December 2022: The Great Reset
Judges 2:10 (ESV)
10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel.
Israel Disobeys the Lord
The book of Judges begins the unfortunate cycle of Israel completely disobeying God by following other Gods, being overwhelmed by enemies, crying out to God for mercy, repenting, and God sending a deliverer in the form of a judge to rescue them.
None of this should have been a surprise because the Lord laid out the terms of the covenant clearly in Deuteronomy 28.
[Deuteronomy 28:15, 20 NLT] 15 "But if you refuse to listen to the LORD your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you: ... 20 "The LORD himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me.
At this point in Israel’s history, the generation that left Egypt under Moses’ leadership crossed the Red Sea, and experienced God’s miraculous provisions on the journey to the Promised Land had died in the wilderness.
The generation that crossed the Jordan to the land of Canaan under Joshua’s leadership had also died, and we find ourselves in the age of the Judges. The great leaders like Joshua and Caleb were dead, and so were all those who had served under them.
A Generation that does not know the Lord
We have more access to Christian “content” than any other generation, and we have not seen a great move of God in the United States in many years.
Even after going through a pandemic, historic disruption to our lives, and our churches closing for up to a year, the data shows that we have not seen a spiritual revival. The opposite has happened: Churches are seeing their attendance decline, and even the faithful are coming less frequently.
According to an article in outreach Magazine, much of the decline in attendance is from people who are attending less often,”
On average, U.S. Protestant churches report current attendance at 85% of their typical Sunday morning crowds in January 2020, prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Earlier this year, 34% of Christians said they attended a worship service four times a month or more before COVID, according to an additional Lifeway Research study. In April 2022, 26% said they currently attend that often. Slightly more than a third of Christians (36%) said they attended less than once a month before the pandemic. This year, that jumped to 43%. (Source outreach Magazine)
Suppose we need any further convincing that we are part of a generation that does not know the Lord. In that case, data also shows that there has been a significant increase of “Nones” in both the United States, and people who do not have any religious beliefs have increased significantly in the past decade.
Estimates are that 30% of Americans are “Nones” and claim no religious beliefs. A recent census in England and Wales reveals that a majority of people in England and Wales identify as “nones”.
New data for 2021 released by the Office of National Statistics show 46.2% of people identified themselves as Christians, compared with 59.3% of the population a decade ago.(Source CBN)
Quenching the Holy Spirit
First is the “quenching” of the Holy Spirit in our churches because we want to attract more people. We resort to “pragmatism” and “methods” instead of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul instructed the church in Thessalonica not to quench [subdue or be unresponsive to the working and guidance of] the [Holy] Spirit. -1 Thessalonians 5:19 (AMP)
As Jared C Wilson writes in his book, “The Prodigal Church,”
When you try to help the Holy Spirit, you quench him. So as the pragmatic spirit drives our methodology, the kind of discipleship culture that results is shallow and frequently artificial.
For example, the church focuses on helping the “Holy Spirit” in His transformation process by keeping believers occupied with activities and programs because the pragmatic method says that people will be engaged.
Unfortunately, there may not be much time for transformation by the Holy Spirit because the people are just too busy "working for the Lord."
Lack of Substantive Biblical teaching
The Second root cause of A Generation that does not know the Lord is the lack of substantive Biblical teaching. The Bible, aka God’s word, is one of the best ways we get to know Him.
All of Him.
We need to know The loving and merciful God and the God that will judge us after we die. As Jared C Wilson writes in his book, The Prodigal Church,
“The dominant message in so much attractional preaching is that Jesus has come to make life easier or better for us, that his teachings can help us in pursuit of our aspirations.
As we saw earlier, the data shows this approach is not working.
Church attendance is in decline, and the number of people with no religious beliefs is increasing.
The Great Reset
Here are three ways I believe we can commit to being a part of this great reset
- Allow the Holy Spirit to do His job
- Teach the ENTIRE word of God
- Return to the Lord and ditch everything else
Allow the Holy Spirit to do His job
And He, when He comes, will convict the world regarding sin, righteousness, and judgment:
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.
14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.
15 All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’ John 16:8, 14,15 NLT:
Teach the ENTIRE Word of God
In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses instructed the people to ingrain the Lord’s commands into their children.
And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. - Deuteronomy 6:6-9
Obviously, Someone stopped teaching and reminding everybody about the Lord’s commands because the people went astray after Moses and Joshua's generation died.
Before we judge Israel, it looks like we've stopped teaching and reminding people too...In September 2022, the State of Theology survey, released Monday by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research, released the Top 5 Heresies among American “Evangelicals.”
56% believe that Jesus is not the only way to God, and he accepts the worship of all religions
73% believe God created Jesus
43% believe Jesus was not God
60% believe the Holy Spirit is a force but not a personal being
57% agreed to the statement that “Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature. (Source Christianity Today)
We can take these numbers with a grain of salt, but I think they show a disturbing pattern I have observed firsthand.
People are not being taught God’s word, and they are not being taught foundational truths. Let’s get back to teaching God’s whole word and not just the parts that make people feel good.
Return to the Lord
Even when God judged Israel and sent them into captivity for breaking His covenant, he maintained that they were HIS people. He loved them and gave them hope that he would restore them when they returned to Him.
I believe the same is true of us. God is still merciful, He is faithful, and He will return to us but we must give up our pragmatic methods, gimmicks, and futile attempts to help the Holy Spirit and know that Jesus is more than enough!
Prayer
Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the LordAlmighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty. - Zechariah 1:3
Lord, help us become a generation that knows YOU and all you have done. We pray to remind the coming generations of who You are and all you have done. In the coming days, we pray to see an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will revive your people. In Jesus’ name, Amen
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