Disciple or Desensitized?
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Introduction
Introduction
(Wrong has become right)
Summary: I have come to the conclusion that in this supposedly enlightened and entitled world we live in there are many worrying and alarming trends in both society and the church.
I’ve been thinking about how the world has changed over the last half a century.
Specifically, the changes I have witnessed in both spiritual, moral and secular thinking.
I have come to the conclusion that in this supposedly enlightened and entitled world we live in there are many worrying and alarming trends in both society and the church.
Things that years ago would have been considered wrong for spiritual or moral reasons are now considered normal.
Wrong has become right.
The voice of reason is shouted down because Diversity is meant to be embraced regardless of what it says or the damage it does.
Consider Ephesians 4:17-19
This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,
having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Instead of living according to God’s word, plan or purpose people choose to live in a way that satisfies their wants, needs, desires and preferences.
Sadly, I am not just talking about people who are not Christians.
There are people who say they are believers who cherry-pick the parts of God’s Word that they will follow and deliberately ignore the parts that would cause them to change the way they live.
Be honest – are you living as the Gentiles do, living as the empty-headed, mindless crowd?
Are you living as a disciple of Christ or as a person desensitized to sin?
Is there stuff you are involved in that you have no shame about?
Have you closed your mind and hardened your heart to God?
Think back to when you first repented of your sin and accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour – the old you was reborn, you were ransomed, healed, restored and forgiven. You were set free from the burden of your sin because you turned to Christ.
Is Christ still the centre of your life or have you wandered away from Him?
Are you now accepting things that God says are sinful and wrong as normal?
Let me ask the question again:
Are you living as a disciple of Christ or as a person desensitized to sin?
Becoming desensitized to sin can be a slow process – we might not even notice it happening.
Right from the beginning of Creation the devil has played a long-con on humanity, suggesting and seducing people away from the Word of God.
Think back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden – Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
The serpent sowed seeds of doubt, then he sowed seeds of denial Genesis 3:4-5
Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
He convinced Eve with deception in Genesis 3:6
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
Friends, all of the issues and problems we see in the world today trace back to this doubt, denial and deception.
This is the disobedience of God’s command that brought sin, death and destruction into the world.
Are you allowing doubt, denial or deception to make you disobedient to God?
Are you following the crowd or following Christ?
Do you trivialize the serious or the sacred?
Do you dismiss Sin as a mistake, poor choice or bad behaviour rather than disobedience of God?
Do you sanitize the sordid?
The world says -v- The Bible Says
“in a relationship” -v- committing fornication
“having an affair” -v- Committing adultery
“using colorful words” -v- “swearing”
“self-assurance” -v- Arrogance
“making a mistake” -v- “sin”
Sin by any other name is still a sin
The prophet Isaiah put it this way in Isaiah 5:20
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
The Apostle Paul also wrote to the Corinthian Church to give a similar warning to the one he gave to the Ephesian church, listen to 1 Corinthians 5:9-13
I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.
Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?
But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”
The Apostle Paul’s Warning to the church must be heeded.
We must know and affirm the truth of God’s Word regardless of what the world says is normal.
We must be different in our thoughts, words and actions to demonstrate that we are Disciples of Jesus.
Our focus must be on being Christ-like listen to Ephesians 4:21-24
if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:
that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
How do we put on our new nature? Only through the power of Christ – 1 Peter 1:3-5
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Let’s return to the question Are you living as a disciple of Christ or as a person desensitized to sin?
If you are not fully living as a disciple of Christ then what ‘normal’ things of the world have got in the way of you walking close to Jesus?
Do you place a higher priority on your hobbies than on spending quality time with God?
Do you accept sin as the new normal or do you stand firm on the word of God?
I will close with the words of the Apostle Paul from Philippians 4:8-9
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
Don’t follow the mindless crowd or popular opinion, live as a disciple of Christ, embrace what God says is normal, embrace what God says is true, honourable, right, pure, lovely and admirable.
Focus your life on Christ, live for Him, tell others about Him, show the difference He has made in your life.
For His honour and glory. Amen