“Authentic Thoughts” – Proverbs 15:11

Have you ever heard somebody say, “I had the craziest dream last night!”?  And then they go on to tell you about something that makes absolutely no sense?  I have a question.  Have you ever had a dream that did make sense?  Have you ever had a dream and the next day said, “Hey that was a good idea.  I’m gonna try that.”  Somebody real briefly tell me about a crazy dream you had.

I remember a while back having a dream that Indians were chasing me down a snowy mountain and we were all on skis.  And they chased me to the top of this building and they started shooting me with BB guns.  And then I woke up.  Where does that come from?  I hadn’t been thinking about Indians, skiing or BB guns.  How does that stuff get into our heads?  Do you ever wonder that?

I have had a couple of horrible dreams just here lately and I woke up thinking I needed to go the psychologist.  I must be mentally disturbed to have dreams like that.  It was awful.  Am I the only one?  Or sometimes maybe you just have some thought pop up in your brain and you think how horrible that is and that you really don’t feel that way.  You would never do that or talk that way or want whatever it was that flashed through your head.

And when I get to Heaven…I am not going to bring that up!  I don’t really want to know or even talk about it but if I did want to, God would know.  He would know the answer to my question of where does that stuff come from.  He would be able to tell me that it was a combination of the news I watched, the conversation I overheard and the late-night pizza I had eaten, or whatever it is.

But whatever causes that kind of dream or thought, I am glad to know that God understands where that stuff comes from.  I’m glad to know that He understands my thoughts better than I do and that He knows my motives and that He knows my heart.  Because there was that time back in about 1982 that I had good motives for that one deal and I want credit for that.

But I will also tell you that it scares me to death to think that God knows my heart and sees my motives because of all those other times.  He has seen those other times when I was prideful or bitter.  He knows that I was sarcastic when I gave that compliment.  He saw me being obedient with teeth clenched and fists balled up.  He knows when I’m fake.  He knows when I’m lazy.  He knows when I have a bad attitude.  He sees all of that in me just as plain as day.  And it scares me, but does it change me?

As we end our series on being authentic, I want to look at one last proverb that talks about how God knows our heart, our motives, our thoughts and we will see what it takes to have authentic thoughts; thoughts that are wholesome and pleasing to God.  I don’t know it but I hope that when our thoughts become more authentic then maybe our dreams will even be better as well.

Turn again to the book of Proverbs and we will look at Proverbs 15:11.  We have seen what it means to be authentic, worship authentically, live authentically and trust authentically even when God disciplines us.  Today we see what is involved with having authentic thoughts in Proverbs 15:11.

 “Death and Destruction lie open before the LORD-- how much more the hearts of men!”

Somebody tell me what it’s like to be dead.  Somebody tell me how it feels to be in the grave.  Somebody tell me how you are going to die, how I am going to die.  Somebody tell me where Moses is buried.  Somebody tell me who is in the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  You can’t but God can.  All of that is as open to God as an old book.  He knows all, sees all, reads all and is Lord of all.

Martin Luther said, “Even the devil is God’s devil.”  God knows what Satan is going to do next and while Satan may be the lord of this world (for now); the Lord of the devil is God, Yahweh, Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  And God even knows the thoughts, understands the motives and sees every action of Satan himself.  And that ought to scare the fire out of him but it doesn’t.  And it ought to scare the fire out of you and me, but does it?

Just for grins I googled, “What is it like to be dead?”  I wondered if anybody else had ever thought of the question that way.  Come to find out, I’m not the first.  The most common answer compared it to being asleep.  One agnostic person said we have nothing to fear because we didn’t exist before we were born just like we won’t exist when we die.  And that is very similar to Mark Twain’s thoughts on it.  He said, "I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

I like Mark Twain and consider him to have been a pretty smart guy but Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.”  Isaiah 55:9 says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  What the grave is like, what death is like, who is there and how it happens only God knows and He has known it before He created it.

But Solomon’s point here is not to just say that God knows all about death, the grave and Hell.  His point is that since God knows all of that and we can’t conceive of any of that beyond what He has revealed to us in His Word, God knows every thought, feeling and motivation that we have.  And as I said, that should give us peace knowing that the good we have in our hearts, our good intentions and warm feelings we get when we do something for someone else; all that counts for something.

But it’s the other side of that coin that can and should concern us.  If He knows all the good then He also knows all the bad.  I hear people all the time say the way to get to Heaven is if your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds and they are happy with that, comparing themselves to all the really bad people they can think of.  But not only is that horribly faulty theology, I think for most people it wouldn’t turn out any better if that were true.

If it weren’t for the cross of Christ and that our salvation comes through faith and by grace and if God really did judge us according to all our thoughts and deeds, then most of us would wind up smashing through the gates of Hell like a sled on ice.  But as believers we know that we have God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness and so we don’t have to worry about having bad thoughts even if God does see them, right?

Of course that’s not true.  We saw from verses 8, 9, and 10 what God thinks about sin, even of the believer.  He detests it.  He calls it evil and He says there will be stern punishment for it.  When we looked at those verses, I brought out that all sin is a choice and we know that all choices start out their lives as thoughts.  You have heard the quote that thoughts become words and words become actions and actions become habits and habits become character.

All sin starts with a thought.  And 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  And we read that and we believe it and we quote it and rely on it and we do everything but make a plan for how to do it.  We are going to try to capture something; something that is fleeting and difficult to even describe some time and yet we fail to make any plan of action on how to do it.  We go to battle without a battle plan.

Well, we are going to make a battle plan today.  When Jesus was tempted in the desert, His response always started out, “It is written…” and then He would quote scripture.  Scripture is our only offensive weapon according to Ephesians 6 and that is what our battle plan is going to be based on today: scripture.

The first thing we have to do is guard our hearts and minds.  Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”  My big dog, Bo, likes for me to leave the back door open so he can see what’s going on in the neighborhood.  And when he sees somebody walking down the road, even from a long way off, he starts to growl.  The hair on the back of his neck starts to stand up and his upper lip starts to curl and the closer they get the more intense he becomes until he barks his big-boy bark and runs them off.  And then he looks at me like, “Look what I did.”

Well, we ought to be the same way when it comes to our thought- life.  When those detestable thoughts pop into our heads, we need to recognize them immediately as threats to our very life, because they are.  And we need to run them off.  Let me give you one way of doing that.

I hate to ask you to think one of those thoughts but consider it the practice you need for the hand-to-hand combat you are going to face when you leave here.  I want you to think about that pet sin in your life; that sin that you struggle with day after day.  Whatever it is, make a mental picture of it right now.  It’s a picture with a glass frame.  Now take that picture of that sin and throw it on the ground and stomp on it until it is destroyed, unrecognizable.

We are guarding our hearts and we know that every sin is a choice and those choices start out as thoughts and so destroy that thought completely.  You have taken that thought captive and have given it no mercy.  That’s step one.  But you have to do step two.  You have to do step 2 because if you just take that thought captive and destroy it, all of its relatives will come back and take its place.

So you have to replace that thought with another thought.  You have to think of something else, put something in its place or you’ll lose the battle.  And with step 2 we look at Philippians 4:8.  Most of you are familiar with that beautiful verse that says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

I want to give you a copy of this verse to take home with you.  Put it on your mirror or in your wallet or wherever you need it so you can get to it in a hurry when you need it.  A soldier going to battle doesn’t leave his gun in the barracks.  He takes it with him and has it at the ready.  This is your offensive weapon so keep it handy.  Now, when everybody has their own copy, I want us to go over it word by word.

I tried to leave some space around it so you can write on it and I want you to write on it this morning.  Where it says to think on whatever is true, I want you to think of something that is true and write that next to the word “true”.  In fact, I want you to holler out something that is true right now.  See, the problem with this verse is that in the heat of battle, sometimes it’s hard to think of something that is true or noble or right and it’s sort of like having a gun that you can’t get the safety button off.  You have the weapon but it’s not doing you any good.

So, what is something true?  Be specific and think of something that is true that will help you replace that bad thought.  Now go to noble.  What is something noble?  And so on…

Ok, now we move on to the 3^rd step.  Step one was guard your heart.  Step 2 was to replace the thought.  And step 3 is to practice it.  And we see that in the verse after Philippians 4:8, verse 9.  In Philippians 4:9, Paul says, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

 

 

Rubenstien, the great musician said, "If I omit practice one day, I notice it, if two days, my friends notice it, if three days, the public notices it." I want to tell you that if you don’t practice this then Satan will notice it and jump on you with both feet.  He can’t fight against God’s Word but if you don’t practice it he will attack.  But when you practice it then Paul says that the God of peace will be with you.  And that leads right into the 4^th and last step.

 

What I am trying to get us to do is not an easy thing.  If it were we wouldn’t need to spend this time on it, obviously.  In fact, I have some good news and some bad news.  The bad news is that you can’t do it.  You can’t do any of these steps on your own.  But the good news is that you can’t do it.  But the Holy Spirit can, through you.  And as Paul said, God is with us.  Our 4^th step comes from Galatians 5:16 that says, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

 

Yes, we have a responsibility in this.  We have to do the first 3 steps but we also have to know that we will never succeed without the Spirit’s help.  Unless we are abiding in Christ, spending time in His Word and in prayer, saturating ourselves with Him through worship, music, fellowship with other believers and then just being still and knowing that He is God; if we don’t do those things and allow the Holy Spirit to work through us, then we are wasting our time and we are doomed to continue struggling with those same sins over and over.

 

“Walk by the Spirit” Paul says.  And that is the secret to being authentic, to authentic worship, authentic living and trust and authentic thoughts.  Walk by the Spirit and allow Him to do it through you.  Quit struggling.  Quit worrying.  Quit having to go to God time after time asking for forgiveness of those same old sins.  Take every thought captive and replace it with Him.  That is authenticity.

 

“Authentic Trust” – Proverbs 15:10

How many of you are tired of cold weather and are looking forward to spring?  Boy, I am!  Spring is my favorite time of the year.  If nothing else, I’m hoping the spring winds will blow all the leaves in my yard over to my neighbor’s yard.  I hate raking leaves.  In fact, I got a mulching mower so I don’t have to rake leaves ever again.  I’d rather mow over them 20 times than rake them once.  I don’t know why.  It’s always been that way.

I remember when I was a little kid and my dad told me to go rake the leaves in the front yard.  I came up with every excuse not to.  I didn’t feel good.  I don’t know how.  I was too busy.  The rake didn’t fit my hand.  I was allergic to leaves.  And besides, if you leave them on the grass it’s sort of like a blanket to help the grass stay warm in winter.  Nothing worked.

So I went out there and I started raking at about half-speed, telling myself how mistreated I was to have to endure such pain.  And after convincing myself of the horrible injustice I was having to go through, I slowed down to about quarter-speed and then to nothing and then I just sat down under the tree and relaxed for a while.  Until Pop looked out the window.

We like to give God praise around here for what He has done because it is edifying to the body.  It lifts the body up when we do that and it’s encouraging.  Well, you might say I got edified that day because when Pop came out there he lifted my body up and “encouraged” me to get back to work.  He encouraged me with swats to the back of my pants, edifying me with every swat.  And I got the leaves raked.

Now, there is any number of ways to look at that story.  You can look at it and say how mean my dad was to discipline me for not raking those leaves.  He should have just let me continue watching cartoons that day instead of putting me through all that.

You might say he should have let me realize the importance and the need of raking those leaves on my own and just provided the rake for me to use when I got ready to do it.  Or even that he should have started raking and encouraged me to join him.  Maybe he could have sent me an invitation or at least explained to me the importance of hard work and why the leaves needed to be raked.

But can you imagine if I had said, “That’s it!  This is too much!  It’s too much for me to be expected to endure the pain of raking all these leaves and obviously my dad cannot be trusted.  He hates me.  He proved it by spanking me.  He doesn’t love me.  He is wrong.  And I’m leaving, never to come back.”  That would be pretty ridiculous, wouldn’t it?  It’s ridiculous because we all know the value of discipline and we know that discipline is actually a sign of love.

It is a sign of love that shows that I love you so much that I will not allow you to get away with being stagnant, not growing, not improving or not doing something right.  That’s my definition of discipline.  It is how I show you that I love you too much to allow you to be stagnant or not growing, not improving or not doing something right.  And it is because I love you that you can trust me.

And as much as a parent loves their child, so God loves us even more.  Do you know that God loves you, yes you, as much as He loves His Son Jesus? In John 17, Jesus was praying in the garden and he prayed for all of us, saying, “that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.  I have to admit that I don’t understand that…but I believe it because His Word says it.

But I also believe that He disciplines us in His love and I believe it because His Word tells us that as well.  Turn to the book of Proverbs if you haven’t already.  We continue our series on being authentic with a look at Proverbs 15:10 where we will see how to have authentic trust in the Lord even when he disciplines us.

Proverbs 15:10 says, “Stern discipline awaits anyone who leaves the path; the one who hates correction will die.” 

Hmm…I hear ya.  “Pastor Todd, that sounds awfully harsh.  Let’s talk about how much God loves me some more.”  I know that sounds very negative and depressing and not my favorite topic for a sermon.  But if you want to talk about God’s love for us then the conversation is incomplete without pursuing the angle of his discipline.

To understand this verse and to keep it in context you have to read the previous verse.  In fact, you really should have been here last week to hear the sermon about authentic living from that verse to really understand today’s verse.  So, if you weren’t here last week, I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.  It’s just easier that way, I’m afraid.

But, I’ll tell you what.  If you don’t want to leave I will just tell you that the path that is talked about here is a way of life.  It means the choices we have made in our life that make up our lifestyle.  And God has made known to us through His Word, through the Holy Spirit and through other ways such as Christian friends, family or church the way, the path that He wants us to travel.

He has told us to pray for each other, love each other, forgive each other and to tell others about Him.  He has told us through the lives of Moses, Elijah, Esther, Daniel, Paul, Peter and Judas what to do and what not to do.  And when we leave that path; when we make the choice to go a different direction, then verse 9 says that God detests that way and then verse 10 says that there is stern discipline for those who go that way.

Some people might think that this is talking about unbelievers.  I mean, surely God would never call one of His children wicked, as He says in verse 9.  But I would submit to you that how can an unbeliever ever be on the right path?  Verse 10 says that He disciplines those who leave the path, stating obviously that they once were on the right path.  All through the Bible you will see that God disciplines His children and He punishes those who are not His children.

King David is one of my all time favorite Bible characters.  I was telling somebody the other day that I can’t wait to get to Heaven to hear David tell about killing Goliath.  And I want to hear him tell it with Jesus sitting right next to him so I can understand the whole story.  Won’t that be fun?  1 Samuel 13 describes him as a man after God’s own heart.  God did lots of things and I believe may still do things “for the sake of David”.  David was and is special to God.  Even Jesus came from the lineage of David.

If anybody was ever “on the right path” it would be David, right?  God loved him, He blessed him and yet in 2 Samuel, the prophet Nathan goes to David and tells him what he has done the Lord finds evil.  That’s the word God used: evil.  You know the story.  David is minding his own business having a coffee break up the flat roof of the palace when he sees Bathsheba.  And he makes a choice.

I said last week that all sin is a choice.  God didn’t make David do what he did with Bathsheba.  Satan didn’t force him to do what he did to Uriah.  David, the apple of God’s eye, made a choice; he left the path, on purpose, knowing it was wrong, and it was evil and detestable to God.  Now, at this point, one might say that God has a choice. 

I don’t want to say that David was God’s favorite but if God had a favorite it would be David.  And because David was so dear to Him, God could have just turned a blind eye.  He could have said, “Well, boys will be boys” and forgotten about it.  He even could have sent Gabriel to appear to him in a dream to tell David to please not do that again.  But He didn’t.  Look at what happened in 2 Samuel  12:13-14.

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”  Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. ¹⁴ But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”

That’s pretty harsh.  In fact, you might say that was “stern discipline” as Proverbs says.  And if God will discipline His main man, the anointed king of Israel, the special one who reigned over God’s special country then who do we think we are to think that our sins will not find us out and that there will not be discipline when we stray from the path we know to be right?  God is too holy for that.  But He is also too loving.

God loved David too much and He loves us too much to allow that.  Just like my dad loved me too much to allow me to sit under that tree when I knew I should be raking leaves, God will discipline us when He knows we need to move away from where we are.  And anything less would not be showing love but would actually do us a disservice by not allowing us to grow through that discipline and through the absence of that sin.

Let’s go back to that leaf-raking story for just a minute.  Let’s say I was out there raking leaves and all of the sudden the neighborhood bully came over and started scattering the leaves all over the yard.  Would that have been my dad’s fault?  I mean, he did tell me to rake the leaves and now they’re all over the yard.  Of course that’s not my dad’s fault.

Well, in the same way, just because something bad happens to you doesn’t mean God is disciplining you.  Our enemy, the devil is out there like a prowling lion looking to mess up your pile of leaves and he would like to kill you and bury you under those leaves, so don’t think God is the one who brings all bad things.

We also live in a fallen old world where sometimes the wind kicks up and blows your leaves.  And when that happens it provides us an opportunity to continue making good choices or make bad choices but it’s not necessarily God’s discipline.

So, we have seen that stern discipline awaits him who leaves the path, now let’s look at the second part of this Proverb and see that “he who hates correction will die.”  You thought the first part was depressing and harsh!  “He who hates correction will die.”  So, the question is, does that mean literal death or something else?  My answer would be yes, it absolutely could mean a literal death.  It did for Ananias and Sapphira.  Remember we just talked about them a few weeks ago.  They left the path and the first church dragged their dead bodies out back before they knew what hit them.

And I believe that even today, if God decides that what you are doing is going to do enough harm to you or to Him and His Kingdom, then He just might decide to take you on right now.  But I want you to look over in the New Testament at Luke chapter 15 for just a minute.  There we find the parable of the prodigal son.  This is such a beautiful story and one that some of us can relate to in ways that we would rather not talk about.

You can make 100 different sermons out of this story because it illustrates so many things but I want you to think about God’s discipline as we read through this starting in verse 11 and going through verse 24.  Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. ¹³ “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. ¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. ²¹ “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

The father said his son had been dead but was now alive.  What did he mean?  Obviously he wasn’t talking about a physical death.  What kind of death was this then?  Well, like I said, some of us can relate to this story in ways we would rather not talk about so maybe I can answer the question from my study of the passage and maybe it is because I was the prodigal.

But I can tell you that the prodigal was dead to peace.  He was dead to joy.  He was dead to the relationship of his father and the rest of his family.  He was dead to the blessings of a relationship with his Heavenly Father and his Christian family.  He was dead to EVERYTHING except the consequences of his bad choices and there were many lonely nights when he would lay in bed and just wish he was physically dead.

And it was only because of the fervent prayers of his family and the incredible and awesome grace of God that he was restored to that family and was able to celebrate.  And he celebrated God’s grace for years and years.  And it was through all of that discipline that the prodigal became so firmly convinced of the love of God and that he could always trust God.  He had authentic trust in God BECAUSE OF God’s discipline, not in spite of it.

I want to end by talking about one last aspect of the discipline of God.  What does it look like to be disciplined by God?  Is it always a crisis?  Does God ever discipline in ways that aren’t horrible and dreadful?  Absolutely.  In fact, I would imagine that almost every discipline starts out as just a still, small voice.  If you saw your young child start walking in a direction that he shouldn’t go, you wouldn’t just knock the fire out of him right off the bat, would you?  I hope not.

No, you would start with just a word of warning or maybe a gentle nudge.  You might say something like, “Sweetheart, don’t go that way.  That’s not best for you.  I know others have gone that way but it’s not where you need to be.  Go this way.”  And if they refuse to listen and continue walking in the wrong way, you would increase your volume and your insistence and you would do anything necessary to keep your loved one safe and where he was supposed to be.

And hopefully soon they will see that you don’t want them to go that way because you have their best interests at heart and that you can be trusted.  It really is not because you are just a big old meanie. But sometimes that person will just continue to insist on having their way and at some point you just can’t stop them.  Did you know that even God will give up on you after a time?  If you continue to insist on having your way and year after year and time after time you ignore His grace and His mercy.  You don’t trust Him to have your best interests at heart and you continue walking.  He will take His protective hand off of you and He will at some point allow you to keep walking.

Did you know that salvation itself is like that?  It, too, starts with a still, small voice.  Maybe it’s the voice of a sunrise or a sunset.  Romans 1:20 says that God can be understood by seeing His creation.  Maybe that small voice rises to be the voice of a Christian friend or relative who tells you that Jesus lived, died, was buried and resurrected to pay for your sins; to pay for all those times you strayed from the right path.

But if you ignore those voices, He may allow the louder voices of difficult circumstances and the consequences of your bad choices to ring in your ears.  But if you continue to ignore those voices and you continue to insist upon going your own way, not trusting God, then at some point, maybe today, He will take His protective and loving hand off of you and allow you to walk away from Him, His blessings, His relationship and all that Heaven has to hold for you and allow you to make the choice to walk into eternal death, physically and spiritually.  But you have the choice.  And I would love to pray with you right now about that choice if you would let me, as the music plays “How Great Thou Art.”

“Authentic Living” –Proverbs 15:9

I felt the need to apologize for something this past week that I hope you don’t ever have to apologize for. Tuesday evening was Robert Miller’s celebration of life service. Robert was a friend of mine that most of you had never met but whom you had prayed for many times. He was a great Christian man and they didn’t want a normal funeral. They wanted a celebration and they got it. It was an incredible time of worship and I just loved it.

I was sitting with lots of old friends and we sang and worshiped and we just had a powerful time and it was great. And then Scott Parrish got up to preach. Most of you know Scott and after last week you know that the man can really preach. And preach he did! He brought it! And he started into sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ and what His life, death, burial and resurrection meant to mankind and it was powerful.

I knew lots of people there and I knew not all of them were believers and so when he got to passionately sharing the Gospel, I got to passionately agreeing; encouraging him with some “Amen”s and some “That’s right”s. Every now and then somebody else would say “amen”or something and I tried not to be loud or distracting at all but I couldn’t help but voice my encouragement every now and then. It was a beautiful message, preached eloquently and passionately and God was honored with the whole service.

But afterward, I had 5 or 6 people come up to me and jokingly say something about me being the “Amen Corner” or “getting Pentecostal”or something. And I felt bad that I had said too much and I was worried that people would think I was trying to draw attention to myself. And so I apologized to a bunch of them, saying I didn’t mean to draw attention to myself. I really wanted to draw attention to what Scott was preaching.

I don’t think anybody was necessarily offended by what I said but I was embarrassed that they might have gotten the wrong impression. I was embarrassed and a little sad. I was sad that my agreement and encouragement of the preacher might have been interpreted as something else that was not authentic worship. I was sad that the life-changing Gospel was being beautifully and powerfully presented and I was expected to sit there like an unchanged bump on a log.

Now, let me just make sure we all start out on the same page with some things I am saying this morning. It is biblical to make noise in worship. It is biblical to sing, laugh, clap, raise hands, even dance. My only problem with any of that is when it becomes a distraction to the people around you or it becomes something that draws attention to yourself, which is where I feel I made the mistake the other day, even if it was unintentional.

But if that’s not how you worship; if that’s not how you are comfortable and you want to just sit there then I know it doesn’t mean you aren’t worshiping or that you are not changed. It’s just not how you do it and that’s fine too. I say all of this in the context of our sermon series on being authentic. I want us to be an authentic church that worships authentically and lives authentically.

I want us to be relevant and real to a lost and dying world and we do the Gospel a disservice by highlighting the differences in our worship styles. Our differences should be doctrinal, not based on style or what we wear or how loud we get. We are a Southern Baptist church because this body believes that Southern Baptists interpret the Bible the most correctly. I don’t want a fundamental church over a contemporary church. I don’t want a black church or a white church, rich or poor church, redneck or uppity church.

Ok, I am more comfortable around rednecks but I still don’t want a church that is known as anything other…than “authentic”. I want to be part of an authentic church. I want to be part of a church that has a passion for people and a passion for Jesus. Period. Pretty much everything else is fluff and not substantial and not worth building a church on. The question is, how can we be an authentic church? How do we do that?

We talked 2 weeks ago about authentic worship and how God has wired us as humans to worship. We saw what God considers wicked and what He considers authentic worship from looking at the first church in Acts 2. Then last week Scott talked about authentic giving and how we should approach God with open hands, allowing Him to give or take as He sees fit. Scott said we should all be funnels, not buckets. I loved that.

This week, continuing in Proverbs chapter 15, I want us to see how we can have authentic lives. We will never have an authentic church if the people that make up the church are not living authentically. And we live authentic lives by knowing what God expects of us personally and what He does not want, as well. Let’s look at verse 9 of Proverbs 15.

 

“The LORD detests the way of the wicked, but he loves those who pursue righteousness.”

 

Do you want the whole sermon in one sentence?  Here it is.  To live an authentic life, quit living a life of sin and start doing what God wants you to do.  Thanks for coming!  See ya tonight at 6.  That’s it.  That’s basically what Solomon is telling us to do here.

 

When he says the Lord detests the way of the wicked, it is interesting to note what the word “way” means.  The way of the wicked literally means the path but it’s talking about the way of life; how a person lives.  And when we think of how a wicked person lives we might think of the wicked witch of the west, dressed all in black, cackling as she prepares a boiling cauldron of water to cook up little Hansel and Gretel or something.

 

Maybe to you wicked means a drug dealer or pornographer; someone that is ruining people’s lives through addiction.  And you wouldn’t be wrong.  Maybe you think of a corrupt politician (and maybe that’s a redundant term) but you think of somebody taking money in return for favors that are not in the best interest of the public.  And you wouldn’t be wrong.  Those people are wicked.  And the Lord detests that kind of lifestyle.

 

But just like in several other instances, God has a different standard than we do.  When the Law said don’t murder, Jesus said don’t hate.  When the law said don’t commit adultery, Jesus said don’t lust.  When the law said an eye for an eye, Jesus said when somebody takes something from you to give them even more and do it with love.  That’s a whole different standard.  And so you can imagine His standard for wickedness is different as well.

 

Two weeks ago when we looked at the first church as an example of authentic worship, we looked at Acts chapter 2:42-47.  There we see the first church worshiping authentically while they met together in the temple.  The worshiped in each others homes.  The worshiped while they ate and while they worked and everything they did we see that they were worshiping.  What were they doing when they worshiped?  They were just living.  That was their lifestyle.  That was their way.

 

In Acts 4 it says that they shared everything and nobody was needy.  Every now and then somebody would sell something and donate the money to the church just to make sure everybody’s needs were met.  Then in chapter 5 we see Ananias and Sapphira come on the scene.  You know the story.  They sold a piece of property and told the leaders of the church that the money they brought was the full amount but Peter knew it was only part.  They made the decision to lie and deceive Peter and the others and that decision came back to bite them; or actually it came back to kill them.

 

I have no doubt that Ananias and Sapphira were nice people.  He helped put the chairs up after the worship.  She made a great casserole and brought it to all the gatherings.  They attended pretty often and even tithed and led a Sunday School class for young couples.  But they made a choice and God detested that choice.  They charted a course.  They made a path, on purpose, and it made God sick!

 

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, quote “One's philosophy is not best expressed in words. It is expressed in the choices one makes.”  Unquote.  Our choices determine our way.  Our choices determine our lifestyle.  Sure, lots of things are going to happen to us that we don’t choose and they may lead us here or there but it is our choices that determine our way of life in those places.

 

We may wind up some place that we didn’t choose but God looks at our choices that we make while we are there and He has made plain to us through His Word what He expects us to choose.  He expects us to choose to love even when people are un-lovely.  He expects us to give even when we know we won’t be repaid.  He expects us to have joy, ask for wisdom, be humble, be united, and forgive, forgive, forgive.

 

And when we make the choice not to do those things; when we choose the wrong way, the wrong path, then that is sin and God detests sin.  In Proverbs 6 it lists some things that God hates and one of them is “a heart that devises wicked schemes”.  Every sin is a choice.  Somebody might say that God made them with this anger problem and they can’t help it.  Homosexuals say they are born that way.  The apostle Paul said he did what he didn’t want to do and he didn’t do what he wanted to do…but he still made the choice.

 

Every sin is a choice and sin is detestable to God.  But our verse in Proverbs 15:9 says that He loves those who pursue righteousness.  If we are going to live authentic lives; lives that are relevant, real and attractive to unbelievers then we will make the choice not to sin and we will make the choice to pursue righteousness.

 

I want to take a quick time out right here and tell you that if you never come here on Sunday nights, I want to just tell you that Sunday nights are my time to ask questions.  If you know the answer you can speak up but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.  One might say one has the choice.  J  But I just said something that would make a great question for tonight.  I said that if we are going to live authentic lives; lives that are relevant, real and attractive to unbelievers then we will make the choice not to sin and we will make the choice to pursue righteousness.

 

Is that true?  Does making the right choice make our lives more attractive to unbelievers?  That might make a good question (nudge nudge wink wink).  Write that down and we’ll talk about it tonight.

 

Ok, time in, let’s continue on looking at what it means to pursue righteousness.  To be authentic we have to pursue righteousness.  Have you heard it said that no one drifts toward holiness?  Holiness and righteousness go hand in hand.  You have to pursue them.  You can’t just relax and expect to get there.

 

The Bible is full of passages that command us to pursue righteousness.  1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Proverbs 21, Isaiah 51 all say to pursue righteousness but what does it mean?  What does it look like to pursue righteousness and how does that make our lives authentic?

 

My Dad got some sobering news from the doctor the other day.  The doc said Pop’s bad cholesterol was way too high and he was on the verge of a stroke if he didn’t do something immediately.  The doctor gave him some meds but he said a big part of what he needed to do was to go on this very restrictive diet.

 

The good news is he can have all the kale he wants.  So does anybody know of any good kale restaurants in Bridgeport?  Anybody?  It’s pretty much just fruits and vegetables that he can have.  I think he can smell chicken once a week but other than that he’s basically a vegetarian now.

 

I’m pretty sure I couldn’t make it on that diet.  And I’m just glad I don’t have to…yet.  Now, I know that I should be on that kind of diet.  I’m sure it would be healthier for me but the thing is, I’m just not motivated to be on that kind of diet.  I know in my mind that eating healthier will lengthen my life and make the life I have better but I would rather choose to eat Mexican food; you know those Dos Chiles enchiladas with the sour cream and the cheese and the…oh, sorry Pop.

 

See, Pop is motivated to make the right choice because he has seen the consequences of not making the right choice.  And now he is pursuing healthiness like his life depended on it.  Now, the problem with this illustration is that I’m comparing pursuing righteousness with going on a restrictive diet and that diet sounds awful to me.  The neat thing about pursuing righteousness is that is the secret to living a full and abundant life!

 

The story of Daniel is found, of all places, in the Old Testament book of Daniel.  Daniel pursued righteousness and I want us to look at his life just briefly.  Daniel, who knew a thing or two about a vegetarian diet, (remember?) is known best for what story?  He is known best for being in the lion’s den.

 

You all know that story.  I’m not going to read the whole thing.  But I do want to read the very last verse in that chapter, chapter 6, where Daniel has been in the lion’s den.  Daniel chapter 6, verse 28 says, “So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.”  That’s how the story of the lion’s den ends.  It says that for the rest of his life Daniel prospered.

 

Why did Daniel prosper?  Because he made the choice to pursue righteousness.  He made the choice to pursue righteousness when the whole world said to do something else.  And how did he pursue righteousness?  Was it a big, loud, public spectacle?  No.  He pursued righteousness by getting on his knees and being obedient to God in humble prayer, just like he always did.  His path, his way of life was pursuing righteousness.

 

He pursued righteousness like his very life depended on it!  And in doing so, he prospered.  He had a full and abundant life because he was motivated to make the right choices.  How do you think Daniel’s friends described him?  I don’t know but I bet the word “authentic” was used.

 

They didn’t see him as Hebrew, Greek, Persian or Swedish.  They saw him as authentic because of his pursuit of righteousness.  And that’s what I want.  I don’t want to be known as that Southern Baptist preacher or that Full Gospel preacher, that Methodist or that Redneck.  I want to be known as an authentic preacher.  Lord, help me to make the right choices and to pursue righteousness like my life depends on it!

 

I’m not interested in a Southern Baptist church either.  I want to be part of an authentic church where some of them are loud and some aren’t but it doesn’t matter because all we are concerned with; all we have a passion for is Jesus and other people.  I don’t want a big church or a small church. 

 

To paraphrase John Wesley, give me two people who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth.

 

And in doing so we will prosper, whatever that means, however God chooses to bless -physically or spiritually or maybe both.  Why?  Because the Lord loves those who pursue righteousness.  I’m not talking about pursuing our salvation.  God gives that as a gift.  I’m talking about, as believers, to live an authentic life that is attractive to non-believers, we need to quit living a life of sin and start doing what God wants us to do.

 

Maybe this morning you have not accepted that free gift of salvation.  The good news is it doesn’t have anything to do with your righteousness.  Isaiah 64:6 says our righteousness is like filthy rags to God.  You can’t get to Heaven on your good works.  And aren’t you glad?  Aren’t you glad it is by grace and through faith that we are saved and all we have to do is give God our sin and He is faithful and just to forgive that sin and cleanse us from all UNrighteousness.  Amen!

Services cancelled

All services are cancelled today due to weather.  (Not the Super Bowl!)