Subject: The Christian Atheist
by Rick Welborne
Isaiah 29:13-16 (NIV)
13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."
15 Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?"
16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?
13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."
15 Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?"
16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?
--Last week we talked about Secret Agent Christians and truly discovered that it cannot be that way…Jesus said if you confess Me before men, then I will confess you before My Father in Heaven.
--We do not need covert operations from those of us who claim Christ…why wouldn’t we want to share the Greatest News ever?
--We should be excited and honored to wear our LIFE shirts so we can have the opportunity to share Jesus wherever we go!
--Today we will continue our series on Toxic Christians and talk about the Christian atheist…obviously this is an oxymoron…or some kind of moron.
--Please do not get all PC on me and write an article in the paper about my insensitivity by using the word ‘moron’. What is wrong with our world?
--We have Isis killing Christians and Americans, we have abortionist killing unborn babies (about 3000 a day), we have Supreme Court justices redefining marriage, we have our veterans not being taken care of…
--We have thousands of people coming into our country without any possible way of vetting them, we have drugs and alcohol destroying our people and we are worried about being called a name…grow up!
Father Jonathan Morris – Vote your moral values and conscience, not your feelings!
--Meanwhile back at my sermon…Christian Atheist.
Christian atheist – Someone who claims to be a Christian but lives like God does not exist.
--From our text let’s look at Hypocrisy – sin – Lordship.
1. The hypocrisy of the Christian Atheist
Isaiah 29:13 (NIV)
13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
--Why or what would make us live hypocritical lives? Why would we draw near to God with our mouths and our hearts not be close to Him?
--We become Christian atheist because we do not realize how big our God is…we almost feel that we just have to fake it to make it…how sad.
Mark Batterson: Most people believe God is real, but few people actually live like it. The result is a widening gap between their theology and their reality. They allow their circumstances to get between them and God instead of letting God get between them and their circumstances.
--We say how great God is, we sing how great God is, some of us even teach how great God is but where is the reality of Who He is and what He can do.
--Before we condemn those in Isaiah we may need to take a good look at ourselves and see if we are drawing near during a worship service but our hearts are out there somewhere.
--Hypocrisy happens when we forget that our calling is way beyond us. The best way to discover your dream or calling is to help someone else find theirs.
--Your greatest legacy isn’t finding your dream…it’s the dream you inspire in others. You see…
LEGACY is Leading Every Generation Adults Children Youth
--The cure for hypocrisy is to draw near to God with a sincere heart and worship Him…the fruit of your lips giving thanks to His Name.
Hebrews 10:19-24 (NLT)
19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.
20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.
21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house,
22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.
24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.
19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.
20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.
21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house,
22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.
24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.
--The cure for hypocrisy is to realize our worship to God, our service for God, our sincerity before God is not all about us…it is how we motivate others to acts of love and good works.
2. The sin of the Christian atheist.
Isaiah 29:13-15 (NIV)
13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."
15 Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?"
13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."
15 Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?"
--Why is it we think we can hide anything from God? Why we think that what we do in the dark or in secret will not be exposed someday is ludicrous.
Luke 8:17 (NKJV)
17 For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.
17 For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.
--Isaiah says: Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?"
--Obviously, it would be easy to talk about all the mess that Christians participate in: lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life but today I want to zero on one thing…let me explain.
--All of us have heard of the Wright brothers…Orville and Wilbur…parents must have been anger to name them what they did. At age 25 Orville contracted typhoid fever and was in the bed for several months.
--Wilbur took up an interest in human flight and would read to Orville about flight…it appeared the two were about to have a collision with their destiny.
--On May 30, 1899, Wilbur wrote a letter to the Smithsonian Institute informing them of their systematic study of flight. He asked for everything written on the subject which was not much.
--But one book “Empire of the Air” written by French farmer, poet, and student of flight Lois Pierre Mouillard.
He exhorted the world:
Mouillard: The world needs to repent of its unbelief in the possibility of human flight.
--The world needs to repent of its unbelief in the possibility of human flight. How awesome is that statement?
I like that statement a lot. It convicts me and challenges me at the same time.
--What impossibility in your life do you need to repent of? You see, it is not just your sin you need to repent of, it is your small dreams.
--The size of your dream may be the most accurate measure of the size of your God. Is He bigger than your biggest problem, your worst failure, your greatest mistake? We quote this verse but do we believe it?
Ephesians 3:14-21 (NKJV)
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--
19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--
19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
--A God sized dream will always scare you, it will be beyond your ability, beyond your resources. Unless God does it, it can’t be done. But that is exactly how God gets the glory.
--This is a call to repentance…repent of your small dreams and repent of how small you have made God out to be. To an infinite God all finites are the same. There is no big or small, easy or difficult, possible or impossible.
--Once Jesus was raised from the dead and walked out of the tomb on that third day, the word impossible was erased from our dictionary. With Him nothing is impossible!
--The Wright brothers had no real funding, did not know people in high places (no pun intended), failed time and time again, but decided to never give up!
--But on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, N.C. they defied gravity for twelve seconds and went airborne. You see, the impossible is only temporary. Don’t give up on your dream, your prayer, your prodigal, or your impossible.
--Think about it, 115 years ago flight was science fiction and today millions are flying all over the globe at 500 miles an hour…we have been to the moon…we have a space station…we are planning on going to mars.
--Why? Two men sat in a sickbed reading about flight and their dream became a reality…what is your dream?
3. The Lordship of the Christian atheist.
Isaiah 29:16 (NIV)
16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?
16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?
--Lordship is all about Who is in charge of your life, your dreams, your destiny…is it you or is it the Potter… Jesus Christ Himself.
--We may talk about this later but it appears to me that we have created a god in our own image…he is not who he says he is (that’s us), he cannot do what he says (that’s us), and he is not faithful (that’s us).
--Sadly, we have (or at least we think) we have become the potters of our own lives and destiny…question for you…how is that working out…not so good I am sure.
Batterson: You are one idea, one risk, one decision away from a totally different life. Of course, it’ll probably be the toughest decision you ever make, the scariest risk you ever take. But if your dream doesn’t scare you, it’s too small.
--The greatest decision you will ever make is to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ…this not just for the lost but for all of us.
--The cure for living like God does not exist is to give Him all of you for the rest of your life…make Him Lord!
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