Vain Talkers & Deceivers (In Church)

Titus 1:10-11 says this, For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.

As I think about this passage in today’s church world, these verses may need to be eliminated in many churches. To say that certain ministers, motivational speakers (who are proclaiming to be preachers of the gospel) mouths must be stop would be considered blasphemy, and you’d probably run the risk of being an outcast of your respective church. In fact, many would defend these ministers by saying “thou shalt not judge” and get scholarly in their voice as they say “touch not my anointed.”

Sadly, we’ll rebuke those who are actually preaching the truth, but will cheer on those who are itching our ears. Now let’s go back to verse 11, Paul was adamant when he said that these false teachers are teaching things they ought not for filthy lucre’s sake. Lucre is another term for money, and to think they’re not receiving it honestly considering these ministers are teaching things that are not of God. People today will listen to leaders (claiming they are of Christ) who are intermingling other religions with Christian views, will pass it off as Christian, and people will blindly accept it.

Let’s slide over to 1 Timothy 6:5. Paul was saying that false teachers were teaching that “gain is godliness” and that we are to withdraw ourselves. Sadly, the minute we hear from the pulpit, “money come unto me now” or “increase” we jump from our pews and cheer. Still trying to understand how wealth is a sign of God’s favor (if that’s the case, then I guess Hugh Hefner would be favored by God due to his wealth). Of course that’s ludicrous, Hugh Hefner is rich by the world’s standard, but truly poor in spirit (keep him in prayer and for many in this world who are poor in spirit). What profits a man to gain the world but lose his soul?

Can we get our priorities back in order?

An Assignment Greater Than You

The title came to me as the Lord was showing me something about what you’ll be reading. The text will come from 1 Samuel 16:1-13. I know this will be familiar to a lot of people, some of what I’ll say you might’ve heard before, or this will be brand new. Either way, I’m letting the Lord lead.

The second half of my dream was this: I was at my job and I had an altercation with someone and I just walked off the job. I went to my therapist and told her that if I go back to the job, I’m going to hurt somebody. Initially my dreams are a shock, but as the day progresses, they get revealed. And actually, my dreams over the past 3 months have a common denominator, and it’s that I have an assignment greater than myself. And I know a few of you reading this have an assignment greater than yourself. I’ll talk about the pros and cons about this later in this post.

Now 1 Samuel 16:1-13 was during the time when Saul was rejected as king and a new king was to be anointed. The Lord sent Samuel to Jesse to anoint one of his sons to be king. Now what struck my interest was the fact that Jesse didn’t even consider David to be the one. It wouldn’t surprise me if Jesse didn’t call David because he was not only the youngest, but he had an assignment (tending to the sheep), and Jesse wanted to ensure that David was on that task. But the Spirit of the Lord had a different plan. In verse 11, Samuel was like “do you have any more?” Jesse responded like this, “there remains the youngest AND (my emphasis) he keeps the sheep.” It wouldn’t surprised me if Jesse didn’t want Samuel to bother David, but again, the Lord had a different plan and told Jesse to get David. And of course, David was anointed to be king. During David’s anointing, he wasn’t groomed like his other brothers when they were presented. He was pulled from the sheep when he was anointed. The beauty of this scenario was that God doesn’t look on the appearance, but the heart. People can look good and put up a front, but their heart can be so dark!

Now David didn’t become king over Israel immediately. He would wait until Saul was dead. BUT, there were some things that David had to do before becoming king over Israel (and he would be the only one equipped to do it – such as take down Goliath). So, what can we take from this? Some of you reading this know that you have an assignment greater than you, and that’s truly a blessing from God.

I’ll start with the cons first: some of you know that you have an assignment greater than you, but you jump ahead of God by jumping into your assignment on your own strength. That’s dangerous and you are of course, out of order! Some will become prideful in that assignment and they will start parading in it for self-aggrandizement (or for bragging rights to look spiritual to others or perhaps to get the kudos from man). Again, you will be out of order!

The pros of having an assignment greater than you: you have been chosen in such a time as this. That means God has His hand over your life. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy, you will be tried. At the same time, you may not have time to prepare for the call (in other words, things that God is doing in your life which are a blessing to you and to others are happening at a pace that you’re not expecting – and that’s actually a good thing). All you have to do is remain humble (and obedient), and be able to adjust your life (as to how you see it) to the will of God.