THE SIN BEHIND YOUR BACK

We talk a lot about prayer, and whenever we hear that something bad has happened to someone we know, the first thing we say is we need to pray.  But I sometimes wonder if we go into prayer with the right heart and attitude. 

In 1 THESSALONIANS, we are told to pray continually.  And in PROVERBS we are told to trust in the Lord with all our heart and not to lean on our own understanding.  It tells us to acknowledge Him in all we do and He will set our pathways straight. 

Some years ago, a painting was shown in a London art gallery. As you viewed it from a distance, it seemed to be a monk with head bowed and hands clasped in prayer.  But, upon close inspection, you would see that the monk was just squeezing an orange over a small glass as he looks down upon it.

Could that painting be a picture of us?  Could it be that when we pray, all seems right - from a distance - but upon closer inspection, we are actually doing something else?  Could it be, when we are praying, we are actually thinking about other things, or we pray with the feeling that God is not going to answer us?  I think we sometimes tend to utter the words of prayer, but fail to have any heart felt meaning behind those words.

Norman Vincent Peale would tell a story of what happened to him as a young boy.  He found a cigar on the sidewalk, so he picked it up and took it into an alley and lit her up! He said it tasted terrible, but as bad as it was, it still made him feel grown up.

Then, he said he saw his dad walking down the alley towards him.  Desperate to keep his dad from knowing what he was doing, he quickly hid the cigar behind his back and pointed to a billboard across the street advertising a circus that was coming to town.  He said he repeatedly asked his dad to take him to that circus, all the while, holding that cigar behind his back.

After a few minutes of this, his father told him something so profound that it affected his prayer life forever.  His father said, "Son, never make an impassioned plea for something honorable while you are hiding sin behind your back."

Do we go to God in prayer, asking for His help while trying to hide our sin behind us?   Do we approach God on one hand, as His child in Christ, while we hide the other hand behind us, because it is full of sin?  Or, do we just go through the motions by uttering words while our thoughts are on something in the world instead of on God?  We should always remember, when we pray it is better for our heart to be without words than it is for our words to be without heart.

Too many Christians go to God out of habit; out of repetition; out of everything but submissive dependence.   We do that because we put our focus on the things we are involved in; like our friends or activities.  We put our attention on the world – the same world that God told us to turn away from.  But do we turn away?  No, we don’t.  We tend to be like young Mr. Peale.  We keep our sin and try to hide it from God. 

Let’s talk about some of the ways we sin in our attitudes toward God.

1.   PRAYING WITH WRONG MOTIVES IS A SIN 

MATTHEW 6:5 tells us,

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men."

When we pray, we should never pray while hoping others can see or hear us.  That is akin to showing off, and one thing we never want to do is show off while in prayer to our Lord.  God can see in our hearts and He knows the motives we have for what we do.  When we go into prayer, we should only be concerned with God hearing our prayers.   

In JAMES 4:3 it says,

"When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."

When we pray, we must pray with a servant’s heart.  When we made the decision to become a Christian, we agreed to accept an awesome responsibility.  That responsibility was to follow Christ; we made the choice to serve the living God through Jesus, our Savior. That gave us our purpose, and that purpose is to serve the Lord. 

EPHESIANS 2:10 emphasizes that.

"For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

When we attempt to do anything for God without fully focusing on Him, we have the wrong motives and therefore, we are committing a sin against God.  In other words, we are approaching the Holy Creator, while holding sin behind our backs. 

Sometimes we pray with the wrong motives, and other times, we  … 

2.   PRAY WITH THE WRONG FEELINGS 

When you pray, are you praying because you want to talk to God, or are you praying just because you think you should?  Do you pray with a heart that yearns to have more of God in it, or do you pray out of habit?   

How would you feel if somebody called you and you could tell they weren’t really interested in talking to you?  How would you feel if they talked to you in a distant and impersonal way, and didn’t even listen to you as you tried to talk to them?  That would make anybody feel bad, wouldn’t it?   I think that is how God must feel when we go to Him in prayer and don’t concentrate on Him when we do so.   

The problem is that when we pray out of habit, we aren’t praying out of love.  When we pray because we are expected to, we are concentrating on what others think instead of what God thinks.  In reality, that isn’t praying; it is just reciting a bunch of words that are never heard by God. 

Imagine that you fall into a small ditch.  It isn’t too deep and you can get out by yourself.  If you call for help at all, it would not be a panicked plea, would it? There would be no real urgency in your voice as you asked a passerby to help you because you feel no sense of danger.  Now, imagine how you would feel if you fell into a deep ditch; one you could not get out of without help.  And to make matters worse, you know there are snakes down there with you.  How much sense of urgency are you going to have when you scream for help?

When we go before our Heavenly Father, we tend to go before Him without much sense of urgency, and with even less expectation of His answering our prayers.  We offer up passionless prayers.  If we are serious about taking a situation to God, we need to be just as serious about getting His attention.  We need to realize that this world is that deep ditch, and it is full of snakes and much worse!  And we cannot get out without His divine help.  Realizing that, how much urgency do you think we should feel when we pray to Him?

I heard that Billy Graham once visited a wealthy rancher. After dinner, the rancher took Rev. Graham out on the porch where they had a wonderful view of the ranch.   Pointing in all directions, the man proudly exclaimed that 25 years ago, he had nothing, but now he owns as far as the eye can see!  He paused, waiting for Rev. Graham to compliment him on his success.

The evangelist put one hand on the rancher’s shoulder and pointed upward with the other and said, "You have much in those directions, but how much do you have in that direction?"

We have all invested much of our time and money in improving our lot on earth, but how much actual time have we invested in improving our personal relationship with Jesus Christ?  We would be surprised to find out how much go through the motions but not making any investment.

We treasure our parents, spouses and children. They are very important to us. But, let me say this:  As important as they are to us, our relationship with Jesus as Savior should even be more important.  The truth is, just like with those we love here on earth, we take our relationship with Jesus for granted, too.

This was the situation that a church found themselves in. That church was in a town called Laodicea. Please turn with me as we read our main text today.

REVELATION 3:14-17.

"And to the angel of the church of Laodicea, write: ’these are the words of the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Ruler of God’s Creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of My mouth!"

That church started going through the motions and lost the focus of worship.  They met. They sang the songs of praise. They studied the Scripture. They prayed the words of prayers. But they did these things with the wrong motives and with the wrong feelings. They had become LUKEWARM!  They had become like many of today’s churches!

Now, on the surface, being lukewarm doesn’t seem to be that tragic, does it?  After all, we are still in church and we are still ’doing’ those things we are supposed to do.  But did you know that when we are lukewarm, we are actually without feeling?

And, when we have no feeling for Jesus, we are sinning against the very nature of our Lord.  And that is what Jesus finds so distasteful that it causes Him to spit us out of His mouth!  In short, lukewarm Christians make Him sick.

Some people like iced-tea and some like iced-coffee.  Diana likes hot tea and I like hot coffee.  But something you will notice about all of us.  No matter how many like their drinks cold, or how many like their drinks hot, none of us like them to be room temperature, do we? 

Have you ever reached for a cup of coffee or tea, took a big mouthful, just to realize that it was neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm? If you have, you know how nasty it tastes and how quickly you want to spit it out!  That is how Jesus finds Christians who are lukewarm in their feeling towards him.  We cannot feel devotion for Him if we do not feel the passion of love burning in our hearts for Him.

A church that has passion is a church where discouraged folks cheer up, the lukewarm heat up, and where Jesus Christ is lifted up.  A church that has no passion is simply a dead church that only goes through the motions.  And a church that just goes through the motions is nothing but lukewarm in their spirit.

We have talked about having wrong motives and wrong feelings for the Lord.  These two things alone will completely destroy your walk with Jesus.  He said He wished we were hot or cold, but because we are lukewarm, He will spit us out of His mouth.  Jesus wants us to feel passionate about Him.  He wants us to feel commitment to Him.  He wants us to be sold out to Him. 

But to do so, we must … 

3.   STOP BEING LUKEWARM AND START BEING DEVOTED! 

Jesus exposed the sin of lukewarmness, and He did not do it in a very "politically correct" way. In VERSE 14, He said that He is the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, and the Ruler of God’s Creation.

He is telling them that He is the One in charge and that they can count on Him to give a true and accurate analysis of their church.  He is saying that no matter how it might make them feel, or how uncomfortable it might be hearing it, He is giving them the absolute truth of where they stand and why they are there.  Jesus loves us so much, He will not sugar coat His truth like we try to do.

When I was a young boy, my parents had a habit of telling me to do things that didn’t seem very important at the time. You know - things like, "Clean up your room", or "Take the garbage out", or "Do your homework."  I didn’t see the need to do those things all the time, but as I grew older I realized that as a member of that household, I had certain duties and responsibilities I had to perform for the good of that household. When I did not do those duties, my parents would say or do something to bring me back in line. 

EPHESIANS 2:19 says we are members of God’s household.  That means we have certain duties to perform.  When we get unfocused and stop performing those duties, God will say or do something to bring us back into focus. 

If the church of Laodicea was lukewarm, how did they become that way?  To understand that, we must first understand who these people were and what kind of city it was.  Laodicea was a city that many had to travel through to get to somewhere else.  It was a wealthy city for its time, and it had many wealthy citizens. 

Just a few miles to the north of them was Hieropolis; a city known for its many natural hot mineral springs.  Many people would travel through Laodicea on their way to enjoy those hot springs in Hieropolis.   

Just a few miles to the south of Laodicea was a city called Colosse.  The water in Colosse was not good for anything.  It had no minerals or other nutrients.  It was too cold to bathe in and too warm to drink.  It was pretty much worthless. 

When our hearts are full of the love and devotion that Christ demands, we are like the water in Heiropolis; hot and healthy.  But when we stop focusing on Jesus and start focusing on the world around us, we become like the water in Colosse; pretty much useless.

Now, I want you to listen to this very closely.  The reason that the people in Laodicea became unfocused was because they were involved with too many things of the world.  They were involved in many things outside the church.  They were much like America is today:  Instead of thinking that our lives as Christians also include some things in the world, they begin to view their lives also including a little church.  Too many things going on to be too devoted.  Enjoying the things they do in the world so much they lost their love for Jesus. 

REVELATION 3:17 goes on to say,

"You say, ’I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’"

It is not wrong to have things, and Jesus doesn’t care if you do have things in this life, as long as you don’t let any of them become more important to you than He is.  The big problem with being blessed is the more you have, the more comfortable you become.  The more comfortable you are, the less you need anything. The less you need anything, the less you focus on Jesus. 

LUKE 12:15 reads,

"... a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

That simply means that no matter how wealthy we are, if we do not have Jesus, we don’t have anything.  We might have everything we need in every direction (point all around you), but if we don’t have everything we need in that direction (point upwards), we don’t have anything. 

As we read the Bible, we see that Jesus still loved Laodicea, despite their sin.  And we can be glad that Jesus loves us, too.  He loves us so much He keeps knocking on our heart’s door, wanting for us to open up and let Him in.  For some of us, though, He has been knocking so long His knuckles must have calluses.   

Billy Graham uses the illustration that when a little girl did something wrong, her mother called her into the kitchen to talk to her, but the little girl’s face pouted as she looked down to the floor and she said she didn’t want to talk about it.  I think we do the same thing with the Lord.  When He calls us on something, we do everything we can to not talk to Him – AND THE ENEMY LOVES IT! 

Reverend Graham goes on to say that if we feel like not talking to God, that is a sure sign that we need to go into prayer immediately.  God wants us to talk to Him.  That is why He continues to knock.  But what happens as He knocks?  More often than not, He sees the shades being pulled down and the TV turn down.  Why?  Because we don’t want to talk to Him. 

REVELATION 3:21 says,

"To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne."

How do we overcome?  How do we stop being lukewarm?  How do we make sure we are safe?  By making a conscious decision to turn our minds and hearts away from the world and the people in it, and turn them once again towards Jesus. 

A friend once asked me how she could tell if what she was doing was okay in God’s eyes or not. I told her that if what she is doing will bring glory to God somehow, someday, keep on doing it. If, on the other hand, it would not bring glory to God in any way or at any time - stop doing it immediately!

Is what you do on a daily basis going to bring glory to God?  Let me ask it another way.  Would you still do all the things you do – if Jesus was standing right beside you while you did them?   Would you make the same decisions if you felt His arm around your shoulder?   

In 1986, there were two ships that collided off the Russian coast. Hundreds of people were thrown to their deaths in the icy waters.  When the authorities investigated the cause of the accident they did not find any mechanical or technical problems. They found a human problem.

Seems both captains had time to steer clear from one another, but neither wanted to be the first to yield.  Pride is a sin because it keeps us from seeing the need to react.  It keeps us from seeing the need to react for Jesus Christ.  And pride is one of the biggest problems for Christians, because to be a true Christian, you have to humble your heart and that means you need to get rid of your pride.

If you only take one thing from this message with you today, let it be this:  Get rid of the sin you are holding behind your back before you approach our holy God. 

INVITATION