Faith Deeds Heart - Nations Church Istanbul

Faith, Deeds and the Heart İman, Eylemler, ve Yürek Belief and Deeds People have a problem connecting what they say with what they do. This is people in general, not just Christians. Examples • Many people know and believe that God sees everything and will judge us for our actions, and yet we still do things that we know are wrong and which will bring judgment on us. • We may say that we believe that God will provide for all of our needs, but we worry about money and how we will pay for everything. Belief in God and Eternity This becomes even trickier when it comes to what we believe about God and how He tells us to live. It no longer is just an issue of the right or wrong thing to do, but it is an issue of where I might spend eternity. Am I going to get to heaven? If so, how will I get there? And before I get there, how am I supposed to live my life here? Two Groups of People İki Zıt Fikir When it comes to Faith and Deeds, people can tend to one extreme or another. Faith is the Most Important En Önemli Şey? İman! The first extreme is that some believe that the most important thing in pleasing God is our faith or belief in him. Illustration 1 – Ronnie Rhodus Partied every night, but no matter how drunk he was, he made sure to get on his knees and ask God to forgive him before he went to sleep that night. Illustration 2 – Cab Driver Abdullah, the Muslim cab driver had statues of Jesus and Mary on the dashboard and Hindu god stickers “just in case”. These are extreme examples of people who thought their faith in God was enough. Both thought, “If I just believe the right thing, I’ll be fine.” My actions aren’t the most important thing, or really even important at all.” But there is a problem with that. James 2:14-­‐24 (NIV) 14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. Kardeşlerim, bir kimse iyi eylemleri yokken imanı olduğunu söylerse, bu neye yarar? Böylesi bir iman onu kurtarabilir mi? Bir erkek ya da kız kardeş çıplak ve günlük yiyecekten yoksunken, içinizden biri ona, “Esenlikle git, ısınmanı, doymanı dilerim” der, ama bedenin gereksindiklerini vermezse, bu neye yarar? 17 Bunun gibi, tek başına eylemsiz iman da ölüdür. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. Ama biri şöyle diyebilir: “Senin imanın var, benimse eylemlerim.” Eylemlerin olmadan sen bana imanını göster, ben de sana imanımı eylemlerimle göstereyim. 19 Sen Tanrı'nın bir olduğuna inanıyorsun, iyi ediyorsun. Cinler bile buna inanıyor ve titriyorlar! 20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. Ey akılsız adam, eylem olmadan imanın yararsız olduğuna kanıt mı istiyorsun? Atamız İbrahim, oğlu İshak'ı sunağın üzerinde Tanrı'ya adama eylemiyle aklanmadı mı? Görüyorsun, onun imanı eylemleriyle birlikte etkindi; imanı eylemleriyle tamamlandı. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. Böylelikle, “İbrahim Tanrı'ya iman etti, böylece aklanmış sayıldı” diyen Kutsal Yazı yerine gelmiş oldu. İbrahim'e de Tanrı'nın dostu dendi. Görüyorsunuz, insan yalnız imanla değil, eylemle de aklanır. Aynı biçimde, ulakları konuk edip değişik bir yoldan geri gönderen fahişe Rahav da bu eylemiyle aklanmadı mı? Ruhsuz beden nasıl ölüyse, eylemsiz iman da ölüdür. Deeds are the Most Important En Önemli Şey? Eylemler! The second extreme is that some believe that the most important thing in pleasing God is what we do for God. This is probably more common. Illustration – Christian School I used to go to a Christian School when I grew up. They had a number of rules that all the students had to follow: • There were certain clothes that we had to wear. • We had to cut our hair in a certain way. • Boys and girls were limited in the kind of interaction they could have (no holding hands or physical displays of affection, no dating, etc.) • There were strict rules about not using bad language, not smoking, drinking, using drugs, etc. None of these were bad things. As a matter of fact, we have many of these same rules in my house. I believe in many of them. The problem, however, is that they believed that if the students would just follow the rules, they would please God. God was speaking through his prophet Isaiah about this. The people were sinning against God, but still were doing all the right things. They were making sacrifices, praying, observing all the religious holidays, worshiping at the temple. But this is what God said to that. Isaiah 1:11-­‐18 11 “The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? “Kurbanlarınızın sayısı çokmuş, Bana ne?” diyor RAB, “Yakmalık koç sunularına, Besili hayvanların yağına doydum. Boğa, kuzu, teke kanı değil istediğim. Huzuruma geldiğinizde Avlularımı çiğnemenizi mi istedim sizden? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. Anlamsız sunular getirmeyin artık. Buhurdan iğreniyorum. Kötülük dolu törenlere, Yeni Ay, Şabat Günü kutlamalarına Ve düzenlediğiniz toplantılara dayanamıyorum. Yeni Ay törenlerinizden, bayramlarınızdan nefret ediyorum. Bunlar bana yük oldu, Onları taşımaktan yoruldum. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. “Ellerinizi açıp bana yakardığınızda Gözlerimi sizden kaçıracağım. Ne kadar çok dua ederseniz edin dinlemeyeceğim. Elleriniz kan dolu. Yıkanıp temizlenin, Kötülük yaptığınızı gözüm görmesin, Kötülük etmekten vazgeçin. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. İyilik etmeyi öğrenin, Adaleti gözetin, zorbayı yola getirin, Öksüzün hakkını verin, Dul kadını savunun.” RAB diyor ki, “Gelin, şimdi davamızı görelim. Günahlarınız sizi kana boyamış bile olsa Kar gibi ak pak olacaksınız. Elleriniz kırmız böceği gibi kızıl olsa da Yapağı gibi bembeyaz olacak. The kids at the school I attended did all the right things too. What the teachers didn’t know, however, is that, as soon as the kids left the school, many of them lived however they wanted. Many of the kids at this school lived in very bad situations in their homes, and neither they nor their parents were following Jesus. So as soon as they walked out of school, they were drinking, doing drugs, using very bad language and all kinds of other bad things. In the same way the people were doing all the right things, yet God told them that he hated everything that they were doing. It had no value to him. The Contradiction So there is, it seems, some kind of contradiction. In some places, the Bible seems to say, “Your works/deeds are important, not your faith.” In other places it seems to say, “Your works/deeds are not important at all. Between Faith and Deeds İmanla Eylemler arasında Most of us tend to not stay on one side or the other, but swing between both extremes. Illustration I start out the day and I am determined to “do the right thing.” I won’t lose my temper in traffic. I will be sure to pray. I won’t be unkind to my family. I won’t allow my thoughts to go where they shouldn’t go. And then… • A motorcycle cuts in front of me in traffic • I get busy and forget to pray • I have a hard day and yell at my family • I find my mind wandering and thinking about bad things And when these things happen, I find myself telling myself. • Well, nobody is perfect • God will understand • God will forgive me And so in the course of just one day, I show that I believe that my actions are important because I set my goals to do the right thing. But in that same day, I find that, since I don’t seem to be able to do those actions, I excuse myself because at least I have faith in God. Romans 7:15 The Apostle Paul puts it this way, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Ne yaptığımı anlamıyorum. Çünkü istediğimi yapmıyorum; nefret ettiğim ne ise, onu yapıyorum. The Example of the Coin So what is right? Is it better to have good deeds or is it better to have faith in God. When we ask the question that way, it is impossible to find an answer. In fact, we can’t have one side without the other. Deeds are on one side, faith on the other. But it is the same "coin." If we look back at the verses in James and Isaiah again, we will see that faith and deeds are linked in both these verses and in every other part of the Bible that talks about them. James 2:21-­‐22, 26 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did…. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. Atamız İbrahim, oğlu İshak'ı sunağın üzerinde Tanrı'ya adama eylemiyle aklanmadı mı? Görüyorsun, onun imanı eylemleriyle birlikte etkindi; imanı eylemleriyle tamamlandı. ..Ruhsuz beden nasıl ölüyse, eylemsiz iman da ölüdür. Isaiah 1:16-­‐18 16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. Yıkanıp temizlenin, Kötülük yaptığınızı gözüm görmesin, Kötülük etmekten vazgeçin. İyilik etmeyi öğrenin, Adaleti gözetin, zorbayı yola getirin, Öksüzün hakkını verin, Dul kadını savunun.” “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
RAB diyor ki, “Gelin, şimdi davamızı görelim. Günahlarınız sizi kana boyamış bile olsa Kar gibi ak pak olacaksınız. Elleriniz kırmız böceği gibi kızıl olsa da Yapağı gibi bembeyaz olacak. The Heart and the Law The truth is that neither faith, nor deeds are the most important thing in pleasing God. The most important thing to God is my heart. When I speak of “my heart” I don’t mean it in the way that all of the love songs mean it. I don’t mean my emotions. What I mean is, where does my love and obedience lie? What is the most important thing to me? This is my heart. Jesus said: Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Hazineniz neredeyse, yüreğiniz de orada olacaktır. And when talking about the greatest thing that we could do, this is what he said: Mark 12:28-­‐31 28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Onların tartışmalarını dinleyen ve İsa'nın onlara güzel yanıt verdiğini gören bir din bilgini yaklaşıp O'na, “Buyrukların en önemlisi hangisidir?” diye sordu. İsa şöyle karşılık verdi: “En önemlisi şudur: ‘Dinle, ey İsrail! Tanrımız Rab tek Rab'dir. Tanrın Rab'bi bütün yüreğinle, bütün canınla, bütün aklınla ve bütün gücünle seveceksin.’ İkincisi de şudur: ‘Komşunu kendin gibi seveceksin.’ Bunlardan daha büyük buyruk yoktur.” Connection Between Heart, Faith and Deeds My heart has to be right before any of my deeds are. Jesus taught us that there is a connection between our deeds and the condition of our heart. Matthew 15:17-­‐20 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” “Ağza giren her şeyin mideye indiğini, oradan da helaya atıldığını bilmiyor musunuz? Ne var ki ağızdan çıkan, yürekten kaynaklanır. İnsanı kirleten de budur. Çünkü kötü düşünceler, cinayet, zina, fuhuş, hırsızlık, yalan yere tanıklık ve iftira hep yürekten kaynaklanır. İnsanı kirleten bunlardır. Yıkanmamış ellerle yemek yemek insanı kirletmez.” Knowing and Doing God’s Law But here is the difficulty. Everyone knows the difference between right and wrong to some degree. We all have some understanding that murder and violence are wrong. We know that adultery, stealing and slander are bad. We all understand, to some degree or another, the law of God. The problem is that, although we know the law of God – we know what to do – we still do not do it. Why is that? Even when we want to do the right thing, we still don’t do it. The Law Cannot Change the Heart And that is the point. The law of God simply points out what is right and wrong. But it has no power to change my heart. I know what is right and I know what is wrong, but I do the opposite. The Apostle Paul, again, puts it this way. We look at what we do and can beat ourselves up with guilt and we look for a way to be better. But we can’t find any. And so we condemn ourselves. The Answer to Our Problem But God loves us so much that he gave us a beautiful answer to our problem. Romans 8:1-­‐5 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.
Böylece Mesih İsa'ya ait olanlara artık hiçbir mahkûmiyet yoktur. Çünkü yaşam veren Ruh'un yasası, Mesih İsa sayesinde beni günahın ve ölümün yasasından özgür kıldı. İnsan benliğinden ötürü güçsüz olan Kutsal Yasa'nın yapamadığını Tanrı yaptı. Öz Oğlu'nu günahlı insan benzerliğinde günah sunusu olarak gönderip günahı insan benliğinde yargıladı. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. Öyle ki, Yasa'nın gereği, benliğe göre değil, Ruh'a göre yaşayan bizlerde yerine gelsin. 5 Benliğe uyanlar benlikle ilgili, Ruh'a uyanlarsa Ruh'la ilgili işleri düşünürler. The law of God has no power to change my heart, but Jesus broke the power of sin through his death and resurrection and God’s Spirit can change my heart. Ibrahim’s Story • A follower of Jesus for only a few months • He was not a good man (drank, drugs, beat his wife, smoked, etc.) • He and his wife both become followers of Jesus and they both were changed immediately. They stopped drinking, smoking, he stopped beating his wife, etc. • They also, although they are very poor, gave what little they had to someone more poor than even them. Who told them to do those things? No one did. Why did they do them? Because God changed their hearts. They were so overwhelmed by the love that God showed them that they wanted to show this same love to others. Ibrahim treasured Christ above all things in his heart, and he did not want to dishonor God by doing wrong things that he knew would displease God. He didn’t stop sinning and start doing right because he knew they were the right thing to do. He did them because his heart had changed and there was no other way for him to live. Conclusion and Prayer Followers of Jesus Some of you here may be followers of Jesus, but are frustrated by this message. You understand and agree with everything I have said, but still find yourself going back and forth between the things of God and the things of the world. You keep doing things that you know are wrong. To you I would ask, “Where is your heart?” If you constantly struggle with sin, ask yourself if you truly love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. My guess is that you have allowed other things that don’t belong in your heart to get between you and Jesus Christ. People Who are Not Followers Some of you may be here and you have not made a decision to follow Jesus Christ. But you find that you also have the same problem. You want to do the right thing, but you can’t and so you feel condemned. I want to remind you what I read earlier. “There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.” I would like you to know that God can change your heart. He promised that if you seek Him, you will find Him. Instructions for Prayer If anyone would like someone to pray with them, either in Turkish or in English, about any of these things, or if you just need someone to pray for healing or a difficult situation, someone will be here to pray with you. As we close in prayer and a song, people will be here ready to pray with you even during the coffee and tea time. Closing Prayer