Misinterpretation; Misrepresentation: It’s About The Truth
Scripture: Galatians 2:20; John 16:13; Genesis 27
Introduction
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Galatians 2:20
The life I live is no longer my life as Christ should be living through me. When I told you last week that I was 75% Rodney and 25% Holy Spirit, it should tell you that although Christ is living within me Rodney is still there, pressing my will and opinion into things. As I yield more and more to Christ and thus move more towards that 20% Rodney and 80% Holy Spirit, I must become aware of who I really am. I must search out and accept the truth about Rodney. Only when I accept the truth about me can I become free enough to accept the truth of God that comes through the Holy Spirit. This message is about truth and how in our daily lives we distort it. As this is an internal message, meaning that the message focuses on our inner man, we will examine how we as individual misinterpret and misrepresent the truth. Today I will lay the foundation and next week I will get into the heart of the message.
I want you to take a minute and think about our five senses – those that help us navigate through this world. They are the sense of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. There are six other senses that have been identified that we also use, but these are the core that we are all familiar with. Although I will get into them more later I want you to think about how much of our reality is based on these five senses. Now consider, with all the importance we place on our senses, how often our senses give us the wrong perception and thus change our reality. As you think about that, let me tell you about some experiences I have had recently while I was mulling over this message in my head.
Have you ever been treated differently because of the way you looked? Have you ever treated someone differently because of the way they looked? If you are like most of us, you would answer in the affirmative for both of those questions. As I have shopped for clothes, I have had some interesting experiences in large, more upscale department stores, here in Kansas and in other states where I have traveled. I will not list the stores by name, but there have been several where I have been followed as if I was going to steal something. I have been followed while I was wearing jeans and on other occasions while I was wearing a suit. When I have taken clothes into the fitting room to try them on, I have had times when people stood close by so they could ensure that what I took in came back out. Now you may say that was the normal operating procedure, but I did notice that this was not always the case for some of the other customers. I have walked around these stores and watched as sales people, both black & white, watched me out of the corner of their eyes, just in case. They may not have been singling me out specifically, but I obviously fit some profile of whomever they were told to keep an eye on. As most things will over time, this started me to thinking. What if they knew I was a Christian, would their responses be different? What if I wore a sign on my forehead that said “I Am a Christian”, would they treat me the same way? What if they knew I was a pastor, would they still follow me around when I tried on clothes to ensure I did not steal them? Finally I thought about me, would I act differently if I wore the sign that said “I Am a Christian/Pastor”. Would I go to the same places as I normally do? After thinking on this for several weeks, I decided to do my own experiment over a period of a couple of weeks. Since I could not wear a sign that said I was a Christian, I could wear the “approved” minister’s shirt and collar and accomplish close to the same thing. So this is what I did.
Experiment 1: I purchased several minister’s shirt with the banded collars that everyone recognizes. On the first day, I wore one to Church to see how my members would respond. Some of you said I looked “official” while others wondered why all of a sudden I started wearing the shirt. Some of you actually smiled and said you liked it while others did not say anything at all. So the response was mixed by those of you who know me well. The next thing that I did was stop by a grocery store that I visit often on my way home from Church. In the store people smiled at me and spoke. Generally when I go into any store around here other customers generally will not look me in the eyes and will speak only after I speak first. When I was in the checkout line at the grocery store, the person had an extended conversation with me. When I went through the drive through at McDonalds, the ladies smiled and asked me to check my order to ensure it was correct – the first time that has ever happened. I was amazed at the reception these people gave me even though they knew nothing about me. They were responding to a simple shirt and collar. So I decided to take it a step further.
Experiment 2: I decided to engage people that did know me but did not know I was a minister. Rev. Fulks can attest to that as she has had several friends come up to her and say they did not know she was a minister until they saw our ads in the paper. On the first day of the second experiment, I went to several stores where I generally shop where people knew me because I visit there often. I went to those stores dressed as I normally do and then I went back after Church the following day with my shirt and collar on. The responses were interesting. Some of the people stared at me as if concerned while others just smiled. At my favorite golf store where I visit often, when I walked in one of the two guys who normally talks with me when I am there just got totally quiet. I was there just the day before to get my clubs re-griped and when I returned the next day wearing the collar, they seemed perplexed. On this day, they did not kid with me, but were very courteous. It was almost as if they were afraid to talk with me.
On a Saturday morning two weeks ago, I got up and put the shirt and collar on and went to the mall. I spent a little over an hour with Nikki just shopping. As I walked alone down the halls, most people looked me in the eyes, smiled and spoke. When I went to the expensive department stores, the sales people greeted us, offered their help and treated us like every other customer (which they normally do when I am with Nikki.) But when we separated and I went to one store by myself, it was like I was invisible. The sales people spoke and then left me alone. No one followed me.
Experiment 3: Based on the first two experiments I had one more that I needed to do. Remember what I said about going to the golf store? Well I went back without the collar. You know what happened? They returned to their normal behavior of being more relaxed around me.
Thinking back on these simple experiments gave me pause. Remember what I said about if people knew I was a Christian or a pastor would I act differently? While I was out in public I found myself being more reserved. I can tell you, I would be uncomfortable wearing a collar and going to see an “R” rated movie. The movie could be perfectly fine, absent of nudity, etc, but it would be the perception of those who saw me going in that would concern me. Walking around in the mall with the collar on made me feel really exposed. All of a sudden it was like there were new expectations placed upon me. You see, we all live behind a cloak and I think our cloaks sometimes lead us into deception. I will address that next week. But my reservation about the movie goes back to this perception and how we use our five senses to determine the core of someone. We take the outside appearance and make a judgment about what is on the inside. Understand what I am saying, we are all engaged in the conflicts of misinterpreting and misrepresenting ourselves and others – on a daily basis. We show people what we want them to see and we interpret of others what we want to see. But, if we are to fulfill what God has planned for us, we must acknowledge this truth. Because we rely heavily on our five senses to make it in this world, we do not learn to trust in and be led by the Holy Spirit. So as spiritual beings living in a natural world, we rely on our natural senses instead of our Helper, the Holy Spirit. I cannot express to you enough that we need His guidance.
Last week I shared with you my personal goal of becoming more and more controlled by the Holy Spirit. I told you that currently I am probably 75% Rodney and 25% Holy Spirit and my desire is to get to 20% Rodney and 80% Holy Spirit. I also shared with you that when I attained that level of release to the Holy Spirit many of you would cease to recognize me, spiritually. In the Scripture we read last week from John 16:13 Jesus said “But when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” The main focus of the Holy Spirit is not only to empower us; to make us stronger, but also to lead us into truth. This is truth about ourselves, God’s Word and what is happening around us. So many times we get so caught up in our emotions and our five senses that we fail to recognize the real truth. In this message, I want you to think internally about how we as individuals misinterpret and misrepresent ourselves and our need to come to the truth and ultimately freedom. When we misinterpret something, we are seeing something other than the truth. When we misrepresent something, we are representing something other than the truth. In both cases, what is being distorted is the truth. I want you to think about what it means to walk in the truth.
I. Our Senses
As you begin thinking about the truth, the first step is to recognize that our five senses do not always lead us to the truth. Our ability to use our “senses” is one of the keys to our ability to make it in this life. When one of our senses is compromised (or lost) the other senses make adjustments to compensate for the lost one so that we may continue to function. For example, it has been proven that a blind person’s sense of smell and hearing sharpens in compensation for the lost of sight. All of these senses enable us to understand and operate in this physical world which surrounds us. They help us perceive the world around us as it relates to the physical. Although these “senses” are crucial to us managing through this natural world, they do little in helping us manage what is happening around us spiritually. This is why we need the Holy Spirit, again because we are spiritual beings living in a natural world.
Although we utilize our five senses to navigate in our natural world, those same senses without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, will lead us into trouble. From the same senses come help and trouble and that my friend is a true conflict. Consider this example of how our natural five senses will fail us and get us into trouble. Keep in mind, with my personal experiments people who saw me used two of their senses (sight and hearing) to make a judgment about me. They saw me, they spoke to me and I returned the gesture. They did not touch, smell or taste me so their assessment of me was primarily made with their eyes – what they saw. In this example, our subject did not have his eyes so he relied on his sense of smell and touch and ignored his sense of hearing. Turn to Genesis chapter 27.
II. Our Five Senses Can Fail Us
“Now it came about, when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his older son Esau and said to him, ‘My son.’ And he said to him, ‘Here I am.’ Isaac said, ‘Behold now, I am old and I do not know the day of my death. Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me; and prepare a savory dish for me such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die.” Genesis 27:1-4
Isaac called Esau to him and asked that he go out into the fields and hunt wild game to make for him the savory meat that he loved. He did not consider the fact that he could be deceived – that was the farthest thing from his mind. In verse one it tells us that he had already loss the use of his eyes, so he was now depending on his other senses. So after sending Esau out, he patiently waits for his return. While Isaac is waiting, he is unaware that Rebekah had overheard his request of Esau and was making plans of her own, plans to deceive her husband because of his loss of sight. Remember, if Isaac had not been blind, what Rebekah and Jacob was about to do would never have succeeded. When Rebekah tells Jacob of her plans to deceive Isaac, look at what Jacob says in verses 11-12: “Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, ‘Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me, then I will be a deceiver in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing.” Jacob knew what Isaac would do because of his loss of sight. He knew Isaac would touch him to ensure that he was Esau. Rebekah also understood that this was a possibility and she had already thought through how they would handle that. Rebekah decided she would use the skin from the animals to cover Jacob’s bare skin in case Isaac touched him and she would use Esau’s clothes in case Isaac smelled him. With all the bases covered, Jacob went into see his father Isaac.
When Isaac heard Jacob’s voice, he asked him to come and sit by him so he could tell whether or not he was Esau. Look down to verses 22, 23 and 27. They read, “So Jacob came close to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, ‘The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.’ He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him…….So he came close and kissed him; and when he smelled the smell of his garments, he blessed him and said…..” When Isaac heard Jacob’s voice, he recognized that it was Jacob. This was not a situation where he was mistaken; he fully recognized Jacob’s voice. There have been times when I have called home and mistaken Clarissa for Nikki but I have never mistaken Victoria’s voice for Nikki’s. Isaac knew the voice he heard, but utilizing his other senses, he decided to ignore it. So although his eyes were gone, his hearing worked fine. Isaac, still needing confirmation that Jacob was truly Esau, called Jacob to come closer so that he could touch and smell him. Isaac was unable to use his sense of vision and he ignored his sense of hearing choosing to rely on his sense of smell and touch. Rebekah, knowing her husband the way that she did, counted on the fact that he would give more weight to his sense of smell and touch over his hearing. If Rebekah or Jacob had any discussion about what would happen if Isaac recognized his voice, it was not recorded in Scripture. But here is my point: Isaac was deceived by the natural senses that he relied on. He was not deceived by his hearing, he chose to ignore what he heard in preference for what he smelled and felt. Had Isaac stayed with his first belief that the voice could not have been changed, he would not have blessed Jacob in the place of Esau. He was deceived by his senses, just as we are deceived by our senses. When we rely heavily on our natural senses, we shut down the opportunity for the Holy Spirit to lead us.
You see, someone said when my eyes saw the new car; and my nose smelled the new interior; and my ears heard the purring of the motor; and my hand touched the nice soft leather upholstery, I just had to buy the new car. I ignored the Holy Spirit warning me that I did not need the debt since I was already upside down in the car loan for the car I already had that was one year old.
Someone said, when my eyes saw the sign for the seafood buffet; and my nose smelled the aroma when I entered the restaurant; and my ears heard the crackling of the grease as the fish was frying; and my tongue tasted the perfected, seasoned fried fish, I had to eat. And as I chose to eat, I also chose to ignore the Holy Spirit telling me that my cholesterol was already too high and I needed to reconsider.
Someone said, when my eyes saw the new golf clubs; and my hand felt how perfect they were; and when my ears heard the sales pitch; and I could taste the taste of victory, and I had to buy, even though the clubs I had were still in great shape.
Someone said, when my eyes saw the shoes in the window; and I heard the sales price; and I felt how soft the leather was, I just had to buy the shoes. It did not matter that I had dozens of shoes still in boxes on my closet.
Someone said, when I went on the home tour, and I saw the new homes; and I heard the great financing options; and my feet walked on the soft new carpet as I smelled the fresh paint and new appliances; I had to buy the house. I chose to ignore the Holy Spirit warning me about the “great financing”.
Someone said, when my eyes saw the perfect body; and my nose smelled the perfume and/or cologne; I’d better stop there, I know you understand how many good men and women that have gotten in trouble because of what their eyes have seen and what their nose have smelled and what their hands touched.
My point is this, we have all been deceived by our senses and that is why for some things we must ignore our senses. Our senses are not the most accurate barometer for what we should be doing. Our senses will deceive us. So back to my point, this message is about how we understand the truth. How we identify the truth, not necessarily in others, but starting with ourselves. God wants us to be whole, walking in total freedom. He does not want us in bondage. When we start walking in truth, we start walking in freedom. Next week, the Lord willing, we will look at the truth. We will examine how we as Christians are misinterpreting it and how we are misrepresenting it in how we live. In preparation for next week, ask yourself these questions: “If I had to wear a sign on my head that said I was a Christian, is there anything that I am doing now that I would stop doing? Are there any places I am going now that I would stop going if I had a sign on my head that said I was a Christian? Believe it or not, you do have a sign and people can see it. The question is, do the sign that the people see reflect what is behind the sign?
Until next week – God bless and keep you.
