Sitting on a Church Pew

Jesus talked about those of us that have heard the Gospel message. The seed that fell among the thorns represents people who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced.  And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” Mark 4:18-20 (NLT) Our master wants his followers to multiply during their life. Jesus used parables to explain that He wanted us to really “hear” what he was teaching. I use parables to teach people so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled: ‘When they look, they won’t really see. When they hear, they won’t understand.’ This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is God’s word. The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts. Luke 8:10-12 (NLT) No one can really understand what Jesus is about until they get up from the church pew and join the fight.

Many people have been sitting in a pew for years. During that time they have never led one soul to the Lord. During the week these people are accepted as equal colleagues by the worldly people at their job. Jesus must have told the truth when He said, The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. John 15:19 (NLT). Christians cannot belong to the world. Some of these people on the pew say that they just don’t have the courage to be different from the people they work around. This is the reason every Christian “must” have the Spirit living inside of them. When a genuine Christian is fully recognized by the worldly people it makes possible effective conversations about giving their lives to God. The Bible says; You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) Romans 8:9 The Spirit of Jesus is the one who enables us to be sincere Christians. The church in America has become big business but it has no spiritual power. See 2 Tim 3:1-5

These are the last days of our life if we actually belong to Jesus. The Lord will soon come to remove His faithful followers from the earth. But there may still be time to change a life that has been sitting on the church pew, so to speak. Lukewarm church members still have a short time to change into an obedient follower. If the Lord did give us one more year of life would we fight for Him? Paul spent his last year fighting; The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight, 2 Tim 4:6-7 (NLT). It takes dedication to become an active part of God’s family. The biggest change we must make is our attitude. We must desire to be like Jesus and live a godly life. The Spirit is ready to help anyone succeed as a Christian if they decide to serve God with all their heart. Jesus is asking us to keep oil in our lamps in order to be ready when the door to heaven opens. First thing we must do is declare to everyone that we intend to live as a servant of Jesus. There are no secret servants for God.

There is a mistaken idea that people will be saved by watching us live a clean life. Not so, they must hear the salvation message. Scripture says; And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? Romans 10:14 (NLT) When the Bible says people must “hear,” it does not mean listening from the pew of a church. Actually in the Greek it means to receive and to follow. Strong’s #191 is to receive a doctrine with faith by believing the spirit of the message. Strong’s #190 is to follow a teacher with the intention of practicing what they teach. In other words people must consider whether or not they are willing to give their life for the Gospel. Jesus said; To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. Matt 13:11-12 (NLT) We can see in these verses that the words to hear or listen can be better understood by using the word “follow”. The Bible uses words such as, hear, listen or follow as metaphors of our salvation.

It is possible that church people do not understand reconciliation. This is the way it works. All of us are on the road to hell because we are naturally sinful. The Bible says; For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Romans 3:23 (NLT) The Gospel is the information a person needs to find their way back to God. The problem is that most of the people in this world do not want to accept God’s ways as their ways. In spite of the world’s collective resistance to Jesus, every human needs to reconcile with God. It takes two parties and God the Father did his part when He gave Jesus to die for our sins. Paul said; God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. Col 1:20-21 (NLT). Now it is time for us to do our part in this reconciliation. We must ask God to help us make good again the broken relationship that is caused by our sinful ways. The pew warmer has not worked at restoring their relationship with God although they usually have deceived themselves into believing they have. Actually we cannot reconcile with God at all unless we have a reconciler named Jesus. In our case it actually takes three parties to reconcile.

The pew warmer must understand that their part in reconciliation is submission. There are church people who say that they have yielded to God. This is not good enough because typically a person only yields parts of themselves. In addition, they decide what things they will give-up. God expects us to give-up everything in our life. This can only be done by submission or surrender. To submit is to cease all opposition. God is the ultimate authority in all of creation and it makes sense that we submit to Him. Our submission involves many acts of obedience which allows God to bring His righteous creation into our life. We must tell others about the Gospel because the product God expects is always formed through interaction with another. After deciding to serve God we must form a mindset of submission or we will simply do whatever comes into our mind. Our will to serve God must forever be dominated by the Spiritual decision we have made in our mind. A pew warmer is always thinking about his own interest, unless he has fallen asleep during the sermon. His mind and his will are not set on God. This is why Paul told us to “renew our mind”.

Most church people have not submitted to Jesus our Savior. Jesus said that only a few people will enter the narrow doorway; You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way.14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. Matt 7:13-14 (NLT) The church pews are full of people who say that they have chosen the narrow gate. Unfortunately, it is not up to us to arbitrarily choose what we want for our eternity. Jesus told us that he knew his sheep who were submissive to Him and that only his sheep would enter. This is why the gate is narrow and difficult. The Scriptures tell us; So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. … So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? Heb 2:1-3 Folks it is time to get off the pew and study the Word of God. Ignoring God’s instructions always has eternal consequences. Real “hearing” is always proven by our life in front of other people.