Luke 7:39
Thought: In worship, we must seek to honor the gravity of what took place on the Cross when Jesus died for our sins.
I preach in churches of all sizes as I go about being engaged in interim pastorates and filling in for preachers who have to be gone from their pulpits for one reason or another. I also love to go into churches and help them with revivals and Bible conferences. It is a great privilege to be asked to fill the pulpit for a preacher friend for I know what a sacred place the pulpit is for anyone who is serious about his call to “preach the Word.”
Because I preach in so many kinds of churches, it stands to reason that I would be able to get a good picture of what is happening in our churches today and what I find is disappointing to say the least. There is a general “malaise” in the vast majority of churches today, especially the smaller ones with a hundred or less in church on Sunday. Somehow, over the years the energy and expectancy has vanished and the people are simply coming to a particular place on Sunday to do what they have always done. Worship for them has turned into an apathetic, lifeless endeavor which is as dead as a hammer spiritually.
There should be an expectancy in the Christian life. A genuine desire to be where the Lord is should drive people to be present when the people come together to worship. A deep personal relationship with the Lord should be the driving force in getting people to worship Him. Sadly, the emphasis has changed dramatically. As our nation prospered, the people saw themselves as needing God less and less. We had it all in hand. We could handle it. Nothing was going to stop us. So, the awareness of the spiritual side of life started to grow weak. This attitude is found over and over in the Bible and God’s reaction to it was not a pleasant one. In the Scripture, God warns His people about “going to Egypt” for help when they should have called on Him in the first place. Our churches have done and are doing that exact same thing.
About thirty years ago, some well known “pastors” decided that the thing to do was that churches should follow the “Disney” model in order to attract people and prosper. The situation is too involved to paint a complete picture here but suffice it to say that churches today are seeking to spiritualize the world’s methods in order to attract a crowd while at the same time trying to convince the people that it is all o.k. If we are pleased then surely God is. It’s a secular approach to a spiritual situation. Too many sermons today are about social things like money management and happiness and not about the life changing experience of being saved from this crooked generation. In general, churches are being trained to depend on things other than God. This all points to the fact that worship, to most people today has become an “activity.” The louder the better. The more like a rock concert the better. The more lights and smoke the better. The more “hoopla” the better. Somewhere in the midst of all of this the people are being imprinted with the idea that this is what God likes and requires. They are learning that God is a “casual” God and will accept just about anything as worship. Christianity is at the weakest point in America and the world that I can remember in my lifetime and it is because we have turned to “Egypt” for success that will satisfy US. The only “change” that many look for is an adjustment in what is being done in the “worship” experience to make it more interesting this time than it was at the last gathering.
You see, “Egypt” only offers what WE think WE need. God just needs to get used to it. Sorry, won’t work. The moral and spiritual influence that the church should give to society is being lost as the church allows the world to influence it more than it influences the world. Society loves a church that will play with it much more than it respects a church which is suppose to influence it in a Godly way.
Jesus did not die on the cross so that we could live the way people used to. He died to enable us to live differently; on a higher plane, not a lower one. God’s people should RUN from the influence of “Egypt” not to it. We are looking in the wrong place for “success” as we deem it. And, believe me, we are talking about two very different things when we speak of our idea of success and God’s idea of success. Two totally different things.
We are told in the Bible that the church is the spiritual “body of Christ”. We are also told that He is the Head of that body. Let me ask this question: If one reads the Bible about Jesus and observes Him and His life and death on the cross for our
sins, what kind of image does one get? The gravity of His life becomes very apparent. The seriousness of His life, death and resurrection overwhelms us. If we are the spiritual body of Christ do you think that Jesus would be performing as so many churches do today. Can you see Jesus causing people to follow the world’s methods as is the case in many churches today? We are actually telling Him that He, Himself and His Spirit are not enough! We have to augment our worship with help from “Egypt” to get people to come to church as if coming and participating is all there is to it.
I tell you people…Christianity is in trouble and it is of our own making. We have made it all too easy just as we have done everything else in our society. The Christian life should be a changed and profound life. It is a life which is to honor the Lord Jesus. The church is to be used to honor Him, not to make him palatable to a world which is looking for a cheap, quick and fun way to go to heaven. We are suppose to be different. Salvation must provide a new direction or it wasn’t real. And, a new way does not emulate the old. It is different!
When the cross is confronted, one cannot stand still. They cannot turn around and go back to where they were; back into the world. They must go on forward to and through the cross experience to the other side where the Christian life gives them a new life and a new meaning. If one is to have a new life then there has to be a change or life isn’t new. And, when it is new, there is a new direction and a new purpose, a new way of thinking, a new way of living.
Don’t go to “Egypt” for help. Don’t seek success on a worldly scale. It is FAR less rewarding than the “success” God has planned for you. Don’t go to “Egypt” for safety and success.
