AVERAGE SIN

My spirit is burning right now and I'm trying not to preach, but here it is:  Mediocre Christianity is a sin.   A sin.

Mediocrity means being/ living/ doing about average.

Average!

Do you know what average means?  Do you ever think about how pitiful and insulting it is to give God your average anything?

We hear the word average and think, “Good and normal.”

Average is often normal, but it’s never good---- at least it’s never good when it’s applied to things of the God’s Kingdom.

Average is the mathematical synonym for mediocrity.  In fact, the mathematical term for  average is the word mean.  In the King James Version , the word mean has this etymology:

Of things, "inferior, second-rate," from late 14c. (a secondary sense in Old English was "false, wicked"). Notion of "so-so, mediocre" led to confusion with mean (n.). Meaning "inferior in rank or status" (of persons) emerged early 14c.; that of "ordinary" from late 14c.; that of "stingy, nasty" first recorded 1660s

Average is fine in a lot of things (height, shoe size, age, income), but God doesn’t ask us to give Him what’s average.  God commands us to give Him what’s best!

We should not be satisfied with the average, the middle, the medium, the mediocre in our service to God.

Mediocrity is basically hallway between the very best and the very worst.  On a chart showing average, half the picture would be what’s bad or failing, half the picture would be what’s acceptable or passing.  Average would be right on the line between the 2 halves.

Picture that chart and consider what you’re doing when you choose average worship, mediocre offerings, average time, mediocre planning, medium energy, and just plain regular service in  the church.

Mediocre Christianity does not mean that you never give your best.  It doesn’t mean that you never perform with excellence.  But, being a mediocre Christian does mean that about half of what you give God ------ is garbage.

Garbage!

We go to church 2 Sundays a month on average and feel like that’s pretty good.  What boss would accept you showing up to work half the time?

We go to Bible study and Sunday School a couple times a year or never and thus remain ignorant of God’s Word and ways, but “No big deal.”  But, would you be pleased if your wife, husband, boyfriend, or girlfriend hadn’t learned anymore about you after 10 years than they knew the day your relationship started?

We show up on Sunday expecting a Dove Award winning choir led by a Grammy Award winning musician housed in a climate-controlled, impeccably clean building sitting on a manicured lawn; but we neither tithe nor give on a consistent basis.  In fact, what you dropped in the offering Sunday is less than the tip you left at Applebee’s Friday night.   Try giving your landlord a tip instead of the rent.  Try walking past the bouncers at the club saying, “Not this week.  I don’t have any change.”

But God’s supposed to find that behavior acceptable because you still do pretty well--- on average. 

Malachi 2: 7     You offer defiled food on My altar, but say, ‘In what way have we defiled You?’

By saying, ‘The table of the Lord is contemptible.’
8     And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?
Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?”
asks the Lord of hosts.

Oh, I know.

You give when you can, but you need something to enjoy for yourself.  You come when you can, but you work hard and you need to rest.  You don’t like to drive at night on Wednesday; and in the summer when it isn’t dark during Bible Study, you want to enjoy the evening while you can before it starts getting dark early.  You don’t participate in every thing, but you think that you do enough.  Looking around, your Christian walk is about -------- average.

Which is another way of saying that our Christian walk is about half good and about half garbage.

Now I know that everyone’s not called to  preach or to pastor.   Everyone’s not meant to be on the staff of a ministry.  But excellence in the things of God doesn’t mean that you (necessarily) have to quit your job and move into the church or fly off to be a missionary in Haiti or some nation with a lot of consonants in its name.

The antidote to mediocre Christianity is simply to focus on those things you do that you know please God and do those things consistently and completely.

 You know where the Holy Spirit has convicted you to do more. It’s those areas where you say, “Yeah, I know I should, but…”   Move your “but” out of the way and just do what you know you should do. 

From doing what you SHOULD do, you’ll eventually grow to the point of doing what you CAN do.  And from there, you’ll see God use you to do what you thought COULDN’T BE DONE.

When you get a church of people walking in such consistent faith that God regularly does the impossible then you have what the church was always meant to be------ a place where miracles are the norm and  nothing is ---- average.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a pastor, writer, community organizer and consultant for education and ministry.

Call him at 334-288-0577
Email him at atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend Anderson at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

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Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116