Bells and Mirrors are not Works
Ephesians 2:4-10 Monte T. Brown
9/26/2004 Sunday Morning
First Baptist Riverton
Introduction
If you were to spend the mornings with me as I go through the mail and read from Christian papers, you would notice that there are a number of programs that claim to help in the growth of your church.
There are companies selling signs, furniture, bulletins, music, videos, flyers, banners, and many other items, that all claim to increase your attendance and help church growth.
If we would turn on our televisions we find that there are advertisements that their product will make you more popular, richer, stronger, leaner, smarter, and younger.
There are companies that claim they can make you more successful with less work. The great market of getting rich and gaining great success!
However they are nothing more than Bells and Mirrors.
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Ephesians 2:4-10.
Please stand with me this morning as we read from God Holy Scriptures.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
[5] even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
[6] and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
[7] that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
[8] For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
[9] not of works, lest anyone should boast.
[10] For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:4-10
Tell the story of a man getting a great deal on a talking parrot at a pet store for only $500.00.
1. First he buys the parrot and a cage. (Parrot doesn¡¦t talk goes back to the pet store and complains.)
Storeowner says, you mean the parrot didn¡¦t sit on it perch and talk? Well he has to have a perch to sit on before he will talk.
2. Buy¡¦s a perch. (Needs a perch before it will talk.) (Parrot doesn¡¦t talk goes back to the pet store and complains.)
Storeowner says, you mean the parrot didn¡¦t climb up and down the ladder and then sit on it perch and talk? Well he has to have a ladder for him to climb up and down on before he will talk.
3. Buy¡¦s a ladder. (Needs a ladder before it will talk.) (Parrot doesn¡¦t talk goes back to the pet store and complains.)
Storeowner says, you mean the parrot didn¡¦t climb up and down the ladder, ring the bell and then sit on it perch and talk? Well he has to have a bell for him to ring before he will talk.
4. Buy¡¦s a bell. (Needs a bell before it will talk.) (Parrot doesn¡¦t talk goes back to the pet store and complains.)
Storeowner says, you mean the parrot didn¡¦t climb up and down the ladder, ring the bell, look into the mirror, and then sit on it perch and talk? Well he has to have a mirror to look into before he will talk.
5. Buy¡¦s a mirror. (Needs a mirror before it will talk.) (Parrot doesn¡¦t talk goes back to the pet store and complains.)
6. Parrot doesn¡¦t talk goes back to the pet store and complains that the parrot died.
Storeowner says, you mean the parrot didn¡¦t climb up and down the ladder, ring the bell, look into the mirror, go back down the ladder eat some food, and then sit on it perch and talk? Well he has to have a mirror to look into before he will talk.
What was missing in the parrot¡¦s life?
Why wasn¡¦t he performing?
There wasn¡¦t a desire to perform, because the parrot¡¦s stomach was empty.
You see as a Christian we are sometimes like that parrot.
We think we need bells and mirrors to perform.
These bells and mirrors represent metaphors like;
„h Sunday School
„h Enrolling in a witnessing class
„h A Bible study
„h Going to prayer meetings
„h Having revivals
„h Having gospel singings
„h Or going to a Christian retreat
The sad thing about this is that going to church or participating in one of these functions is not a bad thing but does not necessarily fulfill our purpose in life.
They are the icing on the cake, not the cake itself.
We need to go deeper into the service of God if we are going to perform for the Lord.
All of the programs and functions that we have in church can be nothing more than perches, ladders, bells, and mirrors unless we find out the purpose in life and we perform for the Lord.
We are to be a witness for the Lord we are to be an example for others to follow.
But unless we know the purpose in life then how good of a witness or leader are we?
An inscription on a gravestone said: As you are now I once was, and as I am now you one day will be. So be careful how you live as you prepare to follow me.
Someone had placed an additional inscription that read: To follow you I would not be content, until I learn which way that you went.
If you do not know your purpose in life, then are you a good leader?
Have you just filled your life with bells and mirrors and left out the most important part of the Christian life?
Are you spiritually staring to death?
Don¡¦t waste your life it¡¦s not all about bells and mirrors!
¡§Be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days.
Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do.¡¨ Ephesians 5:15-17 (NLT)
There are three basic questions we will address.
1. What Does God Want?
¡§Give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life.
And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God.¡¨ Romans 6:13 (NLT)
Don¡¦t surround yourself with bells and mirrors and think that you are serving God.
¡§This is what the Lord your God wants you to do: Respect the Lord and do what he has told you to do.
Love him. Serve the Lord your God with your whole being.¡¨ Deuteronomy 10:12 (NCV)
If you worship God with your lips and not your heart then your worship is nothing more than bells and mirrors.
Worshipping God comes from within, it means yielding yourself over to God, setting aside everything else and focusing only on God and the desire to please Him.
"No one can serve two masters.
He will hate the first master and love the second, or he will be devoted to the first and despise the second.
You cannot serve God and wealth. (Or possessions)
Matthew 6:24(GW)
You can adore your life with the finest bells and mirrors but be careful that you don¡¦t place more value on them than on worshipping God.
¡§In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.¡¨ Proverbs 3:6 (LB)
What comes first in your life?
Is it golf, fishing, hunting, sports, shopping, vacationing, or other things?
If you would rather do these things than be in church worshipping God, then these things are bells and mirrors and soon spiritual famine will set in and you may even spiritually die!
2. What does it take?
¡§Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.¡¨ 1 Timothy 4:7 (NASB)
¡§Spend your time and energy in the exercise of keeping spiritually fit.¡¨ 1 Timothy 4:7b (LB)
Coming to Sunday School, getting involved in Small Groups, or coming to Bible Studies, or spending time having a daily quite time with the Lord in His Word.
These are stepping stones that help us reach a place in life were we can truly worship God.
¡§Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress.¡¨ Heb. 12:1b (NLT)
If you were lost in the wilderness and had in your back pack only the things that were necessary for you to survive and get you out get out of the wilderness alive.
Then what would you do if as you were walking out of the wilderness you found a bag of twenty dollar gold pieces, but you did not have the strength left to carry them and your back pack?
Sometimes we weight ourselves down in life with possessions and sins and make the decision to lay down our backpack to carry those possessions and sins.
You cannot survive without our backpack.
You¡¦ll never make it out of the wilderness alive without your backpack.
Worshipping God is our backpack in the wilderness of life.
You cannot survive without worshipping God, this is we were created for.
So is your life filled with possessions and sin?
Have you laid down your spiritual backpack?
You can be close to God and still be a long way from God!
Look at Mary and Martha, they seem to always be close to the Lord, and he seem to be always in their home.
However Martha was ¡§close to God but still a long way from God.¡¨
¡§Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?
Tell her to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; but there is need of only one thing and Mary has chosen the better part...¡¨ Luke 10:40-42 (NRSV)
Is it possible that you could be distracted by your ministry or your position in the church and not be worshipping God?
Martha was, she was busy serving God, to the point that she was distracted from worshipping God.
Martha was focusing on her bells and mirrors!
Do you allow God to work in your life?
Is: ¡§God is always at work in you to make you willing and able to obey his own purpose.¡¨ Philippians 2:13 (TEV)
Don¡¦t be like Martha, busy serving God, but missing out on worshipping God.
Don¡¦t rely on your bells and mirrors!
3. Why Should I do it? Why should I worship God?
¡§He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.¡¨
2 Corinthians 5:15 (NIV)
¡§Through the blood of his Son, we are set free from our sins. God forgives our failures because of his overflowing kindness.¡¨ Ephesians 1:7 (GW)
¡§Brothers and sisters, in view of all we have just shared about God’s compassion, I encourage you to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, dedicated to God and pleasing to him.¡¨
Romans12:1 (GW)
¡§We beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us!¡¨ 2 Corinthians 6:1 (Msg)
¡§Lord, I have heard the news about you; I am amazed at what you have done. Lord, do great things once again in our time; make those things happen again in our own days.¡¨
Habakkuk 3:2 (NCV)
Come this morning and lay down your bells and mirrors at the alter and let us worship the Lord!
