“Dabbling in the Lord” By Chris Ulrich February 17th,
2013 Deuteronomy
6:4-6 …thou shalt love the LORD thy
God with all thine heart… Question: Who here has heard the expression about
dabbling in witchcraft sometime in their life?
I’m not here to get into that this morning, or to talk about it at
length, but what I want to ask is, what is it about people that just want to
dabble in the Lord? You’ve heard about
people that dabble in witchcraft; they go to tarot card readers or fortune
tellers, and there are also people who—and I’m not here to be the judge, God is
ultimately the judge—but I do make observations, and also God deals with us in
our lives about what kind of example we have to be, what kind of anything that
we need to be… We get back to, do we love God with all of our heart, soul,
mind, and strength? I’m looking out at a
room full of people that do, so, it’s not a matter of what is everybody else
going to do? What is everybody else’s life going to be? One thing that this message is about is that
we have to be examples. We have to be
able to teach others; we need to be able to teach those that come after
us. I want to thank God that when I first
got saved, when I first got trained in God, heard Bible studies, I want to
thank God for our bishop, Pastor Paine.
I also want to say that I thank Brother Kenneth for his leadership. I’m looking forward to Andy and Parrish leading
us; I’m sure that it’s led of God—it’s not a knee-jerk reaction, like, “Oh, let
me see if a can come up ith something”—God doesn’t work like that. A lot of times when we hear something there’s
an emotional reaction, whether it’s anger or whether it’s ecstasy. A lot of times, because God speaks to us in a
small, still voice, it’s a matter of, “Let me think on this; let me understand
what it is that I have to do (or that we have to do).” But, getting back into the message, why
would people just want to dabble in the Lord?
“They don’t want to make the commitment.” “They don’t want to jump in all the way.” “They may have had an experience with a dire
need, or a desperate situation in their life, and they called on God at that
time, but then, after the situation has been resolved, or there has been a
sound answer, then they forget to give God the praise, or they forget to give
their life to Him.” “They were lovers of
pleasure, more than lovers of the Lord.”
“Some people treat God as if He was a hobby.” “They want God’s benefits, but they don’t want
the dedication.” “Maybe they were part
of a ministry and they were hurt, and they attach that to God.” “They just want to check this out, like it’s
the Lotto or something.” These are all valid points. I’m speaking more hypothetically, now, and I
don’t want to pint any fingers and say, this is your reason, but, generally,
these are people’s reasons: They don’t
want to jump in too deep, they don’t want to get too religious, they don’t want
to take this thing too seriously, they don’t want to overcommit and get burned
by some cult—these things are real, we’re going to have to acknowledge that. The Bible says that we’re not ignorant of
Satan’s devices (2 Corinthians 2:11). We
have to be able to identify these things in order to know where we’re at and
what is it that God wants us to do. They
don’t want to get bossed around. How
many of you have heard the expression, “I want to be used of God?” Have you eer heard, “That person used me,” or
“The Company used me,” or “The team used me, and then they cut me out.” God’s not here to use us to abuse us; God’s
going to use us, and God called us to be examples, but He’s also blessed us, so
that we’ve got something to show for it, that we’ve got something to look
forward to. I’m going to say something that I’ve told to a few people over the
course of time, because sometimes it may seem like, Christianity is about as
far from being selfish as anything imaginable.
But, I will say this, ultimately, because every man shall bear his own
burden (Galatians 6:5)—I know, in the same chapter it says, Bear ye one
another's burdens (Galatians 6:2)—I have to stand before God, and I have to be
ready myself. We can’t force what we
believe on other people. We can be
influential, we can be compelling, we can be convincing, but, it’s not a
question of, okay, Andy, you’ve got to this or else. I know we’ve heard this kind of thing all the
time. God isn’t asking us to be a bunch
of eccentrics, although the Bible does say in the book of Peter that we are a
peculiar people (1 Peter 2:9), but, in the same verse, says that we are a
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation. I’ll take those qualities every day of the
week. We learn those things over time;
it’s not like, instantly we’re going to be all that trusting. I know before I got into the Christian faith—and
I’ve told you these stories before—I didn’t know anything about Christian
music, or different Bible versions, or about what the Catholics believe or what
the Baptists believe… that just wasn’t part of my upbringing. It’s not any better or worse, it’s just the
way it was. One thing is for sure, when
God spoke to me, it was undeniable and unforgettable, and it was tangible. We serve an invisible God, and there is a
wave of atheists or non-believers out there…
There are a lot of people that, as soon as something goes wrong, “Oh, it’s
God’s fault.” I don’t ever believe in
blaming God, but it’s not like every day we say, “Oh, God this is such a great
life that you’ve given me.” When things
go right, they’re like, nothing; they don’t praise God. So I would say that it’s not like they have a
case to blame God when things go wrong if they’re blessing God when things go
right, but, if we’re blessing God when things go right, then we’re still going
to be seeking God when things don’t go the way we want. We’re going to be asking God question, but we’re
still going to be trusting God, not like, “Oh, I don’t believe in You, God, all
of the sudden,” or, “You’re a great God, doing all these evil things.” God’s not doing any evil! That is a fact. In Parrish’s message about prayer
last week, he mentioned about how some in the world think that it’s better to
give God something, even if it isn’t our best, than nothing at all. He went on to say that we can’t pray half-heartedly,
non-deliberately, and effortlessly, and then think that God is going to bless
us. He alluded to this verse:
Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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