Before Jesus left this earth on a cloud and ascended back to His Father, He had told his Apostles something essential for the survival of the Church which is the Bride of Christ on the earth. Before He left, He told His Apostles this: He said, “All authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”
Jesus told Christians of all generations to “Go.” We are to go and tell people about Him and God’s plan for their eternal home. We are to teach them what God has done for them for the salvation of their souls. We are to baptize them which is a public affirmation of our commitment to Him. “Going” is a critical part of what we are suppose to do. We are to permeate our world with the good news of the Gospel in an effort to be used by the Holy Spirit as an element of their redemption, (Salvation). God uses human beings in order to bring other human beings to the point of salvation. He does not send an angel to witness to them about being saved for they do not need to be saved. But, human beings need to be saved because we are sinners and our sin needs to be covered by the blood of Jesus.
One of the major problems in our churches of today which should be overcome is that there is too much focus on the members and how they feel and not enough focus on following the command of Jesus when He told us to “go.” In preaching to many, many churches over the last several years, I have discovered that churches are trying to meet every felt need of their congregants but the one that will result in more people coming to Christ. I have often asked if a certain church has a visitation program through which they reach people with the Word of salvation through Jesus and I am almost always told that they do not have such a program in their church. Every church wants to grow and see people saved and become a part of their fellowship.
There is more to it than most church members realize. Many times, when someone is praying in one of these churches in which I am preaching, they will say something like this: “Father, bless our church. Please bring some people to worship with us and be a part of our fellowship. We are trusting in you to grow our church. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” And, therein lies the problem and the answer as to why so many churches are dwindling and dying on the vine. They want God to do it all and they pass the job on to Him when His plan is to use humans in the church to be the bearers of the Good news and witness to people. But, you see, the problem is that maintaining a witnessing program is work. It is a lot of work and people don’t want to work. They just want it to be done for them by God Himself. God tells us to “go” and the modern church wants them to “come” with little effort on the Church’s part. It goes something like this: “We are going to make things so appealing to the world that they will want to come to our church. We don’t have to “go”, they will “come.” Give them enough fun, entertainment and light preaching and they will make a bee-line to our door. Then we can preach to them. Sorry, won’t work if you are wanting to produce quality Christians who are committed to Christ and desirous to live a Christian life. The world’s way produces attendees that will swap horses in the middle of the creek if someone across town starts doing things that, in the eyes of people, are a lot more pleasing to them. The Church needs preaching first of all and good churches filled with dedicated people will be the result.
Our churches of today are focused inward in an effort to please themselves rather than focusing outward in an effort to be a part of winning people to the Lord. Millions of dollars are spent on making sure that the people “like” what they are experiencing at worship. If they like what they see and feel at church, they will keep coming thereby keeping money and numbers as high as possible. Now, I know people will not want to admit what I’m saying is true because to do so will cause them to have to admit that the church of today, by and large ,is failing to do what Jesus told us to do. Everyone wants to say that they are a part of a “Bible believing, Bible preaching, God honoring church, but then, if they are honest, they have to admit that they are abandoning an essential as prescribed by the Lord. And it is a critical essential that our churches return to an earlier day and again become vitally involved in witnessing to the lost. That will assure that more people are exposed to the Truth after which they are far more likely to give their heart and life to Christ and become saved.
I used to be shocked when a church would tell me that they formally had a visitation program but no more. It is now a rarity to find a fellowship that invests time in reaching out to the lost in an effort to save them. Today’s approach is to offer such a tantalizing worship experience that people just can’t wait to get to the church to be entertained and pleased with what they are seeing and hearing. They feel that they are saved if they attend such a church.
An offshoot of this approach is that a focus on good, Biblical preaching is being neglected. Slowly but surely sermons have degenerated to “feel good” presentations and shallow preaching of the text which last not over twenty or twenty-five minutes. Crucial issues are too controversial for many preachers today. They might make someone mad and then they might leave our church. If that happens then there can be no bragging on numbers and money. Heaven forbid the preacher might deal with a controversial subject. That is something of the past. The new approach aims to please instead of confronting people with the convicting truth about sin. The presence of a true prophet is being traded for a “preacher” that cares more about himself and his record than he does about anything else.
Some preachers are depending on downloading sermons from another minister and preaching them as if they were they were their own. In this new day of AI a new and astounding thing is now in vogue by a growing group of preachers. They tell AI a sermon topic, supply a few details and maybe some scripture, and then AI will write a sermon for them. The good people do not know this is happening but it is. So, artificial intelligence is producing what the people think is a sermon given to their pastor by the Holy Spirit when in effect it is generated by “artificial” intelligence and presented as a message from God. God will not honor such an activity. Why is this happening? Too many men are in a “job”, not a ministry designated to them by God. They are professionals who are too lazy to spend time developing a sermon from their own heart and mind under God’s guidance.
It is no wonder that a church led by such people will turn to everything and anything to draw a crowd instead of working at their calling (if they have one) to lead the people into something so time consuming and difficult as administering a vital visitation program to reach people for Christ. So, what happens, they Abandon an Essential and try to make up for it by doing things which will make people desire to come and be entertained with a little sermonette attached. Going into the world confronting people with the Gospel is old fashioned but it is an elemental essential from the Lord given to us in the Bible, God’s Word.
My desire is to see more churches focusing on the right and essential things of our faith. When we do, the Lord will bless us and more people will come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. This can and will happen when we cease to Abandon an Essential…..the essential of witnessing to the lost.
WFH…7-11-2025
