The Sin of Spiritual Curiosity
Notes
Transcript
This subject today may seem strange to you, but please bear with me as I explain this .
I know of a young lady who has tried so many different types of religion. She has tried Buddhism, Islam, several of the Christian denominations. She has even tried tarot cards, voodoo, and yes even Satanism. I want you to notice I said tried. She is a young lady that has and continues to search for happiness and spiritual understanding. The problem is her curiosity takes her out of the truth because she searches with a motive of what can she get out of it, not what Christ provides...grace, mercy, and salvation.
In the Book of Genesis, we see how Eve's curiosity about the forbidden fruit led to sin. She was drawn in by the serpent's question, 'Did God really say?' This curiosity, rather than genuine inquiry, sowed doubt and rebellion against God. Like Eve, we often let our curiosity lead us to explore areas outside of God's guidance, thinking we can manage the consequences. In reality, curiosity without boundaries can lead us into spiritual peril, as it did for Eve.
Curiosity in itself is not a bad thing, in fact, it is a good thing. We all think back of seeing a child with that curious shine in their eyes as they explore this world. Or that love struck curiosity that someone gets on a date wondering...are they the one?
Being curious about Jesus Christ is a great thing. When it becomes a sin is when it goes from glorifying Jesus , to being spiritually curious about what you can get out of it.
Last week, we talked about ...because of what He said. I want you to remember that because it will come back into play this week.
Let’s start with where we left off last week.
After two days he left there for Galilee. (Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) When they entered Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen everything he did in Jerusalem during the festival. For they also had gone to the festival.
Let’s pray.
Jesus just left a pagan country. A Gentile country. And went back to his people. And the bible tells us, a prophet has no honor in his own country.
Prophets in the OT, were the mouthpiece of God. They spoke against what was going against God’s law. Just a hint, most were killed are beaten because of it.
The reason, people do not want to hear what they have done wrong, they only want to see what they can get out of something.
Even here, Jesus was only welcomed, why, because they had seen everything he did.
I want to ask you, how many of you remember, my tea cup that I had up here. Most you will probably remember how I said I did not like coffee.
But let me ask this, how many of you can tell me the seven colors I use in my bible study and what they meant?
Now please do not think that I am trying to be mean, I am only trying to prove a point, we are a visual and consumerist society. And that attitude has filtered into the church. And I am not just speaking about NEC. I am speaking about the church as a whole.
In the first ten months of 2024, approximately 13.7 million Bibles were sold in the United States, and that is amazing.
American Bible Society statistics going back to 2011 recorded that about 50 percent of the American population were Bible readers. However, this number dropped 10 percent beginning in 2022 and remained consistent into 2024. For the last two years, Bible engagement has been 39 percent and 38 percent.
The ABS measures Bible reading not as engaged every day or every week but that you are engaged with the Bible at least three to four times per year.
So our spiritual curiosity drives us to purchase the Word, but is not strong enough to make us read it.
I heard someone once say...tickled ears brings about laughable faith.
Let me take it a step further, The sin of spiritual curiosity brings about inauthentic Christians.
I want you to notice the difference between the Samaritans and the Jews. The Samaritans many believed because of what he said. We will find out today, because of a miracle, only one man believes, then his household. One nation versus one household.
We must not come to the Lord in faith expecting anything but grace, mercy and salvation. Do miracles happen today, absolutely. Does healings happen today, absolutely! Does everyone of the amazing gifts of the Spirit happen today, absolutely!
But you must ask yourself this question, is my faith wavered if I do not see the miraculous or is my spiritual curiosity driving me to the Word of God?
Let’s continue with our verses for today
He went again to Cana of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son, since he was about to die.
Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
I did a little study on the words signs and wonders.
Signs are miracles that have deep meaning or significance. One example is when Elijah called fire from Heaven to burn up the prophets of Baal.
Wonders are miracles that cause men to be amazed by their supernatural qualities. Like the man in our text for today.
Let’s finish looking at this miracle, before we look back at what Christ said.
“Sir,” the official said to him, “come down before my boy dies.”
“Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and departed.
While he was still going down, his servants met him saying that his boy was alive. He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him,” they answered. The father realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household.
What an amazing and beautiful miracle. Jesus spoke and his son was healed.
I will say, it is not this miracle that I saw revelation from, it was from Jesus’ rebuke of his own people.
Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
The sin of spiritual curiosity.
It made me think about how would Jesus phrase this to today’s church.
Unless you people see flashing lights on stage and hear a song that moves you to tears, you will not believe.
This right here does not bring about strong everlasting faith, it brings about an emotional response.
Emotions are valid. Do not miss understand me. Emotions are very valid, unless that is the only thing driving your faith.
Oh I broke up with my boyfriend, I will come to the Lord. Oh a family member is sick, now I will come to the Lord.
I get it! I go through it. When I see the Lord moving and then all of a sudden bam! something comes up that stops it! I get discouraged.
Oh pastor, you know it is in God’s timing. Yes, I know that to my very core, but my flesh still makes my emotions come to the surface.
So I understand, but I will say this, my faith is not tied to what I get, It is tied solely on Jesus Christ. My emotions may at times get the better of me, and yes I know a fruit of the Spirit is self control, I also know that I am going through sanctification just like all of you.
That brings us nicely to something else that the sin of spiritual curiosity brings. It brings about a single decision and not a lasting dependence on the Lord.
Knowing most of you here today, I know you made the decision to give your life over to the Lord. To accept Him into your life.
YEC, the Youth Evangelism conference, is a conference that happens every year where 1000s of youth from around the state get together to worship the Lord.
And I see the numbers that come from this conference each year. Oh 730 youth gave their life to Christ tonight.
Having gone to one of these conferences, you can see the ones that are just making a decision cause their friends or girlfriends are making a decision. Give the example
They are up their only because of spiritual curiosity.
The ones that are making a life long lasting dependence on the Lord are the ones that do not care what is going on around them. they can careless if so and so is up here. They can careless who sees them or if they say the sinners prayer incorrectly. All they care about is giving their life to the Lord.
I am going to close with this.
If you come on Wednesday nights, when the lesson is over with, we get the Adrian question. It has become tradition since the very first night that Adrian has come to Wednesday nights. And let me tell you, she can come up with some questions that even scholars have argued for centuries.
I remember the very first question she ever asked me on a Wednesday night.
She asked me why did a 9 year old have to die of cancer?
There is not one person on this earth that can answer this question.
All I could tell her was it is God’s will.
Why I bring this up, her spiritual curiosity did not lead her to sin, it lead her to faith. A faith not based on emotion or a single decision.
The sin of spiritual curiosity is based on if I do not get what I want, I am gone to the next big thing in religion.
Can I be honest with you, there is no next big thing, there is only faith in our Lord and Savior. And that is a big thing.
