Matthew 23:1-4,23-24

	Sermon: Grace, Not Guilt "Do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach”	Matthew 23:1-4, 23-24 Next
Home About Us Our Denomination Worship Sermon Bible Studies Ministries Television Clothing Center Love INC Help Us Help Them	As many of you know, New Beginnings Christian Community is a very special church. When we founded this church there were over 146 churches in Charlottesville. God did not need another church for churchy folk. God needed a church that was especially for people who did not feel comfortable in traditional churches. So we started this church for people who need healing, including people who are struggling with alcohol and addictions. God has really blessed us. Many people have come to this church and have been healed. Every Sunday, someone shares with us another victory over addiction, alcoholism, depression, fear, guilt, co-dependency or whatever is hurting their lives. But healing is usually not instantaneous. As we have often said, it is a process. Some people take much longer than others. One of the folk, who came to our church, but was not ready for the gift of healing, was a man who loved to sing and play the piano. He believed that using crack helped him sing and play better. One Sunday, two years ago, this man insisted on singing a solo and then another and another. When I finally stopped his concert, he got very angry with me and stormed out into our parking lot. After the worship service, he came back inside and told me off twice. “How dare I stop him from doing what God wanted him to do? It didn’t matter if he was using, God wanted him to sing and sing and sing!” The next week, our church voted on a new rule. Here it is. We decided that we needed “Spirit filled leadership,” not drug induced leadership. So we adopted Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous’ rule of 90 days clean and sober before anyone could lead a prayer or perform a solo. That wise rule may have been developed by AA and NA, but it was based on Jesus’ own directions. Jesus rarely got mad, but one of the few times he did, was when he saw people trying to be leaders, who did not practice what they preached. We read in Matthew 23: 1-3, “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it;” Jesus did not attack what they said. The scribes were Jewish lawyers, who spent their lives studying the Bible. The Pharisees were Jewish deacons, who went to worship services almost everyday. The knew the Bible. They knew a lot about God. That was not their problem. They were like that singer, who had a real gift for music. But the problem was that he and they could not really be leaders. Leaders don’t jus tell people what is right and what is wrong. Leaders show us God’s will, God’s way, in what they do. Jesus tells us not to follow anyone who is all talk and no walk. He says, “But do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach” Many of you recognize these so-called “Christian Leaders,” Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. In the 1980’s they were a very famous couple who preached about Christians deserving wealth and how to have a truly Christian marriage. Their TV show was a great success. Their Christian theme park, Heritage USA in Fort Mill, South Carolina, was the third most successful theme park in the U.S. They also built a satellite system to distribute their network 24 hours a day across the country. Contributions requested from viewers were estimated to exceed $1 million a week. In 1989, Jim Bakker was convicted of 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy for bilking his supporters out of $158 million dollars. He was also accused of adultery and using church money to pay for covering up his sins. Tammy Faye died of cancer a year ago. When Jim went to prison she divorced him and fell in love with a married man, Roe Messner. Roe divorced his wife to marry Tammy Fay, but he also ended up in prison, for bankruptcy fraud. Then Tammy Faye turned to TV and writing books to pay for all their debt. She even starred in a reality show, where she talked openly about how unhappy her marriage to Jim Bakker had been. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bakker) Jim and Tammy Bakker reaped what they sowed. They truly suffered in this life for all the lies and wrong they did. But even worse than what they did to themselves, is what they did to those who watched them on TV. In the words of Jesus, They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.” Tammy kept telling women that they would have happy marriages if they only ‘fixed themselves up and looked pretty all the time.” Jim kept telling men that they if they truly believed in Jesus, they would become wealthy. God would shower blessing on them. If women did not have happy marriages, they were to blame for not putting enough mascara on their eyes or not being submissive enough to their husbands. If men were not wealthy, they were to blame for not believing in Jesus enough. The Bakkers piled guilt on anyone who doubted their gospel of beauty and prosperity. After all, they kept saying, “It works for us, so it will work for you.” Jesus had on word to describe the Bakkers and any of us, who say one thing and do another, “hypocrites.” He even raised his voice at the phonies of his day. ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” The Greek word, “hypokrisis” means play acting, pretending. Jesus became angry whenever he saw people who pretended to be Christian leaders, yet were just play acting and doing everything that wasn’t Christian when they did not have an audience. The scribes and Pharisees loved to show off during the offering. They wanted everyone to see that they gave 10% of everything they owned, including 10% of the little spices in their gardens. Yet, these very same people, “ have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.” They did not care about the poor or about the people in prison. They were so concerned about looking like they were obeying all that God wants us to do, that they did not do anything that really mattered to God. Jesus was not against tithing. He was not condemning them for giving 10% of every little thing to God. Just as Jesus was not condemning Tammy Faye for wanting to please her husband by putting on gobs of mascara. He tells them and us, ‘and It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!” They have put all the emphasis on the wrong syllable. Jesus was talking to all of us, not just TV evangelists, preachers, Jewish leaders or cracked-up soloists. We all need to practice what we preach. We all must be careful that we are not saying one thing and doing another. Even those of us who do not think of ourselves as leaders in the church, are Christian leaders to our families, our friends and our neighbors. In fact, we may be the only Bible they ever read. So we need to live what we say we believe. We need to live what they know is the true Christian life, and that is not easy. One of my friends, who really struggled with living his faith in God, was Gerald May. Gerry was a doctor and a psychiatrist. He was trained to help people who were mentally ill or addicted by analyzing their problems and working on how they could solve them. Gerry finally stopped doing what he had been trained to do for over 15 years and began helping people surrender to God. Gerry stopped pretending that his faith did not matter to his patients or that faith in God did not matter to their illness. Gerry wrote a book entitled “Addiction and Grace,” which has been read by over a million people. In it, he shares his scientific knowledge about the physical and psychological dimensions of any form of addiction, but he does not stop there. Gerry goes on to share with his readers and his patients the unconditional love that God has for them, which he calls grace. Many of Gerry’s fellow psychiatrists made fun of Gerry’s faith. They thought that he had lost his mind. Many of his former patients were offended by his bringing God into their conversations. But Gerry did not care. All he wanted to do was be truly faithful to God in everything he did, including his work. Gerry died of cancer three years ago. His last words were whispered to his daughter Julie, who had struggled with drugs for years. He told her, “Trust in love, Trust in God.” All of us are hypocrites in one way or another. We all believe more than we do. We all fail to practice what we say really matters the most to us. Let us pray that we can be more true to what we know is true and live our lives as if everyone could see everything. For in truth, there are no secrets and we are leading people to hell or to heaven by our actions, especially when they contradict our words. Let us pray.
	The New Beginnings Christian Community An American Baptist Church Worship Site: Clark School, 1000 Belmont Ave. Office: 1515 Stoney Creek Drive Charlottesville, VA 22902 (434) 872-0800 Contact Us

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