For those who say it doesn't matter if you do things God's way as long as things work out according to your own minds:
Genesis 3:1-5
The Fall of Mankind
3 Now the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die!
5 For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will [a]become like God, knowing good and evil.”
What does the Bible say about doing things God's way?
Isaiah 55:8-9 – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,” says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
James 4:10 "humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift us up."
If someone is using worldly ways to entice people to church gatherings then they are dishonoring God in an attempt to do good work. They are working according to their own lusts without regard to what God thinks.
Mark 7:13 "13 Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.”
This does not honor God, it is causing the unsaved to think that Christ is just like the world. If they are enticed by worldly things to come to the gathering then they are becoming false converts under the false pretenses of the church. They learn the things to say and do but they do not love Christ.
Inviting the community to church to watch the Super Bowl is ungodly manipulation as well as a terrible influence to make ball games more important than God. God never told us to entice ungodly people to come to our worship gatherings, just the opposite, He told us to go into the world and share the gospel, when someone becomes born again then they are welcome to come and worship with the other believers.
Mark 16:15-16 "15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 The one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved, but the one who has not believed will be condemned."
It is against God's word for an unbeliever, the unconverted to come to church week after week for many years without becoming born again. I have known people all my life who did this and were no more godly or interested in the things of God than they were when they began.
At some point in their "church experience" a nonbeliever does not become saved it needs to be addressed and challenged to help them turn to Christ to see if they are saved.
So many people come to church when they are going through a difficult life experience or married to someone who is a believer wanting to be with them but they have no interest in Christ.
Matthew 23:15 "… 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You traverse land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are."
We are living in times when most people who would say they were Christians if asked, but will not offer it up without prompting are embarrassed at the name of Christ or mention of the Bible.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
God says in verse 5 of 2 Timothy 3 to avoid such people. But how do we do that when they are in the church and the others in the church coddle them. It is more likely these days that the rest of the people in the church would be angry at the one who challenges the pretender to go to prayer and ask God if he/she were saved. Perhaps most people in modern churches today have never been born again. After all, we have been inviting non-believers to the gatherings for 150 years now, perhaps the culture of the church is based on the culture in the world instead of the Bible?
They have a form of religion but deny Christ in their lifestyle. They even avoid any believer who loves to speak of the things of God. Perhaps we should give the gospel every week until the church is tired of it and the slothful ones will leave.
We need to no longer say things like; "but what if they get saved by staying?" And begin to address the false converts, challenging them to make sure they have been born again.
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