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The 2004 International
Discipleship Jubilee,
The LORD of the Fellowship, Portland
Can You Drink The Cup?
(Should I Return Or Go Into The Ministry?)
6/27/04
So many now preach a cheap
grace.
Click
Here - Can you Drink the Cup?- Kip McKean (1:19)
You know as a preacher,
you're called to hit bull's-eyes. Because the word of God is sharp and
it cuts and if you don't hit bull's-eyes, you're gonna hurt
people. And then, I think words that, wow just ring true for our
age, for the time will come, I say it's here, when men will not put up
with sound doctrine instead to suit their own desires, they will gather
around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears
want to hear.
You know one of the
things that is just disillusioned as a matter of fact confused so many
disciples is that there is so many that are teaching a cheap grace. And
the numbers of people that have backed off preaching the word is so
staggering that there's a confusion that comes in the right-thinking
disciples, well there are so many people that say such and such and Paul
says, that's how it's gonna be. He says, but you Timothy, you preach the
word.
God selects the leaders
Click
Here - Can you Drink the Cup? - Kip McKean (4:19)
"The bible teaches
right here that God selects his leaders. Now I think what's happened in
the Kingdom, with so many people leaving the ministry, is there's been a
great disillusionment and once more there's been a lose of the sense of
the calling of God. A lot of people say well, I was hired by a church,
and the church doesn't have enough money, so I'm outta here. Or
the people aren't treating me nice and so, well, I don't want to be a
preacher anymore. Yet the bible says right here, very very clearly, it
is God who raises up his leaders. It's God. We have got to
reaffirm that as a conviction. and the Bible teaches very clearly, when
God raises up his his leader, things change. Because God is with his
leader. The people may dessert him, but God is with his leader to change
the people...are you with me right here guys?
Now we have another thing that is very important to realize is that the spirituality
of a church will never rise above it's leadership. Where a church is at
is the responsibility of the leadership. And you've got to ask yourself,
do I want to take responsibility for the souls of men. Because you
will be held accountable not only for your soul, but the souls of
everyone God puts underneath you. And you have to have a conviction that
if God gives you that sense of accountability then he's also going to
give you the power and the direction, the word of God, in order to
change the situation. So we understand now that it is God who raises up
the leaders, and we understand that if the leader is to take on that
charge, he must have faith that it's God that's raising him up. And his
God will not let him down.
When I first came here to Portland, I didn't know anybody, and yet you
know the people here were, were incredible, they were hurting, but one
of the complaints, I didn't get to share it last night, was that uh, all
the awesome disciples had been moved to San Francisco. And I
listened to it and I heard about 5 or 6 times these different groups and
everything, but a few months later I got in front of the church, and the
church was starting to have the baptisms, remember that guy, right there
in September, and so I kind of tried to tease the church a little
bit. I said, you know guys, you all told me that all the awesome
disciples moved to San Francisco and yet guys, it is just going incredible
right here...I mean I can't believe it right here, so many people are
coming to the Lord. So many people's lives are being changed. I
mean I think you guys are so golden hearted you guys are so incredible I
mean I cannot wait to meet these awesome disciples! They must flat walk
on water. Here's the point, you gotta believe the word of God can make
God's people awesome disciples.
When I came, I determined
to do but one thing, to preach the word and you ask any brother that's
here, from day 1, July 11 the word of God has been preached with the
expectation that people will obey it. We preach the ideal to love God
with all of our heart, mind soul and strength. We preach the ideal that
a disciple is someone who is willing to do anything, go anywhere and
give up everything. But we preach the ideal needs to be the
standard and that's what's been lost in our churches"
Picking up from the end of the
last clip above....Kip talks about who he works for.
Click
Here - Can you Drink the Cup? - Kip McKean (:48)
"Now that
wasn't the most popular message the first few times. Let's just say
there weren't a lot of Amens. But I wasn't hired by the people, I said,
but didn't you get a paycheck from the church, yeah you know kind of in
that sense, it says Portland Church of Christ. But you see I work for
God. The church sacrifices their contribution to God so that I can serve
them by preaching the word. But I am not hired by the church! I am not
an employee of the church! I am a servant of the living God!"
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