We successfully ventured out strategically yesterday on Black Friday. We targeted very specific needs: Tree, lights, a few grocery items. We hit stores that weren’t busy. Even when we ventured out a second time (cell phone, speakers) we found quiet little places.

Whew.

We go crazy on this stuff. Everyone has their strategy for Black Friday. Ours is laying low.

What we need to be mindful of is the temptation to allow a consumerist mentality invade our Kingdom allegiance. It’s a debate as to go crazy on Black Friday or not. What shouldn’t be a debate is whether or not we allow that same spirit into our lives as believers.

Too often we carry a consumer mentality right into church. That attitude is seen in Malachi.

¹³ “You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the Lord.

“Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’

¹⁴ “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? ¹⁵ But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’” (Mal. 3:14-15, NIV)

What good is it to serve God? That’s the question.

“Why serve him when it doesn’t serve us?”

That’s the consumerist mentality. We need to be careful.

Last week I spoke in chapel at North Central University and I mentioned that the danger of American Christianity is we are lazy. I don’t mean that ministers are lazy. I mean that, as ministers, we often work so hard to deliver a “product” that other believers can “enjoy” we feed into the system of making other believers lazy. They don’t have to do anything other than sit back and enjoy the show.

We need to be cautious in how we approach God. Serving the King isn’t about what he brings to the table and then we see if we like the offer.

Israel made the mistake of asking, “What’s in it for me?”

Let’s watch our own hearts in this season… and every season.