HANG HIM HIGH!

High school pep rallies before the big game were, as they were designed to be, an immersion into an emotional bath: there was the band, the fight song, the school song, the speeches, and the getting the student body hyped up with hatred for the enemy our team would battle under the Friday night lights. The opponent for that coming night was the enemy, no doubt about it. One of the highlights of a pep rally in the gym that I remember occured when we hung the star of our hated arch rival in effigy from the rafters. It was great fun. I enjoyed seeing that dummy dangle with player's name written large on it for all to see. I still remember that name.

Recently, just before the New Orleans Saints took to the gridiron to face the Los Angeles Rams for the NFC championship, the team gathered on the sidelines to listen to their quarterback scream, "This is our house! This is our house! No one comes into our house and . . ." And "We can do it; let's finish the fight!" Or something like that. You get the idea. They were hyped; they were yelling; they were jumping up and down with fanatical anticipation.

But come the middle of the third quarter and players on both teams had been hit, knocked down, piled on, and battered. They were exhausted, flat out worn out. No one was jumping up and down hyped by the "ra-ra" spirit. The emotion had worn thin and then . . . off.

Some people look on church that way--a pep rally of, "Get out there this week and do it! You can do it!" The music, the applause during the sermon are all geared to cause the congregation to leave the buuilding with that can-do attitude. They've heard over and over again, "Be strong. Be of good cheer. Be courageous."

But when the third quarter comes, as it does, maybe even before they drive their BMWs out of the parking lot, all the effects of their emotional baptism have vanished. They're back to living discouraged, deflated, and defeated.

God calls us to do the impossible--go into all the world and make disciples along many other impossible commands. If we're of the church-is-my-pep-rally-mentality, we'll fail every time, because we can't do the impossible.

Back when Israel was getting ready to enter the promised land, the 80-year old Joshua had the impossible task of leading them in and engaging in warfare, fighting alongside of a people whose parents had rebelled against God and had rebelled against Joshua and Caleb's report 40 years earlier. So how was Joshua to do the impossible?

God tells him how in Joshua 1 and it's the farthest thing from a pep rally talk. Yes, God does say "Be strong. Be courageous." But the the basis of the strength and the courage is different than trying to get Joshua to work up the courage and the strength.

In chapter one, God tells the reader how the strenth and the courage come:

1. Immerse yourself in God's Word. (Joshua had seen Moses write the first 5 books of the Bible.)
2. Soak your speech in God's Word. The conversations with family, friends, and others were to be immersed in God's Word. ("This book shall not depart from your mouth.")
3. Allow the words of the Book to shape your worldview. ("Meditate on them day and night.") 
4. Then do them. ("Be careful to do all that is recorded in them.")

How very, very far that's removed from a weekly pep rally based on emotinalism.

That's the type of person we look for to be our best friends, Bible-soaked.
 

NONE DARE CALL IT INSANITY

Who is David Mathis? David Mathis is one of the pastors of Cities Church in Minneapolis /St. Paul, Minnesota, and also works as the executive editor at “Desiring God,” an organization founded by John Piper, a popular speaker and author. Both Mathis and Piper are confirmed, certified, and card-carrying Calvinists.

Calvinism is a theological system with seriously troubling beliefs, one of which David Mathis articulated on August 30, 2007, in a 4-part series on "How to Talk about God's Sovereignty Over Sin." He wrote:  “. . . it seems to me that it is not wrong to say that God causes evil and sin.” Whoa! Are there those who agree with that idea, or is he out on the fringe somewhere?

Yes, other Calvinists agree: “God wills all things that come to pass...God desired for man to fall into sin...God created sin.” (R.C. Sproul, Jr.) “All things that happen...come to pass because God ordained them...every evil thought, word, and deed in all of history....He has foreordained everything...the mistake of a typist —even sin....” (Palmer)

One Calvinist, endeavoring to mitigate the force of teaching that God is the cause of evil writes, “God decrees everything, foreordains everything, causes everything, including sin, all of which are accurate. However, the Calvinists that teach these things also say and teach that this does not make God the author of sin.” The problem with that self-contradictory statement is obvious: how God can foreordain, decree, and cause sin without being its author? Calvinists cannot escape the logical consequences of their teaching by simply denying it to be so.

This teaching leads to some monstrous conclusions such as it was God who planned and foreordained 9-11 for His self-glorification. From that perspective, to declare that 9-11 was a horrible event is to besmirch God’s plan. Going by this reasoning, the distinction between good and evil is blurred because God is the cause of both.

When it’s all said; when it’s all done, the Calvinist is left proclaiming that God causes the evil He forbids." As pastor Andy Stanley says, "Their answer to that is to throw it into the mystery bucket." And none within that system dare to call it "insanity."

No wonder historian Will and Durant wrote of Calvin: “We shall always find it hard to love the man who darkened the human soul with the most absurd and blasphemous conception of God in all the long and honored history of nonsense.”

HOW TO CHOOSE A CHURCH

There are thousands of churches in the large metropolitan areas of the United States, particularly in the South. You have a plethora of choices all over the place. Have you made the right choice?

THE NO-NOs

But first things first: there are criteria you shouldn't consideer. One of those wrong criteria is the question: is the pastor a good speaker? Now, certainly, every teacher of the Word of God should be seeking to impove his skills in communication, both spoken and written, but "is he a good speaker" is not a criterion for choosing a church.

Then there are those people who look for a church in the same way they choose a mall or restaurant. Many people look for adequate parking, great facilities, and exciting youth programs, even video games for kids, but this, of course, is basing one’s choice on the wrong things. One man chose a church because, he said, "The pastor's funny." (Did Paul's resume include, "I can tell jokes that make people laugh.")

NUMERO UNO

The number one issue is to find a biblical church. This is a church that holds to the historic, fundamental or evangelical grace-oriented teachings of the Bible. As we read the Bible, we see that there's a strong emphasis in the pastoral epistles (I and II Timothy and Titus) on the importance of sound (healthy) doctrine.

At this point, many have learned a hard lesson: the church's doctrinal statement may say and the teachers may say that they believe that salvation is a free gift, but upon further examination, that's not what they teach at all because, when pressed, they'll add works to the gospel, saying, "There just has to be more than faith by itself." Although their doctrinal statement says, salvation is a free gift, you'll hear additions such as "turn from your sins," "feel sorry for your sins," "ask Jesus into your heart," "make a public confession," "count the cost," and even the illogical, "salvation is free, but it costs you everything," and a host of other additions. The leadership of your prospective church has to be questioned, especially in regard to what the gospel is NOT.

NUMERO DOS

A church should be committed to the preaching/teaching of the Bible as the center and foundation of its ministry. It's God’s Word that that changes lives as people are confronted with, learn, and believe in the Scripture. (1 Thess. 2:13.) Is that teaching/preaching for the most part, expository (going verse-by-verse through the Bible, keeping everything in context) or is the congregation fed on sermonettes, allegorizations, morals, and popular topics that seek to make people feel good or address one's so-called self-help/self-esteem needs? Since God’s Word is relevant and deals with life as we find it in any age, verse-by-verse teaching will take care of our real needs (not our wants) as it enhances our walk with the Lord and, through the ministry of the Spirit, enable us to experience Christ-like change and spiritual growth and maturity.

Do those who teach the Bible do so from a dispensational framework? If not, the chances are good that they will put you under the bondage of the Mosaic Law and demand "a tenth of your money and a seventh of your time." But if they really, really want to follow the Law, they would be demanding three tithes, so that every third year, they would demand that you give the church 33.3% of your income and 20%, not 10% annually, except that third year. We live in the grace age, not the age of the Law.

NUMERO TRES

Look for a church that has a focus on body life or some kind of fellowship in the sense of caring for one another--Christian fellowship is that which focuses on Christ.  Is there an avenue for you to exercise your gifts in that local fellowship? Are there small groups of some kind for the purpose of fellowship, Bible study, prayer, and caring for each other? This can take many forms, but the body life should put you on an avenue for ministry (service) to the body in some way in accord with your gifts.

NUMERO CUATRO

Is the church seeking to reach its community for the Savior? Is the leadership (pl.) of the church an example to the flock of evangelistic endeavor? (I Peter 5:3)

Obviously, there are other things we might like to see such as an effective ministry to youth, nice facilities, good music, but these should not take precedence over the above issues. One mother joined a church which denied the Trinity because "It has a great youth program."

ETERNAL VIGILANCE

Be on guard for those churches where the focus is on a charismatic leader who tends to dominate and become dictatorial to the leadership and congregation. (III John 9) The biblical form of church government is one that has a plurality of leadership in men called “elders” who function as servant leaders, not rulers.

What if you can't find such a church? How about starting one?

THE IMPACT OF A DRUNK

If ever there was a case of someone's not understanding the impact of what was taking place, Pope Leo X is it. He was reacting to some obscure monk named Luther posting the Ninety-Five Theses on the Whittenburg door, the small school where he taught. When a copy of the theses finally made its way to Pope Leo X down in the Vatican, Leo X quipped, “Ah, the ramblings of a drunken German monk. He’ll think differently when he sobers up.”

Leo X significantly and seriously underestimated what he was dealing with in this "drunk" monk. Little did he know, Luther would never sober up. This was only the beginning of the movement that changed the Western World.

Prior to that, there was another group of "drunks" who changed the world. On May 24, 32 AD, the church age began as the Holy Spirit came to indwell the 120 believers in that Upper Room. When He did, the public reacted to them with the same words as Pope Leo said, "And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, 'What does this mean?^' But others were mocking and saying, 'They are full of sweet wine.'

Just as with Luther, those of the early church never "sobered up." From that day forward, the gospel spread "from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the earth." 

The world has no understanding of the impact of the Word of God on this planet and if, on the rare occasions when they do, they ignore it, as if straining to hold a beach ball under water. How much space do world history textbooks give to Moses, Jesus Christ, and the Apostle Paul? Yet these men, used of God, had such an impact on the world that we are still experiencing it today. 

The early disciples and Luther weren't drunk with wine; they were filled with the Spirit. That's the need of the day, believers under the control of the Spirit the One who will bring the impact.