05.12.2013 Lies we Believe - the Anatomy of a Lie

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Jesus – there is no other name – every knee shall bow and tongue confess that You are Lord. Speak to us, Lord.
Over the next couple of Sundays, we’ll be concluding this series - The Lies People Believe – A couple of books that have helped me – going from the Lie to the Truth.
James Bryan Smith – young adult group went through – the Good and Beautiful God and The Good and Beautiful Life
Strong Winds and Crashing Waves – Terry Wardle
Genesis 3:3 – Satan is tempting Adam and Eve…
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
From the beginning, we have been bombarded with lies that destroy all that God has called us to be. Believing lies destroys lives. I’d like to sum this up and see how we change that narrative – we have this false narrative – beginning with the lie of the serpent – God doesn’t love you – nor does He have your best in mind.
The Anatomy of a Lie –
Life Situation
Dysfunctional Behavior
Emotional Upheaval
False Beliefs
Wounds
Living the Lie – going from the bottom up – it starts with a wound – a traumatic event that takes place in your life. Wounds are always based in the condition of sin. There are 3 ways this happens
1) it can be your own sin – self-inflicted – we have all done that – injured ourselves by our sin.
Second – This may be a majority – wounds that result from what others do to us – these are some of the hardest to overcome – especially if the wound comes from someone you are supposed to trust – especially from a parent.
Third – we live in a sinful world – traumatic events – an accident – earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, things that happen as a result of living in a fallen world.
That is where it begins. What happens – when we are injured or wounded, we turn that into a false belief.
False Beliefs – something happens that makes us think that God can’t be trusted – that God does not have our good in mind – then we begin to live by those false beliefs – we live our lives as if those things are true. We have been looking at these for the past 5 weeks. As a result of living those false beliefs – that causes an emotional response to the continuing events in life. As we go on believing that God can’t be trusted, something – as other stuff happens in our life – unrelated to those events that scarred you – things that have nothing to do with those events – and can be insignificant – but because that event has shaped you and you’re living this life based on a lie – we respond to this insignificant event as if it is the wounding event.
When a child is wounded by a parent or authority figure – and something happens to remind them of that – a child who feels neglected will act out. When a child is wounded by neglect – uncared for – not noticed – they get in circumstances that will erupt over seemingly minor things. You think – wow! Where did that come from? And as a parent, you deal with the acting out rather than the wound.
The reality is – there are many adults who do the same thing – we all do it in some way or another – we all do this.
So – the Emotional Upheaval – the Emotional Response to smaller events rather than the bigger event – these are the bad actions – we respond to what is going on inside of us.
First – dysfunctional behavior functions for a season. That is really important to understand. When we get in a situation – we act out and it works for us – and we think it protected me – gave control – but it wasn’t proper behavior. It may have protected you, but the behavior is not correct – it becomes an addiction. Say you are depressed – and you drink or take or act out – and it makes you feel good – it works for a short time. You overeat! It works! It makes you feel secure. You look at stuff you shouldn’t look like – it works! It satisfies! But it is really temporary – but it builds that habit.
IF you have any dysfunctional behavior – you have a wound. There is something that lies underneath the behavior. It starts at the bottom, because that is where it begins.
Third – there are two kinds of dysfunctional behavior – the acceptable kind and the unacceptable kind. You may be a fixer – who fixes everyone. Or a people pleaser – such a nice person – there are all kinds of acceptable dysfunctional behavior. The unacceptable kind – addictions – those are in front of us – and we know what those are.
Dysfunction starts with sin – ours, someone else’s – or living in a fallen world.
Life Situation – We respond in certain circumstances – we respond wrong – we become an addict – and we can’t hold down a job.
There is a line drawn between emotional upheaval and Dysfunctional behavior – we tend to focus on the behavior and life situation – those are easy to recognize.
When you change one dysfunctional behavior, you often change it to another one. You can’t just stop doing one thing – it just doesn’t work that way – it doesn’t solve the problem. Yes, you can stop smoking – but there has to be more than change that takes place.
You can’t deal with the top ones unless you go to the wound. You have to understand where the wound was and where it came from and the lie you believe because of that. The lie in your heart that keeps you from transformation and change.
We heal and grow only to the amount we understand the wound.
Quick caution – back to the Bible – back to Jesus. Some may disagree with this – I believe it is not our job to dig up the wound with a pick and shovel – that is to say – it is the job of the Holy Spirit. This is Pentecost – the day that God gave the Law to Moses – and the Day the Holy Spirit came. We live lives of the spirit – We have God involved in all of this – it is not just therapeutic. There is truth behind all of this – but we need God to be the one to identify for us WHY we are the way we are. Our job – when we recognize we have this dysfunctional behavior – and can’t get over this problem or that problem, our job is to invite the Holy Spirit into our problem and to lead and direct us and to open our eyes up. It is the whole CHANGE thing – we put our hearts and minds to working on it, but we have forgotten that we need God and His Spirit to change the whole thing. To do that, there has to be a willingness to give time to God. The whole point of this series is transformation – we have to give him the time – to be before Him – to stop everything else in our lives – turn off the media – and get away – get alone – where it can be you and God – and you can allow God this process of working in your life. Test me, try my heart – know my anxious ways – the Psalmist invites God in to begin the work – the process that takes time. It may take significant time – but the Spirit has to work and transform us. When we do that – and then discover the wound – the issues in our lives that are causing that- we have to begin the process of clarifying. We turn these things into stories because we don’t remember facts. Something happened to you that created this story – it may be your dad being an alcoholic and this and this and this – and these stories repeat – but we need to invite Jesus into that story and see how He becomes part of the story. Our feeling is that God wasn’t there – but as traumatic as that event could be – Jesus was there. For me – a big issue has been guilt for what I have done – I don’t have these “Others did to me” stories – but the thing that helped me most – a counselor told me to take the thing that I did and to bring it before the cross – picture it – Where you blew it and sinned – and see it before Jesus hanging on the cross – that He is dying for that very sin – and to give it to Him.
I don’t know what it is, but God wants to be engaged in that.
2 Cor. 3:18 – 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
To the extent we see Jesus in our story – is the extent we will be transformed. As we reflect – looking at Christ as in a mirror – being transformed from one image to another.
There is something interesting – transformed=metamorphosis
LIE: “Christian Discipleship Demands Change”
Truth: “Christian Discipleship Demands TRANSFORMATION”
Metamorphosis – what we have the ability to become – you have everything inside of you – to be what you need to be in every way, shape, or form. What we need to do – to become what we were created to become. To be what Jesus made us to be – it is pretty simple, really – you have that ability. That is why everything needs to be connected with God and He needs to be invited in.
When we sin or act out – demonstrate dysfunctional behavior – we are failing to live what is true about you – it is not how you are in Christ.
2 Cor. 5:17 – therefore, if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation – the old has passed away and the new has come.
If you have come to faith in Jesus, you are new creature on the inside – all of the old things that have controlled you in the past are gone – but it is a transformation – it takes time. Yes, you have been transformed – but you still need to be transformed every day and need to be transformed fully – at the return of Christ.
One final verse – to set up for next week -
Matthew 3:16 – This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.
This is the true narrative we need to believe. Did Jesus need to hear this? He was God! But the Father made sure He heard it. We may never hear it from our parents or friends or boss – but we all need to hear it from God. If you were to stand before Jesus – he would say – this is my beloved child – with whom I am well-pleased. Let’s pray.