Wait…what? I think you’ve got that wrong Pastor Dan. Isn’t it usually “Practice what you preach?” Funny you should ask because yes, that is usually what it is and that is usually what gets us into trouble in the first place. We then usually earn the aptly named title of "hypocrite."
Instagram Christianity
Those who know me well know that I loathe social media. I loathe it for two main reasons. #1. It’s an attack and retreat platform with no context or consequences. #2 You get to show the world the small slice of your life that makes it looks like you live in perfection. Now to be clear, just like the horse and buggy company can loath the automobile all it wants, it’s here to stay so you need to learn to use it instead of pretending it doesn’t exist.
Social Media allows us to craft our own reality when in reality, it’s not reality at all. We’re too afraid to show the real world the real us for fear that the real us will be judged, rejected, or at least not envied.
The real problem lies in our testimony as followers of Jesus.
When we show the world only a curated slice of “plastic perfection”, as Christians we're sharing a fake, plastic Jesus and that is NOT the gospel!
The gospel is not needed in perfection. We don’t live in perfection. We live in constant need of rescue. I wish we would preach what we practice.
A 'real' life example:
Man, so many times lately, I feel like I’m falling apart, as though I live in a Vitamix blender with the “frappe” setting stuck on high. I live in anxiety and constantly feel like I’m failing. Even worse, I see temptation coming from a mile away but instead of running away, I give in. I know how to walk the straight and narrow path but I don’t end up there. It’s not that I don’t know how, at times I don’t want to walk that way. But I am so thankful for a savior who rescued me in my brokenness. His heart breaks in my sin and yet chooses to love and forgive me despite my flawed self. I’m frustrated but not hopeless. I live to fight another day because my savior died for me. Perfection is coming… as soon as my heart stops beating and I get to see Jesus face to face because he purchased my failures, all of them, on the cross. Thank You, Jesus!
Oh my! You can’t say that!
You’re celebrating your sin. You’re showing the world that you can’t conquer life’s problems and worse of all, you making it sound like sin is acceptable. Nobody would trust or follow you if that was the case.
Hey Friends, If it was good enough for the Apostle Paul, it’s good enough for me.
Here’s a man who preached what he practiced, and it wasn’t perfection. But He leads you to his Perfect Savior!
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Romans 7:18-20, 24-25
That’s reality.
That’s truth.
That’s the gospel and that’ll preach!
Be Real to Show Others the Real Jesus
When you “preach” what you’re struggling with instead of what you wish your life could/should be, you’re connecting and relating with more people then you could possibly know. And, as you connect your imperfect life with a perfect savior, you’re powerfully presenting the real gospel. The only gospel that has the power to turn a hopeless people into a redeemed people.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Romans 1:16a
