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NOTICE:   THESE SERMONS ARE FREE TO BE USED BUT ARE NOT TO BE SOLD!

PLAYING CHURCH-PART II-THE SAVED, RELIGIOUS BACKSLIDER

Introduction

A pastor’s job is said to be two-fold. His first job is to “comfort the afflicted.” To stand and proclaim the liberating Gospel to those who are in bondage to sin, to those who are being afflicted by Satan and are lost is one of the most joyous jobs that a pastor can have. As Paul said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)

Part of this job of “comforting the afflicted” is also helping the Christian. Once we get saved the attacks do not end, they intensify. Christians face spiritual attacks from the world, the flesh and the devil. Part of being a pastor is to encourage folks to remain faithful to the Lord through whatever trials and temptations they may face. Satan tempts Christians with affliction. He tries to get us to blame God and quit. However, we are to put on the whole armor of God and resist His attacks. As the song says, “It will be worth it all when we see Jesus. Life’s trials will seem so small when we see Christ. One glimpse of His dear face all sorrow will erase. So, bravely run the race, till we see Christ.” My job as the pastor is to remind us of these truths.

So, the first job of a pastor is to “comfort the afflicted.” The second job of the pastor is to “afflict the comfortable”. “Afflicting the comfortable” is the most difficult of the two jobs because of what it brings. People who are comfortable don’t like to be bothered. When you afflict someone that is comfortable you most likely will get an adverse reaction--an evil look, or an unkind word.(Exp--the alarm clock in the morning telling you it is time to get up and go to work!)

1 Corinthians 15:34-- “Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.”

I do not believe that God intended for the Christian life here to be a life of comfort. When you look at the lives of those in the early church in Acts, you do not see people living lives of comfort and ease. You see people taking up their cross and following Christ!

“Cross bearing” is not popular because of what it involves--“cross bearing” involves death. By that I mean “cross bearing” involves death to self and its desires. “Cross bearing” also involves suffering--suffering for Christ’s sake. These are not popular topics. We like to hear about how Christ took up the cross and how He suffered for us and He died for our sins and how He was buried and how He rose again. However, the preaching that calls us to take up our cross and follow Christ rouses us from our comfort zone and we don’t want to be bothered. The reason for this is because most of the time we aren’t taking up the cross and following Christ as we should. Identifying in His death, burial, and resurrection is the Christian life. Romans 6:4 says, “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Cross bearing is what we have been called to do. Jesus said in Mark 8:34-- “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

“Cross bearing” is not in our comfort zone, though. “Cross bearing” calls for us to get up off of the couch or out of our easy chair and go out into the highways and the hedges.

 “Cross bearing” calls for us to remove the things from our lives that distract us and dull our minds to the things of God and to rather get involved in rescuing men, women, and children who are lost and dying and going to a devil’s hell! “Cross bearing” afflicts the comfortable and too many of us I’m afraid have become comfortable living something less than a fervent life for Christ!

Last week we began to look at this matter of “Playing Church.” We observed it from the aspect of the person who inwardly in his heart has never truly come to know the Lord, but outwardly appears as if he is saved. This is the person that is judged by what he appears to be and men say, “Well if anybody ever made it to heaven, that person surely did.” However, when they stand before the Lord (who alone knows the heart), He says unto them “I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity.”

We said that “Playing Church” when you are lost is Deceptive. We can deceive others and ourselves, but we cannot deceive God.

We said that “Playing Church” when you are lost is Disobedience. Because if you are playing church while you are lost, then that means you are busy doing everything but what God said you need to do in order to be saved--that is, being obedient to the Gospel.

We said that Playing Church when you are lost is Dumb. To go to all the trouble to outwardly live a lie and wind up in Hell is not smart.

We said that playing Church when you are lost is Deadly. It leads to the Lake of Fire.

Today we want to take a look at the person who is saved, but also is “Playing Church”. We’re speaking of what the Bible refers to as the backslider.

To backslide means to lapse morally, to turn aside, or turn back in the practice of Christianity.

The fact is that God’s children sin. To look at Lot in the book of Genesis you would almost think he was a lost man. He literally had to be dragged out of Sodom and then wound up getting drunk and having incestuous relations with his two daughters. Nevertheless, 2 Peter 2:7-8 calls Lot was a just man who vexed his righteous soul living among the sinful inhabitants of Sodom.

Even heroes of the faith have fallen. Noah sinned by drunkenness. Moses became angry and disobeyed God. David committed adultery and murder. The disciples of Jesus forsook Him and fled when He was arrested. Peter even denied the Lord.

Often, Christians fail to realize the attraction of the world, the weakness of the flesh, or the power of the devil. Prayer and God’s Word become neglected. Confidence in self replaces trust in God. This is a recipe for disaster in our Christian lives--it causes us to backslide.

Unfortunately, we comfort ourselves with the fact that none of us is perfect and we all sin.

So rather than repenting of our sin and getting back where we need to be, we find a comfort zone in sin. In our hearts and minds we justify our sin because “it is not as bad as some.”

We begin to coddle sin rather than confess it. We become satisfied with rather than sorry for our sins.

Before we know it our hearts are lukewarm toward the things of God and we are not much different than the world. Because our hearts are lukewarm, we come to church and go through the motions of worship without really worshiping. We may even serve in a leadership position, but hearts are not really into what we are doing. We become indifferent, apathetic. We come to Church just going through the motions. We “Play Church.” And God’s heart is grieved.

In Proverbs 14:14, the Hebrew word translated “backslider” means to flinch, that is, to go back, to retreat or to apostatize. It is also translated in other places of Scripture as “to go back,” “to turn away, and to “turn back.”

When a person flinches, it means they draw back, as from a blow or from anything difficult, dangerous, or painful. Many people who attend Church regularly are flinching from this matter of taking up the cross and following Christ. That is, they draw back from following Christ closely. They are satisfied with following Him afar off.

Now some teach that backsliders are people who were saved and have lost their salvation. This is not the truth. The backslider is a saved person who is going backward in his spiritual walk. The reason why he has his spiritual gear in reverse is because he is full of his own ways instead of being full of God’s ways. He is doing his own thing. He is living His own life. He is pleasing himself, not Christ.

Hebrews 3 compares the backsliding Christian to the Hebrew children whose carcasses dropped in the wilderness because of their unbelief. God delivered them from the bondage of Egypt with a strong stretched out arm, but they couldn’t trust him to give them the promised land.

The promised land is not a picture of heaven but a picture of the abundant Christian life.

Many Christians will die without ever knowing what the abundant life is all about. They have enough faith to get them saved. Nevertheless, they wander in the wilderness without enough faith to trust God to help them live an abundant and fruitful life in Christ.

   I.       PLAYING CHURCH HURTS THE CHURCH. (1 Corinthians 12)

            A.        God Places Us Into The Body Of Christ. (Vs 13, 18)

            B.        Each Part Has A Function In The Body Of Christ. (Vs 12-14)

                        God gifts His people with gifts that are to be used to edify one another.

C.        When One Part Of The Body Of Christ Doesn’t Function Properly, It Can Affect The Function Of One Or More Members Of The Body And Even The Entire Body. (Vs 26)

                        When we “Play Church” we are not functioning properly.

            PLAYING CHURCH HURTS THE CHURCH. . .

  II.      PLAYING CHURCH HURTS CHRIST. 

            A.        When We Hurt The Church, We Hurt Christ.

                        When Saul was persecuting the Church in Acts 9, Jesus said that Saul was persecuting Him. Acts 9:4-- “Saul, Saul, why

                        persecutest thou me?”

                        Colossians 1:18-- “He is the Head of the body, the Church. . .”

            B.        When We Sin Against The Church, We Sin Against Christ. (Matt. 18:15-17)

                        When someone backslides on God and is a member of this local body, it hurts the whole body! It hurts the Church and it hurts Christ. 

                        Christ is the head of the body and He has a will for this Church. When we sin against the body it hurts the Church (the body)

                        and Christ (the Head) and it limits how effective the body can be for the Head.

            C.        When We Speak Against The Church, We Speak Against Christ.

                        We need to guard our tongues about how we speak regarding the Church.

                        We need to be careful how we speak of its members. We need to be careful how we speak of the body of Christ. What we speak

                        of the body affects the Head.

            PLAYING CHURCH HURTS THE CHURCH, IT HURTS CHRIST. . .

 III.      PLAYING CHURCH HURTS THE COMFORTER.

            The Comforter is the Holy Spirit of God that was given to us at the moment of conversion.

            A.        The Holy Spirit Can Be Resisted.

                        Acts 7:51-- “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.”

                        1.         Resisting occurs when we refuse to hear the Word of God.

                        2.         Resisting occurs when we refuse to believe the Word of God.

                        3.         Resisting occurs when we refuse to obey the Word of God.

            B.        The Holy Spirit Can Be Quenched.

                        1 Thessalonians 5:19-- “Quench not the Spirit.”

                        To “quench” means “to extinguish.”

                        1.         This occurs when we don’t do what The Holy Spirit wants us to do in our lives.

                        2.         This occurs when through our words or actions, we extinguish God’s working in the lives of others.

                                    Exp.-- A new Christian gets around the ones who aren’t doing anything for God and He’s all excited and they say “What is

                                    it with You?” and “You’ll get over it!” and he does because they extinguish his fire!

            C.        The Holy Spirit Can Be Lied To.    

                        Example--Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11)          

1.    We lie to the Holy Spirit when we tell the Spirit we will do something, then we don’t do it.

          We say, “Oh God, you do this for me and I promise you I’ll. . .” and we make promises to God that we don’t keep.

2.    We lie to the Holy Spirit when we claim that we are really doing something for God when all we are doing is “playing church.”

                                   We think that God is impressed by the amount of our activity. He is not!                                     

                                    There is nothing about you and me that impresses God! God is only impressed by the life of His son Jesus Christ.

                                    What God wants to see in us is the life of His son Jesus Christ lived out in our lives! (Galatians 2:20)

            D.        The Holy Spirit Can Be Grieved.    (Ephesians 4:22--32)

                        To “grieve” means to distress; to make sad. We are grieved by those we love.

                        What makes the Holy Spirit sad? Look at the context. It is doing what the Holy Spirit would not have us do. Becoming involved

                         in activities that do not honor God.

            PLAYING CHURCH HURTS THE CHURCH, IT HURTS CHRIST, IT HURTS THE COMFORTER. . .

  IV.     PLAYING CHURCH HURTS THE CHILDREN. (Matthew 18:6-7)

“Offend” means to “scandalize”; to entrap, to trip up, to cause to stumble or entice to sin or apostasy.

            A.        Playing Church Hurts Our Own Children.

                        Many children grow up with hearts cold toward God because Daddy and Mama “Played Church.”

That will not excuse them at the judgment, but it will call us into accountability also if we are the ones who offended them!

            B.        Playing Church Hurts Other People’s Children.

Many children grow up with hearts cold toward God because some Preacher, deacon, teacher, or other Church member “Played Church.”

                        That will not excuse them at the judgment, but it will call us into

                        accountability also if we are the ones who offended them!

   V.      PLAYING CHURCH HURTS THE CAUSE.

David came to the battlefield expecting God’s people to be in the battle. Instead they had retreated from the battle with Goliath and the Philistines.

            1 Samuel 17:29-- “Is there not a cause?”

            If you are busy playing, then that means you are not busy fighting the battle!

            God’s name was becoming a reproach among the Philistines because the Israelites refused to fight.

            Is God’s name a reproach because you refuse to fight the good fight of faith for Him?

            “Playing Church” hurts the cause of Christ and causes His name to suffer reproach.

            Do you know of anyone who is out of Church today because you “Play Church”?

            Maybe it’s time to right those wrong relationships and turn your life around! 

Do you know of anyone today who refuses to come to Christ because you “Play Church”? Their blood will be on your hands at the judgment.

            PLAYING CHURCH HURTS THE CHURCH, CHRIST, THE COMFORTER, THE CHILDREN, THE CAUSE. . .

  VI.     PLAYING CHURCH HURTS OUR CHARACTER.       

            A.        A Person Who Is Phony With God Will Be Phony In Other Relationships.

                        If a commitment to God doesn’t mean anything, what does a commitment to a husband or wife mean?

                        If a commitment to God doesn’t mean anything, what kind of a relationship can your children expect out of you? 

                        If a commitment to God doesn’t mean anything, what good is your word to anybody?

            B.        A Person Who Is “Playing Church” May Decide to “Play” In Other Areas Of Their Lives.

When you are not real with God, it is easy to not be real with yourself or others.

Conclusion

Are you saved today? You have to frontslide before you can backslide!

Are you in the battle today, or are you AWOL and just “playing army.”

We were saved to live for the Lord and if we don’t live for the Lord we are not fulfilling our purpose in Christ. Many saved people are not reaching their potential in the Lord.

They are capable of being all that God wants them to be, but for some reason they are backsliding.

Look at Hebrews 3:12-13 again. He is speaking to the brethren!

Let’s stop “Playing Church” and get real with God today!

PLAYING CHURCH HURTS THE CHURCH, CHRIST, THE COMFORTER, THE CHILDREN, THE CAUSE, OUR CHARACTER.

Home Page   Contact Us    Service Times   Sermons   Are You Going To Heaven?

NOTICE:   THESE SERMONS ARE FREE TO BE USED BUT ARE NOT TO BE SOLD!