Chandler is right on. Our churches and Christians are teaching the feel good message (seeker-sensative, or prosperity messages). Come to Jesus and He will give you love, joy, peace, happiness…and you can fill in the blank. We are using the fruits of Salvation as a draw card to try and bring people to Christ. What more than often happens is people try on Christianity and typically get what the Bible teaches….trials, temptations, persecution. Once that happens they don’t want anything to do with the church. They now become worse than before another bitter..backslider because they came to the Savior for the wrong reasons.In fact, they should question whether they were saved in the first place. Doesn’t scripture say we need to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. We need to get back to preaching a Biblical Gospel of Repentance (a true turning away from sin and towards God) and Faith (not just easy-believism but a true obedient trusting faith). God is a God of love but often His love is only explained and not His wrath (both are necessary for understanding salvation). Grace is most evidently understood when people understand that when they die they will have to face God and be judged. They need to understand the “bad news” to crave the “good news.” Chandler has a wonderful way of bringing issues like this to light. One of my favorite clips of Matt Chandler is “Jesus Wants the Rose.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-zR3h2UsR4
Thanks Steve for sharing this clip and for preaching the Word, and being faithful to it!!!
All About Him 
Chandler is right on. Our churches and Christians are teaching the feel good message (seeker-sensative, or prosperity messages). Come to Jesus and He will give you love, joy, peace, happiness…and you can fill in the blank. We are using the fruits of Salvation as a draw card to try and bring people to Christ. What more than often happens is people try on Christianity and typically get what the Bible teaches….trials, temptations, persecution. Once that happens they don’t want anything to do with the church. They now become worse than before another bitter..backslider because they came to the Savior for the wrong reasons.In fact, they should question whether they were saved in the first place. Doesn’t scripture say we need to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. We need to get back to preaching a Biblical Gospel of Repentance (a true turning away from sin and towards God) and Faith (not just easy-believism but a true obedient trusting faith). God is a God of love but often His love is only explained and not His wrath (both are necessary for understanding salvation). Grace is most evidently understood when people understand that when they die they will have to face God and be judged. They need to understand the “bad news” to crave the “good news.” Chandler has a wonderful way of bringing issues like this to light. One of my favorite clips of Matt Chandler is “Jesus Wants the Rose.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-zR3h2UsR4
Thanks Steve for sharing this clip and for preaching the Word, and being faithful to it!!!
Until the Nets are Full,
Doug Van Der Weide
Great points by Chandler. I’ve enjoyed, and been greatly challenged by Matt for some years now. He sees things pretty clearly.