Conservative Post

We live in a day and age when the church is more interested in a personal worship experience that actual worship of God. The truth is the latter is antithetical to the former.

Jesus said that the Father is looking for those to worship in Spirit and Truth ( John 4:24). This means our worship is to be guided by the Word of God and lead by the Spirit of God. Jesus also said that the job of the Holy Ghost is to point you to Christ (John 15:26). The Word of God is Christ centered and so our worship should be Christ Centered. Our worship is to be lead by the Spirit of God and so our worship should be toward that very thing that the Holy Ghost is to point us to. When we fail this we walk away from true worship John 4:24.

Therefore, we can rightly conclude that the Holy Ghost never points us to a personal worship experience. Because His job is to point us to Christ and Christ alone. Much like our prayers our worship is to be done toward the Father because of Christ and lead by the Spirit and guided by the Word. True worship is a complete focus on God and not at all on our selves. When we begin to be concerned for our own personal experience then we have lost true worship.

It is much in the same way in a marriage relationship. Men we are to love our wives unconditionally which means that we love them in a way that our actions are not dependent on how they love us. It is to love them with no expectation of anything in return. What a freedom that gives us to love! Our self preservation is nothing more than bondage and is the source of many conflicts.

Wives you are to love your husband the very same way. It is to be unconditional which again, means you love your husband with no expectation of anything in return. What freedom we can obtain for ourselves when we set aside our own agenda to love someone else. How many conflicts can be avoided and resolved when we free ourselves from this bondage of self preservation.

The end result is that when both the husband and the wife are both loving unconditionally and having no concern for themselves then the needs of both are being met and they are being met in a way that gives freedom from self preservation and the end result is that we are correctly following God’s prescription for marriage.

In the same manner when we worship God we are to do so with no concern for self or personal experience. How many conflicts can be avoided in our churches when we apply this freedom concept to each other and to God. When we free ourselves of ourselves and love our spouses, our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and our One True and Living God with this freedom concept then the church begins true worship that Glorifies God (John 17:20-26).

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1Co 2:1-5 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

In this day and age the church has come up with all kinds of gimmicks and forms of entertainment to evangelize the lost. We work to draw the lost into our churches with music, and different forms of entertainment. A couple of examples of this is the pastor who used a trapeze and another rode a motorcycle in the pulpit area. There is a prevailing attitude in churches today that says “What ever it takes” meaning everything is permissible if it attracts the lost to the church and they can hear the gospel. Such nonsense is another classic example of the ends justifies the means.

My mentor in the ministry once told me something and I believe it is true, “Whatever you win them with is what you will have to keep them with.” If you win them with music then when there is no more music they will go away. If you win them with entertainment then when there is no more entertainment they will go away. Such is the scriptural sign of a false conversion. And what is worse it is these same people that we win with entertainment are the same people we add to our membership rolls and they take part in taking care of God’s business. It should be no wonder that we have so much infighting in our churches. We have been terrible door keepers and the lost are ruling our churches all because of the “whatever it takes” mentality. To put it in other words “the end justifies the means”.

Paul was very careful to make sure that the conversions in his time and under his ministry were based on a sound presentation of the Gospel rather than the wisdom of men. For it is that very thing that interferes with the true gospel and the demonstration of the power of the Holy Ghost. Today the church does not want to wait on the Holy Ghost neither does it want to go out into the highways and bi-ways and just present the gospel filled with the Holy Ghost and without the wisdom of men. Today’s church says the gospel and the Holy Ghost are not enough so we must add entertainment and methodologies so as to be more effective. Today’s church says we do not want to go out and win the lost so they work up devices to draw them to the church. Today’s church completely ignores “Go ye into all the world” and instead has replaced it with “Come ye into our show”.

The church needs to spend less time entertaining the goats and spend more time in prayer, fasting and the word filled with the Holy Ghost and walking in the light of Christ. The church today accomplishes much without God all in the name of “whatever it takes”. The church should take heed to the wise words of Erwin Lutzer who said “Not only do we need to be doing God’s work, but we need to do it God’s way and for His glory”.

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There has over the years always been a focus on the blessings God gives man. Man often has needs and God is always the source for those provisions. But it seems we have forgotten the higher purpose in those provisions. Early on God began with promises of blessings even to Abraham

“Gen 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

But what is the purpose behind God’s blessing of man? Is it that we may be satisfied, rewarded and or pleased with God? Does God give us blessings simply because he loves us and wants us to have something that pleases us? Or is there a larger purpose? King David as a youth understood what our talent and blessings were for. When all of the army of Israel was afraid to face Goliath young David was not for he understood where his provision, his ability to fight Goliath, his blessing came from

“The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

So David walks out in front of this battle hardened 6’9″ soldier, with all the weapons of war available to his immediate demand, with nothing but his young self, five smooth stones and God.

“You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.” 1Sa 17:45-47

David may have had a unique talent that God had given him to defend his flock and now to wage battle against Goliath, but he knew where it came from and that it was not about him. The blessing David received from God was not about him. It was about God and God alone. David declared

“that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

David almost always did the right thing, with the right motive for he had the heart of God. Sadly today many want to collect and awful lot of blessings from God for themselves. They want to get them, hold on to them, and hoard them. They want to live the right way, do the right things so that Gd will bless them. They want provision, talent, they want a job, a much needed car, they want a house and some clothes and so many times they want healing. They spend so much time wanting and looking to receive these things because they are blessings from God that we all forget what the ultimate purpose in those blessings are. God does not bless man simply to bless man. God blesses man for His glory.

Any talk about the blessings of God devoid of His glory is purely self serving and ungodly.We are not here to serve ourselves or to be served, we are here to lift up God in all things. The salvation of man is not simply for the salvation of man. But it is for the purpose of God’s ultimate glory. When we stand before the Beama seat to receive our reward’s scripture is clear we will be throwing them back at the feet of Jesus. Will you receive a crown? Will you receive a robe? Will you receive gold and silver? Whatever it is you will use it to glorify God by throwing it at His feet and praising His name.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians that we were bought with the blood of Christ and because of that our bodies are His and we are to use them to glorify God (1 Cor 6:20). Paul also wrote in Romans that Christ has received us for His own glory ( Romans 15:7). And that God may be glorified in the hearts of gentiles. When Jesus spoke with Peter prior to His final ascension Jesus told Peter what kind of death he would suffer for the purpose of glorifying God. Paul told the Thessalonians that we are to walk worthy of God who called us both to His Kingdom and His Glory(1 Thess 2:12).

Whether we are the recipients of blessing or suffering it is our purpose to glorify God. We may receive needed healing or we may suffer greatly some physical pain but it is for the purpose of God’s glory. We may receive a needed job right in the nick of time or we may do without but it is for the glory of God. Are you willing to receive both good and bad for the glory of God? We would do well to remember the words of Job

Job 2:10 ……… What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Our lives are not to be about receiving blessings from God. Why do you want to be healed? So that you would no longer suffer? Why do you want a job? So that you have provisions? There is no doubt that we all have those desires but our main purpose and motivation for any of these things is to be that God gets the glory. When we become more concerned for the glory of God than we are our needs, wants, and desires we will only then be truly free in Christ.

Christ was born into this world among the lowliest of conditions. He was born in the feeding trough of goats and sheep, outside for there was no room for Him and His parents at the Inn. He grew up learning manual labor as a carpenter and lived an obscure life. It was only until he became of age that He began to be known and even then He was as reviled as He was accepted. He went to the cross on His own power and strength and suffered torture that has not been seen in decades. Christ went to the cross so that God may be glorified in the hearts of men and so that our salvation may be secured and we will stand before the throne of God singing “Holy, Holy, Holy…. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

Do you get that? For His pleasure we were created. Not that we may receive blessings or salvation but for His own pleasure and his own purposes. Those things are just the means to the end and the end is always the glory of God.Looking for improvement in your life should never be the goal. Only that what ever we receive from God good or bad it is to be for His glory and His glory alone.

God Bless

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