A sermon review from a local church shows the NAR purpose driven effect at all levels.

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"And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. - Matthew 6:7-13 (ESV)

The bible is replete with warnings about false teaching for a reason. We ignore them at our own peril. Sometimes we see the folksiness of a Joel Osteen and think what the big deal is if he wants to motivate people or make them feel better. I get that and understand. The point however is that the world is filled with folksiness. It has experts on motivational and feel good speaking that we can avail ourselves of. That is not what church was designed by God to be for. That's right beloved, God does indeed have a purpose but it is not your dream destiny thingy. He has a purpose for His church to be salt and light to a dying world through the preaching of His Gospel. The bible teaches us that only the Word of God can save a soul. Not high tech light shows and mystifying smoke machines. Not marketing schemes and carnal words of human wisdom. Only the Gospel. The bible also make it very plain in Matthew 7 that multitudes will stand before Christ and say "Lord Lord" because they thought they were living their life for Him only to discover that He never even knew them. These are churched people beloved. How can this be so? Because of false teaching. Because there are victims of a Joel Osteen theology. That is not meant to pick on Joel because it is true throughout this country, even in the lesser known, no media, local churches that have been polluted by various false teachings. A friend recently sent me a sermon from one such church from this past summer. It was the first part of his summer series entitled, Kingdom Come. My friend was concerned that it might represent the kingdom now theology that we see growing and while it had elements of that; it was even falser than that. So let us reason together through various quotes from this sermon to see how everyday sermons and churches are being poisoned by reasonable sounding blatant heresy.

"God gave you a drive"

"He wants you driven."

This was part of the foundation for sermon series. It is related to the notion that God has given everyone a special destiny that for some reason, we have to figure out on our own. This is the first heresy we see in this sermon and it is foundational indeed, for so many atrocities being preached in the pulpits today. This is of course the Purpose Driven heresy. You may want to sit down for this radical theology beloved but you are not that special. Sorry. None of us are except Christ and that is what is really wrong with the Rick Warren teaching. It is designed to puff us up at the expense of Christ. What is worse is it takes the normal, average Christian life and turns it into anathema. The truth is the vast majority of Christians will not have some excellent far out Christian adventure waiting for them. If they serve God however, raise their family to do so, and represented Christ in the darkness of this world, they will hear well done my good and faithful servant. God did not give us a drive. He gave us a hope.

"God created us in His image to reign, rule and have dominion."

"He created you to partner with Him - that you would have dominion on this earth."

This is heresy number two made popular by Joseph Prince as well as many others. It has elements of the little gods theology that is the end result of word faith. What it is actually closer to is NAR dominionism. My friend has wondered about Kingdom Now theology but that seems to be closer to the preterist who believes the second coming of Christ occurred already. The NAR dominionist believes Christ cannot come back until the church conquers the seven cultural mountains. Being created in the image of God does not mean we share His power, station, or glory. This is the oldest sin recorded. This is Lucifer desiring to ascend to the throne of the Most High. When Christ walked the earth He did not walk around bragging about ruling and reigning. Instead He taught about suffering and serving. Only that doesn't make for a snazzy tee-shirt. The dominion is His. The reign and rule belong to Him. He is our Lord, not our wing man. The unbridled arrogance of thinking God needs you to partner with Him!

"You're not wrong if you have a desire to be a billionaire as long as it stays Your kingdom come. Here is the problem. We try to modify it and say we're supposed to be poor - no you're not! God has made you to be victorious and more than a conqueror. He wants you to have a flourishing business. Now, your seed might carry more weight than mine based on what you had to go through. That just means I should expect you're going to get even more for it."

And we come to heresy number three - the prosperity gospel along with seed faith theology. This is the preaching of such scoundrels as Mike Murdock and Paula White. That God is just dying to bless your socks off but you gotta pay up first. This is basically a pyramid scheme where the false teacher sits at the top but pretends it is God sitting up these just waiting to throw open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing so great you will not be able to contain it. This creates a quid pro quo where God is pimped out by the false teacher to provide you with blessing for your money. Look at what this guy says! If you had to go through more for your seed, your money, then it carries more weight with God and thus He will give you even more. How disgusting.

Beloved, God may not want you to have a flourishing business. Not if it takes you away from Him. People used to ask me if I thought God wanted us poor and I always reflexively answered of course not. The more versed I became the more I realized that if that is the question on your heart than the answer is actually yes. That was the problem with the rich young ruler. It was not that he had money but that the money had him. God does not want anything placed ahead of Him. Not money, fame, power, family, politics or any other potential idol. The allusions to being victorious and more than a conqueror are verses about spiritual matters not carnal desires. We are victorious in Christ to defeat sin in our lives. We are more than conquerors not to conquer cultural mountains but to conquer our own flesh.

"Jesus never said to seek salvation. He never said to seek the cross. He never said to seek heaven. He said to seek first the kingdom of God. So what is the kingdom of God? It is a territory that ought to expand."

This is a variation of the prayer of Jabez heresy that is the part of dominionism that says we need to be expanding our territories, for the Lord of course. Wink wink nod nod. The entire ministry of Jesus and the message of the Gospel is to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. That is what salvation is all about so to pretend Jesus never said to seek salvation is a new heresy all unto itself. As for the verses regarding seeking the kingdom first, this was in relation to being worried about the things we need in this life. We are instructed to not worry about such carnal things and seek first His kingdom knowing He will take care of all things. The kingdom in this referent is in fact the gospel and the desire of God to have none fall short of salvation. So if we seek the Gospel for this world and His righteousness for our lives, we will never need to worry about the earthly needs of this life. This isn't like the game of Risk where we try to conquer territories but rather to see individual souls saved from out of those territories through the only thing with the power to do so - the Gospel.

"When God says He won't share His glory He means with an idol. He will share it with His creation."

This is treading on dangerous territory beloved. The only sharing of the glory of God we have is through the indwelt Holy Spirit. That does not mean however that we SHARE His glory. It is all still His! It means we can be a vehicle for His glory. The idea is that someone sees us or the church as a shining city on a hill. The light that makes us stand out from the darkness of this world belongs to Christ, not us. So when someone sees Christ in us they give HIM glory, not us. For this speaker and the NAR as a whole the notion is that we are somehow partners with God and we share in His power and glory and that is simply rank heresy that does not understand who we are in relation to the creator of the universe.

"We are not supposed to protect ourselves from the world - we are supposed to bring with us the presence of God and put darkness on notice that the light of God's glory is in us and we shine like stars in the heavens and sake sure we do not become more concerned about how to protect ourselves from darkness when we ought to say to the darkness lookout you are no match for the light. That's the kingdom of God."

Let us not confuse the notion of glory being the light of Christ with the definition of glory in terms of credit for responsibility. This paragraph is all about us and nothing about Him. That is what happens when you try to usurp His glory. We shine like starts in heaven? Well, aren't we special! The bible tells us we are to resist the devil and flee from temptation. The devil loves this kind of braggadocios nonsense. It is like when the seven sons of Sceva tried to cast demons out and were beaten bloody and naked because of it. This is also why we see so many pastors falling today from grace. So busy taking the fight to an enemy they underestimate and clearly do not understand. The light is His. The glory is His. Moses was denied entry into the Promised Land for striking the rock to make himself look better and these NAR preachers think nothing of stealing God's power and glory.

"Jesus did not die for a religion. He did not die to make you religious."

This is a popular heresy within the NAR movement. Religion represents a threat to them because religious people like me insist on the bible as the final arbiter of truth - not our experiences. Suddenly anyone who dares to bring up a verse to show them their error is labeled a legalist, Pharisee or someone who is too religious. They like to scream that you can't put God in a box but the box is called the bible and He placed Himself in it to protect us from the deceitfulness of our own wicked hearts. God established the word religion, so good luck trying to tear it down.

That was it for the sermon. I feel badly for the church that had to endure this series over the summer. The mish mosh of various popular heresies all rolled into one excruciating half hour. I can barely blame the pastor dude who admitted that he was a product of churchianity. Saved at seven years old I think he said. Now he is 41 and has been raised in Rick Warren's purpose driven church theology. As far as this sermon and the series, there is one last point and that is the fundamental underpinning of his preaching is simply inaccurate. His position is that God told us that He wants His kingdom to come to earth and he kept pointing back to the key verses today, which we know as Lord's Prayer. Without getting into every line, what specifically is God teaching His disciples here when He says to pray "thy kingdom come?" We know from Scripture that His kingdom will come when He returns. The preterist thinks this has happened already but that is an unbiblical position to hold. Even the NAR and this speaker do not believe that. They believe that the church is somehow going to help bring about the second coming. Technically they are right but they miss the point, which is always the Gospel. What will bring about the second coming of Christ? For the NAR teacher it is the seven mountains mandate. Biblically however it is when all people have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When we pray for His kingdom to come, it should be a rallying cry for the church to get back to the only thing that has the power to save a soul and usher in the kingdom- the Gospel. Only then can His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The key in that equation is that it takes the power to save and places it back in the hands of God where it belongs. We plant or water but God gives the increase. This sermon came from a church I had never heard of in a state I do not live in. The frightening thing to me though is it is preached every Sunday in pulpits throughout this land. It is the end result of decades of purpose driven theology and seeker friendly church growth schemes. We have pastors who actually think God wants to share His glory with us. Pastors who challenge their listeners to attack the darkness with the flashlight of their own flesh because they have yet to hear the true gospel which could impart to them the light of Jesus Christ. People may read the sermon snippets here or listen to similar sermons and bemoan what the big deal is. Read Matthew 7 and weep at the millions who stand before Christ and say, Lord Lord - didn't we go to church every week, share your glory, partner with you in attacking the darkness and....away from me they will hear - for I never knew you.

Reverend Anthony Wade - October 7, 2018

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.