God Requires More Than Lip Service: Consider Your Ways

By Johnna Blount Purkett

For Christians seeking to deepen or strengthen their spiritual relationship, More Than Lip Service serves as a beacon. This book provides a biblical definition and description of Christian behaviors and values. More Than Lip Service is a message to Believers at various stages in their walk with Christ —from those already in spiritual leadership positions to those who are just beginning. As this book assists in the development of spiritual maturity, it also challenges every reader, regardless of their current spiritual relationship, to consider their approach to serving and living for God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664222113

Johnna Blount Purkett

Mentor, teacher, intercessor, Johnna Blount Purkett has dedicated her life to serving God and humanity. She is a retired Special Education Teacher with a Master of School Administration (MSA) degree. Johnna resides in North Carolina where she serves in ministry with her husband, Pastor Jesse C. Purkett. Her ministry passion is assisting Christians who are seeking to strengthen their relationship with God to exemplify life service instead of lip service.

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ISBN: 978-1-6642-2212-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-2213-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-2211-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021902039

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/10/2021

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1     Christian or Not?

Chapter 2     Who Are You Fooling?

Chapter 3     Talking Loud and Saying Nothing

Chapter 4     Let Your Walk Match Your Talk

Chapter 5     Put Up or Shut Up

Chapter 6     Watch Your Mouth

Chapter 7     Clean Up Your Act

Chapter 8     Stop, Hear, Listen, and Obey

Chapter 9     Moving Beyond Lip Service

Chapter 10   Accept the Challenge

A Call to Action

Resources

PREFACE

Christians are living in a very difficult and challenging time. It seems that every move that is made and every word that is spoken is being placed under a microscope to see if they are really who they profess to be. Standards for holy living are being lowered daily. The ability to identify a Christian is becoming more and more difficult by the minute. We must remember that not only are Christians being scrutinized by humankind, but God is watching. God requires that we live a life of faith, obedience, and love as mandated by His Holy Word, but many keep coming up short of His requirements. God has provided every tool we need to be successful at being Christians, but we must apply them. Lip service is simply not enough. We must consider our ways.

The grand ole United States of America was built on the motto In God we Trust. Because the early nation’s leaders strived to focus on God and to maintain morality based on the principles of God, it became the greatest country in the world. In God We Trust was placed in government buildings and on coins and paper currency as a constant reminder of what we believe and the ethics that we should uphold. It served as an important part of our identity as Americans. The classrooms of our schools were inundated with prayer and scriptural devotions as teachers and children began each day. The neighborhoods were centered on the church and the village helped to raise the children. There were rare occurrences of, if any, school shootings. Mass killings, contrary to today, were almost unheard of.

What has happened to America and its identity as a Christian nation? What has happened to America’s leaders who once stood firm on truth instead of the self- righteous and narrow-minded attitudes we see exhibited by many today? More importantly, what has happened to the Christian values that protected and propelled our neighborhoods, our schools, and our nation to its initial greatness?

We have become a greedy, disobedient, prideful, unforgiving, lustful, and ungrateful people. We have lowered our standards and forsaken the morals that are based on the Word of God. The Holy Bible has become a literary resource used only when convenient or necessary to make a point instead of as the definitive daily guide for our lives. Christianity, seemingly, has become a fad that changes like the wind. We have forgotten the true meaning of what it means to be a Christian as dictated by God’s Word. We are professing Christianity with our mouths, but our walk is not matching it. Brennan Manning emphatically states, The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. This is what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable.

Perhaps we need to be reminded that God created man in his image and for his glory (Isaiah 43:7). Yes, we are God’s workmanship and He preordained that we would walk with Him, fear Him, and do good works, serving Him in truth and with all of our heart and ultimately spend eternity with Him. Because of jealousy and Satan’s desire to lead and be greater than God, Satan not only became God’s enemy, but he also became our enemy because we are God’s creation. Satan is out to destroy the Christian as is specifically defined by God’s Word. Satan’s desire is to crush us and to sift us as wheat (Luke 22:31). When we permit Satan to have any space in our lives, our Christian values become compromised, not only negatively impacting us personally, but collectively, thus sending our nation spiraling downward and out of control.

Some of the lyrics from the song titled Don’t Let the Devil Ride ¹give a good idea of what Satan will do if you give him a foothold in your life:

Don’t let the Devil ride

Oh don’t let the devil ride

‘Cause if you let him ride

He’ll want to try to drive

Don’t let him ride

Ephesians 2:2 reminds us that Satan, our enemy, is the prince of the power of the air and that it is his spirit that is working in those who are disobedient, resulting in hatred, fulfilling lustful desires, racial uprisings, homosexuality, incest, molestation, self-mutilation, divorces, promiscuity, gossip, murder and all other unrighteous acts. What we are experiencing in our daily walk is a war going on in our flesh and in our mind. Apostle Paul reminds us in the book of Romans 7:21 that when we seek to do those things that are good, evil is always present to tempt us and distract us. However, as Christians we are to recognize the ploys and the schemes of our enemy, Satan.

As Christians, we know the importance and the benefits of fleeing from the bonds of Satan and being committed and obedient to a risen Savior. That’s the reason we choose to serve Jesus, the King of kings, who is all powerful. We recognize that it is through God and His son, Jesus, that we can overcome the enemy with the use of consistent prayer and fasting, our spiritual weapons. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus Christ comes that we may have life, and that more abundantly (John 10:10).

Will we, the people of God, continue a downward spiral of being defeated by the enemy, or will we live according to the teachings of the Creator of the universe, an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God who gives us great victory?

Fortunately, this walk is not a group walk; it’s an individual walk and it requires more than being a part of soapbox conversations, barbershop talk, tea time chats, or church gripe sessions. Our victory is not contingent upon what anyone else says or does or how anyone else lives; it’s based entirely on our very own personal relationship with God who demands righteous living and not mere words with good intentions. (My mother often said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.) This walk can be a very lonely walk and therefore requires being focused and committed. The path leaves little room for error unless you are willing to repent and turn from unrighteous living. Enter ye in at the strait gait for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it (Matthew 7:13–14).

As you journey through this book, my desire is that it will draw you, the reader, into greater knowledge and a deeper revelation of who God is and what He expects from you. It will assist with understanding the requirements of being a Christian and the importance of your words aligning with your lifestyle as well as the negative impact it has on unbelievers when it doesn’t happen. The nuggets shared will enable you to recognize how much we talk about God versus how much we live and do for Him. Because we carry His name–Christian, we are called to serve as Jesus Christ’s ambassadors and to live according to His Word that is given to us through and by the divine inspiration of the Holy Bible. The manuscript will challenge you to take a self-examination before judging others as it also prompts you to be mindful of the words that flow through your lips, monitor your actions and to be more aware of the tactics of our common enemy, Satan. Even greater, the writings will emphasize the mandate of hearing and obeying the words of our almighty God and Creator of the universe and ultimately provoke you to make changes in the areas of living that are contrary to what He demands. God’s instructions explicitly states, If you love Me, keep My commandments (John 14:15).

I encourage you to read and study with the determination to follow God wherever He leads. Most of all, I encourage you to surrender your life to God and obey His commandments that we may enhance the kingdom of God by winning other