During the past few weeks I have been in the construction business with a group of people which I have grown to admire. Together we are renovating a building in Downtown Metropolis which was constructed in 1923. I am sure a building this old would have much history to tell us if only its walls could talk (actually these wall have spoken!). We have uncovered several old documents stuffed in the walls. Many of those old documents were parts orders, repair invoices, and copies of checks. Many of these documents have the names of the people who made these transactions nearly eighty years ago. We have even found a whiskey bottle stuffed in one of the walls dated from pre-prohibition days.

This building was originally built to serve its community as an automobile dealership and garage. It has been the home of at least three car dealerships in its history. More recently, it has been a gymnastic training center serving the children and youth of our community. In some ways this property has always served the community of Metropolis.

Four Rivers Church is dreaming to use this building once again to serve the people of Metropolis. A few days ago someone asked me, “Why we would want our church to be located in the business district?” That’s easy I said, we want to be about the business of our city. We dream about making our Metropolis a better place to live and do business. We dream of being a servant and of being a spiritual home for our town. We dream of a place where we can all connect with God and make great friends.

“You are so heavenly minded that you have become no earthly good.” I made this statement a few days ago while having breakfast with a few pastor friends of mine, it has me thinking. Is it correct? I have heard this little witticism before and even thought it to be cleaver, but after thinking about it for awhile I am not sure if it is true. Could someone be so focused on heaven or the things of heaven and then be spiritually useless on earth? Is that a biblical idea?

Think about this; is the problem with our churches that too many people are passionately in love with heaven, praying too much or reading the Bible too much? Unlikely. Could you be so heavenly minded that you don’t love others or don’t offer hope to the hopeless? If this is true then we don’t need to be thinking about heavenly things.

Honestly, I don’t see Christians retreating from the world singing spiritual hymns and spending their days fasting and reading the Bible. I don’t think monastic lifestyles are in vogue currently. No, the heavenly minded don’t seem to be dominating the Christian culture these days. It actually seems quite the opposite to me. I know, I am in danger of sounding quite fundamental and judgmental here and that is not my point or my heart, but I do believe that there should be a noticeable difference in the priorities of a Christ follower’s life.

Here is my point. Although we don’t see large numbers of people in the church living the life of a desert monk, we do, however, tend to see many living with an earthly focus. Many who are climbing the corporate ladder, making money, focused on materialistic gain. Then they are spending that hard earned money keeping up with trends and fads and the amusements of the culture. Of course there are the trite morning or evening prayers, Sunday morning church, and a few bucks given in the offering plate. Going through the motions being religious has become the standard when it comes to church life. So, my question is, can we be so earthly focused that we are no heavenly good.

The Apostle Paul thought this heavenly thinking fine and actually encouraged the church at Colosse to place their thoughts upward. ‘Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth” Colossians 3:2. The apostle is clear that he wanted the Colossians believers to think about heaven. He even says in contrast to popular opinion, “do not think only about things down here on earth.” In other words maybe we are no good for heaven if we are to earthly minded.

I was wrong with my comment at breakfast, it is not the heavenly minded that are hindering the work of Jesus’ church in our community, but the earthly mindedness that is slowing the evangelistic efforts of the church. We often mistaken the overly religious as the heavenly minded, but they are not the same. Religion always hinders the work of Christ. Religion is about the here and now while heaven is about the eternal.

When we think of heaven it’s hard not to think about faith, hope and love. It’s also hard to think about heaven without thinking of Jesus. Faith, Hope, Love, and Jesus is what planet earth and its human inhabitants need most.

Nothing gets under my skin, quite like a prideful, arrogant, boastful Christian. You know the person who has all the answers even if there are no questions being asked. It’s important to know that I am not confusing good self esteem or a healthy self confidence. These would all be healthy and good. No, I am talking about down right arrogant behavior. It’s the attitude that reveals itself in the statement, ‘I am right and in me there is no wrong.” Pride is a personal characteristic that presents a condescending and elitist personality that eliminates the potential of relational depth. Pride does not only hinder our relationships with one another, but with God. “All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."(1 Peter 5:5).

There are also those who get overly prideful concerning their moral goodness in the community of faith. These are the ones who are quick to point out that they are morally superior to, “Those People” who are on the outside of their community. I am sure the Bible teaches that it is amoral to think of yourself more highly than you ought. Then there is this Bible story of the Tax Collector and Pharisees who are praying in the temple. This story helps me see that being religious and prideful about my faith, is not the way you get close to God.

Then Jesus told this story to some who had great self-confidence and scorned everyone else: "Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a dishonest tax collector. The proud Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: 'I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don't sin, I don't commit adultery, I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.' "But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, 'O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.' I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored." (Luke 18:9-14).

When our pride starts producing a condescending attitude in us that keeps people away from God, then we are missing the point of being a Christian. Where in the world did we ever get the idea that God, only loves people with a high score on their moral report card?

Maybe the reason God gets so bent out of shape about our pride is that it tells him that we can handle life without him or others? Pride says, we are spiritually self sufficient. Pride is the sin of impersonating God.

This past Sunday I continued the teaching series Identity Theft at our Metropolis Campus. This series seems to have struck a cord with many of our attenders. The driving force of this series is focusing upon the lies we often believe about ourselves. Lies like, “I can’t change its just the way I am.” Or “I will never be good enough.” It is a sad thing to see people believe such ridiculous lies about themselves. The tragic fact about believing a lie about oneself is that it will never lead to personal freedom. Lies will only take you to a place personal bondage, pain and loneliness (John 8:32). The foundational thought for all the messages we are teaching in this series is, “A lie believed as truth will affect our lives as if it were true.”

Can the addict change, or is that just who she is? Is being strung out, hung over, and guilt ridden her true identity? It becomes a convincing predicament for her, “this is just who I am”, it’s hard for her to believe that she could be someone else.

When you and I believe lies about who we are, we will lose our true identity, and we will never express the life we were created to live. Another danger is that lies alter the spiritual trajectory of our lives. Lies lead down a path of destruction not life. When we believe a lie about ourselves it will move us in the wrong direction spiritually. Lies always take us further away form God; they never bring us closer to him.

I believe we can beat the lie, change our direction, and move closer to God (James 4:8).

But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed . it will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. (1 Corinthians 16:51-52)