Truth Series #4
RELIGIOUS LIES
2 Cor. 12:9-10
CHCC – July 17, 2011
INTRODUCTION:
For the last three Sundays we’ve been talking about TRUTH. We’ve looked at lies we tend to believe – Self lies, Worldly lies, Marital lies … and today we’re going to look at Religious lies. The subject of TRUTH is important … because a lot of people believe there is no such thing as truth.
By definition: truth must be objective (true for all people), universal (true in all places), and constant (true for all times.) Most people find it more comfortable to believe that truth is relative – In other words, “I have my truth and you have yours. There is no ABSOLUTE truth.”
(By the way, it’s entertaining to ask these folks if it is ABSOLUTELY TRUE that there is no absolute truth.)
According to a survey done by Barna Research back in 1995 only about 25% of Americans said they believe in absolute moral truths.
What is more surprising, though, is to find this same attitude in the church. That same survey reported that out of adults who consider themselves to be “born again,” less than 45% said they believe in ABSOLUTE truth. And among teenagers the percentage was under 10%! (http://barnaresearchonline.com)
Satan’s most basic lie is that THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TRUTH.
1. There is no such thing as TRUTH
Tragically, this LIE is alive and well in American Churches today. This is amazing because it contradicts the very definition of what it means to be a Christian.
Believing in Jesus means believing that he is who He said He is.
In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”
As Lee Strobel put it, “The clear implications of Jesus saying he’s the way, the truth, and the life are that, first, truth is absolute, and second, truth is knowable.” (Lee Strobel. "The Case for Faith." Zondervan, 2000. (quoting Ravi Zacharias)
As Christians we believe that there are absolute truths that govern life. These truths do not come from us, they are beyond us.
• That is, they are truths that cannot be changed by human decision.
• They are true whether anyone believes in them or not.
• They are true whether anyone agrees with them or not.
• They are true whether anyone likes them or not.
They are absolute truths because they come from an absolute God … and they are the foundation of life itself.
• If anyone tries to convince you that there is no such thing as TRUTH
• Remember that JESUS is the way, the truth and the life.
When Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate to be judged, Pilate asked him “What is truth?” Sadly, Pilate did not know that the living embodiment of truth stood before him on that day. Pilate was blind to truth when it stared him in the face.
When people today ask, “What is truth?” Christians have an answer. We say, first of all: Truth is a person. Jesus Christ is the revealed truth of God. God did not send the world abstract ideas, he sent us a person. Jesus did not say that he came just to TELL us about truth … He said, “I AM the truth.”
Now we’re going to switch gears and talk about another lie that’s common among Christians:
2. I’m not good enough to be used by God.
As Christians we know that we’ve been saved by grace. But too many Christians live with an ongoing case of unresolved shame and guilt. We compare ourselves with other Christians. And, let’s face it … most church-goers can look pretty good on Sunday morning. We come to church dressed up and cleaned up, with smiles on our faces.
So when we compare ourselves to others, we usually compare their flawless presentation to our own all-too-flawed reality.
The problem comes when we use our human failings as an excuse to keep us on the sidelines when it comes to serving God.
The TRUTH is that God would rather work with us, in us, and through us to take us as we are and form Christ in us.
2 Corinthians 4:7 explains God’s plan this way: We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
Do you see it? The glory is not in the vessel itself but the treasure within. The vessel is a receptacle to hold the treasure. Sure we’d all like to be flawless crystal vases … but the TRUTH is that God can use cracked pots in remarkable ways.
• One time he gave a voice to Balaam’s donkey to give instructions to the donkey’s erring master
• God used a great fish as a submarine to transport Jonah
• God used local ravens to provide meals on wheels to the prophet Elijah.
The point is that God can use whatever or whoever is handy when He chooses to. In other words: if you are willing to serve, God can use you in his service. It doesn’t matter if you look like a china bowl or a cracked clay pot. What matters is not your ability but your availability.
I’m glad that Stuart Tyler has been willing to lead a group focused on believing the TRUTH to go along with this series. A few weeks back he told me, “Well I’m not the greatest example to lead it because I still struggle with thinking the right way.” That’s the point! That makes him the best person to lead the group. The all-surpassing power is from God, not from us!
None of us are “good enough” to represent God, but God has chosen to declare us perfect in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul himself prayed that God would remove a weakness that plagued him.
Here’s what he wrote in II Corinthians 12:9-10: God said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” And Paul went on to declare: Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
• If you’ve been hiding behind the lie: I’m not good enough to be used by God.
• Remind yourself of the truth: God’s power is made perfect in weakness.
Every Christian is useful in God’s Kingdom - - - no matter what your history and no matter what struggles and failings you are still undergoing. You are supremely important in God’s Kingdom. God has work for YOU to do … and people that only YOU can reach.
The secret is to take your eyes off yourself and keep your eyes on Christ.
Satan’s purpose in the lie that “you’re not good enough” is to keep you from serving God. If that lie doesn’t work, he has another one that is just as effective:
3. Since grace is free, then grace is cheap
The lie that “you’re not good enough” keeps you from serving because you’re too hard on yourself. The lie that grace is cheap keeps you from serving God because you’re too easy on yourself. Dietrich Bonheoffer is the one who coined the phrase cheap grace. He said the problem with his generation was that they perceived that just because grace was free, it must be cheap.
Dietrich Bonheoffer wrote a book called The Cost of Discipleship where he said this: “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace ... is the kingly rule of Christ … it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.” (pp. 45-47)
For Bonheoffer the cost of discipleship was high. He was executed at the end of World War II for opposing the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler. For Bonheoffer, discipleship meant giving everything he had, including his earthly life.
For us the cost of discipleship won’t probably be that high. When I think about the cost of discipleship in today’s America, it seems to me that the challenge most of us face is not giving up our life, but it’s giving up our “stuff.” The closest thing to sacrifice that many of us experience is when we give our hard-earned money to the Lord’s work.
C. S. Lewis made an interesting comment on this subject: I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. . . . If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us . . . they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them. (Mere Christianity, 1952, 67)
In case you haven’t heard … our nation is going through troubled economic times. I’ve never seen a time when so many capable and hard-working people are out of work. Add to that the fact that our government has hit a point where we can’t continue to borrow and print money in order to fund the hundreds of programs that have been created in the last 50 years. This means that benefits we’ve come to depend on are being cut … and I don’t see these changes getting better any time soon.
This puts pressure on everyone. And it means that tithing becomes an act of faith. It takes real faith… to remember that our money comes from God in the first place. It takes real faith to make that check for the Church Offering the very first one written… especially when the money is impossibly tight.
To the first century Christians even the poorest American today would look incredibly rich. Many of them were homeless. They faced hunger on a daily basis. But they continued to give generously.
Look at what Paul wrote in II Corinthians 8: And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. II Corinthians 8:1-5
I’ve heard a lot of political talk lately about how the “rich need to pay more.” But taking from the so-called “rich” has never been the way things work in God’s economy. I remember several years back when a few families moved or left our congregation in a short period of time. We were concerned because those particular families were some of the wealthier people in the church. But you know what was interesting? There wasn’t even a “blip” in the church giving after they left.
My experience has been that it’s not usually the wealthy who give the most to God’s work. This is borne out in national statistics. A study in 1991 found that individuals earning $20,000 per year gave an average of about 5% of their income while those earning $100,000 gave only 2.5% (www.personalfinance.byu.edu)
Why do wealthier people give a smaller percentage of income? Is faith smaller when the bank account is larger? I don’t really know … but I DO know that God has chosen to grow his Kingdom by means of the faith-filled, joyful, generous giving of regular folks.
I remember several years ago we asked one of our deacons to give a talk about stewardship. He mentioned that he and his wife determined early in their marriage that they were going to tithe no matter what. I thank God that our congregation is made up of a lot of folks like my deacon friend – Christians who don’t give depending on whether it’s easy … Christians who make their giving a true sacrifice of faith and worship.
Paul described the benefits of sacrificial giving in II Corinthians 9:
You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. … In their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! II Corinthians 9:11-15
I want to challenge you to prayerfully consider your giving this year. Will you give based on your bills? Or will you give according to your faith?
• Whatever you do, don’t believe the lie that God’s grace as cheap.
• Let your living … and your giving … show the value you put on God’s indescribable gift.
CONCLUSION:
We’re going to end today with the two parts of our Worship Service where we
• focus on the INDESCRIBABLE GIFT God gave to us …
• and where we have an opportunity to give back to Him.
Our song of invitation will also be a time of preparation for our time of Communion and Offering.
