Wrong House

Welcome! Today I am excited to begin a new series dealing with common mistakes that Christians, both new and old, often make in their lives. The series is motivated in part by things that I see on campus. There is a stereotype that college freshmen are clueless and gullible, and, although I am not sure how true that stereotype is, I do see certain mistakes that freshmen make again and again. One of the most common mistakes freshmen make is that they significantly underestimate how much time they need to devote to their classes if they hope to do well. There is a big difference between high school courses and college courses; in most cases, material in college is presented at literally double the pace that it is presented in high school. Furthermore, a greater burden is placed on the student to actually sit down and study the material for mastery; there is a lot less “hand-holding” in college classes than there is in high school.

“Freshman” mistakes don’t just occur in college, though; they can happen anytime someone makes has a major life transition or makes a major change in their life. I experienced this just about a year ago. As most of you know, I was diagnosed with coronary artery disease after what was likely a heart attack and decided to address the disease through a radical change in my diet, a diet well-studied and proven effective by cardiologists. Among other things, this diet requires complete elimination of all animal products, including dairy, eggs, and fish. The diet also requires elimination of added fats of any kind, including oil. So what could I eat? The main building blocks were (and are) a wide variety of whole grains, beans/legumes, vegetables, and fruit. Nuts and seeds are used only sparingly because of their higher fat content. The reason I even knew about this diet is that my Dad went on it 6 years ago after having a major heart attack himself.

So what freshman mistakes did I make? Well, a big one I made at the beginning was not eating enough food. I had portion sizes like what I used to eat when I ate lots of meat, but I found myself not getting full at lunch and waking up hungry in the night. Why did this happen? Because my new diet had eliminated the most calorically dense foods. At some point I asked my Dad what kind of snacks he was eating, because I was hungry between meals. His answer was to eat more food at your meals. I have since learned that this is an extremely common “freshman” mistake made when switching to this diet.

A second mistake I made was assuming that I automatically knew what and where to look when eliminating animal foods. I was wrong about the “what” because some ingredients are animal-based that you might not think about, things like gelatin (which is typically made from pigs’ feet). I was also wrong about the “where” because I only looked at foods themselves and not vitamins and other supplements. Again, a common freshman mistake.

But freshman mistakes are not limited to freshmen. One supplement that I discovered contained animal products my Dad was also using all the time he was on the diet.

The same is true on campus. A common freshman mistake is not reading electronic course messages or syllabi carefully, and as a result, forgetting to do an assignment or sign up for a meeting. But seniors sometimes do this too. In one major, signing up for a senior exit interview is a required component of the culminating senior design course. Despite multiple email warnings and warnings given in class, some students just don’t sign up. Because the action is a requirement of passing the class, some seniors have failed this course and failed to graduate as a result!

Probably the most classic freshman behavior that people think of is seeing students get lost and asking others for directions. Or sometimes, they don’t ask but just go to the wrong room or building. At Clemson, there is a building called Daniel and another (where my office is) called Fluor Daniel. Mixing up these buildings is common, so common that when visitors from outside Clemson come to see me, I always tell them to come to Fluor Daniel, not Daniel. I have done this so often I almost feel like this four-word phrase “Fluor Daniel, not Daniel” is the actual name of my building.

Today’s message in this series is entitled “Wrong House”. It could equivalently be called “Wrong Building.” What I mean by this is that a common freshman mistake that new Christians make is “going” to what they think makes a good Christian rather than relying on the only set of directions that tells you what God says about this, the Bible.

Our culture has come to believe that someone’s intentions are more important than what they do. However, this belief is not consistently lived out in practice, but instead is usually used to justify a behavior they do that others question. When it is someone else’s behavior that bothers them, however, what they do suddenly becomes more important than their intentions. Funny how that works!

The Bible makes it abundantly clear that although God does look at intentions, there are acceptable and non-acceptable actions. I use “actions” in a generalized sense here, in that I include beliefs and feelings we store in our hearts; as Jesus explained in the Sermon on the Mount, to hate another is akin to murder, and to lust for another is akin to adultery. My point here is that with God there absolutely is such a thing as a “wrong house.” In fact, in most situations there are many wrong houses, and in some cases, there is only one “right” house.

How we respond when God tells us “wrong house” is extremely important! Saying “my intentions were good” or disagreeing with God or ignoring God is completely unacceptable. Imagine a student sitting in the wrong class, and the teacher tells the student, “wrong room.” Suppose the student tells the teacher he is going to stay anyway because he had good intentions. Or worse, suppose the student tells the teacher that he knows he is right, and the teacher and the rest of the class are all wrong! As inappropriate as these actions are in the classroom, how much more inappropriate are these actions with God!

A tragic illustration of this is found in the account of Cain and Abel. From Genesis chapter 4:

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” – Genesis 4:2b-7

We aren’t told the exact mechanism of God’s communication regarding the offerings, but God’s pleasure with Abel’s offering and displeasure with Cain’s was immediately known to both Cain and Abel. We also don’t know if God specified the proper nature of offerings to Him prior to this encounter. But Cain knows now. How does he respond? With anger and sadness. A literal translation is “it was hot to Cain and his face fell.” A literal translation of God’s response to Cain is “if you do well, uplifting.” That is, if Cain makes an appropriate offering, he too will be looked on with favor, just like his brother. To use the idiom of our title today, God is telling Cain, “wrong house,” but it is not too late to go to the right one.

But Cain does not choose to “go to the right house.” Verse 8:

Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.  Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” – Genesis 4:8-12

Jealousy leads to anger and anger leads to murder, even though it’s not Abel’s fault that God approves of Abel’s sacrifice as opposed to Cain’s. I think at least part of the reason Cain does this horrible act is to get back at God; he cannot hurt God directly, but because God cares for Abel, he can hurt God indirectly in this way. I think Satan does the same thing. Satan’s real beef is with God, but because He cannot get at Him directly, he goes after us because he knows that we are precious to God.

The sobering consequences of Cain’s choices speak for themselves, but I do want to point out verse 16, a few verses later:

So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. – Genesis 4:16

I think the phrase “went out from Lord’s presence” is not just an idiom but refers to a major change in the relationship between man and God. I think God was more distant to Cain and his descendants. The consequences of choosing the wrong house included a lasting separation, a separation that exists in the world to this day.

Choosing to ignore the warning “wrong house” is a big deal, potentially a huge deal. It can affect the trajectory of our entire lives. I think of what Paul writes to Timothy in I Timothy 1:

Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. – I Timothy 1:18-19 

In case you are curious, the “command” Paul gives Timothy is to stay in Ephesus to strengthen the believers there, teaching them to hold to teachings of the faith as opposed to false doctrines, myths, and “endless” genealogies. Each of these things were wrong houses. But my focus on this passage is verse 19, which talks about how some have “rejected” faith and a good conscience and suffered “shipwreck” as a result. The Greek word for “rejected” in this passage means “thrown overboard.” Like Cain, these people, when confronted with the reality that they were in the wrong house, reacted violently, but in this case not to another person, but to their own faith and conscience, effectively throwing them out of their own lives, much like throwing overboard from a ship its captain and those who knew how to sail. The result is shipwreck.  The same can happen to any believer who does not respond appropriately when confronted with the fact that in some area of their lives they are in the wrong house.

The transfiguration of Christ offers another perspective on the idea of a wrong house. From Luke 9:

[…Jesus] took Peter, John and James with Him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As He was praying, the appearance of His face changed, and His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about His departure, which He was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men standing with Him. As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to Him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.) – Luke 9:28-33

I think we get a bit thrown off by the comment that Peter did not know what he was saying. I think, from Peter’s understanding at that point, the idea of putting up three shelters was not such a bad one. Normally in those times every great rabbi, every great teacher, had a location, a school, that people would visit and stay to learn the rabbi’s teaching. Jesus, perhaps uniquely, had rejected this approach. But now, from Peter’s perspective, imagine a school with three rabbis, the one and only Moses, the one and only Elijah, and Jesus! This would cause Jesus to immediately be the most famous and honored teacher of modern times, if not all time! Perhaps the three would have three separate but related schools, one focusing on the law, one on prophecy, and one on whatever it was that Jesus was trying to teach them. From a human perspective, this sounds like a fantastic idea, no?

But look at what happens:

While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, whom I have chosen; listen to Him.” When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. – Luke 9:34-36a

Picture Jesus, some unknown son of a carpenter born in tiny town, Bethlehem, from Nazareth, a place not known for much of anything, with Moses, the leader of God’s people out of Egypt, the most significant event in the history of the Jewish people, and the through whom the Law, which was still followed to every detail, was given. Again, picture Jesus, the man whose mother Mary was rumored to have been unfaithful before marriage, in the presence of Elijah, considered by many the greatest of the prophets, worker of many miracles, who God took up in a whirlwind. Such company! Surely there should be three houses, one for each of them, or maybe, just two, one for Moses and one for Elijah. Did Jesus really belong among them at all? But what does God Himself, God the Father say? This Jesus, not Moses, not Elijah, but Jesus, this is My Son, whom I have chosen. Listen to Him, not Moses, not Elijah, but Jesus.

Moses and Elijah are wrong houses. Only Jesus is the right house. As Scripture itself says, all Scripture is profitable – for study, for learning about God and His character, for learning about the history of God’s interaction with man, for learning about human nature and its flaws, and for much much more, but our house is Jesus. Everything we read in the Bible should be understood considering the revelation of the works and teachings, and most importantly, the death and resurrection of Jesus.

And so, just as Peter was looking to put up three wrong houses, I want to look at three wrong houses we too, young believers and old, can be tempted to make.

--Adding Rules--

The first freshman “wrong house” mistake is looking to more than Jesus as an answer to the question of how we should live. As a new believer, my version of this mistake, as someone from a Jewish background, was thinking that we are somehow less spiritual, or even in sin, because we do not follow the details of Law of Moses. But we are never commanded to do so. The Law, and the inability of anyone to completely follow it, points us to Christ. If we want to know how to live, we dwell in the house of Jesus. We read and study the entire Bible, but the law we observe is the Law of Christ.

Any teacher, any book author, who creates his own rules for living, even if he says he bases them on the Old and New Testaments, should be treated very cautiously, because we don’t need another house. The house of Jesus is the only house we need.

Paul criticizes those who add such rules most severely:

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods… - I Timothy 4:1-3a

Paul also warns:

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. – Colossians 2:8

If you will permit me the analogy, in my diet I am supposed to eat whole foods rather than highly processed ones. I would say to get your Biblical wisdom the same way: whole Bible, rather than highly processed! This will help protect you against the types of things we are talking about here.

I have seen older believers rather suddenly fall into this mistake. How does it happen? I think it is because adding rules are comforting for some people. In Hebrew, a chumrah is a prohibition or requirement in Judaism that exceeds the Law of Moses. The Pharisees were especially known for adding many such rules. The motivation was that one needed to build a “fence” of additional regulations around the Law to prevent people from breaking the Law. The problem is that by doing this, one is shifting from their dependence on God to a man-made system. Not only is this a “wrong house,” it simply doesn’t work.

--Losing Sight of the Heart--

A second major freshman “wrong house” mistake involves focusing on outward actions to the neglect of the heart. As Jesus says in Luke 6,

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. – Luke 6:45

And from Galatians,

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. – Galatians 5:22-23a

These are “heart” qualities. Should you pray every day? Yes. Should you spend time in the Bible every day? Yes. Should you regularly go to church? Yes. But even these good things can be done with a wooden heart. It is much like a marriage. Sure, you could be married to someone and just avoid being unfaithful, keeping a steady job, doing your part with chores, but a marriage should be more than this. Your spouse should be your best friend, your partner, and much more.

Many “freshman” believers start with some misconceptions about God. They may perceive Him as distant, or unapproachable, or unforgiving, or of limited patience. Because of this, their relationship with God also remains distant. Prayers are limited. “Scary” stuff, real struggles, are not brought to Him in prayer. Instead there is a focus on “doing” the right things.

Similarly, older believers can also run into problems. For them, the pathway is often neglect. Any relationship suffers from distance. Ironically, a lack of doing the very same “right things” the new believer focuses on leads to a lukewarm heart.

How are heart issues fixed? Well, notice that these desirable heart qualities like love, joy, and peace are the fruit, the results, of the Holy Spirit. That is, they are given by God through the Spirit. If we do not have these qualities, we need to earnestly seek the only One who gives them! As with all things, repentance and seeking God is key.

I am reminded of God’s warning to the church of Ephesus in Revelation:

I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for My name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. – Revelation 2:2-5

What are some symptoms of this “wrong house”? An increasing love for something else. It could be a TV show, or social media. It could be consumerism. I was struck recently by the modernistic tones of consumerism in this passage from Jeremiah 22, where the prophet, speaking for God, says “woe” to a man described with the following:

He says, ‘I will build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms.’ So he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar and decorates it in red. Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? – Jeremiah 22:14-15a

This man is quite literally guilty of making the “wrong house.” How about us? What is most important in our lives? Who is most important? Does it make you a king to have more and more income, or assets, or entertainment, or – fill in the blank for yourself. The answer to the question, whether you feel it or not, is “no.” Jesus died on the cross to make us co-kings and queens with Him, as He calls us brothers and sisters, and He of course is King of kings and Lord of lords.

If Jesus is not our greatest love, our greatest desire, our greatest hope, and our greatest joy, let us seek Him in repentance and ask Him to rekindle our desire and love for Him. Remember that all such “fruit” is the fruit of the Spirit, of God. Only He can supply what we are lacking.

--Going It Alone--

The final “wrong house” error I want to talk about today is adopting the Western belief that you can “do” this Christianity thing alone. Yes, prayer with God is vitally important. Yes, having daily times in the Scriptures is vitally important. But God gave us the church – and by this I mean locally gathered groups of believers – and to ignore this gift of God is to go to the wrong house.

It is extremely common for new believers to not see the value of Christian community. But it is equally common for mature believers to have a negative experience or two or just grow weary of getting up on Sundays and allow their church connections to whither away. This is not what God intended!

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. – Hebrews 10:23-25

Americans have a consumer mentality, and unfortunately they can bring this mentality to church as well. But church is not really for you. You are for the church! Yes, sometimes members of the church will spur you on towards love and good deeds, but more often you should be spurring others on! In I Corinthians, Paul writes:

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. – I Corinthians 12:21-26

Paul uses this analogy of the human body to describe what should be true in every local assembly of believers. The more I have learned about the human body, and I have learned a fair amount since my heart seemed ready to say “I don’t need you” a year ago, the more I have learned, the more I am amazed and in awe of our Designer. How true it is that if one part suffers, every part suffers with it! And the body is amazingly built to help heal itself. When one part suffers, the rest of the body comes together to bring healing! So should it be with the body of Christ! Each one of you is an essential part of God’s body! Together, we are called to allow ourselves to become knit in love to one another, to be used by God to encourage, to rejoice, and yes, to suffer.

By one count there are 59 “one another” verses in the New Testament. Some repeat and say the same thing. But here is their content, paraphrased by me, without the verse references, so I can let you see them all together quickly:

Be at peace with one another. Wash one another’s feet. Be devoted to one another. Honor one another above yourselves. Live in harmony with one another. Stop passing judgment on one another. Accept one another. Instruct one another. Greet one another. Wait for one another. Have equal concern for one another. Serve one another. Don’t attack one another. Don’t provoke and envy one another. Carry one another’s burdens. Bear with one another. Be kind and compassionate to one another. Forgive one another. Speak to one another with songs. Submit to one another. Consider one another better than yourselves. Don’t lie to one another. Teach one another. Admonish one another. Make your love increase and overflow for one another. Encourage one another. Build one another up. Spur one another on towards love and good deeds. Don’t slander one another. Don’t grumble against one another. Confess your sins to one another. Pray for one another. Love one another deeply. Offer hospitality to one another. Use whatever gift you have received to serve another. Clothe yourself with humility towards one another. Love one another.

So whether you are a “freshman” or a “postdoctoral associate,” take heed of these three wrong houses. Don’t add rules. Don’t neglect your heart. And don’t go it alone. Let me close with Jesus’ own words about the right house, and how we get there:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in Me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” – John 14:1-6