2 Timothy
3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training
in righteousness”
Throughout
the evangelical world this verse is quoted, but rarely do they practice this
verse. It has become common for a pastor to use gimmicks in order to bring
people into the church and appeal to them to possibly make them comfortable enough
to tell them about Jesus. There are several examples of pastor’s zip lining
into the sanctuary, one turning the sanctuary into a
war zone to teach on the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4, another using his
smart phone to prophesy over a couple, and many other shenanigans to try to
bring people into their church. This is one of the tools that Satan uses to
confuse “Christians” into thinking that they are witnessing a work of God when
in reality these gimmicks are from the pits of hell. If someone is a true
preacher of the Lord Jesus Christ their mindset should be “For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ
crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,” (1 Cor.
1 22-23). When we preach the scriptures to the non-believer it is a stumbling
block to those who do not believe in the truth and as Paul says in 2 Cor. 4:3 “if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing” he tells us the reason why people
think the gospel is vial it is because their eyes have been blinded to the
truth. If a pastor preaches using gimmicks instead of focusing on the biblical
scripture and doctrines which are clearly taught they are not men or women of
God. Not only because the scriptures clearly forbid women from being preachers,
but those who seek to reach people by using a means outside of the inerrant and
infallible word of God they are wolves in sheep’s clothing. A false teaching won’t
come out admitting that they are a false teacher even “Satan disguises himself
as an angel of light.” (2 Cor. 11:14) I implore
any man who calls himself a preacher of the word of God to not be coy with the
scriptures, but rather we take the charge of the apostle Paul to Timothy in 2 Timothy
4:1-5
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of
Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke,
exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they
will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from
the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of
an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Don’t fall into the traps of the world by making
church for believers and non-believers. The church must be willing to teach the
word of God not to fill our pews with shallow CEO (Christmas, Easter only) people,
but with theology saturated Christians who desire to grow in their knowledge
and love of Jesus, seeking to live each day for his glory.
