Denial & Living a Lie - Self Deception Series 24 – Purity 1113

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of the light of a sunset sky reflected in the hood of my Honda CR-V comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene on the evening of July 28th while driving down the last leg of Waite Road before coming to my countryside home to celebrate the beginning of my summer vacation. Well, it's Saturday, and even though my vacation doesn't come to an end until August 14th, the first half of it and my family's time in Erie, Pennsylvania will draw to a close by the day's end. And while there are some who despair when a road trip or a time at a vacation destination comes to an end, I am not one. I am not a member of that tribe. While I enjoy the rest, relaxation, and fun of going away. I generally don't have to have any trouble saying goodbye to vacation life when its time is up, although I suppose there are— there has been vacation, various vacations in my life, uh, that I wouldn't have minded extending. Generally, the suspended reality of vacation life is seen for the fantasy that it is when its time is up, and I eagerly look to get back to where I belong. Home, where I live and have my being, if you will. Home is not only where the heart is, it is also the place where we meet our responsibilities and best represent our true selves. While on vacation, we live in a different place, do things that are not typical for us, spend money in ways we would never do so normally, and we may even, uh, take an ego trip of sorts as we may abandon our normal routines, compromise our values, or decide to let our inhibitions go. Vacation life is fantasy life, and if you didn't know it, fantasy is another word for a lie. Although some would claim that vacation land is the place where they can finally be themselves or can be free, an examination of the majority of their lives versus their attitudes and behaviors while on vacation would expose the truth that their vacation persona may not represent their best selves and that their freedom looks like bondage to the flesh and circumstantial happiness that is not sustainable. In short, vacation life and some of our vacation personas are a lie. In truth, we don't live in vacationland and we don't often act like ourselves when we go there. So the vague wish to be on vacation forever could be seen as the wish to to continually live a lie. And that brings us to our current series on self-deception, where we have decided to investigate some of the ways we deceive ourselves by walking through Step 2, Deception Versus Truth, of the Steps to Freedom in Christ, to see what ways we have been deceived by the world and ourselves, and in what ways we have wrongly defended ourselves. So we present the first of the ways to wrongly defend yourself. Number 1: Denial of reality, conscious or unconscious. Since the Steps to Freedom in Christ doesn't provide scriptural references for these terms, I've decided to utilize Meyer, Minirth, Witschern's, and Ratcliffe's Introduction to Psychology and Counseling: Christian Perspectives and Applications, uh, to provide some basic definitions of these common defense mechanisms. And Denial, as the, our resource tells us, is the ability to deny the existence of something disturbing, such as one's own anger or sexual feelings. Thoughts, feelings, wishes, or motives are denied access to consciousness. It is the primary defense mechanism of histrionic personalities who deny their own sinful thoughts, feelings, wishes, or motives, even when they become obvious to those around them. For example, a woman might act seductively but is not consciously aware of it, of doing so, because of denial, then becomes angry at the man she is unconsciously seducing for making sexually suggestive responses. If what she was doing was pointed out to her, she would probably deny it vehemently. Counselors often refrain from identifying their clients' obvious problems because of the likelihood they will deny those problems. Counselors should help such clients identify the problems themselves, confirming what clients suggest without fear of denial. Once a client denies a diagnosis, it is very difficult to later admit that a problem actually exists. While I am not— that's an end quote right there— while I am not a licensed counselor as of yet, this series on self-deception is intended to help us to discover the lies we have believed. Or the things we may have denied about ourselves. I like the counselors referencing James 3:14 for denial, which says, um, from the NKJV, but if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. In a later passage, the authors also suggest that existence of an omnipotent divine being would produce anxiety in an atheist. But they would deny it, of course. Denial is lying against the truth, and the good news is that because it is the truth we are denying, there will be evidence like emotional upset over the things we are denying that may help us see how we have wrongly defended ourselves. So think about your life and your interactions. Have you had someone accuse you of having a problem and immediately denied it and dismissed it? "You have a blank problem." "No, I don't." If you have an exchange like that, you could be falsely accused or you could be in denial. The Word of God is true and there is nothing like the Bible to tell us if we are living a lie, although we may think we are being true to ourselves when we do whatever we want, if it goes against God's Word, we are living a lie, and if we don't wake up to the truth of our sin, we will die. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 tells us, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, For neither murderers, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. This was one of those passages in the Bible that woke me up to the moral danger I was in because of the way I lived and convicted me to repent. And as much as some of the things listed in these verses defined my life before coming to Christ, after I saw that they could jeopardize my part in God's kingdom, I made the decision to stop living the lie and relied on the Lord's strength and guidance to lead me away from the darkness I was living in. Even though I thought a lot of those behaviors were, quote unquote, my life, the Lord showed me that I had been deceived and that he never intended for any of us to live like that. Those things were unrighteous, as in not right. And the Lord, through Jesus Christ, made a way for us to see the truth, be forgiven, and to be empowered to do the right thing by following him into righteous living. So look at your life, look at God's truth, and let the Holy Spirit convict you about the— about how the two don't match up. And let him guide you into all truth and the new righteous and abundant life that God wants you to live. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crewe. This morning's meditation verses come to us from the section on Affliction, Discipline, Chastisement, and Trials. Today's verses are Revelation 3:14-22. From the NASB, the word of God says To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, says this: I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Because you say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched, wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed, and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Today's verses fall under the 10th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on Affliction, Discipline, Chastisement, and Trials. And that point is: To the lukewarm church, Jesus declares he rebukes and disciplines those whom he loves. Today's verses are the words of Jesus Christ, um, and they encourage us to realize that some of the suffering we face in life comes from not living according to God's ways, and that we should be zealous in our repentance because it will draw us deeper into his love and presence. God's discipline proves his love for us. While some are left dead in their trespasses and sin, God caused us to see our need of a Savior and gives us the power to transform our lives when we put our faith in Jesus. The words of Jesus himself tell— tells us to repent and to overcome, to fully realize his love for us and to dwell in his presence. So let's heed his word and and do what he says by being on fire in repentance and seeking his righteousness and presence. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit as we continue sharing from chapter 18 on the Spirit's indwelling. And today's section is on the basis for the Spirit's indwelling. So if you never knew what the basis of the Spirit's indwelling was, go to mt4christ.org and you can see what the— what A.W. Pink has to say about the basis of the Spirit's— for the Spirit's indwelling at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage a lifestyle of living according to God's truth. A lifestyle of Christian discipleship where we read the Word of God, study the Word of God, know what Jesus taught, and apply it to our lives the best we can, little by little, bit by bit, progressively. Not to attain perfection, but to obtain progress as we, we attempt to become more and more like Jesus, to become more and more, like the people God created us to be. And, um, we do that through repentance and faith and, uh, and learning, um, and knowing who we are in Christ. And one way we help with that at our ministry is, uh, with our discipleship series of classes on Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. They're all based on the Word of God and the work of Dr. Neil Anderson of Freedom in Christ Ministries, and we share them on our podcast and our YouTube channel. So if you want to check out those classes, and if you want to take a deeper dive, you can contact me at mtforchrist247@gmail.com, and I'll email you the Word documents that I handed out for those classes, um, back when I taught them originally at my local church. The material teaches you about who you are in Christ And it teaches you about the spiritual forces of darkness and the lies we may believe and how we can overcome, repent those things prayerfully through the Steps to Freedom in Christ. And so we recommend the Steps to Freedom in Christ, but we recommend you get teaching on it before attempting to go through them. We have to know what we believe and why we believe it, and then we, we can— we have to go to the Lord and come into his presence to ask him to help us to overcome things by— through renunciation and prayer. So we also obviously revere the Word of God as the word of truth. We do a Bible study every day personally and once a week corporately with our good friends the Sincatis, and we share that with, with y'all on the, the podcast as a little program we call Bible Study with Coty's. Prayerfully, uh, we make it back from Erie, Pennsylvania to my countryside home later today, and tomorrow morning see our good friends via Zoom to discuss another topical Bible study. And so we invite you to check that— our, our study out— that you hear what we have to say about trying to live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. Well, it is Saturday, and we'll be leaving for a long commute home from vacation land. And I, for one, am very glad. Well, I haven't compromised my exercise routine and Bible study and podcasting. Been a little lax on things I put in my body and the company I keep. Um, and that's all I'll say about that. Anyway, You know, we make the best— we do the best we can with the people we— that we— that God's put in our lives. And sometimes people aren't walking with the Lord, and we have to love and accept them. Meanwhile, know that they're just not living right. They're not living according to the Word of God, and they're suffering because of it. But the denial can be so deep sometimes they can't see it and will stand in their suffering and proclaim it as freedom. It's close to home because that's who I was. If anybody had suggested I had a drinking problem or a drug problem or a sexual addiction problem, I would have been the first to deny it. And it was only— even though I knew. And even when I was in it, you sort of know you have a problem, but the problem is you can't see a way out of it. And you see it as a form of who you are, part of your identity. And we have people in our lives who are locked in addiction, locked in mental illness, locked in anxiety, depression, all kinds of things. And we love them. And we want what's best for them. But it's difficult to suggest, you know, pursuing the Lord as your means of freedom. The Lord's got to reveal it and show it to them, and they have to do their part by seeking it, seeking the Lord themselves. Helping people find their freedom can be difficult. Because sometimes they expect it to be imparted to them through someone else, that if I pray for you, you'll be set free and that'll be it. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Our relationship with the Lord is a walk, and we must take our steps individually with him. We can walk alongside of people to help us, but we have to take those steps for ourselves and follow the Lord where he leads us into the freedom and purpose that he has for our lives. And so that's my prayer for anyone who's dealing with prodigals, or, you know, people who aren't even half bad, but, you know, bad enough to not be walking with the Lord, and people you worry about. So today we're gonna pray for all this stuff. So So let's do that. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for this time we've had away from our home, just for the rest and relaxation and the fun we've had. But Lord, we just pray for you to safely deliver us back to where we, we normally live and back to the lives we normally know. And Lord, we pray for the people that we traveled with. And we pray for them, or the people who've left behind at home who aren't walking with you, that they would, um, they would hear your voice and follow your call into repentance, into overcoming, into a new life. And, um, well, we just pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you come alongside them and their prayer requests and their situations, that you would empower them and give them faith to keep following you. And, and we pray for you to bless them, Lord, because we all need your help. This thing called Christianity isn't so easy as we know what's right and everyone else denies it. So we need your help, we need your strength, we need your confidence, and And we need your power. So we just pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and move our paths into the things you would have us do. Because Lord, all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom and just to point people to the life that you have for them, because we know that you have the best life we could have. In Jesus. So, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.