December 8, 2002

    Father it is a wonderful place to be on a Sunday morning to sing your praises and to enjoy songs of the wonderful Christmas season. It reminds us again that you came to be one of us and so that you might die in our place. That we might have eternal life. It was not for your own good that you did it, because you loved us so much. Father we thank you for that. We relish in that fact and we surround ourselves with the songs and the thoughts of that during this season as we certainly enjoy it so much. Father, I thank you that you have made that story possible in Christ, that we may have life in him. In Jesus name, Amen.
    We always like to introduce new babies, but actually there is a baby marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Riley Lee have just gotten married a couple weeks ago. If you get a chance, say Hi to them and congratulations and to enjoy their marriage. 
    Greet your neighbors and tell them what you would like for Christmas, just in case they didn’t know. 
(Guest speaker, Bob)
    One of the basic lessons in music I always think was to be in the right mood. I didn’t understand at first when Steve said you need to bring us back Bob. We celebrate Christmas every year and many times many of us do it very frivols. We don’t take it very serious, we simply buy some presents and there it is at Christmas and Christmas Eve. Here at our church we celebrate high spirit on a daily basis, we accelerate that celebration of Christ spirit at this time of year. In doing so we often think of all the individuals that played a certain part. One of them was Joseph and as we read last week and how a surprise it was for Joseph. And what had happened and the news he had received. I have to keep coming back wondering what did he think? What went through his mind? How did he handle it? What were the questions that he had when he was told by the angle what was going to be happening? Was one of those, this is such a strange way to save the world.

MUSIC

(Pastor Malson)
    It is nice to be back, Kate and I were in Texas last week visiting our daughter, son n law, and granddaughters and see part of the great big state. Where they live is not all that pretty but we did see some of the area that was nice. It was great to see our family. As I traveled back Kate flew back last Sunday and I drove back. I found a vehicle down there I liked, so I bought it and drove back by myself. Which happens once in a while. I find a vehicle I like and get rid of old ones. I listen to sermons all the way home on Sunday last week and it was kind of fun. I wasn’t able to be in church on Sunday, having to drop Kate to the airport during church time. So I listened to all the Christian radio stations I could all day. There were some really interesting sermons. A lot of different subjects, some of them were very helpful, some of them were very helpful, some of them were so churchie sounding that if you did not have a lot of back ground in church you would not understand what the guy was saying. A couple of them were very practical. The most note worthy one was called ‘Christmas, the Demon Holiday‘. Telling us that we should never celebrate Christmas because it is a pagan worship day. It was an interesting sermon and so don’t expect anything from me this year. (haha) I don’t mind if you celebrate it and give me lots of stuff, but I’m not getting you anything. Actually, it was interesting, it was based upon some very definite opinions the guy had and some supposed facts and a twist of a fact here and there. He suggests that the Bible never, anywhere suggest that we should celebrate Christ birth. The shepherds did and the wise man came and so all those things did take place. He had to leave a few things out in order to make his point, but if nothing else it killed a half an hour driving.
    Tonight as you heard, Steve Evans will be here. We want you to come to the Olympics. Bring your friends, too. If you are an adult come because there is stuff for you. Come in play clothes, obviously. Bring your kids however old they may be or young. And also bring friends of your kids-bring them all. It is going to be a whole evening of enjoyment. There will be quire practice and other things will be going on. Plan on being here and enjoying the evening. This Friday and Saturday evening are the nights of the dinner theater and people are calling in regularly with reservations. If you haven’t got yours in, call right away. We want you to come. We want to have the 200 a night. Make sure you call in. Bring friends to that too, it will be a wonderful evening of good food, decorations and just great music. So plan on being here for that. Other things you can see for yourself. 
    This afternoon 5:30 they will be filling boxes for the service people. so be here at 5:30 for that and we will send the boxes off to the service men. These have been primarily for children of ours and close relatives. If we had all service men we all know there would be so many we couldn’t do that. So it is limited, I think we have 10 or 12 different people that we are going to be sending boxes to. 
    How many of you know a hypocrite? How many of you admit to being one? One of the things I’ve heard people say over the years is that they don’t come to church because there is too many hypocrites in the church. Others say, well come on in there is always room for one more. We’ve heard all different responses to that. 
    For some reason the Lord laid on my heart this week that we should study Mathew chapter 23. So find Matthew 23, which is located right after chapter 22. Believe it or not just before chapter 24. In the first book of the New Testament. If you remember we are studying the words in red and these are all in red. This whole chapter, except the first verse, these are words that Jesus gave us so we need to make special note of them and he covers the whole area of hypocrisy and people who are hypocrites. He actually calls them hypocrites. Actually, he describes them early in the chapter. So we going to see what the description of a hypocrite and also were going to see the signs of hypocrisy. If you look at Matthew 23 we will read it as we go. I’m not going to read it all as one chunk, were going to read it in bits and pieces. We’ll read through verse 12. 
    Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
Everything they do is done for men to see. They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi". 
"But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
    Well the problem here is pride. It’s being able to make your won way in the spiritual world regardless of God. In fact, he talks about these things. He talks about 5 signs actually of hypocrites in these verses. Look at verse 2. They see themselves in the chair of Moses. By the way, the word hypocrite means to make a sound judgment. But actually over time it changed its meaning. In fact, it became known to be putting on a mask. To be like an actor, as someone who appears one thing but being someone else. But the word itself doesn’t actually mean that, but it came to mean that over time. So a hypocrite is someone who puts on a front, puts on a show of one thing that is actually something else. Jesus told about these people and says here is some characteristics. Number one he describes the Parisees. They have seated themselves in this chair as Moses. Now Moses, if you remember, in the Old Testament, in the book of exodus, he reserved the loft of God. He reserved how many commandments? Ten Commandments. He brought them down from the mountain, eventually broke them. The stones at least. He had to make more. Then the people broke all the commandments even though the stones were still good. We have Moses that brought the law down. Moses is the one who received the law from God. Then showed the people what the law of God was and he was also responsible to administer the law. When people came with questions about the law he was the one to answer them. As we know Jethro, Moses’ father-n-law came a long and said Moses you are getting to busy at this who can help you do this job. So he appointed leaders 10’s, 50’s, 100’s, 1,000’s and spread the work around a little bit. Moses was the one who was in charge of the law. He was responsible to God for giving the law clearly and applying it properly. Now the Pharisee describes a hypocrite is somebody who takes it upon themselves the responsibility or the privilege of giving you the law. They have the attitude that they are the one who knows what God says about things and what He means about things and therefore how we should live. They tend to be able to tell you everything you should be doing. But notice in the second verse there is a problem. The third verse says therefore, all that do -all they tell you to do, do not do according to their deeds. For they say things, but do not do things. They are willing to tell you how to live your life, but don’t look for the same things in their life because they aren’t living it. They are happy to tell you how you should live as a Christian or as a moral person but don’t look behind them to see how they actually live it, because they are not living it. That is the assents of hypocrisy isn’t it? We see people who are one thing on a Sunday or one thing publicly but another thing behind the scenes. They say things but they don’t do them themselves. That is one of the signs of a hypocrite.
    Verse 4 says they tie up heavy loads and lay them on men's shoulders but they themselves are unwilling to move as much as a finger. So they are willing to give you lots of rule and regulations for you to follow and for you to carry out, but they are not willing themselves to do the some things. In fact, they are probably pretty happy to tell you how you should end certain habits. Maybe how you should do something differently. Like you should always be in church every Sunday. You’ve probably had people tell you that when you have missed once in a while. Like someone probably will tell Moose this week you should be in church because he was talked about Sunday. That doesn’t mean you are a hypocrite, you are just encouraging Moose to be back in Church. He probably is in church, some where. Does everyone know Moose? You won’t find a neater guy that Moose. He just doesn’t happen to be here today, so we will talk about him. But hypocrite are happy to tell you where you ought to be, any time, all the time, how you ought to be running your life, but they are not willing to help you live that life. They might tell you all your problems but they won't lift a finger to actually help you conquer those problems. A hypocrite is willing to do the talking but not do anything in action. He also says in Verse 5. They do all their deeds to be noticed by men. For they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. Well, we don’t wear phylacteries and we don’t have tassels on most of our garments. The robes that they would wear actually had teasels, different colored ones. The colors were to signify different aspects of their worship. The phylacteries were actually little boxes. There were little quotations of scripture. Like from exodus and different places from the Old Testament that they would put down on little pieces of parchment or velum and they would put these in little boxes. They were to wear them as signs on you forehead and your arms and door posts pf your house. They were actually little boxes that they would wear as a headpiece and the little box would be there to always remind them or the teaching of God. They would wear them on their shoulders in order to keep them reminded of the truths of God. They should worship God and only him. They would lengthen the tassel to make sure people knew they were pious people. They would make not just little boxes; they would make really big ones. They would make very large phylacteries so that people knew how spiritual they were. They said they’d broaden their phylacteries they would make a big show of being pious, but they do all their deeds for public show and that s all. Remember Jesus talked about that in early Matthew. He said watch out for people who pray in the market places and give elms to be noticed by men. They have their reward. If that is the case and so He says be careful of hypocrites because they don’t do nice things unless there is some credits to be gotten. Now once in a while, I think we should look at ourselves and say is that me too? Because there is times I think we weigh if we want to do a nice thing as to if it will be noticed. There is a bit of hypocrisy there, isn’t it? If were doing it because it is a good thing to do or it is a good thing to do because it will be notice. A hypocrite does only things that are going to be notices, and he'll get credit for it. So there is always that looking around to say, is anyone noticing when I give money to the church, is there someone watching when I do this nice thing for this person. Or do you have to always tell people that you did something nice for some body? If you do it for the notice of men, Jesus said you already have your reward. You are done then. He says that is the essence of hypocrisy. When a person make s a show of piety, but only do good deed because they are going to get good credit for it from people, not from God. He says that is why our left hand should know what our right hand is doing. We should do our deeds in secret. Therefore, the Father who sees in secret will reward us. We want our reward from God. The hypocrite wants his reward here and now from people because he is out to please people rather than God himself. Actually, to please himself by being noticed. 
    Notice what they say next in verse 5. They love the place of honor at the banquet and the chief seats in the sin gods and respectful greetings in the market place and being called by men rabbi. There are three terms of people who were often called Rob, Rabbi, and 
    Rabbin. Rabbin is actually plural of Rabbi. Rabbi means infallible teacher. It is a term meaning infallible teacher, wonderful speaker and what you say is the truth and whole truth. He says and nothing but the truth from God. Hypocrites love to have people honor them as being the know all and understand all from God. Being called infallible teacher. Isn’t it wonderful to have people’s respect and honor? 
    The person that does good deeds because they get credit form who are watching is a hypocrite. Hypocrite means the teaching of the law and explaining of the law is the purpose of me doing what I want to. Because even though they say good things don’t look for it in their own life. They are not following it. Instead, there is a slow of piety and a statement of piety but there is no proof to back it up. We recognize that in people don’t we?        
    There are some interesting things that Jesus says next about hypocrites that we don’t want have said about us. There is a difference between a hypocrite and a failure, OK? All of us fail at being perfect. Not one of us fails at being perfect. We as Christians fail, we sin, we make mistakes, we have poor judgments, and we fall short of Gods perfection. We are sinners even though Christians. We do mess up, that is not hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is not failure. Hypocrisy is when you deliberately put on a face and claim you are not failing when everyone knows you are failing. So we need to make sure we understand the difference. If you know someone you would like to claim is a hypocrite, maybe they’re not a hypocrite, maybe their not very good at living a Christian life. Because there is some of us that struggle with things and so struggling is not hypocrisy. It is when we quit struggling and make the claim of having no longer a need to struggle is the hypocrisy. 
    So look what Jesus says next. This is a very famous passage; it is called the chapter of the 7 woe’s. You can understand why because each time He says woe to Pharisees is added up to 7 or 8 of them. Verse 13 says took up but woe to you - scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because you shut off a kingdom of heaven for men. For you do not enter yourselves nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Now this is probably the most serious judgment that Jesus makes, I believe. It is the most serious judgment he can make. It says this: You are not going in. Doesn’t he say that? You are not entering and you do not allow others who would like to enter to do so either. That is the most railing judgment. If you are a hypocrite, if you are saying one thing and living another way. There is going to be people who would like to enter the kingdom of God, but won’t because of you. If you make a show of being a Christian, and yet you are on the internet pornography and people find out about it or if you are reading pornography or if you are lying and cheating and they can’t trust you in business. If they know you make a claim of spirituality because they know you go to church. Maybe you teach Sunday school, maybe because you participate in the church life and you make a claim to be a Christian. Yet, they know that you are practicing secretly things that are not biblical and not trying to work on the problem or to try to fix them. They may not enter because of you or because of me. That is an awful judgment, isn’t it? Jesus says about people he says if you cause one of these little ones to stumble he says it is better you have a millstone hung around your knock and tossed in the sea. This is bad for you to cause people to not enter the kingdom of God. So he says hypocrites, you are not entering and neither are you allowing anyone else to enter because your life. That an awful thing to have said about us. So if we are making a show of piety and were not fixing our own life we need to fix it. There maybe people out there that are not entering the kingdom of God because of our example. We need to fix it. We need to fix our lives. 
    That is why later Jesus in verse 25 talks about the cup. The outside of the cup or the inside. The outside is being clean but the inside being dirty. Well clean the inside of the cup. Clean the inside of the cup. Hypocrisy is not for ever. If there are problems in our life, we can fix them. Don’t claim there is no problems when God knows and we know and other people know there is. Fix the problems so there is not a measure of hypocrisy in our lives. We may be shutting off the kingdom of heaven to other people and not even realizing it. Verse 14 says hypocrites, scribes and Pharisees woe to you because you devour widows houses even while making a pretense and long prayers. Therefore, you should receive greater condemnation. You’re displaying your Christianity, to all the people yet, when no body knows and when no body is looking your back her foreclosing on people. You are not generous at all. You’re making a claim of honoring God with your life visible, audible claim, and yet when people look behind you in your business practices they see dirt. That is hypocrisy. If you read the book of proverbs it has all kinds of wonderful passages. It takes about how life should be consistent with our faith.
    Verse 15 says woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are. It is interesting they make great effort to bring converts into their faith. What kind of faith are they bringing them into? Hypocrite? So they become more of a hypocrite. If the gospel that we represent is no real gospel, than the person that believes it is worse than we are in a sense. We are converting them to a false gospel because of our life. He says watch out you hypocrites. 
    Verse 16 He says Woe to you, blind guides! You say, If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath. You blind fools? Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? Which is more important the money or the vow? They actually formed a practice of saying if you make a vow by the temple you don’t have to keep that one. If you make a vow by the gold on the temple you have to keep that one. Isn’t that strange? A vow means you are going to do it, right? That is why Jesus said let your yes be yes and your no be no. If you have to strengthen beyond that you must be a sinner. That’s of sin. So He says if you’re saying yes mean yes, you don’t have to make a vow. You especially don’t have to make a false vow. How can you make a false vow? A false vow is one you don't intend to keep. But they said if you make a vow by the temple that is not binding, but if you make it by the golden temple that is binding. Wow, where are your priorities? It is greed, money, it is things. 
    It says in Verse 19, You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, he who swears, swears by the altar and everything on it and he who swears by the temple, swears by the temple and by him who dwells within it. He, who swears by Heaven, swears by both the throne of God and by he who sits upon it. So it doesn’t matter what your vow its, it is before God. Whether you say it by the gold of the temple or what ever it is. It is a vow before God.
    Chapter 5 says, when you make a vow to God do not delay in paying it for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep your vows. Why should God be angry because of your voice and destroy the work of your hands. So He says if you are going to say yes, it better mean yes. 
    In Psalm 15 it talks about the man who is going to enjoy heaven with God. He is going to live on the holy hill with God. He is a man who swears to his own hurt but does not change. When someone swears to something and makes a vow to do something and when circumstances change and makes it less good for him, he keeps his vow anyways because he is a man of honor. God takes great pleasure in integrity. He takes no pleasure in vows that are broken. He is a God of truth. We trust God don’t we? He says Jesus is the only way of truth and life. None come to the Father but through him. My whole life is built on that promise. Your whole life, your whole future is built on that promise. That Jesus Christ died on the cross, he rose from the dead so that we can have life in his name and only though his name. No one else in the whole world except Christians. It is open to everyone, of course, but only those who except Jesus as their savior are going to heaven. Not my rule, God’s rule. He created us, he set the standards. Therefore, there is only a narrow way. You can get in through Jesus Christ. I trust that. I count on that. Wouldn’t it be awful to find out when you get up there that everyone got in no matter what? All the sinners and murders and all the people who rejected God completely. You got there and God said I was just kidding. I just wanted you to live a nice life. So when you got here you’d be happy. That isn’t how he set it up. You said only those who trust Christ and I trusted Christ and I counted on that. I’d mind! Wouldn’t you? You don’t like being lied to, do you? So He says if you’re going to swear by the temple you swear by the person who is behind the temple. If you say yes it means yes, it’s a vow. So if you say yes, I’ll be there at a certain time be there at a certain time. If you say yes I’ll fulfill this obligation. Fulfill the obligation. Even if you find it is going to cost you. Because you said you would. We want God to say He would and than do it. We want God to be trustworthy. He is a God of Truth. So therefore, we should be people of truth. That is why he hates lying so much. He says you people have made so that you don’t have even to tell the truth. You can vow to tell the truth, and not tell the truth and say it’s ok with God. It is not ok with God. You hypocrites. 
    Verse 23 woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisee, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices -mints, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. A dill seed is very small isn’t? They would separate the seeds and count how many dill seeds they had so they made sure they tied exactly a tenth of their dill seeds. He says while you're doing that you are neglecting mercy, justice, and faithfulness. He says which is most important? Not that you shouldn’t tide, but you sat there counting all your dill seeds and actually do something good for your neighbor, rather than spending all your time doing this. You should tied, but the tiding does not make you righteous. Righteousness makes you tied. You need to do both. One, the tiding, does not supersede the righteousness. Righteousness does not supersede the tiding but it causes it. You will tide if you are a righteous person. But the tiding itself does not make you righteous. It comes out of the main point.
Verse 26, says Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Verse 27, Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. He says he uses the cup, he uses the tomb. Have you ever seen a coffee cup that hasn’t been cleaned out very well? Or a cup of soup or something like that. You look at it and think, I don’t think I want to eat out of this one. Well, the outside is clean why not use it? It is not the outside that is the important part is it? The inside is the important part. The top of the plate is the important part not the bottom. I told you once, I think, about back in the old conference days when we use to work at Carson City and help wash dishes. We were washing dishes one day and they had a huge meal where there was hundred of people there and there was a guy who offered to help wash dishes and so he was washing. We began to notice he was only washing the top and moving them on to the person drying them. We asked shouldn’t you wash the bottom to? He said why, we only eat off the top. Yea, but they’ve been stacked top to bottom all the way up here and you turn them over and there is all this stuff from the top of this plate. No thanks! So it is important to clean both, it is important to have a clean dish all the way around. 
    So he says you people clean the inside and the outside don’t just clean the outside and say that is good enough. It is not good enough, God looks on the inside and we look on the outside. Remember when Samuel went to choose a king? God sent him to King David’s home and he brought out all of his sons. Samuel said this one looks good, they all look like they would make good kings. God said no, none of these guys. He said remember Samuel I look on the inside you look on the out side. See a hypocrite is fooled into thinking people don’t notice what is on the inside. We do don’t we? It becomes clear after a while that a person makes a claim to piety who doesn’t live it is not really a Christian. They are only saying they are. That is why I say the most railing accusation that Jesus makes is that you are not entering the kingdom and you keep others out too. I don’t think a real hypocrite is a Christian. They are making a show of it, for the purpose of being noticed by people they are really not a Christian. I think that is what he is saying. Wow, notice the last thing he says. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And You say, If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken pat with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up the, the measure of the sin of your forefathers! You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? He says they would actually decorate the tombs of the prophets and say we are better than the ones who killed them because we would never do that. We’re actually probably much better than the prophets. Taking the seat of Moses they were claiming great/high places. Jesus said no, your pride is what is going to kill you. That’s why he says in verse 12, who ever exalts himself should be humble and who ever humbles himself should be exalted. There are a couple of questions I would like to ask. One of them is this: don’t answer. Are you a hypocrite? A hypocrite is someone who knows they are not a Christian and are making a show of it. George Barna does research around the whole country. He researches churches, Disney, Coco Cola, and many other things. He is a surveyor. He does surveys for all types of companies so he can survey for churches. He does the church stuff free, and the other for pay. That way he can find out what is happening in churches all around the world. Well, he came to an interesting conclusion that about 39% of all people in church are not Christians. He would suggest that in our congregation of the 325 or so people that are in our church that 39% of the people are not truly saved. That is using all churches of all sorts. So I would hope that the % is much smaller here. Now it is ok to not be a person that is a Christian but who is seeking, who is searching, and who is trying to understand what it is all about. It’s not a problem to be a non-believer. It is an eternal problem of course, but it is not a bad thing to be a person who is seeking. That is good. The Bible says Jesus came to seek and to save those, which were lost. He says if you seek me with your whole heart you will find me. Those who come to me must believe that He is and He is a reward to those who genuinely seek him. 
     So it is good to be a seeker of Christ. It is better to make a decision for Christ. It is bad, however, to make show of Christianity, and not be one. That is hypocrisy. A Christian who shows himself/herself as being a spiritual Christian and not live it. That is very bad. Jesus said you may not be entering yourself and your shutting up so others people cant enter. There are many people who don’t go to church because they know Christians and how they really live. They are turned off to Christ because of that person. Hopefully it is not you or me. So if you are one clean the inside of the cup. Clean the inside of the cup so that the outside and inside are clean. Don’t make just a show of Christianity. Make it real in your life. What happens if you know a person who is making a show but their life is not consistent with their words? 
Paul say in Galatians 6:1 you should go to this person and say sir/maam I know that you are vocal in your faith but over here there is something in your life that you know and I know that need to be fix. To make your life consistent with your words. We have the privilege or the right or the responsibility to correct sin when it is found. Gently, carefully for the purpose of restoration not for the purpose of condemnation. If nothing happens we are to avoid contact. If you know someone who is making a claim of spirituality and their life doesn’t back it up and they are greedy and they are all of what Jesus said. 
In 1 Corinthians, Paul says if you have a so-called brother who is like this, don’t be with him. Don’t even eat with such a one. Obviously, that is after you sought reiteration. If there is no restoration he says don’t go near them. For people who say they are Christians whose life who isn’t. Who live sinners life's and don’t make any changes don’t associate with them. Don’t even eat with such a one. So avoid them if they are truly hypocrites stay away from them. For those of you who are looking on and saying I see a person who says he is a Christian but he sure doesn’t act like it. If nothing else ignore them, because they do not reflect Christianity. They don’t reflect Christ. Our job is to let our light shine in such a way the people would see our good works and glory in our Father who is heaven. If our purpose is to glorify our self people should turn their backs on us and say you do not exist for me because you are not truly a Christian. The problem is so many people see Christ through us if they don’t see Christ in us they don’t want him. We say we have him and don’t live like him. So they say they don’t want we have. As a pretense of hypocrisy we want to make sure our lives and our words match. Failure isn’t hypocrisy, necessarily. Hypocrisy is failure.

Let’s pray
Father we ask this morning that our lives be consistent with our words. Father we want to live a life that is consistent with what you have called us to live. Paul says our life should be worthy of our faith. We have claimed Jesus Christ as our savior and you have claimed us therefore as your children. We want to be obedient children we want to be faithful and merciful and Just. We want to tide but not believe in tiding in itself makes us righteous. We want to tide out of grateful heart, out of obedient heart. You called us to You want us to do good deeds because they are good to do, not because they will be noticed by people and were going to get a pat on the back. It tells us in Proverbs that as a crucible as test the silver and gold praise is what tests the hearts of men. When people praise us what do we do with that praise? Do we defer it to You or do we accept it and glow in its light? Father, we know that we are to reflect all praise to you if were going to glory-glory in Christ Jesus. Glory in our father who gave us Jesus his Son. Father our lives are so important to those around us because they see in us, Christ. And Father we want them to see Christ in us. Help it to be so. 
In Jesus name, Amen. 

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