Combating Trite and Cliche Christianity

 Combating Trite and Cliche Christianity

Well, praise Jesus. Today, everyone, I wanted to make a video on this topic about combating against trite Christianity and cliché Christianity.

Because Christianity, for many people, has become just a religion. It's become very fake. It's all about church, all about the book, all about tithing, all about things that do not have life in it. But genuine Christianity is all about Jesus, the living God, and a working relationship with Him.

Now, there are some sayings that go around in the Christian church that are just very cliché, very trite. And I often hear Christians saying these sayings, and it just makes me sad, because these Christians may have a good heart, they may want to know the truth, but they're very deceived by dead religion, and they're stunted in their faith.

I want to read to you just a few of these clichés you've probably heard in church, and then I want to talk about one of them in particular. One of the clichés that you hear Christians saying is: “God won't give you more than you can handle.” Have you heard that one? It's just kind of a trite saying. It's kind of this saying that everyone has heard in church, and it doesn't really mean anything to anyone anymore.

Or how about: “Everything happens in God's kingdom for a reason”? Or how about: “Just have faith, brother, just have faith”? Or how about this one: “Love the sinner but hate the sin”? That's how it goes.

Okay, so how about: “Well, God is good all the time. All the time, God is good.” That's one of those clichés that you hear the pastor say and then the congregation echo. The pastor says: “God is good,” and then the congregation says: “All the time. All the time, God is good.” Well, of course, He is. But what does that mean to us?

How about this one: “When God closes a door, He opens a window”?

But here is the one that I want to talk about. Here's a cliché that I heard someone say the other day, and that is: “We just got to continue to be faithful.” I've heard a lot of Christians say that: “We just have to continue to be faithful.” Praise Jesus, everyone.

This statement begs: what do we think that it means to be faithful? What does it mean to be faithful or to have faith? Does faith just mean that you are faithful to your religion, that you're faithful to your way of life, that you're faithful to the Bible? What does it mean to have faith?

To a lot of my ancestors, to be faithful just meant to keep up your church faithfully, to read the Bible faithfully. When my mom was a little girl, my grandpa told my mom—actually he made her promise—that she would read the Bible faithfully every day, because to my grandparents, faith meant reading the Bible religiously, memorizing Bible verses.

I remember when my grandpa would come over—before we would get up from the table, whether it was breakfast or dinner—we had to quote a Bible verse. And if you couldn’t quote a Bible verse, you couldn't get up from breakfast or dinner. You just had to quote that verse before you got up. So we would always try to find verses in the Bible that were short, like “Jesus wept,” or something like that, because it was just something to check off the list, to get done. But that, to people in my family, was equated with faith.

A few things that make up a false faith are a faith in church attendance—thinking that you're faithful because you go to church, thinking that you're faithful because you read the Bible, thinking that you're faithful because you tithe, or thinking that you're faithful because you regularly donate to your community or go on mission trips or something like that.

But I want to talk about what true faith is. What does it mean to actually be faithful? And if we say we just got to continue to be faithful, what does that actually mean?

I want to read to you what Jesus said about this in Matthew chapter 24, because it means something very particular to be one of God's faithful ones. This is titled “The Faithful Servant and the Evil Servant.” So, let's figure out what they're doing to be faithful or evil.

“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?” That's interesting, because that means that if we are faithful, we are communing with God. You can't be receiving food unless you're eating food. And we know that that spiritual food is the bread of life which comes down from heaven. Jesus claimed to be that bread of life.

He is our communion. That's why we eat Jesus's flesh and drink His blood. Communion is not the holy Eucharist eaten in the Catholic church. And it's not that bread and grape juice that you have once a month in the Baptist church. But real communion is hearing from God in your soul. Remember that Jesus said: “Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

So, number one: if you are God's faithful son or daughter, you're communing with Jesus, you've received His Holy Spirit, and you're not just living on bread and wine, but you're living on Jesus's body. You're eating His flesh, you're drinking His blood because you hear His voice and you're putting into practice the things that He tells you to obey.

And if you're doing that, if you're eating Jesus's flesh and drinking His blood, then you are also doing something. You are telling others, or you're feeding others. You're telling others the things that Jesus has told you, because you love your neighbor as you love yourself. That's why Jesus says to give them food in due season.

The day in which we're living, very, very few Christians are bringing sinners to repentance. They're bringing sinners to church, and they're gladly telling those sinners that everyone is a sinner. And they're right—everyone in their church is a sinner. But where they go wrong is telling sinners that they don't have to repent. If sinners remain sinners, and they're just faithful to their church to continue to sin, then no one is eating Jesus's flesh, no one is drinking His blood, no one is being nourished, and no one is hearing those words of life that will bring them into the new covenant.

So first, if we are faithful, we need to be eating Jesus's flesh. And then we need to be preaching the gospel, calling others to repent, calling others to the holy life that they may also repent of their sins and also be in communion with God.

What Jesus says about that servant is: “Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.” But as we know, when Jesus comes, will He find faith on the earth? Very few people will be doing what He called, because they are part of this false faithfulness—this really trite and cliché faithfulness that just says: “Just go to church, brother. Just pay your tithe, brother. Just read the Bible, brother.” But it's a very trite, fake Christianity, and we don't want to fall into that.

“Assuredly I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.” But then, on the other hand, what does Jesus say to the trite or the cliché Christian—the one who is not really abiding in His love, the one who is not eating His flesh, drinking His blood, or calling others to repent?

“But if that evil servant says in his heart: ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

So those that do good in the eyes of God and have genuine faith—they are greatly rewarded. But those that do evil, that are sinful in the eyes of God—they are not rewarded. They're cut in two and they're assigned their portion with the hypocrites.

There is a false gospel going on in the church right now that says: “All of us are sinners, and God just loves everyone the same, and He will just allow everyone into heaven.” This is a false doctrine, guys. Why do we think hell even exists if everyone goes to heaven?

Christians will have another cliché saying. They will say: “Well, hell was created for those demons and for Satan. It wasn't created for humans.” Well, that is true. But why do humans end up in hell? It is because so many, even Christians, have chosen to reject salvation by living trite and godless lives. They love darkness more than the truth because their deeds are evil. They refuse to repent. They refuse to call other Christians to repentance. And instead, they are drawing them into this dead, trite religion.

We need to call people out of this trite and dead, cliché religion and call people to really commune with God so that they can be alive—that they can also eat Jesus's flesh, drink His blood, and be part of the new covenant. You need to be part of the new covenant if you want new life.

Remember that Jesus calls us to be a new creation—that the old would be put in the grave, that the old man would be killed, put to death, and that the new man, the spiritual man, would come to life.

If we allow the Spirit to come to life in us, then He will lead us into everlasting life. We won't be trite Christians or cliché, but we will be living on that bread of life, and we'll also be encouraging fellow brothers and sisters with the words that we have heard when we are in prayer.

Have you been in prayer? Have you been listening to the Holy Spirit? Have you been putting the words of Jesus into action in your life? Or do you only have these trite sayings: “God won't give you more than you can handle. Everything happens for a reason. Just have faith. We got to continue to be faithful, brother.”

Are these the false cliché sayings that are coming off of your tongue as a Christian? Or do you have the real sayings of Jesus in your heart because you have been in prayer and you yourself have been in communion with God?

I want to pray for those of you that want communion with God and that want to repent of your sins and live in the newness of life.

“ Lord Jesus, I pray for my brothers and sisters who want genuine faith, who want to be separate from the world of perversion, hatred of God, every kind of corruption and wickedness. I pray that they would just come out of what is evil and do what is good, that You would save their souls, that they would come out of the smoke of the burning fire, and that they would come into the newness of life, and that You would save them from the flames.

I pray that someone listening today could give their life to You, that they would really repent of their sins and learn to hear Your voice and eat Your flesh and drink Your blood and come into the new covenant. The new covenant, Lord, we know is what saves us. It is Your blood, what You have done for us on the cross.

And we want to accept You, Lord Jesus, as our Lord and our Savior. And we want to follow You wherever You lead us. So I pray for those that are listening today, that someone may give their life to You and repent from dead religion and cliché Christianity and really follow You with all of their heart.

In Your name I pray, Lord Jesus. Amen.”

What is a good church?

 A church is only as good as the people that are there. If you want to be good you have to be obedient to Jesus Christ and abide in His love.  None of us are good on our own. But if we repent and receive the Holy Spirit, which comes from the Father, He will refine us and make us please to GOD!

Be sure your sin will find you out

 You can be sure that your sin will find you out sooner or later. Pray that it finds you out sooner so that you can reconcile with God before you end up dead.

You need more than a good name in the community: here is why

 

Jesus Should be Guiding You NOT Others

 

End Times Warning to Prepare

  I dreamed last night of the devil's persecution of Christians and many people turning away and of liars rising who spoke strongly against the truth of Jesus Christ, causing virtually everyone to fall away from the true faith. I saw a prominent Jew in this vision who was leading in this rebellion. I also saw waters polluted, bad fish and companies who were intentionally poisoning food and people becoming sick. But we know all these things are already happening in the world. Will we as the body of Christ take a stand for the truth even if persecution rises against us? Will we stand with Jesus? Will we love Him with all of our heart and let out light shine for Him? Or will our hearts fail for fear of the things coming upon this Earth?  Will our hearts become become cold and without direction, believing the sent out agents of Satan? 

Repentance is not just baptism and rebaptism

 Repentance is not Just Baptism and Re-baptism

I wanted to share just a short message about baptism and true repentance and what it means and what it doesn't. When I was a youth pastor, I used to bring groups of kids up to camp, and I remember that some of the same kids would make the same decisions to follow Jesus and repent every year, and then they'd fall back into the same sins, and then the next year do it all over again until all of the church staff, all of the youth leaders realized that probably these kids aren't serious. And of course, as these kids then grew to adulthood, nothing changed; it was still the same cycle.

What happens is you get a conviction, praise Jesus everyone, and at camp you hear the preacher, or you go to big church, and you're convicted, and the pastor gives the altar call, so you go to the front, you get prayed for, and you say, "Lord, I confess my sins," and someone should come pray with, and the pastors surround you, they pray for you, and you feel really good at that camp, at that moment up on the mountain, you feel great. But then you go back down the hill, and then life happens, you go back to sin, you feel guilty, and so what do you do? The very next year you go to camp again, you hear the preacher, and you feel conviction again, so you go back up to the altar, and you repent again, and you ask Jesus into your heart. Now I see this same cycle not just with junior high or high school students, but I now see it with adults, and somehow they're trying to appease conscience before God by baptism and rebaptism, repentance and re-repentance, but the thing is they're still stuck in this cycle of sinning. Then after they sin, they feel guilty, so they say, "What do I do? I'll find someone to pray for me, I'll find someone to cast out my demons, I'll find someone to rebaptize me," and so they go and find a preacher to preach at them, to cast out their demons, to pray with them, to rebaptize them, and they're just like that junior high kid that I took to camp many years ago. As soon as they go through the ritual of the rebaptism and the re-repentance, they feel good about themselves, and they relapse a day later, and the cycle begins over again.

Jesus did not come to die on the cross, to resurrect in three days, to only set you free to go right back into the sin cycle. Remember how Jesus talked about how a dog goes back to the vomit, a sinner goes back to his sin like a dog goes back to the vomit, and Jesus said, "Whoever sins is a slave of sin, but whoever is set free is set free indeed." And the Son of God came to set sinners free from sin so they would not keep on breaking the law of God and then falling into sin and feeling guilty and then doing it all over again. Of course, none of us are perfect; we read in John 3 about how the condemnation isn't that we weren't perfect, but that people love darkness more than the light of the truth because their deeds were evil. So we can't just say to ourselves, “well, we're going to repent one time, and then we're going to be forever perfect, so we never have to confess”; that's not what I'm saying. But when we are serious to follow Jesus, the Son of God starts setting us free from these sins, some of the very obvious sins first, like a profane tongue, slander, you know, gossip, hatred of others, lustful thoughts, pornography, all these sorts of sins that haunt men and women, we are set free of those, and then those other sins that we didn't even know about, the Lord starts to convict us of those things, relationships, things that we were doing throughout our day that were unfruitful, and as we continue to walk with the Lord, he purges us and purifies us and cleanses us from unrighteousness, and he renews our mind and restores our conscience.

But what if you are like the Christian who I knew in junior high who continues to go to camp to feel convicted, to repent, and go right back to it? What if you're like the Christian who continues to think that you have to be rebaptized in different water by a different person to baptize you in order to feel spiritual? Then you have a problem because you're putting your faith in something that's not real. You keep on thinking you're going to jumpstart true faith by just getting baptized again, by going to another confession again, by going to another altar again, but you're still falling into sin. It reminds me also of the parable that Jesus taught about the person going to war, that king who has to decide if he has enough to wage war against another king, or does he first go and try to see if he can make peace, and every single person has to find in themselves if they really want to walk with Jesus and count the cost, or if they're not going to count the cost of discipleship.

Do you have in you what it takes to really repent and desire righteousness? I hope that for you repentance is real because for too many people it just ends up being this cycle of feeling guilty, so they repent, and they go right back to sin, but Jesus has promised a better way of setting you free so that you can be free from this indeed, and that you can go and tell other people that you have been set free from your demons, just as Jesus set people free of their demons in his day, he will also set you free if you're serious. So we want to pray for those of you that are serious that want to be set free. If you haven't ever been baptized, I do encourage you to be baptized, but being baptized over and over again is not the solution for you to make up your mind to be holy and pure. You have to set in your heart just to do it, set in your heart to follow Jesus, and then start getting those things that you know are sinful out of your life that you can live in holiness. 

So I want to pray for those of you that don't want to be stuck in the sin cycle anymore, but that want to be set free in Jesus's name and choose to walk forward with him, not as those that walk in darkness, but those that walk in the light. So “Lord Jesus, I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters who want genuine repentance, that have tried to repent before, but who have continued to fall into the world, who have backslid. I pray that you would pick them up, that you would save them from their sins, that you would cleanse them from unrighteousness, and that they could enter back into your kingdom, that you would purify their heart and their mind, and they would walk in the newness of life, and that you would purge them and purify them and continue to cleanse them from unrighteousness, that they can walk with their new robes, ready for the marriage supper of the lamb, that they can be ready for you, and not like those who don't have on their robes or who you turn away at the door because they never got ready. So I pray for my fellow brethren who desire righteousness, and I pray that more people come into the household of faith in your name. I pray, Lord Jesus, amen.”

It's all about making up your mind, guys. It's incredible what the mind can do to convince yourself that you can't repent. People will say, "Well, I have a demon, so I can't repent." They will say, "Well, I have family members that cause me to sin, and I can't leave them." And so your mind can easily do these gymnastics to make you think that it's impossible to repent, but for those of us that have faith, we put our faith in the Lord, and what's impossible for us is possible with God, and if you believe that God can do anything, then you can believe that he can set you free from sin. If you believe that he resurrected a man from the grave, and that he was resurrected on the third day by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that he gave the disciples the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, if you believe all these things, surely you have faith enough to believe he can set you free from your demons, your lust, whatever it is that haunts you, he can set you free if you have faith to believe. But if you're like those that have no faith, remember in the Gospels we heard that those places that disbelieved in Jesus, Jesus could do no mighty work there, he could do no miracles in those towns because of people's lack of faith. If you lack faith, you're not going to see miracles, you're not going to see God's work in your life. If you start believing the devil that your demons are stronger than God, and your demons are going to take you to hell, and that you're worthless, then you're not going to be able to walk in the light, but if you believe Jesus cares for your soul, and he loves you, if you believe the gospel message, then you can hold fast to your faith in Jesus, and you can overcome sin because Jesus has already made the way through his death and his resurrection, called the atonement, he's already made the way for us to be sanctified.

But you have to choose to make up your mind, be like that king who makes up his mind to come against the other king and go to battle, start waging war, start feeding your spirit and not your flesh. Too many people think, "Why is my flesh winning?" And all they've fed all day is their flesh, day after day, so no wonder why your flesh is winning when you haven't prayed, when you haven't given yourself to Jesus. No wonder your flesh wins every day, every day is because the man that you feed is the one that's going to win. So are you feeding your flesh, are you feeding your spirit, are you speaking the words of life because the words of life are in you, or are you speaking in the tongue of Satan, cursing? It's crazy how Christians profess Jesus, but their tongue is brackish, their tongue is salt water, yet they think it's also pure water. They speak all sorts of blasphemies against God, they're always cursing, every cuss word comes out of their mouth, yet they think that they're Christians. This should not be named in the kingdom of God. If you put your faith in Jesus, he cleans up your mouth, he cleans up your mind, he gives you new thoughts, your thoughts are on the kingdom of God, they're not in the gutter, you're not contemplating the next dirty joke or how you're going to abuse someone or think evil of someone. Love is righteous, pure, holy.

So we need to focus on the things that are good, and as we focus on the kingdom of God and him cleansing us, he will make us that man or that new woman that he wants us to be.

Yes, to believe is to truly obey. A lot of Christians say, "Well, look at John 3:16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believeth," and they think believeth just means that you believe something about Jesus without any true obedience, but it's clear that faith without obedience is a dead sort of faith. The devil also believes that way about God, he believes God exists, he believes Jesus died and resurrected, that doesn't mean the devil's going to heaven, and neither are those that follow after God only with their lips but not with their actions. Faith without works is truly dead.

I see your comment there about should you wait on the Lord to be baptized or go to a church to be baptized. I can't really give you any guidance there because if you believe that Jesus resurrected from the dead and believe that the Holy Spirit is real and that he blesses people with the gift of the Holy Spirit, you have to also have faith that the spirit of life will guide you in the right direction. So I can't tell you go here or there to be baptized, but if you do believe in Jesus, you need to just pray to him and say, "Lord Jesus, please give me the guidance of where to go to be baptized," and if you have faith in Jesus, then you'll have faith to also believe he will send you the right direction for baptism. But I can't guide you in where to go, but pray and seek the Lord because I know Jesus is the good shepherd, he is our guide, and he will lead you in the right direction. He's the light to our path.

Yes, people get really hung up on that, they say, "Where do I go to be baptized?" And they have no faith that God could even send them someone or somewhere to go to be baptized. But we believe that Jesus resurrected from the dead and he worked all these wondrous miracles, if we believe that he is and he's done all these things, then surely we can believe he can send us water and someone to baptize us, so put your faith in him, wait upon him, and he will guide your path.

I see one of your comments there that you're finding it hard to follow God and repent. If you haven't totally counted the cost, Satan will play a lot of mind games with you, he will start saying it's too hard to repent, it's impossible to repent, you will have no life, you'll have no joy if you truly do it, and you'll be caught in the middle. It's like how James says you'll be tossed to and fro by the waves of the sea and by the wind. So if you're on the fence about it, you have to make up your mind to follow Jesus and stop being pushed back and forth because what's happening is you're listening to your flesh, and your flesh is saying one thing, and then you listen to your spirit, you're listening to the spirit of life speaking to your spirit, and then you want to repent, and then it's too hard because you listen to your flesh. You're going to have to stop riding the fence and make up your mind if you will follow the spirit of life or the spirit of the world.

But it's a strong deception in the world, people are very convinced that they're not going to die, they're very convinced that the pleasures of the world will give them gratification, they're very convinced that man's way will make them happy. And look around, war is pending, people are almost 100% spiritually dead, the world is now plagued with all sorts of problems, all the food, all the rivers, everything's contaminated. Yet people still want to think, "Oh, nothing's happening, the world will go on as it always went on, we are content, we're happy without God." And hordes of people are going every which way, totally content with being a spiritual zombie. It's very dead, it's very spiritually dead in the world, and it's very sad because the world is on its way to hell, and they think that they don't need God, and the Christians aren't being the preservative that they need to be. The Christians are all so self-focused on their church, on doing their ministries, that they're not taking the time to help out Jesus in saving souls while their churches are doing their Sunday meetings and their Sunday brunch and drinking their coffee. Jesus is out there on the streets, calling people to repent, and blood, sweat, and tears with him, while the Christians are so self-seeking and self-centered and supportive of what they're doing, they leave Jesus all by himself. And so if we love the Lord our God, we should be salt and light, we should be doing the Lord's work, we should be calling others to repentance because God is not going to spare those Christians who just think they're going to get into heaven without doing his work. Too many Christians feel entitled, they feel like they are going to heaven because they prayed a prayer years ago, they go to church, they pay tithe, they haven't committed adultery, they've been married for 36 years, so God must let them into heaven, they're very content, and it's sad to see a world that is very content and Christians who are very content in their pollution.

We're here to be the salt and light, to call people to repent, to tell them that they're on their way to hell, and I hope that some people listening today will hear this message, and they will give their life to Jesus, and that they also will become salt and light, but you need to make up your mind, truly make up your mind if you will come out of the world because when you're in the world, you can't see clearly, sin blinds you, all the lusts of the world blind you, but when you come into the kingdom of God, and he gives you a new heart and a new mind and new eyes and ears.

Like I have some bad reception here, I think we can end this live stream here, but I hope this message stirs in someone the desire to repent, to get to know Jesus truly as Lord, to come out of dead religion, and to put their faith in the living God and be saved in these last days that we're living in.