Reality Check Time

Once upon a time when Heidi was growing up, she always had a dog. Sometimes she had medium sized dogs and sometimes she had a bigger dog. Kind of like she does now. At some point in Junior High school, Heidi had a bigger dog, I think a lab, but not sure. Anyway, when Heidi got home from school, her dog had the neighbor’s rabbit and was playing with it. Had it in its mouth, shaking it back and forth, and Heidi realizes that the rabbit was dead.

She quickly gives the rabbit a bath, blow dries the rabbit’s hare and puts it back in the cage before anyone knew what had happened. About an hour later the neighbor’s 9-year-old daughter is in the back yard screaming hysterically, Heidi realizes that the girl found her rabbit and goes outside and plays dumb. She asked what was going on and the mom said, Jenny’s rabbit died yesterday and we buried it and someone has dug it up and put it back in the cage.

I would like to say, that Heidi learned a valuable lesson, but I just can’t. Sometimes, the church fails to learn a lesson and God will give us a reality check from time to time.

Let’s read our main text found in John 2.

Pray with me. It is easy for us to see the fault in what was going on in the temple in this story of Jesus flipping tables and driving out the money changers and those selling animals for sacrifice.

Jewish law required many things, one of which was an animal sacrifice for your sin and depending on their wealth, they were required to sacrifice a certain type of animal or bird. The more money you had the more valuable of a sacrifice that you were required to make. Most people didn’t have own farms so they didn’t have animals of their own to sacrifice so they had to buy them. Conveniently they were made available at the temple, but convenience comes with an inflated price. Jesus knew that these people were ripping off those that were coming to do what was right and He drove them out of the Temple.

I wonder if Jesus were on Earth today if he would be flipping tables at the church or would He proud of the way that the we worship God. Is He glorified in your life and in your actions?

Let’s dig in and maybe get a little personal.

1. Are you trying to take advantage of God?

John 2:14, Romans 6:12-16

It has been a while since I have watched NASCAR. I used to be a huge Mark Martin fan. He drove the number 6, Valvoline, car. He has the second most wins by any driver in NASCAR.

Mark Martin is from Batesville, Arkansas. The oldest existing city in the state. It is about the size of Neosho and it is just a few miles from Jonesboro. I thought you would like to know those facts even though it really has nothing to do with the point.

Anyway, when I think about NASCAR, usually 2 things come to mind. One of course is Mark Martin and the other is a very common expression amongst the NASCAR teams, “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’.” That seems to be a common theme, not only in NASCAR, but in many walks of life. From politicians to little league baseball coaches. Yes, that is right, always trying to get ahead of the system.

Many rich and poor people will do what they can to pay less taxes even if it is not being honest on their returns. I worked with a guy that would gripe about the tax breaks for the wealthy and yet he had a small business of his own and I asked if he claimed all the money that he made in his small business. “That’s my money”, was his reply.

We often see God, maybe not consciously but subconsciously, as something to take advantage of. “Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin.” Do you gossip? Are you easily angered? Are you selfish? “Give to Ceaser what is Ceaser’s and to God what is God’s”, Do you fudge on your taxes? Do you only give God a portion of what you should? “Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and all your strength.” Do you serve God wholeheartedly? If you see a need, do you fill it or leave it for someone else? If God gave on the same level of commitment that you give, what would that look like?

In the question, “Are you trying to take advantage of God?”, maybe you should circle the word trying, because even though you may fool yourself thinking you are following Jesus’ example, you will never fool God, nor will you outsmart Him or fool Him at all. Which leads us to point 2.

2. What is church to you?

Have you ever thought to yourself, “Why do I come to church?” I would like for you to take a moment and think about why you come to church.

Some of us have multiple reasons as to why we come and some maybe just one. Here are just a few that I have come up with…

a.A place to feel good? Are you here because it makes you feel better to be here, kind of quenching the guilty feeling that you have when you don’t come.

2. A place to see friends? This is one of mine. I really love to see you all, ok well most of you, anyway.

I love catching up and hearing some of your stories of the week. Shaking your hand or hugging your neck. It feels good to be together, but feeling good about seeing you is not really a reason that I come to church, it is a bonus.

3. A place to hear music and sing? I do love to listen to worship songs and sing along with them.

Many of the songs that we sing, man oh man, get me in the mode of worship. Shame on me. Hopefully I am already in the mode of worship and the music just feeds that. Worship should be just that worship. If we get a spiritual boost from that, that is a bonus. If you are coming just for the music, what would happen if we didn’t have any one Sunday?

(2.) What is church to you?

What should church be for us?

4. A place of worship?

   Matthew 21:15

   Not God worshipping us but us worshipping God.

e.A place of discipline?

John 2:15-16

If you are coming to church and not getting your toes stepped on from time to time, then either I am failing to bring the right message or you are failing to listen to what God is trying to tell you. I know that I am not perfect, but I do try to listen to what the Holy Spirit tells me to say. Are you listening to what the Holy Spirit is telling you?

f. A place of prayer?

Matthew 21:13

Jesus said, “My Father’s house is a house of prayer.” What kind of prayer? Maybe a prayer of intercession, praying on behalf of others. Prayer of thanksgiving, show gratitude. Prayer of worship, recognizing God’s greatness and power. Prayer of adoration, expressing love and awe for God. Prayer of consecration, dedicating yourself to serve God. Prayer of petition, just asking God for something that is believed to be good. Prayer of confession, admitting your sins and shortcomings. And/or a prayer of agreement, joining another believer in praying for something.

This is what we should be coming to church for. One more reality is point 3

3. Are you failing to see Jesus for who He is?

John 2:18, Matthew 16:13-14

Anyone ever have a friend that really wasn’t a friend after all? I mean they were fun to be around, but when you were not around, they would gossip about you or undermine you in some way or another?

When I was in high school, I has some of those “friends”. I had friends that made fun of me. Friends that would talk to my girlfriends to make me look bad so that they might have the opportunity to date them. Friends that would talk me into doing something wrong with them (and believe me it wasn’t hard), then leave me to be the one that got in trouble.

Here's the deal, I really didn’t care. If you wanted to talk bad about me, so what, it just proved to me how insecure you really were and if you wanted to trade insults, baby, let’s go. If you wanted my girlfriend to be your girlfriend, go for it, I never really wanted a girlfriend for very long anyway and if you wanted me to get into trouble with you and you weren’t “man enough” to take the punishment, it just proved who you were.

Looking back, I realize that some of that was good and some of that was not so good. Remember the old saying, “Stick and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.” Man, I lived by that. But today, Holy Goodness, we wear our hearts on our sleeves, even as Christians. Try to correct anything about me and I won’t do anything in the church. I won’t help or show up unless it benefits me.

Jesus, on the other hand, was the perfect example of how we should be. Did people make fun of Him? Did people reject Him? Did people hate Him? How did He respond? Did He stop showing love to people? Did He stop teaching people? Did He stop healing people? Did He stop humbling Himself and being a servant to those around Him?

Even though Jesus was mocked, rejected, and hated, He continued to do the will of God. He continued to heal, teach, love, and serve. We say we are Christians and that means that we are Christlike, or followers of Christ, but are we really? Do we continue to be Christlike when we don’t get our way?

People, in the bible, failed to see who Jesus really was while He was here. Today we fail to see Jesus for who He really was and we look at the people in the bible that did the same thing and we fail to learn from it. There are not very many times that Jesus saw a need and didn’t take care of it Himself.

Are you failing to see Jesus for who He is? Or are you failing to follow His example?