garments of our sinful nature and putting on a fresh set of clothes that will transform us into persons more consistently reflecting God's holiness and righteousness.

2 OUR STANDARD: Jesus Christ, p2 When Barbara Bush died recently, son George Bush related that Barbara never allowed George or his siblings to put their feet up on the coffee table. While president, he visited his parents in Texas and he came in from a jog, hot and sweaty. He sat down on the sofa by his father George Bush, took off his shoes and socks, and put his feet on the coffee table. Barbara fussed at him. Father George said, Barbara, he s the president of the Unites States. She looked at son George and said, I don t care if you ARE the president, you know the rules in my house, get your feet off my table! He did! The Apostle Paul cuts us no slack either! You know the ways of Jesus! Live up to his standards, live up to the new self he has given you! Put aside your old self that lived by deceit, selfishness, and lust. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and clothe yourself with the new self which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:23-24) Contrasting us with people without standards, Paul says, Their minds are in darkness they exclude themselves from the life of God, because of their ignorance, they have become callous, they ve lost all feelings of shame, and have abandoned themselves to sensuality, and do all sorts of indecent things without restraint (Ephesians 4:19). What causes this? How do they how do WE get like that? Paul says our sinfulness produces callused hearts. Like calcium deposits on bones which render joints stiff and useless, our hearts become hard and unfeeling, to the extent that we don t even realize we are sinning, or worse, we DO realize it, but we don t CARE! That is the terrible thing about sin sin hardens us, it renders us uncaring, resentful, unbending; we lose all sensitivity (v. 19) and with our minds clouded and our thinking futile, with our hearts hardened and uncaring, we can t even distinguish between right and wrong. Like the Gentiles who have lost their shame and freely "indulge in every kind of impurity, " we lose our shame, we lose our way, we lose self control. We have lost our capacity to be appalled, to be indignant, to be ashamed. We are afraid to speak up against sin and say no more! We let anyone do anything as long as it doesn t interfere with our rights and privileges. We paint the chip. We change the standard. We alter the principles, thinking no one will know better and we can get by with it. The only solution, Ephesians 4:23 says, is that our hearts and minds must be made new by the work of Jesus Christ who brings us back to our senses, especially back to our sense of right and wrong. A captain of a Navy ship at sea spotted faints lights in the distance. He radioed the other vessel, Altar your course 10 degrees South. Came the reply, Altar YOUR course 10 degrees North. Altar your course 10 degrees South, he radioed back, I am US Navy Captain ordering you. Came the reply, Altar your course 10 degrees North, Seaman 3 rd class Jones. Indignant now, the Captain signaled, Altar your course 10 degrees South, I am a battleship! Came the reply, Altar your course 10 degrees North, I m a lighthouse! When we ignore rules and principles and standards, we do so at our own peril. If you ignore Jesus or reject Jesus, you do so at your own peril. He is the standard and he does not change!

3 OUR STANDARD: Jesus Christ, p3 It is WE who must change, or rather BE CHANGED, by the working of God s holy spirit within us. Ephesians 4:22: Your hearts and minds must be made new. Romans 12:2: Do not be conformed to this world, but be TRANSFORMED by the renewal of your mind; that you may know what is the will of God, what is good and perfect, and is pleasing to God. Paul tells us TO change, he tells us HOW to change, and now he tells us WHAT to change, what to ABANDON in our lifestyle. It is not an exhaustive list, but it will exhaust you if you try to overcome all these things by yourself. The GOOD NEWS is that Jesus Christ helps! His strength overcomes our weakness. WHAT OLD CLOTHES ARE WE TO BANISH? Ephesians 4:25-32 tells us. FALSEHOOD. Verse 25 no more lying! If you lie, people won t trust you, they ll become suspicious of you, they ll avoid you and resent you. Remember the Little Boy who cried, Wolf? People who tell lies and break promises cannot be trusted. No more lying! says Paul. Verse 26: PUT AWAY ANGER. Be angry, but do not sin; Do not let the sun go down on your anger. That does not mean you can t be upset, or stand up for your principles, stand up for the truth. Righteous indignation is okay. But it means do not be angry without a cause, don t let pride postpone you apologizing when you are wrong. The longer you nurse anger the more bitter you become and the less likely you are to make amends. Angry resentment calcifies our heart and hardens our conscience. Apologize, ask and offer forgiveness. The relationship is more important than being right. Verse 27 says, Don t make room for the devil (NRSV) Don t give the devil a chance. Don t let the devil jump on your band wagon. When you are angry, don t let others fuel your fire. Spreading rumors, criticizing, choosing up sides, and gossiping make it harder to mend a rift! Pray for ability to ignore rumors, squelch criticism, work for unity not for division. Don t give the devil a chance, Bite your tongue and bide your time. Let God s Spirit work in you and bring righteousness to bear. Verse 28 says the thief must become an honest worker. That is the principle of programs by which criminals work to make restitution to their victims. The idea is, if you have done wrong, admit it, repent of it. If possible - make restitution; if not possible remember so that you do not repeat your offense. Verse 29: Do not allow EVIL TALK, FOUL LANGUAGE to come out of your mouth. My father allowed no cussing or foul language in our house, because cussing was a sign of ignorance: people who cuss lack the vocabulary to express themselves and lack the discipline to watch their language. Instead, writes Paul in verse 29, you set the example for others, use words that build people up, not words that tear people down. Then what you say will do good to those that hear you!

4 OUR STANDARD: Jesus Christ, p4 Verse 30: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Do not break the heart of God who is doing all he can to transform you and guide you into a richer, fuller, life. Live up to your birthright as Children of God! Don t let selfishness and sinful temptations drag you down and betray your destiny as a child of God! Verse 31: No more shouting or insults or slander, no more malice or hateful feelings! In a sentence, If you have nothing good to say, don t say anything. Then is one sentence, Paul issues a summary of what TO DO: be kind and tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Treat others as God has treated you. God has forgiven you everything evil and hurtful you have done --- how is it that you refuse to forgive anyone who has wronged you? IN SUMMARY: We are NOT children of darkness: clueless, ignorant, lacking understanding, lacking standards. We can NOT do anything we please and lower our standards to justify our behavior. NO, we are children of light! We know better. We have no excuses! We are called to live to a higher standard, indeed, the HIGHEST standard, which is Jesus Christ himself. We are not chameleons, taking on the colors of the world because we have no defenses. We are not chameleons, we are CHRISTIANS, who are to show the world the true colors of Jesus Christ and to make this world a better place because we have been here! A mother, wishing to encourage her little boy s piano playing, took him to a concert performance by Paderowsky, the great Polish pianist. They sat on the front row, just below this fantastic Steinway grand piano. While the mother was engrossed in conversation with the lady sitting beside her, the little boy slipped away. The lights dimmed, the audience hushed, the spotlight came on and there sat her little boy on the piano bench. He began to plink out, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star The mother was horrified and whispered harshly, Come here! Come here! But before she could get to her son, Paderowsky appeared on stage. He whispered to the little boy, Don t quit, keep playing! And reaching his arms around the little boy. his left hand playing the bass notes and his right the upper keys, Paderowsky added augmentation to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. The old master and the little boy held the crowd mesmerized! In our lives unfocused and prone to sin as we are Jesus our Master surrounds us, embraces us, and whispers, don t stop, Keep playing, while he augments and supplements our frail attempts at Christian living until together we create a work of amazing beauty and inspiration to others.

5 OUR STANDARD: Jesus Christ, p5 Please: DON T PAINT THE CHIP. DON T LOWER YOUR STANDARDS. STAND UP, STAND UP FOR JESUS. ENJOY IT WHEN YOU DO IT RIGHT, and REPENT OF IT WHENYOU DO WRONG. REPENT AND BE RENEWED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT IN YOU. Please, DON T STOP. KEEP PLAYING! Amen Our Standard: Jesus Christ.docx