It Takes Courage (To Face Our Faults) pt.4
All Scripture taken from the New Living Translation
Today we are in part 4 of our 5-part series titled, “It Takes Courage.”
It takes courage to face a lot of things life throws our way, and quite frankly if I didn’t have Jesus in my life, I don’t think I’d make it through a lot of what crosses my path in life…
A couple weeks ago Paul shared with us how it takes courage to keep going when times get tough… And then Nathan talked about the courage it takes to follow our calling…
We did several sermons to start the year out about our calling in life, and the fact that we are all created for a specific purpose by our Creator…
But there is something we all have, some more than others, that can get in the way of God’s purpose for us… Our faults… We all have them…
But the question is, what are we doing about them?
Today, we are going to talk about the courage it takes to “Face Our Faults.”
Faults are not necessarily sins, but more like character weaknesses… They could turn into sinful behavior if left unchecked…
But mainly, what we’re talking about today habits, mannerisms, reactions, mood swings, attitudes… Things that we don’t even realize we’re doing that are causing harm to those around us.
A fault can also be looked at as a crack in our character… It’s a fault line, and when pressure in life, at work, or home comes, we crack! The dam bursts open so to speak!!
It’s like when we squeeze all the toothpaste out of the tube… There’s no way of getting it back in… Once it’s out, it’s out!
Again, faults are not necessarily sins, but just so you know, God spent an entire chapter in Leviticus chp. 4 giving instructions on how to deal with unintentional sins.
God understands that we will have faults in our character that will cause us to do, or act in a way that is unintentional… And He gives us a way out!!
However, it’s not a free pass to keep doing what we’re doing… God expects us to deal with and face our faults…
If we don’t have the courage to face our faults, we will constantly be digging ourselves out of a hole we keep putting ourselves in and wondering why this is always happening!
The thing about faults is that they will not keep us out of heaven… But they might keep someone else out of heaven…
If a follower of Jesus has faults, or cracks in their character that has given someone a bad experience, they may not want anything to do with that person, the church… Or even Jesus!
“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. Did you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. But you see, in the end, it is between you and dad. It was never between you and them anyway.”
Mother Teresa
Recognizing and facing our faults is one of the hardest things to do because it means we need to take a close look at ourselves…
But God wants to help us build up the courage to do this, and He has given us the resources to help…
James 3:2 – Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.
2 Corinthians 13:5 – Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith.
God knows we’re going to make mistakes… We are not perfect… But we cannot ignore it either… We must examine ourselves from time to time…
When we examine and test ourselves under the light of Jesus our faults will show up… Kind of like when you go into jewelry store, the lights they use make everything sparkle more!
The light Jesus provides will expose our faults more than we may want…
But it’s okay because He has a purpose for that exposure…
Recognizing our faults is the beginning of genuine faith!
The worse thing we can do it deny it, get defensive, or blame someone else…
Recognize them and face them… We all have them so we may as well deal with them!
The test of genuine faith is not that we become the perfect person… The true test of genuine faith is that we are willing to be perfected.
Genuine faith in Jesus is not that we are perfect…Genuine faith is that we are willing to be perfected from one day to the next by the leading of our Creator, Jesus!
This is what makes our faith in Him genuine… It’s not always easy… But…
People don’t want perfect Christians… They want honest ones… Genuine people who follow Jesus and are willing to say, “I’m not the perfect person, but I’m willing to face my imperfections so my Jesus perfects me along the way.”
This reminds me of the story about this guy who comes to the doctor. “Doctor! My wife has a major fault. She never listens to me. She never answers. “Really? Maybe her hearing is going. Maybe the reason she’s not answering you is not a fault. Maybe she doesn’t hear well. “I never thought of that. What do I do?” Here’s the test. You just walk in the kitchen and in a normal tone of voice you ask her a question. If she doesn’t answer take two steps forward and ask her in the same question – don’t raise or lower your voice – just ask her the same question. If she still doesn’t answer, you take two more steps and you ask her again in the same level. Then let me know the proximity distance when she finally answers you tell me what is so I can discover the severity of her hearing loss.
So he goes home and she’s cooking something in the kitchen. He stands by the door and says, “Sweetheart, what’s for dinner?” She just keeps chopping carrots. Two steps forward. “Sweetheart, what’s for dinner?” She just keeps cutting carrots. “Sweetheart, what’s for dinner?” Finally he goes right next to her: “Sweetheart, what’s for dinner?” She looks up and says, “For the fourth time: Beef stew!”
Isn’t it funny how we always think it’s the people around us who have the issue?
Who does it say we are to examine in 2 Corinthians? Ourselves!!
“Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves.”
Why do we get so worked up about facing our own faults that we have such a hard time doing this… We’d rather find fault in someone else than deal with our own shortcomings!
Again, faults are not necessarily sins, but if left unchecked they can unintentionally damage the relationships of those around us, which may have consequences when it comes to sharing Jesus with others…
Romans 12:3-5 – 3 Because of the privilege and authority[a] God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.[b] 4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
Be honest with yourself about what it is Jesus wants to shine some light on… We can fool ourselves into thinking everything is good, but we cannot fool Jesus!
And we can only fool ourselves for so long until things start to fall apart…
As followers of Jesus, we’re all in this together… We all have a specific role in God’s kingdom that makes the entire body of believers complete…
This is another reason for us to be genuinely authentic when examining ourselves through the lens of God’s Word.
When the Holy Spirit highlights a fault, we need to follow His lead.
Romans 12:2 – Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Genuine faith is having a heart that allows God’s Holy Spirit to highlight the fault lines in our character and following His lead in the transformation process of change.
And it often comes from the voice of another person… It very well come from reading the Bible, a devotion, maybe during worship in church…
I Heard Your Voice In the Wind Today
I heard your voice in the wind today
and I turn to see your face;
The warmth of the wind caressed me
as I was I stood silently in place.
I felt your touch in the sun today
as the warmth filled the sky;
I closed my eyes for your embrace
and my spirit scared high.
I saw your eyes are the window pane
as I watch the falling rain;
It seemed as each raindrops fell
it quietly said your name.
I held you close in my heart today
it made me feel complete;
You may have died… but you are not gone
you will always be a part of me.
As long as the sunshine…
the wind blows…
the rain falls…
You will live on inside of me forever
for that is all my heart knows.
Never forget
How far you’ve come.
Everything you have gotten
through. All the times you pushed
on even when you felt you
couldn’t. All the mornings you got
out of bed no matter how hard it
was. All the times you wanted to
give up but God gave you
strength for the day and made a
way when you saw no way.
Thank Him! Amen
Or it could be some inner conviction of the Holy Spirit… But more times than not He is going to use someone to point these things out…
Regardless of how God highlights our faults, we need to be open to the transformation process!
We’ll wrap this up with this…
Here’s why all of this is important… God’s goal for us in life is not leisure, it’s likeness… For us to be more like Him… More like His Son, Jesus…
To imitate Him in everything we do (Ephesians 5:1)
Unfortunately, too many people put their faith in Jesus with this idea that He is going to make everything better… Life will be easier… And He will…
However, what some of us don’t realize is we now have an enemy who wants to expose our faults to those around us who don’t know Jesus… An enemy who knows our weaknesses…
And when we allow the Holy Spirit the opportunity to help eliminate our fault lines and to be more like Christ…Then when the pressure comes, we will be ready to stand strong, knowing that all things will work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose!
The process might sting a little bit, but in the long run it’s going to make us stronger people…
Because when the pressure comes, and the faults are about to crack…
A lot of people give up on Jesus because they were looking for leisure instead of likeness…
They wanted life to be easier, instead of putting in the work to become more like Jesus…
The Christian lifestyle was never meant to be easy… It’s a constant battle… It’s constant transformation… It takes effort and self-evaluation…
But it’s worth it because the Creator of the Universe is by our side cheering us on… Giving us the resources and people that we need to get through each day!
When it comes to facing my faults the words of the Apostle Paul to the church in Philippi echoes in my head…
Philippians 3:8,10,11 – Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ… I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
This is what genuine faith sounds like when we examine ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to fill the faults in our character!
Happy Fall!
Thinking of you and praying for you!
Blessings!
Jenny & Linda
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16, NLT)
