“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” Brennan Manning
Deism
Bob Johnson said, “God gave us reason, not religion”, this has become a popular quote among proponents of Deism
Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (2005) by sociologists Christians Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton introduced the term Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.
Moralistic
God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions
Good people go to heaven when they die.
Therapeutic
The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about ones self.
Deism
A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
2 Chronicles 20 (I’m going to read the whole thing at the beginning and highlight certain verse later.)
Where do you turn when you alarmed, afraid, anxious, angry, ashamed?
“Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.” 2 Chronicle 20:3
An Active Community
“And Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court,” 2 Chronicles 2:4-5
“Meanwhile all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.” 2 Chronicles 20:13
Jehoshaphat follow Davids example
David’s Active community:
Levites 1 Chronicles 23
Priests 1 Chronicles 24
Musicians 1 Chronicles 25
Gatekeepers 1 Chronicles 26a
Treasurers and Administrators 1 Chronicles 26b
Military Commanders 1 Chronicles 27a
Tribal Leader 1 Chronicles 27b
Gift Givers 1 Chronicles 29
1 Chronicles 28 passes it on to Solomon
(These can just be bullet pointed like this as a reference, the scripture doesn’t need be written out)
An Immanent and Active God
Jehoshaphat’s prayer 2 Chronicles 20:6-12
Trusting the Lord’s Power
2 Chronicles 20:15-19
Ephesians 6:10-20
Trusting the Lords Power
An Immanent and Active God
Ephesians 2:11-18
An Active Community
Where are you going to turn when you are alarmed?
Second City Church - Turn To Immanuel - Guest Speaker Daniel Henry 2019