Stressed and Lightly Flavored
Too Little, Too Late? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewWhy is the church (world) stressed and lightly flavored?
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Transcript
If you are a “good” Christian, when someone asks you how you are, you are supposed to respond, “Blessed and highly favored.” This is a partial quotation from Psalms. Interesting when I searched for where this phrase comes from there was article after article about why this is mostly whistling past the graveyard. That is because we live in a world that seems more to be stressed and lightly flavored. Why is this so true?
“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes tasteless, by what will it be made salty? It is good for nothing any longer except to be thrown outside and trampled under foot by people.
The world is stressed and lightly flavored because the church has lost its oomph. The American church is as irrelevant to most people as it has been in my half-century (dang, when you put it that way) of preaching and teaching. Even if the people inside are blessed and highly favored, there seems to be little meaningful sharing with those outside. And fewer and fewer inside are feeling blessing and highly favored. Hard to share what you don’t have.
We will examine the verse we’ve read in greater detail when we start dealing with the SOM directly. But, for now, it provides us some understanding of the growing irrelevance of the church. (While the majority of Americans profess to be religious or spiritual, the largest religious US denomination is now NONE OF THE ABOVE.)
Why are so many believers feeling stressed and lightly flavored?
Use graphic to compare relationship between need/confidence in Jesus.
Could the problem be a bumper-sticker faith?
Could the problem be a bumper-sticker faith?
“Not perfect, just forgiven.”
“Not perfect, just forgiven.”
On the surface, this bumper-sticker expresses good theology.
On the surface, this bumper-sticker expresses good theology.
But when too much emphasis is placed on the “just forgiven,” the message becomes: Be Saved, Live Lost.
But when too much emphasis is placed on the “just forgiven,” the message becomes: Be Saved, Live Lost.
Is it any wonder many “Christians” of every generation can justify being married but living single?
Is it any wonder many “Christians” of every generation can justify being married but living single?
Is there Bible for this?
Is there Bible for this?
What is the benefit, my brothers, if someone says that he has faith but does not have works? That faith is not able to save him, is it? If a brother or a sister is poorly clothed and lacking food for the day, and one of you should say to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,” but does not give them what is necessary for the body, what is the benefit? Thus also faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
Can we say that James’ faith that is dead is our age’s faith that makes no difference?
Can we say that James’ faith that is dead is our age’s faith that makes no difference?
Helmut Thielicke, German preacher/theologian, once passed a store with a sign in the window, “Fresh Bread for Sale.” Feeling hungry, he entered the store to buy some bread. The lady in the store told him they did not sell bread. “But you have a sign in your window,” he replied. “Oh,” said the woman, “ we don’t sell bread; we sell signs.”
How did the church get to posting signs instead of giving bread (or salting the world)?
How did the church get to posting signs instead of giving bread (or salting the world)?
The Reformers are to blame at least in part, or maybe we should say a perversion of their theology.
The Reformers are to blame at least in part, or maybe we should say a perversion of their theology.
Luther was legitimately disturbed by some of the practices of the RC Church and so developed the doctrine sola gratia to the exclusion of works.
Luther was legitimately disturbed by some of the practices of the RC Church and so developed the doctrine sola gratia to the exclusion of works.
It is no surprise that grace alone has morphed from a doctrine to an excuse for the most ungodly behavior.
It is no surprise that grace alone has morphed from a doctrine to an excuse for the most ungodly behavior.
Calvin found in scripture that God not only saves us but keeps us and called this point of his 5-point doctrinal summary the perseverance of the saints.
Calvin found in scripture that God not only saves us but keeps us and called this point of his 5-point doctrinal summary the perseverance of the saints.
In the Baptist church I grew up in, this became once saved always saved; or, live like hell and still go to heaven.
In the Baptist church I grew up in, this became once saved always saved; or, live like hell and still go to heaven.
Regardless of their intent, there came a divorce between Christian and Christ-likeness.
Regardless of their intent, there came a divorce between Christian and Christ-likeness.
Willard likes this divorce to a bar-code scanner.
Willard likes this divorce to a bar-code scanner.
People have learned to get a better price at the self-check, switch the bar-codes because the item is what the bar-code says it is apart from what it really is.
People have learned to get a better price at the self-check, switch the bar-codes because the item is what the bar-code says it is apart from what it really is.
Because we are forgiven, we get a free pass from God because of some experience, ritual or association, regardless of who we are day-to-day.
Because we are forgiven, we get a free pass from God because of some experience, ritual or association, regardless of who we are day-to-day.
Thus, the righteousness of Christ the Bible says God seen when he looks at us becomes our dog food on the big-screen TV bar-code; blasphemous.
Thus, the righteousness of Christ the Bible says God seen when he looks at us becomes our dog food on the big-screen TV bar-code; blasphemous.
The salt goes missing from the table of real life and both the church and world become highly stressed and lightly flavored.
The salt goes missing from the table of real life and both the church and world become highly stressed and lightly flavored.
We cannot just blame the Reformers; we are choosing to drink the Kool-Aid.
We cannot just blame the Reformers; we are choosing to drink the Kool-Aid.
“Why is today’s Church so weak? Why are we able to claim so many conversions and enroll many church members but have less and less impact on our culture? Why are Christians indistinguishable from the world?” -James Montgomery Boice
The man who said this is most known for his defense of the inerrancy of the Bible when the problem revealed in hs own statement is a lack of respect for the authority of the Bible.
The man who said this is most known for his defense of the inerrancy of the Bible when the problem revealed in hs own statement is a lack of respect for the authority of the Bible.
Willard cites this quotation from a book written by a leader in the evangelical, Fundamentalist church; a man who is a defender of slavery as not all that bad, a mocker of any theology not his own, a man who advocates for authority unless it suits him to disregard it.
Willard cites this quotation from a book written by a leader in the evangelical, Fundamentalist church; a man who is a defender of slavery as not all that bad, a mocker of any theology not his own, a man who advocates for authority unless it suits him to disregard it.
Perhaps Willard was correct when he wrote the church’s failures in righteousness are not in spite of what is being taught, but because of it.
Perhaps Willard was correct when he wrote the church’s failures in righteousness are not in spite of what is being taught, but because of it.