What You Win Them With Is What You Win Them To

What you Win them With, is What you Win them To

Text: 2 Samuel 6:1-10

OPEN WITH PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING

Good morning everyone… I want to share with you something that I believe is extremely important in our day and age. In-fact; I think this might be one of the biggest things the Church needs to deal with if we hope to ever see revival and repentance, and a return to normalcy in our world. In-fact; I’m convinced that until we and I mean the Church as a whole, deal with this issue, I don’t know that we’ll ever get to the point of the kind of repentance that will bring revival to our churches and our land.

So what is this thing? What is this big issue? Well, in one word – Pragmatism!

Now people hear me say that and they kind of nervously laugh and say, “Is he serious?” Yes! Dead Serious! And I’ll tell you why… but before I get into that, let me give you a couple of definitions of pragmatism, just to make sure we’re all on the same page, and that we all understand what I’m going to be talking about today.

So what is pragmatism? It’s the philosophical idea that says “If it works, it must be true.” Or, “If it works, it must be ok to do it, or use it.” Or we might say it’s the idea that “The ends justify the means.”

So in other words, in the context of the Church, let’s say you’ve got a congregation, and this congregation is trying to get more people to attend Sunday services… so instead of looking at Scripture and finding the clear things that God says a church should be doing, instead this particular church says, “Well in the business world, this seems to work.” Or “In the corporate world, this model is very effective.” Or it might say, “Yes, this particular thing we’re going to be doing isn’t found anywhere in Scripture, but we know that if we do this, it will generate excitement in our church, so we’re going to use it and put our time and effort and even our money towards that program, or that gimmick, or toward this process, because of the success it seems to have in the world.”

So to the pragmatist – what is true – is whatever works.

Now the question we need to ask is – How is pragmatism in the Church… or is it even in the Church? And if it is, why is it so bad?

So let me just put this out there for you to pause and think about… How do you do get more people to come to your Sunday morning worship service? If you give any answer other than, by sharing the Gospel with them, leading them to the Lord, and inviting them to come gather with you to worship. You’re engaging in pragmatism. In other words, if you say, “Well, we have to have the right kind of music, and the right kind of children’s programs, and our worship service needs to be exciting, and more of an experience than discipleship. And we need to have the right kind of events, and comfortable chairs, and climate controlled buildings.” Or anything other than, sharing the Gospel and inviting people to gather to worship the Lord… you’ve engaged in pragmatism.

Now does all of that stuff draw a crowd on Sunday? Yes, it can. There are mega-churches all over that show us it can draw a crowd. And when __________ tells his people that he’s God, and that they can be God too, that also draws a crowd. Or when __________ does fake healing services, that also draws large crowds. Or when _________ - Church advertises that they are all about giving you some kind of “experience” that elicits an emotional response and glorifies your flesh… that obviously draws a crowd. But none of that is Biblical. God never says to do any of that.

And God is very clear in His Word, how we are to get people to join us on the Lord’s Day as we gather to worship. And when you push back on that, and you say, “Hold on just a second, let me look at my Bible and see if God is giving us the ok to do something like that.” Most of the time, those folks come at you and say, “How Dare You!” Kind of like evangelical Gretta Thunbergs… “Don’t you try to put God in a box. We’re reaching people. Maybe our methods aren’t in the Bible, but look at the size of our congregation!”

And here’s the problem… to the pragmatist… truth and I specifically mean the truth of God’s Word… it then becomes relative or optional. To the pragmatist, what’s true is what seems to work best for whatever they’re think they’re trying to achieve. So it doesn’t really matter to them if God never said it, or if God says, “This is the way I want you to reach people.” Because this other way seems to be more effective, and more successful.