I want to share with you my recent convictions during prayer time: HOLINESS and HARD WORK
Basically, God has been convicting me to call myself and all who are part of this church to be ALL IN.
We either believe the Scriptures or we don’t. The proof is in the pudding, not a single prayer.
Our American church culture, if you can call it that, teaches us we can believe the gospel of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection and somehow live the same as we did before we believed it. That’s a lie from the pits of hell propelled by the breath of the devil himself.
I’ve been ok, or at least could be viewed as being ok with, things that God hates. This has troubled me, but not enough to do what was right and good.
God has convicted me of that, so I am led to confess it to each of you and to turn from it. I don’t want to live this way or make friends with it.
It will likely be a process to grow in my faith here, but I want to publicly commit to it.
I have to fight fears of driving people I love away by telling them the truth of God that is their only hope.
I also have to admit I have engaged in things God is not happy with.
I’ve laughed at jokes and Facebook memes and videos Jesus died to eradicate from the earth.
I’ve used words that are corrupt and do not lead people to Christ, they corrupt and lead people away from Him instead.
I’ve been lax on what I sit and watch or listen to for prolonged times, knowing these things can only corrupt me. They don’t help me abide in Christ or cut out the world’s influence in my life.
I’ve decided I need to publicly make it known that I have to be ALL IN in regard to the war on my flesh and everything that raises itself up against the Kingdom of God in my life.
Awhile back, I taught about Jesus and the Last Supper. Part of my study dealt with the unleavened bread and what it meant as a symbol in the lives of Jews, especially during the Passover in Egypt. God used this picture to push me to a decision point. Unleavened bread was a picture of purity and the removal of influences from the world, specifically from Egypt, as God called His people out of Egypt into a new relationship with Him. His people were to purge themselves of the gods, religious beliefs, and cultural thoughts that came from Egypt and not from God. They were to be made new in the way they thought, felt, and acted. Nothing could be held back. God wanted it all. So, to survive the wilderness and to be alive when they entered the Promised Land, the rest of God, they had to turn it all over.
God showed me I am no different. I’m called to leave the world and be part of a new people, the church. I am to embrace the Kingdom’s culture, not America’s, not Minnesota’s, not Minneapolis’ or North Minneapolis’ culture. I’m called to embrace the ways of God. I’m called to be distinct and different from the rest of the world. The Bible calls this holiness.
So, God put me at a decision point. Are you going to leave “Egypt” or die in the wilderness?
Are you going to embrace life, rest, and true peace and blessing, or are you going to hang on to temporary comforts that can never give me the things my heart was created to crave?
I want ALL God has for me. That means I need to do the hard work to fight for purity in all my life.
I am a pastor. That means I am called to call the flock of God to the same. So that’s what I am going to do.
I don’t want any of you to continue to suffer in your old, broken life. I want you to have the hope that only comes with giving God all of yourself and cutting ties with the world in the sense that you do not love what God hates or hate what God loves. You grow in “God-likeness,” or godliness.
But I don’t want you to take it from me. Let me share a couple of Scriptures. I’ll leave you with them to do as you are led. My hope is someone else gets set free.
Scriptures:
Leviticus 20:26-You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.
1 Peter 1:15-16-But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Matthew 5:48-Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Ezekiel 36:23-I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.
Isaiah 35:8-And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness;
it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
wicked fools will not go about on it.
Amos 5:14-Seek good, not evil,
that you may live.
Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you,
just as you say he is.
1 Corinthians 3:17-If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
2 Cor. 5:17-Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a mew creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Rom. 12:1-I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Romans 6:22-But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
Ephesians 5:3-But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
Philippians 2:14-16a -Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.
Galatians 6:7-9-Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.
If you are convicted to REALLY BELIEVE GOD and to REPENT, to REALLY CHANGE YOUR MIND about how you are living, you NEED TO ACT. BUT REMEMBER:
Proverbs 20:25-It is a trap to dedicate something rashly
and only later to consider one’s vows.
I want to pray a simple prayer as I close and pass the time of sharing on to whoever God has next.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, Almighty Creator, Just Judge, I confess my sins and my rebellion. Please forgive me and empower me to fulfill your call on my life to be holy as you are holy. We need your Holy Spirit to be alive and active in us to do this. Please Help Us!
Thank you for forgiving us and for giving us the Holy Spirit to answer this prayer. We are grateful for your mercy and grace. We praise you Father, with our words and with our lives. You are worthy! In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.