SLIDE5 Cat theology distorts the message, and we ll look at six distortions resulting from Cat Theology today.

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Oscar Cunningham
5 years ago
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1 SLIDE1 We re in our third Missions miniseries, Cat & Dog Theology, borrowed from Unveilinglory; our third sermon of four in this miniseries. We ve been equating two theologies which are held by Christians with cats & dogs. A cat lives for the Master to serve them. A dog lives to serve the Master. Do we live out of a Cat or Dog theology? So, today we want to uncover some distortions in Cat theology! SLIDE2 In review, Cats are like a selfish bride, coming to God, not for who He is, but for what they get from Him. It s a cancer in the church drastically affecting the body of Christ. Cats, in short, do not accurately handled the word of Truth. SLIDE3 In 2 Timothy 2:15, we read these words: Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, and who correctly handles the word of truth. That word correctly in the Greek is defined as: to cut straight. To proceed on straight paths. Hold a straight course. To do right. So it s translated, correctly handle the word of truth. SLIDE4 Contrast that passage with Acts 20:30 where Luke is speaking about how some are being misled from that straight truth Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. The Greek word for distort is defined as make crooked...mislead...turn away. A clear contrast with make straight. Straight vs Crooked. Accurate vs distorted. SLIDE5 Cat theology distorts the message, and we ll look at six distortions resulting from Cat Theology today. SLIDE6 We ll look firstly at the life goal of a Cat, which will give us the big picture of what s happening in a cat s heart. Secondly, we ll look at how their view of who God is becomes distorted. Thirdly, we ll see their assurance of salvation may actually be on shaky ground. We ll look at Church leadership and ask, can a pastor have Cattitude'? And also, what it might look like if a worship, or youth pastor, had the same attitude. I want to preface by saying we re going to make some broad general, and what may seem overly critical statements today in regards to some of these people - please be aware that we are doing so to get ourselves to think, and we all realize that life is very complicated -

2 we all struggle with being catlike as opposed to doglike in our faith. No judgments on anyone, just an honest desire to uncover truth in order to grow, a desire to be introspective in a healthy way to see roadblocks in our faith. Let s begin with a Cat s life goal. SLIDE7 It almost seems you can t tell the difference between Christian & Non-Christian in America, and maybe that s because both seem to live for the same goals! SLIDE8 The goal is to get from birth to death in the safest, happiest, most prosperous way possible. We approach life saying, I ve been born, I m gonna die. So I wanna get between the two in the easiest way possible! That s the goal. SLIDE9 The difference Cats do it in church community, Non-Christians do it outside of church community; both pursuing the great American dream. Both striving to be as comfortable, safe & happy as possible. SLIDE10 One says Praise the Lord while the other might just swear. But both pursue all the trinkets & comforts life has to offer, with little difference in lifestyle. SLIDE11 The result is, Cat s aren t being the salt of the earth or the light of the world. They look just like everyone else. They re Christianity has been distorted because of a wrong goal. SLIDE12 Lets look at the second distortion: Understanding who God is! SLIDE13 You ve probably heard of Build a Bear workshops. It s where you can go to a store, buy a bear, stuff it, clothe it & accessorize it all in the way YOU want. So it comes out just the way YOU want it to. It s all about YOU being happy with what you get! And rightfully so, they re marketing a product. SLIDE14 And for Cats, instead of building a bear we Build a God. Looking at the characteristics of God we say, SLIDE15 Do I want a God who is holy? Sure, but not that holy. I wanna hold onto my freedom & have some fun, so not that holy. What about Lord? I ll give Him Lordship as long as I m happy, but I don t want Him to ask too much of me so, maybe lordship is not that important to me.

3 Righteous? I guess, I m not really sure what that means. It might be limiting, so lets say no. Wrathful? That sounds mean. I don t wanna worship a mean vengeful God; doesn t sound nice. Hates sin? Sure, sin done against me, but again, I don t want to be limited, I want to have some fun. Let s cross that one off. All knowing? No. There are things I don t really want God to know about, I m just being honest. A Judge? No. I don t want to be judged, just accepted. Jealous? Forget it. I could never follow a jealous God. But these others loving, merciful, gracious, patient, peaceful, joyful, beautiful, glorious, Savior... of course! I want my God to be all of those. SLIDE16 And like our refrigerator metaphor last week, we take what we want & leave the rest. As a result, Cats only know half of God. We see one side of Him, but not another. And the side we do know, is only the side which makes us feel safe, happy & comfortable. We never want to acknowledge God in a way that could challenge that safety or comfort! As a result, what we know of God is not incorrect, but it is incomplete! SLIDE17 So when God s glory demands we scale back and challenges us in how we re living even down to how we spend or what we give our time to, the Cat prays & thinks, SLIDE18 That can t be. I saw how God blessed Abraham, I saw how God blessed David & Solomon, God must want to bless me. He would want me to trust him for a better life. So I ll go into debt trusting the Lord for what I want in life. SLIDE19 You see, Cats have never understood how much God hates sin. How loving things, comfort & safety more than Him is simply idolatry - something which replaces him in our lives - it s sin God can t condone. So because they only know half of who God is, loving the blessings of God more than God himself, and because their goal in life is to have the safest, happiest, most comfortable life possible, they make choices in their lives which take them farther from his Presence. SLIDE20 So when God says Go. I want you to take my glory to the Muslim world where there s only one missionary for every one million Muslims. A cat s knees buckle. SLIDE21

4 They say, No way. Rationalizing in their mind, I did a short term trip once, the food was terrible, I had to sleep on a dirt floor. I butchered the language. There s no way I could learn Arabic or Chinese. God must be calling me to stay here to send others out. SLIDE22 You see, they never understand the Lordship of Christ which says Jesus purchased the right to say to us, You re to go anywhere, do anything & say anything for me. They ve only known Him as Savior, not as Lord. They miss this because they only know half of God. And because their goal in life was to have the safest, happiest, most comfortable life possible, they make bad choices which misdirect their lives. SLIDE23 And when God says I want you to suffer for the sake of My great name. A cat can t fathom the thought! SLIDE24 A Cat thinks, I didn t give my life to God so I would suffer. I gave my life to God so He would bless me. And blessing me makes me feel a whole lot better than suffering, so there s no way God could be calling me to suffer. SLIDE25 And because they want safe, happy, prosperous lives, they never see the jealousy of God concerning His glory & how Jesus Himself suffered for the glory of the Father. They miss out on the blessings of having internationals into their homes, or having a unwed pregnant teenager live with them, or having their elderly parents stay in their home. They end up playing it safe, never taking risk, because they only know half of God. What they know of God is not incorrect, but it s incomplete. John Wimber used to say FAITH is spelled R.I.S.K. Do we want to live our lives cocooning ourselves in boring safety, or do we want to live in the risk of an adventurous faith saying, God I will go anywhere, do anything, and say anything for the sake of your glory! SLIDE26 Let s look at a third distortion: A Cat s assurance of Salvation. SLIDE27 To a Cat, there s a guarantee of salvation because SLIDE28 they Prayed the Prayer. Ask a Cat when they became a believer and they ll say, SLIDE29 I remember church one Sunday morning, I was 7 years old. I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit. So I walked down the isle & gave my life to the Lord. But with some Cats, when you ask So how s your life now?, they say

5 SLIDE30 I don t wanna talk about it says a cat. My life is a wreck. My marriage is failing, I feel alienated from my kids. I probably an alcoholic - and I m about to get laid off And if you pursue a Cats life a little deeper asking, Well how is your relationship with God?, they reply SLIDE31 Its terrible. I m angry & bitter at God. He s let me down so many times. I m not really talking to Him much anymore. But you re a Christian? you ask the Cat. SLIDE32 Sure, I prayed the prayer when the pastor gave the invitation. I m saved. SLIDE33 But remember Matthew 13:44? It says, The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Christianity is fueled by joy since we ve found a treasure! SLIDE34 But a Cat doesn t realize the DNA of Conversion has embedded within it the concepts of joy, delight & treasure. To them, being a Christian embraces only words like decision, prayer, commitment, or deeds. There s no treasuring God. No delight in God. No intimacy. In fact, God is off at a distance, stoic & impersonal. But they re sure because they prayed the magic prayer. SLIDE35 To be honest they ve only wanted fire insurance. Getting that, they play the game of Church, living life their own way which often leads to disaster. Sure they come to God, but only when they re in great need. When things are going well, Who needs to spend time with God?, thinks a Cat. SLIDE36 George Barna doesn t use the term Cat-Christian, but he nails it when he writes: One out of every four believers surveyed indicated that they had not experienced great life transformation attributable to their faith. Biblically, this puts their faith & relationship with God in question. SLIDE37 Matthew 7:16-18 says, You ll recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. If our lives are not radiating the goodness, joy & peace of God, the Scriptures would question the validity of our position in Christ. Cats fear this verse & think, I prayed the prayer, I must be ok.

6 SLIDE38 Cat Theology affects more than just lay people in the church though. SLIDE39 It can also affect church leadership. SLIDE40 This brings us to our fourth distortion: What happens when a pastor has what we ll call Cattitude. SLIDE41 If a senior pastor is a Cat, what are his goals for the church? It parallels having a safe, happy, prosperous life...but in different form. SLIDE42 If the pastor sees the main character of the Bible as people, their goals may be more in line with people being happier, bigger buildings, more staff, or bigger budgets. SLIDE43 Acts 20:30 gives us a hint - Even from within your own number men will arise & distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. Notice, the goal for distorting the truth; to get more & more people to follow them. SLIDE44 Bigger buildings, more people, more staff, bigger budget, bigger & better programs, more baptisms. Better positioning of their church within the denominational ranks, etc SLIDE45 Now if people are the main focus of the Bible & of the Pastor, then by all means that pastor can NEVER, EVER preach a sermon that doesn t make people. Fill in the blank FEEL GOOD! Always preach feel good sermons or you will lose what you re trying to build. You will dismantle your own kingdom! SLIDE46 A Cat Pastor can only preach half of God! The kind side. The loving side. The merciful side. The gracious side. That s what people love, says the Cat pastor. What they ll respond to & where their felt needs are! That ll bring them in! My wife said to me just the other day, You know we may be a small church, but we are a good church! I agree! We re not perfect, never will be, but I think we re going in the right direction. Again, no judgments, just an honest self-evaluation in the area of our faith is necessary, tweaking where we have been idolatrous, getting back to Jesus! SLIDE47

7 If a Cat Pastor starts preaching the other side of God, His holiness, distaste for sin & injustice, His righteous jealousy for His glory - some won t understand & will be offended. And if they get offended, they leave. And if they leave, a Cat Pastor s goals won t be met. So, it s far better to preach the safe side of God, there s so much material on the safe side anyway, you could preach on it forever! Why bother with the other side? SLIDE48 With this thinking in mind, let me give you a practical example. Let s evaluate the words spoken by a pastor, We want you to know that we are trusting God for literal miracles in this church. How can this be interpreted as Cat? SLIDE49 The key words are miracles & this church. What kind of miracles are they talking about? Miracles in the lives of the people in their church! Maybe a physical healing. Maybe money coming in from nowhere to help a family. But definitely something to do with the people! Note it s for miracles in this church! They are not trusting God for miracles in the other churches down the road. If miracles were happening in those churches, people would go there, and they d go down in numbers. So they re trusting God for miracles in THIS church! Now, this isn t necessarily wrong, but we can see how it could become self-serving! SLIDE50 Cat Pastors never want people to leave their church. Let s look at an example. One missionary came to a church in the inner city of Atlanta & asked if he could mobilize people from this specific church to go & minister to an apartment complex where 72 different languages were spoken. People from all over the world were living there. But they all worked menial jobs, which meant that the only time they collectively had off was Sunday mornings. Which meant that people from the church would have to go to this apartment complex during worship service hours. The mission pastor was excited & told the senior pastor about this possibility. The senior pastor said, No. Lets not let them go because then they wouldn t come to church on Sunday & our numbers would go down. SLIDE51 This Cat Pastor was primarily worried about growing a bigger church, getting greater numbers & where they stood within their denomination. His church was of greater importance than the lost internationals living near his church. Not only does a Cat pastor not want them to leave, it gets even worse SLIDE52 Let s evaluate these sermon series to see if they are Cat or Dog?

8 SLIDE53 At first impression, does Speaking The Blessing sound more God-Centered, or peoplecentered? What about Overcoming Discouragement? God-centered, or peoplecentered? What about the other three? Are these sermon series wrong? Well in all honesty, it depends on what s preached in those sermons. Some could be pure Cat, some could be pure Dog... it depends. Now compare those titles with the following: SLIDE54 Born Blind for the Glory of God. God s Purposes In The Recession. God-centered or people-centered? What about the other three? These have a far greater tendency to be God-centered by their title, challenging us to realize life isn t about us! SLIDE55 And, just as a pastor can have Cattitudes, so can a Worship Pastor. SLIDE56 If a Worship Pastor is Cat, they re primarily concerned that people like the music. They couch those concerns in the terminology of worship, of course. SLIDE57 The Cat Worship Pastor says, They liked this one last week. Everyone was clapping! We'll do it again this week Whereas the Dog worship pastor says, These songs honor God, so out of these, which ones seem to really draw people closer to Jesus? The Cat; people-focused. The Dog; God-focused. SLIDE58 Now there are pure Cat songs & pure Dog songs, and some have mixed messages. Let s look at the song Who Am I? SLIDE59 Look at the first three words. Who am I. Where s the focus? What about the rest of the words? That the Lord of all the earth, Would care to know my name, Would care to feel my hurt. Who am I? That the bright and morning star, Would choose to light the way, For my ever wandering heart. Put all text full screen, not just thinking of the title, take me completely out & where s the focus of the song? More Cat or Dog?

9 SLIDE60 In the Bridge, the focus of the song seems to switch to God. SLIDE61 He finally comes to the end he starts off with the word Still. He s saying something like Even though we are nothing, still you put your focus on us. And what does the song say is the purpose of God focusing on us? It still seems on us. He hears us. He catches us when we fall. We ve been told who we are. Though it ends I am yours it still seems to give somewhat of a mixed message. It could mean I am yours to bless Sort of like it s all about me or it could be really glorifying God. Compare that to this song. SLIDE62 This song seems to take you straight to God in the first few lines. SLIDE63 This song ends, much like the other one, about giving their life to God. His is at the top, the first is below in parenthesis. Do we see a difference? How could one be taken as a Cat, and one not as a Cat? The first one seems completely focused on glorifying God, the second one leaves it open. It may be God s Glory, or it may be about God focusing on them for their benefit. SLIDE64 There are many Cat & Dog songs out there. Can a Dog worship using a Cat song? Sure. Can a Cat take a Dog song & make it self-centered? Sure. What really matters is the heart of the worshipper. Are they worshipping God for who He is, or for what He can do for them? So, we re not cutting down every worship song which extols the blessing God bestows on us personally, we re saying let s be good worshippers, led by Worship Leaders who are in love with Jesus! SLIDE65 What about Youth Pastors, how can their ministry become distorted? SLIDE66 What s the goal of a Cat Youth Pastor? Building the youth group, getting them to feeling good about themselves, helping them get along with their peers, parents & siblings, or guiding them in morality issues, etc. SLIDE67 Evaluate the difference between these two youth pastors. What are they both basically communicating? (Read slides) SLIDE68

10 So if we were playing hang man with the Cat & we were only three consonants away, what would be the word that would best describe what a Cat pastor has to do? SLIDE69 They have to Entertain the youth, otherwise they d stay home, or go somewhere else. Which makes it difficult for a Cat youth pastor to preach about the other half of God. SLIDE70 As a result Cat youth pastors focus on things like, All night bowling, Lock-Ins, Beach Trips, Game Nights, Concerts... Anything to keep them coming & entertained. And what s taught? SLIDE71 Cat Youth Pastors sometimes only teach about half of who God is. The fun easy side, not the tough side of living for His glory. They don t preach suffering or sacrifice, lordship or world mission. They have to keep the youth happy! SLIDE72 God is unimpressed with Cattitudes, in whatever form they take in church life. SLIDE73 He desires an honest teaching of His Word, teaching both sides of who He is. There s the loving kind side of God. But also the vengeful, wrathful, jealous side of God - Both are correct. Both glorify God. SLIDE74 But Cats are more worried about people & getting others to follow them. Hence they only address half of God & never challenge people to go outside their comfort zone, which is teaching a distorted truth. SLIDE75 When lay people, senior pastors, worship & youth pastors are Dogs, they re focused on one common theme: delighting in God & glorifying Him. No matter what the cost, even if it means suffering or death. Life is all about glorifying God more than our own comfort or security. SLIDE76 Let s avoid living the life of a selfish bride. Let s not allow that cancer to eat away at our relationship with God & our churches witness in this community & world. Let s not embrace crooked doctrines. SLIDE77 Life is not about us, it s about God! SLIDE78

11 Our theology can become distorted when we re the main character. Let s be cautious & aware of possible distortions of Truth. Let s adjust our attitudes each time we sense Catlike theology seeping into our thinking!

Step 1 Pick an unwanted emotion. Step 2 Identify the thoughts behind your unwanted emotion

Step 1 Pick an unwanted emotion Pick an emotion you don t want to have anymore. You should pick an emotion that is specific to a certain time, situation, or circumstance. You may want to lose your anger