Generations

Our situation started way back in the book of Genesis. The story is told that not long after God created Adam and Eve, Satan came to Eve and, through deceit, convinced her that disobeying God was the right thing to do. After her decision to do so, the human race started downhill and has continued that direction ever since. Even now, we all bear the results of that decision every day of our lives.

However, this talk is not primarily about Adam and Eve. I intend to look more closely at Satan's method of deception and discover how blatantly open, yet discreetly hidden, is its working within the body of Christ.

The pattern goes something like this:

-God does or says something good.

-Satan takes notice of it.

-Satan "tweaks" the truth of what God says.

-We fall for his deceitful thoughts.

-We wind up disobeying God.

Satan led Eve down this path in the beginning, and he is still leading people down the same path today when he finds anyone who will blindly follow. The deception is so well planned that we don’t usually even see it until after we have tripped and become ensnared by it.

Let us take a look at the deception method of Satan as the scripture records it:

Genesis 3:1-5 NIV

1  Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

2  The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,

3  but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"

4  "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.

5  "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Satan told Eve the truth........ sort of........

In reality, he took a true statement and used it to convince Eve that doing what he wanted her to do was the right thing. Eve then went down a road that she regretted.

Now, before we self righteously condemn Eve, let us spend time looking at some of the decisions that we have been deceived into making, too. (Just so you all know, everyone has fallen for Satan’s traps at one time or other.)

----How many of us have decided on a job or career based solely on the idea that we are convinced that God wants us to make a lot of money?

----- How many ministries have made decisions based completely on the idea that the three B's are the most important things?  Budgets, buildings, and butts in the pew......Dedication to these three items will drive both small and large ministries if we let them.

----- Personally, how many gadgets and big toys are in our hands and garages bought only because we have a selfish desire to have the best at all times no matter what it costs? Many have gone into debt simply for the reason of being able to say that they own the latest and greatest devices. We then try to justify ourselves by saying, “Look how God has blessed me!”

These are only a few of the examples that have sneaked upon us and caused us, at times, to miss God’s direction.

You see, Satan takes the idea that God wants to bless us (which is true), and convinces us to make decisions that are not necessarily in God's plan for us. Regardless of some popular "religious speak" out there, it is not always God's plan for every one of His children to have the riches of this world. I believe that Satan's hiss is lurking somewhere behind that teaching.......yet, it is embraced by so many who claim to follow Christ……..

Go figure…………

Having the  advantage of growing up in one generation of the church and then experiencing a new generation of the church coming about during my lifetime tends to give me a distinct view when I examine both.

What I have seen is both exciting and alarming.

Let us look back first………..

I remember seeing Satan's plan working masterfully during the era of the church in which I grew up . Now please understand, not everything was bad, but much of it became that way after Satan "tweaked" a lot of things. Many listened to his "tweaks" about the church and decided to follow them.

The beginning of that generation of the church was an explosion of people who loved the truth and wanted to bring people to Christ. Adhering to the truth of the Scripture and loving Jesus was paramount. The excitement that believers had was electrifying and many appeared to be powerfully motivated to follow this sending of the church to the world. There is no doubt that the Holy Spirit had birthed all of this and was working wonderfully through it all!

From this great movement in the church that God had orchestrated, Satan began tweaking things. The mindset of church leaders (of which I was one ) became this, "just look at the big church’s examples and copy what they are doing, then God will bless us too". The truth of allowing the Spirit of God to lead the church was replaced. Instead of following the Holy Spirit, it was less work to follow the successful church’s examples. As a staff member, I remember being sent to a larger church to glean ideas and try to copy them. I also attended church conferences that usually consisted of big church leaders telling the little church leaders how to duplicate their examples so that they too could become big.

A lot of pride, division, jealousy, and debt was generated as Satan convinced us that following the biggest church's footsteps was preferable to spending time on our faces before God to discover what He wanted. We were too busy building monuments and ministries to glorify ourselves, than to take notice that we had forgotten the Holy Spirit and the mission of the Kingdom of God. The three "B's" that I alluded to earlier consumed us......along with building our reputations. The book "America's 10 Largest Sunday Schools" was required reading for any "serious" pastor. I believe that Satan had a good belly laugh at many of us.

I believe that the same deception brought about and used by Satan throughout history is beginning to show itself within our new generation of churches today.

Fast forward to now……..

Being a church that is dedicated to reaching people in the now generation is exciting. God has blessed many churches as they have followed the Lord in accomplishing this goal, however, the mindset of following another church's example while forgetting the Holy Spirit's leadership to produce ministry is infecting a great many people and church leaders all over again.

Rather than people getting on their faces to seek God, it is much easier to send a group to observe a large ministry and then try to copycat their methods of "success". Another easy route being tried is to buy a book and follow it step-by-step to a "successful" church ministry. I'm not saying that following another's ideas or using a good book is bad (sometimes they are really good resources to use), but when we allow them to replace the Holy Spirit's leadership within the church, then we are in trouble. As a result, lots of pride and division are rising within the body of Christ.

(Can you believe it? A friend who does not know what I am writing about in this talk, comes to me today with a Christian magazine advertising a church growth meeting and the new book, ”America’s 100 largest Churches”. Interesting……..)

Many churches are rampant with the philosophy of more, bigger, better, and tech-ier (made up word). It appears that to be more successful than the “other guys”, we must always be louder and flashier. Who has the best band....the best youth building....the most tech stuff......?

The one with the most stuff wins.........

This is not even close to being so.....................

What we are headed toward is just another set of church machines that are newer, flashier, and faster, but are still out of whack and drive worse than our father's Oldsmobile. If we build them based on Satan's "tweaks" to ministry concepts and ignore the Holy Spirit, what else can we expect? Religiosity is beginning to take on a new set of clothes, but it is still just as fake and empty as it always has been.

So what do we do?

We go deeper........

We refuse Satan's "tweaks" that lead us away from following the Holy Spirit, then we abandon ourselves in order to pursue the Lord for direction for His church. Too long we have followed trends while ignoring the personal approach to finding out God's direction for ministry and, for that matter, our own personal lives too. One-on-one time with God has been replaced by ministry "think tank" meetings to figure out the next new thing in order to "wow" the church world and then use it to draw in new people.

Let's make this even deeper yet............

----How often do you spend a significant amount of time talking to God and finding out about His direction about anything?

----How about your church? When is the last time your church called for a season of prayer to find God’s direction?

----Pastor, when is the last time you and your staff stayed before God until you heard from Him?

----Youth Pastor, who is giving you direction for your ministry to teens?

Where are the people that are willing to go spend time before God and listen to what He says before pursuing a new path?

God is probably more interested in us following His paths than we are. He is very willing to show them to us, but how often are we going to Him in order to listen?

Going to God for directions and following the Holy Spirit are more than just good ideas, they are critical to the Body of Christ.

How we approach and run ministry affects thousands of lives all over this country. Not only that, but we will give an account to God for how we train people in our churches to follow Him.

This is some serious stuff........

Sometimes I find myself looking at the whole picture of religion and asking, "Where is God"? (Like in the old "Where's Waldo" pictures.)

Lots of things resemble Him............ but are not really Him.

The simplicity of being filled with the Holy Spirit and working in His power will cure the problems plaguing the church of any generation. Jesus started the church with the Holy Spirit and His power. Maybe we ought to lay aside all the “tweaks” that Satan has placed on that idea and go back to the original plan.

Do you have faith enough for the journey?  It takes determination to follow the Lord’s direction and flow against what just sounds good. None of us are immune to laying aside the truth and following Satan’s adjustments to it.

Just ask Eve.......

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Check out this truth....

Joshua 1:7-8 NLT

8  Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.

9  This is My command--be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

Humbly Submitted,

Dan