Transcription
People that are listening, they're going to be like, "Wait a minute, John. How do I know if I am saved? Like, maybe I went to one of those churches, and I did feel like I had a real experience with God. Are you saying I didn't have an experience with God? Are you saying I'm not saved?"
And I'm just going to [Music] confess, so today is very, very important to me. It's the topic of the day, and the reason it is is I'm going to read a scripture here from 2 Thessalonians chapter 2:3. Paul the Apostle says that day will not come except the apostasy comes first. Now, what's the apostasy? I'm reading this out of the Amplified because they explain it: "unless the predicted great Falling Away of those who have professed to be Christians has come."
And so that is something that was prophesied back in the day of Paul and Lisa today. Wait, wait, you know I can hear people right now listening saying, "Wait a minute, isn't once saved always saved? So what does that mean? Can somebody profess and then regress to a place where they're no longer a Christian?"
I think the bigger question is, and that's because that's an excellent question, the bigger question becomes: Were they even saved in the first place? Jesus is invisible; you can make Jesus however you want, and you can make salvation however you want if you take selected scriptures out of the New Testament.
However, if you look at the overall counsel of the New Testament, salvation is made very, very clear. Now, we have got statistically—and this one shook me up—this is the whole reason for the A of God Tour. Okay, and from 2000, the year 2000, till present day, over 23 million people have gone from practicing Christians to non-practicing Christians. Excuse me, to non-Christians, not non-practicing, non-Christians. So they are either atheists, agnostics, or spiritualists, or absolutely nothing, which I guess would be agnostic, correct? Or atheist, yeah, or atheist.
So now the thing I want to say right up top is, first of all, Paul never wrote that they would never come back. So you're saying that there could be a falling away, and then there could be a return? Yes.
And if I look at John the Baptist, he went in the spirit and power of Elijah, and he was sent to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. I think there's going to be an Elijah anointing coming forth, and I believe it's going to be a multitude. It's not going to be one guy; I think it's going to be sons and daughters, and I think it's going to start with the Gen Z and Millennials. I love that. And there's going to be men servants and maid servants, so we get to be included, Lisa. And they're going to go in the spirit and power of Elijah, because if you look at Malachi, he said, "I'm going to send you this, the spirit of Elijah before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord."
Now, Jesus clearly made clear that John was Elijah to come, but he said, "Elijah is coming" in the future tense, and John was already beheaded— that's Matthew 17.
Okay, I'm thinking about the Youth of Flame days. I am, yes. Yeah, there you go. I did a whole series on that. And so I believe these people are going to be sent to the lost sheep of the church, not the House of Israel, the lost sheep of the church. Don't get me wrong; God's going after the lost sheep of the House of Israel too. But I really believe what created this falling away is we never truly preached healthy—and I can't emphasize enough—healthy repentance.
Now, when people hear the word repentance, they think of a mean-spirited guy who doesn't love people. He's in the ministry; he doesn't have anything else to do. He's been in the ministry for 30 years, and he wants to control his people's behavior. That's not repentance.
Okay, repentance I always look at as a man and a woman getting married. So, Paul the Apostle makes this statement: "A man’s going to leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife; the two are going to become one." He said, "But this is actually an illustration of the way the church and Jesus are one." If you look at Jesus, he's the groom; we're the bride.
When you and I got engaged, you had to make a decision. When every groom proposes to a bride, she has to make a decision, right? What's her decision? Am I going to break up with 3.9 billion guys? Now, of course, no, she's probably not dating; she's not dating 3.9, but she is: "Is this the one I'm going to set my heart on? Is this the one I'm going to give my whole heart, soul, and life to?"
And when we just do a formula sinner's prayer—hey, we preach the goodness of God, which we need to do because the goodness of God leads someone to repentance. When we just preach the goodness of God and just say, "Hey, you want God? Pray this prayer," we've never said to that person, "You've got to make a decision," like that bride does, the girl that's been proposed to: "I'm going to break up with all my idols."
Now, what's an idol? An idol is anything we put before God. It's anything that Jesus died for we say goodbye to because he gave his life for me. I'm going to now give my life to him. Wait, and can I do clarity on that? Because absolutely, Jesus didn't die for food, but Jesus died for us to have food in the right place. So I would say an idol is something that we have put in the wrong place.
Yeah, right, correct, because there are people that can have something good in the wrong place, right? So I just want to say that idols can be good things with misplaced value attached to it—too much value, or they can be sin, right? Absolutely. So if we don't preach repentance, and if you look at Hebrews 6, repentance is the first foundation of our relationship with God.
He said, "Let’s not lay again the elementary teachings of Christ, laying the foundation of repentance from dead works; then it’s faith toward God." So there's really not true faith until we say, "Okay, I'm all yours."
And this is what Jesus says in every gospel: "The only way you can follow me is to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me." So basically, if we offer salvation to people by praying a prayer, "Jesus, come into my heart, forgive me of all my sins, amen," now I've brought Jesus into my life, quote, "Jesus," with all my other sins and idols that I put before him. So now what happens is I have developed really not a real relationship with him.
So now that fake Jesus doesn't change my nature; I'm still me. So you're saying there's no discipleship, there's no follow-up where somebody says, "Hey, you’ve made a confession of Jesus Christ, the Lord of your life, and now this is what that looks like. This means that you say goodbye to this, you say no to this, you say yes to this."
You have a community that is discipling; you're saying we've just kind of said, "Hey, where are you going to go when you die? Hell or Heaven? You don’t want to go to hell, just say this prayer," and not really discipled anymore. I'm actually going to a deeper level; there's been no transformation.
Okay, so the greatest blessing of the new birth is our old man dies, our old spirit dies, and a brand new person created in the exact image and likeness of Jesus is reborn. Now we are in communion with God, whereas before we were alienated from the life of God. He said we’re actually enemies, yeah, yeah, but we were alienated, absolutely.
So now, I don’t have that changed spirit. So I remember my mom looked at me, and she was furious that I got saved because I was raised Catholic. But she had to look at me unprovoked, and she said, "You've changed."
And I remember saying to her—I never forget it, I know exactly in the house where it was; it was in West Virginia, where I graduated from high school, and I’d come back from college—and I said, "Mom, you have to understand this is not me doing it; God gave me a brand new heart and he changed me." That's why I'm not as selfish as I was before, because my mom used to weep because of how selfish I was, right?
And so there was a change. I submit that when people pray just a formula sinner's prayer without repentance, without saying goodbye, okay? I don't believe there's a genuine change just by saying, "Jesus, I receive you as my savior." I believe there has to be an absolute repentance of heart saying, "Okay, I'm putting you first. I'm putting you as the Lord of my life, supreme in authority, not just savior."
Do you think that's because we don't have people count the cost before they pray? I absolutely do, yeah, yeah, I mean, do you want to elaborate on that, or no?
I mean, well first and foremost, when you and I became Christians, it was a different approach. Like, number one, I remember being told that the life I lived from that moment forward was no longer my own, that I had been bought with a price, and that my life was being translated from a kingdom of darkness into a kingdom of light.
I also had a clarity that there was no middle ground of just nice people; there was either light and dark, there was life and death—that was all there was. And I also heard that God had a plan for my life, which immediately set me on a path to say, "What is that plan? What is that plan?"
Not, "I have a plan for God in my life," but "God had a plan for my life." And that shifted the perspective. I think that you and I being born again—I got born again in '81; you got born again what, '79?
So there was a different mandate. I had an awareness that Jesus was Lord, not just savior. The interesting thing is, savior—if you do a concordance search—savior is found 36 times in the entire Bible. The word Lord is found about 7,700 times. So the word Lord is actually the Greek word "kurios," which means supreme in authority. So the prime one, the king of the universe, is not going to come into somebody's heart to sit with other idols.
God makes this so clear. I'm reading through Deuteronomy right now, and God is telling Israel, "Look, you cannot dwell with these people because of their idols, and if you dwell with them, they will seduce you to these idols."
So there has to be an understanding of, "I am literally saying goodbye to this world, what this world pursues, craves—the desires of the flesh—to be driven by the desires of the flesh, the pride of my achievements, and the desires of my eyes. I'm walking away from that."
Now, I may stumble into that just like any wife or husband is going to make a mistake after marriage. But you know, Lisa, you've made mistakes in our marriage; I've made mistakes. But can I say you're the bride? So I'm going to talk about a bride here. You have never, ever waned in your loyalty to me.
So yes, you came into this marriage, and you didn't say, "You know, I don’t like the way you’re behaving after five years of marriage, so I’m going to start dating a few other guys." You just made the commitment "For better or for worse, in sickness and health." That's the way they used to say it, right?
And there’s something to that. They still say that, yes, they still say it. I don't like to say that over somebody, but I think they're saying, "In good times and bad times, there is a commitment regardless of the circumstances." Yes, that you're the apple of my eye, you're the queen of my heart, and I'm not changing that from this day forward is what a groom says; the bride says the same thing, right?
And when you look at what Jesus did, we can't even imagine what he left, right? None of us have been to heaven, unless you had a near-death experience. Then maybe you got a glimpse of the outskirts. Maybe, I don't know. But you still wouldn’t be in the role of Jesus; you would only be glimpsing it. You know, you wouldn’t be the prince; you would just be a participant.
Yes, exactly. So he leaves this throne, and he comes into a cursed world, puts on a body, and then he knows, because Isaiah prophesies it. So he came in the volume of your book. Remember he said, "I come in the volume of your book to do your will."
So he already knows, because he is the Word of God, that by the time they get done beating him, spitting on him, pulling his beard, putting the thorns in his head, scourging—that when he's finally put on that cross, Isaiah actually said that we wouldn't even recognize him to be a human being. He got that beat up.
Now, our God, our Creator, comes from this bliss we don’t even comprehend yet, right? Knowing this is the way I'm going to get treated because of one reason: he was so in love with you, with me, with every single person listening to us. That kind of a love story Hollywood has never made a love story so beautiful.
So now I want to highlight something because we've got just a few minutes, and there's going to be a question. People that are listening, they're going to be like, "Wait a minute, John. How do I know if I am saved? Like, maybe I went to one of those churches and I did feel like I had a real experience with God. Are you saying I didn't have an experience with God? Are you saying I'm not saved?"
Like, and I'm just going to confess, when I prayed with you, I did every time I messed up. I think I prayed salvation prayers at least 10 more times—at least 10 more times. Wasn't necessary, but you know what? It brought me peace. You know, like if I did something I thought was wrong, I was like, "I'm going to have to"—and so do a lot of people—recommit, recommit, recommit.
This is not about recommitting, but this is something because I don't want to scare people, right? We don’t want to; I do want them to count the cost. So I think that I want you to speak to that.
Like if you're—first of all, I'm kind of thinking if you listen to conversations, you're probably saved because we do not make it easy to listen. But yeah, so they're out there and they're wondering. You can know absolutely 100% for sure that you're saved, and that's the beauty.
And I hope everybody made it to this point because this was the most important point of the podcast. And the way you know, it's just like a bride knows: you made the decision, Lisa. I'm not going to engage with another guy; I'm breaking up with…or not breaking up—you had already broken up. I'm not going to re-engage with any old boyfriends of my past. This is the man I’ve given myself to.
Now, we all know when we make that decision in our heart. And if you’re listening to Lisa and I right now, and you’re concerned, you don’t need to be concerned: Have you made the decision that no matter what Jesus asks of you, I’ll do it because he’s my Creator and he knows what’s best for me?
Yeah, now that doesn’t mean you won’t make mistakes. Yeah, you’re going to make—we're all going to make mistakes, right? It just means in your heart, in my heart, I'm loyal. I'm going to go… I'm going to be loyal to him. I'm going to go, “You know what?”
So would you say it’s fruit? Absolutely, fruit is the evidence; that's our outward behavior, that's absolutely. But the real knowing is that I have given myself 100% to him, and it’s his will that’s going to be done in my life, not mine.
And I may make mistakes next week, the week after, the week after, right up till the week before Jesus comes. Mistakes don’t mean you haven’t given yourself 100%. No. Did you make mistakes in our marriage? Did I make mistakes in our marriage? For clarity? No, and I'm doing it for clarity's sake. We've made a lot of mistakes.
So you can give 100% of your heart and maybe withhold a portion of your life, and God’s like, “Come on, give it to me.” And that doesn’t mean you’re not saved; it just means you’re not fully surrendered at this point. And God’s like, “Come on.”
So I want to say this to people out there because God is actually wanting to be involved with every single area of your life. You know, John, I have people; they’re like, "Oh yeah, God, I like, I’m saved, so I go to church and I do this and I do that," but they reserve certain portions of their life—whether it's their business, whether it's their dating, whether it's their friendships—they reserve those because they don’t think God wants to be involved in those things.
So what I'm hearing from you is God wants us to allow him into every single area of our life for his voice and to speak into that. Is that correct?
So yes, when you and I both gave our lives to Jesus, we were really changed, both of us. Right? What did you say within yourself when you got saved? I know what I said within myself: "I don't care what God wants me to do the rest of my life; I'm going to do what he wants because I have given my life completely to him."
Well, I also realized I looked at everything wrong for 21 years, and so I knew that I needed to get into the Word to get a new perspective on what was actually right.
Right? And I knew, you know, prior to me giving my life to Jesus, I was in charge of where I was going; I was in charge of my life. When I gave my life to Jesus, I said, "He’s in charge." Okay? And I'm going to seek his will and I may miss it. But when he reveals it to me, it’s no questions asked, okay? Because I've already made the commitment right now that he’s the Lord, supreme authority of my life, okay?
So that distinguishes a true believer from somebody who's religious. Now, I think a lot of these 23 million people, they became cool religious or it might have just been cultural. They might have just gone to church, and it was a cultural thing, but they never had a transforming relationship with Jesus Christ, correct?
Correct, correct. And the door to that transforming relationship is that decision that I'm giving the lordship of my life over to him. And you know both of us can say this to everybody: Yeah, when we made that decision, a peace came into my heart that I had never experienced before; a joy came into my heart that I had never experienced before.
I didn’t realize I was going to get such abundant peace, tranquility, joy from a prayer, a decision, but it happened. Can you pray with the audience?
Absolutely. I would just love for you to pray before we close out.
Absolutely. And I just want to say this: I don't care what you've done, where you've been—God, Jesus is standing there with his arms outstretched waiting for you. And I'm going to give you an example: The prodigal son said within himself, "I have been so stupid. Yeah, I am heading home." That was repentance.
Okay, so just making that decision in his heart: "I'm stupid! I'm going home to Dad." Right? And his dad came running.
Right? So here's a son who spends half of his father's wealth on riotous living. Yeah, he makes the decision to go home, and his dad came running when he was a great way off. He didn’t even say anything and gave him gifts. That's how much God wants to be Jesus.
So do not get the idea that Jesus is trying to find a reason to leave you out; he's not. He embraces you; he says, "I love you. I've already died for you. I am just waiting for you to make that decision like the prodigal son: I'm heading home."
And when you make that firm, firm decision, he's going to come running. So let's pray.
Say this with me: "Heavenly Father, forgive me for living life my way apart from you, from your will. From this day forward, that's all changing. I repent of living for myself, making my own decisions, not seeking your counsel, and I give my spirit, soul, and body—everything I am, everything I have—to you, Jesus Christ.
Jesus, you are now my Lord and Savior; you are my king. And when I discover your will as I read the Word of God, I will obey it. And I thank you for teaching me your will in Jesus' mighty name."
Now, Father, I thank you that your blood cleanses my brother and my sister. I thank you that they are now born again; they belong to you, and Holy Spirit of God, fill their lives and lead them on the path that you’ve created them to walk in Jesus' mighty name.
Amen, amen, amen.
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