Living on the Edge

Chip Ingram: Don't you wish there was an antidote for hypocrisy? You know, like a special injection you could get from a doctor that would get rid of all the hypocrisy in your life forever? Well, guess what? God has designed an antidote for hypocrisy, and today I’m going to tell you what it is and how to get it.

Dave Druey: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Today Chip takes us to Ephesians 5 with something you might not expect. God's primary tool for fighting hypocrisy isn't accountability or discipline or trying harder; it's worship. Chip will explain the theology behind why it works and what it looked like in the life of Moses.

Don't miss any program in this series. Catch up anytime at livingontheedge.org. Well, now here's Chip continuing our study on The New You with today’s message titled "How to Overcome Hypocrisy in Your Public Life."

Chip Ingram: I got as sick as a dog. I can't remember ever having left the house and then getting so sick I turned around, went home, and literally went to bed. I just slept, then I got up, had a glass of water, and then slept. Have you ever had one of those times where you're sleeping, thinking, praying, and dozing? I had multiple windows of time where I prayed, and over and over and over, one verse kept coming to my mind. It’s Isaiah 30:15. It says, "In rest and repentance you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength." It goes on to talk to Israel and say they were not willing.

But in rest and repentance, I thought, "Lord, is there a message here for me?" And it wasn't like it came to my mind two, three, or four times. I bet thirty times, forty times. I figured out the rest part was doing what I was doing. But then after about three or four hours of dozing and rolling and praying, I began to ask God, "What about the repentance part? I don't get it. What is it?" And I laid in bed and I said, "Lord, are there areas of my life, are there blind spots that need to be brought into alignment so that my life isn't a life of hypocrisy?"

And then I laid there quietly. I won't go into all that occurred, but I don't know if I've had a time where God has more lovingly, more gently, but more pointedly rebuked me. Things like motives. Things like what you do and why you do them and how you unconsciously view yourself. How do you overcome hypocrisy in your life? Not just in your thoughts, not just in what's going on inside, but where it gets played out in your speech, in your life, in your motives, and in your relationships.

As we go there, I want you to pull out your teaching handout. We're going to do some real work tonight. Pull out a pen if you have it because we're going to need to really do some deep thinking. When we're going to ask and answer the question, how to overcome hypocrisy in your life, it raises some pretty fundamental questions. We're going to have to do some pretty deep research. So I've put for you what I call a theology of hypocrisy.

In other words, if I hate to be a hypocrite and God doesn't want me to be a hypocrite, if God has given me the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling me as a believer, and the same power that raised Christ from the dead dwells in me, then why do I still struggle with sin? Why do I still do what I don't want to do? Why are there times that before I can even react, I hear stuff coming out of my mouth that makes me look a lot better than is true? And then I'll be walking away and just realize, "Why did you say that?" Has this ever happened to anyone else?

So what I want to do is I want to give you some teaching. I want to give you a theology. You need to understand why that happens because until you do, you won't be able to apply the solution God's going to give us. Notice in my theology of hypocrisy, there's number one, a fact. The fact is, "Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things pass away; behold, new things have come." When a man or a woman places their faith in Jesus Christ, you become a brand new creation. You are a new person. That's a fact.

Second, we have the evidence. When this actually occurs, notice what 1 John 1:5-7 says. It says God is light; in Him there is no darkness. If we claim we have fellowship with Him, God, yet walk in darkness, we lie and we do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. New life always produces a new lifestyle.

People can go to a camp, they can read a religious book, they can come to this church and say, "I prayed to receive Christ," and if there's no evidence of any change in their life, what you know is something didn't happen. Brand new creatures in Christ have new lifestyles. But now we've got a problem. There's a dilemma. Many of us have seen God change our lives significantly. I'm a new creature in Christ. I want to walk in the light. But I've got this dilemma.

How come, even as a child of God walking in the light, I step into the darkness now and then? Notice what the very next verse says in 1 John. Look at verse eight, the dilemma: "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." The new life does not mean that we never sin. It's not sinless perfection. The new life does mean, one, we have a relationship now with God through Christ. It does mean our sins are forgiven. It does mean we have the power not to sin, but it doesn't mean that we're sinlessly perfect.

It means a radical change has occurred where a brand new creature, but now we're living in this fallen world. The Spirit of God has come in. We've been pulled out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of His beloved Son, the kingdom of light. Transformation occurs, but now there's a battle going on. And you don't live perfectly every day, and I don't live perfectly every day, and no one does. Nor will anyone ever do that. But progressively your life will be transformed into ever-increasing degrees of Christlikeness and love and kindness and holiness.

Where's the battle? The battle is for the flesh set its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another so that, listen to this, you may not do the things that you please. The Holy Spirit produces a holy life. But your flesh, my flesh, those innate desires that are drawn toward a fallen world, to lust and for greed and to take and to be selfish, those two things are always battling one another. And so you're this brand new creature, you've been transformed, you're in a process of being transformed, but you're also in the midst of a battle.

Now the final thing I want to ask and answer is, so how does the transformation occur? How do you really change? Is it about trying hard? Is it going to church? Is it becoming religious? How does real change occur from the inside out authentically so that what you say and your motives and how you act and how you behave line up significantly? Perfectly? No, not until Jesus comes back or you go get to see Him. But not a life where you say, "I love God, I care for people," and you cheat and you lie and you do things you know are wrong and you project something that's this but it's really that.

Notice the final part of our theology of hypocrisy is the process. 1 John 3:2, very interesting passage. It says, "Beloved, we are now children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be." We've been born again into God's family and we don't know, because none of us has made it to heaven, and we don't know what we're going to be. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him. Why? Because we shall see Him just as He is. Theologians sometimes call this the beatific vision. What they mean is the moment that you see Christ face to face, in that instant you will be transformed to be like Him.

Notice how the process occurs in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 17 and 18. "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord," notice it's a process, "are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." I wish we had time to study that, but you can do it on your own. Put a little checkmark in 2 Corinthians 3. It's the contrast between the old covenant or the old arrangement and the new covenant.

In the old covenant, Moses, remember, he would meet God face to face. What happened to Moses when he met God face to face? What happened to his face? It would shine because it was in the presence of God. Anytime you get near and you meet God authentically, whatever He's like begins to transform and make you like Him. So Moses would come down and he would blow people away and they'd go, "Whoa!" And so he put this little veil over his face so that he would talk to them.

Now here's what he did: he became a hypocrite. After a period of time out of the presence of God, the glow would start to go away and Moses would go out and talk to people, so guess what he did? He put the veil up to pretend that he was still glowing underneath. You know what that's called? Hypocrisy. Now the New Testament writer says, but we New Testament saints, because the Spirit of God lives within us, but we with unveiled faces beholding as in a mirror, not perfectly but as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, who He really is, are being transformed.

How? From glimpse to glimpse, from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. That is the theology of hypocrisy. So what you understand is the fact is you're a new creature if you're in Christ. The evidence is a lifestyle of change. The dilemma is you still sin. The battle is the flesh against the Spirit. And the process is, are you ready for this? The process is by whatever means God has ordained, the more you get to see Him, engage Him, experience Him for who He really is, to that degree you will be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ. Do you know what God's means and plan for you to see Him in is? Well, then turn the page and I'll tell you.

Dave Druey: You're listening to Living on the Edge. We'll hear more from Chip in just a moment. If you'd like to go deeper in today's study, visit us online at livingontheedge.org. There you'll find Chip's full teaching library, small group resources, and the free daily discipleship tool to help you grow all week long. You can also download the Chip Ingram app free on iOS or Android. Now back to today's teaching.

Chip Ingram: Worship is God's antidote for hypocrisy. What happens when you worship? You encounter God. Christ is lifted up. You sing songs that have content that talk about His character and His love and His holiness, and about His program: redemption and love and reconciliation. When you worship, whether it's corporately or whether it's privately or whether it's moment by moment driving the car, when you worship and encounter God and see Him for who He is through the life of a person, through reading His Word, by singing songs of praise or by meditating on truth, when you see God, you will become like Him.

And when you become like Him from the inside out, guess what happens to hypocrisy? It fades away. Let's look at our core text: Ephesians chapter 5 verses 15 to 21. Let me read it in the context so that we remember this whole passage is about how we live, how we walk, our behavior, our lifestyle. Verse 15 says, "Be very careful, then, how you live or walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity." Why? Because the days are evil. Children of light need to live like light and salt in an evil day.

"Therefore, do not be foolish but understand what the Lord's will is." Well, what's His will? Two verbs, they're both commands. Negatively, the Lord's will is, don't get drunk on wine. Why? It leads to debauchery. It leads to a lifestyle that's ungodly, painful, brings hurt to you, and ruins God's reputation. Second verb that's a command: well, what is God's will if it's not to get drunk on wine? Instead, be filled with the Spirit. What's that mean? To be filled means to be controlled. Right. He has control over your life.

Two commands, two verbs, then four participles. Remember in English participles are "ing" words and they coordinate with the main verbs. So if you are filled with the Spirit, you're going to be speaking, singing, giving thanks, and submitting. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making music in your heart to the Lord. Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit, or literally, it's submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Worship is God's primary means of allowing us to see Him significantly but not perfectly. You know what I mean by that? Significantly but not perfectly. When you worship God, because you are fallen, we're going to see Him in a mirror or darkly. But we can see Him significantly and accurately. Worship is God's primary means of allowing us to see Him for who He is and thus be progressively transformed into His likeness. After we're told to be filled with the Spirit, those four participles, three of the four are going to talk about what? Worship.

It's going to talk about speaking. When do you speak psalms and hymns and spiritual songs? When do you do that? When you worship. What's occurring, whether you're privately in your devotions or whether it's in a worship service or whether you're singing a song of thanks or whether you're driving in the car or whether you're reacting even to a difficult situation when under your breath you are saying, "Thank You, Lord," in things and for everything? What are you really doing then? You're worshipping.

I want to suggest this passage gives us three modes to see God through worship. Three specific ways. The first we're going to look at is corporate worship. The second we're going to look at is personal worship. And the third thing we're going to look at is what I call practicing the presence of God worship. So let's dig in. Let's talk about corporate worship here. Corporate worship comes out of verse 19, the first portion, where we speak: there's fellowship, songs, hymns, spiritual songs.

My definition for corporate worship is the regular gathering of God's people to meet and powerfully experience God in order to ascribe to Him the glory, the focus, and the rightful place in their hearts that He holds in the universe. Now that's kind of long, so let me say it again. Corporate worship is the regular gathering of God's people to meet and experience God. Why? So that we can ascribe to Him the glory and the focus and the rightful place in our hearts that He already holds in all the universe. Do you get it?

Do you think it's a priority? Do you think corporate worship is just something that's kind of nice, a suggestion thrown in there? How important do you think corporate worship is to God? Notice the text here: Hebrews 10:24 and 25. It says, "And let us consider how to spur one another on toward love and good deeds, and let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as is the habit of some, but let us encourage one another all the more as we see the day approaching."

We are commanded in scripture as believers to gather and come together to spur—it’s a very strong word—to spur, to ignite, to challenge, to inspire, to instruct, to engage one another to love and good works, coming together as the body of Christ to worship God. Very high priority to God. Notice Psalm 27:4, an Old Testament picture of this. Think of David, one of the wealthiest men in the world. He had it all. Powerful warrior, musician.

And if you asked David in a personal 60-minute interview, "David, what's the one thing that's most important to you? Is it all your armies? Is it all your wives, all your concubines, all your treasures?" And David would say, "One thing. One thing I've asked of the Lord; this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." Why? What's David want to do when he comes to the house of the Lord, the synagogue in those days? When he draws near with God's people, what does he want to do and why?

What's it say? "To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple." Are you starting to get this idea? See, unveiled face, behold, gaze, the beauty of the Lord. Are you starting to get what corporate worship is all about? It's God's people coming together regularly, systematically, to meet God, to see Him for who He is, and then to ascribe the glory and the focus and the rightful place in your heart that He already holds in the universe. Huge priority.

The purpose is to behold God and to see Him. The purpose is to recalibrate your soul. Do you find that when you come and worship, it does that? Do you find that your soul—what's that old song, how our hearts are prone to drift, prone to wander? When you come and see God, when we sing, when we get into the scriptures together, when we fellowship with one another, we behold God, it recalibrates your soul and gives you perspective about what's important and who you are and how much you're loved.

And that God is sovereign and good, and you need to remember that as we see all the things happening in the world. That's the purpose of corporate worship: to encounter and experience Him. And then the purpose is so that you can come to give your offering. See, the word "worship" literally means to ascribe worth. We've almost lost this in our day. We unconsciously think that worship is a place to come and either get something or to be entertained or to be motivated. We've just sort of fallen into it.

Dave Druey: You've been listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and today's message titled "How to Overcome Hypocrisy in Your Public Life." The picture of Moses was striking. He'd meet God face to face, come down the mountain glowing, and then as the glow faded, pull the veil back over his face to hide it. That's hypocrisy in plain sight. But Chip's point is that we don't have to live that way. Because of the Spirit of God living in us, we can behold God with unveiled faces through worship, through His Word, through honest community, and be transformed. Not performing a glow we don't have, but actually getting one.

That transformation is what this series is all about. And Chip's brand new devotional, "Growing Deeper in Christ: A 365-Day Journey to True Discipleship," is built to help you sustain it, guiding you through a few minutes in God's Word each day and letting truth work its way from your head down into your heart and your relationships. We'd love to send you a copy.

If you've never given to this ministry before, just send in a donation of any amount and we'll be happy to send you this special devotional as our thanks. Or sign up as a monthly partner and you'll receive a free copy as well. To give your first gift or sign up today, just go online to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. We also encourage you to check out the Living on the Edge podcast where you can hear complete, full-length messages anytime. You'll find us in your podcast app, so subscribe today. Well, now here's Chip.

Chip Ingram: The main point of today's broadcast is that worship is God's antidote for hypocrisy. That's right, gathering together with a group of believers and meeting God, seeing Him for who He really is, is the antidote for you and me living a double life. In fact, we said worship is God's primary means of allowing us to see him for who he is and then be progressively transformed into his likeness.

And with that said, can I ask you a couple questions? A couple questions about how you think about corporate worship in your own life. First of all, when you think about going to church and going to the church service, is it a priority? Is it something that you say, "Our week revolves around this most important corporate meeting"? Or is it something you kind of get to when you can? Do you go regularly? I don't mean this legalistically; I mean because it matters, because it's important.

How do you prepare for it? Do you get there on time? And again, I'm not poking around to try to make you feel guilty. I'm talking about if God is going to show up and if this is the key to seeing Him, how you prepare your mind and your heart and your soul is going to be critical to what you experience. In fact, what about your attitude? Do you go to get something or do you go to give something? Well, let me cut to the chase.

Here's what I'd like you to do as an experiment this week. I want to encourage you to prepare your heart and your soul and your mind and your schedule, and view for the next three weeks your church service like you've never viewed it before: as an opportunity to go and behold God. And in our next broadcast, I'm going to give you a number of very specific ways to enrich this experience.

Dave Druey: I'm Dave Druey. Next time Chip Ingram digs into what corporate worship is really supposed to look like and asks a question that may make you rethink how you've been preparing for Sunday. That's next time on Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.