Untitled Sermon (10)

A few years ago my dad had a spell during church. We had gone down to their house after church, and he and mom were telling us about it. He said that he got sweaty and his heart was beating really fast, and he was getting sick on the stomach and it was getting harder to breathe. Mom interjected that she wasn’t sure if she should take him to the ER or not; I replied, “dad that sounds like conviction to me, you didn’t need to go to the doctor, you needed to go to the altar!”

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Conviction- we have a lot of terms for it; and no doubt many of us know what it is. Conviction is a gift that God gave us that empowers us to either change our behavior. Conviction can be scary when it first comes on us. But without conviction there would be no changing of behavior and no altering to our sinful and self-centered tendencies.

However, can I tell you that sometimes we Christians really miss the mark on conviction. We build ourselves Kingdoms and understandings around it that are not helpful, and frankly do no good for the Kingdom of God. So, today I want to think through the idea of conviction for a little bit and see what the Bible has to say to us to help us understand the idea of conviction a little more, and help us look and act more like Jesus.

First, It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict people of sin. You know, I get told something pretty often as a preacher- “Jon, you are not afraid to step on people’s toe” Nope, no I am not. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is not afraid to step on toes, and I try my hardest to allow the Holy Spirit to control my preaching- not me. In this morning’s passage from Jesus tells the Disciples that he is about to go away and that he is going to send them the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit will “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness.” Newsflash, friends, it is not your job to convict your loved one about their sin…period.

It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict people of sin

Conviction is a job of the Holy Spirit. When we enter the conviction business we are entering God’s area of responsibility. Think of it this way, in order to fairly convict someone of sin a person must be fully aware of all of the conditions surrounding that sin- and the only all knowing person in the world is God. We do not have the ability to convict because of our limited knowledge. When we try and place ourselves in the drivers seat of conviction we are trying to play God. You know what I am talking about when I say that, right?

“I am going to tell them all about themselves.”

“The will know better when I get done with them!”

We act as though we are the ones who will do the convicting and produce the change- but that is impossible because none of us are God!

Listen to

So, before Christ we are dead in our sins- and in case you did not know, dead people don’t feel anything. The cannot feel or discern, or anything like that. But v4-5 tells us that GOD made us alive- it was God who made us to feel.

So, we can try all day long to make people

Conviction is not equal to shame. Remember Jesus and the woman caught in adultery in ? Jesus is confronted with the woman caught in adultery and while he is certainly interested in her being made aware of her sin and changing her life, he was not interested in shaming her or embarrassing her publically or privately. When God convicts us he does not do so to make us feel insignificant. Here are some profound thoughts on conviction that I found while studying this week:

“God exposes sin not to shame us but to change us.”

“Condemnation brings guilt and shame. Conviction brings hope and restoration.”

“Shame says that because I am flawed, I am unacceptable. Grace says that though I am flawed, I am cherished.”

I like to think about it this way: Conviction finds its foundation in love; where shame finds its foundation on sin.

Conviction should make us humble, not arrogant

reminds us that we should not think that we are to strong to fall, because if we are not careful we will get sucked into temptation.

Many people have fallen into temptation by suffering from spiritual arrogance.

Listen also to

English Standard Version Chapter 1

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

But, Jon, some would say, I would NEVER say that I do not sin...

Well, maybe we would never say it, but sometimes we surely act like it. We see those who are weaker than we are (at the moment) and act as though we have never been in their position. Can I be blunt? Looking down you nose toward another person caught in sin- or self righteousness as we may call it- is a form of claiming sinlessness.

So, in we are confronted with the story of the Pharisee and Tax Collector. The Pharisee is more focused on his righteousness and the sinfulness of his neighbor than he is God.

Paul W. Powell once observed: “Pride is so subtle that if we aren’t careful we’ll be proud of our humility. When this happens our goodness becomes badness. Our virtues become vices. We can easily become like the Sunday school teacher who, having told the story of the Pharisee and the publican, said, ‘Children, let’s bow our heads and thank God we are not like the Pharisee’”

CS Lewis once said that “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you’re looking down, you can’t see something that’s above you.”