Rewriting the Perception of God

So as we pursue a good reputation, we demonstrate a changed life through doing good, honorable, virtuous, delightful, profitable deeds. Good deeds, beloved, point to a good creator who laid it out for us in his own excellence and creativity. Remember in Genesis chapter 1, he goes on this amazing creative demonstration, right?

Brings everything into existence and periodically he would stop and say, that is good. We don't do what's good in order to seek God's favor. Our relationship with God is based on his grace. But as Christians, we are to pursue what is good. You see, as a Christian, you are the face of the church and the world perceives the Christian faith based on how it perceives you. This may seem like a daunting fact, but it's also a wonderful opportunity to repair the current perception of Christianity and of Christ.

In this message, Stephen Davey describes how we do that. By pursuing a good reputation in every aspect of life, each of us has the ability to change minds and lives for the kingdom of God. Today's message is called Rewriting the Perception of God. I wonder, how does the world perceive us? How do they think when they think of us?

And I wonder how close we are to what they really think about us. Now, as I tried to answer the question on my own mind, obviously for some the church, you know, really doesn't exist at all. It might be a building located on the corner of Tryon and Holly Springs, but that's about it. For others, the church does exist, but it's for weddings and funerals and maybe Easter or Christmas services. For many, the church exists, but they're not really sure why. They're a bit confused. For still others, the church exists, but it really shouldn't because it just gets in the way.

It kind of makes us feel bad. How does the world, let's be more specific, how does your world perceive the church? Has it ever occurred to you that the average person's perception of the church is directly related to their perception of you and me? There's never been a better time in this country at this time to make sure that our Christianity is not staying indoors, that it isn't staying behind those proverbial stained glass windows. What a wonderful time for us to do just that.

How do we do that, by the way? How do we take our Christianity out into the public arena? Well, as members of a local church, individually and corporately, if we understand that the church is perceived collectively by virtue of how we're perceived culturally, we need to make some promises to one another, ultimately to the Lord.

The first one is rather simple and short. It's going to rewrite, by the way, the public perception of God and the Gospel, but it's fairly simple, and here it is. We're making a commitment to pursue a good reputation in every aspect of life. Now, when I say that, immediately I hope to convey the idea that to rewrite the perception of our community related to God or the church or Christianity is not the launching of a program. It's really the launching of people.

It isn't some special method that's just going to be amazing. We're launching individual people into the community who pursue a good reputation, and this is a personal commitment to integrity out there in the community. Let me show you where Paul addresses this idea turned in your New Testament to 1 Timothy in chapter 3. It's a chapter which we have addressed in previous studies, delivering the qualifications for men who will serve as elders. The list also is a wonderful guideline for practical Christian living sanctification that is how to grow in Christ and what that looks like for every man, for every woman, for every young person.

So it really serves as a wonderful guideline. Paul writes specifically of elders and more broadly to those who want to grow in Christ, and he says this. Look down at verse 7, buried in the list of qualifications, he says this, and he must have a good reputation with those outside the church. That's a phrase that refers to unbelievers. He must have a good reputation, and he's not talking about inside the church, but outside the church, and the word he uses for good refers to a reputation that you could use the synonyms virtuous, profitable.

In my Greek study, even the word delightful showed up. Honorable would be a good synonym. In other words, a good reputation isn't just something we get by showing up here or serving one another in here in some profitable manner or being gracious or delightful or smiling at people around here, going the extra mile for people in here.

Paul effectively says that a good reputation is not only developed and to be exercised and pursued in here, but out there. So we are honorable out there. We are virtuous out there. We are delightful out there. We're profitable out there. Simply put, you're for real.

You're real. People can pick up on the genuine article of goodness, whether it's in the office or the classroom or in the shop or in the boardroom or in the neighborhood. It's in those scenes where the Christian earns this label good, honorable, virtuous, delightful, profitable, and Christianity and the church at that moment, whether anybody really recognizes it in the world or not, their perception of God has changed ever so slightly. Now when Paul makes this statement that those who are growing, certainly those who serve as elders, have a good reputation, that implies there is the opposite, right? If he says there's something as a good reputation, that must mean there's something as a bad reputation. He's making a distinction between something we need to pursue, and it's good, and by implication, something we need to reject, which is bad.

Let me show you a detailed description of that contrast. Turn to his letter to the Ephesians. Turn back a few pages or so to the book of Ephesians in chapter four, verse 17. This I say, therefore, and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer as the Gentiles walk. That word walk, you might expand in your mind for simply walk around. That's what it means.

You're walking around. It's a reference to your lifestyle. It's a reference to your desire, your passion. It's a categorical description for someone's lives or life. This is the life and the pursuit and the passion and the goal of the Gentile, which is a categorical term for someone who does not believe the Gospel. This is their life. By the way, we're only going to touch down, but before we even do that, John Stott, from Great Britain who pastored for many decades faithfully, now with the Lord, his commentary on this paragraph said that this provides a good description of the downward spiral of an unbeliever's heart and life.

Notice, verse 17 again, the latter part. Just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. In other words, they just can't get enough.

Here's the digression. Their hearts are hardened, he writes. The original word refers to a stone harder than marble.

We use the expression today. They have a heart of stone. From their hardened hearts come darkened hearts. From darkened hearts come calloused hearts. Your translation might read at verse 19, having lost all sensitivity.

Mine reads having become calloused. The idea here is that the unbeliever's heart has moved beyond the point where he used to kind of have a pang of guilt when he did that. He used to kind of feel bad about that. Then that digressed until ultimately he is actually proud of the fact that he does it.

That's the idea here. That leads him to reckless living or, as Stott wrote, a reckless heart. He writes in verse 19, Paul does, describing them as greedily, that is hungrily, practicing every kind of sensuality. The word Paul uses there is a word that simply describes somebody who's literally throwing off all restraint and flaunting itself in the act of sin. In other words, sin is something they are now very proud of.

That's the digression. Ultimately, then, that describes a bad reputation. Don't walk around, don't pursue, don't have this lifestyle as a believer like the Gentiles or those who do not believe. What Paul will do is contrast their reputation or lifestyle with the believer. Look at verse 20, Ephesians 4. But you did not learn Christ in this way. If indeed you've heard him and have been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus, that in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, the old man, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man, that is, the new self, which is in the likeness of God, it's been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. This is very critical to understand the construction of this command indicates a repeated putting off and a repeated putting on. He's not writing to people who want to become a Christian. So you make a decision you're going to put off the old man, you're going to put on the new man.

He's talking to believers who are growing in Christ, that is, that sanctification. And you repeatedly put off the old man. You say no. And you repeatedly put on the new man. And this is our battle, isn't it? He's referring to those who will pursue this kind of good reputation.

You're going to have this kind of battle. And he puts it in an analogy of taking off old clothing and putting on new clothing. Maybe you did that after Christmas. You got that new sweater or blouse or a pair of jeans or whatever and you put it on. Maybe you discarded that which was old.

Or maybe you've still hung it in the closet and you might wear it one day. That's the analogy he's using here. He isn't talking about salvation.

He's talking about sanctification which is another way of referring to our lifestyle. That's the daily contest of the believer. And the battle can shift moment by moment. One day it's a battle against bitterness. The next it's a battle against lust.

Sometimes it's hour after hour. It's a battle against resentment. Or maybe it's a battle against covetousness. Or maybe it's a battle against laziness. Or maybe it's a battle against pride.

And in one day maybe battling every one of them and more. See to the unbeliever it doesn't matter. There's no battle. There's no battle.

If I do something wrong I'm proud of it. There's no battle. To the world to the unbeliever the world is a playground. To the believer the world is a battleground. And a good and godly reputation, beloved, never happens without a fight.

A good reputation never happens by accident. You are constantly battling Satan, the flesh. Here's the application. Someone with a godly reputation rewrites and reconstructs the reputation of God and his church. And that leads me to another promise as we individual Christians and as a local assembly corporately make in regards to our community. Here's another way to go public.

Here it is. To bless the community through personal labor, talent, investment and skill reflecting and glorifying the diligence, creativity and excellence of God's character. But in the Old and New Testaments you have a number of references that we could spend a long time just covering this principle of bringing blessing and progress and advancement to the secular kingdom as a reflection of the excellence of our creator God. Couldn't help but think of Joseph in Egypt, sold into slavery, eventually becomes prime minister and he effectively saves that kingdom and the surrounding world.

And you have to ask the question, why care? Why not let Egypt become a dust bowl? Instead, Jeremiah the prophet challenges the Jewish exiles as they leave for their Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah 29, he says on behalf of God, seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf. Earlier in this farewell message, Jeremiah says, here's what God says to all the exiles, build houses, live in them, plant gardens, eat their produce, multiply there and do not decrease. It's a long way of saying live there in such a way that you bless them by your presence. In fact, we could say it this way, live there in such a way that if you disappeared, they would miss you. They wouldn't be better off in that office without you. If the church disappeared, would our community be better off or at a loss?

That's the question. And the very fact that we care, the very fact that we pray, the very fact that we invest and build and maybe even plant a garden or like me try to grow some grass, the very fact that we try to do those things is a reflection of the excellencies of God and we demonstrate by means of those activities the character of God to the people around us who don't know who God is. And we represent him and he would call this good. And in living that way, we actually invite others to join us. And again, we're demonstrating the character of God before God takes us home. We know this isn't home.

He's taking us home. And in living in such a way like this, we invite other people to join us as we await God taking us home. Let me show you one more passage.

Quickly, if you'll turn to the right again and head back past Timothy to Titus, Titus chapter 3. If you were with us a couple of years ago in our studies through this letter, you may remember that this island of Crete where Titus is ministering, establishing churches, he's appointing elders, this population are largely the descendants of pirates. It was a tough community. In fact, they were so devious, so given the lying that there come this expression that to be a liar was to be a Cretan.

That's how wicked they were. Well, how do you influence a community like that? What's going to be your strategy for reaching this kind of world? What are you going to do? What is Titus going to tell them and what is Paul by means of the Holy Spirit going to tell them? Look at verse 8, Titus chapter 3 verse 8. This is a trustworthy statement and concerning these things, I want you to speak confidently so that those who have believed God, now he's talking to Christians, those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. He's not talking to people who want to become a Christian and you become a Christian by doing good deeds. He's saying for those of you who believe, you're believers, be careful to engage in good deeds. The only time the words be careful shall open the New Testament. If I were God, I'd have said that 100,000 times. Be careful.

Only this time. Be careful. It means to think thoroughly. It means to be intentional. Be intentional in engaging in good deeds is what he's saying. Again, Paul isn't telling people how to get to heaven. He's telling believers how to live because you represent heaven. Here's your strategy to reach all these descendants of pirates.

Here's the plan. Be intentional to do good deeds. Have you ever thought about the fact that good deeds are the advertising campaign of Christianity?

So start there. By the way, I find it interesting, and I didn't know this until late into my study, that Paul uses the same word here to describe good deeds as he used earlier in Timothy to describe a good reputation. Same word. Good, virtuous, honorable deeds. So as we pursue a good reputation, we demonstrate a changed life through doing good, honorable, virtuous, delightful, profitable deeds, all of which imply integrity and creativity and diligence and perseverance and excellence. Good deeds, beloved, point to a good creator who laid it out for us in his own excellence and creativity. Remember, in Genesis chapter 1, he goes on this amazing creative demonstration, right? Brings everything into existence, and periodically he would stop and say, that is good.

That's good. And every time we, with our hands, with our mouths, our minds, our effort, our creativity, our initiative, do something good, it reflects our relationship to a creator who does good things. By the way, it's not surprising either to me that the demonstration of good and virtuous and profitable and delightful things out there in the community, wherever you work or live, will lead some, Jesus said, to observe your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Start with good deeds and build a bridge to good doctrine, which introduces them to a good God.

What a great day in which to do that than this day. I close with this anecdote from Watchman Nee. I have his writings, but I've only read the normal Christian life, read it in college, and it marked me. He was an evangelist a generation or so ago in China, and he had a friend he writes about who lived in a small village in China, and they lived at the base of a small mountain, and at the top of the mountain, a plateau had been developed and built over time for this one particular friend of Watchman Nee's rice paddies. And then, as you can just imagine, down that hillside were these terraced rice fields. Watchman Nee's friend was a believer, a rice farmer. He had the opportunity to share the gospel with his neighbors.

They had a little evangelical church in that village, but there was one particular neighbor who was never interested in what he had to say, was very skeptical, if not kind. Every day of growing season, this farmer had to work harder than all the other farmers because he had to pump water by hand all the way up to the top of that little mountain to fill his rice paddies with water. It was slow, laborious, painstaking work, but every day he would pump water into his rice paddies and fill his field. One particular season, every morning when he returned up the hill, he would find that his neighbor, the one disinterested in the gospel, had opened the dikes surrounding the Christian's field so that the water from his field flowed down the mountainside to his field, which was just underneath, and it would fill his field with water. For several weeks, the Christian farmer ignored the injustice. Try to put yourself in his sandals, all that work, deceitfully taken away every night while he slept.

I would imagine posting guards. He didn't. He didn't say anything. But after some days, he became desperate because he was now working twice to fill the fields with water. So he took the matter to his little village church and asked the believers to pray with him about what to do in response to this neighbor's activity. After several days of praying about it, he and some other men arrived at what his response ought to be. So the next morning, the Christian farmer, Watchman Nee writes, rose early that morning and first filled his neighbor's fields with water.

Then he pumped water up the hill into his own fields. He did this for several days without saying a word and never intended to, to his neighbor. Watchman Nee tells how that neighbor eventually broke down and confessed and was overcome by the genuine demonstration of humility and undeserved blessing and became a fellow member of that church as a believer. Your story may not end the same way. That neighbor may not confess anything.

That coworker may not break down. One thing's for certain, they do not deserve your blessing any more than we deserve the blessing of God. I couldn't help but think in my study, Egypt didn't deserve Joseph.

Babylon did not deserve Daniel. Perhaps your world doesn't deserve your testimony either and perhaps doesn't appreciate it, but every, every act as you pursue a good reputation, as you pursue the demonstration of good deeds that bring a blessing to the community and to your world, they ultimately allow you and me to do something great. Rewrite, reconstruct, repair the perception our world has of God.

Could there be anything better to do than that? Thanks for spending the last half hour with us here on Wisdom for the Heart. This was lesson one in Stephen's four-part series called Going Public. This series explores the practical ways that we as believers can seek to shape the people in our lives for the glory of God.

Today's message is called Rewriting the Perception of God. I hope you'll be with us for all the lessons in this series. To learn more about the ministry of Wisdom for the Heart and to access the many other resources that we have available, visit wisdomonline.org. Those resources are available to you anytime free of charge. Last month, people from over 180 nations visited that site and downloaded resources, so help yourself to that anytime. Again, it's wisdomonline.org. You can also have free access to those resources on the Wisdom International smartphone app. Thanks again for listening. Join us tomorrow for more wisdom for the heart. Thanks for listening.