Defending Your Family - Lesson 7 - Dilute

Dilute

Synonyms: thin, weaken, water-down, adulterate, reduce, attenuate, temper

If you mix enough water into a certain quantity of MILK
you have cheapened that milk.
It looks & tastes like chalk water.

The enemy is happy if he can dilute
our Christian experience with worldly ingredients
so that we are cheapened and unrecognizable as Christians.


Revelation 3:15-16, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”

What temperature would you say you are?





Lukewarm Lemonade on a hot humid day is yucky.
It's cold has been diluted with the warmth of the day.
We want our drinks either hot or cold.

God wants us on fire for Him.
If not, the second best condition is for us to be cold.
But there is little hope for the lukewarm Christian.

He is a mixture of the hot and the cold:
The Heavenly and the earthly.
Diluted!

How do we become diluted??





We can be on fire for Jesus
but loaded up with so many TIME consuming activities
that we become washed out.

We go to church and then at home
get the mail and read secular materials
or watch TV, and this negates the good...
We have our morning Bible study
and follow it by a heavy dose of impure magazines
with their immoral ramifications.

Two opposite activities canceling each other out. Diluted!

Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

This is a harsh verse, but can you give testimony of an activity you had to give up?





Do not let anything DILUTE your walk with Jesus.
Do not let anything DETERIORATE your love for Jesus.
Do not let anything DEVIATE you from Jesus-the path of life.
And finally…

Do not be DETACHED from Jesus----the source of life.


John 15:5-6, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”

What does this verse say to you?





If the enemy can:
DILUTE us, we will become lukewarm and be spewed out.
DETERIORATE us, we will be rusty scrap on life's trash pile
DEVIATE us, we will miss the mark and be lost forever.
DETACH us from Christ, we will be dead for eternity.
Then we will be DETAINED from heaven!


We need to Know the Competition

Sometimes our worship goes astray.
Sometimes it is misdirected.
Sometimes it is little more than “guessing in the dark.”

Matthew 4:1-11, “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”

Do you think we underestimate the enemy or do we give him too much credit?





We need to know the competition.
We need to know how he works
so that we will be able to stand our ground...
so we can resist his attacks...
so we can stand strong, as Jesus did.

Psalms 4:4, “Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.”

Can you give us any advice about standing strong?





Satan is going to do all he can
to undermine our relationship with God
and to sabotage our worship of God.

That’s why we need to be prepared for his tricks
and his attacks-especially those he uses
to draw us away from meaningful worship.

Here are a few schemes the enemy will use against us.

Just Going Through the Motions

The enemy will try to dilute your worship.
He will encourage you to just go through the motions
and keep your worship empty of any real meaning or purpose.

True worship comes from the heart.
It is not shallow or superficial or outward.
It is inward, concentrated on God. It runs deep.

That’s why the enemy will try to dilute our worship.
He’ll try to make it only about external actions.
He doesn’t mind if you sing the worship choruses,
just as long as you don’t think about the words
or make them your own personal words of praise.

He doesn’t mind if you quietly bow your head during the prayer time,
just as long as you don’t personally begin to talk to God
or speak to Him during that time.

He doesn’t even mind if you partake of the communion,
just as long as you don’t let your mind and heart go back to the cross...
just as long as you don’t really think about your own sin
or your own need for God’s grace and forgiveness.

He doesn’t mind if you put something in the offering,
just as long as it is a token gift,
and not a real or heartfelt sacrifice of love and devotion.

He doesn’t mind if you listen to the message,
and even take notes,
just as long as you don’t personalize it
and try to make application to your own life.

The enemy has no problem with you coming to a worship service
as long as you keep it superficial,
as long as you only go through the actions,
as long as you keep your mind and your heart at a distance to God.

Some of us can spend years doing that,
just going through the motions of worship...
and never really worshiping God at all.

I believe we all struggle at times.
The enemy still tries to dilute our worship
and just make it a matter of external words and actions...
and sometimes he succeeds.
But hopefully not for long.


Another thing that Satan will do is try to discredit your worship.

He will tell you that worship really isn’t that important,
that you can find better things to do with your time,
that it really won’t make any difference
whether you show up for worship services or not.

Hebrews 10:25, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”

What does that verse mean to you?





Satan is a master at discrediting the importance
and value of worship.
He just whispers in your ear, "You’re too busy."

For many people, worship is not seen as a productive use of time.
It’s just wasted effort and time.
We have friends who think the ‘Couple’s Fellowship’ is also a waste.
The ‘Men’s Breakfast’ a waste.

Jude 1:19, “These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.”

So why would someone not want to partake in assembling with others?





Satan and the world around us
is always tinkering with our internal spiritual compass,
trying to get it to give false information and false readings.

But in worship, we are able to reset our internal compass.
We are able to again focus clearly on God and on his truth.
We are able to establish "true north" for our lives.

In a volatile, uncertain, dangerous world,
worship anchors us to a faithful, unchanging, loving God.
It keeps us from becoming spiritually near-sighted,
seeing only the here-and-now.
It gives us the big picture of life
Our hearts are drawn to God’s heart.
For many of us,
our worship services have become our breathing holes.
They are necessary for us to stay alive spiritually.

Psalms 80:18, “So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.”

How does the term quicken apply to us?





Battered and bruised in a world frozen over by sinfulness and callousness,
we need a place where we can rise for air.
Where we can not only catch our breath,
but catch God’s breath.


In Conclusion

Remember the synonyms for the word Dilute:
thin, weaken, water-down, adulterate, reduce, attenuate, temper

If you mix enough water into a certain quantity of MILK
you have cheapened that milk.
It looks & tastes like chalk water.

The enemy is happy if he can make us chalky water
We owe it to our family to defend them from worldly ingredients
so that we can be proudly recognized as Christians.


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