08. What They Never Taught You in Sunday School

The Harsh Reality of Becoming a Christian They Didn’t teach In Sunday School

When we became a Christian we were misled to believe everything was going to be easy because God‘s in control. He’s got it covered. You’re going to be fine. Now don’t misquote me, God is ultimately in control of everything but until the second coming and God takes us all up to heaven where our lives are renewed, guess who else has power here?

Satan became the prince of this world when he was cast out of heaven and he plummeted to earth with his demonic army of followers and will be the ruler of this domain for a time.

There are many benefits of going to church and witnessing the Holy Spirit working in incredible ways, meeting people at the perfect time to bring them to Christ by confess their brokenness and longing for Jesus to enter their hearts as their personal savior. All of this is a victory for God’s Kingdom

What upsets me is the lack of equipping that comes afterwards you say, “I believe.”

Churches will typically have a connection service that you opt into to learn more information. It’s a lot like most of us who graduated college and didn’t have a clear direction or job offer right out of school. You’ve received your “I Believe Diploma” but now what do you do?

We waste time whether or not to get involved with something we may not feel called to or nothing really equates powerfully enough to the fire that has been lit in your heart when you decide to seek out God.

The other option is to spend money on bible study programs being ran through the church but then you feel like your being sold on something that takes advantage of your situation to profit someone else.

For those of you who have kids and had a birth in the hospital, remember when you had your baby(s) and they’ve clean them up, nurses came in to do the foot prints and give them their shots… you finally get your child placed back in your arms and what seems like only minutes after you receive your child for the first time… then they walk in.

The “Newborn Photography” package salespeople. Lord, bless them.

You can barely think straight and now you have to decide whether you want (2) 8x10 Portraits, (4) 4x6s and (8) wallet photos or do I want (1) 9x12 Landscape, (3) 8x10s…

Becoming a Christian at Church feels a lot like this sometimes. I think it’s time we start moving away from getting butts in seats for our programs and spend more time equipping people for the reality of what lies ahead.

People need to know the truth and not told that if they want to learn more they have to continue jumping over hurdles. I don’t believe Jesus talks laid out this type of introductory structure in the Bible so I don’t understand why contemporary churches have adopted this model over the years.

Reality of a Believers

Whether you consider yourself more mature in your faith or a new believer, before you became a Christian who’s team are you on? Satan’s team. Do you understand what happens when you change sides in the midst of the battle?

Does he sit around and say, “Well shoot, sorry fellas, looks like we lost another one to the good guys. I guess there is plenty more where that came from.” NO! You know what he says?! You’re a f***ing traitor! You sellout! I could’ve given you everything and anything you could’ve imagined in this world!

Matthew 4:8-11

“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.”

You chose your God over all these incredible things so I am going to make it my life‘s mission to ruin you and I’m not going to stop I just you; I’m going to find everything that you love and everything that you care about and everyone that you hold close and I’m going to go after them!

I’m going to find weakness you have an I’m going to exploit them, make you feel shame, I’m going to isolate you from everything. Nobody would every forgive you for what you’ve done! How could God possibly forgive you when He finds out what you’ve done.

I’m going to attack them I’m going to make your life a living hell until you come back to me. You think this is over but we’re just getting started I’ll see you soon.

Set Yourself up for success

Matthew 10:16

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Now throughout this course in this classroom and with these team member sitting next to you, we’re going to look at a wide variety of historical references, scripture, scripture commentaries, biblically based texts. The concepts and principles applied then can also be applied now and what is to come.

The reason we do this is because we can safely identify evil and darkness through the stories of others. At times we will go to some dark places and we’re going to see how Satan works – how Satan maneuvers in these dark times in history. The reason we study this is because we have to understand that the enemy will stop at nothing to remove you from God‘s kingdom. And if he can’t have you he’ll take as many as he possibly can and he may not get you today he may not get you tomorrow but you know what it’s a war of attrition.

Satan has been given a full-stop deadline of when Jesus comes again to throw anything at everything at us to break us. The only way to combat this is to stuy the tactics of the enemy and put our complete trust and faith in Jesus Christ. We believe with every part of our being that Jesus is the Lord of Heaven‘s armies. You will learn how to protect yourself and put up your defenses. You’ll begin developing an understanding of your strong points and your weak points because chances are Satan is going to attack he is going to seek out your weak points. “In boxing, they say it's the punch you don't see coming that knocks you out. In the wider world, the reality we ignore or deny is the one that weakens our most impassioned efforts toward improvement.” - Katherine Dunn, an American Novelist

The same can be said for our faith and walk with God in the fight against the darkness. Thankfully, we know how the story plays out in the end because God already gave us the end to the story. Until that day comes, though, it’s going to get bad -- it’s going to get real bad, and my fear is that the church has done a poor job equipping their congregations in preparation for what’s to come.