A message for Akron Alliance Fellowship Church, Akron OH, Sunday, June 25, 2023.
For the “Live in Church” audio of this message, select here.
Last week, my lovely bride and I were out with family members as part of our gathering together for my uncle’s funeral. The funeral was early Thursday afternoon, and it was followed by a repast later that day at a local hotel. It seems that we only use the word “repast” as part of the home-going ceremony. Repast simply means “a meal.”1 Our meal was more than adequate. Fried chicken, corn chowder, potatoes, pulled pork with the option of eating it as sliders, corn on the cob, and the option of selecting for dessert either a peach cobbler or slice of cheesecake. I know I’m leaving something out here, but you get the idea. There was also more food when we got together on Friday afternoon when we all went to BJ’s Restaurant (everything from pizza to baby back ribs and jambalaya) and then Saturday morning at The Original Pancake House. Needless to say, family get-togethers, if unchecked, can get out of hand because everything is centered around comfort food.
There are occasions when food becomes less desirable, or even inedible. For example, if you don’t cook chicken properly, it can be problematic for the consumer. If you overcook it, chicken will burn and not taste very good. If you undercook it, whatever you eat can make you very sick. You know that it’s important to not leave a sandwich with mayonnaise out for too long. You need to eat it right away. If the bread on your plate accidentally comes in contact with water, it turns into something that I can barely type right now because the visual of it makes me sick thinking about it!
Let’s look at what we, as believers in Jesus, consume and what we should avoid and reject altogether. We all know that there are plenty of options out there. When it comes to food, there are good choices for food, but even in those situations, it is always unhealthy when we overeat. In the same manner, when it comes to information and messaging, we are to use discernment with the filtering of the Holy Spirit. We need to watch the news and information that we consume. Too much of this consumption can create an unhealthy situation or an imbalance in how we see the world today. If believers are not careful, we may find ourselves embracing or going along with things of the world just to get along with others. I fear that this has already happened in many circles.
I readily acknowledge that I have to measure what I take in from today’s media. I want to know what’s going on around me, but I had to establish some personal parameters. I will not take in any television or radio media, and the simple reason for this is that these types of media often include only “headline news” and seldom get into anything substantive for consumption. I also limit my time on the internet and only seek out vetted news groups that provide a more complete picture that goes beyond the headlines. That really consists of no more than two or three sites. For me, this creates the balance that works best for me. Even with these safeguards, everything needs to be tested with the Word of God at your fingertips.
One of our greatest challenges as believers is to continue to build and grow in our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We must, at all costs, resist the ways of the world and unwittingly incorporating worldliness within our faith. We must prevent such a watering down of the faith that we become a wishy-washy Christian.
Wishy-washy is an adjective, and it is defined as feeble or insipid, as in lacking flavor or lacking effort in quality or character. It also points to one who lacks in strength or boldness.2 These characteristics are the opposite of what a believer in Christ should be.
A wishy-washy Christian is a person who is negatively impacted by the world and the cares of the world and, as a result, is diminished in stature and in character.
None of us want to be wishy-washy by nature. We certainly don’t need to stay that way if we ask Jesus for help. We need to be more like the father who cried out to Jesus, “Help my unbelief!” Look at what is said here:
Mark 9:20-24 ESV
20 And they brought the boy (with an unclean spirit) to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
Remember what Jesus says here about faith and what is possible for you, the believer in Jesus Christ. Remember these words, “All things are possible for one who believes.” We need to continue to build upon our faith and seek God’s wisdom each and every day.
James 1:5-8 NLT
5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.
To be wishy-washy is to be unstable. And there are more unflattering symptoms for wishy-washy Christians. In all seriousness, churches today are loaded with them for one simple reason, and it points right back to what James states in verse 8…“their loyalty is divided between God and the world.” If loyalties are divided, what can happen to you?
Matthew 12:22-28 CSB
22 Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and unable to speak was brought to him. He healed him, so that the man could both speak and see. 23 All the crowds were astounded and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”
24 When the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man drives out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”
25 Knowing their thoughts, he told them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is headed for destruction, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out? For this reason they will be your judges. 28 If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
This passage lends guidance for a couple of matters that I believe Jesus wants all of us to know and understand for application in today’s world:
1.) He is challenging your faith. He challenged the Pharisees as to their belief in Jesus, but it was apparent that they chose not to believe because of their response to how he healed the man who was blind and mute.
We know that all that is asked of each believer is to simply have faith. In our moments of weakness, we are strong as we rely upon Jesus.
2.) Choose the light of Jesus over the world’s darkness.
Jesus is reminding us that we cannot serve two masters. Serving two masters, the Lord and also the world, is nothing less than double-minded.
Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13 ESV
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
1 Corinthians 10:21 ESV
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
Now, before you think that the use of choosing between the Lord and the demons is harsh, I’m adding my hat into the ring that this is actually why we have so much division within a number of our churches. Either we stand on God’s Word and teach truth or we acquiesce and commune with the demons. If we can’t speak the truth with God’s Word and speak openly about the dangers of living in sin, then we have chosen the wrong side. Paul is warning the Corinthians about following idols and committing sexual immorality. What is the biggest talking point today? It’s no longer about keeping matters of idolatry and sexual preferences in private—it’s all out in the open and in our faces virtually every day, and anyone who opposes these things is subject to ridicule and shouts of bias and homophobia. Satan is clever enough to make this movement all about pride and making it a good thing, when we all should know that pride is the sin that leads to death.
In the book of Genesis, Cain presented an offering to God that he was very proud of, but the Lord rejected it. Abel, his brother, presented an offering that was not only good but pleasing to God. Cain resented Abel for how he was able to please God and because his own offering was essentially worthless. He was very angry about all of this. Please note that God knew exactly where Cain was in his heart.
Genesis 4:6-7 NIV
6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
Sinful behavior begins with pridefulness. It’s about doing whatever you want to do without regard for God or what He knows is best for you. Cain’s anger led to more sin. His pride led to the death of his brother.
Another clever way that Satan promotes the worldly message of love is by taking one of God’s attributes, love (1 John 4:8) and stretching it out to declare that “love is love!” It is a declaration that all expressions of love are acceptable, and it’s because, hey, God is love! This is the underlying message of today’s Pride movement.
God’s Word makes it very clear that it is unwise and foolish to throw around the word “love” as a permission to do whatever you want to do. (In all honesty, the word “love” in the following instance is better described as “lust.”)
Are we living in a time where destruction of those who oppose God is imminent? Consider the wickedness of everyone on earth during the days of Noah before the great flood event. Consider the people of Sodom and Gomorrah when God couldn’t find as few as ten righteous people in those cities to stave off destruction. It all begins with Satan’s deception.
Romans 1:18-23 NIV
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
As believers, we have the Word of God declaring all throughout its pages, chapters and books of how mankind has repeatedly turned their backs on God. The penalty for this rejection is that God also rejects them.
Romans 1:24-32 NIV
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
None of us want to see these people be ruined. Some of these are people we know and love. We don’t want to see their destruction. But that’s what awaits them. In spite of how they live, God still loves them. Is there a conflict here? Absolutely not. God is holy and righteous. He abhors sin. These lost people, if they merely turn from their ways and seek Jesus as Lord, will experience His miraculous saving power. This happens more than we know as we serve a miraculous God. All things are possible through Jesus.
Jesus says in Luke 18:27 that “what is impossible with man is possible with God.”
We serve a Savior who does the impossible. With that being said, why are there so many wishy-washy Christians? Why are churches today full of them?
It is because of fear of pushback against the lost and a lack of faith. Plain and simple.
If we say we love these people (and we do) and we don’t move in the Spirit to stand firm in our faith, we are operating outside of God’s will. Ultimately, we are as guilty as they are.
James 4:13-17 CSB
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.
15 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.
Many of us need to humble ourselves before God (and I mean get on our knees or lay prostrate before Him) and repent from our lack of faith and our wishy-washy behavior. God calls us to move and act in faith and use the tools that He has freely given us to stand firm in the wonder-working power of Jesus Christ. Our struggle today is all about good versus evil.
Repent and then stand in the power of Christ.
Ephesians 6:10-13 NIV
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
There’s no time or place in the body of Christ for wishy-washy Christians.
Pray that the Lord gives you courage, strength and endurance. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ must ratchet up their faith and trust that God will prevail in the battle for our very souls.
Copyright © 2023 Melvin Gaines
1 Hanson, A. (2021, November 25). Repast. Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/repast-2021-11-25/
2 Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Wishy-washy. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved June 19, 2023, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wishy-washy
Melvin Gaines 