The Lord has laid a song on my heart for the past week, It’s Greater Vision’s Just One More Soul – There are pastors out there that are just not doing their jobs.
There are pastors like Joel Osteen, who preach a feel-good message – not once, have I ever heard him do an altar call – not once! Does anyone ever get saved at Lakewood Church in Houston – or do they just go away feeling that “I’m a good person, and I’m going to heaven” – that’s what he preaches on Oprah, at least – and it’s wrong, flat-out wrong!
When’s the last time you did a salvation message, pastor, and then had people come to the altar to be saved? None of this “slip up your hand” stuff – but come up here, show yourself, and be saved.
Billy Graham had hundreds and thousands – go to the altar, and get saved. So should we, but pastors today don’t want to offend anyone, or make anyone uncomfortable. Get over it pastor!
Check out these lyrics:
The preachers are weary
The singers are tired
The church as we know it
Is losing its fire
Some are discouraged from bearing the load
But we must determine to keep pressing on
Chrous:
‘Cause if just one more soul
Were to walk down the aisle
It would be worth every struggle
It would be worth every mile
A lifetime of labor is still worth it all
If it rescues just one more soul
So preachers, keep preachin’
And singers, go sing
Laymen, keep sharing
That Jesus is King
The angels have gathered, they’re surrounding the throne
And they’ll start rejoicing for just one more soul
If you’re reading this online – listen to to it here on YouTube:
I know that some of you are tired – but some of you are just not doing your jobs.
The Lord woke me up tonight with a dream – it was a well-known hospital which treats cancer – and their philosophy. They treat one thing, they do it well, and they do it for the patient, and not for their own glory.
These doctors and nurses are the best in their fields – they do what they do not because they need to be patted on the back – they know they’re good, that’s why they’re there – no, they do it for the patient – to save just one more life from the scourge called cancer,
Well pastor – you too may be good, you might have sheepskin all over that wall in your study from the well-known seminaries – but they don’t amount to a hill of beans if you’re not saving lives from the scourge called sin.
Some churches today require that their senior pastor have a Master’s degree in Divinity. Let me ask you this – What was Jesus’ degree in?
What? I didn’t hear you… oh, He didn’t have a degree? You’re right, He didn’t need one – neither does a good pastor!
My mother had a good saying, which I’ll modify here since cussin’ ain’t a good thing. but you’ll get the gist of it:
BS, MS, PhD: Bull Stuff, More Stuff and Piled Higher and Deeper
That’s what she thought of degrees. She was a nurse, and the best nurse there was. She didn’t have a Bachelor’s in Nursing, or a Master’s, or a Doctorate, she was too busy working her way up, and raising three kids as a single mother = but she was the best darned Director of Nursing at a Philadelphia-area nursing home in the 1970’s. Unfortunately, today, she could never get that job – because of the lack of a degree.
That’s a sorry state of affairs because there are a good many qualified nurses out there who have the skills, but not the time or financial resources, to get the “sheepskin” for the wall.
Pastor – you may have gone to Liberty University, or Dallas Theological Seminary, or even a small Bible College like me, but unless you’re doing your job, your degree, or your certificate, or even your pastoral credentials don’t mean nothing – it’s just all Piled Higher and Deeper – you’re a PhD, and that’s sad.
I may not have the voice to preach anymore, my pulpit is my keyboard and this blog. I will call out sin, preach that there’s a literal heaven – and a literal hell – and that one needs the salvation that God offered through the saving blood of His Son, Yeshua – Jesus. If even just one person reads it, and comes to know Jesus because of it, then it’s worth getting up at 2:00 AM and sharing the message that the Lord laid on my heart.
My pulpit is my home, when caregivers come to help me get ready in the morning. Yes, being disabled stinks – I need help to get showered and dressed in the morning, they get me coffee (very important) and breakfast, and help me with some light chores. I like to give a word of encouragement (and I’m not the most pleasant person first thing in the morning), and to be a witness to them – to let Christ shine through me in some way. The Lord may have me in this way so that I can reach some of these people – who knows.
My pulpit is the Bible Study that we have in our home that my wife and I host in our home on Friday evenings. We’ve been studying Exodus and the initial moral laws – and how they translate into the moral laws we have today – and why we should still be following them. Yes, Jesus’ death fulfilled the sacrificial law – but we, as Christians, do not have the right to keep sinning, and thus flout the moral law.
The Ten Commandments – are moral law. You mean to tell me that these mean nothing today, because Jesus died on the cross? Yes – if we break the moral law, we can ask forgiveness – and receive it, but do we just break the moral law – because we can?
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
When we’re saved, we don’t want to sin, we want to follow the moral law. We break that cycle of sin – and we don’t want to get into that cycle of “sin, ask forgiveness, then do it all over again”. We’re a new creation, as Paul said – the old has passed away.
So pastor, where’s your pulpit?
Your pulpit is in your church, and in your community. You should be preaching – not just on Sunday mornings – but every day – on the streets, in the supermarket, wherever you may be – letting Christ shine through you.
The best seminary teacher as Paul – and his coursework can be found in his letters to Titus and Timothy, two of his star pupils.
He wrote to Timothy:
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
That time is today, pastor – and it’s not just the people in your seats that have the itchy ears – it’s pastors who preach the “feel good” sermons because they don’t want to alienate or offend. If that’s you – knock it off and repent – and get back to work!
Titus was Paul’s enforcer – whenever he had a problem church, he sent in Titus to kick a little butt. And he wasn’t nice about it either – what did Paul tell Titus?
Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. (Titus 2:15)
Declare means to tell – shout from the rooftops, the streets, wherever – that Jesus is Lord, and that people must repent of their sin – and do it with authority. You are a Pastor, a preacher of God’s Word, you have the authority – use it!
Sometimes, we need to have our butts kicked … and sometimes., we need to kick a little butt ourselves. Yes, I’m kicking some of you in the butt – and I know it hurts some of you, but some of you need it. You’ll get over it, and hopefully learn from it. That’s what discipline is for, right?
And don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t preach with authority – you have the same right to preach Jesus in the town square, as the atheist has a right to say that there is no god. In the USA, you have that right, and no liberal official, judge or activist can take that away from you – and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
The devil is using lawyers and other heathens to keep you out of the town square and off the streets … let no one disregard you!
Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. (Titus 2:7-8)
And finally pastor – regardless of the degrees on your wall, or the amount of education you received – I think it was Jack Van Impe who said it, that some of the best preachers were ones that didn’t go to college, but were trained up by good pastors in good churches – Just remember this: IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU. It’s not your “performance” on Sunday morning, or that of your worship team
No one should care if you have a band with great singers, or an organ and you leading hymns! If you’re preaching the Word of God and Truth – that’s what we need.
A little hell-fire and brimstone may be helpful too, from time to time, just to shake ’em up a little – because we all can get too complacent.
Remember that cancer hospital I spoke of at the beginning of this post? They’re all about the patient – and so are we pastor – we’re to be all about the patient – those in our churches and in our communities.
So, let’s get to work, and get that one more soul.
The #Heb10 Church 