The Outrageous Nonsense Of Misplaced Faith

Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? James 2:14-17 (The Message)

John MacArthur tells the story of a queen that went to the theater to see a drama and wept her way through the entire drama. From beginning to end it was pure emotion. This was in the time of the carriages in years past. And she went out to get in her carriage and it was a very cold and wintry night and she had left her coachman out there where he belonged. He didn't belong with her class. She found him frozen to death and according to her biographer she shed not a single tear over his death.

That is just like us. We get all emotional at a movie or a TV story. Dramas are supposed to fill us with emotions. Back when Top Gun first came out, the US Navy set up a recruiting booth right outside of the theater. I went to see a Movie with Patty a few years ago, and it was just pathos laden. I won’t tell you the name of the movie. It was what we would call a chick-flick. Every woman came out just boo-hooing. I had to wring the estrogen out my shirt. It’s fine to go see movies. I’m not preaching against movies!  But do movies and TV and the theater inoculate us from the crisis and desperation all around us? Yesterday I saw a commercial for Christian Children’s Fund. How many of us see the little kid in Africa, who needs a sponsor, and we become incensed or even angry at their plight, but we don’t give a second thought about the plight of our own neighbors. WHEN, church; when are we going to care more about the lost living within 5 miles of the church than we do about our wayward nephews and nieces, sons and daughters, and cousins living three counties over!? When are we going to stop playing acting at being a live, breathing, and faith filled Christ follower? When are we going to stop living in our fanciful, self deceiving, self centered, fantasy world, and come back to reality? How long are we going to pine away over our lost relatives? Do we ever stop praying? NO! Not until it’s everlasting too late. But Jesus said (not what I SAY , what Jesus SAID) if they won’t heed the truth when they know the truth, give them over to the Satan and use that energy; shed those tears; invest that kingdom resource into someone who will respond to the Gospel of our Lord and Savor! Let us stop with the in-ward focus, and let us start focusing on the reachable.

Listen; if we want to see the Spirit of God fall in power, we have to act like the church that desires to see Him. We have to be like the churches that have experienced Holy Spirit revival. We have to take our resources and our money and make them subject to the task of reaching lost souls. So what say, ye? Will we be like the queen, or will we be like the Apostle Paul and say, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.”?

Gloom, Despair, And Agony On Me

You have no doubt seen the Successories brand of merchandise that offers a beautiful picture and motivational saying with it. But, have you seen the products offered at http://www.despair.com/ ?

(My favorite)

(We've all been there)

What's up with the lack of commitment these days? Is it just me, or does apathy seem to be running rampant in the church? Where has all the passion gone? You've probably all heard the story about the man who fell asleep in Civics Class. His professor woke him and asked “Is the greatest problem America today ignorance or apathy?” The man said "I don’t know and I don’t care.”



We have become an I don’t know and I don’t care generation, and it is seeping into the church. Why are we not passionate anymore? Why are we not like Paul who said,
Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men, knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord—you serve the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23-24 (HCSB)



When did we become like the Laodicean Church? Jesus told them,
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Revelation 3:15-16 (NIV)

Passion is all about heart. The Laodicean church had a Lukewarm heart. "Jesus? Eh, take Him or leave Him." Jesus said that kind of an attitude makes God sick! Others in the New Testament had a cold heart.
Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. Matthew 24:11-12 (NKJV)
That's not good either, but at least it's better than apathy. Apathy says, it really doesn't matter. You can be half-hearted toward God and that's OK. Which means to irreligious people, that religion is nothing special.  Jesus wants us to have hot hearts. To be passionate about Him and His work, His ministry, His church, and His Word.
And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24:32 (NKJV)


So whatever you do, do it in all passion and with no apathy. God expects us to love passionately, not passively. He expects us to work with commitment, not with compromise. He calls us to action, not apathy. It reminds me of the story of the guy who came to First Baptist Church and sat up front and yelled all through the sermon, "Preach, Preacher, preach!" Finally, after many annoyed looks from the choir and pastor, the head usher approached the man and said, "Sir. Shhhh." The man said, "Oh, sorry. I just got religion." The usher said, "Well, sir. You didn't get it here."



Listen, we don't need to be disruptive in our services. (Although, I preach shorter the more Amens I get!) We just need to be more passionate, less apathetic. Larry Crabb said that "The problem in today’s church is not that we are too passionate about bad things, just not passionate enough about good things." Now, passion is not something we develop, it is something we discover. See, if God gives you a gift, you become passionate about that gift. You either accept that gift and give it back to God by exercising it, or you live with joyless apathy. I don't know about you, but I want to give my passion back to God, and live in the joy of His blessings.