I like confrontational messages that bring me face to face with sin and shortcomings and I like to be convicted of where I am in error. I am not saying it is easy.
Very often it is extremely painful but He is the potter and I am the clay. I am in His hands and He must mould me and make me. I want to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ for that is my Father’s will.
The debate rages about how hard we should be on ourselves, the church. Well, it is an eternal issue and lives hang in the balance and there is a great big boil on much of the church which needs to be lanced. Will that be painful? Yes! So be it, Lord.
I have an article in my position called, “Awake, ye drunkards and weep.” I like sermons like that. They challenge me. They do not compromise and they are not soft on sin. They should challenge you too. We need to awaken and weep before God for the church.
Read Jonah 1:1-15. In the Old Testament there are three offices; prophet, priest and king. The Prophet spoke to the people on behalf of God; the priest spoke to God on behalf of the people and the king ruled the people on behalf of God. In the New Testament Jesus fulfils all three. We, the church, have a ministry to fulfil as we are, or should be, a royal priesthood.
The church is still celebrating, having a good time, singing songs of how great we are and how we are going to take the world. Instead of celebrating the church should be weeping! Much of the church can be likened to the Titanic. Have a good time, eat all you can, drink and be merry, but the ship is sinking!
“There is a 400 foot gash in the ship’s side (wrong doctrine) and no one wants to repair it-the sea (the world) is flooding into the ship and it will sink. What are we going to do about it?” If we are all priests and can prophesy why are we not warning the people as Jonah was sent to do?
The reason for lawlessness in any nation is because the church has not preached the correct gospel. We have failed to preach conviction of sin and fear of the Lord. Much of the church is not propagating the gospel which says, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and get your life right; God is coming in judgment!”
Instead a good portion of the church is preaching: come to Jesus and have a good life. Shouldn’t we be preaching, “Come to Jesus and die; die to self so that you may be raised up to life and to a likeness of your Saviour?”
The church is preaching another Jesus, another Spirit, another gospel. The church is like Jonah! Everything of value has been cast overboard. It is asleep in the storm that rages around it as the world cries out asking what it must do to be saved. Let us contend earnestly for the faith, and preach the word in season and out of season. (2 Timothy 4:2-3)
Post published in: Faith