How many of you would say that generally speaking you want to do what’s right? Raise your hand. You can type in the comments section, I want to do what’s right. You want to obey God. I wish I could say I always want to do what’s right, but a lot of times I don’t. Can I be real honest today? I was in the grocery store and I was in a hurry.

I’m always in a hurry. And I looked up and there was the express line that allowed 10 items. I counted my items and I had 12. And so I thought to myself, 12 is really close to 10. 12 is a spiritual number. Jesus had 12 disciples. There should be 12 in the express line. So what do you think I did? You guessed it.

I quietly and innocently just tried to take my 12 items into the 10 item line. And that’s when it happened. A little sweet innocent voice from behind me said, “Pastor, is 12 the new 10?” And I looked back and there was a really sweet lady wearing a life shirt. And I just I froze. I panicked. And I’m thinking like, do I throw her two items just to make it work? Do I change my voice and act like I’m from Great Britain and run out the door? What do I do? What do I do? And so I just stared at her blankly. I didn’t say anything.

And she smiled and she said, “Pastor, why don’t you just give me your two avocados and we’ll pretend the whole thing never happened.” And there it was. And you say, “Is that whole story true?” And I would say most of it’s true. I did get caught by a lady wearing a Life Church shirt and uh it made me think about how often I’ll actually do that with God.

I’ll know that God wants me to do something and I’ll do some of it or most of it but not all of it. And you might be the same. I’m guessing that there may be times where you tell yourself, “Hey, I’m doing pretty good and there’s just this one area. I’m only human. and I’m I’m a pretty good Christian and if I do this one thing, I know I’m not supposed to, but no one’s really going to notice that it’s really not that big of a deal and God will certainly understand.

We’re in a message series called Christianish. If you missed last week, we defined Christianish as as someone that has a halfhearted faith that wears the label of Christian without truly following Jesus. It’s kind of a a sort of Christian, a almost Christian, a a kind of sort of Christian. And one of the most common qualities of someone who is Christianish, and I know this because I’ve been there, one of the most common qualities of someone who is Christianish is something I call selective obedience.

Selective obedience. You know what this is? It’s like we’re going to do what God’s word tells us to do as long as it’s not too difficult unless God’s asking us too much or if we have a better plan or if we’re in a hurry and we want to go through the express line. It’s selective obedience. I’ll define selective obedience this way.