Walking with the Lord now for over 35 years, I’m noticing more and more just how much of my pastor’s teachings resonate in my heart and my mind. My pastor, Jeff Johnson, has gone home to be with the Lord, but his teachings on the radio and podcast are still a very big part of my discipleship. I listen to him almost every day. There are times when I hear him teach and actually remember being in the sanctuary when he taught it live.
When God wants to do a new thing, we had better get along with His program, or He will use someone else.
Recently, I was reminded of the importance of being flexible and open, ready to change.
Pastor Jeff taught:
“You see, you can’t put God in a box, can you? He won’t be put in a box. God does things differently. He won’t be limited to a pattern. God loves to do it His way, in His time, and He likes to blow minds. Did you know that? We have a God who has a sense of humor, and He loves to blow people’s minds. That’s why He raised up Calvary Chapels to blow the quote-unquote denominational, you know, churches that were just sitting there going, “But God has always done it this way.” Well, all of a sudden God’s doing it a different way. “Well, we never done it that way.” Well, maybe you got to start doing something different. And if He’s not going to be able to get into the church, he’s knocking on the hard stone. He’s just going to start it outside of the traditional church, and a movement will take place to wake up everybody else, saying, “Oh, maybe we should inquire of the Lord. Yeah, let’s pray. Let’s seek God. Let’s do it His way instead of our way or the way He’s always done it. He wants to do it a new thing, new wine doesn’t go into old wine skins. Our God is a diverse God.”
What Pastor Jeff taught brings up at least 3 things that are so important that you must remember, and we as leaders must remember. If you don’t, you will be more prone to become rigid, inflexible, and perhaps even a modern-day Pharisee. Instead of seeking new and fresh ways to reach the lost and disciple the saved, you’ll be stuck in the past, always taking people backward. You’ll become an enforcer of rules instead of a spiritual leader moving forward by grace. There is no grace or agape love in enforcing man-made rules (that always change, by men, by the way), and breaking fellowship over non-essential things.
Paul warned us that some will start in the Spirit but foolishly try to complete things in the flesh. I don’t want to be that person.
Galatians 3:3 (NKJV) “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”
Let’s take a look at 3 very important truths:
First, you can be stuck in a rut.
Over time, habits develop, and we pay more attention to the habits than we do the Lord! It’s not just others that get into a rut; we can too. AW Tozer once said, “When we come to the place where everything can be predicted, and nobody expects anything unusual from God, we are in a rut.” Not only can things be predicted, but they are pre-planned to be that way. You’re trying to toe the line or follow some instruction that was given to you instead of hearing from the Lord and obeying Him. This reveals a natural resistance to anything new, anything out of the ordinary, anything that is outside of the “schedule”. We must remember that God is always leading us into His “divine appointments” where He is doing the work and we are following His lead. He is singularly the Initiator, and we are responders.
Second, you can resist the Spirit.
Resisting the leading of the Spirit is so common that it can be easily overlooked and dismissed. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, lamenting their resistant hearts. Matthew records this moment for us: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” Matthew 23:37 (NKJV)
There is a lot of “not willing” in the church today!
You’re basically saying, “we’ve always done it this way,” but in reality you’re saying, “we will not change, and if you change, you’re wrong.”
Third, if you don’t change, God will skip over you.
For years, Calvary Chapel was on the cutting edge of so much within the Body of Christ. While they were not the only group God used during that last great revival, it was an important group used amazingly and mightily. I am so grateful for the fellowship family of Calvary Chapel. It’s through this small movement of churches that I was born again!
Calvarys were accepting of different people, really open to the hippies, the sinners, outcasts, and the down and outs. For years, Calvarys were cutting edge with worship, allowing all sorts of new directions, song types, instruments, and fresh expressions. For years, Calvary’s were pressing into their communities with committed evangelism. For years, Calvary’s emphasized autonomous churches with great freedom to reach their communities within the uniqueness of that community and the uniqueness of the senior pastor. For years, Calvary’s emphasized grace and lived it out in beautiful ways. For years, Calvary Chapels have taught through the Word of God verse by verse (even though other churches have too, Calvary’s do so with an openness to the leading of the Spirit in the teaching!)
Why did God choose to use Calvary’s in such a powerful way? Not because there was anything special about us, but because other established churches refused to change. They refused to be open to the work of His Spirit. God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise! God can and will use whoever stays open to Him. We can’t just lean on our heritage, we must seek the Lord!
Fellow pastor, leader, brother, and sister in the Lord, don’t become something or someone that God has to work around to accomplish His work on the earth. You must change. I love what Pastor Greg Laurie says, “The message NEVER changes, but the methods MUST change.” It’s so true. Lest you think you haven’t changed, the next time someone is so encouraged by a Bible study and asks to buy a “tape” of it, you’ll see you left cassette tapes behind. Why? Times changed, and you changed with them.
If you keep opposing Spirit-led changes, God will skip over you.
If you live like a Pharisee enforcing man-made rules and regulations, Jesus will rebuke you.
If you try to perfect in the flesh what God started in the Spirit, you will live a foolish life.
If you respond in pride toward God, He will resist you!
But if you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, He will lift you!
Thank you, Pastor Jeff, for finishing your race well. You have singularly, as a man of God, affected my life and family for all eternity. The Word goes out and doesn’t return void. Ever.
Isaiah 55:11 (NKJV) “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
Let’s launch out in the newness of what the Spirit is doing today!
Mark 2:22 (NKJV) “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”
The Current State of the Calvary Chapel Movement
Things I Like About Calvary Chapel
