Three More Savage Wolves in the Church

“Stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer.” 
– 1 Timothy 1:3-4

When the Apostle Paul left the city of Ephesus after three years of ministry, he warned the church leaders about “savage wolves” who would come to undermine the teachings of Jesus Christ. Sure enough, false teachers arose within the Ephesian church and started muddying the clear and simple gospel teaching that they had received from Paul.

Listen to what Paul wrote to his partner in ministry, Timothy, after he left: “Stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about” (1 Timothy 1:3-7).

This wasn’t just a 1^st-Century problem. Last week we looked at examples of three savage wolves that have risen up within the American church today. Now, let’s take a look at three more:

Savage Wolf #1: The hedonist who teaches, “Do what makes you happy. God will forgive you” (Jude 4). Jude wrote: “For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude 4). In recent years, a growing number of Christian leaders and churches have turned a blind eye to most sexual sins. Hedonistic Christians are very good at making excuses for sin and watering down what God’s word teaches about judgment and hell. They view God’s grace as a get-out-of-hell free card. So, be on guard. Steer clear of churches that call “good” what God calls “evil.” These are wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Savage Wolf #2: The legalist who teaches, “Follow all my rules” while largely ignoring Jesus’ call to love God and people (Matthew 23-24). Jesus leveled this woe against the religious leaders of his day: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices .... but you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness” (Matthew 23:23). Legalism takes our eyes off Jesus and shifts our focus to rule-keeping. And any pastor or teacher who takes your eyes off Jesus, and tries to get you to follow some religious formula instead of loving and following Jesus, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Savage Wolf #3: The politician’s hatchet man disguised as a pastor (1 Timothy 2:1-4). Remember what Paul teaches us: “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority…. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:1-4). God only calls a few Christian pastors to be political activists. But He calls ALL of us to pray for our leaders. It doesn’t matter if you’re a registered Republican, Democrat or Libertarian. Your top political priority as a Christian is to PRAY for President Biden, Vice President Harris, Governor Newsom and our local city council members. Pray for ALL our leaders to carry out God’s will for their lives. And we know that if they are in the center of God's will, they will make decisions that are righteous and honor Him.

More times than not, political activism in the church take our eyes off the goal: to expand Christ’s kingdom on earth by leading people to salvation and maturity in Christ. So, watch out for church leaders who are two-thirds political activist and only one-third gospel proclaimer. Most of them are wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Remember, Christianity boils down to these three things: 1) Trust God, 2) Love God and 3) Obey God. False teachers always, always, ALWAYS chip away at at least one of these: Faith, Love and Obedience. Remember that and be on your guard!

Dane Davis is the pastor of Impact Christian Church in Victorville. Join us at Impact for Sunday services: in person at 9 a.m., or online at 10 a.m. on YouTube or Facebook. Dane’s latest book, “Called to Persevere: One Man’s Journey to Overcome Pain, Disease and Disappointment with God,” is scheduled for release on Amazon in September.

How Do I Hear God’s Voice?

“You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” 
- Jeremiah 29:13

I’m a big fan of nature documentaries. There have been some really good ones released in the last several years: African Cats, Dolphin Reef, Born in China (which, contrary to what you m­ight think, is not about the coronavirus … it’s about pandas and snow leopards). But my absolute favorite nature documentary is March of the Penguins. This film records the amazing story of the way Emperor Penguins migrate in order to breed. Every year, several thousand of these tenacious birds walk—or, actually, waddle—70 miles from the ocean to their breeding grounds.

When the penguins arrive, they pair up into couples, and the female lays one egg. She then passes her egg off to her hubby, who carefully places the egg on top of his feet underneath his abdominal feathers. And Dad holds that egg on his feet for two months while his Mrs. and the other ladies walk 70 miles back to the ocean to find food. During those two months, the male emperor penguin waits through temperatures as low as 70 degrees below zero, and he loses around one-third of his total body weight.

Eventually the egg hatches, and the females returns. And each male penguin calls for his mate. As over a thousand penguins call for their wives at the same time, to us it just sounds like a bunch of racket. But somehow, every female penguin is able to distinguish the call of her hubby and go to him. Isn’t that cool?

As humans, our ears aren’t nearly so fine-tuned. Every day we hear hundreds of voices vying for our attention: the voices of our spouses, our kids and our parents … our friends, neighbors, coworkers and bosses. We hear hundreds of voices on TV, on the radio and at WalMart, and sometimes it just sounds like a whole lot of noise. All these voices are fighting for our attention, and as followers of Jesus Christ we want to know: “With hundreds of different voices rattling in my ears, how can I single out the one voice I want to hear? How do I hear God’s voice?”

Let’s take a look at Elijah. In 1 Kings 19:11, the Lord tells Elijah that He is about to pass by. Right after He says that, a “great and powerful wind” rips through the mountains. But somehow, Elijah knows that God is not in the wind. Then a great earthquake rattles the mountain. But somehow, Elijah knows that God is not in the earthquake. Then a raging fire torches the mountainside. But once again, Elijah knows that God is not in the fire. Finally, at the end of verse 12, Elijah hears a “gentle whisper.” And Elijah immediately recognizes that God is in the gentle whisper. Amidst the earth-shaking noise of the wind and the earthquake and the fire, Elijah recognizes the voice of God. Wouldn’t you love to be able to do that? Let me share a few insights about how you can hear God’s voice.

Insight #1: The problem isn’t that God’s not TALKING. The problem is that you’re not LISTENING. The truth is, God speaks to us in a hundred different ways every day. He speaks to us through prayer. He speaks to us through people. He speaks to us through our triumphs, and He even speaks to us through our failures and pain. And the number one way that God speaks to us is through His Word. If you want to hear God’s voice, just start reading. You’ll hear it---for sure!! There’s a reason we call the Bible “God’s word.” Remember that the God of heaven and earth is a very personal God, and He speaks to us in a very personal way. It’s amazing how a Bible verse that you’ve read a hundred times can come alive for the first time on a certain day and you just know in your heart of hearts, “God is speaking to me right now.”

Insight #2: God speaks to us more often than we realize, but we don’t hear Him because there’s too much noise drowning Him out. We live in a very noisy world. For many of us the radio is always on in our cars and the TV is always on in our homes. In order to hear God’s whisper, you must strive to eliminate at least some of the background noise. To do this, you need to practice a little self-discipline. Turn off the TV and radio. Get out in nature if you’re able to. Wake up early and get into God’s Word before everyone else in the house wakes up and starts making noise. In order to hear God’s voice, you have to be able to HEAR God’s voice. Make sense?

Insight #3: You’ve gotta want it—really, really want it. It’s easy to say, “I want to hear God’s voice.” But do you really, really, REALLY want to hear God’s voice? In Jeremiah 29:13, God says, “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” Do you seek God with “all your heart”? Just as Mama Penguin’s heart’s desire is to hear Daddy’s voice, our heart’s desire should be to hear our Daddy’s voice. We must have hearts that love God and want to spend time with God and long to hear the voice of God. There are no shortcuts. It takes time. It takes effort. It takes practice. But you will seek God and find God and hear God, when you seek Him and listen with all your heart.

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Please join us for our online worship service Sundays at

10 a.m. at Live.GreaterImpact.cc or on our YouTube channel (Impact Christian Church) or on Facebook.

Open Minds and Open Hearts

“Now the Bereans were of more noble character …  for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” – Acts 17:11

With the launch of Impact Christian Church just a month away, we’re handing out lots of invitations around town. Last Wednesday evening a couple of the greatest teenagers in the world joined me for what I like to call “Donut Run Evangelism.” We made a donut run and made sure that the donut shop had invitations to church on their countertop. Then we stopped by a few other stores to give them invitations too. Well, at one point we were in a little strip mall in a not-so-great neighborhood. And as I was making my way back to my car after dropping off some invitations, I saw a gang-banger-looking guy walking across the parking lot. He was all tatted up on his arms and had gang tattoos on his face and around his eyes.

I felt the Lord wanted me to invite him to church, so I did. And he turned, looked at me, and said, “Pastor Dane!” I was blown away! It turns out that he is an active member at Victory Outreach Church, and he met me a few years ago when our churches were doing ministry in the same building. I told him about our church’s big move, and he started preaching to me. He said, “Yeah, man. Your church is like Elijah. God gave Elijah a brook with plenty of water, but that brook dried up, so God moved him somewhere else. Your church is over on that old military base and it’s all dried up, so God is moving you guys to where there’s life!” 

This was one of those wonderful, unexpected moments in my life when God wanted to tell me something important, and I would have missed it if I hadn’t had an open mind and an open heart. In the early church, Christ’s followers faced a similar problem. They often ran into closed minds when they tried to share the gospel with the Jews, especially in Thessalonica. But the results were much different when Paul preached the good news in Berea. According to Acts 17:12, “Many of the Jews believed.”

Why did so many more Jews in Berea accept the message than in Thessalonica? The answer is in verse 11: “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” There are three key phrases in this verse, and each phrase reveals something important about the way the Bereans handled God’s word. Let’s look at these phrases one at a time.

1. The Bereans were “of more noble character.” What on earth does that mean? If we look up the same phrase from a few different translations, we read that the Bereans were more “noble-minded” (NASB), “fair-minded” (NKJV) or “open-minded” (NLT). These other translations shed some light on the situation. The Jews in Berea were more open-minded to Paul’s message. They didn’t immediately put up a wall, stop up their ears and say “LA LA LA LA LA LA LA! I’M NOT LISTENING!” They were willing to hear Paul out and give his message an opportunity to be heard.

Friends, sometimes when we are learning God’s word, we come across things that challenge our way of thinking and acting. Sometimes God’s word challenges us to make different choices than we’ve been making and establish more godly priorities. Don’t build up walls or stop up your ears. Like the Bereans, we need to receive God’s word with open minds and open hearts.

2. The Bereans received the message “with great eagerness.” There in that Berean synagogue when Paul opened the Old Testament scrolls and began to explain the prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Bereans listened eagerly. Each time Paul taught, they were ready to hear it—eager to hear more, to learn more, to adjust their lives however necessary to the fresh revelation of God’s word. They were excited and enthusiastic as they learned God’s word.

If you and I are only going through the motions of listening, and if we have little enthusiasm for learning God’s word, the teaching will have minimal impact. I promise you, God’s word can transform your life. But you have to want it to transform your life. That requires some good old-fashioned eagerness and enthusiasm. So, have your Bibles ready in church each Sunday. Put your Bible on your nightstand or on your coffee table or wherever else you’ll see it every day, so that every day you can open God’s word and study it with eagerness and enthusiasm.

3. The Bereans “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

You and I can run off on all sorts of theological rabbit trails if we skip this critical step. If we’re open-minded and enthusiastic, but we fail to cross-check what the teacher is teaching with Scripture, we are cruisin’ for a spiritual bruisin’. Each of us is called to follow in the Bereans’ footsteps, examining the Scriptures to make sure that we are being taught the truth. And unlike the many false teachers out there, we as Christians are not afraid of anyone in the church examining the Scriptures to confirm the truth.

When open-minded pastors preach God’s word with enthusiasm and careful study, and the congregation receives God’s word with enthusiasm and careful study, that’s a match made in heaven. Open minds and open hearts in Christ’s church are a beautiful thing.

Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Join us for our Grand Opening at 10 am Sunday, October 6^th at the new Ralph Baker School in Victorville. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.