Christianity Is Not A Spectator Sport

Christianity is not a Spectator Sport

Pastor Jim Parisi HHM Oct 6, 2002

America has become a land of professional Spectators

We gain most of our daily pleasures from watching others live out their lives….. people don’t even know they are being watched

Example web cams on the internet and satellite photos

We are becoming a society of voyeurs separating ourselves from reality..

There is so much information available at our finger tips we don’t have to experience most of it to learn from it.

We watch Sports on television. We watch the News to see what’s happening around the world… now with these new shows we can even feel like we are there on a deserted island “the Sole Survivor”

We stand on the sidelines of watch life as it passes us by.

As a rule this is all acceptable in our society, People have the right to look on a situation or to participate in it.

We as Americans have the free will and freedom to peruse our own destinies as we choose.

This works well for the world, the natural man….

This is ok for them but as Christians we are called to go into this world and deliver a message the message of this gospel

The problem I see here is that many Christians have conformed to the world’s way of thinking instead of the Lords way of doing….

Matthew 9:35-38 35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Laborers are people who work and give their bodies and time to a cause.

Today Christians stand on the sidelines and let the world be the ministers to the poor or needy.

That’s why the systems are failing us today

It is the job of the church to roll up its sleeves and dig in to help those in need.

The bible calls us the church of the Living God … to go into the highways and byways and minister to them and their needs

Look at the Parable of the Good Samaritan Luke 10:30 -37

He was a doer…. he didn’t pass the need of another

Luke 10:34 Kneeling beside him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with medicine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. 35 The next day he handed the innkeeper two pieces of silver and told him to take care of the man. ’If his bill runs higher than that,’ he said, ’I’ll pay the difference the next time I am here.’

We can look at all the examples of the great men and woman of this book

We can Look into their lives and how effective they were to the cause of this Gospel, Why?

Because they were participators and not spectators

Look at Paul’s life.. He was whipped… flogged with a stick… sent to prison more then once…. Even Shipwrecked…

Look At 3 men facing fire a certain death not to compromise there faith Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego they would not compromise their beliefs and worship a false God

I say these were men who were participating not looking for a way out but standing in faith that the Lord would liberate them

Even when we sometimes fail…. the Lord will still use us on the front lines

Look at Samson all that he did wrong with Delilah God still could use him as a participator

Deborah took on an army because she was called… How much this one person did for the Lord in her day

A day when it was not popular for a woman to lead….

All of these people and so many others did this for one thing and one thing only

Because the fire inside of them…. the passion by which they were motivated and became in their quest to serve the Lord.. Was greater then all the evil that man or the enemy could do to them.

Paul and others like him, did not fear what man could do to them because they knew… who their God was, and the power in His hand

They took the call of God and made a Difference for the Kingdome of God in their generation and to this day we are feeling the effects of these few lives … and

So many others … not in the books of this bible have laid down their lives for this Gospel