In the last institutionalized church system I was associated with, among the various rosters we had was the Communion or Lord’s Supper speaker’s roster. A half-dozen people were on it, the idea being that before we partook of the elements each week, the speaker would bring a five to ten-minute message in order to prepare us for the relevance of why and what it was we were participating in. There were no rules attached to the speakers, he or she was free to bring whatever message they liked. Most of the messages brought each Sunday focused on God’s love and the fact that our sins were forgiven.
No challenges were ever brought to the people in that church about their spiritual condition. However, by what came out of the mouths of some during tea and coffee after the service, challenges should have been brought from time to time. Relationships between a few who’d been members there for many years were not what they should have been either – with anger, bitterness, unforgiveness etc, showing up. Ignorance and unbelief in the Scriptures showed up as well, resulting in lack of faith. But here they were turning up without fail, week after week, year after year participating in the Lord’s Supper.
There was an elder in that church too who made it clear that the communion messages were not to be mini sermons. He was a clock watcher. The people loved it when he preached because before, and during his sermons he frequently said, “I will not be keeping you long this morning.” My name was on that roster. After some years of hearing the same kind of communion message coming each Sunday, when it came my turn to bring a message I sought the Lord asking Him to lay it on my heart what He wanted shared. Sometimes my messages were challenging and would be slightly over the allotted time.
One morning I had a message that I didn’t really want to bring because, although it was edifying, exhorting and comforting in my mind according to 1 Corinthians 14:3 it was very challenging. During the presentation I felt the devil’s daggers and darts from people both behind and in front of me. It was very clear that neither I nor the message was popular that morning. When I took my place again later, I said, “Oh Lord, that didn’t go over too well. I’ve offended lots of them.” How I praise God for His strong encouragement and perhaps, mild rebuke. Immediately He said, “Don’t seek the approval of man.”
In my twenty-five years as a biblical believer I have had some wonderful encouraging and liberating words from the Lord, but those six words I would not trade for anything. The moment I heard them, I also experienced an empowering of the Holy Spirit to embrace them and live according to them at a level not lived before. No messenger of the gospel deliberately wants to offend his or her hearers, but the reality is that if we are truly following the biblical Lord Jesus Christ, we will offend, Jesus has told us so – end of story. Whether it was related to my message or not, it was not long before the clock-watching elder made more protests about “mini sermons.”
How awesome to discover that the mind of God is the absolute antithesis to the mind of man. From birth we’re conditioned by parents or guardians to be on our best behavior, to give thought to, “what others might think of you” etc; with added conditioning coming as well from our school teachers, peers, bosses and whoever else we give our ears to. Looking good, is the number one motivator for most people in life, none of us wanting to be thought of as anything other than what our conditioning has created for us and made us believe. The pressure to live up to other people’s expectations is hell on earth and it’s destroying multitudes of people – even Christians.
Many years before the Lord spoke to me about this I was to observe “approval-seeking” practice going on in the first church I became a member of. A couple of leaders or influential men in that place would constantly look towards the pastor as they made comments, everything worded in such a way that it would be difficult for the pastor not to approve. It went on for the six or more years I was there. When that pastor left, these two men carried on the same behavior with the next person. The Bible calls such people “men pleasers” Galatians 1:10, which was a very apt description for both. Neither man turned out to be a God pleaser.
I was to witness the same practice in lots of people at another church I was associated with, also for nearly seven years. The members in this national organization saw themselves as, “a very privileged group of people indeed.” They had “a word from God that no other church is getting” and they were very proud of that belief. They still are. During men’s meetings, sitting around tables either formally or casually, certain ones when they spoke looked with an eye of approval-seeking towards a leader as they shared their doctrinal thoughts and opinions. Looking good, appeared to be a powerful motivator for each man.
It was the same at home group meetings. Their main method of “interpreting” the Scriptures was to allegorize and spiritualize them at the expense of retaining the plain-sense meanings, which is what gave them this “very special word from God.” It was difficult enough to understand what was first being taught when it came down from the head guru interstate, but by the time ordinary church members in the home group put there slant to whatever we were discussing, my head would spin whilst a few tongues were tied. A couple of tongues that were frequently untied, however, always had eyes of approval-seeking fixed towards the leaders as they spoke.
It has been said that the unholy trinity rules in most churches: religion, politics and control. And I believe it with all my heart. But from what I have discerned, it is the demonic spirit of control manifesting itself in the most influential leader that is the root cause of approval-seeking, causing both to spread like cancer. The weak always cave in to the strong and it is no different in the church than it is in the jail. What a sin that is! Here we have in the church, controlling preachers talking about freedom and liberty with approval-seekers nodding “Amen” to their every word – but neither one doing anything about it.
The biblical reality is that both controllers and approval-seekers are insecure people who need to be delivered – set free from themselves. Until we are set free, we are pretty much powerless in the hands of God, but very powerful in the hands of the devil. If we don’t see to it that our controlling and approval-seeking must go, the devil will see to it that the demonic spirits of religion and politics are part of the deal as well. And they are, in most churches throughout the western world – hence the unholy trinity. Is it any wonder the unbelieving world wants nothing to do with us? They’ve already got it!
Jesus spoke to the Pharisees of His day about freedom and they told Him they were Abraham’s descendants and that they had never been in bondage to anyone John 8:32-33. They were blinded to the reality that the Romans were walking all over them! In two thousand years Jesus has never ceased speaking about freedom. It’s for all who will choose to receive. The problem is, just like those old Pharisees, many sitting in those church pews – and standing in pulpits, believe themselves to be Jesus’ “descendants” free from all bondage, when the reality is, the demons of religion, politics, control and approval-seeking are walking all over them. “And I will walk at liberty, for I will seek Your precepts.” Psalm 119:45. “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (freedom).” 2 Corinthians 3:17.