Wake Up! The Alert – Shift The Paradigms

Pastor Toks Oshokoya

Matthew 21: 28 – 44
But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.
(SOME INITIALLY CLASSIFIED AS THE UNGODLY MAY JUST TURN OUT TO BE THE ONES TO DO THE JOB)
For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.

Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons

Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder

Luke 13: 31 – 34
The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk today, and tomorrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

(PERHAPS, A CHANGE IN THE PARADIGM IS STARING US IN THE FACE? …WHAT IF?)

Saints Of God,
No doubt America as a nation had been a major instrument in God’s hands for propagating the truth of the Gospel to the whole World for a long time. However, the times have changed! Be real!

The focus is shifting toward the self, toward being pragmatic or favoring what people want to hear and a tickling of ears. In Paul’s last letter before his execution, he warned Timothy that “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths” (2 Tim 4:3-4).
I fear that time has come.

I AM REMINDED OF THE GRADUALISM IN DESCENT TO APOSTASY AND ESTRANGEMENT FROM THE WAY OF GOD DESCRIBED VIVIDLY BY THE SINGER OF PSALM ONE!

Psalm 1: 1
Blessed is the man
that WALKETH not in the COUNSEL of the ungodly,
nor STANDETH in the WAY of sinners,
nor SITTETH in the SEAT of the scornful.

IN OTHER WORDS,

CURSED IS THE MAN, WHO ALLOWED HIMSELF TO MOVE THROUGH THE STAGES OF SUBTLE DECLINE BY CARELESS LIVING AND BLINDNESS

(1) WALK IN SUGGESTIONS, IDEAS and ADVICE OF THE UNGODLY – the nice,
seemingly moral, respectable in the society but atheistic in believe system.

(2) STANDS (now OBSESSED) IN ENVIRONMENTS WHERE SINNERS REGULARLY
COMMUTE AND CHATTER (in pleasure)

(3) SIT IN AS A CONVERTER CONTRIBUTOR AND RESOURCE PERSON TO IDEAS
PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS AND DOCTRINAL SLANTS THE MOCK GOD’s WORD
AND SANCTIFIED LIFESTYLE

Just like it is in the positive when God seem to prefer to work by three-stage process, it is also in the negative!

Father …. Son … Holy Ghost

Abraham… Isaac … Jacob

Outer Court … Inner Court … Holy of HOLIES

The Spirit … The Water … The Blood

Sit with Christ … Walk in Love and The Spirit … Stand in Faith

Consider that the THIEF (Satan) comes to

Steal … Kill … Destroy

Walk … Stand … Sit

An Advocate for Motivational Speaking said:
“Motivational speakers are important to change people profoundly on an emotional and/or mental level, and to help them make some kind of professional or personal change in their lives and within themselves. People naturally tend to focus on all their problems, and the motivational speaker will help an audience to focus on the many opportunities instead, by using any number of persuasive speech tactics to inspire and motivate”.

4 Wicked Ways the Enemy Puts Us, The Church, to Sleep:

What will it take to awaken the church from its slumber?
For the American Church, who for the last ten decades have been the leading influence for Body Universal, where was the church when prayer was taken out of schools in 1962? Or when abortion was legalized in 1973? Or when same-sex marriage started to gain momentum to the point that Christian businesses are persecuted for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple?

Put another way, when did the church fall asleep? What caused the church to fall asleep? And how can we wake up the so-called sleeping giant? I don’t have all the answers, but what I do know is the church didn’t fall asleep overnight. I recently penned a column called “When the Enemy Lulls You to Sleep” that recounts how evil Delilah lulled mighty Samson into slumber. Of course, Samson was living in compromise, which opened the door to Delilah’s seduction.

Paul clearly warned us not to be ignorant of the devil’s devices (2 Cor. 2:11), which implies the Lord will reveal the enemy’s devices, schemes, plots and plans if we walk in connection with His heart—and that’s where many of us miss it. If we are living in compromise, we’re likely to become spiritually drowsy—but we won’t fall right to sleep any more than we enter deep sleep the second our head hits the pillow.

Even if the enemy does lull us to sleep through weariness, apathy, compromise or blatant sin that threatens to sear our conscience like a hot iron, the Holy Spirit is simultaneously working to convict our hearts so we’ll wake up. Of course, it’s easier to wake up when you are just drifting off than when you are in a dream state where reality is skewed.

4 Stages of Sleep:

There are four stages of sleep, and each one is telling when paralleled to the spiritual realm.

Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11: 14a

“…Doth not even nature itself teach you,..?”

1 Cor 15: 46 – 49
“Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly”

Stage 1. During Stage 1, your eyes are closed and, according to WebMD, there’s a reduction of activity. From a spiritual sense, this activity reduction could be caused by weariness, apathy, compromise or sin. Our eyes are closed. We don’t want to see it—we may even justify it. The good news is it’s easy to wake up without much difficulty during stage 1. The bad news is this stage doesn’t last long, so the opportunity to shake yourself loose from weariness, apathy, compromise or sin is short.

Stage 2 is a light sleep. WebMD reports there are peaks and valleys, or positive and negative waves, as the heart rate slows and body temperature decreases. At this point, experts say, the body prepares to enter deep sleep. Catch that! Your heart rate slows and your body temperature decreases. Can you see the spiritual parallel? In Stage 2, your heart is not on fire for Jesus as it once was. Your love is growing cold. You are in a dangerous place.

Stages 3 and 4 are what WebMD calls the “deep-sleep stages.” This is when you dream; this is when you are disconnected from reality. You don’t see things as they really are—or you don’t see anything at all. During stage 3 you may sleepwalk. It looks like you’re going along with the church crowd, but you are actually sound asleep. In stage 4, voluntary muscles become paralyzed. You may not hear sounds in the waking world or respond to activity in the environment around you. If you are awakened, you may be disoriented.

Sleeping at Critical Times

The church needs to wake up, open its eyes wide, pray and take acts of courage to ignite revival, awakening, reformation and transformation for the glory of God in our nation. We cannot be like the disciples who fell asleep at critical times—even while the Son of Man was being betrayed into the hands of sinners (see Matt. 26:45).

Antichrist spirits are rising, persecuting Christ and His church while we snooze. Some may be sleeping from sorrow (see Luke 22:45). Others may be slumbering after devlish Delilahs found a way to lull them to sleep through a compromised life. Still others may be sleeping because the devil has brought weariness to their soul and they failed to respond to Christ’s invitation to come to Him for rest (see Matt. 11:28).

No matter whether you are in a deep sleep or just dozing off, I offer you this admonishment: “Now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed” (Rom. 13:11). And for those of you—the remnant within the remnant—who are wide awake, sounding the alarm, and interceding for the slumbering masses, take heart in these words from revivalist Leonard Ravenhill:

“Some Christians have already hung their harps on the willows, and yet others seem to delight in speaking of the Church’s present lapse as a proof of divine inspiration. But I myself believe that if the Church will only obey the conditions, she can have a revival any time she wants it. The problem of the Church is the problem in the garden of Gethsemane—sleep! For while men sleep, the enemy sows his seed through his cults. Lest men sleep the sleep of eternal death, Oh arm of the Lord, Oh Church of the living God, awake!”

Wake Up – It’s getting badder!

Many Will Be Deceived – Recall The Message “Atmospheric Pressure!”
No, this is not a joke. The new trends in movies and entertainment. Satan is gradually being marketed as an hero. Twilight, etc. There’s nothing even remotely funny about it. This not only violates Scripture on several levels, it glorifies Satan, depicts graphic acts of violence and features half-naked women. Ultimately, it proves that Paul the apostle didn’t call Satan the prince of the power of the air for nothing (see Eph. 2:2). In Lucifer, we see Satan portrayed as a protagonist and an angel from the Lord presented as an antagonist.

And we haven’t seen the last of it. Satan will work through charming, charismatic false Christs and false prophets in the last days who will rise up and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect (see Matt. 24:24). Paul spoke of the Antichrist, the lawless one, with “all power, signs and lying wonders” (2 Thess. 2:9-10). People will buy into it because they aren’t lovers of the truth and because God will send them a strong delusion, so that they will believe the lie (see 2 Thess. 2:11-12).

Glorifying the demonic is certainly nothing new in Hollywood (read: Poltergeist, The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby, A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Omen, to name a few). But to see Satan portrayed as a magnetic personality on prime time TV when children are watching is shocking.

I like how Jan Markell, founder and president of Olive Tree Ministries and host of Understanding the Times, put it: “The world was this evil during the days of Noah but they didn’t have the entertainment world glorifying it. We know what the consequences of the evil of Noah’s day were. The last days are compared to the days of Noah. Need I say more? The devil can roar all he wants. He knows his time is short. But he is making good use of his time.”

Is the Antichrist Among Us Now?

Someone asks “Is Antichrist’s reign on earth so close that this paves the way?”

As I’ve stated time and again, before the Antichrist, Satan, comes on the scene, we will see more and more antichrist spirits rising to push Jesus out of the mainstream. Like John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus’ first coming, these demonic forerunners have been voices crying in the wilderness for years, preparing the way for Satan himself with deceiving agendas that target the confused, hurt and lost.

Indeed, the antichrist agenda will become bolder, and it will grow darker in the days ahead. But despite the doom and gloom, Jesus is still Lord.

Our job is to let our light shine, speak the truth of the gospel in love, and keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, so that we can rescue people from the kingdom of darkness and escape the prophesied great falling away among the saints. Remember the words of Christ: “I must do the works of Him who sent Me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work (John 9:4). Amen.

On the negative side of things, these trends point to the judgment upon the earth that will accompany Christ’s return, a judgment for which the earth as a whole, and the United States in particular, is certainly sowing the seeds.

For the American Society, “He removes His hand that’s been protecting us and restraining evil,” a preacher said. “And when He removes it because we keep telling Him to get out, life can’t go on as it has.”

Let us reference the recent escalation in effort to remove God from our nation’s schools, military and public discourse, as well as the increasingly mainstream vilification of traditional biblical values upon which our nation was founded.

“Everywhere they’re telling Him to get out,”. “They don’t want His name in the Pledge of Allegiance; they don’t want Him in the schools; they don’t want to say the name of His Son, Jesus, in public settings; they don’t even allow chaplains now in the military to pray in the name of Jesus.”

Though God’s judgment may not come in the form of lightning strikes or a nuclear bomb at first, the man of God says something equally fearful and entirely of our own making is on its way if we don’t change our course.

“God is a gentleman. He doesn’t go where He’s not wanted. He gradually begins to walk away, and that’s what He told Israel in Deuteronomy 28. He said, I’m going to bless you if you turn to me, but if you turn against me, I’ll just back away. Then He allows us to be subjected to the things He’s been protecting us from.”

The Decline in Real Intelligence – Some Recent American Statistics

Americans are dumber than ever before. The IQ of westerners has dropped by a staggering 14 points over the last century. Our attention spans are less than that of a goldfish.

Our children are also becoming stupider. Since 2006, the average SAT score has fallen by 20 points. In Japan, high school students are at the same educational level as Americans with who hold four-year college degrees.

For 2 million years of evolution, our brains grew larger, but there’s been a reversal. Our brains are now physically shrinking.

Not only are we getting dumber, we’re getting fatter as well. 70 per cent of all Americans are overweight and obesity levels just hit an all time high – 27.7 per cent of the US population are obese.

Obesity also hinders blood circulation around the brain, reducing intelligence and cognitive functioning. Eating fatty foods also has an immediate negative impact on short-term memory.

So the fat pride movement, now being promoted by the media & fashion industry, is not only encouraging chronic illnesses, it’s institutionalizing the acceptance of stupidity.

The Youth & Entertainment

Popular culture has been designed to create an army of morons who are dependent on bread and circuses. A generation of young people whose acceptance amongst their friends depends upon keeping up with the Kardashians and mindlessly regurgitating and mimicking the words and behavior of classless, addle brain, nihilistic degenerates.

They’ve monetized apathy and stupor on an industrial scale.

Instead of aspiring to be inventors, mavericks, and entrepreneurs – something achievable, an entire generation has been tricked into pursuing the unobtainable goal of celebrity. They all waste their lives trying to become rappers, musicians, sports heroes and movie stars, and for the vast majority it’s never going to happen.

The fallout from this is obsession with expressing their unrequited narcissism through social media – which in turn makes people more depressed and more stupid.

Our icons are fools. Our heroes are intellectual weaklings. Celebrities who express original thoughts are publicly shamed. Celebrities who parrot group-think nonsense are exalted.

We’re the product of an entertainment industry and a culture that rewards intellectual conformity and denigrates curiosity and contrarian thinking.

So it is any wonder that despite all our technology and all our progress, we’re dumber than ever before?

Wake Up Church! How did we get here? The Six False Gods

Six (6) top false gods in modern Christianity. Which ones, in addition, would you include?
FALSE GOD NO 1: “Being Relevant”
I actually heard one pastor say that “we can’t be preaching the Bible to people in the world because it’s not relevant to them.” What!? I have to admit, I was angered by that. Isn’t the gospel the power of salvation (Rom. 1:16)? Does this pastor think he has more power than the word of God to save? Has he invented a better way than the Spirit of God mixed with the Word of God making the children of God? I think he’s the one who’s irrelevant. The Word of God never needs changing; it abides forever (1 Pet. 1:25). These churches that don’t want to offend people are more interested in filling the pews than filling people with the Word of God. Sorry, milk-toast pastor, but the Word is supposed to cut in order to heal because soft words make hard hearts, but hard words make soft hearts, and the Word of God is supposed to comfort the afflicted, but afflict the comfortable. Pragmatism is deadly as a doctrine. Feelings over faith is toxic.

FALSE GOD NO 2: “Self Improvement”
This comes close to being found in every prosperity gospel I have ever heard. They want you to come to their church so that your life will be better and you’ll be happier, but I have news for them. My life got harder after I became a Christian. Many of my former friends spurned me. Much of my family thought I was brainwashed. Some sermon topics are “How to Live a Happier Life” or “How You Can Find More Fulfillment.” Excuse me, but isn’t worship all about God and His glory? What about preaching about repentance, sin, the cross, the blood of the Lamb, holiness, sanctification, and actual biblical topics? Instead of love for God being taught, it’s all about love for self. It’s not theology but “me-ology” they are preaching. Christ is not the focus; we are!

FALSE GOD NO 3: “We’re All God’s Children”
Pluralism has extended its deadly tentacles into the modern churches. No, not all of them, but the idea that we should embrace other religions is a false notion and one from many modern churches. The bumper sticker that reads “coexist” sounds nice, but try telling that to the extremists of Islam, who continuously murder Christians around the world. We are not all God’s children. Some are clearly children of the Devil, which is what Jesus told the religious authorities in His day (John 8:44), and John wrote that “we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are” (1 John 3:10). Once, when Paul and Barnabas were opposed by Elymas the sorcerer, who tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith (Acts 13:8), Paul told him, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery” (Acts 13:10).

FALSE GOD NO 4: “The Error in the Youth Ministry Paradigm”

One of the critical errors being made in ministry today is catering to the “youth culture” rather than raising the “youth culture”. Why are so influenced by what young people want? Aren’t we called to show them what they need?

Aren’t we called to be counter-cultural?
Now the dominant mainstream culture has, instead of the righteous standards, made cool moral relativism, dismantling vocabulary down to grunts and lame acronyms, and wearing your pants halfway down your butt.

FALSE GOD NO 5: “Reaching Versus Teaching” culled from Elder Craige E Lewis
(EX MINISTRIES)

There is a big difference between reaching people for Christ and teaching people about Christ. We hear all the time about people that are doing things to reach the lost. Many Gospel artists use this word to describe why they cross their music over and promote themselves.

Many youth pastors and leaders I meet as I travel across the country use all kinds of things to try to reach the lost youth. But have you ever noticed that, whenever we use methods to reach the lost, they are never really successful? Have you noticed that when we make up things, plans, schemes, etc. to reach the lost, it never really works?

Jesus said that God draws the sinner and we teach them. The bible never said reach the lost, but it said to go ye therefore and “teach” all nations. Where did reach come from? God’s Spirit draws the sinner man unto repentance and unless we are flowing in that, we will only play on their emotions but they won’t change.

Music cannot do it alone! Music cannot win a soul to Christ unless the sinner is drawn by the Spirit. Kirk Franklin, even told a preacher friend that his attempt to reach the Hip Hop Culture by merging Gospel and Hip Hop artists was unsuccessful! Christian parties, games, cultures, that try to be like the world, does not draw the world. It only promotes the world! Only God can draw the world. His word, his power, his Kingdom is what attracts the sinner, not us being like the sinner.

I know we always hear Paul quoted, “I become all things to all men, that I may reach them” but that’s not what he said. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 9, Paul was talking about money! Getting paid for his work. And he stated that even though he deserved to be compensated, he would do it for free if he had to. He then stated that because he was a Jew, he would be as a Jew and obey the law when he ministered to them. And because he was called to preach to the gentiles, he would not share his Jewish customs with them, but he would still observe them. And if they were in trouble, he would share their burdens and help them out of trouble to win them for Christ’s sake. This does not mean if they were on crack he would use some crack to make them feel comfortable. Or if they were a gangster, he would become a Gospel Gangster and preach to them in gang signs! Or if they were a prostitute, he would reach them by preaching in his underwear! God forbid. We are never to become like the world to reach the world. We must be the answer for the world. They are the way they are because of sin and we have to show them change and how to follow God. We must teach the sinner the way. The way is Jesus Christ. Not some plot to show them how you can still do everything you are doing as a sinner, but claim Christ with it! Wake up people. We don’t reach the lost, but we teach the lost. Reaching is not what Jesus taught. Reaching is not what Paul taught. God’s Spirit does the drawing, and then we are to minister the Word of God to them. If God’s word can’t win them, then they will not be won!

REVISITING FALSE GOD No 1: Relevance? Did Jesus Call Us, particularly to Be Relevant?

Pastor Brian Houston, founder of the Hillsong movement, was once asked by a New York Times journalist, “Can your pastors preside at same-sex marriages?”

Pastor Houston replied (in part), “It can be challenging for churches to stay relevant. Because many mainstream churches upheld what they would believe is the long-established view of what the Bible says about homosexuality. But the world has changed around and about them.”

He continued, “So the world’s changing and we want to stay relevant as a church. So that’s a vexing thing. You think, ‘How do we not become a pariah?'”

These are understandable concerns, since, if we are driving people away from Jesus, we can hardly bring them to Jesus.

But what to do we make of the emphasis Pastor Houston put on being relevant? As he explained in his statement, “this struggle for relevance was vexing as we did not want to become ostracized by a world that needs Christ.”

On the one hand, I totally affirm his heart to remove every possible stumbling block that could stand in the way of our witness to the lost. This was Paul’s method as well, as he explained, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22, ESV).

This means that we use cultural sensitivity and do our best to speak a language that people understand, always being motivated by love for God and love for souls.

Obviously, Hillsong has been very successful in doing this.

At the same time, there is a tremendous danger in our pursuit of “relevance,” since what the world thinks it needs is not always what it really needs, nor do God’s methods mirror our methods.

As Paul wrote in the very same letter to the Corinthians, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:22-24).

All too often being “relevant” can become the code word for compromise, and whenever we seek to make the gospel more palatable by watering it down and removing its offensive elements, we hurt people rather than help them.

Looking at this from another angle, if Christians through the ages had put more emphasis on relevance than obedience, they would not have been mocked, rejected, imprisoned or killed for their faith.

As Jesus said to His followers, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” (Matt. 10:24-25).

He also said to them (and us!), “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours” (John 15:18-20).

I do not hear Jesus saying here, “Be relevant!”

Unless we are watchful, a wrong emphasis on relevance can put us in retreat, noting that, “A church in retreat doesn’t give answers. It doesn’t storm the gates of Hell. It settles and makes peace where there is no peace (Ezek. 13:10).”

We are called, all of us, to live like the church in exile, “one that is faithful amidst the culture, regardless of whether that culture looks more like America, Nigeria or more like Babylon. It knows that it may lose the culture, but that it cannot lose the gospel. So be it. …

“The good news,” he writes, “is that the truth of Christianity outlasts the untruths of man’s applause.”

FALSE GOD NO 6: “Wrong Emphasis”

Let us always be careful not to put relevance before obedience and not to water down the Word in order to avoid offense.

Put another way, we must not use the shifting tides of culture and the fickle opinions of people as our guide for life and ministry. Instead, we must seek to emulate Jesus in thought, word and deed, lifting Him up without shame (which includes lifting up His life-giving standards of holiness and purity). If we do, the hungry and thirsty will come.

Pastor Kris Vallotton put it well: “We are not called to reflect our culture we are called to transform it. Becoming darkness to be relevant to a world of immorality is not the pathway to progress, but the process to the cesspool of hopelessness.

“We must lovingly reach into the cesspool of society and dirty our hands with the souls men as we pull them into the light of His extravagant grace.”

I personally love contemporary worship, and I appreciate fine musicianship and gifted singers, as well as having an ethic for doing things with excellence. The Lord can certainly use this too.

But it’s so easy to put our emphasis in the wrong places, as if slick presentation was more important than the Spirit and professionalism was more important than the Presence.

Speaking of the early church, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “The church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.”

That is what Jesus has called us to do and to be, changing the world, not becoming like it.

12 Contrasts Between TODAY’s FAITH and Biblical Christianity

1
Today’s Christianity focuses on individual destiny.
The Bible focuses on corporate vision and destiny.

2
Today’s Christianity focuses on individual prosperity.
The Bible focuses on stewardship

3
Today’s Christianity focuses on self-fulfillment and happiness.
The Bible focuses on glorifying God and serving humanity.

4
Today’s Christianity appeals to using faith to attain stability and comfort.
The Bible encourages believers to risk life and limb

5
Today’s Christianity usually focuses on individual salvation.
The Bible deals with individual and systemic redemption.

6
The Today’s Christian is apologetic focuses on human reason.
The Bible’s apologetic focuses on the power of God and experience.

7
The Today’s believers have a consumerist mentality regarding a home church.
The biblical emphasis is being equipped for the ministry.

8
The Today’s Christianity promotes a culture of entertainment.
The Bible promotes the pursuit of God.

9
Today’s Christianity depends upon services within a building.
The biblical model promotes a lifestyle of worship, community and Christ following.

10
Today’s highly secularized Christianity is about efficiency.
The biblical model is about effectiveness.

11
In Today’s Americanized Christianity the pastor is elected.
In the biblical model God calls the pastor.

12
Today’s Christianity trains its leaders in Bible colleges.
Biblical Christianity nurtures leaders through personal mentoring.