Early one Sunday morning before going to church I was surfing through the channels on the television set to find some good gospel music and happened to pause at The Hour of Power from the Crystal Cathedral. They were having a patriotic service with beautiful music appropriate for the occasion. I was captivated by the pageantry and music presented in that televised service.

Then the younger Dr. Schuller announced that he was going to offer a prayer for our country and our military. I stopped what I was doing to join him in the prayer. He said, "God has given us a wonderful promise in prayer in II Chronicles 7:14: 'If my people, which are called by my name will ... pray then I will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin, and will heal their land'."

He left out the conditional part of the promise. Maybe he forgot that part or inadvertently left it out, but he omitted the part about "humbling ourselves, seeking God's face and turning from our wicked ways." I would really like to give Schuller the benefit of the doubt, but there seems to be a trend toward leaving out the concept of repentance in favor of a "feel good" religion.

Then on a recent Larry King Live interview, Joel Osteen was so nebulous in answering some of King's questions that he felt it necessary to write a letter of explanation about his comments, but he repeatedly sidestepped questions about whether Jews, Muslims and even atheists would go to heaven. King then alluded to the fact that some people thought he preached a "cotton candy theology" with no spiritual nourishment.

Whether church styles are contemporary, traditional, classic, avant-garde, modern, old fashioned or blended, the gospel must be proclaimed and the saved must be called to submit to the Lordship of Christ. We must never be satisfied with compromising the Scripture; we must preach the whole counsel of God.

Vance Havner used to say that the man of God should preach to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." In practically every congregation there are forlorn people with heavy burdens. These people need to know that there is help and hope in the Lord. They need messages that encourage their heavy hearts, lighten their burdensome load and brighten their darkened pathway.

But then there is the clan of the comfortable. They need to be motivated, stirred, challenged, shaken, pried from their complacency. They don't need "feel good" sermons. They already feel good. In fact, they are anesthetized so much so that they do not feel any sense of burden for souls lost in the darkness of sin or churches that are floundering in an increasingly secular society.

In this day of instant gratification, trial marriages, quick divorces, government-funded abortions, lewd movies, coarse language, vulgar jokes, mindless television, frivolous pursuits, political shenanigans, crusaders for tolerance, easy believism and indolent church members the pulpit must not give an uncertain sound.

It is true that people like to be made to feel good and, simply put, human nature recoils at the idea of being corrected or convicted. Therefore, many modern day pastors avoid preaching any kind of message that would be offensive or controversial.

The gospel doesn't need to be exclusively repackaged as the answer for low self-esteem, the fear of failure, the pathway to success, the solution to career problems, psychological distress, etc. And unbelievers do not need to be perceived as lonely singles, bored executives, victims of dysfunctional families or aimless sojourners, but as sinners in need of salvation.

Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher, said, "The preacher's work is to throw sinners down into utter helplessness that they may be compelled to look up to Him Who alone can help them. Preach not calmly and quietly as though you were asleep, but preach with fire and pathos and passion."

Desperate times call for demonstrative preaching. The degree of our fervor and passion should be commensurate with the situation that exists in our churches and in our society. I am certainly not advocating sermons that are "full of sound and fury signifying nothing," but sermons that inspire and motivate.

George Whitefield proclaimed, "Would (to God that) ministers preach for eternity! They would then act the part of true Christian orators, and not only calmly and coolly inform the understanding, but by persuasive, pathetic address, endeavor to move the affections and warm the heart."