Atrocities in Modern Worship

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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October 23, 2014

00:00: We are beginning tonight in our second lesson in our series entitled, Decently and in Order, Understanding Proper Lord's Day Worship.
00:13: And the title of tonight's lesson is called Atrocities in Modern Worship.
00:20: And you will notice that I put worship in quotation marks.
00:24: That is not a typo.
00:25: That is because I believe that what happens in many modern churches is not worship.
00:31: It is worship in title only.
00:35: So we're going to see tonight some of those things.
00:40: And as I've already alluded to, the videos will be on the screen.
00:46: And the reason for this is, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
00:50: And if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a volume of words.
00:57: For it is easy for us to talk about things.
01:01: But when we're confronted visually and with our ears, the things that are really happening in churches, it causes us to sit up and take notice about the reality of what's going on in the world of Christendom.
01:18: I'd like for us to begin tonight in Leviticus chapter 10.
01:22: This is a very familiar story, especially for you all, because I've taught from this passage quite a few times over the years.
01:30: I think it speaks so powerfully to our modern context.
01:37: And if we don't consider the implications of it, I think we are we are cheating ourselves out of a very valuable.
01:51: A bit of information says in Leviticus chapter 10 and verse one, now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them.
02:17: And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.
02:26: Then Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord has said among those who are near me, I will be sanctified and before all the people I will be glorified.
02:44: And Moses held his peace.
02:50: May God add his blessing to the reading of his word.
02:53: This particular passage is only three verses long.
03:01: But we could spend weeks fleshing out the reality of what is going on here.
03:10: Jeremiah Burroughs wrote a book called Gospel Worship.
03:15: And in that book, he expresses three distinctions that are found in this story in regard to worship.
03:23: He said the first thing we notice in this story is that in worship, there is a drawing near to God.
03:32: The second thing he said is when drawing near, we need to sanctify his name in holy duties of worship.
03:43: And number three, if we do not sanctify his name, he will sanctify his name in our judgment.
03:58: And that's what we see in the story.
04:01: Nadab and Abihu, priests of God, sons of the high priest who is Aaron.
04:07: They have been commanded how to do this specific task and they've been given specific parameters for worship before God Almighty, He who is holy.
04:21: And they trifle with worship.
04:25: They offer what the ESV calls unauthorized fire.
04:29: And most of you are probably more familiar with the King James vernacular, strange fire.
04:36: And you'll notice how it is described in the text, what he had not commanded them.
04:46: They did what he had not commanded them.
04:49: And if you remember from our beginning last week, we started this series by talking about something called the regulative principle.
05:04: The regulative principle.
05:05: What is the regulative principle? That God's word regulates worship for us and that we are not allowed to simply create worship how we want it to be.
05:20: We are not allowed to simply worship as we will, but we are supposed to worship God as he has commanded us to worship him.
05:29: Thus, he regulates what we do.
05:32: We don't get to simply regulate ourselves in worship.
05:37: And Nadab and Abihu are, to me, the greatest examples of the regulative principle, because it doesn't say they were they were punished for doing something wrong.
05:48: It says they were punished for not doing it right.
05:53: They were punished because they did not do what was commanded.
05:56: They did what was not commanded.
06:00: They didn't do it right.
06:01: They did it in a trifling way.
06:06: So tonight we're going to talk about atrocities in worship.
06:12: We all know what the word atrocity means.
06:15: It means something that's a terrible thing, a bad thing, an abomination, something that is horrible.
06:21: Something that is bad.
06:26: And so our first our lesson is broken down into two questions tonight.
06:30: Number one, what constitutes a an atrocity in worship? And number two, how do atrocities find their way into worship services? So that's our two part lesson for the evening.
06:45: And I'm going to give you the answers and then we're going to see some videos that go along with these and we're going to discuss them.
06:54: And there is so much to go through tonight.
06:56: We probably won't get to discuss so much.
06:59: But if you do have questions as we go along, please feel free to raise your hand.
07:05: But under what constitutes an atrocity in worship, worship is atrocious when it is disorderly.
07:13: That is your first blank disorderly.
07:23: First Corinthians 1440.
07:26: All things are to be done decently and in order.
07:29: Remember last week I said that was the that was the text that sort of undergirds everything we're doing this week or during this series of lessons.
07:37: And you say, well, what does disorderly mean? Isn't that relative? Couldn't that be somewhat of a relative term? I mean, how we keep order and how someone keeps order might be a little different.
07:47: I remember one time talking to a woman.
07:50: And I told her that the church that she was going to was very disorderly, and I did not think that it was biblical.
07:56: I said, everyone shouts out at the same time.
07:59: Everyone talks at the same time.
08:01: They speak in tongues all at the same time.
08:04: People shout and run around and step on the backs of the pews and run around.
08:08: And there's all of these things.
08:09: Oh, yeah, I'm glad we have chairs.
08:12: No, the pews, the pews are bolted down just to give them guys a chance to run across them.
08:21: And I said, this is disorderly.
08:23: And the woman challenged me, said, no, that's how we keep order.
08:27: And my response was a very gracious, no, ma'am, you have to redefine the word if that's order because that's not order.
08:42: You can't if that's if order means chaos, then order doesn't mean order anymore.
08:48: Here's an example of a church celebrating communion and what is called the laughing revival.
09:05: Do we see any order there? We see people screaming and hollering and one guy walking around and dipping a piece of bread into a dish and feeding anyone who will come up and he's and he's rubbing them in a very awkward way.
09:47: The whole event is a is a series of disorder.
09:53: Here's another quick video.
09:57: And you know, you were going to see this if you've done any if you've done any research on this.
10:01: If you've done any research on modern worship atrocities, you've seen this video.
10:03: This is the Holy Spirit.
10:05: Hokey pokey.
11:03: Seems like an odd way to keep order, doesn't it? To be screaming healing, miracle, healing, miracle and and and walking up and putting their hands on people's head and pushing them back and yelling healing and miracle.
11:17: And you can't barely hear him because everyone's screaming and shaking themselves very powerfully back and forth and gyrating themselves all around.
11:28: I mean, this is ungodly, folks.
11:30: This is not even this is not funny.
11:32: This is miserable.
11:35: This is indecent and disorderly.
11:40: And you might well, you're being judgmental.
11:41: No, I'm not.
11:43: I really don't.
11:44: I'm Sunday.
11:45: I'm preaching Matthew seven, verse one.
11:48: Judge not lest ye be judged.
11:50: First thing you need to realize, that particular passage is the most misunderstood passage in the Bible.
11:57: It's the most misapplied passage by unbelievers.
12:02: Now, there is a realization that we need to come to the point of is we do have to be careful in how we judge.
12:08: We do have to be careful that we are not hypocritical in our judgment, because that's what Jesus is talking about, because he goes on to talk about the speck and the log being in the eye and not to be hypocrites in our judgment.
12:18: But he doesn't tell us that we're not supposed to discern in the very same chapter, nay, in the very same context.
12:24: He says, do not give dogs that which is holy and do not cast your pearls before swine.
12:31: If you can't make a judgment, then you don't know who the dogs and the hogs are.
12:36: You've got to be able to discern the false teachers from the good, the bad teachers, from the good teachers, Jesus said, a bad teacher bears bad fruit, you know, a tree by the fruit it bears.
12:47: And this is bad fruit.
12:50: It really is.
12:51: It's not this is not in any way godly.
12:55: It's disorderly.
12:56: This is a church.
12:58: Well, at least it calls itself one.
13:01: So worship is atrocious when it's disorderly.
13:03: Number two, worship is atrocious when it attempts to manipulate an experience.
13:12: John chapter four and twenty four.
13:16: Who knows? John four, twenty four.
13:19: Have it memorized.
13:23: What does it say? Hmm.
13:30: Those who worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth.
13:36: We most of us know.
13:37: I just have to be reminded.
13:38: Jesus is talking to the woman at the well and she said, we worship God over here.
13:43: You worship God over there.
13:44: And he said, there's coming a time when the people of God will worship him in spirit and in truth.
13:50: And the important part of that is the word truth, because if you seek to let me just show you this, this is important.
13:57: The word manipulate means, in essence, to create a false sense or a false idea.
14:08: If I'm manipulating you, I'm creating within you a wrong idea or I'm essentially I'm lying in some shape or form.
14:15: And that's what this is.
14:16: This is not bearing out the truth.
14:19: It's creating a lie.
14:22: One of the ways that that is done is through sensory manipulation by making you feel a certain way.
14:29: I'm going to play you a video.
14:30: This video lasts a little longer than the rest.
14:32: It lasts about a minute and a half.
14:34: Now, I'm going to ask you to indulge me by doing one thing.
14:38: Please don't get hypnotized.
14:40: I say that because that is exactly what this is.
14:44: This music that is being played during a worship service is for all intents and purposes.
14:50: I've studied hypnotism in the past.
14:51: I've looked at what hypnotists use and do.
14:55: I don't know how many of you remember, but in my younger years, I used to work as an entertainer when I was in high school.
15:02: I worked for Deland Entertainment.
15:04: I was a strolling magician.
15:05: I did card tricks, coin tricks, all kinds of stuff.
15:07: That was my that was my way to make money in high school.
15:11: Other kids delivered pizzas and I did magic tricks.
15:13: But I used to look at how hypnotists used tricks to cause responses in people.
15:22: And this is one of the way they did it, by manipulating sound.
15:54: This is worship.
15:57: I mean, this is called worship.
16:31: Listen to the rhythm, the rhythm of heaven.
18:31: Over and over and over, you chant the same words over and over and over.
18:36: You have the same rhythm over and over and over forced into your mind, into your heart.
18:41: I listened to this earlier getting ready for tonight and I was singing it and I don't like the song.
18:49: But it was forcing this pulsating rhythm because it's manipulating, it's manipulating a response.
18:58: It's hypnotism.
19:00: It's a hypnotic response.
19:03: It creates crowds of people who are willing to fall over at a push of the hand or a gust of the wind.
19:11: It produces mass hypnotic suggestion and it is manipulation.
19:22: Here's a great one.
19:23: How many of you have seen the show Preaching Alabama? It is a and I want to thank Allison for showing me this.
19:31: Preaching Alabama is a quote unquote reality show.
19:36: By the way, reality shows are not reality.
19:39: In case you don't know, reality shows are some of those unreal things in the world.
19:44: But it is supposed to be a reality show about a group, a family that moves from Florida to Alabama to start a church in the Bible Belt, because apparently that's where they need more churches.
19:53: And so they start this church that is supposed to be a come as you are.
19:57: We love everybody.
19:58: Come on in church.
19:59: But I want you to hear the pastorette, the lady, explain how important it is to have the right lighting in church.
20:09: How important is it to have the appropriate lighting in church? I want to say something.
20:15: I will be completely miserable if we have fluorescent lights on in your Sunday morning.
20:19: I think fluorescent lights are going to set us back 15 years immediately.
20:23: I understand the logic of what he's saying, that we've had this vision in our heads.
20:28: And now you guys are telling me that everything that we've been stressed and pushing and pushing for, we're not going to have the feel of it.
20:34: The feeling is important.
20:35: You need to get the better of that today.
20:37: The rest of the day.
20:38: Why are we acting like a theater whore? I am not OK with running fluorescent light.
20:43: I want people to feel an emotional warmth when they come in here.
20:47: You can't have fluorescent lights because that doesn't create the atmosphere, the emotional warmth that is necessary to produce the feeling.
20:57: And the feeling is important.
20:58: You heard the words.
21:00: We have to create an atmosphere.
21:02: We have to create an experience because it's about manipulation.
21:06: It's not about the truth.
21:08: They are not worshiping in spirit and in truth.
21:12: And it's.
21:13: I mean, right there.
21:15: All right, number three, we're moving right along.
21:20: Worship is atrocious when it is based on incorrect theology.
21:28: Baby, how incorrect theology is the heart of all of this.
21:34: When you have the wrong view of God, you have the wrong view of everything.
21:37: You cannot worship right if you don't understand who God is, if you don't understand the source from where you get the information about who God is.
21:48: Beloved, I think I had to whittle this list down, but these videos go quick.
21:53: I just want to share with you some of what's being taught in the name of Christianity, and I will quickly make little comments about them as we go.
22:01: The first one is from a man by the name of Paul Crouch, who makes the Paul Crouch recently died.
22:06: He made the argument that we are, in fact, little gods.
22:12: He doesn't even draw a distinction between himself and never, never.
22:15: You never can do that in a covenant relationship.
22:18: Do you know what else is settled in tonight? This hue and cry and controversy that has been spawned by the devil to try and bring dissension within the body of Christ, that we are gods.
22:31: I am a little god.
22:32: Yes.
22:34: Yes, I have.
22:35: I'm one with him.
22:37: I'm in covenant relation.
22:38: I am a little god.
22:40: Critic, you are anything that he is.
22:43: You are anything that he is.
22:45: You're a little god and you're everything God is.
22:49: God's not a heretic, so so.
22:53: And he is.
22:54: So but just think, by the way, I he's not the only one who teaches this.
22:59: Here is very famous female teacher Joyce Meyer teaching the same thing.
23:05: And, you know, I was listening to a set of tapes by one man and he explained it like this.
23:08: And I think this kind of gets the point across.
23:10: He said, you know, why do people have such a fit about God calling his creation, his creation, his man, not his whole creation, but his man little gods? He doesn't.
23:22: He's God.
23:22: What's he going to call it? But the God kind.
23:24: I mean, if you as a human being have a baby, you call it a human kind.
23:28: If cattle has another cattle, they call it cattle.
23:32: So I mean, what's God supposed to call us? Doesn't the Bible say we're created in his image? So because we're created in God's image, we are little gods.
23:39: That is false.
23:41: But that's what she's saying.
23:42: And because cattle give birth to cattle, God gave birth to us and thus we're God kind.
23:47: Again, totally false, because from her logic, he gave birth to cows, too.
23:53: And that in that logic, if you think, you know, when she said she said when they have humans, that's human kind.
23:58: She totally destroys her own argument.
24:01: She did.
24:01: She demonstrates a lack of inability to even comprehend herself.
24:05: But she goes on.
24:06: She also says she's not a sinner.
24:08: I am not poor.
24:10: I am then Jesus.
24:21: I'm going to tell you something, folks.
24:22: I didn't stop sinning until I finally got it through my and the religious world thinks that's heresy.
24:30: And yes, we do.
24:31: We agree.
24:32: But the Bible says that.
24:39: Oh, you must be.
24:41: Mrs.
24:41: Meyer, Ms.
24:42: Meyer, whatever you are, you must be righteous and a sinner at the same time.
24:47: Simmel, Eustace at Pecator at the same time, just and sinner.
24:51: We must be because we are not sinless.
24:55: But I just I use that example.
24:57: She she clearly I am not a sinner.
25:03: The people will call her heretic.
25:05: Yes, we will, because that is what she is.
25:07: Here is a guy by the name of Bill Shearer.
25:09: He's not as famous as Mrs.
25:11: Ms.
25:11: Meyer, whatever.
25:13: But he says essentially the same thing.
25:15: But I want you to listen to the caveat he adds to this.
25:23: We sinners, even if we give our life to God, if you ask me, I'll say, hey, are you a sinner? No, here's me.
25:40: And you know what he does? Then he he thinks he thinks of, wow, he sits up and takes notice when I put a demand on his will.
25:55: Well, moving on, huh? Yes, he has a very little God and he probably believes he's one.
26:04: Moving on, this is Benny Hinn, a great bastion of good theology.
26:09: He's no one said no one ever.
26:10: No, here is Benny Hinn talking about the fact that you are everything Jesus is, was or ever will be.
26:23: Listen, when you were born again, the word was made flesh in you and you became flesh of his flesh, born of his bone.
26:31: Don't tell me you have Jesus.
26:33: You are everything he was and everything he is and ever shall be.
27:07: Why did he keep saying I am? I am.
27:09: I am.
27:09: That is the sacred name of God.
27:11: God identified himself to Moses as I am.
27:14: But he said, I am everything Jesus is, was or ever shall be.
27:18: So I am.
27:20: Don't don't try.
27:21: If anybody tells you they think Benny Hinn is a man of God, look them straight in the eyes.
27:26: Benny Hinn is a heretic.
27:28: And it is without doubt.
27:31: Being without doubt, Benny Hinn and all these guys are heretics, but they're the more dangerous ones are the more popular ones.
27:39: Because they have thousands, sometimes millions of followers who send them exorbitant or exorbitant amount of money to make their ministries grow.
27:51: Now, this next one, and I took out a bunch of these, I don't have this for every one, but bad theology is to me the most important thing.
28:00: Because bad theology kind of undergirds everything else.
28:02: How many of you ever heard of John Shelby Spong? OK, a couple of you.
28:07: This guy isn't like Benny Hinn or Joyce Meyer in the sense that this guy hasn't got a TV show.
28:14: This guy doesn't have jets and stuff that he's flying around, at least not that I know of.
28:18: John Shelby Spong, that was one of the most dangerous voices in the Christian world today, though, because John Shelby Spong is one of the one of the most powerful voices in liberal Christianity.
28:29: And he's one of the people that is used by the liberal Protestants to put forth the false liberal theology that is continuing to permeate inside those denominations.
28:42: And just listen to him preach on the gospel.
28:50: You and I are emerging people, not fallen people.
28:55: Our problem is not that we are born in sin.
28:59: Our problem is we do not yet know how to achieve being fully human.
29:06: The function of the Christ is not to rescue the sinners, but to empower you and to call you to be more deeply and fully human than you've ever realized there was the potential within you to be.
29:23: Maybe salvation maybe needs to be conveyed in terms of enhancing your humanity rather than rescuing you from it.
29:36: And, you know, when I pulled that video, I looked at the comments.
29:40: What a great teaching of a great bishop.
29:42: What a great man.
29:43: What he has brought so much light into the dark Christian world.
29:48: Such heresy is lauded by those whose ears desire to be tickled.
29:58: One more from preaching Alabama.
29:59: I couldn't leave it out because I want you to tell me what's wrong with this one.
30:04: I think being in the Bible Belt, there's so many things working against us about this church as far as ideals go.
30:10: Our women are very involved in ministry in our church.
30:12: We don't believe that they don't have the right to teach men.
30:20: Need to hear it again.
30:20: Or did you hear that? We don't believe that women don't have the right to teach men.
30:25: First Timothy, chapter two, verse 12.
30:27: I suffer not a woman to have authority or to teach men.
30:31: And it's the text.
30:32: She literally said, I don't believe what the Bible says.
30:36: I mean, she just quoted it in the negative.
30:39: I just don't believe it.
30:41: And that's that's the problem.
30:44: Yes, sir.
30:45: You were.
30:47: OK, but that's that's the.
30:49: That's the last of the bad theology videos.
30:52: But but but just know that I'm giving you only a portion of what's out there.
30:57: Here's one I didn't have a video for, but I'm going to quote it to you.
31:00: This is from a man by the name of Stephen Furtick.
31:06: He has one of the largest churches and it's a growing church.
31:11: And yet.
31:14: This is the type of stuff that he says.
31:17: We don't teach from books of the Bible because it gets in the way of evangelism.
31:21: We don't offer different kinds of Bible studies because it gets in the way of evangelism.
31:25: We don't teach doctrine because it gets in the way of evangelism.
31:28: If you want to be fed God's word or have the Bible explained to you, then you are a fat, lazy Christian and you need to shut up and get to work or you need to leave this church.
31:37: We only do evangelism, end quote.
31:43: It's nonsense.
31:44: That whole statement is nonsense.
31:50: But that has garnered such a crowd.
31:54: It's nonsense.
31:55: It's absolute.
31:58: So worship is atrocious when it's based on incorrect theology.
32:01: Number four, letter D on your sheet.
32:05: Worship is atrocious when it replaces scriptural commands with unscriptural traditions.
32:09: I don't have any videos for this, but I do want to show you a text of the Bible.
32:13: Turn with me to Matthew 15.
32:18: I just want to show you very briefly an important text.
32:24: Matthew 15, verses eight and nine.
32:35: Jesus is talking about the Pharisees who are teaching their traditions as doctrines.
32:41: He's condemning them for holding men accountable to their traditions, which are not biblical traditions.
32:47: And he says, he quotes from Isaiah and he says, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
32:56: In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.
33:04: Beloved, that is a huge problem in the church today.
33:08: We have become a people who are who are bound by tradition and.
33:18: All people have traditions, please, please hear me say that everyone has traditions.
33:24: And in fact, the person who says I have no traditions is usually the person most bound by them.
33:28: As Dr.
33:28: White often says, you know, the person who says they don't have any is usually the most bound by them.
33:33: But the reality is we do find certain things to be so traditional, so important because it's the way we've always done it.
33:42: One of the things I was happy about on Sunday was Jack came to me before the service.
33:46: I'm going to talk about Jack.
33:47: Hope you don't mind.
33:48: Jack came to me before the service.
33:50: I know this seems like a small thing, but Jack came to me before the service.
33:53: He said, hey, we're only going to put four guys at the table today and they're going to serve a little differently.
33:57: And you may not think that's a big deal.
33:59: But I tell you what, in some churches that would have been a board meeting issue because we changed something that's been going on in this church for 50 years, essentially the same way.
34:09: We said, you know what, today we're going to do it differently.
34:11: We didn't ask anybody's opinion.
34:13: We just did it.
34:14: We didn't have a vote.
34:15: We didn't call for an executive committee meeting.
34:17: We just did it.
34:19: And I tell you, don't you know, there's churches out there that would have called the elders up on charges for such a thing.
34:26: You know, we often make the joke about churches splitting over the color of the carpet.
34:29: That's not a joke.
34:31: It's an example.
34:33: It's an illustration of things that do happen.
34:36: We get so caught up in traditions that mean nothing and doctrines which are based on our opinions and not on the word of God.
34:43: I'll leave it at that because we don't have time to get into all of it.
34:46: But you understand what I mean when I say when we base our worship, we have to have three songs and then a prayer and then one song and then this and then this.
34:52: And we have to have a special and and we have to do giving and offering this way and we have to do it this way.
34:57: Those are traditions and oftentimes are not based on anything biblical.
35:02: They're just based on how we've always done it.
35:05: And we have to be willing at least to reevaluate our traditions in accordance with God's word.
35:11: You know, it's just essential that we be willing to do that.
35:14: All right, let her eat, worship is atrocious when it glorifies sin within the church.
36:05: By the way, remember that guy, Steven Furtick, I talked about at his church to church? Well, that would be Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train being played as a worship song, words on the screen and everything.
36:20: I could play it all the way.
36:23: Former lead singer of Black Sabbath singing Crazy Train as a worship song.
36:29: And don't hate for those of you who are country music fans.
36:32: It happens on the other end, too.
36:35: Oh, that's not American Idol, that's not even a like a version of American Idol.
36:47: This is at one of the most popular churches in America on a Sunday morning during worship, glorifying alcohol and.
37:08: All those types of things in the song as part of worship, this is what we do, we come for entertainment and we glorify sin.
37:19: And that's the point of this.
37:21: Some churches have gone so far in their in what they say attempts to reach the culture that they have so dropped the veil.
37:33: That they have allowed sin to run free within the church under the guise of, quote unquote, reaching people.
37:42: A very famous pornography star was invited to come and speak from the pulpit.
37:53: Now, mind you, this is not a repentant pornography star.
37:57: This is not a man who is asked to be forgiven.
38:02: He's an acting star of filth.
38:09: And they made a poster.
38:12: Jesus loves porn stars.
38:14: And they made it part of the church's.
38:18: Worship, quote unquote, service to have this man come in and tell about his life.
38:24: I'd rather not say I'll tell you later, one church used a song from Greece, the musical.
38:33: What do you think for? Well, they were advertising their new series on dating.
38:40: So Summer Nights, which is all about the desire for fornication.
38:45: And if you listen to the song, it's right there, one church applied for a license to sell alcohol so that they could serve drinks during the service.
38:55: No, no, I'm not.
38:57: This is I couldn't make that up.
39:03: One many churches, actually, this I thought was only one church.
39:06: When I look more into it, many churches have hosted the, quote unquote, gay Jesus drama.
39:11: Now, that's way out there.
39:12: But still, it's out there.
39:16: I saw online a church that was hosting the F bomb sermon series.
39:23: Now, I think the F stands for faith, but we all know what the F bomb is intended to point to.
39:33: We have to shock people.
39:34: We have to become the Howard Stern of the Christian world.
39:39: You don't know who Howard Stern is.
39:40: That's good.
39:43: But that's the point in all of this.
39:45: It's all about it's all about being uber relevant to the point that we push God aside and we do whatever we want to do.
39:53: Do you think that any of this is strange fire? Do you think any of this would qualify? Do you think what Nadab and Abihu did would have a candle to what these people are doing? Not at all.
40:06: Not at all.
40:10: Worship is atrocious.
40:11: This is the last one.
40:12: Worship is atrocious when it lacks reverence for God.
40:15: Worship, the word worship in Greek is proskuneo, proskuneo literally means to fall down on your face.
40:25: That is what worship is.
40:26: It means to lay prostrate before God in reverence before him.
40:32: Worship means to put everything down at the foot of the cross.
40:35: It means to come and be that living sacrifice.
40:42: It's reverential.
40:45: And so much of what we have seen is not.
40:48: Now, I don't have any more videos for you, but I do want to answer the next question, which is this.
40:54: How do how do atrocities find their way into worship services? How do they find their way in? Well, letter A, the consumer age has produced a generation which demands constant entertainment.
41:16: Pastors have become.
41:19: Storytellers and storytellers and comedians rather than exegetes, by the way, if you don't know what exegete is, that's what we're supposed to be.
41:25: We're supposed to be a person who exposes the scripture or teaches the scripture, provide exegesis or an exposition of the text of the Bible.
41:37: Read something today.
41:38: What is a pastor do when he runs dry? How in the world do you run dry with sixty six books filled with? I mean, we talked about this.
41:46: You couldn't possibly.
41:47: It took John MacArthur forty three years and he did preach every verse of the New Testament, but it took him forty three years to do it.
41:57: And he started.
41:58: Well, actually, when some of the Old Testament began, he started preaching some of the same texts over again.
42:03: But you realize the idea of running dry, you couldn't possibly run dry unless you're seeking to be some type of an entertainment person.
42:16: And that's what happens is when we're trying to be comedians and entertainers, well, eventually the stories run dry.
42:22: Eventually the entertainment runs thin.
42:25: When we base our sermons on movies and pop culture instead of the scripture, those things run flat.
42:35: Letter B.
42:36: Technology has reduced the average attention span to only processing soundbites say, why do atrocities come into worship? Well, because of the way people are accepting information now.
42:50: It's changed the way many people accept information.
42:53: Texting allows us to only have to express ourselves in short 50 sentences.
42:58: Twitter only allows us to express ourselves in one hundred and forty characters.
43:03: And in keeping with this, many pastors have reduced their sermons down to nothing more than a couple of soundbites of some type of push you along to do certain things.
43:11: So they're going to give you five minute, 10 minute, 15 minute sermonettes.
43:16: And that's the result because they say, well, that's all people can handle anymore.
43:19: That's all people can take anymore because that's the way information comes to us.
43:23: And we've got to manipulate ourselves to go along with the culture.
43:30: Letter C.
43:33: The performance culture has moved worship from a time of participation to a time of observation.
43:41: The performance culture has moved worship from a time of participation to a time of observation.
43:49: Last week in our lesson, I said this.
43:51: I said worship is not about us.
43:54: And I want to correct myself in one sense.
43:57: There is one sense wherein worship is about us.
44:00: It's about us in regard to participation.
44:04: We do need to be a part of worship, participating in worship.
44:08: It's not that we should just come in, get our soda and popcorn and sit down and watch the show.
44:14: We're supposed to be there, as I mentioned, when we're not there, we're robbing the church of our voice.
44:19: We're robbing the church of our participation.
44:21: We're robbing the church of our ears for the pastor to preach to.
44:24: You're robbing the church when you're not there of all these important things.
44:29: But so many people, when they come in, they're just observers, they're watching a performance.
44:35: It's become quite common to hear this phrase, well, how did you enjoy worship today? In the same way that we would say, how did you enjoy the movie or how did you enjoy the play or how did you enjoy the concert? Because we become consumers rather than participants.
44:48: We become observers rather than participants.
44:56: Many churches have brought into the bought into the performance culture and made worship service about putting on an impressive stage show.
45:06: Facebook is and I'm on Facebook.
45:09: You know, I have a page and I do interact with a lot of you on Facebook and you all have pages.
45:13: But let me tell you, one of the things Facebook has caused in a lot of people's lives, Facebook has created for many people their own little reality show.
45:23: They want their whole life becomes about sharing with other people and telling their story through this online medium.
45:30: And it becomes, you know, this is what I ate today.
45:32: This is where I went today.
45:33: This is what I spent time with today.
45:35: And it becomes sort of like their own little Jersey Shore.
45:37: They've got their own little drama going on and you see them get mad and they rant about things.
45:41: And so what has happened is it's pushed us into even more of a culture wherein we like to watch and be watched.
45:51: So everything's about performance.
45:54: I'm either watching someone else drama or I'm producing drama myself.
45:58: So other people will watch it.
46:02: And that's what's happened in church.
46:04: It's either I want to watch someone else perform or I want to be the performer.
46:08: Do you realize how many singers on American Idol and these other singing shows, they come up on stage and they say, I think my first song on the stage is so and so bad.
46:20: This church in Arkansas or wherever, you know, they always say, where did you get your start? Mama, let me sing in church because it's all about performance.
46:34: It's all about that stage.
46:38: I don't know how many of you ever heard me say this.
46:40: And many of you have.
46:41: And I'll say it again.
46:42: It's not a stage.
46:47: A stage is a platform from where entertainment comes.
46:52: It is a place where people perform for the entertainment of others.
46:56: And that is not what that platform is for.
47:00: That platform is to raise up God's word so that it be up above everything else so that God's man can speak his word to his people.
47:11: And we call it a chancel, not a stage.
47:15: I'm adamant about that.
47:16: And I find every once in a while I'll say the word stage and I'll kick myself because I'm not right.
47:22: And language matters.
47:27: But that's the issue we've seen in the church.
47:31: The performance culture has moved everything away from participation and into observation.
47:37: Finally, letter D, the rise in religious minimalism has produced a severe lack of theological depth and reflection.
47:53: What is religious minimalism? Well, religious minimalism is just what it sounds like, minimizing everything we minimize.
48:01: And, you know, I hate this question, but people ask it and I have to answer it because as a pastor, people ask questions and you don't always like the question.
48:09: And people say there's no such thing as a stupid question.
48:11: And I don't think this is a stupid question.
48:14: I think that this question is a I think this question demonstrates a heart that really doesn't realize the issue, I think.
48:22: And the question is often this, well, what's the minimum that a person needs to know to be saved? Or what's the minimum that a person needs to believe to be saved? Or what's the minimum that a person needs to do to be saved? You know, that's often how we express it.
48:40: And I understand at least in a sense what we're trying to ask the question, because we want to know, hey, that guy who died a week ago and he'd only been to church once in his life and he was baptized, but never came back to the church.
48:53: I wonder if he stayed, you know, I wonder if that was real.
48:57: So what's the minimum, pastor? But you know what's happened with that is that's become the desire, the desire for the minimum.
49:08: I want the minimum amount of time spent at church.
49:12: Pastor needs to preach for 15 minutes.
49:14: The songs need to be minimized.
49:16: Everything needs to be cut down because my church is my stop on the way to the beach.
49:21: It doesn't need to go over an hour and the doctrine doesn't need to be any deeper than a thimble full.
49:26: Yes.
49:29: What is the minimum that a person needs to know? I generally would respond by asking them, what do you really want to know? Because typically they want to ask me about an individual.
49:42: They'll say, well, what about the person in Uganda or somewhere that doesn't hear anything, but that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior? Can that person be saved? Well, yes.
49:51: You know, but is that all we want them to know? No.
49:55: Like that guy who said evangelism is all we do, evangelism, evangelism.
49:59: He is.
50:00: What does that even mean? Jesus didn't say go out and evangelize.
50:03: He said, go out and make disciples.
50:06: Making disciples is more than just saying, hey, Jesus loves you and died for your sin.
50:10: Making disciples means making followers.
50:13: It means making students of Jesus Christ.
50:16: And you don't do that simply by sharing within the gospel one time.
50:19: But you do that by being a part of their life and ministering to them and teaching them the word of God.
50:24: We don't send missionaries over there to stay for a day.
50:26: We send missionaries overseas to stay for a lifetime, to share the gospel with many people and bring change to a culture.
50:35: So if somebody said, what's the minimum a person has to know? I want to know why they want to know.
50:40: What is there an individual you're thinking of? Are you thinking of a culture? What do we have to bring to a culture? Typically, what we have to bring to the culture is the gospel.
50:48: What is the gospel? The gospel is, number one, that man is a sinner by nature and by choice.
50:53: And that sin has separated him from the God who created him.
50:56: As the apostle Paul said on Mars Hill, God who created all things has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has appointed.
51:05: And he justified that man by raising him from the dead.
51:08: And that man is Jesus Christ.
51:10: And we will put our faith in him or we will not.
51:13: But based upon whether or not we believe on him will determine our eternal destiny.
51:17: That's the gospel.
51:17: It's simplified maybe too much at that point, but at least they understand their sin, God's holiness.
51:23: There's a day of judgment coming.
51:26: And the only one in whom there is salvation is Jesus Christ.
51:31: But there's so much more.
51:33: There's so much more that people need to understand about justification and sanctification and glorification.
51:38: That we cannot minimize it because when we do, we lose so much of the precious jewels, which are the gospel.
51:47: The gospel is not just that short, condensed statement I just gave.
51:52: The gospel is the whole story of Jesus.
51:55: Every time you come on Sunday, I'm preaching you the gospel.
52:00: We're preaching the whole counsel of God.
52:04: All right.
52:05: What are some atrocious practices you have seen in the church? We're out of time, but I'll give a chance for maybe one or two of you.
52:12: What have you seen in churches that you think are just off the rails? Yes.
52:42: Wow.
52:43: Yeah, I could see that.
52:45: Anyone else? Yeah.
52:47: Oh, can I guess? Go ahead.
53:03: Say it again.
53:26: Yeah, that particular my son now was four, four, about four years ago, three or four years ago.
53:32: So he's a littler fellow than he is now.
53:34: Where we go to this church to visit and they start singing a song in the midst of the song.
53:41: The song was Lord, we give you permission to come and change our life.
53:48: We give you permission to blah, blah, blah.
53:51: And my son looks at me, he goes, that ain't right.
53:54: You're correct.
53:56: Don't sing.
53:58: And we didn't.
53:59: I don't give God permission to do anything.
54:02: He is God and there is no other.
54:05: He is sovereign.
54:06: I don't give him permission to do anything.
54:09: And my father at the time, I guess, 10 year old is 14 now, but about 10 years old.
54:14: Looked at me and said, anyway.
54:18: All right.
54:19: Next question.
54:20: Let somebody else have something.
54:21: I want to try to end quickly.
54:24: What can we do to avoid atrocities in our worship? Anybody want to take a stab at that one? Study the scripture.
54:33: What was you going to say? First, we say, Richard, you said Sola Scriptura.
54:38: Yeah.
54:41: Keep order.
54:47: Educate your friends and family.
54:48: OK, I like that.
54:51: Are there any others? My my answer would be simple.
54:57: Apply this.
55:01: Apply the regulative principle.
55:03: The Bible tells us how God wants to be worshipped.
55:06: He wants to be worshipped in the in the singing of his saints and the prayers of the saints and the preaching of his word and the participation in the ordinances.
55:15: And that's what we're going to be looking at in the weeks to come.
55:18: Next week is going to be on preaching.
55:21: Why is preaching so vital in worship in the weeks to come? We're going to look at singing.
55:25: We're going to look at praying and we're going to look at baptism in the Lord's Supper.
55:29: And why are these vital parts of the worship service of the believer? And how does God word God's word speak to each of those elements? Let's pray.
55:45: Father, thank you.
55:47: Thank you so much for this opportunity to study your word and to examine the truths of what we ought to be doing in regard to the worship service.
55:59: We pray that in the weeks to come, our hearts and minds will be open to the truth and that you would keep us from error.
56:06: In Jesus name we pray.
56:09: Amen.