Game of Thrones
Pt. 3 - Mixture
Introduction
After 1 year we have finally come to the final battle in the attack on the 5 principalities that I identified for us. We have fought isolation, poverty, hopelessness and apathy. Now we square off against compartmentalism.
Compartmentalism is pervasive in our society and apparent in the church. We honestly believe we can cut our lives up into carefully controlled slices and that those slices can stay in their respective areas with no bleed over. Our spiritual slice has no bearing on our social slice so we can do things socially that contradict the standards that we embrace in our spiritual life with no guilt or any understanding of the hypocrisy this presents to those around us. We can lie when it is convenient. Cheat when it benefits us. The spiritual is a segmented slice that has no impact on business practices, entertainment choices, dating, or vice versa. Our spirit man is confined to spiritual matters and we will not allow the Spirit to have any rule or reign over any other area of life. We are literally playing a game of thrones.
I think we come to church and talk, sing, and even pray using the language of the Kingdom . . . Words like Lord, King, sovereign, and Jesus positions Himself to sit down on the throne of not just our church life but rather our entire life and then when He tries to rule over those areas we pull the chair our from under Him. We play a game of thrones. We only allow Him to sit on the throne in areas we choose based on whether we like the blessing and protection that comes from allowing Him to reign. If He tries to offer correction, then we pull the chair.
I read this to you last week . . . Matthew 13:3-9
Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
In parable form, Jesus identifies and calls out a problem we have . . . That problem is mixture. The good ground in same field with rocky ground, thorny ground and because of that compartmentlism we lose harvest. Jesus identifies the reality or existence of mixture and then gives us an overview of the cost of allowing that mixture. However, James, while dealing with the audible manifestation of compartmentlism that shows up in the way we use our mouth (your mouth reveals compartmentlism quickly) takes up the examination of this slicing of life and he takes a harsher tone than Jesus. He blasts us on it.
Text: James 3:10-16
10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Dear brothers, surely this is not right! 11 Does a spring of water bubble out first with fresh water and then with bitter water? 12 Can you pick olives from a fig tree, or figs from a grape vine? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty pool. 13 If you are wise, live a life of steady goodness so that only good deeds will pour forth. And if you don’t brag about them, then you will be truly wise! 14 And by all means don’t brag about being wise and good if you are bitter and jealous and selfish; that is the worst sort of lie. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, inspired by the devil. 16 For wherever there is jealousy or selfish ambition, there will be disorder and every other kind of evil.
James comes right out and says this mixture can't be right. One version says, "Brothers this must stop!"
In other words . . . Nix the mix!
The dishonest well . . . The split well. . . Bitter water and sweet water from the same point of origin. James says this "can't happen. Can't be." He doesn't allow for it or accept it as a fact of life. He demands that this come to an end immediately.
He then stops talking about talk and deals with our actions. If we are not careful and we continue to allow mixture it will show up in our talk, but then it will go deeper than just talk. (Again the power of language and the power of the tongue sets the course or direction of our lives.) James declares that mixture will always matriculate beyond mouth when unchecked and then it will begin to be exhibited in my actions! Unbridled tongue will lead to unbridled life.
Notice the process. I let mixture show up in my mouth. What was in my bucket only gave a preview to what was in my well. Jealousy, selfishness, bitter and then he reveals the origin . . . Devil inspired. And then he goes one step further and shows us that compartmentalism is the doorway to every kind of disorder and evil. Mix makes mess!
So, if there is disorder or evil showing up in your life, then it is most likely an indication that there is mixture in your life. The mess you are facing may be nothing more than the harvest of mixture. Some of us want to lay the blame on the devil and we know that he is on task to destroy us. However, most of us won't take any blame for maintaining the mixture that he leverages to bring about the destruction. If the mixture wasn't there, then he would not have the necessary tools to produce the destruction. The crazy thing is we allow and even feed the compartmentalism of our lives and then we act surprised when the content of the well is seen publicly. However, the harvest should not surprise us because James had already told us in James 1:8 that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. That statement "double-minded" literally is double-souled! Too many of us have allowed two thrones to be established in our lives. Two kingdoms. Two masters contending. We visit the side of our soul which fits the situation rather than forcing the situation to bow to one king. But you know that a kingdom divided can not stand. We also know . . .
Divided kingdom = divided allegiance
Divided allegiance results in being unstable in all your ways. You can't maintain mixture and also maintain peace. You can't maintain mixture and also maintain joy. You can't maintain mixture and maintain pace. You can't maintain mixture mixture and maintain direction, right decisions, and right relationships.
We have watched this play out time and time again. It is the idea of the old saying that Peter references in 2 Peter 2:22 - A dog returns to his vomit and a washed pig returns to the mud/wallow. He is simply showing us that if we don't deal with mixture then the outward will show up first and really only reveals the corrupted inward. The mixture is finally manifested and we are amazed. We have watched people refuse to nix the mix and eventually they lose the war.
Nix the mix. Abraham had to accept this challenge. Come out from among them. You can't get to your promise and stay polluted! Nix the mix!
Measure the Mixture.
We need to ask this question . . . What is in me and who is winning? Mixture can be bad and can be good. Bad if we allow the mixture of bitter to overtake the sweet. Good when the sweet is allowed to overwhelm the bitter. We are literally being called to measure mixture. Does your life more closely resemble Christ than culture? Do you talk more and act more like Hollywood or the Holy One? Do your morals and your values align more with the Bible or your political party?
We must constantly be in the process of measuring the mixture of our lives. We can't become comfortable with mixture unless it is right mixture. We become too comfortable with the rocks and thorns, the petty and the profane, the bitter and the belligerent. James is challenging us to take stock and be diligent to contend for less and less polluted mixture. Are we guilty of mixture? Club life and church life. Godly and godless. Truth and lies. Public and private. James reminds us that we can't expect to get sweet out of bitter. You can't hang out in a fig environment and expect to harvest grapes!
I submit to you this morning that one of our biggest issues is that most of us have grown so comfortable with mixture that we are no longer willing to and will in fact refuse to take stock/measure. We are so wrapped up in apathy, which convinces us that good is good enough - that changing paths is too difficult, so that we don't want to do the hard work of honestly studying the contents and the fruit of our own lives. So we lose the mixture war because we won't even measure the mixture. Measuring is hard, unsettling, painful, and necessary. We are given instructions in the Word about bearing fruit but also examining fruit! We are instructed to examine the fruit of others lives right? However, if you only judge their fruit but never stop to look at your own then judging quickly turns into judgmental.
You can't address it if you won't access it. Measure your mixture or you will be unable to manage the mixture much less master the mixture!
