(Reading Time: 5:45) Well, our Palm Sunday service was okay this year. I just have problems with inspirational themed messages. I worked hard on being creative and adding things that I thought people would find interesting. However, I just don’t get into messages that don’t help us live the Christian life. In other words, I am all about doctrine.
Contrary to how some people feel about it, doctrine is good, if it directs us into the right way of living before the Lord. I know some use doctrine to enforce their pet peeves, but I see it as a means of strengthening us to live according to God’s ways. The loin share of my messages throughout the years of my ministry has been about teaching people how to live in a way that pleases the Lord.
In the NIV version of the Bible the word doctrine is only directed to Timothy and Titus. To both of these overseers of the church Paul admonishes them that they “must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.” (Titus 2:1). Of the five times the word is used it is compounded four times with soundness, as in “sound doctrine.” For me, this is what I believe many Christians are missing and is the main reason behind the instability we see in their Christian walk.
The Bible explains this cause and effect in 2nd Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” Too many ministers have left off giving the body of Christ consistent sound doctrine and filled their heads with idle notions and things that do not profit their lives. Since this is so, I feel it is permissible for me to focus myself on teachings which help us live as we ought to live. Isn’t that the most frequent accusation hurled at us by the world—that we don’t live what we believe?
It is high time to learn sound doctrine and live according to it. Yes, there are times of encouragement and inspiration, but the major thing that needs to be proclaimed in these times is sound doctrine. It is amazing to me how we will put up with so many foolish teachings and how we love to speculate over areas we don’t understand. Yet, when we boldly proclaim the truth, we will constantly argue over it until no one lives it anymore.
In my Life Statement one of my favorite verses is 1st Timothy 4:16, “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” I believe every Christian would benefit greatly if they would take this biblical command to heart and focus on what they truly believe and why. Especially in these days where everything we say we believe is being tested.
“But since they have no root, they last only a short time.
When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.”
Mark 4:17, NIV.
We are seeing Christians who have been faithful for years fall away in droves and begin to adopt the ways of this pervasive society we live in. First, it is by condoning the deviant lifestyles of others who profess to be Christians. Then, it is by becoming involved in the ways of this current society themselves. Compromise for the sake of peace cannot apply to the unwavering, unerring Word of God. We must take a firm stand for the truth or we will become part of the problem, rather than the answer.
One of the reasons behind the recent falling away is that some Christians allowed the past morality of society to guide them rather than a firm stance upon God’s Word. They were more social Christians than ones who built their faith upon the Scriptures. We find this more often than we would like to admit. Some attended church and tried to live a good life because that was the way they were raised. Others attended church for social standing—back when that used to be important. Still others were simply pressured into church by their family, spouse, or friends. Now we are seeing all these reasons fade away and the believers who depended on these motivations fall away with them as well.
This is why I constantly impress upon our church the need to know the Bible and what it actually teaches. If it is the firm foundation on which we build our lives, then our lives won’t shift like culture so often does. There are those today who are promoting the idea that all this doctrine stuff doesn’t matter, we just need to believe. To this I would say, “Believe what?” I see a deception behind this way of thinking and the teachings surrounding it. It is to weaken believers so that when times of persecution come they will quickly fall away. Why? Because they have been robbed of the truth they need to stand in the day of trouble.
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
James 1:22, NIV.
Paul reminds Timothy of this important aspect of preaching. In 1st Timothy 4:6 he says, “If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.” If you understand this about me, as a Pastor, then you will understand why I preach what I preach and why I believe it is so essential for a believer to hear it, heed it, and share it with others.
“Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season;
correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”
2nd Timothy 4:2, NIV.
“Calvary exists to demonstrate the love of God to the families of our community!”