Symptoms of a Deeper Problem

When I was in high school, I was a good kid.  I didn’t smoke, drink, party, have sex, or hang with people who did those things.  But I was very proud of my good behavior and ended up isolating a lot of people from God because of it.  As a matter of fact, I reached the point in 10th or 11th grade of thinking something like this: “I hope God lets me live through high school because I’d like to go to college and I’d like to get married some day.”  You see, I was so confident in my own morality that I thought that I really couldn’t get much better.  I knew I wasn’t perfect, but I was pretty close.  I actually remember thinking this when I was driving to school one day.  ”I hope I don’t get in a wreck.”

Some of you would have loved me.  But, some of you would have hated me.  Some of you might hate me now too because you think I think I’m a good person.  It’s scary: I’m not all that different than I was then–to be completely honest.  But God has been gracious to show me my deep sin.  He has shown me that I am a hypocrite, a liar, an adulterer, a murderer, an idol-maker, a hater, and on an on.

My problem was that I thought Christianity was about doing and not about believing.  Some of you have resisted becoming Christians.  But most likely, you’ve are resisting a false idea of what Christianity is.  You think it’s all about “doing” and that’s why you want nothing to do with Christianity.  But the reality is far different.

Mark 1:14-15
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

This was at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. People began to follow him because he called them to repent of their old patterns of unbelief and to believe in him. But after a while people started to get tired of this. The people came up to Jesus later in his ministry and asked a question that many of us ask.

John 6:28-29
Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Like these people, we often want to move beyond the place where we started in following Christ. “Yeah, Jesus, we get the whole repent and believe thing… now tell us what you want us to do!” But Jesus replies, “The work of God is that you believe.” It’s infuriating.

We think growth is about doing more: spiritual discipline, reading, praying, finding Xian friends, sinning less, or learning theology.  But repentance and faith should be the continual pattern of the Christian life. We do not get to graduate to something better.

Last week we talked about repentance… seeing the sin beneath the sin.

The Christian life is not about ‘doing’ it is about ‘believing’

• We are naturally “doers,” but our pursuit of maturity produces a lot of busy effort but little lasting change. Why?
• We are doing too much and believing too little.
• Or, we are doing NOTHING because we think being a better Christian is doing more stuff – and we’d rather just avoid doing altogether.

In the mid 1980’s my mom began to gain weight.  She is a dietician, so she knew that she shouldn’t be gaining weight.  She hadn’t changed her eating habits or her activity level.  The doctors finally diagnosed a deeper problem.  She had a tumor on her pituitary gland, which controls hormones.  Her weight gain was a symptom of a deeper problem.  It would have been easy for her to have just focused on “getting fat.”  But had she not gone to the doctor and found the deeper problem, it would have led to her death.

Likewise, our surface sins are only symptoms of a deeper problem.

• Underneath every external sin is a heart idol – a false god that has eclipsed the true God in our thoughts or affections.
• “Sin is not breaking the rules, but it is breaking God’s heart.”
• The first command is “You shall have no other gods before me.”
• We must learn to repent of the “sin beneath the sin”

Surface SIN: Gossip
talking about people behind their backs in judgmental or destructive ways

Why do we gossip?
What are we looking to heart idols to provide what we should be finding in God.

Common Heart Idols

» Approval (I want the approval of the people I’m talking to)

» Control (Using gossip as a way to manipulate/control others)

» Reputation (I want to feel important, so I cut someone else down verbally)

» Success (Someone is succeeding—and I’m not—so I gossip about him)

» Security (Talking about others masks my own in security)

» Pleasure (Someone else is enjoying life—and I’m not—so I attack her)

» Knowledge (Talking about people is a way of showing I know more)

» Recognition (Talking about others gets people to notice me)

» Respect (That person disrespected me, so I’m going to disrespect him)

All these are false saviors promising false gospels
These are something we already have in Jesus because of the gospel. But when we are not living in light of the gospel, we turn to these idols to give us what only Jesus can truly give us.

We must repent of believing in these false idols.  But we must also believe in Jesus.

Believing the gospel is essential for true heart change. It’s possible to repent of surface sins for a lifetime yet never address the deeper heart issues behind them. Some of the most moral people in the world are not Christians.

At the moment I sin, I need to apply the gospel by 1. repenting of my deep heart idolatry, and 2. believing the specific gospel promises that break the power of my heart idols.

Believing:
Set the affections on Jesus – Worship him
Delight in the privileges that are ours in Christ

Back to Gossip – How does this work practically?
1] I acknowledge my sin and repent of it (i.e. gossip). I gossiped when I participated in that conversation about Suzy’s new boyfriend.
2] I discern the heart idol beneath my surface sin (i.e. respect).  I gossip because I really want to be respected by people.
3] I pause and worship Jesus for his victory over this sin (i.e. humility). He laid aside his right to be respected, becoming humbled to death.
4] I remind myself of the gospel promises (i.e. 2 Cor. 5:17-21). I no longer need to crave the respect of others because i have the approval of God through faith in Jesus. I don’t seek my own fame anymore, I am freed to seek the fame of Jesus.

Repentance and Faith are not Steps on the Pathway to Walking with Jesus.
Repentance and Faith are the Path.
“The work of God is to “believe.”

Take Home Practice:

1. What are your common surface sins?
2. What heart idols might lie behind these sins?
3. Worship Jesus for his victory over that idol.
4. What are specific gospel promises you can rely on to help defeat the power of that idol?