RU Battle Ready
As I interact with people in the “church,” and then
step out into the world while not being of the world, I am
noticing a disheartening fact: We, the
church, are not Battle Ready. We enjoy,
as a habit, to lock ourselves away in the safety of our Noah’s Ark we call our
churches. The worlds of where we work,
play, and live are spiritually falling apart, and we just keep on doing the
same things week in and week out, oblivious to the decay around us.
According to the latest research by Barna Institute,
there are over 77,000,000 professing believers in America. If this is true, why do the people who get
elected get elected, and why is the world’s system of belief escalating into
our worlds of influence at amazing swiftness.
We must, as the Body of Christ, quit PLAYING CHURCH … we must get to the
business of the ecclesia (the church gathered) and equip an army that can influence
our worlds with the gospel.
The difficulty of this task is that we are now a
post-Christian culture. We will not make
a difference in our worlds of influence by doing it the same way we have always
done it … we have proven the frivolity of this method of “ministry” by the
overwhelming statistic that over 90% of the average church is growing by church
transfer (stealing existing members from other churches). If you pay close attention to the marketing
of most churches, you will see this to be true.
What is driving this, you may ask?
One big reason for this is due to budget concerns; however, there are
many more.
Old
Testament Example of Playing Church
1Sa 17:1 Now the Philistines
gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at
Shochoh, which belongeth to
Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim.
1Sa 17:2 And Saul and the men
of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set
the battle in array against the Philistines.
1Sa 17:3 And the Philistines
stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the
other side: and there was a
valley between them.
1Sa 17:4 And there went out a champion out of the camp
of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
1Sa 17:5 And he had an helmet of brass upon his
head, and he was armed with a
coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was
five thousand shekels of brass.
1Sa 17:6 And he had greaves of brass upon his
legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.
1Sa 17:7 And the staff of his
spear was like a weaver's beam;
and his spear's head weighed
six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.
1Sa 17:8 And he stood and cried
unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants
to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.
1Sa 17:9 If he be able to fight
with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail
against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.
1Sa 17:10 And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of
Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.
1Sa 17:11 When Saul and all Israel heard those words of
the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.
In short, what we see to this point (and think of how
we “do church” weekly when you read this) are the Philistines challenging
Israel to a battle. What we see is both
sides DRESSING UP in their battle gear and shouting at one another every day
while Goliath steps out and challenges the nation of Israel, defying the God of
Israel by yelling at them to send out one Champion who will fight for them all.
Comparison: That is what we, the ecclesia, are doing
every week … week in and week out … when all we do is come together and lie to
ourselves that we can worship on Sunday when we have not been purposefully in
the battle Monday through Saturday. We
believe we are fighting the battle by sitting in our Noah’s Ark and
participating in our weekly ritual.
It is vital to recognize the time frame of Goliath’s
morning and evening challenge to Israel (defying their God) … it was forty
days. Forty is the number of testing
in the Bible. And mark my words, you
will be tested in your sincerity of worship just as Israel was tested by
Goliath as to the faith that they had or did not have in their God.
1Sa 17:16 And the Philistine drew near morning and
evening, and presented himself forty days.
David’s father was under the impression that Israel
and the Philistines were fighting, when all they were doing was dressing up
every day and yelling and one another each morning and evening. Isn’t that very similar to what the “church”
is doing every week. We do our “worship
agenda” and then never influence people’s lives where we live, work, and play
Monday through Saturday.
1Sa
17:19 Now Saul, and they, and all the
men of Israel, were in the
valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.
It’s also important to note the feelings of one
teenager as he is bringing food to his brothers:
1Sa 17:20
And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a
keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him; and he came to the
trench, as the host was going forth to the fight, and shouted for the battle.
1Sa 17:21 For Israel and the Philistines had put
the battle in array, army against army. (They weren’t actually fighting
at this time)
1Sa 17:22
And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage, and ran into the army, and came
and saluted his brethren.
1Sa 17:23
And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the
Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and
spake according to the same words: and David heard them.
1Sa 17:24
And all the men of Israel,
when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid.
1Sa 17:25
And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that is come up?
surely to defy Israel is he come up: and it shall be, that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with
great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's house free
in Israel.
1Sa 17:26
And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that
killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine,
that he should defy the armies of the living God?
1Sa 17:27
And the people answered him after this manner, saying, So shall it be
done to the man that killeth him.
1Sa 17:28
And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab's anger was kindled against David,
and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those
few sheep in the wilderness? I know
thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou
mightest see the battle.
1Sa 17:29
And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?
1Sa 17:30
And he turned from him toward another, and spake after the same manner: and the people answered him again after
the former manner.
Comparison
to “Church/Worship” Today
Please pay close attention to what is going on here,
as David approaches the scene, so that you can see how it compares to what is
happening in Christianity today. Like as
happened with David, when you speak up and challenge the “church” to quit
playing church, they will turn in anger against you as David’s brothers and all
the soldiers did to David when he said, “Is there not a cause?” People in the “church” will say, “Can’t you
just go along? Why do you have to rock
the boat? Why are you so mean?”
Well … I am sorry to say that, Like David, I see the “church”
doing exactly what Israel was doing in the face of being challenge by Goliath …
we are dressing up and shouting at the enemy from the comfort of the pews of
our church building while our worlds around us are falling to the enemy.
My question to you is:
Is there not a cause? Who have
you impacted with the Gospel in the last year … and have you purposefully
matured that person to be a soldier in the war for a kingdom? If not … you are like the men of Israel who
would get dressed up, shout at the enemy and then run for fear behind the “protection”
of their camps while the enemy is defying our God. Are you OK with that?
When need believers who will be like David! We need soldiers who will trust their God to
guide their paths as they step out to be FIT with a Faith the Influences
people Today with the Gospel where
they live, work, and play. We need
believers who will stand up against the mediocrity that is pervading what we call
the church and provide answers to solve this dilemma of lethargy.
I ask you again:
Is there not a cause? Check out
what I am endeavoring to do about this sickness that is entrapping the “church.” It is my passion to help the Body of Christ
Get and Stay FITly joined together.
Live OUT LOUD!
Mark Harrell – Habakkuk 2:2
www.rufitministries.weebly.com
