Matthew 21:12-13 And Jesus went into the temple of God and cast out all those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, It is written, “My house shall be called the house of prayer”; but you have made it a den of thieves.
Jesus was offended, and rightly so, that the Temple of God, a place that contained the Holy of Holies, was turned into a marketplace. A house of prayer, a place to grow in the Lord, turned into a common marketplace.
Tonight I heard about a church that canceled its services in order to hold a business meeting to tell its congregation that the church is a product and the congregation is the customer.
I hear a lot about the seeker sensitive church, one which tries to get folks in, by toning down the hard parts of the gospel message.
The house of worship, the church building, is being turned into a modern day marketplace. Where attendance is tallied and numbers mean more than quality of the service and teaching. A place where sermons are spiced up and worship has gimmicks to bring in more people. Church is entertaining. The music makes us feel good. The sermon talks about the purpose driven life.
Where is God in all of this? In the name of growth, have our churches faltered and turned into the marketplaces of the temple in the time of our Lord Jesus? If Jesus were in your church, would He see a house of prayer, a temple of worship? Or would He see a place where the focus is marketing the church to people?
Matthew 22: 35-40 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked, tempting Him and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the Law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. Jesus tells us to love the Lord first, with our heart, soul, and mind. Is your church God focused or people focused?