Lately, I have been listening to and wrestling with a sermon series on LifeChurch.tv called “Practical Atheist”. In the sermon series, Craig Groeschel presents some really compelling thoughts concerning people who call themselves Christians and actually believe in God but fail to live lives that acknowledge that He exists. Groeschel describes the lukewarm Christian as one who wants to believe, but not be over-the-top with his faith.
These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. -Isaiah 29:13
In the second sermon of the series, Groeschel lists ten characteristics of a lukewarm Christian:
- Crave acceptance from people more than acceptance from God.
- Rarely share their faith in Christ.
- Do whatever it takes to alleviate their guilt.
- Think more about life on earth than eternity in heaven.
- Gauge their morality by comparing themselves with others.
- Want to be saved from the penalty of sin without changing their lives.
- Only turn to God when they’re in a bind.
- Give whenever it doesn’t hinder their standard of living.
- Not much different from the rest of the world.
- Want the benefits of what Christ did without conforming to who He is.
I think if you consider yourself a follower of Christ, it would do yourself some good to look long and hard at that list above and reflect. A few of the characteristics above really hit me, but one stood out amongst all the rest: Not much different from the rest of the world.
When I look at the world around me, I see much that does not reflect the life of Christ. Christ’s life was characterized by extraordinary love, extraordinary sacrifice, extraordinary compassion, extraordinary grace, extraordinary obedience, and much more that was not ordinary. However, when I take an honest look at my own life, I’m not sure I see much different from the rest of the world around me…much out of the ordinary. How about you…your life? Is it ordinary? Does it look much like the life of those around you?
Jeff,
Good post. I found your blog through the Lifechurch.tv tag. I “attend” Lifechurch.tv via the internet campus. We live in a small town in Eastern Arizona.
I too found the Practical Atheist series to be very challenging. Actually, I think it got the attention of all of us in our family – my wife and my 2 kids.
Good post, I’ll have to check in on you from time to time.
Jim
By: desertjim on December 29, 2008
at 5:41 pm
Jeff – I saw a couple from this series too-good stuff. I remember the first time I learned about what it means to be a luke-warm Christian. I thought I’d never be that. But sometimes that’s exactly how I’m acting. Drives me crazy and I ask God to shake me back up again.
I want to live my life for Christ so that when I die there’s nothing left in me.
By: marybethstockdale on January 6, 2009
at 6:49 pm
Your mom told me about your blog. You are posting some good things here. Thanks for the insight. I plan to check this series out.
Take good care…
By: StacySanford on January 11, 2009
at 9:22 pm