20 AUGUST 2006: 2Oth CENTURY IDOLATRY - A Subject We Must Talk About!

PASTOR'S NOTE:

Many of the messages presented on this site had considerable impromtu content at the time of delivery; spiritual imagination is a plus while reading them.

TOPIC: Worldliness; candlestick, church, denial, greed, idolatry, materialism

TITLE: 20th CENTURY IDOLATRY – A Subject We Must Talk About!

TEXT: Revelation 2:1-7

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: 'I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you can-not tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call them-selves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary.

‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent.

‘Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.'

FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: What things stand out in this passage?
CONCISE OUTLINE:

THE THINGS THE LORD ...

I. FOUND AMONG THE EPHESIANS STAND OUT!
II. DID NOT FIND AMONG THE EPHESIANS STAND OUT!
III. PROMISES GIVEN TO EPHESIANS (if they don't repent) STAND OUT!

TRUTH/CONTEXT: I’ve already mentioned several times that the Bride of Christ in the West seems to be taking a siesta.

Today I want to speak prophetically to the members of the Bride of Christ assembled here.

As the prophet said, “Come; let us reason together” about this ... materialism is not where I’m going today … though it is one of the 20th Century’s worst idolatries and does play a part.

No, I will address the substitution of secular fulfillment for godly fulfillment, man’s fulfillment for God’s fulfillment, human fulfillment for divine fulfillment.

The apostle John warned us long ago …

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

1 John 2:15-16

Some might say that doesn’t apply to me, I don’t have anything. Others might say, I give a huge percentage of my income to the church. A few more may say, we live very humbly, we don’t covet anything and give most of what we gain to Christian causes around the world.

James says,

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

James 4:4

Let’s look at this together. The quickest and most certain way to identify what a man (and I’m talking primarily to you men) loves more than God is to deliberately and intentionally begin to separate the things of the world he covets from him (note: not the other way around).

I might start with the fishermen and their boats. I might suggest to some that we meet at the houses they’ve built or the houses they are building. Others we might travel to their main homes in the states. Still others we might just go over to their liquor cabinets or their Lazy Boy and check out what they read or what they watch.

With me I’d start with my computer or my library or the refrigerator.

And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceit-fulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

Matthew 13:22

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

Matthew 6:19

The church is imitating secular society at an alarming rate. Increasingly we are adopting secular views that seem good and feel good; gleaning, as it were, here and there, as the world’s spirit moves us, ignoring the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth!

The church is pointing fingers everywhere for the cause of her powerlessness, everywhere but at herself.

[SNOWFLAKE] Remember, in an avalanche, one snowflake can not say to another snowflake, “I’m not a part of this as they both roar down upon their victims.”

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Matthew 6:24-25

[ERASER WORD] An Internet friend recently told me of an eraser word: the word “but.” He says, rightly, that we can heap wheelbarrows of praise upon someone and then erase it all by continuing with the word “but.” The word “but,” he said, when used in discourse erases everything which precedes it.

Notice what God does in our text. "I know your deeds and your toil …" then notice the Lord erases it all with one word, "but." Ouch!

"But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 'Therefore remember …"

FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: What things stand out in this passage?
EXPANDED OUTLINE:

I. THINGS THE LORD FOUND AMONG THE EPHESIANS STAND OUT!

A. Re Their Industry

1. “your deeds” (i.e., works)
2. “your toil” (i.e., earnest & difficult works)
3. “your perseverance” (i.e., works in face of opposition)

B. Re Their Integrity

1. “cannot tolerate evil men” (i.e., they openly oppose them)
2. “put to the test” false apostles (i.e., they check to see if they agree that Christ came in the flesh, if He was raised from the dead, can they say He is Lord)
3. “you have”

a) “perseverance” (for My name’s sake)
b) “endured for My name’s sake”
c) “not grown weary”

II. THINGS THE LORD DID NOT FIND AMONG THE EPHESIANS STAND OUT!

A. Christ’s Reaction …

1. “But” the Lord is not impressed. [V. 4]
2. The word “alla”; “but” or “yet” -- an eraser word.
3. Clearly these were not what the Lord wanted to find

B. Christ’s Suggestion …

1. “Remember from where you have fallen”
2. “repent”
3. “do the deeds you did at first”

C. Christ’s Limitation …

1. “unless you repent”
2. expect to have “your lampstand removed …"

III. THE THINGS THE LORD PROMISES TO EPHESIANS (if they don't repent) STAND OUT!

A. Christ will come
B. And remove your lampstand out of its place

APPLICATION/CHALLENGE: I see the lampstand removed from most of what is called the American church and the Canadian church is in even worse shape … pew people are hungry for something that “works” as long as it doesn’t come with commitment, responsibility, or accountability.

What is it that Jesus has against this fine church? He says, because “you have left your first love.”

I posted the following to the RedBlueChristian blog yesterday …

In the midst of suffering, pain, poverty and HIV/AIDS, there is joy unspeakable. Nothing can hold it down; it spills out in hours of worship, in the daily grind of life, and while driving along roads with potholes the locals call “Hippo ponds” they are so deep…but there is always joy.

The East African Revival is alive and well; millions are coming to Christ in the midst of grinding poverty. Evangelists fan out across Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania with barely enough money to survive, bringing the Good News of Jesus to tribal groups, Islamic communities and to anyone who will listen.

That - the Good News of Jesus - my friend, is what heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, feeds the poor, and sets the captives free!

There’s been a lot of talk around the church this past year, talk about poverty and other social issues, war and how to resolve them … that’s all well and good, when what you want is to reverse the order of the two Great Commands [Matthew 22:37-40]:

The New Great Command is “you shall love your neighbors with all our heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind; and the new second is like it, you shall love your God as yourself.” [The New Good News]

We will not solve sin’s problems through the programs or the institutions of man! We will only solve those problems when we heal the man … we must learn to do what our East African brothers and sisters have learned - “apart from Me you can do nothing” [John 15:5c].

Heal the man and you’ll heal his leaders, heal his leaders and you’ll heal his land. My apology to Rick Warren, but this is already a purpose driven world, one purposefully intent on defying God and His kingdom.

I have said this before …

[CHOICE] A thermometer reflects the temperature of the room; a thermostat adjusts the temperature for the room.

God has too many children who are more like thermometers than thermostats; what he needs is a house full of the latter.

Like Rip Van Winkle, the church is asleep … when or if it awakens the world will be so hostile to her that she will find herself an impo-tent representative of an omnipotent God.

Michael Spenser said …

Our culture reflects a nation running so hot on relativism, material-ism, voyeurism, and depravity that it’s screaming for those who have the courage to march on the wall of opposition. We need those with guts enough to adjust our nation’s temperature, rather than giving in to the pressure to reflect it.

He said elsewhere …

[Christians] should come to terms with this: they are in every way vir-tually identical to suburban, white, upper middle class American cul-ture. They are not as bad as the worst of that culture, but they are in-creasingly like the mainstream of that culture and are blown about by every wind of that consumerized and materially addicted culture.

[so] In fact, go to many evangelical churches and the culture is so present, so affirmed,preached and [so] taught that one would assume that there is nothing whatsoever counter cultural about the affirmation that Jesus is Lord.

[…]

The DNA of our religion can be passed on in books and other forms of written communication, but how do we live the life of a Christian?

This is the question of “Spiritual formation”…. How do we “form” our children into disciples? How do we bring them to the place of choosing Christian identities? How can we influence them toward the forms of Christian life, practice and worship that bring authentic Christianity into this generation, and prepare to move it on into the next?

In other words, what is it about the visible expression of our faith that will have the greatest ROI? A life lived without hypocrisy. A life that is simply what God wants it to be … totally devoted to Him. Consider Christ’s words …

And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRE-CEPTS OF MEN.' Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

Mark 7:6-8

When, not if, Christ visits SCCC I pray we never hear Him say “well done My good and faithful servants, but ….”

General TAGS: Homoletics,
Preaching, Sermons

Specific TAGS: Church, Denial,
Fulfillment, Materialism, Revelation, Worldliness