Well, praise Jesus today everyone. I have a short message that I wanted to speak about today, and I thought this live video would be a good way to do it.
I have been very blessed to grow up in a family and to have been raised by parents who virtually had no social front. And what I mean by that is my parents and my family were exactly the same person in the public eye as they were in their private life. They didn't pretend to be someone that they weren't. They didn't try to portray themselves to clients or to people at their church as something better or something different than they actually were. And because I saw this in my life, even as a kid, that is what helped develop me to be honest, truthful, even if there were times in my life where I was distant from God. I was always honest.
What I realized though, as I went throughout life, is most people are not honest. I want to give an example of something that I noticed later on in life, and this took me a while to catch on to. And I think a lot of people just automatically knew how to do this, at least in the world, and that is to put on a face that everything is good or act like you're more friendly than you actually are to people, or always be smiling when you don't feel joy.
For me, that was never something of who I was. I don't smile if I'm not having a good day. And if I'm telling you something serious, I'm not going to be smiling and waving and acting with a false joy. I'm just going to say it as it is because that's who God has created me to be.
But I want to give a certain example so it would help put in perspective what I'm talking about. I graduated from high school with a class of about a hundred other kids, and those students all went their own way. Some of those students, once they graduated high school, went out and wrecked their lives. Some of them likely committed suicide, or they got on drugs, or they overdosed on drugs and alcohol. They wrecked their lives.
Some of those people that are now adults, they're now 40 or so. I see them around town. In particular, there's one guy who graduated from my same high school class, and he's homeless, likely due to drugs and his addictions. That guy never looks anyone in the face. He's always looking down and will never acknowledge anybody.
There's another fellow, however, that acknowledges everyone. If you go to the post office, or you see him at the supermarket, or anywhere in a public place, "praise Jesus today everyone." This guy is always smiling. He's always happy. He's always recognizing other people. Likely he would remember your name if you have spoken to him one time.
Early on, I started to wonder, what makes this guy different? Is it Jesus that makes him different? Because I'm pretty sure he's not a Christian. So what makes these people different?
I started to realize, even from a young age, that what makes these particular people different isn't that they've been changed by Jesus, but what makes it different is that they are in the public eye and they own a business and they're trying to bring in customers into their business.
This particular guy that I'm talking about, he owns a bar and grill and a lot of people know him in the community. People go to his shop and he wants people to buy his stuff, to buy his food or his products or whatever it is that he's selling. But it has nothing to do with him being a Christian, why he's friendly to others.
But it does help you in the world, I'm saying, to be friendly and joyous and to put on a false front, even if you're emotionally depressed and all of those things. It helps you to appear to be happy and joyous and friendly to others because probably 80% of people, if you're friendly to them, will be friendly back to you. But that has nothing to do with the true joy of Jesus Christ.
Why am I saying this? This is because the world has truly changed what it means to practice the golden rule. The golden rule is to treat other people how you want to be treated. And the reason why you would do that is because our Father in heaven is love. God loves us unconditionally in the sense that even if we're evil, He does good to us. He loves us even though we are corrupt and wicked people, and He hopes that we repent of our evil and that we come into the light of the truth and that we also get what it means to love others—not with a pretense, not because we own a shop and want to look good to other people—but that we just love others and treat others as we want to be treated without this pretense, without wanting something in return.
Even from a young age, I noticed these guys aren't Christians, that they're not caring to be godly. So for me, I had to figure out, why are these people being so nice? And when it hit me, it made me upset. The people in the world are only being nice. They're only being caring for what they will get on this earth.
To them, everything is about this earth—how much money they get, how much respect they get, how popular their business is, how good they look before men. But they don't care about Jesus and His kingdom. They don't even believe He exists. To them, Jesus is no different than Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or something like that.
But for us that actually know Jesus as our Lord, we want to do everything as unto the Lord, not for this other reason of getting people into our business and trying to look good to the community so it helps us get more money and more security in this world.
I hope this is making sense to someone, because most Christians are not living for the kingdom of God. They're living 100% for themselves, and they're deceiving you. They're deceiving other Christians into thinking they're good brethren, they're righteous people because they appear to be joyous.
And I'm telling you, almost all Christians are fooled by this. They think that because a pastor or a preacher or someone in the community has a good smile, they must be a real Christian. And because they open the door for the ladies and they don't cuss, they must be a good Christian. They must love God. I'm telling you, this is not true.
Even evil people love their own. Friends do good for friends. But Jesus calls us to go way beyond that. If you read what Jesus says, He says, "love your enemies, pray for those that persecute you, do good to those that don't do good to you. Go the extra mile."
We know what it means to be a Christian, to be a Christ follower, but the amount of people that are actually practicing this—turning the other cheek, giving to those that ask—is almost close to none.
You will find people in the community that give to those that give to them. They love those that love them, and they smile at the people that they know may come to their business. But if you are poor, they're not going to care about you. If you're someone that can't help them out in the world, you are worthless to them.
This is not how the kingdom of God works. Jesus calls us to help people that can never give back to you. When's the last time you thought about helping someone that wouldn't help your business or wouldn't make you look good—possibly even would make you lose business if you associated with them? Probably never.
So we need to make sure that we're not showing partiality towards others, that we're not putting on a false face just to look good in the community to boost our own businesses, and that we're really loving others because Christ Jesus first loved us and we're trying to demonstrate that love to other people that they may also come into the kingdom of God. God doesn't want us just to call the rich people or the people that look good. When Jesus called out in that parable of who the people should go and bring into His kingdom, He says, "Call the lame, the blind, the poor." You're basically calling anyone out on the streets. Gather them. Bring them into My kingdom.
And we want to call whoever will listen to come into the kingdom of God, that the supper may be full, that there will be people with Jesus.
I want you to think for a minute from Jesus's point of view. You have a business, and that business is saving souls. And you don't just give a few dollars to this business, but you actually give your own blood, your own blood and guts, you give to your business.
Jesus was sent to earth by His Father, not just to mess around, not to just play or to look good or just to preach a few sermons to boost His ego. But Jesus came into this world to show us what true love really meant. And then He went all the way to a brutal cross, a Roman cross, where He died and shed His blood for this business, if you want to call it that, so that then He would reap the reward for what He did.
He didn't just go to the cross because that would be fun. In fact, He even prayed before He went, pleading with His Father that He wouldn't have to do that. He said, "Father, if there's any other way, let there be some other way that I don't have to drink this cup." But His Father didn't let Him. He had to drink the cup.
And so Jesus drank that cup of death. He sweat blood. He died on the cross, and He paid for all of our sins with His own blood, sweat, and tears. God resurrects Him from the dead, and He becomes the first fruit for us of the living, and that if we also come into His kingdom, into this new covenant, into His business, then we can also share and have a part of what He's doing.
So try to see it from Jesus's perspective. He's given everything He has for this business of saving souls, and He wants us to join in with Him, helping save people from their sin, save people from death.
Yet pretty much the entire church is batting a zero. They're not helping people come into the kingdom of God. They're preaching sermons on, "Oh, you're saved already, brother. Oh, don't worry about eternity. Oh, it's okay to be homosexual. Be who you are." They don't let their light shine for Jesus. They don't give a rip about what Jesus says. They don't pay attention to His words. They just want to get people into their program.
Now imagine Jesus, who has given His all, shedding His blood for His church, and no one wants to be a part of it. No one wants to help Him save souls. Everyone thinks they're already saved, so they turn the other way. "We're going to heaven in the end." These people are waiting for the rapture.
You think Jesus is proud of those people that aren't helping Him, that don't care to save the lost, that just think, "I'm saved, brother. I'm going to be in, you know, I'm going to be so glad to see you in eternity, brother"?
You think Jesus is proud of those churches, those people, those individuals who are not sharing in His suffering at all? They don't care to speak out about His kingdom at all. All they want is to look good at their business, not Jesus's business. Oh no, they want to look good at their pub. They want to look good at the bar and grill.
Do you think Jesus is proud of you for that?
We need to make sure that we join in with Jesus, that we start walking with Him now, because if we're not bearing good fruit for Him now, we will be cut off. Jesus is very serious about His kingdom, His work. He's very serious about the things that He spoke. He wasn't joking around.
He wants us to bear good fruit, or we will be cut off. Remember all those parables that Jesus talks about at the end? It will be like a dragnet, and that dragnet will collect good fish and bad fish. What happens to the bad fish? Are they brought into God's kingdom as well? No. The bad fish are cast out.
All the bad fish aren't going to make it into the kingdom of God. And there's very few people in the Lord's church who are doing His work. And this makes Jesus very upset. How is it that He gave His entire life for His church, and people aren't even willing to lift a finger to speak about it?
How is that even a thing, guys? How can you say you believe in Jesus and you love Him, and you're so worried about your own life and your own image that you don't even acknowledge anything that Jesus has done and help out your fellow brother and sister, when your own King went to His death, shedding His blood for it?
Jesus expects way more out of His church. And we want to make sure that we are obeying His commandments, not just with our mouth, but with our life.
Now, I know there are some Christians that believe this false gospel, that you don't ever have to speak a word. You just demonstrate to people by your actions. Well, that's false as well. You have to have the words proclaiming Jesus, and you have to have the actions.
You can't tell anyone about God without opening your mouth. There are a lot of people who can demonstrate a sort of love with their actions, but they never open their mouth about the kingdom of God. And you could attribute all that good they did to humanity or humanitarian efforts.
The government, after all, they don't really believe in God, and they give thousands and millions and billions of dollars to other countries. And that doesn't mean they're making it into heaven just because they've helped people.
So we need to profess with our lips to others about Jesus and His kingdom and true repentance. And with our actions, we also need to prove that we are Jesus's disciples.
Look around. Who is doing the work? Who is actually doing the work?
Jesus calls us to carry our cross. He calls us, His disciples, to bear good fruit and to preach the gospel. Read Matthew chapter 28. Jesus commands us to go into all the world and preach the gospel for all people to hear, teaching people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to obey His commandments. And He promises to be with us even to the very end of the age.
So let's make Jesus proud in the sense that He is happy and joyous to call us His children, that He is not ashamed of us. So many churches and people God is ashamed of because, even though He shed His blood, they're not lifting a finger to do His work.
Put yourself in Jesus's position. If you were the CEO of His business, would you be glad to see people just thinking that they're sharing in your business without lifting a finger, or would you be enraged?
God is very angry, and when He comes back to this earth, He's coming back with vengeance. And vengeance will start in His own house. He will weed out all the corruption. He will weed out all those who are pretending. He will separate the sheep from the goat and the wheat from the tares.
And so we need to determine if we are serious to do the Lord's work and if we will actually carry out the great commission.
I want to pray for those of you that want to be serious about Jesus, to do His work, and to call your fellow brother and your fellow sister, your neighbor, into action, because that's what Jesus calls us to do—to love our family, to love others as ourselves, but whoever we're around, to be preaching the gospel to all creation.
So Lord Jesus, I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters that they would really be Your church, that You will reap the reward of Your suffering. We thank You that You did die on the cross and resurrect. We want to be a part of what You did. We want to share in Your suffering so that we can also share in Your glory and be part with You forever and ever.
I pray that someone listening today may be pricked in their heart and in their conscience, that they really would repent of their sins, that they would put their faith in You and start doing Your work. We pray that we can be fruitful, bearing much good fruit, and be worthy to be called Your children.
In Your name we pray, Lord Jesus. Amen.