Lie of Religion

 

Lie Of Religion

The biggest religion in all the world is Roman Catholicism. In fact, more than half of people that claim to be Christian say that they are Catholic. This is a big problem, guys, because the Roman Catholic church is not in the truth. There may be some Catholics there that hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and who are coming out of dead religion. But at large, the Roman Catholic church itself is not true Christianity. We know that they have many problems, how they have deviated away from the truth. They worship idols. For example. They deify Saints, they pray to Saints, they pray to Mary. It's huge idolatry. But on top of that, the very essence of their prayer life is a fraud. I want to read to you what Jesus said in Matthew chapter six in regards to this: “when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.”

False religion says that if you repeat a prayer enough, it will be answered; if you confess to a priest, you will be forgiven; that if you pay a certain amount of money, you can escape hell; that if you pay your tithes, you'll be right with God and with the community. This sort of religion offers a lie to those who are already deceived. And it's sad that more than half of Christians are deceived. Don't be deceived like the Catholics who put their faith in a huge lie, who don't have a genuine prayer life and who worship idols. Come out and be separate, don't touch anything that is unclean, and start a genuine relationship with your Father in heaven. He cares for your soul. He doesn't want you to enter into a religious act, just of traditions that the Catholic church has done for a long time. He wants you to enter into a genuine relationship with Him. So pray to Jesus Christ. Get to know Him for real. And let Him lead you out of dead religion. May the grace of Jesus be with you.

Why I Left Church Never To Return

 

Why I Left Church Never To Return

Well Praise Jesus, everyone. I want to just speak quickly here about my testimony of why I chose to leave church never to return. The reason why I left church is because Jesus Christ Himself called me out of church. He gave me visions that lasted for weeks where He told me that the church was like a whorehouse and that I needed to leave there if I wanted to follow Him. He told me to touch nothing unclean, showing me the scripture that we are to touch nothing unclean and not to have false fellowship with unbelievers. When I chose to come out of church, a lot of people said, “Well, Andy has just been hurt by people in the church. He's just been confused and if we show him the right kind of love he will come back to church.” And people had this idea that I left church because I was hurt in church. This is ridiculous, guys. The churches that I attended from when I was young, all the way up until the point that I left treated me very well, very respectfully. They paid me well. They would do anything for me. These people were very loving in the world. I was not hurt by church as to the reason why I left. Now a lot of people leave church because they were hurt; they were annoyed at church; they were kind of taxed by church by tithe, and they left for those reasons. But I didn't leave church for any of these reasons. I had plenty of friends there, plenty of money there, plenty of fun things that we were doing together as a family there.

So, besides the fact that Jesus was calling me away from this wicked organization called church, I would not have left. I was not spiritually wounded there. I wasn’t, you know, it wasn't like I was hurt there and then I tried to leave because I was wounded. That's just such a lie. And so many people leave church for the wrong reasons and then they try to start another church that they perceive will be better than the church that hurt them or their family. And they end up just still being in this delusion, in this deception and in this sin called church.

The big problem with church today and the reason why Jesus called me and my family out of church is because the church is stuck in sin. She doesn't want to repent. She says that she will never see sorrow. She says that she sits as queen. She believes that she can do no wrong. And because of this, plagues and all the things mentioned in Revelation about Babylon the Great, the great whore, are going to come upon the false church. The Christians who are in church openly confess that they are sinners. They believe that they are saved by grace, but they don't want to lift a finger to repent themselves or to help others repent. It is sad that the Christian church has deviated so far away from the truth. They're 100% apostate. Apostate means that they are more than backslidden. They're 100% in sin and they have no intention to come back to God.

So, anyone who is listening to this message, if you're wanting to know the truth, the truth is the true body of Christ is made up of believers that have the love of Jesus Christ in their hearts. The true church is not a gathering of people that pay tithe. It's not a social club. It's not just a group of people that like to read the Bible together, but the true body of Christ are those that make up Jesus His body, because they have His Holy Spirit in them. They are made pure, they are purged of sin, they really repent of their sins, they put on righteousness. We read about this through the Gospels and in Revelation that the true church puts on her white garments, she has made pure. She is purged of sin and unrighteousness in leaven.

The American church that is the 501 (c )3, all these organized churches that we see throughout our cities and towns, they have no intention to be holy and pure and without sin. They touch everything that is unclean. They allow sin into their church because they want people's money, and they act like a business so they can get more and more people in there. And it's very fun, as a kid, I loved church, not because I liked listening to sermons, but I liked being around other kids who wanted to have fun and who could enjoy the so-called ministries that the church had to offer. They would take you up skiing or snowboarding. They would take you to camp where you could meet a lot of other fun people to hang out with. They would take you all different places to do all sorts of different fun activities. And you end up getting a lot of people in your church, a lot of youth, but none of them are interested in the Kingdom of God. They're interested in having fun. That was me as a junior high and high school student. And a lot of churches are like this. They're attracting people to themselves by all their gimmicks. And of course, people are going to like you. Of course they're going to like your church. But that doesn't mean that you're making disciples of Jesus Christ who love and obey Jesus and who will live and die for Him.

True discipleship is not attractive to the world because it means you have to die. Jesus said, “Whoever of you does not daily deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.” He called us to count the cost, and no one wants to count the cost. No one wants to die. But if we really are following Jesus, we are already dead. We have died to our sins, we have died to the old nature of our flesh and we have chosen to leave this old life of the world, worldly friends, worldly habits, worldly desires behind. We turn our backs on the world. We turn to 180 and we start walking the way of the cross with Jesus.

 If that is what you want to do today, I encourage you to pick up your cross and walk with the Lord. If you do this, you will leave the apostate churches, not because they hurt you, not because they weren’t fun enough, not because they were teaching something you disagreed with, but because the way of Jesus Christ is not the way of man's religion and dead church religion.

So I hope this addresses any confusion and clarifies as to the reason why you should leave the false church. You shouldn't leave it for any other reason than Jesus calls His true church to be separate, to touch nothing that is unclean, and to be holy and pure for Him without sin and without hypocrisy. Do you want to follow Jesus Christ? Do you want salvation to everlasting life? Or do you want a little bit of religion, fun, so-called worship music, a so-called pastor? Do you want elders and deacons and that sort of thing in your life to control and manipulate you? Or would you rather follow the good shepherd who loves you and who can lead you into everlasting life? The choice and the decision is yours who you will follow, man, or God. May the grace of Jesus be with you.

Temptation Comes Whether or Not You Pray BUT...

 Temptation Comes Whether or Not You Pray BUT...

Temptation is going to come to you whether you pray or whether you don't pray. In fact, temptation may come to you even stronger if you do pray because Satan wants to tear your prayers down. It's not that Jesus is sending you a scorpion or a snake or a demon, but Satan wants to rip you to pieces. He wants to rip and tear down your prayer life. He wants to weaken you so that he can win. If you realize that you have a spiritual enemy, then you can push through and fight against the devil, have on the full armor of God and continue to push through to Jesus Christ in prayer. The way is through prayer with Jesus Christ, and you will overcome if you continue to hold fast to your faith in Jesus. So don't give up when you pray. Continue to pray for your own spiritual wellbeing. Pray for your family, your friends. Pray for true repentance of all people. But make sure that you continue to push through to Jesus Christ in prayer. Remember that our Lord said the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. Satan wants to violently strip away from you your faith and everything that you have that is true in the Lord, everything that the holy spirit gave to you. He will even come against you harder when you pray. But if you do continue to pray, you will get a whole lot better at resisting sin. If you don't pray, not only will temptation come to you, but you will fall into that temptation, you will fall into sin. That is what Satan wants. He wants to destroy your prayer life and then destroy your soul and take you to hell. But we as soldiers go into battle and if we are well protected with the sword of the Spirit, helmet of salvation, shield of faith, belt of truth, with those boots ready to bring the gospel of peace, then we will overcome in the name of Jesus because He is with us and He is in us. But if you are not praying, you're going to lose the battle and you're going to lose the war. So don't think that just because you pray, temptation will not come your way. Temptation will come to you, trials and tribulations will still come to you if you pray. But if you do pray and you don't give up, you will be able to overcome. And Jesus promises to be with us. And when we overcome and endure to the very end, then we will be saved. Only those who overcome and endure to the end will be saved.

May the grace of Jesus be with you.

The prayer of Jesus for You

 

 

The Prayer of Jesus for You

 What we can be comforted in brothers and sisters is the fact that Jesus will always be with us through trials and tribulations, through persecutions, through sickness, whatever our walk of life, Jesus will be with us, We just have to keep our ears and our eyes fixed upon Him. I think a lot of us think that God just gave His Son to us to get us out of our problems, and sometimes Jesus does heal us when we are sick and get us out of certain problems, but a lot of times He allows us to go through these trials and tribulations to refine us. And He doesn’t let us get away easy. Remember that Jesus prayed to His Father wanting to NOT go to the cross, He was pleading if there was ANY other way, please let there be another way (Yet God didn’t even grant escape from pain even to His only Son) Jesus was a man (who felt pain and suffering) of course He didn’t want to die and take that suffering and rejection from His Father, but He did it out of complete obedience to His Father and out of love for us. I want us to read the prayer of Jesus today when He prays for Himself, His disciples and for you and me, because it really shows Jesus’s heart, how He wants to obey His Father, How His Father and Him are one and How He wants us to be also one with Him. So I’m going to read from John chapter 17:

 Jesus Prays for Himself 17 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”

This is just more proof that IS GOD, He was in existence with His Father BEFORE the entire world was created… so anyone who is saying that Jesus isn’t worthy to be worshiped or that He was just born of Mary and didn’t exist BEFORE that, would be lying to us… SO Jesus goes on to say;

Jesus Prays for His Disciples 6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. 8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. 9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.”

Jesus has a very specific goal, and His goal is not to save the world meaning worldly people, (Jesus did not come to preserve the worldly way, governments etc…) people that don’t care about His Kingdom, but He is coming to save those what know they are sick and know they are in need of a Savior, those who will put their faith in Hi that will repent and be part of HIS Kingdom, not the kingdom of the world… and that’s why we see Jesus here saying He doesn’t pray for the world, but for those whom His Father have given Him..

10 “And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition,(that is Judas) that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.

See, Jesus isn’t praying that we can just escape the persecution and the problems of the world but that we could escape the snares of Satan that leads to death, that we would be a light to people in this world, to all humanity, to all people.  Jesus is the one true Light, but He also makes us lights that’s why Jesus said; “You are the Light of the world, let your light so shine… So that’s what we want to do here in this world…

 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. Jesus Prays for All Believers 20 “I do not pray for these alone, (meaning the 12 disciples) but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;”

 In other words He’s praying for YOU, He’s praying for me, He’ praying for all of those gentiles who are not Jews who will come into the faith and believe that Jesus is GOD that He is LORD and that He will wash us clean of our sins.

21 “…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. 24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

So these are the words of Jesus, His prayer to His Father and this prayer is for you that you may accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior that you may come into the truth and love Him, love JESUS with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, that you may be one also with His Father.  Do you have the love of Jesus in your heart?  If you do, you have to come out of sin, come out of worldliness, come out of the temptations of this world and forsake all.  Count the cost to following Jesus, don’t be ashamed of Him and His words and His gospel.  Turn your back on evil, turn your back on this world and by doing so you will become one with your Father in heaven, just as Jesus is one with His Father.  May the grace of Jesus be with you. 

Drawn by the FATHER

 Drawn By The FATHER (part 1 of 2)

Well, praise Jesus today, everyone. It's a blessing to know our Father in heaven. It is written about Jesus, “His name shall be called wonderful Counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of peace, and the government will be upon His shoulders”. That is the God we Father. I mean, that is the God that we follow, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And when we put our faith in Him, He leads us, and He develops our faith and He helps us grow. But when we choose to live for ourselves and put our trust in the arm of the flesh, then we don't grow. And there are many Christians who the Father has not drawn. Many are called, but few are chosen. And because a lot of Christians don't choose to go with Jesus. They abandon their faith and they abandon that calling. And because of this, they end up going their own way and falling away from the faith. And Jesus will never force them to follow His calling to go with Him. They eventually go off on their own and they perish. Remember that Jesus said, “Unless you also likewise repent, you will perish”. Well, many people, they just end up perishing because spiritually they die.

I want to read to you a bit from John chapter six, and then I want to share with you a bit of my personal testimony about this. So this is John chapter six, I’m starting in verse 41. 41The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” 42And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. 44No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. 46Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. 47Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

What I want to point out here is what Jesus says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him”. I know that some churches have made complete false doctrines off of this one verse. And they talk about predestination and all of that stuff. But the truth is unless you hear the Lord's calling and choose to go with Him, you're not going to grow in your faith. It doesn't matter if you were born in a Christian home; it doesn't matter if you read the bible a lot or if at one point you had faith, if the Lord isn't calling you, and if you're not hearing His calling and going with Him, then instead of growing in your faith, you're going to be dwindling. And a lot of Christians, they haven't grown in their faith in years, maybe ten, twenty, thirty decades.

I want to share with you a bit of my testimony about this. and I apologize for my allergies. There's pollen and it makes my eyes itchy and my nose run. But praise the Lord anyway that He has given us water this year. So when I was younger and first coming out of dead religion, coming out of church, I was convinced that because I was starting to have visions from Jesus, having dreams about Him. I was hearing the Holy Spirit. I was convinced that people would want to hear this and that it would be convincing, especially to the people that were closest to me that trusted me as a friend. And fifteen years ago, when the Lord was first starting to stir in me and the Lord was calling me out of church, I was convinced that when I left dead religion, when I came out of church, that at the very least, my best friend, maybe my roommate, my best man in my wedding or my own brother, these people who trusted me and have known me all my life, that they would at very least consider my testimony and to be convicting enough for them to repent.

And of course, we've all watched testimonies where a tribe leader or whoever it may be comes to Jesus has a vision of the Lord, and then he testifies about how the living God has changed Him, and then all of His friends or all of His tribe members all come to the Lord. So that was always in the back of my head. And I truly believed that at least those closest to me would also repent and come to the Lord. But what ended up happening when Jesus started giving me dreams and visions and I started telling others about this, they all turned on me. My grandfather, just in His words, He said, “you're caustic.” He didn't believe the Gospel. People that were my close friends in the church, they would not stand with me, with Jesus. They were ashamed of the gospel. They didn't want to go through the fire that I was going through, so they backed away from me as a friend. My grandma said about me, “You basically think that you're in Bible times that God still speaks to you like how He spoke to Abraham and the people in the bible, but we’re not in bible times.” That was her message to me. Other people in my family basically just thought that I was angry and that's why I was leaving the church, saying “he seems like a very angry young man”. So I had all of these judgment calls from my friends. But long story short, none of them were changed because of my testimony. None of them were drawn to God.

And, guys, at this point in my life, I’ve lost my pride of thinking that because of my wonderful testimony, anyone will repent. If the Lord is drawing you, you will repent and follow Him because you hear His calling and you're hearkening to it. But if the Lord is not drawing you, no amount of men's persuasive words, or their wonderful testimonies, or their prophecies or their visions of the Lord are going to compel you to repent. It just will never happen. To put it in perspective, as far as I know, the thousand people that I knew from my former life when I was in dead religion in church, none of them that I know of have repented because of my testimony. That is very sad. None of them were drawn by God. All of them backed away. And it became something that no one wanted to talk about because I was a sore subject in the church. Unless you are drawn by God, you will not repent, you will not change, you will not become born again and a new man or a new woman. And so, knowing this, we can pray for our lost family members, but we shouldn't have the pride in our heart thinking because I’ve had these wonderful experiences, because I’m such a strong Christian, I can twist their arm into the faith. No amount of effort on our parts is going to draw someone to the Lord. It has to be done by Jesus Christ Himself. 

Drawn By The FATHER (part 2 of 2)

So why am I saying this? Am I saying this to discourage you? Of course not. But to put the emphasis on prayer, not in the arm of the flesh, not how we can by our personalities or by a wonderful testimony or by our intellect cause a family member or make a family member change or repent. We just cannot do that, guys. But we can pray for those if the Holy Spirit leads us to pray for. And then we can follow the direction of the Holy Spirit. And when He calls us to pray for a certain person and talk to a certain person that He is drawing. Then we put our focus there on encouraging that family member of the family of God to repent. But I think a lot of Christians, baby Christians are convinced that because they heard God's voice, they're going to go out and they're going to make all their family members repent. And it's just not going to happen, because unless the Father is drawing you, you're not going to change. It doesn't matter how many men are. Now the Father uses people to draw us. He works through people. So pray for your family, speak the truth to them as the Holy Spirit leads you. But don't think that by the arm of the flesh you're going to cause anybody to change. It's amazing how we can have such an epic and wonderful and awesome testimony of Jesus. But that testimony is for our eyes to see, for our eyes to hear, and it's for us to be changed. And just because we’re changed doesn't mean that it is real to anyone else.

In fact, I think to most people, we as Christians just seen as lunatics. It's all in our mind. I was told when I was coming out of church and coming to Jesus that I should probably go see a doctor, I should go see someone that casts out a demon, because people thought that I was demon-possessed because my life changed so much for Jesus. So they thought they were going to cast a demon out of me. Or possibly, maybe I got sick or hit my head and now I’m out of my mind and I should go see a doctor to make sure I’m right in my mental health. This is not uncommon for any brother or sister in the Lord who really comes to Jesus. They change dramatically. But the world's interpretation of it, even the Christian church's interpretation of it, is “We need to fix them with a doctor. They shouldn't be talking about Jesus so much. We should cast a demon out of them.” And remember that they said the same thing about Jesus. They wanted to fix Jesus up the right way, because He was casting out demons by the prince of demons Beelzebub, He was demon-possessed, He was out of His mind, He was a sinner. If they said that about Jesus, and if we are following in the footsteps of Jesus, they will also say that about us, because a servant is not greater than His master.

 It is a blessing, guys, to feel the resistance of Satan. Because Jesus is resisting Satan. The false churches don't feel that resistance, and the false Christians don't feel the resistance from Satan because they are right where Satan wants them. They are lukewarm. And they are loving their lukewarm lifestyle. They enjoy dead religion. They enjoy listening to their preachers because they have itching ears. They love going to bible studies and studying the scripture because they can manipulate and control the scriptures. They love just the whole entire church culture because they feel it is safe and comfortable. But they are not following the drawing of God. If you feel the drawing of God today, if you're being drawn to repent to holiness, to be separate from dead religion, then I encourage you to pray and seek the Lord with all your heart. Do be a light to the world. Jesus says “You are the light of the world. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” So be a light to your family, be a light to your friends. We shouldn't just shut up and be quiet and not talk to people. But we should understand that it's not by our own efforts or by our own flesh that people repent and come into the truth.

Christian churches for years have had debates, they have tried to speak persuasively and had all of these events in their church to try to make people Christians, but they don't understand that unless God is calling someone, they are not going to repent. And most people that are not repenting are the ones in the church. They are Christians. They are people that believe in the bible, and they're the ones that haven't hearkened to the calling of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's very ironic because they're the ones saying, “Oh, we believe in predestination and we're Calvinists.” The ironic thing is they're the ones that haven't heard the calling. They go around saying “you're either chosen, or you're not chosen”. And of course, they believe that they are the ones that have heard the calling, and they are the ones that are predestined for heaven, where everyone else is predestined for hell. But the irony here is they are the ones that haven't heard the calling. They haven't been drawn by God. It is a mystery who God is choosing and who God is allowing to have ears to hear and eyes to see. Most of the time, it's someone that is very unexpected. He is calling people of every walk of life to repent and to follow Him. But often it is not who you think. It is not the good Christians who seem like they have good morals. He calls people of every different walk of life and people are repenting. And it is a blessing to see people added to the number of the body of Christ.

So I want to pray right now for those who do feel the drawing of the Holy Spirit, and who do want to come out of the world, who want to come out of addiction and sin, all the temptations of the world, and of course, also out of dead religion. “Lord Jesus, I pray for those who have an ear to hear who you are calling. I pray that they will put their faith in you and that nothing will stop them, that family members will not stop them from coming out and being separate, that other Christians will not persuade them to go the wrong way, that no family member, no mom or dad or brother or sister or grandpa or grandma will convince them to go the wrong way, but that they may put their faith in you, Lord Jesus, that you would be their one and only teacher, and that they would develop in their faith with you because your Holy Spirit is in them. I pray for your true church to be born again, that they would be born again and truly come into the newness of life, and partake in communion with you, where they eat your flesh and drink your blood and have the words of life in their heart forever. So, I pray this, Lord Jesus, for the true body of Christ and those who you are drawing. In Your name I pray, Lord Jesus. Amen.”

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As unto the Lord

 

As Unto The Lord

Well, praise Jesus today, everyone. I wanted to just make a quick video about working as unto the Lord. As Christians and as disciples of Jesus, we don't just do a good job when people are watching and always trying to get away with something. In fact, the best craftsmen and the best people are ones that are working, not because someone else is watching them, but they're doing it as unto the Lord. A lot of Amish do a really good job. They have really quality work because they're not working for other people, but they're doing everything as unto the Lord. Now there's the mentality that some people have, that's the employee mentality. And with the employee mentality, you're only doing a good job when your boss is watching. And those kinds of employees are just paid by hour and they look for ways to stretch out their work and basically do the worst work possible. They just get lazier and lazier, and they only are trying to appear to be hard workers when their manager is overseeing them. And you see these kinds of workers all across America. They're younger people that are working fast food, mcdonald’s, Burger King, Denny's and these big corporations. They just throw in a manager there and they put some young waiters to work, and basically, they're just very lazy. But for us, we know Jesus Christ, whether our manager is watching or not, whether we have a boss or not that's watching, we're always trying to do quality work, not to please other people, but to do all of our work as unto the Lord. And if we start working unto the Lord, we ourselves will be more appreciative. (have better attitudes) I remember many year ago my family wanted to get my grandmother a gift, so we bought her some flowers. My grandma received this bouquet of flowers and it didn't seem like she appreciated it. And I don't remember her thanking us for it. And my family, my mom and us, all of us felt like, "why did we even get my grandma a birthday gift?"  "Why did we even get her this bouquet of flowers if she doesn't appreciate it?" And then we just realized the reason why we do things for others is out of the love of Jesus Christ. The reason why we love the church, the reason why we love our family and love others as ourself, our neighbours as ourself, is ultimately because we love Jesus. And we shouldn't be doing things just because people are watching or because grandma is going to give us good feedback and say, “thank you so much for what you did”. We should be doing good for others, doing good work and loving others because Jesus Christ loved us first. And that has to be our attitude. And as soon as we realized that, and my mom actually realized that, then it changed our whole perspective. We wanted to do good things. And we were thankful that we were able to give a gift to my grandma even if she wasn't appreciative, because we know that our Father in heaven is always watching. And He doesn't overlook anything that we do, whether it's good or evil. If we do evil, we will be punished. But if we do good, we will be rewarded according to our good works. So I hope this encourages someone to work as unto the Lord. Make sure that whether you're in the public's eye or behind closed doors, you're always upright, and doing a good job at whatever you're doing in life, whether that's at home, in the workplace, out in public, wherever you are, live as unto Jesus Christ, not to be pleasing men or for men's approval, or for their attention. But for the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, well, “thank you, Lord Jesus for giving us the opportunity to walk with you, to be your true church, to be your children. I pray for those that are part of your true church, that they would work as unto the Lord, that they would love you with all their heart and that they wouldn't compromise with the world or be like those who want to win one over on people when they're not watching. We pray that we can be humble and honest, slow to anger, quick to forgive, efficient for the Kingdom of God, but never in a rush, Lord. We thank you for your blessing. We thank you for cursing what is evil and blessing what is good. And we want to just be your children and serve you, Lord, with all our heart. And in your name I pray， Lord Jesus. Amen.” 

Your Focus as a Christian

 

Your Focus As A CHRISTIAN

Well, praise Jesus today, everyone. Our main focus as Christians and as disciples of Jesus should be pleasing the Lord Jesus with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. It's easier to say though than to do. It's very easy to get distracted by politics, by church events, by making money, our business, our family life. And it's easy to compartmentalize our life to where God is no longer part of our business, and we segment it into our business and God's business. And that is what has happened in the Christian culture today. They have their church business that's all about going to church on Sunday, bible study, their Christian gatherings. And then they have their political business that's all about getting the people politically elected that they want. And then they have their personal business, their shop or their merchandise that they're selling, or whatever it is that people do. And people compartmentalize their heart instead of being fully dedicated to Jesus Christ. Now, obviously, depending on where we are, we have to take into consideration how we share Jesus.

When I was teaching in the school district, I couldn't just speak Jesus openly without an invitation, because as a schoolteacher you can get yourself fired. And I actually really didn't like that element of teaching, because as soon as you walk onto the campus, you give up some of your amendment rights as a civilian and as a citizen of the United States, no longer can you speak freely about your faith. And our first focus in life should not be teaching eighth graders or high schoolers Math; our first focus in life shouldn't be making money; our first focus in life shouldn't be getting some political guy in office or any other worldly pursuit.

Our focus in life should be on hearing Jesus Christ, having ears that hear and eyes that see. Most people are chasing after religion. That is why they spend so much time looking for a church. They call it fellowship, they call it bible study, whatever they call it, they're chasing after religion, guys. But it's a very different thing to chase after Jesus Christ, after pleasing Him, after hearing His voice. In fact, most people just give up on it because they say “God must have stopped talking during the bible, and it's much easier just to follow a set of principles from the bible. So, I’m going to look over the ten commandments. I’m going to look over the Gospels. And I’ll pick the ones that seem easy for me to keep and that will be my focus.” So you have all these different denominations of churches and they all have their set structure of what the most important doctrines are to keep in order to get to heaven. It becomes legalism. So for the Baptist, they think you have to be reading your bible every day because we're more like the Bereans. We're more noble than others who are lazy, they don't read their bible. We go to church on Sundays. And they make a big deal about being in big church and reading their bible as if that will save them. For different denominations is different things. For the Pentecostal group, their focus is on speaking in tongues. So they make the entire faith experience about this feeling that you've received the Holy Spirit from your feet up and that you speak in a tongue that their church imitates.

So you have all these different focuses. But people get their focus off of what really matters, which is the love of Jesus Christ. The greatest commandment, guys, is to love the Lord or God that is Jesus Christ with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. And the next commandment is like it, which is to love your neighbor as yourself. The focus isn't on just looking like a good person on the outside, having a big church or being a big pastor. It's not about that. It's not about memorizing all these scripture verses to look good as your some kind of a preacher.

Knowing Jesus is about being genuine before God and then genuinely living your faith for Him in complete holiness. If we are holy, it's because the Holy Spirit is working in us, not the spirit of the world or selfishness or greed or pride. But if the Holy Spirit is in us, we will be holy because we are His body, we are the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He is living in us and we are the true church, so that needs to be our focus. Most Christians don't even hear from God, so they're not the true church. They're false believers. They're false jews as they're called in scripture. They have false churches, false synagogues. They are the synagogue of Satan. And their focus is on 1 million different things other than hearing Jesus.

But what it all comes down to is, do you hear Jesus Christ? Is that your main focus being led by the Spirit of God, receiving the Holy Spirit and making Him your One and Only teacher? Not 1000 other people or ten other people or whatever number of mentors and brothers and sisters you have. But who are you hearing and listening to and obeying? Is it the pastor in your church who creates whatever focus he wants for you? Or is it the Spirit of God who is the only one qualified to lead you and guide you?

So I want to pray for those who do want to be led by the Holy Spirit, not by a pastor of a church, not by a bible study, not by a set of mentors that think they know best. But I want to pray for those of you who do want to hear the Holy Spirit and have His love in your heart always. So “Lord Jesus, I do pray for the body of Christ. I pray for those who want to get their focus on you and who want to be led by your Holy Spirit. I pray for your body of Christ, the true church that they would have ears to hear and eyes to see and their hearts and minds would be open to your truth and shut off to everything else in the world. We want to make ourselves the people who only take direction from you and never take direction from others, because you tell us to make you are Christ and our one and only teacher. So that's what we want to do today and forever. In your name we pray, Lord Jesus, amen.”

Get your focus on Jesus. Don't be distracted by politics or who the next president is going to be or how the end of the world will happen or end day prophecies, apocalyptic speeches. Don't get your eyes on the things of this world that so easily menace with your spiritual walk. Keep your eyes on Jesus Christ, focus on him, not on the world, and you'll be walking the straight and narrow path. But as soon as you start listening to so-called prophets, brothers and sisters, even if they say they are the children of God, you will be listening to people. Who are we listening to? And who are we obeying? May the grace of Jesus be with you.