The hard truth is not easy for people to accept. Most people would prefer to have their ears tickled in a non-confrontational way rather than to hear the hard truth. Many pulpits recognize this behavior and gear their messages to conform to their audience. Behavior like this may save the offering plate in the short term but does not save souls. Accountability is nearly non-existent in the church because it is easier to tell people what they want to hear then to tell them the truth. The truth is only hard when you take a nonconfrontational individual and force them hold someone accountable for their behavior.
We live in a world where people cling to their idols. An idol is something that you love, admire or attach significant value to. Idols can take on a celebrity status or follow the way of politics. Idols can be an inanimate object or can be a person. In this example I am referring to human idols. We live in a time where social media is regularly in your face. We get information at lightning speed and are constantly bombarded with information. What we view consumes our soul.
I believe that the reason we are seeing such a decay in morals is because of the idols created by humans. Much of this blame lays at the feet of the church. The church has done a horrible job of pointing people to Christ. Through the lack of accountability, the church has created a false God of love, selective acceptance of sin, and a parallel with the world. This is not God the creator and is certainly not Jesus Christ. When a fake God is created, audiences will worship at that altar instead.
The hard truth about politics and church.
When the first thing that someone clings to is their political ideology instead of Christ, you know where their heart is at. Politics are divisive because everyone is creating their own God and worshiping the God that they created as their idol. When something goes wrong in their life, they blame the idol of someone else. The war of the idols creates continual battles that lack any kind of spiritual substance. The scale of measure isn’t right or wrong, but the thought of my idol isn’t as bad as your idol.
The only way to stop what is going on in our world is to unite around Christ. The behavior starts in your heart, flows through your mind and fills your life. It can be as simple as praying or reading your Bible. The more that you are connected to God the creator, the less you idolize people. Idolizing people shows that you are searching for something and lack a relationship with Christ. Any person that we put before Christ is an idol. Our first obligation is to Christ, the second is to our spouse and the third is to our children. Politicians and other human idols don’t make the top three list if you have your priorities in check.
Spineless cowards from the pulpit do most of their damage by minimizing the human relationship with Christ. Intentionally or not, these individuals lead their congregation right to idolism. What good is reading a passage from the Bible, building a sermon around the message but yet completely missing our purpose in life? Every sermon should lead back to Christ. I don’t care what Bible verse that you are talking about or what subject matter that you are discussing. Minimizing Christ in everything creates the growth and existence of idols.
The church is creating false Gods.
When churches are silent on sin, they train their congregation to ignore the consequences of sin. When people do not see consequences in their actions, they continue to sin. Instead of looking to church leadership for guidance, these individuals find leadership in politicians and celebrities. When the heart is not content building a relationship with Christ, it will seek out satisfaction somewhere else.
Many times, politicians claim to fight the battles that should be fought in the church. Moral issues that have been completely ignored by cowards in church leadership are now being thrown into the political arena. When I say cowards, I mean cowards. They want someone else to fight the Biblical battle for them. They are content preaching God is love and love thy neighbor. Their joy is found in seclusion from confrontation. The less the world hates them the safer they are. Jesus told us that the world would hate us.
If you are loved by the world, you need to do some self-reflection. We will be hated by the world if follow Christ and serve him. Don’t make your alliance to the world just to have comfort. Find comfort in knowing that the world hated Jesus before it hated you.
John 15:18-25 New American Standard Bible
Disciples’ Relation to the World
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. 25 But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’