• Introduction
    • Positive outlook in life is refreshing. Christians, Romans 5:1-2, 11
  • Our society’s attitude abhors almost anything negative.
    • “Don’t solve problems if it requires conflict. Overwhelm them with positive action only.”
    • Our nation influenced for more than 60 years.
      • Post “Great Depression” (1930s) and WWII (1940s) – prosperity, good times, increased preoccupation with pursuing materialism.
      • 1940s-1950s – booming population of new babies. “Baby Boomers.” PARENTS COULD NOT SAY NO! Children did not learn accountability.
      • Also introduced: a popular, permissive philosophy on childrearing. Love and affection without pain of discipline. Build self-esteem by rewarding failure. Teach children to express their individuality. Allow unrestrained gratification.
    • Result: “Hippie” generation (1960s-70s) – Selfish, self-centered, unrestrained gratification, especially with sexuality. Communistic, socialistic, Feminist Women’s Liberation, gender confusion. Loss of respect for the dignity of life. Poor work ethic. No respect for civil authority. Baby Boomers now lead our country.
  • Effect on the Lord’s church:
    • Society’s influence creeping into the church. Materialism. “Positive only” attitude. Division in the 1950s-60s reflects the conflict with this attitude.
    • Attitude illustrated: “It’s good to make someone feel good.” “… bad to make someone feel bad.” “Emphasize the positive in the Bible and avoid the negative.” “Negative preaching is a system of legalism.”
    • Preaching emphasized momentary, emotional restoration rather than eternal salvation. If members felt good, they must be pleasing God. So, whatever it took to create this emotional euphoria – food, entertainment, social gatherings, or simply avoiding the pain of applying sound doctrine was justified. “After all, how can positive emotions develop from negative preaching?”
    • Result: Less Bible knowledge. Unable to defeat false teachers. “Easier to compromise or slander.” New Testament pattern for the church violated. People feel saved while living in sin. Ultimately, there is no wrong, therefore, no caution against sin. You can be nice to sin through compromise, but sin will NEVER be nice to truth. When we compromise with sin, we lose some of our faith.
    • Stand for nothing and accept anything. After all, “We don’t want to be negative.”
  • Many suffer from “negaphobia” (neg – negative, phobia – persistent fear of).
    • Society: Politically correct, euphemistic terminology. Change “sin” and “evil” to “alternate lifestyle” – homosexuality, living together without marriage, fornication glorified.
    • Church: Don’t publicly challenge “false religions” or “false doctrines” or call one a “false teacher” who teaches false doctrine. Yet, these will turn around and adamantly criticize and malign those who openly defend the truth. Talk about negative! Call sin “opinion” and defend it under Romans 14. Soothe the emotions with “drama” preaching without addressing spiritual problems. Preach partial truths to avoid confrontation. Preach truth, but don’t apply lest feelings get hurt (social drinking, dancing, immodest apparal, church discipline). Don’t convict sinners in their sin.
    • Some will say, “We need more positive and less negative preaching.” Or, “Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.” The problem is that positive and negative are often subjectively defined. Whose definition? Yours? Mine? Or God’s?
  • The Bible and “positive” preaching.
    • Warns against positive only preaching. Jeremiah 8:4-12; II Peter 2:1-3, 18-19; II Corinthians 11:12-15
    • Negative preaching does what positive cannot. Most understand positive statements of doing good. Galatians 5:23. Does God ever warn against doing good? Knowing to do good has never been a problem. However, there is a constant need to warn against evil because evil constantly tries to get people to sin.
    • If it is in the arena of the negative, not the positive, where sin will be defeated.
  • God’s idea of positive preaching is determined by its results, not by how it sounds.
    • God’s idea of positive preaching?
      • Positive preaching instructs and informs.
      • Negative preaching warns against sin which destroys positive preaching.
      • Negative preaching helps one understand evil without having to experience it.
    • Summary
      • Positive truths instruct, encourage, and edify = POSITIVE
      • Negative truths warn, convict, and prevent one from sinning = POSITIVE
      • Favoring one over the other defeats the power of both = NEGATIVE
      • Positive only neglects valuable warnings and rebukes = NEGATIVE
      • Negative only neglects full instruction and encouragement = NEGATIVE
    • All of God’s truth produces positive results when preached and obeyed.
  • Positive preaching and the Bible
    • Adam and Eve: Genesis 2:16-17 – negative command for positive good
    • Israel: Mostly negative laws, yet for their good. Deuteronomy 10:1-4, 12-13; 5:7-21, 32-33
    • All scriptures, positive and negative, must be proclaimed to produce positive results. Positive only will always produce negative results – see our nation.
      • Jesus magnified positive with negative. Matthew 15:11-14 (see also Matthew 15:7-19); Matthew 22:34-40. (Remember, Law and Prophets were mostly negative. II Timothy 3:13-17)
      • II Timothy 4:1-5 – preaching both positive and negative = POSITIVE
    • The whole counsel of God: II Timothy 4:1-5; Acts 20:27; I Corinthians 4:17
    • Positive power of negative instructions: Job 5:17-18; Jeremiah 36-38; II Corinthians 7:6-11; Hebrews 12:3-11; Acts 2:22-24, 36-42, 46-47
    • Heart of God’s grace: Titus 2:11-12 – positive and negative
  • Conclusion: True, positive preaching is not accomplished until preachers and Christians declare and live the whole counsel of God.
    • To emphasize the positive over the negative produces negative results.
    • To emphasize the negative over the positive produces negative results.
    • To teach a balance of both will produce positive results.
    • Preaching the whole counsel of God is always positive preaching.
    • Excellent example: Acts 2:22-47. Without the negative, 3000 souls would not have changed.