Communion Message
(The symptoms of spiritual backsliding)
March 6-7, 1999
Pastor Don Sheley

For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

I'm going to ask you to be seated. I'd like to talk to you just for a few moments of time. Have you ever tried to grapple with the emotions that must have surrounded that table, when Jesus said to his disciples I will not eat again with you until we arrive in the kingdom? There must have been some deep feelings behind that statement because He looked forward and He prized those precious moments of suppertime with His disciples. Something very sacred. Something very unique about sitting down at a table with those you love; those that are your family. It's a precious thing. I feel that as a father. My three boys and their lovely families; we try every Sunday to spend lunch together. Life is so busy that's about the only time we can get together. And I have to tell you those moments are very, very precious. And often I'm very, very quiet just simply taking in the sacredness of that moment. I think back over the years. I was raised in a family of five boys, and when we grew up and were married and families began to grow, years ago we would gather for suppertime and it was a beautiful time because there were 30 or 40 of us that would be there at the dinnertime. But time marches on and some of those seats now are empty. Death has taken most of our parents and divorces have ransacked the supper table and brokenness is something we live with and we don't have suppers anymore. All of us have feelings and surely when you gather around a table you feel the same emotions that Jesus felt that night when He knew that would be the last time He would have supper with them until He arrived in heaven. We think of that in terms of our own spiritual suppertime as a family. This time is very, very precious to me every Sunday. I cannot tell you how precious it is. I try to make it a very unique and wonderful experience, different every Lord's Day because it's something very, very precious. But over the years I lived with the fact that here at our suppertime and as a Christian family the scene has changed drastically. I know that death has taken many, and I know that because we live in a highly mobile society families move on, in fact, a couple of weeks ago five families came to me in one Sunday and said Pastor, we're moving now to a different city, and we've enjoyed ourselves at your church and we ask you to bless us. So I have to accept the fact that death takes some from our table and moving takes others, but I'll tell you what folks, when absence at the supper table is caused by spiritual backsliding then I hurt deeply. And I from time to time look across our congregation and I realize that there were times then people had a deep love for Christ; a passion for the sacred that's waned, grown cold. They're now out on the hillside somewhere of sin. Jesus painted that picture when He said the shepherd leaves the 99 that are in the fold and he goes to search for the one who is wandering. And I often look at the fold and I thank God for you that are here, and I thank God for the marvelous growth last Sunday; almost 2000 people, just a few numbers shy, joined with us. That's 300 more than a year ago on Sunday. That's a phenomenal growth, and I thank God for that fold. And I thank God for you, but I'm also a shepherd. I'm also a spiritual dad, and I'm the kind what more concerns me are the ones that are out on the hillside wandering from the fold. And that bothers me at suppertime. What actually happens is the longer you're in a ministry the deeper the feeling. You see, the national average is that most pastors only serve two years and eight months in a congregation then they move on. That's the national average. So you can preach your 132 sermons, pack up your suitcase, pack up the U-Haul trailer and take off for a new place to preach. 95% of most preachers do that. When you do that, you can leave behind all the problems of the congregation all the hurts and the pains of the sheep and you've gone for a new flock. That's the easy way out. But what happens when you've pastored and you've sat at the table with your congregation for 40 years. Now I've got three generations, and those memories keep stacking up and the pain of being a shepherd you live with because you care. You care for those who are not at the table anymore. You can't help them. So I thought to myself this week, what is it that starts people on the pathway of backsliding? What actually are the symptoms to spiritual deterioration? What causes people who once have loved the things of God and now they care less? What causes that? Are there symptoms? Are there things you could look at? And I'm not preaching to the choir, I'm preaching to all of us because Satan would like to trick any of us up and take our attention away from the goal and sidetrack us off onto the hillside somewhere. He'd love to do that to all of us. So what are the symptoms of spiritual backsliding? Number one; falling in love with the things of this world. When I see people begin to make things more important that Christ, I become concerned. When their home is more important than the house of God, something spiritually is wrong. Secondly, making friendships with sinners. Someone said recently, I have more friends in the world than I do at the church. And that sticks like a dagger straight in my heart because when people find friendship with the world more exciting than friendship with the family of God, they've started to spiritually backslide. And it won't be long; they'll be gone. Thirdly, the absence of private prayer and scripture reading. If you miss, if you didn't pray this week nor read your Bible, you've already started to backslide, because you can't live long without the food of heaven. You can't do it folks. You won't last long spiritually. Fourthly, the lack of commitment to the church and to the ministry within the body. God has gifted all of us and He's placed us in the church, and we need each person, and each one has a gift, and we fulfill that gift in the body of Christ. And when we start neglecting our gift and we take it away from the expressions of Christian fellowship, we're going to use it somewhere else. Sure enough. Fifthly, Jesus said to that church in Revelations I have something against you because you've lost your first love. When we lose the passion and the love for Christ, the things that are sacred, we're backsliding. We're heading downhill spiritually. Someone wrote there is really no such a thing as a sudden fall spiritually. The last step is only the last of a series of steps. And I believe there are always many steps before a child of God reaches the verge of the precipice. I believe further that even when the edge of the precipice is reached very few jump over, most of them just slide down; slowly at first. It's so easy, so gentle, so effortless, so natural, so pleasant, but at last they seem to enjoy the sensation of the slide. It's only when the pace begins to accelerate terribly; it's only when control is slipping away that this pleasant enjoyment gives way to anxiety, and to alarm, and to emptiness, and despair, and outright sin, and then spiritual death. You see, Satan makes backsliding enjoyable until payday. Then all that is beautiful and valuable is gone; all that is eternal has been squandered and God is a million miles away from our thoughts and from our life. That's backsliding. And I'll tell you when we get as bad as Peter; Peter denied his Lord, I don't know the man, and then he finds himself warming himself by the fire of Christ's enemies. Now that's backsliding. When we can feel comfortable in the presence of Christ's enemies, we've gone a long, long way downwards. You say, why are you saying this today Pastor? Because I'm grateful for the fold of 99, but as a shepherd I'm concerned for those who are not at the supper table this morning; who are somewhere out on the hillsides of sin, wandering from the fold and wandering from God. And I want you to care too because I can't reach them all. I want you to think today of maybe someone who you knew at one time had a genuine wonderful relationship with Jesus Christ and loved being in His house. Now they're a million miles from God. Do you care? We should. When I sit at my supper table with my family I rejoice because death hasn't come in our immediate family, no tragedies. A day will come when I'll have to accept that fact because It's a reality of life. But I think the hardest thing it would be to be a dad or mom and have a chair empty at the dinner table left there by a wandering child who is rebellious and going his own way and not appreciating his relationship with his family. I think if I ever had to do that as a dad, that would hurt. All three of my boys in growing up brought me great joy and great delight, and all three of them today are in the ministry. But to think of one who may have neglected the family and wandered into sin, I have the same feeling about our congregation. You say, but there're so many people, how can you care for all of us? You just do when you're a shepherd. And I care about you folks and I want you to stay true to Christ. When these symptoms begin to appear, get alarmed and go to the great Physician for the cure. Because if you don't, Satan can drag you off the path too and away from the table.

Let's kneel together, shall we? Lord Jesus, sometimes we take this sacred moment too lightly. Sometimes we just kneel and we forget that we're a part of a great spiritual family, and we have brothers and sisters that mean much to us. And some of us are aware of those that have been a part of our family spiritually, and yet today are far from You. Help us to miss them from the table. May their absence deeply concern us and may we do something to bring them back into the fold. May we not be comfortable at the table until all the chairs are filled and all the sheep are back in the fold. Please help us dear Jesus. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. Thank you Lord Jesus. Thank you for loving us, and everybody said. Amen. Let's greet one another, shall we?