A Church Full of Hypocrites

“I’m not going to church, it’s full of hypocrites.”

 

I’m sure you’ve either said it, or heard it said.

 

Well, then, if the church is full of hypocrites, you should want to come, because you’ll fit right in.

 

And if you’re not a hypocrite, then you should also want to come, because then you’ll provide the needed balance.

 

Either way, if you call yourself a Christian, you can’t use the “hypocrites” excuse. Christians want to come to church. It is the hypocrites who don’t.  

 

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Church and the Secular Mindset

Secularism is the dominant idea today that guides peoples’ lives. Unfortunately, many professing believers are succumbing to a secular mindset in one very important way.

Exposing a secular mindset

First, you need to realize that secularism means “this age”. To the secular worldview, what matters is the temporal world. Any ideas about the eternal shouldn’t influence how we act as a society, and religion gets in the way of modernization and human flourishing. In other words, secularism isn’t concerned with cosmic ideas such as heaven and hell (expressed in John Lennon’s song Imagine). It is all about this age, and getting the most out of this life.

Exercising a secular mindset

This secular mindset is what professing believers are adopting, even if unwittingly, when they treat church as if their attendance or absence has no bearing on the life and health of the institution that Jesus started and is expressed in local assemblies. Your absence is a testament to your secular mindset. Your actions speak loudly, that church doesn’t matter all that much. You’ve got your ticket to heaven and that’s all that matters for the next life, so you can just go and live this life, you don’t need church. But you do need the church, and the church needs you. It isn’t some secondary matter, and to treat it as optional or occasional is to give into the secular mindset.

Your attendance matters

Jesus said that he will build the church, and the local church is the visible expression of the Lord’s promise being fulfilled. Do you want to the local church to die out? You can say “no”, but when you don’t go, you are contributing to the death of the local church expression. Church is important to God. Corporate worship is important to God. Corporate worship is important for you. Corporate worship is important for the life and health of the local church. For Christians, corporate worship is our most important hour of the week. Nothing else takes precedence over the worship of God. When you purposefully miss church, you are missing the most important hour of the week. What could possibly take priority over God’s ordained means? You need to make church a non-negotiable habit, just like eating or sleeping, something you skip only in the rarest of circumstances, and something you resume as soon as you possibly can.     

Think about it

When you are absent, what are you saying to the culture? What are you saying to new believers? What are you saying to your brothers and sisters in Christ? What are you saying to Jesus? When you decide not to go, are you contributing to the strength of the local church, or are you contributing to the decline of the local church? Do you think Jesus cares? Which matters more, what he thinks about it, or how you feel about it?    

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Miracles & Means (Radio / Podcast)

Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat.
(Luke 8:55 – NIV)

Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead. The body without the spirit is dead (James 2:26), but Jesus is the giver of life. He spoke to her as if she was alive because God “quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17).

Notice that she was given meat to eat; you see, although Jesus performed in the supernatural realm that did not mean that natural means were not used as well. She was brought back to life, but her life was not now supernaturally different, it would have to be lived as it was before she died. She had not eaten for a long time and she needed food. Likewise Elijah was given super speed by the hand of the Lord (1 Kings 18:46), but he probably needed a drink of water afterwards!

Applying this to our lives is important. For example, after we have received a healing or deliverance, say from cancer caused by smoking, we cannot just go back to our habit and expect to still remain unhurt. A supernatural intervention does not negate all the laws of physics from that point on, because a “miracle”, or God moving in an overtly providential way (healing, deliverance, etc.) is for a specific thing and a specific time. You get a second chance, another choice, but not a permanent vacation from responsibility.

Consider that the Israelites still had to walk across the Red Sea, and later they still had to look up at the brazen serpent, otherwise they would have died. It is not hard to imagine that some saw this provision as foolishness, and died as a result of not obeying God. Similarly we must cooperate with God and not fall back to our old ways and make the grace of God of none effect.

Whom the Son sets free is free indeed, let us not run back to the jail cell, or be so hasty to place the shackles back on our feet. When we are set free from bondage, we are only setting ourselves up for more problems if we do not turn to something else. How terribly often have we heard of or known someone (or been someone!) that has overcome an addiction, only to pick it back up again worse than before. This is why we should listen to Peter (2 Peter 2:20-22) talk about the passage in Proverbs 26:11 that says the dog returns to his vomit again.

We need new food. We must feed on Christ, and not just be free from Satan. We need to be released from the enemy’s power, for sure, but we must not become a “dry place” that is, we must stay “wet” with the overflow of the Spirit in our lives (John 7:37-39). This is why we must trade our old habits for newer, godly ones, we must spend our time not idle, but engaging in spiritual disciplines such as bible study and prayer, and have an accountability factor in our lives to assure us that we don’t slide back into sin. This is a powerful reason to understand why we need to be plugged in to a local body of believers. God often shows His providential provision thorough conventional channels, His supernatural power through natural means.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

The Devil’s Cologne (Radio / Podcast)

If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
(2 Thessalonians 3:10)

People become disenchanted with the local church, but they should have never become “enchanted” in the first place. We are supposed to dig in and plant seeds, not simply pick flowers. When the pleasing aroma wears out, and the novel gives way to the familiar, then the arduous task of willing work must be taken up. If you are not planting then you are only picking, and the flowers will run out, and then so will you.

We are supposed to grow with other gardeners. The exhortations to “one another” in the NT do not make sense without active, ongoing participation in the same local church; certainly they must include more than that, but certainly not less. When we become intoxicated with what we can smell as we casually walk through, while never also allowing our own efforts to be coupled in that place of planting with others, then we are guilty of stealing from someone else’s garden.

Visiting and enjoying churches is fine; never committing to a local church through thick and thin is not. We are always looking for some new intoxicating place, and we are always surrounding ourselves with sweet scents, and never mind the manure required in growing things, we avoid any sense of that scent. In doing so we think we are part of something pleasant, but we are part of something pernicious. Careful there; you may be wearing a false fragrance.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

The Altar of Adrenaline (Radio / Podcast)

…watch out, you who live in your own light and warm yourselves by your own fires…
(Isaiah 50:11 – NLT)

What is it that energizes you? Most people work in the strength they already have. (Isaiah 50:10-11 / Jeremiah 2:12-13 / 17:5). This is what I call the “altar of adrenaline”. Are you living out of the energy of your flesh, or has God begun redefining the way you live by renewing your energy in Him? We’ve said before that bitterness is what energizes some if not most people. You see if we are being energized by our bitterness, we are not and indeed cannot be energized by God.

Do you have an altar of adrenaline? Some people are so used to being sad, they have learned to derive energy from it. They resign themselves to living in that state, and draw their power to live from it. When they hear a little bit of bad news, they immediately go into their adrenaline mode to be able to cope, and actually bring on more pain to give them more energy. Being sad spurs them on in a sense.

The same goes for anger. We create situations where we are angry at something that didn’t even happen. We imagine for a moment the “what if it did”, and become adrenalized and feed off the only source of energy that will satisfy us. We may even get up in the morning and dream up a scenario that will raise our ire, just because it gets us going. This is the reason for the road rage drug and its disproportionate response. This is why some people get high; they instinctively recognize a problem but don’t know how to deal with it other than muffle it through drugs, legal or illegal.

We have got to get a new workplace – the prophetic and not the pathetic. We are not victims we are victors. We are always to be working for the Lord. We need the right source of energy to do the right kind of work; otherwise all our work for God is wasted and becomes mere words.

People may not believe a word you say, but they will believe everything you do. When your actions line up with your words the conviction that people will see in you will herald the revolution to those whom God would call. You become greater than mere words, and larger than life. This principle holds true for churches too. We say that we are a loving fellowship, but will we prove it by loving the undeserving? Many can talk the talk; will we walk the walk?

We walk the walk by working together in God’s energy. Working together – its like fishing with a net versus a single rod. Instead of using our linked arms to pull each other up all the time (we do it when necessary), we need to get together on the same page. When we are walking and worshipping at the same pace, our linked arms are much more than a support device, they become a net to catch others. Casting a line catches one at a time; casting a net is better yet. Jesus said “I will make you fishers” – plural – of men.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

They Are Connected (Radio / Podcast)

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
(Ephesians 5:32 – ESV)

The whole of Ephesians 5 is referring to relationships, and Paul gives us some invaluable insight, as through this chapter we see that marriage, church, and God are all connected. The commitment to one and the others are all mirrored by each other. These aspects about commitment are something we dare not gloss over. Let’s take a look at marriage, and then connect the other relationships.

Whether it is for premarital or marital counseling, we need to be clear about commitment. We often understand the bottom line, “I will not quit” facet of our vows. We are committing to covenant with the other person in an unbreakable bond, with God as the glue. However, we often are not told or do not understand that this also includes positive action, the “I will keep building this relationship” facet. It is a continuing project, with Jesus being the foundation stone and the mortar between the bricks.

The truth is that when making a marriage covenant, it is not just a commitment to avoid breaking up the relationship; it is also a commitment to be actively building up the relationship. It isn’t just “I won’t cheat on you” it is “I won’t cheat from you” by failing to give your all to the relationship, holding back a corner of your heart.

This is true for all types of counseling, and discipleship. Liken these “breaking up” and “building up” principles to our relationship with the Lord, which Paul does liken to marriage and our relationship to the church. These things are connected, so says Paul with words written with the pen of Inspiration. If you are not building your relationship to your wife, your relationship to God is suffering. If you are not building your relationship to your God, your relationship to your wife is suffering. If you are not building your relationship to your local church, your relationship to God is suffering, and your relationship to your brothers and sisters in Christ is suffering.

If you are not actively building your relationship to your wife, your God, and your local church, what exactly are you spending your time on? Paul was in jail when he wrote the book of Ephesians, yet he was still focused on building up the local bodies of believers.

Do you realize that if you are not building these things that you are in effect breaking them down? We can say that we will never lose our trust in the Lord, and we will be committed to the church, but are we actively building up those relationships, or are we fooling around in our marriage to God and our brothers and sisters? It is time to stop being just a cheerleader who says they are on the team while wearing another team’s jersey. It is time to start building your relationship to your wife, to your church, and to your God. Not just “I won’t break up”, but “I will build up”. Many think they haven’t broken up but they have broken away, and that certainly isn’t building up, it is tearing down.

All the assertions of “I won’t give up” are no good if there is not an active “I will build up” attached to it. They are connected. Are you?

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

God Knows My Heart

submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ
(Ephesians 5:21 – ESV)

Some people might think that in talking so much about being filled with the Spirit that I am touting an overly personal, mystical, and esoteric Christianity, but no, I am preaching about Biblical Christianity, and it is those who want to live outside the experience of church life that are actually having their own brand of experimental Christianity, and they count their personal experience as somehow equal to God’s design. It seems more holy to them, and so they think they are being godly, but they are becoming their own God. Their will is to do sanctification their own way, but we don’t have the right or the true freedom to do that, because it isn’t God’s will. It may look shiny but it is actually selfish.

Think about it, and how many people who think they are saved are counting on some experience or something they think is deep inside them that is good, and they talk about God when you are near, or they send you religious emails and all that, or they will come to church once in a blue moon and they will relate to you of some experience they have had, but they haven’t had the born again experience! It’s obvious.

Now I am not saying all religious emails are bad, but more often than not they are just promoting the American civil religion, the pick yourself up by the bootstraps, rugged individualism ideal that has nothing to do with the Spirit of God exalting Jesus Christ in your life. Again, I am not against people talking to me about things that inspire them, but this doesn’t justify them from their sin in God’s sight! You don’t need to prove to me how holy you are.

How many times have you heard, “well, God knows my heart”? This happens so very often with people who want to justify themselves from the fact that they are blatantly ignoring the teachings of the Bible. Now if someone is actively longing and looking for committed fellowship and discipleship, well their intentions are indeed known to God, and He will help them, and I am not criticizing them at all. However, most are not trying and wanting that, they are trying and wanting to get out of having to be a vital part of a local church. They say, well God knows my heart, and I say yes, He absolutely does, they are right about that. The problem is that while God knows your heart, YOU don’t know your heart, and let me prove it to you. You say God knows your heart, and God says the Bible is how you know what He is thinking about your heart.

Hebrews 4:12 – For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

His Word reveals the condition of your heart, and this passage in Ephesians tells you what God says being filled with the Spirit looks like. So no matter what you think your heart looks like, God says that if you aren’t speaking, singing, sanctifying, and submitting to others in a community of believers, then you are not filled with the Spirit. Yes God knows your heart, and He uses His Word to reveal to you the condition of it.

Proverbs 28:26 (KJV) – He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Proverbs 21:2 – Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.

Perhaps it is time to pray Psalm 19:12-14 / Psalm 139:23-24, and then ask God to show you from His Word about that “heart surgery” you need.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Filling or Faking

always giving thanks to God the Father for each other in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
(Ephesians 5:20 – NET)

We can see from this text (Ephesians 5:15-21) that being filled with the Spirit is God’s will, very easy to see, right? Well, let’s think about that because you cannot tell me you are filled with the Spirit if you don’t go to church. This passage makes it obvious that you are not. If you are not plugged in, you are losing power.

A person who wants to believe that they can stay away from church and grow might say, “Well I am living better than I ever have, I sin less, I am a better Christian”. No, you only think you are, this text teaches that you are foolish, you are using selfish measures, you are not living out your holiness in the midst of all us sandpaper people, you’re cheating, and your growth is just your head swelling ‘cause you don’t cuss no more.

You are cheating on us too, because you aren’t giving your gifts back to God’s people, the very gifts God has given you for others. It’s not only what you aren’t doing, but what you are doing. You might not be sinning by commission, but by omission, and really it’s both. You may not be cursing as much by staying home, but you are cursing God’s design for the sanctification of your life. You may not be getting drunk with alcohol, but you aren’t drinking deep at the fountain of God’s Spirit, you are wallowing in the shallow waters of kiddy-pool Christianity. Life in the Spirit is cultivated in the context of a local church community.

You need to follow God’s design because if not you will fall further away from the faith, guaranteed. You need to examine yourself in the light of this text, and in the light of His Word, not just the bits you enjoy. You see it is especially dangerous when your measure is your personal ideas about holiness, because especially if your personal, biblically under-examined experience convinces you that all is well, that is what truth becomes to you regardless of what judgment the Word of God says to that experience. You need to look at the light of this text.

Listen to me carefully; even if you seem to be doing worse when you consistently come to church, the biblical truth is that you are still being sanctified by it. It is just like having those rough patches in your marriage; it is all part of God using it to sanctify you and your spouse. Marriage will give you the butt whipping you need!

If you are not married this doesn’t exclude you, I was just using marriage as an illustration, and it still applies to singles, young people, widows and widowers, and everyone else. Eventually your Christianity has to work itself out in a certain place at a certain time. Regardless of where you end up, you will experience tension and have problems. The truth is that this imperfection may be precisely what you need in order to deepen in the knowledge of God.

You need to be filled with the Spirit, and it is done in the context of church and living a godly life in its community! Stop being a fake, and start getting filled; let the good times roll!

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

How to Have a Good Time

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit
(Ephesians 5:18 – ESV)

The verses surrounding our text speak of what being filled with the Spirit looks like. Being filled with the Spirit means doing His will, and part of how that is lived out is explained in the chapter. Be sure to notice that marriage time IS spiritual time!

Yes, this verse is telling us, “Don’t get drunk”, but we should consider the fuller context. Paul is using drinking to excess as a tool to show things that are unwise (vs.15), selfish uses of time (vs.16), foolish, and out of God’s will (vs.17). This applies to anything we are addicted to or anything that is a waste of godly time. Get excited about godly things that will fill you with true joy, not excessive exuberance brought about by a false hope you’re using to cope. You have got to change what you think is a good time. Paul is saying that if we want a Spirit filled revival in our lives, we need to wake up (vs.14).

No one drinks like that to bless people; you don’t get drunk in order to submit to God or others. It is about the self, the opposite of the Spirit. It may be the means you use to cope right now, but now is the time to learn God’s way. The problem isn’t simply that you can’t do it right now; I believe you when you think you can’t. However, it starts by developing a lifestyle of obedience; you must learn to be filled with the Spirit. Little obedience leads to big obedience; a lifestyle of obedience begins small.

Are we drunk on defeat because we are waiting for God to instantly cause us to be obedient? That isn’t walking in the Spirit; it is walking in a stupor.

When you are filled with something it is what you are full of, nothing else gets in at all, you are filled full. The process of filling is doing God’s will in certain moments, it is all you think about, and in those moments you are filled. If that doesn’t make sense, then how about this: consciously seek to obey God. Is that plain enough?

The context of being filled with the Spirit is living that out in loving relationships. It is speaking to one another, singing to each other and in our hearts (vs.19), sanctifying our relationships with prayer and thanks to God for each other (vs.20), and submitting to one another in our God given roles (vs.21). Again, speaking, singing, sanctifying, and submitting. This is giving the praise to God.

Are people who are getting drunk or wasting their time on ungodly things doing this? Of course not, and no wonder they aren’t filled with the Spirit, as much as they may say they want to be. We need to heed all of this, it isn’t just the speaking and the singing, but the sanctifying and the submitting too, it all counts toward the goal of living Spirit filled. Sometimes we have the excitement of being together, but we still aren’t together, know what I mean? Instead of speaking, sanctifying, and submitting we go for slander, spoiling and subversion. Instead of the sweet songs from God we hear the sounds of Satan in our hearts, and we even “get in the groove” with it and think everything is fine. Oh, by the way, don’t tell me you are filled with the Spirit if you don’t go to church. This passage makes it obvious that you are not.

In the morning you give your will to God. You say that you want to be willing? Well then give God your will and don’t follow your flesh. Take up your cross and cause your flesh to be dead every day, learn to obey. You are teaching yourself to obey or not; all those little things you think don’t matter really do. Instead of grieving the Spirit we ought to be about cultivating the Spirit, and obedience is where it’s at, my friend.

It isn’t about conquering the world or even conquering your world it is about Jesus conquering you, letting his mission become your mission. What is your mission? What is the best use of your time? It is time to get wise, and be wise about choices, and you do that by asking God (James 1:5).

So how much time are you giving to God? Let me tell you something, you should be giving God all your time. However, that doesn’t mean what you might think. You see, this is not simply about time management; it is about Jesus and you. If we got saved and that was it, we would instantly go to heaven. But we remain for a purpose, to glorify God. This is just like the fact that Christ could have died right after the Incarnation, but He fulfilled all righteousness by living a sinless life in our place. It is not just His death but His life that counts. Be filled with the Spirit so that it is not just in your death, but in your life that Christ counts. You have got to learn how to have a good time, full of the right kind of Spirit.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Lying Down?

Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
(2 Thessalonians 3:15 – ESV)

I have heard it said many times that this or that person isn’t able to go to church because the service is too long, they cannot sit that long, or stand that long, or something like that. Well, that might seem at first to be a valid excuse, but I want you to think about it a little more carefully now. Wherever you are, at church or not, in your home, in town somewhere, wherever it may be, unless you are lying down, you are standing or sitting also, and so the excuse of “I can’t sit that long” is no excuse at all. The truth is you just don’t want to be there at church that long, but you sit for 2 hours or more for a ballgame, movie, concert, etc., so stop trying to excuse it. I won’t take that lie lying down.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Minimum Wage

So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'"
(Luke 17:10 – ESV)

Do you have to be baptized, do you have to take Communion, do you have to give money to the church, do you have to go to church every week, do you have to read your Bible every day, how often do you have to pray, and on and on and on. How many times have you heard these or similar questions? How many times have you wondered about them yourself?

Well, we need to think about these things, not because we need the answer, but because the questions themselves reveal a wrong mindset. It is a worldly one that is reflected in the way the world thinks, you know, do just enough to make the boss happy, just enough to earn that diploma or degree, or take just the minimum amount of pills to get well, etc., etc. They just want to be done with it and get on with their lives. The kingdom of God isn’t like that, however.

Considering these things and other questions like them, ask yourself why. Why do you want to do it? Cause you have to, or because you want to be recognized? If you want to do any of these things so that you can be blessed or keep from making God mad, then I say don’t do it. That’s right I’m talking to you, don’t do it. Now if you want to do these things, not to be blessed but so that you may bless God, please avail yourself of every opportunity.

If some were to tell the truth, if they didn’t feel like they had to do it they wouldn’t do it at all, and that is the real reason for the questions. For others, it is just a fear thing, they want to make sure, but when they feel like they have made sure then they feel like they can live any way they want, they’ve done what they’ve “had” to do. It is sort of like the lawyer who asked Jesus who was his neighbor. He didn’t do that so he could find out whom he needed to love, but to find out whom he didn’t have to love. He wasn’t looking to include people, but to exclude them.

When we have this same attitude we are looking, not to include God in our lives, but to exclude Him. We may add Him to our lives in increasing ways, but only in activity not in real devotion. The minimum requirement mentality can do these things divorced from the heart. If they feel things aren’t going the way they want, to get God off their back they just add another thing to the list. They could fill up every box on this imaginary list and still God not have their heart. He wants us to want Him not to simply dispatch our duty. You could do all your duty and still Jesus says that all it means is that you are an unprofitable servant. Your faith has to go further than that. God doesn’t want us working on a minimum requirement resume.

We ought to be finding new ways to walk the extra mile, not looking for any way to get out of going the first mile. If that is the way you feel about serving God, why would you want to be in heaven? Oh, I see, you just want to find a way out of hell. Sounds to me like you already know what that is like. You have a habit of turning blessings into burdens.

One of the benefits of Christ paying the price of redemption for us is that we might be able to bless Him. When you in turn pay the price to bless Him, you are the one who gets blessed. We should see these things, things like obeying Him by being baptized, or taking Communion, living a moral, godly life, praying, reading our Bible, and yes, giving, as gifts we can enjoy giving to God, not as burdens we must bear lest we be lost. Besides, we are earning wages in heaven for such things, let alone the fact that they please God. Christ gave us many such blessings, different ways to be able to be like Him. Don’t look for a list of minimum requirements. Don’t settle for minimum wage.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©