Lie #1 – My Faith is a Private Matter

Want to do a short series (3 weeks) about the lies we’ve been told/ believed / lies we’ve told ourselves

-lies like: If you want to do it, feels good, doesn’t hurt anybody – just do it /

Our lives are supposed to be comfortable / We deserve more than we’re getting

-lies with one thing in common

-it’s all about us / we are the centre / the universe is supposed to revolve around me

-why do we buy into these lies? – (like the feeling of the universe revolving around us)

Today’s lie is a biggie!

-it will mess up your sense of value and personal significance

-it’ll make you think that what is actually good for you is bad and what is bad for you is good

-this lie will both keep you from becoming who God created you to be

-keep the church from being what God desires it to be

The lie - “MY LIFE & MY FAITH IS A PRIVATE MATTER!”

-personal – no one else’s business!

-If you’re a Xian, you might say, “just between Jesus and I”

Here’s the thing - I believe that all of us buy into this lie at certain levels…

-Maybe I’m out to lunch - Just in case I am, let’s take a fun test.

IS YOUR LIFE A PRIVATE MATTER TEST

(How do you feel when someone challenges the following aspects of your life?)

How would you respond (yes or no)?

1. I’m ok with someone commenting/questioning the way I drive? (don’t you think you drive a little fast?)

2. I’m ok with someone commenting/questioning the way I dress? (do you think that’s appropriate?)

3. I’m ok wit someone commenting/questioning how I spend my money?

4. I’m ok with someone commenting/questioning on my choice of friends/relationships?

6. I’m ok with my husband/wife/mom/dad/brother/sister prying into my tv watching/eating habits?

8. I’m ok when someone comments/questions my motives?

9. I’m ok when someone comments/questions my abilities?

10. I’m ok when someone comments/questions the way I raise my children?

So what’s your reaction when people challenge your action/beliefs/motives/friendships?

-If you answered yes most of the time – you can go home now

-If you’re like me, you answered no a lot (can’t lie-Vania’s here)

Let me clarify something before we move on…

-what I’m not saying – I’m not saying that it’s wrong to keep areas of our lives private

-that everything you think, you do should be out in the open for the whole world to see

-what I am saying – no area of your life should be so private you have no one you can talk to

Some things that can be true of you (certain levels) if you believe faith/life is a private matter…

1. If you’re life/faith is a private matter – you’re probably “ME” FOCUSED (how do you know?)

-your calendar is probably full of activities that are mostly about you

-your money is spent mostly on yourself and things you want or like (never enough)

-you’re right most of the time / you always know what is best

2. If your life/faith is a private matter –YOUR RELATIONSHIPS TEND TO BE SUPERFICIAL

-you might have lots of friends (no one allowed in deep areas of life)

-maybe you even feel like you don’t belong, lonely, isolated, alienated

-when this happens in church - people get lost! (don’t really know anyone, come and go)

-everyone talks about the family of God being a big deal, but you feel no one would notice if you left

Mother Theresa said:

“the worst poversty is the feeling of abandonment, the feeling of being alone. This is the poverty of the western world. People are hungry not only for bread but hungry for love; naked not only for clothing, but naked for human dignity and respect; homeless not only for want of a room of bricks, but homeless because of rejection.”

3. If you’re a Christian and you believe your faith/life is a private matter…

A. You probably see the church as an organization that’s here to meet your needs

-it’s about what you like and what you don’t like

-it’s about the programs it provides for you, your children, etc.

-if customer satisfaction gets really low you just check out another place

B. You probably see your sin as something just between you and God

-the problem with that is when we get in a spiral of we fall we confess, we fall we confess…

-it’s not that we don’t try or don’t want to do right, we even feel terrible/guilty about it

-but once we get into that spiral it’s really hard to get out of it with a just between God & I mentality

-here’s the thing – God knows that and for that reason the bible tells us…

-if we want victory and healing in our lives confess our sins to one another and pray for one another

-it’s just between Jesus and I sounds holy, but it’s not biblical (Jesus-spirit is willing/flesh is weak)

These are just some of the things that go out of whack when you believe your life/faith is private

-you might even think – so, what’s wrong with that?

-what’s wrong with that is that we were created for something deeper & more significant

Romans 12:3-5 “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

GOD HAS A DREAM!

-God’s dream is to bring together people from all walks of life / backgrounds / diversity

-male/female/old/young/white/black, and make us “ONE BODY IN JESUS CHRIST”.

Galatians 3:26 “You are all sons/daughters of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew, nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Don’t miss this: this one body God wants us to become can only be one body “in Jesus Christ”

-the heart / the glue / the centre / the one thing that will make us “one body” is Jesus Christ

To be “in Jesus Christ” is to become intimately connected with and surrendered to Him!

-hearing from him / walking in his ways / seeking direction from him / doing as he would as he directs

God’s dream is that “in Christ” – we who are many/diverse/different - that all of us together would…

1. BECOME ONE BODY! (Romans 12:5 “we who are many form one body”)

What does that look like? It looks like our body!

-just like all the different parts of our anatomy (fingers/toes/arms/legs/heart/liver etc.) make one body

-you and I and others are the different parts that make up this “one body – the Church”

Just like all the parts of our bodies are connected to each other

-God says, in the church, his body, “each member belongs to all the others”

-each parts’ usefulness/significance is not found in what it can do alone (remaining separate/private)

-but in its connection & contribution to the whole body

-every part is meant to come together, in harmony, so the whole body functions properly

-how does the rest of your body feel when you get a bad toothache/migrain?

-that’s how it is with this body God wants us to become

-if one part hurts the whole body hurts (part celebrates – whole body celebrates)

That’s why our life/faith can’t be a private matter (where no one else has any input into your life)

-when it is, you become like the finger who doesn’t want to be part of a hand

-here’s the question, how useful/significant is a finger that is separated from the hand

-maybe you think it’s a silly comparison, but that’s how God wants us to see ourselves/usefulness/signif.

Our significance, in God’s eyes, is not found in our being individual, private people

-but in allowing our individuality to join together with other’s individuality

-and letting all our individualities become something bigger than ourselves “in Jesus Christ”

-One body, where we all contribute and depend on God and each other for life/health/ signif./fulfill purpose

What does it look like in practice? Romans 12:10 “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people (one another) who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

God’s dream is that “in Christ” – we who are many/diverse/different - that all of us together would…

2. We are to be a body that is deeply connected in relationship to others

-what would happen to us as a body if we committed to living out these few verses over the next year?

-if your life/faith is a private matter – you give up the opportunity to experience this

-because your energy, your money, your time – everything is primarily about you

1Thess 5:13 “Live in peace with each other… 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.”

Two things here…

1. Is your life open enough that you have people that can warn you/encourage you/ help you?

2. Are you the kind of person that others can trust with their weaknesses, faults, struggles

-someone they can trust to help, encourage and build them up

One of the reasons we would rather keep on living the lie – is that we’re afraid…

-we’re afraid of what people would really think if they really knew the real us (everything that lurks)

-we’re afraid of how they’d react – we’re afraid of being rejected

-God wants a family where people speak into each others lives on the deep things/ the important things

-but where they do so with gentleness/encouragement/patience/mercy and kindness

The moment you remove the fear factor – there’s no more reason for our lives/faith being a private matter

-freedom comes from sharing/confessing with people who love you/can be trusted and will pray for you

-word of caution: not everyone loves you, can be trusted & genuinely wants to pray for you

-general church prayer meeting are not good places to confess deep seated sin (a lot of pain)

-so how do you know/decide: it’s about building relationships, it takes time and effort.

Finally to be “One Body in Jesus Christ” means one last thing…

Philippians 2:1-8 “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself to death, even death on a cross!

Here’s what that says to us here this morning - For us to be “One Body together in Christ” means…

that we serve / sacrifice / lose ourselves For sake of others together

The Lie tells us that life is all about us…

-that we are the centre of the universe and everything exists for me

-that relationships are valuable as long as they benefit me

Here’s the final question, now you’ve heard all this, so what?

-are you intimately connected and surrendered to Jesus Christ? (everything else without this = meaningless)

-do you have people that you have given permission to speak into the deep areas of your life?

-are you the kind of person that others can trust to speak into their lives with love/patience/mercy/truth?

-are you surrendered to live like Jesus

-in service / in sacrifice / even in the loss of yourself for the sake of others?

These aren’t issues of choice for us as Christians – this is what it means to be a Christian.

-but here’s the point

-we can’t be this as individuals or as a church as long as we see our faith/lives as a private matter