Positively Not a Hireling
Illustration
Right after a young man graduated, with high honors, from a prestigious Bible College he was hired by a rather large church. His father, the pastor of a small rural church, was bursting with pride at his son’s accomplishment. “Son,” he said, “I want you to have this copy of My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers. I am convinced this book of daily devotionals will become a most cherished possession, perhaps second only to the bible.” The young man graciously took the book from his father. After getting settled into the parsonage of his new church, the young preacher placed his father’s gift on the kitchen table and vowed to read it every morning. It was easy to fulfill this commitment because he found Chamber’s devotional to be spiritually inspiring. In fact, Chamber’s writings began to have a significant influence on the young man’s thinking and on his relationship with Jesus. His father gracious gift actually began to manifest itself in the young man’s preaching style.
One Sunday, after a particularly inspired sermon on ‘Jesus as Lord as well as Savior,’ one of the senior church leaders approached the young man and complemented his preaching. “You have an excellent delivery,” beamed the church leader, “but your subject matter could use a little work.” “Please explain what you mean,” questioned the young preacher. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” replied the church leader. “We are very happy with your work and you do an excellent job of preaching. It is just that you seem to be getting a little too heavy on the idea of works and not heavy enough on grace. Take today’s sermon for example. You really kind of over did it with the idea that we are obligated to build on the foundation of Christ with gold, silver and precious stone instead of wood, hay and stubble. Think about it from our perspective. How is it right for you to make us feel obligated to do something that you yourself cannot adequately explain? I mean, you really do not know for sure what Paul meant when he talked about things like gold, silver or hay. Please understand, we are not criticizing you. After all, you are a young preacher and you are still learning.” The young preacher coldly responded. “Just what is it you would like to hear me preach?” “Now don’t take offense to what I have said,” the church leader urged as he gently laid his hand on the young man’s shoulder. “Son,” he went on, “these people are used to hearing about God’s love and His grace and how God want all of us to be healthy and prosperous. Your sermons should make the people feel happy about themselves … not make them feel guilty. Look at it from a stewardship perspective … after all, you are the pastoral manager of this church. Just remember, a happy congregation is a giving congregation, and we have found that it is also a growing congregation. It is your job to keep the people happy.” The church leader smiled and gave the young preacher a reassuring pat on the shoulder. As the church leader walked away, the young preacher felt a knot tightening in his stomach … this is not what he expected.
The young preacher stumbled back toward the parsonage, devastated by the realization that the church leaders were more interested in his keeping people happy than they were in having him teach people to observe all that Jesus commanded. He had been with this church for less than a year, but in this short time he had come to know the church leaders; and, he knew he had just received a command to change his sermons. It was with great joy and enthusiasm that he had set out to make disciples by teaching his people to obey everything Jesus taught. Now, it was all gone. His whole world had just been turned upside down. His vision with its carefully planned goals and objectives was shattered. The young preacher reached the parsonage and leaned against the door frame as the whole world seemed to swirl around him like a demented carousel. Only the door frame kept him from collapsing to the ground. Then he heard a voice, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn their ears away from the truth, and they shall be turned toward fables.”
The young preacher looked around to see who had spoken to him but no one was there. Yet, someone had spoken to him; and, it had temporally cleared up his head and strengthened his knees. The young man pushed open the door to his kitchen and walked over to the table where he collapsed in a chair. He laid his head on the table and wept. “My God … oh my God,” he prayed. “Why has this happened so soon in my ministry? Why have you lifted me so high only to cast me into dark despair? At this very table I gave you my heart and soul. I promised to only preach where the bible speaks, and that I would not preach on things where the bible is silent. Now, if I keep my word to you, I will be cast from this church; and, if I am cast from this powerful church I will never preach in this denomination again. My career will be ended before it has even begun. You have lifted me on high only to cast me upon the rocks below.” The young preacher wept; the young preacher slept.
The young man finally awoke and looked out the window; light from the street lamp was being reflected off gently falling snow flakes. He had prayed, and wept, and slept at the kitchen table all afternoon. He straightened himself and pushed to his feet realizing that he truly was the shepherd of a flock who would not endure sound doctrine. He had come to grips with the realization that, unless he was willing tickle the people’s ears with sermons that made them feel good, his ministry was over.
A smile crept over his face as the thought came into his mind, ‘I can still be the master of my own destiny. I have the brains and the skills and the charisma to go places in this denomination. After all, the church leaders are correct: people do respond well to positive sermons.’ ‘Yes,’ he thought, ‘it would be possible to preach what the people want to hear. I can search through scripture and find verses that lend themselves to ‘positive’ manipulation. There is nothing wrong with taking things just a little out of biblical context; I can work with scripture to make it more relevant for today’s people. I have the skill to work with almost any scripture and give it the necessary interpretation to make it sound warm and fuzzy. After all, what I would really be doing is perfecting my service to Christ by focusing my sermons on God’s love and grace.’ The young preacher continued stared out the window, hypnotized by the light reflecting off falling snow flakes. His thoughts continued, ‘Perhaps all Paul’s teachings on working for Christ, and running a race, and fighting the good fight, and self-discipline, and enduring were for the early church. Things are different today. People in the United States are not faced with persecutions like in the early church. People today do not need sermons about fighting or enduring or struggling … they need loving and gentle positive-reinforcement sermons. Yes, and is it not possible that when James was talking about the works he was really talking about our manifesting the love and peace of Jesus? If Paul wrote that he was all things to all men then I to can be what these people need.’
“Hell no!” the young preacher shouted out loud, as he swung around looking for his tormenter. I mean hell yes I can be what these people need. The young preacher fell to his knees praying out loud, “Lord God above, have mercy on me a poor humble servant. Right here and now I pledge to you that I will not yield to the desires of man. I will strive to serve you and only you. I will align all that I do with your unaltered word. I ask no more in life than the capability for recognizing your will in my life.” The young preacher stood up. “Satan!” he boldly exclaimed, “I have drawn nigh unto God and God has drawn nigh unto me. Now, in the name of Jesus Christ I resist you. Depart from me and take your evil thoughts with you.” The young preacher caught his breath and looked about the room to see if anyone had witnessed his outburst. A gentle smile crept across his face as the peace of Jesus brought calm to his mind and soul.
The young preacher knew exactly what he had to do. He went straight into his study and began working on next Sunday’s sermon.
Sermon
Most of us are familiar with the book, The Power of Positive Thinking, by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. While we cannot deny the power of positive thinking in our daily lives, it is foolish for a mature Christian to base their Christian faith on Peale’s religio-psychiatric teachings. It is absurd to think that an earthly belief in the power of positive thinking can be unilaterally transferred to positive service in a Christian’s life. Nowhere in scripture does it teach us to practice the power of positive thinking. Scripture does teach, however, that we are to set our mind on God’s interests and not our own. According to scripture we should renew our minds so that we will think on Godly things instead of worldly things. Scripture teaches us to set our mind on heavenly thing. Scripture also teaches us we should think on whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, and whatever is of good repute. Most assuredly the New Testament is filled with spiritually positive stuff to think about. We must realize, however, that these spiritually positive God-focused thoughts are not the same as the worldly philosophy of ‘Positive Thinking.’
In no way are we minimizing the importance of positive thinking in a person’s life. Peal’s advice to talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person we meet is certainly worldly, but it is not necessarily bad advice. It is certainly is more desirable for us to take a positive approach to scripture than one of doom and gloom. The real danger in all of this, however, is when a Christian becomes so enamored with the concept of ‘positive thinking’ that they start to filter scripture to find the stuff that sounds positive to people’s ears. If we start filtering scripture to find what we want to hear it will not be long until we are warping scripture to make it compatible with some earthly feel good philosophy. Instead, we should be reminding one another that earthly philosophy originates in the mind of man and as such it is of limited value. The gospel message, on the other hand, originates in the mind of God; and, in its unaltered state the gospel message has infinite value. Think about this for a moment: the New Testament was written by those who personally walked with and were taught by Jesus; and it contains the complete, final and accurate revelation of God’s redemptive covenant with man. There is nothing more positive or more perfect or more powerful than the New Testament. That is why manipulating scripture, in an effort to make it compatible with a philosophy of man, is approaching blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. This is why it is so important for us to only speak where the bible speaks and be silent where the bible is silent. Positive thinking is something we all should practice, but our positive thinking must be circumscribed by all the spiritual truths recorded in the original text of the New Testament.
Yes, it is good and it is profitable to think positive; but, we must never let our desire for positivity ensnare us in the inventions of men’s minds. To this end, we must neither wrangle about the meaning of words nor display a morbid interest in controversial questions and speculations. When something in our conversation is nothing more than a matter of opinion it is alright to discuss it; but, we must never put any faith in the opinions of man. We must especially make it a point to never elevate an opinion to the point where it becomes a confrontational issue, which we feel must be resolved. The fact is, some scripture is difficult to understand and some scripture speaks to people in differing ways. When this happens, we will find that we are confronted with what Paul considers a debatable issue. In dealing with debatable issue we must remember that a preacher, even one with grand mental gymnastics capability, can only formulate an interpretation of debatable scripture; and, his interpretation is nothing more than an opinion. It is a very arrogant person who will take disputable scripture and turn it into a source of foolish and ignorant opinion, which produces evil suspicions, envy, strife, quarrels, and division among men. Even when the preacher is serving those who refuse to be weaned from scriptural milk, it is still wrong to mishandle scripture in an attempt to make it more palatable.
Teachings, which are filled with spiritual milk and scrambled scripture, will not mature a Christian. If anything, they will produce a Christian who is spiritually weak and highly vulnerable to the subtle influence of Satan. Think about men like Paul who carried with them an undistorted version of Jesus’ teachings. Paul did not lure people to church with praise bands, warm and fuzzy messages, prosperity preaching, church dancing, unruly shouting, weird gesticulations, or any other fabrication of man’s mind. Paul simply preached, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the unaltered and undiluted teachings of Jesus Christ. Paul fully understood the commission to go into the world and teach people to obey everything Jesus commanded … even if people did consider his teachings to be hard and strict. The early church did not grow because Paul tickled people’s ears with the power of positive thinking. And, nothing has changed today. If Paul were here right now he would be all things to all men in the power and truth of Jesus Christ. Paul would teach that, if we want to mature as Christians, we need to resist being addicted to the positivity of spiritual milk and he would condemn those who distort scripture to give it a warm and fuzzy positivity.
Even the mature will become weak and useless if they allow themselves to be fed a steady diet of weak messages and corrupted scriptural pabulum. The hidden danger in fabricated positivity is the fact that the longer we associate with immature Christians and hypocrites, who are being fed this crap, the more we ourselves become addicted to a diet of corrupted scriptural pabulum. Yes, there are churches that are growing by leaps and bounds because they are being fed a steady diet of things like praise bands, warm and fuzzy messages, prosperity preaching, church dancing, unruly shouting, weird gesticulations, or some other fabrication of man’s mind. It is also true that cattle can grow by leaps and bounds if they are fed a bunch of chemical crap. Just remember, the quality of a cow is not determined solely by the size of the cow, neither is the quality of a church fellowship determined by the size of that fellowship. The quality of cow is determined by the quality of the milk or the meat. The quality of a church is determined by the quality of its obedience to everything Jesus taught. When obedience to Jesus has been replaced by philosophical garbage, corrupted spiritual pabulum, and worldly entertainment even a mature Christian can become weak and useless.
God has not appointed preachers to entertain people or make them feel good about themselves. God gave us all the ministry of reconciliation and He has appointed us to build a church, which would make disciples, teaching them to obey everything Jesus taught. Just how far has our church gone beyond the serving of corrupted spiritual pabulum and the tickling of people’s ears? Just exactly what is your role in this churches program for making disciples and teaching people how to observe everything Jesus taught? Let us face the hard cold facts; we do not have an organized program with the Great Commission as an objective. Oh, we might have a “pack-a-pew” revival once a year but the odds are very good that there has been very little planning or preparation. We will invite in some other hireling and he will preach for a few evening and then he will go home. We might even invite a family member or a friend to the revival … they may show up … the odds are slim. Perhaps one or two of our members will have a kid go forward during the invitation, but that will be about the extent of our great yearly tradition for holding a revival … the sum total of our commitment to the great Commission.
The truth is: we have neither an organized nor an active program aimed at fulfilling the Great Commission. Yes, we do have a Sunday school program. Yes, our kids do learn the elementary teachings of scripture. Guess what? Our adults are still drinking the same spiritual milk; and, those who are not are gorging themselves on corrupted doctrine filled with positivity pabulum. On top of this, I have been told the people of this fellowship want a preacher who will entertain them and tickle their ears. They want a preacher to do all the bible stuff, and they expect him to leave them out of it. In fact, they will totally ignore the Great Commission as long as the preacher entertains them and tell them that everything is wonderful … that God owes them health, wealth and happiness. I am of the belief that too many of you people attend this church thinking you can get your ‘I went to church ticket’ punched by the Holy Spirit. Well, let me tell you right now: there ain’t no ‘get out of hell’ pass and there ain’t no ‘ticket to heaven;’ and, getting your feeling all pumped up through happy music and dancing is not a part of the Great Commission. Don’t get me wrong. Music, and singing, and dancing, and joyful fellowship is wonderful; but, happy feelings is not what church is all about. Filling the pews is not the same thing as having a strong vision for the Great Commission. And … ‘go’ does not just mean send missionaries overseas.
Conclusion
This has been a hard sermon, but then it was intended to get us out of our churchy comfort zone. If we are a born again Christian then we have been given the ministry of reconciliation. If we are a Christian then we will support and participate in the churches commission to make disciples and teach them to obey everything Jesus taught. It may seem like hard preaching to tell people to get off their lazy ass and serve the Lord; but, this is positively the whole and unaltered New Testament message. This is the message I have been preaching and this is the message I will continue to preach … even if it is not in this church.
Wake up! The church does not exist for you, you exist for the church. We exist as a church for the specific purpose of manifesting the manifold wisdom of God to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. It would seem logical; therefore, that the church’s primary functions is to fulfill the Great Commission. This is a positive mission, but it cannot be accomplished by filtering scripture to find positive sounding verses. This certainly cannot be accomplished if we distort scripture or add to scripture or take away from scripture in an effort to make it appealing to people with itching ears. A church that attempts to pacify people with promises of worldly health, wealth and happiness, or feeds the people a steady diet of warm and fuzzy messages, is not manifesting the manifold wisdom of God … it is manifesting the influence of Satan.
My preaching is not doom and gloom … it is positivity at its finest. Unaltered New Testament truths are all positive … because all scripture comes from God. This is especially true when the sermon focuses on scripture for the purpose of teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. Warm and fuzzy sermons will not mature a Christian, but sermons that rebuke, correct and train will see to it that the man of God has adequate knowledge and is fully equipped to be a true disciple for Christ. Therefore, all this scripture you do not want to listen to is the very scripture you need to be listening to. I am not talking about our living on a steady diet of just one aspect of Jesus’ teaching. I am talking about an honest holistic perspective. You will find that such a perspective reveals scripture to be a perfect balance of keeping our minds focused on heavenly things and living our earthly lives in the joy of the Lord. What could be more positive? There is absolutely no doom or gloom in the New Testament … at least not for a born again Christian.
You will find that all New Testament scripture is positive when we read it in the power of the Holy Spirit … you do not have to filter or twist or manipulate scripture to make it sound positive. Only an evil person, or a stupid person, would manipulate scripture in a vain attempt to make it support their desire to please themselves and other people. The very idea that a person would misrepresent the word of God, for the purpose of using religio-psychiatric manipulations to make people feel good, is an abomination before the Lord … certainly kin to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. While we have no desire to deny or play down the power of positive thinking in our daily lives, we do boldly proclaim that it is foolish for a Christian to base their faith on anything that originates in the mind of man: no matter how positive it sounds. In reality, there is no greater Christian positivity than our pledging to speak where the bible speaks and be silent where the bible is silent.
Ref: Matthew 16:23, Matthew 28:16-20, Romans 12:2, Romans 14, Romans 15:1, 1 Corinthians 9:19-27, Ephesians 3:8-10, Philippians 4:8, Colossians 3:1-2, 1Timothy 6:4, 2 Timothy 2:14-23, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Titus 3:9, Hebrews 6:1-3, Hebrews 5:11-14, Hebrews 12:4-11, James 2:14-26, James 4:1-10, 2 Peter 3:16
