On Sunday we are looking at the last of our Seven Deadly Sins. We are actually going to be looking at a sin that I think we have a confused relationship with: pride.
In many ways we know that pride is a sin and awful. No one likes to hang out with arrogant jerks. We just don’t. And I’m sure if you’ve lived long enough you’ve seen a relationship, business, or connection wrecked because of pride. Pride has a way of wrecking things, we know this.
But I think in other ways we aren’t quite willing to live without pride. We try to instill pride in our kids. We post accomplishments on facebook with pride. We have pride in our companies, sports teams, or even nations.
The point is that while we don’t like people who have too much pride, we also don’t want to live without it.
So I want to dive into this confusing and complex topic on Sunday. I want to talk about how we can live free from pride, how we can give up on pride, and how we can find something better to replace pride in our lives.
Will Willimon wrote:
“To tell you the truth, I can’t think of much that is wrong with a healthy – within limits – sense of Pride, other than that Jesus was against it.”
I think it’s true. So it’s worth discovering about how to live without it…
I was reading about C.S. Lewis and came across this quote from his wife Joy.
She writes this:
“Provoke not your children to wrath” (Eph 6:4) Easily said; but how are we to avoid it? Strife between old and young seems inevitable. Today the world changes fast and inconceivably fast; in pastoral and agricultural times, what a man knew was of use to his son, but in the industrial age Father’s knowledge is out of date before the son is half grown up…Our problem, then, pending the reconstruction of the world, is to reconstruct our own lives so that we give our children as much warmth and attention and time and teaching as the present world will allow…and let us remind the innumerable Americas who don’t seem to know it that begetting and rearing a family are far more real and rewarding than making and spending money.”
All I can say is that this stopped me and made me think. I also think I’m going to stop blogging for today and go and play and be with my boys…
On Sunday we looked at the deadly sin of envy. Envy is similar to jealously but they are very different. Jealousy desires what someone else has, envy wants to destroy what someone else has. Jealousy wants other people’s things, envy wants to be the only one with things. A perfect picture is the story of Snow White. In it the queen asks the mirror “Mirror mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all”. And when Snow White is named, the queen must wreck, ruin, and destroy snow white. Just so we’re clear the Queen is still beautiful, but that is not enough for envy. The Queen must be the most beautiful, and destroy anything that threatens that. That’s envy. Envy, when it cannot have what it wants, destroys. That is why it is so dangerous.
The second reason it is so dangerous is that it thrives in community. In fact, you need community for envy to even be a possibility. Will WIllimon said, “Envy works best at close range.” This is true. We are often jealous of people distant from us, and envious of those closest to us. We may be jealous of Katy Perry and her fame, but we generally don’t want to destroy her or see her fail. In contrast to that, we sometimes do want our sister, brother-in-law, or neighbor to fail. This is why it’s so dangerous, because it wrecks community.
So much of the strife in our relationships is because we are envious. We are envioius of our brother who gets preferential treatment, so we want to see them slip up. We are envious of a co-worker who never gets reprimanded, so we hope for them to screw up. But what is at the root of envy? Well many church fathers said this: a lack of trust in God.
We get envious when we believe that God is withholding good from us. That we are being shortchanged by God. In essence, envy thrives when we disbelieve God’s goodness. And since this is so closely tied to envy we ended with a challenge. The challenge was this: for one week keep a journal of God’s goodness to you. If feeling envious is tied to a lack of trust in God’s goodness, then we need to create habits to remind us of the generosity, goodness, and grace of God.
So it’s a simple thing to do but it could be a life changing thing. Because whenever we get centred in the fact that God is good, we can live differently. We no longer need to be tied to envy and hurt, instead we can be set free. And that’s something worth finding.
Sermon Notes:
Big Idea: Envy is a problem
Take Aways…
Envy is a subtle sin Jealousy wants things, envy wants to the be the only one who has things.
“Envy works best at close range” Will Wiilimon
Envy is about close relationships and it’s about enjoying when they fail.
While greed is primarily about possessions, envy is about one’s place in the world. Where greed wants the good things that others have, envy wants to be the only one who has good things. Envy delights in spoiling what others have. Michael Mangis
Envy leads to destruction every time.
At the root of envy is a lack of trust in God.
Envy is dissatisfaction with who God has made me to be. It is also suspicious that God is withholding what I deserve and giving it to someone else. Michael Mangis
Envy is a problem
Love overcomes envy.
Get rid of envy by getting closer to God.
Adult / Group Discussion Questions: What stuck out to you from the sermon? What was challenging to you? How did God speak to you through it? What was new? Had you understood what envy was before today? How has envy wrecked relationships in your life? Is there anyone you tend to feel envious of? How can you grow closer to God this week? What good things has God done for you?
Discussion Questions / Actions for Young Families: Today talk to your kids about envy. Talk to them about how sometimes we want what other people have. But be proactive against envy, have them write out reasons why they are thankful to God. Have them make a picture, or share reasons for being thankful to God. The more they are rooted in that, the harder it will be for envy to take root.
Challenge for this Week: Get rid of envy by getting closer to God
On Sunday we are looking at a really deadly sin. And by deadly I mean that literally. It kills relationships, poisons friendships, and breaks connections. It’s the sin of envy.
The thing with envy is that most of us don’t really know what it is. We think it’s somehow related to jealousy, but if we were to try to explain the difference between jealousy and envy most of us wouldn’t know where to start.
Soren Kiekegaard once called envy a small-town sin. He doesn’t mean it can’t happen in large cities; what he means is that it is something that thrives in community. In fact, you have to have community to even have this sin be a temptation. But it is something that is part of our churches, our families, our offices, and our neighborhoods.
Here is the thing: most of the strife in our relationships stem from envy. It’s true and that’s what we want to look at on Sunday: what envy is, and how we can live free from it.
Hope you can join us. And if you want to be extra prepared watch the movie Toy Story before Sunday, because we’re going to be using it lots. 🙂
It’s a pretty big thing. In fact, if you think about it, all relationships are built on it. It’s something that takes years to build, and moments to lose. It’s something that is the difference from a relationship being healthy, to horrible. It is something we often take for granted, but is the grounding for almost everything.
Trust.
I’m writing a little bit about trust because I think this is one thing we as Christians need to develop most. We need to develop trust. Let’s just be honest: the culture around us doesn’t trust us as the church. Stats show it. Anecdotal evidence shows it. And I think this is something we know deep down. But here is the beautiful thing: it’s something that can be changed.We can rebuild trust in our families, friendships, and communities. And if I can be so strong – this is something we need to do. We need to invest in rebuilding trust and connections with our culture and our communities.
I was talking with someone about why today “gospel presentations” often don’t seem to work. My answer was a lack of trust and relationship. Formal presentations without the basis of trust and relationship simply don’t carry much impact. It’s not that the gospel doesn’t have weight and impact on its own. The point is that the gospel is inherently relational. So when we share the gospel without relationships, it loses impact because its lost something important: trust.
So all of this is simply to say one thing. Trust matters. It matters if we want to follow Jesus fully. It matters if we want to leave an impact on our communities. It matters if we want to be faithful to the gospel and to Jesus. It matters more than we think.
But that’s the difficulty with trust, it’s so easy to take it for granted. But if we want to see lives changed, it can’t be something we take for granted, it’s something we need to cultivate.
On Sunday we are looking at Anger. And I think this is an important topic to look at because, in general, I think our culture has a confused relationship with anger. In some ways it seems like we not only tolerate anger, but even approve of it. We see it in sports, and call it passion or drive. We see it in business and call it leadership or strength. We see it in ourselves, in our marriages, or in our families and we say it,s okay.
But I’m not so interested in what culture says, I’m interested in what the Bible says. And the Bible says something very interesting. The Bible says that anger gives the enemy a foothold (Eph 4:25), that anger gives the enemy space to move, that anger indulged actually creates an opening in our lives for destruction. Destruction of relationships, of futures, and of ourselves.
So on Sunday I want to look at this topic and see how we not manage anger. Not how can we control our anger. Not how we can curb our anger. But instead, I want to look at how we can be free from anger. Because wrath, anger, hate, and revenge are all sins. And sin leads to destruction and difficulty; so I want to see how we can live free from it.
But to do that we have to answer one key question that I want to leave with you to think about. What is at the root of anger? What makes people yell at a sporting event? What makes people get out of the cars for road rage? What makes people explode at a moment’s notice? What is the root of anger? What is its cause? Why does it happen?
And my hope is as we discover that answer, we’ll discover freedom too.
Just a heads up this post concerns poop. Just so you know and it’s out there ahead of time.
Here’s what happened. Krista was taking Hudson to nap, and I heard this conversation from the bathroom.
“Mommy you have to forgive me for pooping in my pants. We learned that at church this morning, when someone does something wrong, you have to forgive them. Okay mommy?”
Now besides the fact that I couldn’t stop laughing, and the poop problem, this was a beautiful moment. Because here is what it showed – that Hudson understood what he was taught.
So often we learn something but never apply it, never practice it, or never learn how to live it out. So after I stopped laughing (and grinning that Krista had to deal with this ‘accident’), I was so glad. I was glad because as a parent Hudson now gets forgiveness. This is not a minor thing, this is not a little thing, this is a major thing. The entire Christian faith is built on forgiveness so if Hudson gets a handle on it at 4, think about how that could shape his life?
Which leads me to my main point: thank you to anyone who pours into kids.
I am so grateful for each friend, mentor, Sunday school teacher, church family member, who supports and pours into my kids. Sometimes it’s through teaching in our Sunday School, or giving him cookies and talking to him on a Sunday morning. The point is that your investment in my kids’ lives, the others as well, is changing them. And it’s a beautiful thing. So thank you to everyone who cares for kids anywhere.
And on this Sunday I was so grateful for each person who cares and pours into our kids here at our church specifically. So for every time you’ve wondered if it’s worth it, every time it’s been chaos, every time it didn’t feel successful – know that sometimes, with God’s grace, it sticks and changes someone. And last Sunday it stuck with Hudson, as he reminded his mommy about the importance of forgiveness. And that is something we all need to be reminded of from time to time. So thank you.
On Sunday we looked at the sin of sloth. At first glance this doesn’t seem like a sin at all. I mean, is God really against rest and relaxation? Clearly he isn’t, because he commands us to rest. I think the point of the sin of sloth is actually a refusal to respond to God’s calling in the world. Being slothful is not about resting, but refusing to enter the world in God’s way. Sloth is not physical laziness, but at its core it’s spiritual laziness to take God’s calling seriously. It’s not about resting but not following God when he asks us. The world is bursting with God-given possiblites, and sloth is saying no, staying in bed, making excuses, and not taking responsibility. That’s what the sin of sloth is. And that’s also why it’s deadly.
If sloth is saying no to God; then being slothful severs your connection with God, and robs the world of how God wants to use you. You are needed in the world, you have a particular makeup, gifting, and personality that God wants to use. Saying no to him, robs the world of a gift that only you can bring. This is why it is serious and damaging. It hurts our relationship with God, and hurts the world by us refusing to enter into it.
So we looked at how in Proverbs there are at least three reasons why we choose to be slothful. Sometimes it’s out of pride and ego. We only engage if we are in charge and recognized. We don’t serve unless we are leading, taking point, or given a title. Sometimes we don’t engage because of fear. We worry, make excuses, and focus more on the possibility of failure than being faithful. And sometimes it’s just pure self-interest. We don’t take resposniblty for ourselves or our calling and simply pass the buck.
We ended with realizing that this is a serious sin, and it has nothing to do with resting or relaxing. We can easily be busy and hardworking and still slothful – still refusing to say yes to God’s invitation to change the world. So we ended off with a challenge. A challenge to take time away this week to rest and relax and reflect on three questions:
Is there anything in our lives hindering us from saying yes to God? Are we too busy, too fearful, too prideful, too….whatever. Is there anything that is stopping us from truly following God, and if so, we need to deal with it.
How are we investing in our relationship with God? If being slothful is not responding to God, that assumes a relationship with God. So are we investing in that relationship?
Have we neglected any important relationships? Being slothful is often about neglecting those God-gvien responsibilities. So have we been slothful in our marriage, in our parenting, or in our relationships? And if so, how can we invest in them.
So that’s what we explored and learned. Being slothful isn’t about rest, but refusal of God. A semi-ironic ending is that closed the service challenging people to actually take some rest this week, and reflect on those questions. Who would have guessed a sermon on slothfulness actually encouraged rest and reflection?
Teaching Notes:
Big Idea Being slothful robs the world of you, and it robs you of life.
Take Aways…
As the door turns on its hinges so a sluggard turns on the bed. Proverbs 26:14
The lazy person is full of excuse, saying “I can’t go outside because there might be a lion on the road! Yes, I’m sure there’s a lion out there!” Proverbs 26:13
The sluggard buries his hand in the dish, But will not even bring it back to his mouth. Proverbs 19:24
God is not anti-rest.
The sin of sloth is really a refusal to enter into the world around us
Sloth is not physical laziness, but at its core its spiritual laziness to take God’s calling seriously
Sloth is saying no to the world and no to God.
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. Edmund Burke
The world needs you.
Roots of Sloth: Ego, Fear, and Self-Centredness
Being a sloth or a sluggard robs the world of you, and it robs you of life.
Is there anything stopping you from joining in with God in the world?
How can you this week attend to your spiritual life?
“Sloth has come to be synonymous with physical laziness, but he original greek word acedia has a rather different meaning. Acedia is spiritual listlessness or laziness. It is the antithesis of worship. Sloth is the neglect of the greatest commandment: to love your lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” Michael Mangis
Is there any relationship we are not attending to?
Adult / Group Discussion Questions: What stuck out to you from the sermon? What was challenging to you? How did God speak to you through it? What was new?
Have you ever thought about Sloth in this way? What was different or new about this perspective? Would you say that Sloth is something you struggle with? What is God’s calling on your life? What is he asking you to say yes to him with now? Who can help you to say yes to him?
Discussion Questions / Actions for Young Families: Today talk to your kids about the sin of sloth. Talk to them how its not about being lazy, but not being responsible. Talk to them about what they are responsible for (i.e. cleaning up toys, doing dishes, etc). Ask them why its important to do those things. Then talk to them about how we each are unique and have special gifts to give. Use this as a time to share with each of them what you see as their unique gift to give to the world.
Challenge for this Week: Reflect on the three question in a time of rest
And I think it’s a great question. Because in many ways we’d love to be more “slothful”
Who wouldn’t like a day to sleep in?
Who wouldn’t like a lazy day inside drinking coffee?
Who wouldn’t like a movie marathon every now and then?
The question I think is this – is the sin of sloth anti-rest?
And I don’t think it is. God is not anti-rest. God clearly commands rest, relaxation, and Sabbath. So the question is then, what is the sin of sloth really about? And here is my short answer that we’ll unpack on Sunday. The sin of sloth is a refusal to respond to God. It’s not about conserving or recharging our energy, but refusing to use our energy to join in what God is doing.
So come Sunday we are going to explore this topic, and why it matters. We are going to see how you can be lazy, or busy – and still be stuck in the sin of sloth. We are going to see how the sin of sloth robs you of life, and robs the world of your gifts. So that’s where we are going on Sunday, of course assuming I don’t slothily sleep in.
I was reading through some of Hebrews today, and I came across this verse that spoke to me so clearly. I felt like God was reminding me of what my calling is as a leader. I think in many ways this is the essence of leadership. It’s found in Hebrews 12:12-13:
“So take a new grip with your tired hands and stand firm on your shaky legs. Mark out a straight path for your feet. Then those who follow you, though they are weak and lame will not stumble and fall but will become strong”.
The reason that this spoke to me is that so often as a leader, I do have tired hands and shaky legs. Sometimes uncertainty grabs me. Sometimes disbelief haunts me. Sometimes I wonder if I am strong enough to follow the call that God has placed on my life. I don’t often question the call, I question whether I’m able to pursue it.
But that’s why I love these verses. These verses don’t pretend that leadership is easy. These verses don’t pretend that we don’t struggle, worry, doubt, or have tired hands or shaky legs. These verses know that in purusing God and his calling, there will be moments of difficult, doubt, and decision. And the decision that this verse calls for us to have is to take a new grip, to stand firm even on shaky legs.
This verse reminds me that God is with me, like he is with you, so take a new grip. Don’t give up. Stand up on those shaky legs, get up again, move forward again, trust again, and don’t give up. And that as we refuse to give up, as we take a new grip (even though our hands are tired) as we stand firm (even though our legs are weak) and move forward we will help others find strength and follow God.
I guess what this verse really reminds me of is this: being a leader doesn’t mean your hands don’t get tired. Being a leader means you don’t give up, and you find a new grip with tired hands. Being a leader means sometimes God needs to remind you, that regardless of whether your hands are tired and legs are shaky, there is a calling still to pursue. And it’s worth pursuing.
So take a new grip today, a new stance today, and let others find strength as you follow.
{ Andrew Mills } 