Revival Blog

There used to be a church in my town that had a real prophetic worship thing going on. The big name heavy hitters would come through and talk about how they were on the “cutting edge” of what God was doing.

sidenote: If you are in a church that is constantly hearing about how you are on the cutting edge, run. These words are meant to pump your ego and will blind you to correction from the Holy Ghost.

The church’s doctrine eventually went over the edge. Spiritual pride spread like a cancer, the roles of men and women got completely perverted (I am not a chauvinist, it was really whacked out), the pastor became a universalist then left his wife for another married woman in the congregation, divorce spread like wildfire and right before the total collapse of the congregation, they spread their sick and infected members to all the other churches in the area who then attempted to infect their new congregations with the “liberty” they now knew.

One such doctrine that was popular went like this:

It is good for me to display my liberty in Jesus so that if you are offended, Jesus can deal with your heart.

Does that sound crazy to you? People would get drunk, listen to debauchery, display their fake breasts and behave in unchristian ways with the liberty they found in Christ and with the understanding that the offense they bring will help others become mature.

I was at an engagement party where this was displayed in full force. One of the “mature” of this belief challenged me on my offense telling me that I need to go to God to see what was in my heart that allowed me to be offended. I told him,

I am not offended in the least. I just want you to repent so you don’t go to hell.

As odd as all this may seem I hear a version of this false doctrine all over the place today.

I remember hearing an old Leonard Ravenhill sermon where he talked about people who bragged about how they drank wine because they were not religious. He told them that they are sinners. And if you are a drunkard, you are not free in Christ, you are a sinner bound by the devil. The same if you are a pornographer, foul-mouthed, a liar, an adulterer, and the list goes on. I have to disagree with what has become popular and no it is not enough to “be on the path” with Jesus. You have to be born again. If you live a sinful life then you are not born again. Sorry. But it is the truth.

If I hear one more preacher brag about how they listen to the foul mouthed Bono and his band U2 I may scream. It seems as if it were some sort of spiritual test of maturity. Listen to praise and worship or contemporary Christian? Immature Christian. You listen to secular music? You are really mature. What kind of nonsense is this? God has not placed me in a position to determine Bono’s salvation, and I won’t. But I am equally sure he has not placed preachers in the pulpit to endorse his music over worship.

Preacher it is right and fitting to be relevant. God came down from heaven to speak in our terms. This is what he modeled for us. And while Paul became all things to all people, he never became a sinner to the sinners.

You know what is really relevant? The Gospel. Holiness. Seeking the face of God. Allowing Him to transform us. Listen to how John Piper puts it to pastors. (it’s less than three minutes long. You have the time)

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