In a vision, God takes a young person to a big church packed with people. The sermon was good, but God was outside watching what was going on in the church. It was an inspiring ,encouraging and motivating message. But God was sad. Then God opened young person’s eyes, and he saw idols in their hearts of the congregation. These idols were big and many. Each person has at least two or three idols in their heart. Lust, greed, money and pride are some of the idols. The preacher was polishing and decorating the idols in the hearts of the congregation. He was making the idols shine brighter, which increased the believers ego, pride, and self.
The preacher's sermon was making the idols big rather than breaking them. The preacher was not exposing the idols in their hearts, but rather preaching a sermon that soothed their idols.
The preacher was preaching a motivational and blessing-related sermon, pumping and hyping up the congregation with the fancy use of words. He is pumping up the audience, playing with their emotions, and making them hyped up, wild and emotional. There is no valid scriptural basis for the sermon. There was no mention of repentance or the need for repentance in his sermon. Every message should bring a revelation of Jesus and His nature, as well as the Cross, which brings a holy fear that leads to repentance. There was mention of what God can accomplish for you in terms of blessings and expansion in the sermon, but not who God is to you. The Cross and the magnificent work done on the Cross are never mentioned in the sermon. There was no mention of living a holy life or knowing the person of Jesus and His character.
There is no correction from God. He didn't preach about the damage and destruction caused by sin. People do not recognise the need for a Saviour unless they understand the profound (deep) damage and destruction caused by sin. We who were supposed to live in the Garden of Eden, seeing God and enjoying his fellowship were cast out of the garden because of sin. We who could see God physically through our eyes and endure His glory and holiness in our bodies were suddenly unable to withstand God and His Glory. With sin, it is impossible to withstand God and His Glory. Seeing and talking to God physically where our bodies can resist all of his entire glory is the rarest of rare things after the fall. The wages of sin are death.
What we lost at Adam's fall was so enormous, and regaining it via our deeds and actions is nearly impossible. So God had no choice but to send his only son Jesus to pay for the sin through the cross. The damage sin caused was that it created an infinite distance between God and humans, similar to North and South. Preachers do not want to talk about all of this – damage caused by sin and the need for Saviour.
In this generation, preachers preach what the people want rather than what God wants. If the believers want blessings, they preach sermons about blessing but they are fooling and misleading people. When preachers preach what you want or desire without preaching God's ways, that is, without exposing your sins and emphasising the need for repentance, he is polishing the idols and making them bigger in your heart. That is why believers living in sin continue to attend church every week without the need for repentance. All motivating and inspirational messages which do not include the Cross of Jesus, repentance, or the person of Jesus will cause people to live comfortably in their sin and lead to hell. All these Motivational messages do not make people repent of their sins. They do not bring a holy fear and reverence for God, causing believers to live with a holy life.
Without correction and repentance from God, all blessings are short term blessing which can add sorrow. Any sermon that does not include the cross of Jesus, repentance, and the person of Jesus, no matter how good it is, will not satisfy your spiritual hunger. Only the teaching on cross of Jesus, repentance, and person of Jesus will quench your spiritual thirst.
Some people have small idols in their hearts, while others have big ones. Idols have permeated the lives of believers. The church has become a place of idols and preachers are polishing and maintaining the idols. King Jeroboam introduced idol worship to Israelites. The idols were there in the temple at that time.
However, after 600 years, during Jeremiah's time, people had numerous idols in their hearts. God is breaking down idols in the heart of people by allowing them to go through a season of trials. A wave of trials and testing is coming upon the believers, exposing and breaking the idols in their hearts. God's wave of correction is coming upon the believers and preachers. It breaks and cleanses all idols from the hearts of believers and preachers. God is purifying his church from idols and worldliness. God is destroying the idols and rebuilding his altars in the church so that his fire can fall.
