Created to Rebel Against Insincerity
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?" The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:
"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."
Karl - age 5
"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."
Chrissy - age 6
"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."
Noelle - age 7
"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."
Mary Ann - age 4
"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones."
Lauren - age 4
"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross."
Mark - age 6
"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."
Terri - age 4
When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."
Billy - age 4
"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen,"
Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)
"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."
Tommy - age 6
 Hero
Wouldn’t it be great if we learned to love each other BEACAUSE of how well we know each other, instead of IN SPITE of the fact that we know each other well? Today we are going to talk about that very goal, and we’ve got to start by recognizing that loving like this is not natural to our culture. In fact you’re going to have to be a rebel if you want to learn to love others in this way.
Our Rebellious Nature
Let’s review for a minute some of the ideas that we’ve been talking about. We have to begin by remembering that we are hard wired with a rebellious streak. From the days of Adam we have demonstrated over and over again that we are rebellious to the core. And as a culture, we celebrate the rebellious heroes we have created; we love to read about outlaws, don’t we? And so much of our culture is centered on our rebellious nature. We fashion ourselves after gangsters, adopting their clothing and hairstyles, and we embrace toys and games that celebrate rebellion (like Grand Theft Auto!)
 
Remember too that we talked about the fact that when I was young, rebellion meant responding to a conservative culture in a way that would shock and irritate them. The hippie movement was alive and well in the 60’s and 70’s, and the motto of the day was SEX, DRUGS, and ROCK N ROLL! But over time, we hippies grew up and became the leaders, writers, educators and presidents of today’s culture! What used to be shocking is now mainstream! Our presidents have engaged in outlandish sexual behavior, our cultural leaders have been caught using drugs, even our politicians fashion themselves as rock stars! When the presidential candidate of the United States appears in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine using the “F” word, you know that our culture has completely embraced the rebellious nature of the 60’s! Now God clearly re cognizes that the culture has shifted in this way, and it is God’s desire for us to stand up against the flow, become rebels in our generations and join God’s holy revolution.
 Romans 12:1
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.
What used to be called rebellious is now called normative! If you want to be rebellious in this generation you are going to have to react to all of the adopted values from the 60’s and 70’s. In order to be rebellious today, you are going to have to return to something ANCIENT! And God is in favor of that, because it means we will have to return to the ancient wisdom of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Insincerity on TV
So let’s begin by looking at what drives our culture. If you want to be a rebel, you have to first understand what it is that you are rebelling against. And today we will begin with a driving characteristic of our culture, our obsession with insincerity. We live in a culture that honors lies before it honors truth! Television is a great reflection of this reality. The hottest shows in the last year have been those shows in which people are pretending to be something that they are not. The Mole, Joe Millionaire, By Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancée, all of these shows are fun to watch because we love to see people deceive each other! And in addition to these, there are yet another group of shows that reflect our desire to represent ourselves as something that WE are not. The glut of makeover shows are popular because we secretly wish we had the power to put a permanent mask on who we really are. All of us have desired at one time or another to be less than honest about what we look like and who we are as individuals. Isn’t that why fashion is such an important part of our lives? The world is possessed with fashion trends and chasing the latest fad. And don’t thin for a minute that we, as Christians, are any different.
Cosmetics
You’ve all known someone in your life who just can’t get out he door to do ANYTHING without spending an hour preparing themselves. That’s why cosmetics are a multi-million dollar industry in this country. No one spends more money per-capita on cosmetics than we do! And this is all optional spending. We don’t have to spend it, but we are uncomfortable enough with who we are to feel a need to change the way we appear to the world around us, so we happily spend the money! Guys are certainly no different; each of us has gone through some period of time in which we obsessed on a hairstyle or the clothes that we were willing to wear to work or school. I know that I have done this on a number of occasions. Have you ever seen the old Brady Bunch show from the early 1970’s? Well that show was very popular and at one point, most of the guys decided to change their hair styles and make their hair curly! Everyone except for “Bobby” went out and changed their hair. You know I had to follow them! See my mom was a hair dresser, and I think she first suggested it and I was all too happy to get it done! Now I’ve got a collection of photographs from that time in my life that demonstrate how easily I was influenced by my culture, and how truly uncomfortable I was with the REAL Jim.
See I really had a problem being sincere. Not just with myself but with the world around me. I don’t think I ever really had a close friend growing up until I met my wife Susie in 1979. Maybe you’re like me and have struggled to feel comfortable about who you are and be sincere with the people around you. Do you know how you can tell if this is true? Well, as you get older, take a look at the photographs from your past. If you have a wide variety of different looks represented over the years, you are probably struggling with who you REALLY are and with issues of sincerity. And I bet these struggles have carried over into your relationships.
God doesn’t want you to live that way. God wants you to become everything that he has designed you to be and He is already proud of who you are. Not the person sitting here today, but the person who got out of bed this morning, before all the make-up, the attention to detail, the selection of clothing, or the perfect hairstyle. God loves the REAL you and he wants you to share THAT person with the world around you. Let’s take a look at how God feels about our struggle for sincerity with the people we call friends.
James 5:15
Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
Keyword “Confess”
Now we talked about the fact that every rebellion has a language all its own. Each member of the rebellion has a code language and set of terms that are used to communicate ideas and notions. Today, we often see the code language of a rebellious group within our culture. Gangsters often tag the walls of their neighborhoods with messages that sometimes seem difficult to understand. Well God’s rebellion has a native language as well. In fact, there are two native languages, Hebrew and Greek. All the original scriptures, all the messages from God have been given to us in these two languages. As we examine what God is trying to tell us about rebellion, let’s begin to try to understand the native language of the rebellion! Let’s start by taking a close look at this verse from God and examine the word he uses to say, “confess”
The word is “exomologeo” and it is pronounced “ex-om-ol-og-eh-o”. it means to “confess, profess or promise”
Now I think it is important that God uses the same word to describe three somewhat different things, don’t you? I mean when we think of confessing, we understand that to mean, “to disclose something damaging”. And when we think of professing, we really understand that to mean, “to affirm belief in”. And finally, when we try to define the idea of promising something, we are really talking about, “the assurance you will do something”
Now you will have to admit that when we hang out with our friends, we are usually pretty good at the profession part! We have no problem telling other people what we think and believe, especially when it comes to what we think about other people! We are still pretty good Gossips! If you’ve ever been the driver in a van or bus situation when you’ve had to drive a large number of people somewhere and had the chance to listen to their conversations, you know that we are pretty good at taking a position on something or someone and making sure everyone else knows how we feel.
But when it comes to our dialogue with others, we are far weaker in the areas of confession and promising. We’re less comfortable with telling others who we REALLY are and committing to them sincerely. I mean, you have to really go out on a limb to do these two things. Profession can be done with anyone, but when you confess or promise, you have just moved the listener from the position of acquaintance to trusted friend. Now many of us have never done these two things with anyone, not even with people we have known for years! But God is clearly telling us that if we ever hope to have relationships like He would want us to have, we are going to need to step out and test the waters of sincerity. And remember that you are not alone!
Confessing and Professing
You see there is a relationship between confession and profession that God wants us to understand! God knows that when you are willing to share a weakness, you have a great opportunity to share His POWER.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
See, God wants us to couple our confession of sincerity with a profession of our faith in Him. Don’t be afraid to talk about your weaknesses, just remember that it is in your weakness that you greatest connection with God exists. Feel free to share that with the people around you as well! When you do that, they will begin to see LESS of you and MORE of JESUS!
Keyword “Healed”
So why would we ever want to be so sincere with people? What’s in it for us? Well, God tells us that we are to confess to each other and pray for each other so that we can be healed! Let’s take a look at the word that God uses for “healed”.
It is “iaomai” and it is pronounced “ee-ah-om-ahee”. It means “to heal, or make whole”
Now that’s an interesting shading of the word! Somehow confession and prayer will make us whole! When I was a young man, we didn’t have instant messaging, or chat rooms or blogs or any of that stuff that we now use like crazy to talk to each other. Instead we had something better! We had CB Radios!!!! And in many ways God has designed us to be just like CB Radios. Every CB radio has two important elements. There is the transmitter part and the receiver part. No CB Radio can be whole unless both these elements exist! Yet in our relationships with others we often become either one or the other. We may listen to the honesty and sincerity of others, but be unwilling to share who we really are with them. We are simple receivers. And before long we discover that the same thing is happening in our prayer life, we are either praying for others but not being prayed for ourselves, or are the subject of much prayer and never talk to God about others at all.
We were not designed to be like that! We were designed to be both transmitter AND receivers, and until we find ourselves engaged in BOTH activities, we are not whole; we are not what God has designed us to be. That’s what he means in this verse.
Learning to Talk
You see there is a relationship between confession and prayer and I want you to understand it this morning. Recently I was driving a group of students home and one of them was so honest with me about her home life. She was living in a blended family situation in which she had many half or step siblings and one full sister who was older. I asked her how she got along with her siblings and she told me that everything was pretty good, with the exception of her full sister. Here she felt great pain and she began to get teary eyed as she told me that they often fought fro no apparent reason. She eventually told me that much of the pain came from the fact that she desperately loved her full sister and after all the reconfigurations of her family, she always felt that the two of them should be the closest and she desired that for their relationship. When she saw that her older sister often got along better and seemed to love her half and step siblings more, it hurt her feelings and friction was always the result. I asked her if she had ever shared this with her sister. She told me that she never had.
See there is a connection between confession and prayer and God is telling us that we will never be whole, never be what he wants us to be, until we understand the connection. Look, if you never confess how you really feel to each other, if you are never willing to share where you struggle and fail, how in the world can someone truly pray for you? Without confession, there can be no meaningful prayer! The two go together.
So I asked this young lady what her sister might say if she were to go to her and say, “Sis, despite what has been going on between us, I just need to tell you that I love you desperately. I have to confess that I have been sinning against you with all this anger when in fact I’m just feeling jealous sometimes over the relationship you seem to have with our other siblings. I would like to have that relationship with you. You are my full sister, I want us to be the closest we can possibly be! Can we pray for that and work toward making that true?” I mean, what is her sister going to say to that? How can she be denied?
A Scripture Re-write
God wants us to come clean with each other and begin a prayer life that honors Him. We need to rebel against the insincerity of this world and join God’s holy revolution. We need to stop re-writing God’s word! If we were to write scripture, it would probably look more like this:
Therefore, hide all your shortcomings from one another and secretly hope for the failure of those around you so you can feel better about yourself, at least by comparison. Denying who you are in this way is the most effective approach to feeling important and powerful!
Imagine
Well, imagine a world in which you weren’t afraid to be who you really are. A world where it where you had the courage to be sincere, even when it isn’t safe. A world where your relationship with God was so good that you could trust him with your future. You can have that world; you just have to take some first steps. This week, identify one trustworthy person with whom you have been masquerading. Share something personal with that person and commit to a real relationship. Ask yourself this question: Why do you think it is so hard for us to open up with each other and allow them to see who we really are?
Pride Is At the Heart of It
Let’s face it; pride is at the heart of our insincerity. It is our pride that encourages us to hide who we really are, to think we are better than others and to become self focused! We see most of our conversations with people as simple opportunities for us to vent our own opinion. Most of the time we are two prideful and self-concerned to think about the needs of others! We are so self concerned and then we wonder why our relationships are so shallow! Dale Carnegie once said something that I have never forgotten!
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you”
So let’s take a look at how God would have us rebel against this part of our nature.
1Peter 2:9
Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.
Keyword “Mind”
Let's continue to dig deep into the language of the New Testament! God uses a specific word here for “mind”.
The word is “phroneo” and it is pronounced “fron-eh-o”. It literally means, “intensely, to interest oneself in (with concern or obedience)”
What does that sound like to you? What do we usually say when we are describing that intense interest. If you are intensely interested in something, we usually say that you are “passionate” about that thing or person! Now when we think about passion, we usually misunderstand it as LUST. Most of the time we direct our passion in an effort to serve ourselves. We are usually passionately interested in the things that make us feel good our satisfy a desire!
That’s why I think it is so interesting that the act of sacrifice that Jesus did on the cross, the suffering that He endured, is called the “passion”. Clearly God’s idea of what passion is all about is very different from ours! Our passion is self-focused on us, His passion is sacrificial. After all, what was in this act of sacrifice for Jesus? What did he gain? We were the true beneficiaries of his act of love! That is what God is calling us to do, love others in that way!
Keyword “Same”
Now let’s take a final look at one more word. Remember that every word in scripture has importance to God. Let's look at the word that God uses for “same”.
The word is “autos” and it is pronounced “ow-tos”. It is used by God to describe “mine, myself, thyself”. Those are pretty self-focused words. Maybe God does just want us to be interested in ourselves. But the same word is also used in scripture to describe “her, him, she, theirs, themselves, those”. The focus here is not on us, is it? Finally, this word is also used to mean “same, together”.
God uses the same word to describe you, the people around you, and all of us together. When God is calling us to have the same mind, he is calling us to see ourselves in the same way! Now look, there are always going to be people who are maybe a little different. We’ve all encountered people whom the world has shunned. Maybe you called them geeks, or dorks or dweebs or whatever. These folks have been in school with you, they grow up and end up working with you, and maybe some of them are even your parents.
I have one of these kind of guys in my work place as well. And he is shunned by everyone around him, and for many years I shunned him too. Then one day I felt so convicted about my behavior that I stepped out and started to talk to him. And boy did I feel good about myself. I was super Christian, and I chalked up one for God! But because I was the only one who ever talked to this guy, it wasn’t long before he was trying to talk to me all the time! Once again I was starting to become inpatient with him and disinterested. After all, hadn’t I already done my share? How much am I expected to endure, I mean this guy was a geek after all.
Gospel of Jim
Well I learned a lot through my relationship with this man, a relationship that is now back on track and does take time and communication. First, I now recognize that: God does not want you to care about people who are different than you. In fact, God only wants you to love the people who are the same as you! But here is the wisdom of God: God wants you to realize that we are all the same in His eyes. So it’s not a matter of you trying to stoop down to someone’s level to be friendly with them. It’s a matter of you realizing that you are already on that level to begin with.
See from my days as a Catholic, I observed an important truth. In the Catholic confessional two people enter. The Priest and the parishioner. One person ends up confessing to the other. And believe me it’s not the priest who is doing the confessing here! Why is that? Well, it may be a reflection of our condition as humans. We will seldom confess who we really are to people to whom which we feel spiritually or socially superior! So stop feeling superior! Join God’s Holy revolution and recognize your humble position.
Imagine
Imagine a world in which the love of God was evident to all the people in your sphere of influence, simply because of the life you were living in front of them. A “Pay It Forward” kind of world that radiates and grows the love of God. You can create that kind of world as a Holy Rebel. This week, identify one person that you have shunned because you thought he or she was somehow inferior to you. Now step out and connect with this person as you would with a brother or sister. So, ask yourself the question: Why do you think God wants us to reach out to other people in this way?
The answer to this question is found in the “one another” passages. Take a look at some of the “one another” passages that exist in scripture. You will see something striking. The word "brothers" appears in these passage (especially those written by Paul) more than any other word! Some examples can be found in these passages:
Acts 7:26
The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, 'Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?'
Romans 15:14
I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.
1 Corinthians 16:20
All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
Galatians 5:13
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
1 Thessalonians 4:9
Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.
1 Corinthians 11:33-34
So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.
2 Corinthians 13:11-12
Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.Greet one another with a holy kiss.
1 Thessalonians 5:14-15
And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.
God Clearly wants us to see each other as brothers and sisters. We are his chosen, His Children.
Romans 12:10
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love…
God clearly wants us to stop seeing each other as strangers. Stop pretending and masquerading. Start living as the family of God. |
