A Dying Church

Note: For the video version see link The Dying Church

I've have a real burden: churches are dying because Christians can't get along! It's because a war is being waged. Rather than being Christlike, Christians are being just like their former selves!

It's not the fault of sinners. It's our fault! We set the example for the unsaved in church, but why in the world would a sinner want to be like us? We can't even get along and love each other with the love of Jesus. How could sinners expect that we could even love them?

I had a Christian friend who had at one time been in the mafia. He was a former drug pusher and user. This new Christian told me the sad truth: his mafia family treated him better than his church family! That's despicable, but that's why the church is dying!

Sinners SHOULD ask "What can Jesus do for me?' and be on solid ground. However, Christians who ask that are selfish!  Ask yourself "What can I do for Jesus?' What is the answer? You can try serving him. You can trying respecting him. You can try being obedient to him and you can even try loving him! While you're at it you can just maybe try out that new suit you have been given! Try loving others!

The church is dying because Christians are not in one accord! We are in discord! Sound out those two words: DIIIIIIISSSSSSCOOOOOORD. It even sounds mean! Then try ACCOOOOOOOOORD. See the difference? Accord is positive sounding and being cordial is positive. Watch out though; there is more to love than being cordial.

Europe was at one time the hotbed for Christianity. Now it's about 20% in England who even claim to be Christians and it's possible many of those are mistaken. Are we mistaken too? Would sinners in the world buy into our claim that we are Christians? Do you hurt for them as Jesus hurt for you?

You're killing the church. The grounds around the church building are killing fields. Why? The Holy Spirit is dead! Not dead himself, but he's not saying much. It's happened before... it can happen again!

Let me explain. The Holy Ghost got tired of messing around with unloving people. (The Jews). This is how it happened:

Malachi 4:5 "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6a And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers..."

Things will change when Elijah comes. In other words, the Holy Spirit will be silent until the right time comes!

Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. This was the last inspired word which God gave to the Jews. It was 400 years before God spoke again! The "Elijah" of whom Malachi spoke was John the Baptist. Now let's look at John the Baptist:

Luke 1:13 "But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. 14 And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. 15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb."

You can see here that the Holy Ghost awoke from his silence. He was with John the Baptist in the womb of his mother.

John wasn't Elijah (John 1:19-21), but he was a type of Elijah, having the same spirit as Elijah:

Matthew 11:13 “For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come."

Prophecy was the word of God delivered by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. All prophecy was inspired. After Malachi there was no inspiration for prophecy until John came.

Between Malachi and Matthew's writings the Holy Spirit remained silent. When John came in the same Spirit as Elijah, the Holy Spirit began to work again; and when Jesus was born, he came with fire!

The Holy Spirit is alive today in some churches. They are few! The Holy Spirit remains silent in most churches for two reasons: 1) Either the church is a false church, or 2) the people are not in one accord!

First let's look at false churches. They don't even know that they're false!

There are many which don't really believe in Jesus because their faith is NOT in him! They are mere socials clubs. I once wrote this in Facebook about churches:

The church is a place of love; not a meeting place for lunch, not a runway for modeling, not a consortium for gossipers, not a trestle to harbor ill feelings, not a pedestal to snub, not a concert to rock, and not a bench to judge! It's a sanctuary from all those things. It's where fellowship should be. It's where love blossoms for God and others! It's where God is magnified and we do that by loving. Thank you Lord for at least some peace in your house! (Larry Herrin, Facebook; Sep 21, 2015).

True churches are a house for love! It's where disciples come to love Jesus! I only know of one way to do that! Since we can't seem to get our arms around Jesus, although he IS here in Spirit, we can, so to speak, get our arms around others! The true church loves Jesus! It never undermines what Jesus says or distort his word. Some modern churches don't believe Jesus lives, they don't believe the Bible is the word of God and they don't even believe in hell!  What then is it that Jesus saves us from? Without hell, Jesus' death served no purpose because he didn't save us from anything!

In many churches God's will is a menu where we select behaviors. Christians can "order" their belief just like in a fast food restaurant! You don't want to get married? Well then just live together; God is a tolerant God. Anger is okay! God will turn his head from anger; he'll forgive you! Guess what? You can't be serious when you pray this way: "God forgive me for what I'm about to do!" It's silly to ask God to forgive you for being unwilling to give up what you love to do!

There's a mantra which is popular today: "I will never change for anybody!" That's a snub to God. What is it that God wants you to do most? CHANGE for him! But you... you hang on to you! You are "true to self" as they say. You DO what YOU WANT TO DO! Christians have that attitude too! That new creation they're supposed to be is sometimes there on Sunday, but disappears when the fun starts!

God "as you understand him" is half blind and stupid. Your God is one who fails to see what you do when you're away from others. Silly sinners keep sin secrets from God! How silly!

Luke 8:17 "For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad."

What you do in secret is displayed on a wide screen TV screen right in front of God. Our Daddy up above sees everything in high definition and his reception is good!   We all know what secrets we have, but somehow delude ourselves that it's manifested. Even our thoughts are displayed on wide screen. Face it: what goes through our minds would make people SCREAM, but God sees it!

What is it that we do which is such a horror show? We hate! At times we all hate people for some reason! Not all people, but some!

Now look at what I see in churches! It's a house of SELF worship. Let me comment from my Facebook post:

• Church becomes a social club where we meet to chat and meet for lunch. Rather than the sermon about Jesus, we plan where we're going to eat to satisfy ourselves! Not only that, but we decide who we're going to eat with! It's people we like, and people who we want to like us! 
• Some folks dress for church like their going to a fancy Broadway play. When overly concerned about apparel, it takes the focus off Jesus and puts it on YOU. Church becomes all about YOU. It's YOU that you're worshiping! What's more your flesh is YOUR idol. You paint it, hang gold from it, tattoo and pierce it, and make it smell good. You can't have a plain old idol. Yours must be beautiful and have a good smell so people will affirm it! Dressing fit to kill is immodesty. Being extravagant is being vain. It's SELF-centered and God wants us to be Jesus centered!
• We gossip about others! So you don't think so? I hear you and God does too. What you say and think about your fellow Christians, is good soap opera stuff. It also appears on God's TV! We gossip because we're jealous of other people. Their god gets more recognition than ours! We must belittle it!
• Church is a place whereGRUDGES are held. You remember every snub and comment about those from years back. Those folks you are to LOVE? Well, you resent some of them and you know it! Even though Jesus FORGETS what you do, heaven forbid if you FORGET what others do!
• Grudges are caused by something. True, some Christians have wronged you as you have wronged others. You condemn them for the very things you have DONE yourself, but your god, yourself, can't smell it's own foul smell. You expected Jesus to forgive you, but then you won't forgive others! I know... you say you do, but your attitude reveals that you lie! If you forgive, then you are to love them. If you still hold a grudge, you haven't really forgiven! In fact you don't love someone, what is it you have? Is it HATE? What does God say about hate?

1 John 3:15 "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him."

You hate me? Yes, some of you do! I can tell by your attitude. If not me, there are people you hate. If you do, then you are a murderer! It's as bad as killing, yet you are a killer and don't even feel bad about it! Someday, you will be judged! There will be no reward! Don't try hiding behind eternal security. That's a gamble! We are to love others because God commands it! If we don't want to follow Jesus, who is it we're following? Your own SELF! You're doing what YOU want to do!

Now onto the second point as to why your church is dead. Your church is dead because of YOU! It's dead because of others! You all make it a dying church. Why? Because you are not of one accord!!!!

 Acts 2:1 "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,"

Those folks were having church! Unlike our fashion shows and social clubs, they were there for a reason. It was to get a little Jesus!  They weren't gossiping, holding grudges, hating and feeling hate and resentment. They were focused! They loved each other! They put differences aside because things we don't like about other people are silly diversions to keep our eyes off Jesus. The devil laughs at us when we hold grudges or even think that we're better or smarter than other people. Heaven forbid if we had a meal with a lower social class person, let alone an ugly person!

You see your standard of comparison is the standards of your own god.  Who's your god? YOU! If others aren't just like you, then something is wrong with them. Critical Christians look at the outside and at possessions. Those other gods aren't attractive as ME and aren't dressed as well either. In fact those rival gods are just people... ugly people, but well... I'm ME! James made the playing field level! God is not a respecter of persons yet we are!

James 2:1 "My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. 2 For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; 3 And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: 4 Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?"

You're NOT special. The popular people areNOT special. The beautiful people are NOT special! Yet I watch some who strut the aisles at church as if they are royalty! They worship their own SELF and they want you to do that too!

The key to being of one accord is LOVE. Without love the Holy Spirit remains silent in your church! When people are at odds in God's house I can literally sense the discord! Guess what" The Holy Ghost stays silent that day! I know when there is discord. I don't listen to rumors or gossip; I just look at the empty pews and empty altars. No one wants to attend church where hate exists!

Church is a sanctuary where we should be safe from hate! Yes, hate kills! Sometimes when I'm with a brother who hates me, I'm spiritually dead. There is no joy! The Holy Ghost remains silent and we all go home feeling that something is amiss. He was! The Spirit if Jesus stayed away. If he was inside anyone, he was napping. Likely other little gods were blocking his view or maybe he didn't want to be where people were resentful, unforgiving and unloving. If I was Jesus I'd stay away from that chaos. Sometimes even I want to hide out away from all the discord!

Anywhere in Acts before the Holy Ghost came, there was always unity. It is said "They were all of one accord!" If one of you is out of harmony with others, you're out of God's will. The Holy Ghost sees fit to just stay silent and it's because if YOU! You are SELF-centered and Jesus is jealous of your god. Those out of accord are just a bunch of egomaniacs each worshiping their own little god!

What is it we must do? I need to change! YOU need to change! If we're a new creation, why don't we do NEW things? The old creature did whatever it was that he wanted to do. The new creation does what God wants him to do. It's not "God as we understand him." It's "God as we stand under him!"

Loving each other is NOT optional. We're commanded to love one another. We do that because we SAY that we love Jesus. When I hear the gossip, it's not love I feel. When people bear grudges, it's not love I feel. When people don't truly forgive, it's not love I feel! It's DISCORD! We are too busy being our own gods to love people. It's all about US! It's all about YOU! It's all about ME! New persons are all about God! If you're a new person, why can't others sense it?

The church numbers dwindle, but you don't care! It's easier to be of one accord when enemies are gone! It's easier to love those you don't hate. How disgusting we must be to God! We can't even get along for an hour with those we expect to spend ETERNITY with. Jesus weeps! His creation is pitiful. He showed his love by dying for WORMS like us, but then we act as if we are the ones who DESERVE everything! We can't offend our little god, can we?

What do we need to do? One word will suffice: CHANGE! We topple the god of SELF!