The Entertainment Syndrome: From Sound Doctrine to Sound Effects.

Titus 2:1-10; 1 Timothy 6:3-5; 2 Timothy 4:1-5; Mark 7:7; John 7:15-18. Those are some texts that show us the importance of teaching and keeping Jesus' doctrine as He and the apostles taught, not adding or taking anything from it. You can see that, from the very beginning, Jesus had a hard time with the religious people, because their doctrines, that He described as "commandments of men". The religious people had the correct doctrine, the Law and the Prophets, but they added so many things that at the end, they themselves were not willing to obey their own commandments. Jesus says how bad it became, in Matthew 23:15. Nowadays, the focus is attracting, entertaining and pleasing people. Of course there are some exceptions to this rule, but in general we see the same pattern: 20 minutes worship, 5 minutes announcements, 30 minutes preaching, 10 minutes fellowship, etc., if it goes over just 1 minute, there's an uproar. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have order, that we should abandon the current "model", i'm just saying that we make rules and tell the Holy Spirit to work according to our rules, that we don't allow Him to move the way He wants to move. No wonder we don't see God's glory as they did in the early church, the difference is just one: In the early church the Holy Spirit was the "leader", the disciples just "followed" Him. Of course if we go back to the beginning, many people will be displeased and will leave the church, because the first change they will see is: Prayer will be a priority, not just another activity. I love music, but we drifted so far from form true worship (music is part of it) that some churches are using secular music instead of worship music, like U2 Eucharist for example (if you think i'm joking, check that out). We make our churches so nice, cozy, pretty, etc., that we attract thousands of people, unfortunately, we repel the first One we suppose to attract: Jesus Christ. He wrote to our churches in Revelation 2-3: To the loveless "Ephesus", to the persecuted "Smyrna", to the compromising "Pergamos", to the corrupt "Thyatira", to the dead "Sardis", to the faithful "Philadelphia" and to the lukewarm "Laodicean". Since there are only seven last-days churches, where does your church fit in? Better, since we are the temple of the Holy Spirit (church), where do we fit in?