Pastor Paul Chappell: Ministering Grace in an Unraveling Culture

thank you take your Bibles turn to second Timothy chapter 3 second Timothy chapter three once again welcome to Lancaster Baptist Church let's stand together we have a lot of folks coming in that needed more than one Krispy Kreme donut and we want to make room for them how many of you needed more than one this morning all right how many of you need a lot of coffee this morning so I understand that feeling and I'm glad that you're here and hope that your semi rested and ready for a great morning this morning who needs notes raise your hands if you didn't get notes all right icers help me with that if you would there's just really a couple so you did a great job so uh sirs if you just walk down with those and I do want to remind you once again and so here it is so if you're standing and holding a Bible and notes it might be difficult but if you like to text questions through the course of this session I'm going to try to go a little quicker this morning I don't know I think I've probably spend twenty thirty hours in each of these sessions I try to get them down and I hate to rush through them but I'm going to work as fast as I can so that we can do our question panel and and so if you'd like to ask some questions of the panel here is the text number all right six six one four one eight seven seven two four all right can you guys throw that up on the screen there maybe it helps somebody six six one four one eight seven seven two four or QA at Lancaster Baptists org so if you want to ask some questions about this session I've never taught a session like the one I'm about to teach we're going to look at eight changes in our culture and eight biblical responses and so if you'd like to text a question you can do that at those numbers there all right hopefully everybody has received at this point your outline and we're going to read a familiar passage second Timothy chapter 3 verse 1 this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection trucebreakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady highminded lovers of pleasure more than lovers of god having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away this morning's lesson is entitled ministering grace in an unraveling society and let's pray together father we come before you once again asking for the help and fullness of your Holy Spirit we pray that you would give us wisdom I think most of us in this room just really have difficulty just even mentally keeping up with all the changes around us and we're so thankful today that you're the same yesterday today and forever but Lord we need to take those eternal truths and apply and teach and inject them into a changing culture so give us wisdom even now give us some understanding this morning I pray in Jesus name Amen you may be seated the Bible says this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come the word perilous is an interesting word as you may have guessed by now it means to loosen to slacken or to unravel the Bible is telling us that in the last days there's going to be an unraveling things are going to be coming apart and we are living truly in an era of unending change monotheism is being replaced by polytheism in America the judeo-christian worldview is being placed by replaced by humanism and globalism nearly two-fifths of the nation's adult population 38 percent now qualify as post Christian in their beliefs and behaviors and this is an amazing thought but based on the Millennial vote alone Larry Clinton would have won the election 496 electoral votes to 42 based on the Millennial vote based on the future of America that's how it would have gone down had they been the only voters styles are changing so fast even the word contemporary seems irrelevant anymore because whatever's in style today is out of style tomorrow by the way that's one good reason to just hold to the timeless biblical traditions of our faith social discussions are rampant people are always seeking and never finding so how can we be the flaming prophets of old in a day when people are afraid of the truth you ever stop to think about your job description in mind to cry aloud and spare not that to a culture that's not interested certainly if there's ever been a generation of preachers that needed God's power and grace it's this generation I want to share with you today three thoughts about this culture and our biblical response and this is not necessarily a session to uplift even 1950s church culture over perhaps some other perception of what worship should look like or be like it's not a in a session about worship or Church culture but it's a session about the culture outside of here and how we as the church must engage this culture the first thing that I want to challenge you with this morning is that every one of us must settle our convictions the first thing I just want to say as we look at the culture around us is that we must settle our convictions this is a time to really know what you believe in why you believe it no man that warith entangle with himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier so the goal of the soldier is to please the one who's called us into the battle and his name is still Jesus Christ amen no matter what your church architecture schedule outreach or methods the doctrine the principles doctor says spoke about yesterday remain the same I've tried to be an advocate for the fact that in our independent baptist circles if we're just honest about it there are slight variations with the way certain things are done and there's a little different style here and there but when it comes to the truth and to the call to preach and when it comes to our distinctives of our faith and when it comes to the matters of the Word of God we better be settled in these areas as we move into this era I believe first of all you make sure that you have convictions concerning ownership just get that settled concerning your life we are bought with a price make sure pastor that you're not for sale make sure that you determine moving into this next era of ministry that you know who owns you and again his name is Jesus Christ settle that and then settle secondly the issue concerning the ownership of the church he has purchased it with his own blood so we are not called upon in this generation to reinvent the church now I'm going to say a quick statement and move on I don't have time to deliberate on it but I'm fairly well convinced that with all the changes happening that even or some of our Independent Baptist churches twenty years from now will probably look a little bit differently than they look right now that does not entirely scare me by the way so long as the truth and so long as the biblical traditions are not changed there may be some slight changes that happen along the way with respect to certain things but I would just tell you fundamentally we had better never forget who owns this church it's not ours to change it's not ours to come to the church and begin setting aside biblical principle in order to accommodate the culture so there may be some little things here and there that change and I know for me for example I'm I'm planning to preach with a suit and tie until God calls me home and I understand but but I understand that's not a Bible doctrine either right the fact of the matter is there may be little things here and there but I just want to simply say this morning whatever your convictions are you better nail them down as we go into this windy time now we're not called upon to reinvent the church we're called upon to be the church the church has called out unto Christ the church is Christ's bride Ephesians 5:25 husband's love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish I could not disagree any more with Andy Stanley's definition of the church I just I cannot I read up a booklet by him some years ago where he described the church and defined the word ecclesia as just a community gathering a gathering of people now folks we've got to understand the doctrine of ecclesiology in its proper context the church is a called out assembly okay so that implies separatist that implies holiness that implies sanctification right so the churches are called out assembly the church secondly is the bride of Jesus Christ and he wants a pure bride and has washed us with his blood so the idea that Stanley presented of the church just kind of being a gathering point where we can make sinners feel really comfortable for weeks and months on end and even involve the unregenerate in forms of ministry folks I got to tell you a church is a saved baptized assembly and it's not my job listen I don't want to intentionally inflict pain or harm on a visitor I understand that and so do you but if someone can come to your church weeks and months and not feel the conviction of their sin and the need of the Savior you're not having Church right that's just the bottom line and we had better get a hold of whose church this is and it's not yours and it's not mine it's not the Community Church it's his church so you better settle that as you go into this storm of culture that we're going to be talking about you better settle for some things that you belong to the Lord the church belongs to the Lord and and as I've tried to say in a couple of little ways there's going to be some variations and there's different cultures I was talking to one of our brothers this morning from Hawaii had his Hawaiian shirt on I said that's a lovely shirt he said well it's what it's what we are brother chap just and and you know what I'm glad he gets to wear his Hawaiian shirt and he's a fundamental independent Baptists and he probably preaches in Hawaiian shirt but the point is every one of us need to determine that while there may be some differences here and there in the Philippines Hawaii and even maybe from the east coast to the west coast whatever there are some things that must never change and and we don't have time to cover all those this morning but you better determine that you know what they are and hold to your convictions and just fundamentally that the church is the bride of Jesus Christ no matter what little differences you may have people when they walk in to the assembly they need to know they're in God's house they need to understand that this is this is different this is the church so get some convictions about ownership secondly get some convictions of doctrinal truth doctrinal truth buy the truth and sell it not fundamental doctrines Jude three beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation it was needful for me to write unto you and to exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith get a hold of those doctrines don't stop from those doctrines and and then secondly Baptist distinctives don't be ashamed of your Baptist faith and I know listen again why people get so weird and criticizing others please don't take this at all as criticism because some people might go to Calvary Baptist Church and they'll say here at Calvary we do this that's okay okay and and sometimes they're gonna you know use a shortened term but in the in the advertising and in the teaching of your church don't be ashamed of what our forefathers died for it men like John Bunyan spent seven years in prison because they were Baptists who wouldn't take a license and so forth so not in a pugnacious way but teach your people the doctrines of the faith the distinctives of our Baptist convictions and beliefs and then thirdly make sure that you have in your practicing of doctrinal to some guidelines for fellowship okay the the Bible says how can two walk together except they be agreed right now and I'm not talking about again peripheral things I'm talking about doctrinal guidelines that guide you into fellowship right really as I understand fundamentalism if you want to think about that for a moment really what it boiled down to was the fundamentals of the faith coming out being separate and then not preaching with or having people preach for you who denied those doctrines and and not preferences here just for now it was about the doctrine of the Word of God and doctrine becomes a guideline then for fellowship because what you believe determines how you behave it kind of begins to align you see ecclesiastical separation has never been hard for me and I know there's a I know there's a group of preachers that even kind of make fun of that term ecclesiastical separation it's a biblical practice and I know some people get really weird third fourth fifth you know he had a friend who had a friend who preached for a guy once so I could never have him you know and I even get brain twisted sometimes trying to follow that line of it and what it the boils down to is his church is bigger than mine therefore he cannot be fundamental you know I'm not talking about goofy separation like that it's people use terms they don't even know what they're talking about you know Oh his church is this or that or to try to describe to try to get everybody on the slippery slope so that they can be at the top of the pole well here's my good news for them you can have the pole okay because the ministry is not about climbing ladders and poles the ministry is about serving it's about serving Jesus so ecclesiastical separation is not you know some silly rabble-rousing but I don't have a problem with the proper context of ecclesial separation why would I teach our people of the doctrine of eternal security or the doctrine of the preservation of the Scriptures and then have ones have someone come and preach for me who doesn't believe that it's just it's it's confusing right so ecclesiastical separation is when I say look at these people right and some of them in certain situations might be saved people but they may believe certain things about the Bible that we do not believe to be doctorally correct and therefore we're not going to spit on them we're not in it maybe even you know be mean and argue and so forth they may be our Christian brothers but we're not going to have them come and preach and perhaps present what we believe to be a false doctrine so what I'm saying is you need to settle your convictions as we go into the stormy waters you better decide and have convictions about who owns you and who owns the church and it's not your church to mess with and it's not our church to change in the sense of the founding principles I was talking to a young pastor a few years ago he took about this church and it had been a good conservative Church and and for whatever reason you know we all can speculate about why this young man began to kind of drift in his spirit and some of his thoughts and even some doctrinal thoughts and and he called me one day and he said I'm just kind of feeling like you know I just don't think this is important and that's important a few of them were things that he probably could have stayed and still been the pastor they weren't major major things but then some of them really dealt with issues of doctrine Bible versions different things of this nature not just a little change in music but a whole morphing of that whole concept of of worship and as he's telling me all this I said sir I said listen I'm not I'm not a Baptist Pope and by the way there's no Baptist folks did you know that but I'm just going to tell you based upon what you've already said in the first 30 seconds here that it would be unethical for you to go to a church that clearly has in their documents what they believe that is clearly a Baptist Church that for 35 years has preached the King James Bible and that assumed you were of a certain ilk when they called you to be the pastor I'm not condemning you if you're thinking this what you need to do go do it somewhere else but I would advise you to resign that church see and he did and and we help the church find a pastor that was going the direction that they wanted to go you see we must determine that the church is the Bride of Christ have convictions of ownership had convictions of doctrinal truth and then thirdly have convictions of practice of your ministry philosophy philosophy is best developed from the biblical principles that you learn and then creating biblical convictions and then ultimately a biblical standard that you're going to live by I've taught this in the past but one of the weaknesses of our Independent Baptist Church over the past years was that all we taught was what I referred to Monday night was lists or what I referred to as moralism we just gave these lists sometimes to young people but we didn't start with the biblical principle so always start with a biblical principle and then from that you'll develop a conviction and then from that you establish a standard to help you keep your biblical principle and if it's biblically based and how many of you are having been saved long enough to know that some people who are good bible-believing fundamental Baptists have even different standards than other people not everybody has the same standard but most of us have the same Bible principles you see and and that's where I believe Liberty is is called for but whatever your convictions are get them settled this conference is not to tell you what your convictions should be or shouldn't be necessarily we don't we don't have time for that I don't necessarily consider that my job to kind of mandate you know uniformity for the Independent Baptist movement that's not my calling others have bar attempting that but that's not my call but I am advocating for you that you better know what yours are and get them settled and determined that you will not be moved you're not going to remove the ancient landmarks you're going to be faithful to your callings so when I think of practice I think of a couple of things number one regarding the assembly Hebrews 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the Day approaching now there's many areas of practice we could mention I mention this one because I believe in going to church okay and I know the trend I know that that the trend is for less and less church and I suppose that's one of the changes that's happening in other denominations and so forth and quite frankly it may be that that there's not as many on a Sunday night or Wednesday night as you would like it probably never is but do people need the Word of God more than ever today say well we you know we have you know home groups or we do this way or that way the point is not even what night your service is or or how you're doing it the point is I don't believe people need less of the Word of God I think they need as much as they've always needed dr. Robertson just drilled this into me and when I had him preached here several times I always had a yellow pad and boy I asked him questions and if you'd like to to our offices later today up on the third floor there's a whole wall of notes that he wrote for me with his hand yellow pad notes and I framed him you know and and I took his counsel in every area except one he thought brother Sisk we should have robes for our choir I just couldn't do that I mean that's just one of those areas we're just gonna have to differ one of those little preference areas where you know it just might have worked in Tennessee but brother it just wasn't working here and I understand that but one of the things he taught me was this three to thrive let's say it together three to thrive now again I'm not mad at you if you don't have three to thrive I'm advocating right now for the fact that you need to settle some convictions now here's my belief about Sunday night okay because we're talking about doctrine and so on and so forth on Sunday morning most of us have the the understanding that we preach to a fairly wide audience we preach to unsaved new believers longtime Christians and it's not that you're preaching a different message but for me especially at my eleven o'clock service here in Southern California I'm having to pull over a lot and explain basic things I'm having to do a lot of teach preach I'm having to to try to illustrate things and and and and find every kind of a way as Jesus did with parables to just make it all come together and it's patience sometimes it's very declarative I invite you to hear our Sunday morning messages they're bold but we're building to it in a particular way and for me Sunday night is not a night as brother Edwards spoke about yesterday it's not a night to be mean or belligerent that's not what I'm talking about but that is my time to passionately preach the truths of the Word of God issues of faith and missions and the book of Acts and and giving and forgiving and and moving forward and family altar and whatever it is and I don't explain this except to say there's a way that God gives me unction on Sunday night that I don't always have on Sunday morning I happen to believe that preaching is the Train is the engine that pulls the whole train right so for me I would almost feel like we would this church not to have a Sunday night one of the reasons Sunday night is going out the window is because we have fewer preaching churches and I agree with relat said last night hit I like Bible words and I like the word preach and and so determine that there is a real reason we have these very services now people do different things on Wednesday nights and some look it I think dr. Vick used to have the they used to teach the Sunday School lessons on Wednesday nights and some of our pastors today have even some classes on Wednesday nights and do different things and round here actually what the hub is in here and I teach but we have hundreds of people elsewhere on a Wednesday night we've got 150 and discipleship and we have the Spanish but recta has several hundreds of people in Spanish and we've got the teens I think Larry has four or five hundred teens over there and we have grief classes we got stuff going all over the place my my point here is not that you have to have three services where everybody is always under your one voice my point is be careful about limiting the exposure of your people to the Word of God okay the venue's the the methods you can look at that later but people need to be taught the Word of God it's just amazing to me churches that I've watched over the years from afar who have built tens of millions of dollars of buildings and they use them one hour a week it's ridiculous I remember going out years ago and meeting with truett Cathy out out there in Atlanta and we were we were talking about church and he was talking about the lessening of services and he's talking about music he said I told my pastor if he brings one of those bands and he's to lose a big tithe you know with all due respect now some of these old-timers they did understand something about worshiping God and growing in the Word of God so get your convictions down how about regarding the Christian life the Christian life is a holy life be holy for I am holy look at the church is no place for crash jokes and cursing in the pulpit and look at we have people come in here if you come here Sunday morning you'll see people dressed in every kind of a way but you'll see our leaders dressed modestly why because I don't get up and preach about a lot of these issues all the time but we do try to just model out here in this culture you know and and we believe in modeling and mentoring and we found people get saved and they're young in the Lord and he'll look around and if you have good examples they'll follow those examples so so get your conviction so so settle your convictions all right now some of you know talking about going to church a lot and in having these strong convictions some of your like I thought this was sort of like about the culture changing well it is but that's why we started with this point one we're not supposed to be changing like the culture people need to look at the church and more than that they need to look at us and more than that they need to see the Word of God as the rock right and so your your convictions in some peripheral areas can be different than mine right but the fact of the matter is on the core issues of of the Word of God and gathering round and the holiness of the church and being Baptist and all these things get it settled because I remember talking to brother Gibbs years ago and we were talking about you know change and where's this change going where's that change going he says brother Chapel is very obvious some denominations are ordaining homosexuals and and so you better determine where the lines are and then and then draw them down and then hold on to them and I'll tell you something and we talked about a lot of these things with our staff and with young preachers as a pastor there's a certain amount of trust that's been placed into me by our church family and they respect the fact that we are stable and we're going forward and were not given to change they also at times respect that we're willing to change something that's a non-essential we're willing to be flexible and so forth they actually respect that as well but there's security found in the fact looking you take a guy who hits his midlife crises and all of a sudden you know he's wearing a leisure suit and it's opened up down to here and he's got you know dice hanging off his chest and you know he could he goes and gets the toupee if he was bald or he grows his hair long or whatever you know and you've seen these people like this you know and now he's all the sudden he's going to the gym you know he never went to the gym a day in his entire life now going to the gym you knows wearing little spandex or whatever you know I see guys like that and I just go my goodness gracious but in a world and sometimes that's how you feel about churches like what so just be a biblical church okay settle settle your convictions everybody with me so far get your convictions get them settled by the way let me make one quick statement here when there's a pastor who's just in his first several years of Pastor it and he's done a couple things maybe he's tried to serve a schedule this way or he's doing a few things would you be careful not to write him off as emergent because first of all you don't even know what emergent means people that use that term sometimes people are as ignorant I mean I don't I don't know where they went to school they must not have had a textbook emergent is a doctrinal issue right all I'm saying is and and I'm advocating because when I was when I was younger and when we when we first made a gospel tract that had a little baby on it with kisses on his face and the little tracts that you've never been so loved I had older pastors take that tract to staff meetings and say see this right here it's the beginning of the end stuff like this right here trying to make Christianity look like this my goodness I could go on I'm not going to go into a complaint session lots of things we've tried right and then we probably tried some things that were just stupid and but and I told you the first thing I said when I walked out here we're not a perfect Church all right look I've been here 31 years I'm going to every song we've sung just right down the line Frank garlock approved everything I didn't happen that way some of them some of them weren't right down the line someone maybe wouldn't pleasure not every one of our teenagers is always perfectly you know dressed or whatever we are not a perfect Church but the thing of it is that we must never forget the fact that God has called us to holiness and righteousness and that we want to walk in this way and and so let's have the right spirit but let's have the right convictions and get them settled I must move on study your can settle your convictions now secondly secondly study the culture study the culture now at first thought someone might say wait a minute I mean study the culture where's this going give me a five-minute break we just talked about you know settle your convictions right do you know what we tell missionaries when they go to the mission field right study the culture study the customs you look at in Korea where I live for my teenagers you take your shoes off when you go into someone's house and one day I just no dumb teenager why do we take the shoes off this at all we do not have sewer here and we have we walk on nasty streets we don't want to bring that into our house you know kind of made sense to me in Korea if you really like the hostess's food you burp the louder the better I'll never forget one day we had this group of pastors over to our house it was just almost like a choir of it I didn't understand what's going on and then my dad said that's how they tell you it was really good I could go on with this but we don't have time everywhere I go every country I've been to I I want to know what are the what are the customs here you know you bow lower for the older the person that the farther down you the hell right brother says and the more you bow now all I'm saying here is America is our mission field and sometimes we know all about church culture and defending it and keeping it but it's actually worth taking some time to know what's going on outside of here not so that we can be like that but so that we can reach all of that the men of Issachar were understanding of their times they were men who were well informed they read the books of their day that would have included science math history having discernment to be the advisors of their tribe probably this referred to the two hundred leaders of the tribe of Issachar James 1:5 tells us to ask for wisdom one author said leaders realized they must occasionally step back from the day-to-day operations in order to gain perspective on the broader issues such as the nature and the future of an organization someone said to know the problem spend time with men do know the answer spend time with God so let's take a quick look at our culture all right let's look at eight indicators of the shifting culture we live in the first tragic shift I will call biblical illiteracy now I still do a lot of door knocking I go out door knocking every week and I'm finding as I talk to people especially 30 and under they have no idea about the basic things when I used to go out in the early days I could at least find the majority that people knew like Adam and Eve and heaven hell ga'inja they had a concept of Jesus and so forth my friend Gary Keck is here a roommate from college he's a missionary in Papua New Guinea he tells me how they didn't Papua New Guinea they have to teach people first how to read and then sometimes they've had to actually like make a cross when they're talking about Jesus and lay down on the cross and describe the whole thing to them and we're getting close to Papua New Guinea we're really advancing as a culture because we're getting to the place where many of our young people do not know the truth of the Bible biblical illiteracy amongst the lost may I say also biblical illiteracy amongst professing Christians researchers asked a sample group of twelve hundred and ten adults to define the Great Commission in each case only a small minority gave accurate answers even born-again Christians had trouble answering only nine percent of the respondents ACT accurately defined the Great Commission 75% of born-again Christians could not offer a definition 25 percent the respondents gave accurate or partially accurate descriptions of John 3:16 and so forth there's there's there's a lot of biblical illiteracy even in our churches today so we must recognize there's a biblical illiteracy in the land remember a minute ago I said a lot of times on Sunday mornings I've got to pull over and teach preach and I've got to define words and look it up people criticize the screens and again that's one of those things you can have him or not have him it has nothing to do with your fundamentalism I remember asking dr. Malone about the screens and he wrote me a letter and I have it on file he said you reach your community in any way God leads you to reach for Jesus Christ I've always been a man given to counsel and and sought a lot of counsel about things I just asked him that was his counsel me but I'm telling you sometimes it might be Paul's missionary journeys and sometimes it might be the definition of the of a word and it might be any one of different things but I'm looking for anyway any any illustration any any graphic any any way to somehow I mean I've climbed up on chairs and I've brought a ladder out and I've put Saddam Hussein's name at the bottom and God's name at the top and a cross in between lookit I am ministering to a biblically illiterate culture and so are you and it's our job to get the gospel out to them so first of all biblical illiteracy secondly of course the breakdown of the family and we're going to run through these eight and then we're going to have eight eight responses but let's run through these quickly in 1960 72 percent of all adults ages 18 and older were married now just ponder that for a moment 72 percent of all adults were married so you would have couples classes and marriage encounters and couples reads all this stuff and that's kind of I mean I remember years ago dr. Hiles telling me he said every every five to seven years we start a bunch of new couples classes I was talking about Sunday school that was couples classes that's how you did it and it's still a part of how you do it but today 52 percent of adults that same age bracket are married and among all American adults almost 6 in 10 57 % either currently live with their boyfriend or girlfriend or have previously done so and 65 percent of Americans think it's a really good idea so so the family has completely changed and and one of the things we'll talk about in just a moment is the necessity for single adult classes and ladies classes and classes for people who've just been divorced people that are blended families you say well they ought not to be blended well they are that's the point now you can have your 10 men in their shirts and ties and your 5 ladies and their homeschooled children and their homemade dresses that they made at home and their little collaborate little groups they have and they can come to your school chapel and you can you know you can have your little gathering of Amish if that's what you're looking for but some of us are trying to reach this world for Christ some of them are branded and tattooed I don't know how to tell you this there's going to be people there's going to be independent fundamental Baptist pastors if we do our job 10 years from now that are tattooed everywhere I'm just telling you so I don't believe in that all right that's fine you don't have to but if we do our job there's gonna be just people redeemed from all kinds of stuff and it's just what's going on right now where the Kingsbury's taught me so much about that he's one of the few men and fundamentalism that several years ago got ahold of the complete power of the redemptive work of the cross of Jesus Christ thirdly and somewhat aligned that got a little ahead of myself but there is a rise in pagan practices Peter said for the time of our past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness lust excess of wine revellings banqueting and abominable idolatries there's a worship of false gods in the land 2014 Pew Research Center's research landscape survey included a subset of the New Age spiritual movement called pagan or Wiccan that was a few years ago a million two hundred seventy five thousand people described themselves as Wiccan in America I've been in Colorado Springs to the Air Force Academy and I've been if you've ever seen the chapel at the Air Force Academy it is an amazing piece of architecture and you walk out the back door and there's this beautiful forested area and there's the Wiccan altar for the cadets to go worship the devil it's recognized it's sanctioned by the United States Air Force a part of this pagan is open sexuality sexually transmitted diseases are spreading most rapidly now amongst 12 to 19 year olds and in the midst of that the state of Louisiana is being sued today by the ACLU for teaching abstinence in the schools I mean so here we have 12 year olds that are getting STDs and all they want to do is say hey wait until marriage and in this type of thing and they're being sued for telling kids not to get diseases that's how backward the country has become and then now the legalization of drugs and we have fought and fought and fought on this in our own area here the fact of the matter is that farm and Kia is still a reference to witchcraft marijuana is not only a gateway drug to other drugs it's a gateway to Satan God has called us to have a sound mind no Christian can take recreational drugs and be right with God the average age of the first use of alcohol in America now is 12 the average first drug use is 13 ninety three percent ninety-three percent of all US teenagers have experienced alcohol by their senior year and six percent drink daily two-thirds of all American young people try some illicit drug before they finish high school and again even in Christian schools we hear of it homelessness is on the rise in Colorado and Washington State as marijuana has become legal and January 5th it will be legal here in California and it will spread across the country and it's all a gateway opening the door to more and more paganism in our country fourthly letter D there's hostility to Authority perilous times maybe you saw the news this morning point number one towards elected officials is that in your notes I think when someone walked in this morning to a baseball field and said are these Republicans or Democrats and someone said oh they're Republicans and he loaded his rifle and began shooting them one by one a hundred shots fired there might be a little hostility there and when you think about what we've seen in the social landscape and granted our president brings some of it on himself okay but thank God for many of the positions the man holds and they do not hate his persona as much as they hate his position I mean think about this vile wicked comic who had her little comic scene where she holds up the decapitated bloodied head of the President of the United States of America and calls it humor that's the type of thing we're seeing and frankly we've never seen it on this scale in our country and that's why brother Harding as we stand for truth and do preach the issues we have to be very understanding especially in that 11 o'clock hour for me with two or three hundred people coming in who have recently been saved I don't know how they are in your place but our recently saved ones aren't Trump supporters and you don't get them from newly saved to pro-life and pro-family and Pro this and all this time it doesn't happen at least for us just instantaneously salvations the miracle of a moment discipleship the process of a lifetime there's just a lot of hostility toward Authority there's hostility towards religious leaders all most of you have a security ministry at your church we'll be having a couple sessions on that next year Lord put that on my heart this morning I mean we've got enough fire power in this auditorium right now and at every service we have and I've had to teach our people a if anything goes crazy just get under the seat let the guys take care of it and pray that he hits him solid the first shot I'm not I'm not going to go on and on with this I mean there's a reason that there's police that follow me all around this campus and take me home and lock me in I took my wife out shooting the other day went to a shooting class and and she out shot me every single time I mean she had a grouping that was just about three inches in the round she filled that bullseye and she blow the smoke off her gun and look over at me fine whatever whatever you want new couch new dishes just whatever you want so we're all we're all security conscious we know now I want to say that some of this is just the culture and some of it has also been brought upon ourselves by pastors themselves attitudes sin Warren wears be in his book the integrity crisis said the church has grown accustomed to hearing people question the message of the gospel because to them the message is foolish but today the situation is embarrassingly reversed for now the messenger is suspect so we want to do everything we can to live with integrity so that's not the case right now some of this is brought on by failures and some of this has just brought on by a sinful society I mean when Houston Mayor Annise Parker subpoenaed the sermon notes of pastors and she said look at you guys are going to talk about homosexuality in your sermon we want you to turn in your sermon notes that was not the fault of the pastors they were just doing what they're supposed to do and who would have ever thought that day and I don't know about some of you I was literally had my plane tickets I was going down to Houston to stand with a bunch of preachers and by the way excuse me I'll stand with just about any kind of a preacher on that issue right there because it's going to be your notes they're going to try to take next and thankfully they pulled that subpoena back out and the things settle down but man tell you it's going to happen again we had to face an issue for our college last spring and and and there was a bill coming through the state assembly that would would state that a Christian college would have to allow homosexual behavior I had to call up these Assemblyman and say look we didn't create these rules to discriminate against the LBG qy z XE movement we've had those rules in Christian colleges in California for over a hundred years because we've always believed in abstinence before marriage and by the way we believe that any sexual activity outside of marriage is sin and then of course they just couldn't hardly believe that we wouldn't allow the kids to you know kiss and do all these different things on the campus and so forth they just couldn't get their brain around it and we we got on a conference call with 17 other colleges every Wednesday and you'd be surprised some of the Christian colleges if they thought they're going to lose accreditation and most of you know that while we have tracts accreditation we do not take government funds for this very reason we didn't even have to get in on the conference calls we didn't have anything to lose there but some of them in the process of thinking they might lose money they just said hey what one of them said we'll have a gay club on our campus there's a there's a tremendous tremendous hostility towards towards Authority and towards biblical authority as we've seen letter II there's an apathy in the land there was a Pew Research done some time back word they described the religious culture in America as apathy ISM not just atheism but there's those that say they believe but they're so apathetic you can hardly tell that they believe so they describe the spiritual condition in America as apathy ISM right nearly half of all Millennials 48% qualify as post Christian there's a spiritual apathy in the land there's a personal apathy in the land there's family apathy in the land fewer young people are marrying as we said a moment ago there are now only 59.6 births per 1,000 women in America the lowest birth rate ever record in the United States of America this people don't want to accept responsibility that there's no marriage there's no children there's no commitment and we're seeing that apathy how many of you are seeing it with people in your church you never thought you'd see it with anybody else you just thought it was taken for granted they would be there and and it's sweeping into the church as well letter F there's a social media addiction eighty-eight percent of Millennials use Facebook 68 percent of all US citizens now you know you're having problems with social media when you like your own updates on Facebook when you favorite your own tweets when you like your own Instagram pictures when you go to a gathering of friends and when you greet your friends you greet them by their Twitter handle hey Bobcat one Tim you have issues I mean you have a problem when someone tells a joke and instead of laughing you say lol I don't know where it's all going I mean some of the guys that are my age and older I'm sure you're just where's this going I can tell you one thing where it's going it's going to go right into the hands of the Antichrist instant information how else are the other prophets in Jerusalem going to be viewed and how else is the whole world going to be given their direction and in and that's not to say that it's all of the devil it's just to say that it's so very prevalent we'll talk about some ways to use this but it's an amazing cultural shift liturgy the Laodicean church neither hot nor cold and you know what the Laodicean church says in verse 17 because thou sayest I am rich and increased with Goods and need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched miserable poor and blind and naked I look right here I know that we need funds to operate I know that we need facilities I understand that but I get around some preachers that when they talk about funds and they talk about how to how to take an offering and online giving and they talk about you know all these different business things they're their pitch of their voice goes up just a little bit as if that's the measure of something guys can I tell you what the day you're getting more excited about that then really the eternal truth of the word of God God didn't call me to be a CEO I I mean I know the spiritual gifts I've studied Romans 12 first Corinthians 12 and I III have some some gifts in maybe some administration some areas of that nature but God didn't give that to me so that that would be the real joy of my life the Lord and His Word must be the passion that drives us and and when you when you see and hear of churches that become boastful about the material things let's always remember to glory in the cross all of this see all of this these are just tools now you know the definition of Laodicea the people's rights but what do we see in these churches we see an emphasis on entertainment and again some of you that may not know me as well we have we have a huge Easter presentation here and we have video and singing and you know whatever but by the way right in the middle of its the preaching of the word of God but I'm not against singing or drama that's I'm not I'm not saying any of that's wrong but I do believe that perhaps the the driving force behind many of the Laodicean churches is not the pulpit it's the band and and and that's that's not to start a session here on music it's just to state a fact it's more about the look and it's more about the feel and we all want a good look in a good feel in the right way but there's got to be the primacy of preaching in the church and and the Laodicean church emphasizes the idea lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God now I want to just for the sake of being fair say there are actually some churches that don't feel exactly like ours where they really love God you can say amen to that I'm just just being fair but there's a whole movement out there of churches that are given to the pulse and the drive and just to the whole side of entertainment and that does not interest to me I love a great song I love a wonderful testimony I think we should use technology all of these things but the centerpiece of worship should be the declaration of the truth of the word of God there is in these churches a lessening of doctrine there's a there's a very well-known podcast right now popular with a lot of millennial pastors and I've seen it once or twice and I'll not mention the name both times I saw it there was not a scripture mentioned in the entire podcast it's kind of a crossover podcast for pastors and businessmen but the content was fine but just amazing to me the other day brother rule was out soul-winning and myth met a man that was in this guy's church for seven years a faithful attender and he led him to Christ and maybe that's an isolated situation but here's my point we cannot get into the place of being just pop psychology preachers and and you know sizzling marriage and all these kinds of just kind of messages and services that just kind of the field and not get into the doctrinal truth of the word of God look at I preach often probably every Sunday in some way the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ the way I preach to you Monday night would be no real shock to our church Sunday morning we need to declare the whole Council of God 2nd Timothy chapter 4 the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but they will heap unto themselves they will after their own lusts help heap but of themselves teachers having itching ears and shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables now I believe we're in that era right now we're in the Laodicean era I believe the seven churches in Revelation depicts seven eras of church history and I believe we're in the Laodicean period they were literal churches also we know that but the fact is that this is a challenge to us who are trying to be a biblical New Testament church thirdly in these churches you'll find a lack of confrontational evangelism some research show that 48% of churchgoers have never invited someone else to church letter age we're faced with distracted pastors so in the midst of all this the culture is screaming for answers many times the church is silent we're distracted by the culture the decimated absolutes the dwindling public confidence and sometimes pastors are distracted by pettiness I'm embarrassed I think I say this often I am embarrassed to see what pastors put on social media when the world is going to hell making these little straw man nothing arguments to try to bring it into themselves try to put someone else down so they can build themself up did they not live in the same country I live in and pastors are distracted like Diaw trophies who loves to have the preeminence they're distracted and then thirdly they're distracted by burdens the burdens of people the burdens of schedule the expectations the fatigue a part of the culture is a tired church and a distracted pastor now there could be other things but I want to talk about those eight things in these final few moments first we must settle our convictions secondly we must study our culture okay now thirdly we need to seize our calling guess what God gave me these biblical convictions for this time in world history so God gave a word to us it's preserved it has not changed he's the same yesterday today and forever the Word of God is forever settled in heaven and he put it in my heart and he put me in 2017 and he said do something with that okay so we've got it we can sit back on our ecclesiastical high chair and watch it all and suck our thumb and complain and we can throw our spoons at the other fundamental pastors we can run around saying I'll tell you what America needs it needs fundamentalism to split right down the middle oh my goodness you know what America needs revival amongst fundamentalists what would happen in this country if every Independent Baptist pastor loved and prayed for and encouraged and helped every other end but there might be some young men want to get in the ministry it's time to seize our calling and our calling is not to pick one another our part our calling is to reach our generation with the gospel I'm going to tell you right now there's there's plenty of men they're going to do things differently than you and some of them you're never going to fellowship with there's lots of independent Baptists I don't necessarily need to fellowship with but they're not the enemy I mean it's bottom line find some fellows that you can love and work with and plant some churches and get some missionaries out have a citywide campaign do something seize your calling let's talk about that second Timothy 1:9 he has saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his purpose and grace so we're going to give you a little parallel chart here and I want to talk with you about the responses first we talked about this matter of a biblically illiterate society what's the response let me let me say our response then is to publish the Word of God the word of the Lord was published throughout all that region acts 1349 now there's several ways but let's talk about first of all canvassing so far in this year our church has knocked on 209,000 doors in northern LA County say well yeah if I had a college I could do that and just for the record I just want to throw this out because until you've spent a day in someone else's shoes be careful of making an assessment our church grew more exponentially before I had a college I mean just figure it out fellas the church and the college are two very large organizations and not only the organization locally and not only the student body but all the issues you face when you have a college financially in different things so the idea that well they're in college they're just building their church not necessarily true and and thank the Lord that college students knocked a bunch of those doors but I want you to know that there are from this church more soul winners and more doors knocked by the church family than by the college student still you're not looking at a college choir tonight and and some of you say well it's great for the chapel you have a big church no no stop making excuses stop telling me Oh our town has more alcohol than this down the other time our town has more mentally people in our town has more this and every time I go somewhere someone says our town has this narc town has that and this one has too many churches and all no no I'll tell you what your town has sinners and so if it's just you and you're running fifteen then find the two that will go out soul-winning and go get a map go out highlight the map when it's done let your people see that you're getting the whole area get new tracks get get John and Romans I don't care what it looks like just get the Word of God out in your society and ask people the question if you died today do you know read spend eternity lost people are still looking for love and belonging they're just looking in all the wrong places canvassing use the media look at use the Facebook then you got to shut in teacher how to use it teach your people how to use it use radio buy a television ad do what you can do get a free ad in the Pennysaver get the name of your church and get the gospel everywhere every possible means that you can use get the word out I just saw brother gross get off the plane kawaii get a billboard welcome to paradise but do you know you're on your way to heaven come to Kauai Baptist temple I don't know what it's going to say but cover your area with the gospel of Jesus Christ our goal is very simple no one will ever live in the Antelope Valley for more than three months without getting the chance to go to heaven we knock on every door in this city three times in one year some people call us and say stop knocking on my door it's true so we put on the little map don't knock on their door we want to be good neighbors some signs on the door say no Jehovah Witness no Lancaster Baptist we don't go right we're good neighbors I don't subscribe to this idea just go anywhere and get anybody I think it's better for us to go systematically because otherwise we'd go the same same places all the time and God hasn't called us just to go to the poor areas or just to the wealthier we just go everywhere and then of course through preaching lost people are looking for a purpose in their life that's why it's so sad when churches are trying to redeem the culture it's it's okay to use an illustration of sports or you know things from the culture but if it's all about their culture and if it's sort of a secular message why do they go to church they need to know what the Bible says I think Kenny just all of us here his dad are me to solve as a great great man of God in the Philippines Cebu City and I remember preaching there years ago maybe 20 years ago and we landed at the airport and we got into a taxicab and we said to the taxi driver and this is what we were told to say take us to the church that tells us what the Bible says this church has on the sidewall this saying what the Bible says so you can get into any taxi in that city and say I want to go to the church that says what the Bible says and they take you to the Bible Baptist Church wouldn't that be nice if your church was known for what the Bible says publish the Word of God we preach Christ we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus Lord number four through teaching from the pulpit through discipleship continue discipleship through the connection groups or Sunday school and I just would encourage you use curriculum use printed materials put things into people's hands here's some of our newer curriculums here on Joe's and Moses and Peter and family raising up a godly family people need tools and they they need to take seriously the rightly dividing of the Word of God and let the Word of God establish a moral and doctrinal baseline for their lives Psalm 19 and verse 7 the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple you know how many of you have pastored long enough no you can't make every decision for people you can't be the holy spirit I know pastors that try to do that they want it they want to somehow have this codependency idea that that pastor helps you make every listen the Holy Spirit's got to get in that equation somewhere and we've got to give them the tools to make that decision letter B families what do we do with the family problem we need to encourage families Galatians 6:10 as we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all men especially those of the household of faith and that's benevolence but encouraging families let me just say this number one edify all families I like to study Timothy he had a godly mother and grandmother how many of her thankful for godly mothers and grandmothers always remember on Mother's Day there's going to be some there that have had a heartache they don't have a husband they've had a miscarriage they they have a wayward child we have to be a little more sensitive in fact we don't we gave up on trying to give out the flowers on Mother's Day because always the one with the most children has been married four times who has the most children me how many sixty-four mine and then I got some from Albert and then he brought a few over and then and and then you got some dear lady over here who's had like nineteen with just one man and she loses anyways maybe you've never had that problem I just gave up on passing out the flowers on Mother's Day you know the cultures changed but here's my point somehow we want to make every one of those mothers feel special that's what I'm trying to say the sweet little young couple that you married that grew up in the Christian school and the lady who's like the woman at the well in and what I'm trying to advocate in this lesson is we've got to think about that I mean we don't want to alienate unnecessarily and we want to think about them I want to just say here if you don't have at least one and probably a couple three ladies classes if your church of 150 just one ladies sunday-school class would be so needful they don't necessarily want to go to a class with couples and Men but a class that just has a godly woman teaching them loving them visiting with them I'm so thankful for ladies classes we have some wonderful men's classes we have a class and forget that what's the name brother MacArthur's class single hearts class just I think most of that class has been divorced at one time in their life and single hearts class brother bud MacArthur just loves those people encourages them through this time in their life and and it just says something to people when they know that you've thought about them and then have of course various family classes couples classes edify all the families number two emphasize your church as a caring family I mean there's there are some children that come up to me at report card time with their single mom and show me their report card as I stand back here shaking hands there's lots of lots of moms that ask if their boy can go to men and boys camp out with one of the men from the church the church must be the place where shame meets grace right and somehow we've got to extend grace to this culture we've got to reach out to them let us see with this pagan culture let me challenge you to witness to your whole community you know what the Bible says in 1st Corinthians chapter 6 but such were some of you how many of you still believe in the power of the gospel so let me encourage you engage your community when we have our law enforcement day that starts months before law enforcement day with brother first oh and some of the guys going out to the sheriff's stations and long before these men come to our church we're cooking hamburgers at their station just flipping burgers and givin em Burgers and every so often I'll give to our pastoral staff $5 Starbucks cards and they'll go down to the sheriff's stations here in town and that go to the you know roll call and the captain will say we've got someone here from Lancaster Baptists quick announcement hey where does here from Lancaster Baptists just want to say thank you and we've got a Starbucks card for all you guys be safe out there today that's about it and that's about enough just through serving them just through loving them and and then and then just loving them over time sometimes we're like the irritating fly or gnat we show up hey come to our church because it's our big day you want to be a part of my birthday don't you I mean you telling us like a fire captain come to my big day that's kind of a weird way to say it really but if you'll cultivate a relationship through service over time it's very normal very normal we had our we had our local captain here Monday night and brother Gibbs preached a message Sunday morning it was hilarious I don't have time to get all into it but he talked about preaching in this black church where the lady next to him on the front row looked at him and said you got the stuff you ever heard that message you got this stuff you know so anyways he preached that well our captain I don't believe he's even saved he stayed here all through Monday night hear me preach against the culture and preach all these different things and he walked out he shook my hand he said pastor Chapel you had the stuff now seriously his names on a piece of paper right now on my table up there working do everything we can to lead him to Christ but just saying serving people we're we're going to the fair in a few weeks and we may be next to the gate group I don't know there's always the gays are always at the fair so here's what we do we're walking in the fair with our kid look at that can you believe that two women standing in there with that rainbow flag huh and it just ruins your whole day and that's what you do and then you go to church and preach about and get mad why don't you just get a booth right next time free Bibles free Bibles Book of Leviticus right here here it is that this lesson is to stay stop being a cranky fundamentalist and start being a grace-filled Christian just get out there you don't have to be mean here's a here's a free free coffee here right here here you go here's the Bible here's the gospel tract hey here's a little book on the family here's a free book by the way start giving some stuff don't go to the parent site here you can buy this and I know something I say will give us everything in that store that's another topic there and by the way if you're a church planner and there's some stuff over there that you need and you can't afford it you tell them they'll give it to you but we've got to stop cussing this society and start caring for this society get out into your fair we have a we have one of these farmers markets in our town and if you guys have those in your town and a lot of it's gross to be honest with you it's some lady bringing her garden there you know and some of its good some of its good but some of it I would never want to buy it but we go we go down there and we haven't with a little booth we give out lemonade we pass out tracts I'm just saying the culmination of being out in the culture starts to make a difference engage your community serve your community some of you have done the love works you've done other things like that I mean just going out to a commuter lot at 5:00 in the morning and having a cup of coffee just going downtown and and having hot dogs my son takes the teenagers and they they bring spaghetti dinners to all the football teams of the public school and listen you know most of the coaches say to my son you want to say something to him oh yeah we'd love to say something to him and at least six to seven times last fall he stood up and preached Christ crucified in a public school only and simply because we were willing to engage the culture obviously the bus ministry Thanksgiving baskets we love doing this every year our people line up it's very organized our staff gets ready we put the basket we have the turkey we take a lot of time to get this ready we have a nice gospel presentation they line up we give them the bag staple to the bag is the address we work hard to determine through our soul-winning to our bus ministry through the city the city and the police tell us who needs help and hundreds of our members go out and deliver these bags and dozens of people get saved every single time we do that just going out into the community some of the people in this town that just really love me and this church the most are some pretty bad dudes they don't even always go to church but don't say something bad about pastor Chapel that man helped my family I'm just saying win your community's hearts and then win them to the Lord all kinds of people we had Highway Patrol came to us they said you know we like to do something with toys our guys give toys but we don't know where they go and would you would your church help us give out toys we give out so many toys that the Highway Patrol gives us I mean tens of thousands dollars of toys and they come and they say here's the toys you deliver them for us and we win souls with that so serve your community model grace to your community first Peter 3:7 I've tried to congratulate our elected officials Democrats and Republicans I've tried to I have a secretary that reads the paper just to see who got an award or who was fifty years of marriage which is write letters to him congratulations fifty years of marriage pastor paul chapel lancaster baptist church we just looked for any way to stay engaged because our nature is we're a necklace seal which is what called out brother we're separate right and sometimes we're just there glad yeah good you stay out there well that's not what the word means it is our it is our distinction as a church where we're sanctified were bought but were to be engaged in going at all the world letter D in the face of hostility we must lead like Jesus we must learn to first walk in the spirit I mean I can tell you this when the Liberals are holding up your head and when they're getting mad about this and that that's not the time to start screaming back I told brother Harding really Creed when they started capital connection I said the thing that scares me the most is that some of our preachers won't know how to react and respond up on the hill and that's why so so often times when we've been there there's a little lesson given on now when you go to the office you know here's the demeanor here's what we're doing here's what we're saying were there with a servant's heart right there to argue with him I mean I was there I was in Diane Feinstein's office and her chief of staff came out and we're sitting down there my wife was with me and we're sitting there and I said we're just here from Lancaster Baptist Church on California we got a little gift for the senator here and so forth and he looks the meeting goes well you know there's a lot of churches that marry men now first thing he said I didn't bring it up and my wife goes remember what Harding said member authority says huh Cara brother Harding's a liberal I'm gonna say what I'm about to say right now here I just looked at the man I said you know I said honestly I didn't really come here to discuss that but I said I'll tell you what really what what the Bible tells me is that I'm a sinner you're a sinner we're all sinners and the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse us from all of our sin and it just it diffused and and in fact we were able to have a good witness with him and two or three others that were there but we've got to learn in the face of the hostility that's where when I was growing up I think Jerry Falwell was as good at that as anybody you ever see him do an interview with Phil Donahue they'd be yelling at him and yelling at him and he'd go Oh Phil I mean I'd be going Phil and and he just had that way about him like that we've got to have grace in these moments we've got to then also stand for the truth the church is the pillar in the ground of the truth John Adams said it is the duty of the clergy to accommodate their discourses to the times to preach against such sins as are most prevalent and to recommend such virtues as our Most Wanted we had a situation last several months ago where a school district here in Palmdale said to a little child you cannot have your Bible memory cards at lunch time to give them to your friends he wasn't passing out Church tracks in the parking lot he just was these little cutouts giving him to his friends and and it it hit Fox News and I saw it and I said that's happening in our community and I told the secretaries check the database and sure enough the little boy had written our bus been saved here at Lancaster Baptist Church I don't know about you if there's a second grader in the public school talking about Jesus I'm standing with him it fried me I mean it bothered me that what happened was in fact the principal called the police the police went to his house I've talked to the deputies a Christian deputy he went through and said hey folks I had to come here they told me to come here but what you're doing is really not wrong but God bless you I came okay so but the fact that the police were called to go visit the second grade boy passing out pictures of Moses that's the culture we live in and that I I saw it on Friday I stood up on Sunday morning I never said this before I said folks we're going to be having a press conference over a Desert Rose school Tuesday 10:00 whoever wants to come come I told the story so again have a press conference never had a press conference before I didn't really know what you do for a press conference but I was going to have one I was not going to let a second-grade boy be abused in this city for loving Jesus and do nothing and [Applause] so we had the press conference and I called every elected official that I knew and I called some pastors who are not independent Baptists but they're born again in our community and I said I don't know if this fires you up but it fires me up and if you want to come and they came and we stood up there and brother Navarrete days on the right and next to him as the superintendent of schools and oh he was nervous was he not right no it's okay it's okay it's okay we we we love God you don't have to worry about this we you don't have to have this conference here summer on people there and Pastor Chapel we're going to get a committee to study this I said we've already studied it had the boys pastor the boy's parents there and we we took that stand and and they quickly reversed some things and we had some legal matters involved with it and some letters written and they they quickly affirmed that it is everyone's right at their lunch time to talk about Jesus if they want to and it was a wonderful moment and we begin and I began to talk to mr. Maldonado the superintendent and I sent him a Christmas book and invited him to church first time he came to church we had a bunch of people sitting at a table in sat next to dr. Rasmussen dr. Rasmussen didn't really know who he was and it was you they were talking about all these different things and some of the things became a little bit political well mr. Maldonado he was trained in East LA he's the first Hispanic superintendent of schools Los Angeles School District he's not a flaming Republican and so high was on one in the table looking down there boy this second we got to work on this some more and he heard the gospel in the message and and then I sent him some more more mail and brother Navarrete they contact him he came her brother Navarette preach it was several several weeks ago maybe maybe three four months ago now we went into the point restaurant with he and his wife Isabel and just asked him the question Raul if you died today do you know where you'd spend eternity very Catholic family no I don't know really for sure what could I show you from the Bible Oh that'd be wonderful and they prayed to accept Christ as Savior some of you need to stop reading the Fox News app and just getting mad and do something I mean I mean the other day when someone up and up in Michigan I think maybe from brother Jenkins Church got shouted down for praying at a congressional staffer meeting I couldn't fly to that one but some of you in Michigan should have with the gospel tracts in your pocket the love of Christ just go and stand and be the salt and be the light and be the witness in this culture that God has called us to be stand with grace number four speak against extremism in this culture let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand let's say that together ready let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand so when there is sexual sin cover-up in the Catholic Church speak against it and when it happens in the Baptist Church speak against it even if people say ho we shouldn't air our dirty laundry you either speak against it or get lumped in with it the choice is yours I wrote the road ahead a few years ago and someone called me said well and I did not name names I just said we've had some problems with immorality and our movement it hasn't always been dealt with in the proper way truth all I said well you're just telling people about all of our problems people already know about all of our problems it was on 20/20 all I was saying is it is what it is and so let's acknowledge that it's sinful and that it's wrong and let's put policies into place so that it doesn't happen and if it does happen there's a whistleblowers policy and everybody knows where we stand I'm telling you in this suspicious culture you don't want you don't want to be identified with the cover-up crowd don't don't tell them it ever happened I wonder about people like I wonder why they got upset with me don't identify with the cover-up crowd some of these men that want to talk the most about bless God we have the most standards and we have this and that and I think I saw you know that this kind of a tract or this and there's just always talking about these non-essentials I really do wonder what they're hiding why do they want to create so much smoke because our culture needs the truth of the gospel and they need to know that we stand against the sin of the culture but we've got to make sure that when there's extremism that we speak how about this an abortion clinic is bombed so I'm against abortion so am i I'm against bombing abortion clinics make it known racism I'll be honest with you brother cysts one time we were talking we this is a this is a something I work through and you may not agree with me but when I was a boy growing up I was always taught things about Martin Luther King I remember hearing Martin Luther King's name and I think even secular historians would admit he was not a perfect man and I grew up hearing that and so when when I came here and had a school we just we didn't have Martin Luther King Day I thought why do you have a holiday if what I was taught why'd he have holiday and so we didn't and a lot of our black families would take their kids out of school and go do what they wanted to do on that day but we never had a Martin Luther King holiday one day brother cysts came to me it's all right if I tell this brother since you're right here and send some already telling it [Laughter] hey brother SEZ said now pastor when I was growing up I think you said it was in Kentucky I can't remember but when I was in Kentucky they'd have a water fountain for the whites and the coloreds I saw it with my own eyes now I grew up in California I never saw stuff like that and he said it was wrong and he said now I understand about Martin Luther King but he said I understand what he represents also for people of color he represents certain things to them and he said because of what that means for them I would recommend that you have Martin Luther King Day Off at your school and all the students said amen you're never going to please everyone you'll still be called a racist honestly but do your best to make it known that you love and want to serve every member of your community speak against the extreme radical religious behavior of the past remind people regularly the Crusaders were not Baptists something Obama did not frankly know about with all of his Harvard education he never learned that the Crusaders killed the Baptist's not just the Muslims that killed the French Huguenots they killed the Waldensians Obama said and I quote when he was defending Islam can you imagine what we went through he says he says at the National Prayer Breakfast the man was brazenly brazenly speaking when he said unless we get on our high horse and think that this is unique to some other place remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ can I tell you something for him to put a guilt trip on evangelical or fundamental Christians for what happened in the Crusades is utterly historically ridiculous so from time to time I just like to bring up hey we're against what happened in the Crusades and they killed us too and it was the Roman Catholic Church go talk to El Papa it wasn't us that did that all right letter e engage the apathetic then this day of apathy we must engage the apathetic now I'm going to tell you something it's been weird in my life the last year and that is really truthfully and not dismissively learning how to work with and mentor younger staff who are Millennials that's not a joke that's just an honest statement and every generation does think a little bit differently I mean the the greatest generation the generation before me and in really honestly the way that dr. Hiles would have led in that generation right after World War two snap to I mean the man could clear his throat and people would come forward it was just a different day some of it and now you have these people that are very different in the way that they want to you know they don't want to just hear what needs to be done they want to talk about how it is going to get done and on they actually want to understand how it's going to get and we didn't we didn't always I mean honestly I can I can tell you of young men that have come through certain Bible colleges that that really didn't know always what they believe they just knew that the leader at the college believed it well why don't you watch that because brother Chapel doesn't that's not a good enough reason so don't get down on the Millennials who just really want to know where the Bible is for that and it really frustrates some of us because some of the stuff's not in the Bible just hate it when that happens oh boy I was looking at something the other day and I don't know this guy maybe I don't know him doll he's a sports commentator but he was talking about the Golden State Warriors and that the synergy that they had about the fact that they were all Millennials I want you just to see this little clip for just a second that's what they are 27 year old Millennials that's what the four best players are how old's dream on held Steph how old's clay that's a millennial that's that falls under millennia so let's go look up instead of having an opinion let's go get a story that was released in the last couple years on what Millennials look for since they're all Millennials purpose fluent in collaboration team-based projects impact / individuality of the greater good for something special in an employer isn't that interesting all great things yes but my generation was a me was not in us we wanted more credit MJ's about no Charles Barkley Reggie Miller those guys don't get the Millennials they're like how could you because that's how 27 year olds see the world [Laughter] in really what he's saying has so much with you see in in our day and some of the older than me it was just get out there and get it done and do what I'm telling you to do and that's it that's what it is and until you hire these Millennials and you go through them like the laundry and it just it's just what's going on here these guys don't want to come in they don't want to do this and want to do that and and I'm not saying that we again need to acquiesce in our theology or methodology necessarily although you can learn some methods from the Millennials certainly but the point is simply to say this not everything he said about Millennials is bad I'll just review it they want purpose they wanted they want to understand they want fluency and collaboration they they want a team-based project they want impact over individuality and what I this is one of the greatest attributes that I've been getting to see in Millennials they really don't care who gets the credit they just like being a part of it they want to sit around and discuss it and work on and take a piece of it and do this and that and and hey that that works and then they want something special they want it they want to say something special about being with you they want they want it yeah maybe it's a cool factor but they want to just say you know what I get to work with this pastor and our particular mission is this and we're engaging the culture this way and and we have these new classes or they want and by the way that's that's how fundamentalism was it was attractive that way and and young men were attracted to it hey let's let's read let's get that going again let's not be the Charles Barkley with our individuality just putting all the young ones down look at we're going to have to reach out and bring some of these in it is there's a millennial pastor my church some day and yours too they're coming up and we want to reach out to him spend time with them and so with the apathetic couple quick thoughts establish relationships with them and here's a key statement I know I'm taking time here but Jesus was declarative and relational he was not all declarative and he was not all relational he was declarative when he stood on the boat and began to preach he was relational when he would ask the questions have you caught anything tonight and we need to have that balance as we lead people then let me say secondly enter the discussion thirdly engage them in worship fourthly involve them in service letter F be engaged with social media establish your presence with websites blogs purchased ads what the guys tell me and when I talk to people are social media experts they say this develop quality content you can try tricks with the algorithm you can tell all your friends hey retweet me retweet meeting do all this kind of stuff but what you really just need to do is have quality content make sure that your your stuff looks right and that it says something and that it's spelled right all right just a thought okay number three filter all participation number four refuse worldly tactics it is absolutely carnal it is absolutely unscriptural to shame other people on the internet to argue with other people on the internet to sow discord on the Internet where do we think we get a pass because we're doing this and not talking that is ridiculous I ask you to look at 10 years of my blogs and find one negative statement about any preacher if you've got a problem with someone pick up the phone and be a man and be a godly man but be a man and then I want to say this guys listen if you would quickly be aware of all the audiences on social media now I'm gonna have to hurry here let me just say quickly I'm convinced that a lot of pastors are on social media to influence other pastors you know and I don't want to be mean because we all do it I took it selfie this morning with a bunch of guys from Korea I'll probably put it up on later so I'm not going to you know get down on people taking selfies and doing fun stuff but let me just say this we tend to look at things through certain paradigms and on I see on the social media we're talking to our preacher friends so let me just pull this out because we're talking about culture many pastors who are on social media to impress their peers are alienating their community and there will come a place in your life where you realize there's more than one group of people of people that are watching you now if your goal in life is to please your alma mater and some cranky preacher across the country then keep tweeting those flaming tweets because they're gonna retweet it and like it and oh just see that he burned the guy wonderful if your goal is actually to reach your community you might think about that so just a thought okay letter G avoid the ecclesiastical drift with respect to Laodicean avoid the ecclesiastical drift there's a great book called mission drift and I'm not going to read the entire quote here but you've got to determine those convictions I spoke about number one determine your goal is to please Christ success is a moving target leadership is a fixed goal Jesus is the goal secondly and this is important write and review your non-negotiables alright let's say that together right once a year with our Deacons once a year with our college boards we sit down and we go over our mission statement as a as a ministry as a college what are our founding principles doctrines standards are we today what we were when we began sometimes during the course of a semester there's little things that aren't just right you know hi know because pastors call me and tell me and sometimes I see it myself and we make notes and then we sit down and that meeting will say alright we got to switch this relationship or that situation or get back to this or whatever mission drift happens to every organization it has happened to every organization ever ever every Church organization but if you'll set some predetermine checkpoints you can deal with that and make sure that you're staying on track keeping the right philosophy letter number three consider the end of a thing consider the end of a thing okay this is what I tell church planners do you want to Pastor a church of spectators or do you want to Pastor a church of soldiers that's the decision you have to make early on you want you want people to come to the show on Sunday have a good time I determined that I wanted to have hundreds of people out soul-winning and you don't build a strong soul winning church with a Sunday morning only party and you need to determine do you want it a spectator church or a soldier Church I think that's very important as you consider the end of a thing where are you going with this ecclesiastical drift and then finally what do we do with pastors that are distracted letter H number one seek to serve pastors by love serve one another find some men in this room and encourage them fine look it I know you you guys would say I got ten pastors in my area one of them never comes to anything never comes to my meeting he's only with his group he's always on the internet saying things then there's this other guy they only go to their one college and if it's not them then you're nothing then there's the other College and then there's this I mean I know what we have all the same circles you know there's there's like there's 10 or 12 pastors in your area and they never come to anything all right so here's my advice to you go to them just go to their meeting or say they don't have me just go to them why in the world would you send them a letter it's like inviting the police chief you've never ministered to why is he going to come to your stupid meeting when he doesn't even know you so be a friend to him and just go and say hey how's it going you know because I'm going to tell you he has burdens to just be a friend in encouragement and then secondly seek to incur Brij him the average pastor leaves his church over a critics when the pastor leaves the problem stay when the pastor stays the problems leave number three I've alluded to this but beware of pathological antagonists beware of the pastor that your common bond is because you both know how liberal everyone else is and how right you are the servant of the Lord must not say it with me means to be quarrelsome okay just make sure that you avoid that spirit in your own heart what do we do with this culture very quickly three thoughts settle your convictions settle where you are number two study the culture and then number three seize your calling to reach this culture let's stand

Channel: Lancaster Baptist Church

Views: 2,434

Rating: 4.7714286 out of 5

Keywords: preaching, sermon, Christian, God, Jesus, Lancaster Baptist Church, Lancaster Baptist, Pastor Paul Chappell, Paul Chappell, spiritual, leadership, conference, culture

Id: ABH6J1bUAAU

Length: 106min 2sec (6362 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 14 2017