Why Most Christians Never Experience a Deeper Life in Christ

Someone asked here how to begin moving into a deeper walk with Jesus Christ. I think what I want to tell you tonight is that, with the rare exception of a few people, you cannot and you will not. You will probably end up getting into the Bible, or you will begin helping some organization, or you’ll die in the desert. I don’t think anything relevant abroad in this world today will bring you into a deeper Christian walk that will remain permanent. I don’t believe that exists.

Now, I don’t know who has gotten a hold of you. I don’t know how much you have been indoctrinated with certain concepts, but before I go any further, I want to remind you that I have a master’s degree in theology, and that I am a preacher. I know the ministry from A to Z. I know how the ministry thinks. I know how it operates. I know how it works. I know the grooves that all the men’s minds are in. You take a needle and put it on a record, and it hits a certain groove, and that’s how it is within the ministry. It’s going to come down to about three or four possible different grooves. I will repeat that: I don’t believe there is anything abroad on this land; I don’t believe there’s anything abroad in any other nation in the world that’s going to help you know the Lord better. I’m going to try to prove that point tonight.

Do you have any idea how shallow, insipid, asinine, supercilious, inane, and downright boring prayer is? Now, if you are shocked by what I just said, remember I’m from South Texas. You made me what I am. I wouldn’t pray the way Christians and the denominations pray for anything in the world. I mean it. I’d start all over again if I were you. I believe some preachers think that if you get down on your knees and pray a long time on a concrete floor, that’s what will put you in good standing with God and forgive you for all those sins that didn’t get forgiven somewhere else.

Let me tell you something. I wrote this in a book. I think a lot of people think that if they go to church every Sunday, it is so boring and so horrible that, nonetheless, whatever you sin that week, by the very act of going, God forgives you for it. I come back to what I just said: I don’t know of anything abroad in the land. It is too supercilious, too shallow, too inane, too old. It’s just dressed up in a new costume, and some preacher just discovered it, and he’s getting you enthusiastic about it. It’ll last somewhere between six months and four years; that happens to be what Christianity is today.

I don’t think there’s any way in this world you’re going to find anything in the traditional churches that will let you even remotely get to know the Lord better. Nothing. I want to repeat that real slow. Nothing. I am very, very grateful, and I really wish this weren’t recorded, but let’s go ahead and do it, because I have no criticism of this. Did you ever see 60,000 men singing in a stadium? Oh, that is an incredible sight. How many of you have been in one of the big PromiseKeepers rallies? Isn’t that glorious? I mean, just…mind-boggling. I’d take anybody I knew who wasn’t saved to one of those, and I’d know I’d have a good chance of seeing them saved.

Do you know, though, as glorious as that is, by the incredible numbers of it, it’s basically a reproduction of a Sunday morning church service. You come in, you layman, you sit, you’re told what to do, you hear the preacher, you give money, you go home. What have you done besides singing and looking? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Except you’ve had the joy of seeing many people saved, and that’s wonderful. It always has been and always will be.

As long as ministry dominates, we’ll get nowhere. As long as you sit, we’ll get nowhere. I don’t care if you see the dead raised. Eventually, you’ll get tired of seeing the dead raised. If you see a short leg lengthening, you’ll get tired of watching legs grow. You are still a spectator. You are still an instrument of our ministries. You, lowly layman, are out there to back us and make us. Eventually, whatever it is we cook up, we’ll become boring, and we’ll keep wrecking a lot of our lives.

I tell you, the best thing in the world to do is get into one of those hypnotic trances, go to church on Sunday morning, and stare, having no idea what on earth is going on. Go home. Make sure your children get in Sunday school so they can learn not to kill, murder, commit adultery, steal, and whatever else. Then just do that for the rest of your life, and don’t move, because if you do, probably what you do is going to be very dangerous and harmful to your spiritual life.

I didn’t write a little book entitled When the Church Was Led by Laymen for no reason. We are so utterly at sea in the Christian faith. I’m writing a series of books called The First Century Diaries. I want to tell you why I’m writing those books. I am writing them to corrupt Christians all over the world. I think there will probably be five, and I want Christians who read all five to be familiar with the entire first-century story. When you get to the fifth one and you close it, you will say, oh, that’s not what we do. In fact, nothing I just read is remotely similar to what we do. Rebuilding the first-century story is about the most dangerous thing you can do, because it just…present-day Christianity doesn’t wash.

I have been asked, ” What do you feel like God has done or accomplished in this century that’s closing out? My answer is, this century looks just like all the rest of them, as far as I’m concerned. Nothing happened. Only two things in the 20th century are worth noting. One is the ecumenical movement; all the modernists and liberals got together and started forming one church. I’m so glad they did that. I think that’s just marvelous. Give them a nice graveyard to die in. The other thing is, in the 20th century, we all learned to speak in tongues, and that thing exploded all over the world. It’s the only decent thing that I can think of that happened in the 20th century. Other than the possibility that if you believe that it’s of the devil to speak in tongues, then I would say it’s the worst thing that happened in the 20th century.

Can you tell me anything else that happened in the 20th century? You want me to play really rough? I’m going to play really rough. One other thing happened in the 20th century, and it was probably the most disastrous event in the last 500 years. We gave almost the entire world the American version of practicing the Christian faith. White people, Americans, left this country, most of us, as missionaries, because we were not satisfied with American Christianity, and we wanted to go to another land and do it better. We went to other lands, and instead of doing it differently and boldly, we went over there and transplanted American Christianity all over this planet. American Christianity now dominates the entire world, and if you please, the American version of Christianity is boring. I’m not talking about doctrine; I’m just talking about the seat of your pants. It’s boring. It is incredibly…boring.