Aren't We Seeking To Sanctify Our Greed?

The lack or near absence of expositional preaching in our churches gives a cause for concern. Week after week, many Christians are bombarded with all manner of fancy messages ranging from the sentimental to rhapsodic outbursts and to creepy fear mongering about witches and other adversaries in the spiritual realm.

As can be expected, many of these fancy beliefs usually lack any solid biblical basis but rests heavily on the dreams and visions of the man of God. Though some attempt to establish a link between these beliefs and the bible, such connections tend to be rather lose at best or a downright misreading and misinterpretation of the biblical text. Simply put, most of these so called ‘revelations’ are nothing but impressions (hopefully, godly ones, in which case they’re acceptable) or a product of their hyper active imaginations.

One can list a litany of reasons for this lack of expositional preaching where the pastor leads the congregation in the diligent study of the scriptures in their proper context while showing other possible practical applications for living arising from the study. Among the many reasons that can be cited for this unfortunate phenomenon is the increasing demand by the congregation to hear ‘nice things’ instead of the plain biblical truth. This unhealthy craving manifests itself in many forms depending on the demographic of the congregation among other factors.

For the polished and elitist Christians, this phenomenon usually takes the form of a motivational speech where the pastor is usually expected to unravel certain mysterious secrets of success which have eluded the common people for so long. Hence, the pastor’s major task is to help his congregation attain the pinnacle of their financial and economic achievements. The message delivery style is usually pompous with the aim of giving it a novel feel though in fact these ‘secrets’ are nothing more than a rehash of some elements of Eastern Mysticism given a little twist through the use of Christian terminology.

For the zealous and usually restless young Christians, the demand manifests itself in the form of spiritual warfare with the aim of attaining the status and comforts of the polished Christians. The delivery style of such message is usually akin to a harangue that incites an intense martial psyche in the congregation. Hence it is not uncommon to find such congregation all sweaty and busily engaged in very loud prayers with thunderous tongues amid firing of spiritual antiballistic missiles and bazookas aimed at their numerous enemies and the many unseen territorial and marine spirits. To such people prayer is literally a fight hence such titles as ‘prayer warriors.’

A lot more could be said but the upshot of the above is to show that many pastors today are being forced to pander to our unholy demand to satisfy our soulish desires thus turning them into sanctified con men, refusal of which will result in losing a majority of the congregation to the next church down the road.

Though this phenomenon isn’t entirely new it s nonetheless damnable! This attitude is typical of the Israelites when they sought an alliance with Egyptians against God’s orders. “They tell my prophets, “Shut up – we don’t want any more of your reports!” or they say, “Don’t tell us the truth; tell us nice things; tell us lies. Forget all this gloom; we’ve heard more than enough about your ‘Holy One of Israel’ and all he says.” Isa.30:10 – 11 TLB

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Such is the stubborn rebellion we are displaying in the sight of God as we are (unwittingly?) forcing our pastors to tickle our fancy! Doesn’t this attitude betray our lack of repentance showing how we (the congregation) may not be truly converted but are just seeking to use God and Christianity as a means to our selfish ends? Aren’t we only seeking to sanctify our greed?

Let us beware and repent of our soulish ways and set our affections on God lest we become like the people the scriptures warn about who “…go around looking for teachers who will tell them just what they want to hear. They won’t listen to what the Bible says but will blithely follow their own misguided ideas.” 2Tim.4:3 – 4 TLB. We ought also to pray for our pastors for the boldness to proclaim God’s unadulterated truth unashamedly at all times especially at the threat of loss and intense persecution.