Sermons
Have A Look In The Mirror
Sun, Apr 24, 2016
Teacher: Tom Blackford Series: Sunday Sermons - 2016 Scripture: James 1:22-25
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Have a Look in the Mirror
James 1:22-25
Intro:
Several times in preparing sermons I have, as the expression goes, “stepped on my own toes”. In reflecting on this “stepping on my toes” I decided to prepare a lesson on self examination.
I found this was a challenging sermon to put together because I had to ask myself the same difficult questions I want us all to look at today. Let me be up font here, there are a lot of questions we need to ask ourselves, and not just once either.
I heard a story about an older couple who decided they needed to do something to improve their health. They decided they would go for a 2-mile walk everyday. They planned to get up early every morning, walk down the road one-mile turn around and come back. On that 1st day they got up and made it about a mile down the road. The husband looked over to his wife and says, "are you doing ok darling?" she said, "yes”. “Are you sure you can make it?” the husband asked. She said, "Yes", he said, "good, then walk back to the house, get the car and come and get me."
Yes, we very often become lazy in a way that affects our physical health, but we also become lazy in ways that affect our spiritual health. We like it when things are going well in our faith and we never have to question it. When someone comes along and questions us about our beliefs we want to change the subject and not deal with it.
Why do we feel that way? Perhaps the reason is because we don’t have the answer at that point in time. When a question is asked, we need to be honest with the people who are asking and honest with ourselves.
There is nothing wrong with honestly saying I don’t know the answer to that question but I will get back to you. We can go wrong however, if all we do is point out other people’s mistakes in their beliefs and we’re not willing to take a close look at ourselves.
I. Self examination - The Bible calls us to continually examine ourselves. Let’s look way back in the days of Jeremiah when God’s people had turned from the Lord. We find Jeremiah mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem and he writes in Lamentations 3:40-41 - “Let us search and try (or test) our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.” [KJV]
a. When the apostle Paul was writing to the church in Corinth about their attitude towards the Lord’s Supper, he tells them in 1 Corinthians 11:27-31 – “Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” [KJV] “... guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. We are to examine ourselves, if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not come under judgment”.
b. A little while later Paul addresses the church in Corinth again and asks them to examine their faith in 2 Corinthians 13:5 -, I paraphrase; “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you... -unless, of course, you fail the test?”
c. In this passage Paul uses the Greek word Piradzo {pee-red-zo} which means to examine, test or prove, but the interesting thing about this word is that it means that the examination or proving is ongoing.
d. As Christians we are to continually examine ourselves and the logical question which should follow is why? Paul says, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith". How do you do that? One thing for us to examine is our beliefs. It is one thing declaring that we are a Christian but it’s another thing to declare that we are a faithful Christian.
e. There was a comedy on BBC TV when a man and woman are in a store and she's trying on some new clothes and she asks her husband, "Do you think these jeans make me look fat?" and he says, "No, it’s your fat that makes you look fat."
f. Some people are obsessed with how they look physically to the point where they spend most of their lives looking in the mirror. As Christians we too can get easily tangled up with external matters. Sometimes we clothe ourselves in external matters and we forget to look where it matters most. We forget to look internally at ourselves.
II. Dangers - We need to ask ourselves, does our belief system have any dangers? For example, as a Christian do we believe in once saved always saved or does our faith keep us alert to the dangers of falling from grace? Hebrews 2:1 – “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.“ “We must pay careful attention, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away”.
a. The Hebrew writer tells us that it is possible to drift away from the faith. In the next chapter the same writer says in Hebrews 3:12-14 – “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;” We are to... “encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of us may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness”.
b. The Hebrew writer tells us it is possible to develop an evil heart of unbelief. Take a look at the people around you today and ask yourself, who is missing? I’ve heard Christians declare their love for God, say that they will never fall away from the Lord, only to find out a few years later they are no longer faithful. And again in; 1 Corinthians 10:12 – “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed... lest he fall.”
c. Is our faith, a faith which allows us to do whatever we want, or is our faith a faith which can be lost? Do any of you remember the old song “One day at a time sweet Jesus”? It has been sung by many people over the years and I remember this part in particular;
i. Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus
ii. And tomorrow may never be mine
iii. Lord, for my sake, teach me to take
iv. One day at a time
d. The Hebrew writer asks us to encourage one another daily, but why daily? I’ll tell you what the “why” is for me. It’s because I don’t know if I will be faithful tomorrow. I hope and pray I will be, I hope and pray that we all will be, but you don’t know all that’s going to happen in my life and I don’t know all that is going to happen in your life.
e. I have learned I can not take my faith for granted but to take my faith one day at a time and thank Jesus for it. The question I ask myself, is my faith, the faith that Jesus wants me to have? Is it the faith we see in the Scriptures which warns me about the dangers of falling away?
III. Do I have Christ? - Another way to examine ourselves is to ask the question, is Christ living in me? Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:5 – “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” We are to examine ourselves, see if we are in the faith; test ourselves. We are to remember that Christ Jesus is in us - unless, of course, we fail the test. In other words does the faith which I’m declaring to the world, reflect the image of Christ in my life?
a. Anyone who has ever used a computer spell checker has seen some of the insane recommendations a spell checker will make for seemingly common words that, for some reason, were not included in the checker's dictionary. True they have improved over the years. I recall a story of a Bible student who was asked by his teacher to write a paper on ‘Lifting up the Name of Jesus”. When he had finished typing the words into his word processor, he ran a spell check. The program stopped at the word "Jesus" with the comment, "Does not exist." This prompted the student to write "The name of Jesus does not exist in anybody's vocabulary, including a spell-checker's, until you intentionally insert it."
b. The thought of Jesus dwelling in us is amazing isn’t it? However Jesus dwelling in us can only be accomplished when we intentionally do what is required by Jesus for Him to dwell in us. John 14:21-24 – “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.” Jesus tells us; “If someone has my commands and obeys them, then he loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him also. Jesus is then asked why He intends to show Himself to them and not to the world. To which Jesus replied, "If someone loves me, they will obey my teaching. God also will love him, and we come to him and make our home with him”.
c. Is our faith, a faith that just requires belief or does our faith ask our obedience too? At what point does Jesus take up residence? We read in; Galatians 3:26-27 – “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” We are children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, and all of us who were baptized into Christ have clothed ourselves with Christ. Christ is living in us when we are baptized.
d. At this point my mind wandered and I imagined myself going down to the local hospital and asking them to give me an x-ray to see if I can spot Christ hovering around inside my body somewhere. Silly isn’t it? Or perhaps I could go down the street and say, “Hey! I’m a Christian look inside me and you will see Jesus.” Although some folks sort of do that, don’t they?
e. We shouldn’t need to show anyone we’re Christians because they should already know we’re Christians by our actions. I don’t fully understand how Jesus lives in me but by faith I accept that He does and that should lead me to examine myself daily and ask the question, does my life display Christ?
f. In other words does my life show the fruit of the Spirit? What is this fruit of the Spirit? Look at; Galatians 5:22-25 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” As we just read, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are things against which no law is made. Those who belong to Christ have crucified their sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, we need to keep in step with the Spirit.
IV. Christ seen in me – This leads me to the question; does my faith reflect Christ living in me? Is my faith heard from the words which come from my mouth? Hebrews 13:15 – “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” Through Jesus, we are to continually offer to God the sacrifice of our praise, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.
a. Is my faith eager to do good works like Paul said in Titus in 2:14 telling us to be “... zealous of good works”? If our faith is not Biblical faith, the eternal consequences are going to be serious. Remembering again what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “... unless you fail the test”
b. What does Paul mean when he says, “unless you fail the test”? He means, if you’re proclaiming the faith of the Bible and you’re claiming Jesus is living in you then test yourself regularly to see if that’s still the case.
c. Because if you’re not living according to the Bible and Christ isn’t reflected in your life then you’re failing. Maybe you’re falling away without even realizing it. My faith must include that I be aware that I can fall away. Falling away usually starts when a Christian begins to rely on their own efforts for salvation rather than relying on Christ’s.
d. I’m not saved because of my good works; I’m saved because of Christ on the cross at Calvary. I’m not saved because I perform well here; I’m saved because Christ performed like no man could on Calvary.
V. The Cross – Do you remember Jesus dying words on the cross? In John 19:30 - He said, "It is finished." Everything to do with our sin problem was dealt with at Calvary. Everything do to with our salvation was dealt with at Calvary. We don’t do good works for our salvation; we do good works because of our salvation. We don’t rely on our own efforts for salvation but we totally trust the efforts of Christ for our salvation. Galatians 5:4 – says; “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” Those who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; they have fallen from grace.
a. Peter warns us about much the same thing when he talks of relying on other people for our faith rather than the faith we find in the Bible in 2 Peter 3:17-18 – “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.” Peter says; “Beloved, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from grace”. The point being that it is only through self-examination can we truly know where we are at in relation to our faith and Christ’s dwelling in us.
b. I recall the classic tail of an old preacher saying about himself: "I was a revolutionary when I was young, and my prayer to God was, 'Lord, give me the strength to change the world.' As I approached middle age and realized that my life was halfway gone without changing a single soul, I changed my prayer to, 'Lord, give me the grace to change all those who come into contact with me, especially my family and friends, and I shall be satisfied.' Now that I am an old man, and my days are numbered, I have begun to see how foolish I have been. Now my one prayer is this, 'Lord, give me the grace to change myself.'
VI. Deception - There may be times when we deceive ourselves without realizing it. When we are looking at the religious world around us and pointing our fingers at them is a good example.
a. From time to time we discuss understanding other religious beliefs and we have covered everything from the Jehovah’s Witnesses to the Mormons. Understanding is a good thing and can help us in our work. However, we also need to keep in mind as we look at other religious beliefs, what Peter tells us in; 1 Peter 3:15-16 – “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.” “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Then, with gentleness and respect, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you about the reason for the hope that you have.”
b. We should also take a look at what critics say about our beliefs and spend some time having an answer about the things they bring up about us.
c. It is useful for us understand other religious beliefs, and the only standard we can use to examine those beliefs is the Bible. The only standard we can use to examine our own beliefs is the Bible. We need to be willing to look into the Bible and search through it for the truth. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:6 – paraphrased; “I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.”
d. Something can only be discovered if we take the time to look for it. Paul asks, "Do you know yourselves?" Folks, we have to examine ourselves regularly because we can easily fall into the trap of self deception.
e. Do people deceive themselves? How many women have gone for plastic surgery because they have convinced themselves their breasts are too small? How many super models have gone on a crash diet because they have convinced themselves they are too fat? How many men go to the gym everyday of the week because they have convinced themselves that their muscles are not big enough? How many men just need one more drink because they have convinced themselves that they can’t get through the day without it?
f. James 1:22-25 – explains it this way; “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” What is James telling us? He says; “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourself. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” Imagine a medical person who attends all the lectures but never practices, or a lawyer listens intently at school and never exercises what he has heard. James goes on; “But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does”.
g. I wonder how many religious people have convinced themselves that they are OK with God because the preacher says so? How many people have convinced themselves they are going to heaven because they are a good person?
VII. The lie - Satan is the father of lies and he does it well. He doesn’t even have to lie and convince people that Jesus isn’t coming back. He simply convinces people that, Jesus isn’t coming back today. That within itself is a sobering thought isn’t it?
a. Now we should understand that we need to examine ourselves, but to examine or test something we need to use a standard. When I was working in the shop we often used go/no-go gages to check a part. Those were the standard that told us if the part was acceptable, go or no-go. We passed a part based on its fit to the standard. To test ourselves we also need a standard. Proverbs 14:12 – “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” In other words if it looks good to man then it must be good, right? No, if something “looks good to man”, that is not the standard we need to use. That choice can be fatal.
b. If we have ever found ourselves examining our faith by our own standards, then I ask that we listen closely to the apostle Paul’s words as we find them in 2 Corinthians 10:18 - “For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.”
c. Paul tells us we can’t rely upon what we think of ourselves. We are only approved if the Lord commends us. In other words even though we may think we’re right and sincere, we’re not the final judge. 1 Corinthians 4:4 – “For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.” I may believe that my conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.
d. We need to be honest with ourselves because we can be wrong in our basic assumptions, and that can lead to wrong conclusions about ourselves. After all one of the apostles was a perfect example of that wasn’t he?
e. Acts 26:9-11 – “I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.” Paul tells us that he was convinced that he should do all he could to oppose the name of Jesus. Paul says; “that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my obsession against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them”.
f. According to the apostle Paul, he thought that persecuting Christians was pleasing to God, but Paul found out he was wrong in that assumption. There are going to be many good and sincere people on Judgment Day who thought that what they were doing was pleasing to God. Matthew 7:21-23 – “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” A very sobering thought. To be religious and sincere then to stand before the Lord then to hear Him say; “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'”
VIII. What Standard – Folks, we cannot look to ourselves as the standard by which we examine ourselves. We cannot examine ourselves by the standard of others either. Listen carefully again at Proverbs 14:12 – It tells us that “There’s a way of life that looks right enough; but we need to look again, it leads straight to hell”.
a. Today we live in a society where ‘thus says the Lord’ has been replaced with ‘thus says the preacher.’ People are saying, ’Amen’ to things that sound good and right. But Solomon warns us that we better check out their words and we better check out our own lives because if they are wrong and we’re living wrong, then the path we’re on will only lead us to hell.
b. Whenever we begin to measure ourselves with the religious world around us, whenever we begin to look for approval from the world, we are going to find ourselves measuring up to the wrong standards. Remember it is go or no-go.
c. 2 Corinthians 10:12 – “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. For when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise”.
d. Let me ask you, what are you doing as I speak today? Are you sitting there saying in your mind, ‘Amen’? When we’re finished today, are you going to go home and say that was a good sermon, I really enjoyed it? Or are you going to check out what I’m saying like the Bereans did with Paul’s words in Acts 17:11 to see if these words are true?
e. What I’m saying is don’t trust me or anyone that stands up here because they are preaching, only trust the standard which really matters, God’s word. Keep in mind what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:18 - that it is the approval of the Lord that makes a person approved. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 4:4 - that it is the Lord who is the final judge. Jesus Himself said in John 12:48 - , “There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day”.
f. Now imagine if someone we cared about is in the hospital and in asking about their condition we are told they’re improving. Every time we asked we are given the same answer, they are improving, only to be finally told they have died. Wouldn’t we be inclined to ask; ‘What did they die of, improvements?”
g. There is only one standard by which we must judge ourselves and that is the standard we find within the word of God. The world believes it has an improvement over God’s will, but the Bible teaches us that if we believe the world, we are going die of improvements. We cannot trust our feelings, we cannot trust what others might say. We can only trust God and His words.
X. Christian Maintenance - You know becoming a Christian is the easy part for many people but trying to live the Christian life is another struggle altogether. I want to wrap all this up and bring it a little closer to home because we cannot seriously judge anyone or any other religious group until we have fully examined ourselves.
a. {Now please keep in mind it is scriptural to go on for another ten minutes. Look what Paul did in the Philippian letter, he says in Philippians 4:8 - ‘Finally brothers’ and goes on for another 15 verses.} Let us ask ourselves, are we abiding in Jesus’ words which He told us to do in John 8:31?
b. Remember what Jesus writes to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:4-5 – “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent”.
c. I have never heard of a couple who are deeply and passionately in love with each other when the day closes and then wake up the next morning only to find they don’t love each other any more. That’s not how it happens. What happens is that over a period of time they tend to take that relationship for granted and then over time they discover that they just don’t love each other like they did at first.
d. That’s what happens with many Christians, they take that relationship with God for granted. When communication breaks down with any couple there is always going to be disaster ahead. What if we stopped communicating with God in prayer and stopped living according to His word? Maybe we haven’t read God’s word for a while and the only time we hear it is on Sunday mornings. When everyone else is saying ‘Amen’ we are saying, ‘Thus sayeth the preacher.’
X. Abiding. Are we abiding in His words? What about bearing fruit? Are we producing good fruit? The good fruit like we read earlier in Galatians 5:22-23? The fruit of our lips in praising God like we saw in Hebrews 13:15? The fruit of good works like read about in Titus 2:14?
a. If you’re a visitor today what is the preacher like at the church you attend? You know there are many great and powerful preachers today but how can you tell if they are abiding in Jesus’ words? How can you tell that Jesus lives in them?
b. Matthew 7:15-20 - "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them”.
c. Are they producing good fruit? Are their lives reflecting what they are preaching? What about our relationship with God and His people, how is that going? Do we enjoy meeting together for worship? Or has it become a burden? Hebrews 10:25 - “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching”.
d. There was a church in WV that used to have revival meetings every spring, and there was an old man who would come every spring, and he would come back to God. He would be hot all through the summer, but he would cool off in the autumn and by wintertime, he would get cold and drop out, but every spring he would get fired up again. The first night of revival he was on the back seat, the next night he moved up 2 rows and the next night he moved up another 2 rows, and by the 4th or 5th night he’s down the front shouting, “Fill me Lord, fill me” and a lady that knew him well said, ”Careful Lord he leaks”.
XI. Leakers - That’s a real problem for a lot of Christians, they tend to leak. When we were baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and God began to live in us in the form of His Spirit, we were so on fire for the Lord and we would happily do anything for His cause.
a. But now we’ve been a Christian for a few years and that fire is just not the same anymore. I know I have been asking a lot of questions today, but I don’t apologize for them. Because the only way to seriously look at ourselves it to seriously ask ourselves questions. That’s what I’m going to leave you with today, even more questions just for you to answer in your own mind.
b. What are some of the signs that might indicate that we may be falling away? I’ve suffered some of these symptoms. You can just take them for what they are worth.
c. One sign is that prayer is no longer a vital part of our life; it’s just something we do occasionally. Another sign is that we’ve grown content with our Biblical understanding and we don’t hunger for more. We’ve acquired about all the knowledge of the Bible we think we need. Another sign is that when we study the Bible, it’s for information and not for transformation. We sit in Bible class and talk about the Bible for hours but are not be any different when it’s through.
d. Another sign is that thoughts of eternal things are rare. The temporary dominates all of our thinking. Another sure sign, is that the gathering of God’s people is not eagerly anticipated. We can hear someone say, “They are having a gospel meeting somewhere”, and we sit there and we know in our heart that we have absolutely no intentions of going. We are not thinking about going because it isn’t important to us to even think about it.
e. Another sign is that pointed spiritual discussion embarrasses us. It can be at work, down the street or even in the church foyer. Someone gets to talking a bit too much about Jesus and we just want to change the subject. Another sure sign is that certain sins can be indulged in without an uproar in our conscience. Another sign is that we can easily mouth hymns and scriptures, but nothing happens in our heart.
f. Another sign is that we can hear God’s name being used wrongly and His standards being put down, but nothing ever happens in our heart about that either. Another sign is division and quarrels in the church don’t bother us. Another sign is that we are slow to respond when we hear of an opportunity to minister and serve in the church.
g. Another sign is that injustice and human misery never crosses our mind. Another sure sign is that the loss of people without Christ never crosses our mind. We never stop in a lobby or store or the square or somewhere and think, these people don’t have Christ. Another sign is that we hardly ever think about or sense God’s presence in our life. Another sign is that, a strong desire to just praise Him for His grace hardly ever fires up in our heart.
CONCLUSION:
I don’t know if any of this strikes a cord. But we do need to look in the mirror and ask if we have drifted away from that love relationship we used to have with God and His people.
A woman and her husband had to interrupt their holiday to go to a dentist. When they finally found a dentist the woman said, "I want a tooth pulled, and I don't want any injections because I'm in a big hurry." She went on to say to the dentist, "Just extract the tooth as quickly as possible, and we'll be on our way." The dentist was quite impressed and said, "You're certainly a courageous woman, which tooth is it?" The woman turned to her husband and said, "Show him your tooth, dear."
It’s easy to point out flaws in other people’s beliefs and challenge them to look at themselves, but it takes courage to examine our own beliefs and examine our own lives. Folks, we can’t seriously contend for the faith until we seriously live the faith we’re contending for. We can’t preach to people about how they should live their lives according to the Bible until we take a look in the mirror, at ourselves, and see if we are living right. Daily.
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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of our sins... If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.
Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.
Have You Counted the Cost - #480
Reference Sermon
Mike Glover
30 January 2010
Where and when we meet
Chardon, Ohio 44024