I have asked myself the question over the past two years, what is it that has kept the churches from having sustained growth, what has kept them from keeping pastors for any length of time, what is it that has such a vise over Northeastern Washington preventing the excitement and revival other areas of the nation and world are currently experiencing? Have you wondered? I know in this congregation there are those who love the Lord, who spend time in prayer, who are seeking His will and His way, but lets be honest, are we experiencing the breakthrough we are looking for? I want to share some thoughts with you today, I want you to pray about them, and decide if you think I might be on to something.
We are all familiar with the passage in Matthew 22:37, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." A few weeks ago I quoted from the passage in John 21:15-17 where Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love me?" three times. Jesus asked Peter three times to make sure Peter’s service was motivated by an intense love for Him because if it was not, it would lead to duty without devotion, practice without passion. And God not only wants our duty, He desires our devotion and our passion.
Somewhere along the line we have exchanged that devotion and that passion and have come to look upon our Christianity more out of duty and obligation. It is so easy to do, in fact, when the transition takes places, we don’t notice it, and it is hard for us to acknowledge that it has actually happened.
Let me show you this by first reading a passage from Revelations Chapter 2:1-5. (READ) Jesus is telling them, I see your deeds and your toil, your perseverance. He is telling them their duty, their work, their obligations are noted, but so is their lack of devotion and lack of passion for they have lost their first love. Where they wrong in what they were doing? No. They were only wrong in their motives. They were doing, but their motivation was in question, for without our love for Christ being the primary reason for our doing, something is out of balance.
Now before you tune me out thinking I am saying my balance, your balance is not right, and throwing up a defensive wall, I want you to hear me out this morning. I believe an important key for this community is found in what I have to say this morning, I only ask that you weigh the information. You might have right motives, you might have total devotion and passion, then this message might be for someone else here today, but I believe this an eye opening revelation right from the throne of grace.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 (READ)
In this passage, Paul is addressing carnal Christians. Understand, carnal Christians are genuine Christians, Christians who have left their first love, and you cannot leave your first love unless you are related in the first place.
Think on this for a moment. It is possible to be on your way to heaven and yet be of little use to God here on earth. It is possible to come to a place where you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, yet come to a place where you refuse to submit to His Lordship. This is a picture of a carnal Christian, someone who is on their way to heaven but has compromised their life of faith here on this earth.
Also understand this. There are some people who think they are carnal Christians when they have never been Christians at all. They think they have backsliden when they have never front sliden. Let me help you understand what I am saying so there is no confusion.
John 3:1-7 states (READ) So what does one have to be before they can become a Christian, they must be born again. They need to repent of their sins and be saved. They need to entrust their eternal destiny to Jesus Christ who has paid for their sins on the cross and confess Christ as Lord and Savior of their life. If you have never done that, today is the day of salvation for you and at the end of the service you can come to the alter and we will pray with you so that you can be sure.
Now sometimes we see a person who has professed to be born again but is now living a Christian lie and it is east to say that this person is not a Christian. And it is possible they are not, but it is also possible that this person is a genuine Christian who has grown lukewarm and become a failure in their walk. Just as much as it is legally possible to be married without enjoying the intimate fellowship that marriage should bring, it is also possible to be truly married to Christ but not enjoy the fellowship that ought to be part of our salvation.
Understand this church, getting saved 10 years ago does not fix you spiritually today. God gave you new life, but you must live in new life. It’s possible to be a spiritual victor yesterday and a spiritual disaster today.
So what is a carnal Christian? The passage in 1 Corinthians 3:2-3 said, "I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not able, for you are still fleshly." It’s tough being a pastor, can I tell you. For over 2 1/2 years I have been trying to develop a ministry here in preaching that is built precept upon precept. A foundation for what the Lord desires to accomplish. I have never mentioned to you the congregation, that over this time period I have had opposition to the direction the Lord has given because people prefer milk over solid food. Prayers have gone up to heaven. "Get ahold of the pastor so he will change what he is preaching and teaching." The Lord reminded me in prayer the church is only as strong as its weakest link, and last year I stopped in the middle of a series on what builds a great church, not because I wanted to, its God inspired, but because some were getting sick chewing. I have been told that I should not preach on sin, but on the love and grace of God because we know we are not good enough and we don’t need to be reminded from the pulpit, even though it is acknowledged the messages are biblical. It has always been ironic to me, that at the same time someone has complained, someone else has come and told me how much that message or that series of messages has meant to them. Some prefer milk, others solid food.
In this passage I see the carnal Christian, a stagnant Christian. You don’t grow up on just milk. A carnal Christian is one who has been saved for a period of time, yet demonstrates little or no spiritual development. It is dismaying to see Christians come to church week after week, month after month, year after year, making no spiritual progress even though they are still performing. And then to be people others gain spiritual advice from?
They still commit the same old sins in the same old way. They still refuse to think biblically, and to relate to God has he commands. Paul says the thing that marks carnal believers is their inability to eat spiritual food, they are not able to get into the deeper things of God.
There are so many who want to give God everything but that thing he requires. We want to give him a little of this and a little of that but our spiritual engine does not roar because we are not giving God what he requires--a committed life, using the time we have for spiritual development.
Many Christians are carnal because they have stalled, they have from their own choices failed to move from milk to spiritual food. They are still measuring their success on how well they are entertained, not by how much truth they are exposed to. They want to feel good even when they are not learning anything, they want someone to give them the Word instead of using their own spoon, fork and knife to feed themselves.
Hebrews 5:11 says they have become dull of hearing. The word dull was used for a mule. Carnal Christians have become mule headed, stubborn, refusing to learn and applying the truths of God which stalls their spiritual development.
1 Corinthians 3:3 states, "For you are still fleshly (carnal). For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?"
Carnal Christians have developed a mindset of disobedience, willfully living in sin, being controlled by the old self rather then the new creation they have become.
Understand, I am talking about a decision of the will, not an occasional lapse into sin. Everyone sins--no one is perfect except Christ. So a person who falls into sin is not necessarily a carnal Christian. Carnal Christians have a spiritual mind-set, a way of thinking, that seeks to gratify themselves rather than to please Christ.
The design is to become like spiritual people, to be a spiritual person. 1 Corinthians 2:15-16 states, (READ)
How many of you want to be a spiritual person? A spiritual person is the mature Christian who has learned to think like Christ thinks--and the mind is the key. Think about this for a moment, everything you do in life is because your brain has told you to do it. Well, what the brain is to the body, the mind is to the soul. In your decision making, in your planning, in your whole orientation to life, do you regularly raise the question, what would God think about this? If you do not, it is because you are not a spiritual person. A spiritual person thinks like Christ. Spiritual people are able to connect present decisions with future consequences because they are mature. Immature people don’t make the connection, they live for the moment.
In verse 3, 4 we read, "Are you not mere men, for one says I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos, are you not mere men?
Carnal Christians are rebellious Christians. What are they doing? Paul cites their jealousy and strife concerning human leaders. How often do we compare ministers to someone else? Laura and I were recently discussing the strengths and weakness of our ministry. I am not an extrovert. I am better one on one than in large group settings other than being in the pulpit, and the list goes on, and as I have attempted to be what others would mold me to be, I am not a success, because God created me, gifted me, and sent me out to be me, not some other minister and I have strengths because they are God given, and weaknesses because God’s intention is for others to be strong in my weak areas so the entire body can function properly. Carnal Christians will raise up other names and other gifts that other people have, pitting one against the other. And Paul is stating that is wrong. Don’t let anyone try to get you to conform to someone else, you are uniquely and wonderfully made by God to be who God has created you to be.
In chapter 5, we discover the carnal Christians not only tolerated a shameful act of incest, but they also took perverse pride in it.
In Galatians 5 Paul talks about immoral living, impure activity, envy, strife, and idolatry. He calls them the work of the flesh. He says when Christians adopt these patterns, it is because they are rebellious, because they are refusing to submit, because they are acting independently of God’s plans.
I realize people have problems that need to be worked on. People get themselves trapped in all sorts of problems and bondage’s, but understand this, a Christian is never a helpless pawn in Satan’s hand.
I believe what has kept this corner of the state of experiencing all that God wants to bring down in the way of blessing is carnality. God is calling us to a higher level. I want to acknowledge that I have, in order to keep peace, made errors in leadership selection in the past, have allowed carnal Christians a degree of influence in this ministry which I believe has kept God from doing more, and I have repented.
The question now remains, do you believe what I have spoken this morning is true? If it is, it requires an action of response. Perhaps God was speaking to you of areas of your life that might be out of balance. Perhaps he has brought others to mind, and they need intercessory prayer so the eyes of their understanding will be open. Perhaps you are here this morning and you are not even a Christian, the actions of carnal Christians has caused you to look at the church as hypocrites, but now you have a better understanding of what God does not what to see in the lives of believers, and you desire to make a decision to follow Him. What ever the response is you feel you need to make, these alters are open for prayer. Much prayer...much power; little prayer...little power; no prayer...no power.
I am here at the alter to pray for those who desire more power from God after you have spent time at the alter doing business with Him.
