Half Full - Half Empty - What are You Full Of?

Matthew 12:43-45

As the last message in our series “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” a series in which we have looked at characters through the Bible, I decided to go a little different route. Instead of looking at an actual character, today’s person is fictional. He is an illustration created by Jesus to demonstrate a point.

In the passage I read to you, the immediate context is some Pharisees and teachers of the law demanding that Jesus do a miracle. He calls them a wicked and adulterous generation who asks for a sign – but to whom none would be given. Except for his death and resurrection. After all, the people of Ninevah repented at Jonah’s preaching.

Understand that the Pharisees were the holiness movement of their time. If you’ve been in this church for long, or if you’ve been a part of what goes on at Camp Sychar, you have heard calls to repent. One of the things I remember about church camp was a call to repent from listening to evil music (sometimes, but not always, accompanied by kids throwing some of their records and tapes into the campfire). I often wondered how many of those kids went out and bought a new copy when they got home.

One hallmark of any holiness movement, whether it was the Pharisee movement or a more current one, is holiness of conduct. We, as Christians, are called to stop our bad, sinful activities. About that, there is no argument. We can find all sorts of Biblical mandates to stop sinful behavior:

Exodus 20:4 You shall not make for yourself an idol. v. 7 You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God. 13-17 You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet…

Galatians 5:19-21: The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Colossians 3:5-9 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices.

You’d have to be dense to miss out on it; the Bible is full of commands to stop sinning. The reason? We’re called to be God’s people, set apart for God, and we are not supposed to act like the “people of the world” who are defined by their sins.

Unfortunately, we as Christians have become identified as those who “do not.” You know: we don’t smoke and we don’t chew, and we don’t go with girls who do. Why is that? Because we have focused on what we do not do instead of focusing on whose we are. The Pharisees weren’t horrible people, remember; they were focused fully on obeying every rule in the Torah. They knew exactly what to avoid. As a good Pharisee, the Apostle Paul had a lot to say about what kinds of things to avoid; 1 Thessalonians 5:22 sums it up: Avoid every kind of evil.

There’s a problem with basing your life on avoiding evil, however. Jesus tells a story about a man with an evil spirit. More correctly, a man from whom an evil spirit has been cast out.

"When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation." Matthew 12:43-45

When we simply live a “just say no” life, we have kicked out the evil spirit and cleaned house, but to what end? We have supplanted biblical Christianity with a counterfeit. This counterfeit has been given a name, too. In 2005, in their book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist came to an important conclusion about the spiritual life of young people in our country.

Our country’s young people (and many not-so-young) in vast numbers subscribe to something called MTD.

Not MTV: MTD, standing for Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, which consists of beliefs like these:

  1. "A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth."
  2. "God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions."
  3. "The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself."
  4. "God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem."
  5. "Good people go to heaven when they die."
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is also "about providing therapeutic benefits to its adherents." As the researchers explained, "This is not a religion of repentance from sin, of keeping the Sabbath, of living as a servant of sovereign divinity, of steadfastly saying one's prayers, of faithfully observing high holy days, of building character through suffering, of basking in God's love and grace, of spending oneself in gratitude and love for the cause of social justice, et cetera. Rather, what appears to be the actual dominant religion among U.S. teenagers is centrally about feeling good, happy, secure, at peace. It is about attaining subjective well-being, being able to resolve problems, and getting along amiably with other people."

It all sounds well and good. Except that it’s not true Christianity. It’s a counterfeit! Because it consists of simply being nice (or don’t be bad) and nothing more. The god of MTD is a distant god who created and doesn’t intervene, doesn’t care.

The problem with just “avoiding being bad” is that it doesn’t lead anywhere. Have any of you ever decided that you are going to lose weight? What’s a major way you decided to do it? Who here has tried to diet? Did it work? Remember the Atkins diet? It was all about what you couldn’t eat. People would lose a ton of weight right away. But after a while, they would regain it all, plus some. Why? The diet told them, “You can’t eat the things you like. No pizza. No pasta. No bread. No way.”

So after a while, not only do they quit the diet, but they quit in a big way, going out and pigging out on pizza and all sorts of foods. And furthermore, who defines how much “bad” we have to avoid? When Paul writes in Romans 3:23 that and in Romans 6:23 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of GodFor the wages of sin is death – what part of that leaves it up to a scale of more good than bad?

And when we live our lives just trying to stop doing bad things, that only gets us so far. Because that’s never supposed to have been the goal of God’s people. Our goal is supposed to be God himself! We are supposed to strive for Christlikeness. But how are we really supposed to do that? How can we clean house and not be overwhelmed?

Remember the scripture I read from 1 Thessalonians: Avoid all kinds of evil? Paul goes on to say this in the following two verses: May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24. You see, we aren’t the ones who do it. The one who calls you, that’s God, is faithful, and he will do it!

God is the one who sets us apart (that’s what sanctify means), and he is the one who keeps us blameless. How does he do it? Easy. He gives us the Holy Spirit. He Himself dwells within us. Paul writes to the church in Galatia saying, Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (Galatians 5:16). Next week we will begin looking at what living by the Spirit looks like – you won’t want to miss this upcoming series on the Fruit of the Spirit.

Last week I talked a lot about hearing God’s voice – and this is key. We cannot live by the Spirit if we won’t listen to the Spirit. And when we stop sinning, instead of just quitting a sin, we truly repent, which means we turn 180 degrees and go in the opposite direction.

So this morning I invite you to truly repent. To allow God to clean house and to live in it, to fill it with Himself. Because he is the only one who will keep your spirit, soul, and body blameless. He is faithful, and he will do it.

Comments

Janie Treinish said…
Pastor Brian,
What a great sermon! I truly made me reflect on whether I repent my sins, or if I just try to quit doing them. So often, I do find myself just trying to avoid the things that I may do that are sinful, instead of sitting down and talking to God and truly repenting for it. Thank you so much! I love that you post these!
Janie T

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas Eve: Jesus is Hope, Love, Joy, Peace

Life Together: Live in Harmony with One Another

The Lord's Signet Ring