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Form or Content
Matthew 7: 13-23
How many of you like to bowl? I don't do it often, but I love bowling.
And I look good doing it, too. I hold the ball correctly. I have a
strong, confident backswing. I release it with perfect timing. And the
best part, my right leg kicks way over behind my left one just like the
pros. My right arm finished high with my thumb pointing to the sky. I
look like I know exactly what I'm doing. My form is perfect. The problem
is, the ball always goes straight. It doesn't do that neat curve thing
that's required to consistently knock down all ten pins. It just goes
right where I throw it and knocks down six or seven at a time usually
leaving me with a nasty split.
I'm the same way with golf. People tell me all the time what a pretty
swing I have. Then after I hit the ball they tell me, "Go ahead and tee
up another one. Maybe this one won't hit a passing car. That sure was a
pretty swing."
Put a bat in my hands, same story. I look like Barry Bonds, but I hit
like any one of a hundred American League pitchers. When it comes to
athletics, I'm all form and no content.
A lot of people's lives look like my bowling or golf or baseball. It's
all packaging. No substance. In other words, they have religion, but
they aren't spiritual. There's a difference, you know. Religion is good
form. It looks good on the surface, but has no, depth. Being spiritual,
on the other hand, means having good content.
It's pretty difficult in our culture to focus on the interior rather
than the exterior. While Trista was teaching everyday she would take a
microwaveable dinner for lunch. Do you know that when you buy one of
those you're paying more for the packaging that you are for the food?
Manufacturers know that if the package isn't pretty, people won't buy
it.
Every year People magazine publishes an issue dedicated to the fifty
more beautiful people in the world. I was number 51 back in 1998, but
they didn't put me in there. This is one of their most popular issues
because the people really are beautiful people. But when look beyond the
perfect teeth and hair and bodies and examine the content of these
peoples lives, they aren't near as beautiful. They are as messed up as
anyone -- maybe more so.
Their lives are lived in rehab centers and lawyers offices and filled
with conflict, deceit and anger. They may be the fifty most beautiful
people, but they're not the fifty most put together people or the fifty
most emotionally balanced people or the fifty most godly people.
The fact is good form is easier to maintain than good content when it
comes to living. It's easier to project an image than develop a
character. And that's an important lesson for us in particular.
We come from a religious heritage that said in effect, “form matters.
How you baptize, how you worship, when you have the Lord's Supper, how
you organize the local congregation -- all of that matters."
And I believe that we were and are right. Form does matter. But the
danger for us is that once we get the form right we are tempted to think
we're done. When you put all or most of your energy into developing a
good package, eventually that package gets opened and every one sees
that all you had was a good package.
Let's look at some words of Jesus to talk about how to develop the
interior as well as the exterior -- words about how to have content to
go along with the form. Look with me in Matthew 7:13-23
You've got to look for it. In vs. 14 Jesus says something that sort of
stands out on the page; "Only a few find it." The word find is worth
pausing over.
In Luke 9:12 it's used for finding food and lodging.
In Matthew 20:6, it's used in the story about finding workers for the
vineyard. In other words, this is not the word you'd use for finding a
needle in a haystack or for finding Waldo in one of those busy little
paintings where our intrepid hero is trying not to be found. It's the
word you'd use for finding something that is easily seen if you just
keep your eyes open.
It is never used to describe an intense yet futile search for something
that is impossible to find. It is used to describe something that is
found simply by making the effort to look.
Have you ever had this experience? You need to replace your current car
or truck, so you begin to research which make and model best suits your
needs and budget. Pretty soon you settle on a couple of different
options. You go test drive them. You compare the two and finally narrow
your search down to one car. But you need a day or two to think about
it. So you leave the dealership and drive home. Suddenly, the roads are
full of the car or truck you are interested in. You see them every
where. It's like everybody and his brother has that car. You never
noticed them before, but they were there. You just weren't looking for
them.
That's sort of how the word "find" is here in Matthew 7. It refers to
something you can find if that's what you are looking for. Narrow gate
living, a narrow path lifestyle is available if you want it. You can
have a life that is deep in content and correct in form.
The implication of Matthew 7: 14 is not that having deep character, a
life of substance, is something many people want but never find. It is
that not many bother to look for it. They settle for shallow. They are
content with surface living.
Do you know how people choose a church? They don't get out their
theology books and do an analysis of various denominational teachings.
They look for good parking. Clean nurseries. Friendly people. Convenient
service times. Good preachers.
They look at surface stuff. And once they become a part of church they
continue to just scan the surface of spiritual living. In Matthew 7:7 -
8, Jesus said, "Seek and you will find -- he who seeks finds." If you
want a close, deep relationship with God, you can have it. All you have
to do is look for it.
Deuteronomy 4:29 Moses wrote, "If you seek the Lord your God, you will
find him if you look for him with all your heart and all your soul."
So look deeper. Okay, look for what? Listen to vv. 15 - 18 again.
(Read).
Jesus is talking about doing more than just a cursory look here. He's
talking about examining the content of your life.
My computer will sometimes ask me if I want to scan the drives for a
virus.
It gives me options. Would you like to do a surface scan? Would you like
to do a thorough scan? If I choose the thorough option, another message
pops up; This might take some time.
Examining the content of your life takes time. That's because it's a
deep look into who you really are. What you've really become. In vs. 20,
Jesus says, "By their fruit you will recognize them." He's talking about
false prophets, but that's true as well about living a life of deep
content.
So what's the fruit he refers to? Well, it isn't religious activity. In
the next few verses he uses an example of people who performed amazing
works yet never knew him. Just because you are religiously busy doesn't
mean you are living a life of substance. So what does Jesus mean when he
talks about fruit?
I don't think he had Galatians 5 in mind when he made that statement,
but I'd wager that bearing good fruit and the fruit of the spirit that
Paul talks about are not different things. Paul said the fruit of the
spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control."
You aren't going to determine the condition of the content by examining
the stuff you can see on the outside. Let me give you a couple of things
that have helped me take a look at the content.
Journaling
Every now and then I sit down with a sheet of paper and write about the
things in my heart. Joys. Sorrows. Victories, defeats. Frustrations and
blessings. Then every now and then I'll go back and read what I wrote,
sometimes wondering how I could have been so dense, sometimes amazed
that I had succeeded at dealing with something.
Writing it down forced me to organize my thoughts into words, paragraphs
and pages. It takes time and it isn't always pleasant. Reading what
you've written is like listening to your own voice on a tape recorder.
"Do I sound like that?" But nothing gives you a look into your soul like
reading your own thoughts. I'm not saying it's the only way, but it has
worked well for me. It's a good way to inspect the fruit of your life.
Prayer
I've been a Christian since I was eight years old and I think I'm just
beginning to understand what prayer is and how to do it. I'm not
kidding. That's not preacher talk to encourage you. That's honest. Only
now am I really beginning to believe how powerful and painful prayer can
be. And it works. It's scary how it works sometimes.
When you ask God to show you the true condition of your soul, it's like
telling the doctor to give it to you straight. He'll show you alright.
But he'll also help you fix it, heal it, and make it right.
Don't just read what you write. Read what other people write.
Of course, read your Bible, but read other books. Here is a short list
of some very powerful books that I have read more than once. Mere
Christianity by C.S. Lewis, Fresh Wind and Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala,
and Everyone’s Normal Until You Get To Know Them By John Ortberg.
These writers have really convicted me on some things and then there are
some things that I don't agree with. But it's good to read that kind of
material because it forces you to go deeper.
Examining the interior of your life is not fun. But if you want to get
deep, if you want to get past the packaging, it's necessary.
Finally Get to know Jesus.
Listen to vv. 21 - 23 again. (Read).
It isn't enough to be on a first name basis with Jesus. "Many will say
to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord.'" They'll know my name, but they won't
know my heart. A lot of us know a lot about Jesus. We run the board on
those rare occasions when Jeopardy has a biblical category of questions.
We know the details. But that's not deep enough.
It's not enough to be religiously busy. Jesus talks about how these
people who knew his name were very busy doing some amazing things. They
were performing miracles and prophesying and casting out demons. They
were doing church work. But they didn't really know him.
Look at what he will say to them on that day; "I never knew you." That
gives us a clue as to what he really wants; a relationship. He wants to
know and be known. That terrible word from Jesus, "Depart from me, " is
less a word of judgment and more an honest description of the content of
the relationship. He's just telling it like it is. He didn't know them.
They didn't know him.
They knew the form. He wanted friendship. They went through the motions.
He wanted a meaningful relationship. They obeyed the laws. He wanted
their love.
How do you do that? How do you get to know Jesus? Well, how do you get
to know anyone? You spend time with them. You listen to what they say.
You watch what they do. You generate experiences with them. To get to
know Jesus, that means we'll spend time in the Word. We'll spend time on
our knees. We'll talk to people who know him.
If you haven't figured it out yet, going deeper into our spiritual lives
is time consuming. If you're shallow now, you're not going to be deep
tomorrow.
A group of tourists was walking down the main street of a pretty, but
otherwise unimpressive little town. They saw an old man sitting on a
bench outside a barbershop. One of them asked him, "Say, old timer, were
any famous men born in this town?"
"Nope," the old man said, "Only babies."
Let that sink in.
Fame, which is usually the packaging, doesn't come over night. Even
something as shallow as notoriety takes time. So depth of character,
real spiritual content, the development of a deep soul, is going to take
a lifetime. Don't let that stop you, though. Get started growing now.
The sooner we stop settling for form, the sooner we'll begin to develop
depth. Some day, the contents of the package will be revealed. By
circumstances or trouble or judgment. One way or another, everyone is
going to know what's inside. Between now then, be working on giving them
something to look at.
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