A Sorry Assessment - On Spiritual Indifference

How should we respond when we face a problem? What can we do to prevent problems? Truly, why do we seek or not seek God? These questions and more are discussed in this sermon.
https://www.anushjohn.com/post/assessment-and-apology-a-sermon-on-spiritual-indifference
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Transcript

Assessment and Apology

Good morning. Good morning to everybody who is here and everybody online watching whether now or later.I want to thank God and thank a few people for this opportunity to speak here. I want to thank pastor Corey on thank pastor Ben Abel. Thank Dr. Abraham . And , thank of course, pastor shave for that very, very generous introduction.

We're in the middle of a series called checkup where we are looking how. Do a checkup on our spiritual lives. The texts that was given to me to speak from is from the book of Nehemiah chapter one. So if you have your Bibles, feel free to turn to Nehemiah chapter one, if you have your phones, feel free to turn to Maya chapter one, and it is from verse four to seven.

So I'm going to read it for us. When I heard these things, I sat down and. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said, Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments. Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including mine. And my father's family have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant.

This morning, my sermon is entitled assessment and apology, and I've divided it into three parts. And the first part we will look at the assessment. In the second part, we will look at the apology or the confession and the third part, we will look at forgiveness. Let me read that first, first that we read once more.

When I heard these things, I sat down and wept now. Unless we know the context of that, that particular sentence can have so many different meanings. So what I'm going to do in the first few minutes is to build a context for this particular passage. And for that, I'm going to zoom out to about 30,000 feet high.

And we're going to look at the broad scope of where this passage. In context to the rest of scripture. I'm going to take you back all the way to the book of Deuteronomy and Deuteronomy is a fifth book in the Bible. And the book of Deuteronomy is written when the people of Israel are knocking on the doors of the promised land.

They've been wandering the desert for 40 years. And now finally, they're about to enter the land that they have been talking about for all these. And in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses has a huge section where he says, if you obey God, God will bless you in all these ways. If you don't obey God, then God will do all these different things to you.

And he lets the people understand exactly what they are going to encounter. And in Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse 64, it reads, then the Lord will scatter you among all nations. From one end of the earth to the other. Okay. Now they are just about to enter the promised land. And here is God saying, if you don't obey, you will be scattered from the promised land to the ends of the earth.

Unfortunately, they did not obey. And there is a cycle from the book of Joshua all the way to second Chronicles of disobedience and warning and disobedience and warning at. And then at the end of the book of second Chronicles, the prophecy that was mentioned in Deuteronomy happens, and the people are exiled to Babylon, which means that they were taken from their promised land and all of them were taken to the country of Babylon. And so at that time it was a Babylonian empire and 125 years later, there was another empire that came up, which was the Persian empire. And if you read the book of Daniel, you see how Daniel. Straddles, both these umpires. He first is with the Babylonian empire and then from chapter six onward, he is with the Persian empire.

But what happens in the Persian empire is a king by the name of king Cyrus, lets some of these Jewish people go back to their promised land. So he let Israel go back and Israel went back and rebuilt. And after the passage that we just read, now, her Maya goes back and rebuild the city wall. So it's easy to remember.

Israel went back, built the temple.  went back and built the city wall. But there is another little critical factor that we have to consider. As rhe in addition to building the temple, he also rebuilt a part of the city. And when we enter into the story, now, her Maya had just received word that after 125 years of desolation, that the newly rebuilt city wall and the city gates were destroyed.

And so when I heard these things, I sat down and wept. He gets the news and he is very sad. 

So first let's look at the assessor. What does a primary emotion that you would get? If you heard bad news, let's say that tomorrow, sometime during the morning you get a call from your son and he says, dad, I hit somebody in the car.

It's all fine. It's all fine. And, you know, if you're a parent of a teenager, that call is going to come to you at some point. There's no question about it. Or what have you got a call tomorrow that says Mr. So-and-so and Mrs. So-and-so, your son has been suspended from school. When you get that news, there is a range of emotions that come to you. Yes, there is shock and there's grief, but there's also maybe fear and worry and anger. But obviously we cannot make decisions based on emotion. And so we have to go beyond the emotion and what does our next step. After the initial weeping, Maya did an honest assessment.

And so he says in verse seven, we have acted very wickedly. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant. Moses the shows, tremendous maturity for Nam Maya to go beyond the emotions and make an objective assessment of the situation, especially when it had to do with personal sin.

Let's say that tomorrow morning, your, your boss called you in and said, I'm sorry, you worked with us for seven years or whatever, but this is not working out and I'm going to have to let you go.

When that happens, you can have a range of emotions. You can blame your boss. You can blame your coworker. You can blame the mainland. You can blame your family. You can blame anybody else, but maybe it's you. Maybe it's me. Maybe it's our temperament that is incompatible with working with other people.

Maybe we don't take the initiative to do work at our workplace. Maybe we are not motivated. Maybe we have lazy streaks in us. Maybe we are not qualified for the job. Maybe it's. But it's easy to blame somebody else.

Well, let's say that you got a call tomorrow. I know tomorrow is ending up to be a bad day. Let's say you got a call tomorrow that said you know, the biopsy that we did last week has come up positive. You have an unfavorable health diagnosis. There's a person that we know who had a stroke about three, four weeks ago.

And she is paralyzed on the right side. The future looks bleak and it's going to be very hard. But if we objective, really assess a negative situation, was the person or are we compliant? Medicines are we compliant with advice of medical professionals? Are we, are we on some kind of diet? Are we eating healthy or do we just do whatever we want and expect, you know, the fat to just burn off?

It doesn't happen that way.

In the movie, Shawshank redemption. It's a story in a prison setting. Tim Robbins asked Morgan Freeman red. Why he is. And he says I'm innocent. And he said, everybody in Shawshank, dizziness. We live in a culture when it's not my fault. It's not my fault. I'm a good person. My kid is an angel. It's gotta be somebody else's kid. 

But that didn't start in this culture. That started way back in the garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve were blaming him. Unless we identify the problem and make an honest assessment it can never be fixed. You may be thinking, well, I don't have any big problem to make an assessment of. Well, maybe we should make the assessment before the problem.

Yeah, maybe we should make the assessment before the kid is suspended from school or the assessment before we lose it. Or the assessment before we get the stroke. Maybe if we did the assessment earlier, before the problem happened, maybe we could prevent the problem from happening. So we need to make an assessment of our parenting, our marriage, our social interactions, our spiritual life, our physical health before the problem happens.

And her Maya's assessment showed that they had disobeyed. So he confesses his sin and that is what we will turn to in the second part of the summon 

confession. All of us have said or taught, sorry. At some point. I know there are certain temperaments where to so hard to say a sorry, but at least you've thought the, sorry.

I know it's not a substitute. But what are you sorry for if you've ever said a thought. Sorry, what are you? Sorry. And while I let that question suspend, I want to draw the difference between remorse and repentance .Remorse and repentance. Let me ask the question. How many of you have ever gotten a speeding ticket?

Speeding ticket? The rest of you don't have a license.

So let's say that you're driving 60 in a 40. Okay. And you're thinking about, you know, how your team lost the previous day and just driving along and suddenly you see a car pull up in the rear view mirror. You see it pull up behind you or anything. Oh my gosh, that's a cop. And you think, oh man, maybe, maybe he's for the other person that speeding along and you slow down, but it's not he's right behind you.

As you slow. You pull over to the side and the cop pulled over behind you and you know, your day is ruined. He comes next to you. You open the window and he says, you've been going  60 on a 40 zone and you try your. You're best to appease him so that he doesn't go back and get a ticket, but that doesn't work for some people.

And he goes back, gets the ticket and he comes and says, here's your ticket. You are going to fast. And he gives a little speech that you don't want to hear at that point. You just want him to go away, but he gives a little speech, don't drive fast and all of that stuff. And then he goes away.

Now, your day is ruined. Why are you. Is it because you are a chronically speeding driver that doesn't follow the speed limits. Is that the reason? No, we are sad because we got to take it. You see that? There's the difference between remorse and repentance in remorse? We are sad at the consequence of the action. In repentance we are sad at the cause of the action. Remorse does not lead to change. That's why we end up speeding again and again, and again, repeat pentance leads to change. So in second Corinthians seven verse 10, it reads godly. Sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves, no regret, but worldly sorrow brings.

That does a difference between Judas and Peter Judas betrayed Jesus. And once he discovered that Jesus actually was arrested, he saw the consequences of his sin. And instead of repenting, he felt remorse and went outside and did something. Beat her. On the other hand, he denied Jesus, but there was not much of a consequence, but as soon as he realized that he had denied, he'd looked inward and found the cause of the problem.

And he was sad at the cause of the problem. And he went out and repented. Now Maya had repentance. He was horrified at the cause of the problem. So he says in verse six, I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's family have committed against you. Some of you may be thinking I've not done anything wrong.

I walk on the straight and narrow. My kids are doing okay. I go to church. Yeah. Everything seems to be doing fine. Let me suggest a, a very subtle sin that is prevalent in our churches. How about the sin of spiritual indifference?

There is no objective way to measure spiritual indifference, but I've got five suggestions. There may be more, but these were the five that I could. We have spiritual indifference. If we have no time to read the Bible, but we have time for personal entertainment.

We have spiritual indifference. If we have no time to talk to God without there being a problem. Of course, when we have a problem, we all talk to God. But how about when there is no problem, if your life is going great, do we take the time to talk to God? Maybe we have spiritual indifference. If we give to God only if there is no discomfort, because, you know, we don't want to be uncomfortable.

And so we give God leftover stuff. Like we would give a beggar, something that doesn't hurt us. Leftover time after we've done everything that we want to. Here, God, here are a few minutes for you. After we spent our money on everything that we want to hear. God, here's some money for you after we spent our energies on everything we want here, God, here's a little bit of energy for you.

We may have the sin of spiritual indifference. If we see God only with a personal level.

Because we want something. Forgetting that God is infinite and we don't even try to know him. God wants us to know him. In fact, his infinity ensures that we will never completely know him, even in heaven. We will never completely know God, because he isn't.

Maybe we have the sin of spiritual indifference. If we have no particular desire for Jesus to come against him, it means we have settled. We are happy in our temporary housing. And we can blame spiritual indifference on a host of things. I mean, Adam and Eve blamed everybody . The easiest thing to blame now is COVID, let's blame it on COVID.

Let's blame it on our culture. I can blame spiritual indifference on the government. I can blame it on a foreign government. I can even blame it on the church. Why is it that we are not passionate for the things of God? Why is it that the don't whole heartedly seek. There may be many reasons, but may I suggest one we don't want to,

it's not that we don't have the ability we do have the ability. It's not that we don't have the resources. We do have the resources. It's not that we don't have the time we do have the time we just don't want to. It is not important to me. We've been talking about doing a spiritual checkup. Let me talk about a physical checkup.

Let's say tomorrow that you went to your primary care physician and they did a top to bottom annual checkup and that as they were doing the checkup, they felt around in your abdomen and said, Hm, I feel something different. Let's do a CT scan. So your doctor does a CT scan and you have what is called as a abdominal aortic, aneurysm it triple a. And by surgical protocol, at least the last time I checked, it's gotta be five centimeters expanded. The aneurysm needs to be five centimeters for them to operate. If it's bigger than five centimeters and it's not operated,  it can spontaneously burst causing you to die in a few minutes.

Your aneurysm is 4.5 centimeters, slightly short of the surgical protocol. So your doctor says, you know, it's not yet ready to be operated on, so why don't I do a checkup monthly? My next available date is on the third, Tuesday of next month at 3:00 PM. What are you going to say? Are you going to be there?

Yeah, we will. What are we going to say? Oh, I'm sorry, doc. I've got a, I've got a game night at night. No, you will cancel the game night or, oh doc, I'm sorry that I've got to take my kids swimming or piano. No, no, no, you will cancel it because it is important to you. Spiritual things are not important to us and therefore it is easy to let everything else crowded out. If it were important to us, we would cancel everything else too. Seek God. Maybe it's time to repent. Maybe it's time to confess and repent. And when we confess and repent, we will find forgiveness. And that is the third part of the song. 

Contrite confession leads to forgiveness.

One of the best verses I've read in all of scripture is in one John chapter one verse nine, which says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. It doesn't say if you confess your sins and do a bunch of other things, it says, if you confess your sin, that's it make an assessment and confess your sin and he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Restoration starts with an honest assessment, confession and forgiveness. Let me take you to a Friday afternoon, about 2000 years. And this account is written for us by mark. In mark chapter 15, verses 22 to 24, it says they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means a place of the skull.

Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified. There was an association of women in Jerusalem at that time that did this merciful service, where they took strong wine, mixed it with Mar and they gave it to anyone who was going to be executed. And the reason they did it was too dead in the consciousness.

This is not the incident when Jesus said I thirst. That happened six hours later, Jesus said I thirst. And they gave him a wine vinegar. That was a different event. This happened before the crucifixion. And that's why it says he did not take it. And they crucified. Jesus did not eat or drink anything for about 12 to 14 hours.

The last time he ate or drank anything was at the last supper. Since then he walked to the Mount of olives. One of his disciples betrayed him. Another disciple, denied him. The rest of them are. He was taken, arrested in chains and taken to the house of Annas. Then he was taken to the house of Caiaphas, where he spent all night while they slapped him and they beat them with rods and they pulled out his beard early on Friday morning.

They took him to the house of pilot and pilot sent him to the palace of Herod and inherit, sent him back to pilot where he was flogged within an introvert. And then he was asked to carry his cross, which he did through the streets of Jerusalem, came out the gate and just outside the city limits of Jerusalem he collapsed under the weight of the cross so much so that they had to get someone else to carry it the rest of the way. And when they came to the place of the skull, this tired, exhausted Jesus, they offer him a drink and he refuses it. Wow.

Maybe it's because he wanted to face the full penalty of the crucifixion to give us the full freedom from sin. But I think that there is another reason. He had spoken to so many people during his life. And after his life, death and resurrection, he would impact the lives of billions more, but there was one more person, there was one more person that needed him.

And that person was a criminal that hung on the right side of him. And by his own admission, he deserved the crucifixion that he was. That could not have been a better place for him to die than die next to the son of God. And in his dying breath, he turns to Jesus and says, remember me, when you come into your kingdom and as the breadth of Jesus ABD away, Jesus would turn to him and say, today you will be with me in paradise.

ladies and gentlemen, there is no one who was so far gone, that they cannot turn to Jesus and find forgiveness.

I want to give the opportunity for two groups of people to respond to the summit. If there's anyone here who's never invited Jesus into you. I'm going to ask you to stand up and we will pray together.

Secondly, if there is anyone here who is guilty of the sin of spiritual indifference, you can also stand up and we will pray to you.

If you are online, if you are able, you can stand up or you can raise your hand. I don't usually ask people to stand up or raise their hand, but sometimes I like to connect the physical action to  a mental ascent of his spiritual reality. Because later when doubts come, you can always turn back and say, no, I stood up or no, I raised my hand.

In his 2014 song love ran red. Chris Tomlin wrote. Here my hope is found here on holy ground. Here I bow down here, arms open wide here. You saved my life here. I bow down. At the cross at the cross. I surrender my life. I'm in all of you where your love ran red and my sin washed white. I all all to you jesus. 

If there's anyone here who's never invited Jesus into your life, you can pray this prayer after me, the prayer itself is not a magical prayer, but if it's something that you mean from the bottom of your heart, God will answer it and he will fulfill his. You can pray something like this.

Dear Lord Jesus. I have made an honest assessment of myself and I am a sinner. I am the cause and I cannot save myself. Thank you for your perfect life. Thank you for your death in my place. And thank you for the reservoir. I ask you to come into my life and make me complete, helped me to live the life that you have called me to. And thank you for the promise of eternal life. 

Heavenly father. I pray for all those who are standing both in person and online or raising.

We look at ourselves in the mirror and we are the problem. You have given your life for us and we can't do the same to you. Forgive us for the same no spiritual indifference. Help us to seek you. Help us to seek you fully. Help us not to seek you second. You don't want the second place more.  Help us to seek you first reveal to us the things that we need to change to make spiritual things a priority, help us to cancel things so that we can keep our appointed.

Give us a strength to follow you in Jesus name. Amen.

I'm going to ask the rest of us to up. And as we do that, the friends from the prayer ministry will come forward. If there's anybody here that would like to be prayed for you can come forward and they will pray with you. After the service, he has a final blessing. May the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ and the love of God, the father, and the sweet fellowship of the holy spirit.

Be with us both now and forevermore. Amen. Thank you. God. Bless you. Thank you.