The Fat Church – part 2

“The Slow Downward Spiral of Godly Influence”

You have heard people exclaim “The church is not what it used to be.”  What they mean is that it is not the same as when they grew up.  Things have changed.  Worship is different.  I don’t know the music.  I’d rather use a hymn book.  People do not dress like they respect God.

I understand.  I’ve heard many of the complaints.  However, instead of throwing out these comments as just lame excuses by older people who do not want change, perhaps we should examine them in the light of how the church worships today.  Is there any credibility to what these “grey hairs” are commenting on?

Change is hard!  Let’s admit it!  We are all comfortable with routine and how things have been done in the past because we know what’s taking place and how we are to act or follow.  For the most part, I think we all have some hesitance with change in our lives.  It makes us uncomfortable because we are not sure about what to do or how to be involved in that change.  Is it good?  Or is this bad and I ought to run from it as fast as I can.

Another aspect about change is that all change is not necessarily good.  For example, how about what you eat?  Some of us need to make some changes in what we put into our mouth to keep ourselves healthy.  We can all agree on that, right?  We need to walk more, drink more water, get more active, spend more time in personal fellowship with God, and pray more.  We could list quite a number of changes that are good but let’s explore just a few changes in the church and see if we are changing for the better or perhaps for the worst.

In the church and within ourselves we can readily find an area where we get off track quickly and easily.  It is deep inside our being and will lead us to want things that are not good by God’s standards.  It is our earthly nature.  If you have made Christ the Lord of your life, then you possess two natures.  One is called the “old” nature and the other is the “new” nature.  If you are familiar with Scripture then you know that while we are on this earth, these two opposite natures fight against one another.  Someone has used the metaphor that it is like two dogs fighting for control and the one we feed the most wins.

Can we face some realistic facts about ourselves?  You and I are tempted to make wrong choices every day of our lives.  Except for the grace of God, we would all be lost in our sins.  Those temptations can carry over into the church and since Christ left people in charge of His Church, people are susceptible to making selfish choices that suit their own particular desires.  Susceptible by definition means “likely or liable to be influenced or harmed by a particular thing.”

We are all influenced by people we hang around, places we frequent, music we listen to, thoughts we like to entertain, and through things we read.  Influence is all around us.  You cannot avoid it coming at you from every direction, every day, sometimes every hour and minute.  The question is two-fold:  What is this influence and how do I respond to it?

I can only tell you what God says about influence because He created us and we are made in His image.  We can listen to our friends our family, TV, books, etc. and we will get many varied opinions about life and worship.  The problem is this: what does mankind know about how we are made.  Do we buy into the philosophical opinions that pour out from man’s humanistic beliefs?  We are definitely influenced by those ideas and many times we are persuaded by them.  From school professors to the media, you are being shaped with a humanistic worldview.  If you do not resist it, you will be consumed by it.

Humanism came in in the last century as a philosophy to disavow God and make man his own god.  It has influenced countless educated and uneducated people alike.  Humanism is a man-made religion, although they would not imply it to be such.  Basically, it says that man is good in himself, acts by his own programed instincts therefore it is not his fault and we do not need to identify wrong as a sin, and one does not need God to tell him what to do nor how to think.

I read today about a Veteran at a flag-folding ceremony who closed with reference to “God bless America” and they forcibly carted him off and out of the area.  How sad that our country is so far removed from a belief in God.  You are being influenced by it each day.  Will you compromise with the world or stay true to our Lord who said that His message is offensive to a secular world?

We are all bombarded by those opinions on what makes us tick.  Most of us want someone to tell us why we act like we act whether good or not.  We are curious about ourselves.  Be careful who you ask or read because their information about us might be corrupted by their own sinful nature and make excuses for why we do things.  It is how the devil puts us to sleep spiritually.

One of our problems is that we usually seek someone’s opinion that coincides with ours or an opinion that makes us feel better about our self.  Sometimes we seek opinions that excuse our behavior and make us comfortable with our lifestyle.  Why do we do that?  Why are we so blind to this kind of reasoning?

Part of us wants us to excuse our behavior and make us comfortable with our choices and the other wants us to respect God’s instruction.  The one nature is selfish and the other nature is selfless.  If you are not a believer in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you only have a “natural” nature.  Natural means you are born with it.  You are comfortable with this secular world that lives without God.  However, when you humbly make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, He gives you a new nature.  That is where the real battle for control of self becomes necessary.

Let me cite a verse from God’s instructions to you.  It is found in 1 Corinthians 2:14

“But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

But, not to worry, there is hope.  Jesus made a way for us to life at peace with Him and with our own self.  It is a lifetime of growing, putting on Christ and letting go of ourselves.  It is a life that makes Him Lord and King of our desires, doings, and dedications.

In conclusion, let me say that the influences of a godless society have become commonplace in the church of Jesus Christ.  We have bowed down to the altar of convenience and comfort, money and power, idols and false gods.  We have lost our influence, being more concerned with not offending others than obeying our Lord’s commands.  We are weak, powerless, sick and feeble.

The world looks at us and says, “Where is your power? Where are you different from us? You love the same things we love.  You look like us, act like us, and love our ways.  Why should we change since you are becoming more like us?”

In part 3 we will examine more on The Fat Church as it relates to the elderly.