Attack On Idols- Spiritual Apathy
Attack on idols – Week 7: spiritual apathy
Spiritual apathy is one of the most dangerous idols—it lulls us to sleep while a real war rages on for souls. Daniel’s visions remind us the enemy is real, the battle is fierce, and the King is coming. Don’t settle for casual Christianity. Wake up, fight back with prayer and God’s Word, and live ready for Jesus’ return. Our final week in our series Attack On Idols we battle the idol of Spiritual Apathy.
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All right. Now, week seven. Last week, let me start like I normally do with a little question. Have you ever been to um a party, um a a concert, a a a game that was kind of lame? You know, you know what I’m saying? Like, like chances are you probably have that that we’ve been there. I was just uh talking to some friends in the lobby before church and they were at a concert a couple weeks ago in Charleston out on the river. Beautiful place to go except if you remember two weeks ago it rained like Noah’s Arct type rain all weekend. Well, that was our concert, right? Kind of lame. or or another way to to explain this that that if you’ve been to a football game at a collegiate level and at an NFL level, like collegiate level football games are really exciting. NFL level football games going and watch, they’re pretty lame. All right. Now, I know some of you are Pittsburgh and Philly fans. You guys get a you’re you’re a different a different game. Okay, Jan, let me just say that. Philly games, that’s different. But I can say this as a Colts fan, like if I’d go to a Notre Dame game, it was like, “Dude, this is incredible. The fans, they all know the chance. They do everything.” I go to a Colts game and it was like, “I I think I would have had more fun at home.” All right. Or here’s a perfect illustration of it. This coming weekend, you go to a Carolina Gamecocks, they’re playing Alabama. That stadium is going to be bumping, right? You go to the Carolina Panthers to watch the Bills. Like, like why? Why is that the case?
I I think it’s apathy. Apathy means lack of enthusiasm, uh lack of concern, lack of care. And let’s be honest, if you’re going to a football game, it doesn’t matter, right? Like, as much as I love football, if it’s a little uh if if people are a little apathetic at a football game, so be it. How would you feel if you were rushed into the ER and the ER doctor was a little apathetic? You would not be a fan. You’d be like, “This is an emergency. I need to get this taken care of right now.” And if that ER doctor is like, “H, I’ll get to you eventually.” You’d be like, “No, this doesn’t work.” Or, “How about this? Let’s go one level worse.” How about your surgeon didn’t care? And you’re going to the table and he’s cutting you open. You don’t want a surgeon to be apathetic, to not have concern, to not be involved, to not have desire, to not have empathy. You would go, “I need a new surgeon.” Or how about this? you’re in the military and you’re going to a battle and you have a soldier to your right and a soldier to your left and they’re apathetic. You would immediately be going, “Dude, go back. I don’t even want you near me because I want somebody in the foxhole. I want somebody going to war who on my right and my left, they say, I’ve got you, brother. I’m in this. Let’s go do this together.”
There’s some places it doesn’t matter if you’re apathetic, but then there are some places where apathy has no place. And here’s what I’m afraid of. Apathy has found its way into the life of the church and into the life of Christians. It’s not that we’re in uh that that we hate the gospel. It’s not that we hate Jesus. It’s not that people hate Jesus. We’re just indifferent. We just pray occasionally. We we show up to church occasionally. We we make it um you know part of our life but not all of our life. That we turn Christianity, our relationship with God into a habit or maybe even to a hobby. But but let me just be real clear right now. Your walk with Jesus or Jesus, he is not a habit. He is not a hobby. He is everything. And what he calls us to is everything. Because we don’t enter into a relationship with Jesus. We don’t we don’t go to church because it’s a habit or a hobby. We do it because we are in the midst of a war.
And that’s what I want you to catch today is I want us to attack this idol of spiritual apathy because we are at war and a king is coming. Well, like if you don’t catch anything else today, catch that phrase right there. I want us to attack the idol of spiritual apathy because we are at war and the king is coming. And we’re going to see that by looking at the back half of the book of Daniel. Uh so if you have a Bible, go to Daniel chapter 7. All right? And as I say oftentimes, you might have a paper Bible. Uh you might have a digital Bible that if you have the Rock app, all you got to do is open the Rock app and hit the thing uh that says Attack on Titans on top of it and it’ll take you uh straight to a place where you can click on Bible where it’ll say Daniel chapter 7. So today we’re going to look at Daniel chapter 7, but we’re actually going to do it a little bit different. Here’s the interesting thing about the book of Daniel. The first six chapters are all narratives. They’re all like stories that they’re events that happen in somebody’s life and you kind of walk through them. So, we’ve done one chapter each week. Today, we do Daniel chapter 7 through Daniel chapter 12. We’re going to catch it all. All right? And it’s a totally different style of writing. The first six chapters, he wrote narrative. He wrote story form. These last six, they’re all prophecies. They’re they’re honestly they’re difficult to understand. There’s parts you go, I mean, I don’t get that. Because he was talking about some things in the near future, but he was also talking about things in the final future. He he talked about things that were going to happen right then with the governments of that day, but he was also talking all the way into the future of when Jesus would come back to this earth in his second coming. So, there’s a whole lot here that I want us to unpack. So, we’re going to look at a couple verses in Daniel 7, and then we’re going to jump to Daniel 10, and then we’re going to jump to Daniel 12. All right. Um, but I know you guys can handle it, so we’re going to do it. All right. Daniel chapter 7. Let me just read a little bit starting in verse two. And the first thought that I want you to to make sure we hear is we are at war. We are at war. You’ll see it when we look at this verse two. Daniel 7:2.
In my vision that night, I, Daniel, saw a great storm churning the surface of the great sea with strong winds blowing from every direction. Then four huge beasts came up out of the water, each different from the others. The first beast was like a lion with eagle’s wings. As I watched, its wings were pulled off, and it was left standing with its two hind feet on the ground like a human being, and it was given a human mind. Then I saw a second beast and I looked and it looked like a bear. It was rearing up on one side and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And I heard a voice saying to it, “Get up. Devour the flesh of many people.” Then the third of these strange beasts appeared and it looked like a leopard. It had four birds wings on its back and it had four heads. Great authority was given to this beast. Then in my vision that night, I saw a fourth beast, terrifying, dreadful, and very strong. It devoured and crushed its victims, which hu with huge iron teeth, and trampled their remains beneath its feet. It was different from any of the other beasts, and it had 10 horns. Let’s just pause right here for a second. Man, Daniel is tripping out. Are you with me? Like, this is a freaky dream. You know, we’re we’re right around Halloween, right? And there’s all kinds of scary movies out there right now that this is like one of those like, dude, did you watch a scary movie and then go to bed? Or did you eat a bad burrito and go to bed? Like something’s going on with this guy. I mean, he’s got the this vision and it’s crazy. Now, if you were here when we did week two, it kind of sounds a little bit like that. A king had a dream about four different things. Let me keep reading. If you go down to verse 13, it said, “As my vision continued that night, I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancient one and was led into his presence. He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world so that the people of every race and nation and language would obey him. His rule was eternal. It will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed. Then verse 15, I Daniel was troubled by all that I’d seen. No joke. My visions terrified me. So I approached one of those standing beside the throne and asked him what it meant. And he explained it to me like this. These four huge beasts represent four kingdoms that will rise from the earth. But in the end, the holy people of the most high will be given the kingdom and will rule forever and ever.”
That what we see going on here now is that Daniel gets an explanation of this vision. And what in his vision, what he understands is that there’s four kingdoms that are at war. Now, this was during the time of Belshazar. If you remember week five, Belshazar, the one who had the writing on the wall, the one who died that night, he was having this vision before that happened. He was dreaming and the the this guy next to throne told him, “Hey, the there’s four kingdoms.” Well, we remember these four kingdoms because they come back to Nebuchadnezzar that there’s the kingdom of the Babylonians. There’s the the kingdom of the Persians, the Mes and Persians. There’s the kingdom of the Greeks. Maybe you know your your ancient history, Alexander the Great. There’s the kingdom of the Roman Empire. If you know the days of Jesus, that was the Roman Empire. What Daniel was getting was a vision of four different kings that were going to war against one another. But remember, he also saw one like the son of man coming. It was another king going to war. So when Daniel saw this, what he saw was kings and kingdoms at war. And it troubled him. In the very last verse, it says this, verse 28, that was the end of a vision. I, Daniel, was terrified by my thoughts and my face was pale with fear. That Daniel was terrified. That he was afraid because of what he saw. Why? Because he saw kingdoms go into battle? Not at all. I don’t think Daniel was afraid because he saw kingdoms go go go at at war with one another. I don’t think that he was terribly upset of seeing the Babylon Babylonians and the Persians at war, right? Like war is not good. We know that. We don’t like it. That that there’s obviously terrible things that happen, but sometimes it has to happen. I don’t think that Daniel was upset there. I think Daniel was upset because he recognized this vision isn’t about earthly kings and kingdoms going to war. This vision is about something much deeper, much more spiritual. That this is about kingdoms of earth and kingdoms of heaven. that that when he saw the vision of the son of man, which is in reference to Jesus, he he understood that that we’re not just talking about a war between two neighboring countries. We’re not just talking about a war between two kings. We’re talking about a spiritual war that is going on for the territory. And the territory is that of men. Meaning, there’s a war going on for you and I. that Daniel doesn’t become apathetic to what he sees, but he’s troubled. He’s empathetic that he’s saying, “Man, something’s going on here that is much deeper.” And his heart broke because he saw kings at war, kingdoms at war over people.
that if I can say it this way that he saw the prince of darkness going to war against the prince of peace and it troubled him because he realized man I’m in the midst of this war and that’s where I want us to take our minds for a second because again I think this is where apathy comes in that we lose sight that we’re actually in a war. That there is a spiritual war going on all around us. There is a spiritual war going on right now in this place. Because for some of you, you long to turn to Christ, but you have evil. You have darkness. You have an enemy that is trying to keep you from it. That you have a a sin that is keeping you from full surrender. that we are in the midst of a war right now. And Daniel saw this. Daniel saw it and heard it because of what happens in Daniel chapter 10. That in Daniel chapter 10, Daniel is praying because of this vision because of everything that’s going on. He’s praying going, “God, I need you to intervene. God, I need you to step in. I I’m realizing that we’re now at war. And I want you to read it.” It it’s a passage that it blew It blows my mind every time I read it. It’s Daniel chapter 10 verse 10. Daniel 10:10. So just a couple pages over or a couple screen swipes over.
Just then a hand touched me and lifted me, still trembling to my hands and knees. And a man said to me, “Daniel, you are very precious to God. So listen carefully to what I have to say to you. Stand up, for I’ve been sent to you.” When he said this to me, I stood up trembling. Then he said,“Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come to answer your prayer. But for 21 days, the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia. Let me explain this deeper. There’s two things I really want us to catch from this passage that will help you understand that we are at war. The first thing is this is that when you pray, God immediately hears that that when you offer a word up to God, he immediately catches it and oftentimes sends help. Like like like we think, well, when I pray now, I just got to wait. Maybe the part of the reason you’re waiting is because there is a war going on trying to keep the answer from coming to you. Like like if if you see the passage in depth that the minute Daniel started praying, God heard God sent an answer. God sent an angel who we believe it would have been Gabriel. That God sent Gabriel to Daniel. But while he was coming, the prince of Persia, that’s a demon, stopped him. They started fighting and until Michael the archangel got there, Gabriel couldn’t keep going. So I want you to see this that when we pray, God immediately hears and maybe at that moment immediately sends help even if it takes time. But secondly, I want you to hear about it. When you pray, there’s a war that happens when you pray. It’s not just a prayer we’re offering to God. I mean, that’s that’s what we’re doing. But because we do that, oftentimes there’s a war, a conflict that might come out of it. And for Daniel, that’s exactly what happened. And an angel and a demon started going at it. And I know you might read some of this and go, “All right, Josh, you getting way out there right now.” The spirit world is real.
It’s real. It was real in in this text. It was real in the times of Jesus. How many times do you read about the fact that he had to cast out a demon, that he had to get rid of an evil spirit? It was real in the days of Paul and the apostles, and it is real today. There was a demon that was causing havoc over Persia. And here’s what’s scary. And I’m not trying to scare anybody. All right? I don’t even like talking about spiritual warfare because I just one of those guys the more I talk about it I feel like the more I’m going to notice it and it’s one of those things honestly I don’t want to notice. You know what I’m saying? Like like y’all fight your battle. Leave me out of it. But we can’t go there because it’s real. And if there is a spirit demon over Persia, what’s to say there’s not a spirit demon in Conway, at Coastal, at at Myrtle, at Loris, at Aner. You see what I’m getting at? Like, like the demon world is real. And they’re trying to wage war against us because they want to see us fall. And when I say us, I mean all people, everyone. So when you pray, what you do is you put yourself in the midst of the battle. Or maybe I could say it this way. You arm yourself for the battle. I love the way Paul said it. It’s e Ephesians 6. I want to ask you to turn there. I’ll throw it to you up on the screen for for the ease of getting to it. But Ephesians 6 reads like this. says, “Put on God’s full armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil.” It goes on, it says, “For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers, authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in the dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly place.” So the reality is this, we are at war.
And if we’re at war, we need to know that our king is coming. I If you go back into in the olden days of war, not not our modern warfare, but olden days of war, when the king went out to the battlefield, the soldiers got excited because our king is with us. That that our leader is with us. That I want us to understand that God is with us now. He fully is with us now. But we also have our God, our King Jesus, who is going to return. That the King is coming. That when you read Daniel 7 through chapter 12, you’ll see this alluded to over and over and over that Jesus will come, the Messiah will come. And my fear is that we’ve lost sight of that. that the Jews had lost sight of the Messiah was going to come. They’re like, “Well, our Messiah is going to come one day. One day he’s going to come.” But then when he came, they missed it. The early Christians were confused about the coming Messiah. There was war. There was tribulation. There were struggles. So, so God gave John a revelation and he wrote it to say, “Guys, listen. You haven’t missed the return of Christ yet.” Because they all thought, “Well, the king already came and we and we just got left.” And John was like, “No, the king is still coming.” And we need to recognize that as well. And that’s where I think again our spiritual apathy kicks in. That our spiritual apathy makes us think that there’s not a war going on. We don’t realize the stakes that are that are around us right now. We don’t realize the power of prayer. We don’t realize the the need for evangelism. We don’t re realize the that we need to put on the armor of God. So, we have this spiritual apathy when it comes to the war we’re in. But we also have this spiritual apathy that we we don’t think about the fact that the king is coming.
That we we lose sight of what it’s all about. If we’re not careful, we focus on our promotions, our positions, our politics, things of that nature, our money, our hobbies, our habits. When what we really need to be recognizing is no, Jesus is coming to rise us from the dead. Chapter 12 says it this way, verse one, at the time Michael the archangel who stands guard over the nations will arise. Then there will be a time of anguish greater than any since nations first came into existence. But at that time every one of your people whose names is written in the book will be rescued. Many whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up. Some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting disgrace. Those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky. those who lead many to righteousness will shine like stars forever. That we need to see this verse and understand that there is a day of judgment that will come. That the king is coming and when he returns, we will rise to meet him and you will either be judged and and and and spend eternity with him or you’ll be separated for all of eternity.
See, the bottom line is the war has been won. Jesus has won the war, but the battles for our souls continue on. So, my challenge is is pretty simple. I’m I’m gonna say this real simple, real quick, just some some application like, how do I fight spiritual apathy? How do I remember that I’m at war and the king is coming? Well, look at Matthew 25. I’m just going to tell you some parables from it. You can turn there on your own if you want. Matthew 24 talks about, hey, the king is coming. It talks about the fact that that there’s going to be signs of the ends of the time. But then in Matthew 25, it’s basically like, so how do I make sure I’m ready? It starts with a parable that Jesus told about some bridesmaids that there was 10 bridesmaids that went out to look for their groom. And they all had oil in their lamp. And as the groom was a long time in coming, five of their their their lanterns ran out of oil and they didn’t have any extra oil. So they had to go back into town to try to find some oil. But while they were gone trying to find some oil, the the groom came and he took the five bridesmaids who were there and said, “Let’s go to the wedding.” And the whole point of that story is I have to be ready for the return of Christ. I have to be longing for the return of Christ. I should not be so focused on things of this world that I forget that Jesus is coming and I should long for his return. I should long for him to set the record straight. I should long for him to set up eternity and I’ve got to be ready. But it would also be a sad thing to also to say, “Well, I’m ready and who cares if they are?” That’s my struggle with this story is five were ready and five are not. And the five who walked away, they had to go find oil. And I always think about the other five. I’m like, man, like like but what about them? And I just wonder if there might have been a little apathy in these five. Now, again, it’s a parable. So, so we have no clue. He’s just he’s telling a story. But but it makes me go, man, let’s fight against spiritual apathy. Let’s be ready, but let’s also help others to be ready. How do we do that? Well, it’s the next parable.
Jesus said a king once gave out some silver. To to one guy, he gave five bags of silver. To another guy, he gave two bags of silver. And to another guy, he gave one bag of silver. And the king said, “I’m leaving. I’ll be back.” And eventually the king came back. And when the king came back, he went to the guy he gave five bags of silver to and he said, “Hey, what’d you do with it?” He said, “King, I went and I invested it. Let me give you 10 bags of silver.” And he’s like, “Well done. Well done.” He went to the guy who had two uh one uh two bags of silver and he said, “Hey, what did you do with those two bags of silver?” He said, “King, I invested it. I got two more for you. Here’s four bags of silver.” And the king was like, “Well done.” And then the guy with the one bag of silver, he looked at him and said, “Hey, what’d you do?” And he goes, “Well, I was afraid, so I hid it. I buried it. I kept it to myself, but you can have your one bag back.” And the king said, “Get away from me, man. I gave you something to invest. I gave you something of value and you just held it. you did nothing with it because you were afraid. That’s spiritual apathy. Spiritual apathy is recognizing God has given us gifts. And we can look at that in a multitude of ways. Whether that’s financial gifts, whether that that is uh spiritual gifts, whether that is the way we’re we’re able to use our talents, whatever God has given you, he’s given it to you and to me for us to invest back into him to invest into the kingdom so that others can hear. Like the whole goal is there are kingdoms at war. And this is what I know and this is what I hope you know that we should want as many people as possible to be saved and be on the kingdom side of Jesus, not to be damned on the kingdom side of Satan.
But we live with this spiritual apathy and like, well, man, I I don’t know I don’t know how to invest it. I don’t know how to share it. I don’t have the time to. That’s spiritual apathy. He went on and he told one more. He said, “At the end of time, the king is going to separate the people. To his right, he’s going to separate the sheep. To his left, he’s going to separate the goats.” And he said he’s going to look at his people and say, “You are my sheep. You come to this side. And you are goats. You go to that side.” And the sheep get to come to heaven. And the goats go to hell. And and the people on the right side, they said, uh, he he said that you’re a sheep because when I was hungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was in prison, you visited me. When I was sick, you cared for me. When I when I was naked, you clothed me. And people are like, “Well, when did we do that?” And he said, “Anytime you’ve done it to the least of me these, you’ve done it to me. So come into my kingdom. But to the goats, he said, “When I was hungry, you didn’t feed me. When I was thirsty, you didn’t give me something to drink. When I was in prison, you didn’t visit me. Depart from me, for I don’t know you.” And they’re like, “When when did we not when did we not serve you?” And he said, “When you didn’t serve the least of these?” Here’s what Jesus is getting at. that every individual matters and that we need to go and we need to help one more. And when we’re helping one more get to Jesus, what we’re doing is we’re also serving Jesus. How? Because you’re serving his ultimate goal. And that’s for all people to be saved. You’re serving him. Because you’re helping people cross over those that enemy line. You’re helping people leave the kingdom of darkness and come to the kingdom of light. So what we have to do is get rid of our spiritual apathy. We got to hit a point in our life when we recognize, man, what we’re about is not a habit. What I do is not a hobby. what we do when we go to church, what we do when we worship, what we do when we read God’s word, what we do when we pray, what we do when we give, what we do when we serve, what we do when we let people know about Christ, is the most important thing in the world. It’s the most important, but it’ll take it’ll take sacrifice.
makes me think about Aaron who’s from Attack on Titan. And I know most of you have never seen Attack on Titan, but Aaron was the main character. And Aaron was supposed to be the protagonist, you know, the good guy, the savior. And over time, Aaron went from the protagonist to the antagonist. Everybody, if you’ve watched the show or you talk to anybody who’s watched the show, they’ll say, “I hated Aaron at the end.” Like, like he’s like, “Aaron, what’s wrong with you?” And Aaron became the antagonist because Aaron became apathetic. He didn’t care about people. He He didn’t have any empathy. And and so you kind of hated this guy. You didn’t like him. You’re like, “What the heck’s going on?” But in the end, what you see actually wasn’t apathy. It was empathy. What you see at the end is him sacrificing his life to save the people that he could, to save as many as he could. that he was willing to give his entire life and die to save those that he could. Jesus never apathetic, antagonist to some, protagonist to those who understand, who sacrificed his life not so that some could find life. He sacrificed his life so that all could find life. And my prayer today is that you, me, we’re the ones who find life. That your ones, the people we come in contact with, the people we go to school with, the people we play ball with, that they will come to know him as well.
So, so here’s the challenge. I want us to first pray. I want us to realize that we’re at war. And I want us to pray like never before. I want God to send angels towards the people we’re praying for towards ourselves, towards our communities, so much so that the angels are flying, that the princes that are out there in the world, the prince of darknesses, that all of a sudden they freak out and they recognize, “Holy crap, somebody’s praying. Somebody means war right now.” Because this is what I know. Our God always wins. He wins. So, I’m going to invite us tonight to come up front like we’ve been doing and get down on our knees and and say, “God, I just want to pray. I want us to pray for our ones. I want us to pray for people, but I also want us to pray that we will repent and let go of our apathy, our spiritual apathy, and that we will recognize, man, I’m in a war, but my king is coming. So, I need to do what I can to prepare this place and this place for him. So, why don’t you stand with me? Let’s come up front and let’s pray. If you want to take that step of baptism, man, if you’re ready to see some angels celebrate on your behalf, we’re ready to receive you. Our baptism team is here and we have prayer counselors up front if you need to pray with somebody. But let’s do it right now.
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Attack on Idols: Spiritual Apathy
Daniel 7–12 | October 23/26
When Apathy Creeps In
Have you ever been to a game, concert, or event that just felt… flat? The energy wasn’t there. The crowd wasn’t engaged. Everyone was just going through the motions.
That may be fine at a football game, but it’s deadly when it comes to faith. Spiritual apathy—the slow drift into indifference—may be one of the most dangerous idols of all. It’s not that people are against the gospel. It’s that they simply stop caring.
We pray when we “feel like it.” We consume more than we contribute. We’re too tired to serve, so we just watch online. We check the box but never engage the battle. That’s what apathy does—it lulls us to sleep while a spiritual war rages on around us.
This Is War
The book of Daniel shifts dramatically in chapters 7–12. The first half is story-driven—lion’s dens and fiery furnaces. But then Daniel begins to see visions—beasts, horns, persecution, and chaos. These aren’t fairy tales. They are prophetic pictures of kingdoms clashing, of evil rising, and of a spiritual battle raging beneath the surface.
Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome—they all come and go, but the war behind the wars continues. The ultimate enemy isn’t a political ruler but the evil one himself. Daniel was so shaken by the visions that his strength left him (Daniel 10:8–9). He couldn’t ignore the battle because he saw what was really at stake: people, kings, and the kingdom of God.
Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:12 that our fight is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil. That means apathy is not an option. While we sit idle, the enemy advances. The only way to fight back is through prayer and God’s Word—the very weapons that push darkness back.
The King Is Coming
Daniel’s visions didn’t just reveal the war. They pointed to hope. The promise of a coming Messiah. The assurance that God is sovereign and the end is certain.
The Jews longed for their Messiah, but many missed Him when He came. Early Christians longed for Christ’s return, but some feared they had missed it. John’s Revelation was written to say: you haven’t missed Him—He is coming. Be ready.
Our danger today is different. We’ve lost the urgency. Two thousand years later, it’s easy to get distracted by politics, promotions, possessions, and popularity. We know Jesus is coming, but we live like it’s not anytime soon. That’s spiritual apathy at work.
Matthew 25 gives us three parables that shatter apathy:
The Ten Bridesmaids – Be ready. Some had oil, some did not.
The Talents – Be useful. Some invested, some wasted what they were given.
The Sheep and the Goats – Be compassionate. Some cared, others ignored the needs around them.
Apathy doesn’t just make you lazy—it locks you out of the kingdom.
Wake Up and Engage
Paul’s words in Romans 13:11 hit like a trumpet blast: “The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”
This is not a hobby. This is not a habit. This is a war. Casual, apathetic Christianity has no place in the battle we face. The call is urgent:
Engage in the battle through prayer.
Equip yourself daily with God’s Word.
Encourage one another to stay strong.
Evangelize the lost—go after your “one.”
Expect the King’s return—live like He’s coming soon.
Final Word
Spiritual apathy is one of the most subtle idols. It doesn’t scream for attention. It simply numbs us into indifference. But indifference in a time of war is surrender.
Daniel’s visions remind us: the war is real, the stakes are eternal, and the King is coming.
Don’t bow to the idol of apathy. Wake up, fight back, and live ready for the return of the King.
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Small Group Curriculum: Attack on Idols
Small Group Curriculum – Week 7 PDF
Small Group Curriculum – Week 7
Series: Attack on Idols
Week 7 Title: Spiritual Apathy
Main Scripture: Daniel 10:10–13 (NLT)
Big Idea: Don’t bow to the idol of apathy—attack it by engaging in the battle and expecting the King’s return.1. Connect (Icebreaker)
Option A (Fun): Share about the “lamest” party, game, or concert you’ve ever been to. What made it so dull?
Option B (Thought-provoking): When do you feel most tempted to just “go through the motions” in life or faith?
Transition: Apathy might feel harmless, but it’s one of the most dangerous idols because it keeps us from fully following Christ.
2. Discover (Scripture & Discussion)
Read Daniel 10:10–13 (NLT):
"Just then a hand touched me and lifted me, still trembling to my hands and knees. And the man said to me, 'Daniel, you are very precious to God, so listen carefully to what I have to say to you. Stand up, for I have been sent to you.' … But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me…”Discussion Questions
What does this passage teach us about the reality of spiritual battle?
How does prayer protect us from falling into apathy?
Why is apathy so dangerous in the Christian life?
What practices help you stay spiritually awake and engaged?
Dig Deeper Scripture: Romans 13:11 (NLT) — “This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”
How does this verse motivate us to fight apathy?
What does “waking up” look like for you personally?
3. Respond (Application & Prayer)
Personal Application
Where in your life do you most feel the pull of apathy—prayer, worship, serving, evangelism?
What step will you take this week to actively fight apathy and stay engaged in the battle?
Group Prayer Prompt
Pray for spiritual awakening in each group member and in the church.
Ask God to break the grip of apathy and stir passion for prayer, the Word, and His mission.
Challenge for the Week
Memory Verse: Romans 13:11 (NLT).
Next Step: Each morning this week, begin your day with the prayer: “Lord, wake me up to the battle today and keep me ready for Your return.”
⏱️ Designed for 45–60 minutes:
Connect (10–15 min)
Discover (25–30 min)
Respond (10–15 min)
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CONWAY
AYNOR
SOUTH STRAND