SPRINGFIELD – “Are you spiritually bored?”
Randy Johnson posed the question to messengers Oct. 26 at the 176th annual meeting of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC), held at the Expo Center here.
“During the time of the prophet Malachi the priests and people of God were both busy in their religious activities and spiritually bored,” said Johnson, pastor at Calvary Baptist Church, Republic, and preacher of this year’s convention sermon.
“The message in Malachi is appropriate because we are the same way. Busyness is a hallmark of our times and because of that, we can lose our connection with God if we are not careful.”
Johnson explained that Malachi reveals six markers for spiritual boredom including: doubting the love of God; defiling God’s honor; despising God’s table; degrading God’s moral standard; depleting God’s storehouse; and diminishing God’s call to serve Him.
Johnson said people will start to doubt the love of God when they are going through a tough situation.
“Satan will oftentimes make us think that God has somehow abandoned us,” he said. “We’ve all seen it happen to those we care about. But we must always remember how much God truly loves us and that he paid the highest price for us.”
Johnson said other indicators of spiritual boredom include violating God’s honor and despising God’s table. In other words, instead of willingly giving God the best, he said a spiritually bored person might resentfully give God what is left over.
“God does not want whatever you have from the bottom of the heap,” he said. “God wants the best from us.”
Another sign a Christian might be spiritually bored is his or her lackluster attitude toward serving God. Johnson called this “going through the motions.”
“It’s never useless to serve God,” he said. “And the good news in Malachi is that there was a faithful remnant. It is the same with us. The faithful remnant of the church has the potential to ignite revival in the church and it will spread throughout the country. We have that potential in Christ. The call of God is clear; repent and be holy. It’s time to get intimate with God. No more going through the motions.”
Kayla Rinker/contributing writer