Hard work bought this Gucci. I didn't sold everything but booty
We have a major problem with our church. I may have missed the point, but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it
In fact, we have a lot of problems with our church. Back to kick. We're going to get some emails. Here we go
Whether it's a big church. It's just a temple. Syrup all over the communion
Don't care so much over the Bible too. Or a small church
We are not doing our job as a church. When you look across the landscape and you look at churches, you see churches
that are doing any and everything oftentimes, but what they're called to do
Oftentimes, we see churches that have forgotten their first mandate, which is to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all of your being
with all of your fiber. Then in turn, secondly, to love your neighbor, to love your brethren
as you love yourself. We don't see that nowadays. What we do see is a love for self, a love for self-promotion, a love for greed and a love for
and it's shown up in the pulpit and it's shown up in the people that attend
Churches have now become so Sunday focused that they forget that there's six other days that
also are important in our lives. Days that could be used to teaching and edifying, not just the
youth, not just the children, but also the adults. Whereas the largest part of the building used to
be regarded as a sanctuary, it's now regarded as the theater. Good to see you. Are you at church? Yes, we are. Welcome to Saddleback, everybody
What has happened primarily is there has been a distortion of worship. As Moses tells Aaron
whose sons were just consumed by God, because they approached him in an unworthy and unholy fashion
he reminds them that those who will come near me, I will be treated as holy. I will be regarded as
before the people, I will be honored. We have forgotten that. We have forgotten to honor the
Lord. We have forgotten really what worship is. We treat worship as though it's a glorified talent
show, a way to put on a performance versus what it actually means to worship is to come in a bow
down sense. It doesn't even really refer to music. It refers to really the kind of tone
and the tenor of our heart as we go before him, understanding that we are fallen creatures who
have been redeemed by a truly holy God and we are not deserving. We reverence him that way
We treat him that way. Remember, the Bible says that we ought to worship him, obviously in spirit
but also in truth, in a truthful, holy fashion in the right way, the correct way. Not to say that
there is a certain way that we have to do it all the time, but it necessarily means that we have
to have sincerity of heart and sincerity of head. In other words, we need to know what we're
worshiping, why we're worshiping, and how to worship. That affects how we worship. But unfortunately
for many, worship is just a show. Along with distorting worship, we have also in our church
one of the major problems is we have distorted, and I shouldn't even say distorted, we have
forgotten what it means to have sound doctrine. One of the qualifications that Paul gives Timothy
regarding who elders should be, who pastors should be, is that they must be able to teach
According to 1 Timothy 3 verses 2 as well as 3, but they must be able to teach. Unfortunately
we don't have a lot of pastors who either aren't able to teach or seem not to have very much
interest in teaching, at least with sound doctrine. Those that are supposed to be
leading people with sound doctrine have gotten to the point to where they can't even lead themselves. They are distorting even the very nature of Christ
It's gotten to the point to where even pastors, people in the pulpit are now
disregarding the Bible. It's just a part of what we're supposed to have, but there's more
We're not limited to the Bible, but God expands. That comes by taking the limits off of him and
allowing him to expand upon scripture, bring revelation upon scripture. If the word is not important, then who determines what's important? Obviously
it's going to be the man in the pulpit, and it's going to be according to his feelings
When you hear people say things like this, then you know it's time to leave that church
There are some Christians who say things like, if it ain't in the book, it ain't real. What
are you talking about? You mean to tell me you got the audacity to think that everything God
wants you to know can only be found in the Bible? You minimize him the moment you try to put your
hands on him. That's why the idea of theology or the study of God is so asinine and sophomoric to
me. The pride to think that God would sit in your Petri dish to be observed by you
One of the reasons for having sound doctrine, as Paul is telling Titus
is that you must hold fast to these faithful words in accordance with teaching. Why
So that he will be, that is the pastor, the elder, will be able to both exhort in sound doctrine and
to refute those who contradict. There are a large number of people who have unsound doctrines
as a matter of fact, who are downright blasphemous. The pastor is supposed to want
exhort and teach sound doctrine, but also refute those who contradict sound doctrine
Rather than desiring the word as babe desire milk, pure milk, we have folks that would rather
promote a performance, would rather promote a trick, a gimmick, anything but the word
And coolers can't keep you. And gin and juice won't draw you to God. And Hennessy can't help you
Now pastors go for dramatic effect rather than actual truth of the gospel. And there are even
pastors who will say that entertainment is more important or just as important
I really do believe in something that I call spiritual entertainment. I don't believe that spirituality by itself can hold the attention of a person's heart to the
degree that they can be transformed. In order for you to hold their attention, you need a level of
entertainment. You go to churches now and it's really more of a concert or concert-like atmosphere
that we see. And in doing so, they'll also not only give a false understanding of what true
worship looks like and what sound doctrine looks like, but they'll also give the impression that
you are at a concert and you start hearing things that are ungodly
but because they have a nice beat behind it, you clap and cheer to that. We don't make it rain on booty cheeks. We don't make it rain on strippers
We only reverence one stripper, and that's the one that took off glory
And make no mistake about it. The whole point for this is that these people see
the gospel as a means of gain. As Paul tells Timothy, he says
with these people, there's a constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of
the truth who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. What they don't realize though, that
godliness actually is a means of great gain. In other words, our godliness is the gain that
we're looking for. Our godliness keeps us content. That's what we're concerned about
But just like we see from Simon the sorcerer, he himself was doing these particular tricks
these magic tricks and so forth. Why? Because he thought he was claiming himself to be great
And then when he saw the true power of the Holy Spirit, what did he want? He wanted to buy it
He wanted to buy it so they can use it. Why? Not to promote the gospel, but again, to promote himself. We've got pastors nowadays, preachers nowadays that are more concerned with
their own brand than they are with the Bible. More concerned with what they've got going on
than they do with the people that are infused. Today, I'm releasing to my church
my first new book in eight years, Do the New You. And you get it first
As Paul Washer says, if you use carnal means, you got to have carnal means to keep them
Because we have dumbed down the gospel, because we're not preaching the true gospel
and we are using carnal means to attract people. If you use carnal means to attract men, you're
going to attract carnal men. And you're going to have to keep using greater carnal means to keep
them in the church. You're going to need more gimmicks. You're going to need more tricks
You're going to need more entertainment. You're going to need more high wire acts, more trampolines
Now we sit in a place where performance has taken the place of scriptures, and that is a dangerous
present. Remember the Bible tells us, preach the word in season and out of season. That's all the
time. He says to reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. Why? Because of what
we're seeing now. The time will come when men today, just like today, will not endure sound
doctrine. But instead, they will want wanting to have their ears tickled. They will accumulate for
themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires. You'll notice that the bigger church
the more popular churches tend to be, not all, but tend to be more skewed towards entertainment
more skewed towards branding themselves, more skewed towards promoting their book, more skewed towards bringing you in and making you feel good
And lastly, one of the other problems, the major problems that we have is there is no regard for
sin. We all sin. We all have an occasion to fall. But if you tolerate sin, therein lies a problem
And there's no wonder that we tolerate sin because oftentimes we're tolerating sins with
our pastors. But what does the Bible say? The Bible says, one, do not receive an accusation
against an elder, except on the basis of two or three witnesses. And oftentimes though
we're not even willing to go that far, even if we have witnesses, if there are multiple people
coming forward and saying, these things are happening, or we might be too hesitant. But
what does the Bible say? The Bible says, those who continue in sin rebuke in the presence of all. Why
So that the rest also will be fearful of sinning, not putting him away quietly, not having some
sort of private settlement. No, but you deal with him. You confront him openly. Why? So that the
entire congregation knows that sin shall not be tolerated. We don't give a wink and a nod to sin
We will help you. We'll work with you. We will pray with you, we'll labor with you
but we don't tolerate it because we don't want to promote it. If you promote it in the pulpit
then you'll promote it in and give a pass to it in the pews
If I'm wrong, if I've done something in error, if I've messed something up
the Holy Spirit and my accountability can correct me. You making a YouTube video doesn't help me
We have a culture today of people who say, well, yeah, I've sinned, but God will forgive me
And so we'll sin again with the idea that God will forgive me. Well, that's a person whose heart is
not repentant. If everything was true, all I got to do is repent. That's a person who's not grieved
and bothered by sin. That's a person who's okay with sin and thinks that God will be okay with
their sin too. And so you give the false impression to the body that sin is okay
The climate of our church, Brad, is to reclaim culture for the cause of Christ
We can't let the devil have swag and surf. We can't let the devil have walk it out
Unfortunately today, God has become not holy, but our homie. I would explain God as the creator, a heavenly father of someone that wants to be in relationship
with you, just as somebody that's for you, as a friend. We treat him as though he is not as high and as holy as he is, but the Bible is clear
And the problem is we don't have enough Christians who do what Jude says to contend for the faith
We need people that are going to stand for the word of God, who are going to stand for holiness
who are going to stand for sound doctrine, who are going to treat God as he should be treated
as a holy God, a loving God, but also a God who does have wrath
who's a just God who comes back with his reward, whether good or bad for the people
And so the problems that we do have in churches, they are problematic, but they can all be fixed. And I would say to anyone who's listening
make sure that you are in a place to where these things aren't happening in your church
but they regard the Lord as holy. They treat his word as holy
They treat the pulpit as holy and they regard their brothers with love. Amen