F4F | How to Biblically Critique a Sermon Part 1

Fighting for the Faith

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

F4F | How to Biblically Critique a Sermon Part 2

00:15

Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ, and this is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the

00:26

Word of God. Now, real quick, what we're gonna do today, and in fact before we even get started, go ahead and like the video, don't forget to subscribe and ring the bell.

00:34

We got all the YouTube things taken care of now. What we're gonna do today, we're gonna do a little bit of deconstructing lab work, and here's the idea.

00:44

I receive a lot of emails, a lot of emails or messages from people requesting that I review specific pastors or specific sermons.

00:55

Now, in the archives of the podcast of Fighting for the Faith, you know, three, four times a week we would review bad sermons as part of the second hour of the program.

01:08

It's been a while since I've done full -on sermon reviews. So what I thought I would do, if now, there's kind of two things you can do.

01:15

You can go back into the archives of Fighting for the Faith, listen to those old episodes when I do the bad sermon reviews, so you can kind of, you know, you can see how things deconstruct.

01:25

But what I thought I would do on this installment of Fighting for the Faith is give you some of the basic things

01:32

I'm looking for in evaluating a sermon. And the idea here is it's not about the standards that I'm putting forward, because always and again, the question is, how do we think biblically about the sermons in the churches that we are attending?

01:51

And so as a result of that, what I thought I would do is just give you some basic ideas so that you can take these things and apply them to sermons that you are hearing.

02:02

And the one thing that the COVID -19 pandemic has created is the ability for you to listen to a sermon in isolation from the dark room, the smoke machines, the lights, and things like that, because I would note that one of the things that has been occurring for the better part of a decade, more than a decade now, is the environments inside of churches have completely changed.

02:30

You've gone from having actual churches to having experience rooms, or whatever that is, and you'll note that what is happening is that you show up with the assumption that I can tell whether or not this was a good service or a bad service, whether this is a good sermon or a bad sermon, and you intuitively are using the criteria that you use to judge whether or not a movie was a good movie or a bad movie, or a television show or a

03:02

Netflix series was good or bad. The problem is you're using the standards of entertainment to determine whether or not what's happening in a particular church is good or bad, if it's biblical or not biblical.

03:15

But the standards of Scripture are actually very different in evaluating whether or not you're in a good church or a bad church, and it's important to keep those standards in mind.

03:26

So what I thought I would do today, in fact, let me whirl this up, and we're gonna head over to Amplify Church.

03:34

They have...this is a multi -site megachurch, you know, following the seeker -driven, purpose -driven model for church, or attractional model, and which, by the way, is not a valid biblical model at all.

03:46

But we're gonna listen to a fellow by the name of John Lloyd. I've never reviewed a sermon by John Lloyd, at least

03:52

I don't think I have. This is a fellow that is not well -known, and as a result of that, this is gonna help us.

04:01

The reason why is because when I review somebody who's super popular or well -known, what happens is that people are really entrenched emotionally as to whether or not that person, they think that person is a good teacher or a bad teacher.

04:17

Case in point, we've received a lot of pushback on the

04:22

Francis Chan video, the one we did before this one, from people who are incensed that I would, you know, say that Francis Chan was saying something that wasn't true or biblical.

04:34

And so oftentimes when somebody has, you know, you've thought the person was solid or sound, and then, you know, a guy like me comes along, and you know, by the way, watching

04:45

Fighting for the Faith, or even listening to the podcast, is kind of the theological equivalent to the Ice Bucket Challenge.

04:52

The reason, in part, why is because when somebody has shown themselves to be a false teacher, or a twister of God's Word, or a liar, or a, you know, you get the idea here, then

05:08

I don't, in my inflection and even in some of the sarcastic statements that I made,

05:14

I make it very clear that I don't think they're rightly handling God's Word, and that they're teaching false doctrine.

05:20

I treat them as dangerous, and it shows up in my tone. And so as a result of it,

05:27

I, you know, like, you know, when Francis Chan made his comment, you know, that was for the purpose of establishing his credentials.

05:34

He went on a four -day camping trip with Jesus. You know, when somebody has to, you know, basically say,

05:42

I'm telling you the truth because I hadn't experienced with Jesus, then you already know you're dealing in the category of a false teacher.

05:50

The reason why is because we have a biblical text, we have a

05:56

Bible, we have a Word from God to work with, and whether or not somebody is a good teacher or a bad teacher, a false teacher or not, is going to be judged by how well they give the correct sense of what the

06:10

Bible is teaching. So I kind of, you know, my attitude is this.

06:16

You don't need to give me the benefit of the doubt. I don't care if I make you laugh. At the end of the day, the question is going to be, have

06:23

I rightly given you a proper understanding of what the Bible teaches? That's the question that should be on the table.

06:31

So you don't have to watch with an open mind, you need to watch with an open Bible. And I help along the lines, because I always will give you the biblical text, you can read along with me when

06:41

I reference the original languages, you can see them for yourself, and even if you're not sure how to use, you know, like Hebrew tools or Greek tools, if you do a little bit of research, you can fact -check me, and that's kind of the point.

06:55

So you don't need to listen with an open mind, open Bible. And if I'm straying from what the biblical text says, then the argument needs to be,

07:05

Roseboro, you missed this text, this text says this thing, what about that? See, that's a biblical argument, we can have a conversation.

07:13

But oftentimes, the feedback is, I believe Francis Chan is a man of God, and you're a meanie poopy head because you questioned whether or not he had that encounter with Jesus.

07:26

Of course I did, because ultimately it comes down to not whether or not the Bible is a prop, but whether or not we're opening it up biblically.

07:34

So you kind of get the idea, and I'll back this up so that you can see this. So you know, we're gonna go to Amplified Church, Pittsburgh area, multi -site, seeker -driven model, they have a vision casting leader,

07:45

John Lloyd looks like one of the fellows that is up and coming through the ranks, and during the summertime at seeker -driven churches, you'll oftentimes get guys who are on the

07:56

B team who will have an opportunity to take a crack at the stage there. And yeah, it's not a pulpit, it's a stage, and you'll see that.

08:05

But let's take a look at a biblical standard, shall we? And you'll get the idea.

08:11

So of all places to go to, we're gonna start in the Old Testament, Nehemiah chapter 8.

08:18

The people of Israel have come back from captivity in Babylon, and they've re -established the worship, they've got the temple back up and running, and there's an account here in Nehemiah chapter 8 that is going to help us, because this kind of lays the foundations for pastors and preachers and teachers today, you'll see that.

08:42

So Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 1, and you'll note that always and again, three rules for sound biblical exegesis are context, context, and context.

08:51

That applies to me, like doubly so, by the way. So all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate.

08:59

So this is in Jerusalem. They told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Torah, the law of Moses, that Yahweh had commanded

09:07

Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law, the Torah, before the assembly, both men and women, all who can understand what they heard.

09:16

And on the first day of the seventh month, he read from it, facing the square before the water gate, from early morning until midday.

09:24

So here you have the people of Israel in Jerusalem gathered for the purpose of hearing the

09:29

Word of God. And by the context, it looks like they're going to hear the first five books of the

09:35

Bible read out from morning until noonday. That gives you an idea of what's going on here. So in the presence of the men and the women and those who can understand, in the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.

09:46

And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose, and beside him stood, and this is the

09:55

Hebrew language, you know, word challenge here, Matithiah, Shema, Ananiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maasaiah, and on his right hand,

10:07

Petadiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, and this is a mouthful,

10:15

Hashabah, Danah, Zechariah, and Meshulam on his left hand.

10:21

And you'll note that when you're reading a biblical text and there's names like this that appear, this just screams at you that this is historical narrative.

10:29

This is not legend, this is not myth, no myth or legend reads like this.

10:34

So these little details, they're never throwaway details, and in fact when you read them in your

10:40

Bible as you're learning how to read God's Word and you're in the Word of God, and you get to these texts and you see things like this, it's often easy for us to just go, oh,

10:49

I just want to skip over that. I get it, I really do. But understand, this is just a little note to you from God, this really took place in human history.

11:00

So yeah, that's the idea. So Ezra then opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and he opened it, he opened it, all the people stood.

11:11

So if you've ever been in a church that still follows the historic liturgy, and this is the the order of service that the church has followed for millennia, you can trace these elements all the way back, all the way back into the ancient church.

11:28

So if you've ever been in a church where when the gospel is read, everybody stands up. You go, oh, wait a second here, so he went to read and everybody stood up.

11:39

Yeah, that's where the idea comes from. So Ezra blessed Yahweh, the great

11:44

God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, and lifting up their hands, and they bowed their heads and they worshipped

11:52

Yahweh with their faces to the ground. So also, Yeshua, Bani, Sherabiah, Jamin, Akub, Shabbathai, Hodiah, these are tough words,

12:06

Maasai, Kelita, Azariah, Jezebed, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the

12:15

Levites helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places.

12:20

They read from the book of the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so the people understood the reading.

12:29

And so you can see here, then, that the gist of what a pastor does today is he's to preach the

12:38

Word, and I'll show you that from the biblical text. And there's a real...the

12:43

real effort, then, of a pastor is to help the people in the congregation. The Church has gathered together to hear the

12:52

Word of God, to have the Lord's Supper together, or to witness baptisms, or things like this, and these are the tasks that the

13:00

Church has been given to do. You know, for instance, see Jesus in the Great Commission, you know, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

13:08

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

13:14

So the idea, then, is that the pastor is going to help the people who have gathered this, and the

13:21

Church is the people who have gathered, and it's not the building. You can call your building a church, by the way, there's nothing wrong with that.

13:27

But understand that when the Church enters the building, it's when the people are there.

13:33

The people are the ones who are called out, we are the ecclesia. So the idea, then, a pastor is filling a teaching office within the

13:42

Church for the purpose of preaching the Word and helping the people understand clearly the true sense of the

13:50

Word of God. That's the idea. This is why a pastor must have studied and showed himself approved as a workman who need not blush with embarrassment, who can rightly divide the

14:00

Word of Truth. And then when you look at the marching orders of a pastor, I always like going to 2

14:08

Timothy chapters 3 and 4, and 4 is where we see the explicit command, but there's a context in which that is stated.

14:16

And so you'll note, then, that pastors are sinners just like everybody else, and their temptation is to stray from their marching orders, just like a soldier would stray from the orders given to him by his superiors, or things like that.

14:30

So the idea, then, is that 2 Timothy 3 says, understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.

14:36

We're in the last days, by the way. People will be lovers of self. There's a word for that, by the way, it's called narcissists.

14:42

So you'll note, in the last days there's gonna be narcissists. It's like, wow, we got a bunch of those running around.

14:48

Right! Lovers of money. Oh, just watch TBN. So a $1 ,000 seed offering. Oh yeah!

14:53

Proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self -control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness.

15:10

So you know, these are people within the Church, and you know, sitting there going, sounds a lot like what's going on today. Right, exactly.

15:16

Having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. So Scripture says, avoid such people, which means you're gonna have to make some judgments.

15:25

And before you sit there and go, well, you know, judge not lest you be judged, let me see if I could find this real quick, because while I'm on this, 1

15:32

Corinthians 5. 1 Corinthians 5. There's an account of a fellow who, in the

15:42

Corinthian Church, was sleeping with his father's wife. Even the pagans would go, what?

15:50

And so here we have the orders of excommunication given by the Apostle Paul to the

15:55

Church of Corinth. He says, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that's not tolerated even among the pagans.

16:05

And for a man has his father's wife, and you're arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn?

16:10

Let him who has done this be removed from among you. Church discipline, excommunication.

16:15

For though absent in body, I am present in spirit. And as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.

16:23

When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the

16:35

Lord. Now you're boasting. You're boasting about this fellow. It's not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

16:42

Cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.

16:47

For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. So let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

16:59

Now I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with the sexually immoral people, all right?

17:06

So as Christians, we're not to associate with sexually immoral people. You sit there and go, but the world's just chock full of them right now.

17:16

Now watch what Paul says. Not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world. Oh, yeah.

17:24

Or the greedy, or the swindlers, or the idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

17:30

Yeah, that's not what he's talking about. But I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he's guilty of sexual immorality, or greed, or is an idolater, a reviler, a drunkard, or a swindler, not even to eat with such one.

17:47

And then watch what he says next. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

17:57

God judges those outside, so purge the evil person from among you.

18:02

So you'll note here that we are to judge the people inside the church, and this is going to include doctrine, it's also going to include their lives, and things like that.

18:13

So people who are impenitently sexually immoral, reveling in their sexual immorality, and yes, that means you're gonna have to follow a biblical standard for understanding and defining what sexual immorality is, you got to call them to repentance.

18:28

And if they won't repent, you know, discipline comes into play, okay?

18:34

So note the list, then, is going to include sexual immorality, greed. Oh, I could think of greedy people within the visible church who are, well, they're running rampant, and no one's calling them to account.

18:49

Or an idolater, this would be somebody who's teaching false gods. A reviler, this is an interesting one, and I'm thinking about doing an episode of Fighting for the

18:58

Faith. This is dealing with what's called the sin of calumny. Now, this is like a forgotten sin, if you know what calumny is.

19:06

So a reviler is like a super slanderer, you know, who basically makes a point of slandering men who are in the pastoral office, or people who have authority within the church, and not on the basis of doctrine, but you know, they just, reviler.

19:28

So this is the sin of calumny, and so you got to put somebody who is committing this sin out of the church.

19:35

A drunkard, an impenitent alcoholic, a swindler, yeah, there's lots of those. Not even to eat with such a person, you're thinking, swindlers, well, that would get rid of all of TBN.

19:45

Exactly, and no, is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? Right, we're supposed to be judging people within the church.

19:53

That means that your pastor doesn't get a pass. He doesn't get a pass.

19:59

Alright, so the idea here is that when it comes to his theology and the things he's teaching, then you'll note that the idea behind preaching is to give the proper sense of what the

20:11

Bible is saying. So coming back then here, so then talking about the state of affairs as we get closer and closer to the return of Christ, so there's people who are lovers of self, lovers of pleasure, they're reckless, they're treacherous, they're swollen with conceit, brutal, not loving the good, they're slanderous, they're unappeasable.

20:30

Avoid such people, which requires you to make a judgment. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning, never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth, just as Jonathan Jambres opposed

20:46

Moses, so these men also oppose the truth. And where are they opposing the truth, by the way? In the church!

20:52

That's where they're doing it, okay? From the pulpit or on the stage, okay? These men are corrupted in mind, they are disqualified regarding the faith, but they will not get very far for their folly.

21:05

And note here that it describes what they're doing as folly, you know, which means you can kind of make fun of it.

21:13

It's like, really? You think that if I sow a thousand -dollar seed offering, God's gonna make me a millionaire? Uh -huh.

21:19

You get the idea. Their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

21:25

By the way, Jonathan Jambres, they were the sorcerers of Pharaoh, so when

21:32

Moses cast his staff down and it turned into a serpent, Jonathan Jambres were the the magicians of Pharaoh who did the same thing.

21:40

So just a little bit of a note. So all right, but now then, note that 2nd Timothy is written by Paul to young pastor

21:48

Timothy, who is a pastor of a Christian congregation, of a Christian church, in the city of Ephesus.

21:55

Here's what he says to young pastor Timothy, "...you, however, you followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, which persecutions

22:11

I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me." Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

22:20

Oh, there's a promise right there. Have you embraced, have you decreed and declared this promise for your life yet? Don't worry, you don't have to decree and declare it at all if you want to follow

22:29

Jesus. This is just gonna happen. No decreeing or declaring necessary. Anyway, so while evil people and impostors, listen to this, they're gonna go from bad to worse, this is what they do, deceiving and being deceived.

22:41

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you've learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings.

22:52

And here's the bit, okay? You are looking ultimately for a church where God's Word is being brought out in huge heaping quantities, think meal here, and we are to be in the

23:09

Word of God. And your pastor needs to be rightly handling the Word of God rather than mishandling it and then opposing the truth by using mishandled texts, that's kind of the idea here.

23:21

So you know, so the idea here, you've been equated with the sacred writings, these are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

23:30

So note, faith in Jesus Christ is going to be an important thing here, without it you're not going to really understand God's Word properly.

23:36

And all scripture, then, is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

23:49

There is no good work that God's gonna call you to that the Bible will not prepare you for.

23:56

And by the way, 2nd Timothy, last letter Paul writes. This is the one that, you know, shortly after he finishes this, he writes this from prison, his head gets taken off his shoulder by a

24:07

Roman centurion. So you know, this is kind of like Paul's last will and testament. So watch where he goes then.

24:14

So he says, I charge you then, young Pastor Timothy, 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

24:27

Word. Be ready in season and out of season. You know, every time I hear the word in season, the phrase in season and out of season,

24:35

I cannot help but think about Bugs Bunny. Yeah, it shows you about my growing up, because Bugs Bunny and Daffy Ducky and Elmer Fudd, remember, there was a fight between them, whether it was rabbit season or duck season.

24:48

Yeah, sorry, I'm doing therapy here. Anyway, the basic idea here is that, note, that the

24:56

Apostle Paul is telling us there's times coming when to preach the Word, to actually substantively handle

25:04

God's Word and to give its proper sense, it is going to be out of vogue, it's going to be out of season.

25:11

And so when that happens, what are you supposed to do? Preach the Word. It doesn't matter what season it is.

25:17

It doesn't matter if it's popular. It doesn't matter if you all the successful churches, they've chucked the Word. Yeah, they just give us two or three

25:23

Bible verses out of context and give us some life motivational coach therapy kind of stuff. Yeah, it doesn't matter.

25:31

The job of a pastor is to preach the Word, whether it's in vogue or not, in season or out of season.

25:39

And then you'll note here, the fun parts of being a pastor, reprove, rebuke, and exhort.

25:49

Sounds like some negative stuff, and nobody gets out of this, by the way. If you're a pastor, these are your job duties, right?

25:54

Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching or doctrine, for the time is coming, and I would like to say it is now here, when people will not endorse sound teaching.

26:04

And here, didaskalia, you could translate that as doctrine. People will not endorse sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.

26:15

And when you think about passions here, think about the desires of your sinful nature. I want to be rich.

26:21

I want to be wealthy. I want to be influential. I want to run the world. I want everybody to say how important I am.

26:27

It's all about me, me, me, me, me, me, because in the last days, people will be lovers of self, right?

26:33

So you'll know early part of 2nd Timothy 3 tells us what kind of passions we're looking for within the

26:40

Church, people who suit their own passions. Greed, and malice, and things like this.

26:46

And so they will turn away from listening to the truth, mm -hmm, and they will wander off into what?

26:53

Myths. All right, but as for you, be sober -minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

27:03

So kind of like rule number one, whenever I'm listening to a sermon and, you know, considering a segment here in Fighting for the

27:10

Faith, if it's going to be a sermon and I'm gonna be reviewing part of it, okay, it doesn't matter to me how popular the person is.

27:18

At the end of the day, the question is, are they rightly handling the Word of Truth, are they teaching sound doctrine, or are they manipulating

27:26

God's Word, teaching myths, and then manipulating the Word in such a way so as to suit my passions?

27:36

Yeah, kind of rule number one, if you would. So with that in mind, let's take a look then at the sermon.

27:41

Again, I don't know who John Lloyd is. I, you know, until I saw this sermon, at least began to preview it,

27:48

I could tell you nothing about him. In fact, I still can't tell you anything about him. But I can tell you that very early on, it doesn't take very long at all.

27:59

You're gonna see that this sermon is exactly the kind of sermon that the

28:04

Apostle Paul warned us about, and doesn't fit within the pattern of Nehemiah 8 .8,

28:09

where he's not giving us the right sense, the proper sense of what the

28:14

Bible is teaching. And instead, he's scratching itching ears, and you can see this rather readily.

28:21

So the best way I can put it, I think I'm gonna have to do several of these videos, because this is like only one aspect of it.

28:29

So as I'm previewing, you know, teachings and things like this, but the idea here is that you should be able to spot this along the way.

28:35

You know the standard now, you know what the passions are that drive people, you know the things we're supposed to be looking for in the last days, now the question is, is this guy rightly handling

28:44

God's Word, or is he twisting it? That's really all it comes down to. And note this, that if you are attending a church like this, the whole worship set, it's really long, you're on your feet a lot, it's in the dark, there's strobing lights, and the beat of the drum, it's almost as if everything in the beginning worship part of the service is designed to take your brain and put it into a mashed potato masher, and just mush it up, which makes it more difficult for you to think critically.

29:16

Whereas watching the sermon online, this gives you the ability to have that experience room in the rock and roll show not have its impact, so that you can come at it with a sober mind and without having been emotionally manipulated.

29:32

Now here's the thing, you're gonna note then, it doesn't matter to me whether or not somebody is a good orator.

29:40

It doesn't matter to me if they can tell a good story. It doesn't matter to me if they can bring you to the highest heights of emotion and then just bring you crashing down and have you weeping in their hands.

29:54

These are the skills that I want movies and actors to have, not pastors.

30:01

So it's not about how it makes you feel, and that's the issue.

30:08

So when you go into a service with the ideas, how did it, how did that, oh man, that service,

30:14

I mean, I cracked up, I laughed so hard, it was the best thing ever, you know, and all this kind of stuff.

30:19

You're judging it not on a biblical standard, you're using the standards that we use to determine whether or not a movie or a television show is entertaining, and that's the problem.

30:31

So so many of these churches, they're basically, they're not checking their assumptions and they're not looking at the biblical standard for what they're supposed to be doing.

30:40

They've just set everything up according to the Hollywood standard, that we all intuitively know because we've grown up in a society that values entertainment.

30:49

Alright, so let's get to it. Let's see what we can do with the sermon. So I'm from the South, right?

30:55

And from the South, being from the South, I know that flavor is king, right?

31:00

Flavor is king. I'm from the part of the South where we deep -fry the thing, and then we re -deep -fry it.

31:07

So it's like double deep -fried. It's basically, you're just clogging your arteries, everything that you eat in the South. Alright, so notice the sermon has begun with what sounds like a stand -up comedy routine.

31:19

And this is what they teach guys to do in the secret -driven movement. You know, you need to learn your comedic timing from the best comedians out there right now.

31:30

Yeah. So my immediate question is, what's the biblical text we're gonna be hearing today?

31:36

Because the job of a pastor is to preach the Word, and to give the right and proper sense of it, to teach what's in accord with sound doctrine.

31:45

And so already we've got a problem because we haven't begun with a biblical text.

31:52

Now that doesn't mean that a biblical text hasn't been read earlier, except for in these churches, that rarely ever happens.

32:00

So I'm a confessional Lutheran, we follow a historic order of service, and not only that, the biblical texts that I preach on on any given

32:08

Sunday, they're assigned. So it's called a lectionary. If you want to know what

32:14

I'm going to be preaching on six Sundays from now, you look ahead in the three -year lectionary, we're in Series A, and you can say, okay,

32:24

Pastor Roseboro's gonna preach on either the Epistle text, the Old Testament text, or the Gospel text, or find a way to weave them together, but I'm gonna be preaching on one of those three texts, and they are assigned.

32:36

And with these guys, it's fascinating, we don't really get any substantive exegetical work through the

32:46

Bible on any given Sunday, nor do we get it over a long period of time.

32:53

In fact, if you're gonna learn the Bible from this type of preaching, you're not gonna learn it.

33:01

That's part of the problem, but we'll see what's going on, let's keep going. But it's so good, so good.

33:07

So growing up, I was a picky eater. Anybody in here a picky eater? Or you were a picky eater at one point in your life?

33:14

How many parents got kids that are picky eaters? Right, a lot of hands there, amen, I'm with you on that. I'm convinced my oldest son only likes chicken nuggets and peanut butter and jelly.

33:24

That's it. It's the diet of champions. All right, so definitely this is stand -up comedy.

33:29

Now what I'm gonna do is I'm going to speed this up, because there's like no substance here.

33:38

This is designed purposely to get a laugh or to entertain, and I'm not sure what function it would play within a good

33:47

Christian sermon, because this isn't gonna help me understand a biblical text.

33:55

Growing up, I was a picky eater, and like a lot of kids, I think, I sort of shuddered at the concept of anything green, right?

34:00

Like celery? Get that away from me. I don't eat celery. Broccoli? You kidding me? I don't eat broccoli. And so my mom growing up... Okay, notice, he's talking about himself.

34:09

She made this broccoli casserole. I'm not even really sure what casserole is, it's just like you take everything you can find, you put it in this long dish, and you bake it, and it's casserole.

34:14

But my mom used to make this broccoli casserole, and it had like, obviously broccoli, but it had this like, super melty cheese in it, and it had this rice in it.

34:20

Am I getting like hungry for this right now? Right? My goal today is to just make you hungry, that's what I came to do this morning. But she would make this broccoli casserole, and you know me, I'm a picky eater,

34:25

I'm a little kid, and I'm like, get that away from me. I don't want that at all. And so my mom would constantly say, my mom's probably watching actually online right now, and she would always say, if you just try it, what?

34:32

You'll like it. Any parents ever said that to your kids? If you just try it, you'll like it. You know what I'd say? I'd say, no, I won't. Well, how do you know you won't like it if you've never tried it?

34:40

And me, in my, you know, fifth grade, all -knowing wisdom, I just know. I just know I won't like it. Right?

34:45

So I went through my whole life, up until actually just a few years ago. Now, this is where I think you need to know this, and that is that every sermon is going to address a problem.

35:01

This is just generally how sermons work. So if you're going to address a problem biblically, then you're going to have to understand that problems in the world are created because of our sin.

35:16

So if you're going to do a sermon correctly, a biblical sermon correctly, you're going to address a particular sin, an aspect of sin, or a consequence of sin, and that is going to require you to have an understanding of God's law, and the purpose of God's law is to show us our sin, but here's where you've got to pay attention to this, and that is that the solution is vital.

35:44

So if the problem is sin, then the solution is always going to connect back to our

35:51

Savior, Jesus Christ, being crucified for our sins, so that we can be forgiven.

35:59

See, our good works and our sanctification flow out of the Gospel. So you can tell you you've got a problem if the problem is a consequence of sin or an aspect of sin, and then the solution is you just need to try harder or adopt a different mentality or something like that.

36:15

The solution to sin is the Gospel. That's how this goes.

36:21

So rightly handling God's Word is going to require you to address problems and define them correctly from Scripture, using

36:31

God's law, and then the solution is always going to be the Gospel. Christ crucified for our sins, to reconcile us to God so that we can be forgiven, and then flowing from that, from a robust faith in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, then flow our good works.

36:49

Not in order to be saved, but because we are saved. You get the idea here?

36:56

So immediately I'm asking the question here is, what is the problem that John Lloyd is bringing forward in this sermon?

37:09

You know, because I can't readily detect it based upon the stand -up comedy part of his sermon.

37:17

Listen to me. Never try broccoli. Never try broccoli casserole. Until one day, my beautiful wife says,

37:22

I think I'm going to make your mom's broccoli casserole. Husbands, I'm at a crossroads. Because you know, if your wife cooks it, you've got to eat it.

37:27

So I'm preparing myself. If my wife makes it and I don't like it, I've got to smile through it. I've got to swallow it. We don't have a dog. I couldn't feed it to anybody else. So she made it.

37:35

It came out of the oven. I looked at it with all kinds of trepidation. I was sweating. I was nervous. I'm like, what's going to happen to me? I might die if I eat this. I don't know.

37:40

I've never had it before. And she puts it on my plate. This is a long build -up, right? It's worth it, I promise. So she puts it on my plate.

37:46

It's steaming. I can see the cheese. I love cheese, right? And I grab a forkful, and it has that stringy cheese when I lift it up. Yeah, you're like, oh, come on.

37:52

I'm like, this is terrifying. And I take that bite. Let me tell you what happened. If you could eat heaven, that's what

37:57

I felt like I did. I felt like I literally ate a slice of heaven. You think I went back for seconds? How about thirds? How about like it was gone, and I'm asking for another one?

38:04

And guess who I had to tell? My mom. I called my mom, and I was like, hey, guess what I did? I tried a broccoli casserole. And my mom flipped out on the phone.

38:10

And you know what she said to me? She said, you went 35 years of your life never trying something that was absolutely amazing. And how true is it that that could kind of be a little metaphor for our lives?

38:18

Because we can walk through our life year after year after year. All right, so this is the presentation of the problem, then.

38:25

So the stand -up comedy part of this was to set up the problem, you know, that apparently, you know, we need to eat our, you know, metaphorically, we need to eat our broccoli casserole.

38:35

Let me back this up just a little bit. True is it that that could kind of be a little metaphor for our lives?

38:42

Because we can walk through our life year after year after year when God is offering us something that could potentially change our entire destiny.

38:56

Yeah, see, and now I'm already having problems. Now, if you're not well -versed in Scripture, you might think this is okay, but see, already

39:06

I'm just going, whoa, this is a weird way to talk. God is offering us something that will change our destiny?

39:14

That's generally not how people talk about the Gospel. The Gospel, the good news, that Christ bled and died for our sins and rose bodily from the grave on the third day so that we can be forgiven and justified.

39:27

All is by grace through faith. So, you know, so you sit there and go, well, it could be the

39:34

Gospel He's referring to. God is offering us something that will change our destinies?

39:41

But I'm not really familiar with sound exegetes who preach law and Gospel, who describe the

39:49

Gospel in this way. So already, for me, I have red flags, you know, waving and bells and whistles going off.

39:57

Something's really wrong here. But we're like, I'm not going to like it. I'm just going to...

40:05

I mean, I understand that you're saying that it's good. I understand that there might be some potential in this, but I don't want to try that.

40:14

And sometimes in life, we never fully realize the dreams that God has for our life.

40:29

Okay. So the problem is we don't fully realize the dreams that God has for our life.

40:39

Now, my immediate question is going to be, do you have a biblical text to back this up?

40:46

And I already know that there is no biblical text that backs up this doctrine. So the only way you're going to be able to back this up is by twisting a biblical text to try to make it look like it's teaching this.

41:02

So keep in mind, the problem is you're not embracing the dreams that God has for your life.

41:09

Okay. Simply because we don't want to try it. So God's got a heaping portion of dreams that He's ready to put on your table, and you look at it and you go, but God, all

41:24

He wants you to do is just try the dream out. And you'll like it. Hey, Mikey!

41:30

Hey, Mikey! He won't eat it. He hates everything. Now I'm showing my age again. Okay, so there's already a problem.

41:39

I mean, and the thing is, is that if you know your Bible well, then you already should know that there's something terribly wrong here.

41:50

And I mean terribly. Because this is the type of message that is going to wander off into myths.

41:58

It's not going to rightly handle God's Word, and just by the setup, you can spot it. And so if you're attending a church where these are the types of messages you're getting, you can't stay there.

42:10

You've got to find a church where the pastor is going to rightly handle God's Word, is going to exegete the biblical text.

42:18

And so already, I can tell you, there is no hope for this sermon. None. Like, if he rightly handled a portion of a biblical text in here, it would be an accident.

42:33

Because you have to put a lot of work in to twist the Bible up this badly. So I'm just saying, let's keep going.

42:42

The title of my message today, if you're jotting this down online or in the room, is Don't Stop Dreaming.

42:58

Like I said, can't fix this. It's utterly broken.

43:04

There's no way to biblically land this plane. Don't stop dreaming.

43:09

See, I want to talk to some people here today in the room, and you've got a dream in your heart. You've got something that you feel like God spoke to you.

43:18

And then maybe something happened. And that dream that you had has got sort of put on the back burner.

43:27

So God's supposed to be speaking dreams into my heart, and I know there's something I've got to do.

43:33

So I would go back to the Narcissism Catechism episode of Fighting for the

43:39

Faith. The reason being is, you'll note that in there, I did the exegetical work, going back to a primary text that gives us a synopsis of the

43:50

Christian faith, Ephesians 2 verses 1 -10, and you'll note that we are saved by grace through faith, apart from works.

43:58

It's not our own doing, it's the gift of God, and that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

44:06

And thankfully the book of Ephesians then goes on to tell us what those good works are and where we do them.

44:12

We do them as husband, as wife, as father, as mother, as child, as employer, employee.

44:19

Our good works are done in the mundane. And we even noted that even slaves can do good works, even somebody who doesn't have control over their own lives, they're owned by somebody else, they don't even have decision -making authority in their own life, you can still do your good works, and they are pleasing to Christ.

44:39

So within the seeker -driven movement is this belief that God has a special or a unique purpose, or a special or unique dream that He wants you to achieve.

44:53

You were created for such a time as this, and God's supposed to speak this into your heart, and then it's up to you as to whether or not you're going to embrace this dream or accomplish this thing, and as a result of this kind of teaching, you end up despising the mundane good works that we are called to do in Christ.

45:14

And this is really dangerous. So note then, this kind of builds off of this, and this is the kind of stuff that suits sinful passions.

45:24

I'm important. I'm here for a reason. I'm the apple of God's eye. I was sent here by God to change the world.

45:33

No, you weren't. We keep going. And you're thinking to yourself, well, I can never achieve that dream with my finances like they are.

45:46

So now we have objections as to why I can't accomplish the dream that God put on my heart. I can never achieve that dream while my relationships are like they are.

45:56

Or how about this? I'll never be able to fulfill that dream in a pandemic.

46:07

Oh, man. This is so bad. I want to talk to some people here today that at one point, you've had a dream in your heart, and maybe something has happened, and you don't necessarily feel that that dream is at the forefront of your life anymore.

46:20

Oh, no, do you have a shipwrecked dream? And you'll note here that I think that what he's saying is absurd.

46:32

And you can hear it in my voice, and you can hear it in the fact that I think that this is nuts.

46:39

This is not biblical, and I refuse to treat it as biblical. In fact, this is folly.

46:46

Exactly what Paul said. This is folly. And if you're sitting here today and you're like,

46:51

I don't have a dream. I've never really had any dreams. I've never really had any visions about my life. I want to challenge you on that, and I want to challenge you on that based on something that Jesus himself said in Acts chapter 2.

47:11

There are no red letters in Acts chapter 2. What on earth?

47:19

All right. I'm going to back this up because I want you to hear what he's saying here, aside from the ridiculous slip.

47:26

By the way, it was Peter who preached in Acts chapter 2. It wasn't Jesus. We'll chalk that up to just a rookie mistake kind of thing.

47:36

We won't make too much of it. But notice that this is spoken then in the form of a challenge.

47:42

So those of you who have not dreamed big dreams for your life, I'm going to challenge you, he says, with something from Acts chapter 2 that apparently

47:51

Jesus spoke. And again, I'm very familiar with Acts chapter 2, and I see no command there in Acts chapter 2 for non -dreamers to get busy dreaming and finding their purpose for their life in this way.

48:08

Not at all. So you'll note then that this becomes apparently a command that Christ is giving us in Acts chapter 2 to get busy to become dreamers.

48:21

But when we go into Acts chapter 2 and we look at it in context, the question is, will the text that he's quoting out of context, is it a command for non -dreamers to dream?

48:35

You see, he's telling us we've got to do something. The problem is that there's a bunch of people out there that have dreams who aren't accomplishing them right now, making excuses for it.

48:44

And then on top of it, there's a bunch of non -dreamers out there who are not dreaming, and they need to be dreaming. And it's like, is there really a command in the

48:53

Bible that I need to be a dreamer? Alright, let me back this up. Listen again.

48:59

...had any visions about my life. I want to challenge you on that. And I want to challenge you on that based on something that Jesus himself said in Acts chapter 2.

49:10

He said, in the last days, let's put this on the screen, in the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on who?

49:17

All people. Okay, so Acts 2, 17, and 18 is what he's quoting, and you're gonna know, it's out of context.

49:29

Now, that can be a sign he's twisting Scripture. It's not necessarily a sign.

49:36

Because you can actually correctly quote a portion of Scripture if in your quoting it, even out of context, you're giving the true sense in what it's talking about.

49:46

So let's go ahead and take a look at Acts chapter 2. And let's see here, that's 1

49:53

Corinthians, I think I need to go here, Acts, hang on a second here, Acts 2.

50:00

Alright, Day of Pentecost. That's what Acts chapter 2 is about. So, let's take a look at the context.

50:07

So when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind.

50:13

It filled the entire house where they were sitting, and divided tongues as a fire appeared to them, and rested on each of them.

50:19

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues. Now, I'm gonna point this out here.

50:25

This means that they're speaking in known human languages. And so gibberish is not, you know, today's, when you go to a charismatic church and somebody says, shoulda bought a

50:36

Hyundai, coulda bought a Kia, that is, that's gibberish, alright? And so today's manifestation of tongues is not actually tongues, biblically.

50:46

No, it's, what tongues are is the miraculous ability to speak a language you have not studied, and thereby proclaim the wonders of Christ in that language to people who otherwise wouldn't understand you.

51:02

So they began to speak in other tongues, so here's the Greek word glosa. And you'll note that the

51:07

Holy Spirit like us uses synonyms, and I'll show you this in a minute. So they began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

51:13

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at the sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own.

51:23

And here, rather than say glosa again, the synonym is dialectos, a dialect, you know, you're familiar with this, in his own language.

51:32

And so we know now, biblically, what tongues is. You can hear the wonders of God proclaimed in a language you haven't studied, alright?

51:41

You're the one doing the speaking. So they were amazed and astonished, and said, are these speaking

51:47

Galileans? How is it that each of us hears in his own native language Parthenians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome.

52:02

So you'll even know, we know the languages that are being spoken here, right? So both Jews and proselytes,

52:07

Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.

52:15

And that's what true tongues is. So all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, what does this mean?

52:22

But others, mocking, said, they are filled with new wine. I always like to point out that if you are filled with wine, you struggle with the language that you learned as a child, and you don't become fluent in other languages.

52:37

I've noticed that about people who've had too much wine to drink. Anyway, so Peter, standing with the eleven, lift up his voice and address them, men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words, for these people are not drunk as you suppose, but it is only the third hour of the day.

52:54

But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. So the day of Pentecost, Peter standing up, filled with the

53:01

Holy Spirit, says that this is the fulfillment, the day of Pentecost is the fulfillment of a prophecy given by the prophet

53:10

Joel of the Old Testament. In the last days it shall be, declares, God declares, that I will pour out my

53:17

Spirit on all flesh, and that's kind of the point. The Holy Spirit is given to everybody, regardless of whether they're a

53:24

Jew or Greek, slave or free, whether they are a Gentile or a

53:29

Roman or a Norwegian or Polish or Russian, doesn't matter. God's pouring out His Spirit now on everybody, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

53:42

So note, this is descriptive of what's happening there at the day of Pentecost. It is not a command, so there you are, so you've been attending church, have you had any dreams yet?

53:52

You better be dreaming, as otherwise you're not obeying Jesus. And on my male servants and female servants in those days

54:03

I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy, which, by the way, you can prophesy today, and you don't even need to have an utterance directly from God other than the

54:13

Bible. Every time you open up God's Word and you rightly proclaim it to people or teach it to people, that's a form of prophesying.

54:21

God's giving you the words and you're speaking on His behalf, you're speaking for Him, speaking with His authority, that's the idea.

54:28

I will show wonders in the heavens above, signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the

54:36

Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And you're going to note here, this is a wonderful prophecy, the sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon to blood.

54:44

What happened when Jesus was hanging on the cross? At noon, the sun was darkened?

54:49

Right! It's a reference back to what happened while Jesus was suffering for your sins and mine.

54:57

And it shall come to pass everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And that's the gist.

55:03

Everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved.

55:10

So then he goes on to say, men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this

55:21

Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

55:28

And so Peter goes on to show that he's the Messiah, and everyone who calls on the name of the

55:34

Lord will be saved. That's the punchline of that prophecy from Joel, but note here that our vision -casting leader in training,

55:43

John Lloyd here, has taken Acts 2, 17 and 18 out of context, and has turned it into a command.

55:52

You need to be dreaming. And that's not a true sense, a proper sense of this at all.

55:59

When you put it into context, you can see that, but then you can also see that the command that he's creating from it is absurd.

56:06

This is silly. It should be treated as such, too. We continue. I got a little tidbit for you this morning.

56:14

Spoiler alert, right? If you're in this room, if you're watching online, if you're under the sound of my voice, that includes you!

56:20

All people! It doesn't say, I'll pour out my spirit on everyone who's got it all together.

56:27

It doesn't say... It says, and all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's the point of Peter's sermon, and of his quoting of the prophet

56:35

Joel. I'll pour out my spirit on everybody who's managed to work their way through a pandemic. It doesn't say,

56:41

I'm going to pour out my spirit on everybody that has their finances in order. Nope. Yeah, this is not exegesis that he's engaging in.

56:49

Now, I'm going to speed this up, because you can kind of see what's going on here. He's not giving us a true sense of what this text means, and all

56:59

I had to do was put it back in context. That's all I had to do. Just put it back in context.

57:06

Alright, let's keep going. I'll pour out my spirit on all people.

57:12

All people. You included. And listen to what happens when he says, I'll pour out my spirit on all people. It says, your sons and your daughters will prophesy.

57:17

That's a big church word. What prophesy really means is to see or to speak something into existence that has not yet happened. You! Wow! Okay, that is not at all what prophesy means.

57:30

Okay, so let's back this up. Now we've got a spurious definition that showed up, and my immediate question is going to be, where did you get that definition?

57:39

That's a big church word. It says, your sons and your daughters will prophesy.

57:44

That's a big church word. What prophesy really means is to see or to speak something into existence that has not yet happened.

57:55

Okay, so this is just a patently false definition on its face.

58:01

How do I know? Well, the reason why is because in the Old Testament, we have major and minor prophets, and there's no examples in Isaiah or Jeremiah, Amos, Zechariah, Malachi, the list goes on and on, of them speaking things into existence.

58:24

That's not what prophesying is. Instead, let's take a look here. So we'll take a look at Jeremiah, because I think

58:34

Jeremiah is an interesting fellow. The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth, in the land of Bedouin, to whom the word of Yahweh came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

58:49

So to prophesy, it means the word of the Lord comes to you, and you then speak those words that God has given you to others.

58:58

You become a messenger. And so this is the reason why you can say that men in the pastoral office are, in a sense, prophesying when they open up the

59:09

Bible and they foretell the word of the Lord, because the word of the Lord has come to all of us now in the written biblical text.

59:18

So the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon in the 13th year of the reign.

59:23

It came also in the days of Jehoiachin, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, and until the end of the 11th year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the 5th month.

59:36

So you can see here, you know, this is the word of the Lord coming to a person and then God saying, go and deliver this word.

59:43

Now the word of Yahweh came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before all you were born,

59:48

I consecrated you and I appointed you a prophet to the nations. And so, alright, so this is a man whom

59:55

God defines and says he's a prophet, he's been assigned to be a prophet even before he was conceived.

01:00:01

Now, by the way, saying before you were born I knew you does not mean that we existed, we had an existence prior to our being conceived in our mother's wombs, that's not what that's referring to.

01:00:15

But we existed in the mind of God, you know, He planned everything out, our lives for us.

01:00:21

This is why we can say we are creating Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared in advance that we should do, even long before you were ever conceived.

01:00:29

So God knows you by virtue of the fact that He's going to create you at the right time and place for the good works that He's prepared in advance for you to do.

01:00:36

So you'll note then that God has said He's going to be a prophet. He says, ah, Lord, God, behold,

01:00:41

I don't know how to speak, for I am a youth, but Yahweh said to me, do not say I am only a youth. For to all whom

01:00:48

I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. This is what a prophet does, they speak words from God.

01:00:56

So do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares Yahweh. Then Yahweh put out

01:01:02

His hand and touched my mouth, and Yahweh said to me, behold, I have put my words in your mouth. I see

01:01:07

I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

01:01:14

So the word of Yahweh came to me and said, Jeremiah, what do you see? He said, I see an almond branch.

01:01:20

And then Yahweh said to me, you've seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.

01:01:27

God performs His word. So the word of Yahweh came to me a second time, what do you see?

01:01:32

I said, I see a boiling pot facing from the north. Then Yahweh said to me, out of the north disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land, for behold,

01:01:41

I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares Yahweh, and they shall come, and everyone shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem against all its walls and all around and against the cities, all the cities of Judah.

01:01:55

So you get the point here. Jeremiah didn't speak these things into existence, God guards

01:02:00

His word to accomplish the thing for which He sent it out. So the word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah, He is to speak these things whom

01:02:08

God tells Him to speak these things to, and they get recorded for us in the prophet Jeremiah, and at no point does

01:02:14

Jeremiah speak things into existence via his prophetic abilities.

01:02:20

That's not what a prophet is. A prophet is one whom God puts words in their mouth and they speak them.

01:02:26

And pastors, by the way, are to what? Preach the word. These are words from God, and to give the right sense for them.

01:02:35

So now we've got a problem. We're not, we're only seven minutes into the sermon and already we are way off the rails, and if you had listened with an open

01:02:45

Bible rather than an open mind, you would have spotted this fellow to be a false teacher immediately, and that's kind of the point.

01:02:53

I'm teaching you how to do this because there's just too many false teachers now. I can't get to them all!

01:03:00

Okay, but let me back this up, and I want to hear this and then we'll kind of wrap up, you get the idea, kind of this beginning 101.

01:03:07

How do you biblically critique a sermon? Let's keep going. Well, prophesy, that's a big church word.

01:03:14

What prophesy really means is to see or to speak something into existence that has not yet happened.

01:03:22

That's not true. We just saw that from the prophet Jeremiah chapter 1. You, all people, your sons and daughters, will prophesy.

01:03:31

Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. Even all my servants, both men and women,

01:03:37

I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesy. Listen, you might be in this room today saying,

01:03:42

I don't have a dream on my life. I believe that that is incorrect because God said he's going to give all people visions and dreams.

01:03:51

Yeah, you've mishandled that text terribly. Challenge you and push back a little bit. Maybe the reason that you don't think you have a dream for your life is because you've pushed it too far back.

01:04:03

Notice we're not dealing with real sins now. We're dealing with made -up sins. Oh, my problem is I've pushed my dream back behind me.

01:04:10

This isn't a real problem. This is a false problem. This is folly. Maybe that dream is still there and it's gasping for air.

01:04:24

Can't breathe, man. Can't breathe. But you've been pushing it back because of your circumstance. See, God created you to be a dreamer.

01:04:33

How do I know God created you to be a dreamer? Because you were created in the image of the ultimate dreamer.

01:04:42

Yikes. So now we've got an interesting issue. So God, rather than talking about his attributes as revealed in Scripture, we've got a weird attribute for God, and the

01:04:52

God, the dreamer, and so since you're made in the image of God, you've got to be a dreamer too. This guy is twisting

01:04:59

God's Word horribly. In fact, this is so bad, it's clear to me that he really doesn't understand who the

01:05:07

Bible is about, what the problem that Scripture presents to us is our problem as a race, and what the solution to that problem is, and that is our crucified and risen

01:05:17

Savior, Jesus Christ. So we're off into myth land at this point, and this fellow is not qualified to be a pastor or a preacher in Christ's Church.

01:05:29

You can't be this far wrong and still be qualified to teach. He's not. Because guess what?

01:05:34

God dreamed you up. God dreamed this world up. God was sitting around one day and decided,

01:05:40

I'm going to just breathe billions and billions and trillions of stars into existence. He did?

01:05:47

What text says that? He was like, I'm going to create these majestic planets, and human beings are never ever going to be able to fully figure them out.

01:05:57

I'm going to create plants and birds and fish and all kinds of crazy stuff and mountains and valleys and seas, and human beings are going to spend their whole life eventually trying to dig into these things and figure them out and figure out how

01:06:09

I did it. But then I'm going to create, I'm going to dream up my most prized creation.

01:06:19

I'm going to dream up humans. I'm going to dream up you.

01:06:27

This is a horrible twisting of Genesis 1. Terrible. And you know, he's not actually reading the text, which is a big part of the problem.

01:06:37

So here we are, we're nine minutes, ten seconds into this thing, and we've heard two verses out of context.

01:06:45

Horribly. We're not getting a proper sense. And you'll note then that rather than the theology of Scripture being unfolded from clear passages, what he's done is he's woven a theology, a narrative together that's not found in the

01:07:02

Scripture, and he's hijacked Acts 2, 17, and 18, and woven them into the tapestry of that false narrative, that false theology.

01:07:11

See, the idea behind exegesis is that you're reading out what's in the Biblical text, but he's not doing it.

01:07:17

He's giving the impression that he is, but he's not. So his theology is a false theology, and he's twisting that Biblical text to weave it into his false theology.

01:07:26

This isn't exegesis. This is really bad. Knowing full well what would happen. See, I don't know if you know this morning, but God is not caught by surprise by what you're facing today.

01:07:42

And so today, I want to talk to you briefly with the few minutes that we have left. I want to talk to you about three things that will sabotage our dreams.

01:08:00

Okay. So three things that are going to sabotage our dreams. Like I said at the very beginning, there's no way to rescue this.

01:08:06

There's no way. The problem that he's presenting is not a Biblical problem. It's something completely different.

01:08:13

And he's twisted the Biblical text. He's not giving the right sense. And what is he doing? He's scratching itching ears.

01:08:20

You know, oh, I want to be a dreamer because I was made to be just like the biggest dreamer ever. No. No.

01:08:30

I think you get the idea. And so you can go and if you find this sermon, you can go and listen to the rest of it.

01:08:36

Three things that are getting in the way of your dreams. But at no point has he rightly handled a Biblical text correctly at all.

01:08:43

He hasn't identified a real sin that human beings commit. He's invented one.

01:08:49

And he's not going to placard Jesus Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of our sins as the solution to this problem, because the solution to this problem is obvious.

01:09:01

You need to get rid of the obstacles that are keeping you from dreaming so that you can go and dream dreams. Which is not the point of Acts 2, 17 and 18.

01:09:12

I think you get the point. So hopefully you found this helpful. Hopefully you found this helpful, this kind of deconstructing.

01:09:19

What am I looking for when I'm listening for a sermon? And you can begin to apply this to the sermons that you're listening to.

01:09:27

Am I hearing a Biblical text first? Is it rightly being...am I getting the true sense of it?

01:09:33

Is there a proper distinction between law and gospel? Or am I having itching ears scratched and my sinful passions excited?

01:09:40

Those are the questions that you need to ask as you're working it. And I think what I'll do is from time to time

01:09:46

I'll come back, you know, what am I listening for in a sermon? Because this is just one type of sermon, and I would consider what

01:09:52

John Lloyd doing here to be a very, very standard, typical sermon that we get in the seeker -driven movement today, and in the

01:10:00

NAR and the mildly charismatic churches. But this is not a Biblical teaching at all. This is the kind of thing that is going to shipwreck your faith, put all kinds of anxiety on you because you're going to sit there and go,

01:10:10

I don't know, man, am I...have I been dreaming enough, or am I suppressing my dreams, or the dreams that God has for me?

01:10:17

Am I speaking things into existence and prophesying the way I'm supposed to? Yeah, the entire theology of this thing is bankrupt, false, and not true.

01:10:27

And so it's going to create anxieties for you because it's asking you to do things you're not called to do, or things that the

01:10:35

Holy Spirit's not going to be doing in you. You get the idea. So if you found this helpful, all the information on how you can share the video is down below in the description.

01:10:43

And just a reminder, Fighting for the Faith, we're supported by the people we serve, and that's you. You're the people we serve, and so if you don't already support us, all the information on how you can support us is down below in the description, joining our crew, becoming a patron on Patreon, and anybody who joins our crew during the summer months at Gunner's Mate or above,

01:11:04

I will send you an autographed copy of this particular fine art print, which I took, by the way, in Warroad, Minnesota, Lake of the

01:11:12

Woods, back in either May or June, I think it was June of this year. So Warroad, Minnesota, Lake of the

01:11:19

Woods. It's Warroad sunrise. It's just a sunrise shot.

01:11:24

That was a fun one to shoot. Anyway, so I'll send you an autographed copy of that for everybody who joins our crew at Gunner's Mate or above during the summer months is my way of saying thank you.

01:11:36

So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and His vicarious death on the cross for all of our sins.