"ARE YOU WITHERING?"
(have Hebrews 6:1-12 read at beginning of service)
Read John 15:1-7
SHOW PLANT (needs to be planned ahead!!)
How many of you have ever felt like this plant? You notice that it appears to still be alive but there are some branches that have no leaves. If there was a word that could describe the state of this plant I would say that it is withering. I know I would definitely not say that this is a thriving plant!! It probably would be something that I would want to hide - I don’t think I’d want it to be in the center of my kitchen table. No I think I would place this plant in my basement or in my garage. I might place it where it could get some light and give it some water in the hopes that it might revive and start growing well again but if it doesn’t well I’ll probably toss it. What do you do with your withering plants?
I’d like to make a statement this morning - "IF YOU ARE WITHERING - LOOK OUT! BECAUSE YOU’RE PROBABLY BEGINNING TO DIE! BUT THERE’S HOPE!!" (have them repeat)
It’s sad, but true, that for a lot of Christians - our relationship with Jesus grows old. There are so many people who come to altar calls, pray to give their lives to Jesus, they get excited for a week or two and then everything gets old. Oh but with some people it takes longer maybe a couple of months, maybe a year, two years or maybe even five years. What do I mean it gets old?
I mean that it withers - the relationship with Christ that was once so vibrant and fresh and exciting becomes slow, stale and boring. The sad thing is that sometimes its hard to see this happening because these people still come to church, they still "do ministry", they still say all the right words, they still sing choruses.
Why does this happen? How can this relationship with Jesus Christ who is really the Lord of the universe, the Son of the living God, the Resurrected Saviour, the Bread of Life get old? The answer my friends lies in us as human beings. It’s not God’s fault: it’s our fault. As human beings, it’s easy for anything to get old to us! That’s why the advertising industry always has to come out with new ads and new products, because we don’t like seeing the same thing again and again. We’re not machines. We’re living creatures with active minds who want to be entertained, mesmerized and tantalized.This is why Jesus says in John 15:4, "Remain in me, and I will remain in you." If your relationship with Christ is to be fresh, vibrant and exciting you need to remain in him. Otherwise as He says in verse 6, "If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned." Jesus understood our human nature - he knew that we get bored easily - he also knew that when we’re bored we don’t do anything!!
In this passage that refers to producing fruit in our lives Jesus is really getting to the heart of what prevents us from producing fruit as Christians.
How many of you like me are procrastinators? If there was a procrastination club it would never meet because the meeting would always be rescheduled!! Have you ever noticed what things in your life get "rescheduled" - if you look really, really carefully I’ll bet its the things that you don’t really want to do! Or maybe it’s because there’s something else more important at that moment. But have you ever noticed what things you tackle with relish and intensity without even thinking about doing it later? I think this is a terrific bit of wisdom - it’s usually the things that you like to do!! Jesus understood that if we didn’t remain in him there would be no fruit produced in our lives - why? Because we’re not in him! How come we’re not in him? Because our relationship with Him has grown old! And you know you’re relationship with Christ has grown old when you’re withering. And you know you’re withering when you go to church because you have to rather than because you want to - when you read your Bible like it is a textbook rather than a love letter - when your praying (when you pray!) becomes rote and habit rather than communication with God - and when your worship and praise is reduced to simply mouthing words found on overheads and on paper rather than sung from the heart and lived.
ARE YOU WITHERING? "IF YOU ARE WITHERING - LOOK OUT! BECAUSE YOU’RE PROBABLY BEGINNING TO DIE! BUT THERE’S HOPE!!"
There are many things that can cause us to wither…
IT MAY BE YOU’RE WITHERING BECAUSE YOU’RE TOO COMFORTABLE AND YOUR COMFORT MAKES YOU FORGETFUL! Deuteronomy 8:11-14 (NIV)
11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
God loves to bless his people and a lot of us like to receive his blessing. But sometimes we forget the blessings God has bestowed upon us. There are a lot of people in our world today who are withering spiritually because they have too much comfort - they’ve been blessed with everything they need and more. "Why do I need God?" I’ve got everything I need! Why do I need God? I’ve got food when I need it - I’ve got a place to live, a car to drive, a family to love and one who loves me.
That’s what happened to the Israelites, through Hosea God said "When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me." (13:6)If you look at the history of Israel in the Old Testament you find that many times it was when the nation was prosperous that they started withering and eventually fell away from God.
How do you know when you are too comfortable? It’s very simple really, - when you can’t find anything to thank God for! I want to tell you something - there is always something to thank God for - always, whether its the air you breathe or the clothes you wear - you could be the poorest of the poor and still be too comfortable if you can’t thank God for anything. And the gratitude has to go further than your mouth - and even further than your checkbook - it has to come from your heart and be in your life. It’s nice when you give financially to the church and it’s important to God but do you give of yourself too?
Another area in which we get toO comfortable is in the area of sin. Far too many of us are getting tolerant of sin in our lives and because of that we’re withering spiritually. We tolerate programs on T.V., we tolerate certain movies, we tolerate certain books we read, we tolerate sinful things happening in our communities. When we become comfortable with sin then we become sinful. And this will cause us to wither.
If you’re too comfortable than you need some uncomfort in your life to help you recall God’s blessings.
The truth of the matter is that it takes a little uncomfort to break people free from being too comfortable. Have you ever noticed that more people turn to God when there is tragedy than when everything is going well? You see when you’re uncomfortable then you realize that you need God!
EG.Israelites...Peter...
Maybe, just maybe that’s why Jesus said in Mathew 5:3-4, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
IT MAY BE YOU’RE WITHERING BECAUSE YOU’RE TOO HABITUAL! YOU NEED TO HAVE SOME CHANGE!
It’s true that some habits are good, but its equally true that some habits are bad. "Habits are first cobwebs, then cables". "The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken." Samuel Johnson
For example it is a good habit when you have a regular devotional time with God every day. It is a bad habit when that’s the only reason why you have a regular devotional time with God. Do you meet with God out of habit or out of love? Sometimes our prayers reflect this. How many of you have a grace that you pray before every meal? When you say it do you say it out of habit or do you really mean it each and every time you say grace?
There’s another kind of habit that I call the "I do what you do" habit. That is do you find you’re hand slipping up during praise and worship times when other peoples hands are going up? Or do you always do the actions to certain songs? Do you do this out of habit or is it done in true adoration and praise for God. Do you come to church out of habit? Do you say Praise the Lord! out of habit? Do you say Amen out of habit? Do you say "I’ll pray for you!" out of habit? Do you say, "Lord forgive me" out of habit? Do you say, "I love you Jesus," out of habit? OR DO YOU REALLY MEAN IT? If any of these fit you then you’re withering because you’re to habitual! You need to break some habits and the only way you’re going to break them is if you’re aware of them. Before each and every meal - vary your grace a bit - say it from the heart! Watch what you’re doing and ask yourself why you’re doing it. When we start to do things out of habit then we start to grow distant from God.
IT MAY BE YOU ARE WITHERING BECAUSE YOU ARE TOO JUDGEMENTAL WHEN YOU NEED TO BE FORGIVING.
We’ve all heard this familiar passage,
Matthew 7:1-5 (NIV)
1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ’Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
It’s very often true that the faults we constantly see in the lives of others are the very faults that we have ourselves. Do you find yourself doing that?
Those who are too judgmental really find it hard to forgive people. Those who find it hard to forgive people will become bitter people and bitter people wither spiritually.
Ephesians 4:30-31, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice."
We’re fooling ourselves if we think we can abide in Christ with bitterness in our spirit! Do you want vitality in your life with Christ? Then make sure you have a heart that is able to forgive!
IT MAY BE THAT YOU ARE WITHERING BECAUSE YOU ARE TOO LAZY. YOU NEED TO BE AVAILABLE AND DILIGENT!
Most of you are familiar with the following parable:
Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV)
24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
Here’s another way of understanding laziness,
Let’s play ‘Let’s Pretend’. Let’s pretend that you work for me. In fact, you are my executive assistant in a company that is growing rapidly. I’m the owner and I’m interested in expanding overseas. To pull this off, I make plans to travel abroad and stay there until a new branch office gets established. I make all the arrangements to take my family and move to Europe for six to eight months. And I leave you in charge of the busy stateside organization. I tell you that I will write you regularly and give you directions and instructions. I leave and you stay.Months pass. A flow of letters are mailed from Europe and received by you at the national headquarters. I spell out all my expectations.
Finally, I return. Soon after my arrival, I drive down to the office and I am stunned. Grass and weeds have grown up high. A few windows along the street are broken. I walk into the Receptionist’s room. She is doing her nails, chewing gum and listening to her favorite disco station. I look around and notice the wastebaskets are overflowing. The carpet hasn’t been vacuumed for weeks, and nobody seems concerned that the owner has returned. I asked about your whereabouts and someone in the crowded lounge area points down the hall and yells, "I think he’s down there." Disturbed, I move in that direction and bump into you as you are finishing a chess game with our sales manager. I ask you to step into my office, which has been temporarily turned into a television room for watching afternoon soap operas."What in the world is going on, man?"
"What do you mean, Darren?"
"Well, look at this place! Didn’t you get any of my letters?""Letters? Oh yes! Sure! I got every one of them. As a matter of fact, Darren, we have had a letter study every Friday since you left. We have even divided the personnel into small groups to discuss many of the things you wrote. Some of the things were really interesting. You will be pleased to know that a few of us have actually committed to memory some of your sentences and paragraphs. One or two memorized an entire letter or two - Great stuff in those letters."
"OK. You got my letters. You studied them and meditated on them; discussed and even memorized them. But what did you do about them?"
"Do? We didn’t do anything about them." (Improving Your Serve, Chuck Swindoll)
What kind of relationship exists between us now? Some of us get too lazy to really do anything for God. If we really want to have an exciting relationship with Christ then we need to be available for what he wants us and diligent in doing it.
"The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied." Proverbs 13:4
On the other hand,
IT MAY BE THAT YOUA RE WITHERING BECAUSE YOU ARE "TOO BUSY"!
Waiting to be interviewed for a job as a wireless operator, a group of applicants paid little attention to the sound of the dots and dashes which began coming over a loudspeaker. Suddenly one of them rushed into the employer’s office. Soon he returned smiling. "I got it!" he exclaimed."How did you get ahead of us?" they asked.
"You might have been considered if you hadn’t been so busy talking that you didn’t hear the manager’s coded message," he replied. "It said, ‘The man I need must always be on the alert. The first one who interprets this and comes directly into my private office will be hired.’" (www.sermons.org, "Hearing & Listening, opportunity, paying attention")
Some of us get so busy that we miss out on the things God is saying to us. When our "business" interferes with our relationship with God then that relationship will wither. If you ever find excused for not spending time in prayer, or spending time reading the Bible, or going to church then you are too busy.
CONCLUSION
To conclude I would like to repeat a couple of verses that were read this morning.
Hebrews 6:7-8
7 Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned
Are you drinking in the rain that God is showering upon you and enjoying the blessings of God and a meaningful and exciting relationship with Christ? Or like this plant are you withering because… You’re too comfortable and have forgotten who’s providing the rain,
You’re too comfortable with sin and allow weeds choke off all that is good.
You’re too habitual and there is no substance to your soil for anything to grow.
You’re too judgemental and the rain bounces off your hard clay surface.
You’re too lazy and the rain simply drains away.
You’re too busy to allow the rain to even reach the surface.
Maybe you need some,
uncomfort to remind you of our God who has blessed us
uncomfort to get us to tear out the weeds.
Change to add substance and meaning to what we do
forgiveness to soften our hearts
diligence in doing what God want’s us to do and… availability to receive what God has for us.
This sermon was preached by Darren Ethier at Hanover Pentecostal Church. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers
