A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Here is one example:
Daniel Boone was a man,
Yes a big man!
With an eye like an eagle
And as tall as a mountain was he!

From the coonskin cap on the top of ol' Dan
To the heel of his rawhide shoe;
The rippin'est, roarin'est, fightin'est man
The frontier ever knew!

The truth was Daniel Boone was 5’ 8” and did not like coonskin hats. He favored hats made from beaver. After one painter had done a picture of Boone, he hired an actor to dress like him to drum up sales of the prints. However, the actor couldn’t find a beaver hat, so substituted a coonskin hat. The actors performances were a hit and the coonskin hat’s association with Boone stuck.

This series is NOT about THOSE kinds of TALL TALES. Usually those kinds of tall tales are just stories for entertainment. The TALL TALES we are going to talk about are much more insidious, which means “gradual, subtle, but harmful”. The TALL TALES in this series are a few of the stories or lies that many of us tell ourselves. This series is going to identify the truth in these 4 TALL TALES, so that we can experience God’s BEST for us. Last week I talked about this TALL TALE:

· “I would be happy IF____________”

If you missed that, I encourage you to go back and watch it on our YouTube channel or listen to the podcast.

Today, I want to talk about another TALL TALE that we have ALL, most likely, told ourselves at some point in our life. Before I give you the lie, let’s read 1 passage of Scripture that will point the way.

Here is the TALL TALE you and I are tempted by:

· “At least, I am better than ___________”

Who have you filled in that blank with in your life?
· At least, I am better than…that stinky kid
· At least, I am better than…that drug addict
· At least, I am better than…that Muslim
· At least, I am better than…that Democrat or that Republican
· At least, I am better than…that atheist
· At least, I am better than…that abuser
· At least, I am better than…that thief
· At least, I am better than…that scoundrel, that jerk, that driver, that co-worker

Isn’t comparison like this unhealthy? It’s too easy to:

Compare your highlight reel moments with their backstage or vice versa.

You come out looking really good in comparison or you feel really low. Neither is helpful.

But how often do we make ourselves feel better OR look better by comparing ourself to someone we view as BENEATH us. SO UGLY! AT LEAST, I’M BETTER THAN _____________”

The things that we have filled that blank with in our life have no limit. Unfortunately, I can remember SEVERAL people or groups that I have put in THAT blank in my life.

· Many years ago, after I gave my life to Christ, I felt convicted on my music choices and threw away all of my secular music. It wasn’t long before I started looking down on others that listened to music that wasn’t singing about God in some way. I started to think that maybe they weren’t REALLY Christians…
· At another point in my early faith life, it was movies. I was amazed at some of the movies that other…so called…Christians would go see. Are they REALLY Christians?
· I can remember judging others that were addicted to substances. “Why can’t they just stop?” I would roll my eyes at the thought of addiction being considered ‘a disease’. I still don’t know if it is a disease or not. I do know this, after being around SO MANY and watching them struggle and stumble and many die…I’ve been told that it CERTAINLY FEELS like a disease.
· Let me be clear. I still have personal convictions, based on my understanding of Scripture that prevent ME from drinking alcohol, that form MY convictions on what I watch or listen to. However, I no longer condemn others in my heart, and hold them to MY standard. Those are issues, along with many others that people of real faith can disagree on.

· Are you still believing this TALL TALE? What’s in your blank? We’ve ALL done it!

“At least, I am better than ___________”

Let’s take a test:
How do you RANK the following sins?
· Rape
· Gossip
· Pornography
· Gluttony
· Greed
· Cursing
· Putting something or someone in front of God
· Being lazy
· Fighting
· Being divisive
· Dishonoring your parents
· Crude jokes
· Any sexual expression outside of a husband/wife situation
· Stealing
· Participating in human trafficking
· Pedophiles
· Gambling
· Racism
· Breaking promises
· Coveting
· Self-Righteousness
· I have some GREAT news for you!

Christ died for EVERY SINGLE SIN on that list and the one’s that I didn’t list.

NO ONE can OUT-SIN Christ’s work on the cross

However, how often have we made some sort of self-righteous judgment on our own? Perhaps we didn’t verbalize it. Maybe no one else knew what we were thinking, but inside we allowed ourselves to think:

· “At least, I am better than ___________”

And this isn’t a modern lie, it’s an ancient one. It’s a sin of misdirection. It’s the magicians lie. A good magician wants to get you to look somewhere ELSE, so he can complete the ‘trick’.

When we tell ourselves THIS lie, we are trying to misdirect others attention, or even God’s attention. It’s our way of saying, “I’m not THAT bad! I mean LOOK at THAT person. In the NT, there were multiple groups of people that were VERY confident of how righteous they were. They were GOOD people. Jesus had some strong words for them:

What was the Pharisee’s main focus here?

· “At least, I am better than ___________”

Thank you God, that I am not like THAT guy!

We must be careful! Legalism and labelism can be summed up this way.
· I can do it
· I’m better than you
· WE are better than you
· You need to measure up to OUR way of doing things

The WAY of GRACE is summed up THIS way:
· I can’t do it – but Christ did it for me!
· I’m just the same as you, so let me encourage you!
· We all belong to the same body of Christ and are all equal.
· We need to let the Spirit rule, serving one another in love

Here’s the truth:
· Coming to church is a GOOD thing…
· Giving our tithe is a GOOD thing…
· Coming to a Wednesday night class is a GOOD thing…
· Being in a Bridge Group is a GOOD thing…
· Reading the Bible daily is a GOOD thing…
· Praying daily is a GOOD thing…

But those things alone don’t make us GOOD and can NEVER be our focus! It is CHRIST IN US that makes the difference. So instead of…

“At least, I am better than ___________”

I think I know why Paul could say that and believe it. He wasn’t comparing himself to others around him. He was comparing himself to Christ.

Horizontal comparison is destructive to our souls. We either justify bad behavior or we settle where we are at as GOOD ENOUGH!

Vertical comparison is healthy and inspirational. We can see that we fall really short but know where we are headed, and who we are BECOMING…
But when we lose sight of OUR SINFULNESS and get self-righteous…and look down on someone else, what incredible damage has been done to the body of Christ because of that ONE lie?

Mahatma Gandhi wrote in his autobiography that during his student days he read the Gospels seriously and considered converting to Christianity. He believed that in the teachings of Jesus he could find the solution to the caste system that was dividing the people of India. So one Sunday he decided to attend services at a nearby church and talk to the minister about becoming a Christian. When he entered the sanctuary, however, an usher refused to give him a seat and suggested that he go worship with his own people. Gandhi left the church and never returned. ‘IF Christians have caste differences also, I might as well remain a Hindu.’

How would you like to be THAT usher when he stands before Christ in judgment?

Now before we judge HIM too harshly, don’t we need to search our own hearts? Remembering WE will be judged not just on the words that we actually SPOKE, but on the THOUGHTS that we had.

See, in the sermon on the Mount Jesus raised the bar from our actions to our thoughts.

He also equates anger with murder. Now, perhaps you have been a wonderful person your entire life. But is that fully true in your THOUGHT life too? I can’t speak for you, but if anger = murder and lust = adultery then I am worse off than I thought. We MUST recognize how much of God’s wrath we DESERVE.

Far too often, we DO have a personal ranking system. And whatever OUR sin is…is usually not the worst. We have LOTS of sins we rule as being much WORSE than ours. SO THAT we can say:

· “At least, I am better than ___________”

But to truly appreciate what Christ did for US on the cross, we MUST recognize,

I am NOT better than ANYONE. I DESERVE God’s wrath!

We are NOT better than ANYONE!

Looking forward to Jesus, the prophet Isaiah said:

When you stand there, do you want YOUR righteousness or His?

When I stand IN JUDGEMENT before God, I do NOT want to stand there with my record of sins done, thoughts I’ve had, fits I’ve thrown. I want Jesus to REPRESENT me before the Father. When I place my TRUST in Jesus, my record is expunged. If you were able to search heaven’s database, my record would be clean, but NOT because of me. Because Jesus exchanged His record for mine. He took the wrath of God that I deserved, so that I could receive grace.

I am NOT better than ANYONE! Just better off because of receiving His GRACE!

I NEED GOD’S GRACE! Let us NEVER forget that!

Have you traded your record with Christ’s perfection? We do THAT by placing our TRUST in HIM fully and alone for our salvation. There is NOTHING that I can do to earn it. It is by recognizing THAT, that we can receive GRACE and MERCY. We KNOW we DESERVE wrath! THAT is what makes it GRACE!

Are you going to be like the Pharisees and compare yourself to those around you and say “I don’t NEED anything. I'm goo. At least, I’m better than THAT guy…Or will you be like the Tax Collector, beat your chest and cry “Have mercy on me a sinner!” Laying our soul bare before God, completely independent of ANYONE else, no matter what they think of us. NONE of us should be so prideful as to think we are too good or too bad to kneel before God. Let’s compare ourselves to JESUS and WEEP at how short we fall to HIS STANDARD and HOW GRATEFUL we are of HIS GRACE! This is the perspective that inspires us to BECOME more like JESUS!