Hypocrite.  Do you know a hypocrite, someone who says one thing but does another?  They act like a fraud or a phony and no one likes a hypocrite.

Now let’s think about the times you and I’ve been hypocrites.   How it felt so dishonest and how we tried not only to hide it from others, but even from ourselves.

Feeling like a hypocrite enslaves and imprisons us, and it’s time to be free.  It’s time to uncover why Satan loves calling you, me and everyone a hypocrite.  As we expose the darkness of Satan’s hypocrite strategies, we’re going to discover God’s powerful solution to this problem. It’s a solution that is oh so very sweet!

Understanding any problem is the first step toward a solution.  So what’s the hypocrite problem?  In a nutshell, we are all occasional hypocrites – no matter how good we are.  Even the great apostle Paul, the guy who wrote half of the new testament said, “I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. . .  It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. . .   I’ve tried everything and nothing helps.  I’m at the end of my rope.” ^{Romans 7:17-24}

Like Paul, I have done things I don’t want to do, and there have been so many times when I don’t do what I want to do.  Without a doubt, I know absolutely that I am a sinner who needs the grace of God.

But the problem gets worse when the enemy wants to pounce on me and tell me I’m a hypocrite, so instead of focusing on the ten good things I did in any given day, I focus on the one bad thing – and it makes me want to hide from others, from God and even myself.

Satan whispers and shouts, “You are nothing but a hypocrite.”  What a jerk I was. How I gossiped, got impatient, judgmental, unthankful and/or worse.  What a list.  I’ll bet you have your list too!  And yes, I hate when I do any of these things – because I’m a Christian who has given his life to Jesus, yet I fall into sin that makes me want to hide from my hypocritical self.

I’m guilty and a hypocrite and so are you.  Some days I’m worse than others, such as the warm summer day when I drove with my car windows open while I prayed out loud.  Life was good, traffic slight, and I prayed with sincerity.  I drove down the interstate 35 entrance ramp and had a long merging lane with plenty of room.

The lady way behind me, in the right lane on the freeway must’ve thought I wasn’t going fast enough.  So instead of moving to the empty middle lane or slowing down just an itsy bit to let me get ahead of her, she sped way up.  Way, way up so she was right next to me!!  She cut me off for absolutely no reason.

Almost instantly and with no forethought, I gave her the finger with my arm sticking straight outside.  Her passenger window was open and her car was so close to mine that I think my hand went inside her car!  It was only an instant.  It was like an instinct as I let her have it.

Then, within that very same instant, the enemy swooped into my mind and gave me the finger – pointing it right into my face and yelled, “You bloody hypocrite,” before screaming, “Your prayers are a farce!”

To make matters worse, Satan slithered his venom through my brain saying, “If people knew what a wretch I really was, no one would want to be around me.”  Then he announced the real problem, “God doesn’t want to be around you either.”  Just imagine the millions of people who don’t go to church or don’t even pray anymore – simply because they don’t want to feel like a hypocrite.  And this is exactly what the enemy wants.

To make us stop trying.  To stop seeking grace and forgiveness.  To be unworthy.  To give up on ourselves, which naturally leads to giving up on others, and ultimately leads us to give up on God.   Bottom line – to go it alone.

An old friend told me he would rather be dead than be a hypocrite as he went on to say, “Life is so much easier if you just stop believing in God.”

Perhaps the apostle Paul’s statement, “Why do I do the things I hate?” shows up in your life in different ways.  Your version might be:

• Why am I so afraid?
• Why can’t I let go of this grudge?
• Why do I constantly judge others?
• Why do I feel like such a loser?
• Why do I gossip?

Why, oh why am I this way?  Woe is me is what you say, while the devil drips, drips, drips, “You are such a hypocrite.  And remember that no one likes a hypocrite.”

I once met Captain Jerry Coffee, a United States fighter pilot who got shot down and became a prisoner of war in Vietnam for seven years and nine days.   He shared his incredible story of survival that included torture, life in solitary confinement, learning “Tap Code” to communicate with other prisoners and more.

Captain Coffee was truly a prisoner of war.  But Coffee said that even worse than being a prisoner of war is when we become prisoners of woe.  Prisoners of woe is me – where I’m all alone to brood in my deep, dark thoughts.  Like a self-inflicted isolation.  The enemy wants to capture us with the very things we hate about ourselves.

The enemy wants us to stop fighting and just give up.   He wants us to say things like “I can’t help it,” or “It’s just the way I am.”  When you defeat yourself, Satan wins and you are no longer a threat to him.

Most of all, this enemy loves it when we voluntarily lock ourselves into solitary confinement, so embarrassed by our sins that we wouldn’t dare tell anyone else.  We hear dripping sounds that don’t end:  “You are a failure, loser, unworthy, unlovable and a hypocrite.”  Without even knowing it, we join the chorus as we murmur, “What would people think if they knew I was addicted to alcohol or porn, or money, or power, or gossip, or anger or sunk in despair. . . ”

Can you see how the list goes on???  “Really – who would want to be with me if they only knew my dark thoughts and what a phony I am.”   We lock ourselves into solitary confinement as prisoners of woe.

Now the enemy roars – keep ’em isolated.   Solitary confinement.   Never show your weakness.   Never let someone else label you as a hypocrite even though you know you are one.

NEVER.

Never allow someone else to help you either.  Interestingly, some people call this shame while others call it pride.  If you are ashamed of your vulnerabilities, you will hide them like a dirty secret.  On the other hand, if you are so prideful that you cannot possibly have a weakness, you too will hide your mistakes at all costs.

What a dilemma!  So now for the good news!!  The great news is that we’ve seen the dark side of being a hypocrite and now we are ready to see the light!

Yes – darkness cannot stand the light.  That is why Satan does not want you to watch the rest of this video.  Nor does he want you to get my book, “Why Wait to Be Happy?” where we expose all of Satan’s deepest darkest lies, with the light of God’s truth.

Yes, Jesus said “I am the light of the world.”  He also said, “I am truth.”  So now, armed with the truth of Jesus’ Word, armed with the light, let’s expose Satan for the liar he truly is.

Let’s start by revisiting Captain Jerry Coffee, who talked about how he had been injured when he was shot down, then beaten to near death before being thrown into solitary confinement without any medical attention.

After a month of torture and hell inside his tiny prison cell, they finally let him take a shower.  He grabbed the rusty water pipe and raised his head to let the water run over his head and then his face.  Eventually, he opened his eyes and looked above the water pipe.  There, standing buck naked, he noticed these words scratched into the concrete, “Smile, you’re on Candid Camera.”  And as tough as it had been, he couldn’t help but smile, shake his head, find his sense of humor and resolve to be strong again.  His renewed strength carried him for seven years and nine days to freedom!

The enemy knows when we are encouraged by others, we are harder to destroy and that is why we are going to fight him together.  Just understanding his isolation strategy will give us a whole new ability to recognize when the enemy is pushing us down hypocrite road.

Yes, we are going to fight the enemy with each other and God.  Let’s get started by closing our eyes for just a moment, so we can say two of the most powerful words ever said in all of history.  Are your eyes closed!??

Let’s say, “Our Father” together.  Ready. . .   “Our Father.”   That’s right, “Our Father” – not my father, not your father, but our Father. . .  God is our Father together!  Knowing this, and with the strength of these words, we are absolutely never alone.

Say it again, and then again.  Our Father, our Father.  Did you feel God’s presence?

When we combine “Our Father” with Jesus’ incredible story of the prodigal son, the word’s “Our Father” get even more powerful.  The setting in which Jesus told this story is one where “tax collectors and sinners” had gathered around to hear him.  The Pharisee’s (the religious leaders of the day) muttered their disgust that Jesus would associate with such people.

With that background we can only imagine the tension.  Standing on one side of Jesus are the properly dressed, hands washed, super-religious Pharisees.  On the other side, were poor, rough and regular street people mixed in with some hated tax collectors.  With a smile on Jesus’ face, no one says a word.  And then Jesus continued:

“There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.  Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.  After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.  So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.  He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!  I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him repeatedly.  The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.  But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. . . ” Luke 15:11-32

In this first century setting for the story, it is almost certain that this father and his sons lived in a small village where everyone knew each other quite well.  The farmland would be somewhere outside the village, so in such a village, one can only imagine the enormous amount of gossip and outrage which would occur toward the younger son who so brazenly asked for his inheritance.

Doing such a thing was the same as effectively saying to his father, “I don’t care if you are not dead yet, but I want to treat you as if you are already dead.   And because you are dead to me, I’m going to take right now, that which would someday be mine anyway.”

So he divided his property between them.

Like our Father God’s relationship with us, this father knew that he could not force his son to love him.   So, the father risked everything as he honored his son’s request.   He not only gave up all his property, but in doing so he risked losing his extended family in a time of history when your extended family was your lifeblood.   But most of all, he risked that his youngest son might not ever come back.

It doesn’t take a very big leap to imagine the gossip that would also rage against the father. How the villagers would whisper and point their fingers at the father who granted his son’s request, to thereby be publicly disowned by his son.  Imagine the disgrace.  “I wonder what that father did that made the boy hate him so much” or “I always thought that family had problems…”

This father had everything to lose as he divided his estate.   Now penniless and powerless, the father was at the mercy of his sons, living with one while the other son squandered his share.

Now picture the father gazing down the village street to the dirt path in the distance, everyday looking for his lost son.  Imagine the continued ridicule and scorn by the villagers over the father’s apparent foolishness.  Perhaps the villagers heard reports of the son’s extravagant living…  What a ruckus of new gossip fodder this would cause.

And then one day, it happened. . .  “He ran to his son. . . ”

 

Imagine the silence in the crowd, as Jesus tells the story.  Envision how the father picked up his robe and ran to his son – even though running by an elderly person would be totally undignified.  It only makes sense that the boy would be walking slowly, eyes downcast as he came to the edge of the village, yet the father ran for the pure joy of seeing his lost son.

“And threw his arms around him and kissed him repeatedly.”  What amazing love, as the father (who must have been out of breath) threw his arms around his son and kissed his dirty and ragged boy who was dressed in swineherds clothing, over and over again – before his son even had a chance to confess his apology.

It is the very same way our Father wants to embrace and kiss and hold us, before a word is even spoken, the very moment we turn to him.

So much kissing, not just a drop of the father’s love, but an unmistakable abundance of love and grace.   There could be no hint of doubt to the boy, that his father loved him.

Like the first moment when we give our heart to Jesus, how God pours himself into our being, revealing himself and his infinite love.  The feeling of heavy burden being lifted, seeing Jesus on the cross in a whole new way, the crushing load of our past – immediately gone!

“He kissed him repeatedly.”

So much kissing!  Can you imagine that father holding tight to his son with tears streaming.   Then comes the first release as the father looks up at heaven with tears flooding his eyes, then back at his son and kissing him again, holding him tight, followed by another kiss, and then another out of sheer joy.

Beyond that, the kisses told this son that his prayer was answered, that the father wanted – more than anything – to have his boy back.

Every repeated kiss told the son that he was forgiven.  His sins forgotten, blotted out by the pure joy of having his son return home.   Kiss after kiss told the son that this love was real, there was nothing to doubt, nothing to be questioned about the father’s joy to be reunited.

If the first kisses were given privately, it is quite certain that the father continued his kisses where others could see, so there would be no question that the son was still the father’s child.  Can you see the father walking with his arm around his son into the village, stopping every few steps to kiss his son once again, his face beaming until any unkind remarks would have passed away, killed by the evident joy in the father!

The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”  Some would say that after we are forgiven, there is nothing to confess, but when we feel the Father’s incredible love for us, it makes us see our sins more keenly and makes our confession humble before God.

It was before the son had confessed, that his father had kissed him with so much forgiveness; and yet, after the boy began to speak, there probably came another kiss, by which the father said, “I have forgiven, and have also forgotten.”  The slate is clean.

The father only had eyes of love for his son – no matter what anyone else might say, think or do.  He had no room for words. . .  Only for holding his son and kissing him; ever so thankful that his son was back – restored, made whole.

Extravagant love.  Abundant, excessive, over-the-top love!  This is how our Father in Heaven loves us!

Overflowing love that has no ending.  Love with no boundaries – uncontrolled, lavish and reckless.

Prodigal love.

This is our Father’s love for you and me.  Even when we are sinners and hypocrites.

Our Father is never surprised when we come home, because He is looking for us – longing more than anything – our return.

He runs to us, holds and kisses us when we come back.  Our Father rejoices.   It is a banquet to celebrate the father’s prodigal love.   It is the father’s love that reunited the father with his son.

What a description of our amazing, prodigal Father God!

Oh how our God loves it when we say, “Our Father in Heaven, praise to your name and thank you for loving me so much.”

“Our Father, thank you for seeing so much value in me.”  “Our Father, thank you for holding me and kissing me.”

Jesus wants you and I to celebrate the pure grace of God, our Father’s prodigal love.

Pure grace.

Praise to your name!

The love of God triumphs over sin, over hypocrisy and over works.

When you are lost, God is always there, waiting, looking for an opportunity to take you back home.  God our Father wants to run to you, throw his arms around you and kiss you over and over again with his love – regardless of your sins.  Regardless of being a hypocrite.

I heard someone say, “When we are willing to use our lips for confession, God our Father will use his lips for kissing us.”

“And the father kissed him much.”

 

My friends, if you felt God touching your heart and you want more victory in your life. . .  More  peace, more joy and more abundance, we’d like to offer the free MP3 audiobook or PDF of our book, “Why Wait to Be Happy? – God’s Solutions to Defeating Satan’s Lies.”   Let God’s light shine on you and bless you today!