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The Five-Fold Podcast
Five-Fold ministry for today. In this podcast we will attempt to determine biblical timelines as they correlate with current events. We will examine the offices of the Five-Fold ministry and gain biblical direction for the world today.
The Five-Fold Podcast
A Plea for Purity in Worship: Escaping Secular Entertainment's Grasp
Is your church experience feeling more like a concert than a place of worship? Join me, Michael Weedman, on a riveting episode of the Five-Fold Podcast where we confront the troubling trend of secular entertainment infiltrating the sacred realm of worship. We unpack a recent charismatic men's conference that became the center of heated debates, scrutinizing a performance that has left many questioning the sanctity of church activities. With candid fervor, I call for a reawakening to the traditional pillars of worship—prayer, reverence, and the clear demarcation between the sacred and the secular.
As we navigate through these turbulent waters, I draw parallels from the Old Testament account of Balaam and Balak, illustrating the hazards when the church compromises with worldly values. In a time where the lure of fleshly desires is at odds with the holiness of God's commandments, this episode serves as an urgent summons to believers. We are reminded of the power of repentance and the necessity for steadfastness in our faith journey. The Fivefold ministry's pivotal role in upholding spiritual integrity and guiding the church is dissected, offering a potent call to action for every listener seeking to preserve a life set apart for holiness.
What is happening everybody? Welcome to tonight's episode of the Five-Fold Podcast. I'm your host, michael Weidman. I'm excited for tonight. We're going to have an interesting, interesting discussion about modern secular church and their worship environment. Don't go anywhere. You don't want to miss this.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, oh yeah, hey, good evening and welcome to this episode of the Five-Fold Podcast. I'm your host, michael Weidman, and I would like to say thank you for taking the time and joining us tonight on the podcast. The Fivefold Podcast focuses on the fivefold ministry and the importance of that ministry in today's society. We believe that there is still a need for apostles, for prophets, for pastors, for teachers, for evangelists. They haven't ceased. There's still an operation today and necessary for the success of today's church. So join with us as we dive into this episode of the Five-Fold Podcast. All right, and welcome to tonight's episode of the Five-Fold Podcast. I appreciate you jumping on here. Let's episode of the Fivefold Podcast. I appreciate you jumping on here. Let's go ahead and get into this Now, if you are anywhere around social media.
Speaker 1:Now I have actually gone in and we're a little bit late tonight, and the reason why is because I have decided to go in and kind of mess up my order of releasing the things that I've already recorded. I'm actually going to skip those and we'll play them again next week, but I've seen something on Facebook that I really wanted to share Now, if you're anywhere near and not just share, I wanted to address it also, if you're anywhere near social media at all today, you have seen probably something about the Mark Driscoll and I think it's John Lindell episode that had gone on at this gigantic charismatic men's conference. I believe it's stronger men's conference that happened just here in the last few days. Now the interesting thing is this okay, this is secular world, this or not secular world. I'm sorry, this is charismatic world movement. They call themselves Pentecostal. They don't really adhere to the same doctrines as we do in certain areas. Some of them, maybe, some of them not the charismatic when I say charismatic, I hope you know what I'm talking about and if you don't, shoot me a comment, shoot me a text whatever and we'll go into detail on what that is. But the charismatic movement had a stronger men's conference and multiple speakers. This pastor, john Lindell, is a pastor out of St Louis, missouri, who had multiple speakers come. They were all there for the men's conference. There was something around. I believe the last report I seen was over 5,000 men is attending this men's conference.
Speaker 1:They decided at the beginning of the entire conference to open it up with an entertainment. Now I want to wait one second right here and I just want to say this you don't need to open any services with entertainment. All right, we're still old-fashioned. Here in Tennessee we still believe in opening the services with time of prayer, because that helps us to get our old flesh in line and get ready to receive what God has for us in the service. But nonetheless, you don't have to open up your services with entertainment.
Speaker 1:I don't believe God's very pleased with that, let alone the kind of entertainment that these men and this is blowing my mind of entertainment that these men and this is blowing my mind the entertainment that they had at this men's conference. And I'm going to show you a video of the actual part of the entertainment that was at the beginning of this men's conference. And I want you to be the judge and you to kind of deduce what in the world were these men thinking and why in the world did this have anything to do with church whatsoever? Just just take, take a look at this. Why are you taking the shirt off, bro? This is a men's conference and what's with the pole? I love how you can hear someone in the background saying what he's going to take a sword and I guess he's going to swallow the sword. What does this have to do with church. Obviously, you can hear some people in their flesh enjoying this.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure, if I can seen enough. Honestly, honestly, what does that have to do with church? If you're going to go out in the world and be entertained by the world, then go out in the world and be entertained by the world. Don't bring it into the church. And this is one of the main issues with modern society and with modern church.
Speaker 1:Now we have just gone through the seven churches of the book of Revelation and one of the main topics that God appoints and points out in most of these churches is the fact that there was paganism in the society that they were in, but it wasn't just in the society, but they were allowing it to intertwine with their lives and in some cases even to intertwine like with the church at Laodicea with themselves. This paganism was beginning to overtake them and their practices and they were allowing it to become part of them and to replace their worship and their. This is the modern church, and the culture that we're seeing in the modern charismatic movement is that the separation that used to be there between the world and the church is no longer there. The modern man is tearing down that wall of separation between God and flesh and they're saying you know what these things that are in the world. Oh, it's harmless, it's not going to hurt anybody, it's going to draw people to church and we're going to get them into the house of God and you know they're going to, they're going to enjoy it and it's just entertainment. It's harmless, there's, there's nothing wrong with it. So they start bringing it all into the church and one pastor, one pastor that was speaking at this conference, spoke out against it and he had the courage and the boldness.
Speaker 1:Now, this man who did this entertainment number one, he is not a minister, he's not a preacher, he's not a man of God, he is a male stripper, a Vegas stripper and sword swallower. Why on earth do you have him on your stage Now? Okay, let's go ahead and get to what? What Mark Driscoll said, um, during his, his rebuttal and his rebuke of this. Let's bring this up.
Speaker 3:We're going to talk about how to be an Elijah and how to deal with the Abish as well, but let me do this.
Speaker 1:I've been upset at 4 o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 3:The reason I'm hoarse is I have been praying for you and my heart is very burdened for you and I want to be very careful with this and it's not what I want to say. But the Jezebel spirit has already been here. The Jezebel spirit opened our event. This is a rebuke and a correction of no one. This is an observation. Before the word of God was opened, there was a platform. It was a high place. All it was a pole, an ashtray the same thing that's used in a strip club for women who have the Jezebel spirit to seduce men. In front of that was a man who ripped his shirt off, like a woman does in front of a pole at a strip club. That man then ascended. See, our God is not arrogant, he doesn't ascend. Our God is humble, he descends.
Speaker 1:And then he swallowed a sword and Jesus cried Okay, pastor John, I'll receive that, thank you. Now I want to show you from another angle. Thank you, Mark. And then he says Mark, and that's when Mark Driscoll looks up and he says okay, I'll accept that. And he gets up and he walks over and Pastor John Lindell says you're done, and he just he walks off the stage. He doesn't address anything else, he walks off the stage. Now this is another angle and it continues a little further and shows you what actually John Lindell transpired to say after this happened.
Speaker 3:He's small and sober, and Jesus Christ. Okay, pastor John, I'll receive that, thank you.
Speaker 1:Everybody's upset because he just got kicked off the stage. You can hear people telling this this Get off the floor.
Speaker 2:Get off. Get off, mark. If Mark wanted to say that, he should have said it to me first, he didn't, matthew 18.
Speaker 1:Matthew 18.
Speaker 2:If your brother offends, you go to him privately. I talked to Mark for a half hour.
Speaker 3:There was not one word of that. He's out of line.
Speaker 1:So again, what transpired at this men's conference blows my mind. Number one I applaud Mark Driscoll. I don't care, I don't care whether you agree with his lifestyle, whether you agree with his beliefs or what. What he did is he stood up and he called out the sin that was that had occurred at this men's conference. Um, number two John Lindell, you're a coward. You are a coward. You are a misguided pastor. You. Well, okay, let me give you the benefit of the doubt. Uh, john, let me give you the benefit of the doubt. You, you, you, you.
Speaker 1:You heard, um, you had your team get together. You said I want to, I want to open this up with some sort of entertainment. They said, how about a sword swallower? And you think, wow, you know, men will get into that. Right, I mean, it's a man thing, we'll get into that. You didn't look them up. You didn't. You didn't try to figure out who this person was that they were going to bring in. Whoever hired them, whether it was you or your team, they probably need to be fired. But you didn't look them up. Let me give you that benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 1:But the minute it happened, you should, would shut down a man of God calling you out on your sin, rather than calling out and shutting down this sinful act as it was occurring in front of thousands of men that you were supposed to be leading at that moment. They were at your conference. You were their pastor at that moment because they were under your guidance and your leadership at that moment. You are a coward, sir, and if you're listening to this, as somehow I'm a nobody, you'll never hear from me again. Probably you'll probably never even see this. But if somehow this reaches you and you hear this message, I want you to know something I love you, I love you in a godly way and I want to just say you need to repent, you need to repent and you probably, honestly, you probably need to step down from your role as pastor and you need to repent and you need to find the truth of God. Would we have been able to stand up amidst all this and do what Mark Driscoll did?
Speaker 1:Now, mark Driscoll, I've done a little research on him and I know you can go on. You can watch the rise and fall of Mars Hill, the church that he pastored. You can hear all the people telling of his stories of control and things. He was an ex Marine. He has this personality that he is an alpha, you know, and he he makes everybody else around him belittled and everything. But the way he did this, this was very humble. I get it out on one knee, almost as a coach, talking to the team and trying to give them an encouragement, saying you know what? You guys are good, you're doing a good job. But we need to address this.
Speaker 1:He did not publicly rebuke you in the way that I would have, or many other men that you probably should have been publicly rebuked. Now wait, let me address this too. He quoted, and just I love it how, when people get in trouble, they want to quote scripture, quoted, and just I love it how, when people get in trouble, they want to quote scripture. Right, he quoted Mark 18 and he said you know, the scripture says if, if your brother have a nod against you to come to you in private. He talked to me for 30 minutes and he okay, this was not like that. Okay, mark 18 addresses one brother having an offense against another brother. If I have an offense against you, I will come to you in private and I will talk to you, but that's not what this is. You didn't just sin against Mark Driscoll, you sinned against every man that was in attendance. An open sin requires an open rebuke. You owe every single one of those men an apology and you owe Mark Driscoll an apology.
Speaker 1:See, this is the problem. If you go into Revelation we just talked about the Revelation churches we go to the church of Pergamos, you find that Jesus introduces himself as the one with the sharp two-edged sword. Jesus is the one with the sword. This is just a failed attempt of man to mimic what God is. That's not God. That's not God. Jesus tells them that they hold the doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.
Speaker 1:Now, the doctrine of Balaam. Remember that Old Testament prophet? Right, balak wanted Balaam to curse the people of God. But this Old Testament Gentile prophet knew that he couldn't curse the people of God. So he taught Balak to cause the children of Israel to create stumbling blocks before themselves and to bring curses upon themselves. That's what this is doing. You're teaching God's people that it's okay for them to live out the lusts of their flesh. That's not okay. Repent, repent. And if you, as a church man, if you as a child of God, were sitting there watching this, I would hope you had enough common sense to stand up and walk out of that place and never go back. I say this all in love, but it needs to be addressed. Church, we have got to stand firm on the separation. We've got to stand firm on our boldness. We are not like the world. We are not of this world.
Speaker 2:We are called out and we are separated.
Speaker 1:Hey, I want to say thank you for joining us tonight on the Five Fold Podcast. I pray that you've been blessed and that you have enjoyed what you have heard. Join us every week as we release new content concerning the Fivefold ministry and their place in today's church. You don't want to miss this the Fivefold podcast. God bless.
