End Elevator Christianity

Many believers long for a life of consistency and victory over sin. But unfortunately for many, the Christian life is an up-and-down experience of an inconsistent walk with God, which I call Elevator Christianity. Elevator Christianity is where our walk with God is like an elevator.

One day, you are up in the penthouse suite, enjoying victory and close fellowship with God. And then, incredibly, the next day or so, you are down in the basement of defeat through sin. Rather than enjoying a life of consistency with God, you keep falling into old sin patterns.

And this results in an up-and-down walk with God. It's frustrating and tiring as we become sick and tired of a life of inconsistency. In order to enter a more consistent, victorious walk with God, we need to end Elevator Christianity.

And to do this, we need to pinpoint the problem that goes along with it. Proverbs 28.13 declares, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. We need to come to the realization that confession and repentance are different from one another.

Our text says that, Proverbs says, to confess and forsake sin, we need to do both. But many individuals only stop at confessing sin. Let me use the illustration of the practicing Catholic who goes to a priest to confess sin.

He'll walk into a church and there find a confessional booth. And there, that person will enter it and make a confession of specific sins to a priest, who then will offer them forgiveness if they do penance. Penance means for the Catholic that they will have to go back to their pew and sit there with their rosary in their hand and say five Hail Marys or seven Our Fathers, depending on how the priest determines their penance for that particular sin.

Next time they commit the same sin, they'll come back to the church, return to the priest, and repeat the same process of confession and penance. But before we point our theological finger at the Catholic, there's a lot of Baptists who pretty much do the same thing. We keep falling into the same sin over and over again.

We keep confessing it to God, but never turn from it and have no victory over it. There's much confusion, friends, between confession and repentance. In confession, one keeps drifting back and repeating the same sin over and over again.

In repentance, you turn from it completely. As long as Ephraim was joined to his idols, God left him alone. The prophets called on the people of God to forsake their idols and sin.

Any sin that you fondly coddle in your bosom or tolerate in your life will hinder God's best for you. There must be a clean break with that sin. It must be cast away as a filthy thing.

Like in Isaiah 30.22, it says to break off from one's idols. You shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver and the ornament of thy molten images of gold. Thou shalt cast them away as a monstrous cloth.

Thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence. The first way to end elevator Christianity is to pinpoint the problem of our up and down walk with God by distinguishing what Proverbs 28.13 declares in the difference between confession and repentance. We must do both.

Now that we have pinpointed the difference between confession and repentance and acknowledge our need for both, we can now focus our attention on the second aspect of how to end elevator Christianity and that is through the spirit-filled life. Listen friends, the Christian life is impossible to live in the flesh. We must have power from above.

Ephesians 5.18 declares, And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. And it is here, in this part of the message friend, that I want to take the time to speak on the doctrine of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. This can be a real turning point in your life for ending elevator Christianity.

There is victory for the believer who is willing to bow daily and hourly to the sovereignty of Christ and to the authority of the Word. We receive the Holy Spirit at the time of our conversion. But we must realize that the Holy Spirit can be present without being president.

He can be dormant without being dominant. He can be resident without reigning. Sin is a harming and hindering element for the Christian.

Because of sin, the Holy Spirit can be quenched and grieved in a believer's life. But when sin is exposed and self is executed, the Holy Spirit can fill to overflowing and anoint with authority and power. This fullness of the Holy Spirit is not only a blessing to be experienced, but an imperative to be obeyed.

God gets serious with those who get serious with Him. I like what R. A. Torrey taught in this regard. He said, if you want more of the Holy Spirit, then be prepared to let the Holy Spirit have more of you.

Well, I hope this little message friend on ending elevator Christianity will result in a deeper and more consistent walk with God all for His glory.