Church Uses IMAGINE DRAGONS Song At Sunday Service?!

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where we bring you Christian commentary about the things that matter.

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As ever, please know this video is not a sinful attack, but rather a Biblical critique.

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In today's video, we're going to be talking about Church by the Glades in Florida. The head pastor of this church is

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David Hughes, and his church has become really a poster child for wayward, seeker -sensitive

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Christianity. They frequently make church services into song and dance routines and circus -like events as entertainment for the congregation.

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In the video clip you're about to see, Church by the Glades is putting on their own production of an Imagine Dragons song called

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Enemy. Watch this. Enemy by Imagine Dragons Enemy by Imagine Dragons Enemy by Imagine Dragons Alright, I think it's safe to say that we've all had enough of that for now.

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So this song, with the expensive equipment and flashing lights and production value, according to the description of the video itself, is meant to be used as a sermon illustration for David Hughes' recent sermon about forgiveness.

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By the way, this excellent, doctrinally sound piece of teaching was entitled, quote, Back to the

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Movies, The Batman, end quote. Yes, nothing says that your sermon should be taken seriously, quite like making it all center around a comic book character for children.

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Nothing tells the world that you are a very serious teacher of God's Word, quite like preaching about Batman.

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But the sad thing here is that this is actually becoming the norm in our society. Many people see things like this happening.

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They see churches that used to be reverent, that used to be doctrinally sound, and they're increasingly becoming instruments of entertainment for the masses.

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But many of the people who are concerned about this, they don't know why it's wrong. They don't know how to describe why this is a bad idea.

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So let me give you a short biblical argument to use against this nonsense, and we're going to use this example of the song today.

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First off, we need to ask this question. What kind of singing should happen in church?

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What kind of music is befitting of a true biblical worship service? Colossians 3 .16

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says, quote, In other words, the songs we sing, they ought to be worshipful, thankful, doctrinally sound, edifying.

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They need to be communal. They need to be community -oriented. It's not about one person skillfully performing a song for an audience.

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It's about an entire body of Christ joining communally, singing hymns and songs for the glory of the

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Savior who died for them. Psalm 147, verse 1, says, quote, Praise the Lord, for it is good to sing praises to our

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God, for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting. End quote. So we ought to praise the

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Lord through song. And now we do this together as a church body of believers. This is fitting. This is right.

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So these passages, along with many others, offer us a guideline for proper biblical song and musical praise to God.

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The purpose of singing an entire song in church is not to be a sermon illustration.

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That's ridiculous. If you need to talk about a particular popular song as an illustration, you can do what everyone else does and just read the relevant lyrics off of a sheet of paper.

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You do not need to buy expensive production equipment and get someone to sing the entire three -minute song as a mini -concert during your so -called church service to entertain people.

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That is overkill, and everyone knows why you're doing it. We're not stupid. We know that this is happening so that you can draw a bigger crowd with all of your entertainment.

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But here's an important question. How did we get from worshipful reverence to God to a laser light show with a secular song?

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How did we get from Amazing Grace to Imagine Dragons? And how on earth were people able to pull this off in the church?

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Well, I'll tell you how. They frame everything as an illustration, as evangelism, as becoming all things to all men.

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That's what they say. That's how the seeker -sensitive megachurches get away with this stuff. They say,

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I know I just preached an entire sermon on Star Wars, and you may personally disagree with that, but I was just using it as a sermon illustration.

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I know I said that Luke Skywalker was basically Jesus, but I was just making the gospel come alive for people, just like Jesus did.

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How could you possibly be against that? Are you a legalist? That's the word they like to use.

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And this is where most people stop the conversation, because we don't want to be called legalists. We don't even want to present ourselves as such.

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But we must press these people further. Yes, Jesus used illustrations, but what kind of illustrations did he use?

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And for what purpose did he use them? Specifically, did Jesus use illustrations as a method of entertainment to draw people in, or did he use them as a method of teaching the truth?

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Obviously, the second option fits the biblical narrative. The seeker -sensitive teachers are grabbing desperately for examples of Jesus's teaching, and they're ripping those examples out of context to defend their nonsensical entertainment evangelism.

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Let's see some examples, shall we? We know that Jesus uses stories to illustrate his teaching. Many are called parables.

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For instance, the Good Samaritan parable in Luke 10, the Sower parable in Matthew 13, the

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Mustard Seed parable in Mark 4, etc. There are many more. But why did

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Jesus speak in these parables? There are several times that he actually answers that question, believe it or not.

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One such time is Matthew 13, 35, in which Jesus says this, quote, "...this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet.

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I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world."

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End quote. So Jesus spoke in parables to utter the message that had been hidden from the foundation of the world.

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In other words, his parables were meant to actively preach a message. They were not meant to passively entertain the audience and draw more people to him.

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So when your local seeker -sensitive church by the glades type of church pulls a stunt like this, like this

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Imagine Dragons cover song, for instance, and they try to play it off as a sermon illustration, just know that they're not being genuine at all.

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They are not following the Bible at all. They can say that, but it's not true. The heart behind Jesus's parables was teaching, not entertainment.

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And by contrast, the heart behind seeker -sensitive megachurch productions is entertainment and not teaching.

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That's the issue here. But let's turn to another place where Jesus talks about his parables. In fact, in this passage, there can really be no doubt as to what he means.

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Take a look at this interchange in Matthew 13, 10. Quote, Then the disciples came and said to him,

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Jesus, why do you speak to them in parables? And he, Jesus, answered them, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

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For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

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This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

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End quote. Could it be any clearer? Jesus spoke to them in parables because it was not for everyone to fully understand his message yet.

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This was an act of mercy on the in one sense so that they did not revile his entire message in full.

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Yet it was also an act of judgment at the very same time because it exposed the fact that they did not understand the truth at all.

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And we know that the mysterious preaching of parables would eventually transition into the direct preaching of the clear gospel message.

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See Ephesians chapter 3. Here's a question though. Did Jesus say that he spoke in parables so that it could be used as an evangelistic tool of entertainment?

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No. He told us why he spoke using parables, and the idea of entertainment never entered into his response in any way.

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By contrast, the idea of the Church eventually preaching and proclaiming the clear gospel is directly mentioned by Jesus here, and we know that because the rest of the

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Bible shows us how the disciples did that. Of course, at the very same time, we can use stories.

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We can use parables. We can use metaphors. But they are there for the biblical purpose of teaching and edification, not for the purpose of passive worldly entertainment in the

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Church. Our goal is to preach the truth of God's word, not to entertain the masses.

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But of course, ripping Jesus' parables out of context and severing them from their true purpose is exactly what seeker -sensitive teachers have been doing from the very beginning.

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In fact, places like Church by the Glades actually take the whole practice of the Church, the whole mission of the

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Church, and sever it from its true purpose, which is to make disciples and teach them, not to make a large audience of concert -goers every

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Sunday. So if you have a Church that's doing full covers of secular songs for the purpose of entertaining people, you need to leave.

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If they dishonestly try to convince you that this behavior is a sermon illustration, then you need to leave even more so, because they're really not genuine.

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Read the word of God and go to a real Church that reverently worships the Lord and disciples its congregants with genuine respect for God and for the

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Scriptures. That kind of Church will lead you closer to Christ and will help you have strong families and strong communities that serve the

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Lord. And what a joy that is, compared to this shallow seeker -sensitive nonsense. The two can't even be compared.

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So stay away from the modern madness of the entertainment hype church movement. It's an entire system of ministry that is fundamentally bankrupt and unbiblical from the very root.

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It is a poison to genuine Christianity. We must stand against it. And please know this,

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I do not offer any of this correction from a high and mighty position. I am nothing but a wretched sinner saved by the grace of Jesus Christ.

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So let's pray for David Hughes and for Church by the Glades that they would stop this nonsense, and by God's grace that they would turn to the truth of God's Word.

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