Christian Church Bible Deception

 We'll praise Jesus today, everyone. Christians in our culture today often idolize the bible and act as though the bible itself were the final authority and the more sure word of God. They act as though if we know the bible in and of itself, we're achieving a higher Christianity. They treat the bible as though if you go to bible college, go to seminary, and if you know the bible and study it more, you're getting closer to God because you're gaining and gleaning more knowledge. Christians like to talk about the Bereans and about how they were more noble. They like to talk about Paul’s letter to timothy, about how the scripture makes you wise for salvation. And they have all these scriptures that they cherry pick to speak about how the bible is the sure word of God and how the bible itself is the rock and our security. And their entire church revolves around the bible. The sermons revolve around the bible. Churches pride themselves in being biblical. And afterwards, they have bible studies. And they are constantly searching the scriptures. Yet most of them are never coming to the knowledge of the truth. Now, I would never want to discourage anyone from reading the bible. I myself have a degree. And I went to college to learn the bible. And although I wasn't fully following Jesus at that point, I wouldn't trade my degree. I wouldn't say that I wish I didn't have it. I'm glad that I learned what I learned. I'm glad that from when I was young, my parents encouraged me to read the bible and read the bible with me.

But the problem is, Christians are not coming to Jesus Christ. They're not eating his flesh and drinking his blood. You know, you could go on the internet and ask ai technology anything that you want about Jesus. And that ai will spit it back to you as quick as you can imagine. And if that ai is not coming to you, you're not going to be able to read the bible. And if that ai was trying to do good, it would only bring what the bible has already said. And you could think that that itself is the word of God. But in reality, it's ai spitting back to you its version or its interpretation of how it has read the scriptures or many other interpretations of men that are on the internet. We don't want to be led by a person or by technology, some pastor, some church doctrine. Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us into all truth. You can find that in john chapter 14 through 16. And so we need to understand that all power and authority has been given to Jesus, not the bible, not some man on earth, not just our interpretation, but that all power and authority has been given to Jesus. That's Matthew chapter 28. And we ought to go to Jesus for life, eating his flesh, drinking his blood, learning about his new covenant from him.

What a lot of Christians don't understand is God is alive. Jesus is still working in his people today. And if we have elevated the bible as the final authority. The more sure word of God. Then we have just taken Jesus off of his throne in our own minds, that is. And we've set up the bible in the throne. And now we're worshipping the bible. As if the bible is sitting on the throne. And we're asking ai what these verses mean. We're asking pastors that have their doctorates in theology what the scripture means. We're asking the lexicon. We're studying Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. And trying to figure out from the doctrines of men what the bible means. We are literally worshipping the scriptures. And what Jesus said about this to the pharisees is that they're constantly looking at the bible. They're constantly looking at the bible. They're constantly looking at the bible. They're constantly looking at the bible. They're constantly learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth. The bible is not the more sure word. Jesus is called the word of God. You can learn about his name in john chapter 1. He is called the word of God. And throughout the scriptures, we know that Jesus himself is the word, not the bible. And we know that the rock of our salvation is also Jesus Christ. Jesus gives parables about this. And never was he inferring that the bible itself is the rock. Although the words of Jesus, many of them are recorded in the bible, but the rock is Jesus Christ himself. I want to read this parable to you. From Matthew chapter 7 starting in verse 24. Jesus says, ““therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock” was the rock the scriptures? Was it the bible? No. The rock was God's word, Jesus Christ. We have to make sure that we are hearing Jesus' words and then putting them into practice just as Jesus said in this parable.

26“but everyone who hears these sayings of mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” 28and so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at his teaching, 29for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Today many Christians are going to the scribes, the pharisees, those who know the bible, and they're acting as though the bible itself were the rock of our salvation. That's why they elevate the bible to Godhood acting as though the bible were on the throne. They worship the bible, they praise the bible, but they don't come to know and obey Jesus. Read the gospels. Read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Pay attention to what Jesus said. Eat his flesh and drink his blood. Learn to put his words into practice that you can be led by the one who can give you life. Just studying the scripture and knowing the scripture more is not going to give you life. For many years I read the scripture, but I was still living a life of sin. I did not have life because I was feasting on the bible. But I came to know life when I came to know the author of life, when I came to know God's son, Jesus Christ. Jesus lives in my heart. His Holy Spirit speaks to me daily. I'm led by him. I'm corrected by him. He keeps me on the straight and narrow path even when I’m not sure which way to go. Many days I’m not sure which way to go and I just say “lord Jesus, please guide me. I'm not sure if I should go left or right. So guide me in my decision making. Close doors and open doors. Help me to stay on the straight and narrow path that I don't mess anything up. I don't want to get off even a degree to the left or to the right.” And if we're serious to follow the light of the world, then he will guide our feet. He will guide our path. And we also can be a light to others. Jesus said, “you are the light of the world. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven.”

 so are we living on the words of Jesus Christ? Are we obeying him? Have we put Jesus in his rightful place, on his throne in our life? Or have we elevated the bible to Godhood as the Christians have? In these modern day churches where they worship people on stage, they worship the prophets. They worship bible studies. They worship music. But they don't really worship Jesus Christ with their life. Are we honoring God? Are we pleasing him? Are we living for the light of the world? Are we lights? Or have we been deceived by the Christian culture? I want to pray for you if you're seeking the truth, if you're a disciple who wants to grow in your faith. “so lord Jesus I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters, that they would truly come to know you as the word of God. I pray that we would truly eat your flesh and drink your blood and have life in you, that we could be partakers of your cup, and that your blood would cover over our sins, that we would be made pure and holy, and that our garments would be made white. I pray that all of our stains would be washed away, that we would be left without pride but with humility and truth and justice and all the attributes, that come from our father in heaven. Make us to be the people you want us to be, so that we will be ready for the return of our lord. In your name I pray lord Jesus, amen.”

What's the HEART of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

 We'll praise Jesus today everyone. It's another hot and muggy day in California. But we're here to praise the Lord and to give Jesus Christ glory that we can be pleasing to God and that other people can come into the household of faith, that people might be saved and not end in hell or destruction or throw their lives away. What I wanted to speak about today is the heart of the Gospel. What is at the very heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Now most of you if you are acquainted with my channel most likely you know the basics of the Gospel of Jesus, that Jesus is the son of God, that He Himself is God, and that He came to this earth to save people from their sins, that He lived on this earth until He was about 33 years old, that He had a ministry an earthly ministry where He had 12 disciples and He walked on this planet for three years with those disciples that He called, and He preached the Gospel of repentance, He talked about the kingdom of God. Jesus wasn't preaching the kingdom of church or the kingdom of the pharisees. He wasn't preaching religion or even 10 commandments. But Jesus was preaching the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. He talked about beyond the 10 commandments that your righteousness has to exceed that of the pharisees. Jesus got down to the very heart of the Gospel and He expanded on that with all of the parables about the kingdom of God. So if you're not sure what Jesus came to this earth for or what the parables He taught were all about, I deeply encourage you to read the Gospels and pay specific attention to what Jesus taught, the sermon on the mount, the beatitudes, all of these things. Pay attention to what Jesus said because this is the core of the Gospel. So read Matthew Mark Luke and John. A lot of bibles have the words of Jesus in red, pay attention to those, read it over and over again. Read it for yourself, read it with your children, and read it with your grandchildren. A lot of Christians get really distracted with other people's version of the Gospel, and some of their versions are better than others, and a lot of people's testimonies. One Christian testimony that is true and valid but that a lot of people get distracted with is the testimony of the apostle Paul. As we know the apostle Paul wrote a lot of the New Testament like Ephesians, Galatians, first and second Thessalonians, first and second Timothy and the apostle Paul speaks a lot of things that are hard to understand and you should know that a lot of people misinterpret Paul and they have a lot of reasons why they dislike him. Paul seems to be in some ways against women, so they think or against marriage after someone is widowed. But it's all people's interpretations of what Paul was saying. And they get so wrapped up in what the apostle Paul says and his version of the Gospel, that then they totally are distracted from the real Gospel and the heart of the Gospel which Jesus taught.

So if you want to be at the heart of the Gospel, get to know what Jesus actually taught, acquaint yourself with His words, read the Gospel teach it to your children pray and ask Jesus to speak His truth into his heart because all authority and all power has been given to Jesus. And if you abide in Him and if you eat His flesh and drink His blood like Jesus commands His disciples to do, then you will start to know what is His heart and the heart of the Gospel He teaches. And you won't be distracted by all these other Christian doctrines such as how you should properly dress to look like a Christian or having the correct lingo or going to bible college, you know basically looking like a modern day pharisee. So we want to steer away from all of the Gospels of men, and the doctrines that men create, and get down to the very heart the very basics of what Jesus taught and then grow in the things that He is teaching. Because if we stay connected to Him and keep our eyes on Him, we're not going to go wrong. But the moment that we try to emulate Paul or peter or Timothy and act like these men even though they were our fellow brothers and laborers in the kingdom of God, then we're bound to get a few degrees off from the truth.

 So the first thing I wanted to speak about here is what the Gospel of Jesus is not. Because a lot of Christians are turning people away from Jesus by a Gospel that appears to be the Lord's. But in some ways, it's off and it's just a big turnoff to people. So what is the kingdom of God not or what is the Gospel of Jesus not. Well, a few things that this is not an exhaustive list but a few things that come to mind, one of them the Gospel of Jesus is not about becoming a monk who just denies yourself. If that were true, then there are a lot of religions of the world that practice self-denial to the extreme. And all of the religions of the world that practice this would be getting to heaven if it were just to deny themselves that led to happiness and everlasting life and the plenty that God desires for His children. But self-denial in itself is not the way to everlasting life of course we have to deny our self, pick up our cross and follow the Lord. But there is a false Gospel that says that you will be at the heart of the Gospel if you simply do things that you just don't want to do. So maybe you have recently bought a house and now you feel condemned, because you're living in that house, and you enjoy it, so you feel condemned because you actually like your living quarters. And the devil basically accuses you and says, “well you're not denying yourself because you're living in a place that you enjoy, therefore you need to sell your house or get out of your apartment, and live on the street, otherwise you're not denying yourself properly. And because you're not denying yourself in this manner, you're not at the heart of Jesus.” And that is just not true. Sometimes Jesus would tell people to leave what they have, sell it and to come follow Him. But other times Jesus would tell them to stay in their own town and to be a witness there. So in each case it is situational what we do and how we live out the Gospel. But at the heart of the Gospel is not self-denial. It's not just becoming a monk. Now don't get me wrong there are some people who don't deny themselves, they want to continue to live a sinful life, and that's not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about thinking that you can get to heaven by self-denial in itself, like how monks think they're going to achieve everlasting life by being able to whip themselves or fast for long periods of time or never have any kind of relationship with people just living in a cave, you know those sorts of things.

Jesus didn't design us as humans just to deny all the pleasures of life. That's not at the very heart of the Gospel. But if your idea of fun is immorality, then also you're going the wrong direction. So as disciples of Jesus, we need to figure out how to deny ourselves in a way that is truly denying the flesh things that are evil, but also accepting the blessings of God, because after all God has given us many blessings and things to enjoy if we truly are in His love and at the heart of His Gospel. He's given us children to enjoy if we are parents. He's given us a spouse to enjoy if we are married. He's given these things because He loves us, and He wants us also to love Him and enjoy the things that He is given. So again, at the heart of the Gospel is not this self-righteous, self-denial that some Christians are preaching.

 Another thing, some people think that at the heart of the Gospel is condemnation. They're convinced that God is just going to slay. He's going to kill all men that are evil and send them to hell. And you have this as an example in the bible even the apostles thought this in Luke chapter 9, you could look at it for yourselves, but it's Luke 9:55 through 56, the disciples were trying to get Jesus ready to go through Samaria into Jerusalem. And Jesus was just going to be passing through the town of Samaria. But as we know Samaritans don't really like Jewish people very much and vice versa as well. So when the Samaritans figured out that the that Jesus was actually going to Jerusalem they reported back to His disciples and they said, “well we don't want your Jesus to come here if he's going to Jerusalem.” And they rejected Jesus because He was going to Jerusalem. And so when the disciples reported back to Jesus, they said, “The Samaritans rejected you they don't want you going there should we send down fire from heaven to destroy them such as Elijah did?” And in response to what the disciples were saying, Jesus said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them.”

A lot of times our heart is not close to the Gospel, it's not close to the kingdom of God, because we start going down this road of judgment thinking that God should just kill everyone that's evil. And while there are a lot of evil people that are going to fall under God's judgment, it is not the will of God that anyone goes to hell that anyone perishes, but it is the will of Jesus that men repent of their sins and they don't come under the condemnation of God, but they come under His grace. So rather we ought to be praying for people of this world to repent and to really get to know Jesus because Jesus is love, He is truth, He is not this kind of condemnation where He just wants to kill everyone. Of course, people will be condemned if they stay in their sins and if they continue to rebel against God. But we know as Christians that at the heart of the Gospel is love and righteousness. It's the love of God that wants to save people from their sins so that they can become holy and be in God's presence, not just hoping like how Jonah hoped that Nineveh would just perish. God rebuked the prophet for that because Jonah just wanted the people to die He was upset that God extended them mercy. So if we are going to be God's disciples and at the heart of the Gospel, we need to desperately love the lost world and want them to come to know Jesus because this was Jesus's hope that sinners would come to repentance. God does not love sinfulness. He does not love sinful people. But He does want all people that are sinners to repent and come into the light of the truth. So this is at the heart of the Gospel, guys.

Another deception that I see that people think is the heart of the Gospel when it is not, is that, it's what a lot of the churches are teaching that that somehow God is going to give people freedom in their sins and not of their sins. A lot of churches they have passages posted that say come as you are or we are accepting of all people. They fly the homosexual flag, they're very inclusive acting as if those who commit sin are a race. They don't claim it as sin anymore, and they act as though the heart of the Gospel was to accept sinful people as if they're going to heaven and that God accepts the sinner which is also a false Gospel. There are a lot of Christian churches now that at the heart of their Gospel they're accepting and condoning evil. Because they themselves love evil and they don't want to come into the truth. So we have to get away from that false Gospel that accepts sin and says that we are or God just came to set us free from the condemnation of sin, but that we could basically live in sin ourselves without being condemned.

Okay, another thing that I see that people believe at the heart of the Gospel which is not is the social justice Gospel. There are some groups of people that believe that if we put our faith in Jesus, if we do what's right, then we should be involved in all these social justice projects, and that we should be reinventing what health care looks like, giving money to the poor or getting Donald Trump elected or getting a certain politician elected, and they basically mix this social justice and these political agendas with Christianity. And at the heart of Gospel is not social justice. If that were true, Jesus would have worked to overthrow the Roman government. But Jesus' was not going around trying to overthrow Rome in order to set up the kingdom of God. In fact, when the disciples tried that and they tried to forcibly set up Jesus as king, Jesus quickly ran out of their midst, because He knew their hearts and He took off in the opposite direction. It was not the heart of the Gospel. It was not what Jesus was teaching. And Jesus didn't come to just set people free politically. Now, I know that a lot of people get really heated about that. They're very persuasive. They think that, you know, getting Trump in office or whoever their political candidate is, is the same as the Gospel. But these things are not the truth.

So let's talk about what is really the heart of the Gospel. The heart of the Gospel all comes down to love. Jesus came to this earth because He wanted to save you, He wanted to save me from our sins. At the heart of the Gospel is to save souls from sin and to set them free spiritually, so that they could be liberated from sin. God could not liberate us from sin and let us enter into His holy kingdom unless there was a blood sacrifice. The men of old would sacrifice lambs, they would sacrifice birds, they would have all these sacrifices that ultimately would never be able to perfectly atone for people's sins. And all of these sacrifices pointed to the perfect Passover lamb, which would be Jesus Christ, God's son. And when Jesus came, He died and He shed His blood, that His blood would wash over us, that He could atone or make the payment for our sins, that then He could stand before God with our sins atoned for, that then we could also stand before God if we accept what He has done for us.

So this is at the heart of the Gospel. If we put our faith in Jesus and if we ask His blood to cleanse us, to wash over us, and if we follow Him with our actions, then we will be washed clean. So don't let anyone tell you that His blood won't wash you clean or that you should add something else to this Gospel, such as church attendance or tithing or going on certain trips around the world. Because if you believe in Jesus and ask Him to cleanse you from unrighteousness, you can know that He will wash you clean. The door is open for you for salvation. Those who knock the door will be opened. So knock on the door and ask for salvation, and Jesus will give you the gift of life, the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the Gospel. Jesus saves souls, He gives them peace with God, and He gives us a place to live with God. If we do not accept the offering of God's Son, of what Jesus did on the cross, if we try to enter in by some other way, thinking that religion will save us, that going to Catholic Mass will save us, that paying tithes will save us, then we're missing the point. Because at the heart of the Gospel is to accept what Jesus Christ did and then to fully dedicate ourselves to Him, not to thinking that we're going to be able to be with God because of some just religious practices or joining some cult practice, or doing something of self-denial, like how some cult may tell you that you have to do. Because following Jesus is about hearing from His Holy Spirit and then obeying whatever He puts on your conscience to do.

So guys, this is what I have to speak about today, the heart of the Gospel. I hope that you understand the heart of the Gospel, but again, if you're not clear on what the heart of the Gospel is, the best way to understand it is to pray, to read the Gospels, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John for yourself, and then ask Jesus to guide you, that He would give you the Holy Spirit to teach you and to lead you into all truth, that you wouldn't be deceived by any of the Christian churches today or the people that claim to be brothers or sisters or whatever they claim. Don't be distracted by the world or other Gospels. Listen to what Jesus actually taught and ask Him to continually teach you because He promised you the gift of the Holy Spirit to lead you and to guide you into all truth. Well, this is all I have on that topic for today, guys.

Yes, amen. I pray for those of you that are wanting prayer. “Lord Jesus, I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord who want to come out of evil and oppression, that want to be set free from all the bonds of sin, addiction, whatever it is that holds them in the world and keeps them under the thumb of Satan. I pray that you set them free, Lord Jesus, in your name and that they can truly have eyes that see and ears to hear and a heart that beats for your kingdom, that they will eat your flesh and drink your blood, Lord, and not be discouraged by Satan that constantly comes against us, always either throwing temptations at us or telling us that we're not worthy. I pray, Lord, that we can overcome in your name and not listen to the accusations of the devil or fall into His temptations, but that we can fix our eyes on you, Lord, and overcome in your name. So I pray for my fellow brethren in your name, Lord Jesus, amen.”

Best Way to Evangelize?

We'll praise Jesus today everyone. I wanted to make a short message here on what the best way to evangelize is. Because there are some Christians that debate this and they talk about ways that we should be evangelizing and they say that if you're not evangelizing like how they are then you're not really doing your job as a Christian. I remember there was a few guys in particular that were part of a street evangelism group, and they tried to make me feel really guilty as they did try to make a lot of other people feel guilty for not doing street evangelism like how they do, because they thought open air preaching and using megaphones and going out with their bibles was the way to do it. But as it ends up that's a huge turnoff to me and to many people and doesn't bring the fruit of righteousness that God requires. However there are times and there are spaces that open air evangelism works well that you can go in a public place and preach Jesus and the Lord blesses that. But it depends what the Holy Spirit is leading you to do and it depends where you are. One of the best ways to evangelize that I have found to spread the love of Jesus around and to preach his message is just with simple t-shirts like the one I'm wearing here. You can read this one, but it just asks a simple question and then asks if you're a friend or a foe. So wearing t-shirts is a really good way to evangelize because you can go into a grocery market, you can go into any store you can continue to buy your food and people will ask you about your shirt, but no one's going to kick you out of the mall for wearing a t-shirt. But if you were to go into the mall or into some kind of a restaurant holding a big flag or banner or you know holding up some kind of steak with a message on it, you'd get the police called on you really quick. So it would not be effective and you wouldn't be able to bring the gospel there. So we have to use different methods for different places, but we cannot condemn people for not doing it our way.

Right now there is a lot of condemnation going around by Christians thinking that if they are not preaching Jesus on the internet on youtube or on Facebook, then they must have fallen away from Jesus, especially if they were at one point on the internet and that's simply just not true. If the Lord leads you to go and evangelize on YouTube or Facebook or Twitter or something like that or X, then go and do that, but don't let the devil condemn you that you're not being the Christian that you should be because you're not posting on the internet. And this is a huge deception guys for Christians that have been on the internet. They start thinking that other Christians have fallen away from God because they're not posting Christian messages on youtube or on Facebook. And it just is not the truth.

 The Lord leads different people different ways. He hasn't called everyone to post on the internet. In fact, some people he calls to go far away from the internet so they don't stumble into pornography or just the social aspect that leads people away from God. The Lord has blessed me with many years of preaching on the internet, and i've found that to truly be a blessing. In some ways, I have stepped back away from the internet. For example, I took comments off of my youtube after about 10 years. People still will ask me why I did that. I was led to take the comments down off of youtube because I had a lot of people that were trying to use my page for their place to disrupt, and they were trolls. They would constantly try to cause problems, constantly pestering, and distracting other brothers and sisters that really did want to find the truth. And I found that it was such a blessing to just completely take down comments after 10 years and not have to deal with that.

You know, 10 years ago or so, when I only had a few videos, I could go back through my videos and I could answer people's questions, and I did a pretty decent job, I thought, keeping up with comments. But then after I had a thousand videos and several thousand videos, it wasn't practical for me to anymore go back to videos that I'd made 10 years ago and try to argue with people. It just wasn't fruitful. So I just ended up taking down all of the comments, and that has been a blessing for me. Now, if you have a youtube or if you have a space where you're preaching the internet and you feel led to engage people on your channel, that may be right for you. That may be a great way to evangelize. During those 10 years that I did have comments, I probably spoke to thousands of people and likely left thousands, if not a million comments on the internet during that time on my own page. And there was a lot of good in it. I believe people were encouraged. But after an extended amount of time, it became too much for me to handle. And there was a lot of drama in the comments and a lot of people just cursing and saying things that are not of the spirit of God.

In each of these ways to evangelize, we have to just be led by the Holy Spirit and ask him, what is the best way to evangelize and to reach people for you, Lord? And each of our situations will be different. The Lord is not going to call everyone to go on the internet. He is not going to call everyone to be a street preacher. He's not going to call everyone to Africa. But he may call you just to your own children. You know what? A big portion of ministry that people look over is their own family. There are a lot of pastors who have mistakenly thinking that a bigger ministry or a bigger way to evangelize is their church. And they spend all this money, all this time, and all these resources on trying to evangelize the lost. And their own children are lost. And their own children see the pastor's hypocrisy. And then their own children are committing suicide. They're on drugs. They're overdosing. They're not living the Christian life. And if the parent, that pastor or that leader in the church, was to just look at their own life and realize the people that God had put in their own life, their own children, they would realize these are the most important people in my life. Your children are in your own household for a minimum of like 18 years. And what are you going to do when you stand before God and he says, you know, your own children didn't even follow me because of you. You were spending so much time thinking you were evangelizing in the church or evangelizing on the street that you lost your own children. That's not going to fly with God.

And a lot of people have made evangelism into something that they think they can appease God with, or they can get bonus points in the heaven, brownie points, or somehow earn their salvation. And that is not how God has created this life. Jesus has created us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, but to love our neighbor as ourself. And your closest neighbor in proximity to you is going to be likely your wife, your children, your grandma, your grandfather, whoever those people God put in your life. And they should be the first people that you are witnessing to. Evangelizing, loving, telling about God. As the body of Christ, we should have these people first and not think that we're doing God's work by going far out, doing all these things that seem showy to the world, yet not taking care of the things right around us.

Jesus spoke about this when he rebuked the Pharisees. He talked about how the Pharisees would tithe and they would fast. And how they would give alms to the poor and they would do all these things to the extent that they wouldn't even take care of their own parents. In fact, they would say to their own parents, I can't give you any money. I can't help you because what I might have been able to help you with, I have to give to my tithes and my offering and do my church. And so by doing that, they basically made all the commands of God completely worthless. Their religion is totally worthless. We don't want our belief in God to become worthless or just rituals that we go through or thinking that we're buying our way into heaven by doing ministry or doing evangelism. And it seems a lot of people here now, Christians I mean, are led by guilt and not led by love. So they feel guilty because they don't look like the street evangelist, the open air preacher. And they watch these videos on the internet that seem really showy, they go, man, I'm not doing enough for God. If only I could get out there on the street. And so they leave their family, the ministry God has given them. And now they're flying all across the country to go do evangelism. Yet they have left the genuine and real evangelism and outreach of their own family raising their own children, which is so sad.

 Are we as Christians rooted in reality, the reality of Jesus? Or have we traded that reality and the people that are genuine in our life for false realities, for things that seem good and have an outward show? Or are we truly doing the work, the ministry of the Holy Spirit? Are we taking care of our marriage? Are we working on our marriage? Are we teaching our children every day to grow in the love of the Lord? Are we abiding in God's love so that when we wake up in the morning, we can share the love of Jesus? And minister to our own family members? Are we doing that? Or are we just trying to appease a guilty conscience or even a false guilt because we've seen other Christians do things that seem showy and we want to be like them? It's a big problem to be following people, to be following or trying to look like a preacher on the internet, to try to look like somebody else.

God has created you unique. And if you will listen to him and not be like the other Christians who follow after false guilt or someone else's conviction, then the Holy Spirit can lead you specifically in what you need to do. So to answer the question, what is the right way to evangelize? It would be however the Lord leads you. There's no right or wrong way. It's however Jesus leads you. But you can do it wrong if you're falling into this false guilt or being manipulated by people. There's a lot of ministries that are very manipulative guys. One of those are deliverance ministries. They try to get you involved and they prophesy over you. They claim to cast out demons and they do all these things that seem so showy and they will manipulate Christians to no end. I would stay far away from that. Unless God has specifically called you to do a deliverance ministry and to pray for people and to cast out demons, don't be wrapped up in that stuff that seems showy. Otherwise, you're bound for disaster. It would be better that you stayed separate, like John the Baptist was separate, how the disciples had to separate from the crowd, so that then you could be filled with the Holy Spirit and go out with the power of God instead of being manipulated by all of these so-called Christian ministries.

So evangelize, but make sure that you're being led by the Holy Spirit, not some other man, and make sure that you're not trying to just emulate another person who may or may not be filled with the Spirit of God. I hope this message makes sense to someone. I hope that you do evangelize because we want the lost world to come to know Jesus. We want people, people in our family, our friends, our relatives, people on the internet, wherever they are, we want people to come into the kingdom of God and we don't want God's house to be empty. So there is a right place to go out and to preach Jesus. So don't be discouraged from, what kind of evangelism the Lord leads you to, do that. But make sure that it's really led by the Holy Spirit and that Jesus is with you and that you're not doing it out of some false conviction or feeling guilty because you don't look like the street preacher down the road. I hope that makes sense to those of you who are listening and I hope that you go out led by the Holy Spirit to evangelize a lost world.

So “Lord Jesus, I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters that they will be filled with your Holy Spirit. That they will go out and be a light to the dark world, that they would be an encouragement to family members and friends. And whether it's by good report or bad report, that they would continue to stand in the light of the truth with you, whether they are mocked or hated or shamefully spoken of. We pray that we continue to stand in the light of the truth and that we don't worry what people think about us, but that we concern ourselves with doing, just doing what's right before God. I pray this in your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.”

A True Christian Church is Not Like a Club

 

A True Christian Church is Not Like a Club

Hey, praise Jesus today, everyone. I wanted to share a few thoughts that have been on my heart and mind the last couple of days, and maybe this should be three different videos, I'm not sure, but I'm going to just share some of the things that have been on my heart. But the main idea that I wanted to address is why the Christian church should not be or act like a club. Now, of course, the Christian church of today is exactly like a club. If you've ever been part of a club, maybe you've been part of 4-H, or you've done something with animals, or been part of a golf club, a jeep club, some kind of soccer club, if you've been part of any of those organizations, you get accepted in by the leadership, by the president of that club, praise Jesus, everyone. But how clubs work on earth is there is a president, there’s the leadership of the group, and then they accept you in, you pay your dues,  you show up to the annual meetings and the weekly meetings or the monthly, and then you go out and you do things with your club. Now, the Christian church has become a lot like any other club. And they basically have their weekly or their monthly dues, they call that their tithe, they have their president, which is their pastor, they have their set of leadership, which is their elders and deacons. So they basically look exactly like a golf club or a soccer club or a jeep club or any kind of club that you could name on the whole planet or in the United States. So I want to tell you why a true Christian and the true church should never be like an earthly, worldly club.

The reason for that is because the leader of the true church is Jesus Christ. It is God, not a pastor on this earth. See clubs on this earth are run and operated by men and men accept you into their club and then men kick you out of their club. And that is also how churches work today. If you join their club and you give your membership to them, then you've put your allegiance before the man in that church and you're part of that organization, you're paying your tithe to them and they have authority over you. So you have been paying your tithes and your offerings and your dues to this group and they've accepted you and likely they've been telling you that you're once saved, always saved and you're part of the church because you have come into their membership and their leadership. But truth be told, the true church cannot be like a club because God Himself is the leader and God decides who is part of His true church and who is not. No pastor is God. No pastor can decide who is part of God's church and who is not. And that is the end. God is the end of that.

So if a pastor is claiming that you are part of the church because you pay tithe to his church, that is where he is dead wrong. There are a lot of Christians who pay tithe. They go to a church. They're good members of a church. But that does not mean they're accepted into God's spiritual kingdom, His true church. See God's true church is a spiritual club, if you will, and God is the king or He is the president of that club, not a pastor or the leader of some organization. So many churches have went wrong on this because they literally think that they are Jesus, that they are God. That they decide who is part of the church. And who is not. And that's absolutely wrong, guys. The only one who decides if you're part of His body or you're excluded is God Himself. Jesus knows who His body is and who is not. There are some people that are part of the true church, that is, they are part of the body of Christ and they may be attending a church, a localized church body. They may be part of a club. But most of those members if not all of the members of the localized Church bodies across your town or your city or America are all false. They're all apostate. They don't have anything to do with the kingdom of God. How can they possibly think that they are the ones that ordain who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, how people should understand the Bible, and if they're part of the true church or Not? Jesus said that God is seeking worshippers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. And the true church does not worship in the physicality, in the physical things that you can see and hear and understand in the brick and mortar churches.

That is all a deception. There may be some brothers and sisters there that do love the Lord and who are entering into God's eternal kingdom that are part of his true church, but it's also likely that there is not anyone there that belongs to God's true church. Just because the name Christian is on a building doesn't mean that it has anything to do with the Christian church, because the true church is spiritual. The kingdom of God does not come with signs to be observed, such as man observed them, but it is inside of you. It is in your midst. That's what Jesus said. So we have to get away from this idea that we just do church on Sunday, and if we pay tithes and we join this church, then we're part of the church, and we're going to heaven, we're accepted in the God's kingdom. That's absolutely false. Since when did men decide who goes to heaven and who goes to hell? It is Jesus who decides your destiny. He decides if you go to heaven and hell, and he knows if you're part of his true church or not. So that's one thing that's been on my mind to share with you.

Another thing that has been on my mind is this whole idea that you have to be educated in order to share anything on the internet, including things about God, as if you have to have went to seminary to speak about God. The truth is, to speak about God and to be genuine about Him, you have had to have an experience with Him. It doesn't matter if you went to seminary. It doesn't matter if you're educated or uneducated. It doesn't matter how good of a speaker you are. After all, I make a lot of blunders, guys. I say things incorrectly. I may put a new conjugation on a verb that you've never heard before or just totally mess up on what I'm saying. But that doesn't mean that I haven't had an experience with God. That doesn't mean that I shouldn't be speaking about Jesus. And you are qualified and should be speaking about Jesus if you love Jesus and if you've had an experience with Him. Maybe you have been delivered from sin. Maybe you've been delivered from a sickness. Maybe you were as the guy that had a legion of demons and Jesus set you free. And then He is telling you to go and share your testimony, the word of God in your town and in your city so people repent. The 12 disciples were ordinary men. People realized that they were not highly educated like the Pharisees, but they had walked with God. They had been with Jesus. And even though they were ordinary Galileans and they probably slurred their speech and they didn't sound as smart as other people because they were ordinary. They had walked with God. They had seen miracles and they had understanding because they had walked with the Spirit that brought life. And so don't let Satan tell you you have no business sharing about Jesus. You're uneducated. You don't know the Bible. You don't even know how to speak English that well. Don't let any of that stuff distract you from preaching Jesus, because at the end of the day, what matters is your relationship to the Lord and if you're doing his will. What Jesus wants from you is to be separate from the world, to be living holy and to be making disciples, even if that's just people in your own household.

So this is something else, guys, that's been on my heart because a lot of people are discouraged. A lot of people are beaten down by the devil. They think, well, I can't talk about God because I don't know as much as the preacher. It doesn't matter if as much as the preacher or if you haven't researched as much as brother so-and-so. What matters is if you're praying, hearing from the Holy Spirit and walking with the Lord. If you know the right thing to do, you better share it with your brother or your sister, someone in your family. Go and tell someone about the gospel because that's what Jesus wants us doing in this life.

So those are two of the things I wanted to share. Let's see what the last one was. Okay, here's the other thing I wanted to share. A lot of people these days are leaving church. There's talk about the church exodus, people leaving the churches, and people are asked why they're leaving church. A lot of the young generation doesn't go to church anymore. They're not evangelical. They're not Protestant. I think maybe 10, 20 years ago, 70, 80 percent of the United States, considered themselves Christian in some shape or fashion. But now if you do some research on the statistics or the demographics of how many people are Christians in America, you might find a number as low as 30 percent, 35 percent of people even claim to be Christian. So why is that? A lot of people, if you ask them why they're leaving the church, they will say because they feel that Christians in church judge them because of their sin, and they don't want to be judged because of their sin. And so that's why they left church, because Christians are judgmental. They're always telling you you're sinning, you're a sinner, you're going to hell. And a lot of the younger generation doesn't want to be told they're going to hell, and that is the reason why they left church.

So is that a good reason to leave church or not? Well, for me, I left church partially, possibly due to the exact opposite reason that most of these younger generation people are leaving. I left church not because people were judging me for sin or because I saw all the hypocrisy, but the reason why I left is because of the sin inside of church, not because people were saying you're a sinner, if you smoke pot or if you do this, you're going to hell. But I left church because I knew that there was a lot of sin in church, that was trying to also convince me that sin was okay. And for my own purification and to keep myself pure, I knew that I had to be separate from certain family members, certain friends, certain areas. Otherwise, I just knew that I was going to fall into sexual temptation, fall into just doing things that were unproductive for the kingdom of God. So that's part of the reason that I left church is because of the sin there. The biggest reason I actually left church, however, is because I had revelation after revelation from Jesus to get out of church because church is as a whorehouse. I had this message in dreams, visions. The Lord spoke this so many times to me that to me, it became redundant enough that I was asking the Lord, why am I still having these dreams that church is like a whorehouse? I think I already know this, but I continually had dreams and visions where Jesus showed me that the Christian church of today is like a whorehouse because as a man who is seeking sexual love goes to a prostitute for love that's not real and he has to pay money for it, His children or people in the world are going to this prostitute church, paying tithe, giving their offering, giving their time for love from this false church that is not genuine. So God wants his true people out of the harlot church system, out of this Babylon system, so they're not falling to prostitution. The church of today is like a prostitute to God. And if you continue to pay tithes to the church, it's like you're giving your money to a prostitute. If you go in and you sleep with a prostitute, does that prostitute really love you? Of course not. She's just fulfilling her duty. And the church today is just fulfilling her duty to have you come and sit in the pews and preach to you, to love you. They're just fulfilling their duties and giving you the desires of your flesh or the sensations that you desire so that you will feel good, and those sensations will be tickled. The same way a prostitute is giving a man those sensations, the same sensations that are sexual perversion and not what his wife would be giving him in the holy matrimony of his own marriage bed. So this is what the Lord showed me over and over and over again, guys.

And it's very important to understand that with Jesus, His true church are spiritual people that come into His spiritual church, that spiritually speaking, eat His flesh and drink His blood, and they're separate from the world. So do we belong to this true church that God has set us apart to be? Are we part of this peculiar people that are different from the world that God Himself has set apart and called His children? Have we been called the body of Christ by the Lord or have we just been called a member of the church because we pay our tithes to an organization as a man paves his dues to a prostitute so that she will sleep with him? This is a very profound and stunning analogy. It was very vulgar to me and visually a scary thing to understand how God sees it when I was first coming out of church. But this is how God sees the whorehouse church of today. If you want to know more about Babylon the Great, the great whore, look what it says, prophetic and Revelation chapter 17 and 18, because that is talking about the Christian church of today. And America is included with that, making herself great, coming out with all these prophets, looking like we're a Christian nation to the rest of the world, but living in complete idolatry and hatred of God, living in sexual sin, living in perversion, but acting like we are not blind, poor, and naked in misery. We need to come out of the harlot church system, wherever we're at, and come into the spiritual kingdom of God that we can eat His flesh, drink His blood, and have everlasting life.

So I hope this message reaches you. I hope this message reaches the ears of someone who needs to hear it. Maybe you're wondering, where do I go? How can I be spiritually fed? I want to be a Christian. I want to be a disciple of Jesus, but where do I start? Well, it doesn't start with the American church. It doesn't start with going to a home church. It doesn't start with getting into a Bible study. It starts on your knees in prayer, saying, “Lord Jesus, please open the ears, my spiritual ears, of my heart so I can hear you. Open my spiritual eyes so I can see you. Manifest yourself to me in a way that makes sense to me and give me a heart that beats so I can hear you, and see you, and feel you, and know that you're real, and be shaped to your image that I may be well-pleasing to you.” You need to come into the fold of God, be accepted into His spiritual kingdom, which is spiritually called the New Jerusalem, or the New Covenant, or the Kingdom of God, or Zion. All of these things are analogies of the New Covenant, which God gave to us. He shed His blood on the cross. He poured out his blood so that you could be cleaned, and  from your sins, if you accept His blood, and that He died on the cross, and that He resurrected in three days, and that if you believe in Him, you will be set free from your sins, and you will have everlasting life. But you have to believe in him with your actions. Not just your belief, not just with your mind, but prove it with your feet. Do you love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and are you entering into His kingdom?

“Lord Jesus, I pray for those who are entering your kingdom. I pray for those who want spiritual ears to hear and eyes to see. I pray that the chains of deception can be broken, that your children may truly hear your voice and be set free from dead religion, from the false whorehouse church, from all the things that appear to be godly, which lead to death in the end. I pray that we can truly hear your voice and live on you, eating your flesh and drinking your blood, how you call us to do, Lord Jesus. So I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters in your name, that they may be led by your Holy Spirit, and not by men who deceive. In your name I pray, amen.”

Dream: What Jesus Physically Looks Like

 

We'll praise Jesus today everyone. Last night I had an interesting dream. In the dream I saw what Jesus physically looked like and in this dream I was also describing what Jesus looked like to someone that could have been an unbeliever or another Christian that didn't know. But it's probably what you would imagine. Jesus looks like a man with medium long brown hair with blue eyes and how I saw Him He was wearing white, like a white robe. I'm sure there's a specific name for it. And a red sash. Either He was barefoot when I've seen Him or with sandals. So pretty traditional guys. But in this dream I was explaining to another person what Jesus physically looks like. And what Jesus showed me later was for us on earth this is not particularly important. It's like how the Apostle Paul speaks about how we see in a dim mirror. We see what Jesus looks like very dim and that's how I also see Jesus in a dream. It's not extremely clear. And to explain this it makes more sense. Have you ever thought of what your mother looks like or what your dad looks like? You probably have a pretty good image of what they look like. But if you've only seen someone a few times or if you have a certain friend that you're with every couple times a year, you have an image in your mind of what they look like. But the more you try to dwell on that physical image of their face, it's kind of fleeting. The image kind of distorts in your mind and it leaves. And you can't get that physical image of what they look like again back into your mind until you physically see them and then you remember. Even our own family members that we see all the time, we have a certain image of what they look like physically, but that image is fleeting until we look at a picture. So the same thing is with Jesus. If you try to imagine His physicality and even more so if it's in a dream, it's like how the Apostle Paul wrote about it's like looking at yourself in a dim mirror. But one day you will be able to see the Lord face to face. And in that day you will be able to see how Jesus Christ looks. You will be able to physically shake His hand and hug Him and walk in the light with Him in His kingdom.

But on this earth it's more important that we learn to worship Jesus and walk with Him in spirit and in truth and learn what He is about spiritually. See people are all about physicality because we're in the physical realm, but God is spirit. So we have to learn how to understand spirit and also relay spirit to other people. We could try to tell people all day about what Jesus physically looks like, His hair, His eyes, His garments, whether he's wearing sandals or not. But it's not going to help people repent and live holy and know the righteousness that God requires unless we preach and tell them what Jesus actually requires. So I want to read to you what Jesus said in regards to physicality and spiritualness in John chapter 4. And this is when He spoke to the lady at the well. And this is the important thing that we learn. So I'm starting in verse 21.

21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.”

Jesus is talking about Himself, that He was Jewish and that God gave Him as the perfect lamb as that Passover lamb to wash over all of our sins.

“23But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

We need to learn out this saying in its entirety. How do we worship God in spirit and in truth? People are often looking for just something physical. They want spiritual gifts to look physical. They want Jesus to be described physically. They want to imagine how Jesus physically sounds. But to understand a spirit is much more complicated because you don't smell a spirit, you don't see a spirit with your physical eyes, nor do you hear a spirit with your physical ears. And some Christians always want to talk about the physical elements of God. But as disciples of Jesus, we have to learn how to worship God in spirit and in truth. And this does not happen or it's not achieved by going to a physical building called a church or just opening the physical Bible. We have to learn how to receive Jesus into our heart and then hear from the Holy Spirit. This happens supernaturally. It's not something that we can make up or we can't just bring the spiritual gifts of God into existence. But what we can do because we are physical and spiritual, and God created us both physical and spiritual is we can pray.

We can with our spirit, we can pray to the Holy Spirit and we can say, “Lord Jesus, please manifest to me and speak to me in a way that my spirit can understand, that I can know your truth in my heart and I can distinguish the truth of your spirit and know how to distinguish that from all the lies of Satan, all the imaginations that I have in my mind, all the things that people say. I want to be able to distinguish the truth of you, Lord Jesus, the truth of your Holy Spirit verse all of the things that are not true that I'm hearing in this world.” And if you can just start praying simple prayers like that and asking the Lord to help you distinguish and understand His voice and His spirit, then He's going to give you that gift of the Holy Spirit. He's going to give you discernment and understanding. And the more you practice what is right, the more He will bestow on you the gift of the Holy Spirit and fill you with His spirit instead of you being filled with worldly information, worldly wisdom and worldly things that are sinful.

So we need to make sure that we learn how to do this, to worship God in spirit and in truth and then be able to be a light to others and describe the God of our worship and how we worship Him in spirit and in truth, because we don't worship Jesus how Catholics do, how they have a little Jesus set up on a pedestal and they're worshiping all these idols of saints, of angels and of little icons of Jesus at their church. We don't do that. We're not into idolatry or how different religions of the world do, how they have little idols and they set up their idols in their living room and they worship these idols. We don't do that. We don't make an image to our God and bow down to that image that is idolatry. And the Lord has called us not to do that, not to make a graven image in His name, not to be bowing down to an image that looks like Jesus. We need to be worshiping God in spirit and in truth.

And the same goes for when we pray. You hear a lot of more charismatic Christians speaking about how they hear God in an audible voice. While it is possible that the Lord speaks to you in an audible voice, we have to learn to hear the Holy Spirit in the spiritual realm. And it's very dangerous to think that you as a Christian will just always be hearing God in an audible voice or waiting to hear God in an audible voice. And the reason for that is there's technology on this earth and demons can also speak audibly. So it's easy for someone to think that they heard something audibly when it's actually just from human technology or it's a demon that's speaking in your ear. So when the Holy Spirit speaks to us and when we've learned to hear His voice and we've learned to worship Him in spirit, a demon can't get down to that level. When we know how to distinguish God's voice from an evil spirit or technology of a human or something just speaking into our ear, then we're not going to be deceived because we know the voice that we hear inside of the bottom of our soul, only Jesus can speak there and we have learned His voice there and we will only communicate in the private secret place with our God there. It's important that we learn to hear Him and worship Him in spirit and in truth. That way we are not deceived. A lot of Christians will be deceived when they're hearing some kind of spirit speak into their ear or technology or thoughts they've heard from other people throughout the day and they perceive it in their ear. We need to make sure that we're hearing the Holy Spirit deeper than this in the very core of our soul and our spirit and knowing the God that we serve in spirit and in truth.

So don't be deceived by physical things, physical manifestations. A lot of Christians are just looking for an outward proof and they think that they're going to make disciples by telling people about all these physical things, the physical church, opening a physical Bible, talking about what Jesus physically looks like, physical manifestations of demons and all these things that seem on earth to be sensational but doesn't bring about righteousness that God requires. We need to start really telling people about the righteousness and holiness God requires. He wants us to really repent of our sin, to put on our white robes, to touch nothing that's unclean and to be serving Him with all of our heart. And unless we're doing that, we're not going to be pleasing to God. So let's learn how to worship God in spirit and in truth and receive Him so that the fruit of the Holy Spirit can be displayed through us and we can be a light to others that when they see us, they can understand how Jesus manifests and dwells through us. We are the physicality of Jesus on earth.

Are we learning to understand how to worship God in spirit and in truth? As for myself, I want to continue to have a prayer life where I learn to hear the Lord's voice, where I grow in the depth of my faith and I'm not deceived by physical things in this world. So I want to pray for those of you that want to see spiritually and hear spiritually and worship God in spirit. “Lord Jesus, I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters who also are coming out of the world, who also are putting on purity and preparing themselves for the wedding supper of the Lamb. I pray that they can learn to worship in spirit and in truth as all of us that are your children are learning to hear your voice and to understand who you are in spirit. So please grant us ears to hear and eyes to see and grant that we may have wisdom beyond our years and understanding that we may please you and worship you on this earth and that we can manifest the things of your Holy Spirit on this earth so that people can see and give God glory and repent of their sins and come out of the darkness and the demonic things of this world. Let us be separate and touch nothing that is unclean, nothing that is dirty or wicked or impure. Let us be your holy children, sanctified for your purpose, that we can please you, Lord, in our life and bring about the righteousness that God requires. We want people to enter into your kingdom and have everlasting life. We pray this in your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.”

Don't grow tired or get distracted

 

Don't Grow Tired or Get Distracted

Well, praise Jesus today everyone. I just wanted to make a short message of encouragement to anyone that is wanting to follow Jesus Christ. And that message is not to get discouraged or distracted in the times that we're living. It's easy for things to distract us like the presidential debates or what's going on with the election or just simply the heat here in California. But with all these distractions and things going on in the world, Christians tend to start to lose perspective or they think that Jesus isn't with us or that Jesus isn't still moving and they stop living full heartedly for the Lord. We need to remember that Jesus is always with us, but we also have an enemy that is always looking for the perfect opportunity to get us off the straight and narrow path. And whatever he can use to get us off the straight and narrow path, he will use.

And a lot of Christians, because they feel like Jesus is not with them, or they don't feel like loving the Lord, or they don't feel like loving their wife, they just give up. And they stop following Jesus with all of their might. We have to remember that following Jesus is about enduring with Him, and love is not just a feeling, but it is an action. A lot of us, when we first get married or when we first fall in love, it starts with those feelings of love. And as we grow in our relationship with one another, with our spouse, those feelings deepen until we start to realize how love is actions and deeds, it's not just feelings and sensations. And the same thing is when we are deepening in our faith with Jesus Christ. It's not all about feeling like Jesus is with us, just feeling that we are, how would be the right way to put it, you know, just feeling that we're good in our relationship with God. But it's about doing good for Jesus all the time, even when we don't just feel like doing it. I think a lot of Christians are very distracted by things that just feel sensational, that feel epic, that feel really big, and that's why all the young crowd gets so distracted by what seems like something big in the Christian church is happening. You know, if there's a big tent revival, or a big preacher, or a big band that's coming, they want to be involved with that. But those are things that we should not let distract us, because it's a very surface level love. Certainly some people can get inspired through a preacher, or by any of these things that can inspire us, but really we need to let love turn into an action where we are by our own choice choosing to love our family, love our wife, and love the Lord our God, that is to love Jesus, with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And instead of it just being this fleeting feeling to where a feeling can be with us, or a feeling can be gone, now it's a daily choice that we know we have to hold on to, and choose to do good, choose to overcome, choose to love, choose to be the man of our marriage, and endure with Jesus in that way. And when we do that, we can continue to overcome. Sorry guys, I always think I have my phone down, and then it ends up being a distraction. Here we go. So we have to move on from the very basic feelings of the faith, just feeling like we're Christians, feeling like we're doing good, to actually pursuing love with our actions and deeds and with righteousness every day. And that's what it's about, being able to go forward in faith, and not just getting discouraged, and not just stopping on the faith because we don't feel like serving God today, or we don't feel like there's Christians out there that are listening. At the end of the day it's not about how we feel, but what we are actually doing for Jesus with our actions.

So I want to pray for those of you that want to overcome, that want to have Jesus' love in your life and in your heart, and that love would really become more than just a feeling and a sensation, but actions and deeds that are in you, so that you can love others the way Jesus wants you to, that you can be separate from the whole ungodly church circle and Christian circle that thinks it's all about a one-time prayer, that thinks it's all about feelings and these big movements that they think are so epic, but in the end it just created a very short feeling for people. So “Lord Jesus, I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters who may be discouraged, who may be tempted to fall away or fall into sin, and I pray that we can put on righteousness and truth, and that we can have the endurance and everything it takes to continue to run the race of faith with You, that we can endure to the very end, that we can be men in our marriages and just true men of faith that can endure and really love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, to love our neighbor as ourself and to truly lead by example. We pray that Your Holy Spirit is filling us and in us and that we know that You are always with us even when we don't feel like it. I pray that we can always do the right thing even when we don't feel like it and that we can continue to push into the Kingdom of God and that Your power would be in us, filling us and that Your strength would be in us to continue to overcome. So I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters that want to push through to overcome sin and temptation and all the distractions of this world. I pray for them that You would give them true life and liberty in You and the power over Satan and the demonic kingdom, so that they would be set free from that, that they would be able to see clearly and be full of life, and as they eat Your flesh and drink Your blood that they would have new hope and new power and that they would have authority to preach You and to live in You Lord Jesus and be completely holy and pure that we could be lights for You Lord. We pray to truly be salt and light and not grow dim but have the power of the Living God in us. I pray this in Your name Lord Jesus, Amen.”

 I hope I can be an encouragement to someone out there to not grow weary. A lot of people are just distracted, they are burdened by their demons, they are just getting overcome by the devil. But if we continue to pray and lift each other up and stay firm in prayer and stay on our knees, the Lord will continue to renew our strength and that's what we need. A certain brother in the Lord asked me the other day, “how do we receive that oil if it's not going to church? How do we receive that oil?” And that oil of the Holy Spirit comes when we pray. You know Jesus says that if we knock the door will be opened. And that is knocking and asking Jesus to give us His Holy Spirit that He would come into our heart. And He says that if we knock, He's not going to give us a serpent or a snake or a scorpion or something like that, but He will give us the better gift of the Holy Spirit.

So if you're trying to overcome a temptation or if you know you have demons coming against you or people are slandering you, you know you have Jesus on your side. You know that He is there with you even when you don't feel like it. He's never going to leave you or forsake you. And if you knock, the door will be opened to you. He's going to give you the way out because He is the way. He's the way out of sin, out of darkness, out of the evil of this world. He didn't promise that it would be the easy life or that you wouldn't suffer persecution or have hard things happen in your life. He never said that you wouldn't go through sickness or you know nothing bad would happen to you, but He promised to be with you and with me even to the very end of our life.

And so we need to hold on to that hope that Jesus is going to be with us and that He as the way, if we hold on to Him that we are going the right way. So be encouraged that Jesus Christ is with us. He shares in our struggles and He's always there to help us overcome and to give us the way into life.

Well, praise Jesus everyone, I see your comments coming in. Continue to endure no matter what, even when you don't feel like Jesus is with you. Continue to be a light however you can.

And don't be distracted by anything that's going around on the internet, a conspiracy theory. You know people go down all these different rabbit holes and then they get more and more discouraged. The news is discouraging, the things people say can just be so discouraging, but if we can push all that out and allow Jesus to speak into our hearts, then we, that is when the oil goes over us and fills us and we have that oil in our lamp. And we always want the oil of the Holy Spirit in us. We want to be eating Jesus' flesh and drinking His blood. We don't want to be coming empty, we want to be filled with the glory of God. We want to be salt and light to our neighbors. We don't want to be saltless and a light that's growing dim. So keep praying, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and keep enduring with the Lord and don't let anything take away your joy.

False Revivals and False Christs

 

False Revivals and False Christs

We'll praise Jesus today everyone. One thing that our Lord Jesus warned us about in the end times were false prophets and also people going around claiming to be Christ or claiming to have salvation. And that is exactly what we're seeing today. We see a lot of Christian churches and the Christian culture claiming that they're having these revivals, they have these prophets, revival meetings, and you see a lot of people attracted to this because it has the appearance that something big is happening. And a lot of these revivals that you see with the young people, it's mostly all sensation. It's all about feeling, it's all about going to the altar, lifting your hands, singing all these so-called worship songs. But in the end it has nothing to do with true repentance, a true word from God, and real change. It has everything to do with just feelings, sensations, looking good. And this is a huge deception within our Christian culture. So many times throughout history there have been these so-called revivals. There's a preacher that comes along and says “all these people are spiritually dead, we need to revive”. And the so-called revival does not bring about the repentance that God desires for us. Remember that Jesus said, where the vultures gather, there the body lies. It's like a dead body. A lot of these Christians are spiritually dead, and all the vultures are like the demons gathering around there. And people go, “oh look, there's something going on”. And people flock to these meetings because the people are saying, “Jesus is here, he's in the inner room, Jesus is there, you're going to have to go out to the desert to meet him”. And we were specifically warned about this, that he's not going to be hidden in the inner room somewhere, he's not going to be tucked away on some college campus that we have to go all the way to Texas, or all the way to the East Coast or the West Coast to be able to get a peep and see Jesus. But in the end times when the Lord is returning, it will be evident, as much as lightning you see going from the East to the West, so will the return of the Son of God be. We're not going to miss it. And if we truly are Jesus' disciples, then we will be looking up, our redemption draws nigh. And instead of thinking that we need to join in one of these revivals, or one of these big prayer meetings, or getting involved with a prophet that's in America, rather we have to seek Jesus in our hearts, because we know this is a spiritual kingdom.

The kingdom of God is in our midst. It doesn't come with the signs such as men perceive it, that it's a physical kingdom that's being built up in Africa, or built up in America somewhere, but it is in our hearts. And if we truly repent and give our heart to Jesus Christ, then he can start working inside of us and be changing us from the inside out. The problem is most people are looking for sensational music that they're calling worship music, sensational stories about Christians that are persecuted, or Christians that came from a hard background and gave their life to Christ. They love this kind of entertainment, but it's not creating any change. Don't be looking for the perfect prophet, or the perfect speaker, or the perfect pastor, or the perfect church with worship arts music. This is the thing that Jesus warned us against. Instead of running after these things and trying to find the next revival, seek the Lord and ask Him what you need to be doing in these days.

We know that the end is near. We're living in the end times. Our death could be tomorrow. If we live it should be for Jesus Christ, and if we die it should be for Him. And instead of trying to just preserve ourselves and hide, we ought to be shining as a light for the world to see and calling people to repent that the Lord's house may be full. We want the wedding supper of the Lamb to be full of people so that God's kingdom can be full of guests, that it won't be empty. When Jesus tells the parable, He says “none of those that are originally invited will be able to make it in”. Those original people were the Jews. They were people that said they knew God. They knew Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were God's chosen people. But they despised Jesus. They rejected the chief cornerstone. They threw that out. They didn't want anything to do with God's salvation. And so salvation was then offered to Gentiles, people that are not Jewish by blood or descent.

But spiritually, if we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we have that same faith as the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And we put our faith in Jesus Christ and we also will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and come into this newness of life, this new covenant that God has created with all of those who want to enter into His kingdom. The blessing is for you. It is for me. It is for all nations. Anyone who will put their faith in Jesus, believe that He died on the cross, that He resurrected and that we should now do the works of righteousness, not living in the old sinful life, but throwing off all the things that are sinful and ungodly and living holy, living righteous and calling people to be disciples, starting with our own family. We need to make sure that our own household is in line, that we're teaching our own children about Jesus. So are we being transformed from the inside out in our own households or are we deceived like these Christians in the pop culture that are always looking for what's trending, always looking for what's cool, what sounds good, what's sensational? Are we always looking for Jesus in the inner room? Are we deceived by that or are we really seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, His kingdom in our midst, that is in our hearts?

I want to pray for those of you that do want to put your faith in Jesus, that want to overcome this world and by overcoming be part of the next world that is Jesus' kingdom. “Lord Jesus, I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters across the world. I pray that they can truly be called out and unshackled from all of the bondage of this world, all sin and evil and demonic influence. I pray that they can truly be set free of those things, that they could put their faith in You and not have the worries of this world, but the things of this world will grow dim in the light of Your glory and Your awesomeness. I pray that You fill us with the power of Your Holy Spirit and that we can walk in the newness of life with You, partaking in Your new covenant, that we can be washed by Your blood, that we can drink Your blood and eat Your flesh and just be part of You, Lord, having Your cup and eating Your supper. I pray that You be with us and let us just be light and salt, shining for You and preserving what is left, that more people may enter into Your kingdom and have everlasting life. In Your name I pray, Lord Jesus, Amen.”

Things You Wouldn't Think Exclude You from Heaven

 We’ll praise Jesus today, everyone. I wanted to make a simple message on something that will keep us out of heaven, but that a lot of us haven't thought of. When we think of being excluded from heaven, we think of blatant rebellion against God, things like drugs and alcohol, cheating on your wife, murder, all the lusts of the flesh that we know are evil, all the things that are contrary to the Holy Spirit, and things that the Apostle Paul lines up. In one of the Apostle Paul's letters, he talks about the fruit of the Spirit being love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. But then on the other hand, you have all these things that are the fruits of the flesh that lead to hell, you know, lying, cheating, hatred, murder, envy, selfishness, all of those things that we know lead to hell. But there is something else that Jesus talks about quite frequently that we also need to pay attention to, because even if you're not sinning in this way, this one thing can still keep you out of the Kingdom of God. So what is it? We're going to read the parable that Jesus spoke about this, and I think that you'll understand as we read this parable what Jesus is talking about. This is found in Luke chapter 14.

Jesus said,  “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, 17and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ 18But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’

So the question here is, is it evil to buy a piece of land? How many of us have bought a house, or rented an apartment, or bought a new property? But that is an excuse that this person's making.

19And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’

So how many of us have bought a vehicle, or went out and bought a tractor? How many of us are farmers, or take care of the land? Maybe you bought a cow, a horse, you bought something, and it was an excuse to go out and use that piece of machinery, because after all it was a good cause, you're taking care of your family and others, and it's for your work anyway. So the first guy bought a piece of land, please excuse me. The next guy bought a yoke of oxen, please excuse me.

20Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’

So another thing that sounds good, you're getting married, so please excuse me. How many of us have been in a relationship, or gotten married, and that also distracted us from doing God's work? So this person also made the same excuse,  I'm married, I can't come.

21So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ 22And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ 23Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’ ” 

That is a scary thing that God is saying, because these people that are excluded from His Kingdom, that don't get to see the wedding supper, they're not excluded for looking at pornography or getting drunk, they're not excluded for murder or lying or cheating on their wife, none of those big sins that we think of, their sin that kept them out of the Kingdom of God was their wife getting married, paying attention to their wife, but not doing the work, not coming into the wedding supper of the Lamb. They bought something for their work, to till the field, they bought a tractor, they bought a new vehicle, they bought land, and all those things in the world seem good. But these are the things that are keeping many people out of the Kingdom of God, and the scary thing is that God says, all those people that were invited, yet they fell into the trap of those things and were not fruitful, none of them were invited to actually come into the wedding supper. This represents Christians who were invited by God to come in and to dine with Him and to eat His food, yet they always made excuses, they always said, “I'll serve you later God, first let me go to college, first let me get a job, first let me get married, first let me buy a car, first let me buy this property.” And they grew up, they did get married, and God was patient with them, they bought a house, God was patient with them, but they continued to say, “I'll serve you later God, I'll be a testimony for you later God.” And they went their whole life putting God in the back of their mind, and putting off God, they would say, “well let me serve you once my children are grown”, and then they would say, “well actually God, let me serve you after my grandchildren are grown, so they continue to make excuses about their wife, their property, their house, their job”, and all of these things seem good, it's not what you consider to be sin. But this is what Jesus says will eliminate people from the Kingdom of God, He says that none of those who are invited that do this will enter into His Kingdom.

This is scary guys, because this means that we have to go above and beyond just stopping on sin, we have to be fruitful, and not let these things of life choke us out. Remember the four soils, within these four soils, sin of course choked people out, but also the worries of the world, the desire of riches, all the pleasures of life, these also choke people out, especially Christians. So if we want to enter into the Kingdom of God, we have to be producing good fruit, which means we're praying and asking Jesus how to best serve Him, how to use all of our resources to glorify Him, and not just putting God off, or saying, we’ll do your work later, because I've entered into this marriage, so I need to take care of my wife first, I can't serve you God, or I have this work, my new business, so I can't serve the Lord. We need to make sure that we're really seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

I also need to keep myself in check, you need to keep yourself in check, none of us are above the words of Jesus. We need to make sure that we are listening to what Jesus said and putting it into practice. Are we living by the Word of God, are we eating Jesus' flesh and drinking His blood like He has asked us to do? Or are we like the Christians that go out and they're always making excuses why they can't follow God, why they can't preach the gospel, why they can't tell their children about Jesus, why they can't be separate from the world? Are we the Lord's children bearing good fruit daily and hourly, or are we about to be cut off because we're so wound up in the world with things that look good that were unfruitful for the Kingdom of God? May the grace of Jesus be with you.