Having been in church leadership for over three decades, I am most concerned about the type of sermons some church pastors are presenting to their congregations.
Is “Thus says the LORD?” too old-fashioned or out-dated to be relevant today? Nowadays, the Biblical text seems to be changed to read, “Thus says the man.” Without a doubt, some churches would rather put the emphasis on wealth, worldly happiness, and “feel-good-about-yourself” sermons.
The things and practices of the world are brought into the church and adopted as essential parts of the sermons. Remember the old commercial, “if it’s out there, it’s in here?” ’Out there’ refers to the world, and ‘in here’ refers to the church. This would imply that there is absolutely no difference between the things of the world and spiritual things.
Several church congregations are being bamboozled by political correctness, or humanism, or secularism, or materialism.
The Scripture says: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Salvation is about God providing the only way for sinful man “to be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20); and that is only through Jesus Christ.
The fact that “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians15:2-4) is not being preached as it should be presented to this sinful, corrupt, immoral, and godless world. I can attest to this because I’ve visited houses of worship in my long years of life, so I am fully aware of what’s happening.
The plain truth is that some churches are preaching a “social gospel,” which is about “health, wealth, and prosperity.” On the other hand churches even allow their pulpits to be used by politicians as “soap boxes” to “preach” politics instead of biblical truth to their Sunday congregations.
While others seem to have a “superficial” sense of their God-given responsibility to present the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is also no secret of what is being preached on weekly televised church services via the worldwide web.
The Lord had a strong message for the church in Laodicea (in its final stage of apostasy). The Lord said: “To the Angel of the church in Laodicea write: I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (Revelation 3:15-17 NIV).
The Lord says: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 3:22 NIV).
The Bible says: “The appointed time has grown very short” (1 Corinthians7:29). This means that the time for the end of this physical world is approaching. Christians are very mindful of this reality, and therefore live with a sense of urgency to worship and serve Almighty God “who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).