Tag: shame

Two Different Preachers with Two Different Goals

Two different preachers came once to my country of Nigeria to preach two radically different sermons.

The first preacher gave his sermon to a large crowd that gathered for the crusade, many of whom dropped huge amounts of money on the altar. Many who were excited about the sermon removed their expensive gold bracelets, necklaces, and wristwatches and dropped them on the altar. A woman whose husband lives abroad brought the car key that her husband bought for her and gave it to the preacher.

The second preacher preached a sermon to the same people, and all the attendees fell on their knees and cried out to God for mercy. Many of them who had money in their pockets removed them and dropped it on the altar. Even criminals and robbers went back home, collected their ill-gotten money, and brought it back as an offering.

What could be responsible for these different reactions from the same people? It is important to note that both preachers preached from the same Bible, but the spirits behind the messages were not the same, and the goals of the two preachers were completely different. The first preacher wanted to unlock the wallets of his listeners while the second preacher wanted the hearts of his listeners to provoke repentance.

“For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things” (Philippians 3:18-19). The first preacher belongs to the category of pastors who focus on earthly things and teach their followers to give so that they can be healed and become rich. Their god is not the God of the Bible but their belly. They do not have a passion for soul-winning, rather they concentrate all their energy on working to get more money from their listeners.  

The second preacher sacrificially hazarded his life and worked tirelessly to bring souls to the Kingdom of God. Men like him preach Christ and Him crucified. Men like him want to ensure that sinners come to the saving knowledge of Christ. Every one of their sermons is geared towards provoking repentance. Their messages prick the hearts of the hearers for total surrender to the saving power of Christ. The more people hear the messages of this category of preachers, the more they grow in grace and knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ.

“Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:37-38). The sermon that pricks the heart is biblical and saves and spiritually transforms lives — but the sermon that unlocks the wallet is unbiblical, destructive, and feeds the flesh.

Every Christian should soberly examine the messages which he or she listens to. Do the messages unlock your wallet, or do they prick your heart? Honest answers to this question will help you guard your soul from wolves in sheep’s clothing. Sermons that do not edify, correct and rebuke you will inevitably take you far away from God.

God has given to every minister of the Gospel the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). Any contrary ideology is either from man or the devil. All preachers should be focused on preaching Christ not Mammon. We cannot serve two masters at the same time (Mathew 6:24). Remember these truths, friends.

There is no repentance in the grave.

Oscar Amaechina is the president of Afri-Mission and Evangelism Network, Abuja, Nigeria. His calling is to take the gospel to where no one has neither preached nor heard about Jesus. He is the author of the book Mystery Of The Cross Revealed.  

Source: The Christian Post

Awake Up

“Awake up righteously, and sin not; for some have no knowledge of God: I speak this to move you to shame.” 1st Corinthian 15:34 (KJV)

Paul is writing to the Corinthian believers about the Corinthian believers. The “some” are not the unbelievers on the streets of Corinth who do not know God and run to idols but Paul is addressing those in the church who were teaching the error of no resurrection of the believer’s physical body.

Amid the assembly of believers there were those who had “no knowledge of God”.  Sounds like an oxymoron, a Christian believer with no knowledge of God.  In the Greek “no knowledge” does not mean “mere ignorance” (agnoia) but “reprehensible ignorance” (Vines).  They were not just lacking facts, but they were guilty before God for their own sloth (spiritual apathy and inactivity) and slight of God.

How do we slight God? They were guilty of treating God with indifference, treating His revealed will and ways as something of truly little importance, and pursuing their spiritual growth and relationship with Him in a careless manner.

The Amplified Bible puts it this way:

“…for some of you have not the knowledge of God [ you are utterly and willfully and disgracefully ignorant, and continue to be so, lacking the sense of God’s presence and all true knowledge of Him]. I say this to your shame.”  (emphasis added)

Denying the resurrection was giving evidence of this type of ignorance in some of the people.

Are we guilty of slighting God?  Are we living our lives in a manner that displays indifference to God’s will and ways, considers them of little importance and pursuing our spiritual growth and our Kingdom of God responsibilities in a careless manner?  Are we “gathering” with the Lord Jesus or “scattering”?

Not everyone in the Corinth Church believed this error. The “you “ in the latter part of the Scripture refers to the whole body of believers in Corinth. Paul is saying that because they pride themselves on their wisdom and intelligence, the spread of this error in their midst “displayed their culpable inability to recognize the character and power of God” (Henry). For this, the whole body should be ashamed, experience grief or inward pain because they now realized that they did not measure up to what they thought they were, in God’s eyes.

And herein is the danger of our walking in pride.

 In the first half of the Scripture Paul tells them “Awake up righteously, and sin not…”.

Their pride, rooted in their perceived wisdom and intelligence, had put them in a state of spiritual stupefaction. A state where the saint experiences a profound spiritual drowsiness or stupor. They had drunk deeply of the poison, their delusional pride, by comparing themselves among themselves and measuring themselves by themselves and not measuring themselves against God’s standard. Oh, how we need to heed Paul’s admonition in 1st Corinthians 10: 12 “…let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall”.

This produced in the church a state of spiritual lethargy where they were devoid of spiritual energy and interest. They had grieved (Ephesians 4:30) and quenched (1st Thessalonians 5:19) the Holy Spirit with their pride.  He is the Giver of the desire and will “to work for His good pleasure”.  (Philippians 2:13) His ministry was stopped by the pride in their lives. Now the Church was not a place of spiritual edification but a place of danger for the saints.  God now opposed them (James 4:6)!!!

Therefore, Paul commands them “Awake up righteously and stop sinning…”. The NASB says “Become sober minded as you ought and stop sinning,”. The Amplified Bible says “Awake [from your drunken stupor and return] to sober sense and your right minds, and sin no more.”

 Matthew Henry (1700s) says:

“Rouse yourselves, break off your sins by repentance: renounce and forsake every evil way, correct whatever is amiss, and do not by sloth and stupidity, be led away into such conversation and principles that will sap your Christian hopes, and corrupt your practice.”

This is what the Holy Spirit is telling the Corinthians through the pen of Paul.

What saith we? Do we see ourselves in Paul’s rebuke of the Corinthian believers? Oh, Father God remove the blinders of pride from our understanding that keeps us in darkness.

Do we need to wake up, to rouse ourselves, to become sober minded about our spiritual state?  Have we quenched and grieved the Holy Spirit in our life?  Have we stopped the rivers of living water (John 7:38) that are supposed to flow out of our innermost being and replaced it with a muddy slough of arrogance, self-indulgence, and worldly ways from our carnal nature.

Are we slighting God?

If the rapture of the believers happened today and we, in the twinkling of an eye, went from earth to His presence, what would be in our hand, in our mind and in our heart?  Would we be ashamed of what He caught us doing, thinking about, and craving for?

 It is going to happen one day. Let us be sober minded. Get right (with God) and ready (to stand in His Presence).

Believer, the Judgement Seat of Christ is also drawing closer. Are you ready to stand before your Savior and give an account of what you have done in this earthly life? Are we ready to receive our rewards or will we suffer loss ….for eternity?

Will He have to “wake us up” for the momentous occasion?

May Paul’s words to Timothy move us to self-examination in the light of His Word:

“Pay close attention to yourself…” (1st Timothy 4:16)

With repentance, love, and concern for the Church,

Carl