The Disconnect

Introduction

The new year has come. I don’t know. Do you just feel like you’ve just been jostled about really badly? I mean, after a couple of weeks of this party and that party and gift exchanges and going here and going there, and some of you have traveled all over the place. I don’t know. It’s just a frantic time, and I guess things are just now starting to calm down a little bit. And this is a time when many people reassess their lives. We’re turning over a new leaf. We’re already four days into the new year. And so people are assessing where they are and where they hope to be, and perhaps making some resolutions about that. I’ll tell you, for me, I’m just in awe of the number.

2015. And I’ve told you before, I remember as a little boy looking forward and anticipating 2000. And what that was going to be like. Millennial madness unfolded, and people sold everything and moved to Jerusalem, crazy stuff like that. They thought this was going to precipitate something that never happened. Here we are 15 years later. 2015. And only five years away from 2020. We should have good vision that year. 2020. Well, we don’t need to wait five years to get good spiritual vision. And that’s what I want to talk to you about this morning. A lot of my lessons, I guess resonate even more with those who grew up like I did. And that would be what we have generally called second generation Christians. Because that’s been my experience.

Not that there really is such any thing as second generation Christians, but what I mean by that is that we grew up among the Lord’s people, and that’s the right way to say that. I didn’t grow up in the church. I grew up among the Lord’s people, and I have known the truth from the time that I was a little child. I could teach the necessity of baptism for the remission of sins before I was even a sinner. And so my sermons have a lot to do with people like me. That doesn’t mean that if you have come from without that you’re not going to get anything out of these lessons. But this is from my vantage point. This is what I’ve experienced. And we have some unique baggage.

Those of you like me, we have some unique baggage. And what I mean by that is it’s hard for us to appreciate what we have and what we know, because we’ve always known it. I mean, as the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt, and not necessarily you hate it, but you get used to it. The story of Jesus and his sacrifice and what he requires us to do. I mean, we’ve known that ever since we were little kids, has been drilled into us, and we’ve been taught the scriptures that are able to make us wise to salvation. And so we struggle with that and expressing the kind of gratitude that we ought to have for what God has done. You know, just like we sometimes struggle to tell our parents and to really express to them how grateful we are for the things that they’ve done in our lives.

When they were taking care of us when we couldn’t take care of ourselves and we owe them so much, it’s sometimes hard to have the heart of gratitude toward our parents, young people, listen up, that you ought to have toward mom and dad who provided you all of these things and have taken care of you and loved you. Not everybody has that. If you’ve had that’s a tremendous blessing. But it’s hard to be sufficiently grateful for that. And I think gratitude is one of the struggles that we have as we do this week after week after week. It can get to where we thought we don’t feel things like we ought to feel them, and we get into a spiritual rut. Now that can be true of anyone who’s been doing what we’re doing today for a long period of time.

We get into a spiritual rut, and we’re not feeling the things that we ought to feel about God’s things. And we are further influenced by the alluring material world that we live in. And the fact the majority of the people that we associate with on a daily basis don’t think like we do. They have different goals and aspirations and values, perhaps not valuing spiritual things at all. And so that has an effect upon us as well, our surroundings that are generally not godly. And it is very easy for us to be desensitized to the ungodliness all around us. I think perhaps that’s what Jesus was saying. Perhaps that’s part of the explanation for Matthew 24 and verse 12, in a context where he’s talking about signs that will precede the destruction of Jerusalem, and he says, one of the things that will be present because lawlessness is increased.

That is that they live in a world in a culture where there is lawlessness everywhere. Because of that, he says, most people’s love will grow cold. That has to be true of our times as well. We live in a time of increased lawlessness, increasing by the year as we click off these years. And it’s going to be true that the love of some people toward God will grow cold. Like the brethren in Laodicea. As we’ve studied many times from Revelation chapter 3, their love for God had grown cold. They were neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm. And Jesus had some intense words and response to that when he said, I will spew you out of my mouth. Fervor lost. Deintensified by various influences and factors coupled it in Bible class.

It’s the disconnect. When people’s love for God and His things deintensifies, when it grows cold, when it’s not what it should be, when our worship is not reflective of the kind of gratitude that we ought to have for God when we find ourselves just going through the motions, looking at our watches, when is this going to be over? When is this speaker going to be done? When is this class going to be over? Just singing the words but not really thinking about what we’re singing. And we all fall into that rut from time to time. But when we find ourselves there, what do we need to do when there’s a disconnect that’s taken place between how we really ought to respond to God and how we’re responding?

I wrote down some thoughts in my Bible, and I found them last Sunday night, and I said, that’s going to be perfect for the new year. Because what happens when we get detached from the right way of looking at things, when our desires and our values and our perspective get askew? Let me tell you what we do when that happens, when love grows cold, we might think that we’re pursuing more, but in reality we’re settling for less. Less than what is truly beneficial for our lives and less than what God has promised for those who would live faithful lives. But before we can fix the problem, I think we need to understand the why. Why does this disconnect take place? Why is it that the love of some people grows cold?

1. What Causes the Disconnect

Why is it that we find ourselves not feeling anything toward God and not investing ourselves in worship, not desirous of the occasions of worship coming because of all sorts of reasons that are inferior to why we ought to be here? Because our God is worthy. And our hope is incredible. And our Savior is wonderful. How do we lose sight of that? Maybe I’m talking to someone this morning who’s lost sight of that. It’s very possible. What causes the disconnect? I don’t think if you don’t understand what causes it, I’m not sure that we can really fix it. But number one of the reasons for the disconnect, and I want to go through these quickly, is again, we’ve taken our sight off of spiritual things. There’s very little time set aside in our lives to think about the presence of God.

Awareness of Him, the importance of what He has given us in regard to shaping our thinking and conduct. We think very little. We meditate very little about this. Our focus, our whole world, our lives becomes about the world. And pursuing its stuff. We divert our attention away from the spiritual realm. I mean, how often do you think about it? Is this the only time, the only place, the only occasion in your life when you think about the spiritual realm?

I was talking with Sherry this morning about how many celebrities we read about who are dying these days. And I think some of that is in a generation ago, you had movie stars that would pass away, but now with television, Ellie May died. Ellie May. Beverly Hillbillies. Certainly you’ve seen the reruns, right? Ellie May’s already gone. And in the Beverly Hillbillies, she was incredibly young. And so we don’t, these things ought to sober us and make us think, you know, I’m heading in the same place ultimately. And hey, Beverly Hillbillies, I remember when it was running live. That wasn’t very long ago.

How often are we thinking about the spiritual realm? If we just become enthralled with what we can see, what’s going on now right in front of our eyes, what we’re watching on television, the people that we’re interacting with at work, we’re not seeing the ultimate realities because our eyes are trained on the seen rather than the unseen. And I’ll tell you another thing that contributes to the disconnect. Laziness toward righteousness. And the very real work involved in the training of righteousness. You can’t just give minimal effort in that regard. These assemblies won’t be sufficient. Training in righteousness involves developing a spiritual mind, developing certain attitudes, developing Christlike attitudes that are only going to come about with sufficient thought and the development of habits. And being spiritual people.

And I’ll tell you, admittedly, it’s going to require diligence. And we live in a very lazy culture, in a very lazy time. We don’t want to devote any energy in any other direction than what we’re presently directing it in. And so righteousness isn’t a high value or priority with people. But I think this is another reason. I’m a good person. I’m still pretty good. I mean, perhaps I’m not investing what I should toward God, but compared to a lot of other people in the world, I mean, I’m not a criminal. I’m not in trouble with the law. I’ve never been in trouble with the law. And I don’t cuss like a slaver. I don’t drink like a fish. I’m pretty good. Relative. And yet again, that leads to the laziness toward righteousness that we need to be cultivating in our lives.

Trust in relative goodness. The fact is that none of us are good as God is good. As Jesus was good. And there’s an ideal set before us that is the character of Jesus and the character of God be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, Matthew chapter 5 and verse 48, that we ought to be pursuing. This isn’t about am I better than Neil or Neil better than me. This is about what am I in relation to the example of Christ? So don’t trust in relative goodness or false notions about grace. Well, okay, I’m not what I ought to be, but that’s what the grace of God is all about. It’s going to cover everything. Well, that’s a false notion about grace. The Corinthians were admonished to not receive the grace of God in vain.

2 Corinthians 6, 1 and 2. Working together with Him is the phrase that precedes that, so that we do not receive the grace of God in vain. God, as we said in our Bible class, has some very real expectations about our response to grace. Yes, God has given us things that we don’t deserve, but that doesn’t mean that we can just rest our laurels on that and say, well, God’s going to cover all these things that are amiss in my life. I mean, there are various passages like the one toward the Laodiceans that ought to wake us up. And then there’s, as I’ve mentioned, this distorted view of time. Well, I might need to make some changes, I might need to do some fixes, but you know, I’m relatively young.

I’m relatively young. I’ll have plenty of time to fix that later. Understanding the why could help us to fix the problem. And as we look for scriptural counsel, I want to look at three passages this morning that speak to us in this groggy time of year, I’ll call it. Where we’re coming out of the fog of the holidays, we’re reassessing our lives and saying, where do I need to go? What do I need to focus on in the new year? These three passages were written to Christians. I don’t know if they were written at the first of a year, but they certainly would be beneficial in such times. One of those passages is Romans 13. And as we look at these three texts that are all related, I want to make three observations about each.

2. It Is Time for You to Awake

Romans 13, and we’ll do this quickly. How appropriate is this? Romans 13 and verse 11. And this due. Notice some activity on our part is required. And this due, knowing the time, that it is already the hour. For you to awaken from sleep. You know, when I talk about the disconnect, that’s really it. Folks fall asleep. They fall asleep spiritually. He says, you need to be awakened. It is time for you to awake. For now, salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone. And the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lust. Three phrases. Number one. Salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. When you obeyed the gospel, when you became a Christian, from that moment forward, and every moment of our lives, we move closer and closer and closer to that inevitable interview with God. And so Paul could say this without any qualification or reservation. It’s not true of everybody. It’s true of everybody. That in time in your life, and have you noticed, nobody escapes it. I don’t know of anybody that’s 110. Do you? There might be a few on the earth, but you probably don’t know them. Not intimately anyway. 110. Not going to make it. And my salvation is nearer now than it has ever been.

And he reminds us that’s a reason to stay awake. And as we’ll see tonight, you don’t know the proximity of that time. Second phrase. In light of that, your most urgent business is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. As you would the clothes that you donned this morning when you went into your closet and you chose your Sunday best to come worship. And as you donned those garments, you need to put on the Lord. That’s the phrase, that’s the word that’s used. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ. You need to put on his thinking, his values, his affections. See things the way he did. Every day must involve that decision. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And make no provision for the flesh. He repeats, but put on the armor of light, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh. That’s when we get into trouble. When we just sort of allow things, we’re going with the flow and not making any real determinations about how we’re going to live or what we’re going to do, we find ourselves in trouble. He’s saying, you need to establish a plan. And that plan must be I’m not going to make any provision whatsoever for the flesh in regard to its lust, because those things wage war against the soul. 1 Peter 2 and verse 11. This text parallels Ephesians chapter 5. You flip over a couple of pages in your Bible. This is the second text I want to draw your attention to.

3. Awake, Sleeper, and Christ Will Shine on You

That begins in verse 14. Ephesians 5 and verse 14. For this reason it says, awake, sleeper. Man. This seems to be a common problem, doesn’t it? He tells the churches in Rome, probably more than one congregation, that they need to awaken, because their salvation is nearer than when they believed. And now he’s writing to the church at Ephesus and says, awake, sleeper. And arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Therefore be careful how you walk. Not as unwise men, but as wise. Making the most of your time because the days are evil. See? Lawlessness is increased. The love of many people grows cold. Make the most of your time. Beware of your circumstances because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

First, I want you to notice the exclamation. Awake, sleeper. Make sure that you are spiritually awakened to the spiritual realities that matter most. Second, notice the colossal benefit in doing so. And I use the word colossal. I thought about words like enormous, gigantic. Just wear out the thesaurus on that one. The incredible benefit. Awake sleeper. Arise from the dead in what? Christ will shine on you. You just skip over that. Isn’t that incredible? Christ will shine on you. That’s like he will open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing until it overflows. Malachi chapter 3 and verse 10. You want Christ to look down on you approvingly, showering his blessings and favor and fellowship upon you. The reason why you need to be awake spiritually is the colossal benefit that is promised that Christ will shine upon you.

And then as a result of that promise, you say, you know, I’m going to have to make careful plans in regard to how I spend my time. I need to make assembling with the Lord’s people a priority in my life. At least, you know what this does for me? I mean, I’m like everybody else. I’m distracted by what goes on out there in the world. But what coming here does is it sets a parameter for me. I know I’m going to be thinking about spiritual things for a few hours. I know I’m going to be sobered to the ultimate realities that are while I’m here. I’m going to dismiss the cares of this world. I love it when we get to the Lord’s Supper table and the guys say, now, dismiss any worldly thoughts.

I’m thinking, we should have said that in the announcements. Right at the very we should be dismissing the worldly thoughts at the very beginning. And I’m not picking on the guys because it’s hard to lead up here. But we should have already done that. Because we’re thinking about spiritual things in this place. And I like having that built in my life. At least I know on Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night, I’m going to be focused on spiritual things for a few hours. And that’s good for me. It helps keep me awake. And I know I’m making the most of my time. You know. There’s a lot of things we enjoy doing, but worshiping God is the ultimate activity here in this world.

4. Let Us Be Alert and Sober

But the only way you’re going to recognize that is it’s spiritually understood. It’s spiritually appraised, as Paul would use that phrase in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Unless you have a spiritual mind, you don’t perceive that. You see worship as unbenicial, as something to be endured, and something I’m supposed to do. But if you properly regard it, there’s nothing refreshing like it in the world. There is no activity that equals to it. And so I need to have a determined pursuit. And then finally, I want to direct your attention to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, another passage in this vein. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Now, as to the times and the epics, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.

And he’s already explained that in the previous chapter. The Lord is going to descend from heaven with a shout and the sound of a loud trumpet, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with the Lord in the air. And I tell people all the time, and I’ve preached this many times, you need to keep that day in your view. And that’s what he’s saying. Don’t let this day overtake you as a thief, he says. While they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pains upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. People are going to be unprepared and not ready. He says, But you, brethren are not in the darkness as they are.

That the day should overtake you like a thief. And so he uses a play on words here and says, We are of the day. We are fully aware of what’s coming. He says, You are all sons of light and sons of day, and we are not of night, nor of darkness. So then do not let us sleep. And there’s your connection with the previous passages. Let us not sleep as others do. But let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But that’s not who we are. He says, But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.

Okay, so why should I be interested in all that? For God has not destined us to wrath. We ought to be glad of that. God’s intentions for you and me.

Wrath is not merely an old testament concept. It is spoken of often in the New Testament. Colossians 3 talks about the kind of behavior that’s going to precipitate the wrath of God. Impure speaking, immorality. And here he says, God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us. And then he switches on the idea of sleeping. And he says, whether we are awake or asleep. Now he’s not talking about spiritual slumber here. He’s going back to the previous chapter and talks about whether we’re alive or we’ve already departed from this life and asleep in that sense those who have died in Christ. That whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore, encourage one another and build up one another just as you also are doing.

Conclusion

Okay, why do I read all these passages? What do they all have in common? Sobriety. Making us alert to the spiritual realities and what matters most as we live our lives. Matters more than anything else. And so that we’ll be spiritual. That we won’t be carnal, that we won’t be in darkness, that we won’t invest all of our affections toward that which will not last. But that we will invest ourselves toward that which will endure. That we will lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, as Jesus said. Or the true riches. Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 6. And then this, he concludes this section by saying, Hey, you children of the day, you keep reminding each other. Keep building up one another, keep assisting each other in the pursuit of these things that are more important than everything else.

Who are you encouraging? Who are you helping?

Maybe that’s a good goal to have for 2015. Weight loss, yeah, it’s on the list. More exercise on the list. But at the top of the list. Spiritual things and helping others in that regard.

These promised events draw ever closer. And so I tell you at the beginning of the new year of the danger and the disaster of the disconnect and the blessing and the reward of being connected and engaged spiritually. And if there’s somebody in this audience this morning who needs to get connected, who needs to put on Christ while there’s time and opportunity, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, proceeding from a heart that believes and a heart that desires to rectify the wrongs that have been committed and to have one’s sins forgiven. And from a heart that is willing to say, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Then you are ready to put on Christ and to enjoy the blessings.

Not just ultimately, but in this life, but ultimately, far beyond anything you can imagine in the life to come. Stay spiritually aware. And if we can assist you in becoming spiritually aware this morning, respond while we stand and sing.