 now some of you don't have the slightest idea of what I'm talking about... because you've just been baptized recently.... Some of you know very well what I'm talking about. Error which originates at the top is spread uniformly throughout the churches.
You know, when you can't say no to policies and teachings, when you don't have that freedom to say "No, this violates my conscience, I can't do that." You say, "Well, you can do that though. You can say no -- this violates my conscience." -- Yah, if you want to move. Some of the error which has originated, that we've seen, we have lived through the teaching that you must obey your discipler in all matters, including matters of opinion. Many of us have lived through that. Many of us were almost killed by that. We have lived through the 8 and 10 on 1 discipling -- i.e. lynch mobs. We've buried our heads in our hands and cried and wept and said I'm sorry, please forgive me. And somebody would look back at us and say, "Brother, you're not there yet." I'm telling you, people were damaged. We went through the life talks, the reconstruction and people were damaged. And so it is with this kind of a system, error originates from the top and spreads uniformly throughout the churches. And folks, that's not right.
I know, I know some of you are totally convinced you know where I am going. You’re totally convinced that what I’m going to recommend in a little bit is that we break away from the movement. You’re totally wrong.
Third: 2 Cor. 9:7 tells us very clearly -- and these last two points are not lengthy. And I'll tell you this, 2 Cor. 9:7 tells us very clearly how we are to give. It says, "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." Now that's right there guys.
So what do we do? We come to you and say, "Pledge, tell us what you're going to give to special contribution."  Well, we get all the leaders together and say, "Go back to your people, go back to them again and ask them -- tell them we're not there yet -- ask them: can you do better? Can you give more?" And so we go back and say, "Can you do better?" Some people say, "Yeh, I can do better." Others say, "No, I can't, it's all I can do." And so we add it all up again. And we're still about $75,000 short. So we say, look, go back one more time and tell your people that you have to give your goal as a mission team and you have not done your part yet. Go back, talk to them again and get in there and talk to those people, you know, who you think maybe they have not given as much as they should have given. Have a personal talk with them and try to see if they can give more.  So we add it all up again and now we're a little closer but we're still not there. So we go back and say, "O.K., since we're not there yet, we got to go out and have a yard sale, we gotta have a garage sale. How many of you can work out at the Indianapolis 500 booth? How many of you can do the Gus Macker Tournament? Because we've got to get there, we've got to get our goal. And so people sign up to do things that they really don't want to do. And they go out and they do these things and they sweat their brains and we come back and we're still not there. We're still about $50,000 short. So what do we do then?  And go knock on the doors in our neighborhood and ask our friends and neighbors, you know, to give money to God's work. And so we go out and do that, we knock on doors. Then we go out and walk around in circles, you know, on Sunday afternoon. And finally, we scrounge together enough money to send out to LA to meet our obligation....And I can no longer condone that practice of giving by compulsion.
Fourth and finally: Standing in the way of this church not being legalistic is facing the constant pressure of arbitrary expectations, statistics and quotas which rob us of our proper motivation. The point of the Bible is supposed to be loving God and loving man. It's supposed to motivate everything we do. What I'm saying to you guys is that we're under the pressure of so many arbitrary expectations in the statistics and quotas that many of us find it is almost impossible to keep our hearts pure and really focused on loving God and loving people. We are required to report on a weekly basis to Chicago, zone by zone, statistics in regard to our attendance, our contribution, number of baptisms we've had that week, what our budget is, what our average giving per member is, predicted increase in members for the coming week, the actual increase of members for the week just passed. Our attendance is analyzed as to whether it is "bad," "good," "great," or "awesome," according to a formula that has been compiled. Considering the number of children we have, the number of visitors we are expected to bring, and the number of members that we have, we have compiled what is a "bad attendance," a "good attendance," a "great attendance" or an "awesome attendance." Our contribution is analyzed by zone. Calculated how much the average giving per member is, not only in our whole church but in each individual zone of our church. It is evaluated. Expectations are passed down through the leaders and all of us have been guilty of passing those expectations along. The pressure is felt by the leaders from me to the staff, to the Bible Talk Leaders, the mission team leaders, the house church leaders, whatever we happen to be calling them at the time, and it's passed on down to you. And the result is that it has turned us into a group of people who generally do not tend to be properly motivated by the right reason, motivated by the means that God wants us to be motivated by. We've been robbed of our joy. And that's why we always have to pump up the church. It seems every time we get together we've got to pump that thing up again.
The other thing that has happened as a result of the pressure of arbitrary expectations, statistics and quotas is that many people have been wounded when we have failed to measure up to those expectations. I know of one church in the movement, and I don't know if the practice is still going on, but it went on at one time and may still be going on, for all I know, I know of one church in the movement that actually put in place the policy of removing from the membership any member who was not fruitful in at least two months, they were removed from membership. Guys, I'm telling you that kind of stuff wounds people. It hurts people....Also, I believe that these statistics and this pressure fosters a works mentality in us that robs us of the motivation of love. We studied Romans 12:8 and following in the lesson I preached two weeks ago, where God teaches us that love is the fulfillment of the law. That's the purpose for all of the commands. And, guys, I just want to say that I don't know, I mean I don't know how I can say to Andy, say, "Look, Andy, I want you to share your faith tomorrow because you love God. And that's all I want to motivate you. I want you to be motivated by the fact that you love God.  But I want you to do it because you love God. And if you don't do it, I'm also going to set your hair on fire but, (laughter) but I don't want you to think about that." That's an unhealthy motivation. Now you concentrate on love. I think it's almost impossible to focus on love when we fear the repercussions that will come from failing to measure up to the expectation.
And what I'm also telling you is that it's getting hard. It's getting hard to fit into a legalistic system and do what's right according to our conscience.... I'm not saying, in conclusion, I am not saying that I want to leave the movement. I'm not saying that we're right and now we discovered all the truth and everybody else is wrong. Because if we say that, then we're no different. I'm not saying that the movement, the churches, the people in the movement are lost and going to hell. I'm not saying that. I think that they are some of the finest people on the face of the earth. I believe that.... I am not saying that we don't want to be a part of them. But this is what I am saying. Hebrews 10:26 "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." My life has changed. Now, after this message tonight, you can be sure of that. But my life has changed. I have made the decision to change my life. Why? Because I no longer can willfully sin. I cannot willfully participate in things that I know are wrong according to the Scriptures. I am not saying that everybody who doesn't see it the way I am is going to hell, because, hey, if they have a clear conscience before God, then God bless them. Because I'm probably