THE WINDOW
Bible Teaching Ministry of
CEDAR LODGE BAPTIST CHURCH
Thomasville, NC
a fellowship of faith, family and friendships
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August 8, 2004
1The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: 3To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: 4And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 5For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. 6When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 7And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
8But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth. 9And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
10And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Acts 1:1-11 (KJV)
The average member of the church of Christ has heard 4,000 sermons, sung 20,000 songs, participated in 8,000 public prayers... and converted zero sinners to Christ. A sobering and chilling statistic. How close are you to average? [1]
Jesus said we have a job to do. A companion passage to our text is Matthew 28:18-20, the Great Commission:
18And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Matthew 28:18-20 (KJV)
There isn’t much doubt about two things; Jesus wants us to do this, and we are not doing a great job of it!
According to statistics from our own convention we Baptists (who are supposed to be the most evangelistic) are making little headway; in fact we are losing the battle to just tread water. Something between 60% and 80% of the membership rolls of all Southern Baptist Churches are either stuck on a plateau or in decline.
Dr. D. James Kennedy, well-known pastor of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida, and author/founder of Evangelism Explosion once opined, “95% of all Christians have never led anyone to Christ.
This is hardly Gospel-advance! It must change! The church is only one generation from being classified with dinosaurs…extinct!
Now, in order to change the reality of this lack of evangelistic thrust in our lives we have to get some things:
#1. We have to GET OVER our fear and laziness when it comes to sharing the Gospel
Most believers won’t do for another person the one thing without which we would never have received Christ – share Christ! As a group we believers have become stingy with Christ. Most of us wouldn’t dream of refusing a hungry person a meal, but every day we ignore the spiritual hunger of many.
There are so many reasons which have been catalogued as to why we are so spiritually-cold towards lost people. The bottom line appears to be that we are either lazy or fearful. Most of us would just (we think) rather stay in our comfort zone. Did you know that too much comfort is dangerous?
Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley did an experiment some time ago that involved introducing an amoeba into a perfectly stress-free environment: ideal temperature, optimal concentration of moisture, constant food supply. The amoeba had an environment to which it had to make no adjustment whatsoever.
So you would guess this was one happy little amoeba. Whatever it is that gives amoebas ulcers and high blood pressure was gone. Yet, oddly enough, it died.
Apparently there is something about all living creatures, even amoebas, that demands challenge. We require change, adaptation, and challenge the way we require food and air. Comfort alone will kill us. [2]
Perhaps we just don’t get it. Like the teenage boy who pleaded with his Dad to buy him a set of weights… "Please, Dad," pleaded the teen, "I promise I’ll use ’em every day." "I don’t know, Michael. It’s really a commitment on your part," the father said. "Please, Dad?" "They’re not cheap either," the father said. "I’ll use ’em, Dad, I promise. You’ll see."
Finally won over, the father paid for the equipment and headed for the door. After a few steps, he heard his son behind him say, "What! You mean I have to carry them to the car?" [3]
What can change this kind of “not getting it” where it concerns our responsibility to share the gospel? I believe there is only one real answer to that, GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT! Most of us need the old time conviction that moves us. Some of us are long on talking about “back when”; I wonder how many of us would like to go back to the days when being Baptist meant:
•caring more about souls than what songs we sing,
•or when we were more concerned about how little time some people had before they were going to hell, rather than if the service time was 5 minutes too long.
There is more worrying in a Baptist church over making a commitment to having to be at worship or teach a class every week, than lifting our hands in praise because we get to be in a worship service. We seem to want to find out how little we can sacrifice and still get along, than looking for more ways to sacrifice so souls can be saved. What is going on with the church?
We are very much like the church at Ephesus. Jesus spoke about them in Revelation 2 – He said that they had left their first love. Jesus called it “fallen”. How far have we fallen from our first love when our church members will show up for He Haw and bring their friends, but get indignant that anyone should suggest that they participate in outreach to share the Gospel.
What is lacking is conviction. I pray God will bring that conviction for lost souls upon us as never before! We have got to get over our laziness and fear of sharing our faith!
#2. We have to GET our OTHER foot out of the world
The world does not respect the church of Christ these days. There is good reason. They see a powerless church, because the church has one foot in the world these days. There is so much of the world in the church that it is hard to see any difference at all.
Vance Havner once told about a little girl [who] said she liked Santa Claus better than Jesus because "you have to be good for Santa only at Christmas but for Jesus you have to be good all the time." [4]
For centuries carnal Christians have had trouble with this concept of leaving sin behind. Ananias figured he could have a good reputation in the church by donating some money, while still keeping his other foot in the stock market. What he got was a good place in the cemetery.
Laodicea was a church full of carnal folks. Carnal means “flesh-loving”. These folks had a reputation of being “hot for God” – a group that was doing God’s bidding! They were lukewarm; they went through the motions and it made the Lord nauseated…He told them He wanted to spit them out of His mouth. We have a reputation for being loving and kind.
What can change a lukewarm church into a “hot for God” church? The answer is the same as for fear and laziness; a church that has one foot in the Kingdom and the other in the world needs a dose of conviction from God’s Holy Spirit. We need to get over our fear, and get our other foot out of the world.
#3. We have to GET ON fire for Christ
Many people today who are believers in Jesus Christ live as if there is no second coming or judgment day. The world is not going to come to see us fizzle; they will come to see us on fire!
I heard many years ago about a small town church that had an electrical short that caused a fire. Within minutes many of the town’s residents were trying to douse the blaze, even the town drunk. One of the Deacons went up to him and asked, “Shorty, what are you doing here? I ain’t never seen you in church afore.” Shorty replied, “Mister, I ain’t never seen no church on fire afore!”
A lady told of going up to the altar to light the candle for the start of her daughter’s wedding. She had acrylic nails on the ends of her fingers. She got too close and set one on fire. She didn’t want to ruin her daughter’s big day, so she just bit her lip and lit the candle with her flaming fingernail! [5]
Now, the whole point is this:
Authentic Christianity is not half-hearted!
At Cedar Lodge Baptist, our problem is not so much a matter of true laziness, for we have many industrious people. We are sometimes misplaced in our priorities as to what we should put that industriousness towards. And we do not have many worldly rich folks.
Our problem is mostly that we are asleep. We need a holy awakening in our church. We need to wake up and return to our first love. Now, we can let it be something as mundane and simple as this sermon; or we can invite God’s heavier hand upon us. He does have a woodshed!
You might remember Eutychus…he fell asleep in church. He also fell out of the window & died. Now, I’ve never raised anyone from the dead like Paul did that young man, so we can all take our chances!
I cannot speak for all of us, but I have a deep desire to be part of an on-fire church before I die. I want to be part of God’s body that counts for something more in the Kingdom than budgets and buildings. I want to see my church be a soul-winning church.
Wallace Hostetter, a preacher from Rochester, Michigan, went for a haircut one day. His barber was a young Muslim woman. In the course of their conversation, he told her he was a preacher, that he believed in Jesus, and that later that day he was going to perform a funeral. She replied, "Once I was supposed to cut a dead man’s hair. They were going to pay me $150, but I wouldn’t do it." "Why not?" asked Hostetter. "I don’t like to touch the dead. I’m afraid they’ll sit up." "I know one who did," said the preacher. "Ugh! You’re kidding." "No, I’m not," he replied. Then he told her about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
When his haircut was done, she asked, "Are you going to keep coming here?" "Yeah, I’ll come back." She said, as he was leaving, "Good, I’d like to know more." [6]
This week I had a taste of seeing God move in a way I have not had in much too long. I shared a visit on Tuesday night’s visitation with one of our Deacons, and it turned into leading a soul into the Kingdom. I want more! Do you? Let the church say Amen!
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ENDNOTES
[1] Witnessing The Difference by Scott Bayles on SermonCentral.com
[2] John Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat (Zondervan Publishing House, 2001), p. 47
[3] Pastor Tim’s Clean Laugh List; submitted by Mark Moring, managing editor of Campus Life
[4] The Vance Havner Quotebook. Christianity Today, Vol. 38, no. 14.
[5] Linda Huckins, Malden, Massachusetts. "Rolling Down the Aisle," Christian Reader.
[6] Witnessing The Difference by Scott Bayles on SermonCentral.com
