#convicting message

What many don’t understand is that Christianity is a matter of the heart. Our stony hearts were unable to accept Jesus. We were too stubborn in our worldly ways to truly acknowledge him as our savior, and to have faith in his sacrifice on the cross.

But by the power of the Holy Spirit, our hearts have been softened. Our hearts of stone have been replaced by hearts of flesh, capable of loving God and keeping his commands.

This inward change is reflected by our outward ways of living. Our actions will reflect the internal change that the Lord has worked within us.

What were once our idols (social media, money, women, our spouses, sex, our hobbies, etc.) now take a back seat to the Lord’s workings in our lives. He takes center stage, while everything else falls into its proper place.

It’s by making the Lord the first love of our lives that we unblock the avenues through which his Spirit and blessings can flow into us, and into our lives.

If we refuse to give God all that we have to give, our hearts, then he won’t give us all that he has for us, fellowship with him.

If we can’t let God take the first step in changing us into his likeness, then it doesn’t matter how godly we try to live.

If God doesn’t have our hearts, then we’ve got no business claiming that we love him.

What was meant to be a nation of purity, justice, and humility had become a nation impurity, injustice, and pridefulness.

This is perfectly on display when Jesus cleanses the temple.

This story may seem a bit of character for Jesus, considering His teachings about peace, love, and kindness. But once you get a better view of the going’s on in His own temple, you begin to understand why He took such extreme measures.

The money changers were allegedly overcharging the people for animals needed for sacrifice (going against Proverbs 16:11), and exchanging their money into the required “Temple money” (exchanging money was a required step for worshippers of this time. The currency required to ensure the Temple had to be pure and specific, like the Tyrian shekel. Money changers would exchange foreign coins for high prices, demonstrating their greed).

These commercial activities were also happening in the court of the Gentiles, the place where non-Israelites were meant to gather and worship God. These market activities effetely blocked non-Israelites from coming to God for salvation, the expects opposite of what God had intended the Temple to be.

The Temple was meant to be a house of prayer for all nations, but Israel had turned it into a market place; a den of thieves if you will.

Israel prevented people from coming to very God that they worshipped. It makes us wonder, have we done the same?

Have turned others away from God by our hypocrisy, sugarcoating the gospel, or just flat out lies? Have we turned potential followers of Christ away by our adherence to Christ’s law, forgetting to observe mercy and justice? Have we turned others away by failing to reflect the love of Christ in our own lives?

It makes you think, doesn’t it?

Christ claims that if as little as two or three have gathered for His name’s sake, He will be there with them.

Isn’t it amazing that we serve a God who, not only calls us to Himself, but also chooses to have His presence dwell among us; both in the physical when it comes to Jesus, but also in the spiritual?

The revelation of this divine truth should not only encourage our praise and worship of God, but also encourage us to meet with other believers.

Iron sharpens iron, and we all eventually become who we hang around with. This is why the Bible encourages us to be around those who have a hunger and love for Christ, as well as a desire to be molded and transformed by Him.

Being around these types of people will bring us closer to the presence of God, as well as help us learn more about Him and the faith. Being around our brothers and sisters in Christ will further encourage us to stand strong in the faith, and spread the good news to those who are lost in sin.

It’s by constantly being around those who are filled with the Holy Spirit (or at least have a desire to) that we are constantly able to experience being in the presence of God himself. The Lord’s Spirit being present in a group participating in worship is something truly breathtaking.

But this vital truth also brings to light another, tragic reality.

If God can fill people with His Spirit, and work through them, can the enemy do the same?

Yes, he can. Which is why the Bible calls us to be careful with who we choose to spend our time with. This isn’t out of malice, but out of the need to maintain our spiritual maturity before the Father.

We can’t be around those who are constantly leading us to places that we know God doesn’t want us to be. We can’t hang with those who constantly tempt us to our God on the back burner.

If clubbing is more important than fellowship, if drinking is more important Bible study, if sleeping around is more important than self control, then we must disassociate from them.

Don’t get this twisted, this does not mean that we should stop loving them, praying for them, and wishing the best for them. However, this does mean that we choose our friendship and loyalty to God over those of the world. It means that we choose to be agents of God over associating with agents of the enemy (even if they don’t know that’s what’s happening).

It’s better to have God as your only friend, than have a million friends of the world.

Be careful who you hang around with, your eternity could literally depend on it.

They have taken the grace that Jesus had died to give to them as permission to keep living their old lives, and to continue in their old habits.

They believe that God will not condemn them because of their unrighteousness, nor will convict them to try and do better. They are fine just where they are.

If this is where you are right now, then let me tell you something, you are on the wide path to damnation.

The grace of God was never meant to make us comfortable with where we were, but to inspire us to move into a new life with Christ.

Grace is the motivator behind every Christian to try and love for the Lord to the best of their ability. It’s a reminder of God’s love for us all, and the fact that he would rather die than live without us. It’s a reminder of the wages of sin, and how God’s incomprehensible love has conquered sin and death on cross.

God doesn’t approve of mediocrity. He doesn’t settle for compromise.

Instead, God inspires us to be better.

He sees our potential, and desires to help us reach it. He calls us to give us life, and life abundantly. And death has no place where life desires to reign.

The grace of the Lord has opened our eyes to the atrocities and vileness of sin, and how it destroys our relationship with God and with God and with those around us.

Sin is what ravages the world today, and makes it such a horrible place. Sin is what drove humanity away from God. Sin is what led our savior to the cross.

If you think that God will stand for you to remain in sin while knowing full well the cost he paid to set you free, then you have no business calling yourself a child of God.

Compromise is to reject the Lord. Soldiers don’t live and commune with their enemies, but fight until the war is won.

If one does not battle sin, they partake in it, the Lord’s favor does not reside upon them.

Now don’t twist these words. We all have faults, we all have battles, and we all fall short of the glory of God. We are human after all.

However, theres a large difference between losing a battle and choosing to not even fight in it.

Soldiers get up and continue their service to their home (heaven in this case). Lazy men are sent away in disgrace.

Those who choose to misuse the grace of God, and choose to continue to live in sin, have no place in the kingdom of heaven.

But it’s not too late.

The goodness of God always surpasses his wrath. So in his great mercy, he leaves you with a choice.

Will you choose to renounce this life of compromise, and live for him? Or to choose to your current path of comfortability and sinfulness?

The choice is yours, but remember, delayed action is inaction, and you may not get a second chance.

It’s not a book of fairytales that do nothing but deceive people into limiting the freedoms of others.

It’s not a book meant to condemn, put down, or cause despair.

It’s a book that is God’s guide on how to live a life worth living. A life glorifying God.

In the book of James, it’s stated that the word of God acts like a mirror to those who read it (James 1:23-24). It’s meant to be a reflection of your life in the eyes of God, and meant to show in full clarity where you stand with the Lord.

Now this may sound like a scary, sobering experience, but that’s the point.

The Lord’s word is convicting. It’s sparks a reaction in those who read it, and prompts them to get back on the right track with God.

It’s meant to help fix, and correct the lives of its readers, and set them on the narrow path.

It’s meant to have a lasting impact in the minds of its reader, slowly molding them into the masterpiece that God always designed them to be.

The word isn’t meant to put down, but rise up.

It isn’t mean to be read once a week (if at all), but every day. A constant flow of God’s word in your life is a constant flow of life itself.

It isn’t fantasy, but the sobering reality of our world, and foretells the future of those who accept it and reject it.

It’s meant to prompt us to walk in fear of the Lord, and birth us into a new life in Christ.

If God’s word is not having this effect on you, then you may not be taking your walk with Christ as seriously as you should.

There is nothing that is done in secret that won’t be brought to the light. There is nothing anyone can do to hide something from the eyes of God.

What makes a hidden sin so offensive to God is not necessarily the sin itself (it’s still horrible to the Lord, and must be repented of), but the fact that the sinner refuses to go to the Lord for forgiveness, something so important to him that he died to secure it for us.

Not only that, but they also lie to the Lord’s face, pretending that they have done nothing wrong. These people believe that they have done one over on the Lord, and have gotten away with their sin scott free.

This is something that the Lord will not stand for.

God has made it very clear that what is done in darkness with be brought into the light.

David sinned secretly with Bathsheba, so God made sure to punish him publicly.

Achan went against God’s orders and stole from the remains of Jericho. As such, Israel began to lose its battles against the neighboring nations, and Achan and his family were stoned as a result.

Ananias and Sapphira lied to God, and kept some of the money from the land they sold for themselves. As such, the Lord, working through Peter, had them struck dead where they stood.

Nothing can be escape the light of the Lord, for the Lord is light. There is no spec of darkness within him.

As such, those who love him will do their best to reflect this.

While we, as Christians aren’t perfect, we must try our best to remain blameless before the Lord, and to repent daily of all of our sins, no matter how horrible this makes us feel.

It’s better to be right before God than with the world.

It’s better to remain humble before the Lord and his might than to remain prideful and to be condemned with the world.

Do with your sin as you deem fit, for God did gives us free will after all, but just know the consequences of unconfessed sin before the Lord.

God’s justice will have the final say, now it’s up to us to decide what that means for us.