Job 22:15-17      Is the Church Keeping Up?

Rev. David Holwick  ZK

First Baptist Church

Ledgewood, New Jersey

November 15, 2015

Job 22:15-17; Hebrews 13:8


IS THE CHURCH KEEPING UP?



  I. The need for speed.

      A. It can damage your eyes.


         In the 1830s, a new form of transportation was amazing, and

            terrifying, Englishmen.

         It was called a railroad.

         Thundering along at the previously unimaginable speed of 16 MPH,

            the steam engine ROCKET made history.


         Not everyone was willing to get on board.

         There were fears it would be impossible to breathe while

            traveling at such a velocity, or that the passengers' eyes

               would be damaged by having to adjust to the extreme motion.

                                                                      [1]


      B. The pace has not slackened yet.

          1) My grandfather lived through Orville and Wilbur's first

                plane flight, and Neil Armstrong stepping on the Moon.

          2) I myself have experienced the explosion of computers.

              a) My first one in 1986 could not even hold one page of

                    text in its memory.

              b) A year later I spent $2,600 on a computer.  My income

                    was around $12,000 a year then.

              c) My computer today has 50,000 times more memory than my

                    first one.

          3) All of us have experienced tremendous social change.

              a) How we handle race and sex is very different than how

                    our grandparents viewed these things.

              b) A high school student in Illinois who was born a boy

                    but now identifies as a woman, was allowed to use

                       the girls' locker-room, but only behind a privacy

                          curtain.

                 The student sued, and this month a court ordered the

                    school to remove the curtain (or at least not require

                       it).

                 What would your grandparents have said of this?

                 They would have been stunned at him identifying as a

                    woman, much less the locker-room part.


      C. Change can be exciting, but eventually tiring - or threatening.

          1) How should our church handle change?

          2) How do YOU handle change?


II. The Church doesn't change much.

      A. We are surrounded by oldness.

          1) Much of our architecture dates from the Gothic era of

                the 12th century.

          2) Stained glass windows - 9th century.

          3) I have been in some cool bathrooms in churches that are

                right of the Victorian Era.

          4) Our church has a trophy case with baseball awards from

                the 1930s.


      B. Our worship traditions are even more dated:

          1) The Doxology:


             Praise God from whom all blessings flow;

             Praise him, all creatures here below;

             Praise him above, ye heavenly host:  [know its meaning?]

             Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.


             Thomas Ken, 1706 - 309 years ago.


          2) The Gloria Patri:


             Glory be to the Father, and to the Son:

                and to the Holy Ghost;

             As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be:

                world without end. Amen.


             This comes from the 4th century - 1,600 years ago.


III. Many would like the church to speed up.

      A. It goes way beyond our building styles.

          1) Churches are seen as having out-dated morality.

          2) |We have quaint views from the 1950s that didn't work then

                and don't seem to work now.


      B. Illustration from a recent Baptist meeting in Philadelphia.


         About 100 leaders of our denomination (and token "me")

            discussed hot topics like Violence, Immigration, Women in

               Ministry and Poverty.

         I joined a group called "The Gospel in a Rapidly Changing

            Society."


         Everyone agreed that society is changing but there was a lot

            of disagreement whether it was good or bad.

         I could tell many in my group thought the change was good and

            the church needed to start moving.

         Society was just fine but we are too backward.

          1) They could point to key events in the past:

              a) In the 1840s, our group of Baptists opposed slavery.

              b) In the early 1900s, we opposed the oppression of

                    factory workers.

              c) In the 1960s, we opposed racial bigotry.

                  1> In each case, we were ahead of society.

          2) Are we now far behind?

              a) Many liberal Christians think so.


                 For over 20 years, Morristown resident and retired

                    Episcopalian Bishop John Shelby Spong has tried to

                       up-end Christian attitudes about sex.


                 His denomination - indeed, all of them - used to

                    believe in the same morality we do.

                 This is no longer the case.


              b) Many changes seem to be permanent.

                  1> Chastity is rare.

                  2> Co-habitation is the norm before marriage.

                  3> Many marriages end in divorce.

                  4> Church people are not much different than

                        non-believers.

              c) Even some of you wonder if we should change.

                  1> (Ladies' Bible study discussion.)

                  2> I understand the issues, but I don't accept the

                        argument.


IV. Why do we believe what we believe?

      A. Christianity is not a set of beliefs you can change as you wish.

          1) Scholar Albert Mohler notes that the Bible is not a mere

                collection of ancient religious writings that can be

                   disregarded or reinterpreted to mean something other

                      than what it says.                           #24624

          2) Instead, we understand the Bible to be what it claims to

                be - the inspired and inerrant Word of God.

              a) This is the way Jesus himself understood it.

              b) The world may dismiss it or even ridicule it, but

                    committed Christians have no choice but to accept

                       it and obey it.


      B. Change is not always a good thing.

          1) Old things have a sense of permanence.

              a) Those Victorian-era churches with antique bathrooms -

                    they may still be around when other buildings are

                       dust.

              b) There need to be some things that are solid.

                  1> Jesus says there is a difference in building a

                        house on sand or rock.

                      A> Any contractor would agree with him.

                      B> Both can stand in normal times, but storms show

                            the difference.

                  2> How does he preface the saying?

                      A> Wise builders are those who hear his words and

                            put them into practice.

                      B> Jesus is the only foundation that will last.

                      C> He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

          2) Adapting doesn't lead to success.

              a) Liberal churches have largely accepted the sexual

                    revolution - and they have hemorrhaged millions of

                       members over the last 40 years.

              b) The ones that have adapted the most have lost the most.

              c) The warning in Job 22 is appropriate - you can ignore

                    God, but don't be surprised if your foundation

                       is suddenly washed away.


      C. God's ways make sense.

          1) The Bible is not just true, but practical.

              a) God's laws are for our good.

              b) They point to the only way that humans can have

                    real and lasting happiness.                    #24624

              c) And I am not just talking about going to heaven -

                    following God's laws gives you a better life now.

          2) The essence of the Good News about Jesus is at stake.

              a) The gospel promises salvation to anyone who believes

                    in Jesus as the crucified and resurrected Lord,

                       and who repents of sin.

              b) If we misunderstand what sin is, we undercut the work

                    of Christ and our knowledge that we need a savior.

              c) We also confuse the world about repentance.

              d) The Bible warns us about changing its message.


  V. What is your foundation?

      A. Everyone needs something that doesn't shift.

          1) For Christians, it is our faith in Jesus and his Bible.

          2) The gospel doesn't need improvement.

              a) The book of Jude says it was delivered once-for-all to

                    the saints.  That's us!


      B. Some things can be updated.

          1) Recent years have seen many changes in worship styles and

                youth programs.

              a) For example, Sunday School is not well-attended by kids,

                    but our Children's Church and youth groups are

                       taking up the slack.

              b) We recently updated our church webpage and continue to

                    tweak it.

                  1> Thirty years ago, we didn't even have one.

                        No church did.

                  2> We see its advantages and want to keep up.

          2) Our understanding/interpretation may need adjustment, but

                not the essential message we have held for 2,000 years.

              a) Study it, understand it - and live it.


      C. Does it matter?


         Some time ago Harvard economist Clay Christensen has a

            conversation with a Marxist economist from China who was

               coming to the end of a Fulbright Fellowship in Boston.

         Christensen asked his friend if he had learned here anything

            that was surprising or unexpected.

         And without any hesitation he said, "Yeah - I had no idea how

            critical religion is to the functioning of democracy."

         "The reason why democracy works," he said, "is not because the

            government was designed to oversee what everybody does, but,

               rather, democracy works because most people, most of the

                  time, voluntarily choose to obey the law.

         And in your past, most Americans attended a church or synagogue

            every week and they were taught there by people who they

               respected."


         The Chinese economist went on to say that Americans followed

            these rules because they had come to believe that they

               weren't just accountable to society, they were accountable

                  to God.


         His Chinese friend heightened a vague but nagging concern

            Christensen harbored inside, that as religion loses its

               influence over the lives of Americans, what will happen

                  to our democracy?

         Where are the institutions that are going to teach the next

            generation of Americans that they, too, need to voluntarily

               choose to obey the laws?

         Because if you take away religion, you can't hire enough police.

                                                                   #64985



=========================================================================

SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:


[1] Where History Happened: The Birth of the Railways, Becky Hoskins,

           September 14, 2010; <http://www.historyextra.com/railway>.


#24624  Why Can't Christians Just Join The Revolution? Dr. R. Albert

           Mohler Jr., President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,

           November 13, 2015; <http://www.albertmohler.com>.

           My sermon depends heavily on his article.


#64985  Religion is the Foundation of Democracy and Prosperity,

           Clayton Christensen, version from his YouTube presentation

           posted on March 5, 2014; <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjntXYDPw44>.

           I modified it from first-person to third-person.


These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be

downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html

=========================================================================

Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick

Created with the Freeware Edition of HelpNDoc: Create HTML Help, DOC, PDF and print manuals from 1 single source