Make it don't Fake it
Nathan Zipfel
Year A - 2019-2020 • Sermon • Submitted
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I heard about a junior high music teacher who had just organized a band in her school. The principal was so proud of the music teacher’’s efforts that without consulting her he decided that the band should give a concert for the entire school. The music teacher wasn’’t so sure her young musicians were ready to give a concert, so she tried to talk the principal out of holding the concert, to no avail.
Just before the concert was ready to begin, as the music teacher stood on the podium, she leaned forward and whispered to her nervous musicians, “If you’re not sure of your part, just pretend to play.”
And with that, she stepped back, lifted her baton and with a great flourish brought it down. Lo and behold, nothing happened! The band brought forth a resounding silence.
Sometimes we feel inadequate for the task that God has given us and we respond like that band . . . (Fake it til you make it - King Duncan).
Can you imagine the reaction of the student body at that moment? The music teacher is ready, she tells the band members to fake it if they aren’t sure of their part.
I wonder if she lifted the baton a second time and brought it down again, and again nothing, no sounds at all.
Not one of members of the band began to play. They all sat there, thinking that they could fake it, thinking that the others would be playing so that they could fake it.
The problem with faking it, is that you are eventually going to be found out.
Chuck Swindoll told the following story in his book Growing Deep in the Christian LIfe
Several years ago, in Long Beach, California, a fellow went into a fried chicken place and bought a couple of chicken dinners for himself and his date late one afternoon. The young woman at the counter inadvertently gave him the proceeds from the day-a whole bag of money (much of it cash) instead of fried chicken. After driving to their picnic site, the two of them sat down to open the meal and enjoy some chicken together.
They discovered a whole lot more than chicken--over $800! But he was unusual. He quickly put the money back in the bag. They got back into the car and drove all the way back. Mr. Clean got out, walked in, and became an instant hero. By then the manager was frantic. The guy with the bag of money looked the manager in the eye and said, "I want you to know I came by to get a couple of chicken dinners and wound up with all this money. Here." Well, the manager was thrilled to death. He said, "Oh, great, let me call the newspaper. I'm gonna have your picture put in the local newspaper. You're the most honest man I've heard of." To which they guy quickly responded, "Oh no, no, don't do that!" Then he leaned closer and whispered, "You see, the woman I'm with is not my wife...she's uh, somebody else's wife."
Charles Swindoll, Growing Deep in the Christian Life, p. 159-60.
Paul in the Scripture texts writes about a number of situations and people that we might come across in our lives. They almost seem disjointed and not connected. It is almost like it is a list of things to do or not do.
Thinking along these lines of disjointed writing or disconnected lists remind me a lot of some people that I have met over my lifetime.
They live differently depending on the circumstances. We were friends with a family many years ago. They were members of another church. Somehow we struck up a friendship with them, I don’t remember how we met them. I’m guessing it was through school We were invited to their home and they visited in our home. They seemed like really good Christians.
Something started to bother me about her. She didn’t look a real person. No, I’m not saying she was some type of Star Trek android. What I mean is that her life seemed dominated by her looks. We quickly learned that her life centered around Mary Kay cosmetics and she was intent on remaking Darlene into her image. No offense to anyone who might use Mary Kay.
In my mind, her faith was intertwined with her make-up business. Her selling and trying to get others to sell seemed to be the first thought in her mind.
It did not last long with Darlene, because she was not having anything to do with it. That really made me wonder if this ladies faith was all fake because of how she was focused on her business and she used faith as a tool to lure people into it.
Look at what Paul writes there in verse 9
9 Love should be shown without pretending. Hate evil, and hold on to what is good.
Love without pretending. I visualize someone putting on a fake smile to fake it. Since people are wearing face masks, sometimes you see some interesting ones. We bought the boys a bunch of different ones to wear for school. Each of them has some sort of different smile or teeth on them.
Love without pretending is loving without putting on some fake smile.
Other translations put it this way
New Living Translation - Don’t just pretend to love others
New King James - Let love be without hypocrisy
English Standard Version - Let love be genuine.
I really like the Message translation here:
9 Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.
Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it.
Paul is saying that we are to love from the center, the core of who we are.
How do we love this way. If I have a choice, I am not going to do that. There are some people that I don’t want to love. Yet, time and time again we are called to love others. I want to tell God sometimes that I’ll love this person, but I really don’t want to love this other person.
I am learning that I can love that person who has damaged their life so badly that even their family has given up on them.
I am learning that I can love the person who has prostituted themselves in order to get that next drug fix.
I am learning that I can love that person who sex trafficked by a family member.
I am learning to love this way that Paul is writing about.
How does that happen?
It goes back to the beginning of this great chapter.
1 So, brothers and sisters, because of God’s mercies, I encourage you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God. This is your appropriate priestly service. 2 Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and mature.
It is the transforming power of the Holy Spirit at work in my life. Me, I don’t want to love those peopled, but the Holy Spirit is there saying to me “Nathan, this is someone that I want you to be Jesus to. Nathan, this is someone that the Father wants to have a relationship with.”
Guess what, I allow the Holy Spirit to love them through me.
It is because of that transforming power that I can love from the very center of who I am. I don’t have to sit there and fake it and pretend that I love that person. I can love that person because they are loved by God. I can love them because Jesus died on the cross for them. I can love them because in the words of the Apostle John wrote:
19 We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.
God loved us. Remember
16 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.
You cannot fake that kind of love. God Himself in the person of Jesus the Son came and died for our sin, He paid the penalty, he paid the debt that was due, he paid the wages of sin and death when he died on the cross.
The really awesome thing is that the grave was just a moment in time. On the third day Jesus arose victorious over sin and death. Sin and death were defeated. Because of God’s amazing love for us, sin was defeated. Because of this love, I can love like that.
9 Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.
The second part of that verse says:
Common English Bible Chapter 12
Hate evil, and hold on to what is good.
Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.
Have evil, run for dear life from evil.
Folks there is not place in the life of a true Christian for sin and evil.
Jesse Campbell told the following story
It started so elegantly but it ended up looking like the keystone cops taking over Christmas Eve. Gavin, the pastor was perplexed when he looked out among the people. They weren’t looking at him. They seemed to be looking past him. Most were focused on one, single candelabra that was placed just inches from the flowing sheer fabric that provided a backdrop for the Christmas Eve candlelight service.
The people who saw it, looked horrified. As Gavin spoke, his mind reeled. What did I say? What’s going on with these people? And then after about five minutes, it happened. The vents blew the fabric into the candelabra. The growing flame traveled up the fabric, and the running, shouting, and fire extinguishing commenced. The night was not silent and there was no heavenly peace.
It was just a minor fire but it made for a great story and a memorable Christmas Eve service that the church will never forget. Dozens noticed it, but each thought, I don’t want to be the weird guy who walks on stage while the pastor is speaking. The moment seemed too big to boldly walk up there and pull the candelabra away from the draped fabric. That was long before the fire retardant foam spewed from the extinguisher.
No one wanted to take any action. It is someone else responsibility. It is not my job. Let someone else handle it.
Sometimes I think that is what the church believes. It is somebody else handle it. That is the preachers job. That is the Sunday School teachers job. That is why I put my tip in the offering plate, to pay someone to do it.
Listen to what the writer of the Proverbs had to say:
10 If you show yourself weak on a day of distress, your strength is too small. 11 Rescue those being taken off to death; and from those staggering to the slaughter, don’t hold back. 12 If you say, “Look, we didn’t know about it,” the one who weighs hearts— doesn’t he understand? The one who protects your life— he knows. He makes people pay for their actions.
There is a quote that is attributed to Edmund Burke, an Irish political philosopher who lived in the 1700’s. It says
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
That is a powerful statement.
We live in a world filled with evil and sin. It is not going to get any better. That is not some fatalistic sentiment on my part. The Bible talks about that. Humanity is more and more selfish. The description of the world as found in the Revelation is very descriptive of our world today.
The only sustaining force for good in the world today is the individual believers gathered as the Church, living as Jesus taught and lived.
Paul says in this passage - Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.
As I said a moment ago, there is not place in the life of a true Christian for sin and evil.
The New King James Version translated that passage this way:
Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.
Abhor is not a word that we use very frequently. It has in its definition the concept of hate, but it is more than just hate. Webster defines the word this way:
causing or deserving strong dislike or hatred : being so repugnant as to stir up positive antagonism
- Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Abhorrent. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved August 29, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abhorrent
Deserving strong hatred, repugnant. Those are some strong words.
That should be our feelings about sin and evil. We should have such a strong hatred for it, it should be repugnant for us.
I’m going to meddle for just a little bit. Is that ok? Doesn’t matter, going to do it any way.
If you treat something that God has called evil and call it good you are not a true follower of Jesus.
Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossian believers
5 So put to death the parts of your life that belong to the earth, such as sexual immorality, moral corruption, lust, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). 6 The wrath of God is coming upon disobedient people because of these things.
In the Revelation we read
14 Favored are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right of access to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. 15 Outside are the dogs, the drug users and spell-casters, those who commit sexual immorality, the murderers, the idolaters, and all who love and practice deception.
Those are just some examples. We should run as far and as fast as we can from evil. We should never entertain it in our lives.
I hope you get the point, enough meddling for the time being.
Look at verse 11
11 Don’t hesitate to be enthusiastic—be on fire in the Spirit as you serve the Lord!
We need a healthy dose of this!
Look at the things that people get excited about and spend so much of their time, talents, and treasure for.
We are quickly heading towards the presidential elections. I wish that Christians would spend more time talking about Christ and what Jesus wants to do in the lives of people. Instead I see such hate filled posts about all the bad things that President Trump has done or will do, or all the bad things that former Vice President Biden has done or will do if he is elected.
Folks, I hate to tell you, a president Trump or a president Biden is not going to save you. Only Jesus will save you. Enough already, pray for God’s will. Pray for whoever is the president.
If you want true and lasting change in our nation, then you should be spending time praying for a heaven sent revival to sweep through this nation. It should begin in you and I.
There is nothing wrong with being involved in politics and voicing your opinion about policies, but when we have gone to the level that we cannot as a Christian pray for whoever is the president then where is our faith?
God instructs us to pray for those in authority over us.
Paul says to “Don’t hesitate to be enthusiastic - be on fire in the Spirit as you serve the Lord!” The Message put it this way:
Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame.
How do you burn out? You burn out by not keeping your life fueled. Take your care for example. If you head out on a trip to the beach and don’t stop to fill your tank with gas you are eventually going to run out and you’ll be stopped along the road some place.
In the Christian life you are going to burn out if you do not keep fueled by the Holy Spirit of God.
You keep fueled by the Holy Spirit by spending time in prayer, by reading God’s word, by worshipping together, but serving God.
I don’t know, I think that sometimes we want a tame God, a God that we can control.
Rev. Eric Funston wrote:
A clergy colleague, a minister in another denomination, commented, "I really think we are afraid of power. Most folks I know (myself included)," he said, "are afraid of power that is beyond ourselves." He went on to suggest that we are like that Forest Service official down in New Mexico who wanted a "controlled burn" but got a wildfire instead. At some level, we know that the fire of the Spirit is not a controlled burn but a wildfire – and wildfires change more than we had in mind. Therefore, he put forward, we are cautious about really inviting the Spirit into our lives.
Folks, that is what we need today. We don’t need some cautious “controlled burn” in our lives. We need a wildfire of the power of God in our lives.
We need to be changed and transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Won’t you join me in praying for the wildfire of the Holy Spirit to sweep through our lives, this church, our communities.
If you want to make it to heaven, you cannot fake your there. It is only going to happen because of you having a personal relationship with Jesus.