TYRANNY OF THE GOOD
James 2: 14-17 (p855) February 12, 2012
INTRODUCTION:
Here is an amazing statement I believe with all my heart….
“One of the worst enemies of Christians can be good things in the church.”
Here is how David Platt begins his book “Radical Together”
Before Mark came to the Church at Brook Hills (the church I serve), he had spent practically his entire adult life involved in church programs and serving on church committees. “You name it, and I did it,” Mark said. “I was on finance teams and personnel teams. I worked on capital building campaigns and sat in long-term planning sessions. Every week my schedule was filled with church activity.”
After becoming a part of our faith family, Mark started hearing people talk about making disciples. That’s when he realized that, despite all the good things he had done in the church, he could not name one person outside his family whom he had led to Christ and who was now walking with Christ and leading others to Christ. Mark said to me, “David, I have spent my life doing all the stuff in the church that I thought I was supposed to do. But I’m realizing that I have missed the most important thing: making disciples.” At his workplace and in our community, Mark is now intentionally leading people to Christ and teaching them to follow him.
The story of Mark’s life as a Christian should frighten us. The last thing you and I want to do is waste our lives on religious activity that is devoid of spiritual productivity-being active in the church but not advancing the kingdom of God. We don’t want to come to the end of our days on earth only to realize that we have had little impact on more people going to heaven. Yet if we are not careful, we will spend our lives doing good things in the church while we ultimately miss out on the great purpose for which were created.
That’s why I say one of the worst enemies of Christians can be good things in the church.
“Wasting our lives on religious activity that is devoid of spiritual productivity.”
WOW! My Dad would say...”It’s spinning” your wheels, son” Lots of motion, getting you nowhere.”
Is that what Jesus meant in Matt 7 when he talks about “Casting our pearls before swine’s or giving what is Holy to dogs?
Yeah, In part.
James, the Lord’s half brother writes…
James 2: 14-17 (P855)
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?’
James 2 is a sledgehammer….It busts apart the reality that those who have received mercy can be apathetic and complacent towards those who need mercy. If god’s grace is in our hearts it overflows in goodness from our hands…
James makes it pretty clear that people who claim to be Christians but who fail to help a fellow brother or sister Christian in their deepest need are in fact, not saved…
It’s in no way saying that our acts of mercy save us…but that these acts of mercy are a clear evidence of our salvation..
[Basically it could be like a husband who said “I love my wife, but then each day he ignored her needs, refused to be tender or compassionate…never helped her carry her burdens, or become what she dreams of becoming..
The “I Love My Wife” might sound very romantic, to his office workers or friends…but to his wife its sounds hollow, false and empty.]
There are some practical and powerful truths conveyed in James chapter two concerning our faith living out loud its truth…first of all…
I DOING A GOOD THING DOESN’T MEAN WERE DOING THE BEST THING.
Here’s a question…How should I determine someone’s greatest need...and before you say that’s easy…they’ll tell you…or “you’ll see it…it’ll be recognizable.
That might be true if someone is “naked” and emaciated, and starving to death.” Even if their most dire need is salvation “Hungry and naked people have a hard time hearing the truth about the Love of God until their dressed and feed…especially if the one who telling them the good news is overweight with a coat on.
The best thing wouldn’t be to tell that individual you’ll be praying for him, or you hope life gets better…the best thing would be feed him….meet his physical needs…show him the reality of your faith.
Saying, “Go I wish you well is nice…isn’t it…saying “Keep warm and I will feed” is a good thing…. Why do we say or do good things that aren’t the best things?...Because they make us feel better…they let us validate our salvation with the least amount of effort or inconvenience.
Most of us still struggle with a “I’ve got to be good enough to be saved mentality”.
So, even if it’s not the best thing…it’s a “good thing”…and that lets the scale tip in my favor. The dangerous precedent for any church or individual who continually lived like that is…
You present a “Form of godliness”….an appearance of goodness and life, but real, Holy Spirit, need meeting…priority setting, power is nonexistent…Paul told Timothy in his 2nd letter chapter 3 verse 5…”Have nothing to do with people like that!.
In verse 7 Paul writes…these individuals are “always learning, but never able to acknowledge the truth.”
Learning stuff is a good thing… Truth is a better thing…
What if you spent your entire life in church learning about God, all the stories...but you never came to understand His truth…Loving God shows in real and tangible ways…it relationship with Jesus as your heart flows through your hands and feet….
Here’s what that means…God’s spirit…the Holy Spirit…the Spirit of Jesus is the only way to determine real truth..He is the only way we will relinquish the tendency to do the easy and comfortable “good thing” for the self denying, powerful best things.
My big fear in sharing this with you is that it only causes you to feel more fear and guilt…and as Frances Chan says in Crazy Love
“Personnel experience has taught me that action’s driven by fear and guilt are not an antidote to lukewarm, selfish, comfortable, living ….I hope you realize instead that the answer is “love”…
That 4 letter word is what God deserves from us…He wants us to crave an intimate relationship with him…not just serve Him out of obligation or duty…He doesn’t want us to feel like sons.
Gal. 5: 13-14 (p 826)
When we love…we’re free...we don’t worry about doing enough good things…the relationship makes His commands a joy not a burden…It’s why Paul says in Gal 5:5…”The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
The most horrible statement made on judgment day will be “I never knew you….” Those words will come from the mouth of Jesus and they’ll be directed to people who did good stuff, but never knew love… (Matt 7: 21)
As we struggle…as we wrestle with the “tyranny of good” in our lives individually it all comes to this…
II THE HEART OF THE QUESTION
Will we personally and as a church put everything down before God and say “We will do whatever you want. We will drop whatever you command, we will eliminate whatever is not best and we will add whatever is necessary in order to make your glory known in the world around us, no matter what it costs”
David Platt says (and I love this) “When you ask questions like these people wonder if you’re looking for a short tenure as pastor”
Folks…Letting GO OF GOOD THINGS IS ONE OF THE HARDEST THINGS TO DO IN A CHURCH!
Because church programs might have originally had a good purpose and been effective…people that we know well, and love and honor, are affected….this ministry is important to them. Some of the things we do are enjoyable…they’re fun…and we need to have some fun.
But we can fill our lives and our churches with good things requiring our resources and we can do good activities that demand our time and energy that are not ultimately best for the growing of disciples or the evangelism of the lost.
It takes courage and committed leadership to move forward with purpose…it’s difficult to always keep “the main thing, the main thing.”
It’s much easier just to not rock the boat, and let things remain the same…when you evaluate something people will always ask….”What’s wrong with that!” and most of the time there’s nothing wrong with THAT….
But that’s not the heart of the matter…the more important question is…..”Is this the best way to spend our time, money and energy for the spread of the gospel in our community and around the world!
“Are there better ways to align with God’s Word and mobilize and unleash God’s people into the world”.
Here’s what I know…last week we unanimously approved a 1.3 million dollar budget for 2012…we confirmed our leaderships recommendation…each staff member and leader works very hard at being frugal with God’s money….monies you have tithed, surrendered, sacrificed for God’s use…and we are responsible for using it for His best.
In 2004 God opened doors and your pockets to bring us here to the corner of Seattonville and Bardstown road…what an amazing blessing and opportunity…and opportunity I continually praise God for now as I did then…
For that to happen we had to borrow around 4 ½ million dollars…our mortgage payments and building needs account for 1/3 of our total budget…I am very, very thankful for our facility and the opportunity we have here, but if we demolished our debt by 250,000 that’s 2 thousand a month saved in debt, 500,000…4 thousand a month, 750,000 6 thousand a month….100,000,000…8 thousand dollars a month….what can you do for 2,4,6,8 thousand dollars a month in the Kingdom of God?....That’s 1 Habitat house per month…that’s funding for dozens of short-term missions, that’s money for thousands to have pure water, or a meal…It’s enough for many more to start language training, it’s enough for an emergency response team to have funds to immediately go to Joplin, Katrina or wherever hurting people need to hear more than “Be warm & well fed”.
What do I believe God’s people at Fern Creek would do if we rallied around this radical purpose? Some will be scared, some will not like the change, but many will find a purpose they’ve been looking for years….
One year to change your life…1) pray for the entire world, 2) read through the entire word 3) Sacrifice for a specific purpose 4) live your life in another context 5) join a multiplying community.
[David Platt tells about his son, 3 years old leaving church on the Sunday after Brook Hills implemented some radical changes…David looked at his boy and said, “How was Church today? And his 3 year old said with a frown “we didn’t have any goldfish today daddy….after a short pause his wife said, “you know that’s your daddy’s fault son”…and David didn’t know whether to laugh or cry…but he said that’s when it came home to me that “radical changes would just affect me, or the leadership of the church, but would affect the entire church—all the way down to the preschoolers…
We all had to be on the same page…
Why no goldfish…because those in children’s ministry were challenged to look at their ministry in light of Radical changes…their leadership said…our children have good breakfast and good lunches when they get home…and we’re spending 15,000 a year on snacks…we want to designate that for water purification in a 3rd world country…
I know I would want to serve in a church that would teach Peyton and Xzavier that they are missing a snack so the boy in this picture can have something to eat or drink…Teachable moments for 3 year olds and 53 year olds are essential if we want to get to the heart of the matter and start doing what’s best instead of what’s good.
Let’s pray.
