Complacency Alert!

How easy it is, as we sit in our comfortable homes, work our comfortable jobs, drive our comfortable cars, and live our comfortable lives here in the states...how easy it is to become complacent. How easy it is, having been given life, then given sustenance, then given eternal life, to fall into the trap of entitlement. This is a concept that Satan has been pushing on us here for years - the idea that we all have RIGHTS, that we're all somehow OWED something by someone else.

How often do we come before our creator, our provider, and our redeemer, with a whole laundry list of our own WANTS and NEEDS, but forget to first humble ourselves before Him, adore Him, glory in His presence, and remember who we are in relation to Him? He created us, yet we snubbed Him. He provides for us, yet we do not thank Him; instead, we take more and more. Even in our wretched, sinful condition, He offered His own Son in our place, as a sacrifice on our behalf...yet most refuse this gift, and many who accept the gift take it for granted.

Friend, let me state it plainly. God does not owe you ANYTHING! However, He loves you far too much to deny you life. He loves you far too much to not provide for your needs. He loves you far too much to leave you no way out of your own pathetic, sinful condition. God has GIVEN us all that we need. He asks nothing from us, yet we OWE HIM everything we have, and everything we are, in gratitude for all that He has done for us. Have I knocked you down a few pegs?

Why would I open like this, you ask? Because last night, as I led worship and called on everyone to stand and sing the final hymn, someone in the congregation actually rolled their eyes and scoffed at me, as though what I had asked them to do was BENEATH them, as though it was somehow OVERLY BURDENSOME to them. I didn't take offense, but I did think to myself,"If you're not here to glorify God, to give Him your very best in worship, then why are you here?" The question still boggles my mind.

This latest incident, combined with several other problems in the church that had come to my attention over the weekend, actually caused me to weep silently as I sat in the church business meeting that followed. I was ever so grateful when a brother asked all the men to stay behind, after the dismissal, to earnestly pray about the condition of our church (the people, not the building). The need for revival slowly became apparent to me. The problem is that there's no such thing as a "partial revival". Either we all hang together, or we'll all hang separately, as the saying goes.

I wish more Sunday evenings could end the way that one did, with about 20 men all on their knees, crying out to God to give us not what we WANT, but what we NEED. I don't want this Philadelphian church, that God led me to be a part of, to morph into a Laodicean church. God deserves better than that. Will you join me in praying for revival?

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. - Revelation 3:7-8

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. - Revelation 3:14-15

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. - Revelation 3:22