It’s Time to Get Serious About God

By: Kevin Jackson
​@kevindjackson

​As I look around at this world, we have a serious God problem. Our society loves to dip their toe in faith, but when it comes down to it, we would rather make our own decisions and carve our own path in this world. We are a society of hypocrisy. In the United States our money says “In God we trust”, but our government has done everything in its power to take God out of our country. We like to call it “separation of church and state” but in reality it is just making sure we have a secular society. This country was founded by faithful people and yet we are trying to change history and our country as to not offend people who are not faithful or believe in God.

Let me be the first to say it, we need to get serious about God.

You may be reading this and wondering why it matters what society thinks, it only matters what you think. Well, society is made up of individuals and the sum of the parts is what I am talking about. It is the same reason you may go to church. Yes, church is about worshipping God and learning the Word, but you can do most of that from home. Church is also about surrounding yourself with fellow Christians. It is basic sociology. People tend to follow the masses and if the masses are learning about God, it makes it easier to do so. If the masses you follow are full of sin and are not faithful, it is easy to get sucked into that as well.

When I say it is time to get serious about God, I mean both as a society and as individuals. So, let’s start with us. As I mentioned above, if everyone changes individually, then the masses and society would then be comprised of all faithful and God-serious people. In order to get serious about God, we need to identify all of the ways we aren’t serious about God. Think about how you go about your day. Ask yourself this “Do I make EVERY decision based on glorifying God and in-line with His plan in my life?” Most likely the answer is no. We try. We think we are good Christians. But is that good enough?

So, how do you get serious about God? Well, the first step is to recognize that Jesus Christ is coming back and you don’t know exactly when. Let’s say you are throwing a baby shower and the invite says 6:00PM. You get your house all ready, decorations out, food prepared, and then you suddenly realize it’s already 5 o’clock and you haven’t gotten yourself ready yet. You are standing there in sweats and a t-shirt and the doorbell rings. “Are you kidding me” you scream. Well, guess what, Jesus isn’t going to wait to come back when it is convenient for us, He is coming back when HIS time is right. So, you better get your house in order in case your guest of honor shows up early!

​For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. (Matthew 16:27)
 
So again, think about your day and how you tackle it. Do you start and end it with God? Come on, let’s get serious now. How often do you sin freely and think it is ok because Jesus forgave you already and you will try harder next time? A lot I am sure. Me too! Let’s get serious.
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Truth bomb here….. The world you live in, the people around you, the possessions you own, mean nothing compared to God and your salvation. If you are being honest with yourself, you are listening to me now, but do you hear me?? NOTHING means as much as the Lord. So, to get serious about God means you have to give it all away to Him. These things you own, the job you have, the money you have earned, those are all from Him! God has blessed you in so many ways and how do you repay Him? Pray every once in a while and go to church most Sundays? That is not enough. Get serious and give it ALL to Him. God deserves it and more.

Take stock of your life this week. Look around at your family, your friends, your house, where you live, your job, everything. Once you have done that, be honest with yourself and figure out what you have put God in the middle of. Stop the lying, stop the cussing, stop the drinking, stop the sexual temptation, stop the hate, stop the jealousy, stop it all. Be serious and deliberate about your love of God and the path to Heaven. That is the most important thing you can do.

So, now that I have forced you to look in the mirror and get serious about God in your life, let’s move on to the next part…. our world and society.

This world is a broken, secular world full of sex, violence, temptation and distractions. Yes, you can find churches on many corners, but is God in the center of our world? Everything you read, watch and listen to is trying to pull you away from God. Buy this, try that, vacation here, watch this, watch that. Distractions are everywhere and they meant to drive you in certain directions, mainly to spend your money. Some of these are intentional and deliberate ways to pull people from their faith. But honestly, some of these things are just worldly things not focused on God.
I have taken some time the last week or so and paid attention to what is going out in our society. If you really pay attention, it is frightening. It starts early with our children and their use of technology. It goes all the way up to the nightly news. NOTHING about God. If there is mention about faith or God, it is usually negative. We have run God out of town, I am afraid. We think we can do everything ourselves. “Don’t worry about it God, we got this.” We are going to fix climate change and the weather, we can fix our economy, we can feed the hungry, we got this. We are obsessed with ourselves and idols we have created instead of God.

Below are modern-day idols we're in danger of letting take over our lives instead of God:
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• Work - While there is nothing wrong with work, it can be dangerous when it drives our decision-making to the point of completely ignoring God's ways and desires.
• Phones and Technology - If you're giving your electronic device more time and attention than your loved ones or God, something's wrong.
• Image - In the age of Facebook and Instagram, we can be obsessed with projecting the image of the perfect life, perfect relationship, perfect kids, perfect holidays, perfect friend groups. However, in all those pictures of all the great things in your life, are there any pictures of your church or anything that would speak to the world of your faith in God?
• Sex - Although sex was designed and created by God, man has maligned and distorted its value and purpose. In this day and age, sex has become an idol that drives us to make small and big decisions that will lead us away from Christ if we're not careful.
• Money - "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." (Matthew 6:24)

Truth is, we have created a mess here. If we don’t watch it, God is going to clean it up for us. He has done it before and it isn’t pretty my friends. 

This world needs to get serious about God. We need to allow Him in our lives individually and in the center of our society. I am not talking about religion; I am talking about God and Jesus. God is the creator of this beautiful world and all we are doing is messing it up.
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But there is hope. It lives in each one of us. Our society can change because we can change. Remember as I mentioned before, society is just a sum of its parts. Well, you are a part, an important part. So, start today and spread the love of God and Jesus. Tell someone you love them; tell them that Jesus loves them. Yes, it will be uncomfortable. Yes, it will be strange. Jesus walked this earth alone at first and before you know it, He is known everywhere on this planet. Start small, but start. This is not a joking matter; it’s time to get serious. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. Spreading God’s love for me always brings me immense joy. Even more important, it brings God joy.

Think about how many friends you have on social media and how many friends you have in “real life”. You can be an influencer. You can spread God’s love. Post a Bible verse, use one of our Facebook profile image frames, write a blog, anything that you can spread the Word with. Let’s start a movement, a God movement. It is beyond time to get SERIOUS ABOUT GOD!