Transcription
It's not that I'm angry; it's that I'm confused. I don't know how the word of God can go out so forcefully, and the Spirit of the Lord can be so noticeable, and conviction be so present, and people WALK OUT AND VIOLATE THE HOLY COMMANDMENTS OF GOD WITHOUT BLINKING OR WITHOUT THINKING.
Fornication's wrong. You can't have sex outside of marriage. It's wrong; it's sin. You can't go to heaven if you do that. Put to death your members on the earth: fornication, uncleanness. That means filthy thinking, stuff you watch on TV that doesn't build you up spiritually, QUESTIONABLE THINGS, VILE THINGS that that that's that's just part of the world. It's it's the ANATOMY OF A DYING world, and we Christians sit and watch it and soak it in all the time, and that even includes news cycles. Even if you find a place where you're comfortable, if you're still in sin, you're still a sinner. Even if you feel great at church and you're engaging in that which displeases the good Lord, what good is it?
So, I have wondered over the years. Can I just be me for a little bit, a little bit here? I know this has been overpowering this morning. You don't know how I dreaded to get up here after that. I have yet to figure out how people can sit under this ministry, this word, and continue to live in sin, and continue to come to church living in sin. It's made me scratch my head a lot over the years. How you can hear the Bible because this ministry is never ambiguous about sin, and we're not ambivalent about what pleases God. This is This is straightforward stuff. Nothing held back. And yet people sit on these pews living in sin. It's as though they enjoy the service, but it never gets down to their soul, and they never feel conviction for their wrongdoing.
We've got people in here that have ought against a brother or a sister and will not reconcile it, even though Jesus said if you don't forgive people of their sins, my Father won't forgive you of your sins. We've got people here that speak in tongues and commit adultery at the same time. Oh, it's a mess, folks. Uh, some of you just come to church on Sunday. I had an interesting conversation. It was short, but it was interesting about how many people come here and don't do anything but come here. So, they don't really know what's going on as as we pastors do and the things we deal with every day. And uh, so when I tell you we've got some pretty serious messes in our congregation, and there are people who refuse to deal with them in a biblical way. Uh, people who continue to live in sin for whatever excuse or for whatever reason, and and they will tell you, "I'm doing better than I was doing. I'm not doing as much sin as I used to do." And see, I I start scratching the other side of my head. Because this Bible says that when you are born again, you become a new creation. And you don't gradually stop sinning, but that God gives you a new heart. You get a new mind. Your whole perspective changes. Being saved doesn't mean you've decided to go to church and work at it. Being saved means that the power of God has come upon you, and the greatest miracle ever has taken place in you, and now you love the things you used to hate, and you hate the things you used to love, and you can't believe you used to do those things, and you certainly can't stand to think that you might ever do them again. A total change happens when you get saved, folks. You don't just join a church; you don't just get religion. You don't just have a moral revival. You have a spiritual resurrection. And and I say it again, you become somebody else.
I've had several conversations this week with people frustrated about the same thing. I had two of them tell me, "When Jesus SAVED ME, I STOPPED doing what I was doing. I didn't taper off; I stopped it. I didn't want it anymore." And oh, I could go through a whole litany of old-timers, including my parents, and I've preached this so much, I know you get tired of it, but my dad's testimony was, "I went to the altar one man; I got up from the altar another man, and I stopped doing the things that I was doing, and I started longing for God in my life. I wanted him every day of my life."
So, I just wonder sometimes if we have misunderstood what getting saved is all about. It is a new birth. It's It's coming into a new world with a new mind. And and your world gets turned right side up. You came into this world upside down. And the difference between us and them is now is that uh, that they love money and stuff, and we love Jesus. And they strive to get to the top, and we we are fine with serving somebody and washing somebody's feet. The difference between us and them is that they hate certain people, but our Lord taught us to love everybody. They would rather go to a a social gathering and drink and talk crazy after a while. We'd rather come to church and and hear the choir sing and hear a GOOD GOSPEL MESSAGE. THIS is what I live for. I'm telling you, you could give me 50 free tickets to a Panthers game and I just give them back and say, "Look, I ain't got time. It doesn't do me any good. I got to read. I got to study. I'm getting ready to go to church next next weekend." And you can laugh if you want to and say, "Well, give them to me." Well, brother, you can have them, 'cause I'm at the place in my life. I've seen what it does for you, and it's absolutely worthless. There's nothing SPIRITUAL ABOUT IT. Just give me Jesus. I know I'm going over THE EDGE. I KNOW I'M BECOMING RADICAL. BUT, LET ME TELL you what I'm finding out. Did you know radical Muslims are more committed to their demonic faith than most Christians are to the faith of Jesus Christ? Did you know a Buddhist is more committed to his dead plump lump of clay and a bowl of apples in front of him than we are when we come to the house of God? It is a shame at the lack of commitment that the church of Jesus CHRIST HAS TO CRY THE CROSS AND THE CHRIST and the empty tomb. And it's because we are lethargic, we don't pray, WE DON'T READ THE BIBLE, CHURCH is entertainment, we've got more things on our mind, and yet our word tells us THAT AS WE GET NEAR the end of THE DAYS, OUR EYES OUGHT TO BE ON JESUS AND WE OUGHT TO BE LOOKING UP AND BEGGING GOD FOR MORE RIGHTEOUSNESS, HOLINESS, PURITY, AND POWER IN OUR LIVES.
I was just skimming through the scriptures yesterday. Can I read you a couple of scriptures? I am going to take my time. Here's the condition of the church today. I I'm reading out of Isaiah chapter 30. This is the Lord saying, "Children who will not hear the law of the Lord, who say to the seers or to the prophets, 'Do not see, do not prophesy, do not tell us right things. Speak to us smooth things. Prophesy deceits.'" Did you hear that? "Tell us smooth things." Smooth, so it won't prick us or convict us. And I turned over to Jeremiah. It just happened just the way it happened. It fell over in the same place. "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless. They speak a vision of their own heart." That's what I was preaching about a month ago. And I called names. They continually say to those who despise me, "The Lord has said, you shall have peace." And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, "No evil shall come upon you. You shall have peace." My God, you can hear that very thing on television every time you flip it to the Christian channel. And I just have to wonder, when will the church get to the place that we're tired of the empty words that mean nothing? That make us feel good for 20 minutes, rather than the deep word of God that does surgery on our soul, cleanses us, and makes us look to Jesus and long for Jesus more than we ever have before?
I say to somebody, I don't know who, and and that's a a big statement 'cause I'm going to preach the same thing at 10:30, God willing. I'm saying it to you; I'm saying it to everybody there. When when will people realize that they can't go on living in sin? That that they honestly think that God's ignoring it. "Oh, I'll be fine. I'm going to get it all together soon." Uh, the Lord understands. No, he doesn't understand. Paul asked the question, "How can we who are dead to sin live any longer in it?" It was a baffling thing to Paul. To see people who say, "I know Christ. I've been raised with Christ," living the same life they were living and really no difference between them and the world. Let me ask a question again. Please. Please. When will people realize you can't keep living in sin without the judgment of God coming upon you? When will we realize how austere God is about sin? Oh, I don't even have to explain that he's a God of mercy and love and grace, and all of that is renewed every morning, but God still hates sin. And God punishes sin. And he means business about people who know better than to sin.
When John the Baptist came baptizing in the river Jordan, do you know what the scriptures say? They came confessing their sins. It wasn't that they just wanted to be baptized. They knew something was wrong and they had to stop doing it. When you go to the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, and he's addressing the seven churches. In each of them, he says, "It's time to repent." He said to the church at Ephesus, the very first one, "You've lost your first love. And unless you repent, I will remove your candlestick from its place." In other words, I'm through with you. I'm giving you a chance, but if you don't repent, I will remove your candlestick. But you go over to the three more churches to the church at Thyatira. And God says, "I got something against you, Uh pastor at Thyatira. You've got a woman in your church named Jezebel. And she's teaching bad things. She's teaching your people to commit fornication and live in sexual immorality. Listen, and I gave her space to repent. I gave her time to repent. I've been lenient. I haven't done anything. I've let you preach to her. My Holy Spirit has dealt with her. BUT SHE DID NOT REPENT. And now I'm going to cast her in a bed. And I'm going to afflict her. And I'm going to kill her children." You go to the last church, the church at Laodicea. He says, "If you don't repent, I'm going to expose your nakedness. I'm going to let people see who you really are."
Brothers, sisters, this is serious business. We have children who are living in sin thinking they're on their way to heaven. WE GOT CHURCH MEMBERS LIVING in rebellion and disobedience AND SIN THINKING that they're going to heaven. And they say, "Well, nothing's happened." But but but see, GOD'S GIVING YOU SPACE to repent. God's being lenient and merciful. He's a LONG-SUFFERING GOD. He puts up with a lot. AND THAT THAT LONG-SUFFERING IS WHAT OUGHT TO LEAD you to repentance. It ought to make you say, "You know, God's been good to me. And he's blessed me. And I haven't done right. And it's time to repent." That's what this is all about, ladies and gentlemen.
So, what we Christians do is realize that our standard of living is not what everybody else is doing, even in the church. I'm going to read you, if you don't mind, I'll have you read with me. I won't ask you to stand, but I'm just going to start in Colossians chapter 3 and read down a few verses. If If then you were raised with Christ, how many of you would raise your hand and say, "I am raised with Christ?" I That wasn't just a kind question. I need to know. All right. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. The question is, what are you seeking? What are you after? What are you going for? How are you using your energy? HOW ARE YOU SPENDING YOUR MONEY? IS THIS JUST A platitude in the scripture? No, this is an instruction from almighty God about how we are to be living. Verse two, set your mind on things above, not on things of this earth. What's my mind on? What's it on right now? Tell you what mine is on, and I hope yours is, BUT WHAT WILL IT BE ON when we leave church today? What will consume our thinking when we leave the house of God today? For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Therefore, church, therefore, can you say that? Therefore, since you are risen with Christ, this is how it is. Put to death your members. That means the parts of your body that function every day, put them to death. Your members, which have a tendency to engage in that which breaks the heart of God and violates the holiness of God, PUT TO DEATH your members which are on the earth, fornication. Did you know that fornication is an accepted thing now in this generation? There was a time when you would date and maybe on the second or third date you would kiss and then you would hold hands and no, it's it's the opposite direction now and nobody thinks anything about it. It's just the way you do it and yet it is sin and fornication is going on in this church and I know that there are pastors all over the country and the world listening to me preach to my church, but this is what I have to do. There are young people in Why did I say young people? There are people in this church WHO HAVE LOST ALL SENSE OF MORALITY. They have justified living together outside of marriage. Let me tell you, I got example after example. Years ago I had a young lady come to me and say, "Can I just tell you something?" I said, "I guess you're going to." And she said, "I've been listening to your tapes. They have changed my life. In fact, my boyfriend and I were in bed the other morning listening to one of your tapes and we held hands and cried and I stood THERE DUMBFOUNDED." What do you say? SHE HAS BEEN TOUCHED BY MY MESSAGE. They're in bed together, unmarried, holding hands, crying about a church tape. That shows you how mixed up everybody is. And I finally just grunted out, "You're in sin. Uh, God's not pleased with that. You can cry all you want to, but you need to repent of that fornication you're liv-" We've had them in this church. I've had them ask me, "Does this church really believe in the gifts of the spirit? We're looking for a spirit-filled church." YES, WE DO. PRAISE GOD, MY BOYFRIEND AND I have just moved in down the street and we'll be coming here together. God, I want to just I'm about to lose my mind this morning. And it's not that I'm angry, it's that I'm confused. I don't know how the word of God can go out so forcefully and the spirit of the Lord can be so noticeable and conviction be so present and people WALK OUT AND VIOLATE THE HOLY COMMANDMENTS OF GOD WITHOUT BLINKING OR WITHOUT THINKING. FORNICATION'S WRONG. YOU CAN'T HAVE SEX OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE. IT'S WRONG. IT'S SIN. YOU CAN'T GO TO HEAVEN IF YOU DO THAT. PUT TO DEATH YOUR MEMBERS ON THE EARTH, FORNICATION, UNCLEANNESS. That means filthy thinking, stuff you watch on TV that doesn't build you up spiritually, QUESTIONABLE THINGS, VILE THINGS THAT THAT THAT'S THAT'S JUST part of the world. It's It's the anatomy OF A DYING world and we Christians sit and watch it and soak it in all the time and that even includes news cycles. Passion. You know, there's something about passion that erks God when it's not right. Do you know why gay God gave some people up to vile passions? Speaking of the homosexual community, he gave them up to vile passions because the more sinful one is, the more vile and heated his passion becomes until God just turns them over and gives them up. Evil desire, wanting the wrong things. Covetousness, which is idolatry, wanting everything. One is wanting the wrong thing; the other is wanting everything. And because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. In which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them, but now you yourselves are to put off all these. Ready? This is what you got to get rid of today. Anger. What's got you mad? You say I was born mad. Did you know nobody in this world has the right to be mad who calls himself a Christian or herself a believer? You don't have the right. I don't care what they did. I don't care what your history was. I don't care what kind of person victimized you. You have no right to be angry. Anger will eat you alive. Anger is a cancer in your soul, and you cannot justify anger ever for any reason. Therefore, it needs to be repented of. Wrath. That means you want others to suffer like you've suffered. Malice. That means you're going to do it yourself. I'm going to make somebody suffer the way I suffered. They did it to me; I'm going to do it to them. Blasphemy. That's an old vile mouth that doesn't respect the holiness of God. It's calling God's name in vain. It's joking about heaven and holiness and the Holy Spirit and the Bible and the church and the people of the church. Filthy language out of your mouth. You're supposed to have a sanctified tongue. You're supposed to have a holy mouth. You're supposed to keep yourself from saying that which grieves the Holy Spirit. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Therefore, there's another therefore. As the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on. He already told you what to put off. Now he's telling you what to what to put on. Tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, which is patience. See, what he's describing is Jesus. Act like Jesus. Hey sir, you don't have to win every time. Ma'am, you don't have to be right all the time. It's okay to be corrected when you're wrong. You don't have to be at the top. You don't have to have to have the most and the biggest and the most expensive. You don't have to demand respect from people. They owe you nothing. He says, get into that place of humility and brokenness, and meekness, and patience. Here's one, bearing with one another. You Do you know what I'm doing here? I'm actually preaching the Bible. I'm not preaching a sermon; I'm preaching the Holy Scriptures. This is what God said. I can't make it any plainer than it is. I can't enlarge on it and make you understand it better. Here it is. Bearing with one another, forgiving one another. Everybody needs to listen to me. If you think unforgiveness is just kind of a slap on the wrist kind of thing God is going to do one day, you're wrong. Unforgiveness is a is is a disgrace in the eyes of God. It is a defiance of the nature and love of God. And when we live in unforgiveness and refuse to speak to one another, and refuse to work it out, we are living in unforgiveness, and the Spirit of God is so grieved by that that he cannot work in us. Now, we can act like he's working in us. As I said earlier, there are people who speak in tongues, but have all in their hearts against somebody. And there are people who go through all the religious machinations, and they can quote scripture, but in their heart, they have unforgiveness. And brother, when that's there, you're just acting out. You're pretending. You are walking out practiced religion, rather than a movement of the Holy Spirit. You cannot live in this life with unforgiveness towards anybody. And I know what you're thinking because I'm a smart guy. And I've lived a long time. But pastor, you don't know what it's like to have been abandoned by a spouse. You're exactly right. But I do know the emptiness of unforgiveness. And I do know that as long as you live with this hanging over you and weighing you down, you will never have the joy of the Lord or the freedom. And as tough as it sounds, Jesus taught this. If you want to be free, set them free from you. But pastor, you don't know I was molested when I was a child. You just don't know. What You don't know what I know and what I don't know. But I can tell you this, you can choose not to let this be an anchor around your ankle. Because if you want to live that way, God will just let you. Or if you want to stand up and say to him, I believe that your spirit has the power to break the chains off my ankles. I could not help what happened to me then, but I can help what happens to me right now. I did not choose to be attacked and molested, but I can choose to lay myself at your feet and let you heal me and cleanse me so I can get up and walk in the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE.
And can I just say this? Jesus said, your heart is who you are. What you do is who you are. It's not your mouth. Jesus doesn't even listen to your mouth when you pray. He listens to your heart. He hears the heart. Men come near him with their lips, but their hearts are far from him. He's looking at the heart. And that's why Jesus said, "For out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, blasphemy, false witness." It's out of the heart. From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks and the feet walk. And that's why we can talk about revival all we want to in this church. I guess maybe sometimes I'm the only one talking about it. I want to see it. I want an upheaval. I don't want to just come here. I don't want to just come here on Sunday and have an explosion. I want this to go on on Monday. I don't want you to come in here and get all teary-eyed and hysterical on Sunday and then go back out there and jump back down in the ditch. I want this TO BE A LIFESTYLE. I WANT YOU TO HAVE A REVIVAL so that you can be free FROM YOUR OWN THOUGHTS AND FREE FROM YOUR OWN FLESH so that WE CAN START SEEKING THOSE THINGS THAT ARE ABOVE where Christ is, looking at Jesus RATHER THAN PEOPLE, LONGING FOR JESUS RATHER THAN STUFF. That's the only way we're going to have revival is when every one of us. And I grew up in an era when we thought revival WAS BRINGING A GUY IN, having big music for about 10 days. THAT'S NOT REVIVAL. REVIVAL happens when people start confessing their sins. Confessing their sins, going to people and saying, "I need you to forgive me. I've had aught against you." Revival is when you say to your partner in fornication, "I can't do this. I won't do this anymore." "If you love me, you will wait till we get married." It's saying, "One of us is moving out because I can't handle this. It's too much pressure. If I stay in here, I'll be doing the same thing. I got TO DO SOMETHING RADICAL. I GOT TO CUT THE CORD. I'VE GOT TO MAKE A DECISION BECAUSE I WANT GOD TO BE PLEASED WITH ME. AND I WANT TO GO TO HEAVEN WHEN THE TRUMPET SOUNDS." CAN I GET AN AMEN FROM ANYBODY IN HERE TODAY? Stand up with me, please. I'd like 500 of you to come to the altar. Come on. Because we're going to take the next few moments and we're going to pray the message that you just heard. And we're going to ask God to show us our hearts and speak to us about our living and calls us to have the spiritual gumption to do the right thing. The right thing.
Every pastor on my staff knows that we have members who won't speak to each other. Well, who's wrong, pastor? Both of you. Both of you are in error. Because the more spiritual one will go and get it worked out so they can walk on with the Lord. We have members in this church cheating on their taxes. We have businessmen doing deals under the table. I This is not the first time I preached this. And you know what they say? It's the way you have to do it in the business world. If you don't do it, you go under. Jesus said it's better to go under than to go down. So, how uncomfortable is the whole church right now? Because there's not a one of us where we ought to be with God. Not a one of us. Not a one of us is praying the way we ought to be praying. Not a one of us is reading God's word the way we ought to be reading it. Pastor, you're going to run people off. I love you. But I'm not going to change anything to keep anybody here. Pastor, you've offended my children. No, I didn't. The God's word did. God's word did it.
So, if you'll join me, I would like to pray. Lord, for the kind of Holy Spirit conviction that grinds inside of us to the point that we start such introspection that we join hands with David and say, "Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. And see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." Lord, help this congregation to know that you love them. That's why you spoke to them this morning. But Lord, I don't want the terror of the Lord to be diminished at all right now. That's why you told your Apostle Paul to say, "Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." I pray for every person who's living in sexual immorality that they will suddenly feel such a streak of fear and horror about what they're doing that they will stop it right now. And I pray for every business person that's operating illegally or unethically to understand that Jesus Christ is totally displeased with this business activity. And I want people to understand that as long as they harbor unforgiveness in their hearts, the Holy Spirit sighs in grief because he cannot do anything until that is cleared up. I pray it in the name of Jesus.