Col 4:2 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;
Acts 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
Some historians point toward the industrial revolution when considering our insatiable appetite for the next “new thing.” Invention and innovation moved the nation into what we know as modernism. These conveniences, from fuel consumption to food preservation, caused a ripple effect in our society. There were things that we lost along the way.
We gained the natural assets borne from the minds of scientists, but we lost our appreciation. We leaped over years of struggle through technological advances even in the early 1950’s until now, but we lost our fervency and yearning. In fact, today the entitled generation is feeling depressed by the smallest constraints to daily living. Children were given a free pass and a participation trophy and now they have turned into demanding adults seeking for another moment of gratification not at their own expense. The desire for the next thing swarms the American mind like an infection until there is no thanksgiving on Thanksgiving. Just a turkey and football game.
I submit that the church cannot and must not live like the world. We have The Truth. We do not need another “new thing.” We have the Holy Spirit. There is no other need. I wonder why so many become dissatisfied with their new birth. It burdens me when congregations which have been given sound doctrine are looking for some other revelation as if the original Gospel is old news.
Technology will change, but the way to Heaven, eternal life, is still the same. So if you are looking for some new twist on the message, you will have to create your own gospel. According to Gal 1:6-7, there are other made-up, counterfeit gospels. Though Paul said of “another gospel, which is not another…”
My message to you today is the same biblical message afforded to us in these days: Continue.
Continue to give, serve, love, worship, sacrifice, pray, seek, teach, attend, reach, restore, submit, obey, stand, grow, and abound. The pursuit of something else will steal your necessary time and at the end, you will not find anything to satisfy. Eccl 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Pastor Jeffrey Harpole