A staggering statistic tells us that 84% of the students brought up in church will not attend regularly in their adulthood.
·
Even though having a relationship with God is
your responsibility this makes Godly Leadership feel like failures.
o
Maybe they were/are trying to live off of the
borrowed faith of their parents, grandparents or friends.
o
Maybe their parents abided by all the religious
rules instead of living out and engaging in a growing, vibrant relationship in
Christ.
o
It could be that they are treating God like a
shop vac, something only to be pulled out when there is a terrible mess to
clean up.
·
I absolutely hate this fact but person after
person after person choose to walk away from God, His house, and His mission
for their lives.
Deuteronomy
6:10-13 10 "The LORD your God will soon bring you into the land He swore
to give you when He made a vow to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It
is a land with large, prosperous cities that you did not build. 11 The houses
will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from
cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you
did not plant. When you have eaten your fill in this land, 12 be careful not
to forget the LORD, who rescued you from slavery in the land of
Egypt. 13 You must fear the LORD your God and serve Him. When you take an oath,
you must use only His name.”
1.Chair of Commitment.
a.Abraham the bible says built
an altar and worshipped the Lord.
i. He
built many altars but always to God never to anyone or anything else.
Genesis
12:7b “And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the LORD, who had
appeared to him. 8 After that, Abram traveled south and set up camp in the hill
country, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built another
altar and dedicated it to the LORD, and he worshiped the LORD.”
1.He picked out a place to
honor God.
2.He chose a place to worship
and serve God.
3.He secured a place to
sacrifice and give to God.
a.He engaged personally
experienced, encountered God for himself.
i. He
lived in an “I KNOW God” lifestyle.
b.Altars were used in many
religions, but for God’s people, altars are more than places of sacrifice.
i. For
Christianity, altars symbolize communion, unity, and relationship with God;
commemorating notable encounters with Him.
ii. They
were places of testimony to the only true God in the midst of uncharted
idolatry.
iii. They
are reminders of God’s protection and promises.
iv. Continual
reminders of God’s faithfulness, strength and healing power.
c. Abraham
knew he couldn‘t survive spiritually without regularly renewing his love and
loyalty to God.
i. Building
an altar will help you remember that God is at the center of your life.
ii. Worship
helps us remember God’s value to us.
iii. Finally,
it motivates us to honor, love, trust and obey Him.
d.Do you have a commitment to
God?
e.Do you have a commitment to
His house, His purposes?
f.
Do you allow Him to speak to you, change you, and
guide you into His purpose for your life?
i. Are
you sitting in this chair?
Judges
2:7 “And the Israelites served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and
the leaders who outlived him—those who had seen all the great things the LORD
had done for Israel.
10
After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge
the LORD or remember the mighty things He had done for Israel. 11 The
Israelites did evil in the LORD's sight and served the images of Baal. 12 They
abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of
Egypt. They went after other gods, worshiping the gods of the people around
them. And they angered the LORD.”
g.You have to dig your own
spiritual wells!
i. We
must engage this next generation.
Genesis
26:12-15 12 “When Isaac planted his crops that year, he harvested a hundred
times more grain than he planted, for the LORD blessed him. 13 He became a very
rich man, and his wealth continued to grow. 14 He acquired so many flocks of
sheep and goats, herds of cattle, and servants that the Philistines became
jealous of him. 15 So the Philistines filled up all of Isaac's wells with dirt.
These were the wells that had been dug by the servants of his father, Abraham.”
ii. This
was a declaration and announcement of war!
h.Closing off a well,
represented closing off one’s source of life.
i. God’s
house, God’s Word and God’s Spirit is a well of life.
1.You come to the well and you
can get all that you need, His well will never run dry.
ii. The
Devil has come along and filled in the well of your life.
1.He’s filled it in with
activities and confusion.
2.He’s filled it in with strife
and doubt.
3.He’s filled it in with
anxiety and financial stresses.
iii. The
Devil’s a thief and a robber and desires to take life away from you in every
possible way imaginable.
Genesis
26:18a “He reopened the wells his father had dug,”
i.
He dug again.
j.
We have to be willing to do the hard work and the
consistent effort of commitment.
Illustrate
here: You can count on the chair of commitment.
2.Chair of Casual Compromise.
a.Isaac also built altars and
worshipped God but he found it is easier to compromise or lie to avoid
confrontations.
i. Essentially
building other altars and worshipping idols, instead of God alone.
ii. Even
playing favorites between his sons and alienating his wife.
Mark 4:18 “The seed that fell among the thorns
represents others who hear God's word, 19 but all too quickly the
message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and
the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced.”
b.I refuse to only have
“generation before me stories.”
i. *Hearing
it, not engaging it.*
c. The
observed experience.
i. Well
my parents we’re Christians and I was always in church.
1.I “think I know God.”
2.You’re as close to God as you
want to be.
ii. I
want to be a generation who knows God and am being guided by His Spirit all of
my days.
d.Chair of casual compromise
says, “Oh if I do this it won’t matter” mentality…
i. Just
one drink.
ii. Just
one look.
iii. Just
one touch.
iv. Just
one hit.
v. Just
one lie.
vi. I’ll
skip just this one service.
1.You are deeply missed when
you are not present, by God and His people.
vii. Just
one sexual encounter.
viii.
Just one, just one, just one…
e.A lot of people live their
lives in the Chair of casual compromise.
i. They
compromise everything and then wonder why they end up miserable and left with
nothing.
1.Negotiating with the enemy
will destroy you.
Romans
12:1 “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies
to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy
sacrifice—the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to
worship Him.”
f.
A living sacrifice.
i. Altars
were used to sacrifice; we are to be living sacrifices.
ii. Living
my life sacrificed to God, His purposes and His mission.
1.The thing about compromise is
that it's easy to drift.
2.Drifting is actually first
nature.
3.When we don't stand up or we
let our standards down we compromise and we become something we wouldn't dare think
we would.
Illustrate
here: Meth pics.
g.The devils biggest lie is,
just this one time.
i. The
enemy is crafty, creative yet totally predictable.
ii. If
you don’t set up some parameters and borders he’ll get yet you again with your
go to sin.
John
8:34 “Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave
of sin.”
1.Sin fascinates, then it
assassinates.
2.On the outside everything may
look good but on the inside we know the condition of our heart is far from who
we are to be.
3.We are lost or found, saved
or unsaved, believers or non- believers there is no halfway in God’s Kingdom.
h.With restoration comes great
responsibility.
i. Make
the purity of others a priority for us.
1.Sit with me is an invite to
believe, an invite to be saved, an invite to connection with Christ.
Luke
5:16 “But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.”
2.You have to be intentional
about growth.
a.Go to church.
b.Get a mentor.
c. Become
a mentor.
i.
Complacency and compromise is a nasty chair to
live in.
Proverbs
26:11 “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness.”
i. God’s
call is bigger than my fall.
j.
The secret of Abraham’s faithful separation from
the ungodly, unholy system of his day and to his God was in the fact that he
kept his eyes on a “heavenly city.”
Illustrate
here: (Chill in a soft comfy chair.) Compromise is
comfortable. Party, dude! Church, sweet! Godly things, dude!! Ungodly things,
sweet!! God does not celebrate compromise, only people do.
3.Chair of Confusion.
a.Jacob built an altar but only
when he was in trouble.
i. Cynical
Experience.
1.Pessimistic.
2.Skeptical.
3.Distrustful.
a.You don’t know for yourself.
b.The antonym for confusion
would be, to understand.
i. People
have no understanding of God, His purposes, His miracles, His divine plan, and
His will for their lives or for mankind.
ii. Sometimes
we go life on our own and forget about how He has led us this far, encouraged
us, provided for us, carried us and guided us.
1.It’s like thanks God for the travel
this far but I got it now.
2.Keep the blessings coming,
keep me in good health, keep my career skyrocketing but I don’t need your
advice/help any longer.
Illustrate
here: Don't be a cheap imitation, be the real thing.
Dr. Pepper has 129 imitations.
c. Dr.
Aahh
d.Dr. Better
e.Dr. Buzz
f.
Dr. CHEAPER
g.Dr. Cool
h.Dr. D
i.
Dr. DIABLO
j.
Dr. Enuf-One taste of that you’ll have had
enough.
k.Dr. Flave
l.
DR. PHIZZ
m.
Dr. Pizzazz
n.Dr. RIFFIC
o.Dr. Schnee
p.Dr. Thunder
q.Dr. Tremor-probably gives you
the tremors.
r. Dr.
WOW
s. DR. X
t. Dr
Zipp
i. It
makes no difference what you decide to call it and how cool your campaign was
or how much you spent on advertising every one knows there is only one Dr.
Pepper!
1.Often imitated, never
duplicated.
u.Regardless of which chair you
might find your self in this morning I am here to help you examine the source
of your faith and to encourage you to take ownership of your faith.
i. Like
Abraham, we need to dig our own wells and build our own altars.
ii. Then,
and only then will you have what it takes to go the distance and run the race
God’s marked out for you.
iii. So
that when it feels like no one else is reading their bibles, they read their
bibles.
iv. When
it seems like no one else is worshipping, they worship.
v. When
it seems like no one else is praying, they can be found in surrender to God.
vi. I
desire to awaken that kind of passion for the Cause, the Kingdom, and the King.
1.God will not give up on you
until He has all of you.
2.Serving others takes real
leadership—the kind Jesus exemplified His whole life.
3.Jesus’ mission was to serve
others and to give His life away.
4.You can start by modeling
God’s acceptance, compassion, helping and loving others.
5.If you see something that
needs to be done, don’t wait to be asked; take the initiative and do it like a
faithful servant.
4.God never condemns us; He
convicts us but never condemns us.
a.Condemns means to express an
unfavorable or adverse judgment upon; indicate strong disapproval of.
John
3:16 16 "For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only
Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal
life. 17 God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save
the world through Him.”
b.Convicts means that the
Spirit of God helps us to understand and connect to the fact that there is
substantial evidence to convict.
1
John 1:9 “But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”
No comments:
Post a Comment