Is Your Preacher Preaching the Gospel?, The Showstopper, and The Universal Presence

a)

Are you aware that if you move to my city and want to find a Church, you can read or listen to dozens of sermons by different pastors in the area thanks to the information Megazord that is the internet? As I reflected on this, I thought it would be a really cool idea to contrast and compare the preachers in my area as to how they preached the Gospel.

However, I have given up on that for a few reasons, not least of which is that I think its belittling to the Church to have a consumer’s guide to Churches. However, I think parts of my plan are still helpful. Go to your Church’s website, find the most obviously “Gospel”-sermon, and as you read or listen to it, ask the following questions:

1. Do they communicate that the sufficient and supreme source of Christ’s Truth is the Bible?
2. Do they make God bigger than man?
3. Do they explain Sin?
4. Do they explain Christ's death?
5. His righteousness?
6. His Resurrection?
7. His offer of eternal life?
8. Forgiveness of sins?
9. The need for repentence?
10. Faith?
11. New birth?
12. Lordship?
13. Heaven?

Now, I want to make some things clear:
i) I am not saying that you can base your opinion of a Church on one sermon
ii) I am not saying that you can base your opinion of a Church on the sermon in general
iii) I am not saying that you can base your opinion of a Church on the Pastor
iv) I am not saying that all those elements must be present for a full Gospel presentation
v) I am not saying that you cannot be saved unless all of those elements are present

Now, let me be clear as to why I think this has value.
i) If someone has a lot of these elements missing in an explicit Gospel presentation, they're preaching a false Gospel
ii) If someone preaches a false Gospel, it’s worthy of God’s curse (Galatians 1:9)
iii) If the Pastor doesn’t preach the Gospel, there’s a good chance the congregation doesn’t know it.
iv) If the congregation doesn’t know it, there’s a good chance that there’s a lot of goats thinking they are sheep. Which makes you wonder if you can even call it a Church at all (a Church is a body of Saints, not goats)

Well, there are many more reasons to be worried, but point is the Bible is clear as to the primary importance of the Gospel (1 Cor 15:3), and we should make sure we are going to Churches that uphold its purity.

b)

I updated my wishlist, brother!

c)

I am still reading AW Tozer’s The Pursuit of God. I don’t think everything in it is commendable, as Tozer occassional borrows from ninteenth-century Catholic mystics instead of the Word of God, resulting in some unbiblical ideas being presented. However, he was a expositor of the Word, and often has some very powerful insights.

Something that has struck me recently is his discussion of God’s omnipresence and his immanance, His being right here, right now. I know I don’t live or pray or talk about others as if it were true. I hope I will grow in this area. Here is Tozer’s prayer:

O God and Father, I repent of my sinful preoccupation with visible things. The world has been too much with me. Thou hast been here and I knew it not. I have been blind to Thy presence. Open my eyes that I may behold Thee in and around me. For Christ’s sake, Amen.

May that be our prayer as well.