Doing Nothing

Happy Sunday! Today we continue our series on backsliding. Last week we defined the problem: to backslide means that you're moving away from God, not closer to him. You are regressing, not progressing.

Have you ever been to the beach and played in the ocean? If you've done that for an extended period of time, you'll often notice that you're not where you started. You drifted. You're in the water and you look back towards the shore, and you notice that your chair or your condo is not straight in front of you. You unknowingly wandered; the tide moved you from where you started.

I think often that is the way that people backslide. I have visited with people who over the years who have had a massive tide hit them, and it's moved them far from God. Unfortunately, there are many who are mad at God because of the death of a spouse or a child or a loved one, and some choose to walk in the other direction because of a world issue that perplexes them, and they just give up on God. We'll talk about those folks in the weeks ahead. Today we're going to focus on the wanderers that just aren't paying attention.

I changed the furnace filters in our house the other day. Once a quarter, like clock work, I Chang the filters. We have a little schedule and a little alarm, and it lets us know when to do it. It's called preventative maintenance.

You know, we do preventative maintenance in many ways. We brush our teeth, we have the oil changed in our cars, we change the batteries and our smoke detectors, and if we don't do these things, we're just asking for trouble. If you're just coasting in your faith, there's a good chance that you're asking for trouble and that you will drift. If you stay away from church, if you rarely pray, if your Bible gathers dust, if you do nothing at all to grow, you'll regress.

I love the story of the little girl who asked her mother one day, "Mommy, can I get into trouble for something I didn't do?" And the mom thought it for a moment, said, "No, sweetie, you can't get in trouble for something you didn't do." And the child was so happy. She said, "Good, Mommy. I didn't make my bed, it didn't take out the trash, and I didn't do my homework."

Well, you can get in trouble for what you don't do, can't you? There's great cost for doing nothing. In theological terms we call these sins of omission. There's several biblical examples.

In the Book of Matthew, chapter 25, there's a couple of examples. We'll just talk about one of them. In the first part of the chapter, Jesus tells a story about the consequences of doing nothing, sins of omission.

As the story begins, we're told that a wealthy man was going away on a journey, and he called three of his servants, and he put them in charge of his belongings, his business. Jesus said to one servant the man gave five bags of silver to invest, to another three bags, and to another just one. The man expected his servants to take care of business and to do their best while he was gone. When he came home, he called his servants to see how they had done.

The one who was given five bags of silver doubled the amount to 10. Same thing with the one with three bags; he doubled his amount. Verse 21 in Matthew 25 is well known. This verse is used at funerals of Christians who have been faithful.

Listen to verse 21: "His master said to him," the good servant who doubled up, "'Well done, good and trustworthy servant. You've been trustworthy in a few things; I'll put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.'" It's a good place to be.

Unfortunately, the third man, given one bag, he did nothing. I'll read of his encounter with his master, beginning at verse 24: "Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, 'Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn't plant and gathering crops you didn't cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here's your money back.'" He did nothing.

Back to the scripture: "The master said, 'You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn't plant and gathered crops I didn't cultivate, why didn't you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.'" And then he ordered, "'Take the money from this servant and give it to the one with 10 bags of silver.'" And then we are told, "'To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they'll have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and wailing and nashing of teeth.'"

There are great consequences from nothing. Our faith must be fed every day. If not, we'll stand still or drift further away. Today I encourage you to do your very best to grow and to move forward.

In the book of First Timothy, chapter 4, an older, wise disciple named Paul wrote these words to a young disciple named Timothy. These words truly apply to all of us. Paul said to Timothy, "Do not neglect the gift that is in you." Let me close with those words: "Do not neglect the gift that is in you."

Pray with me. Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for our faith, and help us to grow in it always. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

I don't normally do this, but a prayer request for a young man. His name is Sam. He's been in the hospital, uh, had a surgery trying to repair another surgery that was messed up, and he just needs your prayers. Pray for his mom and dad too; they're worried about their boy. So pray for Sam. God bless you. Thanks for joining me.