Nov 14 - 1 Kings 18:21

 

How long will you go limping

with two different opinions?

If the Lord is God, follow him!

1 Kings 18:21

 

Several people have asked me to publish some of the things that I talked about in my sermon last Sunday. Over the course of the next few days, here it is …

 

To briefly summarize, I said that the church in American used to look like the picture on the left (see below). Most American Christians had a foot in church and a foot in the world. And in a nation still dominated by (nominally) Judeo-Christian values, most assumed that to-be-a-good-Christian-was-to-be-a-good-American and to-be-a-good-citizen-was-to-be-a-“good”-Christian.

 

 

Things have changed in recent decades (see the picture above on the right). This is a picture of church and culture today. Our American culture is increasingly hostile to God, faith, church, and religion. People of faith are increasingly seen as narrow-minded and bigoted. And not only is the pace of this change accelerating, but those who keep trying to keep a foot in both worlds find themselves increasingly and impossibly stretched.

 

 

Statistically – according to studies by Christian researcher George Barna – only about 9% of American Christians have quit straddling this divide and have rooted their whole lives (and both feet) in God, faith, and church. Let’s assume an equal 9% of those-who-call-themselves-Christian are totally sold out to the world. With both feet there, they are Christian-in-name-only. So where does that leave the remaining 82%? Trying to keep a foot in both camps. Straddling the great divide. And finding life increasingly impossible.

 

Scripture has a name for believers in this posture: Lukewarm. To some that may not initially sound too bad … that is until we read Jesus’ judgment against this state of spiritual compromise. To the church in Laodicea, these words were proclaimed: ““I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm … I am about to spit you out of my mouth” - Revelation 3:15-16.

 

God-through-Moses proclaimed a message to God’s people … that powerfully relevant to us today. He said, “See, I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who is praying …

God,

I don’t want to live a divided life,

with one foot in the church and

one foot in a broken culture.

Help me take the hard

but life-giving step of

coming home fully to you.