Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!-- assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. - Ephesians 4: 17-24 (ESV)
It saddens me to have even write about things like this. The further we get into this post-modern, hipster wannabe church culture the more and more we see the selling out of Jesus. The truly sad thing is that the people selling Him out often are so confused themselves. They think they are selling out for Jesus but they fail to realize that nowhere in Scripture are we taught to compromise the Word of God or the Gospel in order to "reach people." The truth is we do not have to. The truth is when you constantly strive to look like the world, feel like the world, and behave like the world you do in fact end up as the world. There is no longer an discernible difference between the vast amount of contemporary churches and the world they are supposed to save people out of. Pastors with faux hawk haircuts, leather jackets and skinny jeans preaching about carnality as being acceptable if not desirable. For this week I present two exhibits. The first is an article detailing the latest craze"beer services!
Forget all of those pesky Bible verses about being sober minded for the devil stands waiting to devour us. Forget all of the admonitions and warnings about drunkenness. In fact - there's a three beer maximum at these events. Well, color me skeptical. Are we then going to hold altar calls for people when they are buzzed? Does anyone understand spiritual warfare at all anymore? The obvious answer is a resounding "no." Just the fact that someone would even think this is a plausible Christian activity for the church to be involved in lets us know what the state of the church is. It is like the seeker friendly pastors are playing a game of "Can You Top This Crazy?" Perry Noble decides to play Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball during worship and so Hillsong says, "Oh Yeah? We will do "I like to Move It, Move It" with a human disco ball during worship. One mega church has a sermon series entitled "Dating Naked" so another responds with "Strip for Jesus." One church does a "Sports Center" themed show live in church and another preaches life lessons from our favorite commercials. Beloved, I am making NONE of these stories up and they have all happened in the first three months of this year alone! I was listening to a hipster pastor preach the other day and during his prayer he thanked Jesus for making his wife hot! If this was not enough, I present exhibit B for this week, the Tithing Rap:
http://www.alittleleaven.com/2015/03/tithe-rapaganda.html
If anyone follows my writing they know my stance on tithing. I have written an entire book on the subject. The point here is regardless of your beliefs on tithing, what in the world is this carnal slop being fed to congregations of Christians? This is three different videos from three different churches! Talk about trying to manipulate the sheep of the Lord by using nothing but worldly methods! Beloved this nonsense will not stop until people stop church worshiping and get up and walk out when their church dares to pimp our Lord and Savior out to the world that crucified Him.
It is time to ask some tough questions of the people who stand behind our pulpits. Like are they even saved? How can any of this occur without severe conviction from the Holy Spirit? If the fruit is rotten is it not time to inspect the branch? Look at the key verses today. Paul writing to the church at Ephesus. We are no longer to walk in the way the gentiles do! Do we understand this simple exhortation anymore? The world wants to go out and dance the night away at a nightclub, we are not to imitate that in the name of Jesus! The world wants to speak about women in terms of "hotness" and measure men by the sincerity of their tattoos, we are not supposed to aspire to that! When the world wants to drape thick gold chains around the necks of their rappers and drink some brewskies with the boys - we are not supposed to emulate that! They are darkened in their understanding but what does it say when the church appears no brighter? When the same present darkness that envelops this world is also enveloping the church? When you can no longer distinguish between the two? What does it say indeed.
Their lives are alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance due to the hardness of their hearts. The church is not supposed to relate to that. It is not supposed to try and be relevant to that. It is supposed to show them a more excellent way. A way out of that. Beloved - they are callous! They have given themselves up to sensuality and are greedy to practice every kind of impurity. What in the world is the church doing pursuing that? When I see these stories my Spirit weeps over a church that clearly is just as greedy to pursue the same level of impurity and think they are OK in doing so by wrapping it up in the name of Jesus. Oh they most certainly are not!
But look at the next verse. Here is where the rubber meets the road. This is not the way you have learned Christ"or is it? Paul comes to an epiphany of sorts and it is time we come to it as well. Is it possible that the "leaders" who engage in this tripe have not actually heard about Christ? That they were not actually taught in Him. That they have never actually put off their old selves. It is a fair question, no? It seems all of this belongs to their former life if they have truly been saved yet what is former remains present. It is corrupt through deceitful desires. Do not hand me that nonsense of reaching as many for Jesus as possible when you have already sold Jesus out on the street corner for a handful of relevance.
This is a clarion call to those who would fancy themselves leaders in the church today. Do not fall for this trap of the devil. Be truly renewed in the spirit of your mind to see carnality for what it is. What you reach the lost with is what you will have to use to keep them. If it is not the Gospel then you cannot save them anyway. Put on that new self beloved. It is created after the likeness of God and not the likeness of this world. It is created in true righteousness not this meaningless banality we see in churches today. It is holiness we ought pursue - not this rubbish the world sells those who are still walking in the darkness of their own lost minds.
Rev. Anthony.
