If you missed part one of this, go HERE.
If you haven’t surmised by now—this isn’t really about arrival time of the chicken embryo verses the non flying KFC representative. It’s about wasting time with minutia when a lost and hurting world is dying and going to hell.
Really, pastor Rob?
I know. I know. I skipped a lot of foundational stuff before just blurting this out, but the truth is, I didn’t want anymore emails or Facebook comments festooning about the scientific evidence for one or the other when talking about that is just the sort of trivia and time wasting stuff this series is really about.
So, sorry if I took the fun out of it, but I need your full attention.
Soooooooo
Back to the series.
What got me thinking about this in the first place was listening to a small group of believers dissecting a sermon they had recently heard from a well known and gifted preacher. I perked up when I heard his name because I really get a lot out of his messages. So imagine my disillusionment upon discovering that they had completely missed the message because they were focusing on what they thought was a blatant biblical blunder.
The premise of the message was that we wander from God, commit sin, live for selfish reasons, and even ruin our lives as a result of following the wrong dreams or promises, not by simply stumbling into blatant sin all at once.
Put another way, no one becomes a heroine addict by shooting up a near lethal dose of the stuff offered to them at church by one of the ushers. No, they start down the path by hanging around with the wrong crowd. Then they find themselves going to the wrong places. Perhaps after that they try some of the harmful things that they swore they never would. Soon they ‘up the dose’ because its lost it’s thrill, and on and on it goes.
It’s a slippery slope.
You can see the progression time and time again in scripture. Psalm chapter one lays it out about as simply as I’ve ever seen it put,
“Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord…”
Psalm 1:1-2
See the progression?
- First you just sort of find yourself traveling some of the same roads or going to some of the same places as bad company
- Next, you’re ‘hanging out’ with them.
- And before you know it, you’re one of the gang!
Walk, Stand, Sit
It never works the other way around. In other words, you aren’t spending morning noon and night with people you’ve never even hung out with before. And you certainly won’t find yourself this familiar with people you only just met. It’s a progression. It takes time.
Like I said, it’s a slippery slope. And by the time most people are on it, it’s gotten so steep and so slippery that they can’t even remember what it was like to find traction in their walk with the Lord. Seems all they do now is slip and slide further and further away.
And don’t be naïve enough to think this actually applies only to those harmful and sinful things that are blatantly obvious.
It applies to everything!
- A destructive way of thinking
- A harmful way of talking
- Destructive emotional habits
- Destructive physical habits
- Destructive spiritual habits
Believe it or not, the destructive spiritual habits are without a doubt the most dangerous of them all.
Example: In the New Testament Jesus found Himself more at odds with the religious elite than anyone else. I’m talking about the Pharisees, the scribes, priests, Sadducees and zealots—the very ones who should have rolled out the welcome wagon for Him behaved more like the Gestapo then God’s loving caretakers. The very ones who should have not only recognized the Messiah but also received Him with enthusiasm, were the very ones who missed the forest for the trees.
How in the world is this even possible?!
Simple—they wasted time debating what comes first, or what’s more important—the chicken or the egg—the Messiah or the law…
- Obedience or sacrifice
- Sovereignty or free will
- Social justice or God’s Word
- Serving others or sharing the gospel
- Punishing evil or showing God’s grace
Anything stand out about the above list?
Sure it does…all the things listed are important. But it’s not a list of ‘either/or’s.’ It’s a list of ‘both/ands.’ And if we spend all our time debating in an ‘either/or’ fashion then we will never get to the heart of the matter…
Just like the Pharisees.
They spent all their time debating minutia about the coming messiah, what they thought He would look like, act like, perform like, etc. They were so embroiled in minutia that when the Son of God (i.e. “The Messiah”) stood in their midst day after day after day…
They missed Him.
Can you think of a worse tragedy?
Stay tuned for part three of this series…