Home » Sitting on the Sidelines is not Going to Cut it Anymore America – It Never Has
“God so loved the world that HE DID SOMETHING!!”
That is what it said on the bumper sticker I used to have on my car. The car is gone and so is the bumper sticker. But I think it makes a very valid point.
Our faith should call Christians to get off of their behinds. I am sick and tired of spectator-Christianity. The Holy Spirit of God should inspire us to action. Everywhere we look, the enemies of the cross are advancing their agenda. Christians, on the other hand, leave everything up to God.
Pews were never meant to be padded. A session at “church” should make you uncomfortable. Our football players hated practice. Church should be like practice. That’s where the fat gets worked off and the skills get honed. The job of the “pastor” is to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry.”
“What…works? Are you kidding me? I thought Jesus delivered us from works,” the average pew-sitter says. “That’s why we pay the pastor…he is the ‘professional Christian’ and has been trained to share the Gospel. I have to earn a living and don’t have time to do it.”
Yeah pal, and that is why you have bed sores…er…pew sores on your butt. Faith is the breath of action.
The Apostle Paul exhorted us to “show” our faith. Today’s pastors have taught us to “share” it. Christianity is a “go ye” faith. We have turned it into a “come ye” faith. No wonder so little work is getting done. While the enemy works, Christians only pray.
The Bible is full of action verbs. Go, stand, speak, exhort, oppose, occupy, contend…why do so few Christians obey those exhortations?
The idea that “God is in control of everything” has paralyzed Christians. My friend Tom told me one time that God is in control of everything but He does not control everything. Instead, He empowers His people for the work of the ministry.”
Empowering us is His way of controlling things. We are His ambassadors, His emissaries, His soldiers. It is His people that He sends to speak for Him.
Why is this so hard to understand?
What are works and what do they have to do with me? Well, works are the evidence of your faith. That’s why Paul told us to “show” it.
Jesus showed it. He spent a lonely night in the garden praying before He went to His death. None of us know the struggle He had as He “wrestled” with the will of His Father, but we do know that He prayed so hard that blood came out of His pores. At the end of his “prayer meeting,” He got up and walked the rocky road to Golgotha.
Jesus so loved the world that He did something. He obeyed and He went. It was no walk in the park. He was beaten and broken. He put legs to His prayers.
Did He do what He did so we can sit on our hind end and watch His children surrender to evil?
I just returned from a powerful event hosted by Steve Quayle in Bozeman, Montana. There were nearly 500 people in attendance from all over the country. There are millions who understand that something is seriously wrong in America and they are frustrated that, for the most part, America’s pastors will not speak up. A show of hands revealed that nearly 90% of the attendees are no longer actively involved in a “local church.” They are believers who believe in standing up and they can’t find a church that will.
I was having breakfast with a local business man the other day who is trying hard to understand what I do. He loves my “confrontational” approach to sin, but struggles with the conflict my actions seem to cause. He believes that “showing love” is a more effective way of reaching the lost.
“Let me ask you a question,” I said to him. “You are a successful businessman who certainly faces a great deal of competition in the market place. Are you successful because you ‘love’ your competition or is it because you work harder and smarter? According to your logic, wouldn’t you would be more effective if you gave all of your business and business secrets to your competition? If you merely want to show the love of Jesus to them, why would you ever fight them for business? How long would you be in business if you never stood up and fought your competition?”
“I assume you pray for your business. If ‘God is in control’ and all that it takes is prayer, why do you bother with all of the work? Just get in your prayer closet and let God make the business grow.”
“That’s crazy,” He responded. “While I am praying, my competition is working.”
I didn’t have to say any more. He got my point.
Look friends, we are expecting God to intervene in every part of our life, but that is not the way He works. God’s intervention is called a miracle. God’s empowerment is called works. He asked Moses, “What’s in your hand?” Prayer is the Air Force that softens up the ground for the ground troops. Neither branch is effective without the other. At some point we must put boots on the ground.
John Adams said,
“Duty belongs to me, but the results belong to God.”
Works are a good thing. Works are the fruit of belief. What if John Adams and the boys only held meetings and never wrote the Declaration of Independence? What if missionaries only prayed about going overseas, but never went? What if football players only prayed about winning, but never took the field? What if Donald Trump had only prayed he had money, but never executed any transactions? What if our churches only prayed to end abortion and never went to an abortion clinic? What if parents only prayed their children would follow the Lord, but you never did anything to train them? What if we read that “with God all things are possible,” yet no one ever tested to see if it was true? What if Jesus prayed about going to the cross, but never went?
Jesus said it this way. “All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore unto all nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all the things that I have commanded you and, lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the age. Amen.”
The only reason we are losing this country is because “works” has become a five-letter word in the Christian vernacular. Without a corresponding action pray is wasted ammunition.
It is time to pray with our legs.
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