Recalibrate Part 2: Discovering the Deviation

Listen to the voice of the Spirit who has the map, who is the map, who wrote the map for our good and is telling us the direction we need to go.

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Last week, I talked about a three-part series that I’m starting on spiritual recalibration. You could look at it like a car. You go through a bunch of bumpy roads and potholes like we do in life, and what needs to be done? We need a new alignment. Well, the same thing is true for us in a spiritual sense. The bumpy roads and potholes in life wear us out, get us out of alignment, and we need a new spiritual alignment.

Unfortunately, some don’t realize they need an alignment, and others don’t care. At least spiritually. Maybe sometimes literally, too.

If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Psalm 19, and we’ll read the same verses we read last week, verses 7-13. Also, I’m going to reference another set of verses that I read last week in a few minutes, so if you want to put a bookmark there, I’ll be reading from Romans 11 and 12 as well. Romans 12 first, then Romans 11.

And as you’re turning there, let me just give you a quick recap of last week’s sermon. I talked about there being three stages to recalibration. The first is to: Discover what the standard is; then Determine where and what the deviation from the standard is; and then: Correct to conform back to the standard.

So as I had intended to make each one of those a point in my sermon, I realized that I spent half of it on just part one–discovering what the standard is–and I still had a lot to say. So I turned this into a three-parter, and I’m going to give you part two today–determining where and what the deviation from the standard is.

Scripture: So let’s take a look at our scripture verse this morning.

We’re going to read Psalm 19:7-13

It says:

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm,
and all of them are righteous.

10 They are more precious than gold, than pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.
11 By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

12 But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults.

13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.

So again, you can see there where The Word of the Lord is the standard by which we should live. David isn’t saying this in any sort of legalistic or demanding way, he’s saying it out of experience. He knows this, he has lived this truth. And we talked about the difference between God’s truth and man’s truth and the phrase nowadays, “your” truth.

David knows this is true. It’s not God’s word “to be interpreted as whatever your truth ends up being.” It’s God’s truth that our standard must be set.

But quite often, that standard gets skewed. We have to know where we got askew. It’s kind of like the old days before GPS. You have a destination, you have a road map, you find yourself lost, and you need to determine where you are so you can find your way back.

If you get a chance, I posted something on our church’s Facebook page yesterday that talks about that. It’s an interview that Jack Hibbs had with Eric Metaxas. Jack Hibbs, by the way, is a pastor out in California, and Pastor Jack sat down with author and speaker Eric Metaxas to talk about the American founders and their original design for the United States. And in it, Eric talks about how the founders wanted the people to be free, yet they knew that there had to be a set of standards to guide this country. We couldn’t have a free country with free people unless the people freely set themselves to a high moral standard.

The founders knew that the standard couldn’t be the government but that it should be The Bible. But they also knew that they couldn’t be a free country with the first sentence of the first amendment being the freedom of religion from the government while enforcing religion on people, so they had to rely on encouraging people to set the foundation of society on Biblical standards. And that worked for the first 200 years of this country. And unless something drastic changes within the next three years, it won’t be that way for the 250th anniversary of this country.

By the way, if you ever come across the phrase “Christian Nationalism” and wonder what in the world they’re talking about, just correct them and say that we don’t want a Christian Nationalist form of government. We just want our society to go back to being founded on Christian principles like it was for the first 200 years.

It was done voluntarily through good, Christian people. But we got off track.

Where? When?

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been a month already since I gave a sermon called “Standing our Ground with Truth and Grace,” and how we are to have a healthy balance of both. That sermon was inspired by all the goings-on regarding Pride Month, and I referenced a blog post that I wrote on my musings on what Pride Month is really all about–Pride. Spiritual pride. You can’t have Pride Parades and be humble before God at the same time.

And in that blog, I asked, “How did we get here?” How did we get to a place in our society where we’re having Pride Month and all that it entails? It could not have even entered the mind 40 years ago. Could you imagine going back to the 200th anniversary of our founding in 1976 and explaining to people what Pride Month was about and what happens?

That was just 50 years ago. Imagine going back in time and trying to explain to our founding founders what their country would look like 250 years later.

And when I tried to think about how we got here, I went as far back as The Scopes Monkey Trial, which is the Supreme Court decision that allowed Evolution to be taught in our schools, and thought that might have been the culprit. But I wasn’t quite sure. Was it the rebellion of Rock N’ Roll in the 50s? If not, The Hippie Movement had something to do with it.

But trying to put your finger on just one moment is tough, just like trying to figure out just when the first trickle that started the erosion of Watkins Glen began. At least that erosion produced a beautiful ravine.

But what does the erosion of society have to do with us? What does it have to do with recalibrating?

Well, I could preach and preach on how our society needs to recalibrate, and I’ve spent a lot of time on many sermons doing that. But you’re sitting here in the pews today. What does this have to do with you?

A lot.

Because what affects our society affects us. We may not be of the world, but we’re in it. And we’re probably pretty immersed in it on a day-to-day basis. The influence of the world culture or the world system has an effect on how we think and what we believe and how we act. We’re constantly getting preached at from all sorts of voices who want to tell us things that are contradictory to The Bible. Who do we listen to? And why? Even if we disagree, some of that can still seep into our minds. If it does, then what we believe and what we think determines how we act.

The world system has become sort of a religion unto itself. Perhaps Progressive Humanism is the one-world religion in the end times; I don’t know. It wouldn’t surprise me. I came across an article on Psychologytoday.com that’s titled, “Why Progressive Humanist Values Will Ultimately Prevail.”

In it, the writer, who has a Ph.D., says, “Humanists tend to endorse prosocial values such as compassion, fairness, individual freedom and dignity, and belief in human progress and potential. Accordingly, they tend to reject bigotry, oppression, exploitation, and other regressive sociopolitical attitudes.”

So you can see how progressive humanism can be a religion unto itself. A religion that puts mankind as god. But this is the kind of philosophical influence we’re up against. Who will complain or argue with a philosophy of kindness, compassion, dignity, and all those things? Who wants people to think we’re all of those regressive sociopolitical things?

See how enticing it is, yet how ungodly it really is? It really does take some good things and twists them. Like the old saying goes, “Every lie has a little bit of truth.”

And that truth, mixed in with this lie, comes straight from the Bible in many cases.

Therefore, the world’s deviation from the true standard of The Bible can influence a lot of Christians and part-time Christians who think they can have the best of both worlds. Last week I talked about recharging vs. recalibrating. We can sit in front of the TV and recharge, but don’t let that be a method of recalibrating because you’ll be sucked into this type of progressive thinking and your calibration will be even more off.

I think that’s how we got here over the past 50 years or so–allowed the TV to influence their calibration. Not that I’m against TV. Ginger and I were watching The Andy Griffith Show the other day when I was down at dad’s, and at the very beginning of the show, Andy and Barney were humming this tune that sounded a lot like a hymn. Then they started singing, “There is a Fountain.”

Can’t do that on TV today. Can you imagine people getting upset at a hymn? But some people will. What does that show you? Our calibration went askew sometime after the early 60s.

And now, TV is tainted. It’s calibrated to a whole different pagan humanist system. And it’s preaching that system all the time. Religiously. That’s why we have to be careful not to recalibrate when we should just be recharging.

Why? Your mind will recalibrate to that thing we allow it to.

If you want to turn with me to the Book of Romans, I will read from Chapter 12, then backtrack a little to Chapter 11.

 This is what Paul the apostle had to say to the Roman church:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

I want to back up to the first word, “therefore.” You’ve heard me say it before, but if there’s a ‘therefore,’ we need to know what it’s ‘there for.’ So let’s back up to Romans 11, starting with verse 32:

32 For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

Doxology

33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!

34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”

35 “Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”

36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Enduring Word Commentary, one of my favorite places to go, put it this way: “The idea is that God has shut up both Jew and Gentile into custody as lawbreakers [so think of the idea of being in jail awaiting a court hearing]. [Then God the judge] offers mercy to these prisoners, based on the person and work of Jesus.”

So God does not play favorites with Jews or Gentiles. Everyone means everyone. Everyone is a sinner, and everyone has the chance to be set free.

And then you read the doxology that talks about the wisdom, mind, and thought of God. Why did Paul bring in this doxology?

From Enduring Word again: “As Paul considers God’s great plan of the ages, he breaks into spontaneous praise. Paul realizes that God’s ways are past finding out, and God’s wisdom and knowledge are beyond him.”

So then Paul urges us to be living sacrifices, holy to God, and to not conform to the pattern of this world. But instead, to conform to the pattern of God. And Paul says this is true worship. We hear the word ‘worship’ all the time, and we think of music. We buy worship CDs, and we listen to worship on our streaming services. Worship, according to the Bible, is not necessarily music; it’s how we live day to day, being transformed into the image of God.

One of the synonyms of recalibrate, according to Thesaurus.com, is to transform. So like Paul said, our minds have to be transformed or recalibrated back to the standard of God.

But in order to recalibrate, we need to not only know what the standard of God is, but we need to know where we got off. In fact, we have to know that we got off in the first place. Do you think that Christians who get mad at a hymn being sung on TV know they’ve gotten off track?

In fact, last week, I mentioned that there are a lot of Christians who have gotten off track and don’t even know it. Why? They mistook recharging for recalibrating. Now their minds have been renewed by the world rather than by the word. One letter difference makes a world of difference.

We all need to recalibrate. We all get a little skewed. But if we’re careful, we can deviate from our route, realize it, and get right back on again. A number of years ago–pre-pandemic–I preached a sermon about God taking us on the scenic route. That’s different from getting off course. If we’re on the scenic route, but God’s still our GPS, then we’re still on the right route. It’s just taking us longer and more out of the way than we had intended.

But taking the scenic route and saying, “I know where I’m going,” is a prideful way of getting lost. And we are in danger of that if we’re not careful. I remember an episode of Home Improvement where Tim and Jill were trying to get to a wedding and Tim thought he knew where he was going and Jill had the map and told him he was wrong.

They ended up not only lost but in another state, in a blizzard, and driving in circles in the dark.

It kind of sounds like our spiritual life, doesn’t it?

“Where are we?”

“Oh, no big deal, just hit a blizzard at night on a route I’ve never been on before. But I know where I’m going.” And we end up in circles, back to the same old bad habits we used to have, staying in the dark. And we have a road map right in front of us that we’re ignoring.

Why? Is it laziness? Maybe. Is it our sin nature? Yeah. But more specifically, it’s pride. Remember when I spoke about Pride Month? Same thing, really. To stay on the right course, we must be humbly submitted to the path God has us on, even if it means wanting to try a different route.

Like Tim on Home Improvement, sometimes we get off track and think we’re not.

“Jill is just wrong. She’s not reading the directions right.” Or maybe, we think, “She’s being a nag.” I have to admit there have been some Bible-nags out there, but sometimes people hear the Word of God and ignore it because they think that it’s all just a bunch of Bible nagging.

If that’s the case, then they don’t see it as being a big deal. “I’m just doing it my way,” as Frank Sinatra sang.

“Besides, I’m not really off by that much.” But what we see as ‘not that much’ may be a bigger deal than we realize.

Here’s a scene from the episode:

Tim: [They’re in the car, driving to a wedding] I know where we’re going. I know where we are.
Jill: There’s a sign. “Adrian, Six Miles.” Adrian. Adrian is on 223. We are down and right. We should be up and left. We have gone way out of the way.
Tim: Thank you, Rand McNally. And we’re only an inch or so off.
Jill: I see, so when we hit Ecuador, you’ll say we’re off by about a foot and a half?

We think we might be off by an inch and a half or a foot and a half, but we might be 3,054 miles from here, which is the actual distance from here to Ecuador. If you’re 3,000 miles from where you should be, that’s lost if you ask me. But you may only think it’s a foot-and-a-half.

You may see yourself as on the church’s doorstep, but spiritually, you might be in South America.

The point is, in order to recalibrate, we have to understand that we’re off. We have to understand that we need calibration. We have to sense the Spirit inside of us telling us that we’re not where we should be. Maybe, like Tim Taylor, the Spirit is in the passenger’s seat with the map saying, “You’re off, Tim. Turn around.” And maybe we’re just that stubborn.

Today, I would encourage you not to be that stubborn. I encourage you to listen to the voice of the Spirit who has the map, who is the map, who wrote the map for our good and is telling us the direction we need to go.

The mapmaker not only made the map but made us so we could use the map. It’s specifically designed for us to use to navigate through life. If we don’t have it, we’ll be lost.

Our scripture verse in Psalms again reminds us not only of our standard but also of why we should recalibrate to it:

  1. Refreshes the soul.
  2. Makes wise the simple.
  3. Gives joy to the heart.
  4. Gives light to the eyes.

Do you need that this morning? Do you need a refreshment? Do you need wisdom? Do you need joy? Is that sparkle in your eyes gone?

Have you felt a distance from God, but have been ignoring it for some reason? Have you sensed a pull toward the things, thoughts, and feelings of this world and know that you need to readjust your thoughts and feelings, actions and emotions?

Do you sense something just isn’t right?

Do you need a refreshment from The Lord that can’t be found anywhere else? Have you gotten to the point where you’ve been so immersed in the world and just day-to-day life that you haven’t even noticed until now how much you need that refreshment or that readjustment or that realignment?

Now is the time to recalibrate.

 

This is an updated edition of a post originally published on First Baptist Church of Watkins Glen

Featured Image by Daniel Gonzalez on Unsplash

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