31 Days of Praying for Your Pastor – Day 12

DAY 12:
Pray that your pastor will be humble and authentic in his faith, not given to pride or hypocrisy. Pray that he will have pure motives and give God glory for every gain or victory.

If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him is true, and in Him there is no falsehood. John 7:17-18

DAY 10 DAY 11
DAY 9
DAY 8
DAY 7
DAY 6
DAY 5
DAY 4
DAY 3
DAY 2
DAY 1

by Nancy Leigh DeMoss of Revive Our Hearts

Preaching and Teaching Something Different Than Paul

Can someone please pick up my jaw…it just dropped onto the floor. Thanks.

I know I have talked before about this issue of setting higher standards than God sets, but I just had to make a comment about what I just heard and saw. A very good friend of mine was recently challenged by a mutual friend of ours to take some time and go listen to some of the online sermons of the pastor where we were both once members. The impression given was that this pastor has really been expositing Scripture while going through the blueprint model for the church in 1 Timothy. So, I decided to go give a sermon or two a listen just to see what’s going on at our former church. Putting aside for now the fact that I had to choose between viewing the ‘classic’ service or the ‘contemporary’ service, I chose to listen to the sermon on the qualifications for leadership (the sermon I watched can be found HERE. Scroll to about 45 minutes in to get to the context of this post).

After wading through all the cool projector screen graphics, stage lighting, well-known CCM band-led worship music, and hastily performed baptisms where each person was verbally told they were being baptized as a result of having invited Jesus into their heart, I finally came to the message portion of the service which began with a video clip on leadership. Once the pastor actually started ‘preaching’, the message wasn’t too terrible (though it wasn’t really expository, either…setting up a leadership outline rather than engaging the text), that is, until he began to explain some of the qualifications for an elder in 1 Timothy 1:3.

He actually did okay with the ‘husband of one wife’ passage, breaking from his own church’s (and denomination’s) long-standing position that this is referring to divorce, and talked about how Paul was instead stating that an elder should be completely devoted to his wife (good for him). The bombshell came when he began to address the statement by Paul that an overseer should not be a drunkard. Here is a pretty close rendering of what this pastor said (and keep in mind that right before these statements, he said that we need to learn what God’s word says):

“Now, Paul says here that an overseer, or elder, or pastor should not be given to drunkenness. Well, at this church we take it to another level. We ask those who serve as deacons, or on our staff that they abstain from any alcoholic beverages. I know, you’ll say, ‘but that’s going beyond Scripture’. And I understand that. It is going beyond what Scripture challenges us.”

Well…at least he has the guts to admit it! The problem still exists, though, that it is clearly going beyond what is required by God, and Paul warns us not to go beyond what the Holy Spirit has inspired to be written down (1 Cor. 4:6). The wisdom of man is always insufficient to the requirements of God, and the subject of drinking is no exception (and this is coming from someone – me – who has never had a drink!).

Does this qualify as another gospel? I don’t know if I can go that far. What I do know, however, is that it is placing unbiblical guidelines upon those whom God would call to be leaders in His church. It is nothing more than legalism dressed up in a pious, self-righteous attitude that does not line up with the word of God. And anyone who thinks they are somehow adding value to what God has already put down in writing needs to seriously consider what Paul said about those who would presume to add their own man-made requirements to what it means to be a true Christian.

I think the word he used is anathema.