up there in the cockpit, the pilot happens to be also an acrobatic stunt pilot.
He decides that even though this is a jetliner, he's going to go through some of his maneuvers.
Now never mind the fact that this is a 747, not a stunt plane, he begins to put this plane
through the acrobatic maneuvers that he's used to.
He ignores the reality of the plane that he's in.
What's going to happen?
The plane is going to come apart because you see a 747 is not constructed the same way
a stunt plane is.
That's the reality.
You begin turning a 747 upside down and doing loops, etc., etc.
It's going to come apart at the seams.
When we ignore reality, we invite destruction into our lives.
I fear that our nation is doing that right now.
In Washington, we have leaders who refuse to recognize and to deal with reality on lots
of different levels.
Talk about social security and the crisis that is involved, the real nature of Islam,
illegal immigration, cultural and moral decay, the failure of the government education system,
the ballooning cost of government.
When we ignore the reality of these things and pretend that they're not really happening,
the result will eventually be catastrophic to our nation because no nation can survive
when its leaders and those who elect them as well prefer to live in fantasy land over
reality.
The same is true in every human association.
It is true in a family.
A marriage cannot be survived unless it is built on the truth upon reality.
A business, a union, a club, a church, at the heart of survival is the ability to face the
truth and to manage reality to a preferred outcome.
If we simply ignore reality, then we will inherit destruction.
Seeing what is real is vital for the survival of Los Gatos Christian Church.
And so with absolute dependence upon the Lord, let me assure you, I undertake this brief
series of messages that might be called a state of the church kind of a series.
I referred last week and I refer us again this morning to the Lord Jesus Christ and
the dictation of seven letters in Revelation chapters two and three.
Letters written to seven literal local churches like ours in the first century.
In each of those situations, Jesus saw reality.
Often they did not.
And so He says to them ten times over the seven letters, I know, I know, I know the
truth and here's what it is.
The sad fact is that none of those churches survived, not one of them, survived their
culture and the changes that took place in history.
They did not take seriously the words of Jesus.
We can mistakenly assume that because our church is here today, it will always be here.
There's a basic fact to life and that is life has a cycle to it.
We are born as we've been well reminded this morning.
We live and then we die.
The Bible compares us in that regard to the grass, which in the morning is green and flourishing,
but by the end of the hot day is wilting.
Or we are like flowers that bloom and then fade.
How many of you have had at least one pet in your life?
Would you lift your hand?
Well, that's most of us.
Pets are wonderful companions.
But there's a season to pets and they die too.
You have a season to your life.
You may be in the spring of your life or you may be in the heat of summer or like some
of us you may be in the fall approaching the winter of your life.
Cultures.
Is somebody shivering out there from winter?
She's there.
Okay, I got it.
She's there.
Nations and cultures likewise have cycles to them and the very same thing is true of
a church.
No church, no church is guaranteed its future.
Well, Scatis Christian Church has been in this community since 1884.
Think of that.
Most of us were not alive then.
In 1884 there were 12 staunch churchmen, so the record says, who formed a congregation
to counteract the evil of the wet days.
They weren't talking about the rainy season.
They were talking about drink.
And so they founded a church in the middle, literally in the middle of seven saloons in
Las Gatos.
We've been in this community now for 122 years.
But what assurance do we have that we will be here 20 years from now?
Because we have been here 122 years doesn't guarantee that we will be here for 150 years.
A church, I think, needs to be re-envisioned about every 20 years.
Those who study the cycles of churches say that there are critical points in the cycle
of a church when it can be re-envisioned with the greatest prospect of result.
But there is a part of the cycle in which that re-envisioning needs to take place, and
if you get beyond that, it becomes increasingly more difficult for it to happen at all.
And if it doesn't happen, the church cycle will eventually take it out of existence.
The future of Las Gatos Christian Church, I believe, is clouded by the presence of cultural
toxins, I am calling them, in its people, in you and in me.
Before I could preach this message this morning, I was up early repenting before God, yet again
of the toxins in my own life.
And what I call all of us to is a repentance of the cultural toxins that are clouding our
future.
This is not unique to our church.
In fact, what I am preaching to our church could be preached in most of the churches
in America today, because most of the churches in America are either stagnant or declining.
The contemporary western church of Jesus Christ is polluted and defiled by a deadly
mixture of toxic values and ideas that have been embraced.
Local churches face the same threats to their existence in the first century.
This is not unique to us in our time.
For example, in Colossians 2 and 8, I remind you of this verse, C2, that no one takes you
captive, writes the apostle, takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, ideas,
views, which depend upon human tradition and the basic principles, the basic thinking,
the natural ideation of this world, rather than on Christ.
Whatever we may think of ourselves, we need to get a perspective of reality from Jesus.
He sees the wonderful strengths of this congregation.
He sees also our weaknesses and our opportunities.
He knows better than we do our threats.
I am especially focusing on the threats in this message.
I believe that we have adapted to the diseased values and ideas of our culture, and because
of that, the future of our church is in question.
God will not be mocked.
What we sow, we will also reap.
He tells us, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
minds.
You see, the battle is in the mind, the way we think, the way we think.
And he says that we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
And on the other hand, we must be careful not to allow the world to squeeze us into its
mold, as the Phillips translation puts it.
What are the toxic cultural toxins, rather, that are present in us?
Well, as I list them, I want to say, first of all, that I'm not saying that these toxins
are equally present in all of us.
That would not necessarily be true.
I'm not saying either that these are the only toxins that we need to be aware of.
But these are four that God has laid upon my heart for my sake and for your sake.
The first toxin is the poison of thinking about church like a consumer.
Thinking about church like a consumer, the phrase that really identifies this is, I
want my needs met.
Would you say that with me?
I want my needs met.
American capitalism has made us a nation enjoying the highest standard of living of any nation
in the history of the world.
We have so much in this land that we must make choices about things that many people
in the world don't even have.
We can go to a store and pick from hundreds of styles of shoes.
We can go to the grocery store and buy all kinds of bread, or on the other hand, all
kinds of candy bars.
We have selection.
We can go to the mall and see little booze representing a variety of cell phone companies.
We can choose the one we want.
Walk into Target or walk into Best Buy.
And there against the wall is this blanket of television sets.
You can choose whichever one you want in the size and its features.
Computers.
Think about the many choices of computers that you can make.
I usually make the wrong one.
And advertising redefines for me and for you as well, it redefines our wants and makes
them needs.
Do you know what I'm saying here?
I would like to have that.
Advertising says you really need it.
I want that over there.
Advertising says you deserve that.
And so we have created this consumer culture.
We bring that same mindset into the church.
We are church consumers.
We are going in churches for what pleases us.
And as we shop, we consider the style of worship or of preaching or of outreach or what Bible
version the church uses or how easy it is to park there or any number of variables.
But the basic question is this.
And we're looking at a church, what are you going to do to serve me?
It's sort of like buying a car.
What are the options that this church has to offer me and to my family?
And so we shop around until we find the best deal.
When the church had better meets at a convenient time or preferably times, it should have convenient
options for my family.
It should be available 24-7 to meet our needs.
And what is the result of this consumer mentality?
Well there are many.
One of them is that we no longer think of ourselves as stakeholders in a church.
We are the customers of the church.
And we insist on the church providing services that meet our needs.
Oh, no please, don't ask me to be involved.
But I want my needs met.
No, I don't have time to lead that.
I can't be a part of that solution because I'm too busy you see, but you the church need
to meet my needs.
Why you the church should be glad that I come at all.
After all, I could go somewhere else where they will meet my needs.
Either you fix this church or I'm out of here.
Oh, no, don't you ask me to help.
I've my money, are you joking?
I don't have enough money for myself to meet my needs.
Why should I give anything to the church?
Now I could go on and on with this, but I think you see the point.
This kind of self-absorption suffocates spiritual maturity in a believer.
And not only does it suffocate us personally in our maturity, it threatens the life of
a church community, which is by its very nature, biblically, others oriented.
Others oriented.
A church values everyone.
Not just a few serving the many.
I believe that one of the poisons that is at work in churches today, including our own,
is this subtle idea, I want my needs met.
And it's up to you, the church, to do it because I'm your customer.
The mindset of a consumer.
Secondly, I believe that a cultural toxin that is at work in the church of Jesus Christ
is the noxious waste of expecting to be entertained.
The great God, entertainment.
If there is any primary God in the pantheon of secular America, it is entertainment.
Entertainment is primarily responsible for the cultural decay in America.
Now I know that people in the business say, oh, we're just reflecting the culture.
The loaning, they are leading the culture.
I want to have fun.
Would you say that with me?
I want to have fun.
We in this culture are amusing ourselves to death.
We expect to have the good life, and we confuse that with a life that is well lived.
We play more than any culture in history because we have more leisure time.
There is this insatiable desire that we have to entertain ourselves.
The sales of computer games and toys, of handheld devices, options on cell phones, bigger and
better entertainment systems, Tivo iPods, going down the list.
One of the major reasons I've read in the newspaper for the recovery in the tech industry
is because of the creation of more ways for Americans and people in the world to have
fun.
The creation of entertainment.
We want new places to play and new ways to spend our money and our leisure time.
And I truly believe that at the core of this is the fact that we are desperately bored
with the emptiness of our hearts.
The expectation of entertainment is carried over into the church.
Ministry must be fun.
And don't just think that that's the students and the children of the church.
It is true there.
Our student pastors tell me that when there is an opportunity to go out into the community
and serve, we'll have maybe 15 or 20 kids show up.
Not when you have an extreme night or something that is a lot of fun, you will have 80 or
maybe 90 kids.
What are they doing?
They're reflecting the culture, the great desire for entertainment.
And we adults are not much better.
Worship had better be enjoyable.
Preaching needs to keep me awake with lots of stories and jokes.
Church needs to be fun.
Oh, come on, tickle my ears.
I want to have a party this Sunday morning.
If it's boring, I'm not going back.
It's lust for entertainment, the worship of the Oscar, the idol.
Now let me hasten to say, I don't think church ought to be boring.
And I think there's a wonderful place for fun in the church.
In fact, last night we had a ball here in the volunteer appreciation event.
It was so much fun.
We had a great evening together.
There is a place for having fun.
But when we set entertainment as a high value in what we want from church, we have begun
to worship a false God.
And it is a toxic poison.
It is a noxious waste from our culture that leaks into the work of Jesus Christ.
And we all need to be careful of it.
The more we are like Disneyland, the less we are like the kingdom of God.
There is a third toxic poison that I want to talk about that I believe is present in
the church.
And that is the contamination of seeing life in separate cubicles or separated cubicles.
Some people would call this compartmentalization.
I do what I want to do.
Would you say that with me?
I do what I want to do.
Our culture is sold out to the idea of relativism, that there are no absolutes.
So what is right for one person may not be what is right for another person.
And you must be very tolerant when there are these differences.
No one should make any judgments for who is anyone to force their values on another.
Good choices that people make, well, they are all equal.
They may be contradictory, but everything is right.
And that idea of relativism has crept into our lives personally.
In order to accommodate what pleases us, we divide our lives into compartments.
Instead of our lives being seen as a consistent whole, we see them in cubicles that are separated.
And in each of these cubicles, we have different values for how we act, how we live.
I have a cubicle over here for my job, and when I go to my job, I am this person.
And I talk this way.
And I value these things.
And then I come home, and my family is another cubicle in my life.
And there I have these values, and I talk this way, and I am interested in these things.
And then over here is another cubicle for the church.
And when I go to church, I get cleaned up, and I look decent, and I put a smile on my
face, and these are my values, and I put a mask on, and that is how I live there.
That's how we create these cubicles.
We compartmentalize.
And we view the church as just one more compartment in our lives.
A compartment like a hobby, or an activity that we're involved in.
You know, Tuesday night I go to piano lessons, Wednesday night I go to youth group, and Thursday
night I'm in some sports activity.
And I allow the person to live in each compartment without feeling guilty, even though there
may be competing or opposite values in these compartments.
And so when I get online in my space, or in some other part of the internet, I'm this
way.
And I present this persona.
And we don't think that that's inconsistent at all with what we're like around our family
in this compartment, or our church over here, or our friends over here in this compartment.
This is a worldly way of thinking.
It says, I go to church, and I have my God spaced in my life.
So it doesn't matter what I do over here in this space or in that space.
Somehow we think that we can isolate parts of our lives into rooms that are separated.
But the fact is that life doesn't work that way.
God has not created us that way.
Our total lives will sink to the lowest common denominator in whatever room is in worst shape.
The Bible says, love the Lord your God with all your heart.
God calls us to be people of integrity.
A word that means whole, an integer, the whole.
God calls us to be people who live life as a whole, holistically, not dividing our lives
up into compartments and being different things to different people.
Jesus called that hypocrisy and warned that the fires of hell await hypocrites.
God calls us to be consistently who we are in Jesus Christ.
And not to see the church as just a piece of my life.
I'll make a little time for God over here, a little time for this, a little time for
that.
I want to see all of my life as lived under God, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
There is a fourth toxin that I want to get to, and that is the deadly virus of loving
things more than God.
I love my stuff.
Would you say that with me?
I love my stuff.
God calls this affluenza, affluenza.
It is a virus that affects our souls because we have so much stuff and so many possessions.
The prosperity of our country woos us to ever increasing expectations.
The pressure then is to do whatever is necessary to increase our stuff because we love our
stuff and we want our standard of living to rise and we want to accumulate possessions
and have bigger homes and nicer cars and more toys.
And the result of this is that it produces complex lives and busy weekends and fewer
openings in our lives for spiritual connections that we truly need.
We are exhausted and that exhaustion precludes involvement in spiritual connections which
need to be at the core of who we are.
And so the love of things and the stress that that brings to our lives lobs us of the love
of God and His church.
And it displaces the spiritual commitments that we once made.
The love of things becomes our God and a form of idolatry.
Jesus said life does not consist in the abundance of the things that we possess.
He also said you cannot serve God and things and money at the same time.
I have quickly gone through these cultural toxins that work in us.
The question is can the church survive this lethal dump of toxins into its system?
There are other toxins that we can talk about but can the church survive this legal dump
of toxins?
And the answer to that is no.
There is no survival apart from repentance and a change of heart that reverses the toxins
that are at work.
The last word of Jesus Christ to His church was not go into all the world and preach the
gospel.
That is an important commission that Jesus gave us before He ascended back to heaven
but that is not the last word of Christ to the church.
The last word of Christ to the church comes at the end of that first century and it can
be encapsulated in one word, repent.
And that was 19 centuries ago.
Repent.
Change your mind or else I will come, He says, and remove your lampspans.
That is your witness will be gone from epists, from pergamum, from phyatira, from laodicea,
from Los Gatos.
To be free from toxins and to have a healthy heart means that you, number one, think of
the church as a place to serve others and to give of yourself rather than a service center
to get what you want.
And the amazing thing about this is when you focus on meeting the needs of others, what
happens?
That is right.
You get your own needs met.
And when we focus on ourselves, our own needs, they don't get met.
To have a healthy heart, to have a repented heart means to expect to experience God through
personal commitment and to be challenged to grow.
Whether you have fun in doing it is not paramount.
It means to experience God and to make commitments to God, to be challenged to grow.
And sometimes those challenges are not fun.
Number three, to have a healthy heart means to see your life as an integrated whole and
Christ as the Lord over it all.
And you choose no longer to live with this cubical concept, but you see your whole house,
your whole life filled, every room of it filled with Jesus Christ and his Lordship.
To have a healthy heart means to love God supremely and to use the things that he's
given you as a means to advance his kingdom, not to play with.
And you refuse to submit to the cultures allure to surround yourself with more things and
ever increasing ways to entertain yourself.
Is there hope for the church?
There is no hope apart from repentance.
But there is hope because God is here and he offers us that one way to escape but otherwise
is inevitable.
It's not a sure thing.
It depends in this case not upon God but upon us and our attitude whether we will repent
or whether we will allow our minds to be changed and renewed so that we are transformed.
What we need to do today is to let God do a toxic clean up in our hearts.
He's told us what is necessary to do that.
We have to look at reality.
We have to face what's really going on and repent of it.
And then, and then he will provide the clean up that is necessary.
He's already paid for that massive clean up that is acquired through the blood of his
son.
What I call you to do is to determine not just to survive but choose to thrive.
To live by guarding your heart against the poisons of our world and the culture in which
we live.
Would you play with me?