Let’s Be Honest, What Do We Really Believe
Genesis 3:1-14 James 2:14-26
Let me introduce you to Rakay. Rakay believes a man is responsible for his actions. He believes a man should do all that he can for his community and his church in order to build it up. He believes that a man should have the respect of others and show others respect. He believes a man ought to be an example for others to follow. He has encouraged other men to adopt his beliefs.
How many of you think Rakay is allright? Suppose I told you that Rakay has had five kids, by five women in the last three years and quits jobs rather than pay child support. That three times he has been arrested for domestic violence. That he smokes marijuana to help him control his nerves. How many of you think Rakay is still alright.
Let me ask you this, is there anything wrong with what Rakay says he believes? What’s wrong with Rakay? We recognize that there is a disconnect between what he says he believes, and what his actions are. Do you know one of the scariest things we can do as believers, is to be honest about what we really believe.
Now because we are going to have communion today, we are going to say the Apostle’s Creed so as to affirm what we believe. There are three different ways in which we believe. There is what I say believe. There is what I think I believe, and there is what I reveal I believe.
Have you ever said something that you gave others the impression you believed something that really was just part of your public image. If someone asked you with a big smile on their face “what do you think of this dress I’m wearing, and you think the dress is absolutely horrible” what do you say. “Well that dress is interesting.” We say things, not because we believe them, but we want to keep a certain public image.
A good example of this is Judas who betrayed Christ. When the woman poured the expensive perfume on Jesus, Judas says “what a waste. This perfume could have been sold for a lot of money and given to the poor.” Judas wanted to give others the impression that he believed in helping the poor. He was building on his public image. But the Bible tells us, that he did not care for the poor, but he was a thief and was stealing from the money that the disciples collected. There are times when we all try to build our public image.
In our Old Testament reading when Eve told the serpent, “God told us not to even touch the fruit or we might die.” She was building their public image of two people so committed to God, they would not even touch something which God had forbidden. There is a temptation among us as Christians to pretend we are walking closer with God than we really are. We are saying the right words to get others to think more highly of us than they should. We will say, our church is having a week of prayer, but we know we have no intention of showing up at any of the meetings to pray. But saying it does boost our public opinion.
The second form of believing is we actually believe something is true, but later circumstances reveal that belief is not what we thought it was. Is there anyone here who ever had a crush on someone? You sincerely believed that person was the bomb. That person was the one. You could see yourself in love with the person forever. Now you believed that this was the one. But later circumstances revealed that this person was not the kind of a person you thought he or she was. Not only did you not want to spend the rest of your life with this person, if the person had left and moved to Brazil, it would not have phased you one bit.
Adam and Eve sincerely believed that if they ate from that fruit, they were going to become just like God. At that moment, nobody could have told them anything differently. We have made up our minds, this is what I’m going to do, and no one can stop me, we can be sincere in what we believe, and genuinely believe that we are taking the right step. But later on with a change in circumstances, we may come to believe that decision was a bad one. We start to wish we had listened to the advice of others.
The third form of believing, is what we base our daily lives on. By someone looking at me for a long enough period of time, they can tell you what I have accepted as fact, and how I line up my life according to what I believe. One of the things that most of us believe in even more than we believe in Jesus even though we have never technically seen it is gravity. Because we believe in gravity, we simply do not even attempt to do certain things.
If you are on the fifth floor of a building and you need to get to your car on the street in a hurry, the quickest way to get there is to jump out of the window. You can look out the window and see your car. But your belief about gravity, causes you to choose the alternative route of the stairs or the elevator. You do not even have to think about it. When you take a sip of your drink, you do not simply let it go from your hand and expect it to be there when you get ready for it.
When you jump up into the air, you never fear floating off into the clouds. Your belief in Gravity, which you cannot see, hear or feel has settled a lot of issues for you. You even know it is wise to consult how gravity is going to affect something before you make a decision to do anything that involves there being nothing between you and the ground.
The kind of belief that we have in gravity is what I want to call beliefs that are ‘my game plan for life.” Every single one of us has a game plan for how we see the world and how life works in the world. One of the interesting things about belief, is that I am not the best judge of what I really believe. Guess what. You are not the best judge of what you really believe. Why because we deceive ourselves with all kinds of justifications for our behaviors? What we really believe is determined by our actions. Our actions flow out of our game plan for life.
Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be if we had to stand up and say what we believe based on our game plan for life. I believe in God the Father, maker of heaven and earth who is not worthy of me making two hours of week in my schedule to pray or talk to and to attend church. I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son, who has no right to tell me how to live my life after I get out of church.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried, but he should not expect me to make any kind of similar sacrifice on His behalf. I will tell off who I want to tell off, and I will give when I feel like giving. If I do not want to do my part, then others just have to take up the slack for me whether they want to or not.
He sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from which he shall come to judge the living and the dead, with me being the exception because He knows my heart. I intend to one day get serious about serving God, but until then he should not judge me. When I prefer gossip over sharing the word of God, that’s my business.
Have you ever thought about writing about what you believe based on what you do. What’s your most favorite thing you do? What causes you to show the greatest emotion when you support something or someone else? Where do you spend most of your money? Now if we compare these same things with our relationship to God, where do we come out. After all we say, our purpose is to enter into a right relationship with God. Those are the words we say, but do our actions betray our words. To be honest, we do not want to get into a closer relationship with God because deep inside we know it’s going to cost something we are unwilling to pay.
A couple of weeks ago, I was jogging and I noticed this huge section of a tree had fallen to the ground. There were green leaves all over the branches. I was amazed because I didn’t remember a storm as having come through the night before.. Then I looked again at the tree and noticed that it was almost hollow inside. It’s public image said that it was strong and healthy and you would believe it to be so from looking at it the day before.
I immediately asked God to help me not be like the tree. So busy building a public image, but empty on the inside from not really getting to know God. I fear for us as a church, that we can be doing so much on the outside, without allowing God to work in our hearts in our relationships with each other. It’s not the activity we do for Jesus, as much as it is the changing we do for Jesus. If we are not more loving and forgiving of one another, we have accomplished a little bit of nothing.
God is not looking to change what we say we believe in the Apostle’s Creed. God is not looking to change some of our personal convictions that we believe are right. God is looking to change that game plan we have for our lives. This is the hard part of being a follower of Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus did not come for you to simply say, “I accept Jesus as my Savior, and now I am on my way to heaven.”
Let me ask you this, which way did you believe when you accepted him. Was it the public relations move where others were doing it, and if you’re going to hang around the church, so you should too. If you did, you’re still lost. Was it the personal belief, that if I do this one thing, heaven is mine for sure and God is now well pleased with me? A belief that will change with circumstances. Or did you believe it, knowing that your game plan for your life was going to have to be rewritten? If you have the same game plan as before your acceptance of Christ, then you still do not know God.
Faith and belief go together. They always are going to produce a change in a person’s actions. We have made the mistake of telling people to put their faith in God so they can go to heaven, without first telling them to put their faith in God, so that He can change the way they will live today and tomorrow. If your faith is simply in going to heaven, you’re not much earthly good to the kingdom of God. James told us in our New Testament reading that faith without some action behind it is worthless religion.
When we look at Jesus, we see someone that was not interested in building his public image. When people tried to make him a superstar, he went and hid in the desert and mountain areas. When people tried to flatter him, he told them the cost of being one of his disciples. He was not interested in fame or fortune. Do you know how rich he could have been with the power to heal people’s bodies?
Jesus wanted us to know, that His purpose was to do the will of the Father. When situations arose in His life, his motivating factor was, “how does this please my Father in heaven, for I have not come to do my will, but his will.” His decision making on checking in with the Father was as natural as our checking in with gravity before doing certain things. That’s why he was under control, even when he was upset and angry with some of the things going on around him.
Jesus wanted us to understand, the power he had to live everyday among people is the power he wants us to have to live everyday among people. Jesus desires to take each one of our game plans about how life is suppose to work, and begin to align it with the reality of the Kingdom of God. He is bringing the kingdom down from above into our everyday existence. Now if you are not in Christ, this bringing this thing down is not going to work, because it’s not going to be easy and at times its not going to make sense.
What amazed people about about Jesus, was the public image he gave, the private beliefs he had, and the actual daily living he was doing were all lining up with each other. Jesus believed there was a Heavenly Father, who loved him, cared for Him and was actually by His side at all times. He acted accordingly. I think one of the major problems we suffer from as Christians is we do not believe in the goodness of our heavenly Father. We do not believe God loves us.
We see it with Adam and Eve. They had everything they needed, and yet they believed that God was holding back on them, keeping them from something they had a right to experience. God was somehow keeping them from something good. In other words, God could not be fully trusted. Before we can recognize how we distrust God, we have to be honest about what we truly believe and on what level we believe it.
We erroneously believe that for God to be with us and for God to love us, means that God is going to help us make our game plan work. Let me tell you something, it may be God’s will to rip up your game plan or my game plan altogether. In Bible study we learned this past week, that God is not even on the same time schedule as we are. With the Lord a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day.
This tells me, I’m going to want some stuff, before God is ready for me to have it. Now I have a choice. I can believe that God is with me, and if I wait God will provide for me, or I can believe that God can’t be trusted and I’ll do whatever I need to in order to make it happen. Which one is going to leave me praying in the future, God will you help me to get out of this mess?
The purpose in reading the Bible is to take the principles you find in it, and apply it to your lives. The disciples looked at Jesus’ life and the joy and peace he had, and decided hey, I’d like to be able to be like that. They found out that the teachings Jesus gave did make sense. They found that when they were angry with someone, forgiveness left them with a better feeling than if they had gotten revenge.
They found that when were generous in their giving, they gained more than when they held on to their stuff. They found that loving their enemies was a lot easier to deal with than walking around with a stomach of hatred. They found that checking in with the Father, before taking action was a lot easier than asking for help after blowing a relationship. They began turning in their game plans as they discovered again and again that Jesus was not wrong in what He said about life.
Have you notice that when Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he did not include anything in it about going to heaven and he did not say anything about God granting us the desires of our game plan. He told us to pray that God’s will would be done. He told us to pray to have today’s needs met. He told us to pray with the realization that we have sinned today and with the realization that we need to grant forgiveness today to someone who has wronged us.
Do you see how He’s rewriting our game plan. If we can trust Jesus with our daily lives, then there is no doubt that we will be with him in heaven. There is no need to pray about making it in. We are already in, because we are in Him. If we are not in Him, then there is no getting in at the end.
A day of fully trusting Jesus can cause us to see things we have never seen about ourselves before. It will cause us to see opportunities to make a difference that we have never seen before. I challenge us all to trust Jesus for the month of July and see what a change it makes. Trust that God loves you, God is with you, and God has your best interest at heart in the things he has told you to do and that God has the right to rewrite your game plan. Live one day of obedience for the next 31 days and tell me what you learned about what you believe.
In order to live the Christian life, we must believe that Jesus was not wrong and that God truly loves you. If you’re not sure God loves, you, you will take the easy way out. That’s where Adam and Eve blew it. George McDonald once said, Each day, one of the most important questions we can ask is “Have I done one single thing today simply because Jesus said to do it.” If you stick to your own game plan all day, you are going to miss Jesus. God loves you. Be honest with yourself. Are You Willing To Believe It? Believe it enough to change.
What do you need to change on your game plan? Are you going to let go of that relationship you should not be involved in and trust God. Are you going to change your game plan and make group bible study a part of your life believing that the word of God is important for you? Are you going to decide to speak in a language God is pleased with even when you’re angry?
Are you going to make the most of the time God has given you, instead of being bitter about not having more. Are you willing to change that habit that you know is taking you down? Are you willing to change your very poor giving habits to the church? Are you willing to change your work schedule to bring your life in line with what you so you believe? If God cannot work with you to bring the kingdom heaven down to you, you simply cannot work you way up into the kingdom of God.
Salvation begins with trusting that God loves you today, right here, where you are. Choose today to be honest with yourself and with your God.
***I am indebted to John Ortberg of Menlo Presbyterian Church in Menlo CA for some of the ideas contained in this message.
“Sermon Outline—Pastor Rick
7-1-07 Gen. 3:1-14 James 2:14-26
Let’s Be Honest, What Do We Really Believe
A. Rakay A Man With It Going On
1. What He Believes
2. What He Does
3. Scary To Be Honest
B. Believing On 3 Different Levels
1. Belief For Public Image Sake #1
2. Judas & Helping The Poor
3. Eve & Adam Not Touching
4. A Great Prayer Meeting Coming
5. Private Sincere Belief #2
6. Help I’ve Got A Crush
7. Circumstances Bring A Change
8. Beliefs That We Actually Live By #3
C. The Belief In Gravity
1. We Plan Accordingly
2. Issues Already Settled
3. My Game Plan For Life
4. How It All Works
5. We Can’t Judge What We Believe
D. What About A New Creed
1. I Don’t Have The Time
2. He Does Not Have The Authority
3. I Will Not Sacrifice
4. Gossip Over The Word
5. What Is Your Purpose
6. Jogging Lesson From A Tree
7. The Fear Of Being Hollow
E. God Is Not After Beliefs 1&2
1. Bring Your Game Plan
2. How Did You Accept Christ
3. Same Game Plan As Before
F. Faith And Belief Are Partners
1. Not For Heaven But For Today
2. Jesus Just Was Not Interested
3. Jesus Checked In With The Father
4. Jesus For Everyday Living
5. Jesus Takes Game Plans
G. Jesus Was The Same
1. Believed God Loved Him, Cared For
Him, Was With Him
2. Our Number 1 Problem
3. Can God Be Trusted
4. God’s Love & Our Game Plan
5. God’s Timing
6. Waiting May Not Be In Our Plan So…
H. Why Do We Read The Word
1. Get The Principles And Apply
2. Jesus Teaching Us To Pray
3. Let’s Deal With Today
4. Let’s Admit Our Sin & Forgive
5. Trust Jesus With The Daily Things
I. The Challenge To Trust Jesus
1. Things Are Going To Be Opened
2. One Day Of Obedience
3. Have I Done One Thing Because
Jesus Commanded It
4. Am I Willing To Believe
5. God Must Bring The Kingdom
Down
6. Forget Going To Get The Kingdom
James 2:14-26
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if a person claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? [15] Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. [16] If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? [17] In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
[18] But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. [19] You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder.
[20] You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? [
