https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19nh1B38WQ/
I plead with you to watch the video through to the end by copying and pasting the link above.
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We all need to hear, not just listen but really hear this message. It's the difference between life and death and where we will spend it.
Friends, it's time to stop playing with fire and take the Lords word seriously. We cannot, cannot, cannot live our lives doing whatever we want and say oh well Jesus loves me just as I am. See here's the problem with that.. when we get that into our minds, we are not listening to and then acting upon the conviction Jesus places within our heart because we have told ourselves that Jesus loves us just as we are. Here's the truth in this.. Jesus does love us right where we are BUT.. as we grow closer to Him, as we learn who He is and what He is about and as we grow deeper in our relationship with Him, He shows us things we need to change about ourselves so that we can become more like Him.
We cannot stay who we are.. listen to me here.. we cannot remain who we are in sin and become who we are supposed to be in Christ.
We cannot serve two masters. We will either hate one and love the other.
The one we love, we will follow. The one we need to love, we will draw into through fellowship with Him through His word. The one we need to love does not want us to partake of sin and if we want to be with the one we should love, we have to learn to turn away from sin and sinful behavior.
Let me ask you something.. When you take an honest look at your life, does it reflect the turning away from sin and sinful behavior or does it look like you're in the middle of it?
You see.. our lives should look very different to the natural world and if it doesn't then we need to re-examine ourselves from the inside out so that we can identify what needs to change and what should be in its place.
Knowing Jesus requires a relationship with Him. Knowing Jesus requires the reading of His word and as we begin knowing who Jesus is, we learn His ways and replace our own ways with His ways. Do not be conformed by the world but be transformed by the Word of God. We have to lay down the sinful behaviors and stop kidding ourselves with thinking that, Oh I'm a child of God and He loves me right where I am. You see.. Jesus expects us to change.. to be transformed.
Listen, if we aren't growing and falling away from and setting ourselves apart from the world, then we "children of God" actually look no different than anyone else. So I want to encourage you to examine and then re-examine your lives and see if there's anything that sets you apart from the rest of the world.
Friends there should be a significant, undeniable change that comes when we decide to follow Jesus. Some may say Oh but pastor we are not their judge. I would say to you that you are right. We are not their judge and I am not your judge but I know the one who is and because He called me, I have a responsibility to help you see the truth from the lies. That doesn't mean that I'm sitting in judgement. That means that I love you enough to want to help you see His truth and learn His ways so that you can have a real and meaningful relationship with, through and in Him.
Friends, judgement is not calling out the lies of the devil and pointing people in the right direction. That my friends is called loving with the love of Jesus. It's time to get right and to get it right.
It's time for pastors who are called to preach the Word, to Preach the Word but to preach it in love through the way we deliver the message. It's time that we pastors help transform lives and not be afraid to offend someone yet still learn to choose our words carefully and set ourselves apart so others can see the difference in is is by that whom lives within us and that is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the one who transforms us and yes we are to love people but hear me here..we are to LOVE people. If we truly love them we will not leave them in their sins. That is a path that leads to death and destruction. If we truly LOVE them, we will give them the life giving spiritual tools they need to help them turn away from their sin.
So I ask you this.. are you loving people or are you LOVING people? The greatest Commandment is to LOVE. Maybe the problem is that we have confused offending people with LOVING people.
Listen and hear me out.. Maybe.. just maybe what we have perceived as offending is actually the Holy Spirit bringing conviction upon their hearts when they hear the message.
But look what happens when we get scared of offending.. We water down the Word of God and they feel no conviction and we end up leaving them to fall away through their sin and sinful behaviors. Therefore we are not LOVING them and have just left them on the path that leads to them living apart from their creator.
But now look what happens when we share God's LOVE with them and allow them to be uncomfortable, because that just might be the Holy Spirit moving through conviction; they begin to examine and then re-examine their lives and make the necessary changes to become more "Christ-like" to look more like Jesus..and in doing so they give up their old lifestyles and embrace the life that Jesus has planned for them to have all along. (ie Jeremiah 29:11)
So think about this and ask yourself these questions.
Am I a hindrance or a help to those I say I love and care about?Am I loving or am I truly LOVING others?
Jesus gave up His life to show us how to LOVE one another. He left the heavenly realm to come be with us so that one day we might come be with Him in that heavenly realm.
I'll leave you with these last thoughts..
To be Christian means to be "Christ-like".
What does your behavior look like? Does it reflect the giving up of yourself to save the life of another and many others? Or does it look like much of the rest of the world where you really are no different and are living the same lifestyle they are living?
Friends..the old has to pass away. You cannot put new wine into an old wine skin. An old wine skin has cracks throughout it and will not hold new wine. It will just keep leaking out until there's only the container left with nothing in it. If we want to be filled with everything God has for us, we must have the new wine skin.
