Mirrors to Windows: Spotlight on Character
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Last week we started our new sermon series: Mirrors to Windows. Like a mirror’s reflection, as Christians we are called to reflect Jesus- but not just within the four walls of this church. No, we are to reflect Jesus out there (point out the window). God is calling you to reflect Jesus in the places outside our church windows. God wants us to reflect Jesus in our own frontlines.
Our frontline is the place where we live out our lives the majority of the time. Where we live and work and play may seem ordinary, but God sees your everyday life as an extraordinary opportunity to join Him in drawing people to Himself.
In Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV) Jesus instructs us to,
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This commission is a whole-life call to take our everyday life- our, walking around, working, socializing, neighborhood living, community involvement -lives, to reflect Jesus to others.
The following were our key points last week: (I suggest re-listing these on the top of the sermon notes)
· God wants you to reflect Jesus in your own frontline.
· To best reflect Jesus in our own frontlines we must first become more like Him.
· To best reflect Jesus in our own frontlines we must allow Him to saturate every aspect of our lives.
Over the next few weeks I want to dig deeper into those vital truths- to put a “spot light” on each -so to speak. Thus today, I want to take a closer look at the first truth-
· God wants you to reflect Jesus in your own frontline.
To do so
1. We must first decide to reflect Jesus instead of focusing on ourselves.
Do you Remember the story of Narcissus? He’s the proud, beautiful man in the Greek myth. Narcissus hunted in the woods, tending only to himself, until one day he discovered a hidden pool of water. The pool had a silvery-smooth surface. No shepherds ever disturbed its waters - no goats or cattle, no birds or fallen leaves. Only the sun danced upon the still pond.
Tired from hunting and eager to quench his thirst, Narcissus lay on his stomach and leaned over the water. But when he looked at the glassy surface, he saw someone staring back at him. Narcissus was spellbound. Gazing up at him from the pool were eyes like twin stars, framed by hair as golden as Apollo’s and cheeks as smooth as ivory. But when he leaned down and tried to kiss the perfect lips, he kissed only spring water. When he reached out and tried to embrace this vision of beauty, he found no one there… Day after day, Narcissus stared at the water, in love with his own reflection. He couldn’t tear himself away from that reflection and it killed him as he waisted away before it.
As I prepared for this sermon series, I came across this myth and it reminded me that all of us, each of us sinners, are narcissistic to some degree. However, the power that mirrors have over us is not the same as Narcissus’ enchantment. When we stare at our reflection it is not our own perfection that captivates us- more often when we look at our reflection we are captivated by our imperfections- we see our failings and all the ways we are just not enough and all too easily we become overwhelmed by the covetous desire to be more than we are.
Author Jon Bloom agrees. In his article, Beware the Mirror, he explains,
Mk 1:1
The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,
“…[F]or us, mirrors are not just things that hang on our walls. Fallen, proud hearts turn just about everything into a mirror. Magazines, mall browsing, mutual fund reports, someone else’s immaculate lawn or impressive children or beautiful home or successful business or growing church can all become mirrors. Because when we look at them we see reflections of ourselves. We see ourselves wanting in comparison.
So the enchantment ends up being a Narcissistic obsession without changing our self-image into a thing of beauty, usually into the constantly changing, illusive images of what the world tells us is beautiful. And the power we desire our improved image to have is not to enchant ourselves by looking at our direct reflection, but to be enchanted by other people’s admiration of us.
This is why focusing on our self-image is so dangerous. Many of us do need our sin-corrupted, Satan-encouraged self-loathing corrected. But this will never happen by focusing on our self-image because our salvation, peace, and happiness are not found in improving our image or having the fleeting pleasure of others’ admiration. We are not designed to be satisfied with our own glory. We are designed to be satisfied with God’s glory.”
Narcissus is a mythological figure of human fancy but the moral to his tale rings true because it speaks to the very-real human sinful tendency towards self-focus. In Mark 8 (Mk 8:34b-35, NIV) Jesus warns against that narcissistic failing when He states,
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.
“’Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.’”
Jesus is telling us that, as His followers, we do NOT need to become a better version of ourselves. Instead we need to become more like Him. His instruction to deny ourselves is a call to turn away from the mirrors in our lives- to turn away from the magazines, mall browsing, mutual fund reports, and all the other things that we turn into mirrors to tell us we just don’t measure up. Jesus wants us to turn away from those mirrors that enchant us towards self-focus. Instead, He is asking us to become more like Him.
As Bloom explains, Mk 1:1
The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,
“The gospel we need won’t be viewed in our mirrors. For that we need to look through a window. And that’s what the Bible is. The Bible is not a mirror; it is a window. It is through the Bible that we come to see reality. And it is through the Bible that we see the ‘gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God,’ and ‘behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,’ and ‘behold his face in righteousness’ and become ‘satisfied with his likeness.’
The health and restoration of your sin-sick, Narcissistic soul lies in looking to Jesus. It is not a better you that you need to see. You need to see Jesus and then bask in the amazing truth that the more you look to him and trust him, the more you will be conformed to his beautiful image and that being in Christ you have received and will receive as a free gift all that will make you most satisfied and most truly beautiful.”
That brings us to our second point this morning,
2. To reflect Jesus in our own frontlines we need to model His character in our every-day lives.
There is a story told of a zoo that was noted for their great collection of different animals. One day the gorilla died, and to keep up the appearance of a full range of animals, the zookeeper hired a man to wear a gorilla suit and fill in for the dead animal. It was his first day on the job, and the man didn’t know how to act like a gorilla very well. As he tried to move convincingly, he got too close to the wall of the enclosure and tripped and fell into the lion exhibit. He began to scream, convinced his life was over…until the lion spoke to him: “Be quiet, or you’re going to get us both fired!”
We can laugh at that but let’s not allow it to become a parody of our own moral character. Friends, we just can’t fake it. Not out there (point out the window). Maybe, we can fake it for a few hours every Sunday morning, pretending to be a follower of Christ. But out there- the people we share our daily lives with- well, they aren’t fooled.
Now I am not talking about perfection or legalistic living. What I am saying is that we need to commit- really commit to God’s character development process.
Because hypocrisy is a real turn off.
We can’t just say we are Christians and then go out and do whatever we want the rest of the week.
Former NBA star Charles Barkley, the Round Mound of Rebound, as he was called, is famous for saying, "I'm not a role model." In spite of the fact that young kids wanted to imitate him, he didn't want that responsibility. He ignored the fact that his high visibility made it necessary for him to behave with at least an understanding that millions of people were watching him.
We don't have millions of people watching us but we do have some very important people watching--our families, our friends, our unsaved neighbors. Is your life worthy of imitation by them?
Our success in reflecting Jesus in our own frontlines depends heavily on how we behave in our everyday lives. We must model Christ like character. Paul embraced this responsibility. He told the Corinthians, "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ." And this is the key for living a life worthy of imitation. Imitate Christ. With your children, with your significant other, with your coworkers, classmates, neighbors, and friends- model Jesus.
Right about now you are probably asking one of your wonderful questions. Pastor, what does Christ like character look like? I am so glad you asked. Galatians 5 gives us an example of what we are talking about here.
When studying the Bible I use many different translations to help me get an accurate and relevant picture of what God is saying. So this morning I want to use a paraphrase translation of this well known passage of Scripture, to help give us a fresh perspective on these familiar verses about the fruit of the Spirit.
(Gal. 5:19-26, MSG)
It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.
Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.
We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Yes we can reflect Jesus in our own frontlines! To do so, we must model Christ like character and God promises to help us do it. In this passage of Scripture it talks about the fruit of the Spirit. A more traditional translation reads, Gal 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
This is called “fruit” because when we accept what Jesus did for us and we choose to follow Him- His Holy Spirit fills us and He helps us to become more like Jesus- just like an orchard produces fruit, the Holy Spirit helps us to model Christ like virtues.
Let me close this morning with one final quote from Jon Bloom, Mk 1:1
The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,
“Narcissus is a pagan parable of a real danger. Beware of mirrors — any kind of mirror. Look at mirrors as little as possible. Instead, look through a window. Any window is ten-times more healthy for us than a mirror. But especially look through the window of God’s word so you can see Jesus. He is the Savior (1 John 4:14), the peace (Ephesians 2:14), and the satisfying gain (Philippians 3:8) you are looking for.”
Let us pray.