Tag: pastor

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News

Immodest? Megachurch Pastor Mike Todd AGAIN Preaches in Shirt Ft. Wife

Pastor Michael Todd leads Transformation Church. He is known for crowd surfing during his church’s worship service and spending a lot of money. In the last two years, he’s given away $3,500,000 in houses, cash, and cars, spent $65,000 to buy 168 pairs of shoes, gave $600,000 in “reparations,” and purchased $66,000,000 in real estate.

He’s also known for preaching some good old-fashioned modalism, giving the world perhaps the grossest illustration in church after he snorted and then hocked a loogie full of spit and snot into his hand and rubbed it in another man’s face and claiming his church had 75k salvations in the last 18 months
even though they barely grew.

A month ago, as part of his sermon illustration, he wore a shirt of his wife in a bathing suit with the caption ‘Hot Girl Summer,’ giving the congregation and the hundreds of thousands of people who stream his service an upfront look at her in a two-piece. He would later have ‘mean comments’ overlayed across his stream, reinforcing his point (the pop-ups are part of the church feed) that he should just ignore the comments.

Todd explained his justification for wearing the outfit, incredulous that these prudes would dare be offended by his shirt.

Today, there’ll be comments about the sermon. People will comment good things, people will comment bad things. They will be mad because I had a picture of my wife on my shirt in a bathing suit.

‘How’s a pastor gonna get up there tempting everybody?’

But if you go on Forever 21, right now, your daughter has on a shirt with somebody they don’t know, in a bathing suit right now, and you- I love her and she wears bathing suits. Gasp! First Ladies wear bathing suits. Oh my God.

I’m so done with church people.

At the time we thought it was a one-off, but apparently it wasn’t the first time. Rather, this demonstrates a pattern of behavior of wanting to exhibit his wife. Last year during his Let God Rewrite Your List – Modern Romance series, Todd preached a sermon in a shirt featuring his wife wearing a strapless, low-cut dress that might generously be described as immodest, giving the 150,000 people watching his sermons an eyeful.

It is strange behavior for a pastor to be doing- but then again Todd was disqualified from being a pastor a long time ago.

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News

SBC Seminary Prez. Suggests Women Could Probably be Ordained as Pastors in the SBC

“Women pastors and women preachers are the most obvious rebellion against the word of God.” John MacArthur

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary president Adam Greenway caused a stir on social media after posting Lifeway’s Study Guide on the definition of a pastor, suggesting that while the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 seems to relegate the position of Senior Pastor to men only, perhaps there is some wiggle room for women to take on certain pastoral roles.

This revelation comes a month after the SBC’s annual meeting, where the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Credentials Committee revealed they were not going to remove Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church from their roles after he famously and unapologetically started to ordain women pastors.

The Credentials Committee suggested that the title and function of pastor can be separated, and while it’s true that only men can hold the “office of pastor,” perhaps women can have the “title of pastor” without having a church that is rife with pastrixes to be being disqualified or found not to be in cooperation with the Baptist Faith and Message. They noted that “(we found)…little information evidencing the Convention’s beliefs regarding the use of the title of ‘pastor’ for staff positions with different responsibility and authority than that of the lead pastor.”

Instead, the Credentials Committee said they were “unable to form an opinion regarding the relationship of Saddleback Church to the Southern Baptist Convention until clarity is provided regarding the use of the title “pastor” for staff positions with different responsibility and authority than that of the lead pastor.” They promised to study the issue and get back to the convention next in 2023.

In response to the initial controversy, SBTS President, one of the BFAM2000’s original authors, repudiated the notion that women would ever be biblically qualified to be ordained or that their doctrinal statements allow for it by posting a statement made by other originalist crafters.

And yet they say there is no liberal drift within the Southern Baptist Convention.

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News

Wild Bible Twist as Pastor Says God is Pro-Choice: ‘Choose Ye This Day Whom You Will Serve’

Pastor Mike Thomas of Radiant Covenant Church in Renton, Washington, is a woke pastor overseeing a woke church. We say this because we featured him before after he issued an imprecatory prayer over Trump supporters who attended the rally at Capitol Hill, publicly praying for their death and that God justly smites them off the face of the earth. He did this with a BLM fist sign featured prominently and garishly behind the pulpit, and the church’s recommended reading list includes James Cone, Ibram X. Kendi, Jemar Tisby, and Willie James Jennings.

In a new video, he offers perhaps the worst bible reading uttered out loud, calling God ‘pro-choice because He told the Israelites: “Choose ye this day whom you will serve“. Furthermore, Thomas claims in the same way that God did not legislate morality to the Israelites in the Old Testament (Ed. Note. Even though the whole book of Leviticus is about that), so too should the government should not legislate morality to us.

My heart is praying for all the women of America today. Unless you’re under a rock, you are fully aware of the overturning by the Supreme Court of Roe versus Wade. Again, I say my prayers are for the women of America today.

I’m grateful to know that the god we serve is not a single-issue savior. Amen. The god we serve is not a single-issue savior. God is not a donkey, he’s not an elephant. How many of y’all know he is the lamb that was slain? Amen.

And you all, it’s a perplex [sic] issue. The reality is we cannot only be concerned about the unborn and then not be concerned about their life after birth. Can I talk to some real people?

I submit to you that my Bible teaches me, Isaiah, that God is pro-life. He says I’ve come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.

But if I could rock your theological noodle, I submit to you that my Bible teaches me that God is pro-choice, also. How can you say that? He said, “Choose ye this day whom you will serve.” The Old Testament says, “I have set before you life and death. Therefore,” I’m not gonna legislate the answer for you. “Therefore, choose life, that both you,” oh, I wish I had some Bible readers in the building, “you and your descendants may live.”

And so you all, as we pray as we process so much going on in our world, I just want to encourage us to just stop and think. There are a lot of gatherings happening today. It’s a shame, Chris, you can’t even just assume. You’ve got to compartmentalize your church from somebody else’s. You can’t even assume that we all on the same page. Can I talk to some real people?

And there are some churches today that’s celebrating this. There are churches that are lamenting this. And I would just want to say, I think before the church does any kind of victory lap, I want to encourage us as the body of Christ to walk in humility, to be teachable, to be patient, to double-check what are we really celebrating today, and how is it impacting others.

h/t to WokePreacherTV for the clip and transcript.

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News

Family of Woman who Dramatically Exposed Pastor Sleeping with 16 Year Old Now Say It Started When She was 14+ More Details

A week after an Indiana pastor who confessed an ‘adulterous’ affair he had 20 years ago during a church service yesterday was publicly confronted right afterward by the survivor of that assault, blasting him for the way he was spinning it and correcting the story that she was 16 years old when they began having sex, now say disturbing encounters between the pastor and teen happened even before that.

In an article written by the Daily Mail, Mom Karen told them that the grooming of her then-teenage daughter, Bobi Gephart, started before she was 16, the legal age of consent in Indiana.

‘The grooming actually started before Bobi was 16. I know that because Bobi told me. We figure somewhere around 14 or 15 years of age, maybe late 14 or early 15…I don’t know how it started. There are things I still don’t know…I think he started a physical relationship before 16, but I can’t be certain. I think it was when she was 15, although I don’t know that for sure….I trusted this man with my kids’ lives. And I always thought he was the protector and it never dawned on me that he would have touched her in that way let alone had sex with her – many, many, many, many times.”

Her brother Edgar, a retired Army intelligence warrant officer, also filled in some gaps in the story, with the permission of his sister. He says their parents and the Lowe’s were good friends and they often watched each other’s kids when one was away. He said that when he was 16 when he walked into the master bedroom and found Pastor Lowe shirtless and his younger sister just in underwear and a T-shirt under the covers.

‘I looked puzzled so he said, she just came in to say good morning and it was cold. They were in bed under a duvet and his wife was gone. And it was early.

‘I was trying to think it through. In my innocence I believed what he said. And I thought we’re family, he wouldn’t do anything, he’s our pastor and I’ll trust it.

‘Bobi is about 18 months younger than me so she would have been either 14 or 15 at the time. In my young mind I thought, it’s a good thing nobody else saw this or they would call the cops, and they wouldn’t even know that it was innocent.’

Though Edgar tried to suppress the image for years it always bothered him. Three weeks ago he decided to confront the pastor after a conversation with their other sister, who also felt like something about their relationship was off. He confronted pastor Lowe and demanded he quit the church, which is what prompted the public confession in the first place. It did not come out of thin air- he was forced to do it or else be exposed.

‘I confronted her (about the bedroom memory) and she told me everything that had happened. And she went into great detail with the relationship…I texted Lowe and I said “you are done, you will resign, you will make a public confession and you will face criminal charges most likely”.

‘He said, “you’re right, I’m done, do whatever you want. There is no defense for me”

…But he gave lip service by not following through on Sunday. When he got up there it was half the confession. He had a script, only said he had an affair. Nothing about her being underage or her name. So her husband Nate decided he was going to go and speak out….My sister then joined him as well and together they were strong enough to confront Lowe.’

The law is paying attention. Reportedly, Kosciusko County Prosecuting Attorney Office’s has begun an investigation, which would carry criminal charges of statutory rape if the accounts of her being 14 at the time are true. This would please Edgar greatly.

‘I want him to be broken in his heart in a way that is sincere. When I watched him on the stage I saw defiance and I saw pride and anger that he was caught.

‘I didn’t see remorse for what he had done and taken from my sister. There should be criminal charges and he should have to face whatever the court system decides is his fate.’

In a statement released by the church, they confirmed that Lowe has quit.

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Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Johnny Hunt Assaulted a Young Pastor’s Wife. Her Husband Should Be Disqualified from the Ministry

If the story is to be believed, Johnny Hunt, the fabled Pastor Emeritus of FBC Woodstock and former President of the Southern Baptist Convention did something unthinkable. In a grotesque act of sexual debauchery, he managed to weasel himself into a situation where he would be alone with another pastor’s wife that had joined them on vacation.

There, without provocation or any indication that he was capable of doing it, he sexually assaulted her. He yanked down her pants and looked upon her naked flesh which caused her to tense up and not be able to move. He then pinned her down on a couch, climbed on top of her, and proceeded to kiss and fondle her breasts. She tried to resist but was frozen, and he came at her again and tried to pull down her shirt, where he groped her and violently kissed her for a while longer. He finally stopped and left. (Hunt says the whole encounter was consensual and disputes many of these details)

This alleged violent sexual assault and (and some might argue attempted rape) was then reported to at least 5 different SBC pastors: the woman’s husband, the church counselor, and according to Guidepost, three other witnesses

Of those SBC pastors, Witness 1 was in ministry for over 40 years. The husband told him shortly after it happened. The second witness is a senior pastor in an SBC church that worked with the husband for 6 years in the same church. The third witness is “a bi-vocational pastor in Southern Baptist churches and worked in local and state conventions. He is currently a minister in residence in a Southern Baptist organization.” According to the Guidepost report:

“Guidepost investigators found all three witnesses to be very credible with clear recollections of Pastor’s statements to them. The witnesses are all still very much involved and committed to Southern Baptist life and the Convention.”

This should not be. All these men should be disqualified from the ministry because not one person reported it.

First of all what kind of husband hears from his wife that she was molested, groped, and sexually assaulted, and does nothing about it? Assuming her side of the story is completely true as reported, another man sexually assaults his wife, climbs on top of her, tries to pull off her clothes, and the husband lets it slide?

What a dereliction of duties and failure to be a man. What a failure to be a husband. The fact that he did not go straight to the police and then tell it to the whole church is to his great shame and sin.

Furthermore, who’s to say that his wife was the first person this monster sexually assaulted? The wife testified that it was completely non-consensual. Unless the husband had reason to believe that it perhaps was consensual, as Hunt has claimed, then he let a sexual pervert not only go unpunished but free to continue sexually assaulting other potential victims for the next decade.

With the husband’s silence, he let a molester (as far as he knew) free within the church and who knows how many other women this predator was going to get alone and try to pull down their pants and stick his fingers and hands God knows where. This covering up of sexual abuse, so that the perpetrator can go on abusing others, is disqualifying behavior.

Furthermore, the same goes for those pastors. Guidepost has framed the whole narrative as if Hunt is guilty. It would have been nice if the Guidepost investigators asked these three witnesses how is it that they heard the testimony of a sexual predator within the SBC, and did nothing about it. Why aren’t they named in the report? Instead, we have a bunch of senior pastors and a pastor who is working at a Southern Baptist organization who heard the testimony of a sexual assault and didn’t tell anyone. They should all be fired.

In fact, Southern Baptists have a right to know the name of the SBC organization that is currently employing a man who has covered up this sexual abuse and served as a predator-enabler, having heard that Hunt groped and assaulted another man’s wife, but did nothing other than help keep it covered up. We have the right to know his name, as he works for us, so that we can contact the organization and insist that he be removed from the payroll.

For this reason, we have reported him to the newly formed Guidestone sexual abuse hotline and will let you all know what if anything they say, and how seriously they actually do take sexual abuse.





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News

Pastor Says He Could Feel George Floyd’s Pain in His Own Neck, Says It Was God

(Capstone Report) Olin Holly, the Executive Pastor of Guest Experience and Pastoral Care at Atlanta’s Victory Church, tells a story in June 2020 of how God told him to lie down on the floor of his garage to feel what George Floyd felt as he was dying.

Then, during his “sermon,” he rips off his outer shirt to show the black tank top he was wearing and said that this is what George Floyd was wearing the day he was “murdered.”

He then goes into a schpiel about how he is talking to God and telling God that he can’t imagine the pain that George Floyd went through. According to him, God then told him “I don’t want you to imagine it, I want you to feel it.”

He then explains that God told him to go into his garage and lay face down next to his car. So he went to his garage and started weeping. From this point, well, you’ll just have to watch the video yourself to see the complete meltdown he has on stage re-enacting the death of George Floyd.

One question nobody seems to be asking, though, is if he can feel all the pain of the people George Floyd hurt.

Editor’s Note. This article was written by Jeff Maples and published at Reformation Charlotte.

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News

Hillsong Atlanta Pastor Resigns After Brian Houston Scandal, To Start Own Church

Nine months ago Hillsong Atlanta officially launched its first service. Joined by rapper Da’ T.R.U.T.H. performing a hip-hop and rap worship set while flanked by Hillsong head honchos Brian and Bobbie Houston who made the trip from Australia for the grand opening, the congregants cheered for their new pastor, Sam Collier, who was being lauded for being the first African- American man to serve as lead pastor of a Hillsong church.

Yesterday, Collier announced that he was resigning from the pastorate in light of the slew of scandals, including the sex scandals that saw Hillsong head honcho Brian Houston likewise resign, explaining:

“My greatest reason for stepping down as Pastor of Hillsong Atlanta is probably not a secret to any of you. With all of the documentaries, scandals, articles, accusations and the church’s subsequent management of these attacks it’s become too difficult to lead and grow a young Church in this environment.

I have no shame in admitting I cried like a baby moments after I informed the Hillsong global pastor of my departure. I truly love the Hillsong family and believe they will get through this storm and come out better than they were before.

In what will sure to be a catastrophic loss for the budding church, Collier said that this week’s coming service will be his last, and then he is launching his own church in three weeks for Easter Sunday, He will likely take almost the entire church with him, all but guaranteeing the shuttering of Hillsong Atlanta.

Hillsong has had a tough go at it these last two years, from the resignation of Carl Lentz of Hillsong NYC to the unreported news that Reed Bogard of Hillsong Dallas was promoted despite having an adulterous affair and then later being accused of rape.

Collier said he will reveal the details of the new church on Sunday.

Collier has a wild theologcial past, including spending years as Youth Choir Director in a church where the Senior Pastor was the openly pro-choice, openly pro-LGBT, heresy-spewing, Planned-Parenthood-endorsed Democrat Senator, Dr. Raphael Warnock, and then several years at Bishop Eddie Long’s megachurch – a prosperity gospel heretic who preaches wretched blasphemies about name-it-and-claim-it, speaking realities into existence, little god theology, and multiple sex scandals. Later he joined up with Andy Stanley for several years until he was tapped by Hillsong head honcho Brian Houston to lead the new plant, even though Collier has no seminary training and a horrific Christian pedigree.

In light of the announcement, interim Global Senor Pastor Phil Dooley told Collier in a video message: ‘We just want to give you guys our absolute blessing for the next season that you feel to step into…I just want to say from us to you- God bless you.”

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News

A Statement from FBC Leadership on the Persecution of Our Pastor At the Hands of an Activist Judiciary

“We have kept you all informed from the pulpit, Facebook, and public prayer requests for the legal trials and persecutions of our pastor on the grounds of the freedom of religion, speech, and the press in relation to suits brought against him by a Planned Parenthood attorney and another pro-LGBTQ firm, in relation to his preaching here and around the state on the issue of human sexuality.

It is highly expected a gag order regarding the case to be imposed this week, rendering him subject to A) imprisonment or (B) fines for discussing this case further. This renders him unable to defend himself in the press. In fact, he is not allowed at the hearings this week because they fear the Word of God, and fear the man of God to the point, his constitutional rights are being routinely violated.

Thankfully, groups like Mass Resistance and major media influencers, and legal counsel are prepared to defend him, and thousands upon thousands in this state are prepared to defend him.

This serves as public notice that any pending order of a rogue judge has no ecclesiastical authority over Fellowship Baptist Church and we – and Pastor Hall’s elders (us)  and your fellow pastors – will apprise you as to the status of this case as we see fit, from information publicly gathered (as opposed to that from Pastor Hall). 

Simply put, this pulpit shall not be gagged in any way, regardless of what Jordan himself is facing this week. This is part of God’s wisdom in providing a plurality of multiple elders. He may, should the spirit lead, obey a gag order, but we – his fellow leaders – will speak freely. 

Our church stands behind our pastor, a man of peace, love, and courage. We will make public and private statements as the Holy Spirit leads us in this matter.

If anyone has questions Pastor Hall may not legally be allowed to answer, but we stand prepared to answer them. 

We rejoice in our pastor’s persecution and suffering for the sake of our Lord, Christ. And we, as a congregation, we stand behind him 100%, as has already been established by the unanimous, united voice of our congregation.

We believe the goal of this week’s hearing is to silence our pastor, as the press seeks an adversarial, biased approach to impending news, which in the past has demonstrated is untrustworthy. We will be transparent to you, and our pulpit will remain free, so help us God. We will not participate -as a church – in silencing the truth of God’s Word.

We will pray for our pastor’s anointing and courage in the midst of persecution by an activist judiciary, and encourage him to be bold and walk fearlessly. 

And never have we been so proud to endorse and welcome our pastor to the pulpit, over which the Holy Spirit has made him an overseer, pastor, and evangelist as we have seen him walk in nothing but peace, truth and honesty without fear.

Our prayer is ‘Let God’s will be done,’ and might our church – in unity – be unwavering.

And so we welcome our pastor to the pulpit, Pastor Hall, with the highest possible reverence and confidence in his integrity and commitment to truth, with utter disregard of the consequences and godly contempt for those who seek to silence him.

Pastor Hall is spending time repairing himself from debilitating physical ailments and to prayer this coming week. We, fellow elders, will resume all but his preaching duties this week accordingly. Let God and God’s people defend him, as he seeks the Lord’s face in prayer and fasting.

Pastor Hall, please take Christ’s pulpit. We support you, with unanimous consent of Christ’s church, free of any government authority over the Body of Jesus Christ.”



— As delivered by Pastor Paul Richter

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bad theology Cursed Headlines Featured

Megachurch Pastor Releases Cringey Rap Video, Dressed in Chains, Tattoos and Gangster Garb

Pastor Ed Young, senior pastor of Fellowship Church, a 30,000-member multisite megachurch spread across Texas and Florida, and founder of C3, has done some terrible and goofy things in his time.

He launched the now-defunct “Pastor’s Fashion” website, which sought to teach pastors how to dress in the coolest clothes by hiding the muffin-top rolls with compression garments. He engaged in a “sexperiment” with his wife, where he and his spouse spent 24 hours on the rooftop of their church, cuddled up in bed, after advocating for 30-day sex challenges to promote his new book.

Frankly, he’s been an all-around dreadful exegete of the scriptures, routinely mishandling the word of God in his sermons. He’s viewed as a joke in many circles: a squishy, compromised pastor that has found himself an empire that was built through seeker-sensitive chicanery. Check out all the stunts he’s pulled over the years. The man has done some wild things.

Recently, on a more serious note, in a horrifying chain of events that treats the body of Christ like a commodity, 6 months ago congregants of Fellowship Church in Miami, a satellite campus of Ed Young’s church, had the shock of their lives when they were told at the end of a sermon that their campus had been sold to a new megachurch looking to expand in the area, and that service would be their last. Ever. The church closed its doors and shut down its social media pages and website that day, leaving up to 200 members scrambling over where to go next.

There was no message from Ed Young himself, thanking the church for being part of the flock and their years of service. There was no pastoral aftercare. There were no instructions on where to go next, other than that they may want to consider the new megachurch when they had their first service, which was a month later. Utterly abandoned, with the senior pastor recalled to the mothership.

Now, in a move harkening back to his more cringey days, the 60-year-old pastor has released a music video featuring him dancing around wearing gold chains, fake tattoos on his arms, neck, knuckles, and under his eye, baggy clothes, beanie, all the while mimicking pointing to a mouth grill.

Naturally, it wouldn’t be an Ed Young Jr. anything without some wonky theology.

Those with ears let them hear the New Testament today
It starts with four writers who had lots to say
This Fantastic Four had different views
There is a God quad squad who spread the good news

They wrote four accounts but agree as one
They’re Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
They told us about Jesus, the one who coached a team
A ragtag group of 12 who followed his dream

He was friendly with sinners and the scum of the earth
But saw inside each one to the center of their worth
He’s the star of the show. The man of the hour
The Door, the Light, the Shepherd with supernatural power

Life change with common just ask his squad
Every miracle performed, proved he was God
He preached so many sermons it’s hard to really count
Like parables, Beatitudes, and sermon on the mount

Information, demonstration above all, application!
Words in red, is what he said
On a piece of wood he gave us all in paid a price
The debt we owe, he paid the sacrifice

They nailed him to a tree and he took his final breath
But the third day he arose and conquered sin and death
Then Jesus went up, the Holy Spirit came down
To empower and guide and let God’s presence abound

The disciples went out and the lost came in
The church got its start and God’s movement began
Then a call was made on Saul who had a fall and became Paul
He had no writer’s cramp because he wrote letters for us all

Christ’s, faith, grace, glory to God were his themes
If they’d been around, Paul would have used memes

Expect a re-creation says the book of Revelation
Earth and heaven they will one day be made new
Jesus will return in the coming tribulation
On a white horse when God sends his final cue

Jesus was the most unconventional, essential, credentialed,
Consequential, providential, influential
Man quintessential to ever walk this globe
From start to finish. He’s the greatest story ever told

Categories
News

James Coates: TGC Author ‘Sounds More like Judas than it Does Mary’

Pastor James Coates of Gracelife Church in Edmonton, Alberta, has weighed in on a Gospel Coalition author who has repeatedly rejected the notion that the government has been persecuting the church all the while ripping faithful churches for choosing to rather be persecuted than to shut down.

In the September 12, 2021 sermon, Coates name drops Pastor Paul Carter- an Ontario based-pastor who has been a vocal critic of the faithful men who would not yield and like James Coates of Gracelife Church, Tim Stephens of Fairview Baptist Church, and Jacob Reaume of Trinity Bible Chapel, men who have been fined and/or jailed for refusing to let the government control how they do church.

The Gospel Coalition council member and contributor has repeatedly said that those claiming that Canadian Churches have endured ill-treatment at all during the pandemic need to stop yapping about it, lest they “destabilize” the rest of the body. Months ago, he published an article insisting that while there was “probably” some “overreach,” by and large, Christians have endured no “hostility and ill-treatment because of our religious beliefs,” as he concluded: “I’m not sure how any reasonable person could argue that [there was].”

When he’s not doing that, he’s taking potshots into the ethers, criticizing anyone who might oppose the government and their lockdown happy ways.

During the sermon clips, which is 10 minutes long and worth the listen, Pastor Coates talks about the faithful sacrifices that Trinity Bible Chapel has endured, and explains how Paul Carter is acting like Judas, rather than our example Mary.

“Judas is a virtue signaler. He effectively virtue signals concern for the poor when in reality, he’s concerned about himself. He’s a thief. And he’s looking at the money that could have been sold for that perfume. And he would have had at least a portion of it had it got its way into the money box. That’s where Judas is at.

His apostate heart is now beginning to come out. He doesn’t love Christ. He isn’t committed to the honor and glory of Christ. He was in it for himself. He was beginning to see the writing on the wall. There was no immediate kingdom. He wasn’t going to have an immediate place in that kingdom. There was not going to be a payday in this for him, just a life of self-denial, cross-bearing and obedience to Christ.

By the end of John 13, he’s prepared to betray Jesus for what? 30 pieces of silver. So Mary brings this out. God uses Mary’s worship to draw this out of Judas. Mary lavishly worships the Lord, anointed him with perfume worth about a year’s wages, and Judas deems that a waste and betrays him for 30 pieces of silver.

That’s a stark contrast. It’s a contrast that’s instructive. This is what worship does. When Christ is truly worshipped, it brings the worldliness of the hearts of folks out onto the table, it brings it out into its full expression.

And I think we can see it happening in our day. Because as churches put their money where their mouth is, as we saw a moment ago with Trinity, in their worship of Christ, there are those who speak out against them, and when they do, they sound a lot like Judas. And so either they are a Judas or they’ve been led astray by a Judas like the disciples and have made a terrible miscalculation.

Let me give you an example. This comes from a gentleman named Paul Carter- very outspoken, speaks often for the Gospel Coalition Canada, when it was announced that charges would be brought against trainee Bible chapter, here’s what Paul tweeted:

“What a disaster. This was a major topic of discussion in premier Ford’s press conference today. Whatever this was supposed to accomplish, it has failed more than failed. It is backfired loudly. Publicly, embarrassingly backfired, Please, please, please, reconsider.“

I don’t think that’s aged well. I don’t think that’s going to age well. Trinity has committed themselves to the worship of Christ, and there are naysayers who come alongside and want to ultimately cast embarrassment, scorn and shame upon them. Again, that sounds more like Judas than it does Mary.