11, August 2002
Dakota Community Church
Leading Indicators of Spiritual Decline
Part II
Introduction: Review
When there is economic decline, governments pretend all is well.
When there is spiritual decline, Christians pretend all is well.
Sometimes you know but others don’t and sometimes others know and you have deceived yourself.
With the economy:
- Rising unemployment.
- Lower consumer spending.
- Higher inflation rate.
- Declining dollar value
First Three Spiritual Indicators:
1. Rising Doubts.
a. God and Christianity.
b. Self. – Doubting yourself and your ability to fulfill the call of God.
Moses – Exodus 4:10-13
Gideon – Judges 6:15
Jeremiah – Jeremiah 1:5-7
Peter – Luke 5:8
2. Procrastination.
3. Increasing devotion to symbols of spirituality.
Next Two Spiritual Indicators:
4. COMPLACENCY.
- After all I’ve done for these people I deserve a little rest!
- That’s good enough; I’m not getting paid to do this.
Definition:
Calm or secure satisfaction with oneself or one’s lot
1: the quality, state, or fact of being indifferent
2 a archaic: lack of difference or distinction between two or more things b: absence of compulsion to or toward one thing or another
Proverbs 1:32
32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them;
Zephaniah 1: 11-18
11 Wail, you who live in the market district [4] ; all your merchants will be wiped out, all who trade with [5] silver will be ruined.
12 At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think, `The LORD will do nothing, either good or bad.’
13 Their wealth will be plundered, their houses demolished. They will build houses but not live in them; they will plant vineyards but not drink the wine.
14 "The great day of the LORD is near-- near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the day of the LORD will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there.
15 That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness,
16 a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the corner towers.
17 I will bring distress on the people and they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like filth.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath. In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth."
What lies behind us and what lies before us are trivial matters when compared to what lies within us!
Ill.
Frank Laden, the former coach of Utah Jazz in the seventies, had problems with a basketball player, and so he summoned the talented but troubled man to his
office. Looking the player in the eye, the coach finally asked, "My son, I can’t understand it with you. Is it ignorance of apathy?" What was the
player’s typical unconcern response? The player said, "Coach, I don’t know and I don’t care!" (Sports Illustrated "They said it!" 1990 Oxmoor House 26)
Quote. (John Maxwell)
Do It Anyway!
People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. – Love them anyway!
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. – Do good anyway!
If you are successful you will win false friends and true enemies. – Succeed anyway!
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. – Do good anyway!
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. – Be honest and frank anyway!
The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds. – Think big anyway!
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. – Fight for an underdog anyway!
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight, - Build anyway!
People that really need help often attack you if you help them. – Help people anyway!
Give the world the best you’ve got and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. – Give your best anyway!
5. LOSS OF PURPOSE.
A wise man once said, “The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.” Put it another way and you find that the key to happiness in life is to have a clearly defined purpose for living. With that in mind, it is amazing how few people have a clearly defined purpose in life.
- You need a reason to be!
- You had it at one time if you don’t now.
- Rediscover it!
Ill.
During World War II there was a group of Jewish prisoners interned in a Nazi concentration camp. For three years they, as prisoners of war, worked in a factory day in and day out. One night the allied forces bombed the factory and it burned to the ground. With no more production, the commandant of the camp ordered that the prisoners continue to work. He ordered them to an area where there was a huge pile of sand. They were commanded to fill their carts and wheelbarrows with sand, push it to one end of the camp and dump it out. Then they were commanded to go to that same area and fill their carts only to return the sand to its original location. This continued for weeks. One by one the prisoners who had worked diligently for the previous three years of captivity began to lose their minds. Why? They had lost their purpose for living.
Key: The abundant life is up to you!
If you want milk you can’t just sit on a stool out in the field and hope a cow backs up to your bucket.
2 Timothy 2:20-22
20 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble.
21 If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
22 Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
See Pastor Dan it says right there that God created some of us to be clay pots!
Read it again!
Who decides?
Conclusion:
Ephesians 5:15-17
15 Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise,
16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
Stop the decline!
