subtle sins within the church (number one)

It has been a problem within the church since before Christ walked the earth. It strikes and hits us all at times in our walk. We mess up and sin yet never even realizes that it was a sin in the first place. However that does not mean somebody else did not see it. Someone we love or someone we have never even met or someone sitting in the next pew over could have seen the action.
They look at us and say, I cannot believe they call themselves a Christian. I thought their lives were supposed to be different now. Or don’t they attend the Wesleyan church on Rt. 11; I guess they do not teach the bible over there. So what do we do about this thing people call hypocrisy? How do we handle this so we can live the example we need to in front of Christians and non-Christians a like.
When Christ walked the earth the Pharisees were the ones labeled as hypocrites and today we try to live as not to be considered the same. So how can we as a church address and rid ourselves of this stereotype.
Christ confronted the Pharisees many times to help make them understand what He was about and to tried to make their religion go from the head to the heart. What he was trying to say is that you need to be real with your faith and not to live in a way that it is all about sticking to the rules because this is legalism. You should live it out because you believe that this is truth. One of these confrontations is found in Matthew 23. So please turn there in your bibles to follow along.
Jesus in this passage warns the Pharisees of some of the sins that they are committing. This is something that might have blindsided them, because while the Pharisees knew they were not perfect it might have come to a surprise that they were sinning by living this way.
We start in vs 13. It reads “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” This shows that the Pharisees are not where they need to be in their spiritual walk. It says that they will not even enter the kingdom of heaven themselves. So you need to deal with your own heart before you can try and change others. There are many people searching for love and acceptance. They are trying to look for God but how can they find him if we are not willing to show them the way to find Christ.
I recently taught a Life studies class that was titled Sharing Jesus without Fear. The whole premise of the study was to show that we have nothing to fear by sharing Christ. It made sharing Christ come easier in everyday conversation. The first class was titled “The Sin of Silence.” William Faye the author said it like this. If you do not share Christ it is a sin. Plain and simple, cut and dry. He goes on to explain that Christ cave us a command to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” William goes on to say whether or not you are good with words or even know your faith that well, God will bless what you say because it is from the heart. God has and will continue to use everyone that has a heart to share his name. You will never lose by sharing your faith and a person coming to a decision not to follow. How you lose is never sharing at all.
The average person takes about 7 times to be witnessed to make a commitment to Christ. So Christ will use you either way. Whether it is an actual commitment or preparing somebody for his or her hopeful commitment. But it is up to us to show them the light. One of the biggest excuses for sharing Christ with someone is that they do not feel competent in their knowledge. But Christ will use our experiences and what we do know to use it for his glory.

quick update

i am back from my crazy trips here and there. over the the past 6 weeks i have been in cleveland, made two trips to maine (one for my grandfathers funeral and the other for a week of vacation) and then i spent two weeks at camp. it was the best of times and the worst of times. i have felt drained the past few weeks but am very glad i was this crazy for a while. it helped me understand a lot about ministry and what my priorities need to be. maybe i will touch a little on that in future posts. but for now i am glad to be back in pulaski to get things going for moving into the parsonage, planning barn bash, and getting ready for some new things involving commonground in the fall (we are starting an afterschool hangout, and will have two bible studies in two schools this year.)

i will hopefully be able to write more often as i will actually be around a computer for an extended amount of time.