Insanity ... Part I

Everyone knows what the definition of insanity is, right? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. This is something that I think we are guilty of in our Baptist churches. Let me explain myself.

In years gone by we had the power of God in our baptist churches. The people went to church and the glory fell. A revival meeting was a revival in the true sense of the word, people's lives were forever changed. Bars went out of business. Businesses shut down for the meeting, and a three night meeting was unheard of. Churches were growing in size, not shrinking in size. Their young people were not just in church, but active in church. They were excited about living their lives for God. Young men wanted to be called to preach, to go the mission field. The young ladies wanted to be preachers wives, and raise their children for the glory of God.

But what about today, what do we have today? Our revivals are revivals in name only. No one is changed, no one surrenders their life to God, half the people don't even show up. Yes the preaching is Doctrinally sound. It informs us and perhaps even stirs us, and we "Feel" like we have been renewed. Sad to say that our "Renewal" quickly wears off, and within a week or two we are back to our old routine.

Today we have more programs for our young people than you can shake a stick at! We have children's church, Awana, Kings Kids, church baseball, volleyball, basketball, and football teams. Hot dog Sunday, pizza Sunday, ice-cream Sunday...Sunday. And our youth today are leaving the church faster than rats off of a sinking ship.

So where does the insanity come in?

The last revival didn't work, so lets have another meeting. How do we prepare for this one, the same way we prepared for the last one. No prayer, no fasting, no weeping, not really wanting to go, dragging in late and can't wait to get out because we tivo'd our favorite TV MA rated show.

We can't keep youth in our churches, the ball teams aren't working, the clubs aren't working, the ice-cream Sunday... Sunday's aren't working. So what do we do? Add more ball teams, more clubs, more ice-cream.... you get the point! We do more of the same wishing so hard that it will work.

So what works? in part II we will take a look, and try to find that answer.

The Great Pretenders

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
II Timothy 3:5

Every time that I've heard this verse preached on, it's always used to refer to those that are hirelings. Those that use "Religion" as a means of financial gain. It's used to refer to the ecumenical movement, to the charismatics that work off of people's emotions rather than the spirit of God, to those that are "Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" Matthew 15:9. And certainly those can be applied, but when I read this verse I see us, Independent Fundamental Baptist. Why do I say that? We are a form, a shell of what we used to be.

There was a time when men, preachers and laymen alike, had a close personal relationship with Christ. They could do more than just talk about the power of God, they experienced it. They knew what it was to spend great amounts of time with God in prayer, meditation, and study. Men like Johnathan Edwards who would sometimes spend 18 hours a day in prayer and study, who preached the message "Sinners in the hands of an angry God". People clung to the pews and pillars of the church afraid that the ground would open beneath them they cried out

"IS THERE NO WAY OF ESCAPE"!

What about men like Charles Finney who was preaching a revival in a port town. A sea captain testified that conviction broke out among the passengers as the ship neared the town where Finney was preaching.

These are just two examples of the power of God that history is filled with. Why don't we see that manifested power today like they did in years gone by? A better question might be, why don't we care? Most people are content to sit back and talk about the "Good ol' days" with no concern about our present spiritual condition. We go to church, we sing, we pray and preach, then leave church Sunday night to go back to our worldly lifestyles that we live thru the week, there is no conviction in our services, no one gets saved, no one is changed, no one rededicates, no one surrenders their life to the service of the Lord (and I'm not only talking about surrendering to preach), and we talk about what a wonderful service that we had, and we pretend that "the spirit was there"! When in fact, we know little about the spirit that the old time preachers knew.

Why is this, did they have some kind of special power with God that was exclusive only to them? Is God a respecter of persons, giving to them a special relationship with Him that we have no access to? God is no respecter of men, we can have the same power that they had, but if we want it we have to pay the same price they paid. Why, because God is no respecter of men.

I don't want to just read about the power of God, Revival, I want to see it! I was chatting with a preacher on facebook last night, he told me of a great quote by Dr. James Stewart, "The church has been sub-normal for so long, that if we ever got normal, the world would think we were abnormal".

I'm tired of pretending, I want to see the power of God in our churches again.

What more could He do?

Just got done listening to a message from oldpathsermons.com, the text was Isaiah chapter 5. The message deals with some things that have been on my heart and mind lately.

Isaiah 5
1 ¶ Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

These verses talk about how a vineyard was planted, how great care was taken to make sure the vineyard would have every opportunity to produce. The verse talks about how the vineyard was fenced, it was protected from intruders and wild animals that might come in and harm the vineyard. It talks about how the stones were gathered out, about the tower that was built in the midst of it, and how he placed a winepress in the vineyard.
What is the purpose of the winepress? So wine could be made when the vines have produced their fruit. This vineyard was not planted simply for show, for people to walk by and say, "what a beautiful vineyard". This vineyard was expected to produced fruit so the owner would have something to show for his hard work of building, working, and caring for this vineyard. But verse two tells us that when it should have brought forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes. Grapes that were good for no use at all.
We know from John chapter 15 that God is the husbandman, Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. We are to bare fruit for the masters work. I'm afraid, however, that just like Isaiah chapter 5 when God has expected to reap grapes from our lives we have given Him nothing but wild grapes.

4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

So the question is, what more could he do? What more could the Lord do for us to get us to produce fruit for His glory? We live in the greatest country on earth, we live without threat of persecution. We have beautiful church buildings, but we do not have the power of God in our hearts, and homes, and at the house of God. We have allowed this world to consume our lives and anything that has any resemblance to God is chocked out.
What happened to Christians living separated from this world. Not because it's popular, not because the preacher preaches it, and not even because the bible say so, but because we want to please HIM. Why do we have to have fifteen verses on something before we are willing to give it up for the Lord? Why can't we say, "Lord, I don't know if this is wrong or not, but there's so much controversy surrounding it that I'm going to give it up because I want to please you". What more does the Lord have to do for us to get us to serve Him? What's it going to take in your life and mine for us to sell out to God?
What more could He do?