Warning Signs

Introduction

Can you remember back this far? Can you remember having to take that little booklet that was issued by the state and having to study for the driver’s license exam? Yeah, we probably all remember that. A little bit harder, maybe for some of us to remember than others. Those of us are a little bit older, maybe, it’s a little harder for us to remember that. Not to pick on anybody, but some of us maybe have harder times to remember some of those things that we studied back then than others. Not to pick on Brother Stou, but when he took his driver’s exam, he had to parallel park a chariot. So it’s a little harder for others than others. And so what I thought we would do this morning is have just a little bit of a refresher course, because it’s always kind of amazed me and frankly disturbed me that you study for that exam when you’re 15 or 16 years of age, and you get issued that license, and although you have to renew it with certain frequency, you don’t have to retest.

You could be a hundred and fifteen, and you didn’t have to take that test again. It’s all just based upon how good your memory is. And so let’s do a little bit of refresher course of that driver’s exam for us this morning. And the first has to do with driving on I 4s. It’s your patience. And so we’re going to test our patience. There we go. There we go. There’s the first sign. We’re talking about signs this morning. Warning signs. And so you don’t. Do you know what that sign indicated? That means, yeah, that there’s a worker, there’s a flagman up ahead. So slow down and be cautious. What about that one? Yeah, pedestrian crossing up ahead. Again, slow down, be alert. There’s somebody possibly crossing the street, and you need to be really safe and really careful up ahead.

There’s another one. You know that one, of course. Railroad crossing. Stop. Stop at the railroad crossing. We always hear the sad news of people who end up being killed every year because they did not stop at those railroad crossings. Here’s one that I almost guarantee you’ll know what it means. But unless you, like Walcott and I have been to Sri Lanka, you probably haven’t seen this sign, but this is a sign that I saw in Sri Lanka. Elephant crossing.

But there was the sign warning you that elephants were going to cross. And so it’s important that we see these warning signs on the highway. Here’s my favorite one. You know what that one means.

Warning signs are important, aren’t they? And one of the reasons you have to be tested on these, and one of the reasons I would argue we need to be retested from time to time with our driving skills, is the importance of these warning signs that are out there. You need to know that there’s a railroad crossing ahead. You need to know that there’s a pedestrian, there’s a work zone coming. Warning signs are so important. Warning signs are important in other aspects of our lives. As an aging adult male, warning signs about my health are important. And there’s warning signs that I should not ignore about my health. Certain symptoms that are there that are not just annoying, they are probably warning signs of far more important and dangerous underlying health issues that are there.

But as you can probably guess this morning, we’re not here talking about aging health issues. We’re not here talking about driving and warning traffic signs. But are there warning signs about our spiritual life? And what are some of them? Not only are there spiritual warning signs that point out potential dangers, but there are signs that can often either be absolutely ignored, as we so sadly often ignore other warning signs in our life, or if we don’t just absolutely ignore these spiritual warning signs, we may misapply the warning, and that is we may try to treat the symptom rather than again the underlying, far more dangerous disease that they are warning of. And so this morning I’d like for us to just talk about some warning signs that indicate that there may be some spiritual dangers in our lives.

1. Worship Services Kind of Bore You

And so let’s just talk about those fairly quickly this morning. One warning sign is that worship services kind of bore you. That they’re just not that important to you. That maybe you’ll come, but you’re just like, I can’t wait for this to be over. Or maybe you look for those excuses to not even be here and to be present. Let’s look at some contrasting passages about that. Do you have your Bible in your hand? I hope so. If not, there’s one in the pew in front of you. Go to the Psalms. Let’s go to Psalm, Psalm 122. And let’s talk about some of these warning signs. And let’s look at some contrast here. Psalm 122. This is a passage that you’re familiar with. You’ll know it probably when we read it.

Psalm 122 verse 1. This is a psalm of David. You may know, you may have that heading as I do in my Bible. It’s called a song of ascent, ascent, going up. And some scholars think that this psalm of ascent would have been a psalm that they would have recited, or more likely sung as they ascended to Jerusalem, the place of worship. And so this would have been a traveling song as they were going up to worship God. And notice the opening line of this Psalm. I was glad when they said to me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. There was the attitude of the psalmist and of the worshipers as they were making their way to Jerusalem and they would sing, I was glad when they said, Let us go to the house of the Lord.

The house of the Lord in that day, of course, would have been the temple. That would have been the place where they went to render their worship to God. And they said, I was glad. Is that my attitude? Or do the worship services kind of just bore me? I’m just something I need to check off the list, something that I need to do. And this is a real kind of gut check moment that I look at these things and it’s all just something I feel like I have to do. It’s just one of those tasks, one of those chores that I get through the week. Or maybe, and this is again it’s a real gut check, spiritual gut check moment, it really just depends on the Sunday.

Depends on maybe my attitude the rest of the week and what I’ve got to do next week, or maybe it depends on this, just how good of a service it was. Did we have a good song leader or a bad song leader? Did he pick out good songs or songs that I don’t really like? And did he pitch them right and have the right tempo? Or did he kind of mess up and did the preacher and the guy giving the Lord’s Supper talk? Did they do a good job or not? And if they did a good job, then it was good, and I enjoyed it. But if they didn’t bring their A game, then nah, it just kind of bored me. Have we missed the point of what worship is?

I was glad when they said. But notice this contrasting attitude. Look in the last book of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi. One thing we note about the book of Malachi, the last book, the last prophecy. This was a book that was written, of course, after the return from captivity. The prophets before the captivity were largely dominated by condemning the sin of idolatry. That’s what would lead to the captivity. Malachi and the prophets that were written after captivity don’t deal with idolatry. It seems that Israel had learned its lesson. From that point forward, never again would they be engaged in rampant idolatry. They learned the lesson of captivity. That’s the good news. The bad news is, though they would not practice, generally speaking, idolatrous practices of the nations around them, they would go to the temple, the right temple, worship the right God, but they were just kind of going through the motion.

And notice the language of Malachi. Notice in Malachi chapter 1, and in verses 12 and 13. And talking about their worship, God says through the prophet Malachi, Malachi 1, verse 12, but you profane it, that is God’s name. You profane it in that you say, the table of the Lord is defiled, and its fruit, its food is contemptible. You also say, Oh, what a weariness, and you sneer at it, says the Lord of hosts. And you bring the stolen, the lame and the sick. Thus you bring an offering. Should I accept this from your hand, says the Lord? Oh, what a weariness. Now they weren’t going to the idol’s temple, bowing down to Baal or offering up their children to Molech. They were going to the right temple, serving the right God.

2. Lack of Participation in the Work of the Church

But God says that’s still not acceptable because you’re just saying, oh, do we have to go to the temple again? The contrast between David and those worshippers who were making their way to the temple who said, I was glad when they said. Oh, what a weariness. Is God going to condemn us because we were bored of worship service? Is God going to condemn us because we missed a worship service? Or is God going to condemn us because that was a warning sign of a greater underlying spiritual condition that really spoke to the fact of my understanding, my appreciation, and my love or lack of love for the God that I was supposed to be worshiping. Closely connected to that. Another warning sign is my lack of participation in the work of the church.

My lack of involvement. Now, let me clarify this point. This point demands, in my opinion, demands an asterisk.

We have different talents that we can bring. But the New Testament is also clear on this point. Whether you are a five talent person or a one talent person, you are to use whatever talents, whatever abilities, skills, monies, whatever it is, to the glory of God. The attitude that church is just some participation sport that I go and I set in the pew and I watch it going on. And then I leave and it doesn’t interfere with the rest of my life until next Sunday. It’s not a biblical concept. Little or no participation in the work of the local church indicates a very dangerous warning sign. It indicates, if nothing else, it indicates this that I do not fully either fully understand or fully appreciate what the church is.

That it is, as Ephesians chapter one would point out, that it’s the body of Christ. A body that functions only as the members of that body function. That it is a body, as Ephesians chapter 4 that is a church, or a body that Ephesians 4 points out, that is engaged in a spiritual enterprise. And is to be engaged in by those individual members.

3. Little Interest in Saving Souls

Soul. Or maybe little interest in saving souls. Again, and for every one of these, the question that should resound with every point that we’re going to talk about this morning is why is it? If I have little or no interest in saving others, why? Is it because I don’t care about others? Is it because I do not believe that there will be a judgment? That there will not be an eternal destiny for their soul. That I do not believe that even that my eternal destiny depends upon my activity in this arena. Notice what the apostle Paul said in this regard. In 1 Corinthians chapter 9. And this should be our attitude. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. And in verse 19. 1 Corinthians 9, 19, the apostle says this for though I’m free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I may win the more.

Let’s just pause right there. I’m free from all men. I don’t have to.

Nobody’s making me do anything. I’m free from all men, though I have been made myself a servant to all. I’ve voluntarily signed up for this that I might win the more. Keep reading. Verse 20. To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews, to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law, those who are without the law, as without law, not being without law toward God, but under law, toward Christ, that I might win those who are without law. To the weak, I became as weak that I might win the weak. I become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now I do this.

Remember, he started this by saying, I’m free from all men. In other words, I don’t have to do this. Now I do this for the gospel’s sake, that I may be the partaker of it with you. Would to God that that was the attitude of every one of God’s children. I’ll do whatever it takes to win a soul. To the weak, I’ll become the weak, to the strong, I’ll become strong, to the Jew, to the Gentile. Now, Paul will make the point in that parenthetical explanation that that doesn’t mean that he compromises his faith in any way, but that he will do whatever is humanly possible and divinely allowed to win a soul to Christ. And a lack of interest in this area should be troubling.

Because it’s a sign. A sign of danger.

4. Just Negative Toward Others

Is that when I’m just negative toward others? When that seems to be my default attitude toward my brothers and sisters in Christ. Notice Paul’s admonition in the book of Galatians, chapter 5. Do you ever wonder again? The question was why? Do you ever wonder why the New Testament emphasizes to born again Christians? Over and over again it emphasizes that we should have, for lack of a better way of putting it, that we should have a positive attitude toward one another. There’s got to be a reason. Well, most obvious reason is because we need that. That’s helpful. But also there’s probably a more cynical reason, and that is because God knew our proclivity. That our inclination would be that we’re probably going to be around each other enough and get to know each other enough and rub each other the wrong way enough that the negative attitudes might be our default.

And so let’s emphasize what we need to work on. And so in places like Galatians chapter 5, he’s going to say things like this. Start in verse 13. For you, brethren have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. But through love, serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But, but if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another. Isn’t that a powerful admonition? If you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another. You know, there’s an old saying, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. And that saying makes better sense to me if you rearrange the phrases in it.

You can’t eat your cake and have it too. In other words, if you eat that piece of cake, it’s gone. And so the idea here is if you bite one another, you’re going to devour, you’re going to consume. If we bite one another like a piece of cake, it’s going to end up just going away. If we bite, that’s the that’s the idea of biting and hateful words and negative attitudes that we’re just going to consume. We’re going to devour, and it’s just going to cease to exist. We know of families, don’t we? That have just ceased to exist. Because they just devoured one another. And sadly, we may know of churches that just devoured one another. They just hateful themselves to death. Look at this warning in the book of Hebrews.

Interestingly enough, a letter, Hebrews, I’m going to Hebrews chapter 12. A letter that was written encouraging brethren not to fall away. And in this letter, encouraging them not to fall away. Notice this warning sign. Hebrews 12, let’s start in verse 14. Hebrews 12, verse 14, pursue peace. Let’s just pause two words in. Pursue peace. Pursue implies that this is something you’re going to have to chase. It’s not just going to fall in your lap. Pursue peace. With all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Look at verse 15. Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. A root of bitterness springing up by which many become defiled.

Let me tell you about a fella that I grew up going to church with. Or you start to dislike this fellow. This has nothing to do with his spiritual condition. But this fellow loved to trade cars. And it was any given Sunday, he was liable to drive up in a new vehicle. He just always, and I always found that fascinating because my dad would buy, we never, my dad never drove a new vehicle in his life. He always bought cars that had been auctioned by TVA. We always drove junkers and we drove them till the wheels fall off. But not this brother. He always had a new car and always trading. And it was always funny. You could read him like a book. He’d get a new car and he couldn’t be quiet about it.

He was talking about how good that car was, and oh, it’s got this new feature and it’s got that, and it’s got this, and it’s got that. It’s the best car they ever made in Detroit. It’s just wonderful. It’s wonderful. Everybody needs one of these cars. And about felt like three, four, maybe six months later, he’d come in and he said, You know that car is a piece of junk. It’s got this little rattle to it. Gas mileage is terrible. It’s making a little smoke when it comes out. And you knew what he was doing. He was rationalizing the next trade, wasn’t he? He was running down that car to rationalize, probably just in his own mind, to justify the money he was going to lose when he traded it in and got that new car.

5. Worldly Things Attract Us More Than Spiritual Things

And so he’d start running down that old car. And I guess that’s okay. It was his money. If he wanted to spend it on cars, that’s fine. But we can do that spiritually. When we start knocking the worship services, when we start just being negative and bitter, you know what we’re doing? We’re trying to rationalize in our own mind, walking away and leaving. And that’s a warning sign. And so when those negative thoughts and bitter words come to mind, we need to be careful. Another warning sign is when worldly things attract us more than spiritual things.

I’m not saying there’s more worldliness now than there’s ever been in the history of the world. That would be an inaccurate statement. But it is more readily available to our eyes, probably than it ever has been in the history of the world. And when we’re drawn to those worldly things more than to spiritual things. When a choice has to be made, and let’s be honest, that’s what temptation is all about. Look with me quickly in the book of James. I started to say this may be an oversimplification, and I don’t want to say that. It’s a simplification, not an oversimplification. But notice what James says about temptation. He’s going to tell us that no one is tempted by God, but he’s going to tell us what temptation really is.

James 1, verse 12. Blessed is the man, blessed is the man who, when he endures temptation, for when he is approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those that love him. Let’s analyze that verse very quickly. In the middle of that verse, not literally, but in thought, is the crown of life. That’s the goal of that verse, isn’t it? The crown of life. But James says that crown of life is going to be given to two different groups of people. The crown of life has been promised to this group. The group is those who love the Lord. God promised, if you love the Lord, I’ll give you the crown of life. But then he starts out by saying, But I’ll give the crown of life to those who endure temptation.

The question is, is James saying that the crown of life is going to be given to two distinct groups of people. Those who endure temptation will get the crown of life, and separately, those who love the Lord will get the crown of life. Or is James saying, those are the same people. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for he’ll receive the crown of life that’s been promised to those that love the Lord. Enduring temptation demands that we love the Lord. Because the simplification is enduring temptation is really just a choice. Which do I love most? What the Hebrew writer would call the passing pleasure of sin? Or do I love God? That’s simplified. But that’s what temptation comes down to, that choice. And the crown of life has been promised to those who will endure temptation.

6. The Fire Is Gone

Because we love God more than we love that thing. That sin that we’ve been tempted to endure. Lastly, and very quickly, another warning sign is that the fire is gone. The zeal that I once had is not there anymore. You remember in the letters to the seven churches of Asia in the book of Revelation, in Revelation chapter 2, and in verse 4 to the church of Ephesus. As he would often do in these letters, Jesus says, Here’s what you’ve got right at Ephesus. But then he says this, Revelation 2, verse 4. Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you’ve left your first love. Now, scholars have debated what that means. You’ve left your first love. It seems to me that we’ve got two options. That they had left the one that they first loved, that they had left the Lord.

That doesn’t seem like the best option because it seems like the condemnation, the language is going to be stronger. If they had just completely left God, the one whom they loved first, then it seems like the language needs to be a little bit stronger. I know that’s not the best theological reasoning in the world, but it just doesn’t seem like that’s maybe what is being said there. Here’s to me the more reasonable explanation of what it means that they had left their first love, that they had left their first type of love.

Brother Harry Pickup Jr. used to tell from the pulpit about his wife Joel. He used to always talk about his lovely wife Joella. That’s the way he would say it. And he was joking, I know. And so let me clarify that. But he would say that when they were dating, that Joel’s hand never touched a door handle, because he would rush ahead and open every door for her. And that her shoes never got wet or muddy, because if there was a mud puddle, he would either pick her up and carry her across that mud puddle, or he would take his jacket off and throw it on the ground, and she could walk across his jacket and not get dirty. And then, but Brother Pickup would say, But we’ve been married 50 years now.

And he said she could walk through a six-strand barbed wire fence, and I wouldn’t raise a finger to help her. Now again, he was joking. But that’s kind of the point that I think the Hebrew the revelation writer is making. That first love attitude is gone. That love that you showed at first, that zeal, that interest, that being on fire for the Lord, is just not there anymore. You haven’t completely left the Lord. But you kind of have.

Conclusion

Be looking for those signs in your own life so that you might grow and renew your faith and strengthen your faith every day. It might be that you’ve never started this journey of faith, and you can start it today. And you can begin this walk and this journey, and you can help all of us who are on this same journey to look out for the dangers in this life and to help one another to live and to grow and to make it through this difficult journey that can be made successfully if we’ll see the warning signs and if we’ll love God more than we love life itself. Can we help you this morning as you render obedience to the gospel as we stand and sing?

We received prayer to bring bread, let us listen to our love.

Coming from the while we bring, let us sing our call while we tell you there is work to do, and thy string come from as we lay burn and wait, we must all be true, let us listen to the call Science Ring coming from love.

While we tarry below, there is work to do. That is a perfect song to the perfect lesson this morning. Brethren, we were admonished this morning.

One of the things that Ken talked about this morning, participate participation in the work. And a lot of that is going to be in the announcements that I have this morning. So as you were admonished, please keep in mind these things. For there is work to do in the vineyard. But as Ken mentioned, are we doing enough that we have to examine ourselves and come up with that answer? So let’s do that. Before I get to some of the announcements, uh, I do want to address the sick of the congregation and the prayers that are needed.

So please uh keep uh Melvin Curry and Jan and her family in your prayers. Jeff Manigult let me know yesterday that he is suffering from COVID. His symptoms are not serious, he said, but uh he wanted us to keep him in our prayers. Uh Joyce Morris uh still waiting on her biopsy result, and those of you that have had to do that recently or ever, it is a very tough moment to wait and hear what results are from a test. So please be thinking of Joyce, and uh we are praying for a good result, Joyce, and things will go well. Um adults, please sign up today for your class, which begins next week, and with that, the shepherds would like to meet with all the young adults in the library after we close this morning.

So the library is right there. Uh so meet with the shepherds, uh, young adults. And before you leave this morning, go to one of the classrooms in the hallway, please, and look and see what’s been done in there with the new bulletin boards. A big thank you for all those that came here yesterday participation, took part in helping. Uh I believe we had 18 to 19 that came yesterday and did a great job. Uh yes, go to the hallway and look at the handiwork of those that help install those new bulletin boards in the classrooms. Thank you. Parents, please read the bulletin about the teen weekend. It’s coming up next weekend. Your response is needed. ASAP. Uh Marion says, Desserts are needed for this weekend, this coming weekend.

Please see her or Deedra about that. Um, we need volunteers for Saturday to help the young people as they have their meals on the Saturday event with Brother Banning. So if you can help in that area, please volunteer. See Marion about that. You know, the teens have challenges. And this is a wonderful opportunity for us to show our support to them. Pray for this coming weekend that this can be a big boost to them. Help them in their spiritual journey.

So please pick one up so you’ll know what your uh you’ll be doing in worship in the month of May. A correction in the bulletin. In the back of the bulletin, there’s a list of events coming up on May 11th.

It’s going to be an outing that uh Sister Carrie and uh several other ladies of the congregation are putting together. An email has been sent out to the families uh of the teens. Please look at that email. Carrie needs a yes or no if you’re going to be able to make the event. It’s very important. So answer the email, either yay or nay, please, so Carrie can make arrangements uh for May 11th, May 11th. Uh group 2. There’s going to be a singing for Betty Karkaski. May 5th, next Sunday, and then May 19th. Those of you in group two, we’re breaking up our group into smaller groups of eight to ten. We need you to sign up on the days you you can make it. May 5th and the 12th.

The list is in the hallway to the right. Please, okay, put your name on the day that you think you’ll be able to make it, and we can encourage Betty, who’s going to be leaving us very soon. So this is our way of group two, uh saying goodbye to her and uh uh encouraging each other uh in song. Um, I believe that’s it. Uh group four is going to meet uh in the annex. We’re going to uh let you as we are led in the final song by Jared, as you as we sing that song, group four can be dismissed to that meeting over in the annex. So Jared’s going to lead us in the final song, and then Jeremiah Folkes is going to dismiss us in prayer.

Thank you for uh being with us, especially those of you that have been visiting with us today. We hope you’ve been encouraged, and uh, we’ve certainly been admonished. And Ken, thank you so much for the lesson today, and thank you for all the worship leaders. All right, let’s stand, and Jared will have our final song.

Oh, we will do in one day to all in my name on the Lord.

Let’s pray. Dear God, we thank you for this day that you’ve given us today, allowing us to come together to worship you and learn more about you. We also thank you very much for allowing us to live in a place which we can come together and worship you like this freely without uh risk of persecution. Dear Lord, we pray that you would be with those who couldn’t make it out tonight or this morning, and be with them and make them well again so that they can be with us at the next appointed time. Dear Lord, we pray that you would be with us as we go through our week until we come back again to worship you. And we pray that you would forgive all of us of our sins, and in Christ’s name we pray.

Amen.