DECAFFEINATED CHRISTIANITY
Rev. 3:1
INTRODUCTION
A. COFFEE HUMOR
1. How did the hipster burn their mouth? They drank their coffee before it was cool.
2. Why did the barista get fired? They kept showing up to work in a tea-shirt.
3. How are coffee beans like teenagers? Both are always getting grounded.
4. What does a gossiping coffee do? Spill the beans.
5. Someone stole my coffee cup, so I’m heading to the police station to look over some mugshots.
6. A thirsty customer walked into a coffee shop. He asked the barista, “How much for a cup of coffee?” The barista pointed to the menu and said, “Five dollars for a cup of coffee and refills are free.” The customer replied, “Thanks. I’ll have a refill.”
B. TEXT
1. COFFEE IS MENTIONED IN THE MESSAGE Version in Luke 17:7-10, “Wouldn’t you be more likely to say, ‘Prepare dinner; change your clothes and wait table for me until I’ve finished my coffee; then go to the kitchen and have your supper’?” That’s not literal, but an equivalent interpretation!
2. But I want us to consider what Jesus said in Revelation to the Church at Sardis, “I see right through your work. You have a reputation for vigor and zest, but you’re dead, stone-dead” Rev. 3:1, Msg.
C. THESIS
1. Do we have a reputation for one thing but we’re really something else? Does Jesus see us the same way we see ourselves?
2. Today we’re taking a candid look at ourselves in a message entitled, “Decaffeinated Christianity.”
I. COMPARING DECAF & REGULAR COFFEE
A. DECAF IS A WONDERFUL THING
1. Decaffeinated coffee is a good thing for people who have heart conditions, are pregnant, have trouble going to sleep, or have anxiety problems. They better stay away from it or it may cause them problems.
2. But for most people, coffee is a blessing. It’s a delicious way to get a boost of energy in the morning, to defeat the afternoon slump, and has been described as a health elixir. It's been found to reduce prostate cancer risk, reduce heart failure risk, and even lower your risk of hearing loss. Dark roast may even help you lose weight. Under the right conditions, coffee is a wonderful blessing.
3. Many Americans have come to prefer South American coffee, like Columbian, to American-grown coffee, because it has more caffeine and a rich taste. These same consumers would declare that decaffeinated coffee just isn't real coffee.
B. DECAFFEINATION TAKES SOMETHING OUT
1. The same parallel exists in the spiritual realm; there is a real Christianity, and then there’s the look-a-like that doesn’t have the power to change you.
2. Decaffeinated Christianity, like decaffeinated coffee, won't wake you up, it won't perk you up, it won't keep you up and it won't get you up; it's just there.
3. It looks like coffee; it smells like coffee; it tastes like coffee; it just doesn't do for you, inside, what coffee ought to do. It is a coffee substitute.
4. IT FAILS TO STIMULATE YOU, TO REVIVE YOU. MANY FORMS OF CHRISTIANITY TODAY – INSTEAD OF
EMPOWERING YOU – WILL PUT YOU TO SLEEP!
C. ILLUSTRATION
1. The true story is told of a man who regularly slept in church. One evening service he dropped off like he always did, only this time a power outage left the auditorium in total darkness. The pastor did not use notes to preach and kept right on preaching.
2. Toward the end of the sermon, the man woke up. He rubbed his eyes but couldn’t see a thing. He heard the preacher and could feel his wife and daughter on both sides of him, but everything was pitch-black. In a state of panic, he stood up and declared, “Help me, I’m blind!”
3. Laughter filled the darkened room & that sleepy church member experienced revival at the altar of embarrassment, and one pastor enjoyed poetic justice. [Al Fasol, ministry127.com]
II. 5 WAYS WE DECAFFEINATE CHRISTIANITY
A. BECAUSE WE DON’T READ THE BIBLE
1. Many Christians have misconceptions about what the Bible teaches. 27% think that Superman might be in the Bible; and 54% think The Hunger Games might be in the Bible! [Christianity Today, 7/16/15]
2. Then there’s doctrinal error. 59% think the Holy Spirit is a force and not a personal Being. Why? Because only 1 in 10 read the Bible!
3. So people get their ideas of what’s in the Bible from the History Channel, a denomination, or from some family member.
B. BY LIMITING GOD
1. The favored form of decaffeinated Christianity in our culture is that we're a little afraid to let it go too far – somebody might think we're religious fanatics, and our pride won’t allow that! So we have decaffeinated our Christian faith, confined it, smoothed it out so it won’t offend anyone, and limited its effects to what our lost culture can agree with – then we wonder why there’s no power in it!
2. Annie Dillard, in her book Teaching a Stone to Talk said, "As Christians, we play on the floor like children with chemistry sets, not knowing the power we hold in our hands.” If the Biblical truths ever come together like they’re supposed to, we’d better not have on Sunday clothes, but crash helmets and Hazmat suits, because the power of God will blow away our old world as we know it!
C. PARTIAL COMMITMENT
1. To COMPROMISE means to accommodate, adjust, bargain, make a concession, go fifty-fifty, find a happy medium, a middle ground, or a trade-off.
2. Many people think they can “make a deal” with God; to swap just enough of their life to get eternal life. But that’s not acceptable to God. He wants ALL of you, or NONE of you! “You shall have no god before Me!” (or beside Me) God demands our total surrender.
3. Jesus said, “...those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples” Luke 14:33. Before the doctor operates on us, we have to surrender our bodies, in trust, to him and be willing to ‘go under’ anesthetic. God wants the same kind of trust and surrender.
4. Many people haven’t experienced change because they’ve never fully surrendered.
D. A POOR UNDERSTANDING OF JESUS
1. “For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough” 2 Cor. 11:4.
2. There’s a lot of people (Christians?) who are off-base because they have a warped perception of Jesus. Their Jesus is ‘all love,’ would never condemn anyone (or hurt their feelings). He’s “baby Jesus, meek & mild.” And the Gospel they follow isn’t the Gospel found in the New Testament. So their “Christian” experience is one without the power of the Cross & self-sacrifice in it.
E. SHUTTING OUT THE HOLY SPIRIT
1. Paul went over to Ephesus where Apollos had been preaching. When Paul got to Ephesus, all the Christians there seemed to be decaffeinated. They knew the arguments for being a Christian but they had no power.
2. Have you ever been to church and wondered where the power was? Some churches just meet, check the roll, and organize how to get those absent to come back, and go home. They have endless committee meetings. That’s what Paul found at Ephesus.
3. Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish theologian, said that “The Holy Spirit is the unexplored continent of the Christian faith.” Why? Because we're afraid of Him.
4. Paul said many Christians “have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof” 2 Timothy 3:5. NOT seeking the fullness of the Spirit is a major reason the American church lacks power.
III. HOW IMPORTANT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?
He INDWELLS US, CONVICTS US OF SIN, He’s OUR TEACHER, and OUR SOURCE OF SPIRITUAL POWER.
A. WHY DO WE NEED THE HOLY SPIRIT?
1. SO WE CAN THINK GOD’S THOUGHTS!
a. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my...thoughts higher than your thoughts” Is. 55:8
b. The ability is in the mind. If you could connect
your fingers to Beethoven’s mind, then you could play like him. If you can get God’s thoughts, then you can do what only He can do!
2. SO WE CAN PRAY GOD’S PRAYERS!
Our prayers are so limited! Where are the men and women who can go up Mount Carmel and pray and see the sky filled with clouds? Where is the prayer of faith that saves the sick and sees them raised up? We need the Spirit of Jesus to open up prayer to us!
3. SO WE CAN DO GOD’S WORKS!
a. “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in Me will do the works I have been doing, and...even greater things...because I am going to the Father” John 14:12.
b. Jesus says we can do the same works He’s doing...if we rely on the Holy Spirit to guide & supply us the power.
B. ARE WE LIKE THE STONE?
1. Many years ago Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929) said: "While sitting on the bank of a river one day, I picked up a solid round stone from the water and broke it open. It was perfectly dry in spite of the fact that it had been immersed in water for centuries.”
2. “The same is true of many people in the Western world. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity; they live immersed in the waters of its benefits. And yet it has not penetrated their hearts... The fault is not in Christianity, but in men's hearts, which have been hardened by materialism and intellectualism." [Dick Innes, Daily Encounter]
CONCLUSION
A. HOW DO WE RECEIVE THIS POWER?
1. KNOW THAT IT’S GOD’S WILL FOR YOU!
a. Jesus said, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised… in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." Acts 1:4-5
b. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses...” Acts 1:7.
c. “When the day of Pentecost came … Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came….They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that...came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” Acts 2:1-4
d. Christianity without the power of the Holy Spirit, is like the shuttle without its booster rockets; the shuttle can't get into orbit without those rockets. It's the same with us, without the Holy Spirit.
2. YOU MUST GET HUNGRY FOR IT
a. You must want it. Not passively, but actively. A.W. Tozer said, “Revivals come only to those who want them badly enough...”
b. Don't expect someone else's experience! Some people experience lightning, flashing lights, and fireworks; others experience quiet and deep worship. Just ask God to fill you and let Him decide how to do it.
c. During prayer, God may place "words" in your mind or they may well-up from inside -- "...out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" John 7:37-49. Open up your mouth and speak the words God gives you by faith.
B. THE CALL
1. DO YOU WANT TO BE FILLED? Join me up here at the front and let’s pray for a new infilling of the Holy Spirit.
2. PRAYER.
[This is a rewrite of William Self’s message of the same title]
