The Tragedy Of Sunday Morning Religion

Sometimes, I’ll be in a service with a brother preacher—I’ll be sitting there with a guy who’s going to preach and/or make announcements or something. We’ll be sitting up there doing what preachers ought not to do sometimes—talking in the song service or something. We’ll be kind of having a good time, and he’ll seem like such a wonderful guy. And then, all of a sudden, he stands up and says, “Dearly beloved.” I wonder what happened to the guy from when he was there till he got up here. There’s something that happens—he begins to act spiritual. Hey folks, that turns people off. Did you know that? Listen, I like a guy who’s the same in a motel room as he is in a pulpit—I mean, he’s just an ordinary guy. “In all natural things, be spiritual. And, in all spiritual things, be natural.” Be yourself.

A Christian is naturally supernatural and supernaturally natural. And, every place is holy ground, and every day is spiritual. Oh, if we could only get our people to see that. If we could only get them to understand that we don’t just come to church to worship—we bring our worship with us. We don’t leave our worship at church—we take our worship with us. Again, look at verse 17: “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Colossians 3:17). Wives, husbands, children, fathers, servants, employees—whatever you do now, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Let me just wrap this all up by telling you what it means to do something in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now that’s the key—right here, in verse 17— “Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Anything that I do tomorrow, I have to ask it to pass three tests, and all of these have to deal with the name of the Lord Jesus. And, if it will not pass these three tests, then I cannot do it. I have no business doing it. It is wrong for me.

I. Test One: Is it Consistent with the Character of Christ?

Number one: is this thing that I’m about to do consistent with the character of Christ? Now, the word name means, “character,” in the Bible. The name of God and the character of God are inseparably linked. The name of Jesus has a meaning to it—it speaks of the character of Jesus. It literally means, “Jehovah saves.” And so, I’m to do something in the name of Jehovah saves.

Now, that’s very interesting to me, because you see, tomorrow, there’ll be a lot of things that I can’t find anything in the Bible about which has been written. I can’t find anything in the Bible, for example, that says, “Thou shalt not drive through a school zone at 110 miles an hour.” It’s just not in here. I can’t find anything here in the Bible that says, “Thou shalt not smoke pot.” I don’t find anything in the Bible that says not to go to an X-rated movie. And, I don’t even find anything in the Bible that says I should not “match for cokes,” or look at dirty pictures, as such. I can find some principles, but I cannot find those things spelled out.