The last week has been pretty interesting for our daughter, Cayden.  Her ears were pierced nearly six months ago and the piercings are doing great.  However, she then developed an infected hair follicle behind her left lobe, which caused her ear to swell and retain fluid.  After several trips to the doctor, her ear is now responding well to an antibiotic ointment and is on its way to perfect health.  Still, the dressing of the wound is quite eventful.  As we clean the wound and apply the ointment, you’d think that we were sawing her ear off with a rusty knife.  By her own admission, it doesn’t necessarily hurt but she just doesn’t like the application.

I’ve been fortunate to spend the last 15 years of my life in full-time pastoral ministry.  Having been a Student Pastor and a Senior Pastor, I’ve come to understand that there are basically two different groups in the modern-day church.  There are those who appreciate the unfiltered Word of God and desire to hear it preached without compromise.  Unfortunately, there is another group that simply tolerates the truth of God until it makes them uncomfortable on a personal level.

This fact should come as no surprise.  The Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”  Paul was warning Timothy that the church would one day reach a point in which error and deception would infiltrate the hearts and minds of God’s people thereby corrupting the lives of believers.

Our society is bathed in compromise and tolerance.  Many people have determined in their heart that there are ways to improve on the Word of God and the truth that was revealed to the writers of Scripture by the Holy Spirit.  Paul was clear that the deceptive teachers would not be sent by God but would be invented by those who seek a personalized gospel.  The margin between the truth of God and this custom message is apparent.

All across this nation, we are now hearing reports of so-called ministers declaring to their congregations that the once-forbidden act of consuming alcohol held by former saints was extreme at best and ridiculous in its context.  Shacking up (living together before marriage) is now widely accepted as an economic alternative between friends.  America not only tolerates homosexuality but takes great pride in the approval of individuals who live this lifestyle and encourages them to be married, raise adopted children and even serve as spiritual role models in a pulpit.  We now hear assumed men of God promote a lazy Christianity in which the believer is rarely required to take inventory of their life and allow the Holy Spirit to remove certain behaviors and attitudes.

But the margin is not always so gaping and wide.  Sometimes it’s “the little foxes that spoil the vine” (Song of Solomon 2:15).  The modern-day church has been overtaken with individuals who feel that the gospel of Jesus Christ should be reduced to an all-tolerant message of mercy that overlooks the dangerous operations of demonic spirits in the church.  Let me explain.  The Bible teaches that the works of the flesh are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness (unbridled sensuality / excess), idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance (contention / strife), emulations (jealousy), wrath, strife, seditions (uproar / dissension), heresies (false doctrine), envyings, murders, drunkenness, and revellings (excessive pleasure or delight).  Paul said in Galatians 5 that “they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21).

I’m sure that somewhere along the way, someone has concluded that I preach too hard.  But what most people don’t understand is that, without the true Word of God being applied to our lives, families, churches and communities, there is no blessing, no favor, and no hope of ever being what God has destined each of us to be.  No one can deny that the Word of God is sharp and can be tough to swallow.  But the fact remains that we absolutely must have the medicine if we want to be healed.

I believe that God desires to send His glory back to the church.  But, as we see in Galatians 5, we must embrace the Word of God and accept the Holy Spirit’s diagnosis if we seek to be healthy.  According to Paul’s words, we have to stop talking about each other.  We must refrain from allowing our hearts to be filled with anger and jealousy against our brothers and sisters.  It’s the only way.

I remember my entrance interview in 1998 as I began my ministry.  I was asked by a member of our State Licensing Board why I wanted to be a minister.  I first gave the obvious answer as I shared with him the unavoidable call that God had placed on my life.  But I then said something that surprises me to this day.  At 19 years of age, I provided a stern answer to this all-important question.  I simply said, “I feel that God has called me to minister to the American church because people come to service multiple times each week thinking they’re ok…when in reality, they’re on their way to hell.”  I’ll never forget that moment.

In Revelation 3, Jesus is dictating the words that will be placed in a letter by John and sent to the church at Laodicea.  This is that letter…

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (Revelation 3:14-22)

As Jesus stated in the letter, the preaching of the truth is not meant to create open wounds of hurt feelings and condemnation.  The truth is sent to heal, to restore and renew.  The Psalmist said, “He sent his word, and healed them.”  Jesus simply wanted to apply the eyesalve so that those who were blind might see.  It’s interesting that so many people feel that the preaching of God’s Word brings harm and damage when, in reality, the Holy Spirit is simply trying to dry up our infections.  Could it be possible that the Word of God doesn’t hurt as much as we think it does?  It might just be that we simply don’t like the application.

Pastor Jeremy