ARE YOU A PASSIVE CHRISTIAN ?

The podcast discusses the issue of being a passive Christian and the importance of actively engaging with one's faith. The host shares his inspiration from Psalms 2 and discusses the prevalence of passive Christians in churches. He also mentions a podcast he listened to where it was mentioned that African American women were more likely to be Christians while white men were more likely to be atheists. The host questions this assertion and reflects on the importance of living out one's faith in actions, not just words. He then delves into the key points of Psalms 2, highlighting God's supremacy and the rebellion of wicked rulers. The host emphasizes that attempting to rebel against God is futile as God has already decided who will reign as king. He quotes a pastor who remarks on the compromise and offense associated with devotion to truth. The host encourages listeners to examine whether they are passive Christians and defines passive Christianity as complacency and routines without all Hello. Welcome to the Faith Forward, the podcast where we explore the depth of Christian faith and its impact on our daily lives. I'm your host, Norman Goodman. Today we're diving into a crucial topic, are you a passive Christian? And I think that's a very important topic for a lot of us. What inspired this podcast for today? It was Psalms 2. I was reading Psalms 2 in a devotion this morning and that it came up, the Lord put on my spirit, about passive Christians. And we know in our churches we do have a lot of passive Christians that just show up for church service. You know, they just do the routine things and that's it. And they call themselves Christians. What prompted that was I was listening to a podcast of Pat Ben Davis, and he was talking to a gentleman, I can't remember his name, but for 40 years he's been preaching on college campuses trying to bring people, basically evangelizing, trying to bring people to God. And the question that he was asked, well, he did his research, and what he said was that more African American women were more Christians than anyone, and more white men were more atheists. But when he said that about the African American women, I kind of pondered and kind of scratched my head because I'm like, I go to church with a lot of African American women. I don't know if that case is true for a lot of people. Not just that because a lot of us will say that we're Christians in words but in deeds. Our lives don't represent that. So let me go over to Psalms 2 real quick and just bear with me a little bit. And then what I'm going to do is just go and look at some key points in Psalms 2. And Psalms 2 begins like this. Why do the heathens rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves as the rulers, take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed saints. Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. For he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath and vex them in His scorn and displeasure. Yet have I set my kings upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. As of me, and I shall give thee the heathens for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way when His wrath is kindled. But a little blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. Now, I can read that and then I'll say to myself, okay, what's the key points? I don't know. A lot of you guys are probably a lot smarter than me. So what I like to do is I like to use the tools that's in front of me. I use Google, Brave, or whatever, and I put that verse in or whatever it is and try to see the main points that's been put on the Internet and try to come to a conclusion of what that particular verse or particular book is saying. So as I'm searching, I'm looking for the meaning of the main point. And a couple of main points I'm going to point out here. Chapter 2 in Psalms, to show the Lord as a ruler of all the earth and to encourage the kings and leaders of the earth to bow down and submit to His leadership. One more point here is that the contrast between the rebellion of wicked rulers and nations and the rules of God's righteous Messiah. The face of terrifying threats. In the face of terrifying threats, God creates and preserves order through God's anointed one, a righteous Messiah. The message here in Psalms 2 is a celebration of the unquestionable supremacy of God and His Messiah over all the rebellious forces of humanity. To attempt rebellion against God is absurd because God has already decided the matter and has invested His power and authority into a human king, His Messiah, which is His Son. And then the lesson here says no matter how they try to throw off God's rule, they will fail because God is the Lord of the whole earth. In fact, thinking a human can throw off God is so comical that God laughs at those who try. OK, Psalms 2, 4 is laughable because God has already decided who will reign as king. So now I got a better clarity of that particular scripture that I've read. And I want to give you a quote by John McCarthy. He's a pastor. He says, compromise has become a virtue while devotion to truth has become an offense. It's become so offensive. So the question I'm asking here is, are you a passive Christian? Have you compromised yourself or are you just kicking the can down the road? And that's a discussion I want to have. Now, just doing a devotion to the Holy Spirit, the Lord just put that on me. What we'll do is we'll start with the question. OK, what does it mean to be a passive Christian, first of all? For many people, it might conjure up images of someone who attends church regularly but doesn't actively engage with their faith outside of Sunday service. My bishop always says, pewitis. You know, there are people that just show up, but they don't engage. They don't get involved. They don't do anything but just show up, amen, amen, come to the altar, and then they go home and, you know, dot the status quo. But there's more to that than that, OK? Being a passive Christian can manifest in various ways, neglecting personal prayer, avoiding difficult conversations about faith, or failing to live out Christian values and everyday decisions. I know that's a big thing with a lot of Christians. I probably said this before that one time I was at a restaurant. I was picking up an order, and one of the owners, one of the descendants of the original owner, and he saw I had a hat on with a cross. And he was like, he liked the hat, and he felt like that we have to hide ourselves. And I consider him as a passive Christian. He's not alone. There's a lot of Christians out there that are very passive that work for organizations that have forced them to self-censor their beliefs. And a lot of people do it just to keep their jobs or to, you know, not be ostracized or still be invited to the barbecue, the company barbecue. We're going to go over a couple of segments here, OK? And segment one is understanding passive Christianity. To truly grasp what it means to be a passive Christian, we need to understand what active faith looks like. Active faith is vibrant, engaging, transformative. It's about living out and teaching Jesus, living out Jesus' teachings every day in our lives. The contrast, to contrast that, a passive Christian in Christianity is marked by complacency, routines, complacency and routines in going through the motions without letting faith penetrate the core of who you are. Now, I'm kind of reading off of here some notes and stuff that I have written down, so forgive me if it sounds kind of robotic. But the contrast, here is the Christian life. The Christian life is you're constantly, you're not afraid to engage. You're not afraid to walk the walk and talk the talk. It doesn't matter to you who gets offended or not get offended because you're going to stand on the truth, the actual truth, which is God's word. To contrast that, a person who actually acquiesce to a worldview so they won't be ostracized. They are not walking the walk. They use profane language. They address a worldly way. They associate with people that aren't operating off a biblical worldview, right? So that's a contrast, okay? That's the opposite of what a believer should be, a true believer should be. Let's consider a few biblical examples. Let's talk about the parable of the talents. Remember the talents? You know, the king, you know, the ruler gave the talents to three different servants. Jesus describes a servant who, out of fear, buried his talents rather than invest in it. This servant represented a passive approach, playing it safe and avoiding the risk. Jesus calls us to be like other servants, like the other servants who actively used and multiplied what they were given, okay? A lot of Christians do play it safe. A lot of people who profess to be Christians play it safe. You know, I don't really want to talk about it. I don't want to offend anybody. They're more concerned about offending somebody versus actually standing with Jesus. You know, the Bible is clear. Jesus said, if you don't stand for me or with me or you deny me, then I'm going to do the same with my father. I'm going to do the same when it comes to you. So you don't want to be on that side of defense. Let's talk about segment two, identifying a passive behavior. How can we recognize passive behavior in our lives? Here are a few signs. Routines without growth, okay? Attending church and reading the Bible out of habit without seeking deeper understanding and personal transformations. Okay, what does that mean? I talked about this before if you listened to my podcast before, saying plugged into the power source, which is God's word. You know, a lot of us skim over the word. You know, we kind of ‑‑ it's like a chore. We're not looking to really get down in it and get close to God and get up under his armpits and just be up under him. You know, it's like if you're a married person and you met your spouse for the first time. You weren't married then, but you saw that person. And, man, you got the butterflies. And then you guys got to talking, talking on the telephone. And you could talk for ten hours straight. You know, you're falling asleep on the phone. You just did not want to hang that phone up. You wanted to be in each other's presence all day long. You didn't want to leave. I got to go to the bathroom. I got to go to the bathroom. I got to pee. But you didn't want to leave that person's presence. So you sat there and suffered for a while instead of going to the restroom. Okay? That's what you should have when it comes to God. Ten times that. A hundred times that when it comes to your relationship with God. That's what it should be. Right? And for many of us that profess to be Christians, it's not that. Okay? Let's look at a second habit that you can pick up that would cause you to, that you can pick up on signs that you are a passive Christian. Avoiding service. Not participating in community service or ministries that require time, energy, and commitment. We're avoiding church. We're avoiding Bible studies. We're avoiding Sunday schools. We're avoiding, you know, events that the church is putting up. You know? Conferences. You know, there's a conference this week at my church, and I totally missed it. It's over my head until one of my brothers texted me and said, are you going to the conference? My brother Herschel Cross, my brother. And I said, what conference? I talked to my mom, and she's like, Norman, we've been talking about the conference. We just talked about it yesterday. And so my plans were to do something else tonight, but I'm like, oh, well, let me find something to wear. I'll be at the conference tonight. Because why? Because I want to be in that service. I want to get growth. I want to grow. Right? So that's why I'm going to change my plans to be at the conference. Right? And it's very important because you're trying to get that growth. You're trying to get more knowledge. You know, you're trying to be around other people that's going in the same direction that you're going. And so, but those who are complacent, those who are not really, you know, digging into their walk, they will avoid things like that. All right? Let's look at another example, number three, lack of prayer life. Okay? Neglecting personal prayer or only praying in times of crisis. Now, how many times have we done that? Let's be honest with ourselves. We have our degrees. We have our house. We have our cars. Our children are doing well. Our husband and spouse are doing well. We got plenty of money in the bank. Everything's going. There's no ripples. Nothing. Do we seek God? Do we seek God when everything's going well? Or do we seek God when there's a little ripple? It doesn't even have to be a big ripple, a little ripple. Okay? One of the children gets sick. Something happens negatively at school. One of your children get in trouble with the law. One family member is not doing well. All of a sudden, somebody, a husband or a spouse loses a job. Now, that's when we run to Christ. We run to God. We can't ask him for help. We don't pay him any mind any other time when everything's going good. It's only when there's a crisis. Right? This is another sign. There's another sign that we need to look out for. Are we seeking God? Are we seeking him when everything's going great? Are we only seeking him when everything's going wrong? I did a podcast on are you seeking God's voice. I would suggest going back and listen to that one. Here's another sign. Okay? Fear of sharing the faith. Avoiding conversations about faith with friends, family, or colleagues because it feels uncomfortable or risky. I like to say how many Christians actually share their faith with their colleagues? How many? All their family members, their mothers, their daughters, their sons, their friends, people that they've been knowing for years. Are they sharing their faith with them? Are they sharing their growth? Or are they saying, eh, people, I'm going to avoid it because people, you know, they're not going to listen anyway. They're not going to, you know, I'm not going to worry about it. Can I give you some advice? I send out a devotion every day to a group of people on my phone list. Most of them respond. Most of them don't. But this morning one of my brothers responded and said, I've been running from God. And I thank you for reminding me how great God is. Right? So you can't think with your own mind, your own finite mind, of what someone is going to receive or not receive. You do what God requires you to do, and that's to do what? Evangelize. That's what we're called to do, each and every last one of us. And let God handle the rest. You're sowing the seed. Somebody's going to water it and God's going to bring the harvest. That's what we're called to do. And let's look at segment three. Okay? Moving from passive to active faith. Right? For those other examples I gave you were passive, right? You were a passive Christian, passive Christianity. Now we're trying to get out of that passiveness into an active faith life. Okay? Moving from passive to active faith requires commitment. Okay, I'm going to give you some steps and some suggestions on how you can do that. First, deepen your relationship with God. Make prayer and Bible reading, studying, a regular part of your daily routines. Not just as a check item, but as a genuine pursuit of God's presence and wisdom. That's one thing I definitely prayed for when I first started this walk, that I wouldn't do things as a routine. I didn't want it to become routine. Okay, today I got to check this out. Okay, I did my Bible. I sent this out. I sent this out. Okay, I got those tasks done. Let me move on to something else. No, I want a genuine relationship with God, a genuine one. I wanted to build wisdom through his teaching. Okay? That's how you move from passive Christianity to an active Christian life. You have to get with God. You have to constantly seek him out every single day. During the day, all day, that's what you have to do. Okay? Because the enemy wants you to be passive. He doesn't want you seeking God out. He wants you like a hit or miss thing. That's what he wants. When the mood so strikes you, that's when you'll seek him out. That's the enemy. God desires your presence with him all the time. He desires it. It makes him happy. And whatever makes him happy, we should be committed to. Okay, here's another example. Engage in your community. Get involved in your church or local Christian group. Right? Serving others helps to shift focus from yourself to living out Christ's love in tangible ways. Put other people before yourself. Okay? Seek to serve. Look to serve. That's very important. Seek it. That's very important. Okay? That's how you get out of that passiveness. Right? If there's an event happening in church or in your community, that's going to get involved. Get out of your routine. You know? Sometimes my wife would say, I want to change up the routine. Well, this is one way to change up the routine. Get involved in your church. Get more involved. Look for opportunities to serve. Look for things to get involved in in your church and in your church community. Trust me, the Lord will keep you busy enough to where you will never have to say, oh, I got to break the monotonous of my life. Get involved. Okay? Another suggestion. Live out your faith. Just live out your faith. Make decisions that reflect Christian values. This can be in your workplace, at home, or in your community. Let your actions speak as loudly as your words. Can I add one more thing? Can I add one more thing? Live out your faith through your political walk. A lot of Christians are politically driven. Right? November the 5th is coming up. A lot of Christians are going to go out there and vote. Are you voting your faith and your core values? Are you voting with your biblical worldview or are you voting with a secular worldview? Okay? That's very important, folks. What is your biblical worldview? What is your faith view? What does the scripture say? And are you voting? Because if you feel so inclined to do that, if you feel like you have to do it, then are you voting? Are you voting with a biblical worldview or are you voting with a secular worldview? A double-minded man is unbalanced in all his ways. Okay? Look deep inside yourself. Go to scripture and ask yourself, am I supporting the right group? Or should I support any of those groups at all? Should I even be involved in that? Scripture says we should pray for our leaders that they will come to know Jesus, not really get involved in picking a political leader. So but only you can ask yourself that question and dig deep inside yourself and line it up with scripture. If it doesn't filter through scripture, if it doesn't line up with scripture, if the person you're voting for have belief systems and policies they're pushing that's anti-God, then you need to ask yourself some serious questions. Should I go there? Because, again, whatever policies they're going to push through and they're anti-God and anti-Jesus, you're going to be held accountable for the decisions that you make when you go down to the polls. Just saying. Okay. Segment four, real-life stories. Okay? Again, testimony. Testimony. Talk to people. Let people know your testimony. Okay? Let them know your testimony. The enemy says in Revelation I will come against those who follow commandment and give testimonies. It's very important. That's how you live out your faith. All right? You'll be absolutely surprised how people will gravitate to you when they can see you beaming. Okay? When they can see you beaming. Segment five, encouragement and prayer. Remember, shifting from passive to active faith is a journey. It's a conversion. We talk about that in our evangelism class. It is a journey. This is not a sprint, folks. This is a marathon. Right? There are going to be bumps in the road. Right? It's a journey. Right? It's about taking small, consistent steps towards a deeper and more engaged relationship with God. Okay? Let's close with a prayer. We're going to close this thing with a prayer. Okay? I just want to give an example, too. I know a story, a testimony. It's a testimony. The other day my wife was going, getting on a Greyhound bus to go to visit her mother in Wilmington, North Carolina. And there was a gentleman. And we watched him, and he was being tormented by demons. He was yelling and screaming and everything. He was sweating profusely. And he was getting on the Greyhound bus. So at first I asked my wife, I said, well, I'm looking at him, and I'm like, where's your seat on the bus? She said, oh, yeah, I paid extra so I could get a bus. I said, okay. As a husband, I got concerned right away. I got protective because I saw this guy just kind of, you know, flipping out. And so we get into the Greyhound station, and my wife is in line. So I'm sitting there, and the gentleman looks at me, and I guess he noticed I had my hat on with the cross. And he just looked at me and goes, she drives me crazy. Whoever he was talking to is a significant other. He said, she drives me crazy. She causes me to sweat and yell and scream like this. And so I replied to him. I said, you're under demonic attack. And see, he stopped, and he paused. He looked at me. I said, you're under demonic attack. And that's why you were acting that way. He said, I said that to her last night. I felt like demons were attacking me. And then he asked me to pray with him. And I prayed with him, and I started to rebuke, using the name of Jesus Christ, rebuke the demons. I prayed with him in that spot right there in the Greyhound station in front of a whole lot of people. I didn't care if these people were atheists or agnostic, Christian, Muslim. I didn't care if they were gay or whatever. It didn't matter to me. I was in that world, following the Holy Spirit with that gentleman, trying to help him through what he was dealing with by using the name of Jesus Christ. And he walked away after that. He hugged me. I mean, he's all sweaty. Trust me, he's sweaty. And he's like, he sat back in his chair, and he goes, I feel better. I felt like something just lifted off me. He looked, and he said, thank you. I felt like something lifted off me. The thing about it is, folks, is that the spirits, the dark spirits, know who's serious and know who's playing games. And when you are connected to the power source and you're connected with God and you're earnest in your relationship with him, the enemy and the spirits will recognize it. And when you use the name of Jesus Christ and the blood of Jesus Christ to help another brother or sister out, the demons will recognize it and they will flee from that person. But I told him, I said, the next step is up to you. The demons aren't going to just leave you alone. You have to continue the process by returning yourself to God. And I gave him an analogy. I said, let's say you're watching the TV and you want to watch a game. But you're hitting the remote control and the TV won't come on. Then you realize the TV's unplugged and then you plugged it up into the wall with the power source. Guess what happened to the television? He said to me, he said, I can see now. So being plugged into the word will cause my vision to open up and I can see clearly. I said, there you go. You got it. And he just sat there and was like, and we was about to have church in the Greyhound. But when you're connected, when you're active in your spiritual world and not passive, those opportunities will come to you without you even looking for them. And now you can use what God has taught you through your relationship with him. Okay. So let's go ahead and end this with a prayer. Okay. Dear Lord, we come before you today with open hearts. We ask for your guidance and your strength to move from passive to active faith. Help us to seek you daily, to serve others with love, and to boldly share our faith. May our lives be a reflection of your grace and truth. In Jesus' name, amen. So I want you to just go away with this. I want to thank you for listening. I hope you enjoy this episode. Share it with your friends and your family. Continue your growth in your faith. Remember, it's a journey. Okay. Remember that. Until next time, this is Norman Goodman signing off. Stay plugged into the power source, which is God's word. And everybody have a blessed day.