Subject: The Secular Christian
by Rick Welborne
by Rick Welborne
Matthew 20:30-34 (NKJV)
30 And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!"
31 Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!"
32 So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?"
33 They said to Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened."
34 So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.
30 And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!"
31 Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!"
32 So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?"
33 They said to Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened."
34 So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.
--Today is pastor’s appreciation and let me say on behalf of all of us…thank you…your kindness and generosity is so appreciated. I know my time is limited so let me get right to it.
--We are talking about Toxic Christianity…last week we spoke of the disconnected Christian and hopefully we helped you with being connected God’s way.
--Today we are going to talk about the Secular Christian. Secular humanism teaching that our situation dictates our ethics. Secular Christians tie their salvation to someone else.
1. The secular Christian follows people, not Christ.
--This may come as a shock to some of you, but there are more than likely people here today, who are not here for the right reasons.
--There may be a husband here, not because you love Jesus, but because your wife is here. If she said, let’s go fishing, after you woke up would say, oh yeah!
--There may be a young person here, not because you have a close relationship with God, but because you have a close relationship with someone else…or at least you think you want one.
--Someone in the church is the reason that you are here and if that person was taken out of the equation…puff…you would be gone. I think the 10 Commandments said something about that:
Exodus 20:1-5 (NIV)
1 And God spoke all these words:
2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
1 And God spoke all these words:
2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
--It almost sounds like your salvation is connected to that person you are following instead of being saved by Jesus…God is jealous and He wants you here for Him.
2. The secular Christian looks to people, not Christ.
--The pastor did not call, the deacon didn’t care, my connect group did not check on me, if they really cared they would have called or at least sent me a wonderful hand written note. You don’t send me flowers…
--Maybe I am mistaken but I thought I read somewhere in the Bible that there is only one Savior and His Name is Jesus Christ. Why do you keep looking for love and affirmation in all the wrong places?
Willie Nelson: Looking for love in all the wrong places…looking for love on all the wrong faces…
Acts 4:10-12 (NKJV)
10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.
11 This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.'
12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.
11 This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.'
12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
--No other name…no other pastor…no other deacon…no other person by whose name you can be saved except the Name of Jesus. Look to Him…fix your eyes on Him not them!
3. The truly saved Christian knows Jesus Christ is their Savior, not people.
--The two blind men heard that Jesus was passing by…obviously they could not see Him passing by. This portion of scripture tells us that there was a multitude there.
--As a matter of fact, the multitude was telling them to be quiet as they cried out to the Son of David…have mercy on us.
--You see, people were everywhere…surrounding them…I am sure someone would have been glad to pray with them, if for no other reason, to shut them up…don’t let people shut you up when you go after Jesus!
--I am sure someone would have counseled with them about just hanging in there thru their difficulty…their blindness.
--They could have looked to people but even though they were blind…they could see that people could not help them…they needed a Savior Healer and His Name was Jesus! Open the eyes of our heart! Mat. 20
31 Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!"
32 So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?"
33 They said to Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened."
34 So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.
32 So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?"
33 They said to Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened."
34 So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.
--They cried out to Jesus and what happened…Jesus stood still and He called them to come to Him…can you see it? How they stumbled…almost ran to the Savior knowing He was their answer.
"What do you want Me to do for you?" Open our eyes… So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.
--They were Jesus saved not secularly saved because people couldn’t do what they needed! Only Jesus could!
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