Questions To Consider

Questions for Self-Examination in the Christian Life

All right this morning. We are going to make an attempt at a sort of an interactive thing a bit of a Departure from what I usually do. The we're going to look at some questions and get a little discussion going here.

John Wesley. John Wesley when he was in school They had a club it was called the holy club. Which back then was a much more, you know, people didn't look to askance at a name like that and this was a group of young men that came together to study the word and to.

They were very concerned with their personal lives how they lived their lives before the Lord and as. As part of this they they came up with 22 questions. And so we're going to look at those this morning a little bit and get some discussion going here.

I hope if we don't we're going to not be here very long. But these were questions that they they seriously discussed among themselves now if you can imagine a bunch of college guys getting together To discuss questions like this right today.

It is a little difficult. But this was the kind of things that young men got together and talked about. At least Christian young men got together and talked about back in John Wesley's time and the first question the first question was am I consciously or Unconsciously creating the impression that I'm better that I really am.

In other words, am I a hypocrite? Now hypocrites an interesting word because the literal Translation of the word that is translated hypocrite in the Bible is Without wax it means without wax. You know, what on earth does that mean?

Well in the good old days Pottery making was a major Operation and one of the professions that people would follow one of the crafts that they would follow and Some potters made excellent products and their products were well suited to the tasks that they had been intended for.

But other guys were not so scrupulous and what would happen is when the pottery would get made sometimes it would have cracks in it and If you were a good potter and your pot had a crack in it when it dried.

You simply destroyed it and went on and built something else, but if you were not quite so scrupulous. You would take a wax and you would fill the crack. So that at first glance when you looked at this this pot it looked fine.

Yeah. Until you did something like put water in it or wine or whatever else you were going to put in this pot and over time. The wax of course would come loose and come out and then the pot would begin to leak.

And so the term without wax Came to mean genuine you were the real deal you were the real article and This was the question that they were asking am I trying to create the impression that I'm better than I really am.

In other words, do I act one way in front of some people when I'm at church? Let's say and do I act differently? When I'm at work or when I'm in school or when I'm out of town. One teacher put it that you are what you really are is what you are when you're out of town and Nobody's going to see you that knows you and will ever see you again.

Comments and that's true. We do like to create a good image and of ourselves in front of other people. And there's a very real sense in which we should do that. I Was interested to read last week or two.

Something that is coming to the surface now with young people that are just now entering the workspace. That they seem totally unconcerned about making an impression on the customers on their boss on their fellow workers and.

It's it's not it's it's that they just don't care. They don't seem to care what kind of impression they make and so truthfully. Surely in one sense of the term we are supposed to make a good impression on.

On those around us now where if I ask you to support that from Scripture, where would you go? Yeah, Steve exactly, and this is a very good point for those of you that for the For the tape and what-have-you that the point that Steve just made was from Ecclesiastes, you know a good name.

We're supposed to have a good name. Proverbs says the same thing. We're supposed to have a good name. In fact, one of the very few things that the Bible says about Jesus growing. What does it say about him?

He found favor with God and man. You know the boy the little boy Jesus was well thought of in the village where he grew up and We are supposed to be well thought of in front of men because. Like Steve just pointed out if if it is particularly if it is known that we are Christians.

If you're if you're known as a Christian. Then men you better be the best at whatever it is you do. Whatever that is, you know, it's one thing to see your co-workers sloughing off. You know at work and not frankly these days not too many people think a lot of that think too much about it.

But if it's known that if you have a testimony that I'm a Christian. You're going to be held to a higher standard by those around you. Okay, you say you're a Christian. Well, you better act like it. Because if you say you're a Christian and you don't forget saying anything.

You know, you're not going to say anything you'd be talking to the wall, but that's it. That's a real point. It's interesting that that's the number one question. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating an impression that I'm better than I really am.

Or am I am I a hypocrite or do I'm I the genuine article? Do I sincerely really try to live? As a child of the king and used to be said parents used to say my mother for example. When I would go out. When I would go out at night.

Weekends, what have you? You know, she didn't give me a big list of things to watch out for do this do that don't do this. Don't do that. The list was much too long. So all she would say was remember who you are.

Now, what did she mean by that? She meant remember your family name. You're a member of this family. You represent the family when you're out there. When you do whatever you do, it reflects back upon your parents upon your sister upon Everyone else that is a member of your family.

And so the same thing Beloved you are sons and daughters of the king. You are members of the royal family of God and Everything you do reflects upon that family. So remember who you are. Remember who you are as you go through life.

Honesty in Speech and the Sin of Exaggeration

The second question they had was a Follow-on to the beginning. It's just follow us from it. Their second question was am I honest and all my accent words or do I exaggerate? Am I honest and all my accent words or do I exaggerate?

So, what about that. Don't we don't we tend to do that a little bit particularly we're talking about our own accomplishments in life. We sort of you know beef our role up a little bit.

Again comments good point and the resume is an excellent case in point.

Do we tend to pad the resume a little bit? Particularly when if you're particularly when you're writing if you ever take one of these courses in resume writing I'll just tell you up front what they're geared to is applying for sales type jobs because they tell you you know Use words like I did I accomplished I did this I did that and there's a certain Logic to that because after all you're trying to sell yourself.

That's what a resume does. But don't we tend to sort of pad that a little bit? The in the in the military, there's you see guys with you know, all the rows of Ribbons on their uniform. Well, there's two kinds of ribbons there's what we call hero medals and then there's what we call being there medals and To get a hero medal.

First of all, you have to be engaged in combat operations. If you're not at war, they don't issue those because to get one you generally had to do something that risked your life. Okay, but these being there ribbons, you know, you see these guys you know general so-and-so and all the stars and everything and if you look at the ribbons and they're all being there and I'm not trying to Put down all of those because there's legitimate reasons for giving them but It's almost the same issue.

Were you just there? Or Did you actually play an important pivotal role and whatever it is you're talking about? So Are you honest? Are you honest in your acts and your words? Or do you exaggerate do we give in to the normal?

Human sinful urge to increase our own importance. Third one. Do I? Confidentially pass on what was told to me in confidence, how about it? How about it? Do you are you like the the three pastors that were Confessing their sins one to another and the first one makes his confession and the Second one makes his confession and the third one says well brethren I must confess my besetting sin is gossip, and I can't wait to get out of here.

You Know how many times How many times in our lives have we violated the confidence of someone who spoke to us? Are you known as a person to whom one does not dare? Share a confidence. Because you know and I I'm not I'm separating this from from the actual malicious gossip.

There are such people in the world who deliberately Break confidences, but this is the thing where without even thinking about it. You know you? It goes back to are you trustworthy or not? If someone says something to you they they want to Share with someone a problem that they're having and they talk about it, and they would.

But they want it to remain in confidence and yet you say To someone else you say well, you know you Say so that you can pray about brother so-and-so You know I'm going to pray. Prayer is a good prayer is often used as an excuse for gossiping.

So that you can pray about such as such and such. Let me tell you something. Here's the news flash. God knows all the details about what you're praying about already. You know he's already got all the facts.

That's why he's God. He has all the facts already at his fingertips, and he has all the facts We never do. At best we will have a situation from one person's point of view we do not know what the rest of it is involved.

And as yes the fact that. The fact that you would question that.

Says good things about your character. But that's a good case in point. How close do you get? How do you balance off and see that's this brings up an extra an interesting point. A lot of these Situations are not black and white.

If they were it would be easy to deal with them wouldn't it? You know but How do you balance off a concern for your co-workers? With the need to keep things that you are told in confidence in confidence.

How do you balance that off the the extreme case That you would have of something like that is you know where would you draw the line? Where would you know that it has to break confidence like if someone told you in confidence that they're going to commit a crime.

Do you keep that to yourself? Or do you go talk to your friendly local policeman? You know and these are not these are not casual questions. There are questions that we face as we go through our lives.

But avoiding those types of things. Yes, yeah.

Yeah, but that that is a very valid point in particularly those of those who deal with young people.

There are situations where this kind of thing is going to come up more often if you deal with young people on a regular basis they are going to tell you things in confidence and the one thing that you desperately want to maintain is.

If you're going to have an effective ministry among these young people is they have to have confidence in you. That they can come to you, and you're not going to go blabbing it around, but there is a line where and I Think this was an example of the proper way to handle it.

You know if if some if a young person tells you something and This just cannot remain in confidence, then you tell them I am going to go tell your parents. Don't drop it on them as a bombshell but Avoiding those types of issues just in general.

We need to be known as people who keep our mouths shut. That if someone says something to you. That it is considered to be in confidence unless you know it is not. When someone tells you something personal about themselves that we just assume Automatically that that is in confidence.

Not to be shared with other people unless they specifically say yes, you can you can share this with someone else. Now there are people. Again I don't want to get too far afield in this, but there are things for example If you were to come to me or to one of the other elders in the church.

Know this that when you're talking to one of the elders you're talking to all of them. Because you can't come to me and say I'm going to tell you something. But you can't tell the rest of the elders. I would have to say then don't tell me at all.

Because that goes with the job. That's part of the job. So there are situations like that, but I'm talking about individuals just just as individuals. You want to be known as someone who can be trusted to keep a confidence?

That you can be taught someone can come to you talk to you knowing that it's not going anywhere else.

Trustworthiness and Keeping Your Word

Steve and that is an interesting point to that.

We should also we can when we look at these issues there is One sense to the world at large that they impact there is a much Higher sense in which the impact within the congregation of the church within the family of the church.

And the point was just made you know when a child has become baptized in the eyes of the congregation that makes them. We don't have second-class Members around here and If you're baptized, then you're treated as an adult by the church.

And I don't want to get off one of that too much but back to it back to our issue here. And all of this is kind of be it's all of the first three that we've talked about kid can kind of be summed up. In number four can I be trusted?

Can I be trusted? Can you be trusted is? Your is your yay is your yay. Yay, and your nay nay. Can you be if you come in and say something can I? Know that that's the way it is. If you say it's thus and such then is it thus and such.

When I was when I was going to officer candidate school back in the Dark Ages. We could get away with virtually anything in Fact we were encouraged to try to get away with things. But the one thing you could not do.

You could not lie about it. If you lied about something and you were caught you were gone and I mean you were gone that day I don't care if it was 8 p .m. At night by 830. You were out of the area. You were gone.

That was the one thing and why what were they driving home? They were driving home that if an officer's word cannot be trusted. What good is he? He's useless. If an officer says thus and such this is the way it is.

I've been over the hill and this is the way it is. They have to have confidence that that is the way it is and so they drove that that point home. You had to be truthful and what you said and that goes back to this same thing.

Can you be trusted? Can you be trusted? Can you be trusted in your personal life because sharing cop breaking a confidence? Means that you can't be trusted. Being hypocritical. You can't be trusted. If someone is known as for being hypocritical.

Well, how do I know that this time is this one real and that one's not and you know what it is. It's it's one of those things either you are what the the face you present to the world or you're not. Can you be trusted so then they go on they go on now this is very interesting remember that this list of questions is two hundred and something years old at this point and.

Freedom from Worldly Attachments

So here's the next one. Am I a slave to dress friends work or habits? Hmm. How interesting. Same issues that you have today. Am I a slave to dress friends work or habits? It was interesting that they looked at that as a reflection of their Christian lives what is important in your life.

What is important in your life? In other words now there no one is saying that you are to look like a slob. You know, we are to look nice. We are to Be clean. That's a matter of hygiene. We are to. You know our clothes should be clean our clothes should be neat and appropriate for whatever it is we're doing.

You know if what are you going to do if you're going to go out and paint the house? You're probably going to dress one way then if you're going to go to work, you're going to dress some other way. In fact from time to time.

I've seen guys at work and You feel like going over and asking them. Excuse me. Who do you work for? And do they let you come to work looking like this, you know, you wonder so this is not saying that.

That that you're to be. You're not to have consciousness about the way you appeared out to other people. But are you a slave to that? What are you a slave to? Another way of asking it is what is more important to you how you look.

To the world or How you look to God if I can use that expression what is more important? Because I'll give you another newsflash, you know looks change. Looks change young folks. You're fighting a battle with gravity and you know what gravity is going to win.

Ultimately gravity wins every time and. So if you base your entire existence who you are on the way you look. You're going to wind up. That's what happens to people. An example comes to mind. It's Marilyn Monroe.

Her whole existence was based around the way she looked. And she was an intelligent young woman and intelligent enough to know that this wasn't gonna last. And she had no way of dealing with that she had no way of dealing with that and so.

Are you a slave to dress. Are you a slave to dress to the way you look. Or are you a slave to friends? Is it more important to you? That you be in the in crowd at wherever it is. You are whether it's school or work or whatever.

Then you stand for the truth that you stand for the right. Because another thing is if you are known as a Christian. You're probably not going to be in the in crowd. You know if this that's just the way it goes.

So is that more important? Are you a slave to your work? And this one sort of applies to men more that more than women we tend to define ourselves by what we do by what our jobs are To. Unfortunately, it's becoming more and more characteristic of women as well that they define themselves in terms of their jobs and their professions but Do you define yourself?

Do you define yourself in terms of your work in terms of what you do? In other words, is there anything in your life, which is more important to you? Than God. Because what does God say thou shalt what have no other gods before me?

He's saying I'm first. I am number one and I will not give that position to anybody else or Anything else? That's what I demand. That's my criteria. I am going to be number one in your life. And If there's anything else It's number one in your life.

That's sin. And so God said that that's that's Commandment number one and it applies to us just as much as it applied to the children of Israel crossing Mount Sinai. So here's another one. Am I self-conscious self pitying or self justifying?

Another way to phrase that question is am I self-absorbed? Am I self-absorbed that is a characteristic of modern society is that we are surrounded by people. That are totally self-absorbed, of course, please.

Exactly. Yes, of course. It's the same argument that you know, well, I'm a self-made man and the answer to that is yes, we could tell You Know whatever but that's right it so often we We have this sense of self-importance which is misplaced.

Without going too far afield. When you run into someone who has a feeling that you know, everybody's out to get them. You know you run into people like that and I'm not talking about the clinical conditions I'm talking about you know guys that are just they're just absolutely sure the boss is out to get them and so forth and so on.

And you feel like saying to them something. It said let me let me tell you something in the grand scheme of things. You're not nearly that important. You're not nearly that important your boss isn't out to get you your boss is ignoring you is what's happening here.

But we are not supposed to be like that if anyone is not supposed to be in involved in navel-gazing. It should be a Christian. Because we are told what we are to focus our attention upon aren't we? We are told we are to focus our attention upon God and upon his word.

He gives us these things. Which are the proper places to put our efforts to put our study to spend our our time whatever in the pursuit of the Christian life and. So this I this this constant inward looking and one of the problems if you will that is that is besetting the Evangelical world right now is that we have switched the focus around so that we are no longer focused on God.

We are focused on what? Ourselves we're focused on men. It's the purpose-driven whatever. You know, we're focused on ourselves and we are not supposed to be focused on ourselves and yet this this whole idea of the the seeker driven this and and whatever that and The man-centered evangelism, you know come to Jesus for what you can get out of it.

You know come to Jesus. He's a great fire escape. There's a slogan for you. All of these things that's focused on on us and it's we're not supposed to be focused on ourselves. He said put your affections above right not on the earth and certainly not on yourself.

Yes.

Yeah, and that should. And actually now there is a slogan for you. The world doesn't revolve around you it truly does not. And.

Yet so often you run into little children You know and they think the world revolves around them because frankly the world their world does revolve around them. But their parents do not gradually Disabuse them of that idea as they get older and older and older so that all of a sudden here's an adult who still thinks The world revolves around them.

They haven't learned in easy stages that no, what do you know? That's not true. The world actually revolves around many other things. And so they get out into the real world and they're suddenly slammed in the face with the idea that guess what the world doesn't revolve around you you know and They have a great deal of trouble dealing with that.

So there they are. So here's a more here's a more personal one. Does the Bible live in me today? Did the Bible live in me today? Now? What what what do you think? They mean by that? Biblical principles a Way of living out what we're preaching.

Growing a sanctification. I would I would I would ask the question this way. Have you ever Changed something in your life because of what the Bible says. Have you ever been reading one morning as you do your?

Personal devotions or evening or whenever it is that you do you do them and you're reading something and it says you say Hmm. Oh. You know, I don't do that or I do do that and it says not to and so therefore I've got to change something.

What what what they're asking when it says did the Bible live in me today is does the Bible Practically affect what you do. Is it practical in your life? Is it something that you really apply to your life or is it simply an intellectual exercise as you go through?

On the morning and you read and your whole objective when you have your devotion time is to simply move the marker. You know as quickly as I can get from this page to that page and I can move the ribbon over one I'm done.

You know and then off we go or Do you consciously apply what you have read to your life? Do you see the Christian life as being a practical application in your life or is it divorced. Now you may there have been some things said in the press and one thing fairly recently where The idea that's being expressed is It's fine for these Christians or whatever they want to call themselves.

It's fine for them to believe anything that they want. But they can't let it affect their lives. And when you think about that you think Excuse me. You know. It's it's okay for me to believe this as long as I don't let it affect my life.

Let's be sure I got this, right and You know, how is that possible? How can if how if I believe something by definition it's going to affect my life. You know, why don't I walk across the street Without looking first to see if there's a car coming because I believe that if a car contacts my body it's going to be a bad thing and.

So that applies to my life in a physical way. How can I possibly believe something and not apply it and if it is definitely part of my life? How can I how can it not affect the way I live? Yeah, Bruce absolutely.

Absolutely it we we need absolute recently in the last couple of weeks. I have been spending time with Francis Schaeffer. I would recommend that to all of you. His book how should we then live or the God who is there and are any of these?

Books that dr. Schaeffer wrote but one of the things that has been driven home is that Absolutes are necessary to give meaning to the rest of life. Or as dr. Schaeffer puts it it is the universal. That gives meaning to the particulars we are all particulars.

You know because we're part of a larger whole a larger universal absolute. So there are absolute Moral standards that apply to everyone not just to Christians. They apply to everyone in God's creation.

But this idea like you say the idea that there are absolutes we have abandoned that idea. That's one of the hallmarks of post-modernism is that they've abandoned the whole idea that there are absolutes and if there are no absolutes then ultimately you destroyed the basis for any meaning in your life and You and then you can come up with statements like we have just been discussing and they make perfectly logical sense or illogical sense if you will.

To the speaker as to how you can believe something and hold of this belief, but not have it affect your life. They can understand how you can do that. I can't frankly. But back to our questions and we're not going to get through all of them.

I can see that. Did the Bible live in me today do I give it time to speak to me every day. Do I give it time. Again it goes back to this idea. How is your. How are your personal devotion times run? Are you trying to just move the marker?

And as soon as I get that marker move man, I'm gone I'm out of here or. Do you take time to ponder what it is you've read and I'll tell you this it is better To read one verse and reflect on it Than to read a whole chapter if it's just read and you're out of there.

Take the time allow the time and at however much time you have. You know, however much time you have if you have 15 minutes then divide that time carefully in time for eating taking in the word and Reflecting on it.

Let it digest and then some time for prayer. If you have 10 minutes divide the time if you have 30 minutes, you know, praise the Lord if you have an hour praise him even more. Whatever it is that you have but very carefully husband that time that you have so that you do you allow the Word of God to speak to you and It just doesn't go thundering past.

Prayer, Evangelism, and Stewardship of Time and Money

Number nine affects that same thing. Am I enjoying prayer and why wouldn't you be enjoying prayer? You enjoy speaking to the people around you, don't you? Men don't you enjoy speaking to your wives wives.

Don't you enjoy speaking to your husbands? Why would you not enjoy speaking to your heavenly father? I used to enjoy speaking to my earthly father. About the topics that were of interest to us and that the good thing about your heavenly father.

See, is that everything about you interest him? Everything about you interesting. He wants you to speak to him. He makes it possible for you to speak to him and so you should enjoy prayer. Question ten.

When did I last speak to someone else about my faith? That was a question. They constantly they can't constantly ask themselves. You know encouraging each other. When was the last time you spoke to someone about your faith that we're not going to ask for a show of hands at this point, but.

So often. Don't we kind of soft-pedal that. We don't kind of soft pedal that you know. We don't want to be known as the Holy Joe or the Sky Pilot or whatever other term that is given and. So we keep quiet we could when we should speak.

Some people speak when they should keep quiet, but that's a much smaller problem as a rule. A question 11. Do I pray about the money that I spend? How many of us do that as a regular thing pray about the money that you spend?

Pray about the. You can expand the statement. Do you pray about your resources whatever they are? And most of us have our resources fall into two main categories money and time. Those are the two big resources that we all have.

Most of us have more time than money. Some of us have very little of either. But whatever it is, they are resources and they have to be parceled out carefully and it requires thought and reflection and God has a path for you to follow and He will lead you in that path.

But it requires prayer. Think about what am I going to do? How am I going to use my time? How am I going to use my resources? How am I going to use my money? Very few people. Have enough money to do everything they could possibly want to do without having to think about it.

We all have to make choices if we do this. We can't do that if we do that over there, we can't do this over here and those decisions. We should go to the throne of grace before we make those kinds of decisions.

Self-Discipline, Family Responsibility, and the Seasons of Life

Okay. Now here's one that at first glance May strike you as kind of odd. For a a group that calls themselves the Holy Club to be concerned with and. It's this one. Do I go to bed on time and get up on time?

Why would they be concerned with that? Okay, it's it's the first thing in managing your resources. That's that's one excellent point anything else excuse. Discipline there was discipline. That's really a way of saying am I self-disciplined?

Am I self-disciplined. The mark of an adult one of the marks of an adult is that you can be self-disciplined.

Yes, that's right, that's a very good point that if you didn't hear that the point was made.

This is very important in the life of a pastor. Because all too often in a pastor the congregation expects the pastor to be Superman. Burning the candle at both ends and in the middle running constantly teaching preaching visiting the sick doing this doing that and something's got to give and The things that most commonly give our physical health number one and the family life of the pastor.

The the The pastor's kid the terrible pastor's kid is a caricature in Evangelical society. But that's because all too often the thing that gets left behind is the pastor's family and One of the jobs quite frankly of the elders of your elders is to see to it that our pastor does not do that is to put the brakes on him and Say no, you can't do that because it's going to overload you.

Yes. Yeah exactly exactly and of course and we go through phases in our lives, don't we we go through phases when. When we're young and we have young children, those children are going to be the focus of our lives.

But that's not the end of life see kids grow up and there's going to be other things that come one thing follows another and follows another and follows follows another and Then when you get to the end of your life for example.

Again, the the use of my own mother. She's she's pretty close to the end. You know, I mean She might make a hundred and I hope she does. So what she but she has time now to mentor all these young ladies.

Who come to her with their with the same problems? It's always the same problems. They come to her because they think this is never going to end. But here's somebody who can say been there done that it does come to an end.

You know, it's not gonna last forever. Your child will not be in diapers when it starts the first grade. You know on and on and on and so and and this is God's mercy to us as well. This is why he. This is why he he gives in in the body of Christ when he assembles the local congregation.

He has The whole range of people there that he's put together in that in that body of Christ. Anyway, we're gonna stop there At that time. Let me just read the rest of them very quickly because we are out of time.

That you can think about some more of these other things. Number 13 was do I disobey God and anything. There's a the theological name for that is sin. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscious is uneasy and The theological name for that is sin.

Because the Bible strictly specifically says if you do something that Bothers your conscience that's sin. That's sin. Am I defeated in any part of my life? Am I jealous impure critical irritable touchy or?

Distrustful we could give a whole lesson on that one. How do I spend my spare time? Am I proud? Do I thank God that I am NOT as other people? Particularly as the Pharisees who despise the publican. Is there anyone whom I fear dislike disown criticize hold a resentment toward or disregard if so.