# The Steps of a Backsliding Christian

Category: Repentance & Restoration
Key Passage: Revelation 22:12-13
Speaker: John Chisgar
Date: June 7, 2024

Going to give a testimony about going from a public school to a Christian school. At that time, I was very nervous attending a Christian school because all I had ever known was a public school. I wasn’t thanking my parents for making me go to a Christian school, but right now, I’m thanking them greatly for it.

Because I have gone to this Christian school, I know what college I will be attending, which is Pensacola Christian College. I have been able to get close to the teachers there and have them counsel me, which is awesome. I have met a specific someone who has been great to me.

I have been able to make awesome new friends and know what a true friend is. I’ve also experienced some friends that I’ve had to let go, which was sad, but it’s making me grow in Christ. That’s just what I wanted to say.

I want to start this by saying thank you to Brother Frank for being a good Christian role model for me and always encouraging me to keep going. I’d also like to thank Ms. Churice and Brother Kevin for showing me how to be a good influence to my peers, to share the gospel, and help people get saved. On my first year at Teen Camp at Indiana Creek, I got saved after the night service and the sermon on hell.

That was when I realized that I wanted the gifts from Jesus, and the preacher was Pastor Randy Dignan. A verse that also helps me know about the reward is, as God said in the Book of Revelation, chapter 22, verses 12 to 13: “And, behold, I am coming quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” And verse 13: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” This verse shows that nobody is better than God. Thank you all for listening.

I want to start off by saying thank you to Anthony and Ms. Katora for a year straight. They came to my house and gave me flyers to ride the bus. I never did because I had just moved here, I didn’t know anybody, and I was scared to come here. When I finally came, I brought my best friend Brandon with me, and we had fun. We’ve been coming for about two and a half months now. I just want to thank the church for giving me this experience that I never thought I’d experience—all the fun and new friends that I’ve made. So, thank you.

The first day I came here, I felt really welcome from everybody; they had been really nice to me. If I didn’t come, I wouldn’t have the influence of God that I have right now. I came here because God had a path for me, and I chose His path. I didn’t choose a different path. I just wanted to say thank you because I felt really welcome the first time I came here, so it wanted to let me keep coming.

I’m going to talk about my experience coming to this church. It has been a fun ride, to be honest. It actually has been a fun ride. I’ve made a whole bunch of new friends. I had to let go of a few friends because they just weren’t real to me. Also, the first time I came here, I was scared; I didn’t have anyone. Basically, I was just the new kid to town, kind of. I do want to thank Ms. Cotora for helping me, being here with me. I want to thank all you guys for being here. We moved here 11 months ago, and we used to go to fall festivals at this church. I don’t know if they do that anymore. We just moved away and then came back. My friends invited us here, and I’m just glad to be here because I met many new people and found my place here thanks to Ms. Gatoria. Hi.

I really never understood the importance of a good testimony until I got older. A lot has changed since I first became saved. I’m not going to read this. I went through a lot this past summer with letting people go and understanding that God’s not changing your situation because He’s trying to change your heart. That’s a quote that I live by: God is not going to change something if He’s trying to make you stronger. I like to use our youth group as an example. We had a few rough paths, but I couldn’t ask for a better youth group. We are stronger than ever, and we have great leaders. Thank you, Ms. McKenna, and John. Let’s give him another hand. I’m proud of him for doing that. That’s awesome. That’s great.

I appreciate them sharing. What a blessing just to hear God working in their lives, them being in church, and them making good decisions. I love it; praise the Lord for them. They are not just here Sunday morning but often on Sunday night, too. I appreciate that. I pray the Lord blesses Brother John and Ms. McKenna, who took the teen group not too long ago and are doing a good job. They, of course, got married in May and decided where to go. I was so thankful they just wanted to go somewhere, get plugged in, and get busy in the church. They decided to come back home and get involved here. Praise the Lord for that. We’ve gotten them busy. I was thinking about John; we were talking last night. I said, “Man, I got a break; I only have to preach one time tomorrow.” John had to do Sunday school, junior church, drive the van around, and he’s preaching tonight. Boy, that’s got a nice flipping around there, though, but he’s doing it. Praise the Lord, they are willing to get involved and are doing so much, and I preach it so very much. It’s a blessing.

John, of course, has been involved from day one in the church. I’ve told the story—I think most of you have heard it—about our very first service, a get-acquainted service. We thought we were going to have 200 people show up or something like that. You know, in Middle Tennessee, when you say you are starting a church, everybody knocks on the door saying, “We’ll come, we’ll come.” I went out and bought a couple dozen donuts, coffee, and orange juice. Nobody showed up. We said, “We’re going to have our service just like we planned. It’s a get-acquainted service.” So, I was introducing the family, and I had John—now, John was four—and I had Brother John stand up. It was just my wife and two kids, nobody else. But John was nervous like a thousand people were there. He stood up, we introduced him, and that’s kind of the start. We had a lot of joy that night, we really did, knowing we were doing what God wanted us to do.

So, he has been involved from day one. I was thinking about it; there was a point where he’d come over and cut the grass here at the church with our mower, and once or twice, it was a push mower. He has just been involved in the work here for years and years. Praise the Lord, he came home and said, “Hey, I want to get involved in the church here.” We are thankful for that. Praise the Lord, he is busy doing a good job with the teams. He said, “I’m not a preacher kind of guy,” but he is growing, and he is going to preach for us tonight. We are excited about that. Let’s welcome John. Let’s give him a warm [applause]. That’s it.

Alrighty. If you can turn your Bibles to—oh no, my nose got it mixed up—Hosea 4:16. This is weird; I am preaching to somebody other than the teens. I know when I preach to the teens, nobody pays attention, so it doesn’t matter what I say. It’s kind of nice; they just pay attention to me. I tell the teens that, and they just all say, “Yeah, we don’t pay attention to you.” I’m like, “Appreciate it, guys. Appreciate it.” So, Hosea 4:16.

I want to thank the teens; they did great tonight. I wasn’t sure how many were going to give a testimony. When I first mentioned it, they all just kind of stared at me like I was crazy. We had a few who volunteered, and it turned out we had, I don’t know, six who ended up doing it. Praise the Lord for the first time we’ve done that since I’ve been the youth pastor. That was great. I want to thank the church for letting Ms. McKenna and me—or me and Kenna, I always say Ms. McKenna with the teens, but me and Kenna—just kind of come in here and get involved with the teens. We can’t do that without the church. You guys give so we can do activities. You guys come. You guys bring visitors. The bus workers bring most of our bus kids. I bring most of our teens.

I just want to thank you guys for letting me. I mean, I’m 25 years old. You guys have known me since I was four or five years old. You guys know I’m not normal, so I appreciate you guys letting me come be the youth pastor. Maybe it’s a good fit; I don’t know. Is anybody in Dad’s class? Anybody in the pastor’s class? You guys probably hear us sometimes. I’ve had Dad get on me. He told me a couple of times when we played a couple of activities—I don’t know where we come up with these games—we throw marshmallows at each other or try to hit balloons off each other’s feet. Everybody’s screaming. I’m thinking, “The pastor is going to kill me. I’m fired.”

The first activity we actually had when I was a youth pastor, we had a CC’s activity. I was like, “This would be fun.” I love CCs; teens love CCs. I was like, “I got this. How hard can being a youth pastor be? This is easy. Let’s do this.” We had about 15 kids show up or something. I was like, “Guys, whoever eats the most pizza will get a big, huge candy bar.” I thought it would be fun. Needless to say, we had like 20—some kids ate 21 pieces of pizza, 25. We had four kids throw up, and we got kicked out. So, yeah. That was my first activity as a youth pastor.

I like to say it’s gotten better, but I don’t know, honestly. We have fun, but that’s what I tell them: I want to have a fun youth group, but we want to work toward a godly youth group. That’s the goal with our youth group. That’s why I am so thankful they got up here to give testimony. I know when I was their age—I told them—when I first preached for the pastor, I was supposed to preach for like 10 or 15 minutes, whatever. I preached for like three to five minutes. It was terrifying, so I totally understand what they were going through, and I appreciate that. So, we are going to turn to Hosea 4:16.

If you are there, I am going to read it: “For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place.” Let’s pray. Jeremy, Father, Lord, thank you for a wonderful day, Lord. Thank you that you blessed us, Lord. Some great teens, Lord. Thank you that they gave their testimonies tonight, Lord. Give me wisdom with my words, Lord. Help me, give me courage as I preach, Lord. Help them to get the message across that you gave me, Lord. And I will just say amen. Alrighty, I need two teen volunteers. Two boys. Two boys. Two boys. Let’s do Brandon Trivio. Here we go. You guys come up here.

I am used to preaching to teens, so if I get you to raise your hand a lot, it is just because I am trying to keep you awake. That is what I do with the teens. I appreciate it. So, alright, I need you guys here. Hang on in this pen between you guys. One hang on on one side; one can hang on the other side. This scripture right here is talking about oxen that are pulling a plow, you know. For us, I used—kind of not this illustration, but I used—I talked about oxen pulling a yoke in my teen department the other day. They literally just stared at me, and I was like, “You guys don’t know what I am talking about.” I am like, “No, like you,” they don’t know what I am talking about. But this crowd, maybe you guys don’t know what I am talking about. When you have two oxen pulling a plow, you know, and so we are going to say this is like the yoke. This is what holds these two oxen together. Okay? And so it represents the church. We all have our roles. My role right now is a youth pastor; the pastor’s role is a pastor. We all have a different role, and it might go all the way down to people cleaning the church, people that are soul-winning, people that are assigned to—everybody has a role. Everybody has a place in the church. Everybody can be plugged into one of these two spots: either Brandon or Trivio. Calm down, man. You know, man. Man.

So we have these two spots. This scripture is talking about Israel, and Israel was sliding backward. So it is kind of like, okay, let me get my thoughts. Okay, you guys come in here with me. We are going to have them walk down the aisles. You can walk anywhere you want, okay? This side right here is going to be the will of God, okay? My wife is on this side, so I am going to pick this side for the will of God. I have learned quickly, you know, so I pick this side.

This side is maybe backsliding Christians. Somebody just wants to get you out of church. Brother Anthony is on this side; fits perfectly, you know. I am just kidding, right? No. So, alright, this is what I want you to do. You guys kind of beat each other. Whoever can get the most high fives—you only can get high fives from this side. You have to get high fives from this side. Whoever gets the most high fives, I will get a box of candy for next week, okay? Sound good? Wait, wait, you can’t start. Don’t start with Pastor. His high five doesn’t count; it is only three fingers, so… Oh, okay, there we go.

Here we go. Alright, I am sorry, I can say it is my dad. Okay, I am fired. I am so sorry. I am gone. Alright, so here we go. When I say go, you have 30 seconds to see who can get the most high fives, okay? But you can only get them from this side. You cannot, but if you let go of this, you lose all your high fives, okay? Here we go. You have to count. I am not going to count. Unmark. Get set. Go! Hurry! Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry! Trivio, you just drafted. Oh, Brandon, you let go.

Alright, alright, you guys come back up here. Trivio, one. Let go. Alright. We are going to have you guys do this again in just a second. Okay, so that is kind of like—are you good, bro? You good? Okay, I am so sorry. So that is like a Christian life. We all have that yoke. This is our yoke, and he was trying to go the Christian way, you know. But that person on the other side of the yoke, they were backsliding; they wanted to go with the world, they wanted to go with this, and it did not really work out too good. Trivio was just dragging Brandon around. That is the same thing in our church. If you have a Christian that is in that yoke with you, but he does not want to be there—maybe he is just stopped, he is just sitting there, just chilling—it is going to be real hard to drag that yoke. Can you drag him around everywhere? He is pretty heavy, right? Yeah, just say yes. Say, “Cool.” Yes. No. Okay.

Alright, so let us try this again. Both of you guys now are going to try to get high fives from this side. You are on the same team. Okay? You good, Brandon? You good? Okay. On your mark, set, go! You get on the right side, Brandon. The right side. Killing my illustration, bro. Killing my illustration. There we go. Alright, five, four, three, two, one. There you go. Let us give him a hand. There we go. You can keep that pen; it is for you.

So that is kind of how it is in the church. When they were in the yoke and they were both like, “You know what, I am going to shake hands with this side. I am going to do this on this side,” it went pretty well. They did not drag each other around. But when they had different mindsets, they were like, “You know what, I don’t”—Brandon was like, “I don’t want to shake. I don’t want to give these people high fives”—it did not work out really well. That is the same way in our Christian life. If you are backsliding, you are affecting somebody else. Somebody is in that yoke with you.

First, we are going to kind of talk about some different causes of backsliding. First Kings 11:4 says, “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.” Wow, I cannot read. Same way in the Teen Department. I apologize, people.

The first cause of backsliding is spending time with the wrong people. This can be any of us. It is talking about King Solomon and how his wives turned his heart. King Solomon is the wisest man in the Bible. He had over a thousand concubines/wives—I do not know, like 700, 300, something like that—and he turned his heart slowly over time; his heart was pointed in the wrong direction. It says, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” You might be going the right path; you might be going in the yoke, doing what the Lord wills as you are serving Him, but you might have somebody else in that yoke, and spending time with the wrong people—you might have that wrong person in your life, and they are going to drag you.

I experienced this. I was a pastor’s kid. I had the greatest friends ever. I had Zach—it is a horrible illustration, no, I am just kidding. I am not talking about Zach when it says that. But I had friends in my life that maybe they were not horrible friends, but they were not the right friends for me. As a teenager—we have teenagers here—I talk about friends all the time; they really do affect you. My father would come to me and say, “John, that kid is not a good influence on your life.” As a teen, I would be like, “Dad, come on, you do not even know him. I am the good influence on him.” You know what? Years later, my dad was right, unfortunately, almost every time.

Proverbs 22:24 says, “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.” Another verse is, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” If you want to be wise, you have got to hang with wise people. If you want to be godly, you have got to hang with godly people. As teens, I tell them all the time, they can see through people more than anybody, I think. Teens just know. If you see somebody and you are like, “Oh, I am not sure,” go ask a teen. No, I am just kidding; do not do that. But if you want to be spiritual, you have got to hang out with spiritual people.

I have heard it said many times: You want to be rich, hang out with rich people. If you want to be poor, hang out with poor people. Why? Because there are habits there you create. As spiritual people, if you hang out with spiritual things, they might push you—“What are you doing Saturday?” “Well, actually, I am going soul-winning.” You are like, “Okay, I have to go soul-winning now.” They are going to go. That is how it is.

I need two more boys. This is definitely a boy one. I am so sorry. I know equal rights, but I am sorry. Come up here, Kyle. Jonathan, come up here. Jonathan. Yeah, you are Jonathan, right? Okay. Michael, come up here. Okay. Alright, come up here. Come up here.

Most of you guys know Jonathan, so we are going to make him the bad friend. I am just kidding. If you stand up here, stand up here. I have faith in you. Alright. Stand up, stand on top of the chair, just this once. If you do it again, I am fired. This is going to be a bad friend, and Kyle is going to be our good friend. Can you be our good friend? Thumbs up. There we go. Real confident guy.

This is going to be—and he is going to be the good friend, just like when my dad said that guy is not a good influence on your life, and I would always say, “No, I can be a good influence on him.” It is a lot harder than you think. Alright. So this is what I want you to do. Get him on this seat. Come here, Jonathan. Just stay here. Try to pull him off that seat. Do not stand up; just let him pull. Go ahead. Come on, come on, dude.

Alright, so that—it looks—thank you. Alright, now, this is—you want him to be a bad friend, so see if you can pull him off that seat. Do not kill him. Just slowly see if you can pull—let him pull you off the seat, okay? On your mark, set, go! Come on, do not let them pull you. Alright, there we go. Thank you. You guys can sit down. Thank you.

It is just a silly illustration, but I saw it a long time ago. Oh, my goodness. I saw it a long time ago, and it is true. It is a lot easier to pull a friend to bad than it is to pull a friend to good. That can be when you are younger, teens. Michael, Jonathan, calm down. That can be when you are younger; that can be when you are older. I have not gotten to that stage yet, but the principle still applies. Guys, calm down. “A companion of fools shall be destroyed.” So if you want to be destroyed, hang out with companion fools. Hang out with somebody that doesn’t want to do what is right. Hang out with somebody that’s not in church. Somebody will pull you away, and then you will ruin your lives.

Next, we are going to talk about wrong places. Lamentations 3:51 says, “Mine eye affecteth mine heart.” I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. This is talking about Christian lives. A backsliding Christian is going to be affected by the places he goes. First are the people he hangs out with; then it is the places he goes. It’s going to be your eyesight. You might see something. There might be movies that you see something; it’s going to affect you. There might be a place where there is bad dress; it’s going to affect you. I do not know it as a guy, but it affects me too. When I go somewhere and maybe we watch a movie or something, there’s something bad in there, I don’t feel spiritual. It’s just how it is. I might feel dirty. You might not, after something goes wrong or I see something I’m not supposed to see, I’m not feeling like reading my Bible for 30 minutes. It’s just not how it is. I have to get that out of my mind. I might pray and say, “Lord, I need your help.” But those are the ways of the Christian life. There are things that God puts in our way, or things that Satan puts in our way that we don’t need to see as Christians. So first it is going to be the people we hang out with, and that can be different people for everybody. Next is the place you go.

Next, I’m trying to go quick so I don’t go late. Next is what you hear. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” We see the story of Saul. He had this evil spirit that came over him, and David would play the harp just to get the good spirit to come back. It’s the same way. I have a friend who struggles with country music. They really love country music, and we’re from Nashville. They love this country music. I talked to him a little later. I was like, “Why don’t you listen to it anymore?” I thought maybe they were going to be in this great spiritual thing, like opening the Bible. They said, “Well, John, you know what? It actually just affected my spirit.” I was like, “What are you talking about?” You’re like, “You know, every time I listen to this certain kind of music, when I listen to country music, it affected my spirit in a certain way, and I didn’t like that.” Music affects you. It might just be whatever music you’ve used to listen to; it’s still going to affect you. It’s going to come back. I know for me it’s the same exact way. You can walk into a store, and it will affect your spirit in different ways. Different music affects you.

What you are hearing is not just music; this is the word you hear. Maybe you hear people talking the wrong way, especially at work. Maybe that’s where you hear things. I work with my wife. It is really—I am just kidding. Man, I’m getting fired from every position of my life. The devil knows the scriptures, too. The devil knows that David—the music affected him too. He knows how to get you. That’s why there’s music everywhere you go. I actually joked about it at college: literally in Nashville, if you go to a gas station, there’s country music playing. If you go into a Walgreens, there’s country music playing. It doesn’t matter where you go; there’s country music playing. Satan knows that; that’s why he puts it there. He wants to affect your spirit. He wants to get that in there, get a stronghold. He affects us; he bombards us with this music wherever we go.

We sing the song, “Oh, Be Careful Little Soul, Where You Go.” It is an old song. We all sang it when we were little. And we said, “Be careful little feet where you go, little eyes what you see.” It is so true. That song is so true. We are all going to sing it to get—no, I am just kidding. We are not going to sing it. Actually, the pastor sang a song the other day. As much as he sounded great, didn’t he? Yeah, I was impressed. Side note, I don’t know why. That was not in my notes.

Teens are used to it. Honestly, the teens will test—I get sidetracked so easily; it is just how it is. But it is okay. So we have our eye gate, we have an ear gate, who you are hanging out with. These are the ways that we can backslide. Satan is subtle. He is just not going to do it all at one time. All of a sudden, boom, all this stuff is in front of you. No, it is just slowly: step here, step here, step there.

The next thing is we can develop the wrong kind of passions. This could be anything. For me, my biggest passion, you guys know, is sports—whether it is golf, basketball, football, it doesn’t matter. I love sports. But if we let whatever your passion is overtake you, it’s going to take the place of God. It’s not healthy. You have got to be careful what your passions are. Revelation 2:4 says, “I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” Jesus spoke these words to the church that had outward signs of spirituality, but inside they had different passions. They had left their first love with Christ.

As Christians out here, we have to have that first love. I know this seems like such a simple doctrine, but it is so true. Even the longest—whoever has been saved the longest here—if you are married, I have learned this. I am only nine months—not pregnant; she is pregnant. I am nine months married, but she is five months pregnant, something like that. But I have learned I cannot just rely on, “I love you.” I got in trouble one time because I didn’t say, “I love you,” but I learned that too. Never messed that up. But we cannot—we have to do something else. There might be, for us as a date night on Friday night. We have to have that first love. It cannot just be, “Babe, come on, I did all the stuff for you when we were dating; why do I keep having to do it? Why do I keep doing this stuff for you?” No, it doesn’t work like that. I have learned.

That is the same way in our Christian life. When you got married, you prayed to the Lord and said, “Lord, help me be saved. Lord, help me from my sins.” But it doesn’t work like that. You have got to keep asking. You have to say, “Lord, I sinned here; I need your help here. Let me win on this. Lord, this is my next step in my Christianity; help me go here.” You got baptized, then I might be like, “Lord, I need help getting up for soul-winning on Saturdays.” That is early. Pastor wants us to go to the spring program, soul-winning. Lord, help me have strength to do that. Lord, help me have strength in all these different areas of life. That was not on my notes. I don’t know where that came from.

So the course of backsliding—first, they have all these different steps. Maybe hanging out with the wrong friend that pulls you that way, and then when you’re hanging with the wrong friend, you might see something that pulls you more that way or hear something, and we develop a passion for that. That is how we can start backsliding. It begins with our heart. Backsliding starts in the heart.

Psalm 78—you don’t have to turn there. It’s a Psalm talking about Exodus to Deuteronomy. It’s talking about a nation, talking about Israel, that backslid time after time after time. We see all through Scripture, Israel in the Old Testament. Israel would get right with the Lord. They’re on fire for the Lord; you’re like, “We’re going to lead the whole world to the Lord.” In like the next chapter, they’re backslidden, and the Lord has to judge them again. It’s like a Christian: we’re going to have highs and we’re going to have lows, but you just want your low not to be as low as it was before. You just want to work a little bit, just take that next step, so when you fall, it wasn’t as low as you did before. That’s what backsliders do.

Let me turn there actually, verse 37. Should have had it marked. So Psalm 78, verse 37: “For their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant.” So we see the first step of backsliding—how your course of backsliding starts with your heart. That’s what you love. The Bible talks about the heart all throughout Scripture; it fills every part of life. Our heart can affect any part of our life. My heart fell for my wife, Ms. McKenna. My heart is for the teens. When I came here, I wanted to help the teens any way I could. That’s where your heart is. My heart is, unfortunately, at work because I have to make money. Your heart affects whatever you do in your life, but if your heart starts going away from the Lord, that’s when the backsliding happens. You don’t just start listening to bad things; you don’t start just seeing things unless your heart is drifting just a little bit.

When you come to church, you might think, “I don’t really want to hear something. Pastor, I don’t want you to step on my toes today. I don’t want to hear something that I don’t want to hear. I want to go, Pastor, just easy-breezy gospel today.” No, that’s how your heart starts slipping. We need that stuff that the pastor preaches that steps on our toes; that’s how it helps our heart.

We see Psalm 1:1 talks about, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” I preached a message, or a couple of messages, in the teen department not that long ago about this; it is a progression. We see he walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. First, he is walking; then he standeth; then he sitteth. That is just not an accident. He says he walks with the ungodly. He knows who the ungodly is. We know in our life who the ungodly is. They might not be the worst people in the world. All it says is they are ungodly; they just didn’t really care about the things of God. They didn’t have God in their life. That’s what happened. So we started walking with that man that was ungodly. Then he’s standing with him. So that might be he’s standing in the way of sinners; he knows where the sinners are going. It’s not even that he’s with the sinner; he knows which ways they have walked, and he’s standing there.

So we see progression in the sinner, and then he sees the scornful. Scornful is the next stage. Scornful people always have something to say against authority. That might be their parents; that might be their pastor; that might be their boss—everybody in authority, they have something against them. They want to go against authority. You know who our ultimate authority is: God. So if you have a problem with, like, our pastor or something, that’s—God is shown through our pastor. That’s how that verse talks about it.

We talked about who a backslider hurts. Is it just hurting myself? It says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” I think that’s right. I knew I should have written that verse down; I quote it so easily when I was practicing. But if you make a path, you’re going to reap it. You might think, “I’m backsliding this way, but I’m cool. The pastor doesn’t know. I still wear my suit to church.” Nobody knows, but you’re making a path; you’re making somewhere where you can reap. Years down the road, you’re going to reap where that is. That might be in your family one day. You might not have the blessing of God in your life. We need the blessing of God. We’re going to reap whatever that is.

We see that also it hurts others. We see Jonah; he’s a perfect example. He ran from God. He ran literally the opposite way God wanted him to go. Do you know who he was hurting? He was hurting Nineveh. The people of Nineveh were dying every day who could have heard if he would have gone out there earlier. He went and was like, “You know what, I’m not going to do what the Lord wants.” It was not like the Lord was asking something super hard; He just wanted him to go preach to this spot. For us, the Lord might want you to just go soul-winning, or I just want you to go to that extra service, or I just want you to pass out this flyer. I preached to the juniors tonight. This morning, I said, “Alright, who can preach in here?” Nobody raised his hand, obviously. I was like, “Okay, who can pass out a piece of paper?” Everybody was like, “Well, I can talk.” Pass out a piece of paper. I was like, “Who can talk?” And I said, “Nobody raises your hand.” I was like, “You can all talk.” I heard them talk all day.

It is the same thing for Christians, the same thing as adults. We can pass out a flyer. It is nothing. It might be a little scary when you knock on that door. You don’t have to do that if you want to; you can just put that flyer on the door. Pastor, his whole family got saved just from a tract rack. It was not somebody who was knocking at every door at the hospital; they put a tract rack out. We can do what the Lord wants us to do. So we see Jonah; once he finally got what was right with the Lord, once he finally fixed that, the whole of Nineveh was saved.

I was thinking about one part that was—there we go—children. I am going to have a kid in July. It is crazy to think I am going to have a kid. I do not feel mature enough at all. I am not. But my sins, how I point my wife and myself, my house—that is where my kid is going to grow up. I see kids grow up all day, all these different angles. What do I want my kids to grow up in? I grew up in church since I was four, or whatever—no, since we came here, but when I was a little baby, I was in church every single service. I saw times in my life where I did not—I talked to Dad about this—I did not really want to go to church, even when I was older. There were times where I just didn’t feel like I fit in church, and I was like, “Pastor, I don’t fit in there anymore.” Pastor would just talk to me; he wouldn’t scold me or whatever, but it was because I was backsliding. But I knew where my parents were. I knew where they were going to be; it didn’t matter where I was. I knew they were going to be in church because they had set a direction.

I see that in my own kid. Some of you guys have kids; some of you guys don’t have kids. Some of the teens, one day you guys are going to have kids—that’s crazy to think about. But you have got to set your direction now. If you want to reap when your kids are there, you have got to set it now. Me and my wife, since we got married, we have tried to be in church whenever we can, trying to go soul-winning because we want to have that same reap; we want to reap good when our kids are there. So we see the consequences that backsliding can hurt our kids.

Then we also see—I am almost done—it can hurt our church. We kind of talked about this at the beginning. Everybody here might say, “John, you don’t really know me. I don’t really matter. If I miss, nobody really notices.” The person in your section will notice. We sit literally in the same seats every service; it’s just assigned seating. I do the same thing; we sit right there every single service. If you are not there, that person in your section doesn’t get a handshake. Maybe they need it that day. We hear many stories. We hear Marlin talk about when the first time they came, somebody was nice to them. That’s all they were: they were nice to them, shook their hands, were friendly, sat by them, and now they have still been in our church for four years. We see that all through. We talk to many people like that.

That is where you matter. The Lord can use you. Maybe you are going to be that light at your work. Maybe there’s somebody at your work that needs a good example. Maybe you don’t have to go preach that, but maybe you can just be good, just a good example. Be a good Christian. As teens, maybe there’s somebody at your school. Maybe somebody needs a good friend. Maybe somebody needs a good influence in this world. Lord, I don’t know what I said. Maybe somebody needs a good influence. So we’re supposed to be a salt and a light in a dying world.

In conclusion, backsliding starts in the heart. How’s your heart doing? When the pastor preaches, when the pastor picks on your pet sin, are you like, “No, Pastor, get off that. Stop. Don’t even do that”? Or are you like, “All right”? Unfortunately, I need a listener. Maybe you go home and talk to your wife about it, different things. Are we letting our friends pull us away from the Lord? This doesn’t go for teens—friends are huge in the teen department, I preach about it all the time—but it goes for adults, too. Even as I’m 25, my friends still affect who I am. My friend Zach likes golf, so we hang out and play golf. Marlin, all these different friends that I have, we like to do different things, and that’s what I do. It’s the same thing when you’re an adult. Are your friends pulling you away from the Lord?

Are we going to the wrong places? That verse talked about being in the way of the ungodly, or, yeah, and that is just the ungodly place. We know where that’s at. Are our passions turning us away from God? We all develop passions, whatever that might be. I don’t know what your passion is, but is it turning you away from God? Is it taking you out of church on some random services? Or when you’re here, are you thinking about other things? Or maybe on that Saturday morning, you’re like, “Oh, I can’t go soul-winning; I have this.” That might be what the Lord wants. For me, it’s sports. Do I let sports affect me? I love sports. I will play sports. I will listen to sports. I will watch sports. Kenna knows; I listen to sports podcasts. I’m addicted. But I don’t let it take away from the Lord. I don’t let it take away. When I have to—little things, like when I have to study routines—I am not going to watch sports. I have to put my phone away because I might get distracted, but I have to do different things in my life.

That might be for your passion. If you do not want to backslide one day, if you want to be 20 years down the road, if you want to be like the pastor—the church is 20, whatever years old—if you want to be down there and look back and you’re like, “You know what, we made it for 20 years; we didn’t backslide; we stayed with it; we were faithful”—then you have got to do the little things. You have got to fix your passions. You might be like, “No, John, you don’t know me. I’m doing great right now.” That might be true, but we read the scripture and talked about you reap what you sow. Years down the road, are you going to be reaping the right things? Whatever you’re sowing right now, is it going to be good five years from now?

That is kind of what we’re talking about regarding backsliding. Every Christian gets affected by this. I have been in church literally all my life, and I struggle with it. Everybody—the oldest person, the youngest person—as Christians, we can struggle with this thing. So let’s pray. Jeremy, Father, Lord, thank you for a wonderful day. Thank you that you helped us with backsliding, Lord. Thank you that you give us direction in our lives, Lord. Thank you we can follow your passions, Lord. Thank you we have scripture, Lord, that we can follow, Lord, and a pastor that can lead us and help us as Christians, Lord. Help us to be able to follow you, Lord, and guide where we look, Lord, where we listen, and listen to you. I will just say amen.

Backsliding is a continual effort. It’s a continual thing. As soon as you let down, Satan will be pulling you. It’s a continuum. I hope there’s something in your heart tonight because I want to get back. I want to stay close. I want to know God. I want to be where I used to be.

That’s a holy feeling. That’s from the Lord. May that’s you tonight. I say, preach, man, I want to get back close. I want to get back where I used to be. I want to get that fire back in my heart. That’s you tonight. You slip your hand up, preach, “That’s me.” “Me too.” “Me too.” “It’s a continual.” “That’s me too.” “It’s a continual.” Lord, I’m going to be there. We’ll be there. We’ll be there. We’ll be there.

It’s a day-to-day thing. Thank you so much. You can put your hands down. It’s amazing when I let down how quickly I can slip so far.

Keep that desire. Keep that drive for God. Satan’s just looking for that inch, that moment. It’s amazing how far you can slip in just a moment. Keep that desire. Maybe you’re here tonight and you say, “You know what, I’ve lost that desire. I really don’t have a desire to be close to God. I don’t have a desire to have that fire once I had before. I just kind of don’t have any feelings there. I’m going through the motions.” Friend, that desire to be close to God is from God. God gives you that. There have been many times in my life. I have to say, “Lord, would you bring the desire back? I’m not desiring you and the things of God like I ought to. Would you bring that desire? Lord, I need that. I’m cold-hearted right now, Lord. Would you bring that warmth and the tenderness and the desire back?” That’s from God.

Maybe you’re there tonight. You say, “I really don’t have the desire, but I’m going to ask God to bring the desire back. I’m going to be asking Him on purpose. Lord, would you bring the desire, the fire back in my heart and my life?” That’s you tonight. You slip your hand up, preach, “That’s me.” “That’s me right there.” “That’s me right there.” God bless you. God bless you. We’re all there from time to time. God bless you. Oh, God honors that prayer.

Lord, you bring that desire back. It’d be a good night for all of us just to seek for the Lord. They say, “Lord, I’m after you. I’d like to be where I ought to be.”

Brother John mentioned some specific things—maybe friends, maybe places, maybe music, maybe things you’re watching. Maybe there’s something specific that the Lord has spoken to your heart about tonight. I’m going to get that specific thing right. I don’t want to act like I’m better than anybody. I can’t be around them a lot. God spoke to my heart about a friend or music or whatever it may be. A very specific thing. Preacher, God spoke to my heart. I need to do some business there so I can stay on fire and get on fire for the Lord. You got a specific thing? You’ll make it change your life. That’s you tonight. You lift your hand, preach, “That’s me.” You got a specific thing? God bless you. God bless you. That’s good. That’s good. That’s good.

Thank you so very much. Wonderful. Would you all stand, please? Would you all stand? We’re going to have word of prayer, and then we’re going to sing 292, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” Let’s just come seek the Lord tonight. Let’s just come to an old-fashioned altar. Just say, “Lord, I want to be on fire. I want to stay on fire. I want to be close to you. I want to stay close to you.”

If you need to make a change, you let the Lord know the silly decision at the altar. That’s important to do that. Would you do that? We won’t be long. Since we’re getting them praying, say amen. Would you come? Won’t be long. Father, thank you, Lord, for working in our hearts and our lives. Father, I sure would like another 20 years down the road to be on fire for you. Lord, would you bring the passion, the desire in my heart, my life, mine for you, Lord? Father, I pray that our church, Lord, would just stay on fire for you. Lord, help us to seek you tonight. Give us that desire. Help us make the decisions we need to. In Jesus, we pray. Amen. Would you come as we’re singing, “Won’t Be Long”? Won’t be long. Would you come just spend some time before Him?

This is what we think. We think we can just kind of stand. But if you’re standing, have you ever stood in the ocean and you stand and the water just kind of washes the sand out from underneath your feet? That’s the way it is in the Christian life. You just stand; you backslide. You always got to be desiring, going after Him, getting things right, letting Him convict and make changes in your life. Let’s just stay after that. We’ll see one more verse that and nobody comes up here. Say amen. And I appreciate the preaching. Thank you, Brother John. And our young people, I’m proud of them; they did a great, great job. I appreciate getting involved and participating in giving testimonies and singing. Thank you so very, very much. They’re a blessing to us, and we want to help just encourage and live for the Lord. It’s awesome. And praise the Lord for the young couples and young people in our church.

Speaking with someone yesterday who’s been visiting our church a little bit, they said, “You’ve got young couples.” I said, “Boy, we need a lot more.” And they began to share, “Boy, just seems like the need of the day and time is young couples.” And they’re right. I praise the Lord for Brother John, Ms. McKenna, Brother Anthony, Ms. Couture. What a blessing. Brother Patrick and Ms. Marlene joining this morning. Boy, young couples, that’s vital. We thank God. We’ll be praying for that. Well, just keep praying, “Lord, you’re sending us some more young couples. We need that.” They’re so important. They’re encouraging to me. The older you get, the more of those young couples, they’re encouraging. Amen. Praise the Lord, we need them. We’ll take them. And praise the Lord for all of them. And what a blessing tonight. Let’s pray and be dismissed. And let the young people know you’re glad they’re involved and part of it all. Praise the Lord for it. There you go. Brother John Casey, would you dismiss us with a word of prayer, please?

Original File: The Steps of a Backsliding Christian - Brother John Chisgar 3820 PM