Complete Dedication isn't Enough

 Complete Dedication isn't Enough

Well praise Jesus today everyone.  We praise Him in the morning, we praise Him in the midday, we praise Him in the evening.  What I wanted to speak about this morning is the fact that just being dedicated is not enough to get us to heaven.  A lot of people are very dedicated to their sport, they're very dedicated to education, or they're very extremely dedicated to their religion.  We know right now that there are extremist groups that are willing to blow themselves up for the sake of their religion.  They've been so indoctrinated by their state, by their religion, by their religious order or their leaders, that they're even willing to sacrifice themselves to the flames for the sake of their belief.  But even if we're willing to blow ourselves up, that is not enough to get us into heaven.  

Now there's also a lot of Christians that are very dedicated. My grandfather was very dedicated, people in my family were very dedicated to the faith.  But that is still not enough to get us into heaven if we don't have one thing, and that is true love, the love of God with all our heart, and the love of our neighbor. And that is one thing that a lot of Christians are also missing.  They're dedicated to reading their Bible, they're dedicated to believing doctrines, they're dedicated to preaching, to street preaching, to evangelizing, all these things they're dedicated to, but they don't really have the love of Jesus in them.  If they did, they would be much different. This is what is recorded in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 about true love that comes from the Holy Spirit.  “1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.”  

You know there's a lot of Christians that believe that if you are just speaking in your new tongue, then you must be eternally saved.  If you just receive that supernatural prayer language, if you can pray in tongues, then you must be saved.  And they're seeking after this gift with all of their might. And then if they do receive it, they're so convinced that they're saved, they go around boasting, telling everyone that they're saved, and how other people have to speak in their specific prayer language.  And if they're not, then they're not really a true Christian.

So let's keep reading about true love.  “2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”  There are also a lot of Christians that believe if they have the kind of faith that can lay hands on the sick and they'll recover every time, they believe if they can do these great miracles or be in touch with others that can work these sorts of miracles, then they will be true Christians.  And they belittle other people who are not doing such sort of faith miracles before men to see.  But they also don't have true love.

“3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”  There are also Christians who try to appease God by giving a lot of money to their church.  They call it tithe. Or they give money to homeless projects.  And they think that by giving away a lot of money that in essence they're buying a way into heaven.  It appeases their conscience because they feel like they're doing good things. But still they don't have the true love of Jesus Christ in their hearts.  They don't love God with all of their heart and their neighbor as themselves.  

“4Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.”  There are a lot of people that say that they are prophets, they say they're Christians, they say they're men of God, but they're very rude to other people.  They're always mocking others. They're always hating on others, belittling others, speaking evil of others.  They're always gossiping. These sorts of people do not have the love of Jesus in them even if they believe themselves to be good doctrinal Bible believing Christians.  

But love, it “7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10But when that which is perfect has come,” that being perfect means Jesus Christ and the gift of His Spirit to cleanse us and give us these true gifts from Him.  “10But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. 11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 13And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Now I know one question some of you may have, and one thing that has been misconstrued in the Christian church, is the idea of tongues and prophecy and all these gifts ceasing and what it means to cease.  Now what the Apostle Paul is speaking of here, is when we have entered into the Kingdom of God, entered into Heaven, and when we see Jesus Christ face to face.  Jesus now is our hope, and we have faith in Jesus, because true faith is being able to believe in or trust what we do not see.  Now the reason why love is greater than faith and hope, and the reason why these two, faith and hope, will cease in the end, or be done away with in essence, is because when you are in Heaven, when you are face to face with Jesus, you do not have to hope that one day you will see Jesus.  You do not have to have faith that one day you will see Him face to face. You will be with Him face to face.  You have overcome this world through your faith, and therefore hope of seeing Jesus does not have to exist anymore.  You are already with Him. Prophecy does not have to exist. All the prophecies have already been fulfilled.  

There are a lot of people that put prophecy above love. They put faith and hope and all these things above love.  And it makes you wonder, when they are in Heaven with Jesus, will they just be full of pride that they are a better prophet, that they had more hope?  Because the greatest of all these things is love, because even after we are face to face with Jesus Christ, we will still be in His love.  We will still be experiencing His love. There will be no need to do away with love or for love to cease.  But there will be no need for a prophet in Heaven. There is no need to be hoping that one day we will meet God and be with Him in Heaven.  All those things will cease. But there are some Christians that are so proud and arrogant, they are so puffed up with their Bible knowledge, that they think when they get to Heaven, they are going to be better than others, because they knew the Bible better, they are going to be able to tell Jesus how many verses they have memorized, how many people they brought to the Lord.  They think that their spiritual gift is greater than love, and they are wicked, because they are full of pride and arrogance.  

We need to make sure that we put the true love of Jesus Christ first. Do we have His love in our heart?  Or are we similar to radical Muslims? Are we similar to the radicalized Christians who want to go around bashing their Bible and telling other people that everyone is going to hell, but they don't have the love of Jesus in their hearts themselves?  If we truly fear God, then we will obey Him. And the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself.  If you leave out either one of those elements, you are in trouble. There are some people that say they love God, but they hate their neighbor.  We know that happens with some of these radical terrorist groups.  They love God with all their heart, so they say. They love their scriptures, but they hate their neighbor.  They are willing to kill for the sake of their religion. They have absolutely no love.  They have murder in their hearts.

Likewise, if you just love people, if you have this loving, caring, you want to be able to dote on people, but you don't really love God, you become like anyone else in the world who is willing to give a lot of money to homeless people, but you don't have any direction that comes from Jesus Christ.  So you are willing to get people off the street, better people's lives, but in the end, you are not concerned about their soul, because you can't see clearly the things of Jesus Christ.  I've had people in my family, I've had friends, and I have had employers who are like this.  They were completely godless. These sorts of people would curse God. They would mock God and speak evil about Jesus Christ all the time.  But they were the sorts of people who would want to see the betterment of society. So they would dote on me, they would give me money, they would help me buy things, they'd be willing to get me a hotel room, they'd be willing to get me all these things because they loved me in the flesh.  They loved the economy doing well. They loved all the things of this world, but they did not love God.  

So either one of these elements that you leave out, if you leave out loving God, or if you leave out loving your neighbor, you will be in the wrong.  So the question I have is, do we really have the love of Jesus Christ in us?  Or are we speaking evil of people? Are we doing what is evil in the eyes of God?  Are we belittling others? Are we hating on others? Or really, are we loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength?  And are we loving our neighbor as ourself? Well I hope this encourages someone to walk in love and in purity, to check your own heart, to make sure that you're right with Jesus Christ and filled with His Holy Spirit.  Right now I'm going to pray for those of you that want prayer, for those of you that want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that want to be separate from the world and ungodliness and all the lies that are in the world.  

“So Lord Jesus, I pray for your true church, that you fill us with your righteousness, your love, your glory, that we may honor you and please you with all of our heart, that we may live for you and not be concerned with the things of this world.  And as the song says, that the things of this world grow dim in the light of your glory and grace.  May we put our faith in you, may we have true love that comes from your Holy Spirit, and may we not be like the religious order of the world that only loves their own.  May we really have your love in our hearts, loving our neighbor as ourselves and encouraging others to truly come into the faith, that they may be washed clean of sin and come into the newness of life with you, where they may eat your flesh and drink your blood and take part in your new covenant. Lord, I pray this in your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.”

End times prophecy from Jesus

 

End Times Prophecy From Jesus  

Well, praise Jesus today, everyone. A lot of false prophets have entered the world, a lot of people claiming to be Christians or Jews, and they deceive a lot of people because they say that Jesus is coming back on such and such a date, and then it doesn't happen, and their prophecies fail. But the prophecies that we can trust, the trustworthy prophecies or the prophecies that Jesus gave Himself. And i want to read to you what Jesus prophesied about the end times from Luke chapter 21. And as i read this, you can think to yourself what times we're in, what prophecy or what things within this prophecy have already taken place or are taking place. And then you can imagine what time period we are living in. So this is found in Luke, chapter 21. I'm starting in verse 7.  

7So they asked Him, saying, “Teacher, but when will these things be? And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?” 8And He said: “Take heed that you not be deceived. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time has drawn near.’ Therefore do not go after them.”

And that is also something that is happening right now.  A lot of people say that the time is drawn near, that they are the ones giving a true prophecy about God, or they say that they're Jesus, or that they're Jesus' agents.  But Jesus tells us not to go after those people.

“9But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately.”

This is another thing that people are not taking into account.  A lot of the prophets think that Jesus will come back immediately because there is a pestilence, there's COVID-19, there's a war.  But Jesus specifically told us that these things would take place and that we should not be letting our hearts become distressed and that the end will not come immediately as people in the world suppose.  

10Then He said to them, “Nation will rise against nation”( like what is happening right now), “and kingdom against kingdom” (the same is happening right now).  “11And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven. 12But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake. 13But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. 14Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; 15for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. 16You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.”

(If we are a true believer in Jesus Christ, even other Christians will hate us, those Christians that have went the way of dead religion, the Babylon church, they will hate us because we know the truth.)

“18But not a hair of your head shall be lost. 19By your patience possess your souls. 20But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.”

(Should we know that God is with Jerusalem and that Jerusalem will overcome and she will see no sorrow?  What does Jesus say?)

“21Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. 24And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” (This is very prophetic, guys.)

 25“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; 26men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

(The things Jesus said will come to pass, they are the faithful and the true words.  Jesus said also), “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. 31So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.  32Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place. 33Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”  

We need to make sure that we are steadfast with Jesus. This whole world is going to be shaken.  You can tell that the times we are living in are end times, because all of these things that Jesus gave in this prophecy are starting to come to pass, they've already come to pass, or they are in the process of coming to pass right as I speak.  Will we be holding fast to Jesus to the end, or will we be with the world?  

Jesus then ends it here with this, 34“But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. 35For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”  

I want to pray for those of you who are part of the true church, who will stand with Jesus and be part of those counted worthy to be with the Lord.  “So Lord Jesus I pray for your true church, I pray for the body of Christ, I pray for those that are wanting to know your voice and to walk with you. I pray that we walk in humility and in righteousness, and that we are completely pure and unstained from the world.  We know this world is on its way to hell, they have accepted all the things of Satan, and we know that you are bringing judgment on wickedness, we know you are bringing your judgment on all the wicked nations, but we also know that you know how to protect your children while you bring destruction on ungodliness.  So please protect us, watch over us, let us be filled with your righteousness and your love, and let us be separate from the world, that we can bear good fruit for you, and eat your flesh and drink your blood and be part of your new covenant that we may have life with you Lord.  In your name we pray Lord Jesus, Amen.”

What makes a man a man?

 

 What Makes a Man a Man?

This revelation from the Holy Spirit a few days ago, but I completely forgot it and I prayed for the Lord to remind me what his revelation was to me. because if we don't write down what the Lord tells us it's really easy for us to just forget. It's like the Lord speaks to us in one ear and it goes out the other unless we really work at remembering the things He tells us. So I prayed for the Lord to remind me what this revelation was and He reminded me a couple days later in an interesting way. But this word is true, and it is a blessing to me because in the world there is a definition of what it means to be a man. And as we know from Revelation 666 is the mark of the beast or the mark of man and there is a certain image that men take on in the world. You in the world have to make a certain amount of money for the world to accept you as a real man. You have to be hitting the gym. You have to be... You know the world defines a man how well you can fight, or they define a man with how many women that man has slept with. And there's all these ways a man can look puffed up in the world.

But what defines a man? Is it how much money he makes or how big his home is or his wife is? How many things he possesses? We know that Jesus said a man does not consist of his possessions. But what makes a man more specifically a man or the man that God wants him to be? I want to read to you first from Genesis chapter 1. This is starting in verse 26.

26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

So when we're speaking about man, this is mankind which includes men and women. So what does it mean to be a man or a woman? Well, the revelation is if you want to be a man, you have to be close to Jesus Christ because He is your creator. The best image that you can be of a man is the exact image God created you to be in, which is in the likeness of Him. And we know that because that is what God told us in Genesis when God said, let us make man in our image. You were created in the image of God. And that is a wonderful blessing to each of us who know that we are God's children.

We don't have to take on 666. We don't have to look like the world. We don't have to be making a certain amount of money. You don't have to be hitting the gym. You don't even have to have arms to be a man. But you do have to become in the likeness of Jesus Christ.

He is our creator. He created us male and female. But he created us in His image. And the closer we become to His image and the more we shed off of the world, the more we become a man or the more we become a woman. And this is a wonderful revelation because if we get our focus right on Jesus Christ and we stop trying to become the man or the woman that the world is trying to tell us to be or our parents or the culture, then we can shed off all of that insecurity.

So many people are insecure because they're taking on the image of the devil. And the devil will always make you feel insecure. If you're a woman, no matter how thin you are or how beautiful, the devil is always telling you compare yourself to these other women. Compare yourself to these models. And you are always subpar. You're always not beautiful enough. So, you always think you need more clothes, more makeup, and it becomes completely vain.

And for men, it's always this macho thing. You have to make a certain amount of money, prove yourself better than others, demean others. I'm speaking in the world, of course. And so both men and women, their identities deteriorate when they try to become this 666 man or woman. But we need to shed off the world, get rid of anything, all the ideas that have gotten into us from TV, from music, from these false American idols, the image that America has of what it means to be a man or a woman. And then we need to start asking Jesus Christ how we can be perfectly in His image, how He created us. Because after all, in the beginning, we were created in God's image.

Jesus Christ is the Son of Man. Jesus loved that name for Himself more than any other name, He used for Himself the Son of Man. Jesus wasn't created how we were. He created all things. But He loved the fact that He could associate with us, with humans. We need to be in the image of the Son of Man. If we copy Jesus, if we look to His image, then we will become perfect. None of us are perfect, but we need to do good and we need to become perfect for Jesus. So we need to pray and say, “Lord, let us be in your image, let us understand you, let us have your heart, let us have your mind, let us become just like you. Purify us from all unrighteousness. Let us be completely holy and pure and perfect.” And the Lord will start to purge you of all the things that are in you that are worldly and ungodly and unacceptable to Him. Getting all the filth out of your life, all the vanity, all the anger, aggression, all the insecurities. And then He will make you a true man or a true woman of God. And this is what we want if we're going to really be the Lord's children, if we're going to be His church.

There are too many men and women who are trying to do it the world's way. They follow the model of the world. And because they follow the model of the world, they will never be Jesus's children. They're always fighting as the world fights, always with the arm of the flesh, always trying to overcome with the things of this world.

But if we put our faith in Jesus Christ, if we trust Him and obey Him, He will make us in His image. Are you in Jesus's image today? Do you know who your creator is? Or have you believed the lie that you receive 666? You need to be like the movie actors. You need to be as the culture promotes women or men. I see all these young girls today in high school and they dress like toots. Why are they doing that? They think that is the image that a woman should be. They've taken on 666. They see all the famous people and the people that they look up to on social media, all the movie actors and their favorite musicians and they all dress like whores. They dress like prostitutes and they copy them. And the same with a lot of these men. They want to be just like all the other men that they see on social media and they copy that.

But we need to rid ourselves of that filth. We need to dress in purity and we need to be righteous and above reproach. Are we free from all of the pornographic wicked stuff of the world? Or have we taken on the image of Satan? I want to pray for those of you that are part of the true church that are coming out of sin and darkness and that want to put on your white robes, that you want to be in the image of your Creator Jesus Christ.

“So Lord Jesus I pray for those that want to have purity in them, that want to be purged from the world, that want to strip off 666 and all the things that are perverse and evil in this world. We want to be separate from all of the evil holidays and all of the things that are just so demonic in the world. We pray that you purify your church, that you watch over us, that you keep us secure and that we look to you as our Lord and our Savior, and that we really put on righteousness and become in your image Lord. We want to be real men and women of God who serve you and obey you and live for you with all of our heart. In your name we pray Lord Jesus, amen.”

We Should ALL be Evangelists

 We Should ALL be Evangelists

Well praise Jesus today everyone. As we know in the body of Christ there are many different spiritual gifts and not everyone has all of those spiritual gifts. Not everyone has the gift of administration or helps. Not everyone is an ear, not everyone is an eye. Not all of us have a specific kind of faith that is in a specific situation but all of us do have faith. Not all of us have the gift of healings or all these different gifts that the Apostle Paul speaks of. All of us have some of those gifts as the Lord wills us to have those gifts. We cannot twist God's arm or quote a Bible verse to try to prove to God that we need this gift, but the Holy Spirit gives us gifts as He deems necessary.

Some of us are given dreams, some of us a tongue, some an interpretation, some of us are as prophets, but the Holy Spirit uses each of us for His wonderful purpose and we're not to use our gift to boast in ourself and certainly we are not to be jealous of other people's spiritual gift or how God is using them. But when we are all working together in unity, we are the body of Christ.

Now even though we all have different spiritual gifts, and we don't have all the spiritual gifts, all of us are to be evangelists and what I mean by that is all of us are to be encouraging others to follow the way of Jesus Christ. You can't say I'm a Christian, but I am not an evangelist or I'm a disciple of Jesus, but I don't lead people to God, that's someone else's job. I pay other people to preach the gospel. You cannot buy your way into heaven like this. And for years some Christians, especially those who are more wealthy, they think that they can buy their way into heaven or they can buy the work of God by just giving money to other people to do God's work while they do their own business. But Jesus calls us each to enter into the kingdom of God and to be evangelists, to evangelize the sick, the lost, the sinner and to call them to repentance. That doesn't mean that all of us have to be on YouTube, that doesn't mean all of us have to have an online presence, but what it does mean is that wherever you are, you are always shining your light for Jesus Christ, whether it is just to your children, just to your mom or your dad, just to a brother or sister, just to someone that you are around at school.

But wherever you are, you are called to be an evangelist. We know that those who are ashamed of the gospel and that aren't standing for Jesus, they're not evangelizing, we know that God will be ashamed of them. Jesus says when He comes with the glory of his Father and his angels, He will be ashamed of those people that are ashamed of His gospel. So we need to be proclaiming the truth of Jesus, calling people to repent. That doesn't mean we force religion down people's throat or we hit people with Bible verses, but that does mean whenever we can we shine as a light for Jesus Christ.

The other day someone asked me why I don't celebrate Halloween. They first asked me, what are your children going to be for Halloween? I just told them, “well I don't celebrate Halloween.” And because I was in the professional business setting I didn't really want to say much more. Not a lot of people want to hear the gospel. Jesus says don't throw pearls to pigs. But I also want to stand for Jesus any chance I get. So this person then asked me after a few minutes or after a minute of pause, they said, “can I ask you Andrew why you don't celebrate Halloween?” And they said, “is it for a religious reason?” And I just knew if I said hardly anything it would be taken as religious. But I knew what I needed to say and that was I don't celebrate Halloween because I follow Jesus Christ and I teach my children to follow Jesus Christ. And I just left it at that. And she wasn't concerned about hearing anything more. She just said, “okay yeah it's a religious thing.” But for those of us that know Jesus, we want to stand up for Him. And we want to be salt and light. And so when we stand with Jesus just in simple things like this and proclaiming His name, you know I'm not part of the world because I'm with Jesus. When we just simply stand for Jesus, not that we have all the answers, not that we know how to speak to everyone in the most elegant way, but if we just stand on the truth with Jesus then we are evangelists. And we are calling people to repentance.

Now it was interesting because I don't know if this particular family is Christian or anything like that, and I wasn't throwing any condemnation or anything like that. All I said is I don't partake in Halloween because I follow Jesus. And immediately she said something like, “well I hope God just forgives us then for celebrating Halloween.” God will have mercy on people who receive His Son, who receive Jesus Christ, who receive what Jesus did on the cross, who are baptized and who put their faith in Him. But if you go around just thinking that God will forgive you because years and years ago you said the prayer of repentance in Bible school, but you haven't done anything for Him since, then it's likely you will be cut off from the living God.

Too many Christians want to have a deathbed repentance. They want to serve themselves their whole life. They like lukewarm Christianity. They like living as the world. And then they want that deathbed repentance where they just say, “God forgive me”, right before they die and then they believe they will enter into heaven. But we have to evangelize people telling them the truth that sin will take to hell. And if we want to enter into the kingdom of God, then we have to be living holy. We have to endure to the very end of our life. That is what Jesus said. I want to read to you the great commission that many of you already know, found in Matthew chapter 28.

18And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

If you are wondering what you are supposed to be doing as a disciple of Jesus, as a Christian, then read over this great commission of Jesus Christ again and again. You are to be salt and light. You are to fulfil the great commission, bringing people to repentance, whether that is only in your family, at your workplace, in the world, wherever God will open those doors. But if you are not a light, if you are dwindling, then you cannot be standing for Jesus. If you are not even sure God exists, if you are not sure that God is good, then you won't be spreading the good gospel. You will always be thinking, I don't know if God exists, I am just scared to stand for the truth. God isn't getting any glory if you are going around timid as a dim light. When God gets glory from your life is when you are bearing much fruit because you are evangelizing. When we stand up for the truth of Jesus and His gospel, He will be proud of us. He will be honored to call us His sons and His daughters. But if you reject His work, if you turn your back on Him for the things that you want to do and you make other things more important than His gospel, if you are ashamed of Him and all of that, then when He comes He will also be ashamed of you. We know that for a fact. That's what Jesus said. If you believe in the gospel, you also believe that Jesus will either reject you or accept you based on your words, if you are proclaiming His gospel or if you are ashamed of Him.

We also have this commission recorded but slightly differently in Mark. I'll read it to you also in Mark.  14Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.

See, it's very easy for us to stop believing in God, to think maybe Jesus didn't exist, or to think maybe what Jesus did is not applicable to our life today. And even the disciples who saw Jesus die on the cross, just because they didn't see Him with their own eyes, because they heard the testimony of the ladies who saw Him, they thought, well, maybe it didn't really happen, maybe the ladies are just hysterical, maybe this Mary didn't really see Jesus, but she saw someone else. So even though they saw all the miracles of Jesus and that He raised Lazarus from the dead, they couldn't believe that Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of God. So, Jesus rebuked them for that, and He rebukes Christians today also for disbelief, for not believing that He is the Great I AM, for not believing that He is God, for not believing that He is worthy for us to lay down our lives for and proclaim the gospel.

15And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

When we preach the truth of Jesus to people and they reject it, when they stand before God, that will be brought up, that will be opened up, and they will see that before their eyes and it will condemn them because they rejected God. And those who believe in Jesus when they hear the gospel, that will be accredited to them as righteousness.

17And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

These are the things that the true church does all the time, and it is a marvellous thing to see Jesus Christ working in us and through us. Are we part of this true church that evangelizes, that prays for the sick? Are we part of the true church that has received the Holy Spirit with our new tongue? Are we preaching the gospel with our new tongue? Are we allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through us? Or are we scared, are we timid, are we ashamed of the gospel, or are we to a point where we are so weakened from the devil that we don't even feel comfortable talking about our faith? Maybe you have started to believe that your faith in Jesus is only for you, it's not for you to share with others because people can believe what they want anyway, so you're to the point where you don't even open up and share the gospel. We need to be taking part of the new covenant, the great commission that Jesus has given for all of those who will receive the truth that He died on the cross and He made this covenant with us that if we believe in Him, then His blood covers over our sins. If we preach this gospel to the world and people believe it, they will come as a new creation, they will come out of the old life of death and into the new life, the life that Jesus has to offer.

So, are you ashamed of the gospel today? Are you scared to stand with Jesus for what people think? Or are you walking upright as an evangelist, as a Christian, as a disciple who will walk with Jesus and not be ashamed? I hope this message encourages someone in the true body of Christ, the true church to stand up and be a light to your family, be a light to your friends, be a light in your school, in your workplace, wherever you go, be a light for Jesus because we are to be part of the new covenant and we are to be a part of the great commission, encouraging others to repent and to put on righteousness before Jesus comes.

So I want to pray for the true church that wants to put their faith in Jesus and to serve Him and to be evangelists. So “Lord, I pray that people will put their faith in You, that they will seek You with all of their heart and they will encourage their family and their friends and anyone that is in their life that You have given them to be influence on, that they would influence them for righteousness, calling them to repent and that we would be good examples, that we would be a beacon of honor and light for You because You have called us to be the light of the world and to let our light shine before men, that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. So let us be a bright light for You, shining for You, Jesus, calling others to repent and being above reproach ourselves, leading by example, not being full of hypocrisy or any sin but being a good example of what it means to be Your disciple. In Your name I pray, Lord Jesus, Amen.”

Trusting God for all the Wrong Reasons

 Trusting God for All the Wrong Reasons

There is a way in which many Christians trust God for all the wrong reasons. They trust that God will secure their future no matter what they do. They trust that they can disobey God and He will not punish them or see their sins, or that He will just look over their sins. They are very trusting that God will not bring justice. They trust that He will not punish them. They trust that they will go to heaven and not hell because they believe that they are entitled. They trust that God has entitled them with everlasting life. They are very trusting to things that God never promised them.

The righteous are those that inherit everlasting life. Israel will not just inherit everlasting life because she was once the seed of Abraham. And Christians will not inherit everlasting life just because their parents were pastors or Christians. In order to inherit everlasting life, you need to follow Jesus Christ, you have to surrender to Him. I had this epiphany when I was reading the other day, some more of Joshua. And it's interesting because after this fall of Jericho and this great triumph where Joshua listens to the Lord and they follow the Lord's directions, and they defeat Jericho. And immediately after they go into battle, and I believe it's like 36 of them are killed, and Joshua falls on his face and he says, “Lord, why did you bring us out of Egypt just to die by the hands of these heathens, these people are enemies?” And the Lord reveals to Joshua that there is sin in the camp. They were able to defeat these guys because they were with the Lord, and they were pure. They had circumcised themselves; they were living pure. But as soon as evil came back into their life, they were not able to win even a small battle. And 36, I believe, of the Jewish people were killed or these Hebrews were killed. And Joshua tears his clothes, he falls down on his face before the ark and he prays to the Lord. And the Lord tells him that there is sin and it was interesting the way that they find out who sinned, but it comes down to this one man named Achan. God had specifically told them not to take any of the plunder of the land of Jericho, not to take gold, not to take silver, not to take any of the animals, but to put everything to death and then to bring the gold and all of that stuff to the Lord, not for people's personal use. But this guy, Achan, he lusted after the things of the land, and he stole some of the silver and gold or coins and he brought them into his tent and he hid them under the ground in his tent. And so then when the nation of Israel went to battle, or when these Hebrews went to battle, you know, they were killed. And it was because of Achan's sin. So Achan says, yes, it is true, I have sinned. And then Joshua brings Achan out with his wife, his children, his animals, his tent, and they stone them all to death and then they burn them. And this is the end of Achan's family line.

I thought to myself, I bet you Achan trusted God. He had to have trusted God. He trusted God first in the good way. Obviously he was part of this people that trusted God to go into battle, that they would not be killed. But he also trusted God in a perverse way. He trusted that God would look over his sins. He trusted that God would not punish him for his evil. He trusted too much in God in the wrong way. He trusted in God's forgiveness, His grace. And a lot of Christians are like Achan. They say, “I was saved. I've won all these wonderful battles in life. I've made it through Jericho. God has given me the victory. Victory in Jesus”, these Christians say, “I believe in the cross. I believe in the blood.” They call on the name of the blood. And they have faith that God will forgive them and bless them and take care of them no matter what they do. So they can then go back secretly without telling others and they can have secret sins in their life that are very perverted. They can cheat on their wife. They can look at porn. They can be addicted to the things of the world that pollute a man's heart. And they just trust that God will forgive them. They say, “I believe that I'm saved. I believe I'm okay.” Well, that is exactly how Achan trusted God. He trusted God in the perverse way and he also trusted God in the true way. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been marching around that city. He trusted his leadership. He trusted that God would give them the victory. But he also had a perverted trust in God. The sort of trust that did not think that God would punish him. And as we know, the punishment of God, the righteous anger of God, fell upon Achan for his sins and he was killed.

Many Christians will die in their sins. Instead of abiding in Jesus, they reject the words of Jesus. They live a sinful life and they just hope “God will forgive me”. But they never repent of obvious wilful sin. You need to repent of your sins. Whatever sin you're in, you need to repent of it. Come out of sins. Focus on what you need to do to come out of big sins. Don't trust God how the hypocrite Christian or the hypocrite Jew trusts God, just thinking that He will forgive you even though you are in wilful sin. You need to repent. You need to put your faith in Jesus. You need to trust Him that He will be just, whether you are a Christian or not a Christian. Trust Him that He does good for the righteous, but He punishes the wicked. Will you repent of all your sins? Will you live in purity, or will you be like Achan, the disobedient child of God? May the grace of Jesus be with you. 

Is God for Israel or Palestine?

 Is God for Israel or Palestine?

Well praise Jesus today everyone. A lot of you know the biblical story about the destruction of Jericho and how God was with His people of Israel during the destruction of Jericho and how Joshua was as the commander and went in and they surrounded that city and marched around and on the seventh day they blew the trumpet. But before that, if you look at Joshua chapter 5, something interesting happens with Joshua. I want to read this. This is found in Joshua chapter 5, I'm starting in verse 13. 

13And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?” 14So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?” 15Then the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so. 

Joshua then listened to the direct directions that the Lord had for him. And because he listened and obeyed, and because the people were circumcised, then they were able to take Jericho. But when Joshua asked this man, “Who was Jesus Christ being in part with? Whose side are you on? Are you on the side of Israel, or are you on the side of Jericho?” The answer was not I'm on the side of Israel. It wasn't just I'm on the side of Jericho. But Jesus Christ is on the side of the righteous, those who will obey. So the question is, are we obeying Jesus Christ? Are we on the side of the righteous? Are we following the captain of the Lord's army? Whoever is on Jesus's side, whoever is utterly and completely pure, will be able to go into battle and they will be able to win. But those who are not on Jesus' side, if there is uncircumcised among you, when you go into battle you will be slaughtered. 

So the question is, are you completely holy and pure? If Jesus Christ is with you, you will win. But Jesus is on the side of the righteous. He's not on the side of China or America. He's not on the side of Russia or whatever country Russia is trying to overtake. He's not on the side of Israel or Palestine. Jesus Christ, the one true living God, is on the side of the righteous and He is against the wicked. If you read chapter 5 of Joshua, you will find out that all these people that left Egypt, all these Jewish people that left Egypt, they were circumcised. Moses asked for them, or God asked for them to be circumcised and they were all circumcised. God promised them this land flowing with milk and honey.  But what happened? They disobeyed God and God allowed them all to die wandering in the wilderness. Some of them God killed Himself. Some of them died from natural causes, but most all of them died. But their offspring lived on and their offspring were uncircumcised. So if they are uncircumcised and go into battle, God is not going to be for them. 

We have to be circumcised in our heart. What does that mean? That means we cut off from us the things of our heart that are impure, unrighteous, sinful, adultery, fornication, ungodliness, all the kinds of pollution that are in our lives. The children of Israel today again need to be circumcised. The children of America need to be circumcised. Every nation that wants to be part of the righteous team needs to be circumcised. And I think it should be obvious to anyone that has watched the news that the war that is happening is not good vs evil. I think it should be obvious from the clips that we have seen that the people are of uncircumcised hearts. The fight is not holy.

 If we want God to be on our side, we have to have a circumcised heart. That is why Joshua was able to win. It's not that he just had so much might. If you go back and you read the story of the destruction of Jericho, it was supernatural. God asks them to circumcise themselves and none of these people were circumcised even though they were Jewish because they were the offspring. Their mother and their father had died wandering in the wilderness due to their sin. And then the children were uncircumcised. So the first thing they had to do before they went into battle, into war, was circumcise themselves. And then they had to follow God's direction. Has Israel done that? Have they circumcised themselves? Or have they been raving and partying and cutting people down? Have they been doing things that are wicked? Remember Jesus tells that story about the unfaithful servant that says, "It will be a long time until my master returns home." So the servant begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and to drink with drunkards. Has Israel partaken in that? Has America partaken in that? What nations have partaken in that wickedness where they say, “Jesus isn't coming back anytime soon. Let's eat and drink with drunkards. Let's beat our fellow servants and cut them down. Let's live ungodly because God might not exist anyway. Just believe whatever you choose.” 

So much perversion has got into the church. So much perversion has got into Israel. All of us need to be circumcised again. We are the offspring of parents who didn't make it in. And if we are going to go to war, we also need to be circumcised. But this time it is circumcision of the heart. Joshua obeyed God. He circumcised the children. They waited until they were healed. And then after they were feeling better and the warriors were able to fight, they listened to the explicit directions from the Lord. He didn't have them just go in with swords and attack people or with cannons or slingshots. But He said, you go around the city, what was it, one time a day for six days and then on the seventh day you'll go around seven times and then you blow your trumpets or whatever the order was, He gave them very specific directions. And only then after they obeyed the Lord with circumcision and listening to His directions, did they win that battle. 

The question is, is Israel following the Lord today? Can you tell by their words and their actions, by their leadership? How about your country? Is your country following the Lord, His explicit directions? How about your town? Or even more specifically, how about your family? Or even more directly, you? Are you listening to the Lord? Have you been circumcised? Have you repented of your sin? Have you cut off from you what is evil and wicked? And are you now hearing the Lord and listening to His explicit directions? His exact directions? Are you following Him? This will determine if when you go into battle, your enemy will be defeated or if your enemy will defeat you. So the question is for you to determine who will win. 

May the grace of Jesus be with you

Two Kingdoms At War and an Eclipse

 Two Kingdoms At War and an Eclipse

We know that in the end times there will be signs in the sun, the moon, the stars. All of these signs will point to the coming of Jesus Christ. For those that are in the world, they will hate it. They will try to deny it. But those who are with Jesus Christ, they will rejoice because they know Jesus is coming quickly to this world to punish the wicked while giving the righteous the kingdom. We know about the war that's going on that has started in Israel. We know what Jesus said when you see Israel surrounded by armies, know that her destruction is near. This is not a war of good and evil. This physical war is evil versus evil, perverted men fighting perverted men. And the nations get involved with it, trying to make people choose one side or the other. 

By the way guys, right now there is an eclipse going on in California. You can see it actually right at this moment. And these signs are to show us about the imminent return of Jesus Christ, that He is coming, that we must prepare, that we need to be ready for whenever He returns. There is witchcraft going on in my town right now. There has for the last few weeks, serious witchcraft, I mean real witchcraft. They do their seances when the sun looks like this. They try to call on the spirits of the earth. They try to rub their stones in their crystals. And we have to pray against the witchcraft of our towns and our cities. The two kingdoms I am speaking of though, I am not speaking of Israel versus some other nation that is coming against her. But the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of this world. These are two huge kingdoms. And it is the same as the spirit of God and the spirit or the flesh that is in us. These two war against each other. The flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit wars against the flesh. And the one who will win will be the one that you feed, the one that you give authority to. 

The people of this world of course give power and authority to the beast. They give authority to Satan, to demons, to witchcraft. Their prayers are not to Jesus Christ for repentance. But they are prayers to the earth for their own glory, for their own satisfaction. How the economy works and how everything works is the more money you have, the more liked you are. The more that you can give to the economy, the more that you can help your community. The more friends you get, the more powerful you become. And so the better that you look, the more healthy that you look, the more money you can make, the more impact you can have on your community, the more friends you will get and the more people you will be able to influence and the more people want to be around you. They appear to love you, they will do good things for you. You will have all the worldly things, a nice house, a nice car, people that look good around you. But as soon as that crashes, as soon as God takes away the money, then all your friends will leave you and you will have nothing in this kingdom and you certainly will have nothing in the next kingdom, that is the kingdom of heaven. 

These two kingdoms are warring and either you are part of one or the other. Not to say that Christians don't operate in the world, we are in this world but not of this world. All of us have to make money and we have to be men going out and working. But that doesn't mean we do as the world or we chase after money or we serve mammon. The people of this world will do anything for money, power, fame, looks. It's very vain and when everything comes to an end, they will realize that they have no true friends, no one really loves them, no one cares about their soul. And because they rejected God and spent all their time and effort rejecting God, trying to prove God doesn't exist, trying to prove that they don't need Him. When they need God most, God will reject them because they have rejected Him. If you deny Jesus, if you reject Jesus, He will reject you. But if you put your faith in Him, if you submit to Him, if you surrender to Him and become His slave, then He will receive you and He will bless you and you will be His servant and friend forever. We want to be the servants of Jesus Christ. We want to be slaves of righteousness, not slaves to sin and to money. 

Jesus said that you cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and mammon. Mammon is the name of a demon. The demon that says that he will provide for you and that you don't need God. He will give you all the money you need, he will give you the milk and the honey, he will give you all the provision you need. You just have to bow down and worship the devil. If you bow down and worship the devil, then he will be your security, he will give you everything that you want. You just have to sell him your soul. So whatever price that you put on your soul, whatever it takes for you to bow down, the devil will have you do that. He will gladly accept your soul because he knows that he will take you to hell. The end game is to take souls to hell. That's all the demons want. The demons are already going to hell. The battle is already lost for the devil. 

But how many souls can he take with him to hell? How many people can he convince to serve money, to serve the wealth of this kingdom here in this world? How many people can he get attached to things that don't matter, that are only temporary? So many people have their focus on the wrong things. They're not focused on Jesus, they're not focused on the kingdom to come, they're not focused on righteousness. They're focused on all the things that don't matter. And as soon as God points this fact out, as soon as the nations collapse, as soon as there's a food shortage, as soon as there's no more money, all people's friends will leave, all their provision will be gone, they will have no God to cry out to. Even though they were religious and had church, even though they had their communities, they will have nobody come to their aid. Will we serve Jesus Christ? Are we part of His kingdom? Will we be with Him to the end, during these end times? Or have we found our security in the kingdom of the world? Have we bowed our heads to Satan, as the kingdoms of this world have? 

I hope during this time, these end times, that your faith is really in Jesus Christ. I hope that you know Him. Do you know how to pray to Him? Are your prayers answered? Do you know that you have a connection with God because His Holy Spirit is in you? Do you hear messages from Jesus Christ continually because you're His child? Or do you have a severed relationship, you can't hear Him? Have you abandoned your faith? Have you backslid? Have you went into sin? Have you trusted money? Is all your trust in your own arm, in your own provision? As things progress, will you learn that you don't really hear from God, you don't know Him, and you're on your way to hell?

 I hope the times that we live in, this message, I hope something wakes you up to the truth that you need Jesus Christ in your life, that you need to serve Him, you need to serve Him. He's the only one that offers true love, true hope, true peace, true security. All those things that come from heaven. So what kingdom do you belong to? Do you belong to the kingdom of God? Do you belong to His heaven? Or do you belong to the kingdom of the world that is coming to an end? 

Well I want to pray for the true church, for those who will pray against witchcraft, who will stand up against evil, for those that want to come out of sin. “So Lord Jesus, I pray against the witchcraft that is in my town and others during this time of this eclipse, and this war that is going on. I pray that evil will fall, that evil will perish. I pray that you destroy the kingdoms of this earth, the kingdoms of wickedness, the kingdoms of Satan. And we pray that your kingdom, Lord Jesus, is set up forever. I pray for your true church, that they would have strength and power to overcome sin, that you would unshackle them, that they could be set free to be your bond servants, to live in the newness of life with you. I pray that those who want to know you, Lord, will confess their sins, that they will repent of unrighteousness, and that they will serve you with all of their heart. I pray that you give your children the ability to live for you in complete purity, and that they receive the gift of your Holy Spirit, and that they follow you with their actions, not just their words. So we pray this in your name, Lord Jesus, Amen. ”

Don't be deceived by a false image of Jesus

 Don't be deceived by a false image of Jesus 

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 24, "Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many." What Jesus prophesied would happen is now happening. There are many who come in the name of Jesus saying that they have the exact words of Jesus and they deceive many people. 

One of these false Jesuses that has become a false image of Jesus is the widely popular TV show, The Chosen. The other day after I was playing back one of my videos, immediately a clip from The Chosen came up and it was from I think several years back. And it was where Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, which by the way is the crux of the gospel. The Christians all know John 3.16. And in this clip from The Chosen, as I watched, it seemed to be very accurate. In fact, it could fool any Christian into thinking that this image portrayed by The Chosen of Jesus is the true image of Christ. The words were pretty much identical out of John 3.16. The things that they had Nicodemus say were pretty much what you could read into Nicodemus saying or exactly as the Bible renders them. But interestingly enough, at the end of this clip from The Chosen, you get to the point where Jesus is saying that God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world may be saved through Him. And you see in this clip from The Chosen, the video panning from Jesus then over to some of His disciples watching. And the really important thing that Jesus said is then made to be so quiet you can barely hear it. 

But I want to read this portion to you of what Jesus said that's very important and there is a reason why in The Chosen they did not make this loud and clear. It's because it's embarrassing to Christians who are in the world and to Christians who believe that every religion should be included into heaven. It's embarrassing the things that Jesus said. And some of these things that Jesus said, The Chosen completely leaves out because for Jesus to say these things boldly would cut off a lot of people from everlasting life.  I want to read to you what was left out of The Chosen or made to be obscure. And this is John chapter 3 starting in verse 18. "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” This is where their little skit pans to the disciples and you can barely hear what Jesus says. “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."

We have to put our faith in Jesus Christ. There is no other salvation other than in Jesus Christ Himself. You can't put your faith in the Catholic Jesus, you can't put your faith in Purgatory, you can't put your faith in the Buddhist god. There are not many roads to heaven. Jesus Christ and His salvation are the only way into everlasting life. You have to believe His words. But the image that The Chosen is trying to portray and the Catholic Church and the religions of the world is that Jesus was more of a hippie who allows for all people who just believe things about Him to be saved. But the condemnation is that the light, Jesus' light came into the world, but men, because they were evil, did not want to come into the light. They did not want to believe in the one true light of the world, which is the one and only Messiah, the Son of God. The one true image of Jesus Christ is the true image of God. And you have to know His true image. If you receive His Holy Spirit, as Jesus' disciples do, you will know the difference between the true image of Jesus Christ and the false image that is portrayed through The Chosen. If you don't really know Jesus, you're bound to think that the image portrayed by the producers of The Chosen have the true image of Jesus. That will become your spirituality. You will think that watching The Chosen is being close to Jesus. You will think that you're hearing Jesus' words because you're listening to The Chosen. 

And a lot of churches have this same false Jesus set up in their church. It's the hippie Jesus. It's the "Jesus" that accepts all religions. It's the "Jesus" that says, "Once you're saved, you're always saved. You're going to heaven no matter what you can do. I can't love you any more or any less." It's this false image that's been set up in church that Christians and the whole world love. How many Christians love The Chosen and accept it as truth, but are not changed? The Chosen is widely popular. Christians love this. They love the image of The Chosen, but they don't love the image of the Son of God. If Jesus were to truly come to them, they would reject Him. They have received the image of The Chosen. They have received the image of the false God that is proclaimed in their church. But they reject the true Messiah. It is very deceptive. 

If you know Jesus in your heart, if you've received His Holy Spirit, you know the difference between the truth and a fraud. Don't be deceived by false religion and don't be deceived by the false image of The Chosen. Do you know the difference between the truth of Jesus, who He really is, His Holy Spirit, and the lying spirits that are portraying this image, this false image of Jesus that they make to be acceptable to the world? Do you really know Jesus, or have you been duped by Satan? 

May the grace of Jesus be with you.

Is the bible made by man?

 Is the Bible made by man? 

There are some people who disregard the Bible. They say it was just made up by man. Man fabricated it. There are the sorts of people who are always trying to make excuses about the Bible, why not to believe in Jesus Christ. They will say, "The Bible has so many errors in it, I just can't believe it. I can't believe Jesus was a real person because probably people just made up the Bible and it's been changed so much I can't believe it." They have all kinds of excuses to believe and to make themselves believe that the Bible is not valid. They love to talk about how the Bible over time must have been not even close to what it used to be. All of those lies that people have tried to spread around the Bible have been proved to be false years and years ago. 

We know for example when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, the accuracy of what was found at the Dead Sea Scrolls compared to what we have today was virtually 100% accurate. So you can't say that the Bible has just mutated, it's just changed, it's either supernaturally changed or it's been changed by men or it's just been inspired by men. God spoke through His prophets. He spoke through men of God. Men like Isaiah who were filled with the Holy Spirit. People like Daniel. Even Nebuchadnezzar. Even men who you wouldn't think were men of God. They were having dreams and visions and the Holy Spirit was speaking through them. And the scriptures that we have today are incredibly accurate and it's incredibly compelling to bring us to Jesus Christ or incredibly damning if you reject Jesus Christ. 

There is enough about Jesus Christ in the scriptures to send you to hell if you reject Him because the truth is Jesus was a real person. He wasn't a fictional character. And there is a lot of evidence, as much evidence as the world exists, that Jesus was a real person. He lived, He died, He resurrected, He had a physical body and then He ascended into heaven. He paid the price on the cross. The Bible is accurate and the Bible is true. It was not just made up by men and then changed over the centuries as many mockers and haters want us to believe. If you're not sure about that fact, look up the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls that they found date way, way back, much farther than the manuscripts we had prior to that, prior to, I don't remember when it was, 1970, whatever, 1975, 1979, whatever it was. But they compared the scrolls to what we have today and to our amazement, they were preserved and what we have is accurate and true. 

The gospel is true. If you're not sure about the gospel of Jesus Christ, you can be assured that Jesus is true, that He died, He resurrected, and that He is your only hope of salvation. If you're not sure what the gospels are, you can read them. They are the synoptic gospels found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There are slight variants between them. The hand of man testified about Jesus and the hands of man recorded things about the word of God being Jesus. So with men there are always errors. There are some people that like to say that the Bible is 100% accurate, no errors, no spelling errors, nothing like that, which it's virtually impossible to find any Bible with no errors. If you look up Zondervan printing and you look through some of their Bibles, you can find basic errors in pretty much all of their Bibles, I'm sure. But that doesn't mean that the word of God is imperfect, meaning Jesus Christ. 

God had men testify about Him. And the word of men about Jesus Christ is true. The word of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is true. But we also have a living God who testifies about Himself through His Holy Spirit. And He is still doing signs and wonders today. God is not stuck in the Bible. God is not dead. He is not stuck in the walls of a church, or an institution, or a religion. Jesus is alive and if you pray to Him and say, "Lord who are you? I don't know you, I've never known you, I've prayed to you, I haven't heard anything, I've read my Bible, I haven't felt anything. Please reveal yourself to me in a way that makes sense to me." And if you pray with the sincerity of your heart, the living God will reveal to you who He is, because He is alive, and you are His child, He made you. 

We are the sons of God, made in God's image. We're not the sons of Satan. We're not the sons of a demon, or the sons of an alien, or the sons of the creations of this earth, as if earth made us. God made us out of the dust of the earth, but nature itself did not make humanity. Aliens didn't make humanity. Some aloof god that doesn't have a name did not create humanity. But Jehovah God, Jesus Christ, made people. God made people in His own image. He made us body, soul, and mind, as Jesus Christ is also body, soul, and mind. If we want to know the truth, we will go to Jesus, we will learn from Him, and we will accept what the Holy Spirit said through the prophets, and the inspired scriptures that the prophets wrote in the Bible. Believe what the prophets wrote, believe in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, be baptized, put your faith in Jesus, and you will live. 

But if you reject what Jesus said, if you reject the Gospel message, if you reject what is recorded in the Bible, you will also die, you have no hope. There is no hope in dead religion. There's no hope in purgatory, no hope in the Catholic Church. There's no hope in the dead religions of this world. But there is hope in Jesus Christ. And if you repent of your sins, and put sin behind you, and get right with Jesus Christ, He will save you from hell. He will save you from your sins that are taking you to hell. He will give you a new life, and He will bless you. It is not God's will that you go to hell. It is not God's will that anyone dies and goes to hell, but that all of us are reconciled to Him and have life. What holds you back from following Jesus? Stop making excuses and put your faith in Jesus Christ, and you will live.

 

Jesus is the way, not church

Well praise Jesus today everyone. Many of you know my testimony of where I came from. So I was a paid pastor. I grew up in church. My mom and my dad raised me in church. Church and the life in church is not foreign to me, and I'm not preaching against church because I had a bad experience there or because people did not like me or because I didn't fit in. 

But the reason why I preach against American church and the religious church is because Jesus is not welcome there. If we want truth and life, it has to start with a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. And He calls us out of everything that is a lie and everything that is impure. When I was raised in church, when I was younger, I always knew that there was some kind of problem there. But when you are inside of a cesspool, and you've been there your whole life, you start to accept things just for how they are because that is all you know. But when Jesus started showing me that you can come out of sin, you need to separate yourself from things that are ungodly. You don't have to be around people who are manipulating you and controlling you and saying that you have to be in their Bible studies and believe how they do. When Jesus called me out of that, I was liberated from sin and bondage and bondage also to the false doctrines in church. The false doctrine of once saved always saved, thinking that we're going to heaven just because we've prayed a prayer in the past, that we always keep sinning and can't truly repent. I believed a lot of doctrines of Calvinistic theology and all of these ideas that came from my upbringing in church. But when I met Jesus, He set me free from that bondage. 

And church has become bondage because people are attached to their organization and they believe everything that comes out of the pastor's mouth instead of out of Jesus' mouth. And it's interesting because what Satan has done is said, you have to be part of a church because you will die, you're cut off from the living tree if you're not part of a church. But if you go back and you read what Jesus said, Jesus never said that you would wither up and die because you're not part of a church. He said you would wither up and die if you're not part of Him. He is the vine, we are the branches. The church is not the vine. We are the branches, Jesus is the true vine. 

And most churches are not connected to the vine. They're doing everything by the arm of the flesh. They set themselves up like an organization. They make you feel guilty for not paying tithes there. They say you're a second class Christian or you're not even really a Christian at all, you're a rebellious Christian if you're not part of them. That's exactly what the Catholic Church did to Protestants when they first left the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church said, well you're going to hell because you're not paying your respect to us. And then you had all these Baptists and people who broke away from the Catholic Church and the Catholic Church shamed them because they were not part of them. Now the Christian Evangelical Church is doing that same thing again to other people who choose to separate from their ungodliness. History repeats itself over and over again. 

Who will we belong to? Will we belong to the true vine? Or will we get lonely and think we need this false Christian fellowship? A lot of us get lonely and we think, where will I have community? Who will hold me up? Maybe you're divorced. Maybe your children are all grown. Maybe you're looking for some real friendship. And in your life you go to work, then you come back home. You don't want to watch TV. You don't want to pollute your mind. But where else will you go? So immediately you think, it's better if I go to church at least on the weekends so that I can be around some other people who have a similar faith. And so then you get into a church. You start realizing some of the things there you don't believe. There's some things there that are sinful. But hey, they say we're all sinners. And as you start to go there because you're lonely, the devil starts to prey on your soul. And then you become friends and let people into your house that think a little bit differently than you do, that introduce you to certain sins that you once knew were sins. And as they introduce these sins into your house, you start to accept them.

 The closer sin gets to you and your household, the more you start to accept it because you don't want to rebuke things that you allowed into your life. You were the one that was lonely. You were the one that sought out Christian fellowship. You were the one that started the Bible study in your house and allowed these people into your house. So then how can you turn your back on them and reject the friends that you wanted? So now the devil has a foothold in your heart and in your household. This is how Satan steals from you what is truly yours, which is genuine faith in Jesus Christ. This is how Satan severs you off from the vine and you become a branch disconnected from the vine, even though you are plugged into a local church body. 

Too many Christians are lonely and instead of seeking Jesus Christ to fill the void in their heart, they seek after what they perceive as good Christian fellowship, brotherhood and sisterhood. And Satan will prey on you if you are like this. Don't give in to loneliness or temptation or trading a genuine relationship and faith with Jesus for a lonely, depressed feeling that you're trying to fill that void with ungodly friends. The world does the same thing. You feel like you're depressed because you have problems with your wife, so you go out and you drink with your buddies, you go out to the bar, you go do something to vacate your mind so you don't have to think about the reality of your home life. 

That's not ever going to fix the problem. The problems that surround your life are due to sin. You can't appease God by going to church or going to a Bible study or memorizing scripture or listening to a sermon. You can't appease God by the works of your flesh. What you have to do is repent. And the sins that you're in your life, you have to start detoxing those. If you have sins that you need to confess to someone because you've wronged someone, you need to go and confess those and get right before man, and then you need to confess to God and get right before Him. Without making these small steps in your life to reach out to Jesus Christ, you won't grow in your faith at all.

 And a lot of Christians are trying to appease God by church attendance, by Bible study, they're trying to appease God by doing mission trips, by giving money to the homeless, by doing all these things to appease their conscience and feel like they're earning their way into heaven by their good deeds. But they're not reaching God and they know it because they still feel condemned in their heart, they still feel depressed even though they're trying to cover over it with allowing all these church people into their home and Bible studies and getting involved with sports and all these things. All of it becomes a mask, trying to cover over what they are really feeling and sensing inside of them. 

And the Holy Spirit is working on you. Right now the Holy Spirit is trying to speak to you, trying to bring you into righteousness, trying to separate you from the world. If you keep on trying to go to vomit, like a dog back to its vomit, you won't be able to accept the things of Jesus Christ. Jesus calls us to be separate, He doesn't call us to go out and get involved with dead religion. He calls us to be separate from the world, He doesn't call us just to go out and appease our flesh with going out with buddies to the bar and to watch movies and to go just entertain ourselves with things that are ungodly. He calls us to separate from the world, that we can hear His voice and do His work. Apart from Him, that is Jesus Christ, we can do nothing. 

So the question I have for you today is, are you as a branch connected to the vine and truly alive? Are you connected to Jesus or do you just think that you are alive because you're connected to a church? I know many of you feel good about yourselves because you belong to a church, you feel good because you're donating your tithe to the right place, you're keeping up with your Bible study and your Bible reading every morning. But what has Jesus really demanded of us? What has He called you to do? And are you doing that? Are you living holy? Are you standing up for the truth of Jesus or are you just trying to appease a guilty conscience? 

Search inside your soul, pray and say, Lord Jesus, am I really right with you? Is my conscience really clear? Or has my conscience been mutated, warped? Has Satan stolen truth out of me and then messed with my conscience to make me feel guilty about things that you, O Lord, don't even care about? I know you don't care about how I look on the outside or how people perceive me or how often I go to church or how often I read the Bible or how much I have memorized or how many mission trips I've went on. I know, Lord, that you care about my soul and if I am pure before you." how is your relationship with Jesus Christ? Are you holy and pure before Him? Are you really doing His work? Do you know that you know when you stand before Him, He will say, "enter into my presence, my servant who has done my will"? Do you know that your life is pleasing to Jesus? May the grace of Jesus be with you.

Do Christians REALLY Think Jesus is Coming Soon?

Do Christians REALLY Think Jesus is Coming Soon?

Well, praise Jesus today everyone. The question is, do Christians really think that Jesus is coming imminently? Is He coming soon? Since Jesus walked on this earth and died on the cross and resurrected, Christians have been saying Jesus is coming soon, and it's been 2000 years.

So in the perspective of many mockers, Jesus is not coming soon. In fact, I've heard Christians say like, you know, this building is going to be built as soon as Jesus returns. And they'll basically mock the idea that Jesus is returning soon. They'll say it'll happen as quickly as Jesus will return.

And we know that Jesus always said throughout the scripture he's returning soon, he's coming imminently, be prepared. But then you have people that are always mocking. And they say “the world will always go on as it always has. Therefore, we don't really need to be worried.” It doesn't matter if Jesus comes in our lifetime in the way that the Christians think that He comes on the clouds, or if you physically die and Jesus returns that way.

In either case, the time will be up for you. The time ended for many mockers and many Christians who continue to mock God, the end will also come for them. They will meet Jesus when they die, and He will send them to hell. They will not be prepared. It is scary how many Christians mock Jesus. They don't prepare.

They think that the world will just continue on as it always did, and they don't even realize how bad things are getting in the world. Jesus would say, you see the signs of the time, or you see the signs of the air, how the weather is coming. But you don't understand the signs of this generation or the signs of the time that you live in.

And the same is true today. Even though everyone knows that bad things are happening in the world, they still don't understand that what that means for them personally is they need to repent and get right with Jesus. Jesus said this to His disciples in Luke, this is chapter 12.  42And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? 43Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has.

That is the kind of steward we need to be. We need to be preaching the truth of Jesus with our life, calling others to repent, telling others that the return of the Lord is near.

Not mocking what Christians think of how soon Jesus will return and saying, well, Christians have always thought Jesus was going to return in a week and it's been 2000 years, therefore it will be another 2000 years. We can't mock Jesus. He will always have His way and His understanding is not the understanding of men.

So there's a reason why Jesus said He was coming quickly. One of my thoughts on this, that is my thought, is how when you're young, you perceive everything to be going by very slowly. One year seems like it takes an eternity. I remember when I was in third grade, it seemed like it took forever. By the time I got to fourth grade, it went a little bit faster.

Now that I am almost 40 years old and my children are growing up, one year seems like comparatively an hour to what it used to be. And time goes by so quickly, I could say life goes by very quickly. It goes by in a flash. When you look how quickly your life went in the past, you can think through it in a second.

And it's astonishing, the older you get, how quickly time goes. Now imagine if we can think that being only 35 or 40 years old, God being an infinite amount of times older than we are, for Him to say, behold I'm coming quickly. From God's perspective, all these things are happening very quickly. We don't live long at all. At best we live 80, 90, 100 years maybe, which goes by in a flash. And if we don't prepare, who's to say that we will be alive tomorrow? We could die of cancer, a car accident, there's all sorts of ways we could perish. And we have to fear the one who, after our body is destroyed on this earth, can throw us into the second death, which is eternal torment.

And a lot of Christians are not prepared for that. They say in their heart, “well I'm going to live to 100, that's a long time away, it's taking Jesus forever to return, therefore I'm going to live my life how I choose, and then maybe when I get to the end of my life, when I'm 99 years old, I'll repent then.”

I want to read to you what Jesus says about that specifically in this Luke chapter 12, “45But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’” so this is exactly what we're talking about guys, “and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, 46the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.”

Jesus is not this free love hippie, allowing every religion and everyone into heaven and just forgiving them for everything they have done without them choosing to repent. Jesus just said He would cut you in two if you begin to eat and drink with the drunkards, and beat your fellow servant, and if you begin to mock God saying, “He's taking forever, He's not returning, it's not like Jesus says, He's not coming back imminently, He's taking a long time, He's procrastinating, I'm going to go live my life how I choose.”

Jesus literally says He will cut that guy in two. That is a very scary thing. That's not what a hippie free love guy says, but that is what the Lord of all creation says. If you don't get right with Him, if you don't live for Him today, then He will cut you in two and appoint your portion with the hypocrites or the unbelievers. And that servant who knew his master's will and did not prepare himself or do accordingly to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. In other words, if you know what Jesus requires, if you've read the Bible, if you know what Jesus says about repentance and you don't do it, hell is going to be very, very bad for you. The level of torment and the level of your punishment in hell will be much worse for you than the other guy. Look what Jesus says about the one who doesn't know.

“47And that servant who knew his master’s will and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.”

So if you are a Christian that knows what Jesus said, that He is coming soon, and you say, well Jesus is delaying His coming, I might as well sit around and smoke pot, I might as well look at a little porn, I might as well live my life for myself, it doesn't matter, I don't need to talk about Jesus to anyone, I don't know if I believe in God anyways. If you reject the words of Jesus, He's coming back at an hour you do not suppose. Everything will be stripped away from you, and you will have nothing.

Are you prepared for the return of the Lord? Are you prepared to sit before the judgment throne of God? Will He say, “away from me you who commit iniquity?” Or will He say, “enter into my presence, my servant who has done my will”? Have you been telling other people about Jesus because you love Him? Have you been filling your mind and your heart with the things of Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit gives you? Or have you been filling up your heart with the trash of the world? Out of your heart you will speak. If you have been filling your heart, your mind, with things that are good from the Lord, when you speak, you'll be speaking out of that wonderful treasure of your heart that the Holy Spirit has filled up. But if you have filled up your heart with pornography, vulgar language, evil jokes, music that is Satan's music from this world, rap music, rock music, the wicked country music, if you have filled your heart with those things, whenever you go out into the world and you're talking to anyone, you're not a light. What's coming out of your life are those things that you have put in, which is pornographic, sinful and demonic. And Jesus is coming at an hour to judge you that you will not be prepared. I warn you to repent. Repent means to turn away from your sins. Call on the name of Jesus, say, “I am a sinner. I've messed up. I have done evil in my life. I have played the hypocrite and I have not done what's right before God.”

And if you come to Him with the sincerity of your heart, He will forgive you and He will cleanse you from your unrighteousness. But if you have pride in your heart and you say, “I'm going to live my life how I choose, Jesus will come back maybe in several thousand years and I know I have another 80, 90, 100 years left on me. Maybe I won't even die at all. Maybe I'll just be raptured.” Then Jesus is coming at an hour you do not expect, and His judgment will fall on you. And there is nothing that you can say to argue with God. There is no one that you can hire to help you escape God's judgment. There is no lawyer, no advocate. There is no one that can come to your aid when you stand before a holy God.

You need to prepare today. Be like the five wise virgins who had oil in their lamp that were prepared to shine for Jesus Christ. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. Stand up for the truth. Stand up against evil. Stand up against this wicked world and the things that are wicked within the principalities of men. Are you standing up for the truth or are you a coward? Are you an unbeliever? Are you engaging in witchcraft, sin, marijuana, all the wicked things of this world or are you truly separate for Jesus Christ? May the grace of Jesus be with you.