Christians: An Endangered Species

July 13, 2003

Title: "The Immoral Majority" or "Christians: An Endangered Species"

Text: Psalm 12:1-8

Introduction

I’m sure you are at least somewhat familiar with animals on the endangered species list.

Here in Florida, I am aware of several that appear on our license plates http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/specialtytags/specialindex.html

Florida Panther, ($35,902,402 generated from 1990-2001)

Manatee, ($29,965,482 1990-2001)

and Sea Turtle ($4,055,717 from 1998-2001)

protect Florida Whales (only 1 issued according to the above website!)

The money from these plates goes into various trust funds to fund research and conservation activities for these animals.

Last week, I mentioned some of the spiritual discussions that my friend and I got into while we were on vacation. (I doubt he realizes how much sermon material he gave me!! :)

One thing he said has been running through my mind.

He made the comment that there will be many more people in heaven than we might think.

He was making that argument from the standpoint of God’s grace is sufficient to cover a multitude of sins.

and while I agree that God’s grace is sufficient...

we also have a responsibility to "go and sin no more" (John 8:11)

I don’t agree that there will be more people in heaven than we might think...

but I do think it will be quite a surprise to many people WHO is in heaven and WHO is not!!

We might be quite surprised to find people like Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer in heaven (because, if the reports of their repentence is genuine, then they too can find forgiveness for their sins...no matter that what they did was so despicable)

On the other hand, we might be surprised to find people who dented a church pew every Sunday for 50 years--did NOT make it to heaven...because they never allowed Jesus to change their heart!

(But that’s a topic for another sermon)

Back to the point of this sermon...

There will be fewer people who make it to heaven than we might think...

Sometimes it seems almost as if Christians have become an Endangered Species!

Maybe we need to get a license plate that says, "Conserve the Christians"!

let’s look to our text: Psalm 12:1-8

I’ve entitled my sermon "The Immoral Majority" or "Christians: An Endangered Species"

Body

1. First of all, David is lamenting the fact that Christians have become an endangered species.

In Psalm 12:1, he says, "Help , LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men."

Evidently there USED to be more godly people around...

But they seem to have vanished.

Sometimes we look around and we feel the same way.

There used to be a spirit of revival in this country...

There used to be an excitement about spiritual things...

There used to be an interest in the things of God...

But it seems like the revival has gone....

the excitement has waned...

the interest has dropped off.

Sometimes we feel like Abraham, who said, "Lord, if there be 10 righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah; will you spare the cities?"

And you know the story...there could not be found even 10 righteous people! (Genesis 18:20-33)

There was an Immoral Majority...

And those cities were destroyed.

And, I’m sorry to say that we are living in a time and a place where there is an immoral majority.

Christians have become an endangered species.

The Church of the Nazarene has designated the United States as a mission field...

because a majority of our people are Non-Christian.

The KJV says, "the faithful fail from among the children of men"

We’ve even seen that in our own church...

We’ve seen people who USED to love the Lord...

they were excited to be in the House of God...

they would stand and testify about how much they loved God...

But then, these same people "fail" (KJV) or "vanish" (NIV)

They are no longer attending our church (or any other church for that matter)

They no longer testify about how they love the Lord...

their excitement for the Lord has left.

They have "lost their first love" Rev 2:4

Now, their excitement is for other things...

Maybe they are excited about their job...

or about a new lover...

Some people even seem to get excited about sitting in judgment over the church and Christians:

They criticize the Church...

They criticize God’s people...

David experienced this too. In Psalm 12:2, he points out that Everyone lies to his neighbor;

their flattering lips speak with deception.

The KJV says, "with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak."

I’m sure you have known people like this....

Maybe you have even done it yourself!!...

These are the people who will say nice things about you to your face...

but then, when you aren’t around...they tell everyone else something entirely different.