If we are like Jesus, zeal that our lives and our church become a holy space, “set aside” for God’s purposes, will consume us. So, what tangible Kingdom attributes should we be zealous to put in the courtyard of our church and our lives so that the church flourishes as God’s transforming presence is made manifest in our transformed lives?

Sweep out Fear and replace it with Love – (agape) loving people sacrificially and freely

“Perfect love casts out fear (phobos, fleeing to avoid because of dread: involves the dread of punishment).” 1 John 4:18 This in reference to understanding God’s love for us and not fearing eternal judgment. But the very next verse says, “We love, because He first loved us.”
“God has not given us a spirit of timidity or cowardice, but a spirit of miraculous power through God’s strength, agape love, and acting out God’s will through sound reasoning.” 2 Timothy 1:7

God’s love removes our fear; a different way of saying it is that the more we as children of God experience and understand God’s love – free; unearned; lavish in spite of being known; characterized by sacrifice; and in every way for us[1] – the more we can rest in the love of God.

In the same way, the church is intended to be a community of people through whom God’s love is passed on to others. The more we experience and understand God’s love through God’s people – free; unearned; lavish in spite of being known; characterized by sacrifice; and in every way for us– the more we can rest in the love of those around us.

Sweep out Discord and replace it with Peace – bringing righteous order to sinful chaos

“He is the embodiment of our peace, sent once and for all to take down the great barrier of hatred and hostility that has divided us so that we can be one. He offered His body on the sacrificial altar to bring an end to the law’s ordinances and dictations that separated Jews from the outside nations. His desire was to create in His body one new humanity from the two opposing groups, thus creating peace. Effectively the cross becomes God’s means to kill off the hostility once and for all so that He is able to reconcile them both to God in this one new body. The Great Preacher of peace and love came for you, and His voice found those of you who were near and those who were far away. By Him both have access to the Father in one Spirit. And so you are no longer called outcasts and wanderers but citizens with God’s people, members of God’s holy family, and residents of His household. You are being built on a solid foundation: the message of the prophets and the voices of God’s chosen emissaries with Jesus, the Anointed Himself, the precious cornerstone. The building is joined together stone by stone—all of us chosen and sealed in Him, rising up to become a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you are being built together, creating a sacred dwelling place among you where God can live in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:14-22)[2]

I love this image. A building is being created out of each one of us who are residents of God holy household. We are being joined together to be a sacred place where it’s obvious we live together in peace with the Spirit of God as the mortar that holds us together. To the outcast and wanderer, welcome. Join the family of God. No hatred and hostility should divide us, since the Great Preacher of peace and love came for us.

Sweep out Merit and replace it with Mercy – giving grace (unmerited favor) wherever possible

Luke 6:36 “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
Matthew 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”

“The world will give you that once in awhile, a brief timeout; the boxing bell rings and you go to your corner, where somebody dabs mercy on your beat-up life.” Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

That image makes me happy; it’s an oasis of goodness in a world that is so broken. But we serve a savior who didn’t just dab mercy on us; he poured it out on us, covered us in it – and we are expected to be in the corner’s of the lives of those around us, ready to shower them with mercy when the fight is going the worst.

I like this as an image to organize our time with others. What if we thought of everyone you talk with after this service as someone in need of a brief timeout from a life that’s beating them up, and what then need from you is for you to be in their corner dumping a Gatoraide cooler of mercy over them.

Sweep out Callousness and replace it with Kindness – treating others with goodness

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)
“Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:9)[3]
“Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” (Luke 6:35)

I don’t know about you, but I find myself getting jaded and hardened if I’m not careful. There are so many things that make me want to develop a “thick skin” so life doesn’t hurt anymore. Callouses on our hands are a blessing when you do manual labor that rubs our skin raw; why wouldn’t callouses on our hearts be a blessing when we work with people who rub our souls raw?

Why not? Because we are called to be kind (combine some of the others in this list to get the idea: merciful, loving, gentle, and nurturing). The harder our hearts get, the harder it is to do those things.

I don’t want to merciful, loving, gentle, and nurturing to the person who passed me in the roundabout, or who constantly poses in front of the mirror at the gym, or the person next to me on the plane who can’t seem to stop saying the name of Jesus loudly, or…. But I must.
I don’t want to be merciful, loving, gentle, and nurturing to the online troll who blows up what were meant to be thought-provoking conversations. But I must.
I don’t want to be merciful, loving, gentle, and nurturing to that person who unfairly judges my motivations or never gives me the benefit of the doubt. But I am told that I must pass on to others what Jesus gave to me.

I must pass on what Jesus did for me. See the previous point about mercy.

Sweep out Fickelness and replace it with Faithfulness – having a consistently righteous character others can count on[4]

“Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity and dignity…” (Titus 2:7)
“Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.” (Hebrews 13:18)
“Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” (1 Peter 2:12)

We often think of faithfulness in terms of actions, and that’s clearly not wrong as you see here. In Revelation, we talked about faithful endurance that had to do with living a godly life; in friendships, a faithful friend “sticks closer than a brother.”[5] I want to look at a different aspect: having a consistently righteous character others can count on. This is the” clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.”

This is not a demand for perfection. This is about the consistent presence of our lives. Maybe another word is integrity: our words, actions and attitudes are integrated so that they work together, and the testimony of our lives tells the same story over and over.

A couple months ago, a person who has been a consistently righteous presence in my life had a noticeably inconsistent moment with me. But as I thought about it, I realized it was notable precisely because it was not the norm, and that I was blessed to have someone in my life whose presence is so consistent that inconsistencies stand out. This person apologized the next day, by the way – which did not surprise me at all. They have a consistently righteous character others can count on; they desire to act honorably in all things.

Sweep our Error and replace it with Truth-telling – speaking honestly about…everything.

Ephesians 4:25 “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”

There are lots of ways to talk about the devastation of falsehood. Today, let’s look at the practical trouble with the lack of honest truth-telling.

1. When you consistently practice dishonesty, you eventually will lose touch with what’s true, and you will become an ‘unreliable narrator’ about the world. I have had several friend who, it became clear to me, just lied all the time, almost without thinking. It had just become part of who he was. He did it in the most ordinary of things even when it made no sense. At some point, I just stopped taking you seriously. I had no idea if anything they said was true.

2. If you are comfortable lying to others, you are almost certainly comfortable lying to yourself. “That was a good 1 hour workout!” No it wasn’t. It was 45 minutes of mediocre effort. “I got fired because my boss is a jerk!” Or – hear me out – you were late every day, did as little as possible, and undermined the boss around the other employees. Eventually you will become an “unreliable narrator” in your own life. You construct an image of yourself (for better or worse) that is totally at odds with reality. I read a book a while ago called I Wear The Black Hat (an image for bad guys). The author was challenging our image of ourselves. He asked a sobering question: What if we wear the black hat in our lives? We like to think we are the heroes in our own story, but….what if we are the villain (or at least more villainous than we think), and heroic people around us are picking up the slack? “As each individual reads Scripture…they are Esther, never Xerxes or Haman. They are Peter, never Judas, never a Pharisee. They are Jews escaping slavery, never Egypt… [they have] no lens for locating themselves rightly in Scripture or society.”[6] Truth about ourselves, not just others, matters.

3. Finally, I think we tend to assume people are like us in a lot of ways. I found out a couple years ago that some people carry on conversations with voices in your head. Like, they go after it. I had assumed everyone was like me: it’s quiet in there. They assumed everyone was like them. I am conscious of my weight (this goes back to my childhood), so I assume everyone else is conscious of their weight too. We often tend to project our interior life into the interior of others. And if you are a liar, the world becomes a very unsafe place because as far as you know, you are surrounded by liars.

The practical blessing of truth:

1. You become more discerning about truth and become an increasingly reliable narrator of the world. This brings clarity, true knowledge, honest insight, etc. People increasingly give weight to your voice because they see your commitment to seeing the world as it is. Even when people disagree, if both parties know the other person is really committed to an objective view of the world, each voice has weight. (Quick note: if you change your mind on issues at times after studying and talking, that’s probably a good sign.)

2. You are likely becoming an increasingly reliable narrator about yourself. You are able to look honestly at instead of away from the hat you are wearing. Odds are good that you will become so committed to honest assessment that you ask others to weigh in on what they see in your life. This is both personal and relational gold.

3. You won’t assume others are like you – because you have an honest view of the world. And then you are at a much healthier place internally (not projecting onto others) and relationally (able to relate with a view of the actual reality of what people are like).

Sweep out Pride and replace it with Humility – having a modest/honest estimate of ourselves[7]

“Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5)”
“Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” (Romans 12:3)
But [God] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

When is it most obvious that God is at work in our lives? When our strength and skills fail – when what we bring to the table is inept at best and disastrous at worst - and yet God brings something good from it.

When is it most obvious that God is at work in our church? When our strength and skills fail – when what we bring to the table is inept at best and disastrous at worst - and yet God brings something good from it. Unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain, right?[8]

If I can be transparent about pastoring for a moment. Most Sunday, something goes wrong here on a Sunday morning, from mechanical issues to computer breakdowns to awkward sermons (and sermon topics) to lack of smooth transitions to the worship team having to scramble with last minute sicknesses to nursery workers not being able to make it to somebody sticking their foot in their mouth in a conversation, and that someone is often me. And more often than not, it seems like someone is here really looking for be ministered to through whichever area is “weak” that particular morning. And it feels like, “Well, we blew it.”

This used to eat me up. God has been working with me: “Let it go. My power is made perfect in these moments.” In other words, CLG is not going to flourish – really Kingdom flourish - because the preacher or the band or the Kid’s Ministry leaders or any of us navigating relationships are knocking it out of the park; it will Kingdom flourish when the power of God builds this house. And that is comforting indeed.

__________________________________________________________________________________

[1] Romans 8:31

[2] “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.” Proverbs 6:16-19

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God (sharing in the same nature their Father).” Matthew 5:9

“So then we pursue the things which make for peace (wholeness, unity) and the building up of one another.” Romans 14:19

[3] 1 Corinthians 13:4 “Love is patient, love is kind.”

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Colossians 3:12-13

[4] Verses about faithfulness to God: 1 Samuel 12:24 “Fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.”

Revelation 2:10 “Do not fear what you are about to suffer….Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

1 Corinthians 4:2 “It is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.

[5] Proverbs 18:24

[6] From Christiana Collins. I don’t know who that is, but it’s pretty good stuff.

[7] “Wisdom’s instruction is to fear the LORD, and humility comes before honor.” Proverbs 15:33

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” Proverbs 11:2

“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” Romans 12:16

[8] Psalm 127:1