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[Applause] If you're saved and you know it, say Amen. We're going to God's Word. I'd like to draw your attention to the second chapter of Titus. And if you'll allow me, I'm going to give you exactly what the Lord laid on my heart.
I had an unsettling thought from the Spirit the other morning, and here it is: Of all the thousands of people you will see on this property today and during the week, I am the only one that's going to stand before God and give an account for this. I alone. Now, if you don't think that will make you tremble and sweat, it does, brother. So with all that is within me, with every ounce of sincerity and inspiration I have, I'm going to give to you exactly what the Lord has given for you today. In Jesus name.
In fact, I just want to pray and then I'll preach. God, I thank you now that you didn't choose me to preach. I'm so happy to be saved. I'm so glad that hands went up this morning declaring that they were also glad to be saved. We bless Your Holy Name. We, who were undeserving, were made worthy by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. I thank You for it, Lord. But I want to live in such a way that brings honor and glory to Your name, so that even angels will be amazed at the grace of God displayed to us in Christ and how we now live it out every day. Speak to us, and we'll praise You and bless You for it. When it's all over, let us evaluate what we've heard. Amen.
Thank you for being seated. I want to wait for you to get settled, gather yourself. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Praise God for grace! Praise God for His undeserved favor upon us. I'm standing here by grace. You're sitting there by grace. We speak the name of Jesus by grace. We have a home in heaven by grace. All of our supplies given to us by the grace of God. Our needs met by the grace of God. Oh, praise God for grace!
But grace does more than just allow us to walk in the favor of God. It also teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous of good works.
Now, the day in which we live in this country, the number one subject preached in every pulpit is the grace of God. And some of it is in error, because God does not save you and then say, "Run along and have a good time till I call you home." He saves us that we might walk worthy of Jesus Christ and represent heaven, that by our living and our works and our speech, people know that something has happened to us. But not only people, heaven. And I mentioned angels, they are still amazed that God would choose fallen humanity to display His greatness and goodness. And angels are watching everything we do. They listen to every word we say. So while I relish the grace of God, I also realize that there's a responsibility that goes along with saying, "I've been saved by grace through faith."
Several times, Paul mentioned to some of his listeners and readers, some of those who were under his ministry, to examine themselves. He never just said, "You got it made." He said, "Stop, think, test yourself, examine yourself. Does your life measure up to the scripture? Are you walking in truth? Are you obedient to the heavenly calling? Do you have evidence and fruit that point to a miraculous transformation of your life? You've been taken out of darkness and you put into the kingdom of His dear Son, the kingdom of light. Are you living that way? Does your speech tell others that you are from a different place now and live in a different world? Examine yourself. Test yourself."
We do it all the time. We have to measure our lives by the Word of God. We happen to look into the mirror and see what it reflects. We cannot be hearers of the word only. We want, we must be doers of the word. We must practice our faith, practice Christianity. We must practice this thing that we say has happened inside of us. And if there is no difference between me and the person who is lost, then I need to examine myself. Have I deceived myself into thinking that because I go to church, or I do better things, or I don't do as many bad things as I used to, maybe I'm on my way to heaven? And the answer is absolutely not.
In the scriptures, there are marks of a believer. These are proofs that you are in Christ. It is sure, certified evidence that one has been born again of the Spirit and that that one is walking in the Spirit and no longer in the flesh. Here they are: They love Jesus. They pray. They read the Bible. They've stopped sinning. And they're looking for Jesus to come and longing for Him to come. Let me go back and touch on every one of those, if you don't mind.
You see, as a pastor, thank God for you that are saved. But my concern is for those who are not, that they might be. And for those who think they are, and need to make their calling and election sure. I'm standing here today. My hands are as cold as ice. I can hardly touch my own wrists. I'm sweating. I am so weak in my gut that I can hardly stand here because I know that I'm standing between heaven and earth. I'm taking you to God, and I'm bringing God to you. And I know that I'm the only one in this position right here, right now, that can say what I'm about to say.
If you love Jesus, you're a Christian. And when I talk about loving Jesus, I mean your heart longs for Him. As the deer pants after the water brooks, so my soul pants after You, O God. My whole life is Jesus Christ. I long for Him. I rejoice in Him. I crave more of Him. I want to know Him. Whatever all this means, I want to repeat with Paul, I want to know Him in the power of His resurrection. I want to walk around in resurrection power. I want to know Him in the likeness of His sufferings. Whatever I have to go through to know Him better, I am willing to do it. I want to be made conformable unto His death. I want to be dead to the world, and I want the world to be dead to me. I want my whole breathing, my whole existence to be in Jesus Christ. That's the first mark of a Christian.
The second one is, he prays. She prays. Not just in church, not just over a meal. Prayer is coming out of you all the time. It's inside of you. You cannot live without it. And many times, you don't even know you're doing it. You long to pray. The name of Jesus is always on your lips. Everything that happens, you recognize that it comes from the hand of God in your life. There's never a time when you're not communicating with heaven, whether consciously or unconsciously. You pray. And when somebody says, "Let's pray," you pray. And when somebody says, "Let's go to prayer meeting," you want to go to prayer meeting. And if there's nobody at the house, you walk around the house praying because prayer is your respiratory system. I preached on that a few weeks ago. That's the second mark of a believer.
The third mark is that he or she loves the Scriptures. There is no way that you can remain ignorant of the Holy Word of God as a Christian. There is no way you can live day after day without indulging in and eating from God's good Word. You cannot be satisfied with a devotion. You yourself want to read it. And when you don't understand it, you pray and say, "Lord, show it to me." You long for more of the Word. Everything you do is based on the Word of God. All of your values in life are based on the Scriptures. Relationships with people are based on the Scriptures. The way you handle money based on the Scriptures. How you dress based on the Scriptures. You look to the Scriptures for guidance in life, for understanding about life. You read the Bible.
We live in the most illiterate age since Jesus Christ was on this earth, biblically sometimes. And I hear preachers say it all the time, "We preach on things that we think everybody ought to know." And people go, "I've never heard that before. I never knew that was in the scriptures." Obvious things that Christians ought to know. But we live in the last days, and people, instead of going to the Word of God themselves, are looking for some preacher or some false prophet or some teacher to tell them what the Bible really says. Oh, God is longing for a person, just a person, who will get the Bible and get on your knees and read it on your knees and say, "Teach me Your ways, O God, and lead me in a plain path."
If you're a Christian, you read the Bible. If you're a Christian, you stop sinning. You don't listen to that false message about grace that says, "You know, even if you go run off with another woman, even if you're hooked on porno, even if you drink and do drugs and stuff, God understands. You're a prodigal son, and you're going to heaven." I see, I just can't find that in scripture. My Bible says, "He who practices sin is of the devil." If you are still in sin, you are a sinner. And if you discover sin in your life, instead of accommodating it, you run to the foot of the old rugged cross and you ask God to cleanse you from that thing. No Christian loves to sin. No Christian lives in the deep indulgence of sin. You have stopped sinning. I don't mean the errors we make daily with our mouth. I'm not talking about evil thoughts that flutter through our brains. I'm talking about decisions we make that take us to the depths of rebellion against God, and we do it time and time again. If you're a child of God, you have stopped sinning.
If you're a child of God, you're looking for Jesus to come back. And I mean every day. When my eyes open in the morning, I think, "This could be the day that I leave planet Earth. This could be my last shot, my last 24 hours." I'm not thinking about the coming of the Lord just whenever I hear a bad news report, another earthquake somewhere, or an army invaded another country. I'm not thinking about all that. I'm thinking, "Today, this day could be my last Sunday on this earth. I am thinking Jesus Christ could split the clouds and call His church to meet Him in the air." And when that happens, I don't have time to fix anything. I can't repair it. I can't go pay it up. I can't straighten it out. I've got to be ready all the time. And looking for Him to come back will make you live right, talk right, and treat people the way you want to be treated.
So that's why 2 Peter said, "There are things you have to do to make your calling and election sure." You live the Scriptures. You walk by faith. You walk in obedience. You walk in forgiveness. You pray. You read. You look for Jesus. And if you do these things, you will never stumble. So I just have to ask the question: Are you saved? Really? Now, are you saying into that lens? I look again. All day long, there will be people sitting around their computers or watching this on the phone. Ask yourself, "Am I saved? I mean, does my life imitate what that preacher just said a Christian is supposed to be in? Do I love G? Do I love Him? Do I read? Do I pray? Have I stopped sinning? Am I looking for Him to come back?"
And that's why in these last days, the Holy Spirit is calling His church to a deeper commitment, calling us to a prayer life we've never had before, a deeper worship we've never enjoyed before. You say, "Here's what the Scriptures teach: No man can serve two masters." You either—let me put it in my jar, gone, if you don't mind—you either love God and hate the devil, or you hate God and love the devil. There is no in-between. Do you hear this preacher this morning? You don't love God sometimes, just like you don't love your wife sometimes. Love is all the time. And once you love this, you won't ever love that again. Once you fall in love with Him, you won't ever have a problem loving the world again. His love, His divine love that He's given to you to give back to Him, will make this world smell so bad, you won't even look in its direction. It'll be so oppressive to you and so disgusting to you that you won't give it the time of day.
Folks, you can't serve two masters. So if you're serving Him on the weekend and the other one during the week, it's time to get in and off or somewhere and get right with God. Jesus, I didn't expect this place to go up in smoke this morning. Paul said, "No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life," meaning no soldier can be a part-time civilian. You're in it full force, 24 hours a day. Jesus, through Paul, was teaching us that if you're in this warfare and fighting this good fight of faith, you will not get tangled up with the affairs of this life.
Can I tell you again that Jesus said, "No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of heaven"? Once you make the decision, once you put your hand on the plow, you never look back. You look forward. Doesn't matter how rough the roads are, how hot the day is, you don't look back because you know that what was back there was death, but what's up there is life eternal. Jesus tried to tell us with this illustration of Lot's wife. Remember Lot's wife? He told them, "Get out of Sodom." The angel said, "Come on, hurry up, get out. Don't even look." Why did his wife look back? Because her heart was still there, and she was turned into a pillar of salt. And I have no explanation for any of that except to say the lesson is: What God calls you out, what God touches your life, run out. Don't look back. Don't ever want it again.
John said it like this: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For the things of the world are these: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life." And if you indulge in any of that, you do not have the kingdom of God within you.
Three times Jesus looked at Peter after the resurrection. Now, remember, Peter's the one that denied Him three times the night He was betrayed and the day before He was crucified. Three times he denied Him. Jesus is alive now, has been alive for several days, and Peter and his cohorts, his other disciples, are sitting around the lake. And Peter said, "I'm going fishing." So once again, he has denied Christ. He already knew Jesus was alive. The women came and told them. Other apostles said they had seen Him. Peter said, "I'm going fishing." And so when they went out fishing, the other disciple said, "We'll go too." And that's when about a hundred yards off the bank, the shore, this figure rises up and says, "Children, have you caught anything yet?" "No." "Throw your nets on the right side of the boat." And when they did, 153 large fish swam into the net, and they could hardly pull it into the boat. And when they saw that, John said, "It's the Lord." And Peter jumped in to swim to Him, just like he did the night of the storm. He jumped in the water to go to Jesus. And when they got to shore, Jesus had breakfast made for them. And then Jesus, in front of everybody, said to Peter, "Come with me." And while he's walking, he said, "Peter, do you love me?" Peter said, "You know I do. I feel problem there. You know I did." "Peter, do you love me?" "Yes, Lord, I love you." "Peter, do you love me?" And then Peter was so distraught about that third question because he knew that the Lord really knew his heart. Said, "We don't even know our own hearts." We talk about, "I love the Lord." But the Lord says, "Well, if you love me, why do you do this? If you love me, why don't you keep my commandments? If you love me, why don't you read my word? If you love me, why don't you talk to me?" That's any wife would ask a husband that. "Do you love me, baby?" "You know I love you." "Then why do you ignore me? Why don't you talk to me? Why do you come in late? Why don't you tell me what's going on in your life? Why don't you recognize me?"
And so upset was Peter with Jesus, said his heart sank. And I honestly believe in here this morning that Jesus is asking some of you, "Do you love me?" You've already been stung by some things that were said, but, but, "Do you love me? I want to know. Do you love me?" Don't tell me you love me and do the things that I told you not to do. Don't tell me you love me when you give me a fraction of your time every day. Do not tell me you love me when your whole life is being planned around activities and fun rather than the cross and the church. Do you love me? In other words, are you done with this world yet? Are you done with it? This world is your enemy. This world does not understand who you are.
I don't know if it's gonna make any sense, but I'm gonna try it. I tried to explain it the other day. It's like there's a casket here with a corpse in it, and that corpse has no idea that I'm standing here. But I am holding that corpse's hand, saying, "I still love you. I still love you, and I need you." And I kissed the head of that corpse. And I've seen people do that kind of thing. See, that corpse is dead, but it's not dead to that person yet.
Paul said, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom I am crucified to the world, and the world unto me." Oh God, please let me say this so that it's understandable. You see, brothers and sisters, when the cross of Jesus Christ becomes your new life, and His resurrection becomes your new breath, something happens between you and the world. Now, let me tell you, to the world, we're dead. We're dead. They have nothing, no interest whatsoever in the church, in the Bible, in God, in Jesus, in the cross. To the world, that's dead, meaningless foolishness. You will never catch the world tailgating in the parking lot of a spirit-filled church on a Thursday night or a Sunday afternoon in the hot sun, waiting in line for hours to come in here and get a seat, and find out it's a little too chilly or the air conditioners aren't working today. You will never find the world knocking on the door of the church trying to get our ticket. You will never find them with enough interest to drive in that driveway unless somebody forces them to do it. Because to them, we're dead. But they aren't dead to us yet. Because we are the fools that drive downtown. We are the ones that sit in the hot sun to watch people run around with a ball. We are the ones that will sit in the rain, the sleet, the snow, get sun-sick and sunburned, and spend $300 on junk food, fight a crowd to get in and out, pay a heavy price for a parking space. Listen to me, for nothing! For nothing! For nothing! It doesn't matter one whit. It has no value in eternity. It does not build up your soul. It will not draw you closer to Jesus. That's why we need to let the word die in our minds and in our hearts and recognize that only what Jesus gives up is worth anything.
Oh, I could go on and on about that. The money that Christians spend on worldly entertainment, the things we will do that we will not do for the church. Oh, how many times have I heard it this summer, "It's too hot in the balcony," but you went to the stadium and sat in the sun. I'm not playing this morning. I hear it all the time. "It's too cold in here," what you flew to Green Bay to watch a team play? Because the world is not yet dead to us. They don't give a flying flip about us. Him and this, but we still want it. We still dream of being in it. We'll follow golf pros around, dust kicking up, sneezing, paying $9 for some kind of drink. They're making all the money, we spent all the money, and we'll do it and miss church. Oh, excuse me, I said we'll do it and miss church. Well, it's only once a year, pastor. But this all that other stuff we do, it adds it, it accumulates after a while.
Why am I preaching this way? Because Jesus is coming. Because He's not coming for people half-hearted. He's not coming for people sitting on offense. He's coming for people who said, "I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather have Jesus and riches on toes." And we still don't realize it's gonna get really sticky right here, but I'd rather have you upset than go home and have God spank me because I was disobedient. We still don't realize the horrible marks and the terrible spiritual effects that television has on us. It is ungodly. Everything about it's ungodly, except Christian television. It's produced by ungodly people. It's paid for by ungodly people. The advertisements are of ungodly people and therefore ungodly people. And I don't care what you say, even watching an innocent ballgame, you're gonna see advertisements for beer, vaping, and half-naked women every, every eight minutes. And we take that in, use, "How it doesn't bother me?" Yes, it does bother you. It does bother you. And Jesus wants me to say to somebody, "There are some things you're gonna have to give up if you want to walk close to me. If you want a heart that throbs along with my heart, there's some things you're gonna have to give up."
A lot of our defeat, our spiritual defeat, and our lack of love for Jesus comes because all we do is take in what the world is producing. And and we think it's innocent. There's nothing innocent about that. There's nothing innocent in the the print of this world and the productions of this world. It's not innocent. Satan is behind every bit of it. It's ungodly. It's un-Christlike. So you need to really fair it through the programs you watch. You need to really watch what your boys are watching on Sunday afternoon because there may be some football stuck in with the rest of that stuff, but the rest of that stuff makes an indelible impression on those boys.
I just wonder if we are guilty of an ignorant of the fact that we are grieving the Holy Spirit. You know what grief means, don't you? It doesn't just mean hurt. It means impede, shutdown. Could the very church that claims to be spirit-filled be full of people who are grieving the Holy Spirit? You know Paul said, "He's my life. I have no other life but Jesus Christ." He said, "They don't want me, and I don't want them. All I have is Jesus." But that's all I need because He is my life.
Brother, sister, listen to me. As you walk with Christ, there are things you have to lay aside every day. If you're hungry for Jesus, there are sacrifices you must make. If you want to know Him in the power of His resurrection, you got to take off the old clothes of this world and quit talking to a corpse, quit kissing it on the head and stroking its hand. It's dead. It can give you nothing. You've got to quit accumulating the things of this world. Oh, it wasn't long ago that I preached along this line and I said, "We practice our passion, do we not?" You were a police officer, how many years? Thirty years. And that was your life. Doctors practice medicine. Singers practice music. Athletes practice their sport. Sinners practice sin. What's your practice right now in life? It's whatever your passion is. If somehow you come to a new place and and you've realized this is a dead, dying world, this will soon be over with, there's nothing here that's gonna last. "Give me Jesus." Then, brother, that's how you'll start talking and walking and praying and read. "And give me Jesus. Give me Jesus." But if you're still kind of in and out, you know, I'm gonna use it again, still kissing the head of a corpse, then you will never know the fullness of the Holy Spirit. You will never bear much spiritual fruit. You will never have God reveal things to you that you've never seen before.
So that's why I have to ask to everybody: Are you saved? Does your lifestyle fit the criteria? Does the requirements of scripture? Does the indication from the Bible of a holy life abide in you? "Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses," meaning as we read the Bible, we see those our forefathers who laid it down, who gave it up, who walked in truth, who chose God over everything else. Those are those clouds of witnesses that are surrounding us. And if we could hear them, we'd hear them saying, "Don't do that. It's worth it. Lay it down. Don't indulge in it. It's worth it. That world has nothing for you. You'll just be disappointed and empty. Be done with it. It's worth it. Give it up. It's worth it."
"Let us lay aside, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is right now sat down at the right hand of God." Do you hear that? "Lay it aside." It easily besets you. You can sin so easily. Oh, my word, it's so easy to break God's commandments. But He says that sin that easily beset you can be laid aside. It can be laid aside.
You walk off and say, "I am crucified with Christ." Stand with me, please. I'd like for the council members to come down as quickly as you can with your wives, please. And pastors, come on down here. Tomorrow night will be the 11th Church-wide Prayer Meeting. We've had 11. Listen to me. For those of you that keep saying, "Line, they haven't prayer meeting or something." Listen to me. Last Monday night, this building was almost full, and we stayed more than an hour and a half. Want me to tell you why? Jesus is coming. And for those that look for Him, all they want is more of Him. You can turn around and face them. Did the, did the churches hear what I said? For those that look for Him, they're the ones that want Him. I want Him. I want Him more than I want Sandra. I want Him more than I want my grandchildren. They are big in my life, but brother, one day I'm gonna be separated from all of them, and I want to see Him face to face. I want to hear Him say to me, "Well done, Loran Livingston. Well, good and faithful servant." I got my mind made up. See, I want to be a good man, and I want to be a faithful servant. Don't you think, "Well, he just owned a Jag right now." Oh, oh, I'm not on a Jag. I'm on a journey, and this journey is gonna be over one of these days for me. It'll be over quicker than I can imagine, and the same is for you. Yes. And all I know, and all I care about is that when my eye closes, it will open in another world. Do you hear me? See, I don't know what death is like. I don't know. I don't know if it's like a tunnel you go through. I know you don't float around in space. Nobody. And you're not asleep. As soon as you die, you go somewhere. And when I die, I want to go there. So it really doesn't matter to me what y'all think this morning. My mind is made up. I'm going to heaven. And until then, I am going to serve the Lord with gladness. I'm gonna be faithful unto Him because there's a crown of life awaiting those who are.
So how many of you, without a doubt in your mind, already should He come or call right now, hold it up there, that you're ready? Every sin is under the blood. All of your transgressions marked off the book. How many of you won't? Lord Jesus, then raise the other hand. How many of you will come down here and let's ask Him to give us more of Him? Fill up the aisles, fill up the front. And brothers and sisters, if somebody stands in front of you and you feel so disposed, just lay a hand on them and pray for them because I believe God just might have an appointment for somebody in this place today. Come on down, Church. Hallelujah! Come on closer in. Come on, say it with me again. Now, how many of you want to go to heaven? Let's go. Let's make up our minds. There's not a thing or a person worth missing this over. Can I get an amen on that? Anybody in here ever found anything better than Jesus? Oh, you think you ever will? No, sir. Don't even keep trying. You won't find it. There's a high that this world cannot produce. There's a joy unspeakable and full of glory. There's a life to be lived that this world can't even understand, and it's being filled with Jesus and walking with Jesus every step of the way. Somebody shout amen.
[Applause] In your own way now, I want you to talk to the Lord and tell Him to help you clean out everything in your life that does not make you walk Him more. Go ahead. Do it right now.
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Father, as the appointed shepherd over this church, not appointed by men, not appointed by denomination, but appointed by You, O Lord, I pray today that we will examine ourselves and test ourselves. And should we see anything, yes, and anybody, that keeps us from knowing You better, if there is something we have put our affection on more than You, please highlight it this morning, Jesus. And please cause us to cry out for it to be removed so that we might know You. And Father, while I'm praying, lots of people in here are already contemplating something they need to give up. They need to be done with it. It's not helping them at all. And I pray that You will give them the strength, the spiritual strength, to cut loose from it and lay it down and walk away, that they might know You better. Now, Church, I don't mean to lean on you like that. I want us to sing this old song. We sing lots of brand-new songs around here, and I love them, but this old song right here can be a prayer from the heart. Will you sing it with me? David's gonna lead us.
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Yes.
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May the blessing of a risen Jesus flourish in your hearts by faith. May you find yourself operating in a strength not yours. May you discover yourself with a greater yearning to know the power of Christ in your life. Yes, may you find yourself becoming more and more uncomfortable in this world and disgusted with its ways. May you hate the devil worse than you've ever hated him. May you hate sin like the plague. And may you love Him who loved you first with all that you have and are. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, my Redeemer. Amen. See you tomorrow night at 7:00. If Jesus comes, I'll see you in heaven.
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