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.

 

Is their oil in your lamp?

  Is There Oil in Your Lamp?

Well, praise Jesus today everyone. The message that the Holy Spirit continues to put on my heart is the message of having oil in our lamps.

Not everyone has oil in their lamps. Certainly, people that are not Christian don't have any oil, because the oil represents the Holy Spirit. When we repent of our sins, we are baptized in water, and then we wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit baptizes us, He fills us with His purpose, with His joy, and the things of our old life, the old man, goes into the grave. We put to death the old, and then He restores our mind. He makes our conscience soft to the truth. We hate what is evil, we hate sin, and we learn to practice righteousness. And as we walk in the right direction, the Lord gives us provision. He gives us that oil.

Now, there's no way to achieve oil in your lamp by any other means than having a prayer life and living on the Word of God—that is Jesus Christ, His words. A lot of Christians are deceived into thinking that they have the bread of life because they read the Bible. But remember, the Pharisees read the Bible, and they didn't care about the Word of Life. They didn't care about the Word of God at all. And a lot of Christians, they feast on the Bible, they have prayer meetings, but none of it is legitimate because they're not eating and drinking Jesus. They're not in communion with Him. They haven't even repented of their sins, let alone come into communion with God, where they have oil coming into their lamp.

What would it matter if you went camping in the wilderness and you didn't have a light? You didn't bring matches, you didn't bring what you needed for warmth. You wouldn't really be able to sustain yourself for long. And how much more in this world will we not be able to sustain or make it if we don't have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit?

You can't be guided along through this life by churches, by Bible study, by mentors of the world, because what Jesus promised is that indwelling—that oil that comes from the Holy Spirit. Now, when Jesus gives His parables, He talks about this, about the five wise and the five foolish. And why this continues to come back to my mind, guys, is because so many Christians don't realize that they are Christians without a light. They're spiritually dead. They have no joy. They're not extending the love of Jesus to others. They're all about themselves.

Most people have sold out to the marketplace. They've sold out to the pleasures of life. The things of this life choke them out. They're choked out by riches and by pleasure, but they are not living for the Kingdom of God and the purpose of obeying Jesus.

So, when the midnight hour strikes, they will realize, when they hear the trumpet call, that they had lamps, but their lamps were not trimmed. They had no oil in their lamp. And that will be a big problem, because you can think everything is good and fine, and you could decorate your lamp on the outside, and you could get away for a long time making the pastor believe or your family believe that you know a lot because you have Bible verses memorized and because you have the speech of a Christian. But as soon as the midnight hour strikes and the Master calls people to the wedding, you'll be stumbling. You won't be able to find your way, because then you will realize that you have a lamp, but it's useless because you have no oil.

Such are Christians that have a sort of faith. They have the appearance of godliness, but they have no oil in their lamp. This is a scary thing, because too many people will have a horrible wake-up when they realize they have nothing guiding them. Their pastor can no longer guide them, their family can't guide them, and they've never learned to be guided along by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus promises the Holy Spirit as the one who will lead us into all truth and guide us. He doesn't promise us a brother or a sister to lead us or guide us into all truth. He doesn't even promise the Scriptures to lead us. But if you look at John 14–16, the gift is the Holy Spirit—that we would be baptized in the Holy Spirit and then have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us. And then, as the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us, teaching us His thoughts—the thoughts of God—we would grow in Him and be guided along and have life, because Jesus is in us.

But what I see is a lot of Christians that can point fingers, guys. They can point fingers at all these people that are rioting. They can point fingers at lesbians and homosexuals and the transgender. And all those things are evil and corrupt and part of the antichrist. But these same Christians that are against the riots, they're against all these things—they're going the same place as where all the evildoers are going, because they don't have oil in their lamp.

Not only do the atheists end in hell, and those that are in blatant rebellion end in hell, but those that have no oil in their lamp. Remember that those Christians that had no oil in their lamp were turned around, and the door was shut in their face, and they were told, "Go away, I don't know you." God tells them, "You who commit iniquity, I don't know you."

We need to make sure that we're not just playing religion, keeping up church attendance. We need to leave all that with the old life of death. We need to put that in the ground, along with baptism. So when you get baptized, all the sins of your past life, it's as if you're leaving that in the grave. You need to leave dead religion there as well, and then put on true faith, such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and David, and all the prophets and all the apostles had to put on true faith. They didn't put on religion, they didn't put on church attendance. They had to put on righteousness by actually walking with Jesus in obedience.

And so the question is: Do we have oil, or are we going to the same place the rest of the world is? I don't want to be in that boat—the boat of religion going to hell. I was, and Jesus woke me up to the truth. Be separate, and then preach the gospel free of charge, which is now what I'm doing. I live for Jesus with all my heart. I don't have a pastor as my boss or a church as my leadership, but I follow Jesus as my Lord and my Master, and I live to please Him. And because I want to please Him, I warn others who will listen of the dangers of being lukewarm—about what it means to really follow Jesus—and also the reward, that if we put our faith in the Lord, He will bless us. And we will never feel that we did the wrong thing in the end. If we put our faith in the Lord, we won't be disappointed.

So, let's make sure we have oil in our lamp by having a prayer life, by asking Jesus to give us His heart and His mind—to weep where He weeps, to mourn where He mourns, but also to rejoice where He rejoices.

So I want to pray for those of you that want the baptism of the Holy Spirit and that want the Holy Spirit to guide you. He loves you and cares about you, but you need to dedicate yourself to Him—to be led by Jesus. Put yourself at the feet of Jesus so that He Himself may guide you and lead you. And don't be led along by other people’s opinions or what they're saying.

“Lord Jesus, I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters who want to know the truth, that want oil in their lamp. I pray that more children may be added to the number of true faith, that they would be part of Your body, that You would lead them and guide them, that they would come out of the world of darkness and sin and dead religion, and they would come into Your truth—to love You and obey You and to be separate from everything that's ungodly.

Help us to see Your plan for our life, and that we could walk the straight and narrow road and not be sucked into all of the things of this world—drugs and alcohol and marijuana and lust, greed.

I know a lot of men are just destroyed by the devil, by their own lusts, by pornography and all these wicked things. I pray that You would call more people into Your body, that they would be part of the children of faith, that You would collect them and keep them from the wolves and from danger, and that they would also be able to stand up and preach the gospel and live the gospel, and that more people would see the light of the truth in this dark generation that we live in.”

The Cain Sacrifice Christians Offer

 The Cain Sacrifice Christians Offer 

Well, praise Jesus today. It's a blessing to freely speak about the things that Jesus has for us to speak about.

One of those things that's been on my heart, besides the five foolish and the five wise virgins, is Cain's offering. It's interesting because not just Abel offered an offering — Cain also offered an offering. You have to think: who are the sorts of people now that offer God an offering? They're the sorts of people that are religious or they believe in God. They want to please God. You wouldn't give God an offering if you didn't believe in Him. Atheists aren't bringing God an offering. Non-believers, agnostics — they're not bringing God an offering. The people that are bringing their offerings to God are people that are doing so because they want to please, or appease, or get something from God, or find something like that, right?

So, the sorts of Christians that we have to have in our mind — that are even bringing an offering to God — most likely are part of the body of Christ, or at very least, they're people that are trying to be in God's favor. They're not people in active rebellion.

Cain was one of those. He wanted, at least to some degree, to please God. Else, he wouldn't have even tried to bring some of the fruits of his field to God in the first place. If he was so rebellious in the first stages of his life, he would have just said, "Forget it. I don't want to be anything like my brother Abel. Abel can bring a lamb if he wants. He can sacrifice that to God. But forget it, I just want to be in rebellion against God." There’s a lot of people like that. They will never bring any sort of offering to God. At the very least, Cain was in the place that he wanted to offer something to God. And I say that tongue-in-cheek.

But today, we have a lot of Christians that bring a Cain offering to God. What do I mean by that? They are genuinely offering things. They want to be on God's good side. But at the end of the day, God will reject their offering, and He will reject them.

Remember: God loved Abel. He loved his offering. But He hated Cain. He despised Cain's offering. And He gave Cain the choice to repent, and Cain didn’t repent. What was God's word to Cain? It was: "Sin is knocking on your door and its desire is for you, Cain, but you must overcome it. And if you don't overcome it, there is the devil crouching at your door." So, God warned Cain. You can read about this. And Cain became so jealous because his brother found favor in the eyes of God — both with his attitude and what he brought, his offering or his sacrifice. Cain just became so mad.

Theologians talk about this, and they can't figure out why God loved Abel and his offering, but despised Cain. They think, "Well, I don't know. Maybe God just didn’t like the fruit of the ground, but He really liked a lamb."

But there are two things going on. One is our attitude — the way we approach God. But the second is what we’re actually bringing to God. I want to explain that a bit further, because obviously, your heart attitude — whatever you bring — has to be right before God. Clearly, Cain didn’t have a heart attitude that was acceptable to God. Cain was jealous, and he brought his offering to God out of jealousy.

But the more profound thing is, besides the fact that Cain just had a really bad attitude, what he was bringing to God was not what God required. The service that Cain wanted to offer to God was not what God asked. He was pleased with Abel’s sacrifice. Abel’s sacrifice represented a lamb, and it was kind of prophetic, as Jesus became the perfect Lamb of God, who sacrificed for us. But what Cain brought was the fruits of the ground — maybe vegetables. He brought something from what he was harvesting, and he thought that would please God. Now, I'm sure there was more communication between God and Cain and Abel than what you read in the Bible. But what Cain brought, we know God rejected. He rejected it because of Cain’s attitude, and He also rejected it because it’s not what He required. Maybe if Cain also brought one of the firstborn lambs with a good attitude, he would also be accepted.

Now, where this makes a connection with today is: a lot of Christians are sacrificing things for God. Their sacrifices are legitimate, as far as it is — it’s a real sacrifice. Some Christians are sacrificing a whole lot of their time. They're sacrificing more than 10%. They give money and time to their church, to missionary trips. And they’re genuinely sacrificing things.

But the offerings that they’re bringing to God, and the services that they’re bringing to God, are not the services that God wants or desires. So God will reject them. Because these Christians, like Cain, are trying to serve God the way that they want to serve God. How many Christians are like that? They say, "God, I will serve you, but I will serve you my way. I want to become a missionary. I want to become a pastor. I want to become a man who makes a lot of money and then donates my money to your kingdom." They think because they have money, or power, or influence, that God has to accept their services. That God will just hire them to serve Him their way.

You can’t demand how you will serve God. Even in this world, you can’t do that. Think: if you're in some kind of a service — if you deal in customer service — you have to bring the service that your customers want. And if you don’t bring the service that your customers want, they’re going to fire you right away. If you are bad at whatever service you bring, they will fire you, and they will find the person who is less expensive and offers a more quality product. People in the world — they know this.

It wouldn’t be any different or a lesser standard with God. If you come before God and you say, "Hey, these are the things that I have to offer you, God. I know that you haven’t required this, but I just really want to serve you in this manner," you’re in big trouble, because you are serving God in the way you want to serve Him.

I have some examples of this, but it’s individual to each person. One example of this is: I had a grandfather — who was my mother’s dad — and he was a man who our whole family looked up to. He was a missionary to Africa. For years, he was a missionary there. But at the end of his life, it became very clear that all these offerings — all this time and devotion that he had to God — was actually serving God his way. At the end of his life, it was clear that he was in rebellion against God. He didn’t really have the love of Jesus in his heart, which was really sad for all of us to see.

Many Christians are like this. They want to serve God their way — being a missionary of their choice or serving God their way in their business — but they never seek of the Lord the path that He would have for them. They don’t have a word from God. It's sufficient enough for these Christians to be guided by their pastor and their Bible and their wise counselors in church. But they've never got approval upon their life or their path by God. If we want to be approved by God, we have to ask Him and say, "Lord, what is an offering that I can bring to You? How can I bear good fruit for You? Because I know that without You I can do nothing." If we're disconnected from the vine, we can do nothing. Without Jesus, we can do nothing. There's nothing that we can do for God by the arm of the flesh where He's going to say, "Enter into My kingdom, thank you so much for serving Me your way."

And almost every Christian that I see today, guys, is serving God their way. They're Christians in church that have their little ministries, they pay their 10%, they have all their little good-to-do things in the community, and they serve God their way. And they're completely fruitless. They only talk about God as long as it surrounds their church atmosphere. They don't have a new tongue. They're not baptized in the Holy Spirit. They're not filled with the love of God. They're only filled with love for people like themselves in their own little community. They only love their church religion.

But if we really have the love of Jesus in us, we're part of a new creation, a new kingdom. We're changed. It's Jesus' truth that's on our tongue, and we set fires everywhere because the fire of the Holy Ghost is in us. But that is not what's happening in the church. That's not what's happening with these Christians today. Oh no, they are serving God the way they want to.

And this is a huge problem because even though they have a nice and polished lamp, they have no oil in their lamp. They believe they have the Holy Spirit. They can fool the pastor. They can fool the other leaders in the church. They can fool you as a Christian. But when the midnight hour strikes, it will be made evident to all that they have no oil in their lamp. They have never heard from the Holy Spirit. They've just heard from their little “w” word of God — their Bible.

But if we want to be genuine, if we want to have the love of Jesus in us, we need to come into the faith the same way all the patriarchs did, the same way all of the prophets did, the same way all of the disciples did — which was walking by faith, and then receiving the truth that we can be led along by the oil of the Holy Spirit.

You can't make up the oil of the Holy Spirit. You can't go to church and receive the oil. You can't just read the Bible and receive the oil. You have to go to the One that can give you the oil, which is the Holy Spirit. You say, "Lord Jesus, please give me some of Your oil. Please fill me with Your oil." And you humble yourself before God. You can't get that from your pastor. You can't get that from seminary or Bible college. You have to wait on the Lord, wait for His baptism. And then when He fills you and gives you a new tongue and a new heart, a new mind, eyes to see, and ears to hear, then you can be led along by His Spirit.

But sadly, most Christians are led along by other Christians. They're in the echo chamber. They hear what Christians say and they echo that. But they're not led along by the Holy Spirit. They are exactly like the five foolish virgins. They're spiritually sleeping. And by the time they wake up, it's going to be far too late. And all along they've been giving these sacrifices that everyone says, "Praise the Lord! I'm so thankful that brother so-and-so offers his time, he offers his money, he offers all these things." But they are Cain-sacrificing. They're sacrificing exactly like brother Cain, who God rejected.

Remember, Cain and his offering both were rejected by God. God hated it. And we don't want to be those Christians that are Cain-offering Christians. We want to be like Abel — that even if we die giving our offering to God because people hate us, that we are accepted into the kingdom. And even if our blood cries out from the dirt, that we are accepted into the kingdom of God because we lived righteously, and we offered from the bottom of our heart an offering that was well-pleasing to our Father in heaven.

Do we love Jesus? Do we love Him as Abel loved his Father? Do we love Him as Abraham loved his Father, as Moses loved God? Do we love Him as Peter loved Him and all of these people who desperately wanted others to love God? Or are we just Cain-Christians, Cain-offering Christians?

Think about it, because so many people are sacrificing. There are people that are persecuted for their faith. Christians aren't the only ones that are persecuted. Muslims are persecuted. People that are Catholic — of every religion of the world, they're all persecuted if they are persistent in their faith. But just because you're persecuted, and you have an offering, and you have a sacrifice, does not mean that God will approve of you. Will God approve of your service? Will He approve of what you're offering Him? Or will it all be vanity? Will it all be vanity?

I want to pray for those of you that want to receive the oil of the Holy Spirit, and for those of you that want an offering more than the Cain offering, that you want to have an offering like Abel's — bringing the firstborn lamb, bringing the truth from your heart before the Lord and saying, "Lord, restore my heart. Restore the truth of Jesus Christ into my heart." Because that's who should be in your heart.

“Lord Jesus, I pray for my brothers and sisters in the Lord, that You may renew their faith. If they've had faith, that You would restore their faith. If You have been in their heart before, that what they offer from the bottom of their heart would be a true sacrifice of love and purity, and that You would accept them. I pray that no longer would we offer You a Cain sacrifice of bitterness and of things that You have not required. We pray that we will not sacrifice things that bring a detriment to ourselves or to our family. We know far too many Christians sacrifice things that damage even their own children in the name of God. But we pray that the offering and the sacrifice we bring before You, Lord, will be pleasing to You, and that more people will come into Your kingdom with a sacrifice of holiness that will come up as a beautiful incense before God — that God will accept. We pray this in Your name, Lord Jesus, and for many more people to come into the household of faith. In Your name, Lord Jesus, Amen.”

How Close Are You to the Kingdom of God?

Well, praise Jesus this afternoon everyone. I had a few thoughts that I thought I would mention on the go here about our Christian walk with Jesus. And that thought was how Jesus would tell people when they were close to the kingdom of God. He would mention that to them. He would say, "You aren't far from the kingdom of God." Now, there were other people that would potentially believe themselves to be close, but Jesus would show them just how far they were from the kingdom of God. And oftentimes we don't even know how far away we are from the kingdom of God. For example, remember the rich young ruler? The rich young ruler thought he was close to the kingdom of God because he had kept the Ten Commandments.

And I know there's likely a lot of you that think you're close to God because you keep the Ten Commandments, or bring that to modern day: you go to church, you read the Bible, you're not having sex out of marriage, you're not going to rave parties or kickbacks, you're overall just a good moral person. Now, I know a lot of good moral people that are extremely far away from the kingdom of God. There's a lot of good people in society, you know, that would literally lay down their life for you. I've had a few managers in the world who were not Christians whatsoever. They were the kinds of guys that would drop the F-bomb, they would curse God, but they were good people. They bent over backwards for me. They gave me money when I needed money. They're the sorts of people that would let you live at their house if you needed it. They take care of the poor. But these same people, they mock God and they hate God. They're just good people in the culture.

So when people would encounter Jesus for the first time … they stood in the kingdom of God because they thought themselves to be a good person according to their own goodness, their own morality. So maybe, like the rich young ruler, you have kept the commandments and you think you're a good person. Or maybe you, I don't know, you do good things and you feel good about yourself. And I'm not saying that everyone is just bad people. There are really good people out there, but as far as the kingdom of God, they are not good. They're not good in the eyes of Jesus. In other words, they're good in the culture, but they're not making it into heaven.

And this is the category that most Christians fall into and most people in general. The majority of people are not of God. Now, I don't know what percent of people are good. People say likely we're in the mountain communities. I would say 80–90% of people are pretty responsible, and you have a few people that are not responsible—you just wouldn't want your kids to be around them—but for the most part, in the mountain communities where I live, people are decently moral. They're taking care of people. They go to church, or they're religious to some extent. But I come across a lot of these people, and I can tell they're very, very far from the kingdom of God. And so my warning to you is not just to think that you're a good person because the standard of morality in our culture is based upon how good you are in your community. But that is not what the basis of salvation is.

The basis of salvation is how you're doing with Jesus. And because most people have thrown Jesus out the door, they're not going to heaven. And that's a scary thing. I know these people that help me—like managers, co-workers, mentors—that have helped me in life, and a lot of them are very good people. They bend over backwards for me or for you, but at the same time, they're far from the kingdom of God. Why is that? Well, you can't be cursing God and making it into the kingdom of heaven. You can't have a perverted tongue, speaking things that are sexual jokes, the F-bomb, mocking God, and making it into His kingdom. It doesn't matter how many good things you do in your community; you're not going to be able to buy your way into heaven. And that is really sad to me—that there are really good people that will help me, they will help you. But at the same time, they missed the Jesus of the great commandment, which is to love your neighbor as yourself, but they didn't love the Lord their God with all of their heart. Or they never met Jesus to the extent that they knew what it meant to love Him.

Because I believe some people, they think that they're serving God. That rich young ruler, he really believed that he was serving God by keeping the big ten. But at the end of the day, he couldn't follow Jesus, and he went away from Jesus sad because he knew that what Jesus required, he could not keep. He couldn't sell his possessions, give it to the poor, and follow after the Lord. And how many of us are in the same boat as the people in the culture that are good in the eyes of men, but they're not good in the eyes of God? How many of us are good businessmen, or we're the sorts of people that do unto others, we're looked up to, but also at the same time, we're not cutting it?

Jesus would not say to us, "You're close to the kingdom of God." Now, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God because the moment we die, it's not going to matter if our mom or our dad thought we were good. It's not going to matter if our community—even the community of believers—thought we were a good person.

If your life is not clean, the devil's going to take you to hell. And Jesus is going to say, like He says to so many people, "Away from me, you who commit iniquity. I don't know you." And Jesus won’t just be saying that to people who are atheists. You know, atheists aren't casting out demons. Atheists aren't running churches.

But the ones that Jesus says, "Away from me, you who commit iniquity," are the people that were casting out demons and prophesying in the name of Jesus and singing Christian hymns and giving sermons. That’s what Jesus said—not with those exact words, of course—but He said that they were the people that were trying to cast out demons and trying to prophesy.

So this means us, guys. Jesus isn't talking about people far out in the world, but He's talking to your face. He's talking to me. So how can we be the sorts of people that when we stand before Jesus, He doesn't say, "Away from me, you who commit sin," but He can say, "You're close to the kingdom of God." And that when we're to the very end of our life, He can say, "Enter into my presence because you got to know me and you did my will. You are my son, or you're my daughter." That's what we want to hear.

Now, one thing that I find crazy, guys, is the fact that so many Christians have a perverted tongue. They think they're making it into heaven. They listen to perverted music that mocks God, and they think that they're getting into heaven. Music is a really funny thing, guys, because music keeps you in the past. If you remember when you were in high school, you probably remember all of the songs that you used to listen to. I remember the songs I used to listen to. Maybe it was Eminem if you grew up in the '90s. I listened to all this music just like you did. And if that music plays on the radio, I have to quickly get out of there because it reminds me of the past.

And I see a lot of Christians who are listening to music from their past, and they're not maturing in their faith because the old habits are holding on. It's killing them because instead of going forward with Jesus and singing the song of the redeemed, they're still singing old songs from Blink 182 and Eminem and just wicked music.

So if we want to grow, to sing the song of the redeemed and be pleasing to Jesus, then we have to get that old junk, that old trash, that old dung out of our life. And too many Christians are holding on to old music that's not letting them move forward in their faith. They have a perverted tongue. They're going to ungodly movies. They're listening to ungodly music. And for some reason, they have the audacity to think that when they die, they're going to hear those words, "Well done, my faithful servant." It's not going to happen.

Jesus would quickly tell people when they were far away from the kingdom of God. Remember Peter, His own disciple, He said, "Get behind me, Satan." He called him Satan. So you're not going to be any better than Peter if you're cursing God or doubting or hating God's children. You have to have faith with the works of righteousness, and you have to have a pure tongue, a pure mind, childlike faith. And you have to be developing with Jesus. And if you're not, you're going to be cut off.

I don't know how many Christians think themselves to be godly, but they're watching TV, they're always looking at pornography, they're living like total hypocrites. God's going to cast out those people that are not serious and not holy and pure. And sadly, too many of them are good men and good women. And it makes me sad that a lot of my mentors and a lot of these people that are good people are well on their way to hell because they are far from the kingdom of God.

How do you know if a pastor or how do you know if a preacher or a Christian is close to God? Well, this is the way you know, guys. If you hear someone speak that has truly been at the feet of Jesus, by the time you leave that person, you want to do nothing less than to fall on your face and repent of your sins and get to know Jesus for real. That’s how you know. But you know you're listening to the wrong preacher if you get done listening to that sermon and all you want to do is go and read your Bible. All you want to do is go listen to more Hillsong music. All you want to do is listen to another sermon.

Following Jesus has nothing to do with listening to sermons, listening to a bunch of preachers. You have to bear good fruit. And if you want to know if you or someone else is truly a child of God, ask yourself: after you're done speaking with them, are you falling on your face before Jesus because you're just so amped up to repent of your sin? You're so encouraged to fall on your face before the Lord because you want to get a better relationship with Jesus? You're just so motivated to get sin out of your life and to meet Jesus that you fall straight on your face.

That is what I want to do as a Christian. I want to encourage people—not to be going to church, not to be going to another video on YouTube or some other place—I want to cause people, by the fire of my devotion to Jesus, to go fall on their face before the Lord and repent of their sins and then start walking in genuine faith.

Following Jesus isn’t about getting into church or just hearing another motivational speech. It’s about really dedicating your entire life to the Lord. And if we become those sorts of people, then we bear much fruit—not like the three soils that didn’t produce, but like the fourth soil that produced. Some will produce tenfold, some twenty, thirty, fifty, a hundredfold. We want to produce for the Lord so we don’t get cut off. And because we love Him, we want to produce.

And so this is what's been on my heart, guys. If we want to grow in the kingdom of God with Jesus, we have to clean up our tongue. We need to get filthy music, filthy movies, filthy people out of our lives. We need to get serious about bearing good fruit and teaching our children, teaching our neighbor—whoever's around us. We need to be inspiring them to do the same. It's not about religion. It's not about going to church. It's not about Bible study. It's about holiness. It's about complete devotion to the Lord.

Are you a child of God? Are you devoted to the Lord Jesus—not with just your tongue, but with your actions? Because there's a big difference there. There's a lot of Christians that can preach Jesus with their tongue, but they're not preaching Him with their life.

We need to be the sorts of people that our heart, our tongue, our mind, our body—all of that—is aligned with the Holy Spirit, proving that we are the disciples of Jesus by our love.

So I want to pray for those of you that want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, that want to overcome sin and truly follow Jesus with all of your heart.

“Lord Jesus, I pray for those who are my brothers and sisters that are, that are just bearing the burdens of sin, that want to throw sin off. I pray for them, Lord, that they can be added to your flock — your small flock, your little flock.

I pray that they could become a peculiar people, set apart for, um, for the journey with you — set apart for you, Lord. And I pray that you would take them with your staff and pull them out of the mire and save them as your sheep, and dust them off and clean them — purify them, purge them — and put them on the straight and narrow path, that they may endure with you and make it to the very end, that they may have eternal life.

I pray that more people will be added to your flock, to your people. I pray this in your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.”

It's Easier to Explain the Kingdom of Church

It would be much easier for me to explain to you how to become part of the Kingdom of Church, or how to become a US citizen, or something that has physical roots on this earth. But the Kingdom of God tends to be very elusive to people. They just can't understand it.

The closest people understand on this earth to the Kingdom of God is the church. But the problem is, most churches have nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. They have the name “church,” or the name “Bible,” or “Jesus” or “God” in it, but they have very little—if nothing—to do with the Kingdom of God.

And that is a huge problem, because it's a huge tool that Satan is using—that is, the church—to draw people away from the Kingdom of God and not to enter.

Remember, the Pharisees were also doing this. Jesus said to them that they would travel land and sea to try to make one proselyte or one disciple. And then, when they would get that person into their school of thought or into their synagogue, they would make that person twice as much a son of hell as themselves.

Well, the churches today and the Christians—the pastors that are in those churches—are exactly like the times of Jesus. Like these Pharisees that get people into their organization and make them twice as much a son of their dead, wicked religion—as Jesus said, a “son of hell”—as they are.

So how do we get people into the Kingdom of God? It's actually impossible. But what is impossible with men is possible with God.

I often feel like I have this task that God has given me, which is joyous. It brings joy to my heart to tell people about Jesus. But it can also be very discouraging because so few people have ears to hear. People have ears to hear sermons. They have ears to listen to music. But most people just like their ears scratched—they want to hear the things that they want to hear. But they don't want to hear the hard-hitting truth of Jesus Christ.

And that is also a problem. Because if we're not eating Jesus’s flesh and drinking His blood, then we're not going to have life.

Remember that Jesus said that the Holy Spirit is as the wind. You're not sure where the wind is coming from or where it's going, but you see how it moves the trees and the grass. And that is also how we have to be as His disciples. We're not following after men or after the church.

You can tell where the churches are going—they’re following their leadership to hell. But if we want life, we need to enter and push our way into the Kingdom of God. As Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” So we need to be pushing our way into the Kingdom of God.

It's impossible for you to see unless Jesus opens your eyes and opens your ears to the truth.

So I want to encourage you to go straight to the source. Jesus is alive. And if you pray and ask Him, “Open my ears, open my eyes to see you,” He's going to give you spiritual eyes to see and spiritual ears to hear Him.

And then, when you know you're hearing from Him and seeing Him work in your life, never ever take your eyes off Him. Never stop listening to Him. Don't set anyone else up in your life to be your spiritual guide. You have to hold fast to Jesus—to His words, to His truth. Let Him lead you into everlasting life.

Dream: Toxic Factory Meltdown

 Sometimes Jesus warns us in a dream or in a vision of the things that are going to happen, or He even gives us a dream or a vision as a parable of the Kingdom of God.

Well, last night I had a dream that was quite terrifying, and it woke me up at about 3:45.

In this dream, I saw a giant factory. The factory was like a small city, probably 30 stories tall, and it had thousands of men that worked there. It seemed to be some kind of chemical plant or nuclear plant—maybe both. But it also had scientists, it had teachers, there was a school there.

First in this dream, I saw it as a vision where I was not participating. I just saw on the roof there was some kind of a lake, and on this lake there were men that were keeping these reactors cool. When one of the reactors broke and fell into this lake and caused a reaction, and it exploded, and it sent all sorts of chemicals into the air that then landed on people and immediately killed like a thousand people.

So at that point, I was only watching this as a vision. But then, as the dream went on, I found myself as an active participant in this dream, and I was actively going through this concrete building, and I was trying to get myself out of the building. But in passing, I would warn people—like the teachers that were in that building, the scientists—and most of the people just looked at me and they wanted a longer explanation. I couldn't wait around to give them a longer explanation because I knew that I only had minutes to get myself out. Otherwise, we would all be consumed in this nuclear meltdown.

I was able to get my entire family out of the building, and we were saved. But within the midst of all of this happening, a few people I noticed did follow me. One of them seemed to be a teacher or a principal of one of the schools that was there. But I noticed later in the dream, the only reason he followed me wasn't because he thought there was any immediate danger. He thought that I was a danger and a disruption potentially to his class and those scientists that were working there. But little did he know that he was going to be dead, and all of those around him, in about 3 minutes.

So this is a parable, guys, that in the Kingdom of God we are pushing into the Kingdom of God. We are calling people to repentance, and we don't have time to wait around for people to repent. Otherwise, we ourselves are not going to make it into God's Kingdom. The door is closing for salvation, and too many people are just making fun of the prophets. They are making fun of those who are preaching Jesus. They don't take repentance seriously.

But in the end, the joke is on you. The devil is laughing in your face because he knows you're on your way to hell. I am here to warn you to truly repent. Get right with Jesus because you don't know when your last minute—your last second—is going to be. Are you really right with Jesus Christ, or are you playing games? That will never in all eternity allow you to make the choice of repentance again. Are you making bad choices now? Are you choosing to live for the flesh—the desires of the flesh? Are you living a sinful life? And in the end, are you going to regret that? Because for eternity, you will be in torment.

Make sure you really repent because hell is real. Jesus Christ is real. His salvation is real. But if you don't get right with Him now, you'll have eternity to wish that you did.

Why Millennials Left Church Permanently and Why I did

 Let's just talk shortly about a certain topic that is important to people, and that is why people are leaving church. Now, in the culture, people talk about specifically millennials who have left church over the last 20 years. Millennials are people that are around our age. So, between the ages of about 30 to 40, 45 years old, something like that. And a lot of people around my age have left the church. And I've spoken to many people that have given their opinions why they have left church. And I have realized there's a fundamental reason why a lot of these people have left church. Usually, it's because they have seen hypocrisy in the church, and usually that sort of hypocrisy falls into one or two categories. It's either the category of of, it's actually sin, like maybe their pastor was a hypocrite, and he was committing adultery but pretending to be a good shepherd on Sunday. So, it's actual real sin, or it's something that these millennials see as something hypocritical that's actually just due to their tainted view of reality. I'll give an example of that. I had a client some years back who talked to me, and I got to speaking to them about church and how I had left, and they said, "That's great." And I knew that even though they thought we were on the same page about leaving church, I just knew that they were on a completely different page. And as they spoke, I realized what they thought to be hypocrisy in the church was totally completely different to what Jesus's view of hypocrisy and sin is. And so, what this person thought hypocrisy was is her pastor was up there, you know, preaching against sin and things, but he was including sinners to be people that are transgender and homosexual. And her view of hypocrisy is, how can you say that you are loving and follow a God of love and be hating a whole race of people? You know, these sorts of people consider homosexuals a race, even though it's a sin. And so, they think that pastors in the churches are being racist, and they are being hypocrites because even though they say God is loving, they're hating homosexuals, and they're hating, you know, these people that have decided they're a man in a woman's body or whatever problem they have. So, a lot of millennials have this idea that churches should accept everything, and if they don't, they're hypocrites.

So, the two views that millennials kind of have of hypocrisy, one is that the pastors and the people there really are sinful. Therefore, they left church because they don't want to be around, you know, a pedophile pastor like many of these priests are. And they don't want to be around a hypocritical pastor who is, you know, fornicating with the women in his church while pretending to be a good leader on Sunday. And then there's the people that really are so twisted. They think that churches are hypocritical because they're condemning things that are really sinful. Now, I know how the people in church think. They think of church as a hospital for the sick. And so, they're going to tell you you should be in church. Sick people should be in church, and you should be in church as well because all of us are sinners. And so, they basically justify the sin and the hypocrisy and the wickedness in church as if it's okay. And God just sees us all as equal, and you should just go to church anyway and forget about it; turn a blind eye because we're all trying to go up the mountain of faith anyway. And so, these sorts of Christians, even though they see the blatant hypocrisy, they see the sinfulness, they just say, "Whatever, that's fine. I'm going to go to church anyway because it's better than if I were at the bar or something else on Wednesday night."

Guys, the reason why I left the church as a millennial, because I myself am 39 years old, so I'm a millennial, is far different than the reason why most millennials left the church. Most millennials left the church because they had some kind of spiritual revelation that the church is bad, and so they left. They think that they're holier than thou, so they started other groups. They want to justify their own sin at the end of the day. I didn't leave the church for any of these reasons. I left the church out of a direct revelation from Jesus. And it was scripture that Jesus showed me of why I should leave. He showed me the scripture that talks about how if we touch nothing unclean and separate ourselves, how he will become a father to us, and then we will become as his children. But we can't be yoked with the world. And so, when I read these verses myself being in church, I was convicted, and I knew that I had to sever myself from my religion and people that were in my church, even close members of my family, if I wanted to really hold Jesus's hand and walk with him in the truth. It wasn't that I thought I was holier than thou. It wasn't that I wanted to justify some sin in my life. It wasn't that I was upset that the pastor was pointing his finger at me for sin. I knew that I was in sin. And I knew that the church was a way that I could kind of live my sinful life and justify it because all the people around me were saying it's okay to be a sinner. It's okay we're saved by grace. And the women that were coming to church were all promiscuous. People would of course go to the movies and out to the lake and do all these things with other people in the church that were fun at the time, but also it caused a lot of people to fall into sexual sin and all sorts of other sin as well, drinking and all of those sorts of things.

So, I knew that if I wanted to walk forward in faith with Jesus, I had to leave church because if I didn't, I would still be in a dead religion; I would still be part of the Babylon church system that was leading my soul to hell. It wasn't that I just had some personal revelation that didn't align with the Bible. It wasn't that I just wanted to justify my own sins and not have people point fingers at me. But it was Jesus showing me truthfully that I had to leave the church system. Not just my church at First Baptist, but I needed to leave these organizations that called themselves the body of Christ, sever myself from it, disconnect myself and my family from it, that I could cleave and hold on to Jesus with all of my might and let him become my new teacher, my complete leader, and that he could mold me and shape me to his image.

This is not the reason that most millennials are leaving church, guys. They're leaving church because they're upset that the church is speaking against homosexuality, and they have a brother, they have a brother or a sister that is gay or transgender, they're queer, they're something, and they're very upset at the pastor or their church's laws for speaking against those things. And at the end of the day, they don't want to go to church because they don't want anyone pointing a finger at them that they're a sinner. And so, they can say, "Everyone else is a hypocrite." But they're just trying to get the fingers pointing away from them. But that's not the reason I left. And that is not the reason you should leave church either.

The reason that you should leave church is if you are genuinely choosing to be led by Jesus. If you don't want to be led by Jesus, then by all means, go to church, sign yourself up for their classes to be led by their shepherds and their teachers and their leaders. And by default, if you join a church, you go where your leadership is going. You follow your church where your church is going. But by default also, if you put yourself in the care of Jesus, then you will be going where Jesus is going. So, you have to ask yourself a very fundamental question, and that is, where do you want to go? Do you want to go where Jesus is going, or do you want to go where your church is going? Because you can't choose both. Either you will be a lover of people, and you will follow people and their leadership and their direction and their prophets and their pastors and their Bible studies, or you will follow Jesus and his teachings, and you will be guided by his Holy Spirit.

The church has replaced the guidance of the Holy Spirit for their Holy Bible. So, they kind of have this trinity that is God the father, God the son, and God the Holy Bible, and they have completely eliminated the spirit of life, they've eliminated the holy ghost. But if you want to receive the one true God, Jehovah God, that is the Father, the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, his spirit that he gives to those that will receive him, the better gift, then you need to sever yourself from dead religion,  server yourself from hypocrisy and the thinking of other millennials and the deception that's in the church. Server yourself from all of that. Get rid of it. Kick those spirits out of your life, and then choose to hold Jesus's hand and walk forward with him by faith, even though the road is lonely, even though no one else may go with you. Likely, other people will scorn you, they will look down on you,they will say you think you're holier than us, you're a hypocrite, they will try to speak every evil of you under and over the sun, just like they did to Jesus. Remember, they called Jesus all these names. They said that he was casting out demons by the prince of demons, that he must be filled with bible, and that Jesus was just this evil hypocritical guy that thought highly of himself. So, if they treated the son of God like that, we are not greater than the master. They will also treat us like that. If they loved Jesus, then they will love us. If they hated Jesus and despised him, they will also despise us.

And I have found in my years of walking with Jesus apart from dead religion, the people who despise genuine faith most are the dead religious Christian crowd. Those that are always going to church, they always think that they know best, they're always combative, they always want to throw scriptures at you thinking that they're more biblical than you, they're always fighting against the Spirit of God. They're never reverent before Jesus, but they always want to give you a verse and prove to you how you're out of alignment because the Lord speaks to you, and they say, "Well, God doesn't speak anymore through dreams or visions or interpretations. He only speaks through my pastor's Bible on Sunday from 8:00 to noon. And if you're not there, you're not hearing God." That is true hypocrisy because the same God who spoke to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has not changed. God is the same forever. He was, he is, and he is to come. And the same way that he spoke to all the holy prophets is the same way he still speaks and communicates with people today because God does not change. He is alive. He wants to lead and guide us, not just from a dead book. It's not about just getting into church and getting into a Bible study. God is alive. If it were true that the Bible is the only way you hear from God, then when you would get to heaven, you wouldn't meet Jesus. You wouldn't meet your father in heaven. You would be standing before the Bible sitting on a throne, and you would have to hold an account before the Bible. And that is not true. It is the Lord Jesus who will judge you according to his words, and he will test you and see if you lived for his words or if you lived according to your flesh.

So, why do you go to church or not go to church? Is it for the same reason as the millennials? Have you stopped going because secretly you have sin in your life, and you just don't want to be condemned for sin? Or are you the sort of person that says, "Well, I don't go to church because there's hypocrisy there, but you also have hypocrisy in your life." Or genuinely, can you say that you are not part of a church because you want holiness and righteousness, and you want to be able to live for Jesus with all of your might? Are you lying to yourself about these things, or are you really working at being separate, not because you think you're holier than thou or better than other people, but genuinely because you have the love of Jesus in you, and you want to keep yourself unstained from the world? So, I hope this encourages someone. I hope this brings someone some light, that they can see the truth of Jesus and put their faith in him and have their eyes open to the kingdom of God. And so, “Lord Jesus, I pray for those, whether they are millennials or whatever age they are, whoever is listening to this message today, I pray that they may repent of their sins for real, that they would put their faith in you, and that they would sever themselves from everything and everyone who is ungodly; that they would not be like the ungodly, but that they would choose to do good before you and receive your Holy Spirit, receive the words of life and be purged from dead religion, be purged from sin and wickedness, that they would have their new white robes on, ready for the wedding supper of the lamb. We pray to eat your flesh and drink your blood and take communion with you all the time, Lord Jesus, because we know that only you have the words of life, and only you can lead us into everlasting life. I pray in your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.”