Course: Spiritual Life of the Leader

Lecture 14: The Eight Deadly Sins: Tools to Deal with Them

Instead of gluttony, we see temperance. Temperance means living a balanced life. Chaste love is extending love to others, not preying on them. Poverty of spirit rather than greed. Cultivate meekness to deal with anger. You have been forgiven much so you should be willing to forgive others much. Cultivate faith, hope and love to deal with hopelessness. Cultivate humility to deal with vainglory. Evangelism in the first 300 years is a result of the quality of the lives of disciples as they lived in a hostile environment.

I. Review

We want to briefly go back and consider some of the things we have discussed and to see where the Lord wants us in terms of some of the virtues and fruit of the faith and righteous living. In regards to some of our red flag issues, such as gluttony being false bread, it is as if I am trying to stuff my life with things that aren’t going to bring any kind of fulfillment at all. What am I trying to fill my life with; those God shaped places are going to be filled with anything other than divine spiritual love. I can keep stuffing and keep stuffing and keep getting larger, both literally and figuratively in destructive divisions of my sole. Even with my own students, I get so irritated at times with them surfing the WEB. They like to multitask; but I tell them to get their minds focused and their hearts focused. Just put the machine down; put the device down; part of what we are about in this spiritual life is being able to focus upon the Lord Jesus. Then there is the whole business of using others; there are lots of ways to use others. We want to avoid that; that isn’t the way of Christ. Others are not there for me to use or abuse or feast on in any way. That is not the way of Christ.

A. Greed

Either fear drives greed; the fear of not having enough. How many times have people gone into corruption because of the fear of not having enough or this inordinate insatiable drive to accumulate more and more and more. If you ever watch some the shows on American television, you will see people going around looking for antiques. Sometimes there will be barn-house after barn-house where people have horded things all their own lives. What do you take to heaven? This is the issue here. Nothing goes with you to heaven, except that what is in your heart. It is the love of God, the loving relationships that we have. All of this we eventually have to let go of.

B. Anger

We love to get inflamed; we love to have a spirit of offense, where we are profoundly offended by the actions of others. You can tell the measure of a human being by what upsets them. Surely I am the pot calling the kettle black here; an American term which means I am guilty of doing this. Yet, there is a better way.

C. Sadness

Sadness is this whole idea thinking that you had a good plan for your life and a good purpose for your life, but at how it is all messed up now. My spirit becomes down cast; hopelessness can result.

D. Vainglory

One word that can be added to vainglory that is right out of Pauline thought in Romans 2:8. Paul says those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness. Saint Augustine picked up on this along with Martin Luther. In Latin, it goes like this ingoratu insay; the self, curving back upon itself. So the Lord created us to be in a life-giving loving relationship with him. So, the trajectory of my life and my love and will is designed to be in deep on-going everyday intimacy with the Father through the Son and the Holy Spirit. But, what happens in self-seeking, I bend it back upon myself. It is a deadly loop. These things are there for me. This setting and situation is there to promote me. It is the self-bending back upon itself. Suddenly a big fat me becomes the center of the universe. It was never meant to be that way.

E. Pride

Then the collapse to all of this comes down to pride where ultimately I become a functional atheist or and outright atheist where I push God out; I don’t need him. I am fine without God. I am getting along with my business, the way I think that I need to be. We find this in congregations today; people who only want a little religious favoring on Sunday morning and not much else. Dallas Willard called them vampire Christians.

II. From-Through-To Movement

This becomes a from-through-to movement. Clearly the Lord wants us to move from this kind of fallen life that is fully encouraged by the self-bending back upon itself by putting ourselves as the lord of life. This usually takes us through some type of, either a crisis or crises, so that God can get us to the place of Christ likeness. This is where we want him to bring us. This is the mature person in Christ; this is the place of wholeness, a place where I can be in service.

A. Examples

The through part is in his virtue, what the life of Christ would look like in us. When it comes to gluttony; what do we see? We see temperance, an over-used word in American Protestantism, particularly early in the nineteen hundreds. However, if we look at the classical understanding of temperance, it just means that I am living a balanced life. I can enjoy a nice cup of coffee or a cup of tea. I also love dark chocolate. If I do all things in moderation, that is a life of temperance. This puts a Holy Spirit diet in us. All things held in balance and all things to the glory of God. Then when it comes to using others in the Christian life; we are not called to use others. I am called to exercise what classically has been termed, ‘chaste love.’ This is where I do not prey on others but I graciously extend the love of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to others. I am blessing others; I am showing them that I want to be an epiphany to them of the love of Christ so that each of us, as Paul says, are little praises of his Glory reflecting his love to those around us and to those in his care. It is important that this Holy Spirit level is maintained in my life so that I can have that kind of a presence.

B. Poverty of Spirit

Then when it comes to greed, that poverty of spirit is the greater way; meaning that I am totally dependent upon the Lord and he promises to be with me and take care of this. Do we rest on his promises or do we take matters into our own hands. So poverty of spirit is thanking the Lord on how he is going to resolve these issues in my life and how there will be enough for all things needful. Everything that is needed will be covered. Then anger works into a sense of meekness where I know that if the Lord Jesus can forgive me of all that he has forgiven me of; I deserved the punishment of death as the sinner. Yet, he has forgiven me of that debt and he took my place and has allowed me to enter a relationship with God the Father that I was destined to have from before the beginning of time. So, if I have been forgiven of that kind of a death sentence, he will give me grace to forgive others.

C. Meekness

Meekness is just saying that I am a sinner in need of grace and I can extend that grace to others. It also says that in Gospel language and Gospel understanding of life, there is suffering to be carried in the Christian life and I can see it as a privilege to suffer for Christ. It is not that I am going to work out anything more for the salvation of anybody by suffering. We don’t see suffering in itself as a virtue. However, why would we expect as followers of Jesus to be exempted from what he went through. So, if our Lord went through immense suffering for the sake of the Gospel, bring the full message that the Father wanted him to bring to us. Then, I too, can say thank you Lord and that I can carry whatever Cross you are giving to me and allowing me to carry.

D. Appreciative Love and Patience

Now, sadness is going to give way into appreciative love and patience. Rather than seeing that the world is coming apart and everything narrowing down to darkness; no, I can appreciate what God is doing even when I can’t see it. This is faith. Even when I can’t see it; I can thank him for what he is doing in this situation.

E. Infused Faith, Hope and Love

Hopelessness is going to give way to infused faith, hope and love. Infused just means that this is not something that I have fabricated on my own; this is a shear gift of grace from God. God’s love, gives me the Pauline triad: faith, hope and love. This is infused faith, hope and love.

F. Humility

Vainglory once again gives way to absolute humility. I will know that every good thing coming in and through and out of my life is a result of grace.

G. Pride

Well, pride has to be broken. This has to be crucified. You can’t live with pride; this is something that does not take us anywhere other than into death. Even here, we are going to see this through process now.

H. Penthos

With all of these, there will indeed be a life giving process called Penthos. This was the gift of tears. In the early church around the three or four hundred AD you see this; it was a deep sense of lost salvation and there was mourning, deep mourning and sadness over the loss of salvation. It is a loss of all the benefits of salvation in my life and deep mourning in looking out at the world and seeing the collapse of people and tragedy of people’s lives that just didn’t have to be that way. They get wrapped in the passion and the self-curving things that just destroy them. The loss of salvation in the world and this would bring tears; literal tears, so that a holy person during that time had to be given this gift of tears over the loss of life in the world. So, Penthos is sorrow over these things and an asking of and a reaching out to God, saying to the Lord, I repent. I need your help to make this turn.

I. Discipleship

With this through movement, we call this, discipleship; the active business of following Jesus. In all of this, there is going to be a through movement. While we want to be so grateful and appreciative of the food that the Lord provides and how he provides all things necessary, we are also going to start feeding, feasting and dwelling on what the bread of life. This is where we are going to find the true banquet. And this through process is going to take us deep into allowing the Word to master us. This business of using others; we are going to actively work into a life of serving others.

III. Serving Others

We don’t use others; instead we serve others in Jesus’ name. This is why the early church grew against unbelievable odds. How did the church grow when people were being crucified for being Christians? How did that happen for the first 350 years? A big part of it was the quality of their lives in a very hostile society and also for their love for others. They showed and demonstrated Christ’s love for the body. In terms of greed, we are realizing that all things belong to the Lord. I have nothing and I am learning how to give, not out of a scarcity mentality but out of a trusting mentality. I am very clear on the fact that all I get to do is to manage it. I don’t own it; what do I own? Nothing! Even in not owning anything, all things become ours in Christ. So, in anger, I’m learning how to step back; in other words, being a human being. I am allowing the Lord to temper my spirit in the sense that I don’t have to vent against others. I am totally trusting that God is going resolve this situation in ways that I can’t even imagine. And I don’t have to be the one tearing down the walls of Jericho. It is not my job; my job is to lead forth with praise and thanksgiving, not with anything else. Then of course, with sadness, I am beginning to focus on the hope of the Gospel. One old Gospel hymn goes like this: ‘my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest things, but holly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand.’ That is the Gospel! That is infused hope. I really don’t think the Lord cares whether we sing old or new songs; I do think he wants us to know the Psalms which is our prayer manual. Any hymn like this that talks about infused grace and hope is our foundation. This is the hope of the Gospel. This is not a desperate situation; God is still in control. All shall be well and at this point, let me give you a major ‘from and through’ movement here.

IV. Difference between Expectation and Anticipation

We learn this business of what the difference is between expectation verses anticipation. I owe this insight to Adrian Van Com. Anytime I put an expectation out there in regards to the business that ‘I hope that.’ In other words, I am locking down reality. ‘I will be happy if’ and you fill in the remainder. Lord, this is what I need for my life to be complete. This is either who I need in my life or this is what I need for circumstances to unfold in my life. This is it: A, B, C and D. Part of the problem with this is that, here I am as a creature dictating to the creator what is best for my life. That is the self-curving back; this is me writing the script. When we come to Jesus, we take the script that we have had and lay it. So now, the script becomes not me parsing out what it is going to take to make me happy. That is expectation; rather, I learn to anticipate. Well, what am I anticipating? First of all, God knows what I need. The heavenly Father loves me and is able to provide all sorts of amazing good things in my life. He knows that. And I can trust him to do that even in amazing and surprising ways. Expectation, this is what I want, this is my vision; this is my world and this is what is going to take to get it all placed out. For those of you in congregational leadership, you are going to have a few people who are like this. They have gotten everything and more than they have ever dreamed of. Sometimes, these people will be the most miserable people in your congregation. They may be wealthy in some areas but in terms of true wealth, no, they are profoundly impoverished people. Rather, we are in anticipation abandoning our lives to Christ. I am laying my life down, saying Lord I know that you have got this and I am thanking you ahead of time for how it is going to work out.

So, sadness through grace is transformed into anticipating the goodness of God and then these gifts of infused faith, hope and love come in even when I can’t see how it is working out. I truly believe, even at the end of our lives when we know death is imminent. This is just as applicable as anywhere. I can trust because who fears death after the resurrection? There is no fear of death after the resurrection. That has been broken; it is nothing that we need to worry about in Christ. Then, of course, with vain glory, what is happening? Here, we have had a loop that feeding back in upon itself. Now, the loop may be a little wavy and it may want to come back some, but the Lord himself is working it out where my love and my focus are starting to be on him rather than on self or rather than on fear or anger or any of these other things. I am seeing him; my heart and my focus are moving forward, the way it is meant to go. With pride, there is only one tool left now that the Lord has to work with pride. It is the tool that he had to use to get a hold of Saint Augustine. That tool is severe mercy where he allows a major crisis to come and stop the man in his track. As a pastoral leader, these crises actually can be our best friends. The Lord uses crises to wake people up. He shouts to them in their pain. For once you might have an audience that is actually listening. If the Lord uses crises to help get us all over into a life where we are following after him, then it would be good next to take a look at the dynamics of crises.