NUMB/Spiritual Apathy
Notes
Transcript
Have you guys ever been driving, or as a passenger, and wondered how in the
heck you got to where you were at? For example, if you’re like me, you kind of
got to where you were at? For example, if you’re like me, you kind of zone out, or
heck you got to where you were at? For example, if you’re like me, you kind of
maybe you were paying too close attention to your phone for a little while, look up and
zone out, or maybe you were paying too close attention to your phone for a
while, look up and you’re like - “wow, how did I even get here?”
you’re like - “wow, how did I even get here?”
little while, look up and you’re like - “wow, how did I even get here?”
Anybody ever done that?
Cool, good to know I’m not alone.
One study from the “Journal of Consumer Psychology” suggests that the more
attention we pay to an event, the longer the interval of time feels.
attention we pay to an event, the longer the interval of time feels.
we pay to an event, the longer the interval of time feels.
Hence, when we are so used to a regular thing it seems to pass by quickly with
the regularity and lack of attention from us and we are surprised at our arrival.
I’m here to tell you about this about this and we can identify it in spiritual
matters of spiritual apathy.
It happens to us when we don’t see miracles in the mundane, or more plainly
put, we don’t see God in our day to day. It’s called apathy. Or, spiritual apathy. A
complacent or stagnant self in your spirituality or next steps with Jesus.
The Bible puts it like this:
6 but when they had grazed, they became full,
they were filled, and their heart was lifted up;
therefore they forgot me.
This is what we call spiritual apathy.
Or, another example of when we feel this way, happens at a very specific time of
year and we are very familiar with it. Maybe it was after UNITE one year, The
Weekend this year, or summer camp! What I’m talking about is that spiritual
high. Except what happens to a high? You come down. You come back down to
“reality,” and that zeal and excitement you had for God is met face to face with
your mundane day to day responsibilities.
This spiritual low or apathy towards God is a real thing and it may feel more
present in our lives because camp or cool student events aren’t year round. If
we were to be honest, the mundane day to day things are way more present
that the events.
So here’s my question, why does it happen? Why do zone out for a period of
time, look up, and we think to ourselves, how did I get here? I was reading my
Bible, praying, sharing the Gospel with all my friends and now I haven’t touched
my Bible for days, weeks, maybe months! Why does this happen to us? Who’s to
blame? How do we get out of it?
Well, I’d like to give you 3 Facts and Formulas to getting out of Spiritual Apathy.
#1 Sin Separates
#1 Sin Separates
Spiritual Apathy is caused by sin. Sounds crazy but stay with me. When we go
through Spiritual Apathy it looks like this:
Don’t wanna go to church.
Don’t wanna read my Bible.
Pretend to be a “good” Christian.
In this, I believe God will surprise us and sometimes the surprise doesn’t show
up in how we’d expect. The Bible puts it like this:
13 And the Lord said:
“Because this people draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
14 therefore, behold, I will again
do wonderful things with this people,
with wonder upon wonder;
and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”
Isaiah 29
What’s happening here is we’re pretending. And we are pretending to be “close”
to God when in fact we are not and we have not been in awhile and the reason
being is sin. And SIN SEPARATES US from God. No wonder we feel “distant” from
him.
The tricky part here is acknowledging the sin, the distance, repenting and
coming back to God. You need to remember in these times that God doesn’t
change and that means He didn’t go anywhere. We are the ones who change and
we are the ones who moved. Maybe we got bored with the journey and zoned
out. We got lost in the mundane and missed out on the miracle of meeting with
God daily and now we’ve found ourselves surprised! The key here is to repent
and come back to God.
#2 Spiritual Winters
#2 Spiritual Winters
We will all go through spiritual winters. These are times when we will not feel
anything. We won't be sharing the gospel. We might not even feel like the
gospel has any personal meaning. Church won't have much appeal and you
probably won't be reading your Bible during a spiritual winter. I think the
reality is many of us have gone through difficult spiritual times like these.
There will be a certain time in a Christian’s life in which God will start to work on
us to take us from a beginning stage to a more advanced stage in faith. This
happens because God wants to purify us and moves us to grow deeper in their
relationship with Him. When someone enters into a relationship with God, the
Holy Spirit will nurture that soul like a mother would nurture a newborn baby.
God cares and comforts the infant soul by feeding it milk.
Here’s the secret to Spiritual Winters: you’ve gotta learn to hunt. The food has
been brought to you as you’ve grown up, but now you’re of age and it’s time for
you to provide your own meals. This is an important time for you. Embrace it.
Don’t run from it. One pastor said - you need to almost welcome it, treat these
types of seasons like a gas pedal and a break pedal. You need to both to drive
the car. You need these spiritual winters to appreciate the miracle in the
mundane. To appreciate God as He completely is rather than just when you
decide to go participate in events.
REMEMBER: THE SATISFACTION OF FINDING FOOD IN COMPARISON TO THE COLD SPIRITUAL WINTER WILL ALWAYS BE BETTER.
#3 Pay attention to your time.
#3 Pay attention to your time.
Time can be used or wasted, it can be invested or squandered, but either way,
once used, it can never be regained. Time matters because we have such a
1 There is a time for everything,
limited supply. The most famous passage in the Bible about time reminds us that
there is a time for everything in life.
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
We always seem to TAKE the time to do everything we want to do. We’re not always wise with our time, and sometimes the things we want to do, don’t line up with the things we need to do or ought to do. As followers of Jesus, we need to realize is that all our time belongs to Him, and therefore how we spend our days becomes a sacred issue.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Today, we might restate what Jesus said to, “Where your time is, there your heart will be also.”
Time is money these days. Our lack of feeling toward God is because we do not have this sense of urgency to get our relationship right with Him. Our priorities are all jacked up. How are we supposed to feel God, know God, if we are not taking the time out of our day to be with Him?
If I were to not pay attention to [spouse, bff, etc.] throughout my entire day, or week, and I went up to [spouse, bff, etc.] and said, you know what? I’m not feeling this relationship right now, I’m not feeling you like I used to. Whose fault is that? Not [spouse, bff, etc.]! It’s the same thing with God. Where is your time spent? You’re not feeling God anymore?
Let me ask you, “Who moved?”
The life of faith is a journey with God that begins the moment we trust Jesus. It is about learning to give up control of those things we never really controlled in the first place. Time matters because time is the stuff of life, and when time is gone, so is life. Therefore what I do with the moments of my life, the opportunities I take, the people I talk to, the path I follow, all of it matters because sooner or later, for me and for you, time will be no more.
All of us are slaves to time more than we like to admit. These days we all seem to be glued to our cell phones, so much so that we talk or text more on the cell phone than we do in person.
Time has become the new currency of life. For most of us time matters more than money. We will spend money to save time whereas our parents would spend time to save money. In a world where most of us feel stressed out, we value our free time more than a few extra dollars in our pocket.
How much time do you have left?
No one knows for sure.
“Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Have you ever numbered your days literally? That’s hard to do because no one knows how many days they have left. But that’s precisely the point. Numbering your days keeps us from the ultimate folly – thinking we will live forever and therefore giving us excuses to put off doing what we know we ought to do.
If a person knows he or she is going to die tomorrow, it has a wonderful way of concentrating the person’s mind. Most of us don’t think we are going to die tomorrow and that’s why we let time slide by thoughtlessly.
Someday I will answer for what I did on October 8, 2001, a date that means nothing except that I pulled it out of the air. I could have said January 17, 2004 or August 8, 1999, or I could have said May 26, 2010, which would definitely bring the matter much closer to home.
But those are just random dates that don’t matter. The only date that does matter is the date in which you choose to start to spend time with the creator of the universe and start an amazing relationship with Him.
The time that matters most is the time is spent with Him.
Sin separates us from Him. We need to acknowledge that. We might go through winters in which God bids us to get off the baby formula and move to some solid steak in our faith journey. These are the times in our lives where spending time with God is the most crucial to dig our roots deeper and deeper in Him.
The truth is, we don’t have any idea when our time is up. We have lost our sense of urgency to have a relationship. We are going to look back at all of these random dates that have no meaning and wonder, “What they heck was I doing?” The time that matters is the time we spend with God making Him a priority. Why not make this a day that is worth remembering and acknowledging that sin separates us from Him, that we need to be rooted in Him through the winters, and make tonight count in our choice to put our heart in His with our time?
We no longer need to feel numb. We can see that spiritual winters are there to grow us. We know that time with God is essential for us because time is so precious. Just like in the wisdom teeth videos, the numbness goes away. The people do not stay that loopy. The numbness goes away.
The numbness doesn’t have to stay when it comes to “feeling God”. The truth is, our feelings lie to us. The truth is, God is always there. Even in those times we feel like He is not there, He’s not listening, and He’s not speaking, we know that Scripture teaches us He will never leave us or forsake us