Seven questions here . . .
1. Have you forgotten Christ’s love for you? The power He gave you to stop playing the wild ass? The peace of assurance you had when you were redeemed. Have you forgotten that?
2. Has your pride returned unchecked? You know, the stuff you had before that kept you in trouble, like your mouth? You know, from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. All you ever talk about is your problems while you whine, and stuff. Nothing about Jesus and how good God has been. Or, how great things you’ve done—not about Jesus working through you to do them? I mean, has your pride returned, unchecked?
3. Has your reading Scripture as your daily bread stopped?
4. Has your reception of teaching and preaching lost it’s worth? It’s the same old stuff! All the time wanting me to give up stuff! Or to do stuff. That’s all that preacher ever does! Where’s the love? You can’t see no love. You are so far out of the will of God you don’t even know what love is. You want something mushy and emotional? How about some commitment to Christ? How about charity to other people. Those are things that can’t be measured.
You don’t want to serve God, you don’t want to pass out tracts, you don’t read your Bible. You care less if people die and go to hell? And you go to your church and all you hear is how people want you to change. Yea, Duh! When you change things will get better. Preaching will solve problems! You don’t like Bible preaching! It’ll stir you up! It’ll change you! Then you’ll say, ‘Thank God I’m saved!” or if a Christian, “There’s some things I need to change today!” or “Bless God! I’m doing right today!” Hallelujah! There ain’t nothing wrong with that!
Look up the word esteem. How many times it is mentioned in your old King James Bible. How many times? One time! All of our shrink books, everything they teach us in public schools is about self-esteem. God talks about it one time in our Bible, and it’s about esteeming others more than yourself. That’s the context it’s used in. Joy is about Jesus—Others—You, it’s not about You exclusively. When you say, ‘Nobody cares about me!’ You are absolutely right—now go on with your life. Nobody cares about you.
So, once you settle that—okay, fine—now go care about everybody else. Because you don’t care that nobody cares about you, you are going to care about everybody else. Now you feel almost like Jesus did when He was here. Nobody cared about Him, but He cared about everybody else.
See how that reverses a lot of that junk you have in your head. All hard preaching does is put standards and fences to protect you from getting into trouble.
5. Has your love for the local church grown cold?
6. Has your love for the brethren turned into self-love, self-want, self-satisfaction?
7. Has your conversation been unthankful, full of murmuring and complaining?
Seven questions—did you have to say yes to most or all of them? If so, you are deceived and have lost that peace and will increase in unrest, loss of assurance and blessings.
a. Your relationships will be chaotic.
b. Your rewards will be lost.
c. Your position will be shelved on the wall of unworthy vessels.
d. You will be a ‘used-to-be’ Christian.
(1) You used to go to church when the doors were opened.
(2) You used to get blessed by the teaching and preaching.
(3) You used to used in reaching souls.
Physically speaking, the best feeling I ever got was when I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out with a wad of money. I’m not talking about this little pimp role, like you had in school. You know you get like thirty or forty dollars and you roll them up and put a twenty dollar bill on the outside—and everybody thinks you are rich. Man! That’s a good feeling! But usually I put my hand in there and all I got is a stupid little knife. And I’m a Christian, so I can’t use it to get me a wad of money, Man! And then I have to pay on a bunch of notes every month—just so I can survive . . . Man! What a mess I am in!
But I have the joy of the Lord in me. That’s amazing!
What do we need, Christian? We need to wake up!
“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise” (Ephesians 5:14-15).
“circumspectly”—what does that mean? It means keep your eyes open! Things can take you and hit you broadside, and that is you because you are human. They can not hit God that way. It just doesn’t work that way. He allows the things that happen—never to us, but for us—but if you are walking as a fool, and you are not looking, and you are not separating yourself like you should. Then you are going to get what is going to come to you. That is what He is telling you to do. He’s telling you to wake up!
“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:16-17).
See, instead of you complaining about your kids and your family, why don’t you get some Bible verses and do what God tells you to do. Get you some good family books somewhere, read them, and figure out what you are doing wrong—and guess what you got to do—you got to read, you got to devote some time, you got to do what you are supposed to do right—or whatever you are into will continue to go that way until you change. Last time I checked my Bible, the parents were supposed to run the house. Last time I checked my Bible, they are supposed to keep the peace, last time I checked.
And if your kids are not listening to you it’s probably because you developed a pattern where they can not respect you, let alone fear you—because you do nothing consistent. You whine, you cry just like a kid. So if you act like a kid, your kids can’t grow higher than that. That is why a lot times the kids respect other parents more than they respect you. Because you just won’t grow up. You refuse to grow up.
I’m here to tell you, man, you have been out of the yoke. God don’t operate that way. God gives you boldness. God gives you some sense. And above all, what you do have is some wisdom—and that wisdom tells you that you got to have God—and if you are not going to learn, then you are going to go in another direction. Your family will be like way over here, and you are going to focus on you—like you always have been. It’s my fun … it’s my happiness … it’s my stuff … it’s my, my my . . . stop! You’re driving me crazy! Simple stuff. This message is simple, I’m telling you. It’s as simple as I can make it.
The hardest part is just to humble yourself. Just say, “I know I’ve been a mess! I know it, I know it! Good night, I messed up again! God help me! AND THEN START FRESH! You can’t change everything at once, but good night, get a hold of something and stick there.
Can you see Paul? Okay? Now, the Apostle Paul is the one that says, ‘he glories in his infirmities,’ it’s not just his eye problems, this guy’s got problems, plural. And he is glorying in them, why? Because he has learned that in ‘whatsoever state he is in, to be content.’ What else did he know? God told him that ‘His grace was sufficient for him.’ So, God knows where your head it at. If you are messed up with drugs and alcohol, you don’t think He knows what you are missing? If you are half, or three-quarters nuts, you don’t think He knows your nuts? Praise God He knows I’m nuts, but Hallelujah, but He saved me any way!
So what are you going to do? If He is going to save a nut, I got to depend on Him. Thank God! I said that for your benefit—whoever else might be nuts up in here.
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I Corinthians 6:19-20).
He owns you. He owns your body.
“And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (II Corinthians 5:15).
So, you are not your own. And that verse tells you to live for Him.
“Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled . . . For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise . . . But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth” (II Corinthians 10:1-6, 12, 17-18).
It’s about you and God—not about you and other people. So, you got bought with a price, you’re not your own, so live for Him, He gets the glory.
See, some people still think this is a game. Some spend their entire lives believing that Christianity is a game. It’s not a game, people. God takes this thing very seriously, even if we don’t. He’s trying to develop us in the sense that we have faith in Him that He can provide. And He asks a few little requirements just to get your feet a little wet as you go through this ocean of faith, so that you can see that He is in control.
So, you got to understand—living by faith—you trust what He says, and you act upon it. That’s faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Whether with your money, your life, or whatever—it’s about faith. It’s about knowing Him, His presence.
“Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Romans 6:13).
“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:16)
In conclusion . . .
In the day in which we live, preachers are no longer seen as a lifeguard, sitting on a high seat in a tower with binoculars, watching for sharks, and other things in the water. The same as in Scripture where they are seen as watching out for wolves. And there are Scriptures speaking about the elders in a church and what they are supposed to be doing in protecting the church, but today they don’t do that. You see, warning people about what is coming down is supposed to be part of the pulpit—the message. And God has given us a lot of illustrations and examples throughout the Word of God of what takes place. People have stopped preaching and warning from the pulpit. People have gone to psychology and trying to build people up in their head—forgetting that it is all about the inside. It’s all about God’s Spirit on the inside. It’s all about the Word of God on the inside. It’s all about God’s power on the inside coming out.
People are trying to build up the outside—and they are buying it!
“Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7).
“. . . for he will abundantly pardon.” – My goodness! I mean, do you even know He is here? If you do, you need to return to Him—that’s all there is to it! Just return, get your head together. Get it screwed on right, or something.
And those that are lost, man! Jesus said, “Come unto me.” Yes, He did. Just come to me, to be saved—or you come to be right. You can do nothing without Him. You can’t go to heaven without Him. You are a mess without Him.
Israel is the sign to the world on the history that God has planned. They are a sign to all of us. They are a calendar. There are things coming down so quick as to remove, probably, all your material junk and you are going to be left with whatever you are left with. I’m left with the Lord, and so far I am left with the Bible. Hallelujah!