Bella Vista Church of Christ
LIFELINES
February 7, 2001 Randall Caselman
Divine Audits
It’s tax time again! The IRS conducts audits, students receive grades, and employees submit to evaluations, but who assesses the church? Jesus is the auditor. Seven churches receive their official audit in the book of Revelation. The final report gives the impression that the auditor knew them better than any accountant knows his books. He did. Divine audits miss nothing.
In this Divine audit, high marks were given for faith, perseverance under stress, doctrinal purity and hard work. Deficits were noted for doctrinal imperfections, lukewarmness, immorality and a loss of first love. If Jesus should conduct a surprise audit of our lives and of our church today, what would He find?
An exchange of Kingdom values for cultural ones. We have allowed world views such as relativism, subjectivism and political correctness to distract us from God and His word. Paul warned us of this possibility. Do not allow the world to force you into its mold, but rather be transformed, changed people, by the renewing of your minds. When was the last time we submitted our daily walk to an examination by the scriptures rather than a comparison to those around us? God calls us to be distinctively different, peculiar people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood.
We have forsaken the basics. Sports teams frequently find themselves losing more than winning. An audit finds that they have forsaken the basics.
Jesus gives us the basics:
Love God with all your heart, mind, body and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. Too often we're found arguing issues that are really not issues at all, and never were. The issue is do we love God? Jesus said,
If so, you will keep My commandments. Let’s get back to basics. The church at Ephesus came up short in their audit because they had lost the basics, left their first love.
John R.W. Stott says, We must wrestle with the balance between fidelity to Scripture and sensitivity to culture (even as Jesus modeled) without compromising our identity as followers of Christ. Personally, I feel that if Jesus were to audit us this year, He would say, leave the issues and get back to the basics. Right?
We fail to understand the critical transaction. Students in the college of business are familiar with the term, critical transaction. For instance in the airline business, the critical transaction is not when the plane takes off or when the mechanic repairs a component, but when a passenger buys a ticket. In radio, the critical transaction is not when and which records are played, how much and when the news is broadcast, but when advertising is sold. If people do not buy advertising time, nothing else can happen. It is the critical transaction.
Jesus did not come to build His church to meet the felt needs of the community. Jesus died on the cross to change our status; from sinner to saint, from lost to saved, from hell bound to heaven bound. Yes, we have many important needs in our culture, needs that can be met in the church family, but the critical issue is that we become changed men and women.
Understand that audits are personal. The evaluating agency is not interested in how someone else is doing; their focus is on us individually. It is easy to become so intent on auditing others that we fail to submit to God's audit of self. Jesus addresses this problem when He said, Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
Grades, audits, evaluations can be painful, embarrassing and revealing; however, if accepted properly, they can become the pivot point for genuine repentance and renewal.
Randall Caselman
