I want to go in a little different direction as we
continue on this series of what it means to be a Baptist, we
went through the entire acronym of what the Baptist distinctives
are and then we talked about what, you know, we talked about
what makes a Baptist a Baptist. But then we talk specifically
about what it means to be an independent Baptist.
But we really were looking at that from the perspective of
somebody who is looking at it from the outside, looking in
somebody who is looking at the Independent Baptist Church, if
you will, but I want to sort of look at it from the perspective
of those on the Inside looking at ourselves for a couple of
weeks. And then we're going to move
into a different topic, a different series.
But second Timothy chapter 3, and verse number 10 will use as
a jumping-off point here tonight says this, but they'll has fully
known my Doctrine manner of life.
Purpose, Faith, long-suffering, charity patients persecutions
afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch at Iconium lystra,
what persecutions? I endured.
But out of them. All the Lord delivered me yea
and all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution, but evil men, and seducers shall wax worse and
worse deceiving and being deceived, but continue.
Thou in the things, which thou Hast learned and Hast been
assured of knowing of whom thou Hast learned them.
And that from a child thou Hast known the holy scriptures, which
are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which
is in Christ Jesus, all scripture is given by
inspiration of God and It is profitable for Doctrine for
reproof for correction for instruction, in righteousness.
That the man of God may be perfect throughly, furnished
unto all good works. Now, great passage.
And obviously, those last couple verses talk about what our basis
of everything we do ought to be, and of course, that is the word
of God. Everything we do ought to be
based on the word of God, but I think we look back at verse 10
and 11, really, though, verse 12 and 13.
And you see that that The Closer the Coming of Christ is and the
closer we get to his return, the closer we get to going home to
heaven, the more we're going to see people turning away from the
faith, more. We're going to see people
turning away from what they know to be right, or what they've
always taught and what they've always always learn and always
been taught and what Paul is telling Timothy in verse 14, and
in verse 15 is continue doing the things that you learned
because you learned them from the word of God.
Continue doing what you've done. Done because you know who you
learned them from and and, and you've seen that, you've seen
God work in your life. You seen God work in other
people's lives. Why would you change from the
from where you were and for some time now we had there's a
movement that's been growing among Independent Baptist that
would push the Independent Baptist Church in particular.
And I say that in a with a broad stroke but Independent Baptist
Church is In a contemporary direction.
And you know one of the things one of the beauties of the
Independent Baptist Church is where independent, right?
We're not we're not based basing what we do on something that
somebody in a hierarchy system tells us we have to do or
whatever else we do, we feel God wants us to do in this church
and other independent Baptists are free and have the freedom to
do, what they feel. God wants them to do and their
church. And we've talked about that a
lot because just because They have that freedom does not mean
that we have to fellowship with them if they're going in the
wrong direction. And that's what that's what
we're seeing really across the board.
In a lot of these Independent Baptist Churches, is this push
in a contemporary Direction, it's not just well, they do
things a little bit differently than we do.
It's a desire to move in that direction, and I think you could
arguably say that it's Loosely grouped around, Josh Tice, you
might not even a heard that name.
He's certainly not the first one that's ever gone in a
contemporary Direction, but he kind of made It mainstream.
He took what was? What was an independent Baptist
Church. His dad is a pretty well-known
relatively. Well known at least Independent
Baptist, pastor and has been for a long time and has always kind
of stood you know for the truth of the word of God and stood on
the King James Bible and stood for the things that
traditionally Independent Baptist and for and Josh Titus
really took all of those things and just completely went in the
opposite direction with him, still claims to be an
independent Baptist Church, and many people have asked him, why
are you independent? Obvious when you were not really
anything like Independent Baptist and he his answer is
well there's a lot of problems in the Independent Baptist
Church but there's a lot of problems in other denominations
to. So we're just going to stick to
being an independent Baptist, but it doesn't stand
traditionally for what Independent Baptist and for he
is one of the first ones, honestly, as an independent
Baptist to to start using a different version of the Bible.
Another one of the of the of the, you know, more mainstream
independent Baptists. Anyway, to start using the
contemporary music and the drums and all of that kind of stuff.
F in the in the church services. And so I'm not saying that he is
the leader but he's kind of the de facto head of this Neo
Independent Baptist because a lot of these young pastors are
following him. He has every year what's called
idea day. And he brings people from all
across the Spectrum from all different denominations and
brings them all together in his church and they have, you know,
just sharing of different ideas and things like that.
And so essentially, what ends up happening is your Crossing all
these different boundaries and you are your cross All these
different lines that should never be crossed.
And now, you becoming good friends with people who are in
these other denominations. And I'm not saying that you
cannot be friendly to these people who are in other
denominations. And I'm not saying that you
can't even be a friend to them, but when you become friends with
them, it becomes very hard for you to stand up against the
things that they are doing that are against the word of God and
this idea days really bring in a lot of that together.
But this movement and I mentioned it, but I've heard it
labeled the Neo Independent Baptist But it Embraces this
philosophy and and direction that really gives me.
Pause again, we don't have to agree with everybody and
everything but they're moving in that direction very quickly and
a lot of those that are coming out of this movement.
Many that honest are coming out of West Coast Baptist College.
I think Paul Chapel is the pastor of the church there and I
think Paul chapels church is pretty solid and has been for
quite some time. But you look at the product of
what In produced out of that college at almost every one of
them that's coming out of that college is running in a, in a
liberal contemporary Direction. So, you know, they're leaning in
that direction are gravitating for it but there's a whole host
of others that are doing the same thing.
And so the goal really of this, it's just going to be kind of a
short little series here a couple couple weeks, maybe
three. But the goal is really to
address the underlying errant philosophies that are driving
these people in that direction and and the approaches that
these Neo independent Baptists are taking.
And if we can't name it and point it out, then we can't
protect against it. And I'm not, you know, I'm not,
I'm not controversial, just for the sake of being controversial
and I don't like, I don't like confrontation and all that
stuff, but it's, it's, we are in danger of it.
Changing us completely as Independent Baptist, and we're
typically, you said, you were Independent Baptist.
It meant that you stood for something.
Now, It's got it's gotten to the point where it doesn't really
mean that anymore. Same way when it used to mean.
If you said you were Baptist that you stood for certain
things doesn't mean that anymore and it's sad to see it.
Moving in that direction, The Independent Baptist were
independent fundamental Baptist. We're literally independent,
fundamental Baptist for all the things that we talked about over
the last few weeks, we stood for the fundamentals of the faith,
and many are moving quickly away from that.
Now, let me give you a little bit of a background turn over to
Matthew chapter 22. But growing up, I was privileged
to attend an independent Baptist Church, an independent
fundamental Baptist Church. And from the time that I was
born until I was 23 years old, I went to the same church.
Dr. Roger vogon, was my pastor, he started for him, Baptist
church in Chesterton. Indiana in 1970 and within a
decade of the church being planted they had, they had seen
some tremendous growth and and to some, it was kind of
considered one of the leading churches in the in Independent
Baptist circles. But as a child, all I knew was
that of the Independent Baptist world, it was kind of a bubble
that I grew up in. I didn't know, there was
anything outside of that and I'm not saying that that's a bad
thing. I'm glad for that opportunity
when I when I calculate God's blessings on my life near the
top of that list is my upbringing and independent
fundamental Baptist Church. But I've read a lot of people, a
lot of books and things of people who look down on that and
some who even despise their independent Baptists Heritage
more and more. Are being written of people who
are escaping The Independent Baptist movement, and the
Duggars are kind of the newest addition to that crowd.
And, you know, I forget which one it is they all start with J
so or to think they do but there's like 40 of them but one
of the one of them is making the rounds.
Now, doing, all these interviews with all these talk show, you
know, liberal media talk show, host not even not in the
Christian world at all about how, you know, stifled Feeling
it was to be growing up in a home that had standards and that
stood on the King James and all of these other things and wrote
a book about it, making the rounds about how difficult it
was and how she found Grace. I find it so interesting that
the people who find the grace of God, really are just using that
as an excuse to drop all the standards that they grew up
with, it's amazing how that works.
But I read a book. It's been a couple of years ago
that I read it but it was and I wouldn't even recommend it for
the spirit of the author. But Called I fired, God.
It was a woman who actually grew up independent Baptists and her
husband actually, wrote a bunch of songs for the wilds, and
then, and then they left, they left the movement, got out of
it, you know, escaped in the middle of the night type thing.
You know, it's just it's amazing to me how these people, how
these people think, but I mean not only did she turn on
Independent Baptists? She turned on God.
She turned against everything that Is, you know, that is that
is right and good and everything else, wrote a book called I
fired, God. And I rarely, rarely have I ever
done this, but I threw the book away when I got finished reading
it, her spirit was just so horrible in the way that she
talked about all these things and, and but now let me pause
here and say that that some of these, some of these people have
legitimate reasons for feeling the way that they do.
And I do hurt for those who experience because there are
there has been many Independent Baptist Churches over the years.
Especially in the 70s and 80s and 90s who are horribly
mistreated people and should never have treated people the
way that they did and those people that were treated that
way, you know, I understand, even though obviously, you know,
I know people who were treated that way and are doing just fine
today. So you can use any excuse that
you want to to get away from God.
And that's really just what it is is an excuse.
But you know, Do they experience some kind of abuse or
manipulation or some other horrible experience within the
confines of an independent Baptist Church and that happened
a lot. And the sad thing is a lot of
that was covered up and a lot of it was swept under the rug or
they were just shuffled to another Independent Baptist
Church and and you know it was hidden and and and that's why I
made this very very clear in our workers training that we did a
couple weeks ago. That anything that happens
that's even remotely similar to that.
Here is going to be It's not going to be covered up and, and,
and we're going to protect our kids as much as we can, from any
of that kind of emotional abuse or physical abuse.
But I can say that, that was not my experience.
I didn't experience any of those things, I can't say that that's
the same for everybody that grew up in Fairhaven.
I don't know every one of their experiences, but I didn't
experience that at all and I'm, you know, Fairhaven, obviously
was not perfect during the formative years of my life.
In fact, there are, there are few things that I look back and
say that I'd probably never do that and And in our church.
But there are several things that made a profound impact on
me, then, and still shape who I am today.
One of them is that I was blessed to attend a church where
people loved God and each other. And that's significant because
Christ was asked in Matthew chapter 22 and verse number 36
Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law.
Verse 37. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
And with all thy mind, this is the first thing.
Right commitment and the second is like unto it.
Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thyself.
I think it's so funny that you know, this whole really the
lgbtq and all these other people in the crowd, you know.
They stick that verse out in their yard, Thou shalt love, thy
Neighbour as thyself and they completely ignore the rest of
the Bible, but it's true. It's an it is in the Bible.
Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thyself, right?
And who's your neighbor? It's not the person that just
lives right next door to you, on either side?
It's your fellow, man. It's your fellow Christians.
At your fellow. Whoa, everybody, right?
We ought to love people and I think we make a huge mistake
when we don't, but I was blessed to attend a church where people
love God and loved each other and love people and right along
with that, I was blessed to attend a church where Souls were
saved and baptized regularly and that makes a huge difference
Christ. Commissioned his church to go
into all the world and preach the gospel to Every Creature,
right? And then baptized them and help
them grow and disciple them. And of course, our church, the
church that I grew up in used a The different tools to
accomplish that saw Souls get saved in nursing homes.
I saw Souls get saved on door to door.
Visitation. I saw him get saved in the bus
ministry as so I'm get saved in summer camp programs and almost
every week in the regular meetings of the church Souls
were saved regularly, turn over to Jude.
Because the third thing is, I was blessed to attend a church
where the pastor taught me to take a strong stand for the
truth and not just taught that but actually lived it.
Dr. Vogel and lead in battle, Battles across the United States
for Religious Freedom, for Christians, schools from
morality. And for other things, he took
seriously, the admonition in Jude is only one chapter, but
verse number 3. He says in the second half of
that verse, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort
you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith, which was
once delivered unto the Saints. Dr. Folkman spent time in prison
because he was willing to stand up for his beliefs.
They didn't know it at the time. But Hillary Clinton actually
made her pilot program. Basically, we're forget what it
was called. What's the pilot?
Do you remember what it was called?
Anybody remember what it's called?
It was some program that she came up with were basically the
parents could call the state and they would come and and, you
know, take the kids out of that situation and all this stuff.
Oh, that's a parents kids could call the state but it was, I
forget what it was. If some program that she
started. I mean, this was way back in the
70s and so Hillary Clinton was not a known name really, at that
point. Like she is now, but they ended
up, putting him in jail and he spent he spent a while in jail
there and then of course, they went to court over the whole
thing and and they won the court case Hillary Clinton and her
whole Camp lost that court case. But he spent time in jail for
that because he was standing for the The truth of the word of God
and standing for the rights of parents, to be able to
discipline their children in line with the word of God.
But I also enjoyed growing up in a church where the members
sacrifice for one another and for the needs of the church in
2001, I graduated high school in 2001 and literally the night
after graduation. They started tearing the
auditorium down and because we're planning to remodel it and
remodel the entire Auditorium in the summer before the school.
Started again in the fall and our church completely remodeled
that Auditorium 2005, they broke ground on a multimillion-dollar
education of building but over all those years, all the men in
the church and they had some some things that were done by
outside contractors but the majority of the work was done by
the men in the church. And I mean just every single
Monday night, they called it work party.
Every Monday night for years on end, the men in the church would
get off of work at 5:00 or 5:30 and Come straight to the church
and, you know, eat a little bit of food there and then get busy.
And they had all these different Crews of men that would work and
do different things and they got that building all done.
And I was, I mean, I worked all the way through high school.
I mean, all the way through college and then some after that
as well. But, you know, they work all day
and then spend hours there at night on Mondays, just working
together to get that that work accomplished.
And so, for those reasons, a lot of other reasons, I look back on
my Heritage as an independent Baptist with great appreciation.
And honestly, that's why that has a lot to do with why I'm an
independent Baptist today. But in the last few years,
there's been a movement to discard, or explain away our
past, and to start fresh and to start new.
And, of course, you can, you can go look it up.
If you want to the guy's name. That I mentioned is Josh Tyson.
Spelled te, is he's the pastor of Southern Hills, Baptist
Church in Las Vegas, but he kind of got this movement started.
He wrote A Blog Post that was called the new independent
Baptists. And essentially what he was
doing, was trying to redefine everything that Baptists are and
you can you can go look that up. You can go look that article up.
I think it's still available but and then more recently there's a
group of what you know guys that are known as the millennial
Independent Baptist. Nate Calvert is the guy that's
kind of leading that but he wrote A Blog that was called an
open letter from Millennials and that's why I'm saying you know,
like the openly called themselves millenniums but I see
he's 20 And 30-somethings, you know, that are now.
Pastoring churches, who most of them all grew up in pretty
strong, independent Baptist Churches, who took a stand on
the word of God and for a lot of these other things but mostly
what you notice in both of those articles you know there were
some points that resonated with me because I do think in fact
you want to you want to read a tremendous book especially if
you've been in the Independent Baptist Church for any length of
time. Tom Brennan.
A guy by the name of Tom Brennan, wrote a book called
schizophrenic and he grew up in Independent Baptist, still an
independent Baptist today. But basically what he did is he
took here's all the things that are good about the Independent
Baptist Church. Here's all the things that are
not so good about the Independent Baptist Churches.
Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Let's just change the bath, water change, the things that
are not great stick to the things that are good and that
have worked for years and years and years and strengthen those
and get rid of the things that don't work.
That are not things that are strong about the Independent
Baptist movement and so great book.
But so, when I say that some of the things that they say that
they say in and what they wrote some of them resonate because
there are some problems within the Independent Baptist
movement, I hate using the word movement, but that's, you know,
that's kind of how it's become known.
But mostly what you notice in there in the things that they
wrote and have written and honestly are continuing to write
is this this Wanderlust or this dissatisfaction?
With, with the Heritage, the of these men, and I found that hard
to take, but why bring any of this up?
We're going somewhere with this. And honestly, the introduction
here is the longest by far, the points aren't that we have
tonight or not going to be that long but I can assure you that.
I'm not. I'm not confrontational, I'm not
you know I'm not a guy who likes to stick my nose into things
that aren't my business but and honestly, I don't make it a
habit to get into theological discussions on Facebook.
At all, I don't think I've ever done that.
You know, I'll see some things from time to time and, you know,
I'll want to say something about it, but it doesn't do any good.
You're not going to change their mind, they're not going to
change your mind and all it does is get you frustrated and get
them frustrated and, you know, whatever else.
But I think a lot of the men who are sincere, who are seeking for
something different than, the, than what they've seen or what
they've experienced. I think they have a genuine
desire to do, what's right? I'm not.
I'm not questioning their. Dave's necessarily but there's
this younger generation that really has more fully embraced
writing and blogging and you know, Facebook and Instagram and
all these other things, as really a kind of an effective
means of communication and they've attracted a large
audience, that's growing. And that's, you know, in some
ways they're just the loudest voice and so more people are
following them, but I feel that it's necessary.
I feel it's important to warn those who are being influenced.
Are these men and a lot of others that there are serious
dangers involved with the Neo Independent Baptist movement and
there are some who may not quite be in that Neo Independent
Baptist camp, but they're moving very quickly in that direction
and it's a very dangerous dangerous direction to go in.
You only have to follow these men for a short time and that's
all I've followed them to see the radical change that they're
making. And I followed them long enough
to know that it's not something that I want to have anything to
do with. But you know it's honestly and
you can maybe call some of these things Innocent.
But you know this innocent casual look that we're seeing in
churches. Now you know as people are
leading from the platform and and honestly that casual look
many times, just turns itself to completely full-blown
contemporary music and worship and all of these other things
and and abandoning positions on the Bible versions I mentioned
this not too long ago but they just they just had a whole
conference on translation transition how to take your
Heard from a King James Church to one of these other versions
and you know, a couple guys that are kind of leading that charge
but really you know bragging about the fact that you know,
this church was a strong independent Baptist, King James,
only church. And thankfully we've been able
to take it from that position to this position.
Well essentially what happens is, most of all the people who
are strong, King James people left, because you came in and
started taking it in a Neo Direction.
And then you started attracting, NG what you are.
So it's two different churches. You just took their building.
Is basically what you did. But, but, but that's happening a
lot. It's happening a lot and then
they're still calling themselves, Independent Baptist
and still trying to say that they are standing for the
fundamentals of the faith and they're not, they're not and so
that concerns me and leads me to believe that that greater change
is on the horizon. The longer it goes, the more you
can see those changes and you're seeing those changes very
obviously. Now in a lot of these churches
and they're affecting the Raishin, that's coming up in
those churches where you you have your strong independent
Baptist churches that these guys grew up in and they've taken
those strong stands in a weakened them.
The generation that's growing up in those churches is not going
to know anything about the strong stand and the Heritage
that they came from and they're just going to take it into a far
weaker Direction and it's going to end up full-blown, you know,
Hillsong and Bethel and all of these other things.
And and that's not, it's not an exaggeration to say that.
At this crowd is extremely context-driven.
If we don't give people what they want, then they won't come.
And if they don't come, then we can't influence them.
That's their mindset. It's what's known as pragmatism.
The ends. Justify the means as long as we
can get people in. It doesn't matter how we have to
get them in, it doesn't matter what we have to do to get them
in as long as we get them in, and we can influence on.
The problem is, you're getting them in, but you're not
influencing them for Christ. And if you have to drop every
standard that you have to get those people in, then you cannot
preach the truth or they're going to walk right back out the
door and go to another church. That is not preaching anything
and that's what we're seeing. A lot of these huge
non-denominational churches, but granted context is important.
But the word of God creates new context in the lives of people
that makes the old context obsolete.
You don't need something new, you just need a new Fresh
anointing of the Holy Spirit. That's what you need.
And if the Holy Spirit comes and is freshly anointing, the people
in the church that gives you the motivation that gives you the
excitement that most of them are looking for by moving in this
contemporary Direction. So I want to talk about where
all this ends, what our response should be to those who label
themselves new or Neo Independent Baptist.
So I suppose maybe we should ask the question.
Why should we even have this conversation tonight?
I want to give you four reasons why we have to have this
conversation. Ation, why it truly matters.
And again like I mentioned just a little bit ago, the
introduction is far longer than the actual points.
The first one is this. We should be having this
conversation because it's important, it is important.
These changes that we've looked at and discuss are going to
potentially transform who we are and what we're going to become.
And I don't even know if potentially is the right word,
they are going to transform who we are and what we are going to
become the church. I described at the beginning
doesn't need to be fundamentally transformed right there.
It said I grew up in is doing things the right way.
Even though again, we don't have to agree on everything but
they're doing things the right way.
And they're seeing God do great things in that way.
It needs to keep doing what it's always done and to be
strengthened but it doesn't need a seismic shift in a New
Direction. And so the this conversation is
necessary because it's a very important conversation.
We are literally talking about the direction of the next
generation of Christians. It's a very important
conversation that we have to have.
But the second reason is because you're paying And perhaps this
movement toward the new Independent Baptist mindset is
catching on so rapidly because these men are are doing a great
job at articulating who they are and why they're doing what
they're doing. It's the same thing with a lot
of these younger guys who are who are starting to write and
who are influencing people away from the King, James and who are
influencing people away from good solid Christian music and
who are influencing away, people away from standards in dress and
all of those other things. And I believe there are others
who could benefit from hearing from those who don't see the
need to radically shift and transform, we are and what we're
doing. Now, one of the weaknesses
within the Independent Baptist movement has been a hesitancy
to, right? I think what Josh Tyson they
Calvert are doing is is good in their willingness to write down
their thoughts and try to get that to the the generation that
they're trying to influence. That's how you do, it is through
writing and having those conversations.
Let me add, I don't think it's necessary.
I don't think that that a young man should necessarily, right?
They need a lot of ministry experience.
Since before they start trying to tell everybody else how to
run their Ministry and that's what we're seeing.
A lot of is these guys are young and they're trying to tell
everybody else how to run their Ministries.
But what's happening is they're not influencing everything in a
good direction, they're influencing all these other
guys, these younger guys who want to be like them.
But the problem is these older men who have experienced in the
ministry and who have seen God do great things and who have
stood for the faith? For all these years are not
writing. And there is a, there is a
dearth of good solid, independent, fundamental,
Baptist books out there and so naturally people who want to
read and who have a desire to learn and whoever desire to know
are going to seek out information somewhere and they,
if the only information that's available is from people who are
in this Neo, Independent Baptist Camp, that's who they're going
to read and that's who's going to influence them because you
are who your friends are and what you read.
And what you watch that. I mean, it's what it comes down
to. But this this little series that
we're doing, essentially comes from a desire to allow you to
hear from a side of the Independent Baptist world that
is not trying to fundamentally transform.
It's not dissatisfied with who we are.
And is concerned about where this new movement could
potentially lead folks, who decide to follow them.
So, number three, The reason why this is important is because I
have three children who need the church to be more committed to
the biblical principle than to worldly context.
Their names are Jackson, Alex, and Riley, and your kids might
do Go by different names but your kids are just as important.
And they're growing up in a radically changing world.
Every year new technology is coming onto the scene.
That is that is a presents A new challenge.
Challenge that quite honestly, most of us never had to deal
with when we were growing up. New ideas are discussed all
around them from from, you know, new currency to new genders and
everything else and and and so, you know, they're facing a world
that we never had to face and if we don't stand on what we know
to be the truth and if we don't stand for these Godly principles
and we start to bend on those on those things then, Going to be
very easy for them to bend and all the things that that matter
in that area to, they need a church that doesn't change.
They need a Bible that they can depend on by the way, there's so
many one of these not too long from now.
Hopefully I don't know if this year but maybe at the very
beginning of next, I'm going to get into a series on why we hold
to the King James version of the Bible, but just a very practical
side of it is if you're constantly changing your Bible
or if you have and one of these guys that was talking about this
translation transition, You know, he was saying that well we
settled on five versions that we believe are you know are
beneficial and helpful. Well you got five different
versions floating around in your church.
Number one, how do you memorize verses number two?
How is anybody on the same page? When you're reading verses in
the church service, right? Number three every one of those
translations is saying something different.
So, you're reading one thing and getting this out of it this
guy's reading something else because it says Else and he's
getting something completely different out of it words mean
things. And so when you change words,
you're changing doctrines and you're changing everything,
right? So, if you don't have a standard
that you can use as the guide for you to follow, then you're
going to waffle and everything. And if you don't like what this
version says, then go find it a different one.
And you can find something that you like, the way it's
pronounced or you like the way that it tells you, it's okay to
do this. And and believe me, that's what
those translations are doing. And they are, they're making
making things acceptable that are not and so on.
But they need a pastor was going to preach the truth, clearly to
them. Regardless of what the context
is that they may be living in children noticing
inconsistencies and the jury is still out on a lot of these
young pastors, but I think their children, it'll be their
children and the children of their church that are gonna be
the most affected and you're going to see it and you already
are seeing it. You know, I've noticed too that
the a lot of these pastors that preached against things or four
things, all the sudden, they're not against him anymore.
When their kids get to be in high school and start telling
their their Pastor father's. What they're going to do or not
going to do all the sudden the things that they used to preach
for and the things that they used to preach against all the
sudden don't matter anymore. And I mean, a lot of these guys
wrote books on the topics that now they don't even believe
anymore and it happened. When their kids got old enough
to start telling them, this is what I'm going to do, and you
can either like it or I'm going to ruin your ministry.
They may not say it that way, but but they're too weak to even
stand up to their own children on a lot of these things.
And so, you know, these pastors have taken direction from their
kids. It's the word of God and not our
kids, that should determine what's right?
And what direction we have to go in and it's so important that we
do that. But our children are the next
generation of Jannetty. And if we don't give them
something strong to hang on, to their going to change, they're
going to change. And the last reason is because
this has happened before. Why is it?
Why is it important to talk about it?
Because it's happened before. Every denomination and every age
has experienced drifts and changes and shifts.
The Southern Baptist convention is dealt with it right there in
the middle of a battle right now.
In the Southern Baptist convention between a very
liberal faction of the Southern Baptist and a conservative.
Of the Southern Baptist. And there's, I mean, they're
talking about the fact that there's probably even going to
be a split and they're going to go in two different directions
because they're so far apart on these things.
And boy, if you know anything about the Southern Baptist
convention, the Southern Baptist Church over the last few years.
They've taken a nosedive in the wrong direction but there are
conservatives and liberal Methodist churches.
There's conservative and liberal Presbyterian churches, so every
denomination has that. And in fact, it will be Naive to
assume that we're the only ones who have dealt with that kind of
pull from within a lot of pastors have written about this.
That, I mean, a lot of pastors that are dead now have written
about this but it strikes me as funny that a lot of these new
independent Baptists are changing and moving toward more
worldliness becoming more liberal and they think that the
only ones have ever done it, you know it really is.
It's like we're coming up with something new, that you're not.
It's been tried before. It's been done before and it's
always failed. That's why people don't.
Remember, and that's why you think you're doing something
new, they think they're coming up with something new and that
they're being Innovative and how they reach the world.
It's been tried before in the reason, it doesn't last because
it doesn't have the power of God on it.
I'm not saying that we can't use new methods.
There are new methods, I mean, Facebook and Instagram, and the
internet have changed a lot of things.
And I'm not saying that we shouldn't use those as tools
back in the 70s and the 80s and the 90s.
Those were not even tools that Available.
So you have some of these, you know, 70s and 80s and 90s
pastors who are preaching against all this kind of stuff.
And, and I don't think that's helpful.
Either you use the tools that were available to you, and, and
this new generation is using the tools that are available to
them, who had to be wise in how we do it.
But the methods may be a little bit different, but the, the
purpose is not new. And the the stand is not new and
does not need to change. A lot of those things.
That they're changing are not just methods.
It's the doctrines. It's the philosophy, it's all of
those things. And I'm not, I'm not
old-fashioned, merely for the sake of being old-fashioned.
But neither am I for change simply for the fact that we need
to change? We don't need to change.
We can we can be up to date without being modern, right?
We can be, we can be relevant without compromising and I think
that's what we need. We need a relevance without
compromise. If we're not relevant, then
we're not reaching our communities in our world.
We have to be relevant, but we don't need a compromise to do it
and a lot of these Neo independent Baptists are trying
to be relevant, but they're compromising at the same time to
make that happen. So what I've enjoyed throughout
my life has blessed me and countless others and I'm not,
I'm not in a hurry to discard it for something new.
We don't need something new. The men that I've mentioned, and
countless others who are promoting a new way of doing
things aren't the enemy and they never It will be if they're
preaching the gospel, then they're not the enemy but and I
pray for them and I hope that they'll decide to stick to the
real independent fundamental Baptist stands.
I don't have a lot of Hope but I pray that that that will see
some of these young guys come back around and realize that
they're going in the wrong direction.
I'm thankful that we don't have people pushing Us in that
direction. Either, there's a danger in
compromise for the sake of something new, that will get
others in. We just have to, we have to slow
down. We have the truly We seek the
Lord and ask ourselves if what we have and what we've done
really needs to be transformed, or should we just be seeking
God's power? That's what we need more than
anything. We cannot manufacture God's
power, and I believe that that's what a lot of these.
A lot of this new generation is trying to do the trying to
manufacture Revival and the trying to manufacture God's
power. And neither one of those things
can be manufactured. We just need God's power.
We can stick to the old old fashioned independent,
fundamental Baptist truths and doctrines and philosophies and
everything else and they will work.
If we have God's power, it doesn't matter what you change.
It may seem like it's working and it may work for a little
while but eventually it's going to stop when they realize that
there is no power on it. And that's what we need more
than anything is just God's power.
So we're going to talk about this over the next couple weeks
and you'll see as we as we get into it, kind of the direction
we're going to go with it but it's important.
It's important that we pointed out, it's important that.
We make sure that as a church here, at Mount Victory, Baptist
Church. At least we're not going in that
direction. We are trying to stand for the
truth of the word of God, and more than anything.
We want God's power on it because when God's powers on it,
then it doesn't matter. Who does it, nobody cares?
Who gets the glory, nobody cares.
Who gets the credit, and God gets all the glory for it and
that's what we want. That's what we want.
At least that's what our motivation should be.
So we'll talk about that over the next few weeks but let's
pray and we'll be done tonight. Father, we love you and we thank
you for your goodness and thank you for again the truths that we
have in the word of God and the stand that we're able to take.
Because we know that what we have is the truth and I pray
that you'd help us to not change for the sake of change, I pray
that you help us to to be relevant but that we wouldn't
compromise for the sake of relevance and that you'd be able
to use our church because we want your power more than
anything. God, I pray that you would give
it to us. I pray that you give us souls
for your sake and gotta pray that you would again be with
Miss Barbara in the hospital tonight.
God, I pray that you would just help the doctors to get her
stabilized and everything to get back to normal.
And I pray that you just bring us all back here together on
Sunday. Thank you for all that you do
for us in Jesus name. Amen.