The Great Omission

Churches throughout the world place emphasis on teaching of the Word of God.  Modern-day sermons are vehicles to express themes that range from "God's best for you" to "Jesus loves you and has a plan for your life."  Though often sermons are the centerpiece of a Sunday morning worship service, I am amazed how infrequent God and His attributes are the centerpiece of those sermons.  If there is a cause for the disillusionment, ignorance and faithlessness of the modern church it is largely due to the shift from God to what a man can get from God.

When was the last time you heard a message that focused on God, like His perfection, justice, mercy, immutability (the fact He does not change)?  I feel the need to define immutable because it is likely you have never heard the theological term used by Holy Spirit-fired preachers of centuries past to try to describe God:  Malachi 3:6 says, "For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob."  Take in the wonder how God does not change.  What He has said He will do, and emotions will never lead Him from His prescribed course.  He does not have opinions that waver according to His approval rating.  God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and this will never change no matter how many people blaspheme His holy name.

I love reading the words of preachers who long ago have been ushered into eternity because of the wealth of content and description found in their writings.  Over time we have seen the English language that once soared over the mountains plunge into the gutter!  Read the Declaration of Independence, if you can follow it.  Such highly wrought sentence structure today leaves us glazed-eyed and slack-jawed!  The church is the not only place we have seen this phenomena, but we see this reduction of complexity everywhere in the world.  We have grown accustomed to it.  Classic music composed for an entire symphony has been replaced by three men in a garage with electric amplification; grand paintings and portraits that took years to complete have been replaced with Photo Shop; acting in grand halls has been replaced by youtube clips; powerful speeches like the Gettysburg address have been replaced with "Married With Children" one liner cut-downs and tweets about eating lunch.  The Meaningful has been fully eclipsed by the meaningless, which is like a mirror that brings only ourselves into focus.  We become the breadth and depth of our existence, and that is a thimble half-full compared to the ocean that cannot even begin to quantify our Maker.  As you cannot quantify eternity in years, so you cannot sum up the Divine Infinitude that is GOD with a few meager words.

Could it be possible that the church has lost sight of God?  Is it conceivable we have grown apart from Him due to fads and passing winds of doctrine?  How long have we been drifting on the current of current events?  It seems the only things that fire up the church these days is an external fire when God intends we cultivate the inner fire of the Holy Spirit.  Moral issues like abortion and gay marriage, books like The Prayer of Jabez, The DaVinci Code, conspiracies like Y2K, fads like WWJD? and the constant upheaval in economics and politics stir the hearts of most churchgoers more than God Himself!  How about we turn our eyes upon Jesus?  How about we shift our view from the temporal to the face of the Eternal?  So much of our focus is the equivalent of sparking up strange fire like Nadab and Abihu.  The hearts of many would rather pay money to seek familiar spirits with King Saul than pay the price of devotion and obedience to wait for the still small voice of the Holy Spirit.

If our church experience becomes more about people than God, it's not church.  Jesus is the Head of the body, and we live to glorify and praise Him.  God must be the center of all that we do, for it is He who works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure.  I've decided that in my preaching I need to do a better job of making God the focus.  I need to emphasize who God is by magnifying His divine infinite attributes.  There is a benefit to observation, interpretation, and application, but God must be lifted up as the centerpiece of the discourse.  A sermon must be a scaffold to elevate the low mind of man to consider the holy infinite God, and  must never be seen as the building itself.  When you know what a man is like, you know how he will act.  You cannot trust in a God you do not know.  The longer we remain ignorant of our God, the weaker our faith and witness will be.  Thousands of years ago God was worthy of all glory, honor and praise.  Because He does not change He will remain worthy for thousands of years to come, from eternity to eternity.  Let us determine to know Him better!