A Mislaid God — E.A. Johnston

Spiritual Deadness and the Loss of Church Influence

We live in a day of deadness in our churches. Form and ritual are conducted with gravity, like a mortuary. On the other hand, on the other extreme in our churches, it's one big party atmosphere, all levity and laughter, and no reverence for God, and no spiritual transformation.

The spiritual declension of our churches today has left its sad mark upon a sin-loving society that used to look to the church for guidance and direction. I fear we have both lost our way. The church has lost not only her authority, but also her influence upon a godless generation.

Our preaching lacks power and our worship is fleshly. But why? Where is God in all of this? Believe, friends, we have mislaid God. We have put him out of our daily ethics, mislaid him in our thoughts and activities.

We have forgotten him, and thus we operate in the flesh with money and manpower as the apparatus of the church today. But in former times, the engine of the church was prayer, and its powerhouse was the Holy Spirit.

But we have quenched and grieved the Spirit of God away from us, and we are like Samson. We shake ourselves and rise to do our religious work, but we are bankrupt without the power and anointing of the Spirit of God.

Hosea’s Meaning of a Mislaid God

Yes, we have mislaid God. And that's the title of my message today, friends. A Mislaid God. And my text can be found in the book of Hosea. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. I cannot preach this message without paying tribute to the great G. Campbell Morgan, who developed this theme in a book of messages on the prophet Hosea.

God had a controversy with the Jews in the days of Hosea. They had quite forgotten him and played the harlot with the world in both their personal and national life. They had become filled with themselves and had forgotten their God.

We see this in Hosea 13 and verse 16, which states,. According to their pasture, so were they filled. They were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore have they forgotten me. That word forgotten in the Hebrew is an interesting word.

It is shokayach, and it simply means to mislay, to be oblivious of from wanton memory or attention, to forget a thing out of one's conscience, to mislay. And that's what the people of God had done in Hosea's day.

They kept up their religion, but they had mislaid their God, mislaid him in their memory and attention. The Jews were full of themselves and had quite forgotten God. They became focused on the world and its pleasures, and their religion was in vain because they had mislaid their God.

Mislaying God in Church Life

Is this not what we are guilty of today, friends? I want to bring out several aspects from our passage today. Number one, we have mislaid God in our church life. Number two, we have mislaid God in our prayer life.

And number three, we have mislaid God in our national life. Let's begin with the first aspect of we have mislaid God in our church life. Have you ever mislaid something? I remember years ago I mislaid my wallet.

I'd been out doing door-to-door witnessing in a poorer part of town, and when I got home I could not find my wallet. All the thoughts that went through my mind of someone finding it and keeping it. I hurriedly got in my car and returned to that neighborhood and walked around like a madman looking in bushes and front yards hoping to see it, but it was all in vain.

It was mislaid. I could not remember where I put it. In arriving back home, I realized I had placed it on the sofa, and there it was between the sofa pillows. But the fear that filled me when I came to realize I had mislaid it.

And that should be the terror that seizes our soul if we come to see we have mislaid our God in our lives and we should do everything we can to find him and make him top priority again. But the church today has mislaid God.

We wanted to reach the world, so we invited the world into the church, and in doing so, we mislaid our entire concept of God. We have replaced him with fleshly activity, loud, raucous laughter, louder music and entertainment.

To such a sad degree, we don't even miss God. He is mislaid from our worship. Our focus is on the entertainer, on the personality in the pulpit, but not on God. God has been pushed in the background. We say with our lips we love God, but our hearts are far away from him.

Consequently, visitors come to our churches for fellowship and to be entertained like they go to the theater. It's all social, and very little spiritual activity takes place in our churches anymore. Why?

We have mislaid God, much like the Jews mislaid their God and set him aside, quite forgotten, and out of sight and out of mind. And when the church mislays God, then society forgets him completely. This is why evil is called good and good evil today.

Mislaying God in Prayer Life

Evil is promoted at every level of society, and sin is no longer in anyone's conscience. God has been mislaid out of the national conscience, and you see where that has gotten us, friends. Secondly, we have mislaid God from our prayer life.

Where is the corporate prayer in our churches today? We have instituted cell groups and Bible studies and self-help therapy groups, but the prayer life of the church has quite vanished. The weekly prayer meeting is a thing of the past in most churches today.

Why? Because we have mislaid God in our prayer life. Our prayers are mainly self-focused, self-absorbed. The object of prayer is us, our needs, our blessings. But where is the worship of God in prayer today?

Quite gone. We have mislaid him. And consequently, we no longer know how to pray. Our prayers go no further than the ceiling, and we lack power in prayer because we have mislaid our God. The labor of our prayers are barren, dry, unfruitful.

How can God answer our prayers when we have mislaid him? Amos 3 .3 declares, can two walk together except they be agreed? How can we expect God to hear and answer prayer when we do not delight in walking with him?

Other things have replaced him in our lives. Other things have taken priority, and God is regulated to the background. We have quite forgotten the first commandment of having no other gods before me. We break that commandment like glass with the action of our daily lives.

Mislaying God in National Life

Why aren't our loved ones being saved today? Why are they hardened more and more in sin? We have mislaid God in prayer. Lastly, we have mislaid God in our national life. If you doubt this, friend, look around you today and see how a godless society further rejects God and the land.

They want absolutely nothing to do with God today. He's merely a cuss word to them, or, at best, a laughingstock. There's no fear of God in the land today. Why? Shock! We have mislaid God from our national conscience, quite forgotten him.

Repentance and Returning to God

How about you, friend? You may claim to be a Christian, but have you mislaid your God? Have you? Be honest before him, and, if you have, then repent for your lack, and return to him. God declares in Malachi, Return to me, and I will return to you.

Is God first place in your life, friend? He will not take second place to anyone. This is why the church lays in sad decay today, without power and influence. She has mislaid God. Meanwhile, the lost and perishing fill hell every minute that ticks by while we play our little games and call to church on Sunday morning.

We do everything in the flesh. We do everything in our own strength. But we have mislaid our God. Heaven help us all. Let us pray.