The Catfish & The Christian
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Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
Explain catfishing… the process of luring someone into a relationship by means of a fictional, unreal online persona…
It is pretending to be someone or something other than a person really is.
Misrepresenting self…
They use fake photos… phony bios… they create bogus educational & employment histories, hobbies, they photoshop themselves into scenes from distant exotic lands… showing themselves in exciting adventures…
Almost always with the aim of catching someone’s attention… to lure them into a conversation with the hope of developing some type of online romance…
They are real people hiding behind a fake profile…
Reasons…
To hide their true identity so no one will know their online… they don’t want to be found out…
Pretending to be someone else to be nosy… to find out information… so they can spy on what somebody else is doing…
Sometimes catfish have poor-self esteem….
They don’t like who they are… don’t like what they see… embarrassed by their blemishes… weight… shape… and assume person on other end won’t like it either…
Catfish are pretenders, posers, counterfeit, frauds…
In the Bible catfish are called hypocrites!
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
A hypocrite is someone, who like catfish, pretend to be something or someone that they aren’t…
It’s a term borrowed from theater… it describes a play actor…
A person on the stage playing a part… acting out a role…
The hypocrite wears a mask… pretending to be something he isn’t…
He’s not real… She is misrepresenting the truth! Putting on a front.
The problem with the hypocrite and the problem with the catfish is misrepresentation… a blatant denial of one’s truth and reality… intentionally presenting a false image or fake self with the goal of deceiving onlookers and
One becomes so absorbed in the alternate identity that he or she forgets or looses touch with who they really are…
In theater this is called “staying in character”… which is good for the stage… but in real life, the lines often become blurred between perception and reality… between the false self and real self… and the true nature of a person is hidden and unknown…
In a world filled with deception and trickery, it’s sometimes hard to distinguish between real and unreal, between fact and fiction. And you can look with your own eyes, and still not be sure if what you are seeing is actually what you are seeing.
Why are we talking about this today?
Because the believer is called to be true to his or her self…
Christians should never be catfish… they should always be who God created them to be and live out the calling to which God has called them…
Christians need not hide behind masks, or pretend to be something they aren’t….
We learn that we are to speak truth…
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Old Testament command against bearing false witness… in other words - don’t like…
Speaking truth is more than just not lying…
Speaking truth has to do with be honest in our conversation… being real… being transparent…
It has to do with being honest with yourself and honest with each other.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
When we speak truthfully with one another… being real and honest and open about where we are in our journey… about our joys and sorrows… about our hopes and disappointments… we position ourselves to grow and we help those around us to grow…
Speaking truthfully isn’t to hurt or injure the person we’re talking to, but rather to help them…
Sometimes people have blind spots… you have blind spots…
we have things that we can’t see or readily identify … there are parts of us that we aren’t aware of…
Colleague came to me about someone else’s hygiene… She didn’t want to hurt or offend our co-worker… but she knew that people were talking about her… but no one was walking to her about the issue…
I asked her a simple question… if it was you, would you want someone to say something to you…. Of course, she answered yes…
So I encouraged her to say something to the coworker in the same way she would want someone to say it to her.
That’s speaking the truth in love…
We are a family within the church body… and just like any family sometimes people do things that are offensive or hurtful… and sometimes they do this without even realizing… it wasn’t intentional… it wasn’t mean spirited… but it still caused hurt or confusion…
This is the case in which Jesus instructed… Matthew 18:15-17 ““If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
Being truthful means being vulnerable… it means exposing your weakness… admitting your failures… it means confessing what you are struggling with…
because in this family… this body of Christ… we are called to help one another…
to strengthen and build one another up...
In order for this building to to take place… we have to be honest with each other about where we are and more importantly - we must be honest with God and most of all have to be honest with ourselves!
Not only are we challenged to speak truth… we are also called to show or demonstrate the truth…
In other words… we should be truthful in our talk… and truthful in our walk…
This has to do with being authentic… being genuine…
It’s a matter of integrity… sincerity and good character…
We are called to be true to ourselves… to be who we really are…
One of the challenges Jesus had with the religious leaders of the day… the Scribes and Pharisees in particular was their inauthenticity… they weren’t real… they hid behind masks… pretending to be purveyors of truth and righteousness when inwardly they were something else…
They were catfishing christianity…
Look at Jesus’ indictments against them…
Matthew 23:13 ““But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.”
Matthew 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”
Matthew 23:23 ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”
Matthew 23:25 ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.”
Matthew 23:27 ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.”
Matthew 23:29 ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,”
On the flip side… the issue the religious leaders had with Jesus was they wanted him to join in their catfishing campaign…
They have been pretending so long, they figured everyone was pretending and they wanted Jesus to join them in their hypocrisy… and he refused…
He refused to dishonor the God who created him… formed him… called him… by pretending to be… or even trying to be something that he wasn’t!
We see many examples of this throughout scripture...
Joseph refused to compromise who he was - he remained true, always waking in integrity.
Even at the risk of life, Daniel refused to succumb to the pressures of his peers to denounce his God and pray to another God...
Hannaniah, Mishael and Azariah - chose to be thrown into a burning fiery furnace instead of denying their true selves and bowing to another God!
They talked the talk and walked the walk… They knew who they were in God and remained true and faithful despite pressures and consequences!
Who’s the catfish?
I have a question… who is the catfish… the hypocrite… who is the phony…
The sinner who sits in the pew Sunday after Sunday… who sometimes falters and falls.. but gets back up and tries again… who is working our their soul salvation and striving to be the person God called them to be?
Or the person in the world… that has little or no regard for God… and who is hell bent on living however they want to live, being and doing what they want… even if it’s not the life God designed for them?
The hypocrite… the catfish is the one who tries to be something other than God intends them to be…
And just the like the religious leaders tried to prevent Jesus from fulfilling his purpose in the earth, we find the same issue we find in the world today…
There are people… whole factions of people… who don’t want you to be who you’ve been created to be… they don’t want you to live out your calling or to fulfill your assignment in the earth!
They offer alternatives… they tempt you with fantasy… they draw you away appealing to your ambition to your lusts and desires…
They want you to abort what God has birthed in you… to disconnect you from your destiny…
They want you to live beneath the station to which God has called you…
To settle for something other than the grace that God extends to you…
They want you to be powerless and empty!
This is why it’s so important for you to know who are you are in God…
For you to understand the calling that God has placed on your life…
So you can be true that calling…
To understand that God’s call and intention for you is…
Deuteronomy 28:12-13 “The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them,”
Lender… head… for you to go up…
Psalm 8:4-5 “what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”
- created a little lower than angels… given dominion in the earth…
1 Pe 2:9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
By truth… the only way you can get to God is in being who God created you to be… being faithful to call that is on your life…
In order to walk in relationship with God… you’ve gotta take the masks off… you can’t catfish God…
God already knows who you are…
So it’s a matter you finding peace with who you are….
You are unique - you are loved - you are fearfully and wonderfully made!
You’re trying to measure up the the worlds standards and people’s expectations… and you’re miserable… depressed… feeling like a failure…
There’s no need for you to keep trying to fit in when God has called you to stand out!
You’re trying to seek the approval and acceptance of people, when God has already approved and accepted you!
Genesis 2:25 “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
When you understand the teaching of Jesus and grasp the truth that God’s love for you is unconditional… that God knows you… and still loves you…
Psalm 139:1-4 “O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.”
Psalm 139:13-16 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”
The Psalmist - you have searched me and known me… you know every thing about me… nothing is hidden from you....
But watch this - in spite of what you know… what you’ve seen… in spite of me - you still love me!
When you grasp this concept… Your whole life changes…
God knows your weaknesses and your flaws….
Your missteps and stumbles…
That’s liberating…
In your weakness… if you humble yourself before him...
he gives you grace… power… strength…
He enables and equips you - to be and to do what he’s called you to do!
You don’t have to hide because of guilt or shame…
You can walk in the truth of who you are… and live out your calling before God more fully!
I’m so glad the God we serve doesn’t require perfection… he doesn’t judge us based on our flaws… our imperfections are beautiful to him...
When I know who I am…
I stop looking for folk’s approval… it doesn’t matter if they accept me or reject me… it doesn’t matter if they don’t even like me… as long as I know God love me, accepts me… and cares about me!
He loves you with an everlasting love… it never ceases… fades…
He created you in his image and after his likeness… his breath is in you…
There’s nothing you can do to make him stop loving you…
So you don’t have to catfish… you don’t have play act and pretend…