PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE:  “LAST DAY FAITH-LASTING OR LAPSING?”

     I remember hearing Adrian Rogers, who passed away in November 2005, said in a sermon, “In the last days people will be deserting the Church like rats deserting a sinking ship!”  He was basing it on what Paul said in I Timothy 4:1 “The Spirit expressly says, in the latter days many will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits, and doctrines of demons”. Jesus, Himself inferred that, when He asked, “When the Son of Man Comes again, will He find faith, (people practicing their faith), on earth?” (Luke 18:8).  Are we seeing the evidence of that?  Since 2012 The Annual Church Profile of the Southern Baptist Convention denominationally wide has consistently shown that baptisms and Church membership and attendance are declining.  Steve Gaines, Past President of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Pastor of the Belleview Baptist Church of Cordova, (Memphis), Tennessee said, “we are not growing anywhere near a rate comparable to the population increase”.  The SBC is not the only ones experiencing this decline.  According to Pew Research “every major branch of Christianity has lost significant numbers-the biggest being the Catholics and the mainline Protestants”.  Churches of all denominations are closing or consolidating in record numbers!  According to Barna 73% of Americans say they are Christians, but only 31% feel Church attendance is important, and that explains why that same percent usually attend less than once a month!  Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Louisville, Kentucky says “this is a new age, a secular spirit of our age, with headwinds blowing right in our face!”  Apologist Pastor Voddie Baucham, speaking at the G3 Conference last year, emphasizing the importance of the local Church, said “if we don’t understand the magnitude of the local Church, then what’s the difference between us and the Rotary Club?  If all of this is entertainment then why bother?  God has a plan.  It is the local Church.  It is Plan A.  There is no Plan B!”  As the experts try to explain the cause of the decline, we cannot wave the white flag of surrender!  I think part of the problem lies in the quality of faith that marks the maturity of the believers, or the lack there of, that has caused them to be overwhelmed by the spirit of this secular age, and demonic winds of change blowing on the rank and file of our members. There is an interesting passage of Scripture that talks about this very issue.  II Peter 2:7-8 says, “God delivered Righteous Lot, vexed by the conduct of those around him”.  The word vex here is the word-“kataponeo”-“to completely wear down and exhaust by repeated involvement”.  Then verse 8 says, “that righteous man, dwelling among them day after day, kept on vexing his righteous soul with their lawless deeds.  The second word vex is “basanidzo”- “to buffet, to torment, to beat against, as waves crashing upon a shore!”  The idea is a picture a structure standing on the shore, being battered by the waves and storm of the sea.  Even if it survives, there is usually great damage sustained.  Many times, the structure does not survive the battering!  Think of a lighthouse, standing in the storm to guide lost ships in the storm and darkness, being battered by the winds and waves of the storm.  That is the Lot Complex!  That may be the cause of Christians departing the ranks of the Church in these last days.  That may be the blight of our generation!  Jesus also said, “In the last days, iniquity shall abound, and the love of many shall wax cold!”  The word “wax cold” is “psucho”- “to blow on with chilling air”.  Listen to how Martin Vincent, the Greek scholar translates this verse-“the fervent love of many will be blighted of its spiritual energy by a malignant poisonous wind of evil”.  The question we have to ask and answer is how do we insulate our rank and file to protect their faith from such a last day onslaught, to guarantee they will survive faithful to meet the Lord when He comes?   Jesus was trying to prepare us to get ready for such an onslaught and build up a faith that can stand on the shores of this evil age, and withstand the day by day battering without a total eclipse of our faith.  How do we do that?

     Without offering a pat answer, I believe that the writer of Hebrews, in his great chapter on faith, pointed to the lives men and woman of faith, to show us how they withstood the challenges that battered them in their day, and yet ran their race victoriously.  We cannot look at all he said to emulate from them, but I would like to point out three things he stated will fortify us against those diabolical winds that blow on us continuously in these last days.  First of all, in the face of great evil, he points out that Abel was able to withstand the onslaught by his exemplary WORSHIP OF GOD.  “By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice (act of faithful worship) to God.”  The word “offer” is “proskuneo”- “act of worship”.  “God therefore testified that he was a righteous man…and even after his death…his life keeps on speaking as an example to others”.  The first ingredient to bring a strong faith is worship.  Faithful worship.  In these last days there is nothing more important.  The Church has believed the devil’s demonic lie that worship is not all that important.  Someone has said, “seven days without worship makes one weak!”  That is an incontrovertible truth!  If we neglect worship, we are setting ourselves up for failure in these last days!  That is why the author of Hebrews exhorted “Stop forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the habit of some have become, in so much as you see the day approaching!” (Heb. 10:25). The very best definition of worship I have ever read is from William Temple.  He says, “Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God.  It is the quickening of the conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of our mind with His Truth; the purifying of our imagination with His beauty (perfection); the opening of our heart to His Love; the surrender of our will to His purpose-and all gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which we are capable”.  A life that is fortified with that kind of daily experience will be able to stand strong in the face of the winds of evil.  A.W. Tozer tells us that worship, that kind of worship is imperative and primary!  He says, “We are to be worshippers first and workers second.  We take a convert and immediately make a worker out of him. God never meant it to be so.  God meant that a convert should first learn to be a worshipper, after that he can learn to be a worker.  Then the work we do will have eternity in it.  When we give God what He is worth, (all our love and all that we are), we become more of who He wants us to become…all the rest will follow.  I am tired of being whipped into line, being urged to work harder, pray harder, give more, without being shown who Jesus is, and how much He deserves all of me, for giving me all of Him”.  Maybe when we deprive our faith of worship, we find ourselves distracted from the very one that makes us invincible!

     The second person of faith that is held up to us in Hebrews 11 is Enoch.  It says-“Enoch walked with God”.  Don’t rush over that statement of faith.  The name Enoch-(Chanokh) means “dedicated”.  Enoch was committed to walking daily in the presence of God, when everyone else was walking away, going their own way.  That has become the habit of most Christians in this last day.  Instead of rushing into the presence of God, when feeling the onslaught of the winds of evil from our generation, we let those winds beat us down, or blow us farther away from His presence.  He is the Rock of our Stability.  Every step you take in these evil days should be in close proximity with God.  The further you stray from His presence the more of a sitting duck you become.  Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of each evening.  It was by His design.  They learned of life from Him…not independently from Him.  Walking with God moment by moment throughout all the experiences of our day is the only way to survive in these last days.  We must start each day in His presence and we will soon learn to complete our days having walked with Him every step of the way.  C.S. Lewis warned us that that must be done at the start of each day.  He writes, “It comes the very moment you wake up each morning.  All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals.  The first job each morning consists of simply shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.  And so on, all day.  Standing back from all your natural fussing’s and fretting’s; coming in out of the wind!”  (Mere Christianity). That is daily walking with God.  That fortifies our faith for these last days! Enoch did it daily until the day he was raptured.  What an example for us!

     The third example of faith is Noah.  Listen to what it says about him.  “By faith, having been instructed by God, concerning things not seen, but soon to come, moved with reverential fear, built an ark of salvation”. (Heb. 11:7).  II Peter 2:5 says that Noah proclaimed the righteousness of God, and the coming flood for 120 years.  The word flood is the Greek word “kataklusmon”-cataclysm.  In the last days before the flood, while the world continued on in their wicked rebellion against God, Noah worked every day building the ark of salvation according to the instructions of God.  When asked what he was building he warned of the flood and pointed to the ark as the only way of salvation.  He worked and witnessed daily to everyone who would listen.  He did that faithfully for 120 years.  The demonic spirit of the age prevailed.  But Noah withstood the winds of the evil age till the day the flood came and took them all away in destruction.  What an example of how we too can be strong in the faith in these last days.  Noah withstood ridicule.  He declared the truth though he could not prove it!  His faith helped him work and witness and God kept him strong!  He will do the same for us if we commit to that same activity as we see the day of His coming approaching.  How do we keep our faith from lapsing in these last days?  Worshipping God with a whole heart.  Walking with God-Practicing His Presence.  Working for Him-letting our lights shine in the darkness around us. Witnessing by “holding forth the Word of Life” to all that might have ears to hear.  That kind of faith can withstand the frightful forceful winds of this evil age.  That is the kind of faith that Jesus is looking to find in us when He returns again.  Keep the faith!  That kind of faith!

SERMON: A GREAT WORD OF PROMISE AND PROSPECT

Acts1:1-8

I.      A PERSONAL WORD-“You”

II.     A PROPHETIC WORD “shall be”

III.     A PROMISING WORD “a witness for ME”

IV.    A PROGRESSIVE WORD-“Beginning in Jerusalem…to Uttermost”

V.    A PRODUCTIVE WORD

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Hollow Saints-Hollow Church”

     Things are not always as they appear.  No one has hammered that message home with more impact than the poet Edwin Arlington Robinson, in his poem Richard Cory.  He tells the story of a model citizen who was the envy of his entire town.  Then he pulls the rug out from under us with his conclusion!  He wrote:

Whenever Richard Cory went downtown,

We people on the pavement looked at him:

He was a gentleman from sole to crown,

Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,

And he was always human when he talked;

But still he fluttered pulses when he said,

‘Good-morning’ and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich-yes, richer than a king-

And admirably schooled in every grace:

In fine, we thought that he was everything!

To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,

And went without meat, and cursed the bread;

And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,

Went home and put a bullet through his head!

     Model citizens are not always models.  Christians are not always the saints that we portray.  We often fool ourselves and fool others about our walk with God.  We live for years on decisions of yesteryear.  We are often like sinkholes that form when underground rivers dry up, and the weight above ground becomes too much for the vacancy below can bear up, and there is a major sinkhole collapse.  That is why the Christian life must be “so daily”.  We must fill each day with worship of God-that includes talking with Him, (prayer) and hearing from Him, (Bible Study).  We must fill each day with witness for God-where we share our faith-which keeps it real to ourselves; and relevant to our world, that is in truth hungering for Him; We must exercise our faith daily as we engage in spiritual warfare so that we can walk in victory instead of waving the white flag of surrender to the world, the flesh, and the devil.  A Christian that fails to keep his faith alive in those ways may convince himself that all is well, by going through the motions, but in reality is becoming hollow inside spiritually.  T. S. Eliot epitomized this condition in his poem The Hollow Men.   He wrote: 

“We are hollow men

We are stuffed men

Leaning together

Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!

Our voices…quiet and meaningless

shape without form, shade without color

paralyzed force, gesture without motion. 

…a fading star…

such deliberate disguises

Behaving as the wind behaves

In the twilight kingdom

valley of dying stars

this is the hollow valley…

His context was England after WWI-the emptiness after the War to End All Wars.  But he also was talking about the loss of real character and underpinning faith that sustains us for the difficulties in life.  Life becomes empty and hollow activity without, as he says, “Thine is the Kingdom”…we need to keep alive in our “kingdom”. 

     If you take a tour on the Hudson River you will pass Pollepel Island, a 6.5 acre island in the middle of the river, fifty miles north of New York City.  It is a famous island that was prominent in the Revolutionary War.  George Washington wanted to use it for a prison during the war, but that never materialized.  But it you look closely this island is home to an intriguing Robin-hood type Castle.  It is the Bannerman Castle.  In the late 1800’s Francis Bannerman VI, an immigrant from Northern Ireland, living in Brooklyn, started a military surplus business.  He purchased military equipment from the Civil War; from the Spanish-American War.  In November of 1900 he purchased Pollepel Island, and moved his military arsenal to the safety of the Island, after building this Castle to house it.  It became named “Bannerman’s Island Arsenal” and from there catalog orders provided guns, weapons, military clothing world-wide for many years.  In 1920 an explosion destroyed part of the castle.  A severe storm and Bannerman’s death left the Arsenal and island essentially vacant.  The state of New York bought the Castle and Island, and removed the military merchandise.  Tours of the Island were given in 1968.  But a fire in 1969 damaged the Arsenal even more.  The roofs and floors were destroyed.  The castle and island became off-limits to the public.  If you pass by it today…you see the hollow shell of a once mighty business empire and arsenal.  It is empty and hollow, and on the verge of collapse.  Yet commuters on the Metro-North Hudson Line and the Amtrak Empire Service can see clearly the title “Bannerman’s Island Arsenal” on the side of the Castle, it is nothing but an empty, hollow, ruin of what it once was!  The Church of Jesus Christ has been for years an Arsenal of Spiritual power in a world that is in desperate need of such power.  But due to many Christians stumbling in spiritual maintenance, and becoming shadows of the vibrant Christians that our Lord intends us to be, the Church is in danger of becoming a hollow shell of a has-been spiritual arsenal.  Revival is the only thing that can change that!  Most leading Christian leaders will tell us that we are at a cross roads in these last days.  The cross road is REVIVAL OR RUIN.  CONQUEST OR COLLAPSE.  STRONGHOLD OR SURRENDER. 

     As T.S. Eliot concludes his Hollow Men poem… he says, “This is the way the world ends…this is the way the world ends…this is the way the world ends…Not with a bang…but a whimper!”  Only you and I can see to it that the Church’s impact in these last days end with more than a whimper and a collapse of a hollow shell of hollow men…making the Church an empty Arsenal of Spiritual Power…still bearing the name…but far from the reality of the bang the Lord intends us to have as we end this Church age!   Revival or Ruin!  Let’s choose revival.  We need it.  The world needs us to experience it even more than we do!  Jesus said, “They that worship God must worship Him in Spirit and Truth”.  (John 4:4). He was talking about a spirituality that is possessed more than professed!  Francis Schaeffer wrote of this in his book True Spirituality!  A book written well ahead of its time. The time has come.

SERMON: BOLD MISSION THRUST

Matthew 28:19-20
I.  THE VISION
II.  THE VENTURE
III.  THE VOICE