Dr. Paul Chappell - Leading in a Day of Confusion

I'm not going to preach this morning I'm going to teach some and may I say that I understand there's some times we we perceive generational differences my generation when I was growing up I grew up under a lot of strong authoritarian leadership it helped me and but but today I understand people like converse conversational styles and such differently and I'm not against that or a teaching methodology but when it comes to preaching it is a biblical word and even the method of preaching the the Kay ruk the declaration with authority I just would say that when something's being given in a strong declarative way not necessarily in a mean harmful spirit but just strong preaching it should never be rejected by any generation just because it's a louder presentation preaching is what we need right preaching causes us to make decisions and it brings us to a point of decision but I'm not going to preach this morning I'm going to visit with you about some things and so I want you to take your Bibles today and we are going to visit from a biblical perspective of course so we're gonna turn in our Bibles right now to the book of 2nd Timothy chapter 3 and we're going to read this passage and then get into our hopefully two-sided conversation my side is the talking and so hopefully hopefully that's alright with you guys I do want to say with respect to conversation that you are blessed with what I believe to be the finest faculty and staff in the United States of America and they want to talk to you as do i and we have busy schedules but I sure hope that when students in our College are wrestling through things that they'll they'll see our staff as being very approachable one of the signs of a really healthy church I've always felt as approachable leadership people being able to ask questions and I feel the same way about the college and I I stand at the door after every service I I got home from deacons meeting last night probably 11 o'clock just talking with guys that needed to talk we have prayer meeting every Saturday morning some of the college students come we pray with them we try to be around available have email but always take advantage of that because that's the heart of everybody here to try to help in that way what I'm gonna teach today is something that I taught last Monday in Murfreesboro Tennessee at a meeting called the standing together ministry summit it's a newly formed meeting of younger pastors it's led by actually two of our graduates and then two men from other colleges that just our younger men there were 230 of them that just want to stand in their generation not they wanted they want to collaborate they want to be conversational they had panels they had morning preaching and evening preaching but just encouraging each other to stand for the Lord and and for their generation and I was refreshed by it and as I taught there I thought you know I haven't taught this to our own folks and so I want to bring it to you today to hopefully be a blessing to you second Timothy chapter 3 familiar passage beginning in verse number 10 the Bible says for thou has fully known my doctrine manner of life purpose faith long-suffering charity patience persecutions by the way it's a good thing when you can say you knew who I was you knew my doctrine you knew my manner of life so many people even sometimes people that I work with administer you're like okay where is he being honest with me I mean where is he really you know on this and Paul said you knew where I was you knew my doctrine you knew my manner of life and he just wasn't duplicitous at all verse number verse number twelve yay and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them all right and and so here's a great admonition to all of us to continue in the things that which we have learned and been assured of a lot of times there's this idea if we're gonna reinvent the wheel we know better than the guys that taught us but really biblically we have a biblical mandate to keep on with what we've been taught and he says in that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God I hope we have some of those here this morning that the man of God may be perfect meaning maturer thoroughly furnished unto all good works and so let's pray and we're going to talk about some of these principles on how to lead in a day of spiritual confusion I think you have an outline that I've given you today to kind of allow me to kind of get through the material before lunch so let's pray father thank you for this time to teach our college students about leadership principles in this day in which we live I pray that you would use me this morning to convey your truth and a philosophy that is biblically based and helpful for the students who are really ministry bound to be able to take some of this and use it in their everyday lives thank you for our staff faculty and administration who labor in this place bless us give us as we deal with Gen Z Gen X Millennials baby boomers and in the greatest generation and and with multi ethnic backgrounds and languages and all of the issues of the day Lord we need your power and wisdom in this day so give us that wisdom now I pray in Jesus name Amen you may be seated I think all of you have been saved long enough to recognize that we are ministering in a day of spiritual and moral confusion we're ministering in a day when the challenges the questions the difficulties are many more than for those of us who started off in the ministry 30 or 40 years ago there's there's just issues that we face now that we're not even existent some time ago and I think of legalized marijuana and legalized gay marriage and I think of the way the cultures changed and you get questions that you never had before and sometimes as the world is calling out with their questions the church is stuttering in our ability to give the answer we're not always as clear as we should but then when we do have the answer sometimes people want it packaged in the way they would like to receive it for example today's generation really doesn't want a police officer to be a lawman they want him to kind of be a community organizer they want him to be a community person that's relational and and there's a place for that with police officers there's also a place when the police officer needs to put the bad guy over the front hood of a black and white and take him to jail right people today don't want preachers to be preachers that's not an overstatement you know you're called to preach the Bible says to me preach the word but there's actually people they really don't want preaching they they they want conversation they want collaboration but they don't want preaching so you're you're in a society that needs leadership and leads direction but many times we tell our leaders don't lead and don't give direction it's an amazing that we face today in the ministry because we are called to be spiritual leaders and certainly we do not want to make the mistakes perhaps of some in the past whose leadership styles have been maybe in in a way that brought about difficulty for people and was not christ-like or servant led that's why I wrote a book probably 25 years ago called guided by grace trying to encourage a whole generation of independent Baptist pastors to to lead from a grace perspective from a servant hearted perspective that doesn't mean you can't be a strong leader but it means that God has called us to be like Jesus let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus but even when you're leading from a christ-like perspective and and even when you're doing your best to have a servant's heart there are times when leaders have to take a stand and there are times when police officers have to enforce the law and yet in our culture today how many of you have noticed police are not highly respected today have how many of you have noticed that and maybe you have noticed it but there are people today that really don't want preachers to declare with authority the truth of the word of God even if it's rightly divided even if it's a passionate presentation it just causes some people to kind of get bowed up because no one anymore seems to really want to be told what to do now this confusion sometimes the animosity that is felt is something that is not just out in the culture but it's even in the church and we've all seen this for years we've preached about it that the culture is affecting the church in many many ways I mean it just not just contemporary worship that's that's been happening for years but even social issues are coming into the church and in some churches that's becoming a mainstream of their of their conversation and of their preaching they're letting the culture set the agenda of the pulpit and so the problems that we see the confusion that I'm speaking about its cultural and it's in the church and in today's discussion I'm going to address both both the culture and the church a Barna study a few years ago found for example that there's literally no difference between the divorce rate in the community and in the church and I think it's quite amazing to think about that but the fact is that when it comes to personal relationships many times the philosophies of the world are reflected in Christian marriages and we're finding as much divorce with Christians as we do in the world and I thank the Lord in this particular church and I think I've never proven this scientifically I think if you were to study Bible based churches with grace based ministries and discipleship I think the divorce rates would be less but when they just took christened them across the board and the culture and side-by-side the Barna study said same divorce rate so so the difficulty the confusion the brokenness of family is happening everywhere one survey in 2018 by LifeWay said 48% of church-going men drink alcohol I spoke to a pastor not long ago and he's a Baptist pastor not independent Baptist but he said that he felt that 80% of his church family drank alcohol and of course we would interpret the word I know and the context of Jesus turning the water into wine to simply come to the conclusion that Jesus is not going to produce something that is mind-altering and corrupt in its state and present that so that people would would become drunk and certainly wine is still a mocker but the principle of abstinence is something that is being lost in so many churches today and sometimes when we as preachers try to give warning about a group or a trend or and and and you'll see a student or our church member kind of bow up to that we probably need to do a better job of articulating it's not just one or two issues it's an entire directional philosophy that will affect your marriage it will affect your lifestyle it will affect obviously if you become a pastor every buddy that you lead but we're seeing that whether it's divorce whether it's alcoholism it does matter where a church stands and how we preach because it's affecting everyone across the board now the bible does speak about this and the Bible says in 2nd Thessalonians 2:3 let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and the man of sin be revealed the son of perdition now there has been an easier identifier with respect to apostasy for some of us who've been observing contemporary theological trends over the last several decades we've been able to say well there's a mainline denomination that has begun ordaining homosexual pastors or here's a mainline denomination that is denying the the literal parting of the Red Sea and they're saying it was just low tide we would call this theological liberalism we are aware of groups like the United Methodist who pulled out all the songs from their hymn book that had the words blood because they didn't want a bloody religion by the way how many of you would agree biblically without the shedding of the blood there's no remission of sin that's what the Bible says so so it's easy to see apostasy in those groups and and it's it's important to come out and be separate and you've been exposed to some of that not not nearly as much as some of us who've lived a little longer but I'm thankful that I was taught the importance of aligning properly not early I do believe however that the spirit of apostasy not in the fullest form of denying Bible doctrine in every case but the Spirit of falling away and turning away is affecting even some independent Baptists today there's that there's a falling away from now how far will that falling away from go okay certain standards or preferences okay for sure maybe some doctrinal areas we see a little bit of that how far does it go I don't know but what I'm saying is that the Spirit of falling away from truth we see it in the culture do we not how about this basic truth that God created a man and a woman to get married that's a how many of you believe that's a god thing so the cultures falling away from that right then we see liberal churches saying well you know maybe we can marry them so we're able to say that's truly a theologically liberal church that's a falling away how many of you get that right and some of us who've watched how liberalism creeps into churches and denominations know that it normally starts with smaller underpinnings until things get really loose and those of us that have a little bit of that prophetic unction might might give warning in areas and someone will say well you know that's just a preference and sometimes it even is a preference and I don't mind preferences and when someone just says to me that's my preference everybody has preferences here you know so preferences are okay when they're stated as such but the point in the introduction is to say the Spirit of falling away is pretty prevalent in our country and in churches today so when we speak about leading in a day of confusion when we speak about brokenness in the culture what what are some things that specifically cause us to have concern not just for your generation but for all generations today because believe me I pastor some very backslidden 60 year olds as well as some backslidden 20 year olds I mean carnality is not something that is age based okay it's something for every age so what are some of the indicators of brokenness spiritually and in society Roman numeral one indicators of brokenness you know sometimes as a pastor some of you guys want to be pastors I sort of feel like the triage nurse at the emergency room we used to have a lady in our church Dianne Lawrence she was an amazing emergency room nurse and Antelope Valley Hospital has one of the busiest emergency rooms in California it's a regional center and I've been there many times hundreds of times I've been there when they were so full one time I had to take a pastor's wife there and my wife and I took her and she had to lay in the hallway because they just didn't have room and I've been in there and they've they'll have criminals handcuffed to the gurney I mean it's just it's an amazing thing and and Diane's job was as the triage nurse was to quickly try to help discern who is the most afflicted and the most life-threatening situation and get them into the ER first you know to deal with it sometimes as a pastor that's how I feel in fact I feel that way almost every morning because I come in I'll see what's going on in the newspaper and the community I hear about which families are in the hospitals I might hear about a teenager that you know had a problem in the youth group there might be something in the college there might be something going on with some preacher and even this morning I've probably had a half a dozen pastors that have called last night I had a call at about 11:40 a pastor that had a major problem in his church and and and so you're taking it all in and you're just kind of it's a triage and you're you you hear it and you sense wow how do we respond how can we help and what are the indicators of this brokenness that I speak about well one of the indicators is that there is an acceptance of sin in this day of apostasy there is a turning towards sin and the Bible speaks of it in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 at the early part when it says perilous times will come men shall be lovers of their own selves boasters proud blasphemers even in leadership we can sometimes see a spiritual leadership and then a self-promoting style of leadership a boastful style of leadership we see that that hurts everywhere from from the highest offices to whatever whenever there's pride there's contention and the Bible says that men will be without natural affection trucebreakers etcetera etc so the scriptures speak about this the sinful era to come traitors heady highminded having a form of godliness right they sing sometimes they they talk about Jesus but they deny the power thereof and it's not seen oftentimes in their everyday lives so in our culture we've seen this I mentioned it earlier quickly gay marriage legalized marijuana pornography on demand I don't I don't say this to sound judgmental but it just wouldn't surprise me at all if men in this very room on their phone have had something in the last 24 hours just pop up on to your phone it's just the day we live in and I thank the Lord we have a staff that somehow just puts internet filters in and I've never seen anything like that on my computer and on my phone I'm thankful for that but I know that that's a problem in society today and it's a problem that many Christians have even given up on Health and Human Services report in February said that there were 1,700 fatalities as a result of maltreatment in the fiscal year 2016 three and a half million children were the subject of investigation by Health and Human Services and 676 thousand of those children were deemed to be victims of abuse and many hundreds of thousands of those the combination mentioned was drugs and alcohol so there is a brokenness in society and people are coming to church bearing these burdens in these sins in 2018 over 41 million abortions were done throughout the world think of that and so the brokenness is leading to physical brokenness of children and of course the taking of lives from mothers wombs because of the sin because of the promiscuity that is in our society today so the acceptance of sin is definitely how many of you are with me so far our our world is just much more accepting of sin if it feels good do it it's my body I'll do what I want to do how many of you are with me so far today okay now how is that affecting the church churches and their acceptance of sin you see the church has lost its ability to stand against the trends of the culture this is why if I can say it this way without seeming divisive this is why my generation perhaps you might perceive it this way this is why my generation becomes so concerned about trends toward the world or about those who say we want to redeem the culture see when I went to Bible College we wanted we wanted to see see people redeemed the emphasis was not on redeeming the culture you know and this is not a debate about whether or not there's redeemable factors in the culture it's just to say that the emphasis seems to be more on the culture than it ever has been even within the church now when we think about this this fact that people are into redeeming the culture and not wanting to condemn the culture well now then when you have a prophet stand up and preach against say gay marriage he's considered to just be out of touch that's why recently I heard a message by a leader of a denomination who said we need to affirm the lbgtq movement we need to just stand up for their rights to me that's like saying we need to affirm crack cocaine it is not the responsibility of the church to affirm a group that is advocating open disobedience to God but but with the moving-in of the me2 movement and the knee-jerk reaction of many it's like we've got to be leading the way in all of these social issues but when I was trained my primary responsibilities to this very day is to lead the way in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ you see and so that doesn't mean the church does not address social issues for example I've preached often on the wickedness of slavery the sin of discrimination we see that in the Bible spoken against and so forth but it's just to say that the culture seems to set the agenda and oftentimes there's an acceptance of sin now secondly as we think about this brokenness the second indicator is the appearance of hostility there's a rising up of hostility in the land and this is something I wanted to talk with you guys about today I'm not gonna stay here and say that everybody in this room is going to be someone that won't take their stand but we're seeing a lot of people today that as the heat as it's getting heated up in the kitchen they just don't want to stand up for the doctrines the truths of the Word of God what does it say in 2nd Timothy chapter number 3 here and notice in verse number 12 it says yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution dr. Getz spoke last night from Matthew 5 blessed are you when men shall persecute you and revile you how many of you are thankful that Jesus is so truthful and honest with us when he says if you're gonna live right you're gonna have persecution if you're gonna stand up for me you're gonna be reviled but see none of us like to be refiled none of us like to have a blog written against us or the newspaper saying that we're weird or another Church thinking we're too conservative nobody in their flesh wants to stand out in that way now the fact is if you do stand out in the right way not as some kind of a weirdo but I mean if you stand for the truth you're gonna face hostility in your ministry in America I'm just telling you it's gonna come at some point in time I'm just finishing a new book entitled Outsiders the premise of the book is that the men and women who changed the world where the men and the women the world could not change and it's about 14 outsiders starting with Peter Waldo and men like Lattimer and Ridley British reformers men like John Bunyan John Huss and it shows how that everybody that I respect in my studies of church history is someone that stood outside the cultural norm and someone that stood outside the religious norm of their day in order to say for example with Tyndale give me a Bible and and the point is that when they stood out they suffered hostility and if you're gonna be a New Testament Christian you will stand out in this society because God has called us to be salt and light but we have to be willing to pay the price now I'm not a novice at this I I had a smaller Bible College experience I had about 40 five graduates in my class I think I think two of our two of us might be in the ministry today of the men myself and Gary Keck in Papua New Guinea many of the others one of my best friends was divorced three months after college and he was a questioner I remember that so specifically in college he always always was leaning into this little controversy in that little controversy I won't say he was a scorner but he was somewhat of a skeptic and his heart just was he just was always skeptical about everything and boom out of the ministry many others you went into different kinds of churches and many of them out of the ministry I don't say that boastfully I'm just saying not everyone wants to stay in that kitchen when it gets hot I mean it takes a real walk with God to stay in ministry the longer I'm in the ministry the more I respect people that have been in the ministry a long time you cook it you can sit around and cast judgment there might be a pastor come by here from you know some podunk holler and and and he doesn't he doesn't exegete just the way that you think he should or whatever I'm just telling you if he's been in the same church for 40 years he's got some scars and he's probably really walked with the Lord to see that happen in his life so hostility does come and the huffington post said in November quote Christianity in America is the single greatest cause of atheism today their medieval ideology has to change that's the the worldview of you and me is that we are just bankrupt morally we're corrupt we're the problem with Christianity that's why everybody wants to be an atheist because the church is so bad can I just tell you something there's a whole lot of great churches across the United States of America that are spiritual hospitals that are places of refuge and I'm thankful for that Mitt Romney back in May said of a very very conservative Southern Baptist pastor there's very few of them left and probably Jerry vines and Robert Jeffers and Adrian Rogers is in heaven now and i won't i won't go off into that rabbit trail but Robert Jeffers is is a man that often takes a very strong stand on moral issues and takes a strong stand for America this is what Mitt Romney said about him he said Robert Jeffers is a religious bigot because he said Mormonism is a heresy now how many of you believe that Joseph Smith inventing another gospel teaching that Jesus and Satan are brothers and that polygamy is really great and Brigham Young had 78 wives just up the road in st. George Utah how many of you believe that might border on heresy so what I'm saying is so if I get up and with declarative speech say that Mormonism is heresy it doesn't matter you know any time you preach to you know a couple thousand people there's gonna be some and there's a I just wish he wouldn't say the names of other religions I just wish that preacher wouldn't preach I wish that preacher wouldn't preach and and then I'll get the mail then here's what happens when you're 25 and you're starting off in ministry and someone sends you a letter about all the independent Baptists are terrible you're like oh I don't want to be one anymore or you shouldn't preach against alcohol okay I won't because if you begin taking polls of all of that you start to lead by that type of philosophy because you're afraid of hostility now look at I'm not looking to pick a fight I got plenty every single day of my life but one thing I'm not going to do is limit what the Word of God says out of the fear of man say and I know the fear of man goes both ways and some people say well conservatives are conservative for the fear of man I don't know you can't you can't judge that in every man's heart that differs but the point is if you're not preaching certain things like heresies because of what people feel that's definitely the fear of men so there's this hostility there's acceptance of sin there's the appearance of hostility and then thirdly this this is something I talked about 10 years ago to our students but let me bring it up again there is a mistrust of Christian leaders today it's just a tragedy real there was a survey done a few years ago and Catholics were polled and they they fait they had a favorability towards fundamental Christians of 37% and a favorability toward Muslims of 57% I mean there are segments of society that would much rather have you know a Muslim neighbor then a bible-believing neighbor I mean that's kind of the perception and with pastors in our in our day and Christian leaders there's an incredible lack of trust I mean it used to be you have this church on the green next door was the pastor's parsonage he was respected people went there they wanted Council but the evangelical church attendance has fallen by 20 percent in the past 25 years according General Social Survey just about every denomination has fallen I think in the last five years and may have this exact quote here in just a moment that that I won't wait for the quote I'm trying to be as accurate as possible but church attendance is shrinking 94% of churches in America are shrinking relative to the size of their communities and I think much of this is because churches have mishandled sin they have not dealt publicly they have not been open to get out in front of things they've not reported not all of it some of it is that some of it's the falling away spiritually Summit has been highly broadcasted failures of televangelist and so forth some of it has been Hollywood media portraying every pastor as some kind of an ignorant jerk you know it's it's always the liberal guy that's you know he's the cool guy and that the the god-fearing person is the is the subject of of much of much humor and so forth but the church itself has lost trust in society today that means that when it does come to transparency or vulnerability or as I talked about earlier receiving questions we've got to be willing to pull over and talk to people and and I know I've had people say well I'm not gonna join this church because I got burned the last Church nobody likes to hear that you know but it's their reality sometimes with them and you just have to pray for them and work with them at some point they've got to build a bridge and get over it and the bridge is called forgiveness you know I don't say you know the last doctor that I went to and he gave me a shot it really hurts so I'm gonna just you know watch you while I you know die of the flu before I let you give me a shot you know all of us have to learn how to trust but there's been a broken trust in in this society so these are some indicators of brokenness sin in the community sin in the church mistrust for the things that should have been sacred but let's notice secondly what are some of the hindrances to healing why is it that there's not more healing why is it that there's not more restoration verse 10 thou has fully known my doctrine manner of life purpose faith long-suffering charity patience Paul had a desire to model before Timothy a spirit that was the spirit of a healer a restorer a leader and and so many times there are hindrances and and we don't turn as we should we don't repent when we should we're not living as we should and so we become the reason why there's not healing as there could be I heard about a father that was driving down the street with his daughter and and as they were going along he turned a u-turn where there was a red light and where it was prohibited and upon completing the turn he realized his mistake he said I just made an illegal turn his daughter turned to him she said daddy she said it's alright the police car right behind us just did the same exact thing and you know it's interesting to me that that a lot of times when we should turn we don't and when we shouldn't we do and so how can we help with healing what are some of the hindrances I think first of all we have a problem with healing in our in our culture and in our churches because we have conflicted leaders we have leaders that are conflicted the Bible even says in 2nd Timothy for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts they shall heap to themselves teachers having engineers now I believe in the local church I believe the local church should be the change ancient in society how many of you believe that God wants to use the local church to bring revival to the culture I mean I've given my life to the church Jesus Jesus loved the church he gave himself for the church but when leaders in the church are conflicted when leaders in the church are not clear then they can't help people to find restoration they don't if they're not first triaging and secondly medicating and and restoring then then the church is not the hospital that God intends it to be now some leaders are conflicted number one about the requirements of leadership let me just quickly say first Timothy three gives very clear requirements for leadership I do not believe that it is ever proper to take someone that has fallen morally and recommend them on to another pastor it and when there's a confliction in the church about these matters how can we expect the world to get it right all they're gonna do is say you want to tell me about my divorce you want to tell me about my failed gay marriage then let me just tell you about the problem in your church and that's why the world loves the me2 movement and that's why it's best for the church to step up and say this was sin this was wrong it's being handled properly but the proper way to handle it future pastors is not to just recommend somebody to the church down the road and when pastors and leaders are conflicted about these issues then you don't have healing in your society sometimes we have leaders that are conflicted about fundamentalism and I want you to follow my logic here in these next couple of points let me say fundamentalism is a biblical position we don't use the word fundamentalist a lot when we're out soul-winning because the media has really twisted that whenever you hear about a fundamentalist it's a Shiite Muslim you know and and somebody that's whacked-out when we have a basketball camp and we say come to basketball camp we're gonna teach you the fundamentals nobody gets nervous about that right what teach dribbling passing shooting and how to yell at refs or whatever the fundamentals are a basketball the fundamentals we know that the fundamentals are the virgin birth right the blood atonement the deity of Jesus Christ if you believe those to be the fundamentals and others other doctrines the fundamentals of our faith then you understand that fundamentalism is about truth beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation it was needful me for me to write unto you and to exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the what say it with me for the which was once to live under the Saints the word faith means a set of beliefs a set of beliefs we at this church have a faith we have a set of beliefs and we are to contend for them someone says well can we discuss that well we're not going to discuss compromising our faith because we have a mandate to stand up for our faith but when I say there's conflicted leaders about fundamentalism it seems at times and I know this is discouraged maybe not you guys but but some younger pastors that I know it discourages them to see people within fundamentalism or within conservative Baptist churches who seem to fight with each other and cut each other down to build themselves up and it seems that they're not contending for the faith but many times they're just contending for turf or building some kingdom or they're trying somehow to make themself look better however it's perceived whatever it is I don't always know myself I just know it's frustrating when you see men taking subtle shots or not so subtle shots over issues that probably would be better left alone should there be people that take a stand for holiness of course should they take a stand for the truths of the Word of God of course but what I'm saying is that if the church is sidetracked in fighting then how are we going to restore the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ so conflicted leaders some are conflicted about requirements that hurts the cause when we just promote right back to a pulpit if they're conflicted about fundamentalism and they think that's just about fighting and they think that's all about the externals and they get the spirit of a Pharisee that does not help and then let me say thirdly there are some leaders that are conflicted about grace so on the one hand you have those that are always fighting over what appears to be non essentials on the other side you have those tired of the fight they appear to be going to a borderline doctrinal issue of problem that we'll mention in a moment Jesus was full John 1:14 Jesus was full of what Grace and what say it with me Jesus was full of grace and truth now you might see me on a given day and you might say boy where the chapel was pretty gracious there and you might see me on a given day you might say fool man brother Chapel was strong as nails there on that issue but the goal of my life I'm not saying I've accomplished it the goal of my life is to walk in grace and truth in grace and truth and and the Bible teaches that a false balance is an abomination so we want to strive for that because if it's if it's all grace and no truth then you're gonna you're gonna abuse your testimony Romans 6:1 if it's all truth and no grace many times there comes a pharisaical spirit there so when people misinterpret grace it does not help us to heal this corrupted and broken society a few quotes we must not only celebrate the liberation of grace but also the purification of grace we believe that when someone is saved they are justified and we believe that they are set apart sanctified but then we also believe that there's an ongoing salvation work out your own salvation with fear and trembling and so but there are those who want to simply celebrate the liberation of their grace I do believe personally in the biblical principle of the fear of the Lord is what the beginning of wisdom the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom now I don't believe that everything I do in my Christian life is out of fear God's gonna Club me over the head I believe the love of Christ should motivate us but I believe that there should be an awe of God and and so the Bible says the grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world so I'm of the opinion that while grace is super abounding that if I'm growing in that grace of God His Spirit is working in my heart that's not gonna lead me to conform to the world it's gonna lead me to conform to Jesus Christ that's what grace is for that's what grace will accomplish and you hear different terms today and sometimes you'll hear those in the gospel centered movement talk about grace and gospel centeredness started many years ago predominantly with theologians that come from more of a reformed perspective there's 30-plus books about gospel centeredness most have some psychology and such in them not everything they write is wrong not everything they write is great I will simply say this if the gospel is everything then the gospel is nothing in other words when you start applying the gospel so broadly you know you can get away from really what it is and if you want to know what it is it's in first Corinthians 15 it's the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and I think I mentioned this quote Sunday morning but there are some aspects of the gospel centered movement that I reject and some that I respect I respect anything that calls me to a Christ centered motivation now if you understand that would you say Amen a Christ centered motivation in other words if someone's saying I don't want to do what I do because of a list of rules I don't want to do what I do but for you know they call it moralism and so forth I get that I don't either I want to do it I do because I love Jesus Christ right so if that's what somebody means and that's you'll find as you're in the ministry there's so many terms that pop up you really have to kind of talk through what do they mean by that if that's what they mean I'm good with that but I reject anything that pulls me away from the need for sanctification and there are some authors I mentioned some of them on Sunday morning who actually have gotten so far in this false philosophy of grace that they have completely rejected first John 1:9 stating that I don't need to confess my sin stating that that's may not even in their opinion I've had a few say to me that's not even for the Christian now I don't know what you do with my little children right I don't know what you do with if if any man sin you have an advocate with the father you know my little children I write these things unto you that you sin not but if any man sin you have an advocate with the father and I believe very clearly first John has written to believers some have gotten to the place I've had people tell me you know write to my face I don't feel that I have to ask forgiveness of the Lord and so forth and and I would simply say that when you have that attitude you're not going to be effective in seeing change you're gonna bring people into a church they're gonna stay about the same they're gonna come as they are and leave the same way I happen to believe someone that comes to church gets under the sound of the word of God that they actually become new creatures you know their life actually shows forth the fruit of Jesus Christ and what I want you to realize is that God a God accepts us he places us in the heavenlies I know what my position in Christ is but God does not approve sin he's not approving of sin and and when you read the scriptures it becomes abundantly clear for example the Bible speaks in second Timothy that that no man that warith entangled himself with the affairs of this life why why do we not want to entangle ourselves so that we may please him who have chosen us now students you can pleased or displeased God right you can quench the Holy the Bible teaches so the idea that you can just claim this aspect of grace and not have to confess sin and still please God I believe is a false teaching I had a fellow once say to me I used to feel pressure to keep short accounts with God then I realized that my account was settled long ago now was our account settled long ago yes it is do we have the privilege of repenting when we sin and knowing that we're forgiven yes we do and that is progressive sanctification and fellowship with the Lord one very famous Pentecostal preacher that many have been influenced by said God is not in a hurry to fix us our behavior is not his first priority loving us and affirming us this is his top concern it's almost like God's greatest role is to make us feel good about ourselves let me help you with something God did not save me to glorify me he saved me to glorify Him so anything that tells me that salvation is all about affirming me and glorifying me is going with an interpretation of grace that I do not believe is biblical for example if I don't need to confess sin or repent of sin then why does the Bible say if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me why does the Bible say in first Peter chapter 3 and verse 7 that when a husband is not right with his wife his prayers will be hindered right now believe me my wife mr. Chappel she says to me old time she says you are always so nice to me starting on Friday night you know why because I got to stand up here on Sunday I don't want to do that in the flesh I want I want my prayers answered and I really believe that verse that we don't want our prayers to be hindered now if I am abusing grace if I'm forgetting the clear teaching of Romans 6:1 what shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound god forbid how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer if I'm living that way quenching the spirit losing fellowship with my family and with my Lord I'm not gonna have power to stand up here and preach in fact I'm gonna have to have one red-hot band to keep people feeling good because God certainly is not gonna make it happen now a very famous Calvinist writer who I will not mention his name recently someone who's been a big proponent of some of the philosophies I'm talking about recently preached at a conference concerning his concerns with some current gospel preaching he said there is a preaching that almost never highlights the truth that Christ died not only to save us from our sins but also that we might live with what he called sin killing obedience or what I would call sanctification under the Lord he said there is a preaching of forgiveness without obedience is what he called it he said there is the trust without the obey I think he hit the nail on the head he said many of these preachers shrink back from the law of Christ unfolded in hundreds of New Testament Commandments by the way if someone says we're gonna unhitch from the Old Testament we need to remember two thirds of the New Testament is either a direct quote or reference from the Old Testament all Scripture is given by inspiration of God so this author says instead of calling for obedience like the Apostles do they say you can't live the Christian life Jesus lived it for you trust in the imputation of his obedience end of sermon celebrate grace and that's a common theme you can't live it Jesus lived it for you just celebrate grace now can I tell you something you can't live the Christian life but in the power of the Holy Spirit by the resurrection power of Jesus Christ you actually can read a commandment like going to all the world you can actually fulfill the in the power of Jesus Christ Galatians 2:20 not i but Christ that liveth in me we can't tell a generation of Christians you can't live the Christian life just celebrate grace just turn up the volume have a good time we must preach the whole counsel of God so just one illustration turn in your Bibles to first Thessalonians 4 1 first thessalonians 4 1 and it says furthermore then we beseech you brethren and exhort you by the lord jesus that as ye have received of us now notice this phrase how ye ought to walk would you see those three words with me ought to walk right so paul just laid it out you said here's here's how you're supposed to live here's how you ought to walk and - what's the next two words say so if if it doesn't matter if i'm just to celebrate grace and in god's it's all good then why does the bible say and to please god in other words there is a walk that pleases god there is a walk that displeases God so this author says it is half gospel and half grace he says by all means they are saying you can't obey these commands and yet in reality they can be obeyed in the power of the Holy Spirit so a justification only gospel that's the gospel that wants to deny progressive growth in sanctification that gospel is not the whole gospel somehow we have started believing that after we are justified it doesn't matter how we live genuine justification produces Christ conforming sanctification so we see conflicted leaders they're conflicted about the requirements of pastors they're conflicted about fundamentalism they think fundamentalism is fighting each other they're conflicted about grace they think grace is kind of my free ticket and whenever the church now watch this class whenever the church is over here killing each other and over here just living like the world we are not going to make a difference in the world you with me this morning that's why we must be full of grace and truth and then may I say number for some leaders are conflicted about the legal processes and I just quickly come back here to say that the legal process includes mandatory reporting it includes doing all things decently and in order and when churches aren't handling their own affairs properly then we lose credibility in the world we're trying to reach so we see conflicted leaders number letter B we have confused leaders we have leaders that have an idolatry in their heart and all of us have to fight the idolatry in our heart you know what the biggest Idol is don't you itself but we see this idolatry and the idolatry sometimes in my opinion with the church today is the idol of relevance let's say that together the idol of that's the idol in the church today now you say well do you want to be irrelevant no do you seek to make your message is understandable yes was I criticized for putting screens in too sometimes use graphics yes I was criticized for that I don't apologize for trying to help this culture know God's truth and and if that's what we mean by relevance I'm all about having a relevant message but if we mean by relevance conformity the Bible is clear be not conformed say with me to this world but be transformed so relevance has become the obsession of the modern church and sometimes truth is lost in the pursuit of relevance Jesus said very clearly to his disciples If any man will come after me let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me in other words there's a total identity with Jesus Christ and sometimes in the church today in the church growth movement today there's such a desire for growth there's such a push for size and growth that it seems people are willing to do anything to attract a crowd let me just say quickly for the sake of time there's a difference between a crowd and a church Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus is a crowd right but a church is a blood washed band of believers called out from this world called unto Jesus Christ sometimes there are churches within idolatry to the world and sometimes there are churches with an idolatry to their cultural idea of fundamentalism and I think that's equally damaging in some cases idolatry is trying to build your identity on something other than Jesus your identity must be firmly anchored in the accomplishment of Christ must be firmly anchored in the gospel of Jesus Christ that's where we find our identity we don't find our identity I mean I've seen young men from Bible colleges that will speak disrespectfully to a pastor and they'll say you know well that guy I may tell you he wore a pink shirt he's a liberal and I let him have it and they'll tell their college president like they're gonna get brownie points for that and I just look at that go that was that's none of your business that's disrespectful I don't I don't wear a lot of pink shirts but I'm not gonna write someone off theologically for it I might think it's a little odd personally I just not my favorite color shirt but I'm not gonna write them off theologic how many of you understand what I'm saying that's a distortion of fundamentalism that's an idolatry to a cultural preference by the same token you have these on the other side whose dare idolatry is an electric guitar their idolatry is a darkness in the auditorium it's not really church unless it's this package and they that's their thing and they're gonna die on the hill for it and meanwhile we got guys over here dying on that hill and guys over here dying on that hill and we're not preaching about the Christ that died on Golgotha for our sin you see so confused leaders conflicted leaders let me say this thirdly compromising leaders you see we're discussing the issue of the hindrances to healing why is the church not being effective sometimes it's confusion sometimes it's it's just this matter of a confliction about how to lead but then there's compromise I think of one charismatic pastor Pentecostal pastor in Australia who was asked what are you views on homosexuality and he said the real issues in people's lives are too important for us just to reduce it down to a yes or no now I understand he didn't want to get trapped in the media moment whatever but I got to tell you when it comes to something like that yes and no is pretty easy yeah what do you believe about fornication no you know what even about gossip no excuse me sir we just have a five-minute soundbite here what do you believe about homosexuality no when the church can't say no to what God says no - we have compromise right and that's a problem so discipleship means taking up the cross to quote a conservative pastor who's not not independent Baptist but here's a great quote written I believe that a distortion of grace is largely responsible for the apathy of many Christians to demonstrate toward their local congregations whenever the importance of membership is brought up or the necessity of attendance the expectations for giving the responsibility of service the need for purity within the congregation the proponents of bad grace a legalism legalism and that was not written by some fundamentalist over here who's just being cranky it was written by Robert Jeffress who I identified before in other words bad grace is bad grace I don't care what Baptist Church you find it in and and pharisaical legalism is bad I don't care what church you find it in Spurgeon said this there are some in these apostate days who think that the church cannot do better than to come down to the world and to learn her ways follow her Maxim's and acquire her culture in fact the notion is that the world is to be conquered by our conformity to it this is as contrary to the scripture as light to darkness now look right here I want you to get this that was Spurgeon in the 1880s and I want you to always remember this the issues and the spin-offs and the little discussions and the terminologies and the conformity and the separatists which I am a nonconformist that's that's kind of our philosophy here all of this is not new with your day right now it's more more proliferated because of social media but it's not new none of these types of things are new you've always had men calling the church to be salt and light you've always had men calling the church to do more social things missional things conforming things get in there and just kind of sneak it up on them and you got these other guys that actually you have preachers that preach and you've got preachers that are trying to find other methodologies sometimes that are not biblical methodologies and it becomes a cultural compromise how bad is it pastor Chapel why are you giving us this big lecture this morning 26% of Baptists believe that homosexuality should be accepted and listen to this now 58% of millennial Baptists across all Baptist Boards 58 percent believe that homosexuality should be accepted that's the youth groups that you're going to be working with now you got to figure it out should that be something that we just start having gay deacons and pastors and members of the church and is that something that the church is going you got to figure that out I mean I this is just the hot-button issue that's why I'm mentioning it today there'll be other issues no doubt you've got to figure that one out 36 percent of Baptists believe in evolution this is just a little thing but that's why I always want to say well what do you mean by gospel sinner because one of the biggest proponents of it as a presbyterian in New York who believes in evolution and he feeis tick evolution he writes some good things about various topics but when someone can be so off on something so major I just have to step back and go what do you mean with this term because you don't believe in a literal creation so that makes me a little concerned for you that's not being a bible thumping fundamentalist it's just being a Bible Christian to try the spirits to know whether they be of God so so many churches are so concerned with relevance you can't tell the difference and the church becomes just like the world the culture we see it in the culture 22 percent of Americans believe the Bible is the actual Word of God only 22 percent 28 believe that is the actual Word of God but with multiple possible interpretations 28 percent believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God but should not be taken literally I think that is so funny 28% of Americans we believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God but you shouldn't take it literally 2/5 of America now qualify as post Christian you know they're either atheist or agnostic in their belief so there's a cultural compromise which leads me to this the continuum of compromise in the church the more the church compromises the more the culture compromises I personally believe what we're seeing in America today can be attached to the church growth movement relevant seeking compromising pulpits that's what I believe when you get preachers that declare truth it affects a city it changes a nation but when preachers won't preach and when people don't want them to preach and when police will not in some police because of all of the disrespect some of them are pulling back from policing by the way how many of you are like me if there's shooting going on in your street you would really like the police to come but sometimes they're just pulling back when they need to step in so so we must recognize that this is a continual problem I remember when I was younger I attended a Baptist College and there were there were different terms back then but some of the same issues I remember some of the guys that I went to school with running off to this seminar back then you didn't have the internet so you know it would take weeks to find out the latest controversy or something you know and but they would go to this seminar or that seminar they'd talk about it and so forth and people would preach about it in Chapel and I don't know if that was helpful or not sometimes it it helped the pure-hearted and it kind of drove others to to take the other direction but what I'm saying is this this continual truth and then compromise and then split and then stand it happens and the group that I was trained in the Baptist Bible fellowship they essentially split right down the middle the Baptist Bible College of Springfield Missouri was one of the greatest fundamental Bible institutions in the history of America yet produced thousands of pastors who pastored the largest churches America and there's no question about that but when they begin to accept a little here and a little there and there's men in here who attended that institution they could tell you a little questioning of the Bible issue a little bit about this a little bit of this missional lifestyle evangelism is what they used to call it a little bit of elder rule and they begin to change government's not I don't I don't say this happily I don't think there's a hundred students down at that school today I attended the Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College and so a whole bunch of their pastors went into evangelicalism and a whole other group of them split off and started another college that's in Oklahoma today and what I'm telling you is that was that was all happening 10 20 30 years ago and there's this constant a continuum that we see in church history it's interesting the Baptist news of June 2017 the membership in Southern Baptist Convention declined for the 10th straight years baptisms dropped to the lowest level in 70 years there's a million less Southern Baptists than just a decade ago what I'm saying is is that these trends are not new to this day and they do affect the church which in turn affects the community that we're not reaching as we should okay some of these conventions the issue was inerrancy they stood up for it now they're filled with drinking pastors they're filled with issues related to reformed theology really worldly worship and as one of my friends said from one particular convention they've all drunk the kool-aid and it's so sad to him after fighting so many good battles so we see the indicators of brokenness we see the hindrances to healing and here's the bottom line when the church is broken the society can't be healed right when the church is fighting when the church is over over here in this grace fest the society will not see a change mate that leads me to our final thought this morning and I appreciate so so I mean Empress yet our faculty brother Gary Williams is here 37 years he pastored in Missouri he has seen these trends come and go dr. Getz has seen these trends come and go and what I'm trying to help you to be careful with this don't be tossed with every wind of doctrine every new term every new thing hold to that which is steadfast the Word of God so what's the path to restoration let me say this keeping the faith is not guaranteed for example this church this College I'm a very young pastor that's when you're supposed to say Amen I'm a very young college president I'll be 57 this month but already I pray and I think to myself what can I do with God's help to keep this church soundly soundly true and this college for decades to come because it seems like a lot of institutions have a shelf life I just mentioned the one that I attended doesn't even exist now and and its mother school is is dying so what you want to know is that there's no guarantee and we always have to be concerned for the health of the church in fact God is more interested in the health of a church than the size of the church so we could drift at any time Peter Greer in his book mission drift said and I quote too many boards and staff and leaders are silently choosing to follow this well-worn path of mission drift monitoring inputs and outputs they forget to measure what matters most their implementation of the full mission they hire for technical competency they soft-pedal their Christian identity and I see this today I see people that don't want to use the name Baptist I see people that don't want to look like a church I know there's variations of what a church looks like but I'm just saying anything and everything too kind of dumb it down because they want to soft-pedal their identity they want a crowd but they don't want that stigma they don't want to stand out they certainly don't want to all day that are godly in christ jesus have any persecution and they do not defend their mission notice this growth becomes their primary definition of success by the way that author to my knowledge is not even a Christian he's just defining the trend of businesses and formerly Christian institutions that drift from their mission that's why next month when we have our college Advisory Board meeting we will discuss with our board members what were the founding pillars of West Coast Baptist College some of you asked the other day what are some new programs and we're looking at some things and I was talking with some this week about counseling and some different things we're excited about getting the GI Bill and some of the things coming up but we are more interested in avoiding mission drift and and being reminded of the ancient landmarks of our faith and we want to make sure that we operate in the realm of biblical truth that's so very very important we don't want mission drift why because it is required of a steward that a man be found what successful no a man is to be found what faithful guys please understand this cuz you're gonna see mega churches and you're gonna go dude I'm a failure like I'm only running 200 and you're gonna be tempted to try a bunch of stuff because this world screams at you if you're not big you're not successful I just want to remind you if you hold a Bible and you're faithful to it and you live a godly moral life you are faithful to God that's what he wants okay look it right here you take care of the depth of your ministry and God will take care of the breadth of your ministry right you just you just walk with God so how can we get back to the path of restoration quickly letter a continue in the truth now look what it says in verse 14 a moment ago 2nd 2nd Timothy chapter 3:14 but continue thou in the things which thou hast been has learned and has been assured of let's say that together but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and been assured of one more time but continue thou in the things which thou has all right now now look right here I want to help you and if you listen carefully we'll be done in just a minute I want to help you continue look here I want you to continue on the path that your pastor is on and he sent you here he wants to see you continue in a biblical path I want to be loyal not to tradition but to the Word of God and I want to be loyal to the office of the pastor and I speak that in the sense of godly pastors because the Bible says continue with things you've learned I'm assured of knowing of whom you have learned them I know it's hard when a student comes to me and they go my pastor resigned under a cloud and the devil uses that to get you to leave truth but most of you most of you have come from great churches with great pastors and lots of you with awesome parents and all I'm trying to tell you today just continue don't get sidetracked in something now how can you continue number one use discernment with your reading with your podcast with your social media get some discernment you know there was a great preacher yesterday in yesteryear and I attended some meetings where he preached and he used to always preach this kind of a lecture where he when you boiled it down essentially what he was saying was I don't want you to read any books except for mine and one other guy you know and and I went to him after a lecture and I said you know you went to such and so College you've read thousands of books and you know we're trying to be leaders and we have the Holy Spirit and can't we you know eat the meat and spit out the bones and he kind of laughed and he says to me Chapel I have figured you'd ask me a question like that you know and I said well what is what is your goal here he said here's my goal and again remember this was 30 years ago he said a lot of young guys are reading books that are just pulling them away from biblical principles pulling them away from sanctification patience separation and there they're no longer Baptist and they're drifting so here's the deal I'm not gonna tell you all you can read is the books I wrote that that's not what this is about I've learned we can't control information flow we're not going to try to do that but we can teach you to walk in the spirit and I can warn you and and all I can say is I think there's got to be a number of men here that are godly who would say if there's a man of God warning the people of God I should listen to what pastors about to say it shouldn't matter they may say well I want to dialogue more about this I want to collaborate more no no I'm not even preaching to you I'm just telling you from a heart of love how to continue on with what you say you believe how do you do that discerning reading right be very discerning some of the books that have some of the new terms that I've mentioned I've gone ahead and read those books and I have found who they're quoting now some of you are listening to maybe an Independent Baptist who's just kind of parroting what he read from a Presbyterian and then I'm going deeper and I'm at I'm seeing okay I read this book who's he quoting and and what I found some of these terms came from men like John Stott who believed in annihilationism who felt that social action must be a part of the gospel now I we have a program we do sometimes called love works and we'll pass out coffee but we always give the gospel and there's nothing wrong with that but if I don't have a cup of coffee it's okay if I still give the gospel another common that was quoted was Barth who taught not that scripture has been inspired but that scripture becomes inspired when we read it and one that's very popular as well with with these authors is Leslie knew Bachan a theological ojen from Great Britain who was a part of the World Council of Churches and if you study the World Council of Churches you'll find that there's no even evangelical Creed to it all its liberal in every single way he was an ecumenical Carl Henry co-founder I believe of fuller seminary which is very liberal in its theological leanings that's the one that is having Accords right now in talks with Mormonism the president the curled current president dr. mallove Fuller has apologized to the Mormons for saying that they are heretics I mean so these people are quoted by some of the authors that are being quoted by some men today and what I'm trying to tell you is the the philosophy that strings through is something that you need to be very careful about subtle nuances that will slowly pull you away from a biblical heritage from a Baptist position from a separated lifestyle under the Lord be discerning alright secondly seek biblical preaching and want biblical preaching second Timothy 4:1 and two and it says preach the word be instant in season the time will come and it by the way it says exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine the time will come when they will turn away and so forth my point is don't be a part of that generation that turns away from preaching I'm not gonna quote all of 2nd Timothy 4 you've heard it quoted many times we are commanded to preach the word and Christians are exhorted to hear the admonishments of their pastor and if there's a pastor who's strongly declaring the Word of God I've seen this now and I don't know about here in the college I've seen it though some young preachers like oh boy here we go just you know win suck and preaching looking I don't care if he's a win suck in if it's Bible truth bring it on that ought to be your heart I remember when I was in Bible College sometimes students would judge a preacher by his delivery style by his clothing by his hermeneutical approach look at you need to be looking for the truth of the Bible when the Bible is preached I'm glad that God has allowed our college to come to an academic position for a accreditation and I'm also glad we're not taking go funds we're not changing our doctrine in the process but here's the point I am thankful today that we do not have teachers and academics here who belittle preaching because preaching is the engine that pulls the train when it comes to the message delivery we've got to have biblical preaching so be discerning in your reading love biblical preaching and then emphasize and live a godly lifestyle Paul said to Timothy take heed unto thyself and under the doctrine did you catch that take heed unto thyself and under the doctrine now there are a lot of people today and they can find every fall with every teacher every preacher every church now look right here while they have covetousness bitterness lust in their own lives you be very careful about criticizing a man of God or a church or whatever when in your own life you're not living the way that you should live so discern your reading your podcast biblical preaching godly living that's that's going to help you to continue in the truth letter be continued in biblical traditions second Thessalonians 2:15 hold fast to the traditions which you have been taught I'm not I'm not talking here about singing three hymns instead of four or standing for this or for that but I'm talking about listen the offering is not a preference it's a biblical tradition preaching is not a preference it's a biblical tradition Wednesday night or Thursday night that's a preference whatever the pastor prefers whatever the people want I understand but but Bible study continuing in the doctrine of the word of God that's a biblical tradition it's a conviction so follow after those convictions songs hymns and spiritual songs that's a biblical truth follow after these things continue in the biblical traditions literacy continue with grace continue with grace now you already know this and you could tell me this but angry fundamentalism is not attractive again I've been an advocate in this lecture for strong preaching but I'm not an advocate for anger so make sure that you have grace in your heart as you minister right because toxic leadership produces an angry culture and by the way it's not just the gospel centered people who are gonna talk about leadership styles I consider myself to be centered in Christ and I believe that toxic leadership is a sin and that anger should not be present and sometimes I've had to apologize and perhaps others if you have had to apologize if you were too short with someone and we should be quick and willing to do that but Christ centered leadership produces love and joy and then let me say this letter t continue with vision we need a generation of people they look right here who will not just look at the Preferences of our forefathers some of those are helpful who will not just look at the at the culture of the modern church and say that's it or that's it we need some of you to get a vision to reach your city in a biblical context and we need some people in this room here's here's the thing that I know some of those that spend the most time talking about the latest this and the latest that never pastor oh never pastor a work never make a difference because all they really were about was talking about what others do and I want to tell you something there's never been a monument built to a critic a critic is someone who criticizes something for the way they do something that they don't do so rather than copying styles and criticizing styles why don't you ask God to give you a vision to turn a city upside down for God and I'll tell you something else most of these people that want to you know get into these discussions they're not saying here my lord send me to India send me to Mexico send me to Africa because they want to be hip and they want to be accepted and who's gonna give them accolades if they're over there in Bangladesh like no one's even gonna know they're there except God but you see with you it's all about you it's about how you're perceived it's about what you know it's about who you quote and the problem with all of that is that you have an eye problem you have an idolatry problem and whenever I is emphasized then our vision diminishes the Bible says where there is no vision the people perish and the word vision there is speaking of biblical understanding there are people in Hollywood that are perishing today everybody across the nation preaches against Hollywood why is Hollywood perishing today listen there are very few Bible preaching churches and Bible preaching gives the vision and you've got to get Bible preaching to get a vision and then to go out and make a difference for the Lord so the indicators of brokenness are everywhere the hindrances to the healing sometimes that's our own fault that's churches that are on one side or another instead of really engaging in soul-winning and preaching the gospel and the path to restoration is that we would that we would humble ourselves that we would continue on with what we've been taught that we would go in grace and that we would go with a vision to make a difference for the Lord and there'll be some that won't understand you and some that will criticize you but you keep your eye on the prize of the Lord Jesus Christ and God will use you in a great way so this has not been a preaching sermon but I pray that something said today would bring maturity into your spirit would bring pause into your spirit would bring convictions into your heart would bring humility into your mind and into your spirit and that rather than being the latest guy to quote the latest little term that somebody in here would get a hold of God's vision for your life and then you'd make a difference with the gospel of Jesus Christ but stand together

Channel: West Coast Baptist College

Views: 1,430

Rating: 4.8709679 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: yuh-3nmrDbE

Length: 83min 46sec (5026 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 12 2019