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Saturday, June 25, 2011

The Sleeping Church

      Are you part of 'The Sleeping Church' that the devil is so proud of, or are you a battle-tested warrior in the army of Christ? If you cannot honestly answer yes to the latter then you belong to the former, make no mistake. Of course, your head will be full of excuses as to why that is, but can you not see that the reason for the excuses is because you are not passionately committed to winning the battle?
      Sunday by Sunday folk occupy chairs and pews in churches to take part in a worship service that fails to really get off the ground. More often than not the minds of so many people will be wandering to other things, other matters, rather than focussing on God. You don't go to church for your benefit but for God's benefit. The Bible tells us to '... seek first His kingdom and His righteousness' (Matthew 6:33 NIV), but do you?
      Go into the majority of church services on a Sunday morning and sit for fifteen minutes prior to the time the service begins and what will you find? Do you find people prayerfully and quietly preparing themselves to meet with God and be spiritually fed? NO! You hear the incessant chatter that calls to mind the Tower of Babel! In fact, it's so bad that sometimes those few folk that do try to contemplate the time that are about to spend with the Lord find it almost impossible to think because of the noise. I can recall a time when, as the pastor of a church, I had to remonstrate with the congregation because the babble in the sanctuary was so loud before the service that I was unable to concentrate fully as I prayed whilst in the vestry next door. Where has the reverence for God gone when people consider chattering to their friends more important than seeking the face of God in silent prayer?
      The content of the service often does little to improve matters either. The hymns are more often viewed as 'church entertainment' rather than a means of reaching up to God in worship and praise. The comments that you hear will reflect more upon whether people liked the tune than whether the words meant anything to them. On the subject of hymns, why do so many churches resort to mere songs that tickle the ears rather than hymns that elevate their souls to heaven itself by their content? All too often, the answer is that people want to come to church and be entertained by the songs and music.
      Who is there at the service to actually take part? Surely it should be everyone! Yet all too often everything to do with worship is left to the pastor standing at the front of the assembled congregation. It is the pastor who must pray aloud the prayers that, although often lacking in holiness, the congregation will dutifully add their 'Amen' to when they are drawn to a close. It's as if the congregation, in their failure to learn how to pray, require that prayer is by proxy, the joint proxy of the congregation being laid on the shoulders of the pastor.  Where is the value in prayer such as this? I suggest that there simply is none at all!
      Then we have the sermon or homily or message, whatever description you wish to apply. Is it a message that is uplifting and edifying, or a message that helps you to understand what God not only expects of you but demands it as well? Do the words of the preacher act as a fan to the spiritual embers that are burning inside you fanning them into a roaring fire that seeks to ignite others with the message that you have heard? Are you prepared, after hearing the message, to become arsonists for God, setting fires in the lives of others whom you will meet as you go about your daily lives beyond the safety of the church walls?
      Whenever I preach I expect that God will work, using his Holy Spirit to stir people into action in the Lord's work. For people to come up to me at the close of the service and smile, shake my hand and say "That was nice" tells me that I failed to move them to action. I much prefer it when they scurry past me, annoyed because they have been stirred to discomfort by the Spirit as a result of the words that God placed on my lips. After all, I'm there for God's benefit not to be popular.
      The truth is that whilst the battle rages outside of the church walls, and all too often inside them as well, the Church is slumbering, almost it would seem oblivious to the fate that the body of the Church seems to be so apathetic towards. It's time for the Church to wake up, and that means every member of the body, including you! 
      Where are the Prayer Meetings and the Bible Studies, and where are the Sunday Schools in so many of our churches. Many churches do not have a Prayer Meeting, and yet the most tried method of judging the effectiveness of any church in Kingdom terms is to look at the attitude that prevails in it regarding prayer. Unless every aspect of church life and ministry is underpinned and supported with and by prayer then it is doomed to failure. Whilst Christ is the foundation of the Church, prayer is the foundation of  the church's life at grass-roots level. No matter what programmes a church may try to implement, if it lacks the underpinning of prayer then it will never achieve its potential. 
      If there are no Bible Studies where members may gather to increase their knowledge of God's Word, then those same members will remain as spiritual babes.  For faith to mature it must be fed regularly.
      Check off the following attributes of the church that is awake against your own place of worship:

  • Worship God and not worship man.
  • Minister to God and not to man.
  • Hear and Fear God and not hear and fear man.
  • Focus on Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on the cross.
  • Believe in the Bible and practice accordingly.
  • All aspects of the church activities are centred on the above.
  • All aspects of the lives of the believers are centred on the above.
  • Very end times focussed, just as Jesus has commanded and the Apostles have duly obeyed. So did the early Christians.
  • There is an increasing intensity of the moving and manifestation of the Holy Spirit in all aspects of above. 
      Do not be side-tracked by thinking about all the programmes that your church has in place. Whilst they may well be commendable, what do they do towards reaping the harvest of souls into the heavenly kingdom? God's business is about the salvation of souls, and our business should be to work as we are called to see God's business come to fruition. The world is full of things that will seek to entice you away from doing as God demands, but the choices you make are up to you. You can follow your heart's desire in worldly terms or you can follow God's leading in heavenly terms.
      If your church is lacking in spiritual zeal and the fire of the Holy Spirit, repent now and pray for help to put matters right before the Lord! Do not leave it a moment longer! You are called by God to be warriors on the battle-field, not generals watching from a distant hill-top. I pray that if you are part of the sleeping church then you will wake up before it's too late.

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