“Let’s talk about that sporting event that happened yesterday, great game, wasn’t it?” “What do you think about the weather lately, kind of unusual, don’t you think?” “Did you hear what happened to them, I sure hope everything ends up alright, they are such nice people.” “Great sermon, wasn’t it, say, what plans do you folks have for the rest of the day, we were planning on a picnic.”
That’s about as close as you are going to get to the conversations of what the pastor spoke that morning about, most don’t even need to leave the congregational hall before they walk right back into the world. The majority of them won’t be able to recall what the message was on Monday, much less the rest of the week, they have started to think of self and the world before they have even left the aisle of the pew they were sitting in. It’s no wonder that many who stand behind the pulpit now speak of the things that are occurring in the world, it is where many of their congregation live, they want to be entertained, so we bring entertainment into the church, they want to be accepted, so we teach them how to be men-pleasers, (Eph. 6:6) how not to offend, how to mouth the words of the world instead of the precepts of the Word, instead of loving and warning those that the wrath of God abides on. (John 3:36)
We have gone from repentance and redemption to contentment and ease in such a short period of time. “Did you hear that some Christians are being persecuted for their faith?” “That’s just terrible, someone should do something about that, say, have you seen that new movie downtown yet?” I truly hope that you attend a church that falls on their faces each time they meet, giving God the glory and praise He deserves, I pray that you have a pastor who knows how to shout “Thus saith the Lord,” who does not only encourage those in attendance to obey, but points out to them in the Word of God how they are commanded to, a meeting place where true, dedicated disciples are made, men and women who show up each week and can show without a doubt how God used them in the past few days, know that you are blessed if you are, for you are in an uncommon setting in this world today, ease and contentment, the security that the world provides is the norm today.
The pastor who leads a church of the world knows how to tickle the ears of all who are seated in it, he knows how to place interesting and amusing videos upon the big screen, along with a few that tug at the strings of the heart, he knows that everyone that comes to him with a problem is going to have a personal problem, and vary rarely will it have anything to do with the spiritual. He is adept at glad handing, at making you feel better about yourself, at telling you that everything will be alright in the end, and he represents the normal today. Personal salvation has very little to do with personal accountability to God these days in many parts of the world, show up on Sunday morning, perform the routine, maybe stick around for the potluck and talk about the weather, then head back into the world, repeat ad infinitum.
Many today do not seem to have a problem bringing the world into the church setting, but they will not take the church out into the world, and many who lead these supposed houses of God have acquiesced to this ideology, “At least they are showing up.” To get the individuals in attendance to even read their Bibles today is an almost insurmountable task, much less helping them to be effectual witness’, so instead they are taught to just invite them to church, but when the lost do show up, seeking refuge, seeking hope, looking for a Strong Tower to run into, (Prov. 18:10) instead they are met with handshakes, “Nice to meet you’s” and “Please fill out the visitor’s card, someone may or may not contact you in the next few weeks.”
Some born-again believers no longer attend the corporeal setting of the Sunday morning clubhouse, they have chosen instead to go to work in the field, to seek the harvest, not forsaking the assembling of themselves together, (Heb. 10:25) but not becoming one of the content ones. House churches are showing up all around this planet, places where disciples are made, and it is a good thing. Those who have tried to continue to serve in these entertaining, social gathering clubhouses that call themselves churches were long ago ostracized by them in it, for they were seen as contentious, too adamant, too old-fashioned. “Thus saith the Lord God Almighty” individuals are rarely made to feel welcome in churches whose main goal is to make people feel better, much less any of the religious organizations that have overrun nearly every avenue of society. A good place to meet once a week to catch up on the local news, the local gossip, and to feel better about themselves.
It is not an easy decision to leave the church you may have attended for a long period of time, but you must ask yourself, has it become a clubhouse for social gathering, is it a place of fellowship or just a place to congregate. If you want to follow Christ my friends, you have to go away from the crowd, alone with Jesus. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:12) Our Lord will inform you if that place you go each weekend has life, or if it is dead, if it is just a social hall, a place of feelings with no real actions. Whether you decide to listen or not will be left entirely up to you, a crowd of lost souls is a great place for a Christian to be, it gives him opportunities to witness for Christ, but a church setting filled with hypocrites, those who know Christ only with their lips, those who cannot show their faith by their works, (James 2:18) will slowly draw the fire out of you. The more we hang around the lost, in no matter what form they have chosen to take, the greater the possibility we will become like them.
Only those who seek Christ and Him alone will become Christlike, made into the image of the Son of God. If you ask Him to with all your heart, He will lead you, those that we stand with here are those we will stand with when we leave here.
