Reflections from the Joel Osteen outreach

2 Timothy 4:3-4 (New King James Version)

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables



This is a truth that we have a hard time with. I admit that on some level I do. We think "oh, if they only really knew what he was teaching," or we say "they are just decieved and don't know any better." Now, both of these statements are true, but, this portion of scripture states that those who heap up false teachers, WANT TO LISTEN TO THEM. It's kind of like the fact that men are spiritually dead, but God holds those dead men responsible for their sin. On some level, it doesn't make sense humanly speaking, but the real question is what does Gods Word say and there we find the perfect answer and understanding.

I was very excited to be joined by a family in our church. They brought all their kids and they had a great time. We handed out all our material within 25 minutes. I had 200 kirk cameron cd's, another friend had 200 paul washer cd's. I had 250 tracts for the occasion and they all were given away. It is so easy to hand out things at a "Christian" event.

In reflecting on this passage as I was there, it made me look diffrently at people. A local word of faith minister attended and I got to preach to him. As I saw him I thought, based on the scripture, He wants to be hear hearing a gushy gospel. He doesn't want to be at a place right now that is properly expositing the scripture, he wants to be here. That really changes your perspective.

One man was trying to defend Joel osteen and we told him about the larry king live interview where joel answers every single question with "I don't know." The man was actually startled and asked where to get it. We told him to go on youtube and seee for himself. I handed a CD to a lady carrying a MacArthur study bible and I thought lady you couldn't have 2 teachers so far from one another. I wonder if she read the notes when joel mentioned verses.

The best part of the night for me was the open air preaching. I had the stool and we were right in front of the line and they could clearly hear us. I preached on suffering. The word of faith movement widely believes that the atonement paid for physical suffering and that it is not normal for a christian to suffer. I preached passages from peter and mentioned Job alot. As I reflected on the open air later, here are a few thoughts, and i understand that those reading this may not agree with open air. Picture this, I am on a box, in front of a crowd and Im being clearly heard. I am raising my voice so they can hear, not yelling, and not yelling "your going to hell, sinner" in an unreasonable way. What im preaching are the scriptures and the proper interpretation of scripture. When they hear me and snark, they are not snarking at me, they are mocking God.

Now you may not agree with open air, but if you were in line at an event downtown and a man got on a box and preached the gospel in a fair and balanced way, you would at the least say "I don't like the method, but he is preaching truth." You wouldn't snark and make fun. You wouldn't curse at the guy, you wouldn't find a way to mock him. Thats what they did to me. I saw it on their faces and heard it in their snickers, But as I said, I read and preached the scriptures. Gods word is what says we will suffer. You can disagree with me all day long, but when a man reads the word of god and you disagree, your a hating God.

My motive for the preaching was so that Gods word would be heard, in hope that they would think about it and look it up. You can go hear a man talk about health, wealth and abundance all day long, but when you come back to reality, when you come back to the real world where jobs are being lost, where cancer and disease are ravaging human life, where wicked men do business for dishonest gains, where suffering is real then the only thing that stands true is the Word of God. My desire it to lift him up, not me. To preach a Gospel centered around Jesus Christ, and to do nothing but magnify him and make him known.

Pray for those who are decieved by men like this, and do something about it. That coworker reading those bad "christian" books, talk to that coworker. That family member trusting in religion, share the Good news with them. Those strangers in your community running as fast as they can toward false teachers, do something. In reference to evangelism Charles spurgeon said "Do something, Do something, Do something."

Monday

Something happened to me this week that I never thought would happen. I want to share it with you in hopes that you would be blessed and pray for me. It was Monday Morning. I went to the A/C supply house to fax my paperwork and get supplies for the day. As I was talking with the counter guys, they asked a question and I began whining and complaining about things in the company. You know what I mean, how the office and its procedures aren't the best, yada yada yada. I went on for about 12 minutes. Another Employee of mine came in. He was on call and I asked him about the weekend. I complained to him a little and then he said to me "did you hear about our salesman this weekend?" I didn't. Immideately I went into gossip mode. "Did he quit, did they fire him?"

My coworker responded "He Died saturday." My heart sank in a way I have never felt. This man was about 55 years old. He was my service manager at one time and I called him for alot of technical questions. He was always polite and a really nice guy. He then became a salesman and we spoked frequently. I would write up repairs and replacements and he would call me about them to get details.

I didn't believe this man to be a christian, and I never shared the gospel with him. Monday morning was a life changing experience. I hear in sermons how life change drastically at a moment in time, but ive never really experienced that. I never thought it would happen to me. The sadness and guilt I felt was tremendous. I was intensely sad to the point of tears over his death and extremely guilty because I had many oppurtunities and I never opened my mouth.

Something a christian brother said disturbed me. He said "you know, because God is sovereign, that means it wasn't a part of Gods plan for you to share with him." He said this to comfort me and I appreciate his effort, but this saying has bad implications. I would agree that God Deecreed and allowed me NOT to share with him. But the main point is this, Does the scripture command me to share or not to share? The reaveled will of God in his word Is that I should have.

The scripture is also clear that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us. I belive that and I have asked God to forgive me and this is also a new day, another chance, and another oppurtunity. I also am NOT denying the eternal security of a believer. I am speaking about the Christian responsibility aspect. I share this with you in hopes that you would learn from this. Last year I had 5 people in my circle of friends who had friends die that they didn't share the gospel with and they felt so guilty. I never thought it happen to me.

One more little note. I have gotten squishy at work in general. I have been waiting for light to shine down from heaven and somebody to drop on their knees and ask me how to get to heaven rather than obeying Gods word and speaking the gospel with those that I love. If you open your new testament to the Gospels, in the context of Jesus and the relationships he makes (Yes I do believe relationships are important), Jesus is ALWAYS speaking truth. We never see him just talking about the weather with folks. This honestly is a convicting word to me. I heard a sermon recently with a man talking Jesus making relationships and I thought to my self that we never see Jesus making a relationship and sometime down the road speak truth. We never see him going on and on with lost buddies about politics and the weather. He is speaking truth all the time. Im not saying its sinful and wrong to speak about the ball game with lost friends, Im just saying we have to deal with the text honestly. Its my goal next year as I begin the NT again to take a closer look and jesus and his relationships, becuase our model of be friendly with somebody, talk about the weahter and such for a time, and later down the road share truth is not biblical.

Thank you for reading this. I would encourage to reach out to those around you that you haven't shared with. You may wake up one morning and there gone. Go serve your King.

A Few Rambles

1. We are told in scripture that we must contend earnestly for the faith and call out false teachers. How should we do this in a local community? Example: lets say im a member of the first baptist in a community and there is another baptist church that embraces worldly phsycology, misinterprets the scripture through terrible topical preaching, and doesn't talk about sin. How should we deal with that in a community? I Don't know the answer, just askig the question.

2. you know, i see the point to some degree about women preachers. Now I believe they are wrong for having them, but think of this, If you interpret the headcovering thing as cultural and women staying silent in church as cultural, well you might as well interpret pauls command for women not to teach as cultural too. I personally have never been given a reasonable explanation for headcoverings being cultural. You may disagree with me, lets hug and not draw swords on that issue.

3. How dogmatic should we be about expositional preching? Im convinced through Experience it is a better diet than topical, but I don't know exactly how dogmatic we should be about it. I just don't want to go around being dogmatic when I don't have a bible verse to back it up.