What Are You Made Of?
There is a lot of talk today about what goes into our food. I don’t know about you, but I rarely am able to pronounce 50% of the ingredients in some of the products on the shelves these days. Words that seem like they are made up. Which, quite frankly, is a good metaphor because most of those ingredients are just that, made up.
I became aware of something a little strange when I decided to stop eating dairy a while back and discovered that somehow, someway, the cream, or whatever it really is, inside of Oreo’s is completely dairy free. Which was exciting to me because I could eat them! Oh wait… that is actually extremely concerning…
I am very passionate about exercise and what I eat, it is very important to me. But it is not nearly as important as what we are made of as people who identify as followers of Jesus. Today, we are going to look at a passage that should challenge all of us: what are we made of? What is our faith and our walk with Jesus made of?
As we follow him and walk as disciples of Christ, do we reflect the kind of disciple that Jesus requires us to be? How exactly do we measure up to the teachings of our Lord, and how serious are we taking the task of being determined disciples of Jesus?
Our Own Plank (Luke 6:39-42)
You hypocrites Jesus says. Hupokrités is the Greek word there, it was used to describe an actor playing a part on a stage. It was George McDonald in the 1800’s who said, “half of the misery of the world comes from trying to look instead of trying to be what one is not.” It’s a good to try and be a Christian more than trying to look as a solid Christian. The problem comes when you try to look the part, to be an actor or a pretender.
Who is Jesus always more brutal towards? The hypocritical religious guys. Who is he most gracious towards? The sinners and prostitutes and lost people. Those that know they need a savior and don’t pretend to be who they are not.
It doesn’t take a scholar to delve into the meaning of the sawdust and the plank, and that is what I appreciate so much about this word to us today. There is little doubt that Jesus the carpenter had some experience with sawdust in the eyes. But a plank?! A strong metaphor Jesus is using here to emphasize, your stuff is your biggest problem. Although sawdust could be irritating, a plank in your eye is a massive life issue.
Jesus is very clear, you have enough in your own eye to be concerned with. It is so simple for us, who haven’t walked an inch in someone else’s shoes, to pass judgement upon them.
We like to water it down and say, “no, it’s just my opinion, just an observation.” That is the enemy lying to you and covering up the pride God wants to release in you. Don’t let pride keep you from being gracious to those God has entrusted around you. We can’t get so busy policing others in our pride that we can miss what God needs to do in us all the way to hell. The pharisee’s are perfect examples of this!
We have a plank to worry about, let’s let God deal with the sawdust in our brother or sister’s eye. God has a lot of work to do on you, put more effort and attention there than you do on other people.
Evaluating Your Fruit (Luke 6:43-45)
The Greek word used here for bad (sapros) indicates “rotten” or “decayed”. Good fruit is edible, useful, and nourishing. Which describes your walk with Jesus? It is important for us to sit back and to evaluate the fruit in our life. The idea that Jesus is trying to instill in us here is this: there needs to be consistency between the product and the source. If you were to pull down an apple from a palm tree, you would think that something was up!
If someone from church were to talk with your coworkers, friends, neighbors, family members, etc. would they be shocked to find that you belonged to a church? Would it be obvious to them that you were a vibrant part of a church family, growing deeply in your faith in Jesus? Can God use the fruit in your life? Is it good, nourishing, usable? Does it reflect the tree that you claim to be a part of?
Onto the harder part, verse 45. Robert Stein: “The expression “heart” is commonly used by Luke to refer to the inner being of an individual out of which attitudes (Luke 2:35; 16:15) and values come (12:34). An evil heart produces critical and judgmental attitudes (5:22; 9:47), doubts (24:38), and wickedness (Acts 8:22); but a good heart produces good fruit (Luke 8:8; note especially 8:15, which is a Lukan addition to the parable). As a result one should guard his or her heart (21:34).”
What fruit are you bearing? The fruit you bear indicates the god you love. That god can be the God of the Bible, the god of yourself, or the god of this world. Would you be humble and honest enough to hear what someone would say about your fruit? That is why it is so important to live in community.
What You Are Building (Luke 6:46-49)
Mark Straus: “Those who hear Jesus’ words and practice them are like a man who builds his house on a firm foundation that will survive through life’s storms. Those, however, who merely play lip-service to Jesus, calling him “Lord” but not doing what he says, are building on a weak spiritual foundation that will collapse when the storms of life strike.”
We are all building something with this life. Each and every day we place up another board, another nail, another footer into the foundation of our homes. This life that you are building, who is it built upon?
Ezekiel uses similar imagery of a storm destroying a false prophets house in Ezekiel 13:13-14. If you aren’t truly built on Christ as your firm foundation in this life, these storms will absolutely wreck you.
Ezekiel again in Ezekiel 33 says that those who hear God’s word but don’t put them into practice, destruction will follow. Exactly what Jesus is saying here in verse 49. How many times have you heard the word of God and built nothing upon it? By grace, we serve a patient and a wonderful God who is so gracious with us in allowing us to come along. But how long have you heard and built nothing?
So many times we come into church and we aren’t ready to grow, we are ready to maybe just feel a little better. But do you know that God wants to do a deep and inner work in you? He wants to build a strong, sturdy, and solid house that will stand for him in these dark and tumultuous days!
Here is a guarantee, storms in this life will come. No matter what you do, Christian or not, male or female, American or non American, every single person in this world will face the storms of this life. The question is, do you want to face that storm with your foundation set upon Christ? Or set upon something else?
We have been given this gift of life, to build and to be, to create and to live out this one and only life… is it for Jesus? Or will it pass away with the world and all of its pleasures and prerogatives? Storms will come, are you built upon the foundation of Christ?
Conclusion
Not many people know this, but I spent some time in jail. My dad was a chaplain for the county jail when I was a kid in upstate NY and the sheriff had a summer program where they taught the kids about law enforcement and the prison system. Well one day we got to tour the jail… it was not my favorite day. I was scared to death! When those doors close behind you and the clank of the cells…
But, after a few hours I went home and got ready for baseball practice and played with my friends. But imagine with me for one moment, what if I decided to stay in that jail? How silly would that have been of me? I didn’t have a sentence to serve, I didn’t belong there. Well, a lot of Christians today choose to stay in the prison of their old life.
They don’t see that they are a new creation in Christ according to 2 Cor. 5:17, that they are his workmanship and God’s masterpiece created in Christ Jesus to do good works (Eph. 2:10). Do you choose to have bad fruit? Do you choose to judge others and stay the same and continue to live in the old life you used to have before Christ? Because if you do, God has more for you. You don’t belong there.
We are all tempted to judge others and worry about their issues before our own. It is so easy to ignore the plank in our eye and to focus on the sawdust in another person’s. But what is Jesus asking us to do? Evaluate ourselves first, be self-aware, allow the Holy Spirit to show you the areas in your life that you need to submit to him.
We talked after that about the fruit in our own life. Are you being honest with yourself about the fruit that you are producing? Are there people in your life that you have allowed in to call out your blind spots and speak into your life? What is your life producing? And does it reflect the Christianity that you so firmly identify as?
Overall, what are you building with this life? So much time, effort, resources, and emotions are spent in this world on building something that won’t last. C.T. Studd said it best: “only one life, twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”
Your life, this vapor of a moment in time, is happening right now, what are you building? We are called to live with eternity in mind, to think outside of the world that we see and touch every single day. So, what are you made of?