Still Wearing Masks? - Hypocrisy - Self-Deception Series 32 – Purity 1121

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 green and blue waters along the shore of a peaceful lake scene comes to us from Nick Harang, who shared this serene scene from his family vacation to Lake Tahoe in Western California, California over the weekend on social media. Well, it's Tuesday, and although I was just on vacation for 2 weeks, my employer has decided to bless me with a day off today, with the catch that I am scheduled and expected to work Saturday. As I choose to look on the bright side of things, since I decided to follow Jesus, I am content with the situation because after a relatively easy day at work yesterday, I spent the late afternoon waging war on my lawn with my little buddy the name I gave to the smaller and, let's face it, less efficient Craftsman lawnmower I bought in haste earlier this summer when I neglected to maintain my previous mower and I think I killed it. I have a small plot of land at River House, but because I live down by the river, the front portion of my lawn/weeds grows thick, and more than once my mechanical little buddy coughed, choked, and stopped when the moist grass clumped and refused to be expelled. From the undercarriage of the mower. That's the reason I named the new mower Little Buddy, because shortly after I purchased it, I could see that it wasn't as powerful or efficient as my previous mower. So to maintain my cool at its lackluster performance, I got in the habit of speaking encouraging words to it. Come on, Little Buddy, you can do it! Uh, in those earlier, drier months, a little encouragement and patience seemed to be adequate quit, as my buddy may have been little, but it got the job done. However, as the rains have been plentiful this summer and the lawn has become robust and waterlogged even on dry days, my little buddy has struggled mightily. And as I mow, I have to employ all the patience I have to not lose it, as I repeatedly find myself having to lift and shake and bang the lawnmower on the asphalt surface of State Route 9J in order to clear the mower of the glass grassy debris when I do the front part of my property. State Route 9J is a highway, by the way, and I really have to focus on what I'm doing when I am out front because the traffic is whizzing by at 55 miles per hour. More than once yesterday did I come close to the end of my patience and the end of my life as I had to be sure that the road was clear when I dragged the spurting lawnmower out to the road to knock out the clumping grass. In the past, I have shared how I loved stewarding my property down by the river, as I would listen to Christian worship music or Christian audiobooks when I would mow the lawn or when I would shovel snow in the winter, and just marvel over how blessed I have been with what the Lord has brought to me. Well, yesterday the mood was less celebratory as I called on the Lord for strength and had to repeat repeatedly bring my thoughts back under control as the struggling mowing— as the struggle mowing invited the enemy to whisper all kinds of negative and condemning thoughts into my mind. But I got her done, and although I may have contemplating hiring a lawn mowing service or spend— spending a small fortune on a bigger, badder mower in the future, I calm myself and will consider perhaps mowing the lawn every week instead of 2 weeks. Schedule and weather permitting, of course, going forward. As much as I would like to put on a happy face and whistle while I work, yesterday's struggles demanded that I keep it real and avoid portraying myself as someone who is always shiny and bright just because I am a Christian. While I am no curmudgeon either, or take pride— take some pride in being in being a grump like some people do. Uh, I want to portray myself as honestly as I can because one of the things about churchianity that bothered me all my life was how people in the church, um, building put on masks along with their Sunday best. Their appearance and manner would lead you to believe that they were just fine, upstanding Christians who did everything right and didn't have any cares or concerns because they didn't talk about such things. But then you would see the mask slip as they spoke angry words to their family members to keep the flock in line, or you would hear about some scandalous behavior they were involved in. In light of those reports or little red flags indicating problems, you discovered that the Christian persona that they were putting on out there was just an act. They were They were one of those hypocrites in the church. 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 9th and last ways to wrongly defend yourself with number 9, hypocrisy. The Steps to Freedom in Christ describe hypocrisy as presenting a false image. We touched on hypocrisy yesterday as we looked at lying as a defense mechanism. I gave examples of lying, of lying, or by saying everything was fine when it wasn't, or by telling lies about who you were in some manner to create a false image. Unfortunately, there are a lot of examples of hypocrisy in my experience to draw from, and the truth is that if we are honest, we all dip into the hypocrisy pool at one time or another. We struggle through life to find our identities, and in the process of growing up or in in growing into who we are in Christ, we can easily be seen as presenting a false image because of our tendency to be inconsistent. We want to be fine, upstanding Christian— be a fine, upstanding Christian, but we have secret sins. We want to be the sports team celebrity fan or enthusiastic hobbyist, but we don't know as much as those diehard fans or don't know as much as about our latest interest as those who have been practicing it all their lives, or so they portray. Instead of admitting, instead of admitting our struggles to do the right thing and repent publicly as Christians, or to admit that we don't know as much about our current interest or hobby, uh, we choose the easier path of hypocrisy and decide to just fake it till we make it or hide beneath masks to shield people, um, from the truth about us. During COVID-19, the world was told to put on masks. In the early days, people bought up the supplies and they were very scarce. As the pandemic continued, people started to make their own masks, and merchants profited by creating masks with designs and logos that people identified with. I myself purchased the black mask with a white cross on it to represent my Christian faith. But as clear as I thought that the symbol of the cross was as a representation of my Christian faith, some approached me and revealed that they thought I was wearing it as a memorial to all the people who died of COVID While I said that I certainly had empathy for all those who lost loved ones during those months, I informed that— I informed them that I wore it because I was a Christian. And wanted to encourage people to put their faith in Christ. Instead of advertising some sports team or other symbol or design that was fashionable, I wanted to display what I believed in and put my faith in, uh, Jesus, uh, represented by the cross that he died on to save us. But I also was very aware of the things I said and did when I wore that cross. I was working two jobs back then and had most of my exposure to the public with my night job at Walmart. So when I was working, I tried to represent my faith by being kind, courtesy, and courteous and helpful. I didn't want to wear a cross on— wear a mask with a cross on it and act like a jerk. When I came to faith in Christ, I was a big sinner, but as I got to know more about God and the Bible, I realized that if I wanted to represent his kingdom, I I should repent of my sins and start living according to what the Bible said was right. I eventually went into recovery and pursued sexual purity because of the conviction I felt to not only talk the talk but walk the walk of being a born-again Christian. I hated hypocrisy, uh, the hypocrisy that I had seen in the church, and when I decided to put my faith in Jesus, I eventually decided that I didn't want to be a hypocrite by claiming the forgiveness of God and living in darkness. I was finally in the light of God's grace, and I increasingly became committed to reflect that light. While I am still a work in progress, I am sure not who I used to be and endeavor to not present a false image by being as honest and transparent as I can be. I often say, if you don't like hypocrites in the church, don't be one. Because our Lord and Savior was the first to point out when someone was trying to appear to be clean on the outside when they were polluted by sin and bitterness on the inside. Jesus condemned hypocrites, and the last thing we want to do as Christians is to portray a false image of ourselves and be guilty of what Jesus condemned the Pharisees for. So, we humbly admit the truth about ourselves, lean on the Lord's strength and guidance to help us walk in His ways, and give all the glory to God for any positive changes in our lives as we encourage others to follow Jesus. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. And today's— this morning's meditation verse comes from the section on affliction, discipline, chastisement, and trials. And today's verse is Romans 8:18 from the NIV. Uh, and the Word of God says, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Today's verse falls under the 18th point of our Counseling Reference Guide resource section on Affliction, Discipline, Chastisement, Trials. And that 18th point is, our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. More or less quoting straight from the, uh, the verse they present. Uh, today's verse encourages us to look to the fulfillment of our faith in the blessed state that is our future. The Apostle Paul suffered greatly. He was beaten, imprisoned, and eventually executed for his faith in Jesus. But before he died, he wrote that he considered his sufferings to not be worthy— worth comparing to the glory that would be revealed in us. This can, of course, point to our eternal state in God's kingdom in heaven and in the future new heaven and new earth. Earth. On the other side of our death, or when Jesus returns, we will be in the presence of the Lord, and we will be transformed with glorified bodies at some point. We will be like the resurrected Christ. I can't imagine what, what that is going to be like, but I can imagine it's going to be good. So death has lost its sting, and our present suffering can lose its sting uh, when we can contemplate the glorified future we have with God. But this verse could also point to the sanctification that can happen in our lives before we go into eternity. In the early days of my recovery from alcohol, drugs, and eventually sexual immorality, I suffered a lot. I had previously been in fleshly cycles of addiction, and giving those things up created physical and mental pains in my life. But because God was faithful in leading me out of the darkness, and because of the hope of sobriety and purity set before me, I was able to endure the suffering for the glory that would be revealed in me. I am walking in glory now. I celebrate my freedom and rejoice over what the Lord has done, and actively encourage others to consider their sufferings in choosing to repent to be nothing to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in them when they experience the freedom and victory that the Lord is leading them to. So, endure the suffering of this life and whatever battle you are fighting, because I know the Lord is leading us from glory to glory, and there is no end in sight for the glory that will be revealed in us. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.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, and today, um, we begin chapter 20, which is entitled The Spirit Cleansing. So like I said, if you wanna follow the Lord, repentance is sort of a thing. That you're more or less called to do. Yeah, we're supposed to, you know, pursue God and repent, to turn to his ways. And so if you want to know how the Spirit can cleanse you, you can go to mtforchrist.org and read that resource at the end of today's blog post. As always, we also encourage you to check out our discipleship teachings on Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. Those teachings are all based on the Word of God and the teachings of Dr. Neil Anderson. They teach about who you are in Christ and the spiritual forces of darkness and lead you to go through the steps to freedom in Christ that will resolve your spiritual and personal conflicts. It's a prayerful repentance process. So if you want to be sanctified, we recommend being going through the steps of freedom in Christ on your own, or contacting, uh, FICM, Freedom in Christ Ministries, to, uh, you know, get in touch with an encourager, a trained encourager like myself, a CFMA, a Community Freedom Ministry Associate, to lead you through the steps to freedom in Christ. Um, yeah, so we recommend that. We also recommend a daily spiritual practice of Bible study and prayer and just walking, talking with God, you know, to live out your faith every day. Thus the M.t. Clark 247, meaning 24/7 podcast, because we discovered that the true value of our faith wasn't spent for an hour in church on Sunday. It was spent in a life lived in the presence of the Lord and following where he has to lead you. And the thing He leads you to is glory. He leads you to victory and freedom and all those great fruit of the Spirit: peace, love, and joy, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness— working on the gentleness— patience and self-control, working out all those. But the Lord is faithful, and when we follow Him, He'll lead us into those things, and we get to experience them. Our faith stops being a mental assent and becomes an experiential reality in our lives as we realize that the Lord really is with us and he'll never leave us or forsake us, and he's leading us into good things, and he'll give us the strength to endure suffering should we or when we incur it, you know, encounter it. So we encourage that, and like I said, we encourage Bible study. So if you want to check out our Bible study that we do with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti once a week. We encourage you to search the podcast or our YouTube channel for Bible study with the Sincottis. This past week we did a study on Wonderful Counselor, so you can check that out. And prayerfully we'll be doing another study this Sunday, although I believe Tammy Lynn won't— yeah, Tammy Lynn is away on a family vacation this weekend, so it'll just be me, Arthur, and Susanna. That'll be different. So if you want to see if that's different location-wise or content-wise, you have to check us out on Sunday. Well, I do have the day off today. I was considering checking out a serene lake scene like the one that Nick Harang shared in this photo today. However, rain is in the forecast in my neck of the woods, and so I think I'm going to just enjoy a serene scene of diving into some sort of Christian resources. I'm surrounded by them, so I think I'll do some sort of mini retreat today by diving into a book or a video or something that will keep my eyes off of the world and on Jesus. I sort of made that mistake in my recent vacation, seeking to feel at home at Countryside for the whole week. I sought comfort in watching football and eating foods. Now, I— well, I did get a measure of relaxation from that, and there's no condemnation for those in Christ. I could have made better choices for sure that would have fed my spirit instead of just my body and my eyes, you know. So we can enjoy good things and football games and food But we should do so, you know, for the glory of the Lord, however that's done. If it leads you into lethargy or sin, probably you're not on the right path, or leaves you just sort of feeling blah, which I felt. You know, you realize you didn't feed your spirit, but I did rest my body. So, you know, we got to figure this out day to day. So we go, and the good thing is we are forgiven and empowered by the Lord. So we can do that. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all you blessed us with. We thank you for who we are in Christ and how you set us free. Um, Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening today, um, that you come alongside them and their, um, prayer requests and, um, come alongside them in their walk of faith, uh, Lord, because we all need your help. We need those revelations. We need those, um, bouts of strength, um, and we need the patience and the self-control you give us. We need all those things. Um, we know that you impart them to us, and we thank you when you do. And so we're asking for your guidance today and your strength, um, Lord. So go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, move our steps in the things you would have us do. Because, Lord, uh, since coming to Christ, uh, we don't want to be a hypocrite. We just want to rep you, represent you in your kingdom and show people the hope and glory that we found in Christ. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.