Spiritualizing – Unmasking the Real You part 5

Scripture Matthew 23

25 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! 26 You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish,  and then the outside will become clean, too.

Before we get into this message we need to come to an understanding that we all have a little bit of pretender in us. I don’t believe we ever get totally rid of the pretender. He/she is always lurking in the shadows waiting to pounce on our insecurities and/or imperfections.

There is constant tension between “the pretender” and Abba’s child (who God intends you to be).

• There are days when we pretend to be holy.
• There are days when we pretend to be loving.
• There are days when we pretend to care.
• There are days full of good intentions.

Pretenders try hard to be holy. They have to really work at perfecting themselves.

Abba’s child (which is your true self) only hope for holiness comes from God’s mercy.

Pretenders try to be loving.

Abba’s child (which is your true self) loves others because they know they  are loved by God.

Pretenders try to care.

Abba’s child looks to the interest of others whether they feel like it or not.

As we learned last week (those who say they follow Christ) don’t HAVE to care for others. We don’t HAVE to love others. We don’t have to serve others. We NEED to do those things.

I have always been taught “if you don’t feel like doing it – then don’t.”

Over the years I have I confessed to you that I don’t feel like knocking on doors But I need to do it.

I have confessed to you that I don’t have much self-control at my kids sporting events. But I need self-control.

I have confessed to you that I never feel like telling other people about Christ. but I need to do it. I just did this past week. Something came over when these young men were sitting at my table. I told them the most important thing they can with their life is to know Christ. That is the greatest thing anyone can do with their life.

A key to unmasking ourselves is learning to recognize when we are pretending. We need to ask our selves some tough questions:

• Why can’t I care? Why don’t I want to serve that person.
• Why can’t I serve that person? Why don’t I serve that person?
• What’s keeping me from following Christ at a deeper level?

For me, the answer to that last question is obvious, “I spend a lot of time pretending.”

When  you ask these tough questions (or let someone else ask you those tough questions) – the only way those masks begin to peel off is when you answer them honestly. Then you ask God to do a miracle in you.

Because if we don’t ask those kind of questions we become like the Pharisees in Matthew 23.

• All they cared about is what they looked like to other people.
• All they cared about was their religious image.
• They didn’t care about loving their neighbor.
• They didn’t need a relationship with God because they were pretending to be Him.

When you pretend you are Him you have no need for Him. If you have no need for Him in your life then you are pretending to be Him.

Take a moment and read through all of Matthew 23.  As  you read you will discover that Jesus went ballistic on them.

• He calls them hypocrites 4 times.
• He calls them white-washed tombs.
• He calls them snakes.
• He calls them vipers.
• He calls them blind guides
• He tells them they are heading straight to hell.

Why was Jesus so upset?

The Pharisees used religion to control and humiliate others. They set up rules so that others could fail. They heaped overwhelming guilt on them. They created a lot of religious red tape in order for the people to get to God. They never once pointed them to the God who gives manna to the hungry and rest to the weary.

In the story of the Pharisee and the tax man (publican), the Pharisee stands in the temple and prays: “Oh God, I thank-you that I am not like other people – robbers, crooks, adulterers, or heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.”

If you take a closer look at this prayer, it reveals a lot about himself.

• He is very conscious of his personal holiness.
• He prays in order to compare himself favorably to others, not to admit any failure or need.
• His fault is he believes he is faultless. There is on one he admires more than himself.
• He despises others.
• He judges and condemns others because he’s convinced he’s better than they are.
• He is a self-righteous man who unrighteously condemns others.

The tax man is the exact opposite. Can you tell me who the pretender is?

Pretenders are conscious of their personal holiness.

• They want to look holy but they don’t want to be holy.

Pretenders compare themselves with others and they always find themselves to be better than others.

• They never admit any failure or need.

I had a family in the church in my previous pastorate that when I asked why they didn’t let their kids come to youth group their response was, “I don’t want my kids hanging around those other heathen kids.” My response was, “YOU SNAKE!”. No I actually didn’t say anything. I did walk away broken-hearted.

Pretenders believe they are faultless

• There is no one they admire more than themselves.

Pretenders judge and condemn others because they are convinced that they are better than everyone else.

• They don’t love others. They condemn others.

Another key to unmasking ourselves in bringing the pretender inside of us under control.

• Stop spiritualizing like the Pharisees. Job’s friends did this to Job. Job was hurting because he had lost his family. Lost his business. Lost his health. His friends and his wife didn’t nothing but condemn him and told him that what he was going through was because he had sinned against God.

Most of us in here are guilty of spiritualizing.

What is spiritualizing? It is looking at scenes in Oklahoma (Moores, Ok was destroyed by a tornado) and saying, “God has a purpose for this.” or “God will carry them through this.” And then don’t do a thing to help them. The really religious people would probably say this tornado is God’s judgment on Oklahoma.

I loved the interview that Kevin Durant had on Espn this past week. Kevin Durant is a follower of Christ. He is pretty open about his faith. They asked Him what was going on inside of him when he saw the devastation. He didn’t pull out his Bible and try to spiritualized what was going on. He said, “I don’t know what to say.”

But he did know what to do!

He showed up, gave words of encouragement, and gave the city of Moore, Ok $1 million to start the rebuilding process. He didn’t have to do this. He needed to. Compassion took over. Loving your neighbor took over.

Spiritualizing  is a way we cover up for God. There are moments when we think God looks weak and we have to make Him look strong. When these kind of things happen we find out God is made of.

We want God to look good by talking about Him in a positive way. We seem to think only positive things happen to followers of Christ.

We also spiritualize when things are happening to us.

Very few people admit their sin. They just blame God or others for what is going on in their life.

There are some things that happen in our life that we just can’t explain. We spiritualize it by saying, “that  must be God’s will for my life.” Instead of being like David in the Psalms and going to God and saying to God, “what on earth you are doing?” Or like Paul pleading with God to take this thorn out of his side.

I believe in those moments when things are going on around us – those things  we have no explanation for –  we can either spiritualize it and not deal with the pretender inside of us and pretend to cover up for God or find out what God is made of.

In the crucial moments of your life you don’t have to be spiritual. In those moments you NEED to find out what God is made of.

Those who have been in a war and have been in a fox hole with real bullets flying over  their head does not need a guy/girl in their fox hole who all he/she does is sit and pray for you to keep you alive. You want someone who will not only pray but keep the enemy from killing you.

If you think about it, if all Jesus did was pray for us – that would have done us much good. He not only prayed for us (and is still praying for us) but He gave his life for us.

Jesus wasn’t pretending when he said He loved us. The actions of His life tell us the true story.

God is asking us in this passage to stop cleaning up our outward appearance.

• He is wanting to change the way you think
• He is wanting to change who you put your confidence in.

The bottom line  is do you want to know Him or just pretend to know Him?