17 March 2008
Reverence — Part 2
Courage or Arrogance?
In case you missed out on part one of this deal, you might want to read this before reading today’s post.
One of Satan’s primary M.O.’s is to counterfeit things. It’s even one of the many names he’s given in scripture. Satan is the great Counterfeiter.
And what does he counterfeit, you say?
Just about everything pure and good. And it isn’t even that hard. Over the melenia he’s found a twin for just about anything you can imagine.
Here are a few:
- For patience he’s come up with procrastination.
- Passion has several—anger, lust, blind zeal.
- love/lust
- kindness/duty
- holiness/legalism
- obedience/rules-following
- solitude/aloneness
- purity/piety
Notice how some of the counterfeits aren’t even bad things in and of themselves? For example, a sense of duty isn’t bad. Anger can actually be a good thing. And although rigid rules-followers can seem a bit goody 2 shoes at times, you can hardly fault them for trying to do what’s right. However, when any of Satan’s counterfeit deals are used in place of the real deal from God, the results aren’t good. Isn’t that ironic? That good can be bad?
Put another way, the counterfeit can be a good thing at times, but it’s never the best thing.
In continuing our series on “Reverence—the missing piece,” I want to focus in on the counterfeit ‘bait and switch’ that’s been pulled on a lot of pastors today.
Let’s face it, over the last few decades you can’t have missed the absence of fiery, courageous preachers of old. I mean, where are the Charles Spurgeons and the John Wesleys? When was the last time you heard anything like Jonathan Edward’s message, ‘Sinners in the hands of an angry God?’
True, the way he (Jonathan Edwards) delivered his sermons would likely fall on deaf ears today, but that’s a matter of relevance and style rather than truth and content. It would take a great deal of courage to blow the dust off that 200 plus, year old sermon and deliver it to a postmodern audience.
Yep, that’s courage!
But plowing ahead with your ‘holy ghost machine gun’ (as I heard one TV evangelist say) isn’t courage. It’s arrogance. Some of the most gifted preachers in recent memory are on the scene right now, but, sadly, some of them are in it for themselves—to pump up their own name instead of making the name of Jesus famous.
That’s a bad idea, and God is not pleased with that kind of leadership. You can read about it here, and here, and here, here, here, and here. I don’t know about you, but I’m sensing a theme here.
God lifts up the humble and supports them, but He stands opposed to the arrogant.
Christ followers need to be ever mindful of this.
And pastors aren’t exempt. We can learn a lot from this simple truth from the one who ‘prepared the way’ for the coming of the Lord—John the Baptist.
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:20
3 Comments currently posted.
Lance Ratliff says:
Curt says:
Rob, I must admit that I have never listened to any of your messages, which I will need to do very soon. I just grabbed your blog off a friend of mines blog page. So, you need to understand that I don’t know you very well. I do agree that reverence is very much lacking in many pulpits today. However, I must also agree with your answer to my comment on Reverence part 1 regarding confusing reverence with being cowardly. Many, many pastors would chose to keep people happy over speaking the truth, and I think that the irreverence we see today in many pulpits today is an over reaction to this cowardice leadership seen by many young pastors as they have aged and began to understand the lack of tenacity by their own home pastors. I do believe that this irreverent attitude comes from good intentions, but so does the passive leadership that comes from trying to keep people happy. So neither extreme is right. We as pastor’s need to speak truth in love. Oh how easy that is to say, but to do that….speak truth in love…..it takes constant prayer and truly laying down one’s own desire and pride in order to truly discover God’s life changing message that He has chosen us to carry to this world. Irreverence….nope, not good at all. Passivity….nope, not good either. We need to fall right in the middle, but the only problem is that it’s a constant balancing act, and if you lose focus for just one second, you’ll fall off. The reality is that it’s very difficult to stay focused, but it is even more difficult to get back on the high wire after you fall off. Thanks for not being a coward Rob, and for remaining reverent too.
In Christ,
Curt Hanna
Josh Via says:
Great blog series, Rob. I think a lot of us need to hear it. I know I do. I think the tendency, like Curt said, is to swing the pendulum the other way in response to the passivity and laziness that is so prevalent from the pulpit all the way down to the pew. The truth is, ours is a generation of do-nothings, but say-everythings. I think Dave Hickman, over at CharlotteONE, said it well, “We are a generation that wants to critique everything, but do nothing.” He’s right. And I think one of the most common forms of critique taking shape these days is through blogging. I’ve been challenged and reminded lately through you and several godly men, including J.D. Greear (whom I also think strikes that delicate balance that Curt mentioned), not to use one’s blog platform (or whatever platform God gives you) as a critical soapbox to take jabs at other believers, churches, ministries, denominations, etc. Instead, I want it to be a place, a column, an avenue, a resource and a source of encouragement, edification and challenge to believers and unbelievers alike. Those are my thoughts, anyway.
In a me first world, John 3:20 hits you right where it hurts.