I am writing
about the church of today.
But I do not go
how far back the rot goes.
We desperately
need revival.
And as I have
always stressed, there can be no revival in the absence of death. In short,
only the dead can be revived. Or, at the very least, those who know that they
are dead.
That is what I
want us to look at today.
The church is
for the most part dead. Remember the church in Sardis?
And unto the
angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven
Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a
name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the
things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works
perfect before God. (Revelation 3: 1, 2)
But I am talking
about me and my practice of religion. Whether it also applies to you is not
important to me for now.
Allow me to
elaborate.
The other day I
went with a fellow minister to deal with a crisis that at face value was the
result of a sin by a friend and fellow minister who looks up to us, again at
face value, very highly.
What we
discovered and the discussions we had after it is the reason for this message.
The guy had not just
sinned. He had been living in blatant sin for the longest time, time that we
had been in fellowship with him, even dealing with crises that we had no idea
were related to this life of sin.
How could he
hide his sin from us for this long?
How come we had
no inkling or suspicion that something like that was happening?
How could we
fellowship with him without noticing that something was wrong?
But at the
personal level, why did he not seek our spiritual intervention for his
temptation and sin? Why could he not trust us with his restoration?
How can we be
his spiritual superiors if he can be in blatant sin without us suspecting?
Incidentally,
the same guy was attending a church and probably ministering there and they
also did not know though he lived amongst them.
I know someone
is thinking I am being paranoid for no reason.
But similar
things have happened to me enough times to stop this from being an isolated
case.
My friend and I
looked at many other similar occurrences in the course of our ministry and
church involvement and it is very unsettling.
What was our
conclusion?
Our discipleship
is not transformative
Our ministry
model is not working
Our fellowship
is dead
Why do I say so?
But if we
walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1John 1:7)
In short, the
church as we know it may not be the church Christ died to redeem.
There is so much
sin in the church that we notice it only when it is the leader who is doing it.
And even then it is when it affects the image of the organisation.
I am called a
radical believer by most because I do not have greys in my understanding and
practice of Biblical truth.
I am called too
harsh when confronting sin in the body of Christ to the point that I have been
kicked out of fellowships and churches because I refused to look the other way
when addressing sin issues because that is the way I see it being done in the
scriptures and church history.
As such, anybody
who has been with me for some time knows my stand on God’s truth.
He will also
know that I am delighted to walk with someone growing toward that reality.
I always have
room for the floundering toddler growing toward spiritual maturity. Or what is
discipleship?
In short, I am a
responsible spiritual father and not a pampering grandfather who will overlook
blatant breaches because it is the father who should be handling them.
It therefore
hits me very hard when my ‘son’ does something so out of character and still
continues calling me his father.
No wonder this
guy ran off and blocked me when he discovered that I was looking for him. And I
was able to get the whole story after he ran off.
But I am talking
about the church.
It is important
that we look into our recent past to understand what I am saying.
When we took God
seriously in our youth in the eighties, most of us came from a church
background.
We therefore had
enough churchiness to be members of good standing in society before we made
that plunge.
Our new
commitment was therefore not one from heathenness to the light of Christ but
from a veneer of Christianity to an actual commitment to the faith.
Some of us were
saved long before making that decision to delve deeper in the faith.
That is why
there were terms like a Christian, a saved Christian and a very saved Christian,
among other classifications. And those terms were understood to the world of
those times.
Our decision for
Christ therefore took us from the nominal to the radical believer through that
personal decision we had made, many times publicly.
In those times
there were clear lines and expectations as to what each group did.
Let me use sex
to get my point across.
The difference
between the saved and the very saved was in when they first had sex.
The saved had
sex before getting married, but only with the person they were getting married
to.
The very saved
waited for their wedding before getting intimate.
The very saved
would boycott the wedding of their brethren if they discovered that they had
had sex before their wedding.
They would also
do the same if they had gone down the spiritual ladder for a partner since that
was clearly a compromise.
We had very few believers
who had sex just like that, or simply in pursuit of pleasure with whoever. In
fact, even for the nominal believers, a pregnancy almost always necessitated
the marriage of the couple involved. And we had no divorces then.
That is why
there were rarely any bastards.
Incidentally,
nothing has changed about the morality of our generation for the most part.
We are as strict
with our faith as we had in our youth.
The problem is
with our expectation. It is with our children, biological and spiritual.
Nowadays, the
same people who would boycott a friend’s wedding because they had not waited
are flooded with grandchildren from their own children who, not only could not
wait for marriage before having sex, but are all over having sex however and
with whoever for the fun of it. And I have intentionally left out abortions.
I have walked
off seminars when a spiritual leader says something like this.
Since they will
have sex anyway, let us teach them safe sex and contraception.
That is how low
we have sunk.
Churches have
stopped having overnight prayers not because they have trashed prayer but
because in the morning after such an event, they find condoms all over the
church compound.
Churches place
CCTV all over the church, not because they are concerned with security but to slow
down the sex craze in their young people.
Our children are
dressing like harlots and we are not even ashamed of taking them to church
dressed that way.
They post
sexually suggestive videos on social media and we are unable to do anything
about it.
In short, we are
scared of using the standard we used on us on our children and spiritual
children.
That is our
problem.
No wonder
marriages are falling apart all around us because we cannot take any stand on
issues.
We are like Eli.
In fact, we are worse than Eli because he at least tried to talk sense to his
children.
We think we are
progressive because we are allowing our children to fill our compounds with the
offspring from their unrestrained sexual appetite. We think we are
accommodating when we teach safe sex to our church youth. We think we are good
parents when our children can access X-rated programs on our TV and internet
using the internet we have bought.
Whatever
happened to the power of God? Whatever happened to the fear of God?
Does it mean
that the power God had to keep us pure then has become impotent for our
children that we must use the world’s restraints on them?
Does it mean
that God has changed His character and nature to accommodate what was an
abomination just a few years ago.
I do not want to
even scratch the surface on homosexuality because we could not even imagine it.
Yet it is a concern for our children and churches.
I am just using
the standards we used on ourselves to see how far we have fallen.
We have fallen,
not just backslidden.
In fact, we are
worse than that.
We want to
portray ourselves as right by accommodating intense darkness so that our fading
light can still be acknowledged.
We have cooled
our passion for Christ and find comfort in allowing the generation after us to
sink into oblivion just so that we remain relevant for our dead spirituality.
We are like Lot
who may have thought that living right in Sodom was evangelistic until he lost
everything, even his own name.
It had to take
his uncle’s intercession for him to be saved.
Sadly, that is
the game our generation is playing by lowering our expectation on those after
us.
And I hope you
understand what I mean.
I am talking
about us who stuck to the straight and narrow because that is where God starts
from.
I am not talking
about those who actually backslid; the ones who are believers for the
limelight.
I am not talking
about the elders whose audition for girls and women to join ‘worship teams’ is
done in bedrooms.
I am not talking
about spiritual leaders who treat church resources as personal property.
I am not talking
about conmen on pulpits. I am not talking about crooks running churches. I am
not talking about those who hand over their churches to their wives and
children. I am not talking about those who change constitutions so that they do
not retire or even take sabbatical leave.
Sadly, many of those
characters also have a background of obedience, even radical obedience, in
their youth.
It is that
radical walk and obedience that qualified them for those positions.
I am leaving
them out because everybody, including themselves, know that they are fallen and
that it is only that they are unwilling to forsake the bounty from their life
of rebellion.
They therefore
are under no illusions about their relevance or usefulness in God’s kingdom.
But the ones
living right and have solid doctrine are unable to see their fall because they
do not look at their faith beyond their generation. And I am one of them.
I feel this is
what God is saying to us.
Will we go back
to the point at which we fell?
Will we ask God
to lead us back to our fire days when death was more preferable than
compromise?
Will we ask God
to rekindle our fire for Him and His revelation?
Will we pray
that God brings revival to our hearts?
Will you also
pray for me?
I need God to
rekindle that fire in me so that I stop becoming like the Pharisees who also
had the right doctrine and conduct yet were far from Christ’s kingdom.
Please pray for
me.