Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
8/6/2021
ICING BUT NO CAKE – Have you drifted to Lukewarm?
We are blessed at Grace Family Church to have some tremendous ministry teams. I know the Senior Pastor and the worship leader and their hearts are completely sold out to God. They are about spreading the Gospel to the lost.
I see that duplicated in all of the different campuses. Both men and women walking in that anointing.
And I think that is so much the key. For over 2000 years, Christianity has grown when spirit empowered people spread the gospel. We each have a different gift. Our ministry might be, being a dad or mom or running a small business, or serving at church but in each of those, we can glorify God by the work we do and who we give the glory to by holding strong to our faith and bold in our exclamation of it.
But the church grows today not because of the great model of church building that our pastors have built but because of the people who have a heart for God and for their neighbors, for their quiet time, their obedience, and for having a true heart after God. That falls to each one of us. It will never be about a formula but about our hearts.
Consider this: The country that has the fastest-growing Christian population in the world isn’t following any of the church building models of America. They can’t, because in China the Christians have to mostly meet in secret!
If they are able to see God‘s blessing in the midst of an atheistic society without all of our resources, doesn’t that tell us something? And look at what the brave, devoted followers of Christ are producing there.
As great as our worship and our prayer teams and outreach ministries are, it is the heart of the people towards God and their embracing of the Holy Spirit that is building God’s kingdom here. But there are way too many who come on Sunday mornings who are always taking and never giving. Enjoying the music and the word but not applying them to their life. They are not really Christians.
I am sorry if I sound judgemental.
Our problem in America is not with a godless, secular America, but with a church that is increasingly prayerless, compromised, demoralized, and weak. We have drifted away from the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. The question is: Where will we find the grace to change? To turn things around? When will we be desperate enough to come to God just as we are, pleading for his help and ready to follow wherever he leads? Why do we have to wait until something completely breaks?
In many places now, it seems we would rather blame the culture, the school system, the government, and the media rather than examine our own spiritual condition.
It’s great to be contemporary and to be current within our corporate church body, but we must be personally anchored on Christ and his word. We can’t rest on the great ministries within the church that we attend. We must be involved.
We must have a heart after God. We must be prayerful and seek after God by the reading of his word and by contributing to the body.
It is critical that we humble ourselves and say, come Holy Spirit,
walk with me, talk with me and give me the boldness to put you first in my life
and to begin talking to others around me about the great work
that you have done in me.
It is likely we are seeing a fulfillment of those perilous times that Paul told Timothy about when men would have a form of godliness but denying the power. The Weymouth New Testament put it this way, "they, will keep up a make-believe of piety and yet live in defiance of its power." 2 Timothy 3:5 Isn’t that the majority of the church today in America?
That’s why our churches are so often powerless and Christianity is in decline. God’s answer for us has been replaced by human intelligence leaving us as dim lights in an increasingly dark world. What percentage of lifelessness within any given body is acceptable to you? The hard question; is that you?. Have you become lukewarm over the years? You know what to say, you look like a Christian but your light keeps growing dimmer. When was the last time you shared the light of Christ with an unbeliever? When was the last time you told "your story" to a believer who is struggling and pointed them to lean on His everlasting arms?
Our church doesn’t have to be that way and the responsibility doesn’t fall to the leaders of our ministries. It falls to us. The dads and moms and leaders in our ranks to not be prayerfully distant and caught up in the technologies and formulas of the world. We must walk in humility and the anointing of the Holy Spirit and humble ourselves before God to allow his work to be done in us and then our children and then to the world. How bright is your light shining? Are you moving forward in Christ? Really?
Would you pray with your family and us for just one hour this week? Ask the Holy Spirit to brighten your light and increase your faith and boldness.
One Voice – Only Men Aloud
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhrxRccU3Lw
Excerpts are taken from Jim Cymbala’s Book. Strong through the Storm
