A Sermon We Need to Hear

Awhile back, Anu's cousin sent us a link to a sermon by a preacher named Paul Washer. Washer was speaking to a youth conference, but what he said applies to people of all ages.

He is very direct, to put it mildly. The message will make you feel uncomfortable, if not defensive and you may even become angry at him; he acknowledges the possibility of those reactions. But consider this: Is anything that he has said contrary to the Bible? Or is it just contrary to contemporary teaching? Yes, he can sound harsh at times. But listen to the end of the sermon and you'll hear his heart for a lost world.

Please watch this hour-long sermon: http://youtube.com/watch?v=uuabITeO4l8

After you've watched the message, please read on. I have taken some of his comments, followed by my reactions on how God convicted me. I do not share this simply for the sake of sharing. I share it in the hope that maybe you can relate, so you can know that you're not alone. Preface aside, here goes...

"Stop comparing yourselves to others who call themselves Christians who compare themselves to others who call themselves Christians. Compare yourselves to the Scriptures."
Amen! Christians know this intellectually and academically, but do we live like we know it? Ultimately, the destination of my soul is between me and God. It is so easy for me to look to the left or to the right, find someone struggling in his walk a little more than me, and then feel good by association. What a joke. When I meet Almighty God, I meet a God who could not even look at His own Son when the latter bore the sin of the world on the cross. God will judge me and me alone, totally apart from my family or friends or colleagues. And my salvation is about my relationship with Him.
"The GATE is not just narrow. The PATH is narrow, too. We get people saved and then they live the rest of their lives like they're lost. People in America who claim to be Christian are no more moral than those who claim to be non-Christian."
I attended a church until I was nine years old that had a program called "soul winning." We went through neighborhoods on Saturday mornings and told people how to get saved. The concept was great, but there was no follow-through whatsoever. We were interested in numbers; God is interested in souls.

"In America, we have become so thin-skinned that no one can rebuke us. No one can correct us."
He's absolutely right. How are we to be "salt and light" to a lost and dying world if we can't even speak Truth to fellow Christians? Yes, we are to speak that truth in love. But all we want is the love without any truth...or just my truth that works for me, my interpretation of Scripture. Friends, some things are not open to interpretation. And for those things that are not open to interpretation, we must risk the wrath of man as we tell others about the wrath of God.

"Let’s imagine that I show up late, run up on the stage and the leaders here are mad at me for being so late. I apologize and say, 'As I was driving here I got a flat tire. As I was changing the tire, the lug nut fell off and as I ran out to get it, I looked up and a 30-ton logging truck was 10 yards in front of me, going 120 mph and it ran me over and that’s why I’m late.' If I said that, there are only two logical conclusions: (1) I’m a liar or (2) I'm a madman. It’s IMPOSSIBLE to have an encounter with something as large as a logging truck and not be changed. And my question to you is what is larger—a logging truck or God?"
How can I still enjoy this world and the things of this world so much if I have given my life totally and completely over to Christ? As a Christian, I am supposed to be an alien, a foreigner in this world. And yet I speak just enough Christianese to pass myself off as a good person to those who could not possibly know my heart. Shame on me for being so much like the world in which I live.

And something else just came to mind: When we say we are "convicted" by something we read in the Bible or by some area of sin in our lives, do we actually consider what that means? When someone is convicted in the legal context, judgment soon follows. And the judgment is public, for all to see. But we think that just because we FEEL convicted, there is no judgment for our sin. Yes, Jesus took the judgment for us. But have we repented? Or do we think that we have to repent just once during a prayer to ask Jesus into out hearts? Do we continue to fall to our knees and BEG God to forgive us of our sin? Do we BEG Jesus to intercede on our behalf so that God's holy judgment does not fall upon us? Or do we just feel bad about our "mistakes" (what Joel Osteen obliquely calls sin), toss up a quick prayer to God asking Him to forgive us and promptly move on about our day? I know how I would answer these questions and the answers scare me.

"It’s more than acknowledging that Jesus is Lord. Satan acknowledges that Jesus is Lord. Is your life in a process of change?"
Ouch. Enough said.

"How am I supposed to live? Talk? Think? Bring every word, thought, deed into subjection of the Word of Jesus Christ."
My first reaction is to try to pick this apart...Every word? Every thought? Every deed? Yup, every. single. one. What an intimidating challenge! And then I remember that if it's by grace that we're saved, then it's by grace that we move closer to Him and become more like Him.

"I'm not being hard for the sake of being hard. Do you realize how much love it takes to stand before 5,000 people and tell them that American Christianity is almost totally wrong?"
I really do believe that this man loves people. It's just that he loves God more. And if he loves God, he loves what God loves (holiness) and hates what God hates (sinfulness). We need to have this courage! Let's say my friend is dying of cancer and I know it but he doesn't. If I tell him, he may get upset with me because that means he will have to get chemo, which will be a terribly painful process. Do I tell him? Of COURSE I tell him! In fact, if I don't tell him and he dies when he could have been saved, what does that make me?

I PRAY we would have the courage to truly LOVE our neighbors more than we love ourselves. If we actually did, we would tell them they are dying of the cancer of sin. We would tell them because we were also dying of the very same cancer. In fact, if we don't tell them and they go to hell when they could have been saved, what does that make us?

Much of what Washer says is not well-received by Christians in America, because much of American Christianity has become politically correct rather than Biblically correct. I don't walk away from this sermon feeling warm, fuzzy, or encouraged. I feel sinful, dirty, and challenged to truly follow Christ in word and in deed. No, I don't feel good about myself. But that's okay! Where in the gospels does it say that Christianity will always make us feel good? No! I am convicted when I acknowledge how SINFUL I am and how HOLY God is. I long to reach up to Him but I can't look at Him because He is holy and He cannot look at me because I am sinful. But Jesus comes down, takes my hand and places it in the hand of the Father, and says, "You are MINE, dear child. I have paid the price! I have overcome the world!" And my relationship with God is restored. I weep, even now as I write this, because who am I that He would save me? And what is my life/comfort/reputation that I would not tell others about Him?

I hope that his sermon impacted you as much as it impacted me. If you are interested in more sermons by Paul Washer, they are available here: http://www.heartcrymissionary.com/resources/sermons/paul_washer