UNGODLINESS

Ungodliness and Unthankfulness
session 3

I’ve never thought of myself as ‘ungodly’ in the way that Jerry describes it. I know that there are times I go through certain parts of my day NOT thinking about God, although I find that as I have gotten older I do this less and less. Is it because I am actually maturing or is it because I am growing closer to an age that reminds me that death approaches? I like to think I am maturing, although as many of you know I still struggle.

My biggest struggle as I always saw it was pride. It was pride that kept me from asking for prayer when the doctor told me I needed to have a potentially cancerous mole removed from my eyeball. And pride that kept me silent as I waited until the second opinion confirmed it to ask for prayer. It’s pride that keeps me holding people at arm’s length, slowly developing relationships that are vital for my growth.

Pride, by definition, is: “a high or inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in the bearing of conduct etc.” (From dictionary.com) I found these seven variations of pride on the internet, see if you recognize yourself in any of them:

1. Uninhibited Pride: Pride that tries to make ones self-look good on the outside, but the inside is rotten.  God says this is like white washed tombs, filled with rotting bones.

2.Wounded Pride: Pride that aims too high expects too much refusing to accept failure. God says a man’s mind plans his way but the Lord directs his path and makes it sure

3.Procrastinating Pride: Pride that puts off doing until it is ‘too late’ revealing a heart that refuses to trust in God. God says, ‘Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding.'  

4.Uncaring Pride: Pride that keeps us preoccupied and unconcerned for others, isolating ourselves and foolishly thinking we can supply our own needs. God says, ‘in Proverbs 18:1 that He who isolates himself seeks his own desire and breaks out against sound judgment.’

5. Sulking Pride: Pride that makes us believe we are truly self-sufficient, preventing us from asking for help. Pushing people away when you need them and becoming angry when no one is there when you need them. God says, ‘Apart from Him you can do NOTHING.’

6. Pious Pride: Pride that hampers our view of self. We feel we are free of defects, and perhaps even free of sin, proudly displaying our good works. God says, ‘It is by grace we have been saved lest any man should boast and ALL have sinned and fallen short of His glory.’

7.  Quiet Pride: Pride that displays all our achievements as though they were attained through our own might, you also seem to ‘know it all’ no one can correct you, and every suggestion made to you,  you’ve already tried.  God says, ‘Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit’.

Ouch, hard to admit that we suffer from any form of pride. I know that I do.

In order to protect myself from being hurt again, I built a wall to take care of myself, And while I have begun the process of removing the wall I built, I didn‘t knock it down all at once, I kinda liked my wall, it was comfortable. So I have slowly been dismantling it one brick at a time, and sometimes I might toss a brick at an unwary passerby. I’m thankful for the people in my life that God has sent to help dismantle the wall, I’m especially thankful for those who have rushed the wall and climbed over it and helped me tear down a few bricks, even though at times they are victims of my brick tossing.

Yep, I am a mess.

In Amy Grants new song ‘Better than a Hallelujah’ the lyrics say, "We pour out our miseries, God just hears a melody, Beautiful the mess we are, honest cries of breaking hearts, are better than a hallelujah." It comforts me to know that  the mess I am is beautiful to God, because my honest cries over a heart broken by my sin are better to Him than my  joyous shouts of hallelujah that may sometimes come over things I think ~I~ accomplished.

In the midst of MY mess though, He has given me a testimony. He has slowly transformed my broken heart and made it into something new. He has taken the remnant of my brokenness and created a new thing, something that attracts broken hearts so that they can be made new too.

I’ve never thought that the mortar of my wall was held together by the sin of ungodliness. Or as Jerry says, “I believe that all our other acceptable sins can ultimately be traced to this root sin of ungodliness. To use a tree as an illustration, we can think of all our sins, big and small, growing out of the trunk of pride. But that which sustains the life of the tree is the root system, in this case the root of ungodliness. It is ungodliness that ultimately gives life to our other more visible sins.”

One last thing I wanted to say before we get to our questions. Jerry mentions that an Atheist or an avowed secularist is obviously an ungodly person, but so are a lot of morally decent people, even if they say they believe in God. (Page 53 bottom of the page) I want to add that there are many atheists who are morally decent as well. In fact, there are many atheists, who reject the idea of God because they find Him to be uncaring and mean. They reason, that if they were God, they would not allow the wickedness they see in this world to happen. They cannot fathom WHY an all knowing, all supreme being would. They view themselves as actually more moral than God. You and I know what Romans 9 says, but the Atheist has not yet had his or her heart opened. I have a close and dear friend, who is an atheist, and until you develop actual relationships with the people you are trying to reach with the gospel, and until you can listen with compassion your words to them will ring hollow. They have to see beyond your perfect Sunday appearance, they have to know your heart and you have to have real conversations with them. In other words you have to love them,  but the end is so rewarding. My friend is still an atheist, although I tease him and tell him he is just a suppressor of the truth, but he knows there is a difference in my heart, he knows that I love him and he loves me. For now, that is what God is using, we all know that it is not what I say that will unlock his hardened heart, but the Holy Spirit. I trust that in due time, if it is God’s will, that is exactly what will happen.

Now let’s get to our questions:

I. DEALING WITH THE SIN OF UNGODLINESS

1.    How is the definition of ungodliness in the quotation on page 35 different from what you thought ungodliness meant? (‘Ungodliness and wickedness are not the same. A person may be a nice, respectable citizen and still be an ungodly person… Ungodliness describes an attitude toward God. Ungodliness may be defined as living one’s everyday life with little to no thought of God, or of God’s will, or of God’s glory, or of one’s dependence on God.) What does Romans 1:18 reveal about this sin?

According to dictionary.com (and I thought this way before I read this chapter) Ungodliness is defined as ‘not accepting God or a particular religious doctrine, irreligious, atheistic, sinful, wicked, impious, not conforming to religious tenets or cannons; an ungodly life.’

Romans 1:18 says,’ For God’s [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative.’ 

This passage reveals that God's wrath is being stored up against ungodliness.

2.    Do you agree or disagree that ungodliness is ‘apt to be the root cause of our other sins’ and that each of us is guilty of this sin? Explain your answer.

I agree, but I wouldn’t have before I read this chapter. I really thought ungodliness as being atheistic, but I see it now as our avoidance of Him. I thought of this poem, maybe you’ve seen/heard it, but it seemed relevant to me, it is called, The Difference:

I got up early one morning 
and rushed right into the day;
I had so much to accomplish,
that I didn't have time to pray.

Problems just tumbled about me;
and heavier came each task.
"Why doesn't God help me?" I wondered. 
He answered, "You didn't ask."

I wanted to see joy and beauty,
but the day toiled on, gray and bleak;
I wondered why God didn't show me.
He said, "But you didn't seek."

I tried to come into God's presence,
I used all my keys at the lock.
God gently and lovingly chided,
"My child, you didn't knock."

I woke up early this morning,
and paused before entering the day; 
I had so much to accomplish
that I had to take time to pray.

We sometimes get so busy with living life that we forget Who it is that gives us life. When your eyes opened this morning it was an amazing gift, did you think of it that way? Did you thank and praise God for it? Did you consecrate the day and all that you would do to Him? We usually do not. We usually think of OURSELVES and what WE need to do. This is what Jerry is talking about.

3.    Read James 4:13-15. For what expression of ungodliness did James through the Holy Spirit condemn those people?

James 4:13-15 says, “Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and carry on our business and make money. Yet you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? You are [really] but a wisp of vapor (a puff of smoke, a mist) that is visible for a little while and then disappears [into thin air].You ought instead to say, If the Lord is willing, we shall live and we shall do this or that [thing].”

The people spoke as though their plans would come to pass with no acknowledgement of the fact that their life is indeed a vapor. We are guilty of the same. We do not know the hour at when He will call us home. James admonished them to always be mindful that IF the Lord wills it, then it shall come to pass, and if He does not, it will not. It reminds me of the passage in Proverbs (16:9) where a man plans his way, but it is the Lord who directs his path.

4.   What does Paul’s summary prayer in Colossians 1:9-10 reveal about our responsibility to God? About our ‘typical’ human centered prayers for ourselves, friends and family members?

Colossians 1:9-10 says,‘For this reason we also, from the day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray and make [special] request for you, [asking] that you may be filled with the full (deep and clear) knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God] and in understanding and discernment of spiritual things— That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God [with fuller, deeper, and clearer insight,acquaintance, and recognition].’

I’m not privy to your prayer life, and personally I do not enjoy praying publicy, but typically I find that I get into a rut of asking for things from God, I am  always mindful to add ‘if it be His will’, and I believe that I am fully able, at this stage in my walk to accept His will, but to pray like this for every person we pray for all the time? What an amazing way to pray for our friends and family.

To desire that they be filled with the deep and clear knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom? That they would have comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God? That they would walk and live in a manner worthy of Him, fully pleasing Him IN ALL THINGS, bearing fruit in every good work AND steadily growing in and increasing in the knowledge of God? Having a deeper, clearer, acquaintance and recognition of Him? Really is there another prayer more worthy than this? 

I leave you with this prayer...May the WORD of God speak to your heart this morning and may you use it to pray for those you love and for those you do not...peace~