The World Is Corrupting The Church!

What is the number one problem with the Church in America today? I’m interested in what your answer would be. Without reading any further please reply to me right now and tell me what you think, specifically, is the number one problem.

Did you do it?

Okay, now you can read on…

The real problem with the Church is that it is filled with pansies, peddlers, and pretenders. Stop shaking your head yes, I’m not just talking about the pastors. I’m talking about the people, the pews, and the pulpits.

Do we the American Church look any different than American society?

According to the Barna Research Group, “33% of adult Americans have experienced at least one divorce.” What is the rate among born-again Christians? Yep, you guessed it, 33%. No difference. We don’t know how many of those divorces occurred before or after conversion, but we do know that 20% of adults “who accept Christ as their savior do so after their first marriage.”

Time does not allow to look at the bankruptcy rates, pornography addiction, alcohol abuse, and other sins but I am quite confident in stating that if there were any differences among the saved and unsaved it would be minimal.

Leonard Ravenhill rightly described what has happened to the church:

    “The church is supposed to do what? To stop corruption? Is the church doing that? No! The world is corrupting the church!”

Why is this happening? Because Christians do not understand that we are to be counter-culture, not embracing the culture. We try to live our lives free of conflict and the world is at conflict with us. At least we are supposed to be because we as Christians are supposed to have different attitudes than the world.

Beloved the society we live in today is not friendly towards the God of the Bible, Jesus Christ, and His people. At least not if you are sold out for Christ.

We’ve seen this week that we are to be humble and the world is haughty.

We are to be pure and the world is putrid.

We are to be meek in strength and the world reeks with the stench of sin.

We are to be merciful and the world is merciless; everyone wants to get even.

Look at what Jesus said would happen to us and who we are supposed to be:

    “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:10-16)

Let me share something with you that you will not hear in 99% of churches across America, at least not with conviction or expectation. Warren Wiersbe writes:

    “We must expect to be persecuted if we are living as God wants us to live. But we must be sure that our suffering is not due to our own foolishness or disobedience.”

When was the last time you left the house in the morning expecting to be persecuted for your faith? Do you have your Jesus filters on auto-pilot so that you never say anything in the workplace that might be construed as offensive?

But Bro Dave I might lose my job.

SO WHAT!!!

Are you saying God won’t take care of you if you are persecuted for His Son’s sake?

We have allowed the world’s stinking thinking and moral reasoning to invade our churches so badly that there is very little salt or light coming out of it. We allow ourselves to be conformed to this world and for it to press us into its mold and think the way it does. We have homosexual marriages being conducted in churches; we have Christian politicians and pastors supporting the evil Hyde Amendment and we wonder why our nation is rotting.

Can someone give me one good reason why God has not already destroyed America?! We mock Him every time we exchange our currency.

Okay, let’s get back to the basics. Here is the remedy for stinking thinking and no I did not come up with some secret formula. It’s been right in front of our faces for two thousand years:

    “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2)

Any questions? What you need a list? Fine:

1. Present yourself as a living sacrifice, not one maimed by sin, but pure and holy. It’s the least you can do!
2. Do not allow yourself to be conformed, shaped, molded, or any other way influenced by the world.
3. Exchange your stinking thinking, your moral relativism, your compromising mind, your sad and sick justifications for sin and have your mind completely changed at the way it looks at the world.

Paul says this is how you know what God’s will is for your life.

If any of you are still around let me go a little further.

If you do not know what God’s Will is for your life, if I do not for that matter, it’s our fault not God’s.

I must pour over the Bible for the answers; I must be obedient to the obvious and expectant for the glorious. God can and will work through our lives if we will just surrender it to Him.

No more games. No more pretending. No more Christian pansies afraid of ridicule. No more peddlers of Christ shucking the Word of God for filthy mammon.

No more.

Time is short. The world is coming apart at the seams and the only way it can be repaired is by its Creator.

If I were Him I would have let it fall apart long ago.

Fifty million babies murdered in America and we have the gall to sing God Bless America.

Beloved, we must repent. We must confess. We must recommit and follow the lead of the Holy Spirit unto righteousness.

And it must begin in the church.

Make sure you’re there on Sunday bringing your praises to Him expecting nothing in return other than to hear His voice and to be transformed.

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2011 David Jeffers

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