Average church member ‘useless’ to the Kingdom of God, says Hunt

The average person in an evangelical church is useless to the Kingdom of God, Johnny Hunt told Alabama Baptists during the Tuesday evening session of the state convention annual meeting Nov. 18. “Their lives aren’t productive to Christ.”
   
Johnny Hunt, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga., preached from 2 Peter 1:3–9 on “Our Addition to God’s Provision.”
   
“Too many of us have a lazy river Christianity, just floating along,” Hunt declared. “There are things God has done in your life, and you need to respond.”
Hunt said there is a lack of spiritual depth in churches partly due to being “underchallenged because we’ve bought into a handful of grumblers.”
   
Hunt said it is important to add the following to our faith:
   
1. Virtue or moral energy, fulfilling that for which it was created
   
2. Knowledge or biblical wisdom
   
3. Self-control
   
4. Perseverance or holding on with vibrant hope
   
5. Godliness or worshiping well — not an atmosphere, but a relationship with God and His family
   
6. Brotherly kindness or love by choice
   
7. Love or uncontrollable Calvary- type love (2 Pet. 1:5)
   
“Verse 8 tells us that if you’re not growing, you’re barren and useless,” Hunt said.
   
“God have mercy if I’ve been called to preach, and He’s placed me in a community, and I neglect the need. I refuse to leave the community as I found it. I want to take as many to heaven as I can and help develop fully devoted followers of Christ,” said Hunt.
   
Quoting Matthew 5:13 Hunt said if the “salt has lost its saltiness, it’s good for nothing.
   
“The reason Southern Baptist churches aren’t able to go to another level is because of short-sighted people. Our motto should be ‘whatever it takes.’ It’s going to cost you something,” said Hunt.
   
He said the church needs to develop an “eternal perspective.”
“We need to think about what we want to hear when our life is over and go live that type of life.”
   
Hunt said churches and individuals need to have a vision, “for without a vision, the people perish. … If you don’t see it before you see it, you’ll never see it. You’ve got to have a vision, a dream, a passion.”
   
“Nothing will make people more passionate than … hearing from God. We’ve lost that and that’s why we deal with all the immorality in our world today,” said Hunt, noting every believer is equipped to serve God.
   
“I may have forgotten a lot of things, but never the night Christ saved me. When God saved me, He gave me everything I needed for the journey. When we were born physically, God gave us the hands, eyes and feet that we’re using right now, but He wanted us to grow, eat, exercise and take care of ourselves. According to verse 3, He’s given us everything that pertains to life in godliness when we got saved. He doesn’t give one more than the other. It doesn’t depend on what you amount to, but what God will do in you. Every child has every potential of becoming what God wants them to be,” said Hunt.
   
Hunt said he had never attended church until age 20.
   
“My wife asked me to go to church, and I always made excuses, lying about not feeling well. But, I went one Sunday morning, and at the end of the service the pastor said that there was a young man there who needed God and asked the church to pray that that young man would come back that night and get saved. That was a congregation of over 300 people, but I knew he was talking about me. I came back to church that night and accepted Christ. You see, God doesn’t know your number, He knows your name,” Hunt said.
   
Hunt said that scenario is the reason it is important to give the opportunity for someone to come to know Christ at every service.
   
Hunt quoted 2 Peter 1:8: “If you possess these qualities (faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love) you will abound.”
   
Hunt asked the congregation “Is your life useful for God’s Kingdom? Are you a difference maker? Will you be missed when you’re gone? Are things different since you’ve been there?”
   
The way to make one’s addition to God’s provision is to vow to make a difference, Hunt said.