This testimony comes from a man named Klint, who became convicted of his false convert status in July when TLC Ministries ministered at his church.

I Never Knew You

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matt. 7:21-23)

This described me. I said the “Sinners Prayer” when I was seven or eight years old and then I was baptized. I thought I had everything right with GOD but I always felt something was missing; I just couldn’t figure out what. If you read the words of the Matthew 7:21-23 you can see that GOD can still use you whether or not you’re saved and that’s what happened to me for the past thirty years.

When we moved up here God convicted me to stop playing church, so about four years ago I became involved in a youth ministry. I was the assistant youth leader for three years. Then about a year ago our pastor left unexpectedly which left us without a leader. One of the deacons of the church stepped up and by default became the leader. He was doing everything including Sunday school; the only thing he didn’t do was preach. GOD convicted me with a lot of pushing and shoving to take some of the burden off of the deacon, so I started teaching Sunday school. We did a bible study by Henry Blackaby that was titled “Experiencing GOD”. Through the preparation for the lesson God really started working on my heart. I started getting closer to GOD and wanted more. During this time I was asked to be a deacon in the church and I accepted. I continued to teach for the next eight months until the study was over.

My wife & I had been praying for spiritual growth for ourselves and the church for many months. Almost to the day that the bible study was over God convicted us to find a church with a good youth program and that was growing. Well the obvious choice was Delhi Community church since the kids had been going to youth group here for a couple of years. So in the beginning of July we resigned and left the church and started attending Delhi Community Church.

I believe that God wanted us to leave because I had grown as much as was possible in that church and he wanted me to hear a sermon. The second week we were there a guest speaker came to the church to preach and share his ministry.

The man was Jon Speed he started talking about false conversions. I though, “I’ve never heard this before. I had better listen.” The man went on to talk about being a preacher, witnessing to people, and doing everything that made him appear to be a man of GOD.

As he went on talking, God convicted me that this man is describing me! At that point I started to pray and ask God, “Is this really me?” and the answer I got was unmistakably YES. At that moment I did say the sinners prayer for the second time in my life, only this time I said it from my heart. At that moment I found what I had been missing and searching for all my life, it was the peace that only GOD can give.

If God is speaking to you about similar circumstances I urge you to forget about your pride or about what people will think and get right with GOD.

The Glory of God (Ezekiel 1-3)

This message was recently preached at Garner Baptist Church in Garner, TX.  May the Lord use it for His glory.

This week a survey has been getting a lot of play in the media regarding the shift in American religious faith. USA Today ran a front page article on Monday, March 9th on the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS). The gist of the research is that all major denominations and religions in America have experienced a quantitative loss in membership over the last 18 years.

One highlight of this survey includes the fact that those who refer to themselves as “none” (or of no religious persuasion) is up from 8% in 1990 to 15% in 2008. Of concern to evangelicals in particular is the fact that 15.8% of those surveyed identified themselves as Baptists, down from 19.3% in 1990. Those who identified themselves as non-denominational remained about the same (14.2%) since 1990. Of course, there is a lot more to this survey than these facts, but these are the pertinent facts when it comes to those of us who do evangelism.

It’s not surprising that the media is using this information as a sort of pealing death knell of Christianity in this nation. Already, those who identify themselves as “nones” seem to be taking this news as validation for their stance. On Tuesday I ran into an agnostic who attempted to rub this in my face as proof that Christianity is losing ground. What did I have to say to that?

Well, here’s what I have to say to that. It’s far worse than the news media and ARIS reports. Everyone who is a pastor of a Southern Baptist church knows that it’s worse. 15.8% of the respondents might consider themselves Baptist, but how many of these are attending church on anything approaching a regular basis? In recent years, the bloated membership rolls of Southern Baptist churches have been an issue at the annual convention. There is a debate on how to count noses; do you count people who became members and who never attend church or don’t you? Apparently, the SBC is content to count them and it’s more than likely that as long as they are considered true blue members by the leadership of the SBC, they consider themselves members as well.

Can someone be considered a Christian who has no desire to align themselves with a local church? The Bible doesn’t seem to teach that they can. In fact, if someone hates his brother, he is considered a murderer, by God’s standard (1 Jn. 3:15). Most professing believers do not attend church because they harbor bitterness in their hearts and in fact hate church members and leadership. This violates the spirit of the Sixth Commandment regarding murder.

So, it’s probably much, much worse than the survey reports in terms of active membership. But we can KNOW it is far worse because of what Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-23. He said that “many” will go to Hell with the hope of Heaven, calling Him “Lord” as they do so, pointing to their apparently supernatural works. Identifying oneself as a Christian in a survey no more makes one a Christian than me calling myself the President of the United States makes it true either.

How many Christians are there in America? Pollsters will never get it right. Since the Scriptures teach that no one can evaluate another’s true spiritual condition before God, but are instead called upon to “examine themselves” (2 Cor. 13:5), polling Christians about their beliefs is a fool’s errand. Only the Lord can accurately assess who is a true follower and who is not (Jn. 2:23-25). And when He does do that on that great day of reckoning, there will be many surprises.

It’s extremely tempting to look at this poll and say, “See, this is what happens when you don’t evangelize.” Since only 2% of Christians evangelize to begin with, it’s only natural to conclude that we’re going backwards statistically. But ultimately salvation is of the Lord and if He wants to save the lost He can make the rocks cry out and testify even if His professing children won’t. The 2% statistic may be far more accurate in gauging who is a Christian in this nation and who is not.

It is highly ironic that the non-denominational sub-group has held steady over 18 years in spite of the growth of the so-called “mega-churches”. All of the money spent on high power praise bands, lighting, facilities, pastors in trendy clothes, expensive youth programs, media ad infinitum has resulted in zero gain over the last 18 years. If you are a seeker sensitive church guru reading this, my challenge to you is, “Why not just start following the Bible? It can’t be any worse than what you’re doing now.” No, I take that back. It will be worse. The people you have drawn with cotton candy will leave when the solid meat is brought out. But do it anyway, your budgets and big box cathedrals be damned. They are anyway.

It’s probably too late for American Christianity. It’s bankrupt and far worse than ARIS realizes. The only problem is that most who actually espouse American Christianity sound a lot like the church in Laodicea; “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” As the Lord Himself says, we “knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17). The only remedy is a tidal wave of true repentance (Rev. 3:19).

If you are committed to the principles of Biblical evangelism, as introduced through Way of the Master (and expounded on by ministers like Paul Washer, John MacArthur, etc.), you are welcome to attend any of these outreaches. Please contact Jon Speed to introduce yourself.

February

1. Tuesday, February 24^th: TLC Ministries will be doing evangelism at the University of North Texas in Denton. We have reserved a free speech area (Area C) on campus near the Student Union and will pass out tracts, do one-to-one and open-air preach. You can find directions to the campus at www.unt.edu. If you would like to join us, please email me at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

2. Friday, February 27^th: TLC Ministries will be doing evangelism at the Southlake Town Square in Southlake. We will meet at the plaza behind Brio’s Restaurant at 7:00PM. The carpool from FBC Justin will leave that parking lot at 6:30PM. If you would like to be a part of the carpool, please contact Jon Speed or Tim Crawford.

March

3. Tuesday, March 3rd: Details same as #1 above.

4. Tuesday March 10^th: Details same as #1 above.

5. Saturday, March 14^th: TLC Ministries will be taking the Gospel to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade at Greenville Avenue in Dallas. This is a HUGE parade drawing tens of thousands of people. The carpool from FBC Justin will leave at 7:30AM, in order to insure getting a parking spot somewhere close to the parade route. The parade begins at 11:00AM and finishes by 12:30PM. When the parade is over, we will return to Justin. To catch a ride with the carpool, please contact me at jon@lostcauseministries.com. Please note: Due to the content of this parade, all participants must be at least 18 years old.

6. Friday, March 20^th: Details same as #2 above.

7. Tuesday, March 24^th: Details same as #1 above.

8. Friday, March 27^th: Details same as #2 above.

9. Tuesday March 31^st: Details same as #1 above.

April

10. Thursday , April 2^nd—Sunday April 5th: TLC Ministries will assist TXARM with ministry to the NASCAR\Samsung 500 fans at Texas Motor Speedway. There are a multitude of exciting opportunities to do servant evangelism for the fans and workers at TMS. TLC Ministries is serving with Texas Alliance Raceway Ministries (TXARM) to bring seasoned Biblical evangelists to do one-to-one and tract distribution at this event. Opportunities include childrens ministry, golf cart evangelism, information table staffing, night shift at the ministry tent, and much, much more! If you would like to discuss the opportunities, please contact either Tim (tim@lostcauseministries.com) or Jon (jon@lostcauseministries.com) to get involved!

11. Tuesday, April 7^th: Details same as #1 above.

12. Friday, April 10^th: Details same as #2 above.

13. Tuesday, April 14^th: Details same as #1 above.

14. Friday, April 17^th & Saturday the 18^th: TLC Ministries will take the Gospel to the Main Street Arts Festival in Fort Worth. This is an event not to be missed. 100,000 people will flood the streets in downtown Fort Worth to see the art vendors, but we will be there with thousands of tracts and a bold proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We’ve seen the organizers of this event do some downright zany things to try to stop the legal preaching of the Gospel. The police have upheld our right to be there consistently over the last five years. Please keep this event in prayer, mark your calendars now and make plans to attend. Specific times and rendezvous points TBA.

15. Tuesday, April 21^st: Details same as #1 above.

16. Friday, April 24-Sunday April 26: TLC Ministries is in the process of applying for a festival booth at the Denton Arts & Jazz Festival in Denton, TX. Please pray that we will have favor with the festival committee and be allowed to exhibit here.

17. Tuesday, April 28^th: Details same as #1 above.

May

18. Saturday, May 2^nd: TLC Ministries has applied for a festival booth at the Denton Cinco de Mayo Festival in Denton, TX. Once we have received word of approval, we will be recruiting volunteers for three shifts, three volunteers per shift.

19. Friday, May 8^th: Details same as #2 above.

20. Friday May 15—Sunday May 17: TLC Ministries is applying for the Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival in Richardson, TX. Please pray that this application will be approved and that there will be sufficient funds for this festival booth ($450.00).

21. Friday, May 22^nd: Details same as #2 above.

22. Friday, May 29-Sunday May 31: TLC Ministries is applying for the KellerFest in Keller, TX. Details TBA.

June

23. Thursday June 4—Saturday June 6: TLC Ministries will assist TXARM with ministry to the Indy Car\Bombardier Jet 550 fans at Texas Motor Speedway. There are a multitude of exciting opportunities to do servant evangelism for the fans and workers at TMS. TLC Ministries is serving with Texas Alliance Raceway Ministries (TXARM) to bring seasoned Biblical evangelists to do one-to-one and tract distribution at this event. Opportunities include childrens ministry, golf cart evangelism, information table staffing, night shift at the ministry tent, and much, much more! If you would like to discuss the opportunities, please contact either Tim (tim@lostcauseministries.com) or Jon (jon@lostcauseministries.com) to get involved!

More to come!!!!

“Confessions of a False Teacher” (Matthew 7:13-23)

Please check out this new message from TLC Ministries. It is Jon Speed’s testimony, recently given at FBC Briar on a Wednesday night. You can find it in our Resources section, under audio files.