My dearest sister, Babbie Ervin, sent me a message last night about a topic for a sermon! "Somewhere between 'How Great Thou Art" and "When I Drink Tequila.'"
When she sent this I didn't really think about it because I was at the Cowboy Football game with my oldest son Jeffrey. Then, the people behind us, a group of young professional aged men, came in right at the beginning of the 2nd Quarter of the game. They had already been communign with spirits that were not quite religious, and some of what they had left spilled down my back on my shirt. One of the young men apologized and I shook it off, but then their language became incesently rough and difficult to listen to. There was a family sitting to my left with two small children trying to enjoy the game (whice is entirely another story for another time.) I noticed the dad and mom kept their children occupied during the 30 minutes the young men were acting improper, in my opinion.
There, after receiving the text from my sister Babbie with the sermon topic, I thought, here I sit between "How Great Thou Art and When I Drink Tequilla." I spent a lot of time the rest of the night realizing that God moves in mystirious ways. I couldn't believe she sent me that text with those statements and here I was, in some ways, right where she was pointing to. It may not have been in the way she meant it, but realizing that what she was getting at was the idea of being luke warm in our faith.
Dealing with our own sin is difficult, and pointing out other's mistakes can make us feel better, however we should give ample thought to the passage Luke 6:42 "How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."
I know that there may be some of us who need to really do some soul searching. If we see blaten sin in the lives of others and it makes us feel like avoiding them and staying clear of them as they walk their walk in this life, we would do well to do a little self evaluation about our own lives.
The people we see in open rebellion either don't know better, or don't care how their actions affect those around them. They are the way they are and they couldn't care less about how others think of them.
When Christians sin, it may not be seen by the world as anything they wouldn't do, and they may not call us out on the way we are living, but there is one thing Christians may and often forget. "How Great Thou Art."
God sees it all. We carry the Holy Spirit into every sin we commit. When we sin willfully we are in open rebellion to our Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit, our comforter. Our secret sins are openly seen by Him and if He isn't being glorified by our actions, it is us who have the plank in our eyes.
Our sins may not be seen by the world, and we may be known as good people, Christian people, but as we sin, and we all do, we are just as guilty of "Drinking the Tequila" instead of singing "How Great Thou Art."
When we get to the fences in our spiritual lives, sometimes our physical desires cross the fence and it leaves us in open rebellion to what we know we should be doing. It will eat at us and tear us away from our walk with God if we don't confess our sin and call upon God to heal us from the temptation that so easily entangles us.
It isn't enough to just say no to sin, cleaning out our cluttered spiritual life, we must fill the void the sin has left with the good we find in God's word and through walking with Him.
Somewhere between "How Great Thou Art and When I Drink Tequila" is where we sometimes find ourselves. However, God wants us to know that we are here to help eachother and ourselves concerned with How Great God Is! We need to be living for God and God's family, the church, so that others who may see us will not confuse us with the world we live in.
How are you doing?
I'll see you later!
