American preaching has reached a do-or-die moment
In pulpits all over the world, thousands of sermons will be preached to millions of people.
Some of it will do more harm than good—way more than you know.
Please believe that I am not taking a swipe at all preachers.
Most preachers are sincere men and women of God.
However, these worthy voices are often drowned out by the modern preaching which leaves out the Cross of Christ, the Blood of Christ, and Bible verses that deal with sexual sin, and hell.
And that is far more dangerous than you know.
It has contributed to the moral/political ignorance of millions of believers and can cost us our freedom as Americans.
The modern preachers who leave all this out do it because they say they want to offer hope.
Hope is their big word.
Here and now, I am accusing them of offering at best an inferior hope, and at worst, a false hope–a very dangerous false hope.
Paul the Apostle had a totally opposite view about preaching hope. He said,
“Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech.” (2 Corinthians 3:12). To give hope, these preachers leave out the truth. Paul believed that to give hope, you must leave it all in.
He said in Ephesians 6:19, “(pray) for me, that utterance may be given me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” Twice in this passage, he refers to boldness.
Again, in 2 Corinthians 4, he detailed why it is such a disaster to leave anything out: 1“Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
Any preacher who handles the Word of God deceitfully and puts a veil over it makes himself a villain to lost souls.
Worse still, that preacher is in partnership with the devil.
When they put a veil over truth, they invite Satan to blind people to it.
Every day we are losing ground because of this artificial preaching.
There is a reason the Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of truth.
You cannot be anointed unless you are telling the truth.
Here is what this preaching has cost us so far:
Because the church did not take a unified Biblical stand on sexual immorality, the Left has systemically canonized the lie that Christian doctrine is hate speech.
Chick-Fil-A has been banned from opening an outlet at several airports.
What did they do wrong?
They stood by their Christian values and they gave money to Christian groups.
City boards voted to shut them down because they gave to “hate” organizations.
Had we taken a stand, we would not be in this bind.
More damage: these modern preachers have made their congregations biblically illiterate.
That is why a huge number of Christians including famous “gospel” singers don’t know the values of the Christian faith
—don’t know how to answer their culture
—don’t see anything wrong with abortion or same sex marriage—and don’t know enough to vote for righteous laws and leaders.
Let’s get back to the issue of hope.
I am asking these preachers a simple question: how can you say you are bringing hope, if you leave out the truths which carry that hope?
Here is what I mean: real hope comes from true conversion.
Only the soul that has repented and utterly opened their hearts to new life can feel the surpassing hope of Christ.
Let me show some examples of true hope.
The Cross.
Until someone realizes that they are lost—until they have been broken by encountering the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, the true hope of Christ cannot take hold of them.
But, brother, when it does take hold, it is awesome to see!
You will have a convert who is in church for all the right reasons.
You have a walking miracle that is contagious.
The Blood of Christ.
Only those souls who know that the Blood has been applied to their sin, can feel clean
—a moral clean that nothing else can give them.
Moreover, the most dangerous young convert is the one who knows they have power over the devil.
“And they overcame (the devil) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives unto death.” (Revelation 12:11)
Sexual sin: Millions of people who genuinely want deliverance can’t find it because society has normalized their behavior.
But that does not change the damage.
For example, the suicide rate for transgender people is 33 times higher than the general population.
People look at verses such as 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, and call them hateful—but take another look:
9 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you, once. But you were washed clean, and you were set apart unto God, and you were pronounced righteous, by trusting in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit of our God.”
There are two takeaways here:
1.Sin is sin. Theft, murder, idolatry, drunkenness, and all of the various sexual sins, are listed side by side.
2.Paul ends this passage by describing true deliverance from sin. Salvation in Christ offers hope of cleansing, sanctification, and justification. That hope is not available if we do not clearly confront the issue.
The kind of hope that the misguided modern sermon offers is, in reality, little or no hope. They tout the good life. But if that is hope, then why are billionaires killing themselves? Besides, what are we doing advancing the same lie as the world?
When the lukewarm believer leaves church on Sunday morning, they are swooning in the superficial glow of the happy sense that God is not mad at them.
What they don’t have is the blazing reality of being set free and filled with peace that passes all understanding.
They lack the power to answer a sick world’s cry for help.
These ‘happy time’ sermons must stop now.
They are as much of a threat to America as the leftist radicals.
THE BIBLE NEEDS TO SET FIRE TO OUR SERMONS!.
Every night, under our tent we kill the lies contained in these modern sermons by proclaiming true hope.
Lost souls hear truth under the power of the Holy Spirit.
God confirms the Word with miracles and the un-churched come running forward to receive new life. Glory to God!
Remember this…Paul said that it was because the greatness of the hope we have that we are bold to tell all the truth!
Amen.
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