I had an interesting conversation with one of our members at Garden Ridge last week. He asked me how the sign-up for the prayer & fasting time was looking and I informed him that at the moment there were only about 10 out of 48 time slots signed up for (this was on Tuesday, just 3 days from the prayer and fasting time to begin). His response struck me! Hard! He said, “That really scares me! Why do so many of our church members believe our prayers won’t make any difference?” I believe his question is one we had better wrestle with, or stop calling ourselves a church! (If you are reading this article, you may have just said to yourself, “WHOA—how did you jump that far? What do you mean we are not a church?”)
The last letter written to the churches of Asia in Revelation 3:14-22 deals with a church that has become lukewarm. From the things stated in V. 17, they are apparently an affluent church and their ability to provide for themselves has caused them to go blind (spiritually). They are able to take care of their own needs, which has led to a scary and serious problem—they do not even realize that Jesus is NOT among them! He is on the outside, knocking on the door to get in, but they are so busy with their trivial pursuits that He does not know whether they will come open the door for Him (V. 20). They may not even hear Him! Now, seriously, how can you be a church if Jesus is not in your presence? (OK—so now you are probably saying to yourself, “What does the church of Laodicea and their problems have to do with us?”)
Suppose we became so focused on our own pursuits that we neglected the things Jesus wanted us to give our time, energy and focus upon? Let me say it this way: If Jesus was truly in our midst, what things would He be pursuing? What did He give His time, energy and focus to while He walked upon this earth? How much time did He give to sharing the love and teachings of His Father with everyone He could spend time with? Now compare the minimal efforts most of us make to share the teachings of God with those around us who are not in a right relationship with Him. Could it be that we are the lukewarm church Jesus is writing to in Revelation 3:14-20? Is it possible that He has been knocking, trying to get our attention, but we have been so busy with other things that seem important that we have ignored His knocking? Is this an area we try to ignore because it only reveals the “shame of [our] nakedness;” or demonstrates our need for “eye salve” because we are spiritually blind—V. 18?
God has a plan for the body at Garden Ridge! He wants to see us succeed in going into all the world with His Good News and making disciples. He wants that truth to produce fruit in our lives that demonstrates how real He is and how good it is to live according to His will. But, isn’t it all just a foolish masquerade if we do not believe our prayers make any difference? Our prayer life is a barometer of the trust we have in our Father, and of our willingness to be submissive to His direction. Our prayer life reveals whether we believe God will act on our behalf. Our prayer life is a way to show the world that there is something different about our “religion” because there is something special about our God! He is personal and intimate! (LET’S TALK MORE ABOUT THIS NEXT WEEK!)
Click to listen to this week's sermon.
-Scott
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1 comment:
Scott,
One of the thoughts I have been having recently... in light of the fact that we are called to be a holy nation, kingdom of priests, a people belonging to God, aliens and strangers in the world... is that sharing our faith is difficult and unnatural for so many of us because we aren't really all that different from the world around us. We blend in when it comes to our economics, movie and television and music choices, our faith in a political system and nation rather than a King and kingodm, etc. Yes, we go to church and we try to be polite, have good morals (cuss less, drink less,cheat less than others), and sometimes we even put bumper stickers on our cars, wear t-shirts with Christian sayings, etc, but we struggle to have a deep and authentic relationship with the Father and other belieivers that calls us into deeper community in a way that is vastly different from the world around us. We allow Oprah and American Idol gives back and the democratic party to do the good works that God has called us to as His children.
So, it is not easy for us to share this "gospel" with others because it it appears to be nothing more than a watered down version of Jesus' Gospel in that it it is more about rule keeping and putting on our masks so that we look good for one another on Sundays and less about caring for the widows and orphans and the multitudes of marginalized all around us.
Lord, may you call us to embrace your Gospel and to look different from the world, so that they may see the good deeds we do in your name and praise You.
Amen
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