But it was my first malfunctioning fuel pump that stands out to me that I remember most. It was on our ’89 GMC Suburban. We had stopped by to have lunch at a friend’s house after church and when we got ready to leave, the engine would not start. Kenneth asked me to raise the hood and he poured a little gas in the carburetor and then had me turn the key. Sure enough, it fired right up...and then quickly died. After repeating this a few times, the diagnoses was clear...fuel pump went out. All we were doing by pouring a little gas down the carburetor was ‘priming it’. Once that has burned off, the engine died. I paid to have it replaced given it required removing the gas tank as the small electronic pump was inside the tank. I still remember the mechanic shaking his head over that silly design.
But what a ‘sermon’ illustration that provides for me here today. :- )
I can’t recall how we got that big old boat to the mechanic’s garage but obviously we had to tow it. Can you imagine how silly that would have looked driving 15 yds. before stopping to prime it again and repeating the process over and over until we got to the destination that was 5 miles away?
I wonder how many of us have had our Christian walk/experienced defined by that very process...where we have lived or existed on continuously ‘priming’ the engine because of a faulty pump (heart).
Some of you may know exactly what I am talking about. Let me explain further for others who may not.
This obviously does not apply to every church member out there, but I bet many can identify...where for years, you have depended on a ‘lively church service’ or a ‘stirring sermon’ or ‘anointed song’ to ‘prime your spiritual engine’. Why look how many churches scheduled regularly, annual ‘revival’ services. That always struck me as rather odd...that we could ‘schedule’ a specific date and time where we expected God to ‘show up and revive’ us. I mean...what if God was busy that week or on vacation? Seemed rather presumptuous to me on our part.
Now that is not to take away from the need for believers to gather and spur one another on and encourage and pray for and with each other. We are admonished to not ‘forsake the assembly of ourselves’. We read in Acts 4 where on one occasion, the believers met together and prayed and as a result, “the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” (4:31) So regular fellowship with other like-minded believers is imperative and strongly advised and encouraged in the NT.
But what I am speaking to today is for the countless number of sincere believers who have lacked understanding as to what it means to truly abide in Christ...continually. And I will just tell you up front here that any heart (pump) that has yet to surrender totally to the Lordship of Christ...is a ‘faulty pump’. When we are truly abiding in Him...we are in His presence where there is freedom...and fullness of joy ...and we are walking in peace...regardless of what is happening “outside the boat.” And that could apply to either Noah’s boat or the one Jesus slept in while crossing the sea and the storm arose.
Remember..1 John 3:6 says explicitly that ‘those who abide in Him no longer sin”. In fact if you read further down in (vs 9) it says ‘whoever is born of God no longer sins and cannot sin because God’s seed remains in him.” That’s one of those verses that usually has us scrambling for a thick commentary where we can read where some smart person explains to us why that really does not mean what it says. (Hath God really said? – Gen. 3)
So never coming to the revelation that Christ truly sets us free from sin ...we ...continue to sin. Which opens the door for the enemy to come in and to ‘steal, kill, and destroy’. (John 10:10). With that kind of open door where we end up being ‘destroyed for a lack of knowledge’, is it any wonder that we often find ourselves in this repetitive cycle of ‘mountain tops and valleys’ that just wears us down spiritually.
Again...many of you are probably nodding your head in agreement here. We know how to shout and sing with the best of them...but if we have failed to learn what it means to ‘walk with Him’ when our feet hit the ground (after all the shouting and jumping), then we will continually end right back up where we were before - succumbing to sin and all those ‘little foxes that spoil the vine’. And remember...if you have bought into the lie that you will always sin...why would you expect anything different? (What is that old definition for ‘insanity’?)
Sadly, over time, due to ignorance, you heart will grow hard...so hard, that God’s word can no longer work effectively in you (1 Thess. 2:13). That’s where one begins to skirt along that dangerous place of the ‘sin unto death’ and no longer at a place where you can be brought to repentance. (Heb. 6 & 10). Remember...the very ones Christ came to deliver rejected Him...were offended by Him and His word. Look what Jesus told one group in John 8:43 – they were unable to even hear His word because of their allegiance to their ‘father, the devil’. And it was not a group of ‘Satanist’ he was talking to either. It was church leaders.
Why look at Matt. 24:12 where Jesus tells us that ‘because lawlessness (sin) will abound, the love of many will grow cold or ‘wax hard’. That is what sin does to our hearts...it hardens them...making them a defective ‘pump’. Yet...we in our minds want to continue on as believers...so we end up in churches that enable us to ‘walk in a form of godliness but deny the power’ (2 Tim. 3:5). Power to do what? Oh...maybe set us free from the power of sin? But if we have believed the lie (2 Thess. 2:11) then we become no better off than the drug addict who depends on his supplier to get him his next ‘fix’ or ‘prime’.
Think about that a second. Have we not conditioned folks over the years to repeat this horrific cycle? We often fall short in teaching them what Jesus actually came to do and what He ask of us. We end up coddling people...re-enforcing this idea that you will always continue to sin...just not as much as before and/or nearly as ‘bad as one use to’. Then...when they begin to drift and sin, what happens? They sure are not abiding in Jesus when they do that. So then we try to get them ‘busy’ in activities hoping that will help. And eventually...we need to bring in that big show or dynamic speaker and get folks stirred up again. Maybe if we throw in more props and effects it will help. I mean after all, we do have an impressive world to compete with.
So we prod and pull and get folks rounded up for another spiritual priming...and because for many, their hearts truly want God despite not learning how to overcome sin, they make their regular trek to that altar to ‘re-dedicate’ their lives once again. This is has become such ‘a thing’ that many churches even ‘count’ how many ‘re-dedications’ were made at the service. When did counting such things even become a thing? Someone asked me just yesterday if ‘altar calls were even scriptural’.
When we fail to teach the whole counsel of God, we damage the sheep. They remain prey to beast and bondage. And God is not happy with that. (Jer. 23; Ezek 22:23-30 and 34:10)
Again...I only point back to the early church we read of in Acts. People were being set free from the very thing that had enslaved them. Today...we are more prone to explain to people that things like that really don’t happen anymore. We just kind of dust folks off, get them coming to our meetings and hope they ‘clean up’ on their own as we feed them pleasant words and stories and offer ‘support groups’ to teach them how to live with their struggles.
“Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” (Heb. 3:12-13)
Jesus came to preach truth. A truth that sets captives free. And whoever the Son sets free will be free indeed. (John 8:34-36). This walk of abiding in Him is not about merely ‘avoiding’ sin while we struggle continually with sinful desires. He empowers us to overcome sin and its effects. He does not use man made self-help techniques either...He gives us His Spirit to dwell within us and to walk as a new creation.
For years, I have heard people lament over how our education system continues to ‘lower the bar’ of expectations and failed to adequately ‘educate’ students. Yet what have we done in the church world? Jesus Himself laid out His expectations in Matt. 5:48...”Therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” “Whoever abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” (1 John 2:6) “With men it is impossible but with God, all things are possible.” (Matt. 19:26). IF...we are truly abiding in Him (John 15) then HE is conforming us to the image of Christ. (Rom 8:29). That is what this gospel is all about. And the only way this can happen is if we embrace this cross Jesus demands we do. There is no fancy spiritual ‘photo filter’ we see splashed all over social media to do the job for us. It does not work that way in His kingdom. The only way Christ can fully live in you...is if you are willing to ‘die’ and get out of His way. Here’s the good news...you don’t have to keep carrying that old can of ‘spiritual gas’ with you anymore to keep priming. He wants to replace your ‘pump’ (heart). And when He does...get back...because when that engine roars to life, it will be hard to turn off. Trust me on that one.
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