Why are so many folk, especially young people, leaving the church? The numbers are staggering. People are flocking to social media as if they can find God there. They are abandoning their parents’ faith. They are looking on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Should we be concerned? Did we fail our children?
The bible speaks exactly to what we are seeing take place. We can’t stop it. We can’t pray our way out of it. It is inevitable that such a time as this should take place. The times are unfolding precisely the way they should. Unless you don’t believe what the Word of God says:
“Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division [between believers and unbelievers]; for from now on five in one household will be divided [over Me], three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law”. Luke 12:51-53 AMP
There are a number of reasons why the community churches are not the stalwarts that they once were. I won’t attempt to speak on all the reasons, but there is one recurring theme that I hear quite often as I talk to young folk. The complaint I hear the most from them is that they hear one thing and see something different. They seem to be insinuating that the ‘enemy is in the house’. Wow! Think about that. People are saying they are not willing to be a part of a group that comes together every week in the name of God and acts as though the bible is just a suggestion. What they witness at church, in people, is different than what they see at home or in the neighborhood. That is ‘hypocrisy’. For them, ‘the enemy is in the house’.
To be fair, this is not exclusive to the church. Every institution has its own shortcomings. The problem is that the church is supposed to be set apart from ‘all’ other institutions. We are supposed to be a shining example to the world. It seems as though the world is influencing the church when it is supposed to be the other way around.
The Apostle Paul instructed Timothy to always be ready to share the gospel with whoever was willing to hear it. These instructions were memorialized in the last letter he wrote to Timothy:
“Keep and follow the pattern of sound teaching (doctrine) which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard [with greatest care] and keep unchanged, the treasure [that precious truth] which has been entrusted to you [that is, the good news about salvation through personal faith in Christ Jesus], through [the help of] the Holy Spirit who dwells in us”. 2 Timothy 1:13, 14 AMP
How we live should reflect what we say. That should be a simple enough rule. Unfortunately, this simple rule has lost its luster. The times that we live in now have little or no memory of what Paul handed down to Timothy.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables”. 2 Timothy 4:3,4 NKJV

There is a parallel story in the book of Joshua that speaks to this present-day issue.  Immediately after Joshua led the Israelites over the Jordan into the land the Lord promised them, they suffered a humiliating defeat. Joshua then cried out to the Lord, “Then Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads.  And Joshua said, ‘Alas, Lord God, why have You brought this people over the Jordan at all – to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it, and surround us, and cut off our name from the earth.  Then what will You do for Your great name?  So the LORD said to Joshua: “Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face?  Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them.  For they have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff.”   Joshua 7:6-10 

The Lord told Joshua that the enemy is in the house.

How sad it will be on that day when we are called to give an account for the things we did or did not do in this life. Can we honestly say we did all we could to bring our children up in the ways of the Lord? Did our lives reflect that of a moral, just, loving, and God-fearing child of God?
The church isn’t the only place we learn about the Lord. Our home is also our sanctuary. The Lord should be a member of our household. If He isn’t a member of our home, then “the enemy is in the house”.
“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them”. Matthew 18:20 NKJV
Paul was obviously very concerned with what he was witnessing as the infant church began to grow. During the time he was personally disciplining Timothy, false teachers were already beginning to rise. Timothy was young, and Paul wanted him to be prepared for what was coming. Not only that, but the Lord wanted every succeeding generation to be on guard as well.
In the 21st century, we are still called upon to preach, teach, and guard the gospel. No one said it would be easy. Our challenges are quite daunting, but we don’t need to make it more difficult by allowing the “enemy in the house”. There is no time to be complacent. It is time for a good old-fashioned spring cleaning.
In the first letter Paul wrote to Timothy, he spoke to him about the Great Falling Away (Apostasy):
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron…” 1 Tim.4:1,2.

Deception has crept in among us.  It has turned believers into spectators.  Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”  Instead of feeding the sheep, we have become consumers of the world.  The pulpit has become a stage and worship entertainment.