Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Living Into the Seed of Promise

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

“And now, O Lord God, I am your servant; do as you have promised concerning me and my family.  Confirm it as a promise that will last forever.  And may your name be honored forever so that everyone will say, ‘The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is God over Israel!’  And may the house of your servant David continue before you forever.  “O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, God of Israel, I have been bold enough to pray this prayer to you because you have revealed all this to your servant, saying, ‘I will build a house for you—a dynasty of kings!’  For you are God, O Sovereign Lord.  Your words are truth, and you have promised these good things to your servant.  And now, may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you.  For you have spoken, and when you grant a blessing to your servant, O Sovereign Lord, it is an eternal blessing!”  2 Samuel 7:25-29(NLT)

“Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”  Blessed are those who wash their robes.  They will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life.  Outside the city are the dogs—the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie.  “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches.  I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star.”  Revelation 22:12-16(NLT)

I have written before about the fastest growing religious demographic – the nones, people who have never had a relationship with a church, and those who, for some reason, have decided to disassociate themselves from the church.  This is not to be confused with church-hopping, moving from this church fellowship to that one, and never being quite at home.  Rather this is the I’m DONE syndrome; it is the decision to go it alone with your spiritual life – you’ve decided you want none of church.
As a pastor a lot of people would expect me to say something spiritual like:  Seriously?  And since I’m not one to wantonly disappoint, I’ll go ahead and say it: 
You think it’s Biblical, smart, or just plain better to ditch church?  SERIOUSLY?
And with that being said, the issue deserves a closer look.  What’s wrong with being a Lone-Ranger Christian?  The answer:  EVERYTHING! 
Nowhere in the New Testament does it support a Christian believer deliberately absenting oneself from the Body of Christ.  In fact, Scripture clearly points out just the opposite:

And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.  Hebrews 10:25(NLT)

You may have heard it said that if sin wasn’t real, then God watched His Son, Jesus, die a meaningless death on the cross.  The reality is that Jesus died because sin kills, and not a single human can escape that penalty.  He took our place on the cross.
The same analogy holds for the church.  Do you recall the exchange between Jesus and Peter when the Lord was trying to get the disciples to understand His mission?

Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”  Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you.  You did not learn this from any human being.  Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.   Matthew 16:15-18(NLT)

Jesus’ mission was to die to establish the pathway to salvation, and He connected the carrying-out of that mission with being part of the church He would establish.  If it is so that the church is unnecessary in the least, then Jesus was mistaken; and if He was mistaken, He was not/is not God, and we can just pack it all up and go home, because salvation would be a pipe dream, and we would be dancing to a fool’s tune.
The simple truth is that faith in Christ which is real must be connected to Christ’s church, or it is pseudo-faith, not real, just an imitation.  The seed of all God’s promises is found in Christ’s promise to His church; those who reject that church also reject God!
For You Today
If you struggle with your faith, and the apparent lack of faith on the part of others who just don’t act the way they should, and you’ve decided that the church is what’s wrong, take a second to step back, and say it loudly so everyone can hear:  The Bible is wrong – Jesus made a mistake – God can’t handle all those problems, and THAT’S why I’m not going back.
Why do that?  Why say those things?  Because if you’re going to be a “none” your actions are already saying all that, and I just wanted to help your words catch up.
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

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