A couple of years ago (2014), Lowe's produced a commercial that shows a proud do-it-yourselfer installing a new ceiling fan in his family's living room. Take a look (show Lowe’s Commercial, Ceiling Fan, 2014)
After he proudly gives the fan one last little turn, climbs off the aluminum ladder, and steps aside to turn on the switch. After he turns it on, he stands with his hands on his hips, satisfied with his brilliant, money-saving work. Within a second of the first rotation of the blades, the central motor sparks and the entire fan crashes to the floor, crushing a small table on its way down. The scene cuts away to the outside of the house, looking at the clear bay window of the room where the man stands. It's quiet and bright outside. Suddenly, the ceiling fan comes flying through the picture window and lands in the yard, disrupting the peaceful moment. The words flash on the screen: "Need help?” LOWE’s Never stop improving.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2EO59tfLbI)
Doing-it-yourself in home improvement doesn’t always work so well. So it is when you try to do-it-yourself in personal improvement. All of us are in desperate need of help when it comes to overcoming those sinful habits and attitudes that keep us in bondage. And to try to continue doing it yourself only leads to further frustration and disaster.
How so? You ask. Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Galatians 2, Galatians 2, where we see the dangers of do-it-yourself spirituality.
Galatians 2:11-12 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. (ESV)
I.e., he feared those who belonged to the group of Jewish believers in Jesus. You see, in the first century you had Jewish believers in Jesus – “the circumcision party” – and Gentile believers in Jesus – those who were not circumcised.
Well, Cephas (or Peter) had gone to visit the church in Antioch, the first church planted with Gentile believers. And when Peter got there, he disregarded his own Jewish dietary laws and ate with the new Gentile believers. He enjoyed pork and ham and perhaps some shrimp cocktail with his new friends in Christ. But when James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, sent some of his Jewish buddies to Antioch, Peter stopped eating with the Gentiles. He withdrew from his new friends, because he was afraid of what his old friends would think. Their standards were stricter when it came to diet, and Peter didn’t want his old friends to think he was slipping.
But what do you think that did to his new Gentile friends? It hurt them deeply! And that’s what do-it-yourself spirituality does. When you try to make yourself look good by following someone else’s standards, then you divide yourself from other believers. You separate yourself to exclude those who don’t measure up. You consider yourself better than other believers, and that is just plain wrong, vs.11 says.
Chuck Swindoll once put it this way:
Believe as I believe – no more, no less;
That I am right (and no one else) confess.
Feel as I feel, think only as I think;
Eat what I eat, and drink but what I drink.
Look as I look, do always as I do;
And then – and only then – I’ll fellowship with you. (Chuck Swindoll, Seasons of Life¸ p.286)
Sad to say, that’s the attitude of some in our world today. Unless you measure up to my standards, then I’m not going to have anything to do with you.
Earl Palmer, an author and former pastor, talks about those who put down people in the church for being less than perfect, even hypocritical. He says, “When California's Milpitas High School orchestra attempts Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the result is appalling. I wouldn't be surprised if the performance made old Ludwig roll over in his grave despite his deafness.
“You might ask: ‘Why bother? Why inflict on those poor kids the terrible burden of trying to render what the immortal Beethoven had in mind? Not even the great Chicago Symphony Orchestra can attain that perfection.’”
Palmer says, “My answer is this: The Milpitas High School orchestra will give some people in that audience… their only encounter with Beethoven's great Ninth Symphony. Far from perfection, it is nevertheless the only way they will hear Beethoven's message.”
Then Palmer makes this point: “The only way a starving, thirsty, deluded, and suffering world will ever hear the music of the gospel is through the body of Christ, arguably the worst ‘high school orchestra’ ever to appear on a bandstand. If performance standards are really the most important measure, then the church is in trouble.” (Rick Lawrence, Skin in the Game, Kregel Publishers, 2015, pp. 135-136; www.PreachingToday.com)
But God is NOT about performance standards. God is about using imperfect people like you and me to introduce His grace to a broken and hurting world.
That’s why God calls us to love those who are different than we are. That’s why He calls us to enjoy fellowship with those who may not measure up to our standards, but do-it-yourself spirituality keeps us from doing that. When you try to make yourself look good by focusing on adherence to certain performance standards, then you divide yourself from other believers, and it causes a lot of hurt.
More than that, when you pursue do-it-yourself spirituality, you deceive yourself. You lie to yourself and to others. You become a hypocrite, pretending to be something you are not. And that’s exactly what Paul accused Peter of doing.
Galatians 2:13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. (ESV)
Barnabas was the first pastor of the church at Antioch, and Peter’s hypocrisy led even him astray.
The word, “hypocrisy,” literally means to play-act, or to pretend. It was used in Bible days of actors putting on a show.
Well, that’s exactly what happens when you focus on external performance standards. You end up putting on a show, because you know you can’t meet those standards. You end up play-acting. You end up pretending to be something you are not.
Believe it or not, many members of the Italian Mafia were very religious people. Petra Reski, one of the world's leading experts on the Italian mafia, says, “Faith' in God and living like a Mafioso are fairly common in the strange world of Italian mobsters.
“For example,” she says, “Sicilian Mafioso Marcello Fava, who later left his mafia clan, told an Italian journalist: ‘Before I had to kill someone, I would cross myself. I would say: Dear God, stand by me! Make sure nothing happens! But I wasn't the only one who crossed himself beforehand and prayed to God. We all did.’
“When mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano was arrested, the police found him with five Bibles, with hundreds of his own margin comments and passages underlined. In his home were 91 sacred statues, 73 of them Christ figures. Each one of them bore the inscription: Jesus, I put my trust in you. Mafia boss Michele Greco has four books in his prison cell: two liturgical books, the gospels, and a book entitled Pray, Pray. During his trial, when asked for an explanation to his many murders, he merely replied: ‘I have an invaluable gift – inner peace.’” (Petra Reski, The Honored Society: A Portrait of Italy's Most Powerful Mafia, Nation Books, 2013; www.PreachingToday.com)
They prayed. They read and studied their Bibles. They observed all kinds of religious rituals. On the outside, they looked good; but in reality, they were murders. Their do-it-yourself spirituality only made them the worst kind of hypocrites.
Now, that’s easy to see in mafia bosses, but that’s also the case in the so-called “good people.”
Take Benjamin Franklin, for example. In order to better himself, he settled on 13 virtues, including:
Silence: “Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.”
Frugality: “Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; that is, waste nothing.”
Industry: “Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.”
Tranquility: “Be not disturbed at trifles or accidents common or unavoidable.”
He set up a book with a page for each virtue, lining a column in which to record “defects.” Choosing a different virtue to work on each week, he daily noted every mistake, starting over every 13 weeks in order to cycle through the list four times a year. For many decades, Franklin carried his little book with him, striving for a clean 13-week cycle, but it never worked.
For even as he made any progress on his 13 virtues, he found himself struggling with yet another defect: pride, the worst sin of all. Philip Yancey says, “Pride is so pernicious that even if we completely overcome it, we would probably be proud of our humility.” (Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace, Zondervan, 1997, p. 34)
Do-it-yourself spirituality does nothing to change you on the inside. In fact, when you try through your own self effort to live by a list of virtues, you only divide yourself from others; you only deceive yourself.
And worst of all, you deny the truth of the gospel. You stray away from the good news of Jesus Christ. That’s what Paul says Peter and his friends were doing by trying to follow the Jewish standards of righteousness.
Galatians 2:14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” (ESV)
By their actions, they were forcing Gentile believers to behave like Jews in order to be accepted, and that’s a denial of the gospel, which says that God accepts all who put their faith in Christ (period)! Whenever our actions do anything to divide and exclude other believers, we are walking away from the truth of the Gospel. That’s because Jesus died to bring us together. He died to break down the barriers (the rules) that divide us. He died to reconcile us not only to God, but to each other.
Mahatma Gandhi, the great spiritual and political leader of India in the early 20th century, once seriously considered becoming a Christian. He wrote in his autobiography that in his student days, he was very interested in the Bible. He was deeply touched by reading the Gospels, and actually thought that Christ seemed to offer the only real solution to the caste system that was dividing the people of India.
So one Sunday, he went to a nearby church to attend services. He had decided to see the pastor and ask for instruction in the way of salvation and enlightenment on other doctrines.
But when he entered the sanctuary, the ushers refused to give him a seat and suggested that he go worship with his own people. Gandhi left and never came back. “If Christians have caste differences also,” he said to himself, “I might as well remain a Hindu.”
Just think of what could have happened in India had that churched lived out the gospel and invited Gandhi in! Instead, they denied the very gospel they preached by refusing to accept someone who was different.
You don’t make yourself a better person with do-it-yourself spirituality. You don’t make yourself more acceptable by trying to follow a list of rules. In fact, you make yourself worse! You divide yourself from others. You deceive yourself, and you deny the gospel.
So, if you’re looking to become a better person, if you’re looking for true righteousness, then give up a do-it-yourself spirituality, and…
DON’T DEPEND ON A LIST OF RULES anymore.
Don’t trust in a law of any kind. Don’t look to any performance standard. Instead, look to Christ, and…
DEPEND ON THE LORD.
Trust Jesus, who alone can make a real difference in your life.
For when you trust Christ, first of all, God declares you righteous. He affirms that you are a law-abiding citizen of His Kingdom. Or to use the biblical term, He “justifies” you. Paul is speaking to Peter, and he says…
Galatians 2:15-16 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (ESV)
Obeying the law justifies no one, Jew or Gentile, because no one obeys the law. There is no one righteous, not even one, Romans 3:10 says. Therefore, the law can only condemn us, not declare us righteous.
For example, the law is very clear: “Do not write a check for more than what you have in your checking account.”
Well, what happens when you do that? What happens when you overdraw your checking account? If the bank decides to take you to court, the law can only condemn you. It may impose a fine or send you to jail, but it cannot justify you. It cannot pretend that you kept the law when in fact you broke it.
The best you can hope for is that the bank honors the check anyway, sends you an overdraft notice, and requires that you make up the difference along with paying a hefty fine.
But wouldn’t it be nice if the bank not only honored the check, but also put millions of dollars in your checking account to cover the overdraft? You’d be a millionaire and wouldn’t have to worry about any overdraft checks ever again. Your past “sins” would be taken care of as well as any future ones!
Well, that’s exactly what happens when you put your faith in Christ! God justifies you. He declares you righteous! That means He not only covers your indebtedness. He deposits the righteousness of Christ in your account, and you become a spiritual millionaire. In other words, God considers you as righteous as Christ!
So if you truly want to become a better person, don’t trust a law; trust the Lord! Put your faith in Christ. Depend on Him and God will declare you righteous.
Then 2ndly, God will not only DECLARE you righteous, He will MAKE you righteous as well. He will begin the process of changing you from the inside out, and Christ will live his life in and through you.
Galatians 2:17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! (ESV)
The doctrine of justification by faith does NOT promote sin. On the contrary, when I try in my own effort to keep the law, I end up promoting sin.
Galatians 2:18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. (ESV)
If I go back to trying to keep a law, then I only prove myself a lawbreaker.
Galatians 2:19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. (ESV)
The law condemned me to death, so I died because of my sin. But somebody says, “When did I die?”
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (ESV)
I died when Christ did. He died in MY place for MY sin. So now, according to the law I am dead. I no longer live. There is no “double jeopardy” – the law cannot condemn me twice. And since I am already dead according to the law, now I am free to let Christ live His life in and through me. Now I can truly live by faith in Christ who loved me and died for me.
And that’s the secret to becoming a better person. It is not in do-it-yourself spirituality. It is not in trying to follow a list of rules. It is in depending on Christ to live His life through you.
On April 26, 2008, the Western Oregon women's softball team played against Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. During the course of the game, Western Oregon senior, Sara Tucholsky, hit the first homerun of her college career. She dropped her bat and started to make her way around the bases. But in the midst of all the excitement, she forgot to tag first base. When the first base coach brought the mistake to her attention, she quickly turned around. To everyone's horror, her right knee buckled. Crying, she tried her best to crawl back to the base. Tucholsky's teammates were warned that if they touched her, she would be called out. The umpires also noted that if her coaches opted to call in a pinch runner, the homerun would only count as a single.
You can probably imagine the shock everyone felt, then, when Mallory Holtman, the opposing team's first baseman and career homerun leader for Central Washington, turned to the umpire and said, "Would it be okay if we carried her around the bases, and she touched each bag?" When the umpires gave their approval, Holtman and teammate Liz Wallace picked up Tucholsky, crossed their hands beneath her, and carried her to second base. Once there, they lowered the injured player and gently touched her foot to the bag. They did the same for third base and home plate. The crowd erupted into a standing ovation. Western Oregon went on to win the game, eliminating Central Washington from the playoffs.
When later asked about the good deed, Holtman said the decision to help out her opponent was simple. She felt Tucholsky deserved the homerun, because the ball cleared the fence. In her own interview, Tucholsky said, “It's amazing, what they did… I hope I would do the same for her in the same situation.” George Vecsey, a writer who was there covering the game, said what happened can only be described as a moment of grace. (George Vecsey, “A Sporting Gesture Touches 'Em All,” The New York Times, 4-30-08; www.PreachingToday.com)
And that’s the same kind of grace Christ extends to us. We were out, because we didn’t even touch 1st base. We couldn’t even keep the first rule – “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). And when we tried, we found ourselves broken on the ball field of life. Then Christ came, when we put our faith in Him. He was on the opposing team. The Bible says we were once enemies of God, but Jesus picked us up anyway. And now He is carrying us across all of the bases until we reach home and get a homerun! That’s grace!
Galatians 2:21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (ESV)
When I try to keep the rules in my own strength, then I set aside the grace of God, and I treat Christ’s death as nothing. Don’t do it! The law can only condemn you.
Rather, if you want to find true righteousness before God, if you want to hit a homerun with Him, if you truly want to be a better person, then don’t depend on a list of rules; instead depend on the Lord. He’ll not only declare you righteous when you do. He’ll begin to make you righteous by living His life through you.
Mensa is an organization whose members have an IQ of 140 or higher. A few years ago, there was a Mensa convention in San Francisco, and several members lunched at a local café. While dining, they discovered that their saltshaker contained pepper and their peppershaker was full of salt. How could they swap the contents of the bottles without spilling, and using only the implements at hand? Clearly this was a job for Mensa! The group debated and presented ideas, and finally came up with a brilliant solution involving a napkin, a straw, and an empty saucer. They called the waitress over to dazzle her with their solution.
“Ma'am,” they said, “we couldn't help but notice that the peppershaker contains salt and the saltshaker—“
“Oh,” the waitress interrupted. “Sorry about that.” She unscrewed the caps of both bottles and switched them. (Found on MSN; submitted by Sherman Lee Burford, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama; www.PreacingToday.com)
So often we complicate things when God made it so easy. The point is, if you want to live a better life, then stop trying so hard and simply start trusting the Lord.
