I'm going to be speaking a message this morning that God laid on my heart about the subject of backsliding. I know that when you hear that word sometimes you want to grip your seat because you think the preacher is going to speak on hellfire and brimstone. I didn't come to step on your toes this morning. If anything, what I want to do is really teach about this idea of what backsliding is. How many know that God is calling his people to be closer to him like never before? What a marvelous time that we live in, what a glorious God that we serve.
I want us to look at Jeremiah 7:22-24, "This is what I commanded them saying, obey my voice and I will be your God and you shall be my people and walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you". How many of you want things to go well with you? "Yet, they did not obey or incline their ear but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts and went backward instead of forward".
Father, today we thank you for your word. Jesus, we thank you for your presence in this place. God, you've been so gentle with us, so healing and encouraging. Lord, as we come to your word, our desire is to be taught. Our desire is to be more like you. So Father, I pray this morning that we would decrease, that you would increase and that your word would have its perfect effect in us this day. Amen.
I've heard people approach this subject with almost a prophetic type of glee in their voice as they talk about sin and what that sin will do in people's lives and where people are at. Backsliding is introduced to the body of Christ, to God's people, in the book of Jeremiah. As I was preparing this, the thing that the Lord struck my heart so marvelously about was that Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. Jeremiah, we know was one of those men who had such a passion for God but in the midst of his generation he wound up standing quite alone. He had a message that he had to speak to God's chosen people and in the midst of it, although he knew that God was with him, he really didn't take a great deal of comfort in the call that God had asked him to speak because he knew what was going to happen to his people and he wept.
The other book that Jeremiah wrote was the Book of Lamentations, lamenting over what he saw going on with the people of God and what had to happen to get a hold of their hearts.
To me, backsliding is a subject of sadness and I believe it is with God but it is also in the Word of God so that we are taught and that we don't fall into that place of becoming backslidden as God's people. With God, progress is important. The words: plant, grow, possess, mature, advance, are all important in the word of God. They talk to God's people. How many understand that God has such great plans for our life that he is always moving us forward in him? There is always that promise that he has for us, always that hope that he has for us, always that joy, always that purpose that he has for us and if we are obedient we will see God's plan come to fruition in our life. How many of you are thankful that God has a plan and purpose that he wants you to possess? What a marvelous thing.
We're to be moving forward in our walk with the Lord. As life moves forward from year to year, day to day, month to month, we as Christians are to grow and become more like Jesus in all that we are. Our relationship with God can grow deeper. We can grow more secure in Christ without fear that we have anything to fear from God. We become more secure in who we are as individuals because his work inside of us does a marvelous maturing that helps us to achieve not only what God has but even more than we could ever dream. How many of you have found that God does good things for us? Amen
As we grow deeper in the Lord, we become more obedient. We become more stable and more capable. God says to all of us that we are to move forward and not backwards and we're to be more like Him everyday. I don't know about you but I've noticed that we live in a more increasingly wicked and godless society. I wonder if there are any other believers in this room who over the last couple months have just had a time where you've been watching things and saying, "Dear God, this world is alot different from the one I grew up in". The Bible tells us that in the end times it will become just like that. The world has become increasingly more wicked.
A couple of weeks ago when I was sick and really had just enough strength to flip the channels a little bit, It's amazing the things that I saw, the normal television shows that people watch, and the things that I was seeing in the news. Something struck me, when I was growing up I used to hear the name ?Alfred Hitchcock' and knew he did different things but I always saw this portly old man that kind of seemed respectable. But I watched a biography on him and when they asked him, "What is it that will help the movie industry grow and to sell"? He said, "Murder, mayhem, sex and violence. That's what my movies are about". How many of you believe that our entertainment industry, not only our movies but our television shows have become all about that?
I watched the news and a teenager bludgeoned his mother to death with a hammer because she told him ?No'. There's a television show that's following another one, a show that many people watch today called ?Desperate Housewives'. But there's a program that they're putting on right after it called ?The Swingers'. In the commercial for it, there was a husband and a wife that met with another husband and a wife and said, "I think we should all get alone together". We never used to understand what swinging meant, we used to think that was a dance back in the day, it was a style of music. But now that is something that is going to be on at 9:00 on ABC, a time when my children might want to watch something that is entertaining.
There is a pastor that I read about in Ohio, that started a church in a bar and to attract the people he had beer on tap. So as the people came in, instead of being filled with the spirit, they could get drunk while listening to him preach. Listen, any preacher that you've got to get drunk to listen to so that you can put up with what he's saying, don't go to that church. I was flipping through and in the middle of the day I saw a commercial for a dating service. For a minute I thought it was ?E-Harmony' until I realized there were two guys that they were trying to set up.
Down the street from me a carjacking took place and the two men wrecked their car. The helicopter flew over my house as they were looking for them and we heard the sirens. There was another instance where a 7 year old had stolen a car and they interviewed him and he said, "It's good to do bad things". "Do you realize that you could have killed your friend?" He said, "It was awesome, it was a blast, I know I wrecked the car but it's good to do bad things". I was watching the news last night and Grandma tore him up and I was loving it, glory to God. Thank God for godly parents. The boy was back on the news saying, "I'm so sorry" and Grandma was making him walk with her 2 miles to the grocery store and she said, "I'm going to teach my boy that it's not good to do bad things but that it's good to do righteous things". How many are thankful for parents who will help bring up children the right way? Amen. I was thrilled to see that happen.
We live in an increasingly wicked society. As Christians we are to be different than everybody else. Without question, we're to be different. We are not to be drawn into the world's things. I'm often amazed at what many Christians watch and do in their homes with their tv's. Their choices of entertainment, the speech with which they talk. The truth is as believers we should be different from the world. I should be able to know that you are a believer just by coming into your presence because there is something different about you and me because of what Christ has done inside of us. How many believe that should be true?
The Bible says that in the last days there will be a great turning away or a falling away from the faith. I came here this morning because this is something that God has laid so strongly on my heart. I want to tell you, I love the family of God so much. The family of God has been my family sometimes more than my own. I've spent more time with the people of God. How many have found that you really do love the people of God? I love the people of this church, I love the people whom God has given such a wonderful heart for Him.
The Bible says that in the last days there will be a great falling away. 2nd Thessalonians 2:3 says, "Let no one deceive you by any means. For that day will not come unless the falling away comes first". What does that mean? That the second coming of Christ in the rapture will not happen before there are many people that are His that will fall away from Him. There's a word ?apostasy' and the word conjures up the idea of Christians that are in deep, dark, heinous sin. But here's what that word really means. It simply means the abondonment of a previous loyalty or a defection. How many of you have had friends that you thought were friends then all of a sudden defected?
I'm calling on the church this morning, on each and every one of us, to check ourself. Let me ask you this morning, Christian, where are you at with God? Where are you at in your relationship with Him? When we come to God, we repent and we turn from our sins towards God. We leave everything that the world ever had to offer. Repent means to turn your back and go the other way. Apostasy is just the opposite of repentance. It is slowly turning your back on God towards sin. It is a life that begins to mix the holy with the worldly. Many people think of backsliding as a purposeful renunciation of Christ for sin where all of a sudden someone says, "I'm tired of serving you, God, it's getting me nowhere. I'm just done with this and I'm going to go after the things of the world". But really backsliding is a gradual move away from God towards the world. Little by little, it can happen and before you know it you are farther away from God than you ever thought you could be.
It's a fascination with what the world has. Slowly, self centered living begins to replace sacrificial living. A hunger for God is replaced with a desire for entertainment, relaxation and gain. There's just such a desire for more of the world and less of a desire for God. In Matthew 15:8 it says, "These people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me". The truth is I've watched throughout my years as a pastor, many Christians who say, "I love God" but their heart is not in the relationship.
Hosea 7 says, "My people are bent on backsliding from me though they call to the most High, none at all exalt him, none at all". Who is the backslider? God calls the backslider ?My people'. You are my people, you're family. How many of you are the people of God? Who is the backslider? One who doesn't know God and doesn't serve God. Those who once put God first, those who once read the word, those who once spent time in prayer and would witness, those who once talked about God but now they acknowledge God with their lips but there's no passion in their heart, the ones who used to love to listen and worship God with all of their heart, those who were drawn to Him, those who missed that time in prayer now really begin to see that the world has just so much for them that little by little they move away. "They call me God but they don't exalt me".
If you read the word, the Bible says that God's people mostly backslide after a time of great blessing or great prosperity. That's been one of the greatest mysteries that I have seen as a pastor that I have witnessed time and time again. I've seen them go through their hard times and I wonder if there's anyone in here who have found God faithful during the hard times? He is so good to us. Then somehow after the provision comes, after that time of prosperity begins to come, somehow the thing that they now have begins to move their attention. After God has poured out the blessing and God is saying, "I've blessed you, I've delivered you, I've poured out my spirit on you. I have provided for you, I have comforted you, I have been there for you and now you have turned your back". I believe that one of the reasons that so many Christians go through hard times is because God is faithful. He knows that it will keep us close to Him.
I believe that the backsliding and the great falling away of God's people will be done by many people who think they are walking in the blessings of God and they are seeing the fulness of all that he has for them and they'll believe that they have been blessed but somehow in the midst of that blessing their heart begins to grow cold. I want you to notice here that backsliding is a direct result of sin.
There's a two-fold purpose I believe that God has for us this morning. One is that we would learn and the other is if you are away from God and you are recognizing in your heart that if you would come running back to Jesus with all your heart, soul, mind and strength then that is God's purpose today.
Jeremiah 5:6 says, "Because their transgressions are many, their backslidings have increased". Listen to me, sin changes the heart of a man towards God. I think often times we think of sin as the backsliding. People say, "He's doing this and he's doing that so he's backslidden". I want you to hear something today, sin is the action but backsliding is the condition of the heart. The issue isn't what we're doing, the issue is how we are with the Lord. Are you close to Him? Do you love Him today? Does he know that you're near to Him? The more that a believer indulges in the lusts of the world and in the pleasures of the world, the more corrupted we become inside. Our backsliding is a direct result of the things that we do because we are doing those things that move us closer to the world.
Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 John 2:15-17. Why am I saying this this morning? Because the world has grown so increasingly wicked and so many times the church is becoming more like the world. I want to tell you and I think I've said this time and again and I don't believe that I can say it enough. I believe that the closer we get to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, there will be a drastic difference between those who serve God and those who don't and it will be increasingly obvious in the world that we live in.
1 John 2:15-17, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world and the world is passing away and the lusts of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever". How many of you are thankful for the promises of the word of God?
I remember when I was younger I used to kind of perceive that when people were talking about backsliding there was really almost an anger behind it. What I find more and more as I grow closer to the Lord and I watch people who God loves move closer to the world, that there really is a sadness. Why? Because the world is passing away and everything in it. The Bible says that those who will love God and obey the Lord will abide forever. How many know God's plan is for you to thrive and abide and have everything that he has ever had for you and me. The trick of the enemy is to get us to love the things of the world, so much so that we become distracted.
Hear me now, our children are being brought up in a time when they didn't know the simplicity of the life that we lived. There is so much that is being aimed at the kids of today. People say the kids of today are really different. They are, they have been faced and targeted with more. Someone once said that this could be the last generation that will ever know the hope of God. I want you to know that this is one preacher that's not going to buy into that thing. As long as there is breath inside of me, as long as there is an anointing of the Holy Spirit to make sure that people can know Jesus, as long as there is just a little bit of energy so that people can know the love, the help and the hope of God and understand how much better the things of God are than the things of the world, I will do it until my dying breath and I believe that's the call of every Christian.
The enemy has such an attraction, something as simple as the television. The lusts of the flesh deals with the realm of pleasure, of entertainment, of amusement. This is where addictions come from and where we are drawn to the sexual and even to sports and the competitiveness and the things that drive us that can take us away from the Lord. Not that sports in itself is sin but so many people today are so caught up from one thing to the next. It used to be that the activities that the world did were not on Wednesday night or Sunday but they are now. More and more parents, I want you to hear me, I have no qualms saying this as I have children of my own, Sundays are God's day. My family will be in the house of God. If there are games that are going to be played on Sunday during church then they're going to miss them. Why? It's that important that they know the Lord. There are some things that they must know.
The lust of the eyes deals with a person's intense desire for what they see and what they can have and accumulate. The pride of life deals with selfish ambition and the desire for position, for prominence and power and for status. The Bible says that in the last days these are the things that the world would be throwing at people. How many of you as you read this now have a greater understanding of it today than you did before? These are the things that the world tries to draw us away with. The world has thousands of attractions to charm us away from the pure love relationship with God. I want to encourage you Christian, may we never ever ever be led away.
Backsliding is no light matter with God. I came in here this morning to encourage you but I also want you to hear, I have watched too many walk away into the world. I have watched too many Christians be attracted to the things that this world has to offer instead of what God has to offer and slowly you can see them. How many of you have ever had just one friend or one person that you know that has slowly walked away from the Lord? And it's heartbreaking, it really is. God says, "I love you and I want you and I have things for you that you will never know unless you stay with me".
You see, backsliding breaks the heart of God because he's jealous for us. It is the heartbreak of unfaithfulness in relationship that is the issue of backsliding. In James chapter 4:4-5 are some of the strongest words uttered, "Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God, or do you think the scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously for us". Those are strong words. When I used to read that word, adulterers and adulteresses, what I used to think was that somehow it was being screamed in accusation. But if you will read this, what you can hear is the heartbreak of God saying "You've loved me, you've served me, but now you're walking with the world". Some of you in this room know what it's like to have had a spouse be unfaithful. The truth is this, as a husband I am a jealous man. Now I trust my wife but how many of you understand that if your spouse was out and you thought they were somewhere and all of a sudden you're walking down the road and you see your spouse hand in hand with someone else. How many of you would not only have anger rise up inside of you but jealousy would rise up inside of you? And with good reason because I've given my whole heart and my life to that spouse. I've given them my everything, my trust, my dreams, all of me. How many know that Jesus has given his all for us?
For just a moment I know that this point is fairly sobering. The Bible says that God is jealous for us. How many of you remember those precious times in prayer where you have felt so close to God? I have felt so close to my wife on many occasions and the only thing that has ever come close to that in the form of relationship has been my time with the Lord. We're not talking about a sexual closeness, we're talking about that intimate closeness of friendship with the Lord. God says that we are married to Him. If you read in other places in Jeremiah, God says, "You are my bride, you are my wife, my spouse". Throughout the word of God he calls the church his bride and his friend.
My prayer is that we would see our relationship with the Lord like this, that backsliding really is an issue of intimate unfaithfulness to God. It is the same thing as if adultery was commited between a husband and a wife with somebody else. That is the same way that God sees us. Christian, I want you to hear me, some of us in this room have found the attraction of the world and what it has to offer and have begun to put our energies into that and you wonder for awhile, why am I unsettled inside? There is that excitement and attraction of what the world has to offer but there is that reality of the unfaithfulness in your heart and you can't figure out why this stirring and unsettledness is there. Listen, God is calling you back to Him.
Those who are backslidden will experience the unrest of God. God had called Jonah to do something and Jonah didn't obey. He ran to the world for comfort and hiding. How many know that pretty quickly Jonah's life got a little unsettled? As a matter of fact, not only was it unsettled for him, his unsettledness began to unsettle everybody else around him. It unsettled the ship that he was on, it unsettled his family and it unsettled everything that was around him. Listen to me, if you find yourself being backslidden, you will be battered by life so that God can get your attention. God will never idly sit by so that the devil can take you. That's a promise, that's his love for you.
Listen, God will come after you. I want you to hear, backsliding effects our families. While you're running from God and while you're playing with the world, your family will experience the turmoil of your ups and downs. I want to encourage you, don't unsettle your family. How many know adultery unsettles every family? Spiritual adultery is just as unsettling, if not more so.
Backsliding effects our witness for Christ. Our kids will follow our example. Mom and Dad, if you struggle and I don't care if your kids are grown up and are 40 or 50 years old, teenagers or little kids, the truth is our backsliding will effect our witness. Your co-workers who heard you testify for God, saw the Bible on your desk, and heard the worship songs on your tape player, will now see a change. They once saw someone who was zealous for God and a friend of the Lord but they can see a difference now. A backslidden Christian can rob others of their hope in Christ.
Church, I want you to hear me, we are called to be salt and light. How many know when a light goes out it is very dark. When salt loses its saltiness it's really not good for anything, not even for throwing on an icy street. Listen, the Bible says in the last days, before the coming of Christ, there will be a great falling away. Why am I speaking so strongly on this today? Because I want to tell you as your pastor that I love you and I know that God loves you. He doesn't want to see one lost and I don't want to see one lost. When I watch people in the church and I see they're going away, I call them, not to say "I see you weren't in church today, should have been there". The truth is I love you so much and I want to know how your life is going. How many know that each of us should be that kind of an anchor for each and everyone in the body of Christ, just to call and ask, "How are you doing? I love you".
Christian, you may look around and see people falling away and you may see the world getting increasingly wicked, I want to encourage you not to panic. You keep serving Jesus, you keep being a light, you keep being faithful. "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord even if no one else is going to serve God". As I've been reading through the book of Jeremiah I saw this one thing, Jeremiah stood up and cried out to God's people and he was only one man and everyone else didn't agree with what he was saying. But what God had said came to pass and when it did, people sought him out so that they could repent and come back to the Lord. Christian, I want to tell you, you stand.
The way to stop backsliding is to return to God. Jeremiah 3:22 says, "Return, you backsliding children and I will heal your backsliding. Indeed, we do come to you for you are the Lord our God". I want you to hear me right now, I have heard so many Christians say, "The reason why I left and didn't come back to God is because I was so afraid of what he would do to me". Can I tell you what God is going to do to you? He's going to welcome you back with open arms and he's going to heal you. Those who have gotten away from God have suffered so many things and I want to tell you that God is so good he will touch and heal.
My prayer is that as a church we will become so mortified by our sinful conditions and so longing to return to our first love and when we do God will forgive and heal. When you look around this country and you say, "I am so discouraged with what I see with the wickedness of the world, how do we change our nation?" How many know this preacher is not going to leave you without some hope? 2nd Chronicles 7:14 tells us exactly how we see our nation healed, it is the blueprint for what we need to be doing as believers and Christians, "If my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sins and will heal their land".
How many know there is hope for our land in Jesus name? There is hope for our nation in Jesus name. There is hope for Palm Beach County in Jesus name. Church, I want you to hear me, I know that we live in an interesting county. Palm Beach County has alot of crime. There's not a week that goes by that you don't hear of a shooting or a death, or a rape and people being robbed. There's probably not a time that we can look at where we live and see that wickedness increasing in our society but the Bible said, "If my people will do these things I will heal their land". Just as much as we will see a falling away of people from the Lord in the last days, I also believe that if God's people will obey his word we will see a great turning to Jesus, a great turning of hearts toward the Lord. We will see our communities changed, we will see hearts and lives changed.
We had a marvelous time of prayer Friday night. The power was out in the building, we couldn't even cook hotdogs for the kids. Even though the electricity was out, the power of God was in this place. I want you to hear me, we can see the wickedness of this world but if we will not become part of it but will serve the Lord, we will see glorious change. Christians have a choice. The Bible says that many will fall away because the love of many will grow cold. Some people will stop going to church because it seems like it doesn't make a difference anyway. But it does. I want to tell you, those that will pray and seek the face of God will see their land healed. My prayer for Harvest Community Church is this, that as Christians we will be prayers. You're his people. God says, "If my people called by my name, Christian". God is saying, "Those are my people. Let me show you what my people can do, just see the love of my people and see the goodness of their heart". The truth is this, what happens within family stays in family. Adultery is not the unforgiveable sin, neither is spiritual adultery. You can come back to Christ.
