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Lou Coleman
By Lou Coleman
Consider the text God’s warning to anyone who’s “Playing Church!’ I ought to just finish right there with that one statement, for the text says it all. You can fool man, but you can’t fool God! Man is easy to fool because man’s assessment and evaluation of people is based on what man sees “outwardly,” but there is an “unseen eye” that sees all we do and an “unseen ear” that hears all we say. That unseen eye and that unseen ear belong to God, and God sees stuff and knows stuff about you that nobody else knows.
Tares are going to be found among the wheat. Goats will be found among the sheep, but the day will come when the Lord distinguishes between the wheat and tares, the goats and the sheep. In that day there will be no more hiding and masquerading as Christians. The question you must ask yourself is, “What will that day expose about me?” Are you playing Church?
People of God we need to “Stop Playing Church” and “Be the Church.” So many today put on their Sunday best, go to Sunday morning meetings, but have nothing; they are void inside of Christ. They are “Playing Church,” but “Aren’t the Church.” They look like good Church folks; they carry a Bible; they wear a cross, and sometimes they have on a robe, but they are not the real deal. It’s time that we realize that this is not a game, we must take Christ seriously. “Stop Playing Church!” Stop pretending to be living in obedience to God. Stop pretending to truly love God. “Stop Playing Church” the way little children play “house” or “doctor.” Stop Playing with God!
We have to wake up from our slumber and be about our Father’s business. {Galatians 6:7} “Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked) by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.” “For whatever a man sows, that shall he reap.” {1 Peter 4:17-18} For the time has arrived for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not respect or believe or obey the good news, The Gospel of God?
I believe that Jesus is calling “His Church” to stand up, share the truth, and be a catalyst of change. God made us for greatness, not pettiness. God gave us the best and greatest gift of all, His son Jesus. It’s time to “Stop Playing Church and Be the Church.” It’s time to get serious about this thing because time is winding up. I don’t know when He’s coming, but this one thing I am sure of, it’s just a matter of time. “Stop Playing Church and Be the Church.”
Warnings are an act of grace. The clearer the warning, the more abounding in the grace of God. God acts graciously when he gives warnings, for by such warnings there is given the opportunity to repent and seek the grace of forgiveness and eternal life in the infinite loving act of God in giving His Only Son to be the propitiation for our sins. We need to take this to heart. If we do not listen and turn from our evil ways, and so suffer awful judgment, then it is not the grace and love of God that is lacking, but the fault of our unrepentant hearts which refuse to heed the revelation of God, and spurn His love. Let us believe God. Let us not deny the truth, but warn people to flee from the wrath to come. Let us make sure that we ourselves have repented and hidden ourselves in Christ alone, so availing ourselves of the one and only escape from God’s wrath, faith in Christ.
