04.14.2013 What You Believe Affects the Way You Act

What you believe affects the way you act – Lies people believe – how they influence how we behave.
Good and Beautiful God –
Jesus understood how people changed – that is why He taught in stories. He used narrative to explain his view of the world.
If we adopt Jesus’ narratives about God, we will know God properly and it will change our actions. The opposite is true.
Let’s pray:
Lord, Jesus – even if this song talks about the lies we get tangled up in – we have been told lies about You and the world and ourselves, and those influence our behavior. Allow us to have our hearts open to You – to be available to hear what You would have to say and that You would allow us to be transformed by Your word and that actions would follow and the willingness to change would follow as well.
Last week, I mentioned that your view of God is what shapes and forms you – it determines the quality of your relationships – and it is imperative that we develop a proper view of God. The truth is that God loves us – but God’s love is foundational to all the qualities of God.
We see the other qualities of God distorted in religion when people don’t understand God’s love.
1 John 4:19 – We love because He first loved us.
In order for us to be transformed, we must understand and believe, contemplate and focus on His love for us. We don’t love because we try to. It doesn’t spring out of something inside of us. Right actions come not from us but from God’s love in us.
2 Cor. 5:14 For the love of Christ controls us – having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died…
This is so important to understand.
How can we understand and settle in our hearts that God loves us and let that determine how that causes us to live.
Luke 7: 36 Now one of the Pharisees was requesting Him to dine with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 And there was a woman in the city who was a sinner; and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, 38 and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a [ac]sinner.”
Understand – what this is saying – is she is a prostitute, and when the Pharisee looks at this, he sees immoral behavior. Imagine: you are giving a party at your house, and a prostitute barges in and starts attending to your guest of honor! Her actions are just immoral, he must have thought.
Jesus knew what Simon was thinking:
40 And Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he replied, “Say it, Teacher.” 41 “A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have judged correctly.”
Simon probably thought: I got an A!
This parable does not take much explaining – one owes 10 times as much – and they were both unable to repay – who loved more? Neither could repay. To really get this – we need to understand debt in their culture. Debt is a terrible thing – is it not? For some, it means working 2 jobs, 60 hours/week – working like crazy. Or eating beans and rice or filing bankruptcy. Being in debt is a terrible thing for us – but for them – if you could not repay – there were two solutions:
1) Servitude – you become a slave. This wasn’t like slavery in America, but it was still slavery. You would be owned by the lender – you might move into their house and serve there until you could pay the debt back.
And that was the easy solution.
The other solution is prison – debtor’s prison. There is another story where the king decrees, put him in prison until he pays every penny back. It doesn’t matter how much the debt is, but the consequences are severe.
A wealthy person would lend out money – philanthropically – and would forgive debt.
Like the philanthropists of our day – it was a competition to be seen – “I have forgiven these great debts”
44 Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
Jesus takes this ‘immoral, inappropriate action’ – and says to Simon – she is doing the moral, appropriate action – you are the one who is immoral and inappropriate.
When a debt is forgiven, the debtor is expected to express lavish praise on the forgiver. And that is what she is doing:
45 You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. 46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. 47 For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many,… - have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” 49 Those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” 50 And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Simon, in effect, you are the one who loves little. As we begin to grasp how much God loves us, it transforms the way we behave.
Those who get a grasp for it are often thought of as a little nuts – they’ve gone too far in this worshiping Jesus stuff! But we need to understand how much we have been truly, truly forgiven – and I think God calls us to take our love ‘a little too far’!
Do you feel better, more prepared to seek God, because you sinned less this week? The one who has been forgiven much loves much.
The reverse of this is not true – you can’t go out and really sin this week so that we can love that much more.
Very simple and profound story.
We – you and I - are the woman – that is the story. We don’t want to be the Pharisee. And that is the truth – how do we get that into our minds? How do we keep that as the motivation?
There are so many improper motivations to serve God – how do we keep the proper motivation in our mind?
1) We need to go to the place of forgiveness, the cross
Romans 5: 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Pay attention to the cross. The cross in our society is like, oh no, suffering! Blood! And we don’t spend much time thinking about it – we spend time thinking about how God is going to give us a wonderful life! But God’s love is primarily seen at the cross – and it is only there where we will truly understand God’s love.
He demonstrated His love at the cross.
I John 4: 10 In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
In what is love? Love is seen at the cross. I urge us to spend time – daily – thinking about the cross? When is the last time you contemplated it? Good Friday? And if you missed Good Friday, was it Good Friday a year ago?
Second – Understand God as the true father:
Matt. 7: 9 Is there anyone among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Parenting shapes our view of God. Even parents, who, like all of us, fail – yet still, you know, as a parent, you have this natural desire to care for your kids and to defend them, even if they’ve done wrong. And we are EVIL – he says! We need to understand the parent aspect of God.
When you see the father of extravagant love and grace in the parable of the lost son(s) – he is called the father of mercy – think about that – did you ever think about God that way? The God of all comfort. Like the little child who crawls into his parent’s lap for comfort – that is how God is.
Father of Rewards – the one who is faithful and true – and so often, we have a twisted view – because something went wrong in our childhood and we have an improper view of father.

We are God’s children – in a family with Him
1 – look at the cross
2 – understand the parental aspect of God.
3) Devotion – we keep things front and center when we focus on devotion.
another story in Luke –
Luke 10: 38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him as a guest. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted with all the preparations she had to make, so she came up to him and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work alone? Tell her to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the best part; it will not be taken away from her.”
Mary is taking a posture of devotion – like a disciple – that is what this idiom means here – like Paul, learning by being seated at the feet of Gamaliel. She is no different from the woman who showed such lavish devotion to the Master – listening to His word – she is at rest – fully devoted – yielded completely to Jesus – and silent as He speaks.
Mary calls us to not only times of devotion – but a life of devotion – a posture that places ourselves before Him.
Martha said to Him – Lord – do you not care that my sister…
Do you not care? Martha has a lie – it was last week’s lie – what was last week’s lie? God doesn’t care – What Martha is doing – she thinks that God’s love must be won by action – it is something you gain by the way you act.
Service flows out of being in His presence.
To wrap this up – applications to apply – yes, I know that is redundant, but I REALLY WANT YOU TO DO THESE THINGS – THEY WILL TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE!
I will make it easy
Develop a consistent devotional time – try it 3-4 times/week.
First – 5-20 minutes – Can you give God 5-20 minutes 3-4 times/week? If you have not done this much – start slow. Start off with silence an examination – I urge you to follow this. It has been practiced this way for centuries – STOP! Silent! Sitting! And allow God to examine your heart.
We live unexamined lives in this culture. Let God examine you.
Read in such a way that God can speak into your heart.
The psalmist said – search me, O God, and know my heart – try me and know my anxious ways.
When we read, it needs to be with a heart of meditation, contemplation – God’s voice speaking into us – He will – if we give Him the quietness –
and then close with a time of response and worship.
Pray. Pray over the word God has spoken into your heart – and determine to live that out during the day. Whatever God says, carry it with you – live it out!
That is the first practice – you can do it!
Second – even easier – but just as important – doing the evening, morning, and afternoon will I pray, and cry aloud – 2-5 minutes per day – take a break at work – and go to a short passage of scripture – go to the psalms or epistles of Paul – and pray God’s word to God. It is powerful. Pray the word of God. Jesus did it on the cross and in the garden – and it doesn’t take long.
Stop for 2-5 minutes. If you get to a part you can’t pray – go to the next part – then at lunch – and before bed.
Final reading –
From the Good and Beautiful God
We cannot change simply by saying, I want to change. We have to examine what we think, our narratives, and how we practice spiritual disciplines. It is not trying harder – it is about training better. Transformation comes when we put into practice the things that the Bible tells us to do in our relationship with God – and the more we practice – the more we can be transformed.