preach what you practice.

As humans, I think it's natural to have a disdain for hypocrisy. False advertising, betraying friendships, faulty leadership.. We are surrounded by it and I doubt anyone enjoys that. The only problem this poses is we're all hypocrites. When was the last time you said something but didn't do it. Think of how ridiculous this is: what if a cowboys fan never went to or watched any games, didn't own any cowboys attire, or didn't tell anyone they were a fan. Or what if somebody bought a cowboys jersey and said they played for the team. wait... whatttt? that wouldn't make any sense! I know what you might be thinking. Ryan, why are you bringing up the cowboys? psych.. it's probably a question of why I'm talking about hypocrisy and such. Well.. we have coined this nice little phrase that I would like to repair and hope to help us all walk away with a new perspective that spurs us on to walk a little taller and look a little more like Jesus.

Practice what you preach.

We have probably all said it or been mad at someone who didn't manage to accomplish it. I'm here to redeem it.. hopefully. But we'll have to deconstruct it a little before we can rebuild a better, more applicable saying. The problem with practice what you preach is its emphasis on talk. Paul said God's kingdom isn't about empty talk, but power and action (1 Cor. 4:20). Our culture is one of saying and doing completely different things. Politics, hollywood, the church.. hypocrisy is the way of the world, but there's a reason for it and we all know what it is. Sin. No, not acts of rebellion against God but the force that draws us to commit those acts. We're spiritually dead aside from Christ and we will always commit acts against the Character of God until we submit to Him.

So what does that mean for our beloved statement? We flip it. Preach what you practice. This statement is far more realistic and far more practical. Want proof? here we go.

Back to Paul, the apostle and slave of Christ. In his letter to the Galatians, he is rebuking the churches of Galatia who had Judaizers come and turn them away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They were people who were persuading believers they had to follow the Jewish Law to be a follower of Christ. Paul writes in verse ten of the first chapter, "For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If i were still trying to please man, I would not be a slave of Christ." The Gospel he preached to them was the gospel he practiced. It was what he lived every single day; it was everything to him.

What's the gospel? The gospel is literally the "good news" of Jesus Christ. He came and lived a perfect life, died a perfect death, but didn't stay dead. He came back to life and secured for all peoples the ability to be returned back to communion with God. Remember the sin thing we talked about earlier? That's what separates us from Him. The solution? We turn away from living independently, apart from God, and believe Christ's sacrifice was enough to restore what we destroyed; that's salvation. Good news, huh? You probably already knew that, and if you didn't, comment or find me on facebook or twitter or whatever and we'll grab coffee, yeah? sweet, moving on.

So Paul is saying in this verse, "I'm not compromising the work Christ did on the cross or what He's done in me. I don't care what men say, I'm going to give Christ everything and preach the truth that He gave everything for us and it was enough." The theme of this verse is identity. Paul knew who he was which determined what he did. He was a slave of Christ and so he gave everything to follow Him. He preached the truth because He practiced the truth. Who you are determines what you practice; what you practice is what you'll preach. What does that mean?

Preach who you are.

Paul was all about preaching his identity. He did it to intro all the letters he wrote to churches. His name had been Saul and eeeeeeeeveryone knew Him because He was killing Christians. Then, the road to Damascus happened and He became one. Him opening all of his epistles with "Paul" is a testament of grace, a proclamation of the Gospel of Christ. He preached who He was.

Preach who you are. Plain and simple. Preach the good news of Christ to yourself daily and revel in what He's done for you. When you constantly have an understanding of who you are, it will change what you practice. When you're constantly practicing the gospel, you'll be preaching the gospel. You'll radiate it.

Hallelujah, praise the Lamb. The cross was enough. I love you guys.

shattered.

tonight i learned reeeeeeally quick what Jesus experienced for people. Matthew 9: 36 says Jesus saw the crowds He was healing and preaching to, and He felt compassion for them. Think about that. The God of all love, the very source of love, comes and puts on flesh.. then, as He is expressing that love, He feels compassion. Can we not feel the weight of this? Jesus was overcome with an extra dosage of longing for these people. He felt for them. Empathy overtook the Messiah and it birthed a desire in Him to see them loved. Why did He feel this way? "They were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." Jesus saw a people trapped and in desperate need of help. He was moved deeply within His soul to call the disciples to action.

Here's the catch.

We are those disciples. Jesus has called us to pray for God to send workers into the harvest field. The problem here is, once you start praying, He stirs you to become what you're praying for. I said problem for a reason. We aren't any different from the crowds Jesus felt compassion for. There is one thing that separates us.

We are harassed as they are. Our harassment, however, is our own comfort. We find it entirely too hard to step out of our well-being, our contentment, our complacency. The problem of remaining comfortable is losing the commission of the One who showed us compassion in the first place. He called us to feeeeeeel what He felt and to be vessels of His love and redemption to others; we're too comfortable to heed His command? Have we come so far to believe that God is for our convenience instead of His own glory and bringing freedom to the captives?

The difference between "us" and "them" is helplessness. We are not helpless; we just refuse to help ourselves. The God of all existence has called us to be His hands and feet, scratch that, He's called us to GO.. simple. He said, "Go." Romans 10 says, "beautiful are the feet that bring the good news." feet.. all He said was go and He'll do the rest for you. He's with us ALWAYS. What is there to fear?! We are not helpless; We have overcome our harassment.

We have overcome our comfort.

Jesus stepped out of Heaven; the least we can do is get off the couch and step out our front door with the intention of sharing what means most to us.

Tonight, I was reading at starbucks and this mother and her daughter walked in. I took a quick glance and went back to reading. The mother seemed detached and the daughter, somewhere around 14 years old, looked like she walked out of Hot Topic and right into Starbucks. Don't get me wrong, I used to go there for band shirts, but I think I helped you grasp a mental picture. They sat down on the couch across from me, so OF COURSE I'm going to eavesdrop. Jesus did it to the disciples; don't judge me. They immediately pull out their phones and there is no connection between them. Finally, they interact and what followed was heartbreaking. The mother nags and nags because she feels her daughter is "too far gone" (my assumption, but it's spot on, i'll betcha). The daughter has never known what love looks like.. which explains her desperate cry for attention by her outfit. She just. wants. love. Don't we all? Can you blame her? Can you see how she is harassed and helpless, in desperate need of the One, True Shepherd. It got worse. The mother inquired about the scabs on her daughter's arms. She had been cutting herself. The conversation became heated quickly and the daughter stood up and said they were leaving.. and they did. Broken. Shattered. I cried out to God for breakthrough. God is faithful. If you ask Him to break your heart for what breaks His, He'll come through.

God is not looking for swarms of people, He's looking for a few good men who will carry the torch of love to the nations. The fire follows, but He's looking for a few good men (and women) to cry out to Him to send workers and to then become those workers. You will have to leave your comfort, but I prefer to find my rest and refuge in the Lord and not myself. I refuse to let a rock cry out in my place. Choose you this day whom you will serve, right, Joshua? Well.. as for me, I'll serve the Lord.

There's room at the Cross for everyone. Act like it.

God, move in us and through us. Break us and move us to usher in brokenness. Bring breakthrough. Come to us, Jesus. Oh, Jesus, come to us. Let it be so.