Many of you have heard about wolves in sheep’s clothing, but today, I want to talk to you about sheep in wolves’ clothing.

Some people wonder how a guy with a strong Reformed background ended up going to Oral Roberts University — so let me tell you! When I was 15, I moved to Oklahoma and went to a Pentecostal Christian high school. While I was attending that school, my sister began attending ORU, and she invited me to a series of incredible worship nights that they would have on campus — I believe they were called Vespers. Anyway, they would start around 7:00 or 8:00 in the evening and they offered a time of amazing spontaneous praise to God that would often last for three or four hours. Since these sessions had such a huge impact on my Spiritual life, when it came time to choose a college, it was pretty much a given. I wanted to be with these kinds of God-seeking people who worshipped with transparency and nakedness. However, nothing is quite as it seems, and this is when my journey got tough. Once I started attending the university, I quickly realized that some of the individuals I had placed on a pedestal were really very immature and shallow, in spite of having the appearance of deep spirituality. It might sound dramatic, but I was disillusioned when I figured out that a few of the people I originally thought were “the bad guys,” (i.e. the ones who sat in the back and didn’t participate a ton), were actually the deeper and more mature Jesus-followers. This is how I figured out the power of the presence of sheep in wolves’ clothing.

Friend, don’t judge people who are rough around the edges or dismiss them as being “unspiritual” just because they don’t look or act the way you think they should. The heart-searching love of Jesus quickly sees beyond false pretenses and penetrates to the soul. I urge you, as a mature Christ-follower, to look beyond the surface and seek out the eternal worth that God sees in each person. As you do, your world will expand and you will be blessed by the glory of His “upside-down” Kingdom! Isn’t that wonderful news?