“Drive Through Religion”
1st Kings 12:25-43
You know how people have diseases named after them, could you imagine having a sin named after you? Oh No I did a ______, oh Lord forgive me. That’s gotta be bad.
The passage before us describes the act which is so often described in Scripture as the "sins of Jereboam." It is referred to more than twenty times in the Word of God.
I Kings 15:30 "Because of the sins of Jereboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel to sin." I Kings 15:34 states that Baasha "walked in the way of Jereboam, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin." I Kings 16:31 says of Ahab "and it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jereboam." II Kings 13:2 states that King Jehoahaz "followed the sins of Jereboam." II Kings 3:3 states that King Jehoram "cleaved unto the sins of Jereboam." II Kings 15:8 states that Zachariah "departed not from the sins of Jereboam."
Jereboam’s influence cast its dark shadow across fifteen reigns of the kings in Scripture. His destructive influence was felt for more than two and a half centuries. It was the prime cause of the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel.
Read 1st kings 12:25-43
After doubting God’s plan and seeking the advice of obviously worldly people he deviated from God’s plan whenever we begin to doubt God and instead seek worldly advice in regards to the otherworldly plans of God we begin a journey down a dangerous road. It affects us in a couple of major areas that I want to talk about.
The 1st is How we view church and the second is How we view our own relationship with God.
1. Our view of church-(illustration) can you imagine if you ordered church like you ordered fast food, you roll up to the speaker you hear “may I take your order and you respond” uh yeah I would like a short service with vibrant worship but not to vibrant, some hand clapping, I’d like a happy meal sermon without the conviction. And a children’s church on the side. “would you liked that super-sized” no that be it. “please drive around for your order” now you might think that sounds kind of silly but it is an attitude that literally plagued the church in America and hinders it from experiencing revival.
A. Worldly wisdom-replaces God’s direction there is a modern train of thought that sees the church as a business and it’s people as customers and what we do as a product. It focuses on a methodology that appeals to the felt needs of it’s members. Unfortunately it tends to result in perpetuating a consumer mentality that is incompatible with the true Christian faith. I have never felt comfortable with that perception of the church. I have always seen the church as a family the whole time I grew up in church I never thought of it as a business. Jesus, when he went into the temple was furious that it was being used as a place of business, he overturned the tables and said that it should be a house of prayer. I think we lose that sense of reverence and awe for the holiness of God when we begin to see the church as a business rather than the house of God. It becomes crass and common rather than holy.
B. A religion of convenience- the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. When Jeroboam made the golden calves he said it was because it is too hard for you speaking of his people to go up to Jerusalem. He was appealing to their desire for convenience. This has also been a trend in modern times. To make religion more convenient In a concern to remain relevant to the culture churches feel they have to compromise in their teaching. They fear that if they stick to the Bible as it is written and use words like sin, judgment and hell that we might appear to be out of touch with the culture around them and drive people away. So out of fear pastors preach a kinder gentler more tolerant sounding message they talk about grace but not about truth, they preach a gospel of salvation without talking about repentance. But how can one be saved if they don’t know what their being saved from? How can one turn to the truth when they are not told about the lie?
People are looking for that oasis in the middle of the desert. The problem is when they find their oasis only to discover it is a mirage and is just as barren as the desert around them. People are hungry for spiritual things, curious about what is beyond the seen world, they look for meaning and purpose in life. So when they come into a gathering of believers that live no differently than the rest of the world, have no different perspective on life, have no more hope than they do, rather than an oasis of living water they just see it as more dry hot sand. But if they find a people who love each other and truly worship God and are Focused being sensitive to the Holy Spirits rather than being seeker sensitive they just might find rest for their weary souls.
Jeremiah 2:13 (NIV)
13 “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
These broken cisterns or wells represent false religions or alternative beliefs that hold nothing for the one searching for God. Living water represents that life in the Spirit and that hope we have in God an eternal life with him. This true living water can only be found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus explains this to a woman he meets at the well in Samaria.
John 4:14
14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
2. How we view our relationship with God-
Faith verses fear-Jereboam acted in fear of man rather than in faith of God. He did not believe God would carry out what he promised. how quickly we can revert to our own wisdom and our own way of logically and rationally thinking through a situation only to come up with a worst case scenario where we aren’t trusting in god anymore to come through on his promises. Its that panicky feeling where you begin to question decisions you’ve made because things don’t appear to be working out the way you pictured they would.
(illustration)At the end of WWII the Japanese government faced a similar problem with thousands of soldiers who were hiding in the jungles and mountains in the South Pacific. Although the treaty with the U.S. had been signed and the war was over, thousands of Japanese soldiers living in the mountains and jungles of the South Pacific islands would not come out of hiding, surrender their weapons, and return to their homes to live in peace. These soldiers had been so indoctrinated with stories of what the Americans would do to them if they surrendered that they believed they would face certain torture or immediate death, so they remained in hiding and ready to fight. How could the Japanese government convince these die hard warriors that the war was indeed over and they were not just hearing American propaganda designed to capture unsuspecting soldiers? Finally, the Japanese Emperor made a speech detailing the end of the war and pleading with them to return home. The voice of the Emperor was broadcast by radio and recorded to be repeatedly played on loudspeakers directed into the jungles and mountain caves where these men were hiding. One by one the Japanese soldiers accepted the assurance of their Emperor and turned themselves in. Some waited to be certain the war had indeed ended, but within a few months all but a few had surrendered. After some years, it was assumed all of these hidden soldiers had been accounted for; those still missing were presumed dead. However, in March of 1972 a Japanese soldier finally came out of hiding, 29 years after the war was over. When asked why he had remained in hiding so long, this warrior now in his sixties said it had taken him that long to get over his fears. The U.S. and Japan had shared a friendly relationship for years, but this lone soldier had wasted 29 years hiding from an enemy he still feared within his mind (Healing of Memories, David Seamands). Can you imagine being held captive by your fears for 29 years? Imprisoned, not by an invading army, not by a cruel dictator, but held captive by the fear within your mind. Even the most faithful of us can at times imagine the worst scenario and be tempted to worry. To allow fear to rule in our hearts instead of Christ but we don’t need to fear or to worry and we can have faith that he will do what he said he would do.
Success vs. faithfulness- We tend to equate success with faithfulness in the Christian community but the reality is that someone may appear very successful in the ministry but not necessarily be faithful and others may be faithful to what God has entrusted them but not appear too successful. Success as we measure it and faithfulness are two entirely different things. It interesting that the word success is only used in the old Testament but is not used in the New Testament. Jesus and the apostles never mention success but they do mention faith or faithfulness at least 348 times. In the parable of the talents God says well done good and faithful servant not successful servant.
1st Samuel 16:7b “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
when speaking of those who have lived their lives for god in the past Hebrews says this.
Hebrews 11:13 (NIV)
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.
Success in our eyes is often measured by what we see ourselves accomplish in our own lifetime. But God looks at our contribution in light of all history. We tend to see our ministry or our calling as a marathon to accomplish in our lifetime but god sees it as a relay race carried on throughout history until he returns. Each of us does our part by being faithful to the call while we are here on this earth. We run as best we can and than he we hand the baton off to the next runner, carrying the gospel from generation to generation. We may never see in our lifetime the full fruit of the faithfulness of our ministry. But one day we will join all those who have ran before us in a great celebration.
Conclusion: I would like to close with this verse than that I believe speaks of how we should live our lives with the time we have on this earth.
Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
