What It's Like To Be A Pharisee...

Now, before I tell you what it's like to be a Pharisee, just know that we're not all the same. Pharisees are like Baskin Robbins. There are many flavors.

I was a Pharisee for many years until the Lord changed my heart.  Okay, I was a Pharisee this morning when I was glad I wasn't like someone else...I confess.

As a kid raised in the local Church, I followed all the rules: "Don't smoke, don't chew, and don't go with the girls who do..."  From my experience, a list of don'ts was the way of the Church kid of the 90's.

Here's how a Church kid can become a Pharisee:  He/she can make it through the "peer-pressure years" of high school and college having abstained from sexual (intercourse), cussing (out lout), smoking, and drinking....and then feel pretty darn good about him/herself.  And that's the beginning phases of a Pharisee.

And Pharisees hate other Pharisees.  In Bible college, I remember walking up to my dorm and seeing a kid sitting cross cross holy style and praying with his eyes closed and face pointed to Heaven.  My first thought was, "look at that Pharisee!"  Then, I was praying in my dorm room, on my knees with the lights out and my friend Billy walked in without knocking.  My first thought was, "Yes!  Somebody saw me praying humbly in my room with the doors closed!"

A Pharisee hears a sermon and things, "Thank God I don't struggle with that verse.  God I hope someone body in Chruch here today listens to this message and applies it in their life."

A Pharisee hears what others are struggling with and praises God that they aren't like that person:  "Man.  That's horrible.  I'm so thankful I don't struggle with THAT sin."

A Pharisee is BLIND to their need for the savior.

A Pharisee is so awesome in his own opinion that he does not feel like he needs the Savior.  He's just glad he's not like everyone else who does.  It begins to get real messy because this type of mindset starts to protect themselves by projecting false images of themselves.

When they step into some sin, they cover it up and hide behind, "God knows me, so nobody else needs to know me."

A Pharisee will not be a part of a community of vulernability and transparency because their lack of awesomeness will be revealed and they will be known; then they will be like everyone else - in need of a savior.

This is just a glimpse of what it's like to be a Pharisee.  It's a draining, tiresome, frustrating life.

When a Pharisee gets saved, it's the opposite.  They see the brokenness of others and thank God that they are just like them: "Lord, I see that person's brokenness.  How can I come alongside them and encourage them in my own brokenness?"

It's so freeing to know we can celebrate in our brokenness because it is a daily reminder that we are in need of the Savior.