Shun Complacency

By Pastor Mitch Horton | April 2000 | Posted in • Archives | (0) Comments

I recently returned from a missions trip to India. During the trip, two things became apparent to me. First of all, it’s HARVEST TIME. The world is so hungry for the gospel that we preach! Many were born again during meetings we held in the small villages of rural India. The people there are so needy, and so open to the truth.

The day after we held a meeting for young people in Ongole, India, I was visited in my hotel room by a young man who had been born again at that meeting. He had been raised in an upper class home (a high caste) and was a computer programmer from Chennai, a large, neighboring city. His father was a Hindu priest. He told me that he had heard the gospel several times, and had just given his life to Jesus Christ. To him, that meant being willing to suffer persecution from his family and peers, rejecting many of his old culturally intertwined beliefs, and going “cross grain” with most of his previous values. A real sacrifice. But he was desperate for change. And he was desperate for the peace and the presence of the LIVING GOD in his life.

The second thing that became apparent to me was the COMPLACENCY of the church as a whole here in the United States. During the five hour train ride back to Chennai from Ongole, I sensed the Holy Spirit urging me to get rid of any spiritual complacency in my life, and to challenge the church that I pastor to do the same.

I want you to see from scripture that there are seasons in God’s dealings with humanity. In Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, we read,“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven…....a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.” I believe that we’re in the greatest harvest season of the church age right now, and that our highest occupation at this time is to be harvesters for the King!. Proverbs 10:5 reveals that “He who gathers in summer is a wise son; He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.” Joel 3:13 reads, “Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; for the winepress is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.”

Notice what Jesus said about the harvest: “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. Then he said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’ ” (Matthew 9:36-38) Speaking of the wheat and the tares, Jesus said, “Let both grow together UNTIL THE HARVEST, and at the TIME OF THE HARVEST I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them together in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ “

Of course, we are all aware that the great commission to take the gospel to the whole world is not just to ministers, but TO ALL BELIEVERS. (See Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-18.) And the time for that commission to be fulfilled is RIGHT NOW!

One hindrance to the Lord reaping the harvest through us is COMPLACENCY. It’s also an insidious enemy of our personal spiritual vitality and health. Let’s take a look at complacency, and bring some clarity to what it is and how it affects our lives.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, complacency can be defines as “quiet satisfaction, contentment; the quality or state of being satisfied: a calm sense of well being and security; satisfaction or self-satisfaction accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies.” The word complacent is similarly defines as “marked by unruffled or blasé satisfaction about the security of one’s position or by careless acceptance of events around one; disinclined to act, to change, or to guard.”

Complacency will avert God’s best in our lives and it will keep us from pursuing the harvest. Following are twelve symptoms of complacency. I encourage and challenge you to compare them with your lifestyle.

1) A lack of spiritual hunger and desire. Lack of physical hunger is an early symptom of illness. A healthy person has a strong appetite! Similarly, spiritual health is indicated by a strong appetite for God’s word. Lack of desire for the word could be an indication of unconfessed sin in our lives. Notice 1 Peter 2:1-2: “Therefore laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, (2) as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.” If we don’t hunger daily for more of God, we need a spiritual checkup!

2) A lack of concern for the unsaved. This is a sign that in some way the Holy Spirit has been quenched in our lives. His major ambitions as our partner in the journey of life include not only making us Christlike in the way we live, but also using us as ambassadors to win others to Jesus! If we lack compassion and concern for the lost, we need to fan the faint embers of spiritual fervor into a blaze by repenting and returning to our first love. The great commission is His objective. If we’re in tune with Him, we will reflect His love for the unsaved.

3) A lack of fervent love for others, a tendency to be easily offended. 1 Peter 4:8 says that we are to have fervent or literally “white-heated,” love for each other. Jesus said that others will know that we are Christians, not by the volume of scripture verses we can quote, nor by the way we dress, neither by the amount of time we spend in “church activities,” but by the love we display towards others. (See John 13:34-35.) Even the unsaved can love those who treat them kindly. But the test of our Christian witness is the ability to love the unlovely, the unlovable, and the obstinate! (See Matthew 5:43-48.)

4) Prayerlessness. Complacent believers have lost sight of two things: The dangers lurking around them, and their responsibility before God to pray for others. He so wants us to lift up our family members, friends, fellow workers, acquaintances, spiritual leaders, and the authorities in every level of life. How the Lord of the harvest longs to send laborers into the laden fields of the world! However, Christians mired in complacency have forgotten that He can only work in answer to believing prayer. They have become blinded to the truth that when believers fail to pray, they are basically tying God’s hands and hindering the work of His kingdom. This is perhaps one of our most common sins! Repent today of the sin of prayerlessness and hit your knees.

5) Slack attendance and involvement in a local church. A sure sign of the state of our spiritual health is our attitude toward the local church. All those used by God in legitimate spiritual ministry must prove themselves faithful in small things, and in proper submission to God-ordained authority in the body of Christ. The local church is God’s incubator, a training base for the soldiers in His army. A person who is not faithful in the local church cannot be trusted with greater responsibility in the kingdom of God. (See Luke 16:10.)

6) Legitimate activities consume time needed for spiritual nourishment. Without daily spiritual nourishment, we dry up and become spiritual weaklings. If we are to busy to spend time with the Lord in the word and in prayer everyday, then we have allowed ourselves to become complacent, and may be involved in IDOLATRY - the esteeming of anything as more important than God in our lives. (See Matthew 6:33.)

7) Stinginess. God’s nature is to give constantly. The closer you grow in fellowship with the Lord, the more of a giver you will be. Stingy believers have become self-absorbed, and can’t see past their own noses! Everything we have, our time, our talents, our finances, our every resource, all belong to God. They are given to us not to be selfishly squandered, but to be used in generous service to others. (See Philippians 2:4.)

8) No change in personal growth in the last six months. Anything healthy is growing and changing. We are in the process of being changed from glory to glory by the Holy Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18.) If you have habits of long standing that remain unchanged after you’ve been saved for a number of years, I question whether or not the Holy Spirit is being allowed to do His transforming work. A sure sign of complacency.

9) A general feeling of self-satisfaction. The closer we grow to the Lord, and the more spiritually sensitive we become, the more aware we will be of our own human inadequacies, and of our utter dependence upon the Lord. As Smith Wigglesworth said, “I’m only satisfied with the dissatisfaction that has been satisfied over and over again.” We should cry out like David, “Search me, Oh God and know my heart; try me and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-34)

10) Lack of close fellowship with other believers. Ablaze with the love of God, the early church heard the Word together, prayed together, worshipped together, and ate together. (See Acts 2:41-47.) They enjoyed each other! We’re encouraged to gather together more frequently as we see Jesus’ return approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25.) Where the Holy Spirit has His way, there will always be closeness and unity.

11) Failure to witness regularly. Yes, we are to be witnesses with our lifestyles (Acts 1:8), but we should be witnesses with our words as well. We don’t have to be theologians to be effective witnesses for Jesus. We’re not called to prove that the Bible is the word of God, nor are we supposed to answer everyone’s controversial questions. Rather, we are simply to tell others about the Lord Jesus, who He is, and what He has done for us. What has He done for us? Anything? Then if we really love others, we have an obligation to tell them! The beloved Apostle John said, “that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3) Toss away religious tones and lofty King James phrases, and in your own way share with others what Jesus has done for you. And do it often. Again, Smith Wigglesworth had the goal of witnessing to at least one person a day. I think that’s a great example to follow. Live for the harvest!

12) A trite attitude toward sin. Isiah was engulfed in the presence of God when he had the vision of Him seated on His throne, “high and lifted up.” His first response was “....Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.” The Holy presence of God will always bring a strong conviction of sin. The closer we walk with God, the more aware we will be of our fallen humanity, and of our need for the cleansing blood of Jesus. “You who love the Lord, hate evil!” (Psalm 97:10). A seared conscience and a nonchalant attitude toward sin revel a distant relationship with a Holy God.

If you recognize any of the above mentioned behaviors and attitudes in your life, I challenge you to repent today! The Laodicean church thought they were doing so well, until Jesus lovingly confronted them. They wanted to be “balanced” in their faith, perhaps hoping they would be accepted by everyone. But Jesus said to them, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:15-16) They thought they had everything and were doing just fine, until Jesus said to them, “.....you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:17)

Like the proverbial “frog in the kettle,” they didn’t realize their condition. Perhaps we’ve also become complacent without realizing it. Just as He said to the Laodiceans in Revelation 3:19-20,Jesus is saying to us, “as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” He’s faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us when we confess our sins!

The world is desperate for a God that is real! And for people that walk with Him in an unashamed, bold, and perhaps radical way. Can they count on you? Shun complacency and embrace the harvest today!