24.2.08 Behavior – those things we need to take off. Malvern@6
Tonight in our series of the abc’s of lent we are talking about behavior.
Remember clothes – its these behaviors that we take off. And the behaviors that we put on that really matter and its what others see. We communicate Jesus by what others see, they see our attitudes and they see our behavior.
Comes after attitudes because often our attitudes (or what we think) sets how we act. Not always but mostly.
Here are some descriptions I found on the internet of behavior as seen by employers;
· "Since my last report, this employee has reached rock-bottom and shows signs of starting to dig."
· "His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity."
· "I would not allow this employee to breed."
· "This associate is really not so much of a has-been, but more of a definitely won't be."
· "Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap."
· "When he opens his mouth, it seems that this is only to change whichever foot was previously in there."
· "He would be out of his depth in a parking lot puddle."
· "This young man has delusions of adequacy."
· "He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them."
· "This employee should go far-and the sooner he starts, the better."
· "This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot."
Behavior is an indicator of what is going on inside us. It tells us what people think about a certain circumstance. So for instance when you go to a crows port match you don’t even need to see any colures all you need to do to find out who barracks for who is to watch the behavior.
Behavior is very important in our culture. We often use such phrases as unacceptable behavior, dysfunctional behavior, bad behavior, erratic behavior. If you continue in what society says is bad behavior sooner or later you are going to end up as a guest of her majesty for varying amounts of time. Society see’s behavior as a reflection of who you are.
Now when we turn our attention to the bible there is a whole lot more for us to think about. God understands that behavior is something that sets us apart and something that is important for us as followers of Jesus. The Bible then is actually very explicit with behaviors and has things that are important for us to be mindful of. The Old Testament was full of behavior requirements, so for instance the ten commandments and all the deuteronomic law and the livitical law. This told the children of Israel what God expected of them as a holy people and a people who were meant to reflect God. Now this didn’t work to well as humanity soon found out that will power alone is not enough to produce good behavior. Much of our behavior is socially set so, when the children of Israel saw other nations doing strange cultic practices they just wandered away and were easily seduced into ungodly behavior. And God wasn’t happy!
But you see something happened when Jesus came. Jesus did a work in our hearts that allowed us to have more than just will power to overcome our behavioral issues. Jesus gives us a new heart. A heart that is assisted to follow God. Now I need to talk with you about this at great length but not right now! All I need to say is that Jesus actually gives us the tools to change our behavior. No longer do we have to just rely on our will power but we are at full liberty to ask Jesus for his help. Jesus does this through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I can only tell you this because he has been doing it in mine!
When I encourage you to pray, I am not just suggesting that you should only pray for the sick people in the world or world poverty. But what I want you to do is to open your heart to the work of the Spirit and pray for yourself that you might now where the HS is wanting to change you into the image of Jesus.
And this really is the bottom line when we talk about Behavior as a Christian. Our behavior is modeled on Jesus and nothing else. In fact we must reject anything else!
Tonight I want to suggest 3 things that we need to take off. 3 overall principles that are important for us to grapple with in living with integrity and uprightness. 3 behaviors that we must deal with if we are to be a Jesus person. Now a Jesus person is someone who lives life like we are intended, they live life in the way we were made. This isn’t something that I have just made up, but something that is tried and tested by thousands of generations who have followed Jesus and who have found meaning and purpose beyond that of anyone else. This is not an easy way to live life, actually if you want an easy way then don’t follow Jesus. Do something else, wrestle a tiger or compete in a marathon or read the entire internet. Following Jesus is like what the hilltop hoods say its the hard road. And when we come to behaviors its an obvious indicator of whether you are on the hard road or not.
First let me read the important bits from psalm 1.
Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.
3 they are like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do prospers.
4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
The psalm tells us three things in the opening verse about behavior. So lets work our way through them.
Culture
The first behaviour has to do with what the bible says is “walking in the counsel of the wicked”. Now I am sure that doesn’t make much sense to you but just give it a moment, because its actually quite obvious. When you walk with someone its like you share the road with them, essentially you go the same direction as they do. So for instance your mum says do you want to go for a walk with me means literally that both of you are going in the same direction. Unless your mum says you go to the video store and I will go and get some milk, she is expecting you to go with her in the exact same direction. Try and do otherwise!
Now, if you are a follower of Jesus how can you go in the same direction as people who are not? If you follow Gods plan for your life then how can you be in harmony with someone who just wants to do their own thing all the time?
Have you ever tried to walk with a dog that has wanted to go another way? Have you ever had a dog on a lead that wants to go off all the time to the side sniffing and smelling crossing the path in front of you! What happens is that your legs become tangled up in the lead and you end up falling over!
This is what will happen to a Christian who tries to follow the same course of a non Christian.
What I am trying to communicate to you in this point relates to the direction of your life and the behaviours that are associated with that. There are forces trying to pull you towards a different way. The drag of culture on your life should not be underestimated. Culture has a huge influence on your behaviour.
We are strongly influenced by the direction of society and the trends that we see.
So immediately that tells us we cannot act and behave the same as everyone else around us. We don’t follow advice that seems right for everyone else. If you follow Jesus then you are different than the rest. Its not enough to be a nice person. Nice people don’t always walk Gods ways.
So what does this look like?
· We should not have common morals – God calls us a holy people, that means we act in a right manner, we get our morals from the new testament and not from desperate house wives or Nova – you know what I mean (maybe another day I will speak at some length on this)
· We do not have an ordinary emphasis on money.
· We treat people differently – we don’t use or abuse or manipulate, we are careful with our words.
· We eliminate the attitudes of fear, or despair or unthankfulness.
We take off the walk of the person who does not follow Jesus in order to put on the one that does. Our actions reflect who we serve and not culture.
Influence
The second thing that the psalm says to us is this” Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners
So the Psalm says that we don’t stand in the way of sinners. Again this sounds complicated. But lets thing about it like this, Not only do we not follow in the direction of everyone else but we don’t make it our habit to reside in a place where un-Christlike behaviour is endorsed. This is about the habits we foster in our lives and the people we let form those habits. Now I am not saying that we should give up our friends that don't hold to the same world view that we do. I am not saying that at all. Actually I am saying the opposite. Be with your friends, hang around them, love them support them enjoy them, go to their parties, laugh when they get drunk, and tickle their babies.
But what I do think the bible is saying is be careful of their influence in your life.
Let me illustrate it like this; when you were growing up your mum and dad would have set the agenda for your life (well mostly). So by and large you thought like they did, the things that were important to them were things that were important for you. In my upbringing books were important. Go into my office now and you will see it full of books – I love them. I love them because I was taught to love them, my parents influence rubbed off on my. The same is true for the company you keep. If you are not careful their priorities will become your priorities.
Suzie and I have been on a health kick for about 12 months; our kids have imbibed that and are now very discerning when it comes to putting things in their mouth! Its amazing the influence you have over people.
As followers of Jesus we need to analyse and be real about those influences our company have on us. We have to put off like a coat those unhelpful behaviours that come from the friends we keep. We need to stop letting their lives influence ours.
Now for some of us this means we actually need to find new friends. But for most of us we need to stop following our friends advice that leads us away from Jesus. The bible says ‘Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil for good’. In other words you are the ones who should be influencing your friends. Now again this is not something that you have do to alone. The HS give us the energy to do this and to make this happen in our lives.
The behaviour that we need to take off looks something like this;
· All our friends are watching a DVD or internet that we know is not healthy for our Christian life. We should leave.
· Our friends are involved in something dodgy.
· There is constant backstabbing and pulling down of a member of the group when they are not there.
· The group picks on one person all the time.
· The norm is to drink heavily, smoke strangely, drug stupidly and drive recklessly.
You know what I am talking about. Don’t let that behaviour pull you down, because it ends up in nowhere road. Take those practices of. By the power of the HS be the positive influence.
Person
Finally the Bible says
Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
So the last image the bible gives us is sitting in the seat of mocker. Again we need to think about this one. I think what it means is that we don’t resign ourselves to our fate. What I suggest by that is if we have some bad behaviour in our life. Some things of which we are aware, we don’t just let them sit and ignore them.
God calls us to so much more than where we are presently – and that is true for all of us. We don’t let ourselves remain in bad behaviour. We don’t sit with it, we don’t just let it all happen around us, but we get up and do something about it. Now some might say well that’s easy for you to say Jono but it’s a bit harder for me. Well, you know each of us have our own struggle in our own particular area. But this is one area that we have to really work hard at getting off.
Behaviours that have been part of our life quickly become habits. And habits are hard to shift.
But if you want to be a mature person then you must deal with the destructive habits of your life. If you want to develop and be the person that God intended then you have got to stop making excuses and get rid of the negative behaviour that is dragging you down.
You see God does not want us to be passive but to be proactive about our spirituality! He calls us to be involved in the world and to bring about change, not to sit in a place of self pity and denial. God wants to use you with his mission but not when you have all this negative stuff going on inside of you. The things of culture and the influences of our friends can cause us to be crippled to the things of God. But God says I have given you the gift of the HS but its up to you to want to change and move and mature.
So what exactly am I talking about, well let me name some that I think are a problem;
Some of us have made a habit out of drinking that will get out of control.
Some of us need to stop thinking about ourselves so much and begin to see what other needs there are in the world.
Some of us need to get our use of language under control
Some of us need to stop making excuses about why we are what we are and get on with it.
Some of us need to stop spending on ourselves.
Some of us have to take responsibility for our own actions.
Some of us need to be consistent in our devotional life (every day) and faithful in our worship (every week)
A man walking through the forest saw a fox that had lost its legs, and he wondered how it lived. Then he saw a tiger come up with game in its mouth. The tiger ate its fill and left the rest of the meat for the fox.
The next day God fed the fox by means of the same tiger. The man began to wonder at God's greatness and said to himself, "I took shall rest in a corner with full trust in the Lord and he will provide me with all that I need."
He did this for many days but nothing happened, and he was almost at death's door when he heard a voice say, "O you who are in the path of error, open your eyes to the truth. Stop imitating the disabled fox and follow the example of the tiger."
Sometimes there are more tigers here than in the Indian jungle. Its time we got up and got going.
Let me finish by saying this.
Behaviours come at a variety of levels. But its time to get wise to their impact on our lives and to behave more like Jesus. Jesus is the right way to live life. The right way to act, the right way to be. Remember you are a child of the king, its time to throw off all those things that aren’t consistent with that.
Remember clothes – its these behaviors that we take off. And the behaviors that we put on that really matter and its what others see. We communicate Jesus by what others see, they see our attitudes and they see our behavior.
Comes after attitudes because often our attitudes (or what we think) sets how we act. Not always but mostly.
Here are some descriptions I found on the internet of behavior as seen by employers;
· "Since my last report, this employee has reached rock-bottom and shows signs of starting to dig."
· "His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity."
· "I would not allow this employee to breed."
· "This associate is really not so much of a has-been, but more of a definitely won't be."
· "Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap."
· "When he opens his mouth, it seems that this is only to change whichever foot was previously in there."
· "He would be out of his depth in a parking lot puddle."
· "This young man has delusions of adequacy."
· "He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them."
· "This employee should go far-and the sooner he starts, the better."
· "This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot."
Behavior is an indicator of what is going on inside us. It tells us what people think about a certain circumstance. So for instance when you go to a crows port match you don’t even need to see any colures all you need to do to find out who barracks for who is to watch the behavior.
Behavior is very important in our culture. We often use such phrases as unacceptable behavior, dysfunctional behavior, bad behavior, erratic behavior. If you continue in what society says is bad behavior sooner or later you are going to end up as a guest of her majesty for varying amounts of time. Society see’s behavior as a reflection of who you are.
Now when we turn our attention to the bible there is a whole lot more for us to think about. God understands that behavior is something that sets us apart and something that is important for us as followers of Jesus. The Bible then is actually very explicit with behaviors and has things that are important for us to be mindful of. The Old Testament was full of behavior requirements, so for instance the ten commandments and all the deuteronomic law and the livitical law. This told the children of Israel what God expected of them as a holy people and a people who were meant to reflect God. Now this didn’t work to well as humanity soon found out that will power alone is not enough to produce good behavior. Much of our behavior is socially set so, when the children of Israel saw other nations doing strange cultic practices they just wandered away and were easily seduced into ungodly behavior. And God wasn’t happy!
But you see something happened when Jesus came. Jesus did a work in our hearts that allowed us to have more than just will power to overcome our behavioral issues. Jesus gives us a new heart. A heart that is assisted to follow God. Now I need to talk with you about this at great length but not right now! All I need to say is that Jesus actually gives us the tools to change our behavior. No longer do we have to just rely on our will power but we are at full liberty to ask Jesus for his help. Jesus does this through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I can only tell you this because he has been doing it in mine!
When I encourage you to pray, I am not just suggesting that you should only pray for the sick people in the world or world poverty. But what I want you to do is to open your heart to the work of the Spirit and pray for yourself that you might now where the HS is wanting to change you into the image of Jesus.
And this really is the bottom line when we talk about Behavior as a Christian. Our behavior is modeled on Jesus and nothing else. In fact we must reject anything else!
Tonight I want to suggest 3 things that we need to take off. 3 overall principles that are important for us to grapple with in living with integrity and uprightness. 3 behaviors that we must deal with if we are to be a Jesus person. Now a Jesus person is someone who lives life like we are intended, they live life in the way we were made. This isn’t something that I have just made up, but something that is tried and tested by thousands of generations who have followed Jesus and who have found meaning and purpose beyond that of anyone else. This is not an easy way to live life, actually if you want an easy way then don’t follow Jesus. Do something else, wrestle a tiger or compete in a marathon or read the entire internet. Following Jesus is like what the hilltop hoods say its the hard road. And when we come to behaviors its an obvious indicator of whether you are on the hard road or not.
First let me read the important bits from psalm 1.
Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.
3 they are like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do prospers.
4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
The psalm tells us three things in the opening verse about behavior. So lets work our way through them.
Culture
The first behaviour has to do with what the bible says is “walking in the counsel of the wicked”. Now I am sure that doesn’t make much sense to you but just give it a moment, because its actually quite obvious. When you walk with someone its like you share the road with them, essentially you go the same direction as they do. So for instance your mum says do you want to go for a walk with me means literally that both of you are going in the same direction. Unless your mum says you go to the video store and I will go and get some milk, she is expecting you to go with her in the exact same direction. Try and do otherwise!
Now, if you are a follower of Jesus how can you go in the same direction as people who are not? If you follow Gods plan for your life then how can you be in harmony with someone who just wants to do their own thing all the time?
Have you ever tried to walk with a dog that has wanted to go another way? Have you ever had a dog on a lead that wants to go off all the time to the side sniffing and smelling crossing the path in front of you! What happens is that your legs become tangled up in the lead and you end up falling over!
This is what will happen to a Christian who tries to follow the same course of a non Christian.
What I am trying to communicate to you in this point relates to the direction of your life and the behaviours that are associated with that. There are forces trying to pull you towards a different way. The drag of culture on your life should not be underestimated. Culture has a huge influence on your behaviour.
We are strongly influenced by the direction of society and the trends that we see.
So immediately that tells us we cannot act and behave the same as everyone else around us. We don’t follow advice that seems right for everyone else. If you follow Jesus then you are different than the rest. Its not enough to be a nice person. Nice people don’t always walk Gods ways.
So what does this look like?
· We should not have common morals – God calls us a holy people, that means we act in a right manner, we get our morals from the new testament and not from desperate house wives or Nova – you know what I mean (maybe another day I will speak at some length on this)
· We do not have an ordinary emphasis on money.
· We treat people differently – we don’t use or abuse or manipulate, we are careful with our words.
· We eliminate the attitudes of fear, or despair or unthankfulness.
We take off the walk of the person who does not follow Jesus in order to put on the one that does. Our actions reflect who we serve and not culture.
Influence
The second thing that the psalm says to us is this” Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners
So the Psalm says that we don’t stand in the way of sinners. Again this sounds complicated. But lets thing about it like this, Not only do we not follow in the direction of everyone else but we don’t make it our habit to reside in a place where un-Christlike behaviour is endorsed. This is about the habits we foster in our lives and the people we let form those habits. Now I am not saying that we should give up our friends that don't hold to the same world view that we do. I am not saying that at all. Actually I am saying the opposite. Be with your friends, hang around them, love them support them enjoy them, go to their parties, laugh when they get drunk, and tickle their babies.
But what I do think the bible is saying is be careful of their influence in your life.
Let me illustrate it like this; when you were growing up your mum and dad would have set the agenda for your life (well mostly). So by and large you thought like they did, the things that were important to them were things that were important for you. In my upbringing books were important. Go into my office now and you will see it full of books – I love them. I love them because I was taught to love them, my parents influence rubbed off on my. The same is true for the company you keep. If you are not careful their priorities will become your priorities.
Suzie and I have been on a health kick for about 12 months; our kids have imbibed that and are now very discerning when it comes to putting things in their mouth! Its amazing the influence you have over people.
As followers of Jesus we need to analyse and be real about those influences our company have on us. We have to put off like a coat those unhelpful behaviours that come from the friends we keep. We need to stop letting their lives influence ours.
Now for some of us this means we actually need to find new friends. But for most of us we need to stop following our friends advice that leads us away from Jesus. The bible says ‘Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil for good’. In other words you are the ones who should be influencing your friends. Now again this is not something that you have do to alone. The HS give us the energy to do this and to make this happen in our lives.
The behaviour that we need to take off looks something like this;
· All our friends are watching a DVD or internet that we know is not healthy for our Christian life. We should leave.
· Our friends are involved in something dodgy.
· There is constant backstabbing and pulling down of a member of the group when they are not there.
· The group picks on one person all the time.
· The norm is to drink heavily, smoke strangely, drug stupidly and drive recklessly.
You know what I am talking about. Don’t let that behaviour pull you down, because it ends up in nowhere road. Take those practices of. By the power of the HS be the positive influence.
Person
Finally the Bible says
Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
So the last image the bible gives us is sitting in the seat of mocker. Again we need to think about this one. I think what it means is that we don’t resign ourselves to our fate. What I suggest by that is if we have some bad behaviour in our life. Some things of which we are aware, we don’t just let them sit and ignore them.
God calls us to so much more than where we are presently – and that is true for all of us. We don’t let ourselves remain in bad behaviour. We don’t sit with it, we don’t just let it all happen around us, but we get up and do something about it. Now some might say well that’s easy for you to say Jono but it’s a bit harder for me. Well, you know each of us have our own struggle in our own particular area. But this is one area that we have to really work hard at getting off.
Behaviours that have been part of our life quickly become habits. And habits are hard to shift.
But if you want to be a mature person then you must deal with the destructive habits of your life. If you want to develop and be the person that God intended then you have got to stop making excuses and get rid of the negative behaviour that is dragging you down.
You see God does not want us to be passive but to be proactive about our spirituality! He calls us to be involved in the world and to bring about change, not to sit in a place of self pity and denial. God wants to use you with his mission but not when you have all this negative stuff going on inside of you. The things of culture and the influences of our friends can cause us to be crippled to the things of God. But God says I have given you the gift of the HS but its up to you to want to change and move and mature.
So what exactly am I talking about, well let me name some that I think are a problem;
Some of us have made a habit out of drinking that will get out of control.
Some of us need to stop thinking about ourselves so much and begin to see what other needs there are in the world.
Some of us need to get our use of language under control
Some of us need to stop making excuses about why we are what we are and get on with it.
Some of us need to stop spending on ourselves.
Some of us have to take responsibility for our own actions.
Some of us need to be consistent in our devotional life (every day) and faithful in our worship (every week)
A man walking through the forest saw a fox that had lost its legs, and he wondered how it lived. Then he saw a tiger come up with game in its mouth. The tiger ate its fill and left the rest of the meat for the fox.
The next day God fed the fox by means of the same tiger. The man began to wonder at God's greatness and said to himself, "I took shall rest in a corner with full trust in the Lord and he will provide me with all that I need."
He did this for many days but nothing happened, and he was almost at death's door when he heard a voice say, "O you who are in the path of error, open your eyes to the truth. Stop imitating the disabled fox and follow the example of the tiger."
Sometimes there are more tigers here than in the Indian jungle. Its time we got up and got going.
Let me finish by saying this.
Behaviours come at a variety of levels. But its time to get wise to their impact on our lives and to behave more like Jesus. Jesus is the right way to live life. The right way to act, the right way to be. Remember you are a child of the king, its time to throw off all those things that aren’t consistent with that.
posted by Jonathan at 3:53 PM
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