Far
too many “churches” today are geared towards numeric success in popularity
instead of fidelity to God and His Word. To reach this status of business-model
success your church may have perverted the Gospel message to accommodate
mass-Goat approval. Here is a simple test you can do to see if you’re being
taught the life-giving Gospel or the perverted poison of a false-religion.
5
steps for Active Gospel listening during a Sermon
1 Core not Topic – first to note is if the main body of the sermon you’re listening to is primarily about you or about Jesus. Why? Because the Good News is not about you, it’s about the God who took on flesh and dwelt among us. FYI that was Jesus, not you (you’re not God).
2 The Gospel taught – is it mentioned and when? The very bear minimum of the Gospel (and yes, it can be more than this but never less than this) is that God incarnate (that means in the flesh) came to earth, he lived a perfect life for us (since we don’t), he was punished and died in our place (that’s substitutionary atonement), he deflected God’s righteous wrath that we deserved and took it upon himself (as the propitiation of our sins), and he rose again the third day as He promised He would, which shows us that God (the Father) was satisfied with Christ’s completed work for our Salvation. Was the message you heard 99% about you, your hopes and dreams, your self-esteem and self-fulfillment or your imaginary life’s purpose and then a quick alter call at the end – if that’s the case you didn’t hear the Gospel.
3 Who was Worshiped – if the sermon was all about you and how awesome you are, how much God just loves to love on you, how God just wants to hold hands with you and walk in a Garden or along a Beach with you, and snuggle with you and how much God wants to tell you how great you are - then that sermon Worshiped you, not God. A Christ-focused, Christ-honoring, Christ-esteemed sermon always turns us away from ourselves and towards what Christ has done. This will always lead to Christians who will worship Him in thanksgiving instead of expecting Him to worship or cater blessings toward us, in His humility. FYI Worship is not defined as Contemporary Christian Music most of that is not even worshipful to God anyway.
4 Was the Gospel presented as complete (or sufficient) in Christ – or was it always presented as half-done and now you need to fill in where Christ left off? - This is the other religion, not of faith but of works. Do you need to get to work to show (or prove) that your really a Christian, were you given 5 principles to being more self-righteous, instead of humbled before Christ, were you told to forget the Historic Orthodox Creeds and Confessions and just get to work – that’s Mormonism, Islam, Buddhism, everything but trust in Christ’s completed work for your righteousness.
5 The Gift – was the Gift of Repentance and Faith placarded as the Sole (or only) way to receive the God’s gift of Grace or was it ignored, pushed to the periphery or presented as one of many ways God saves people in or out of Christianity? If it was then you weren’t taught Christianity.
1 Core not Topic – first to note is if the main body of the sermon you’re listening to is primarily about you or about Jesus. Why? Because the Good News is not about you, it’s about the God who took on flesh and dwelt among us. FYI that was Jesus, not you (you’re not God).
2 The Gospel taught – is it mentioned and when? The very bear minimum of the Gospel (and yes, it can be more than this but never less than this) is that God incarnate (that means in the flesh) came to earth, he lived a perfect life for us (since we don’t), he was punished and died in our place (that’s substitutionary atonement), he deflected God’s righteous wrath that we deserved and took it upon himself (as the propitiation of our sins), and he rose again the third day as He promised He would, which shows us that God (the Father) was satisfied with Christ’s completed work for our Salvation. Was the message you heard 99% about you, your hopes and dreams, your self-esteem and self-fulfillment or your imaginary life’s purpose and then a quick alter call at the end – if that’s the case you didn’t hear the Gospel.
3 Who was Worshiped – if the sermon was all about you and how awesome you are, how much God just loves to love on you, how God just wants to hold hands with you and walk in a Garden or along a Beach with you, and snuggle with you and how much God wants to tell you how great you are - then that sermon Worshiped you, not God. A Christ-focused, Christ-honoring, Christ-esteemed sermon always turns us away from ourselves and towards what Christ has done. This will always lead to Christians who will worship Him in thanksgiving instead of expecting Him to worship or cater blessings toward us, in His humility. FYI Worship is not defined as Contemporary Christian Music most of that is not even worshipful to God anyway.
4 Was the Gospel presented as complete (or sufficient) in Christ – or was it always presented as half-done and now you need to fill in where Christ left off? - This is the other religion, not of faith but of works. Do you need to get to work to show (or prove) that your really a Christian, were you given 5 principles to being more self-righteous, instead of humbled before Christ, were you told to forget the Historic Orthodox Creeds and Confessions and just get to work – that’s Mormonism, Islam, Buddhism, everything but trust in Christ’s completed work for your righteousness.
5 The Gift – was the Gift of Repentance and Faith placarded as the Sole (or only) way to receive the God’s gift of Grace or was it ignored, pushed to the periphery or presented as one of many ways God saves people in or out of Christianity? If it was then you weren’t taught Christianity.
So
how did your Pastor do? Did he bother to preach the Biblical Gospel to you?
Does he even care about the Eternal Destinies of the congregants in his church?
Was he faithful in teaching the Word of God in season and out of season or was
he too busy telling jokes and amusing stories, did he preach Christ or himself,
his friends and his family, did he preach on a text of scripture or a popular
book or movie? If you died in the parking lot on the way out to your car after
the sermon would the last thing you thought about be God’s so lucky to have me
or I’m
so blessed to be in Christ? If he left you thankful, trusting in Christ,
worshipful, Christ-focused and humbled then that was the Gospel. Thank him and
encourage him to continue to preach this powerful truth.
An evil is in the 'professed' camp of the Lord, so gross in its impudence, that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal rate, even for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments!
ReplyDeleteThe devil has seldom done a cleverer thing, than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them. From speaking out the gospel, the Church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses!
My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the Church. If it is a Christian work why did not Christ speak of it? "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," that is clear enough. So it would have been had he added, "and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel."
No such words, however, are to be found. It did not seem to occur to Him. Then again, he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry. Where do entertainers come in? The Holy Spirit is silent concerning them. Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people, or because they refused? The "concert" has no martyr roll.
Again, providing amusement is in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all His apostles. What was the attitude of the apostolic Church to the world? "You are the salt of the world", not the sugar candy; something the world will spit out, not swallow.
Had Jesus introduced more of the bright and pleasant elements into His teaching, He would have been more popular. When "many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him," I do not hear Him say, 'Run after these people, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow; something short and attractive with little preaching. We will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it! Be quick, Peter, we must get the people somehow!'
No! Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never sought to amuse them!
In vain will the epistles be searched to find any trace of the 'gospel of amusement'. Their message is, "Therefore, come out from them and separate yourselves from them... Don't touch their filthy things..." Anything approaching amusement is conspicuous by its absence. They had boundless confidence in the gospel and employed no other weapon.
After Peter and John were locked up for preaching, the Church had a prayer meeting, but they did not pray, 'Lord, grant unto your servants that by a wise and discriminating use of innocent recreation we may show these people how happy we are'.
No! They did not cease from preaching Christ. They had no time for arranging entertainments. Scattered by persecution they went everywhere preaching the gospel. They turned the world upside down; that is the only difference from today's church.
Lastly, amusement fails to effect the end desired. Let the heavy laden who found peace through the concert not keep silent! Let the drunkard to whom the dramatic entertainment had been God's link in the chain of their conversion, stand up! There are none to answer! The mission of amusement produces no converts!
The need of the hour for today's ministry is earnest spirituality joined with Biblical doctrine, so understood and felt, that it sets men on fire.
- C. H. Spurgeon