WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE GREAT COMMISSION?

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The Great Commission, that is, the making of disciples of all nations by going, baptizing, and teaching them to obey all that Christ commands us, has been pushed aside as the church scrambles after various social and political causes to make itself relevant.

People in churches are seeing and hearing virtually everything else except their need for repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and what life really submitted to Jesus Christ really looks like. They are being taught to look to external measures to solve issues in our world, rather than asking the Holy Spirit (the third person of the Trinity) who is our counsellor, teacher, and comforter. Jesus made it clear that what He accomplished for us on The Cross was life-changing. He made it possible for our Heavenly Father to send the Holy Spirit to enable us to live the Christian life. Proverbs 20:27 tells us that our Spirit was always meant to be the lamp of the Lord which requires oil, the Holy Spirit to function as God intended.

The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts. Proverbs 20:27

Instead of people hearing that the problem of mankind is endemic—that each individual is culpable for their own sin before a holy and just Lord, they hear that the largest issue of our day is systemic racism (Critical Race Theory and Black Lives Matter). Instead of recognizing issues bound within homes due to selfishness and fatherlessness many wish to relegate issues to a lack of money, education, or healthcare. Instead of shunning every instance of sexual immorality, impurity, and sensuality, our culture and entertainment promote them as exciting and desirable.

The natural result is half the populace is confused about what the gospel is, with roughly another half confused about how the gospel applies to all of life. The second group wants a seat at the table in the cultural marketplace. Nearly ten years ago Carl Trueman challenged the Reformed world with these words: “…the beautiful young things of the reformed renaissance have a hard choice to make in the next decade. You really do kid only yourselves if you think you can be an orthodox Christian and be at the same time cool enough and hip enough to cut it in the wider world. Frankly, in a couple of years, it will not matter how much urban ink you sport, how much fair trade coffee you drink, how many craft brews you can name, how much urban gibberish you spout, how many art house movies you can find that redeemer figure in, and how much money you divert from gospel preaching to social justice: maintaining biblical sexual ethics will be the equivalent in our culture of being a white supremacist.”

Peruse any Reformed group on Facebook and you’ll see that these words are equally as applicable as they were when Trueman first gave them, which means they’ve been largely unheeded. Even many who hold strictly to their confessional documents are wildly inconsistent with a rigorous Christian worldview. Simply ask a piece of basic advice and see how many different prospective teachers offer up counsel that is not only unbiblical but often anti-biblical.

Obviously, this is not all Reformed Christians, nor all Evangelicals for that matter, but I have to wonder at what point people will stop scratching their heads when they see surveys that reveal most people don’t “get” the gospel. At what point, will people drop the convenient talking points and blame-shifting, and take a long, hard look at what has happened? Proper discipleship still demands a comprehensive biblical worldview born out of the gospel. Therefore, we now need to target those in our churches who reject parts of the Biblical worldview for whatever reason. We need to focus our efforts and funds on the proclamation of the gospel.

How many young people in the Reformed island of conservative Christianity are wedded to degenerate worldviews opposed to that of the Bible and enjoying it? How many of them no longer believe that the proclamation of the gospel is the primary mission of the church? How many of them are lying to themselves about why the majority of people in the broader church cannot articulate a saving gospel?

Jesus told us that in the last days there will be a great falling away (apostasy) in the church. This is evident now even in Reformed and Evangelical circles.

TRUE GOSPEL VERSUS FALSE GOSPEL

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Torben gives a much needed warning to the church: Are you preaching a false Gospel? Where is the repentance? Where is the real meaning of baptism taught – dying to self, alive in Christ? Where is the discernment of Spirits and the casting out of demons?

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

He reveals how misguided many of the leaders of the charismatic movement in the USA have been and still are.

“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” Matthew 7:22-23

What we are seeing in the church is exactly what Jesus told His disciples would happen in the last days prior to His return – apostasy, compromising with the world and its values, a falling away, false prophets that tickle the ears of their followers.

DYING TO SELF; TRULY BORN AGAIN

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This is one of the most needed sermons for the church, particularly the denominational church in our day. In the age of “selfies”, this generation is more focused on me than any in my lifetime, and my lifetime now spans three generations. Yes! my eldest son is a grandfather.

Francis Chan recognises we are in the last days: unless Christians are truly born again of the Holy Spirit (died to self), they will fall away when prophesied persecution of Christians intensifies.

Each of us needs to obey God and use the gifts He has given us to bless the church and take the Gospel to their world.

Please share this sermon by Francis Chan to challenge and hopefully bless many.

SAVING POWER OF JESUS CHRIST – POWERFUL TESTIMONY

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As the victorious South African national rugby team prepare to return home to a hero’s welcome, one player’s life story has captured the world’s imagination.  Captain, Siya Kolisi has been on an extraordinary journey.  Growing up in an extremely poor township outside Port Elizabeth, his mother died when he was just 15 years old and his family struggled to get him a decent education.

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  Captain, Siya Kolisi

 “Sometimes we didn’t have enough money to pay my primary school fees of R50 ($4) a year,” Siya said.  Relying solely on his talent and a relentlessly positive attitude, Siya was eventually scouted for his athletic talent after being spotted playing a sports game with his friends.

He earned a scholarship to the prestigious Grey High School in Port Elizabeth.  The rest was history.  Fast forward to Tokyo and this extraordinary player, the first black man to captain the South African national team, was lifting the Webb Ellis trophy aloft, his proud family watching on.  

Speaking to SportGo Mag just prior to the World Cup, the rugby star opened up about how the Lord had been getting him ready for the big stage by refining his character.  “God has been preparing me for such a time as this,” he said.  “While struggling with a lot of things personally, temptation, sins and lifestyle choices, I realised I wasn’t living according to what I was calling myself: a follower of Christ.  I was getting by, but I hadn’t decided to fully commit myself to Jesus Christ and start living according to His way.”

Kolisi continued: “Something I was struggling with in my personal life was suddenly exposed to the public (God will do this to cause us to make a decision). I knew I either had to change my life, or lose everything. Up until then everything I was fighting against was hidden, but when my sin was exposed I decided to lose my life and find it in Christ.  Walking alongside a spiritual mentor, I’ve been able to discover the saving power of Christ in a whole new way.  This new life has given me a peace I’ve never experienced before.  Now that I have given everything to God, nothing else affects me.  I now live and play with the freedom of knowing His plan will always happen, and at the end of the day, that’s all I care about!”

WANT TO BE USED BY GOD? THEN DIE TO SELF

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Pat and Karen Schatzline are international evangelists and authors who co-lead Remnant Ministries International and the I Am Remnant Movement. This passage is an excerpt from their book Rebuilding the Altar (August 1, 2017)

God is Calling Hungry Hearts to the Altar in This Season say Pat and Karen Schatzline

God’s call requires a response as it takes you on an adventure in faith, freedom, authority, wisdom, blessing, spiritual identity, and dying to self. 

The monumental journey of writing this book (Rebuilding the Altar) began late one night roughly 20 years ago following a discussion about the altar. In May 1997, we were youth pastors at Calvary Assembly of God in Decatur, Alabama. The church and the youth ministry were in a state of revival. We were young pastors at the time, and we were zealous to see God pour out His Spirit in north Alabama. Secretly, though, something was stirring within us. We realised later that God was getting ready to move us to the next level, and part of His process was to create this stirring in our spirits. What used to satisfy our spirit just wasn’t working anymore.

I (Pat) remember praying early one morning in the living room of our small condo. As I lay there, I suddenly saw a vision of King David carrying the ark of the covenant back to Israel. I said, “Lord, why am I seeing this?” He replied, “Son, I am asking you and Karen to carry My mercy seat back to America.” I knew in that moment that God was calling us to be evangelists.

In fact, until 2015 our ministry was called Mercy Seat Ministries. We changed the name to Remnant Ministries International in 2015 after a new revelation came to us. As I lay on the floor praying that morning, our son, who was five at the time, came and lay on the floor beside me. “Daddy,” he said, “why do you cry all the time?”

I smiled at him and replied, “Because Daddy hurts for this generation.”

Suddenly the Lord spoke to me again. He said, “Son, you weep because you are mourning your own death.”

“Lord,” I replied, “what do You mean?”

“What I mean is this,” God replied. “If I am going to use you and Karen, you must die to everything. You must build Me an altar.”

Together we have travelled more than two million miles to the four corners of the earth. We have seen hundreds of thousands saved, renewed, filled with the Spirit and healed. It has not been easy, but we have been kept by God’s presence, which we experience only by being obedient to meet Him at the altar.

We are known for giving altar calls at our meetings, and we have seen thousands touched and transformed at the altar. Yet many have abandoned that place of surrender and obedience. The altars of our churches have become the steps by which man ascends the platform rather than the place to learn to walk in God’s steps! Sadly, we now live in a day when God would be treated as a stranger if He were to show up in many of our churches.

If we are to experience the trans-formative power of God, we must return to the altar. When Jesus stretched out His arms on the cross, He was telling mankind, “Now you can have access to meet with God!” Jesus’ entire ministry on earth was established so that we could have direct access to heaven.

Do not read this if you are satisfied with a life of spiritual mediocrity, which will, in turn, cause God to simply be a stranger when you arrive to meet Him in heaven. God’s call requires a response as it takes you on an adventure in faith, freedom, authority, wisdom, blessing, spiritual identity and dying to self. Although we will discuss the physical church altar, this call of God is about a personal and deep encounter with the One who hung between the thieves. It is at the altar of the cross that we once again desire to see God more than we desire people, platforms or plaudits, where we become plaintiffs in the courts of heaven and not defendants in the inner circle of the religious.

This is not a call for the satisfied or those who recoil at the thought of God invading their space. It is a call to hungry hearts, a call to the realisation that the ultimate altar was a cross that held the jewel of heaven (Heb. 10:12–13).

Are you willing to run, walk or even crawl back to the place where your freedom awaits, to lay aside the day-to-day, nonstop busyness and dust off the altar of encounter? If so, then you might just be a prime candidate to become what we call “the altared  “—those who have realised that without a daily encounter with God, life will never be complete. The altared have experienced Psalm 32:7, and that is their cry: “You are my hiding place.”

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