1 Corinthians 1:10-12
In the American church it is very easy to follow the celebrity preachers. The ones who are all over social media showing off the amazing things that are going on in their communities and churches. I am not downplaying their impact on the communities around them and the Gospel impact that is being spread through them. However, just like the Church in Corinth we too must be careful that we are not following man but that we are following Jesus! Now most of us are reading this thinking “Well yeah, I agree with that statement, I don’t follow man I follow Jesus in my walk,” but we must be careful to not be blinded by this truth.
As a sports fan we tend to be so loyal to our teams that no matter what happens we continue to support them. Whether the good, the bad, or even the ugly we remain loyal to them. I wonder as Christians if we have the same loyalty to God? Do we remain faithful to God, the church, or even our faith in general as we go through life? We all know that throughout life we are going to experience good, bad, and even ugly times. I think way too often people tend to follow man without even noticing it. To help, I have listed just a couple of questions to spark a thought in our minds to keep us aware of where our loyalty rests.
1. Do I defend a group or leader when they act contrary to the word of God?
2. Is my faith centered on a person or organization rather than Jesus?
3. Would my faith collapse if a particular leader disappointed me?
Once again these are just a couple of questions for us to examine our trust. I often tell people while I am preaching to look back on their notes and study God’s word in their personal studies. I can firmly state that no one at Emmanuel preaching will lead you astray. But if we are not going back and looking over the text that is preached on and studying the word of God for ourselves, are we trusting man's word over Jesus? With the culture we live in I often hear about these amazing YouTube pastors or social media influencers that are dropping these amazing thoughts on passages and people are not fact checking to see if it's true!
I encourage you to examine yourself today, Christianity has always involved learning from other people. The issue is not listening to teachers, it's when we treat any teacher as the final authority instead of Jesus.
As a sports fan we tend to be so loyal to our teams that no matter what happens we continue to support them. Whether the good, the bad, or even the ugly we remain loyal to them. I wonder as Christians if we have the same loyalty to God? Do we remain faithful to God, the church, or even our faith in general as we go through life? We all know that throughout life we are going to experience good, bad, and even ugly times. I think way too often people tend to follow man without even noticing it. To help, I have listed just a couple of questions to spark a thought in our minds to keep us aware of where our loyalty rests.
1. Do I defend a group or leader when they act contrary to the word of God?
2. Is my faith centered on a person or organization rather than Jesus?
3. Would my faith collapse if a particular leader disappointed me?
Once again these are just a couple of questions for us to examine our trust. I often tell people while I am preaching to look back on their notes and study God’s word in their personal studies. I can firmly state that no one at Emmanuel preaching will lead you astray. But if we are not going back and looking over the text that is preached on and studying the word of God for ourselves, are we trusting man's word over Jesus? With the culture we live in I often hear about these amazing YouTube pastors or social media influencers that are dropping these amazing thoughts on passages and people are not fact checking to see if it's true!
I encourage you to examine yourself today, Christianity has always involved learning from other people. The issue is not listening to teachers, it's when we treat any teacher as the final authority instead of Jesus.
Posted in Devotional