Message Topic: What does the Bible say about Sincerity?
Scripture text: Joshua 24: 11-16.
It is a common occurrence that at times people will do business without getting or having full understanding of all the details surrounding the business which they are entering.
Our sharing for today is a word taken from the Bible, and you and I as children of God believe that the bible can be taught of as a book or road map that if we follow, it will ultimately lead us to the kingdom of God. The question is, how should we follow, when we want to, how we want to follow, or, should we do so in sincerity and in truth?
The question then is what is sincerity? How do we demonstrate sincerity? we must first know the definition of sincerity: we know that sincerity is the quality or state of being sincere: which includes honesty, genuineness, good faith, without deceit, or pretense and must be truthful.
The Bible has a lot to say about the need for sincerity in worship. The ancient Israelites were warned to serve the Lord without any pretense or compromise: now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth. put away the gods that your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt, and serve the Lord your God. Joshua 24: 14.
It is important to understand that sincerity is not a virtue in and of itself. A person can be sincerely wrong, after all, just because someone sincerely believes in Martians, does not mean that extraterrestrial life exists. And just because someone is sincere in his belief that krishna is a god, does not affect the truth. It’s only when sincerity is applied to our search for God and His righteousness that it pleases the Lord. (Matthew 6: 33, Jeremiah 29: 13).
Apollos was sincere, although sincerely wrong about an important matter: at first (Acts18: 24-28) Apollos loved God and taught sincerely and powerfully, but he had an incomplete message. Because he was sincere in his desire to teach the truth, the Lord sent Pricilla and Aquila to instruct him.
Once Apollos understood more completely the gospel message, he was even bolder in preaching about the identity of Jesus Christ. God was able to bless his ministry, even though Apollos didn’t have it all straight at first, because of his sincere desire to teach the word of God.
When we bow in surrender at the foot of the cross, God forgives us, only those who sincerely repent and believe are granted pardon because God is not impressed with pretense. When we agree with Him about our sinful state: God takes the record of charges against us and nail it to the cross, (Colossians 2: 14) He wipes our past clean and gives us a fresh start(2 Corinthians 5:17). In doing so, God eliminates any need for us to live in pretense or hypocrisy. We are freed to live authentically, having been pronounced righteous before God.
Sincerity is damaged by a fondness for people-pleasing and the creation of a public persona to mask a private reality. Social media has become a breeding ground for insincerity, comparison, and playacting.
Christians can get caught up in this too. We may fall insincerity by becoming an expert in Christian terminology, culture, and activities while being far from God in our hearts (Matthew 15: 8) God is not impressed. Insincere religious practices are a form of pride and detestable to God (Mark 7:6) He will often allow the insincere to suffer public downfalls in order to get their attention.
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18) insincere pretenders are often exposed when their secret sins are discovered, and this is a blessing, because it is often exposure that strips them of pretense and allows them to rebuild their lives on sincerity.
Every human heart is subject to pride and pretense. The wise Christian allows the Holy Spirit free access to every part of his or her life with the prayer that the areas of pride and insincerity will be reveled (see Psalm 139:23) God approves of sincerity in obedience to His word. For He will not delight in sacrifices, or I would give it: you will not be pleased with burnt offering.
The sacrifice of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God you will not despise, (Psalm 51:16-17) God knows the true heart.
There is an adjective which the word friend will not keep company with, and that is the adjective insincere, you cannot induce them to stay together in the same room. They flatly contradict each other. The moment we find out that a comrade is insincere with us, he ceases to be our friend.
Sincerity is the very blood and breath of friendship. There is nothing which so takes the life out of us as the discovery that someone whom we have trusted has been other than what he seemed to be, and yet how common insincerity is today.
What a miserable old humbug of a world we are living in, full of trickery, dishonesty, and deceit of every kind. Society is cursed with affectation, business is honeycombed with dishonesty, the political world abounds in duplicity and chicanery, there is sham and pretense everywhere. The life of many a man, and many a woman is one colossal lie.
We say things we do not mean, express emotions we do not feel, praise when we secretly condemn, smile when there is a frown on the face of the heart, give compliments when we are thinking curses. We strive a hundred times a week to make people think we are other than we really are.
Thank God there are hearts here and there upon which we can depend, it is to the honest heart that we return again and again, seeking rest and finding it, it is a fountain at which we drink and refresh ourselves for the toilsome journey. Beautiful, indeed, is the virtue of sincerity. It is not a gaudy virtue. It does not glitter. It has no sparkle in it, but it is substantial and life-giving.
It sustains and nourishes the heart, there are some things we cannot be, and many things we cannot do: but this one thing is within the reach of us all, we may ask God unceasingly to keep our hearts sincere.