Lost Earring, Lost Treasure

A friend of mine recently shared with me an experience she had with losing a diamond earring. She was willing to go to great lengths to get it back. When she found that diamond earring, her joy was stored. This experience reminded me of what has happened to the church. We have lost something very valuable but we need to be willing to go to great lengths to get it back so our joy can be restored. It is time for us as a church, as a body of believers, to repent and return to worshiping and obeying God. 

We need to decide that the church building is no longer going to be a social building where we gather to socialize. We need to turn the church from the entertainment center that it has become, back into a place of worship where we wholeheartedly seek God. I believe the church has fallen asleep. We have become slothful. Romans 13:11 “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” What Paul was telling the church in Rome in this scripture is what I believe the Holy Spirit is saying to us today, “church it is time to wake up. It is time to come out of your moral laxity and come back to me!”

We are in the days of Christ coming back and we need to be on a mission. We have to realize that we, as the church, are the Kingdom of God and we have a tremendous responsibility to share the Gospel. We are in a fight because there’s a kingdom of darkness. Satan and his kingdom have been unleashed on America. The antichrist spirit has invaded America and plans to take us out.

The antichrist spirit is moving to remove God’s name and it knows if it can take out the church, which is the most valuable possession that America has, it can take America.  “... And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” (1 John 4:3) This spirit is coming to overturn our way of life and to take our freedom to have a church to worship. Our pride has interfered and America has turned from the voice of God. We have rebelled and allowed the antichrist to snatch what God intended for us to be as a body of believers.

There’s an opportunity for us to repent and turn back to God. We need to build the church back up where we impact the culture of America based on the Word of God. The antichrist wants us to get our focus on the world and the pleasures of the flesh. Then when we find ourselves in a mess, we reach for the Bible to try and correct. We are living in a bottom up world.

We need to realize just how valuable the church is to the survival of this nation. Having a church building without the presence of God is worthless. Just like my friend losing an earring, one earring would’ve been worthless to her. We’ve got to wake up and realize that just having a church building means nothing to the survival of this nation without the power and presence of God in and throughout the church and its body of believers. 

When my friend lost her earring, she didn’t notice it was missing until getting home that night. She was enjoying herself at an event. She was distracted and preoccupied. She didn’t realize that something was slipping away. That earring slipped away without notice. In the same way, the church has gotten busy and preoccupied, neglecting what’s most valuable which is the presence of God. We have been distracted by events and entertainment, and we have lost sight of God. We are letting the power of the Holy Spirit slip away.

Church, why can we not see where we are? Why can we not see that the pleasures of the world and the desires of the flesh, that are only substitutes for the joy of the Lord, are snatching our true value? 

We need to be crying out to God for the church. We want the spirit of the living God unleashed in our nation to restore our joy, our value, our impact, and our influence. Prayer can go where we cannot go. We have to pray with great faith. We have to believe that God can restore this nation. There is time left to redeem the church. 

Do you realize how important the church is to our survival? Do you realize what a mess we are in without the church? We need to realize where our hearts must be focused and we need to be willing to go to any length to get it back. Just like my friend was willing to go to all lengths to get that diamond earring, we need to be that passionate about chasing after God. My friend was willing to sacrifice anything on her schedule that day to search for her lost treasure. This is how we need to view the church, as the lost treasure that we seek after with our whole heart. 

I believe that America is hanging in the balance because the church is asleep. We have to believe that the Word of God lays the foundation for our morals, for the family, and for society. Many people are just going through the motions and getting by. We aren’t as concerned for the lost treasure like we should be. We need God back on the throne  over the home and over the family. We have to be willing, at all costs, to go look for it and restore it so that our joy can be restored. 

Additional take-away points:

• Speak truth and share truth with others.
• Your time is a treasure…invest this treasure into the Kingdom of God.
• Surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit.

Listen to Jo’s podcast on this topic: https://www.buzzsprout.com/953542/12103624