Posts Tagged ‘false grace’
Brand new XPmedia video: Ambition, production and works in the church
There’s a false grace message that’s lulling people to sleep and renouncing the call to extreme Kingdom production.
Check out the brand new XPmedia.com video Ambition, Production and Works in the Church. Here’s the link: http://www.xpmedia.com/IQTFz2STVhCt
I’ll include my notes below (granted, they are quite simple).
I’d love to hear some feedback!
Email me at [email protected].
If you’d like me to teach on this or other messages in your church, head on over to www.johnburton.net/booking!
REVIVAL CHURCH CHRISTMAS PARTY TOMORROW!
Thursday at 6pm the festivities begin!
Bring your family and friends for a night of food, gifts and fellowship!
CHRISTMAS MORNING SERVICE
Ambition, Production and Works in the Church
I. Casual approach
a. We often see in the streams that I am most familiar with a tendency to take a casual approach, to take a wait and see approach.
i. Detroit—wait and see
ii. Some people pray for more than they are willing to work for.
1. We need an aggressive, pioneering, entrepreneur spirit in the church.
2. Wake up in the night burning, wake up on the morning producing!
3. I am looking for leaders who are self-starters, who are conquering the cares of life, who are building, developing, committed, on time, in position, producing! What is your goal, what are you doing?
4. Catherine Mullins—on the front row, alert, intent, engaged.
a. Titus 3:14 (ESV) 14 And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.
iii. We must discover the biblical message of works again! We must produce! Fruit comes through work!
b. Ephesians 2:8-10 (ESV) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
i. A misunderstood verse
ii. We were saved not by works, but for works! We work!
iii. This has eternal implications!
1. James 2:14 (ESV) 14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
2. Wow! Can faith save? Not if it’s dead faith.
3. James 2:17 (ESV) 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
iv. Matthew 25:29-30 (ESV) 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
c. Mom telling me to send out resumes
i. It takes just as much energy to wish as it does to plan.
ii. Dreaming has its values, but never should it become a substitute for work that needs to be done.
1. I’m a dreamer!
2. But without action I’ll be nothing more than a dreamer.
iii. Good intentions die unless they are executed.
iv. Our nation became big by starting things.
d. Steve Gray—always do two things at once… be productive.
i. We must live our lives producing, working!
ii. The cares of life must be annihilated!
An offensive church
There’s a way to develop a church that will provide extreme opportunity for offense—and also the promise of great power.
FIRST—the situation in this nation is extremely serious. Pray with us for favor and open doors to get the prophetic message of revival, reformation in the church and city strategies out to the masses. Some have come to us feeling we must get on the radio or on television as soon as possible. If you can give toward this, please do! www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/donate. (15 minutes a day on a popular radio station in Detroit will cost around $2400 a month)
AN OFFENSIVE CHURCH
In a hyper-grace church world, the type of message that I was rocked with on Sunday night might be dismissed or even renounced. Our ministries have become conditioned by the perceived needs and demands of the seekers instead of the demands of scripture for radical surrender. Even when discussing the concept of revival, most believe that it will enhance their churches, while in reality revival brings us back to the cross—and anything in our churches that doesn’t embrace the cross will be crushed.
Revival, when it comes, may actually result in many churches closing down under the pressure of the offensive demands of the cross. Other churches will remain open but lose a lot of lesser committed people. Finances might plummet. Everything will be at risk. If we want God more than we want our churches to grow and our own personal security, then get ready for our paradigms to be violated and calibrated.
At Revival Church Sunday night, God wrecked me.
He said that churches could be birthed and developed from one of three different places:
- The Board Room—In Acts 15 we read about the Jerusalem council. The simple parallel here is that we can meet and discuss how church should be done. Come up with a great plan, follow clear wisdom, appoint leaders and let them run with a plan of action.
- The Upper Room—This one surprised me when God started talking about it. Of course, I love the idea of functioning out of a white hot atmosphere of prayer and prophecy. My book 20 Elements of Revival outlines this in detail. However, it’s true that there’s a certain temptation to participate in a movement that has the hopes of some power encounters, signs and wonders. We can inappropriately focus on the outward explosion while forsaking the true cost of participation. We can have upper room style conferences and churches that gather together the masses, but we’ll have limited impact if we don’t consider the next place that God spoke to me about.
- The Cross—Where two or three are gathered, He is there. This was never more literal than at the cross. The offensive call to full surrender, to the terrible cost of the cross, must sound louder than any other alarm. It’s rare to find churches that emphasize the extreme cost of a life in Christ. The call to the cross is inconvenient, extremely costly and wildly offensive—and few will respond. Many are called, but few are chosen. Our churches must be driven by repentance, by surrender to a fearful call. As we launch our churches with people who refuse to scatter (remember, even devoted disciples ran away from Jesus when confronted with the cross!), and with people who actually sit at the foot of the cross in the face of severe threat to their very lives, it will be a church that cannot be stopped.
STOP TRYING TO GROW HUGE CHURCHES—AND YOU MAY FINALLY GROW A HUGE CHURCH
The point? Start the development of your church, and continue it’s process, from the cross. Raise the bar as high as Jesus did. There’s a false doctrine in the church that rightly emphasizes that Jesus paid the price that we could not pay, but wrongly communicates that we have no part to play in the process.
I’m radically concerned that MANY, MANY people in the church…in really great, Spirit-filled churches, have chosen to avoid the cost of following Jesus, the cost of the cross (Jesus isn’t the only one assigned to a cross—we are as well), the call to deep intimacy, and due to a false grace message are convinced of their salvation when, in fact, they are not saved.
If we build churches around the cross, the crowds will be VERY small. Maybe only a few. Only two were at the cross with Jesus. But, the resulting victory and power will explode the church into the nations.
Then, we’ll move into the upper room, and into the board room as the Church develops in wisdom and power.