Acquire the Fire Event

Our team attended the Acquire the Fire event on Friday night. There were about 7-8 of the RBET team members present at the event Friday evening for what I would describe as a "sad" evening for me personally.



Don't worry, we didn't dare drop $60 to get inside the event. Not a chance! We stood outside the coliseum before the doors opened and interviewed some of the teens along with thier sponsors/leaders.



Before we did our interviews, we were able to openly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the masses of teens waiting for the doors to open. Patrick, Matthew, and myself covered three different preaching locations from which to speak to the large crowd gathered to enter the event.



At this point, some may ask why we felt the need to preach the gospel at a Christian event.... After all, wouldn't they be hearing the gospel inside anyway?? No, they wouldn't. What they get at events like AtF is alot of emotionally driven, entertainment focused, man-centered sermonettes by men who should spend more time studying the Bible and less time trying to figure out how to make the Bible relate to a post-modern culture. The Word of God gets lost in the midst of all the drama, guitars, and lights because apparently the Bible has somehow failed to remain relevant. Apparently, we need to roll tanks onto the stage and get the kids down front for some decisional regeneration at the end of the evening before we head on to the next town. I tell you what, you can have it... Give me God and His eternal Word and we'll be out on the cold sidewalk plowing the hearts of men without the props.



As we preached the Law and the Gospel to the crowd, one of the speakers from AtF came out and asked us to "Stop". He said that God doesn't operate in that fashion. According to the really relevant "pastor" we were unorganized and unconventional in our approach therefore God was not into what we were doing. He informed us that he would be taking care of the preaching inside and we weren't to ruin that effort. Perhaps some of the things we were preaching may have been just a little offensive to the unregenerate teen he was trying to reach. A preacher making a stand AGAINST THE GOSPEL!!! WOW!! I guess we needed to go inside to "acquire the fire" they were selling because there is no way we could have gotten it from Christ alone or the Bible Alone, through Faith Alone...... No, we have to acquire their fire by dropping $60 on a ticket to their event if we wanted this fire.



Leviticus 10 1-3 just seems appropriate at this point.



1Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them.
2And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.
3Then Moses said to Aaron, "It is what the LORD spoke, saying, 'By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.'" So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.



I probably interviewed close to 100 kids (10 groups of kids with each group containing an average of 10 youth with sponsors) and asked them to tell me what I needed to do in order to get to heaven. Do you want to guess what the number 1 response was?? If you said "Ask Jesus into your heart" or "Accept Jesus" you have guessed correctly (by a mile I might add). In no way am I upset or angry with those youth for answering that question incorrectly. I was one of those youth and I had no one to tell me any differently. They don't know what is required to get to heaven because they haven't had anyone tell them. They have parents who are neglecting their God-Given Command to train up their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord and they are outsourcing their childrens' eternity to little boys who play "pastor" by popping in a Nooma video at Wednesday night youth meetings and then collect a salary from the Church. We call them youth pastors. They should earn the title Pastor as far as I am concerned. In my experiences, most of them spend more time trying to act like their 10th graders instead of admonishing the kids to live lives that reflect Jesus Christ and demonstrating what Godly manhood looks like. Fathers and mothers have been all to happy to hand over the spiritual reigns of their children to these boys posing as pastors so they can feel like they are doing a good thing by allowing their kids to be a part of a relevant youth program where they will be entertained, fed, and most importantly out of the house at least one night a week. They send Junior away to summer youth camp with girls in two-piece bathing suits and think they are model parents for giving their kids a Christian upbringing. there are some real men of God serving as youth pastors for their churches but they are certainly in the minority from my experience.