First Church Of The Couch Potato

FIRST CHURCH OF THE COUCH POTATO

by Pastor Jim May

1 Peter 2:2-3, "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

Nothing is more precious in the eyes of a young couple than a newborn baby. It is the same with the Lord as he looks upon a new convert, someone who has just been born again of the Spirit of God and washed in the Blood of the Lamb.

As I look around the church there are some here who would probably come close to qualifying as a newborn babe in Christ. Some would qualify more as toddlers. And some would be a little older.

In every stage of growth, both physically and spiritually, there are a lot of things that change. A newborn baby often can’t communicate very well except to cry if it is hungry, in pain, needs changing, or just wants more attention. A toddler has begun to learn a few words, maybe even putting some sentences together, but he still has communication problems simply because he hasn’t learned what many things are in life.

Sometimes one of those children can really surprise you. I remember when my son was small. He didn’t speak at all for a long time. We wondered if he would ever begin to talk. Then one day, out of the clear blue sky, he spoke a whole sentence. He was riding in a car, stopped at a stop sign, waiting for the intersection to clear when he said, “Well, go ahead stupid!” That kind of tells you what he may have been listening to doesn’t it?

You have to love babies and children. Nothing brings joy like having a few little ones around doing some cutesy things. I love it when they come for a visit, and I love it when I can say to their parents, “It’s time to take them home now.” That is, unless they live with you.

Mr. Art Linkletter once had a program on TV where kids could say what came to their minds and those kids were really funny. Mr. Linkletter isn’t around anymore, but the things kids say are just as funny today. Here’s what just a few of them had to say after some Sunday School classes when the preacher asked what they had learned.

In the first book of the Bible, Guinessis, God got tired of creating the world, so He took the Sabbath off. Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree.

Noah’s wife was called Joan of Ark.

Samson was a strongman who let himself be led astray by a Jezebel like Delilah. Samson slayed the Philistines with the axe of the apostles.

Moses led the Hebrews to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients.

The Egyptians were all drowned in the dessert. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the Ten Amendments.

The First Commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple. The Fifth Commandment is to humor thy father and mother. The seventh Commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery.

Moses died before he ever reached Canada. Then Joshua led the Hebrews in the battle of Geritol.

The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him.

The people who followed the Lord were called the 12 decibels. The epistles were the wives of the apostles. One of the opossums was St. Matthew who was, by profession, a taximan.

Aren’t kids funny? It’s great to be a Child of God. It’s great to know Jesus as my Savior and Lord and my Elder Brother. It’s great to know my Heavenly Father. It’s great to be a babe in Christ, but their comes a time when we have to move on to bigger and better things in God.

There are a lot of people who are born again but never seem to progress much farther than that. The reason is, that they soon learn to be a “spiritual couch potato”, because growing in Christ means hard work, commitment and dedication – in short, it means “discipline”.

It is so wonderful to get saved and to begin to drink of the sincere milk of the Word of God. Newborn Christians need a lot of nourishment from that milk of the Word. They need to learn the basics of serving the Lord. They need to know that the Word of the Lord is quick, powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. They need to know that they can trust upon God’s Word and build their lives upon it.

The goal of every church, and every pastor, is to begin a training process for every new convert – to get them filled with the sincere milk of the Word. But there comes a time when we must progress from the milk of the Word to something stronger. That means growing up and learning to understand the deeper things in God.