Are you a burdened Christian?

Habakkuk 1:1 “The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw:”

Are you a burdened Christian? Habakkuk was.

In the Bible, a burden generally signifies a weight, a load, or a responsibility.

The prophet Habakkuk looked out across Judah, and he was burdened by what he saw. Now, I am going to take this out of context this morning, so we can see the application for us. Habakkuk was written to the Jews of Judah, but it definitely has an application for us.

Habakkuk was burdened. He felt a weight, a load, a responsibility on his shoulders.

Are you burdened as he was? You should be.

Habakkuk was burdened by Judah’s sin and God’s seeming inaction. As a Christian, are you burdened for sin? Are you burdened for the lost? Are you burdened for the church?

1. Are you burdened for the lost?

Are you burdened for lost people? Do you own your responsibility to reach out to the lost?

Habakkuk was weighted down by his burden for Judah, and, dear friend, you and I should be weighted down by our burden for the lost. That burden should be so great that we reach out and do all that we can to alleviate the load.

Let me ask you a question.

Do you know a lost person? Are you closely connected to that person? Have you ever been so burdened by his or her eternal destination that you shared the gospel with him or her? Why not? If that person is someone you care about, should you not share the gospel with him or her?

Dear friend, if you and I never share the gospel, are we really burdened for lost people?

Romans 10:14–15 “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!””

It is a burdened Christian that will go preach the gospel to a lost world. The lost are not going to come unto us. Jesus sent us to them.

Mark 16:15–16 “And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

Is there anything about the Great Commission that even hints that we are to wait on the lost to come to us?

Jesus says that we are to go into the world and share the gospel. It is a responsibility Jesus gave all of us his disciples, including you and me.

In the Bible, Daniel was burdened for Nebuchadnezzar. In the Bible, Paul and Silas were burdened for the Philippian jailer. Being burdened for a lost soul will lead you to share the gospel with them, and who knows what the Lord will do after you plant the seed.

Have you ever been so burdened for a lost person that you skipped a Sunday afternoon nap to go tell that person about Jesus? Have you ever been so burdened for a lost person that you skipped that fishing trip or that round of golf to go tell that person about Jesus? Have you ever put your plans on hold because you had an urgent calling from the Holy Spirit to go share the gospel with someone?

If you have not done those things, are you really burdened?

The lost are dying, and judgment could be one breath away. Yes, they have no excuse, but they need to hear the gospel. They need you and me to be so burdened that we go unto them and preach the gospel.

Every lost person needs to hear these words.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Romans 10:9–10 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Romans 10:13 “For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.””

The “whoevers” of this world need to hear about Jesus Christ. The whoevers need to hear the gospel, and the whoevers are not just those of our same political affiliation, of our same race, of our same socioeconomic status, of our same sexual orientation. Everyone needs to hear about Jesus, and until we are burdened for their lost condition as Habakkuk was for Judah, we will never go to them with the good news that Jesus Christ died for them and is living today for them.

Can I just say this? Sometimes, the experience may not be pleasant, but it will always be rewarding.

I will confide in you about something. Now, this does not involve sharing the gospel, but I feel that the Holy Spirit is leading me to go to talk to someone, a former coworker, about something, and I am going to do it, but I sure do dread it. It is a burden I have been given, but I know I will be rewarded for it.

2. Are you burdened for sin?

Habakkuk 1:2–4 “O Lord, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!” And You will not save. Why do You show me iniquity, And cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; There is strife, and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.”

Now, Habakkuk was concerned over the sin of Judah as a nation, and many of us are concerned with sin in our nation, but the application for us would be this.

Are you burdened by sin in the church?

1 Peter 4:17 “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

We have a tendency to get all up in arms over sin in the street but turn a blind eye to sin in the pew.

As Christians, our first concern should be our own sin. We need to judge our own sin first.

Matthew 7:1–5 ““Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

John 8:7 “So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.””

John 8:10–11 “When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.””

You and I have absolutely no right to condemn anyone unless we want to be judged in the same manner. If Jesus Christ did not condemn this guilty woman, who are we to think that we can condemn some politician or homosexual?

Is homosexuality a sin? ABSOLUTELY, but so is living together outside the bonds of marriage. Where is the outrage over that? When did couples living together outside of marriage become accepted and homosexuality so despised? We need to get the specks out of our own eyes before we go to pulling specks out of someone else’s eyes.

A Christian should be burdened for his or her sin first.

1 John 1:5–8 “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

If we get our sin taken care of, then we can focus on sin in the church.

If sin in the church was taken care of, there would be less sin in our nation, but many in the church are more concerned about abortion than they are concerned about their hatred for a brother or sister, and Jesus would say get the sin out of your life before you go to judging someone else’s sin.

Is abortion sin? Absolutely, it is a terrible sin, but so is hating your brother and sister in Christ. By the way, if you know what Jesus says about hatred in the New Testament, is there any difference between abortion and hatred? No, because, in God’s holy eyes, both are murder, and when you see sin as God sees it, you will be burdened by it wanting to take care of it.

Because we are not burdened by sin in our own personal lives, the church has suffered. When we will not judge ourselves as we should, sin is left unchecked in the church. Here is how Paul described the last days church, and you tell me whether or not these things are visible in churches.

2 Timothy 3:1–5 “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving,

slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”

Are these things present in the church today? Are these things present in our church today? Be careful how you answer. Because if you look at that list closely, Paul says the last days church is marked by unforgiveness, disobedience, lying, pride, and greed. Do you have someone you will not forgive? You better judge that sin before you go to judging Nancy Pelosi.

The next time you and I want to condemn some sinner, some lost person, we might need to consider the words of Jesus to the woman caught in adultery. You know we have so twisted the story of the woman caught in adultery that we barely know truth from fiction.

We focus on the Pharisees, we focus of Jesus writing in the dirt, and we focus on them wanting to stone the woman, but we lose focus or refuse to focus on the fact that this woman was guilty. She had been caught committing a capitol offense, yet Jesus did not condemn her, but He also did not condone what she had done either. He told her she was forgiven and to sin no more. Meaning that evidence of her forgiveness would be her not committing adultery or any other sexually immoral act ever again. Why do we not focus on that part of the story? Because we like to justify our sin and the reasons for it rather than judging those sins.

There are some in this very church who have legitimate reasons for feeling the way they do about certain situations, but you will never be freed from that situation until you are burdened about it to the point that you judge it for what it is, and then move on from it.

I know it is hard, but dear friend, it was hard for Jesus to say Father, forgive them from the Cross, but He did, and He expects us to forgive as we have been forgiven if we want to ever get passed that particular situation.

Besides, who do we think we are to condemn anyone? That is the Holy Spirit’s job.

John 16:8 “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:”

We need to be burdened by our own sin and the sin of the church before we are burdened by the sin of others, especially the lost. Remember, Peter said, judgment begins in the house of God meaning that judgment begins with Christians who make up the true church. Judge ourselves first before we go to judging a lost society. The only true judge is the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 5:22 “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,”

The only One with the authority to judge did not even condemn the woman caught in a capital crime. There is a serious message there for us concerning our sin. It is time for us to be burdened for our sin.

3. Are you burdened for your brothers and sisters in Christ?

Galatians 6:1–2 “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

We are our brothers and sisters keepers. We have an obligation to our brothers and sisters that get caught in sin to help restore that individual in meekness helping them shed the burden of that particular sin.

That is one thing I will give you guys credit for. You guys welcomed Colin back with open arms trying to restore him and trying to help him shed the burden of his sin.

We are not restoring a brother or sister when we gossip about whatever is going on in his or her life. We are to burdened not to be burning the cell phone and social media up.

Now, here is a big problem today.

We are supposed to be burdened for each other’s needs, and that does not mean just throwing money at a problem. As I progress on my spiritual journey, I am realizing more and more that throwing money at a situation is not necessarily showing our burden for a particular person.

Some of you are not going to like this, and that is okay, but I think one of the big problems in the modern church is that we are not burdened for the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we know we are not, and we attempt to build up a large bank account within the church to ease our conscience over it. When something happens, our solution is to throw money at it because we have plenty.

Well, dear friend, being burdened for your brother or sister means that sometimes you have to go to the frontlines with them. Sometimes you have to reach out your hand and let them tag you in, and sometimes that means our brother or sister needs more than our money.

By the way, why would a church try to build up a bank account anyway? I understand having a year’s reserve as an operating budget, but our treasure is to be built in heaven and not on earth, and if we were more concerned about the things that really matter as we are the church’s bank account who knows what God might do.

I will be honest. We have more money in our bank account than ever in this church, but we seem to be more concerned about it than we ever did before. We are not here to build up a large bank account. We are here to win souls, and sometimes that means we have to spend money, and one thing is for sure we are never going to outpace what God will do when we invest our “treasure” in serving Him.

In the New Testament, being burdened for brothers and sisters means that we minister to them, comfort them, pray for them, serve them, and show concern for them. If you look at all those things, you will notice something very important. To share each other’s burdens, there must be personal connections.

We are connected to each other by the Holy Spirit, and that connection grows even stronger when we come to church with each other.

Hebrews 10:23–25 “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

If you take church attendance as a casual obligation, you will never be burdened by what is going on in the lives of your brothers and sisters in Christ. Our greatest strength comes when we bond together in Christian love. It is hard to bond with each other if we are not together.

I am telling you that one of the big faults of the modern church is that we are not burdened enough for each other.

If we were burdened for each other as we should be, we would not be so casual about missing church. We would be burdened by our obligation to meet with our brothers and sisters when they meet.

If we are burdened for each other as we should be, we would make sure we were using our spiritual gifts to serve the body of believers, Christ, and the church. Instead, most Christians do not even know what their spiritual gift or gifts are.

Dear friend, it is time for us to be burdened?

That’s part of the reason I feel so strongly about launching a digital ministry and why I am so anxious to lead Bible study in the Philippines and at Oakwood, and yes, my schedule is crammed slam full trying to juggle everything including finishing my doctoral degree, but dear friend, the burden is worth it.

For years, I have not been burdened to get God’s Word out, and now, I want to do that with all my might and power and through any social media platform I can and wherever I can.

In the month of May, counting church services, I have 16 speaking engagements, and that is not counting study groups. Is it tiring to be burdened that way? NO!!! I feel more refreshed than ever before, and the reason is that I am committing myself daily to the Lord, and that leads me to wanting to share Him more and more.

The world needs a burdened church. Are you ready to be burdened to share Christ with a lost world? If you are, that means you have to go to them, and dear friend, I do not want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but that means we to reach outside of Bruceville. We have gone and gone to Bruceville. It is time to reach out into Halls, Fowlkes, Dyersburg, and Friendship.

If there are new families that come into this community, we will go to them, but sometimes we take the easy way out and think we are doing what God wants by inviting our friends and neighbors to church. That’s okay, and I will preach the gospel when they or if they come, but our burden should lead us to step into the uncomfortable to share the One who threw no stones.

Are you ready to be more concerned about the sin in your own life and in the church than you are about the sin in San Francisco?

Are you ready to be burdened for your brothers and sisters in Christ? They need you.

Are your ready? There is no time like the present. Either be burdened and join the effort or get out of the way, but there are things that need to be done.