Church Planters Battle For The Truth

 

Hello my brother, hello my sister, my name is Dean Davis and this is Multiply, a

podcast that provides a word of encouragement for village church planters.

From ancient times there have been men and women in our world who are

happy to lie and deceive people for personal gain. Kings and queens have done

it. Traders and merchants have done it. Husbands have lied to wives and

wives have lied to husbands. Deception is all too common in our broken world.

But today, with the advent of smart phones and internet connections, we hear

many more lies much more quickly than we did in years gone by. How can we

protect ourselves from these deceptions that are designed to help the liar and

hurt the listener?

There are so many rumors and half-truths that we hear every day. Across

Africa and around the world internet preachers are getting wealthy by telling

listeners that God wants to give them unimaginable riches and the way to

access these riches is by sending money to the preacher. They manipulate the

word of God and use it for their own advantage.

Others prey on the fears of ordinary believers by distorting the news to

persuade their listeners to align themselves with certain politicians and

political ideas, even though those political philosophies are not rooted in the

Scriptures.

Church planter Paul encouraged the Colossian believers to watch out for

deceptive men and women who try to take them captive with lies and half-

truths.

He said in Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through

hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the

elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.”

You are a church planter and as such you have pastoral responsibilities. Pastors

protect their sheep from wolves. How can you protect your sheep from internet

preachers who are lying wolves trying to deceive your church members for

personal advantage? Paul said their philosophies depend on human traditions

and elemental human traditions and not on Christ. So what is the answer?

Lift up Christ. Tell the story of Jesus and his love. The best defense is a good

offense. Be proactive in telling the truth. Tell Bible stories about the

character of Christ and the suffering of the early church. Tell stories about

God’s faithfulness in the midst of struggles. Teach your people to listen to the

Bible, understand the Bible and apply Bible truths for themselves.   

 If you do, they will recognize deceptive preachers a kilometer away and they

will take measures to avoid them or confront them if necessary. If you don’t

fill your people’s hearts and minds with the truth of Jesus, they will surely

accept the deceptions of false prophets and selfish politicians.

Remember, the best defense against liars is to proactively tell truth. My fellow

church planters, tell God’s big story and tell the stories of Jesus. Tell them

well and teach your people to be great communicators of the truth of Jesus.

If you have found this message to be helpful, please forward it to fellow church

planters and disciple-makers who may need encouragement. Feel free to share

it on What’s App, Facebook, and other platforms you use to connect with

others.

Be encouraged, God is with us!

#EncouragementforVillageChurchPlanters #Colossians #TellTheTruth

www.vcpencouragement.org