Dangerous Christian Pt. 2

1 John 5:4-5 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. [5] Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

Now read... Hosea 4:6 It says, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Let me start by asking you to think about this...What is it that actually makes a Christian dangerous?

Well, number one, what makes a Christian dangerous is what they know. And number two what makes a Christian dangerous is what they have.

— For the most part in this message we are going to focus on number part one of this equation, and it is this... What do you know?

Remember Hosea 4:6 Says, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

— A dangerous Christian is an informed Christian. You might even say an intelligent Christian.

Sadly within the Pentecostal ranks it has long been believed that intelligence and spirituality were on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Although it may not have been spoken that precisely, it was commonly believed that intellectual people were unspiritual, as though spirituality was opposed to intelligence.

—It is true that some intellectual people do struggle with combining spirituality with intelligence, because they trust more in what they can see, than the spiritual realities of what they can't see. But being ignorant or uneducated is not a prerequisite for being spiritual.

Let me work this word some more... For a long time much of the church believed that being spiritual meant that everything was spontaneous, and happened without any forethought or even practice. It was as though thinking ahead disqualified you from being spiritual. That produced an attitude that really hurt the church. And here is what that attitude says... All that matters is just be moved by the Spirit, then this began to open the door to what I'll call sloppy spirituality, or lazy spirituality.

In other words... Anything I do at any time is acceptable because I'm being spiritual, and I'm being led by the spirit. It don’t need to study, I don’t need to hone my craft, I don’t need to practice, all I need is to be spiritual... and if you disagree with me, then it's because you're too carnal, and you're not being Spirit led, so you’re in the flesh, but I’m in the Spirit.

But then when those same people are asked to do something that requires some forethought and preparation or practice, you hear... I don't feel led that way.

— It's amazing how many so called spiritual people in the church that run and jump and hoop and holler, never feel led to take any responsibility for anything in the church.

I'm taking some time to dig into this because... sad to say, it was this very thing that has left the church wide open to every kind of crazy off the wall thing that was blowing through the country at the time.

I saw this very graphically in my child hood. And truthfully it allowed stuff to get into the fabric of the church, and began to dilute and pollute the purity of the gospel and the doctrines of the church. But it was permitted and embraced, as long as whoever was saying or doing it sounded and acted spiritual.

—I'm not trying to be mean, and I'm not speaking out of turn, I lived through it. I saw it for myself. I grew up in the middle of it. And I have to say, there was some good mixed in with all the extremes, but the extremes began to weaken the intelligence of the church, to the point where the church didn't think about anything, or hold people to a standard, or discern their spirits, or anything. If they shouted and danced and spoke in tongues we embraced them.

Then when a true man of God came calling the church back to the doctrines of the Bible, and discerning the true spiritual nature of things, and of people, the church branded them unspiritual, and basically ignored them.

As I said, I'm not trying to be mean, but this was the very thing that opened the church up to deception.

Then pretty soon homosexuals were playing the piano, and in the church choir. But it didn't matter, because they shouted and spoke in tongues, and they played the organ while the church shouted. Then pretty soon, there was adultery, and fornication, and wife swapping, and social drinking, and the church just absorbed it... As long as there was a shout, the church believed... they we're spiritual.

And before long we became the church that had the shout but no clout. Which means that there was still a lot of shaking going on, but there wasn't any power.