Imitating God Without Insulting Him
(Part 4, The Call)
Illustration of last night’s water heater fiasco and no towels.
Okay, so it’s about 8:00 and I’m working on some homework, getting gall the things down that I needed for today, checking everything twice. Checking my sermon notes, thinking, boy this is gonna be a good one. Tanya is baking up a storm and trying to get the kids ready for bed. Not to much happening at Marc’s house. I go out to the room where the boys are playing to check on them and hear this strange sound coming form the laundry closet. I get to the closet door and I feel water squishing up between my toes. I open the door and see water jetting out of the bottom of my water heater. I run outside and turn the water to the house off. I come back in side and I’m fuming. There had never been a better time for a water heater to burst. Right in the middle of all the important stuff, this had to happen. I’m getting gin the right frame of mind to be able to preach, tomorrow is going to be a very big day, gotta make sure everything is ready, and the water heater breaks? You gotta be kidding me. Tanya is bringing in the towels by the armload to soak up the water that is ruining my carpet. I ‘m now upset with her for using every towel in the house, I am just livid and I can’t believe that this had to happen now. I haven’t even shaved yet; forget taking a shower. Oh yeah, and how am I gonna get my hair to have that wet look with no wet. (By the way, it’s the Equate brand from Walmart; hold level number 5.) My patience didn’t even have a chance to get tested. It went right out the window. I was making a fool of myself. I called a plumber to get some kind of advice and all I got back was the really expensive kind. I figured, I used to plumb a thing or two, why can’t I do this myself. I told Tanya to get the kids in the van and we were off to Lowe’s. 8:30 in the evening and we are going to Lowe’s to get a water heater. Not your ideal family outing. We get the water heater and the necessary parts to put it together and head home. I get the broken water heater drained and take it out. I now can put the new one in. I have totally lost my cool and am beginning to yell at myself, like I had something to do with the water heater wanting to break. I guess someone has to take the blame, right? It’s about 9:45 and I finally get the water heater into position. I get the fittings for the water lines and I realize I got the wrong brass piece for the cold side. Talk about kicking yourself when you are down. I couldn’t believe it. I have got to preach today about imitating Christ without insulting Him and the best illustration God could give me was this? I guess it makes the point though. In the end I got the water heater somewhat working. I still have to get the right piece on the way home today but for now it works, with a small leak. To top things off, I get to take my shower and when I finish I realize that there are no towels in the bathroom. I ask Tanya to get me a clean one, and she reminds me that there are no more left. Then she pauses and says, “Oh, wait a minute.” She comes back with this – a baby towel. She says, “This should work, but there is one problem. I don’t think the hood part will fit your head.” I have the best wife. To be able to past all my faults and still be able to make fun of me. The truth is I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain with God last night. I let frustration get the best of me and I’m pretty sure that I embarrassed God a little. The point is though, that we often let things like water heaters take dominion over our right relationships with God. In the process, we not only insult or embarrass God as His children, but we embarrass ourselves. I had to dry myself off with a baby towel because that is exactly what I had acted like, a baby. I’m being hard on myself, but I don’t think God was in a laughing mood as I was being foolish.
Check Clock and notice time:
In the movie Oh God, John Denver plays a man who keeps getting messages from God that he is supposed to relate to the rest of us. In one scene, he goes to hear an evangelistic preacher, who in many ways is a caricature of all the worst things in those of us who take that role. The John Denver character interrupts the preacher’s sermon to tell him that God had a special message just for him.
The preacher stops the service. He announces to the audience, “This young man has come with a message from God!”
John Denver looks straight at the preacher and says, “God wants you to shut up because you are embarrassing Him!”
Text: Ephesians 5:1-21 (read)
We have so many opportunities to be examples of Christ-like behavior, and we blow it most of the time. God desires to see His children become like Him in the way they make decisions, the way they speak to each other, the way they act when no one is around, and the way they share His Word. In each of these areas, there is plenty of opportunity for us to succeed, but there is equal opportunity for us to fail; and fail miserably. We have to be on the lookout for these areas in our lives where we can fall. This means we have to know ourselves, know our weakness, and more importantly, know our strengths.
A common misconception of satan’s tactics is that he attacks our weakness and makes us stumble. I think that is a trap satan himself has set. I believe satan attacks our strongest points, the things that make us proud to be who we are, because once he has those things under control the weakness we have don’t even matter. These are things that we take for granted in every day situations, and we often put ourselves into problems that would be easily resolved if we take the time to examine critically the existence of sin and how it appears to those around us. The church has always had to confront culture and exist intension with the world. To ignore the culture around us is to risk irrelevance; to accept the culture uncritically is to risk unfaithfulness. We have to be wary of the traps in today’s culture that will swallow us up if we allow ourselves to become caught up in the day to day, not critically examining our witness to those around us. There are traps we have to avoid so that as we live our lives in obedience to Christ, we do not embarrass Him in the process.
Traps to avoid in our Christian lives…
1. Showing even a HINT of impurity. (v. 3)
Even a hint of this kind of behavior is disgusting to God and embarrassing to Him as our Father.
These first issues are very important to us because they speak directly to the heart of our desire. Sex is a very powerful tool used to market just about anything today. This type of marketing is usually geared at men, but equally as important, women get a wrong idea of how to appear attractive to men in the process. M&M’s for example, have boiled down their marketing campaign to something as cheap as making their green M&M’s (who, by the way, are the only female M&M’s) appear as aphrodisiacs. How absurd is that? We cannot go into a convenient store without seeing a magazine cover of a barely clothed girl in her teens, portrayed as provocative as possible. We have to examine our lives, not the magazine cover, to find out where we should draw the line. If we continue to judge ourselves by the world’s standards we will continually fall short of God’s expectations. This becomes a trap of self-righteousness, and will cause us to embarrass God.
I am steadfastly for monogamy. Adultery is almost certainly going to make a dent in trust and intimacy, and in many cases, it has destroyed them altogether. A person who is conducting a secret affair has to become deliberately deceitful...like a CIA agent or spy. They can’t just come home and spill forth the events of their day. They have to think, “What can I safely talk about, and what have I got to keep to myself?” So even when the infidelity isn’t discovered, it changes who you are. A person goes from being a candid, open human being to a secretive, hidden one. According to recent polls, the divorce rate among Christian people is higher than that of those who don’t even attend church. Startling statistics to read, but even further still, among atheists, the rate is even lower. What does that say about the state of the church today? Are you going to be counted as part of that statistic, or are you going to be one to turn the tide?
These are not humorous topics to discuss. Even some of you are squirming in your seats because I said “sex” in church. But, you tell me, should we become oblivious to the things that we have to live in while some of the families in this church are struggling to keep their marriages afloat? Should we let this and other vitally important issues be swept under the “we-can’t-talk-about-that-‘cuz-it-makes-me-uncomfortable” rug, while families in our community are being torn apart because no one else is willing talking about it? These are the traps that we fall into.
2. Living as a child of DARKNESS. (v. 8)
We already live in darkness (sin). We have to live critically with this “Post modern” world around us.
Worldliness is the lust of the flesh (a passion for sensual satisfaction), the lust of the eyes (that stubborn desire for the finer things of life), and the pride of life (self-satisfaction in who we are, what we have, and what we have done). Worldliness, then, is a preoccupation with ease and prosperity. It elevates creature comfort to the point of idolatry; large salaries and comfortable life-styles become necessities of life. Worldliness is reading magazines about people who live self-indulgent lives and spend too much money on themselves and wanting to be like them. But more importantly, worldliness is simply pride and selfishness in disguise. It’s being resentful when someone snubs us or patronizes us or shows off. It means getting hurt under every slight, challenging every word spoken against us, cringing when another is preferred before us. Worldliness is harboring grudges, nursing grievance, and wallowing in self-pity. These are ways where we find we are most like the world. We can very easily fall into this trap of worldliness.
This is what “post modernism” is all about. It is that ideal that says; “I am okay with this way of thinking because that’s what works for me. You think what you want to think, and that’s fine with me too.” There is no absolute truth in this “post modern” world. People are forming their belief systems based on what they believe to be true for them. No longer is there an authority placed on what was once considered a standard of truth. All we have to do now is disregard your belief system and form our own in order to find truth.
This is the world in which we live; yet Jesus calls us to be separate from it. We have every right to most things that the world has to offer, provided that we do not become like the world in choosing them. Paul said in I Corinthians 10, “You were called to be free. Don’t use your freedom to indulge in the sinful nature; rather serve each other in love.” Those are important words for us to live by today.
Some years ago, musicians noted that errand boys in a certain part of London all whistled out of tune as they went about their work. It was talked about and someone suggested that it was because the bells of Westminster were slightly out of tune. Something had gone wrong with the chimes and they were discordant. The boys did not know there was anything wrong with the peals, and quite unconsciously they had copied their pitch.
So we tend to copy the people with whom we associate; we borrow thoughts from the books we read and the programs to which we listen, almost without knowing it. God has given us His Word, which is the absolute pitch of life and living. If we learn to sing by it, we shall easily detect the false in all of the music of the world.
We can become worldly by not critically examining each and every situation we are placed in. God would have us examine every aspect of our lives to see the differences between our lifestyle and that of the world around us. If there are no differences, you have some changing to do. To do this means that sometimes we must take certain risks. Paul has some words of caution before we leap.
3. Taking FOOLISH and UNNECESSARY risks. (v.15)
God wants us to be risk-takers. But He expects us to make calculated risks. We can lose the fight to win the battle.
Steve Lyons will be remembered as the player who dropped his pants.
He could be remembered as an outstanding infielder...as the guy who always dove into first base. He could be remembered as an above-average player who made it with an average ability. But he won’t. He’ll be remembered as the player who dropped his pants on July 16, 1990.
The White Sox were playing the Tigers in Detroit. Lyons bunted and raced down the first-base line. He knew it was going to be tight, so he dove at the bag. Safe! The Tiger’s pitcher disagreed. He and the umpire got into a shouting match, and Lyons stepped in to voice his opinion. Absorbed in the game and the debate, Lyons felt dirt trickling down the inside of his pants. Without missing a beat he dropped his britches, wiped away the dirt, and ... uh oh ...twenty thousand jaws hit the bleachers’ floor.
And, as you can imagine, the jokes began. Women behind the White Sox dugout waved dollar bills when he came onto the field. Within twenty-four hours of the "exposure," he received more exposure than he’d gotten his entire career; seven live television and approximately twenty radio interviews.
"We’ve got this pitcher, Melido Perex, who earlier this month pitched a no-hitter," Lyons stated, "and I’ll guarantee you he didn’t do two live television shots afterwards. I pull my pants down, and I do seven."
Fortunately, for Steve, he was wearing sliding pants under his baseball pants. Otherwise the game would be rated "R" instead of "PG-13." Now, I don’t know Steve Lyons. I’m not a White Sox fan. Nor am I normally appreciative of men who drop their pants in public. But I think Steve Lyons deserves a salute.
I think anybody who dives into first base deserves a salute. How many guys do you see roaring down the baseline of life more concerned about getting a job done than they are about saving their necks? How often do you see people diving headfirst into anything?
Too seldom, right? But when we do ... when we see a gutsy human throwing caution to the wind and taking a few risks ... ah, now that’s a person worthy of a pat on the ... back. So here’s to all the Steve Lyons in the world.
You can live on bland food so as to avoid an ulcer; drink no tea or coffee or other stimulants, in the name of health; go to bed early and stay away from night life; avoid all controversial subjects so as never to give offense; mind your own business and avoid involvement in other people’s problems; spend money only on necessities and save all you can. You can still break your neck in the bathtub, and it will serve you right.
WE LIVE OUR LIVES IN PURSUIT OF CHRIST AND HIS CALLING.
“God calls us to this struggle because only in and through it can we mature into the kinds of persons God wants us to be.” –Tony Campolo
We have a responsibility to become more Christ-like in our lifestyle as we grow in the Lord. As children of the King, we bear His name. Our lives should reflect the kind of stuff we have been adopted into. Jesus desires that His children grow up to be just like Him. What father doesn’t? What nobler task could we who are saved have than to become like the One who has saved us? The danger is when we become satisfied with the progress we might have made thus far.
God doesn’t desire that anyone become an embarrassment to themselves or Him. He wants us to become shining examples of purity, willing to be opposite the worldly view of morality, and willing to take risks for the sake of the Gospel. If you want to be that child of God, make your decision today.
