GregLaurieBy Greg Laurie On 02/24/2017 @ 7:13 pm In Commentary,Faith,Opinion   

It seems to me there are people in the church today who have lost, in many ways, their focus. They have missed what their priorities ought to be. It seems that many in the church have forgotten that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

I think we have lost sight of who our real enemies are. I think we have forgotten what we are really for. We have forgotten what the real weapons of our spiritual warfare are. And we have forgotten what our real message is.

Who are the real enemies of the church today? Is it the entertainment industry? Is it politicians? No. According to the Bible, our enemies are the world, the flesh and the devil.

What are the church’s real weapons? Are they primarily boycotts or protesting? No. They are primarily prayer and the Bible, the Word of God.

What is our real message, the message that we want to bring to this world today? Is our primary message that we are against homosexuality or that we are against abortion? Or, is our primary message that family values are the answer?

No. Our primary message should be the Gospel, which is the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Here is my fear: I think more people know what we are against as Christians than what we are for. They know what we don’t like. But do they know what we are for? Do they know what we believe? Do they know what we think about Jesus Christ?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for family values. I believe abortion is murder. And perhaps boycotts and protests have their place, to some degree, in getting our views across. But none of them is the main thing.

According to the New Testament book of James, it is our own passions for the wrong things and our selfish ambitions that are the source of most of our woes. James writes, “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?” (James 4:1 NKJV)

It is important for us to realize these words are addressed to Christians. Let’s not forget that. James is warning believers not to love this world. And he likens this flirting with the world as unfaithfulness, or spiritual adultery. Very strong language is used here – it’s the idea of actually being accused of adultery by God if we are flirting with this world.

This analogy of unfaithfulness is used often in the Scriptures. The Bible likens the church to the bride of Christ. We are to be loyal to him. We are to be faithful to him. And to have another god would be the same as a woman or a man leaving her or his spouse for another person.

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God used this analogy to describe the wayward wanderings of his own people, Israel, in Jeremiah 2. He said, “Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thurs says the LORD: ‘I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown'” (verses 2–3 NKJV).

God reminded Israel of how they went after other gods in his place. He said in verses 12–13 of Jeremiah 2, “Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; … For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

A cistern was basically a well cut into the side of a rock. To have a broken cistern was to have a well with holes in it.

God was basically saying, “You have turned from me, the source of life, the fountain of living water, to this well with holes in it. You have gone after false gods.” When we lose that passion for Jesus and go after other things, the same can happen to us.

We still come to church, unless something more interesting comes along. And we are not actually that interested in learning songs or worshiping. We still pray when we think of it, but something has changed. What has happened? We have left our first love.

That is exactly what God was saying to Israel: “You once loved me like a young bride. Now you have gone after other gods, and it is unfaithfulness.”

Whenever we leave our first love relationship with Jesus Christ, it is only a matter of time until someone or something will take his place. One only has to look at the pattern of regression among the seven churches in the book of Revelation, where we see an overview of church history starting with the church of Ephesus and ending with the church of Laodicea.

The church of Ephesus was leaving their first love. By the time we get to the church of Thyatira, they were engaged in full-scale idolatry. And then lastly, with the church of Laodicea, Jesus is on the outside trying to get back in. He said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in” (Revelation 3:20 NKJV). He said that to his church. Can you imagine Christ knocking at the door of his own church, trying to get in?

That is what can happen. We can go after other gods and push him out of our lives. This is what happens when we have friendship with the world. It makes us the enemy of God.

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