Genesis 6:9-14.........
"These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh,[c] for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.[d] Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch."
Don't we all want to be popular? We may say they we don't care what others say or think about us but deep down, we really do. Actually we all feel better when we are liked. It has something to do with brain functions or some such thing.
If you think back to when you were in school you wanted everyone to like. YOU wanted to be in the popular group of kids....the "IN CROWD".
Nothing has changed but our waistlines. It is human nature to be liked and to be popular, and actually there is nothing wrong with that. The question I think must be.......
"How far are we willing to go to have that kind of popularity?"
Do we have to give up anything to be popular? Our morality? Our family or faith?
Think back on how many preachers once gave out the gospel message with power and authority and people got saved all the time. How many have given up that ability and instead are preaching to the choir so that they can be popular more than effective for Christ? Now they are nothing more than motivation speakers and not preachers at all. But they are now popular with the people but are they popular with God????
This seems to be one of the things that plagues the Christian church today. We spend more time and energy trying to please men than we do in trying to please God? Churches have a program for this and a plan for that. Churches all over our land have now adopted "Contemporary" music that is nothing more that rock and roll with religious words added. People stand and wave their hand and chant words shown on the wall without even knowing what the meaning of them are.
That may be popular and it may even be worship, BUT it is not aimed at God my dear friends. It is done to make people comfortable and popular. Now where do you suppose it says in the Scriptures that we are to be comfortable???
Worship services in church were never intended to make us comfortable. WORSHIP IS NOT FOR YOU AND ME!!!! Worship is for God! Worship is to be directed toward God! God inhabits the praise of His people.
"These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh,[c] for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.[d] Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch."
Don't we all want to be popular? We may say they we don't care what others say or think about us but deep down, we really do. Actually we all feel better when we are liked. It has something to do with brain functions or some such thing.
If you think back to when you were in school you wanted everyone to like. YOU wanted to be in the popular group of kids....the "IN CROWD".
Nothing has changed but our waistlines. It is human nature to be liked and to be popular, and actually there is nothing wrong with that. The question I think must be.......
"How far are we willing to go to have that kind of popularity?"
Do we have to give up anything to be popular? Our morality? Our family or faith?
Think back on how many preachers once gave out the gospel message with power and authority and people got saved all the time. How many have given up that ability and instead are preaching to the choir so that they can be popular more than effective for Christ? Now they are nothing more than motivation speakers and not preachers at all. But they are now popular with the people but are they popular with God????
This seems to be one of the things that plagues the Christian church today. We spend more time and energy trying to please men than we do in trying to please God? Churches have a program for this and a plan for that. Churches all over our land have now adopted "Contemporary" music that is nothing more that rock and roll with religious words added. People stand and wave their hand and chant words shown on the wall without even knowing what the meaning of them are.
That may be popular and it may even be worship, BUT it is not aimed at God my dear friends. It is done to make people comfortable and popular. Now where do you suppose it says in the Scriptures that we are to be comfortable???
Worship services in church were never intended to make us comfortable. WORSHIP IS NOT FOR YOU AND ME!!!! Worship is for God! Worship is to be directed toward God! God inhabits the praise of His people.