Early Monday morning, following Palm Sunday, little Billy took his girlfriend downtown so they could get married. The marriage license clerk smiled and explained to them that they were both much too young to get married. Upon hearing this upsetting news, because they were very sincere about it….Little Billy asked, "Well sir, could you at least give us a learner’s permit then?"
Well, I hope we all can get a learner’s permit for sincerity today….
Some people believe that It doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you're sincere. Those people need to visit a mental hospital…. All of the people there are very sincere in what they believe…. Some believe they are the president of the United States, some even believe that they are God.
A person can write a check with the sincere belief that they have the funds to cover it, but in reality there hasn't been enough money in the account, for quite a while, so the check bounces. This happens regardless of how sure they were in their beliefs about their checking account. If you walk out onto a frozen lake because you believe that the ice is solid enough to hold your weight, what's important is not what you believe about the ice, but the reality of whether or not it is thick enough. The actual density of the ice is what will determine if you are able to walk on it, or if you will fall through. Assumption will not hold you up and wishful thinking will not keep you from falling. Unless belief has a solid foundation, water will act just like water!
There are those who sincerely believe that snake handling should be part of the church service, they are sincere, but many of them are bitten each year.
There are those who sincerely believe that they should never accept blood transfusions and they would rather let their children die because of that belief, but now there is a law which says that if your belief puts someone else’s life in jeopardy, then care givers no longer require that they participate in the practice of that belief.
The bench mark of the Christian is not sincerity, but truth, that is sincerely believed and correctly discerned ….
Wrong is still wrong even if everyone is doing it and right is still right even if no one is doing it….
Sincerity must ask itself 3 questions…. Is it true, Is it kind, and is it necessary….. If you can answer yes to all three, then move forward….
Palm Sunday should serve as an example to us all, to examine our motives and check out our sincere conclusions…
We can all look back at times in our lives, when we were so sincere and yet we were so wrong….
It’s a humbling experience, when you’re so committed to something and then find out you were on the wrong side of the issue….
I used to think my parents were horrible people until I became a parent.
It has been well said…..by Mark Twain “When I was a boy of 14, my parents were so ignorant I could hardly stand to have themaround. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much they had learned in seven years.”
We can be sincerely wrong about a lot of things….
When Jesus came down from the Mount of Olives and rode into Jerusalem, He knew that the people who were sincere about cheering Him with “Hosannah” that day would also be sincere in shouting, “Crucify him”… just a little while later.
Certainly it is this kind of thing which caused Jesus to make the statement on the cross….”Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing”….
Palm Sunday was about causing the folks in the crowd that day, to be confronted with their own fallibility for He knew that they would have to face themselves in a post resurrection encounter. The truth will set us free, but often it will hurt us with the harsh reality of our own selves.
I was visiting someone at the hospital and a couple came into the room who had previously tried to run me out of town. He came over to me and gave me a big body hug and no words were needed, I knew he had an encounter with the truth within himself.
John the Apostle says it this way….1John1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. v9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from allunrighteousness v10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us”.
When I was in my 20’s I had an argument with my boss and I told him he was completely wrong about something. He told me that he had thought he was wrong once, but he was mistaken about it!..... He was saying to me that no matter what I said, I was going to lose that argument!!!! You can argue with God that you don’t need Jesus, but you’ll lose every time, believe me!!!
When the religious leaders of the day, caught a woman in the act of adultery and dragged her out in public to stone her….(by the way where was the guy that was involved….he was probably one of the Pharisees) Then they brought Jesus to be their witness… and Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground (some feel he wrote all of their names…. He could surely have written mine) then he said in John 8:7 “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her”.Well at that, they looked at one another, dropped their rocks and split!
Jesus came to make right what was wrong in all of us.
Certainly the bible is filled with folks who were sincere, but were so wrong…. Samson, Jonah, David and Bathsheba, Foot in the mouth Peter, the Prodigal Son and Paul the persecutor of the early church…. Just to mention a few….
And out of the wrongness we find ourselves in, we can justify being condescending, condemning, gossiping, or talking bad about one another. And we break people’s hearts rather than heal them. Our words tear down instead of building up…. We build walls instead of bridges to one another.
Matthew 5:23 “Therefore if you come to worship, and while there, you remember that you and your brother have unforgiveness between you…
v24 Leave the altar, and go your way and be reconciled to your brother, and then come to the altar and worship”.
Just like the crowd on Palm Sunday, there are folks who have fallen and they’re trying to get back up…. Like the crowd we are far from perfect, but we welcome the King to make a triumphant entry, so that His truth can enter us and help us confront ourselves….
To fall down is not a failure, it is only a failure, when we refuse to get back up and do what is right.
Failure is also the refusal to help those who have fallen around us and refuse to help them to rise again. A helping hand is far more helpful than a pointing finger….And when we surround someone who has fallen, together, we are then able to harness the power of the resurrection.
We need to help others to rise, as much as we need others to help us to get up and get started in the right direction again.
When we identify with and lift up those who have fallen, we should be careful that we are neither endorsing or celebratingthe very things that have caused them to fall.
I love the story of Charles Wesley, who went out to the red lightdistrict and paid a prostitute for one hour, for the purpose of spending the hour leading her to Christ and bringing her into spiritual freedom and out of sin and bondage.
Galatians 6:1 “If someone falls into sin, forgive and restore them, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day ís over”.
As Christians, all of us together, make up the church and as such, we form the body of Christ in the earth. We are all a part of the same body. Since that is true, when we attack another Christian, instead of lifting them, it’s like we are attacking ourselves, but more than that, we are arguing with God who has purchased them with His blood.
The foot doesn’t attack the knee because it’s different, the hand doesn’t attack the face, because it has a different function… and the arm doesn’t put the head in a headlock, to make it do what it wants…. As ridiculous as that sounds, it’s what we do when we attack one another…
A minister went out and got the mail and when he opened one envelope, he pulled out a single sheet of paper and on the paper,he found written only one word in capital letters… it said "FOOL!"
The next Sunday he announced to the congregation, "I have known many people who have written letters to me and forgottento sign their name.
"But this week I received a letter from someone who signed his name but forgot to write a letter."
What part of truth have we not understood. Actually, the church is a place where our main product is truth… “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”… It doesn’t say “the fool shall set you free”….
Christian love understands that we have all come short, it is not a bunch of enablers coming together and hiding behind a warped idea that the Church is another way of saying that we tolerate, put up with, and accept anything and everything…
No, the church is a place where those who have fallen, can find healing and recovery… a place of rehabilitation, growth and development. It’s what we’ve all needed at some point and time…. I’m sure when Jesus looked down from the cross and said “Forgive them for they no not what they do” It was His way of saying…”They may not look like much right now but wait till you see them after Easter!
The Greek word for “Sincere” is i-lik-ree-nace' which means “Judged by the sunlight”.. If a sculptor accidentally broke off a finger, a nose, or an arm while carving a figure… rather than start all over, they would use wax to put it back on. Then they would sell it as an unblemished sculpture. But when it was placed in a warm room, soon the nose, or the ear, or the arm would fall off, revealing the deceptive flaw. It was not sincere. But if the buyer took it out into the sunlight when he bought it, he would be able to see the wax and know that it was not sincere…. So the word also came to mean “without wax”…. If it passed the sincere test…
A woman was soaking up the sun's rays on a Florida beach when a little boy in his swimming trunks, carrying a tube, came up to her and asked her, "Do you believe in God?" She was surprised by the question but she replied, "Why, yes, I do." Then he asked her: "Do you go to church every Sunday?" Again, her answer was "Yes!" He then asked: "Do you read your Bible and pray everyday?" Again she said, "Yes!" By now her curiosity was very aroused. The little lad gave a big sigh of relief and said, "Will you hold my dollar while I go in swimming?"
The little boy was straightforward and honest in his questions because he wanted to entrust the lady with something very valuable. He wasn’t about to trust someone who didn’t put God first….. The bible does not emphasize going to church as much as it focuses on being the church….
The church is a hospital, it is a place of life long learning, it is an inter-relational testing area, it is sending station and every gathering is a group therapy session…..about living life well….
When Saul was on his way to kill and persecute Christians, and the Lord knocked him off of his high horse, and struck him blind. The Lord was showing him his spiritual blindness by causing his physical blindness. He was attacking the very answer that he needed.
I know it is a simple principle….but God cannot bless our disobedience….
In order to disobey, it requires that in our hearts we know what the right thing is, but we are refusing to act on it….
1Samuel 15:22 “Behold, to obey is better than all of your sacrifices, and it is far better to hear and obey than all of your choicest offerings”. The folks on Palm Sunday could really shout and praise. They could really work up a religious fervor. They had the leaping and dancing down real good, but they were real short on truth. And we know this by the lynch mob that they became just a few days later.
1Corinthians 14:17 “For it is certain that you give thanks well, but others are not edified”.
This word “Edify” is translated from the Greek “oy-kod-om-eh'-o” which means to build up, brace up, strengthen, affirm, or increase capacity…
The bible tells us that the lord did not come to condemn, but that we might be saved (whole, well, complete)
We often quote ‘There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ’
However, take a look at this scripture… 1John 3:21 “Beloved, if our heartsdo not condemn us, then have we confidence toward God”.
What it’s saying is that it is our own heart that condemns us…. It is the truth in our hearts (our center) that raises red flags, andbrings us to a place of turning it around. Because the genuine spirit of truth doesn’t condemn us but it convicts us of the places where we have tried to patch ourselves up, and create our own righteousness separate from Christ….
Jesus told Peter “When you are converted, then strengthen your brothers”
The Holy Spirit wants to start a Spiritual domino effect…. Where a chain of conversions is set in motion that will circle the globe…
There is no way we could ever imagine the number of lives that can be touched as one by one, heart transformation begins to take place! Glory! In Mark 9, we are told that Jesus took Peter, James, and John up on the mountain to witness His transfiguration. In the mean time, the remaining nine disciples were left behind with no adult supervision. While the nine disciples were waiting for Jesus and the others to return, a father approached them with a demon possessed son and asked for Jesus. The disciples probably told the father that Jesus would be back later in the day and that they would see what they could do, while they were waiting.
Now, the disciples’ had cast out demons before. In Luke 10 we see that Jesus sent seventy-two disciples out to do mission work. Verse 17 says that the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” So they did have experience with demons.
But this demon wasn’t leaving and their attempts to make it leave had attracted a crowd that included some scribes. So in the midst of all the turmoil, Jesus returned from the mountain top with Peter, James, and John to find the nine disciples surrounded by a large crowd of people that the scribes had gotten all worked up to discredit them.
Jesus took a little bit of time to sort out the situation and then He scolded the Disciples, and He said “Oh, you unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me.”
The disciples were sincere in trying to help, but they had fallen into a trap that they were responsible for getting the demons out in their own strength, instead of understanding that it was all done by the Holy Spirit… They had begun to think they were responsible for their own success. They were sincere but their thinking was incorrect….They needed to change their perspective from me centered to God centered….
A senior citizen was driving down the freeway when his wife called his cell phone. She said "Herman, I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on Route 280. Please be careful, that’s a busy high way!" Herman, who is now dodging cars, says…"Oh, you don’t know the half of it, It's not just one car, there's hundreds of them”!!
Sometimes it’s all about our perspective…
Everything can get all messed up quick when we’re going the wrong way… we need to turn it around….tell someone… just turn it around!
How quickly, like the crowd on Palm Sunday, we can jump from God centered to man centered…. We can think it’s all up to us, when it is His story, being manifested through our lives…
It’s not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord….
Turn to someone and tell them…. If you think you can’t do this, you’re right, (but don’t stop there)… But you can do it through Christ in you by the power of the Holy Spirit!
Even Jesus said in John 8:28 “I can do nothing of myself; but as my Father teaches me, I speak these things. v29 And He that sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left me on my own, for I do always those things that please Him. Him”.
We have received the Spirit that operated in Christ, so that we might work the works of Christ….
If Jesus could say it, then we should say it…. “I can’t do this, but I can do what the Father has told me, for I am not on my own”!!! The sick are healed, the answer comes, the situation changes, by the Spirit of Christ, for it is not of ourselves, not in our ability or power, but by His power….Hosanna!!!!
