The Antidote for Apatheism!
2 Peter 1:3-8
Intro: Yesterday we had our first Saturday of Upward. In Ft Wayne this year there are over 2,100 kids in Upward basketball at14 different churches.
Basketball is an interesting sport…people from all walks of life play at all levels, from the pick-up game in a park someplace all the way up to the NBA. What is it that separates the player in the pick-up game from the NBA player? Is it talent? Or is it something else It is something called commitment. They have made the commitment to do whatever it takes to achieve that level of play.
The Bible compares the Christian life to sports, but there are some things that make our experience unique. While super talent is rare, believers all get the same treatment; not gifts or talents, but what it takes to achieve the great prize. Those who demonstrate the
Every year I spend October in prayer and meditation on where God would have us go in the New Year. Then by December, or sometimes January, I have a fairly clear vision for the coming year. This year is no exception. I took the static’s from 2005 and compared them to this years just to get a sense of where we are and what stuck out at me was the fact that, looking at just the static’s we have stood still. Our attendance as stayed the same and or giving has remained about the same…in other words we have stood still this past year. So as I prayed I began to whine to God that maybe somehow I had failed Him since I had not been able to build the church this past year. After a day or two of “whining” the Lord began to convict my heart that He had never called me to build a church…according to Matthew 16:18 that was Jesus’ job, to build the church. I then began to get the sense that the Lord was telling me that He had called me to build people. Not just challenge people to go out and invite folks to service – not that, that isn’t an important aspect of building people – but I was to build people to be more like Jesus. Romans 8:29 says “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son…” That is what God has called me to do, to help us prepare to fit in up in heaven by conforming us to the image of His Son Jesus Christ. How was I to do that? According to Eph 4:11-12 pastors were given, “…For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:”
So this coming year we are going to focus a lot on Spiritual Growth, we are going to be Perfecting for Heaven in 2007.
Spiritual growth is called Sanctification. This sanctification is, according to Paul is why, “…God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thess 2:13) we are expected to grow. In fact, Paul tells the church in Ephesus that God gave the church pastors and teachers so we would be, “…no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness...but speaking the truth in love, may GROW UP into him in all things which is the head, even Christ” (Eph 4:14-15). Paul says that the very reason we have church is for the purpose of growing spiritually.
Spiritual growth is detailed in 2 Peter 1:3-8
[Stand and read 2 Peter 1:3-8/pray/dismiss Jr. Church}
Do you have a lack of interest in growing spiritually? Do you approach Bible Reading, Prayer and even church attendance with the attitude that, “if there is nothing else to do then I…(Read my Bible, Pray, go to Church, etc)” If that is you then you may be suffering from, what Jonathan Rauch calls Apatheism.
Columnist Jonathan Rauch believes that America has made “a major civilizational advance” in recent years. Rauch, a longtime atheist, is thrilled about a phenomenon he calls “apatheism.”
It’s not that people don’t believe in God anymore, Rauch writes in the ATLANTIC MONTHLY — the majority will still say they believe. But statistics show that they’re going to church less, and when they do go, it’s more to socialize or enjoy a familiar ritual than to worship. And as Rauch observes, they’re refraining from sharing their faith with their friends and neighbors.
On the whole, the people Rauch describes haven’t been putting much thought or effort into their faith. They’re looking for comfort and reassurance, not for a God who asks anything of them. Hence the rise of “apatheism,” which Rauch defines as “a disinclination to care all that much about one’s own religion, and an even stronger disinclination to care about other people’s.”
Apatheism concerns not what you believe but how. Thomas Byrne Edsall reported in Atlantic Monthly that in America, the proportion of people who say they never go to church or synagogue has tripled since 1972, to 33 percent in 2000. Most of these people believe in God (professed atheists are very rare in the United States); they just don’t care much about him. They do care a bit; but apatheism is an attitude, not a belief system, and the over-riding fact is that these people are relaxed about religion.
Even regular churchgoers can, and often do, rank quite high on the apatheism scale. Even born again belevers today often have an apatheistic flavor.
Ronald Reagan used to insist that he was religious even though, as President, he hardly ever entered a church. It turns out he was in good company. Those Americans who tell pollsters they worship faithfully? Many of them are lying. John G. Stackhouse Jr., a professor of theology and culture, wrote recently in American Outlook magazine, “Beginning in the 1990s, a series of sociological studies has shown that many more Americans tell pollsters that they attend church regularly than can be found in church when teams actually count.” In fact, he says, actual churchgoing may be at little more than half the professed rate. A great many Americans, like their fortieth President, apparently care about religion enough to say they are religious, but not enough to go to church.
Rauch’s observations however are very eye opening and speaks to the reason why I believe God has lead me to have us focus of our Spiritual Growth in 2007.
1. Spiritual Growth - What is it?
A. Spiritual growth is detailed in 2 Peter 1:3-8,
B. Spiritual growth includes:
1) increasing in your knowledge and understanding of God’s Word,
2) decreasing in your frequency and severity of sin,
3) increasing in your practice of Christ-like qualities,
4) increasing in your faith and trust in God.
C. Perhaps the best summary of spiritual growth is becoming more like Jesus Christ.
1) In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul says, " Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
2) Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of what it truly means to be spiritual.
2. Spiritual Growth - How is it done?
A. In order for spiritual growth to occur, you first need to make sure you possess a true spiritual life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
B. Learning how to grow spiritually is a life-long journey which occurs as you read and apply God’s Word to your life.
1) 2 Timothy 3:16-17 teaches us, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."
2) In order for spiritual growth to occur, we must be taught, rebuked, corrected, and trained by God’s Word; then we will be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
3) This is the essence of spiritual growth.
C. Another key to Christian growth is walking in the Spirit
1) Galatians 5:16-18, 24-26 explains, “…I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law… And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
2) Walking in the Spirit is allowing Him to fill you (Ephesians 5:18), control you, and guide you.
(a) This is brought about by consciously choosing by faith to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide you in thought, word, and deed (Romans 6:11-14).
(b) Failure to rely on the Holy Spirit’s guidance will result in a believer not living up to the calling and standing that salvation provides.
(c) Ephesians 4:1 says, "… beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called."
3. Spiritual Growth - What are the results?
A. Spiritual growth is a life-long process of manifesting the acts of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) less and less and producing the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) more and more.
1) It is the Holy Spirit who produces the fruit in us.
2) Yes, we must submit ourselves to the Spirit’s leading, but it is the Spirit who produces the fruit of spiritual growth in our lives.
3) What does spiritual growth look like?
4) Galatians 5:22-23 has the answer, " But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law."
5) If you are becoming more loving, more joyful, more kind, more self-controlled, etc., then you can rest assured that spiritual growth is genuinely occurring in your life.
B. God works in different people in different ways.
1) Some people grow rapidly, while others grow slowly, but steadily.
2) Our focus should not be on comparing ourselves with others, but on comparing ourselves with God’s Word.
3) The Scriptures are the mirror to show us what we are like spiritually and to shine light on the areas that need to experience and learn spiritual growth.
4) James 1:23-25 declares, "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does."
C. Spiritual Growth is The Antidote for Apatheism!
Conclusion:
Rauch thinks Apatheism is great, because he believes that “religion, as the events of September 11 and after have so brutally underscored, remains the most divisive and volatile of social forces.” If you must have faith, he argues, it’s better to be lukewarm about it than to be “controlled by godly passions.”
The problem with Rauch’s analysis is that the “apatheism” he describes looks very much like selfishness. And it’s selfishness, not religious faith that is a truly disruptive force.
If we really have faith in God, and aren’t just paying lip service to Him, that faith takes us out of ourselves, leading us to serve God and other people. Its selfishness, not tolerance, that dictates that we direct our own lives and stay where we’re comfortable. Selfishness makes us keep our faith strictly personal, afraid to integrate it with the rest of our lives or even to talk about it for fear of being judged harshly.
A party of tourists, looking up to the summit of an impressive mountain, thought that by climbing one of the smaller hills they would improve their view.
On the way they passed a party coming down, and they asked, "Is it worthwhile?" The reply came back, "Anything above the ordinary level is always worthwhile."
As we begin 2007 let’s all make a personal commitment to focus on our Spiritual Growth allowing the Holy Spirit to Perfect us for Heaven in 2007.
