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What's Missing? (A Sermon Thought) - Articles | Preachit.org

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What’s Missing? (A Sermon Thought)

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Children’s activities books often have these little exercises.  They will display one picture with many items and characters, and when you turn the page, you see a very similar picture which almost looks identical.  To the casual glance you would think that nothing is different about the two pictures.  However the small instructions at the top of the second picture has a question which let’s you know immediately that even though these two pictures may look the same, they are not.  The instructions say, “What’s different about these two pictures?” You then are given opportunity to find and list the items that are missing from the second picture that are evident in the first one.

My younger brother is very successful in law enforcement.  I am amazed at his ability to pay attention to the slightest details.  He has the ability to walk into a situation and tell you not what is present, but what is not present.  What’s missing is often the clue that leads to a case being solved.  Myself, I would probably end up exhausting myself studying the clues and items that were left at the scene of a crime rather than understanding what is different or missing from the scene. 

Here is the problem many churches in our present day have.  There is something missing and we haven’t figured out what it is yet.  We are studying what is in front of us, but we can’t figure out why we are not having the kind of revival we know our Lord wants us to have. 

We see people’s lack of involvement.  We see the lack of dedication to the House of God.  We know that the growth of our congregations are not keeping up with the population growth of our communities.  People come to church with an “Entertain Me” attitude that lacks the fundamental hunger that is needful in a revival church. 

We want to identify with the biblical New Testament church but the picture that was the Original Church is in many ways very different than the picture that is the modern day church.

Brotherly love, One accord, One Mind, Unity, Together, One for another, are terms descriptive of the original church.  These are not terms we use to describe many modern day churches.  Miracles occurred constantly in the Acts church.  They occur only occasionally in the modern church.  Could it be that the Spirit of God is grieved by the lack of care the modern day saint shows to his brother?  The early church would hold an all night all church prayer meeting to get Peter out of jail.  We hardly give 5 minutes to pray for our brother’s cancer or his back-sliden children.  The early church would go from house to house fellowshipping and praying, we barely make it to Steak and Shake to have an after service hamburger with a new convert.

What’s missing?  What is in the first picture that is not in the second one?  What did the early church have that we do not have today?  We too often see another church begin to have a measure of revival and then ask, “what do they have that we don’t have?”  We measure ourselves by ourselves when we should be measuring ourselves by the original church in the book of Acts.

We promote programs and agendas ahead of care for our fellow man and soul winning.  Our calendars are full of events which do little to win souls.  Coming upon us soon will be the holidays with their dinners and fellowships.  How many souls will be won by their expense of time, energy and money?  What’s missing? 

The early church had a revival in a jail house.  We can hardly get the saints to worship in the church house on a Sunday night.  What’s missing?  The early saints walked by a cripple man at the gate beautiful and lifted him up to his feet – healed in Jesus name.  We find it hard to go to someone who’s life is falling apart and ask them if they would like to pray.  What’s missing?  They turned their world upside down in the space of two years.   We have had churches in communities for over 30 years who are struggling to get their sanctuaries filled to 75% on a Sunday night.  What’s missing?  Fear of God and respect for the ministry prevailed in the early church.  Disrespect for the Man of God and the ministry often prevail in some churches.   What’s missing?  Devils left screaming from the New Testament  church, they come to church and sit in the pews untouched in many modern churches.  What’s missing?

We make a terrible mistake when we conclude that we have arrived at some point of maturity as a church.  The Church will ever be striving to become what the Early Church was.  The cares of life, elements of this world and the evil powers at work, will ever be pulling us away from what the original church was.  We have to maintain the desire to be like them.  We have to continually hunger for what they had. 

The scripture paints a picture of a beautiful Church who loved one another, who had respect and recognition in their communities and from evil spirits.  They knew how to pray not lengthy prayers, but prayers that shook Heaven and Hell.  They were bold people who walked into the market places and into kings throne rooms and declared the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

That Church grew exponentially because of God’s favor and because the world looked at it as something that offered a refuge from the sinful lifestyles.  What a beautiful Church it was.  Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if could find out what’s missing and cause it to happen in our church?  If we want what they had, then we have to know what is missing and be brave enough to make the changes needed to experience the kind of church that they experienced.