COMPLACENCY IS OUR ENEMY!

I'll be speaking about complacency this Sunday, so when I read the following words from Max Lucado's first book - ON THE ANVIL - they registered with me:

We're complacent to God.  Churchgoers pack the pews and sing to the back of someone's head.  Fellowship is lost in formality.  One, two, three times a week people pay their dues by walking in the door, enduring a ritual, and walking out [this book was published in 1985, who goes to church three times a week today?].  Guilt is appeased.  God is insulted.  [p.32]

This might not have impacted me quite so much except for what I read just moments before from Richard and Renee Stearns' book, HE WALKS AMONG US.  

There I read the story of Roth Ourng who is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia in the 1970's.  Needless to say, he was suspicious of World Vision workers who showed up in his community in the 1990's.  They set up a tuberculosis clinic, worked with the children in school, and taught farmers new agricultural techniques.  But Roth did not trust them.  

Eventually, he questioned the program director and demanded to know why he was there.  The answer: "We are followers of Jesus Christ, and we are commanded to love our neighbors."   Then the man gave Roth a Bible in the Khmer language.  

In Genesis, Roth discovered the God "I had always wondered about, the God who created the world."  Eventually God led Roth and a friend to a Cambodian pastor who explained the gospel to him.

Stearns comments: "When I met Roth, he was the pastor of a little house church with eighty-three members.  When I asked him where he had found so many members, he answered, 'After I discovered Jesus, I had to tell everyone I knew.  These are my sheep; this is my flock.'"  [pp.123-125]

This is the opposite of complacency!  Look at the love in those eyes!  

No pews - just passion!  

Lord of the harvest,

Help us to break the bonds of complacency and discover the joy of sharing You with our family, friends, neighbors and co-workers!

Help me to be responsible for many who will enter the Kingdom of God through doors that I open as a result of my love for You!  

FOR THE KINGDOM'S SAKE!

AMEN!