How the Church Hinders the Kingdom of God - Part III

III. Living Below the Level of Our Beliefs

Introduction:

Many in the church, many believers, have become blind to their own sin.

The Sins That Drag Us Down

Materialism
Our commitment to Him will rise and fall in direct proportion to our interest in material things.

A story was told about a woman who was going to teach her Bible study class a lesson on materialism. She was writing up her outline at her computer. She would suggest that the members of her class go through their houses and look for evidence of materialism. As she worked on her outline, it occurred to her that she needed to do this herself, not just ask it of her class. She got up and went to her closet and opened the door. There, on racks, in boxes – never opened or worn – on the floor from recent wearings, were shoes. She counted them – 84 pairs, and was convicted of her materialism.

Worry
Most Christians understand that worry is a sin.

Worry also serves as a wrecking ball to your witness.
If you say you trust in God, and people see you worrying, it puts a negative image on your trust.

The naïve don’t have a problem with worry. The pastor tells of his early days as a pastor in Mississippi, when a tornado warning went out. He got the family to the safest place in the house – the bathroom. Mississippi houses don’t have basements! Meanwhile, he kept darting out to look out the window and watch the tornado with interest. It never touched down. He wasn’t familiar with tornadoes. He was not worried at all. Some time later, he drove the 60 miles to the church he was pastoring, to find out that a tornado had touched down in a small town nearby. The town was virtually wiped out. One church had nothing left except the communion table, and the Bible on it. He had a healthy respect for tornadoes after that.

Superiority

We must be careful not to slip into a prideful, cocky attitude that causes us to throw out words of judgment and condemnation. The illustration given here is that of the Pharisee and the tax collector – the Pharisee telling God how good he is, and how he obeys the letter of the law; that he is not like this tax collector (far superior, you can read between the lines!). And the tax collector bows his head, beats on his chest and says, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” And who goes down to his house justified? The humble and repentant tax collect rather than the proud and self-righteous Pharisee.


Elevating Our Game

Put the power back into preaching.

We need to remember that the primary reasons why God gave us the Bible is because it is “usefule for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).

Jonah 3:4-5 Jonah preached a sermon on repentance to the Ninevites, and 120,000 people repented.
Acts 2 Peter preached a sermon on repentance on the day of Pentecost, and 3,000 people were saved.

Move our heart closer to the Lord.

Your heart is the one thing you can’t afford to be without when you come before God.

Whe powerful preaching and tender hearts come together in the presence of Almighty God, incredible things always happen.

Isaiah 29:13
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

Amos 5:21-23
I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

Conclusion:

When we live below the level of our beliefs we allow sin to settle in and make itself at home.

If you do not want to be a hindrance to the kingdom, your behaviour must meet with the king’s approval.

The story is told of a knight coming before his king, disheveled and bleeding, and he says to the king, “I have been harassing your enemies to the west.” The king replies, “I don’t have any enemies to the west.” Says the knight, “You do, now.”

We need to remember who we are and whose we are.