We are in a sermon series titled “Ears to Hear” from Revelation 2-3. On Sunday I preached a message titled “Dead or Alive” from 3:1-6. Sardis was a church that looked alive but was actually dead. It had all the appearances of life and health – activities, programs, meetings. Churches in other cities looked at Sardis and said, “Wow! They’ve really got good ministry going over there.” If Sardis Church hosted a conference on Church Life, it’s likely that other church leaders would have traveled to attend. However, perception wasn’t reality. This church was alive on the outside but dead on the inside. So one of the key questions for Redeemer Church is this, “How does a church go from life to death?” Because we don’t ever want to go there!!! On Sunday morning I answered this question on a corporate level. In this article I want to answer it on a personal level. What do you need to do to go from a vibrant, spiritual life to a dead, religious life? Here are nine steps (tongue in cheek) to go from life to death:
Stop reading the Word. Maybe pick the Bible up once or twice during the week and read a verse or two or a paragraph or two, but don’t dare sit down and prayerfully read it, think about it, understand it, or seek to apply it to your life. If you were to do that, death would never come!
Stop meditating on the Gospel. Move on from the basic Gospel message. That’s elementary stuff anyway! Go on to bigger and better things. Don’t rehearse the Gospel. Don’t memorize key Gospel passages. Don’t pray through the Gospel. Don’t dare revel in the virgin birth, perfect life, substitutionary death, powerful resurrection, heavenly ascension, present mediation, and future return of Jesus Christ. Because if you do, death will never come!
Stop praying. The fact is: you’re busy, you have a lot of responsibilities, you don’t feel all that great at prayer, and it doesn’t feel like you’re doing that much when you pray anyway. So just stop setting aside special times for prayer each day and just start praying when you feel the need or the urge to do so. Yeah, that’s it! Just pray when you feel like praying. Definitely don’t set up times and triggers to regularly pray throughout the day (e.g. when you wake up, meal times, bed time with kids, with your spouse). Don’t realize that prayer is the greatest thing you can do to open the floodgates of God’s grace and presence. Because if you do that, death will never come!
Stop speaking of Christ. Talking about Jesus can be uncomfortable to people. It can make people look at you in a weird way. It can seem radical and out of touch. Further, it can sometimes bring persecution and suffering. Forget Jesus’ message, “He who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.” Be silent about the person of Christ. Be passive about the work of Christ. And over time you’ll feel shame about the Gospel of Christ, which is where you need to be in order to die spiritually.
Stop repenting. Repentance is such a life-producing action that if you make a regular practice of it you will never put yourself in a position to die spiritually. So don’t dare search your heart for idols. Don’t look for pride. Don’t stop pointing your finger at other people and blaming them for everything that is wrong. Even if you do stumble upon personal sin, don’t dare confess it to God and others. Don’t ask for their forgiveness. Don’t change your attitude or actions. Just keep doing what you’re doing, because if you were to establish a regular pattern of repentance you would never be in danger of dying spiritually.
Stop reconciling. If someone offends you or hurts you, don’t go to them. Just be hurt. Be sad. Avoid that person. Over time you will develop a firm dislike and even disdain for them. But that’s ok, because if you were to seek restoration and fellowship with them you’d experience love and harmony and Gospel unity. And death can never exist where God’s love is present. So definitely don’t seek reconciliation, or you may never die.
Stop resting in Christ’s finished work. Instead, start gauging your spiritual condition on YOUR actions and YOUR words and YOUR religious faithfulness. Take your eyes off of Christ’s complete, substitutionary, wrath-satisfying, righteousness-producing death on the cross. Just forget about Him and look inwardly. Think about your worthiness, your righteousness, and your fruitfulness. Because if you look at Him, you’ll find life and you’ll never die!
Stop attending Bible studies, home groups, & other discipleship opportunities. If you want to die spiritually, the last thing you need to do is prioritize fellowship with like-minded believers around the life-giving Scriptures. Those kinds of gatherings will do nothing but galvanize a love for God, a yearning for His glory, and a deeper satisfaction in all that He is and wants to be for you. So fill up your schedule with other activities, albeit good ones. You don’t have to be bad or lazy. Just stay away from close fellowship with the saints. Otherwise, you won’t die!
Stop giving to the Lord’s work. First, you have a lot of financial responsibilities. Second, your income isn’t what you want it to be. Third, you don’t feel like you have to give; it’s more of an option. Fourth, you need to save every penny you have for a rainy day. So keep thinking thoughts like, “If God wanted me to give to His work, He would have given me a better income.” Don’t dare think about the grace of God. Don’t give a moment’s meditation on the generosity of the Lord Jesus, who surrendered all his wealth and became poor so that you could exchange your spiritual poverty for infinite spiritual wealth. Because if you take on a mindset of generosity motivated by grace, you will never die spiritually!
Those are nine ways to die spiritually. In reality, each of us needs to take the biblical disciplines of spiritual discipleship very seriously. And when we get off track we need to do exactly what Jesus instructed His church to do: 1) Wake up. 2) Strengthen what remains. 3) Remember what we received and heard. 4) Keep it, and 5) Repent. In doing so, we will not only live but we will also experience eternal purity in the presence of our Lord.