The Christianity found in my Bible comes with
certain demands.
In Matthew's Gospel we hear Jesus as he
speaks of what it means to follow him
in a life of discipleship.
Matthew 16 and verses 24 and 25 state,
Then Jesus said unto his disciples, If any
man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow
me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose
it, and whosoever will lose his life for
my sake shall find it.
But the American church seems to have a
brand of Christianity that stands in stark contrast
to those words of Christ Jesus.
Our American brand is more into self-preservation
than self-denial.
We so-called Christians today rather indulge ourselves
for the moment to be happy than deny
ourselves for the future of eternity.
But it wasn't always this way.
America has produced many self-denying followers of
the Lamb, the roll call in heaven, of
all the missionaries who have gone out from
America through the years to die on foreign
soil as a long list of men and
women who sacrificed all to bring the gospel
to the lost and perishing.
Old-time preachers who labored and palled for
revivals like George Whitefield and Nettleton and Finney
were men of self-sacrifice.
Nettleton contracted typhus fever in his labors, and
he often would rise from a sick bed
to go preach a crucified Christ as he
lived a crucified life.
I have before me the memoir of Charles
Finney as he relates how he ignored doctor's
orders time and time again to cease preaching
and rest for several months instead of laboring
in revival.
Finney wrote, Jesus Christ laid down his life,
and I can afford, if necessary, to lay
down mine.
It is not the point how long any
one lives, but what he does.
If a man is endeavoring to spare his
own health, setting it before his duty, he
is not doing very much.
It is often our duty to sacrifice life,
or at least to risk it, and the
man who cannot do this will never accomplish
very much or great things.
The work must be done, come life or
come death.
That's what the old boy said, and I
tend to agree with him, friends.
Christ held nothing back from Calvary but laid
down his all.
How can we hold anything back from him?
The self-preservation in our churches in this
country is an embarrassment to my Bible.
God's desire for his church today is to
reestablish his prominence and preeminence in his sanctuary.
The church today has, unfortunately, grieved him away
through carelessness, worldliness, and sin.
Only a heaven-sent revival can realign the
people of God to the heart of an
offended sovereign.
The question remains, will we follow the pattern
for seeking him found in Scripture, or will
we continue to play church and rely on
man-made methodologies and man-centered theology to
continue the business of church activity, which occupies
the congregation while hardening them to the gospel
at the same time?
The people's hearts are hardened towards the things
of eternity because our eyes are off him
and on ourselves.
We can do much in the church today
with money, perspiration, and personality, but why do
we need God when we are on the
grow and our assemblies are increasing?
The answer is, friends, we need God because
our communities are growing more wicked every day
and the church is making a difference within
the community.
As a people of God, we have become
self-focused, self-absorbed, and self-obsessed to
the point that our Christianity is merely self
-preservation.
In America today, the bane of the church
is self-indulgence, self-preservation, and self-centeredness.
The gospel message is all about us.
Served on a man-centered platter at a
sumptuous banquet table laden with delicacies.
Other generations knew the price of discipleship and
the cost of following a crucified Savior.
John the Baptist had a platter with his
head upon it.
Stephen was stoned as he saw Jesus rise
from his throne.
Paul finished his ministry, not with accolades and
applause, but with a fallen axe.
The blood of the martyrs cries out against
the self-absorbed church of this generation.