Is it Any Wonder They Are Leaving?

Yesterday, my youngest son played his final season game of 8-U baseball. Though they lost 8-1, he was sought after for All Stars by the opposing team’s coach. When my wife heard “Who’s Doyle’s parents?” she wondered if he was in trouble, but when it came down to it, the man was pursuing my son because of his talents. My wife politely declined several times (he was persistent), as that is not only Father’s Day weekend, but Church Camp for his age, but we also knew that it wouldn’t be best for him at this time. Sundays are sacred, and we don’t do sports on Sundays. At the same time, the strain that it would put on our son (the town is quite a ways away, and that team trains harder than he is used to) might also take away his love for baseball. Yet, that got me thinking: we pursue sports in such a manner, why don’t we do the same with souls?

Our Sunday Night Bible study is currently going through the “Way of the Master,” Living Water’s ministry on how to share the Gospel as Jesus did. This last week, we talked about how the church was selling a “non-confrontational” Gospel, and people were leaving the church in droves. The sad part is, the video is 20 years old (or more), and while the graphics, music, etc. are a bit dated, the content is still as relevant as it was when it was made. Today, we’ve painted Jesus as a life coach. We say “Come to Jesus, and he’ll make your life better.” The problem, though, is when trials, troubles and tribulations occur, which they will, the people we sell Jesus on this platform to say “this isn’t making my life better,” and they leave the Church.

Some might say “Well they weren’t converted anyway.” What a calloused attitude! Really, if we’re telling people “Jesus is the answer” and we’re not saying to what, is it a wonder people feel gipped? What is our solution? Simply put, we do what God has done from the beginning: we appeal to people as God did, whether they listen or not. And how do we appeal? Simply put: we speak toward sin, not “God will make your life better.”

If someone is in a house that is on fire, do we not scream at them to get out, shouting “fire?” Why then do we not confront sin in the same way? Many people don’t realize the danger they are in. So why not look to Jesus and the Apostles, confronting sin and pointing toward Christ? We do not need to soften the blow: we need to speak the Holy, Righteous and Just God who MUST punish sin, but offers us a way out through His Son who paid our penalty. People don’t learn by osmosis. Therefore, we also need to stop saying “Well, I’ll just be a good example,” or “I’ll be here when they are ready.” We don’t know if we have that kind of time. As my son was pursued for baseball, let us do all we can to pursue the lost. They may say no. Yet when we stand before God, we won’t be used as an excuse when they say “someone never told me!”  Let us, then, in good faith, appeal to their conscience by confronting sin with God’s law, and give them the Good News that can bring them to salvation in Christ Jesus.

2 Peter 3

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.