(Based on a message by James W. Moore taken from his book Yes, Lord, I Have Sinned But I Have Several Excellent Excuses)
TEXT: MATTHEW 23:23-28
TITLE: “DO YOU JUST TALK A GOOD GAME?”
INTRODUCTION: A. Friday was Veteran’s Day
1. Recognize veterans
2. “The Pledge of Allegiance” - Senator John McCain
As you may know, I spent five and one half years as a prisoner of war during the
Vietnam War. In the early years of our imprisonment, the NVA kept us in solitary
confinement or two or three to a cell. In 1971 the NVA moved us from these
conditions of isolation into large rooms with as many as 30 to 40 men to a room.
This was, as you can imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result of the
efforts of millions of Americans on behalf of a few hundred POWs 10,000 miles
from home.
One of the men who moved into my room was a young man named Mike Christian.
Mike came from a small town near Selma, Alabama. He didn’t wear a pair of shoes
until he was 13 years old.
At 17, he enlisted in the US Navy. He later earned a commission by going to
Officer Training School. Then he became a Naval Flight Officer and was shot
down and captured in 1967. Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the
opportunities this country and our military provide for people who want to work
and want to succeed.
As part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to
receive packages from home. In some of these packages were handkerchiefs,
scarves and other items of clothing.
Mike got himself a bamboo needle. Over a period of a couple of months, he created
an American flag and sewed on the inside of his shirt.
Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would hang Mike’s shirt on the
wall of the cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance.
I know the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem the most important part of our day
now, but I can assure you that in that stark cell it was indeed the most important
and meaningful event.
One day the Vietnamese searched our cell, as they did periodically ,and discovered
Mike’s shirt with the flag sewn inside, and removed it.
That evening they returned, opened the door of the cell, and for the benefit of all of
us, beat Mike Christian severely for the next couple of hours. Then, they opened
the door of the cell and threw him in. We cleaned him up as well as we could..
The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle on which we slept.
Four naked light bulbs hung in each corner of the room.
As I said, we tried to clean up Mike as well as we could. After the excitement died
down, I looked in the corner of the room, and sitting there beneath that dim light
bulb with a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo needle, was my friend,
Mike Christian. He was sitting there with his eyes almost shut from the beating he
had received, making another American flag. He was not making the flag because
it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how
important it was to us to be able to Pledge our allegiance to our flag and country.
So the next time you say the Pledge of Allegiance, you must never forget the
sacrifice and courage that thousands of Americans have made to build our nation
and promote freedom around the world.
Let’s pray…
B. In our passage today, Jesus addresses some people who thought they knew everything
--They thought they did everything right and considered themselves experts on how
people should behave and think
1. They were good at analyzing other peoples’ behaviors and attitudes but failures at
doing so with their own
2. They were great arm-chair quarterbacks
--they knew exactly what someone else should do in each and every situation
3. They thought of themselves as able to infallibly judge the actions and attitudes of
others and yet, couldn’t seem to understand that they entirely missed the point of
anything that God had commanded.
4. A man is driving along a country road and his car breaks down. He doesn’t
know anything about engines but he opens the hood hoping he can find something
obvious
As he stands there looking confused, a cow wanders up to the fence. She sticks
her head over the top, peeks under the hood, looks at the man and says, “It’s the
carburetor.”
The man does a quick double-take and can’t believe his eyes or his ears. He
tells himself that cows can’t talk and turn his attention back to the motor. The cow
clears her throat and again says, “It’s the carburetor.”
The man stares wide-eyed at the cow and stammers, “W-w-w-h-h-a-a-t-t d-d-
d-id you s-s-say?” The cow calmly replies, “It’s the carburetor.”
The man is now scared to death and he takes off running down the road. After
about half-a-mile, he’s already winded and stops to get his breath. He sees a pick-
up truck coming toward him so he flags the driver down.
It’s one of the local farmers and he can tell that something has this man scared.
He asks, “What’s wrong?” The man says, “My car broke down about a half-mile
back. When I popped the hood, this cow comes over to the fence and starts
TALKING to me!”
The farmer asks, “Well, what did she say?” The man said, “She told me it was
the carburetor!” The farmer says, “Oh, don’t pay any attention to her. She doesn’t
know anything about carburetors.”
C. Mt. 23:23-28 – “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You
give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more
important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have
practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a
gnat but swallow a camel. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you
hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed
and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and
then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you
hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but
on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way,
on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of
hypocrisy and wickedness.”
I. ONLY WHEN OUR WORDS BECOME DEEDS DO THEY BECOME COMPELLING
A. In the Peanuts comic strip Linus asks Charlie Brown, “Charlie Brown, do you want to know what is
the trouble with you?”
Charlie Brown says, “No.”
The two stare at each other and then Linus says, “The trouble with you Charlie Brown is that you do
not want to know what is the trouble with you.”
1. Jesus told the Pharisees what was wrong with them
--When someone does that, it hurts
2. But Jesus’ analysis was correct and He did it because He wanted to see them change
--not just blast them with a message of condemnation.
B. Pharisees would probably make good church members (at least it would appear that way)
1. They would come every service, they’d give their whole tithe, they’d be glad to sit in leadership
positions, and they’d be glad to express their opinions.
2. However, they’re church membership would only be an outside things. They would look the part but
not have anything in their hearts.
--they would have a form of godliness but deny its power
3. Faith in Jesus Christ is not just something that we pull out when it’s convenient
a. It’s not just good enough to hear it preached
b. It’s not enough to sing it in songs
c. It’s not enough to talk about it in Sunday School
--It’s a way of living!
d. We don’t just celebrate it in the church
1). We live it out
2). Demonstrate it
3). We share it with others
*At home
*At the office
*On the streets
C. Phil. 1:27 – “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”
--In his youth, John Philip Sousa, the grandson of America’s great composer and conductor by the same
name, received large sums of money as a guest bandleader. Soon, however, his conscience began to
trouble him. He knew that he was asked to conduct because of his famous ancestor, not due to his own
ability. In fact, the younger Sousa couldn’t read a note of music. So he decided to give up his lucrative
charade and start earning a real living.
II. ONLY WHEN OUR WORDS BECOME DEEDS DO THEY BECOME CONTAGIOUS
A. We are our own worst enemy in Christianity
1. Through our actions we turn off many to the Gospel
--The most effective argument for Christianity is the REAL Christian
2. The truth is that people do not care about:
a. How beautiful our building is
b. What programs we offer
c. What doctrine we teach
.
3. They only want to know if what we believe works to change our lives
B. Harry Emerson Fosdick, Twelve Tests of Character, tells about a Turkish soldier who chases a brother
and sister down a dead-end street. The brother is shot and killed. Somehow the sister gets away.
Sometime later, the sister is captured. She’s a nurse and she’s forced to work in the field hospital
One day, the soldier who killed the brother is critically wounded and ends up in the field hospital. The
sister was the nurse who had to work on him. They recognized each other. She knew that any hesitation
on her behalf would result in his death but she treated him and nursed him back to health.
The soldier asks her why she had treated him with kindness and mercy. She said, “Because I serve
Him who said, ‘Love your enemies and do them good.’ That is my faith.”
After a moment of silence, the soldier grabs her and says, “Tell me more of your Lord. I would give
anything to have faith like yours.”
III. ONLY WHEN OUR WORDS BECOME DEEDS DO THEY BECOME CONVINCING
A. Now over 40 years old, few would take the time to watch the grainy black and white story of ‘The
Gospel Blimp.” The film tells about Joe discussing with his Sunday School friends a concern for his
neighbor John.
John is new to town, has had some job problems and isn’t connected with church. Joe’s pretty sure
John isn’t a Christian. He asks his class “What do you think I could do to share my faith with John?”
Before the hour is up, Joe’s classmates have hatched an elaborate scheme to take the Gospel to Joe’s
neighbor through the use of a surplus blimp.
In the course of the story, Joe’s friends spend enormous sums of money to fly the blimp all over the
city. They wire the blimp up with a booming PA playing Gospel music, lights to flash a Christian
message and compartments to “bomb” homes with thousands of Christian tracts and leaflets on the city.
Unnoticed by the class members, the average citizen isn’t happy. The blimp interferes with TV
reception, the lights and music keep people awake at night and the tracts become a homeowner’s litter
clean-up nightmare. It isn’t long before most of the city HATE the blimp and the Christians who support
it.
But most telling is the end. Joe’s friends are concerned he’s fallen from grace and has nothing to do
with the blimp. Joe, to them, has become a failed Christian. The final scene show’s Joe spending time
with his neighbor. Joe takes him fishing, helps him get his kid in the local little league, connects him
with a job counselor and gets to know him. In the end, Jack’s life is changed by the loving actions of a
caring neighbor, not the glitzy show-biz looks of a brilliant blimp.
B. An anonymous poet put it like this:
We are writing a gospel a chapter each day
By deeds that we do and the words that w say;
People read what we write, whether faithless or true…
So what is the gospel according to you?
CONCLUSION: A. So many who call themselves Christians only want cosmetic surgery
--Jesus says that what we need is a heart transplant!
B. Does your rhetoric reflect reality?
1. Does your walk match your talk?
2. Or do you just talk a good game?
a. 1 Cor. 4:20 – “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.”
b. Lk. 6:46 – “Why do you call me, ’Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”
C. On Nov. 19, 1863, Pres. Abraham Lincoln stood on the battlefield at Gettysburg to
dedicate a portion of that land as a national cemetery. The featured speaker of the day
was Edward Everett, acclaimed as possibly the greatest classical orator of his time. A
former United States senator, Governor of Massachusetts, and President of Harvard
University, he spoke for more than two hours to an audience of over 25,000 people. His
was a masterful address, broad in its scope and dramatic in its presentation.
Next was a musical interlude by the Baltimore Glee Club. And then, finally,
President Lincoln was formally introduced, and the people settled back down in their
chairs and on the grass to listen to him. Lincoln spoke simply and clearly. He startled
the people by the briefness of his remarks.
I know that most of you are familiar with the Gettysburg Address but I want you listen
again to some of its words:
After the introductory remarks, Lincoln said,
We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that
field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this
ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far
above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember,
what we say here; but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the
great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have
a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from the earth.
D. That dedication was given so we would not forget the sacrifice of those there on the
fields surrounding Gettysburg.
1. We must never forget the sacrifice of the soldiers at Valley Forge, the Aragone
campaign of WWI, Omaha beach, Normandy, Iwo Jima, the Mekong, Hamburger
Hill, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, and most recently Iraq.
2. We also cannot forget that we are soldiers on a battlefield – we fight a spiritual war
--It’s time to get serious – time to stop talking about it and get onto the battlefield.
3. We need to remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who died so that we might live for
eternity
--Because of what He did for us, we should live for Him and point others to this
marvelous Savior
