Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" --Jeremiah 6:16

 

25 February, 2008   comments: (0) Audio Clips   Judging Fruit By Biblical Standards Remember the church we posted about last year who believed they were doing great things for the Kingdom of God by revamping their men's room to appeal to macho man seekers? They recently did a year in review presentation, in which they spoke of all of the great things God did at their church in 2007. It's another example of the mistaken impression that so many of today's trendy churches have about what is valuable in a church. This church's list of accomplishments provides a springboard for us to discuss what exactly is 'fruit' according to the bible. If you belong to a church that you are not quite sure about, you'll want to tune-in for this important set of scriptural guidelines. If you never had a chance to see the souped-up pragmatism potty (as I like to call it), check out the pictures that were sent to us; they pretty much speak for themselves. A friend recently emailed me a link to that church's sermon last month in which they got the audience pumped-up with all of the things God had done there in 2007. I don't want to give you the impression that it was all bad; there was a lot of "people helping people" kind of good works that you'd expect from churches, but on the other hand - some of what's on their list is pretty ridiculous or reflects wrong thinking for a church. A few examples they mentioned were: God moved us to the front page of Google based on our creative Men's room decoration done by volunteers. God provided a brand new sound system that is producing extraordinary results at 1/2 the anticipated price... Ryan D. creates a dynamic new lighting ministry. God raised the enjoyment aspect of Sunday mornings for our visitors and our members. Many people have remarked how God has raised the bar for our Sunday morning messages and music presentation. The Coffee Shop had a dramatic year and is now self sustaining. They served 5,200 drinks (350 gal. of milk and 120 lbs. of espresso). They added three new staff and are now thirteen strong. These folks gave 1,100 volunteer hours. God challenged us to open our facility to numerous civic group activities in order to serve and appear inviting. Should any of that be viewed as a biblical barometer of a fruitful church? What about pastors, how should we judge the fruit of the leaders of churches? In this 11 minute audio clip, Pastor Bob DeWaay aims at answering the question of "what is biblical fruit?". Open up your bible to Matthew 7 and listen to Pastor DeWaay demonstrate how fruit can not be measured by the preacher's personality traits (there have been many 'nice' heretics), nor can fruit be judged necessarily by the size of a following, nor can fruit be judged by the presence of signs and wonders. So what CAN be used as a measuring stick for fruit then? Listen-in and find out. If you are caught-up in a church like the one above, you'll want to hear this audio clip, based on Bob DeWaay's paper entitled "Discernment in an Age of Deception". CLICK HERE TO PLAY NOW . . . or to download this MP3 file for later: right click the link and then "save target as"   More Old Truth Audio Files: 04/25/08 - The False Peace of Truth-Compromised 03/20/08 - The Arrogance of Abandoning Church History 01/30/08 - The History of Praise Songs: Simple from Semple 11/06/07 - Audio Archive: How God Converts The Human Soul 07/19/07 - Theology Q&A's: Does Prayer Change God's Mind? 06/03/07 - Addressing Our Culture w/Reformed Christianity 05/28/07 - Don't Make The Church Mars Hill, Go There Instead 05/07/07 - Old Truths versus The Quest For 'Something New' 04/27/07 - Lost and Found: The Fear of The Lord 03/13/07 - Goofy Eschatology That Sproul Wants Left Behind Detailed Listing of All Audio Files   Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.722   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism