Some Are Choking On The Meat!

I can’t place in words the joy I get from meeting with life group members each week at home but it has given great spiritual life to my relationship with God. As I read text in the bible, it seems new and fresh and the opportunity to open up with others in a close group who know how each member loves God and wants to be effective as a Christian, is nothing less than the plan of God for His people.

One of the things always bothering me about those I have grown up with in the church is the opinions on what constitutes a great sermon. Even though I loved the man who preached for our congregation and was more than a little upset when he told me he had been released as the preacher for the congregation, I think, from what I am told and know, it has been a blessing for him and it has been a blessing for me.

I think my blessing from the last preacher was in getting to “sub” for him when needed and my focus on the topic was enhanced by knowing I might be called upon to continue the lesson. This created a desire in me to study or read ahead in the books of the bible we were covering. My blessing over the past five years is based in what I would call the “filet mignon” of being a Christian (this is my favorite steak and I do like a thick one cooked no more than 15 seconds on each side). To be specific, I have been ravenous as the true message of the gospel is delivered each week.

I have often commented how he has “hit one out of the park” and to me, I usually leave still chewing on the meat I have been given. Not to condemn any in my past, but the history of my fellowship has been consumed with continuing to provide milk and baby food of little substance. It is still not uncommon to get a real “meat” sermon and then have someone step in make sure the milk is POURED back down our throats. I do not condemn milk, but it is for the babies and if the church is hungry for milk, something must be wrong.

In discussion this past Sunday evening, an illustration of my past life came to mind and I do believe it is applicable to the problems we are facing in Christianity today. The major failing of our denomination in the past has been caught up in check-list Christianity. We have desired to list and obey the commands of God so we can know we stand justified in His sight. I mentioned Sunday night and have come to the conclusion of nothing definitive being “required” on our part for salvation. In my current thinking, the only absolute requirement applicable to all men everywhere was completed by Christ on the cross. If we take the position of even one thing being absolutely necessary (outside of Christ mentioned above), we have taken the position of being part of check-list Christianity. I see no difference in us having one absolute and another person having ten absolutes. We both have a list and I believe it is not aligned with the will of God in our lives.

Returning to the topic of preachers in my past, I realized a problem some seem to see today as leaving the word or not providing appropriate teaching from the bible. Almost 100% of the sermons delivered prior to the past five years have come directly from a book of the bible (authentic sermons some desire) and while I do not object to sermons taken directly from the books of the bible, more is hidden in this practice than readily comes clear. These lessons were individual lessons made up from the text and “authenticated” with the official commentaries of our fellowship prior to delivering the sermon. In other words, it was a summary of another man’s work upon which our heritage is founded and then placed on the minds of the next generation. Our traditions became the official Law of God (commandments of God).

Weekly we have been fed for years on the milk of our tradition concerning the concepts of hearing, believing, repenting, confessing and being baptized for the remission of sins and anything not containing these elements was less than a good sermon. I can even remember my grandfather reminding me of the elements that needed to be in a good sermon.

The author of Hebrews, which by the way I do not believe is the apostle Paul, tells us of the need to put these things away and move on to the meat of living our lives for God and this meat is wrapped up in discerning the good available for us to do. If a preacher dares to move on to the “filet mignon” of God, he has made a mistake I only discovered Sunday night prior to this blog. He makes those adhering to check-list Christianity uneasy when they are forced to hear something new and not directly from the commentary “play book.”

For the majority of my life, I have been seated in auditoriums with no desire to critique the sermon and yet as a check-list Christian, I would hear the “official” tenants of our tradition and mentally check them off one at a time. As I checked each comment off from the preacher, I was confirming to myself how my salvation was guaranteed by being accurately in line with the authoritative declaration of God’s word from the bible. The fact of it being little more than a summary of another man’s study which became our official tradition and doctrine had nothing to do with our ultimate conclusion of salvation based on being accurate in doctrine to the smallest detail.

In many church congregations, both in our denomination and those we have been condemning of in the past, there are men coming forward like the one I have been blessed to hear for the past five years who have discovered and decided we need to move on to the meat of Christianity. As they preach this “new” message which just happens to be the basis of all Jesus taught the apostles, our salvation via check-list Christianity is challenged and the thought immediately goes to the condemnation of everything salvation has been based upon in our lives. Christians from everywhere are literally CHOKING on the meat of the Gospel message!

As with a piece of meat lodged in our throat blocking the oxygen we need so badly, the meat of the gospel given to those shackled with check-list Christianity brings forth the reality of a life lived with heart of people given to something other than God and leading to nothing more than death. We have numerous examples in the bible of men being dedicated in deeds to God and being condemned in every “God following deed” because their hearts were far from God. In the past, I have been guilty of believing those Jesus spoke of as saying “Lord, Lord” and being faced with God never knowing them were all of those other denominations who do not believe as WE DO! Reality for those calling out to God is the acknowledgment of believing they were part of God’s will because of the things they could check off for God.

My mother used to tell me to chew my meat well so I would not get choked and I am more than thankful of God blessing me and my congregation with a delicious filet week after week. I long for a time when all will discover the meat is no longer milk and eliminate the possibility of choking.