Steve Simms's Blog, page 124

“Sermonoply” (The Sunday morning monopoly)

When one person monopolizes a church mic every week that’s a sermonoply. Giving a pastor mic control causes him to be seen as a college style teacher more than as an approachable, listening, and caring shepherd. The greatest sermon falls far short of the simplest encounter with the living Jesus!

True preaching isn’t a religious professional’s Sunday morning performance. It’s the risen Jesus overflowing from anyone’s heart. I find it sad when the presence of the living Jesus is overshadowed in church by the sound of a sleepy, one-speaker sermon.

Giving one-person an every-Sunday sermonopoly is stressful for them. Adding a title to their name increases their stress. When few people could read and books were rare, giving an educated person a sermonoply made a lot of sense, but not so much today.

I believe that the Sunday sermonopoly prevents us from experiencing much that Jesus wants to do when we meet in His name. The Sunday sermonopoly rarely allows time for Q&A, testimonies, comments, or gifts of the Spirit. It tends to crowd them out.

I’ve always been bored by a sermonopoly. I don’t like hearing the same person speak every week for years. It’s always seemed odd to me that churches full of intelligent people hire one person to monopolize the mic on Sunday morning. If you don’t encounter and interact with the living Jesus, hearing a sermon is just sitting through a religious talk.

Preacher, pass the mic around. Give Christ the opportunity to speak thru other members of His body. When church trains people to just listen to sermonopolies it doesn’t do them a service. The church focus on a sermonopoly proclaims that only one person in a congregation is qualified to speak about God.

Church created a sermonoply controlled by the pastor who often unintentionally trains ordinary people to sit and be silent about Jesus. If Jesus is truly alive and omnipresent, then He can take control of the church mic and lead people to stand up and speak as He prompts them.

If we would break up the preachers’ sermon monopoly, the members of the body of Christ would begin to awaken to their ability to speak for Jesus. Ekklesia (a Spirit-directed meeting of the body of Christ) goes beyond the preacher’s sermonopoly by letting anyone present speak as they are led by God’s Spirit.

If you won’t listen to your conscience, it doesn’t do much good to listen to a preacher. Jesus first! Give Jesus the monopoly in your heart!

I think this quote explains why so many sermons seem lifeless. “My aim is that every sermon series I preach is prepared as though I am teaching a college level course.” –Adam Hamilton

Here’s my tiny part of today’s sermon. For Christ-followers closed doors aren’t disappointments. They’re God’s protection.

When Christians gather
To worship God
Perhaps the words
That are said
Can be Spirit-led,
More than just read
From study notes
Or religious quotes
Or simply said
From the head
But flow from the heart
With great passion
And joyous expression
As prompted
By the living present Jesus.

God is everywhere
No matter where
You go today
He’s already there.

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The heavenly city’s earthly gathering

Jesus said, “I will build My ekklesia (the participatory town hall meeting in an ancient Greek city),” because He is the foundation of the city “whose architect and builder is God.” The ekklesia is the gathering where Christ-followers can practice transcendent faith and go beyond human order, hierarchy, and religion by learning to be aware of and obey the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit as together they surrender to the direct leadership and Headship of the risen Jesus. In ekklesia meetings Christians can interact as Spirit-led citizens of the city of God.

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God’s heart-to-heart “house” of “living stones”

I saw the house of the Lord being built today at a Christian conference where the Holy Spirit was allowed to take over the meeting so powerfully that the closing keynote speaker didn’t want to speak so that the Holy Spirit could keep on leading us. That’s what we need to begin to see happen in our institutions called churches.

God's True House
It's time to build
The house of the Lord,
A habitation for Him,
Made out of "living stones,"
People connected heart-to-heart.
Let's cultivate an environment
Where Jesus can reign supreme
And can override our human need
To have our will be done,
Where no one can steal the show
And everyone present will know
That Jesus, God's risen Son,
Is the only one in control.
Lord "stir up the spirit" of Your people
To begin to work on the house of the Lord.
(Haggai 1:14.)
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I saw a famous preacher humbly “step off the monologue” today

Today I witnessed a famous preacher lay down the religious monologue so that the Holy Spirit wouldn’t be quenched. Jim Cymbala was to be the closing speaker at the New Room Conference 2022 today. The speaker before him gave an altar call to the 2,000+ attendees. The altars filled and people all around the auditorium were pouring their heart out to God with words and tears and praying for one another.

After about a half hour of witnessing the amazing moving of God’s Spirit throughout the auditorium, one of the conference organizers went to the mic and said something like: “Jim Cymbala came to us and said that he didn’t want to stop what the Spirit is doing if it’s alright with us, so we’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing.” Then the moving of the Spirit continued and even intensified among us.

Perhaps igniting a spiritual awakening is as easy as falling off the religious monologue. Maybe the Sunday monologue has trained many Christians to log off of the Spirit so they can listen to one man.

Instead of throwing another log on the Spirit’s fire, the Sunday monologue often seems to put out the fire. Perhaps we could chop up the Sunday monologue and allow all members of the body of Christ to have something Spirit-prompted to say.

Perhaps the Sunday monologue has become a dead weight that fails to create “doers of the word.” When the Sunday monologue puts Christians asleep, do they sleep like a log? For an alternative to religious monologue, search for: Beyond Church Ekklesia.

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The Jesus (Alpha & Omega) Alphabet

Jesus is The Alpha and The Omega. (Those are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.) Here are Jesus thoughts from A to Z:

Adore Jesus.Broadcast Jesus.Celebrate Jesus.Demonstrate Jesus.Experience Jesus.Follow Jesus.Glorify Jesus.Honor Jesus.Interact with Jesus.Joy in Jesus.Keep Jesus.Love Jesus.Magnify Jesus.Notice Jesus.Obey Jesus.Praise Jesus.Quote Jesus.Rely on Jesus.Seek Jesus.Trust Jesus.Unleash Jesus.Visualize Jesus.Worship Jesus.eXalt Jesus.Yield to Jesus.Zoom in on Jesus.

The Jesus Alphabet can unscramble your life! Notice the letter J8 in the picture. Eight represents a new beginning. The 8th day is actually the first new day in the following week. Surrender your will to the living Jesus and let Him give you a new beginning today!

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Religious zombieness & institutions called churches

To be in
A Christian
Comfort-zone
Is to be
Zoned-out
By religious
Zombieness.

Institutions called churches
Seem to lack the ability to
Stir up and maintain
In the hearts
Of their members
A spreading fire
Of ever-burning desire
To follow Jesus.
They tend to
Make people comfortable
And predictable
Instead of training them
To be vulnerable
And bendable
To the living Jesus.

Early Christianity was
A spontaneous enterprise
Driven by the inner fire
Of “Christ in you,”
Not a weekly
Religious exercise.

Christianity was never
Intended to be
A comfortable bed
For religious
Sleepy heads.

Christianity! You don’t need to be a zombie about it. “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Soldiers promptly obey mere human beings they call officers. If they refuse, they’re kicked out, jailed, or in some countries shot. Christian soldiers, however, frequently ignore and/or disobey the commands of the living, resurrected Jesus yet remain in good standing with the institutions called churches. Perhaps that explains the different level of effectiveness between a well-trained army and a church. (If you read the book of Acts, you’ll notice that the institutions we call churches lack the impact of the early Christian meetings.)

When we don’t learn to enjoy interacting with the living Jesus, Christianity becomes dull and obligatory. To believe in Jesus is to trust in and rely on Him, not on self or anyone or anything else.

It’s time for greater than first love Christianity — to love Jesus more than you ever have before. If you check your conscience and turn the notifications on its still small voice will lead you to Jesus. Wake up! Exit zombiness and let the living resurrected Jesus Christ fill you with His awe-filled presence and power.

Every voice in the community of Christ (like every key on a keyboard) has an important sound to make. When one person does most of the talking, church meets like zombies — as a passive audience, not as a living community.

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Amazing things happen when your heart reaches for God

As long as you feel
Like you have
What you want,
You won’t want
God to help you.

Reach beyond your pride into the secret treasure chest of humility and brokenness. To reach for God is to exceed your grasp, but it begins to open your heart where He can grasp you. Take a step toward God and see His response.

Don’t just reach for the stars. Reach for their Creator! God is unknowable, beyond the reach of your intellect, yet He is perceptible and experienceable to a hungry, humble heart. An amazing thing about reaching out to God is that you discover that He has been reaching out to you all of your life.

God calls us to walk by His still waters while being led by the inner overflow of His living waters. Reach for God. Step outside of your religious comfort zone and begin to interact with the living Jesus. To repent is to wake up and reach out to God for a reset of your heart. When we lie, we aren’t reaching for truth; we’re wallowing in deception.

If your reach for God doesn’t exceed an intellectual approach, you’ll be limited to a mere mental concept of theology. Reach beyond your understanding of God by opening your heart wide to experience the stunning presence and power of the risen Jesus.

There’s no excuse for not reaching out to God. Only pride and hostility hinder us. You don’t need to think deeply before you reach out to God. Just humble yourself and do it.

If you’re a Christian, don’t just reach for church and religious teaching. Reach into your heart for “Christ in you.” When I reached out to read the Bible for myself, it untaught me much that I had been taught about religion.

Hell? Some popular books say it doesn’t exist, but often people who believe that like to use the word Hell in conversation. Don’t take the gamble. Repent and reach out to God.

Human society should value all human life. If a society can support needlessly taking the life of the unborn, it has the potential to support taking the life of the sick, the elderly, or the homeless

If you want to rise
To a level
Above the devil,
Reach out to God
With your whole heart
And soon you will revel
In God’s glorious presence!

Don’t just reach
For a goal,
Reach into your soul
And when you see
That it needs
To be made whole,
Surrender control
And reach for
The kingdom of God.
(Matthew 6:33.)

Worship God and be the master of your desires, not their slave.

Humans tend to be led by desires (I want this,) opinions (I think this,) and emotions (I feel this,) instead of by God’s Spirit. Let God make you the master of your desires, not their slave.

To believe is to rely on. When we really believe in Jesus, we will begin to rely on His presence instead of on human programs. Spirit-led worship is liberation, not bondage.

Fear of trusting God’s Spirit causes us to instead rely on human effort, planning, and organization. We should rely on the choreography of God’s Spirit. Although seemingly unplanned it’s a work of glorious preciseness.

If Jesus can communicate with His followers and we are free to obey Him, perhaps we should tear up our programs and let Him be our inner Guide. Until we transcend human effort and begin to be moved and guided by the living Jesus, we’re practicing works-based Christianity. Unless we’re daily relying on the presence and power of the risen Jesus, our Christianity is just another religion.

Jesus is the ignored inner and invisible choreographer, ready to direct and coordinate His followers from within, if we will only let Him. He is the world’s best choreographer, but if we substitute hearing talks about Him for coming together to let Him lead and direct us, we’ll never know the beauty of His choreography. When Christians meet, it would be more powerful if we let Jesus be the choreographer & we all followed His inner leading.

When you’re with a group of friends you’d probably rather they talk with you than about you. I think that’s how Jesus feels. Interact with Him. Worship is much more than hearing a talk about Jesus while ignoring His presence. It’s actively pouring your heart out to Him in passionate adoration.

When a church invites me to worship with them, I want to join them in passionate adoration of the living Jesus, but they want me to sit thru a lecture. Worship isn’t passivity. It’s full engagement in actively expressing adoration and obedience to the risen Jesus.

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Jesus’ calling on first century Christ-followers

Understanding the calling on the first century Christ-followers, who Paul wrote letters to depends on understanding the Greek word that is translated as church. That word is ekklesia. There were two ekklesias in each of the Greek cities that Paul wrote to: 1) the group of believers who Paul was writing to, and 2) the participatory town hall meeting that was the governing body of the city. Both were called the ekklesia. Each of the ancient Greek cities had a governing ekklesia (town hall meeting) and Jesus is quoted in Matthew as saying, “On this rock (of direct revelation from God) I will build My ekklesia (His government).”

All the citizens of a city belonged to the Greek ekklesia and all the citizens of the kingdom of God belong to Christ’s ekklesia. Any person present could speak out in a Greek ekklesia. In Paul’s the letter to Jesus’ ekklesia at Corinth Paul says that everyone can speak in the meeting (see 1 Corinthians 14:26). The early Methodist participatory Class Meetings tended to function as an ekklesia more than as what we today call a church. In fact, Wesley refused to call (or to allow anyone else to call) Class Meetings a church.

Paul’s emphasis on spiritual gifts in the letter of 1 Corinthians indicates that the Holy Spirit is to be active and present and directing the meeting of a Christian ekklesia. People are free to speak, but not of their own accord. They are to speak as prompted by the Spirit and when they do speak there will be Spirit-led manifestations of words of knowledge, words of wisdom, prophesy, interpretation of tongues, faith, discerning of spirits, healing, tongues, etc.

Thus, the calling of Jesus to His ekklesias in the first century (and of present-day) Christian ekklesias is to be a visible manifestation of the body of Christ with the Holy Spirit (the living, present Jesus) personally directing the meeting as the active Head (not as a mere figurehead like Queen Elizabeth or King Charles). Our calling is to follow and obey the risen Jesus both in the gathering of His ekklesia and in the world, thereby manifesting His presence and power.

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Are you locked in vigor-less Christianity?

When your problems
Get bigger
You need more
Of Christ’s inner vigor.

Daily surrender
To Christ’s vigor
In your soul
Will make you whole.

To “stir up the gift”
Of “Christ in you”
Requires vigorous
Inner action
To renew your passion.
Complacent satisfaction
Won’t do it.

You don’t need
To excuse
Your behavior
When you lose
Your vigor
And your first love for Jesus.
You need to
Relight His fuse.
And ignite
His inner dynamite.

Jesus wants to give you
Supernatural vigor
That goes far beyond
Mere deliberation
And trying to figure
Things out.

When I concentrate,
Ponder and meditate
On the living Jesus
I feel His presence radiate
From within me.

A clear vision of the living Jesus will fill you with vigor and the power to live victoriously in His glory. Daily following and obeying the living Jesus will instill more and more vigor into your life.

Vigor-less Christians have quenched the Spirit. Christ’s inner vigor never gets old, but without it our excitement for life wears down.

Wake up and experience the inner vigor of the living Jesus. You’ll love the lifetime adventure of awakening to “Christ in you.” The more you obey the promptings of the risen Jesus instead of your own desires, the more of His inner vigor you will experience.

The risen Jesus continually invigorates me and fills me with His vitality. Christ in me is a gushing river of vigor. When I read the Bible with an open heart I’m vigorously inspired by the presence of Jesus. His words burn in my heart!

If Christ is in you, sense His presence; flow with His movement; hear His voice. Without inner vigor, outward effort is hard to maintain.

If you don’t know which desires not to follow, you’ll waste much vigor pursuing deception. Doing wrong isn’t a good thing for your mental health. To “love your enemies” requires vigorous kindness that overrides hostility.

To build a church
On human effort
Human personality,
And human ego
Is to engage
In counterfeit Christianity
That substitutes
Human ability
For Christ’s
Supernatural vigor.

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