Will You Please Save the World for Me?

I watched a documentary the other night about people installing wind turbines on their farms to produced electricity. Their neighbors, who seemed to be conscientious about the environment, objected because of the noise or the view or some other trumped up reasons. They didn't deny that they wanted to stop our dependency upon oil for energy but they just didn't want it in their neighborhood.

That reminded me of people who said that they weren't bigots but were opposed to black people moving into their neighborhood because their own property values would plummet. I really believe these people thought they weren't bigots but their actions proved that they were.

The people who want to save the environment as long as its in someone else's neighborhood don't care enough about the environment to say they want to save the environment. They are hypocrites of the first order.

Great endeavors require sacrifice. Is that so hard to understand? Becoming the Savior of the world required the ultimate sacrifice. Saving the environment will take some sacrifice. It may be your view or that you have to listen to the swish of the turbines or that there might be some mishaps along the way like the spilling of chemicals or some other imperfection to the solution. However, those imperfections are a part of the sacrifice that must be made.

People are always willing to let someone else do what they should be doing. Isn't that how politicians get the votes? They tell the people that their votes will mean that the politician will do all the heavy lifting for them to have a better life. They are very convincing because they continue to get the votes even though the politicians do not tell how they produced an apparent results. They have cut holes in the pockets of their constituents so that the money just falls right out into the politicians hands. The best politicians rob Peter to pay Paul without Peter ever recognizing that he has been robbed.

Then people come to church with this same expectation. They want to see the church win souls but they don't want to share Christ with their neighbors. They would rather have an evangelism program that they can attend for ten weeks which assigns them to visit unknown people rather than making a real sacrifice by showing their neighbors love. Love is always a sacrifice. It requires actions which are often inconvenient. It speaks much louder than preaching. But preaching costs less.

I am amazed at people who claim that the reason they hired the staff at the church was to get Sunday School teachers for their children. They neither want to serve nor ask someone to serve. They want to absolve themselves of all responsibility while saying that they want children to be taught. They want to see people come to Christ but will not take the time or effort to attend baptism services. They want to the world to be saved without any effort on their part.

Do they have faith? Not in the sense that James would say they have faith. They want to believe that they believe but do not really believe.

So, do you believe or are you expecting someone else to save the world for you?

James 2:20-24 (ESV) ²⁰ Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? ²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; ²³ and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. ²⁴ You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.