Be Transparent
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encanto. It’s the story of a family endowed with special gift and powers that are to be used to build up the family and the community. Hmmmm…sounds familiar.
But over time the magical house where they live begins to crack. And some of their powers begin to wain.
The one person who tried to warn them, was shunned and ostracized, but they don’t talk about him any more.
Over time the cracks get bigger as their relationships get more strained. And rather than admit that their are problems, they hide them and cover them up. And silence anyone who draws attention to the flaws.
For anyone who has seen the movie, it’s probably a oversimplification of the plot.
But I couldn’t help see how this story could be talking about a church.
A group of people who are endowed with spiritual gifts meant to build up the church and the community.
But lack of transparency in our relationships begins to crack the walls of the church until it’s destroyed.
In the end, the house in encanto is destroyed, but they realize that it was never about the house. It was about the relationships. And they learn to be more transparent the entire family and community get’s stronger.
It’s a powerful story with great application for the church today.
Authentic relationships require vulnerability (last week) and tranparency.
Transition to the Text: Turn with me in your Bibles to James 5. James was the half-brother of Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph. He didn’t believe in Jesus until after Jesus rose from the dead.
He became a strong pillar in the early church and in spite of the fact that the apostles were still alive, James likely was the first pastor and leader of the Jerusalem Church.
After a few years, Christianity became the target of intense persecution by Jews and Romans alike. So much so that many of those early Christians were forced to flee Jerusalem to places like Antioch.
So James wrote the first book of the New Testament, a letter to those dispersed. His goal was to get them to stand strong in the face of persecution. And a major theme is the need to be transparent about their faith.
And with that we have the call for prayer. They need to be praying for one another. But you can’t pray about what you don’t know about.
Transparency leads to community,
Introduce:
Authentic Principle: The first step is admitting you have a problem.
Authentic Principle: The first step is admitting you have a problem.
Read:
James 5:13–20 (ESV)
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. 19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Transformational Principle:
1. Share your burdens with the church so they can pray for you. (James 5:13-15)
1. Share your burdens with the church so they can pray for you. (James 5:13-15)
Explanation: James talks about the beauty of transparency in all of our good times as well as our bad times.
God calls us to be transparent in our suffering. So that others can bare our burdens. He calls us to be transparent in our joy so others can rejoice with us.
As the apostle paul says,
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
and elsewhere
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
One burden that we can all probably relate to is the idea that when we are sick, with COVID or Cancer, be transparent and ask for prayer.
This comes with a promise, “the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.”
Christians are healed one way or another. Either their illness is cures of they pass into eternity into the loving arms of their savior.
But so often we keep things to ourself that we should share with others. We fail to ask for prayer. And the church can doesn’t have an opportunity to pray.
Illustration: Transparency is a funny thing. On one hand, we living in an age where we have very little privacy. We will post everything on Social media from when and where we go on vacation. What we have for breakfast, lunch dinner and just because.
We post pictures of our kids. Or funny memes or tic tocs.
But even though we are posting more about ourselves than ever before, we’re probably the least transparent that we’ve ever been.
We selectively choose what to reveal and what not to. Rather than be fully transparent, we are selectively transparent when we aren’t outright lying about who we actually are.
Application: We are called by God to be transparent not just for ourselves. The truth is that there are other people in your life who may be going through the same things as you. And through your transparency, you may help someone else see that they aren’t alone.
In this way, we truly do bare one another’s burdens.
2. Confess your sins to one another so that you can be forgiven. (James 5:16
2. Confess your sins to one another so that you can be forgiven. (James 5:16
Explanation: This is a tough one for many of us. We think of confession as something “Roman Catholic” were you go sit in a confessional and tell your sins to a priest. And then he tells you that he absolves you of your sins. While they might point to this passage, that’s not what they have in mind here.
Actually it doesn’t mention a priest or a pastor. It says, confess your sins to one another.
One another in a powerful 2 words that speaks to the community of faith. There are a lot of “one another” passages that point to the importance of community. But true and authentic community requires transparency in places that might make us feel uncomfortable.
We aren’t just confessing our sins to those we’ve harmed. That would fall under last week’s sermon. But we confess our sins so that in James’ words, “we might pray for one another.” And notice that it’s not forgiveness that is gained, but healing.
Sin is something that we must be healed of. We often think of sin as something we commit, and in part that’s true, but sin is a condition. We’re not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners.
By confessing our sins to one another, we should be looking for accountability.
Illustration: Many look at sin as something that if they do isn’t as bad as what someone else does.
We elevate murder as worse than gossip.
Or adultery as worse than gluttony.
There are degrees lying we find acceptable.
And don’t even get me started the language that we use to tear down others online.
But does God see it that way?
Look at what James says earlier.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
Application: Confess your sin to God. Repent of your sin. But part of your turning from sin involves seeking accountability from others. We’ll talk a little bit about that next week.
Transparency in this area doesn’t tear down Jesus. It shows God’s people that they aren’t alone in what they struggle with.
A word of caution.
Someone else’s sin has a habit of leading others to the sin of gossip.
You don’t get to be transparent with someone else’s sin.
You may know that someone is struggling with addiction. So in the guise of a prayer request you ask for prayer that God would help them overcome their addiction.
Or you know someone who’s marriages is struggling. Or any number of sins.
To be transparent with someone else’s sin when you don’t have permission to share is called gossip....a sin that you will have to then confess.
Many of us would bare the secrets of the world before we were transparent with our own soul. With our own sin.
Let us not be so arrogant to think we have nothing to confess.
Now transparency leads somewhere. It’s not just about getting things off your chest.
Transparency with our suffering, joy, sickness and sin are training us to share the Gospel.
Because James tells us....
3. Lead those who have WANDERED back to God and His church. (James 5:19-20)
3. Lead those who have WANDERED back to God and His church. (James 5:19-20)
Explanation: Now James takes us from transparency to restoration of a lost brother or sister in Christ. While this is largely talking about wayward Christians, this applies to evangelism as well.
Many people who leave the church, especially young people, do so not because of doctrine, but because of people.
The lack of transparency in the church is killing churches.
Because what people see is not transparency and love, but hypocrisy and judgement.
Now the church is always going to appear a little hypocritical. We’re always going to teach a standard that we don’t measure up to. We’re always going to call out sin that we too struggle with.
This very sermon, I’m telling you God wants us to be transparent when I struggle daily with transparency.
But here is where the grace of God comes in.
When we are transparent with our own sin, it shows others than:
They aren’t alone in their sin struggle.
That sin is a struggle to be fought together.
That the church is a place for healing and restoration.
As we practice this, we become a safe place for people. And in the midst of transparent, loving, community, we find victory over our sin.
We are not talking about tolerating sin or celebrating sin. We are talking about strength in numbers.
When you are transparent with your sin, you gain an ally in your battle.
Now imagine a Christian who is transparent with their own struggle coming to a wayward Christian who has turned their back on a hypocritical church.
Think of a Christian who knows that they are saved not by works but by God’s grace. That it’s not the good things that get them into heaven and it’s not the bad things that send them to hell.
When you have experienced the grace of God, your response should be grace from others. If your response is to be a hypocrite who puts others down for not measuring up, you probably haven’t actually experienced grace.
Illustration: In our world, there is something called the decontruction movement where Christians are “deconstructing” their faith in hopes of building back a true faith.
Now I have always said that God welcomes our questions and doubts. If we come with a humble heart that seeks God in His Word, we will find the answers to our questions. That was the basis of the Protestant Reformation.
But that’s not what the deconstruction movement is doing. Almost universally, when someone deconstructs their faith, they end in apostasy in which they deny most or all of the Christian faith.
When we bring back a wayward Christian we bring them back to the Bible. To Jesus and to the Cross.
Application: Whose responsibility is it to bring back wayward Christians? Yours.
We often like to put it on the professionals. The pastors or missionaries.
I’ve had people call me and ask me to visit their loved one and get them to come back to the church.
It almost never works. Because truth without relationship is usually just white noise. As soon as the title pastor gets thrown out the walls go up.
But you already have the relationship.
Through your own transparency of suffering, joy, sickness, and sin, you are fully qualified to bring back wayward Christians.
Response: Are you a transparent Christian?
Response: Are you a transparent Christian?
Summation:
Authentic Principle: The first step is admitting you have a issue.
1. Share your burdens with the church so they can pray for you. (James 5:13-15)
2. Confess your sins to one another so that you can be forgiven. (James 5:16
3. If anyone wanders from God, let the church lead them back (James 5:19-20)
Response: Are you a transparent Christian?
Closing Illustration:
Now I love transparency of all kinds. But we need to celebrate all transparency and not just some.
When I was a kid growing up in Church, I remember that from time to time we’d have people share testimonies of God’s grace in their life.
And I remember listening to this one guy powerful testimony of God rescuing him out of drugs and alcohol.
On another occasion, we heard a story of God rescuing a gang member and making him a pastor.
We love these stories and they are rightly to be celebrated. Because we say wow look what God can do!
But as a young kid and remember sinfully thinking, my testimony stinks. I haven’t done anything worth God’s celebrating.
And I wasn’t the only one. I remember being at a young retreat where we would allow kids to come up and tell their testimonies.
And a pattern started to emerge. The kids would start trying to one up each other. 6th graders talking about the drugs and alcohol they had done.
Clearly lying because they wanted to get the reaction that those hardened people got.
Why do I say this?
I think that we have elevated certain testimonies over others.
My favorite testimonies over the years have been the ones where someone says, “By God’s grace, I was raised by 2 people who loved and served the Lord. They took me to church and when I was 6, I gave my life to Jesus. I’ve done my best to serve Jesus and make his name known. I have struggles with sin.....but I’m grateful that God has blessed me and protected me in my life.
wow look what God can do!
We need to celebrate all transparency.
What about you? Are you transparent about what God has done or is doing in your life?
Is there something you are holding back?
What steps might you take to be more transparent in your life?
Imagine what the church would look like if we were more open with others.
The gospel tells the world that we are all sinners in need of savior. That Jesus is the savior of sinners. And that Jesus came not to make bad people good but to make dead people alive.
Transparency like vulerability gives us credibility with a broken and hurting world that needs to know they aren’t alone.
For the sake of the love of Jesus, will you work at being more transparent?
Let’s pray.
Week 25 of 2021-2022 Sermon Series: Authentic Relationships: Be Transparent (James 5:13-20)
Authentic Principle: The FIRST step is admitting you have a ISSUE.
1. Share your BURDENS with the church so they can pray for you. (James 5:13-15)
2. CONFESS your sins to one another so that you can be forgiven. (James 5:16)
3. Lead those who have WANDERED back to God and His church. (James 5:19-20)
Response: Are you a TRANSPARENT Christian?
Opening Discussion: Why do you think it’s so hard for most people to be transparent? Why is transparency so important to the Christian life?
Sermon:
What does James write concerning how we should act out what’s going on inside of us?
Why might concealing our emotional life be detrimental to having authentic relationships?
How does the church family share in both the joys and burdens of the individual members?
How does transparency, especially regarding sickness, strengthen the church as we pray for one another?
Why does James emphasize the importance of confessing sin to one another? How can this type of transparency build up the church?
What does transparency have to do with prayer? How does lack of transparency get in the way of a church’s prayers?
Application:
Are you transparent with others in your suffering? Joy? Sickness? Sin?
How comfortable are you asking for prayer for those things in your life?
What are the barriers that keep us from being transparent? How can we begin to eliminate those barriers?
What part does trust play in our transparency? Can you think of a time when someone violated your trust? How can you overcome this betrayal to trust again?
Do you regularly pray for other people? How can you better ensure that you are praying for those who need prayer in your life?
What steps can you take to be more transparent in your relationships?