Examination

SLIDE 1 A friend of mine was making a hospital call when he asked the patient what he wanted in life. The patient wasn’t doing very well so his preacher just wanted to make sure about the patient’s relationship with God. What is it that you are looking for? What do you want? And basically the patient answered how he hoped to go to heaven when he dies. This is a man who professes his faith in Jesus and has attended church for years. Yet as he thinks about the possibility of dying he says he “hopes” he’ll make it to heaven. He hopes because he’s not sure God will let him. He thinks about his life before he was saved and wonders why God would allow someone like him into heaven. I’ve met many believers who have this same concern. The Bible tells us that we can be certain of our salvation, but many are not.

That’s one attitude toward one’s faith and salvation. There’s also this one.

In her book The Honored Society: A Portrait of Italy's Most Powerful Mafia, Petra Reski writes about the personal lives of some important members of Italy’s mafia. What is most surprising about these Italian mobsters is the depth of their faith. Faith in a God while living a life of crime is very common. For example, one man who told Reski:

Before I had to kill someone, I would cross myself. I would say: “Dear God, stand by me! Make sure nothing happens!” But I wasn't the only one who crossed himself beforehand and prayed to God. We all did.

When one mafia boss was arrested the police found him with five Bibles. The Bibles had hundreds passages underlined and comments he had written in the margins. He’d not only been reading the Bible, but studying it. In his home the police found ninety-one religious statues, seventy-three of Jesus. ON each on he had written, “Jesus, I put my trust in you.”

Another mafia boss had four books in his prison cell: the gospels, a book on prayer, and two worship books. During his trial, when asked for an explanation to his many murders, he merely replied: “I have an invaluable gift – inner peace.”

I read that and just shake my head in wonder. How could these men claim to trust in God and believe his word and then go out and commit the crimes they do? Does that make any sense to you?

In these two stories I’ve told you about one man who lives for God but isn’t certain of his salvation because of past sins, and then there is the guy who believes his salvation is certain even though he doesn’t concern himself with keeping God’s laws.

Leading up to Resurrection Sunday we looked at The Greatest Love Story, the story of the cross. God’s love for us was seen in Jesus on the cross and demonstrated in Jesus overcoming death in his resurrection. This morning I want us to consider how we should respond to what the Lord has done for us. Are we focusing on the wrong things in life, the things that won’t last? Are we responding to the Lord in way that he wants us too? Doesn’t the Lord deserve our love? We know that Jesus wants us to follow him, but what does that look like? SLIDE 2 Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 13.

After Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus tells the apostles that he will die. Then he says that whoever wants to follow him must pick up their cross daily and follow him. SLIDE 3 Of we want to follow Jesus we must pick up our cross. Picking up you cross is a choice, therefore, it is not the trouble or problems you face in life. Your cross is not poor health or a troubled relationships. Picking up our cross means being willing to die to self in order to follow Jesus. It’s a call to absolute surrender, to love like him, and to reflect him in our lives. This is how Jesus wants us to respond to the Love of God. And our love for Jesus is seen in our obedience. What should we do to see if in fact we are responding this way? This is what Paul wrote at the end of his second letter to the Corinthians. SLIDE 4

5Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test? 6And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. 7Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong – not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed. 8For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. 9We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is that you may be fully restored. 10This is why I write these things when I am absent, that when I come I may not have to be harsh in my use of authority – the authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down. (2 Corinthians 13:5-10)

What is Paul saying? We need to test our faith. We need to see how we are doing.

One Sunday morning, before the service began, a member of the church told the preacher, “If you see me fall asleep while you’re preaching, don’t take it personally. Its not that your sermon is boring. Its just that I was taking inventory of all my merchandise last night and I didn’t get to bed until the wee hours of the morning. It’s that time of the year.” The preacher asked why he needed to take inventory. Didn’t he already know what he had? The man replied, “Well, I discovered some things I didn’t know. I found I had a lot of merchandise that I didn’t sell during the year. I also came to realize how many mistakes I’d made. Some shelves were empty and others were full of goods that had’t sold. Apparently I had bought too much of what I shouldn’t have and didn’t buy enough of others that were good sellers.” Then preacher commented, “Perhaps we should be doing the same as Christians, taking inventory of our lives.”

In one sense, that’s what this text is all about: “Examine yourselves…” The main purpose of an inventory is to determine whether a loss or gain has been realized. We should ask ourselves how we’ve done in our walk with God. How have our lives have influenced others? We can learn from a look at our past, our present – and even our plans for the future. So what do we need?

SLIDE 5 First, we need transparency with ourselves.

A preacher of a generation ago says that his daughter became a Christian at an early age. He says that from then on he would regularly ask her about her relationship with Christ. When she got into her teens, she asked him, “Daddy, why do you keep asking me whether I am a Christian or not or whether I really trust in Jesus?” He told her, “I just want to make sure. After all, you are my daughter and I want to be sure.”

In telling this story he added that he did the same for himself as well. He regularly asked himself about his relationship with Jesus.

This is a good practice. If fact, God calls us to step back and really take a look at ourselves. In verse 5 of our passage Paul says we are to test ourselves. That means we are to inspect our faith and make sure of our relationship with Jesus.

However, this can be hard to do. You would think if there was anyone we could be transparent with it would be ourselves, but it just isn’t that easy. We can deceive even ourselves.

There is a scripture passage that addresses this attitude. SLIDE 6

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! (1 Corinthians 10:12)

The verse is cautioning us not to deceive ourselves because we have a way of fooling ourselves. We’re pretty good at justifying ourselves and rationalizing the things we do even when they don’t match the way we say we believe.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus warned that not everyone who calls him Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who obey God. We need to be careful that we are not self-deceived.

Being real with ourselves and testing ourselves to see if we are really in the faith is important. The “faith” Paul is talking about is more than believing what the Bible says about Jesus is true, it is also trusting. Faith includes a total to surrender of everything about ourselves, our time, possessions, abilities, life itself, and our eternal destiny into the hands of Jesus. Faith and trust are the decisions to rest our hope of eternal life upon the saving power of Christ’s cross and resurrection. It is a decision to say along with Paul: SLIDE 7

. . . I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. (2 Timothy 1:12b)

Test yourself in your faith. Be transparent with yourself.

SLIDE 8 Second, we need transparency with others.

To be honest with ourselves we need to be honest with others as well. It the first is difficult, the second can be painful. However, shouldn’t the church be a place where we find love and acceptance. Shouldn’t the church be a place where we help each other grow in our faith and walk with God? If we want to love and follow Jesus we need to be willing to share our struggles with each other so we can help each other.

James gives these directions in this regard: SLIDE 9

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

I know what you think. We can’t do that. What will people think if they knew the real me? But again, shouldn’t church be the place where the followers of Jesus find true love and acceptance? And shouldn’t we help each other grow in our relationship and love for God?

Confessing our sins doesn’t just refer to our deepest and darkest secrets, it may just be an area in our life we struggle with. It may be where we have hurt someone and need to apologize to them.

What’s interesting is studies have been done by psychologists that have found the more honest people were in the confessing their short comings and taking responsibility for their behavior the more were relieved of their feelings of guilt. Research just confirms what the Bible has always taught us – real healing comes through honest confession.

SLIDE 10 And third, we need transparency with God.

This one may not seem relevant. After all, doesn’t God already know everything about us? God knows our strengths and weaknesses. He knows our sins and failures. What’s the point of being transparent with him when he already knows everything?

In Psalm 139 David offers this prayer which can be instructive. After admitting that God knows everything there is to know about him, David makes this request: SLIDE 11

23Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)

David is not inviting God to have a clear view of his life here – Good already has it. What David is actually doing is asking God to help him see his own life clearly.

I’ve tried to look at myself, I enlisted the help of those who love me, but to be the most effective God please show me all the things that I’m not seeing.

It is so easy for us to be self-deceived. It is easy for us to see sin in others, but it’s hard to see our own sin. So David asks for God’s help. Shouldn’t we do so aw well.

A University of Virginia college sophomore Danny Foley wanted to be part of his school’s men’s basketball team. He wasn’t good enough to make the team, so he designed a way to get on the court with the players. Virginia was playing in the conference championship game. As Danny had watched the team play he noticed all of the assistant coaches. He also noticed that they all wore the same outfit: a suit with a bright orange tie. So before the conference championship game against Duke, Danny went searching for some cheap knockoffs. He found everything he needed at Walmart – a suit jacket, suit pants, dress shoes, dress socks, a white dress shirt, and the orange tie.

The next morning, Danny bought $30 ticket in the nosebleed section just to get in the door and he headed to the game. Late in the game during a TV timeout, Danny made his move. He confidently marched past an usher like he was supposed to be there and the usher didn’t question him. He then made his way onto the court. Danny later said, “I walked right behind the cheerleaders and onto the court and joined the team’s huddle on the court.” SLIDE 12

Following his team’s big win, Danny went for an even bigger thrill. When the game’s final buzzer sounded with Virginia defeating Duke 72-63, Danny joined his “teammates” in the handshake line. SLIDE 13 As the confetti fell around him, Danny got to shake hands with “Coach K,” the legendary coach for Duke. Photos from the end of the game show Danny wearing a championship t-shirt over his suit and smiling in the middle of the confetti-covered arena. SLIDE 14

After celebrating with coaches and players, Danny was spotted by a member of Virginia's staff, but he quickly climbed the railings and disappeared into the stands.

SLIDE 15 This story focuses on a relatively harmless college prank, but is it possible that we're attempting something much more harmful by faking our way through the Christian faith? Have we just bought the outfit without really joining the team? Are we a new person or Christ, or are we the same person faking it? Jesus calls for us to take up our cross daily – he calls for us to be willing to die to self in order to look, live, and love like him. Are we willing to be real with ourselves, others, and most importantly God?

Who is willing to ask what David asked: God show me where I am sinning, fall short, need improvement – let me see. Loving Jesus means following Jesus and that requires us to get transparent and inspect our lives – to hold nothing back – to bare our soul completely.

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. (2 Corinthians 13:5)