Does It Match? (Alt)

Praise and Worship:

Offering and Prayer:

Monthly Theme: Alignment With The Gospel

Life Application: Let your conduct match your confession.

Scripture:

Philippians 1:27 NLT

27 Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News.

Introduction: Does It Match?

Most of us have asked this question at some point before leaving the house: “Does this match?”

You put on a shirt. You grab a pair of pants. You look at the shoes. Then you look in the mirror and ask, “Does this go together?”

And sometimes you think it matches until somebody else sees you.

You walk into the room feeling pretty good about yourself, and somebody looks at you and says, “You're wearing that?”

Suddenly you're looking at yourself differently.

Because we understand that some things can look good individually but don't necessarily look right together. The shirt might be fine. The pants might be fine. The shoes might be fine. But when you put everything together, something doesn't match.

And that brings us to a much more important question today.

Does the life I'm living match the Gospel I say I believe?

Paul writes in Philippians 1:27, “Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ.”

Paul is talking to people who already believe the Gospel. He's not trying to convince them to become Christians. He's saying that because you believe the Gospel, there should be something about the way you live that reflects what you believe.

In other words:

Your conduct should match your confession.

If I say Jesus has changed my life, eventually there ought to be some evidence of change.

If I say Jesus is Lord, eventually His lordship ought to show up somewhere besides my mouth.

If I say I believe in grace, grace ought to show up in how I treat people.

If I say I believe in forgiveness, forgiveness ought to show up when somebody hurts me.

If I say I trust God, trust ought to show up when life becomes uncertain.

If I say I belong to Christ, there ought to be something about my life that looks like Christ.

So throughout this message, I want us to keep asking ourselves one simple question:

Does it match?

Title, Prayer:

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Application: When Something Is Out Of Alignment

Have you ever driven a car that's out of alignment?

You can still drive it. The engine still starts. The radio still works. The car still moves forward. From the outside, everything might look fine.

But when you get behind the wheel, you notice something.

The car starts pulling.

You want to go straight, but the vehicle keeps drifting one direction. So you compensate. You hold the steering wheel slightly the other way.

After a while, you can become so accustomed to compensating that you barely notice you're doing it.

But the problem hasn't disappeared.

You're just learning how to drive around it.

And eventually, that misalignment begins affecting other things. The tires start wearing unevenly. The steering doesn't feel right. What started as a small alignment problem begins creating damage somewhere else.

I wonder how often we do the same thing spiritually.

Something in our life gets out of alignment with what we say we believe, but instead of allowing God to correct it, we learn how to compensate for it.

We know our attitude isn't right, but we've learned how to justify it.

We know we haven't forgiven somebody, but we've learned how to explain why they don't deserve forgiveness.

We know something we're doing isn't honoring God, but we've learned how to make ourselves comfortable with it.

We know our prayer life has become almost nonexistent, but we've learned how to function without it.

We know we're treating somebody in a way that doesn't reflect Christ, but we've developed reasons why our behavior is acceptable.

And if we're not careful, we can become so accustomed to spiritual misalignment that it starts feeling normal.

We're still moving.

We're still functioning.

We're still going to church.

We're still saying the right things.

But something is pulling.

And here's what I want us to understand:

God doesn't just want us to learn how to compensate for what's out of alignment. Sometimes God wants to correct the alignment.

That's what this month is about.

Living in alignment.

Bringing what I believe and how I live back together.

Point One: My Conduct Should Confirm My Confession

Paul says, “Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ.”

That word worthy can make us uncomfortable because none of us is worthy of what Jesus did for us.

We cannot earn salvation.

We cannot behave well enough for God to owe us grace.

We cannot perform our way into the Kingdom.

The Gospel is good news precisely because Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves.

So Paul isn't saying, “Live well enough to deserve the Gospel.”

He's saying, “Because you've received the Gospel, live in a way that reflects what you've received.”

There's a huge difference.

We don't live right to get saved.

We seek to live differently because we've been saved.

We don't obey God so He will love us.

We obey because He already loved us.

We don't pursue holiness to purchase grace.

We pursue holiness because we've experienced grace.

Grace isn't permission to remain unchanged.

Grace is the power that begins changing us.

And that's where Christianity becomes more than something we say.

Jesus addressed this Himself in Matthew 7:16 when He said, “You can identify them by their fruit.”

Jesus didn't say you identify a tree by what the tree claims to be.

You identify it by what it produces.

If somebody tells you, “That's an apple tree,” but year after year oranges keep growing on it, eventually you're going to have some questions.

Because the fruit should match the tree.

And the same question applies to us.

Does it match?

If I say I follow Jesus, what kind of fruit is my life producing?

If I say I believe the Gospel, does the Gospel affect how I treat people?

Does it affect how I speak?

Does it affect how I conduct business?

Does it affect what I do when nobody is watching?

Does it affect how I handle disagreement?

Does it affect how I respond when I'm angry?

Does it affect how I treat somebody who cannot do anything for me?

Does it affect what happens in my home?

Because Christianity isn't just about what happens inside the church building.

The real test of alignment may happen after we leave.

Sunday worship should show up in Monday behavior.

What I sing should eventually connect with how I live.

What I confess with my mouth should eventually become visible in my conduct.

Not perfectly.

None of us gets this right all the time.

But there ought to be movement.

There ought to be growth.

There ought to be fruit.

There ought to be evidence that Jesus is doing something in me.

Point Two: Misalignment Requires Adjustment

Here's the good news about discovering that your car is out of alignment:

It can be corrected.

You don't have to throw the whole car away.

You take it somewhere where somebody knows what they're doing, and they make adjustments.

That's important spiritually because sometimes when we talk about holiness, people hear condemnation.

They start thinking about everything they've done wrong.

Every failure.

Every mistake.

Every area where their life doesn't match what they say they believe.

But conviction and condemnation are not the same thing.

God doesn't reveal what's out of alignment simply to embarrass us.

He reveals it because He wants to correct it.

David understood this.

In Psalm 139:23–24 he prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”

That's a courageous prayer.

David essentially says:

“God, check my alignment.”

Look at the places I can't see.

Show me where I'm drifting.

Show me where my attitude doesn't match my confession.

Show me where my habits don't match my faith.

Show me where my words don't match Your Word.

Show me where my relationships don't reflect Your love.

And then David says, “Lead me.”

In other words:

“Don't just show me what's wrong. Help me get back into alignment.”

That's repentance.

Repentance isn't simply feeling bad about something.

Repentance means I'm willing to change direction.

It means when God's Word shows me something in my life that doesn't match His will, I don't rewrite His Word to accommodate my life.

I allow His Word to realign my life.

And sometimes that adjustment is uncomfortable.

Anybody who's ever had something physically adjusted knows that getting something back where it belongs may not always feel good in the moment.

God may challenge an attitude we've carried for years.

God may tell us to forgive somebody we've decided doesn't deserve forgiveness.

God may confront how we speak.

God may challenge what we're watching.

God may challenge how we're spending our money.

God may challenge a relationship.

God may challenge our pride.

God may challenge something we've been calling “just who I am.”

And that's where we have a choice.

I can keep compensating.

Or I can let God correct me.

I can keep saying, “That's just how I am.”

Or I can say, “Lord, make me more like You.”

Conclusion: Stop Compensating and let God Realign You

Maybe the question today isn't whether you believe the Gospel.

Maybe you do.

Maybe the question is:

Does your life match what you believe?

And before we start looking around the room at somebody else, this is a question each of us has to ask ourselves.

Does my attitude match?

Does my conversation match?

Does my treatment of people match?

Does my private life match?

Does my character match?

Does my forgiveness match?

Does the person people see Monday through Saturday match the person they see worshiping on Sunday?

Does it match?

And if the answer in some area is no, that doesn't mean God is finished with you.

It means there's an opportunity for alignment.

Remember the car.

You can compensate for misalignment for a long time.

You can keep pulling the steering wheel the other direction.

You can learn how to function with it.

You can even convince yourself that it's normal.

But eventually the things that are out of alignment begin affecting other things.

So maybe today God is saying:

“Stop compensating for what I'm trying to correct.”

Stop making excuses for it.

Stop defending it.

Stop hiding it.

Stop blaming somebody else for it.

Bring it to God.

And say:

“Lord, put my life back in alignment with You.”

Because here's what holiness really looks like.

It's not me walking around pretending I'm perfect.

It's me continually allowing God to bring my life into alignment with Christ.

And every time I drift, I come back.

Every time His Word exposes something, I listen.

Every time His Spirit convicts me, I respond.

Every time I discover something in me that doesn't look like Jesus, I don't defend it.

I surrender it.

Because I want my conduct to match my confession.

I want my life to match my Gospel.

I want people to see something in me that points beyond me to Jesus.

Not perfection. Alignment.

So this week, before you say something, ask:

Does it match?

Before you respond in anger:

Does it match?

Before you make that decision:

Does it match?

When you're deciding whether to forgive:

Does it match?

When nobody else is watching:

Does it match?

Does this reflect the Gospel I say I believe?

And when it doesn't, don't just learn how to compensate.

Let God make the adjustment.

Benediction:

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Invitation: