AM I A HYPOCRITE?

PART 2 - ON THE INSIDE?

We live in a world of pretend. Pretend cops on TV. Pretend millionaires. Pretend heroes in movies. Pretend wizards of smart on Wall Street. We have fake hair. Fake nails. Fake Rolex watches on NYC streets for $20. We drink fake sugar in soft drinks. We buy fake diet pills...fake...fake...fake...Almost everything is FAKE!

The culture elevates fake over real.  

The culture bows down to people you won't even let into your living room, were it not for the fact they appeared in some movie. 

The culture worships at the pagan altar of glitz and flashing man-made light, while ignoring the True Light of the World - Jesus Christ. 

The culture uses Him as a swear and cuss word, all the while twisting His Words to fit their ungodly secular agenda....and the culture has crept both inside the church, and inside of us!

The reason why the church is dead, dead, dead....and therefore ineffective in both Canada and America is this - the culture;  and the secular world can't tell the difference between them and us!

The seeker-sensitive movement of the 1990's accelerated the slide by watering down the True Truth (as Francis Schaefer called it) so as to bring people by the numbers. Many followed this formula to the letter, and even removed crosses from their sanctuaries. They drew millions into their buildings....and what buildings they were!

They put up huge structures with multi-millions dollar mortgage debt. They put in high priced coffee and book shops and restaurants. The House of Prayer became First Corporation of Suburban USA Church, with multi-campus satellite feeds of the main preacher, who stays in one "main campus", while the sheep adores him on the jumbotron TV screen!

There is one deadly problem with all that MTV styled "worship" chock full of celebrity pastors and contemporary rock band stars on "christian" radio - IT IS BUILT ON SAND! Bill Hybels, who created the Seeker-sensitive movement that led many over the cliff, finally had to man up and admit in 2007 it was a complete failure. Hybels admitted they had failed to make Disciples of Christ. (By the way, Hybels never went back to Biblical standards to correct this error!)

Nowhere in the Bible, does it say to 'go become like your rich celebrity culture; remove the Cross of Christ; water down your bible translation to the Message; bring unintelligible hard rock music into your church platform; run up and down the aisle and call it prayer and worship the man supposedly representing behind His pulpit'!!!!

Instead you will find two things:

1. And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after (or be a disciple) Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me" Luke 9:23 NASB.

2."Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” Matthew 28:19-20 NASB.

The modern church has failed on both counts! The Persecuted underground church in China has the most Christians in the world - over 300 million real ones. If anyone wishes to know why - it is because it is set apart from its culture...and not just that...it faces daily death for the Cross, by following Christ completely in an evil, godless Communist regime.

Look at the picture above. It is "fake Jesus". If we really search our own hearts, we will find some of that in all of us.  One line always struck me from the movie ELMER GANTRY starring Burt Lancaster. This movie is about a charismatic charlatan drunk Gantry who sure could preach up a storm, and charm his way into the hearts of many. But at the end of the movie, when the rubber hit the road, he walked away from Christ and said "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me". Elmer Gantry did not mean it as Paul did in 1 Corinthians 13:11. He meant it as his true core belief as he walked away and walked straight into an eternity, separated from Heaven.

Search your hearts right now....in the Name of Jesus. Are you plastic banana, good-time rock and roll fake Jesus with a godly smile....or are you a true disciple of Christ?

Father in the Name and Power of Jesus, I ask You to reach down inside of me and let Your Spirit search all of me to see what is left of me which belongs to the world. Lord, I do not want to be like them, even while living temporarily alongside them. Lord, let me be always mindful of the fact that this world is not my home, I am just a-passing through. 

My citizenship is not in this land, but the GloryLand. 

My calling is not from central casting, but the Cross of Christ. 

My commitment is to Jesus and Him alone. 

My commission is therefore to tell the Truth and reach others in Love!

Let me remember that You are light and there is NO darkness in You.

Let me therefore have NO fellowship with the fake light of this world which hides their dark intent.

Let me also never lie to others and myself by walking in the light of the culture when I should live in the Life of the Cross.

Let me fellowship with the saints of the Living God, who are like-minded and not the lost and dying...even if they populate churches by the millions across this land.

Let me not follow the lies of popular TV preachers who say we have no sin and are deceiving millions, into believing if we just think and act positive, we too can have all the material wealth - houses and cars and no bills - because "this is the best life now". Lord, anyone who believes that, the Truth is not in them and they bring judgment unto themselves!

Let me be honest with myself, and know I am a sinner saved by Grace and as I repent and seek forgiveness, Jesus Christ is faithful and just to cleanse, purify, remove and forget all of these sins as long as I don't keep doing them over and over and over again!

So Lord, let the Word reveal who I really am, so that I will not appear to be a hypocrite to those around me. Let me be aware daily of my commitment to walk in Truth and Light because this is way Christ would want me to. Let my talk match up with my walk and when I drift and tend to think about or dwell on the passing pleasures of sin for season, above the Timeless Glory and Joy of Jesus, pull me back into line, love and discipline me that I may remain worthy of Your calling to me, as one of Your adopted children for eternity, in the Mighty Name of Jesus, amen and amen!

(image by google images)

ARE YOU A HYPOCRITE?

PART 1 - ON THE OUTSIDE

A hypocrite is a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, especially a person whose actions belie stated beliefs. He or she can also be someone who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, especially one whose private life, opinions, orstatements belie his or her public statements.*


A charge commonly made against us Christians is that we are a bunch of hypocrites! In fact, this is the excuse given by secularists and humanists as to why they - the atheist - do not go to church or are not a child of God. Of course, they do not see the light poles sticking out of their own eyes. 


Billy Graham has a good question for those who blame a lack of any relationship with the one true God of heaven on those of us whom the world accuses of hypocrisy. He said "if you got a bad glass of milk one time, would you quit drinking milk?" Or to paraphrase, if you get a cheap gallon of gas at a QuickMart gas station and it evaporates quickly, would you stop going to any filling station forever? No you won't, or you would not be able to drive anywhere.


The world looks at the sensational headlines or some perverted, greasy, money-grubbing individual behind a pulpit with a bible and willfully associates us with that prosperity gospel from hell. I can't tell you the amount of times I have to defend the Bible or my own beliefs in Christ against unbelieving co-workers. These people use the any example of religious double-speak; womanizing or some rich preacher with an arrogant attitude to paint EVERY Christian as one of those.

Sometimes, it does not have to be a national religious figure who falls in disgrace like Ted Haggard or Bishop Eddie Long, but some who accuse us of hypocrisy, are more up to speed on some local pastor in town who owns two spanking new Cadillacs and goes on cruises every winter with his family, while he or his church are never seen downtown, showing any compassion for the homeless and/or hurting. They look at him on local TV with the fancy glittering stage and rock band, hawking books while talking about "the Love of Jesus" and wonder "what planet is this guy even on?"

Whether these local churches actually have great outreach ministries or not (usually they do), is not the question. The perception is one of "these churches only want my money".


Therefore, Father in the Name of Jesus, You are not tolerant of those who profess and call on Your Name in Public, but whose father is the god of this world - the devil. The Lord Jesus called out the pharisees in Matthew 23:15 when He said "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves."


Lord God, this is the state of most of us in the modern church who could not stand the scrutiny of the Light of day, but who will be accountable on the Day of Judgment here on earth. We are the modern day copies of those pharisees.


Lord we confess our sins as a body of Christ for all the lost of this world we have turned away, because we have not functioned as You expected we would or as You laid out in Your Holy Word. For this sin, we seek and beg Your forgiveness.


Lord, we confess ours sins for each time we have held large public events and proclaimed the Name of Jesus and God, yet live like the devil the rest of the week. For this sin, we seek and beg Your forgiveness.


Lord, we confess our sins for every missed opportunity we let slip to be the good Samaritan to a homeless person with sign, and looked down our noses at them. We could have well failed a test and disrespected an angel from heaven by our foolish self-righteousness! For this sin, we seek and beg Your forgiveness.


Lord we confess our sins for the countless times we 'felt sad' as a church when our poor neighbor's ministry or building just up the county burned down....and all we did was say we would "pray for them"...and then never do pray or lift a finger to help or donate a penny to help that brother or sister out of a jam!  For this sin, we seek and beg Your forgiveness. 

Lord I personally repent for being part of any body or organization, which has committed all these shortcomings and sinned before You, as the church. Lord, no one is pure in this regard.

I repent personally as a former church and now a ministry leader, for missing both the forest and trees because I was too busy to see Your Hand at work. Forgive me oh God. Search me and correct my thinking so that no matter what the lost and evil world may say, at least in this corner of Your Kingdom, we will not be found wanting and being hypocrites on the Outside, when called to account, in That Day...in Jesus' Name, amen

TOMORROW: PART 2 (ARE YOU A HYPOCRITE?) - ON THE INSIDE

Credits:

* www.dictionary.reference.com

image by google images