Passivity

Passivity

John 12:12-14

Part two of Spiritual Warfare

A little boy fell out of the bed in his sleep. His father picked him up and put him back in bed. He asked him, Son, what happened?” The little boy responded, “I fell asleep too close to where I got in.”

I believe that describes too many Christians today… they have fallen asleep too close to where they got in.

They are not in danger of falling out of salvation… but they have made no spiritual progress since they were saved.

So many Christians are content to fill up on knowledge… but then to do so little with it.

Christians today have come to see sitting in a comfortable padded pew for 60 minutes as their spiritual duty… as the fulfillment of that duty.

Most Christians judge themselves and others by how faithfully they do that.

When they leave the sanctuary on Sunday after the sermon, THEY ARE DONE. They will not pick up the bible or take 10 minutes to engage in any Spiritual activity… until next Sunday.

The average Christian spends more time brushing their teeth each day than in spiritual activity.

Imagine a football team that spent NO time in practice, no time learning plays, no time in training… they show up for the game and are prepared to sit on the bench.

We have replaced service with sitting through a service.

>> It is like farmer who has replace farming with watching programs about farming. Now the

>> Fields are overgrown,

>> Barn is falling down,

>> Fences are down and

>> Cows are in the road.

Such is the condition of most Christian lives… the fences are down, the weed have choked out the fruit and the enemy is running amuck.

Just having knowledge… sitting and listening… is not the end of the process. It is only the beginning.

The abundant life God calls us to… requires so much more…

We are told to…

Study the Word

(2 Tim. 2:15 KJV - “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”),

Meditate on the Word (Psa. 119:97 “O how I love Thy law! It is my all the day.” NAS),

Work out the Word daily in our lives. (Phil. 2:12-13 “… work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

Few Christians are making the time to daily study their Bible and then meditating on what they have read.

It is not enough to do your duty and read a bit of scripture each day. Have you noticed how little of it you retain?

God wants us to desire His Word like food, and chew on it and digest it with the enlightenment that the Holy Spirit provides.

Only when we hunger and thirst for the riches of the Word, will it be opened up to us.

A superficial reading of the Word will not cut it, as far as spiritual growth is concerned.

There are reasons why passivity has crept into the lives of Christians.

One has to do with “wrong priorities.” We live in a fast paced society where there are many demands upon ourselves and our family members. There will be little time for our spiritual lives unless they are given a place high on the list of our priorities. If we just hope to find time after we have taken care of other responsibilities, we will never have a consistent time with God, His Word, His people or for His service.

Trying to squeeze everything in to a given day does not work either. We have to take inventory of our lives and start pruning away the non-essentials.

Setting right priorities is often painful at first, but in the end it is liberating. The enemy will provide you with many reasons why you should continue to hang on to some things in your life.

Another reason is our… ENTERTAINMENT ADDICTION.

We demand to be entertained every moment of every day and there are MANY ways to do it… TV, internet, video games, movies, texting, telephone.

Spiritual warfare… praying, reading bible, meditating on the Word just isn’t as fun.

Another reason is the SQUEAKY WHEEL PRINCIPLE… there are so many things you HAVE TO DO… home work, chores, school, work, maintaining the stuff… things that have immediate and harsh consequences that they force us to do them.

Spiritual warfare does not get high on the list because you don’t see any immediate negative consequences.

Plus... the Fear Factor…we are afraid to engage Satan because we fear it will require too much of us.

Most of us want to cut down on the things in our life that require more of us.