to content the people

 Mar 15:15  And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. 

Have you ever paid attention to the wording here? Pilate, in order to appease the people, released a known rabble rouser and criminal and took the sacrificial Lamb to the Cross.

To appease the people. So many times I have stressed that the church is not the Pastor, the teacher etc., no the church is the people and the people are the church. 

How many good earnest men of God have been turned aside by a people who want to be appeased? How many men of God have been worn down by years of "content" people?

 How many have been driven to settling into place and giving up on the earth shaking by a people who want  no more than to keep up the charade of a church and serving God? 

How many have been quieted by the long term complacent folks whose tithes pay the bills and have retreated into mediocrity for fear of losing them? 

How many have "accepted" that they are stuck in the same old because they just can not get the people moving, mainly because the people see no problem with the status quo, because the preacher no longer preaches convicting sermons, accountability sermons, Spirit Awakening sermons?

2Th 3:13  But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing. 

Preacher, you are accountable to God. Teacher you are accountable to God and the Pastor. The people are placed in your care, feed them, take care of them, chastise them, wake them up!

There is revival going on in America right now, with the old fashioned music, the old fashioned Gospel, and the old fashioned Preaching of God's Word. Truly there is hope in America, but at the same time there is perversion and false prophets in other places in America taking over the pulpits. There is a Spirit filled Revival going on, and there is a flip side to that coin going on as well.

The question for the rest of us is what do we want to have in our churches? Do we want mediocrity, perversions, content people?

Or do we want a people on fire for God, making the earth shake with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

2Th 3:1  Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: 

2Th 3:2  And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith. 

Pray for your brothers, that the Gospel might have free course in their ministries. Paul, the Apostle needed prayer for his ministry and he often asked for it, coveted it. Have you asked fellow ministers, your parishioners to pray for you, and with you, that the Gospel might have free course?

That we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men. That is an interesting turn of phrase, he does not suggest evil and wicked, he says unreasonable and wicked. Could that unreasonable man be the one in the pew that "feels" that the church is fine, needs no Spirit, needs nothing more than what they already have?

Could that unreasonable one be the one who thinks the church needs them and their money and if they do not get their way they will leave the church, thus holding the church hostage to their will and their tithe? The one who is content to trade the preaching of the Gospel, for the peace and tranquility of a no wave making church?

Preacher, Pastor, Teacher you have been given a calling, that calling was not from the people (at least it should not have been), therefore you must obey the Voice and the Word of the One who called you,

If you allow the flock to lead, they will die.