The Church Age is Completing – The Rapture is Near – Part Three

Additional Thoughts about the Current Lukewarm Laodicean Church Period

Very Little Red-Hot Preaching on Sin and Salvation from many Pulpits

In the life of the church the pastor should be preaching the Bible. Paul in 2 Timothy 4:2-5 states: “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Preaching consists of proclaiming the truth of God’s Word. Preaching involves correction, exhortation, proclamation, explanation, confrontation, persuasion, edification, and most importantly, conclusion. The act of preaching should involve passion, compassion, and a desire to impart truth at the same time.

Preaching is logic on fire. Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. Tears of joy, conviction, and eyes that dazzle in the glory of God is the goal, not yawns of boredom. Preaching is best accomplished through careful, expository, and passionate theological statements that are proclaimed from God’s sacred Book. A man who can speak about these things without passion in my opinion has no right whatsoever to be in a pulpit and reflects the Laodicean, lukewarm church during these final days before the rapture.

The church must have both preaching and teaching. Without preaching and teaching overlap and giftedness in the church, the people would starve spiritually.

The need of the hour is for faithful and passionate expository preaching to be reinforced by precise and careful teaching that exalts God, convicts sinners, and fuels healthy growth. God desires for the church to grow by proclamation and explanation – preaching and teaching of the gospel (Matthew 28:18-20).

Unfortunately, a sign of the Laodicean period in which we find ourselves is that there is very little preaching with passion that brings conviction and salvation to the listeners, not yawns of boredom.

Alter Calls, the Conclusion, are a Vital Part of the Preaching Service and should bring a Harvest of Souls. Are they?

Unfortunately, this lukewarm final period of the Church age in many churches brings nothing other than a time of attendees getting ready to leave the Church. Pastors, if there is an alter call at all, find themselves standing and waiting but seeing very little if any movement because of a preaching hour that was a period of yawns and boredom.

Evangelism and the Salvation of Souls appears to have been replaced with fun social activities.

Our goal should be the salvation of souls with a goal being what my 13 year old grand-daughter calls “make heaven crowded.” Church car shows, picnics, church sports leagues and other events do not bring conviction and salvation. What ever happened to special evangelistic events such as tent meetings, etc.

For example, I was assigned by the Home Mission Board as pastor of a Southern Baptist Church in South Dakota back in the 90’s for ten years. During that time I was also leading a group of evangelical pastors including Mennonite, Nazarene, Wesleyan, First Missionary, and Christian & Missionary Alliance, in the community to have an evangelistic tent meeting in the town.. We spent over a year holding weekly prayer meetings, sometimes lasting all night, as well as other prayer events in preparation for the meetings.

Finally, we were ready and used a tent owned by the Dakota Southern Baptist Fellowship.

What a week it was!  The first night the services were good, but they only got better.  The attendance on Monday was 193.  On Tuesday the attendance rose to 268 in a tent that was equipped for a little over 300.  The meetings were growing and lives were being touched. Then on Wednesday morning there was a storm which blew the tent down and with the soggy ground and the wind continuing to blow we were unable to put it back up. Quickly people arrived from the various churches, and we packed up the tent in the trailer, returned the chairs to the various churches, and said, “What do we do now.” The pastors gathered, and after prayer we all agreed to move to the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church since that church would hold 330 and was air-conditioned.   The Holy Spirit was moving and that evening there were 350 adults with an additional 70 in the children’s meetings.  There was excitement among the Christian community.  That evening there was an “after meeting” to praise and worship God which ended about 10:00pm.  On Thursday we moved to a large building on the State Fairgrounds that holds 600 in theater style seating and God gave 450 adults plus the children’s meeting.  On Friday the attendance rose to close to 500 with an after meeting for prayer following the service.

We had been concerned about advertising especially since the local newspaper, which was extremely liberal, would not even print a revival notice without cash in advance.  But God took charge and gave us 1/3 of the front page for advertising free of charge.  He is so gracious!

What were the concrete results?  There were salvation decisions from 10 cities in our state as well as the states of Alabama, Arizona, and Nebraska.  However, much more took place and continued to take place than showed up in concrete numbers.

After the meetings we had calls from California, Texas, and Ohio wanting more information. Evangelism and the salvation of souls is what is needed in the church today.

The Reality of the Spiritual Battles we all Face is often not Taught

Ephesians 6:10-17 states: ¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

But are our church pastors and teachers teaching on the subject of evil spirits, both demons and fallen angels, and the effect they have on believers and how to deal with the evil? Many seminaries don’t even have a course on understanding and dealing with evil. Definitely a sign of the lukewarm Laodicean Church period.

Preaching what lies Ahead, the Sign of the Return of Jesus and the Rapture of the Church are not understood or Taught

Teaching and preaching what lies ahead for the believer in Jesus Christ, although such a blessing and encouragement to prepare for the future instead of getting too emersed in the present life, is not commonly addressed.

And there are many more examples of lukewarmness, but the question is when is Jesus going to return for his church in the rapture?

As the Laodicean Period closes the Church Age, the Church disappears at the end of chapter three of the book of Revelation, and Israel comes again into view.

We are in this final period. The Rapture is very near. See the Blog on the “Sign of the Times – Jesus Second Coming” to understand just how close we are.  The Question is: Are you ready? Are you trusting Jesus as your Savior?