Say It, Do It

Mathew 23: 1- 12

One day Lucy wanted to impress Charlie Brown. Lucy, the bossy lady, always in control of things, makes a booth and sits in there. She writes outside her booth: “Psychiatric Help – 5cents”

When Charlie arrives, she says: “The doctor is in.”

“Charlie, your life is like a house”, she continues

Charlie is silent. “You want to build your house on a solid foundation, don’t you?”

Charlie is wondering what is going on. “Of course you do. So don’t build your house on sand”. Then the wind blows and the booth is destroyed.

The last picture of the cartoon is Lucy is in the destroyed booth saying: “or with cheap nails…”

One must not use cheap nails to build a house … or build a life. The cartoon illustration is a wonderful way of understanding what Jesus is trying to tell us.

1. Hypocrisy is a bad word. Last Sunday we read that Jesus used it, too. It is simply to say something and do something else.

God gave the law to Moses.

Moses handed it to Joshua;

Joshua transmitted it to the Elders;

the Elders gave it to Prophets;

Prophets gave it to Scribes and Pharisees.

Jesus does not have a problem with obeying the law. But he has a real problem with the teachers of the law who made things impossible.

They have tied small leather cases on their foreheads and their arms. In these cases they wrote the laws of God. (Exodus 13:1-10, 11-16. Deut 6:4-9; 11:13-21).

They had fringes on their robes reminding them of God’s commandments (Numbers 15:38-41). Each time they saw the fringes they would ask themselves if they were living according to God’s law. Some of them made extra long fringes to say they were more spiritual than the others.

These rituals became so important that they missed the main picture. They said something and they acted in a different way.

They learned the laws but they forgot to love their neighbor.

Do we practice what we preach?

Do I practice what I preach?

A very important question I have to raise as your pastor. A very important question every Christian has to raise as witness of Christ.

Because of hypocrisy, leaders can not be effective leaders. We need to practice what we teach. It is not enough to have the right doctrine. It is not enough to have memorized all the rules. It is not enough to go Bible study or to worship God. If we tell people to build their houses on a rock, and on the other hand we use cheap nails for building our own houses, will not be of any help in our ministry.

In order to demonstrate leadership, General Eisenhower once took a piece of string and said: “Pull it and it will follow you. Push it and it will go nowhere at all.”

People will follow a leader when his/ her life is an example.

Therefore if you are a father, be one in deed.

if you are a mother, be one in deed.

if you are teacher, be one in deed.

if you are student, be one in deed.

if you are Christian, be one in deed.

2. The second problem with these teachers of religion, was that they were full of pride.

In 1993, The “Nor Yerk” band was invited to France and we had wonderful concerts and we made the news.

IN 1996, we were invited to Paris again. All the members of the band were very busy. I asked Rev. Gilbert Leonian whether we could come for only three days, in the weekend. He agreed, although he wanted us for a longer time but we could not.

1996 was an important date. We, Armenian Evangelicals, were celebrating the 150th anniversary of our church. Bands were there from all over the world. “Nor Yerk” was the last band to play in the concert at the City Hall. The concert would end at 11:00 pm. Unfortunately, all the bands were playing longer and they went overtime. I was listening to their quality and I was saying in my heart “You will hear a different quality when Nor Yerk comes.” Our turn arrived 10:50 pm. We could play only three songs and lights and sound were suddenly turned off at 11 pm sharp.

It was slap from God to my face to remind me that being full of pride is not His way in leadership. All the way to Paris, seven members of band, playing three songs only was the lesson I can not forget.

Jesus said: “Everything they do is done for men to see….. They love the place of honor at banquets and most important seats… (5,6)

Here is a list of Jesus' criticisms about religious leadership in his day:

They did not practice what they taught (hypocrisy).
They put heavy burdens on others but not themselves (legalism).
They sought and loved public recognition (pride).
Status, respect and titles were important to them (arrogance).
They locked people out of the kingdom (judgmental).
They established laws to benefit themselves (greed).
They neglected to emphasize justice and mercy (bias).
They were accomplices to silencing the prophets (oppressive). ¹

Do these sound familiar to us TODAY?

3 Where is the solution?

The solution is in humility. One can not live for Christ, if one is not broken before God.

Jesus said: “The greatest among you be servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (11,12)

An excellent definition of humility is to make others more important than you.

I was listening to Rev. John MacArthur about successful Christian parenting.

He is very cautious about the American educational system which overemphasizes the word “self-esteem.” Our children are raised without knowing that they are fallen in sin. And their self-esteem will not be healed if they do not recognize that they are sinful and they need repentance. They are raised in a selfish way that the only thing that matters is their own life and their own self-esteem. Repentance before God teaches us humility and it starts while they are children.

The best way to boost your self-esteem is to boost the self-esteem of the other.

This is what humility is all about. It is not how you feel about yourself as much as how you make others feel about themselves. People came to Jesus broken. Jesus lifted them up. He liberated them from their sufferings.

I received some days ago a DVD about a wonderful true story fifty years ago. It is a book that they made it to a movie. The book called: Beyond the Gates of Splendor. In 1956, five missionaries believed that they could make a difference in the lives of the Waodani tribe, in the Amazon Jungles of Ecuador. They were all killed by this tribe. Their wives continued the mission. That tribe became Christian.

Five men, by the way, one of them was an Armenian named Roger Youderian, and their leader was Nate Saint. His son Steve Saint became a missionary to Africa.

In 1986, Stephen went to the toughest area in Africa. He went to Timbuktu, in Sahara desert in Mali, West Africa, close to Algeria.

Steve grew up without his father. Sometimes he missed him so much he wondered if his father’s death served any purpose.

At one point in his mission in Africa, he was in danger and a local African pastor hid him in his house. These two men started to share their Christian life with each other. The African pastor had become Christian at a young age. Because of his faith, his family had persecuted him, his teacher had beaten him. This African pastor was encouraged by great stories of Christian martyrs. He asked if Steve knew about the missionary Nate Saint who was in Ecuador?

The story of Nate had made an impact on the life of this man in Africa. Steve was astonished to see that he traveled half of the world all the way to Africa and to find a pastor encouraged by his father. ²

The greatest among you must be a servant.

How? Where do we stand today?

I like to finish by this prayer that was read in Kansas at the opening of the Senate session year 2000:

"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

-We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your word and call it "pluralism."
-We have worshipped other gods and called it "multiculturalism."
-We have endorsed perversion and called it "alternative lifestyle."
-We have exploited the poor and called it "the lottery."
-We have rewarded laziness and called it "welfare."
-We have killed our unborn and called it "choice."
-We have shot abortionists and called it "justifiable."
-We have neglected to discipline our children and called it "building self-esteem."
-We have abused power and called it "politics."
-We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it "ambition."
-We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it "enlightenment."

Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will, to open our hearts and ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen."³

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on "The Rest of the Story" on the radio and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired

1 George Johnson, Critical Decisions in Following Jesus, C.S.S. Publishing Company.

2 Stephen Saint, “to the Ends of the Earth”

3 Joe Wright