Pro's and Con's of Promise Keepers

Just make one correction. You may have noticed it, but I I just wanna make this so that we're not concerned for Caleb, when we were talking about the in the prayer list for a praying for a young boy who had been injured by a horse, that boy's name was Taylor Wilson Taylor Wilson. He is Caleb Jackson's friend. We're glad that Caleb is okay. Didn't want you to be concerned that little Caleb was hurt, but it's his friend, Taylor Wilson.

I'm sorry I didn't make that clear enough in my in my announcement. So we'll we'll be putting that in the bulletin anyways to make sure we have those names straight. Yes. You know, everybody asks me, so how was your trip? So I'll take a minute, 30 seconds, just to indulge me.

The trip was wonderful. What's there not to like about San Diego? 75 degrees, palm trees, blue skies. A marvelous time going to see our son graduate from marine boot camp. The telling letter, I knew things had changed, he sent me a letter near the end, and, you know, Dear dad, everything is great, blah blah blah, hope you're coming down for the graduation.

And he signed, Your son, and in brackets, Who can now beat you up? So now we know where we stand. Of course, I'm still richer than he is, so this is the important thing. And, of course, it's in the, in the announcements there. There's over 400 people.

You're all invited to my house tonight for snack food. Probably not everybody will come, but we'll try to accommodate as many as we as many as we can right after services tonight. Well, on to other matters. If you were to do a search on the Internet, which is what I did, well, I didn't do it, but Becky did. I asked her to do it for me.

You did a search on the Internet and you're looking for religious groups, not churches, religious groups in the United States, you're going to get back pages and pages and pages of information about various religious organisations, all promoting one thing or another. And I've just picked a couple just to give you an idea. These are not churches, no, these are just religious organisations. One is called Religious Freedom International. This is a human rights group that acts on behalf of religious minorities around the world.

Another group that I found, a group called Refuge. Refuge. You know what Refuge is? It is a retreat place for skeptical Buddhists. So if you're a Buddhist and you're skeptical about Buddhism, they have a place called Refuge where you can go and, you know, kind of get your faith in Buddhism back together again.

There's another group, religious group called the Advent Group, and that is a support group for ex ministers, Guys who are burned out, or ex priests, whatever, you know, and so they have this Advent group, that's kind of a support group to help ex ministers get their lives back together again. And then there's another group called Interfaith Working Group. Sounds good, doesn't it? Interfaith Working Group. The Interfaith Working Group is a group of churches, religious organizations, and clergymen who advocate gay rights.

They promote gay issues within churches and religious organizations, they're called the Interfaith Working Group. Now a review of the groups will show that they range in size and objectives, some good, others we might find objectionable, and some of them just downright weird. But you get all kinds of groups. Now among these religious groups, you will find a listing for a group called men of integrity, or more commonly referred to as promise keepers. Have you heard about promise keepers?

Now I could spend a lot of time discussing all kinds of other religious organizations. I mean a guy could spend his whole life studying all these religious organizations and seeing what they do and so on and so forth. But I've chosen to talk about Promise Keepers this morning, because at this time in our nation, they are the largest and most prominent religious movement in America, Promise Keepers. This group has staged numerous men only rallies in large cities throughout the United States that have drawn thousands of men and have been featured extensively in every form. I mean, they've written about them, TV, radio, everything, done everything about promise keepers.

Now in 1st John chapter 4 verse 1, John tells us not to believe every spirit. He says, Test the spirits to see whether they are from God. In every generation, there are teachers and ideas and movements that rise up and capture the attention of the world, and also capture the attention of the church. John tells us that our task as Christians is not to embrace everything that comes along or not to attack everything that comes along either. We've been good at that.

We've been good at attack. We're not to embrace or attack these things. John tells us, we are to examine these things in the light of Scripture. That's what we're to do. They come along, we examine them, we test them in the light of Scripture.

For this reason, we're going to take a look at the pros and cons of this latest movement that is influencing America today. First of all, a little background history, Before I get to the good and the bad type thing. According to its own literature, if you read its own literature, the Promise Keepers began in 1990 and they were begun by 2 men, a man called Bill McCartney, he was the University of Colorado football coach, and his friend Dave Wardell. And, they had a good idea, they wanted to encourage men to be better fathers and better husbands and grow closer to God. Now their original plan was to fill the Colorado University's Folsom field with 50,000 men who would confess Christ, who would make a commitment to become better fathers and husbands and Christians.

That's what they wanted to do. And so they organized a group of 70 men to pray and plan, and in 1993, 1993, 3 years later, this event, under the title Promise Keepers, was born or was realized. Now since that time, these Promise Keeper Conferences have spread to other cities, drawing hundreds of thousands of men who come together to pray, to listen to inspirational messages, and to rededicate themselves to becoming what they call men of integrity. Now since this time, Bill McCartney, the coach, the football coach, has left coaching football and devoted himself as full time leader and director of this particular movement. Now they have a certain philosophy, like every group, and the philosophy of this movement can be summarized in the 7 promises which the promise keepers pledge themselves at their meetings.

This is what they do. They go over the 7 promises and then they get the men to pledge or to promise to keep those promises. I'm not gonna read the I'm just gonna kinda hit each one real quick so you can understand what the 7 promises are. First of all, they promised to honor Jesus Christ through worship and prayer and obedience to the word, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Secondly, to pursue relationships with a few other men in order to help them keep their promises.

Thirdly, to practice spiritual, moral, ethical, and sexual purity. 4th, to build strong marriages, families through love, protection, and biblical values. 5, to support the mission of the church by honoring and supporting leaders with time and resources. 6, to reach beyond any racial and denominational barriers to demonstrate the power of biblical unity. 7, to influence the world by obeying the great commandment which is love, Matthew 1230-thirty 1.

And the great commission which is to evangelize, Matthew 28, 1920. And so all these things that they're talking about are basic biblical principles which provide the reasoning for the movement and guide its direction. Now the promise keepers charge between $50.60 to go to the events and they sell out huge stadiums, all throughout the country. So they have a tremendous impact wherever they go. And their movement has spun off printing and other media resources based on the movement, and the writing and the speaking of its participants and its leaders.

Now the event draws men of every colour, every religious group, every social background from all over North America. And people, you know, I mean people are changed for the better because of it. Wives love it. They got this couch potato with the remote glued in his hand, and all of a sudden he goes off to the promise keeper's meeting, and he's coming home, taking out the garbage, and, you know, being a better guy, being a better I mean, what's there not to like? I mean, so my wives love it.

And men love it too. And many of them are transformed. And, you know, I'm not going to stand here and say, Oh, it's superficial. It's not true. Let's be wrong.

That would be insincere of me to say that, not true. Men's lives are transformed by these meetings. They have a tremendous impact on those who participate. And so it has become in 4 short years the most talked about and dynamic influence in the religious world, during this decade. Now if you live long enough, I won't point anybody over in that general area.

If you live long enough and preach long enough, you see a lot of things come and go. Right, Lewis? You see a lot of waves come and go. But in our decade, this is definitely the most dynamic thing that has taken place in religion. Now like any movement that acknowledges and promotes Jesus Christ, there are a lot of positive features about the promise keepers, as it is referred to, or PK they call it.

Not preacher kid, but promise keeper, PKs as they're referred to. And I wanna mention, I mean, I can again do a lot of them, but I've tried to boil it down to a couple of very obvious things anyways. First of all, they focus attention on Christianity. How can that be bad? They focus attention on Christianity.

The media will love any religion except Christianity. Have you ever noticed that? It will show in a tender and positive light any other religion, any other cult, except Christianity. They'll be very tolerant of everybody else except us. When it comes to Christianity, the media is not very kind.

You know, Christians, ministers, the church, usually portrayed as being narrow minded, intolerant, misguided, and the worst cut of all, the worst cut of all, irrelevant. Every movie I've ever seen where there's a minister, he is irrelevant. He does weddings, I think, or he's a wimp. There's nothing to say, there's nothing dynamic to say. And so that's pretty much the view of the media about Christianity.

The promise keepers, on the other hand, have managed to portray a very positive image of Christianity. Something which is dynamic, without being manipulative. Something which is powerful, without being bizarre or weird. Something which is good, without sounding self righteous. You know, the Promise Keepers don't sound self righteous.

Something which brings people together, especially men, without being too touchy or feely, too wimpy looking. And so through Promise Keepers, believe it or not, in the 90s, it's cool to be a Christian. I mean, it's cool to be a Christian. You know, men are coming together in large numbers for Jesus instead of a sports event. I mean, when was the last time you saw 60,000 men gathered together without a ball of some kind?

I mean, seriously, 60,000 guys coming together, no sports, no women. And so, they have managed to focus a very positive light on Christianity, and that's good. Another good thing is what I said, it is relevant. It's relevant. While much of Christianity has spent its time entertaining itself, building these huge cathedrals and putting on dramas and shows and all kinds of stuff to entertain itself and call it worship, or taking care of its own.

The Family Life Center, we've got this for our members, we've got sports, we've got all kinds of activities for our members. That's not a bad thing, but boy, in the ninety's, we certainly have taken care of ourselves very well. The Promise Keepers have tapped into some of the major concerns of our modern society. They've done that. I mean, there's no crabbing here, no whining.

They've done. We haven't they have. They have said out loud what a lot of people have been thinking about all along. And that is, men have done a lousy job of being men for the most part. And they've said that out loud.

They've shouted it from the rooftops. And the nation has said, Amen. And men have said, That's right. We've been bad. We've not been good.

We've not done a great job. Of course, this is true of every generation because men are sinners in every generation. But, the PKs have said it loudly enough so that the entire nation could hear it. And they've offered a solution, Jesus Christ. Who can amen that solution?

The promise keepers are talking about the things that modern man is thinking about. Modern man is thinking about how to regain self esteem. How to become relevant again as a man. And most importantly, how to become a better man. And they have tapped into this idea.

And they have said to them, This is how you become a better man. And then thirdly, another good thing that I see about them is they are media friendly. They are, you know, they're media friendly. You know, the media is lazy. Okay?

For the large part, thank you for nodding. I appreciate that from you. The media is lazy. The media likes prepackaged, bite sized stories, postcards as opposed to novels. Media doesn't want novels, they want the postcard.

Just say it to me in 10 seconds, 20 seconds. Well, the promise keeper is a media dream. Think about it. I mean you've got the big event with lots of people and human interest. You have charismatic leaders, let's face it, big time football coach turned religious leader.

You've got excitement, 50,000 men in one place, again, without a football or without women. That's the story. You've got controversy. The feminist groups are picketing the stadium. The political and religious leaders are lining up for it or against it.

And you've got a great show. I mean, you've got the best entertainment, the best speakers, slick advertising and promotion. It's all there, it's a media dream. Now I'm not saying this is bad because let's face it, Jesus' ministry had a lot of the same elements. There were crowds, there were miracles, there was controversy, there was charisma.

There's nothing wrong with that, that's what Jesus had too. I'm just saying that when all of this comes together in one place, it makes it easy for the media to report the story. And believe me, the media have reported on the PK intensely, which has simply fed the curiosity and interest of the public and led to its phenomenal, phenomenal growth. You know, the church has not learned how to be media friendly. And so, we've not been able to take advantage of its power and preach the gospel and identify itself to the public.

I mean, if there's one thing that I have done in the last 20 years, like a lonely prophet in the desert saying, Church, you've got to at least buy VCRs. Never mind. Get on the internet. You know, when you go to most churches, nobody knows how to work the VCR, we rarely use TV. We do, thankfully, but you go to a lot of churches there.

I haven't got a clue. Here we have a piece of equipment through which we could, in one day, preach the gospel to the entire world in a moment. And what do we do? We hand out pamphlets. We're in the horse and buggy stage of evangelism.

The PKs are in the year 2000. They're smart. They're wise in the ways of the world. You know, the restoration movement has been around for 200 years but it's not nearly as well known as the PKs. They've only been here 7 years.

That's the power of the media right there. Long ago, we could have pulled our money together and we could have really identified ourselves to the public, who we are, what we stand for, where we're going. We don't do it. But that's another lesson, that's not where I'm going. I'm tempted to go there, but I won't go there.

That's why I write everything down, it's like a discipline. It keeps me on task here. Now they have used the media wisely to promote their religious ideas. And they've shown everybody a lesson on its power and its potential. So there's a couple of very positive things that, you know, and I say this with all respect to those who are organizing, those who participate.

Hands down, they just do this so well. Now, lest we're swept away by the power and the presence of the movement, let's take a minute to examine the promise keepers from a biblical context. That's our job. That's what the bible says, not the Church of Christ idea. That's a biblical concept.

The Bible tells us that we must examine everything from a biblical context. So let's do that. Let's run the PKs through the biblical screen and see what comes out. We're not putting their marketing on being test. We're not testing their sincerity, that's not our job.

We're simply testing their ideas in light of God's word. Well, after examining their own literature and teaching, here are a couple of negative, and I would say dangerous elements that we need to recognize about the promise keepers as well, to get a balanced picture. First of all, much of their doctrine is unbiblical. Now yes, they've got one thing straight, Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Amen.

They do get that straight. But after that point, after that very important point, much of what they teach begins to go aside from the Scriptures. Of course, nobody's perfect. I'm not saying that we know everything and our congregation has the right answer to every single thing. But their doctrinal mistakes are fairly easy to spot.

I mean, they're very glaring. You don't have to be a PhD in bible, you know, to see it. It's pretty obvious. Here's a couple, just a couple. The first one is their teaching on salvation.

I mean, they believe, I mean you'd think such a dynamic movement would have, would get it. But they, the same old, it's the same tired old sinner's prayer, you know, Jesus come into my heart. That's all that someone needs to do to be saved. You know, you stand in the stadium, Billy Graham did this, you know, 50 years ago, you raise your hand, you accept Jesus in your heart, and you're saved. They believe in the sinner's prayer for salvation.

Well, you know, we could we've done this a lot, so I'm not gonna go over this, you know, to great lengths here because I'm preaching to the choir. But I wanna tell you something about the sinner's prayer, just an example of that. In Acts chapter 9 verses 1 to 18, and in Acts chapter 22 verse 16, there's the story of the conversion of Saul, who later became Paul the Apostle. And an interesting thing about Saul is that he prayed for 3 days. He was knocked off his horse had a blinding vision of a message from the Lord.

Then he went for 3 days and he fasted. It says he was fasting and as a Jew, he was praying to God. And yet when was he saved? Nowhere does it say he was saved during the 3 days of fasting. Never mind just Jesus come into my heart.

During 3 days of fasting and praying, nothing happened until Ananias showed up and said, Paul, arise and be baptized and wash away your sins. And Paul did so and his sins were washed away. And Paul the Apostle himself witnessed that that was the way that his sins were washed away. He tells the story of how he became a Christian. And in the story, he repeats that he prayed and he fasted, but only when he obeyed the command to go into the water and be baptized were his sins washed away.

Well, another teaching that is incorrect, aside from the I mean that should be the only one, right? I mean we could just stop right there and say, Well, game over. Tilt. But there's so many other things, you know, and a lot of them are subtle. One of them is they're teaching on the Holy Spirit.

They teach that they have been anointed by the Holy Spirit to lead and do this work. In other words, God said to this guy, Bill McCartney, Here's what I want you to do. You're gonna start an organization. It's gonna do this, and so on and so forth. Remember, this is from their literature.

They're the one I'm just saying what they're saying here. I'm not making this stuff up. Okay? Well, we need to understand from the Bible that the only anointing or sealing that we receive is at baptism. When we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is the presence of the Holy Spirit within us.

You look everywhere through the New Testament, you will not find the Holy Spirit anointing someone to do something. Okay? In Acts chapter 2, verse 38, we receive the Holy Spirit. Paul says in Ephesians 113, that that's when we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. The Bible also teaches that each individual receives gifts, yes, to work in the kingdom from the Holy Spirit.

There are the miraculous ones which ended, with the era of the apostles. And there are the non miraculous gifts that continue today in Romans chapter 12 verses 3 to 8. Those are the gifts that are described that exist today still. The gift of teaching and preaching and serving and giving and leading and benevolence and so on and so forth. All of those gifts are available to everyone in the church today, so they can serve each other and serve the world in the name of Jesus Christ.

But brothers and sisters, the church has already received its mission. I mean, in Matthew 28 verse 18 to 20, the mission of the church is to evangelize the world. That's nothing new. We've already received our responsibility, John 13:35, and that's to love one another. We've already received our goal in Revelation chapter 2 verse 17, that's to be faithful until the end.

We have our mission, we have our responsibility, we have our goal. The Holy Spirit isn't handing that out to someone else. The church has had that from day 1. Now, there are a variety of ways to do this in every generation, but the Holy Spirit has not given any new mission to anybody, especially a group that is in error about fundamental biblical teaching. Okay, where's the Holy Spirit here?

Is the Holy Spirit telling you one thing over here to this church, and telling another group a different thing? There's no division with God. We need to make up our mind, you know. Which doctrine is the biblical one? Now one thing I'd say, I mentioned too.

I mean, there are so many other doctrinal points. Really, there are so many. I mean, the organization, the concept of leadership, they even use the old remember the old Boston Movement? Remember the Boston Movement that swept through the church for a long time? Crossroads Boston, whatever you want to call it.

You know, the idea of prayer partners and things like that. They've even hijacked that idea, too. That you're responsible to 1 guy and that's how they keep the group together. All these things, you know, kind of a hodgepodge of ideas. There's so many other doctrinal points but I show these 2 to demonstrate that we need to be careful about groups who say that they are from God and preach Jesus, but they teach things that are easily contrary to God's word.

Now they may do it in ignorance, but doctrine is still incorrect. Whether you teach incorrect doctrines sincerely or insincerely make any difference, the doctrine is still incorrect. The Holy Spirit is not behind false teaching. Another thing that I want to mention about them is that they are not the church. They're not the church.

They say they are not the church, so I'm not accusing them of that. They say that people should go to a church of their choice. There's another mistake. There is no a church of your choice. There's only 1 church in the Bible, only 1 Lord, 1 body, 1 church.

Okay? But they are sent by God to do his will. That's what they say. They're sent by God to do his will. So they say, on one hand, We're sent by God to do his will.

But you go to any church of your choice. Well, according to Paul, it's the church that has the responsibility of making known the manifest wisdom of God. Ephesians 310. Not a group organized by men. God has not given this role to any other group except the church.

Did you know that? Only the church has the responsibility to speak from God. Only the church. Even if the church is in error, or is weak, or is not as effective in doing its work as it should be, God nevertheless maintains the church as the only manifestation of his presence in the world. The only place where God is, is in the body of Christ.

The only place. There's only one body and there's only one head. And so, God has not replaced or anointed another head or another body regardless of how much publicity it gets as a religious group. The church was created by God. It was purchased by his blood.

It was established by the preaching of the gospel, and continues to grow and expand as the Lord adds to it each day, those who are being saved, according to his word. No man made group, regardless of good intent or using the name of Jesus, can claim to be the equal of, or the replacement for, or the leader of the body of Christ. Especially one that gets the fundamental teachings of Christ and his apostles wrong. You always know. You know why it's so important to know the word?

You know why it's so important to know the word? Because that's how you can tell what's right and what's wrong, what's good and what's bad, what's accurate and what's inaccurate. Don't go by the slick advertising. Go by the word. Well, one other thing I want to mention about them.

I don't want it to be piling on here. You know, 3 good, 3 bad. I believe that this group is redundant. It's redundant. If no one ever went to a PK meeting, or if promise keepers never existed, there still could be good men, good leaders, good fathers, good husbands, by simply following the teachings of God's word.

Period. You know, the church has promote this church, Choctaw church, has promoted strong families, faithful spouses, ethical and moral conduct, warm fellowship from day 1, and continues to do so. The promise keepers again have simply hijacked $60 and go to the stadium. Even in the nineties, all you really need is to simply be a Christian. Nothing more, nothing less.

The message of the restoration was what? We be Christians only. And a Christian man is good enough, good enough. He doesn't have to join another group, doesn't have to make extra promises. A Christian man is good enough if he is following God's word.

Well, it's been said, and forgive me, I'm Canadian, and I only say this because an American quoted it. But it's been said that Americans live from one frenzy to another. From the hula hoop to bell bottoms to the, you know, the Beatles to whatever else. One frenzy to another. And Promise Keepers is simply the latest religious frenzy to come upon us.

You know, it's interesting to note that Time Magazine has reported that the attendance at Promise Keeper Rallies is starting to slip. And, they're having, they're starting to have a little money problem because they're really extended. And there are cracks in the leadership, little infighting on who's gonna be the boss. Even more interesting to note, more telling was this, that on the 1 month they had Promise Keeper right on their front cover. And it's a big deal to make the cover of Time Magazine.

It means that this is something important in the national consciousness. So in 1 week or 1 month, there was the Promise Keepers on the cover and the big story. And the following month's cover Then a couple issues with And the following month's cover You know what was on the cover? It was a story about America's fascination with Buddhism. And the several movies, and new books, and everything that are beginning to sweep across America as Buddhism is taking root here in the United States.

Brothers and sisters, test the spirits. Test the spirits. Not everyone is from God. Don't look at size. Don't look at intention.

Don't look at excitement. Rather, judge all things according to God's word. Because in the end, this is what will judge us. God's word will judge us. John chapter 12 verse 48.

You know, there are a lot of things to command the work that these people are doing. And not the least of which is promoting the name of Christ. But let's remember a few things that John tells us about testing the spirits in 2nd John. In verse 9, he says, Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.

John tells us, if the teaching is not Christ's, the people are not of Christ. They may confess his name, they may pledge allegiance, they may want to do the right thing, but if the teaching is not of Christ, they are not of Christ. That's a hard thing. It was hard back then and it's hard today. Secondly, he says in verse 10, If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting.

John says, If the teaching is not of Christ, then we must not associate with such organizations. Oh, that's a hard one. Because some of you have been a promise keeper and liked it. Dig it. Some of you go to other churches, some of you go to praise meetings, and all kinds of things.

You do that, I know that. You're still my brother, I love you. But you're not following what the word says because you can't take the heaviness of this passage. That's why, Grow up already. I mean, I can't say it any other way.

Grow up. Grow up. Stop being children in the faith and grow up. Thirdly, he says in verse 11, For the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. If you participate, you participate and promote the false teaching and the false teachers.

You want to be there in a crowd of 60,000 people when the preacher gets up and says, Alright everybody, raise your hand, accept Jesus into your heart. And you're there too, a Christian who knows better, and you're applauding this? How can you do a thing like that? How can you do that? What if the guy next to you says, you know, I want to become a Christian, what must I do?

What are you gonna say? Are you gonna tell him what Peter tells him in Acts chapter 2? Well, you need to repent of your sins, you need to confess Christ, you need to be immersed for the forgiveness of your sins, you need to be faithful to Christ all your life. Are you gonna tell him that? Are you gonna get up, step aside and let him walk down the aisle to the front, thinking that he's been saved?

Because you will share in their error. Instead, instead, let's learn, instead of swallowing all of this, let's learn from the positive things we see and hear about this movement, and use it to build and help the church to grow. And instead of going to a rally and paying $60 or whatever to hear speakers and hug other men and give your life to God, why not listen to God's invitation to be saved or restored today by coming forward for baptism or prayer? Why not do that instead? It won't cost you nothing, except your pride.

Or why not come regularly to services to sing and pray and learn about God's word and serve in some way? We've got 3 pages of stuff in this church about things people can do. Why not do that? Not as much fun as a rally, but pleasing to the Lord. Why not hug your brother or sister or some visitor in the pew next to you?

They need a hug. They need a hug. And they'll hug you right back, week after week after week after week. Why not do that? Why not choose to be a better man for Christ's sake today, according to the word which you've already been taught?

God bless you. You've already been taught. Why do you always forget? We've been taught this stuff. It's basic.

Let's not forget. Let's not be carried away by the excitement and the noise, brothers and sisters. If you need to respond to God, if you need to be a better man, a better woman, we encourage you to come forward this morning as we stand and as we sing our song of invitation.