"So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house; he took all: he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made. Instead of which king Rehoboam made shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard, that kept the entrance of the king’s house."

There are many times that we can see parallels between Israel and the Church, and Egypt and the world. This is one of those passages and we can learn an important lesson from this passage about the dangers of allowing the influence of the world into the church. We see in these verses where the bible tells us about Egypt coming up against Israel and stealing away the treasures of the house of the LORD. It tells about how the shields of gold where stolen and Rehoboam replaced them with shields made of brass.

So what can we learn from this? Well before Egypt came Israel had shields of gold, after Egypt came they had shields of brass. Brass is a cheap substitute for gold. It has much of the same look but nowhere near the same value. Where gold doesn’t tarnish, you have to always keep up the appearances of brass because it tarnishes very easily. In every way, brass is a cheap substitute for the real thing when gold is what was lost.

So what does this have to do with the church. Churches all over America have let the influence of the world in. Some have done this openly and willingly with the hope of building a larger congregation. Some have been infiltrated so gradually that they don’t even realize that it has happened. Because of this we have lost certain treasures and in their place we have put some cheap substitutes.

When you look at the very purpose of the Church you can see the effects of this. Most Christians that I have met here and there have no idea how to win a soul to Christ. Soul winning is the whole point of why we are here. The function of the Church is not to be a charitable organization, our function is to win souls for Christ. Yet most Churches have lost that and instead have replaced soul winning with social work, they have replaced their burden for souls with a desire for a large congregation. Many pastors won’t preach from certain passages because we sure don’t want anybody to get under conviction, that might not be comfortable for some people.

Even many churches that have not forgotten their job and are still interested in winning souls have many times lost the power of the Holy Spirit, and have replaced it instead with planning. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to know what you are doing. I believe in studying and memorizing the verses and knowing what you are going to say to lead a person to Christ. Planning is great, but it is a cheap substitute at best for the power of God.

Have you ever noticed that at churches everywhere you have Christians give testimonies about how they have rededicated their lives for Christ. I’ve done this myself. Many times Christians will dedicate their life to Christ then they backslide, then they rededicate their life to Christ, then they backslide, and it goes on and on. What’s the problem? Maybe we are stating the problem in our testimonies and just not recognizing the fact. I used to own a truck that I drove on a dedicated account. The only freight I pulled was for Target at that time. I was a dedicated driver and my truck was dedicated to that account. Now the truck did not belong to Target, it was still mine, it was just dedicated to Target. When I decided I would rather do something else with that truck, I simply left.

When you dedicate something you still retain ownership of it. You are basically just saying that you are committing the use of whatever you are dedicating to this or that purpose. As Christians we are not supposed to dedicate our lives to Christ, we should surrender our life to Christ. When someone lost a battle and surrendered to the opposition, they couldn’t decide later to back out because they didn’t like how things were turning out. Once surrendered your fate is decided completely by the person you surrendered to. I really believe that much of our failures as Christians comes because we have lost the concept of surrender to Christ and have replaced it with the cheap substitute of dedication.

One other thing that I believe we have lost by allowing the influence of the world into the church is the concept of worship. It has been said that imitation is worship in it’s purist form. Worship is not something that you can show up at church on Sunday and perform and then just go about your life for the rest of the week. I know that many Christians think of worship as singing songs at church. I hate to break it to you. That’s not worship. Worship occurs when you put something before everything else in your life. This shows the value of what you are worshipping and worship of Christ will also result in your character conforming into an imitation of the character of Christ. I would like to say that I love singing. But song is a poor substitute for worship. The saddest part is that because we accept a cheap substitute for worship we never get to experience the joy of having our own character mirror that of Christ.

The last thing that I would like to look at is in verse 9 where it says “and took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house.” You know it’s sad that according to statistics there isn’t much of a difference in the percentage of divorce in Christian homes and non-Christian homes. By letting the influence of the world into our lives, not only are treasures of the church stolen, but also treasures of the home. Since brass is a cheap substitute for gold it requires a lot more work to keep up appearances with it. Have you ever talked to someone who is going through a divorce and heard them say something along the line of “I’m just tired of living a lie.” I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that one phrase. Why would they feel like they are living a lie? Maybe it’s because somewhere, they let the world into their home. Something was stolen and they replaced it with something fake, some kind of a cheap substitute, and after working on it day in and day out, trying to keep up appearances so that nobody would know that anything was wrong, they get tired, and give up.

Be careful. As Christians, we are commanded to “come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord.” I have found that ultimately I am at my happiest when I am right with God. I’m not saying that it is always the easiest way but it does bring more joy. Sin on the other hand will always take you much further than you ever wanted to go, and it will cost you more than you ever wanted to pay.

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