A number of years ago a Methodist Bishop named Dean Kelley give a speech that was later printed in the Ministry magazine. Someone passed it along to me on the Internet with the comment "read it and weep". In this speech Bishop Kelly spoke about how the Seventh-day Adventist church can stop growing and begin declining like the Methodists.

I have taken the liberty to highlight the article and will bring to you its important parts. More or less here is what he said:

"If Adventists want to stop growing and begin declining like everybody else, all they have to do is emphasize that abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine isn't really essential to salvation. They need to decide that vegetarianism isn't actually all that important, and foot washing is a little tacky. They will recognize that membership in labor unions sometimes might be not be altogether a bad thing, and that tithing, can be a form of righteousness by works. They might even introduce the idea that one can worship as well on Sunday as on Saturday."

"There will be those who like to see if the belief system is up to date and may discover that all of these quaint and peculiar truths are really just trimming on the cake and that all that one needs is love or faith."

"If rightly understood, it may be true that love or faith is all one needs. But the trouble is that this simplification is too easy. There is almost nothing you cannot justify doing, if you hold yourself only to the criterion of love as you interpret it. It's too easy. It is too self-indulgent. Rather than being guilt-ridden, most of us are prone to be innocence-ridden, that is we tend to find justifications and excuses for doing what we want to do anyway. If we can justify in the name of love, all the better."

I would suggest that there need to be a few rather rigorous and specific demands in every religious group to bolster its explanation of life and make it convincing, because convincingness derives from seriousness, and seriousness derives from strictness. How can a religion expect anyone to take it seriously if it doesn't take itself seriously! The Mormon Church requires each of its members to put in two years as missionaries. Not at the expense of the church, but at their own expense. Mormons are growing, not in spite of that requirement, but because of it."

"What is the point of being a Seventh-day Adventist if an Adventist's religious duty and activity becomes indistinguishable from that of a lukewarm Methodist or Presbyterian! The things that I have mentioned about tithing, the seventh-day Sabbath, foot washing and so forth are the things that make the Seventh-day Adventist movement unique, distinctive and demanding. They give it its bite, its convincingness, its seriousness. Each church needs its own way of insisting, "you've got to live up to this to be one of us." If you strip the requirements all away, you can render the movement feeble, pallid, and ordinary. So how can the Seventh-day Adventist Church stop growing? The answer is being like the Methodists."

Then the Bishop gives several characteristics of what it means to be serious about your faith. He says:

1. "First, people who are serious about their faith do not confuse it with other beliefs, loyalties, or practices or mingle them together indiscriminately. They do not pretend that the beliefs of others are alike, of equal merit or mutually compatible with their own, if they are not."
2. Secondly, "Those who are serious about their faith make high demands of those who are allowed to join their organization. They do not include people, neither allow them to continue, who are not fully committed to the faith.
   He says that it has been a long time since you could do anything that would get you thrown out of the Methodist church. But it was not always that way. John Wesley who is the founder of the Methodist Church describes in his journal how he came to one of the little societies in Bristol, and found that their were eighteen supposed members. When he left there were only seven but the society was much stronger.
3. Third, "Those who are serious about their faith do not consent to encourage, or indulge any violations of its standards of belief or behavior by its professed adherents."
4. Fourth, "Those who are serious about their faith do not keep silent about it or apologize for it, or let it be treated as though it made no difference or should make no difference in their behavior or relationships with others."

I conclude the Bishop's remarks. He says, "I know it's true that there is no particular thing you can do to commend yourself to God. But there are a lot of things you can do that will separate yourself from God. They are called sins and we do them all the time. But true, effective religious faith requires that you do something different, that you be something different, than you would otherwise do or be if you didn't have it. It must make some significant difference in your life, something that will cost you a lot, because that is what makes religion work. If it doesn't cost, it can't be worth much."

So that is the way that the Methodist Bishop sees it. I am afraid that he sensed that something was going on in our church and he was trying to tell us that we must not sit back and see happen to our church what happened to his.

No wonder the person who sent the article to me said "read it and weep!" I had no idea that the last days would be this way. I thought it would be clear-cut. I thought it would be a matter of error on the outside against truth on the inside. But how mistaken we were. The great controversy began in heaven, we could say in the church, and it will end in the same place.

When churches begin there is a clear difference as to who they are. There is a clear separation of ideas, but as time passes history has shown us that the distinctions become less clear. What had been incompatible ideas somehow begin to be compromised. I hope that you are aware that truth never changes. It is never more true or less true. On the other hand, error will always assume the shape and form of its surroundings. It is like a chameleon. Error might be containing 98 percent truth. It is still error. When truth contains 98 percent truth, it ceases to be truth and becomes error.

We must remember that error will always try to wrap itself in truth. Error will not present itself at the door of your heart as a lie, but always as the truth. I don't think we are aware of that as much as we should be. When something knocks at the door of our hearts and we answer and we see the word "Jesus" or "gospel" painted on it, we tend to open up and let whatever it is come in.

Jesus said in one place that He would come like a thief. I don't need to tell you, but so does the devil. The title of this sermon is "Why Be So Negative?" I have been thinking about this a lot lately. It is evident that people are fed up with a negative gospel. They are tired of all the dos and don'ts, mostly the don'ts. People these days don't like hearing what they are not supposed to do especially in the arena of faith and morals.

A friend of mine was holding a series of meetings and he asked the people who were tired of other people telling them what to do to raise their hands. Of course almost everyone did. He told them then that he might as well not preach the gospel to them because the gospel was about God telling us what we could and couldn't do.

I was remarking to my wife the other day that it seems that the Bible prophets were mainly telling the people what they couldn't do and threatening them with dire consequences if they did. I don't need to tell you that this didn't go over very well. The prophets usually paid for their sermons of admonition and warning with their lives.

I am going to read a group of texts to you now. They are all negative. You will notice that there is a word that keeps popping up in most of them and that is the word "world". They are not in any particular order.

• 1 John 2:15-17, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."
• 1 John 5:4-5, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"
• 2 Peter 2:20, "For if after they have escaped the pollution of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning."
• Colossians 2:8, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."
• Galatians 6:14, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."
• I Corinthians. 2:12 "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God."
• Romans 12:2 "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
• John 17:14-16 "I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."
• John 12:25 "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it into life eternal."
• John 7:7 "The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil."
• Luke 12:22-31 "And he said unto his disciples, therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith. And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.
• Mark 4:19 "And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
• Mark 8:36, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

For sometime now I have been convinced that in our debate over church standards and what is proper or improper for the Christian lifestyle, that we have been coming at it from a false premise.

Whenever we start to talk about how a Christian should live or what they should do or not do someone will cry "legalist" or "Christ did it all and there is nothing that we can do to affect it." Everyone nods knowingly and the matter of standards and lifestyle are related to the Pharisees and judiazers.

But wait a minute. Standards and lifestyles aren't about how we get saved. They are in a completely different category. Don't forget my friend, unless we understand the principles upon which the gospel rests we will be confused half of the time and the other half we won't know what we are talking about.

I believe that the texts that I have just read are the foundations for Christian standards, values and lifestyle. I have long been convicted that there is something very significant in the repeated reference in scripture to the "world". There is a repeated call not to become involved in the world. From every possible angle God is telling us that there is something in the environment in which we live that is dangerous to our salvation. Yet in spite of the warnings we are repeating something that has happened before, only this time we are nearing the close of the time of grace. When we come to our senses as to what we have permitted, it will very likely be too late for us and our children and grandchildren.

As darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people there seems to be an unprecedented move by professed Christians to identify with darkness rather than light. This is being promoted as being in the interest of saving the unchurched, our youth, or just plain enjoying our salvation.

Not long ago I was in a seminar that was being taught by a person who represents a think tank for Adventist youth. The person reminded us that dancing and jewelry were in the Bible. His point was that we need to educate our young people in how to go to movies, which videos to choose and TV programs to watch.

His bottom line was that we must educate ourselves not to watch anything that would harm our relationship with Jesus. These days a lot is being said about having a relationship with Jesus. In other sermons I have reminded us that everyone has a relationship with Jesus including the Devil. He hates him.

The problem is that a person who sets their standard of conduct based on how they feel that it affects their relationship with Jesus can be on dangerous ground because their relationship with Jesus may well be based on what they think they ought to do rather on what Jesus has told us that we ought to do. This method of determining whether something is right or wrong is totally subjective and tends to perpetuate the myth that what is right for you is right.

A person who has a home-made relationship with Jesus rather than one based on His Word will do a lot of things that a person whose relationship with Jesus is based on a 'thus saith the Lord' wouldn't do.

All of this is why the Christian life starts with the negative rather than the positive. If we had started out in heaven that wouldn't have been the case, but from the very beginning of this planet, due to the fact that there is an enemy here trying to do us in, the Lord had to start out with the negative. He said don't eat from that tree. He didn't go into a lot of detail. He just said that if Adam and Eve decided to eat from that particular tree it would be the beginning of the end for them and so it was and continues to be. The first thing that God told Adam and Eve to do was what not to do.

"No" was one of the first words a child learns, after "mama" and "dada", because a child is surrounded by things that can harm him. We are born into a world that is dangerous not only to our physical lives but also for our spiritual lives as well.

Can't you see? We were born into a world that is going to be destroyed. The scripture tells us that the earth as we presently know it will be no more. That includes not only the physical components but also the all-human cultures and infrastructures.

This is why it is almost unbelievable that as we near the end of all things that so many Christians seem to be getting more involved in life here and its values and cultures than ever before. That is almost like chaining yourself to a sinking ship.

This is why we have all of the texts that I read warning us, pleading with us, praying for us, and all the rest, that we must not put down our philosophical and emotional roots. To do so is like depositing money in a bank that has just gone bust or buying stock in a company that has just gone bankrupt.

In our hearts we know what the future holds for this planet, but I am afraid that we are trying to have it both ways. Some people have a home in the country and one in the city. But a person cannot philosophically have it both ways as far as the things of this world and the things of heaven are concerned.

It would be like a person telling their wife that they are number one as far as all the other women in their life is concerned, after that come Mary, Megan, Jennifer and Holly. There are a lot of Christians who say that they have put Jesus first in their lives but after that comes a whole bunch of other worldly interests. The truth is, Ladies and gentlemen, that if a person is going to make Jesus first in their lives they must also make him second, third, fourth, and fifth.

I don't think we realize how deep we have our roots in the things of this world. I remember once when I was in South America I took a survey at a local Adventist high school. The first question was do you want Jesus to come? I don't need to tell you that the overwhelming majority of the young people gave the politically correct answer. They said yes. Some even said yes, we want him to come very much.

The second question was do you want him to come before you get married or afterward. Do I need to tell you that the overwhelming majority wanted him to come but not until after they got married?

Some time later I did a survey in a large church here in the states. One of the questions was if you could set a date for the coming of Jesus, when would it be? I will have to tell you that the majority fixed a date in the future. I said the majority. There were a number who said indicated that they wanted him to come today. But I could tell from their handwriting that they were up in years.

It is a sad commentary that so many of us who call ourselves Christians have our roots so deep in the things of this world which, according to the Bible, is a sinking ship. Perhaps the reason we do is that inasmuch as heaven seems so far off and so far away and so tentative the we are unconsciously doing the old thing, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

We are somehow so anxious to have it both ways, that it reminds me of a story of how they used to catch monkeys in one country. You may have heard it. They would get a jar. The opening of the jar was just big enough for the monkey to just slip his hand into. Then they would put something in the jar that the monkey wanted. He would stick his hand into the jar and grasp the object. He wouldn't let go and you can guess the rest.

When the Bible speaks of the future of this present world it is very clear. The world and all its value systems are going to pass away. The value systems of this world and those of heaven are so opposed to each other that you can't get your arms around them both. The Bible tells us that there is no neutral ground in this respect. It says that there is no fellowship of light with darkness. It is clearly stated that a person who persists in holding on to the values of the world will lose whatever commitment to God that they might have had. The Word of God does not beat around the bush in this respect.

The texts that warn us against holding on to the things of the world are not about the old against the young, the men against the women, or the liberals against the conservatives. The text are talking to everybody and simply are saying that an ideological commitment to the world and it values is fatal to the salvation process and a person who doesn't figure out what this is all about will lose their salvation.

You might be thinking, Pastor O'Ffill, I don't think that I am into the world. I don't take drugs; I don't use tobacco or eat unclean meat. That is great, but it is more than that. I believe that the text that can help us to understand most clearly what it means to have a worldly perspective is the one in Luke 12. Let's look at it again:

Luke 12:22-31, "And He said into his disciples. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better that the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

I believe this text puts its finger on the heart of the matter as far as the problem that many of us Christians have in relationship to the things of the world is concerned. It simply is telling us that worldly people are hung up on things. Like the young man who was away at college and wrote his dad a letter, it said: "no mon, no fun, your son."

I was talking with a young secretary one time. It has been several years ago. She told me that she was very clothes conscious and was spending a considerable portion of her monthly income for new clothes. Jesus would say to that person, "Be more concerned with the way that you treat other people than the fact that you may or may not be wearing the latest fashion."

The text also mentions that worldly people are hung up on eating. I am sure that you must have heard that in this country the average family spends 40% of its food budget eating out. I won't ask you if the food that we tend to buy when we eat out is low in fat and high in nutrition!

Speaking of being hung up on food, the scripture is telling us not to be hung up on food. That not only means that we should be healthy but it might also mean that we can be into healthy food so much that food almost becomes an obsession. There can be a person who is so committed to health reform that all they can think about is where their next organic tomato sandwich is coming from. Jesus doesn't mind a person who likes to eat organically, but he would have a lot to say about looking down on people who don't.

I don't think I would be wrong to say that many Christians are more involved in planning their next vacation than they are giving thought to be the nearness of the return of Jesus. On a scale of one to ten the average Christian is eight into the culture and values of this present life and 2 into the things that have to do with eternity. How do I know that? Just listen to us talk and watch how we spend our time and money.

Have you listened to us talk after church? What we are talking about is what we are into. Though we might not be cussing and swearing like the others who are not Christians, there is often very little difference in where our interests lie.

I cannot say enough about the influence of television. Now someone might say that TV is a wonderful medium for the spreading of the gospel but I would venture to say there will be more people in hell because of television than in heaven.

Television is where we are getting our values, our morals, and our culture, even our language. I suppose I could say something here about sports. I know that if I do some might write me off as a raging fanatic. You can do whatever you want to do but hear me out at least. It is not I but the Word of God that tells us we can't serve two masters. It is not me but the Word of God that tells us that when we put our affections on the world and its culture and values, it drives out our love for God.

Excuse this gross illustration, but reading Playboy magazine might make you have exciting thoughts about your wife, but it will definitely not help you to love her more, in fact it will do just do the opposite.

Back to the matter of sports-I don't need to say that we are often more interested in our favorite team winning the Super Bowl than we are our marriages staying together. People will often be sadder when their favorite team loses an important game than they are about the way that they treat their children. Friends, I am not trying to put us down. I just want to think in a straight line, that's all.

Increasingly churches are having Super Bowl parties. I haven't heard of them doing it in the sanctuary, usually in the fellowship hall. I can't for the life of me understand how we could ever invite Jesus to be with us for a Super Bowl party.

By now you might be repeating the title of this sermon over and over, why be so negative, why be so negative, why be so negative. It depends on what we are talking about. You see, the Scriptures are negative on the things having to do with this world and positive on all that has to do with the world to come.

Friends, we must understand that when we give our hearts to Jesus we commit ourselves to let him purge us of all selfishness, pride, love of the world, lust, bitterness, resentment, and our lack of self-control. If He were here with us, I really don't know how we could ever explain to Him the things that we are hung up on and refuse to give up.

I think that we are more worried about our hairstyles than we are if we are right with Jesus. We speak of having a bad hair day and laugh. But we can be having a bad day as far as Jesus is concerned and many don't blink an eye. Maybe we see Jesus as kind of our heavenly garbage collector. We know we have a lot of things in our lives that shouldn't be there, but we just take the garbage out to the road on collection days. There is nothing wrong with that. But Jesus is to be much more than a garbage collector.

Remember there is a text that says that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The scripture is quite clear when it says that if we keep going back, knowingly into our sins, we are crucifying the Son of God afresh and as such will be in big trouble down the line.

Betty and I lived overseas for a number of years. We appreciated the other cultures; we even learned to speak their language. But though we were in the places, we were not of the places. This helps me to understand what the Bible means when it says that we are to be in the world but not of the world.

We must understand that this world and all that is in it is finished. If we persist in being attached to the things of this world we are finished, too. You can tell where our hearts are by what we talk about, what we do in our spare time, how we dress, and how we spend our money.

I hope this sermon hasn't driven you to despair. To be concerned, yes. To be serious, yes. Don't forget Jesus is saving us and He will finish the job and get us out of here before this plane goes down. He is committed to doing it. We must be committed to letting Him do it.