Old Fashioned Christianity
Prov. 22:28
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Perhaps the most applicable verse to the 21st Century!
We like to talk about the good ole’ days…and sometimes we long for them!
Game: Remember when…
Say amen if you remember when…
You clean your rug by hanging it up and hitting it w/ a stick?
You could walk to the grocery story and rattle off your list to the clerk, and he would fetch them for you?
Movie theatre was cheaper on Saturday, and you didn’t have to worry about what you would see?
Got the latest news from the radio?
Doors of your home were seldom locked?
Didn’t know you were poor because everyone else was just like you!?
Hobos would stop by your house for food and then do a chore?
You knew all the neighbors
Mother would can all the vegetables she could before winter
No a/c but you didn’t know you were hot…it was always that way!
At school you were expected to pay attention, and do what you were told the first time!
Most men worked 6 days a week
Dr’s. made house calls carrying all they needed in the little black bag
“Gay” meant happy
a mouse was a rhodent, not something in your hand at your desk
downloading was how you got the hay into the barn
a website was where spiders lived
when mom said “time out” it meant out in the woodshed
you hoped it wasn’t raining when you needed the restroom!
Our society has come a long way…for much of it we can be glad…but unfortunately, our society also feels like we’ve outgrown the need for God!
We Need Some Old Fashioned Preaching:
What is it? Some would say it’s a tone of voice or jumping pews. But what is the characteristic that sets the old preaching apart?
We need bold preaching w/out compromise. One of the greatest reasons for America’s moral washout is the watered down sermons coming from our pulpits! We need preachers to say, “thus saith the Lord”, w/out apology. A preacher w/out boldness is like a knife w/out an edge/gun w/out bullets/Mustang GT w/out an engine!
People today are very bold w/ their sin/out of closet/flaunt it/brag about it at watercooler/sometimes even Christians are bold about sin saying, “that’s who I am, like it or lump it!”
Preachers ought to be bold, too, in crying out against sin! The need of the hour is prophets of God saying, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand!
Ill—Billy Sunday lived in the early 1900s/preached boldly against sin/a drunk before being saved/preached much on the wickedness of addictions/alcohol/one day was asked to tone it down, stop offending people, stop rubbing the cat’s fur the wrong way/he replied, I’m not changing my preaching…let the cat turn around!
Bold preaching is avoided/feared in the 21st century…
But not in the old days! What was the difference that made any difference? It wasn’t the man, it was the message! How rough it was/how real…how it was said/ what was said…How loud/how lived…Good acting/good accuracy…Personality/purity…Walking on eggshells/stepping on toes (truth hurts!)…Fiery delivery as much as it is faithful content…guy pounding/God producing!
However, the fire today is also gone! Though the fire wasn’t the man, but the message, though it wasn’t delivery but content…the fire causes more to listen!
Ill.—one day a young preacher asked John Wesley how to get more people to come hear his preaching/I want bigger crowds!/Wesley said, allow God to set you on fire, and the people will come to watch you burn!
Pray for me that the fire of my content will spread to my delivery! (don’t hesitate to help, either…say amen…like “sic ‘em” to a dog!)
Bold preaching is clear, concise, and direct. It should feel like it’s aimed right at you at times. The dedicated Christian seeks out a church where they can be uncomfortable!
Joke—little boy came home from church, mom asked, what did the preacher preach on today?/thought a moment… and said, “he didn’t say!”
Unfortunately, around our city and across our nation, compromising, pussy-footing, pantywaste preachers stand up and try not to rock the boat…just talk 30 minutes w/out saying anything!
Ill.—d.l. moody said that good preaching will make people get right or get mad!
3 areas where we need more old fashioned preaching:
1. Against sin
Sin: man calls it an accident/God calls it abomination
Blunder/blindness…by chance/by choice…fascination/fatality…infirmity/iniquity…luxury/leprosy…liberty/lawlessness…trifle/tragedy…mistake/
madness…weakness/willfulness
I believe in being positive…sharing the good news! But there is no good news until you face the bad news.
Ill.—mail carrier who doesn’t give you all your mail (we need preachers who will deliver all of God’s mail, and that includes the bills he sends when He reads our meters and the summons to appear before Him!)
All we’ve got today is junk mail about how to feel good about ourselves and add to society!
We need preachers to tell it like it is:
Abortion is murder, not a choice/homosexuality is an abomination, not an alternate lifestyle/alcoholism is a sin, not a symptom/not just a habit, it’s horrible!/it’s adultery, not just an affair/it’s more than just a one night stand, it’s one nasty sin/there is no safe sex outside of marriage!
We need more old-fashioned preaching against sin…
2. About hell!
We need old-fashioned preachers like Jesus, who preached on hell, the destiny of the damned…Jesus mentioned hell twice as much as heaven, but today we’re afraid to talk about it.
We moved here from the Bible Belt…and our newspaper had an ad from a local church, targeted at our church, which read: “looking for hell-fire, and damnation preaching? Tear up this ad! But if you’re looking for a church that preaches a loving, understanding, forgiving God, come give us a try!”
Let’s never forget that the plan of salvation contains some very bad news at the beginning!
We need more preaching against sin, about hell…
3. On sacrifice
We live in the day of comfortable Christianity…but Jesus, an old-fashioned preacher, majored on sacrifice!
Jesus said, if you want to follow me, you have to deny yourself, and take up your cross!
One day a group of men said to Jesus, we’ll follow you wherever you go, and Jesus turned to them and said, “foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay His head!”
He was serving notice: I’m calling you to a life of sacrifice!
Today it’s all handed to us…if it’s not easy, I’m not interested.
Here’s a note left by a dying missionary in Africa…it was found on his desk:
I’m part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have stepped over the
line. The decision has been made. I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ. I
won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is
redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure.
I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning,
smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap
living, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity,
position, promotions, or popularity. I don’t have to be
right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now
live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer
and labor by power.
My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow,
my way rough, my companions few, but my Guide is reliable, my mission clear.
I cannot be bought, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face
of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at
the table of the enemy or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won’t
give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed
up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ.
I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop,
preach till all know, and work till He stops me…
We need more preaching on sacrifice/hell and judgment/against sin!
In other words, today’s message starts w/ me…but we also need some old-fashioned Christians who’ll get seriously sold out for God, who’ll believe He can do it again (decision cards on table) who’ll get on their knees begging God to do it again—“and I’m not leaving my knees ‘til you do it again!”
