PLAYING CHURCH - THE DEFINITION
says the Lord God, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes... Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
(Ezekiel 36:23-26)
I’ve heard pastors refer to some as “playing church”. I’ve used this term myself, and it’s usually towards those who come to church just to go through the “Christian” motions. Is this it? Is that all that playing church is?
All through Scripture, there’s a call to help those in need, visit the sick and in prisoned, and make disciples of all nations. Are we, as a church in America, doing these tasks?
In here lies the facts:
4.5 billion people who are headed to hell
about 2,200+ different people groups who have never heard the Gospel
as many as 3 billion people living on $2 dollars a day or less
700 Million in slums
500 Million on the verge of starvation
93 Million beggars
200 Million children exploited for labor
According to Unisef, 26,000 children will die today, of starvation or preventable disease
Literally millions of them die in quiet obscurity - and in here lies the problem, we can comfortably ignore them in our affluence and pretend like they don’t even exist.
Can we really believe the Gospel and turn a deaf ear to the lost and starving? Absolutely not!!! It is impossible to believe in the Gospel of Christ and turn a deaf ear and ignore those who are starving right outside our doorstep. James two is all about Gospel, Faith, and Works
According to the world bank
37% of the people in the world that make 825 dollars or less a year.
38% of the people in the world make up to 3,000 dollars a year (Lower middle income)
9% of the people in the world make up to 10,000 a year (upper middle class)
16% of the people in the world make over 10,000 a year.
The top 10% make 25,000 dollars a year
The top 1% of the worlds wealthiest people make up to $50,000 a year.
The average Christian American income is $42,409; which is the top 2 1/2% of the richest people in the world.
The average American Christian is filthy rich; which means all comments made to the rich and those who hoard up is pointed to us, yet we have a trigger that goes off in our minds and we think of THEM as the rich. We think of the guy who lives in a bigger house than us and has all the stuff. But what we need to realize is, we are THEM.
North American Christians give an average of 2.5% of their income to the church - and that’s probably very generous
North American churches give an average of 2% of those funds to missions.
For every 100 dollars that a North American Christian makes, we give 5 cents to missions.
Christians spend more money on dog food than missions
40 billion dollars a year is spent on pets
60 billion dollars a year on weight loss programs
10 billion dollars a year on church buildings
Compare to their spending on missions, the North American Christians spend:
twice as much on cut flowers
twice as much on women’s sheer hosiery
One and a half times on video games
One and a half on the lawn industry
Five times as much on pets
One and a half times as much on skin care
One and a half times as much on chewing gum
Three times as much on swimming pools and accessories
Seven times as much on sweats
Seventeen times as much on diets and diet related products
Twenty times as much on sports activity
Twenty six times as much on soft drinks
One hundred and forty times as much on legalized gambling
-This is the Christians community-
Now define “playing church”
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven
(Matthew 7:21)
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