What was I, that I could withstand God?

"Change implies

• The of direction of your life is altered
• Pain
• Seldom the path of least resistance

Going the way things have always gone is the path of least resistance and usually this path leads to death. Most people resist change. Change is necessary if we are going to go with God/have a dynamic relationship with Jesus. We can’t have a relationship with God and stay the same.

What is most deadly to us is the spiritual malaise in the country today/indifference to God/indifference to the spiritual status of friends/family/workplace/worldàthey are in rapid moral and spiritual decay/dying and yet no one cares.

The Remedy

• is not a personality
• not a program that has not yet been designed
• IS a violent theological shift. To get off being so man-centered, so selfish, content and complacement with the way things are that we get to a place where we cannot live without the power of God being demonstrated in our midst. Don’t want to go through the motions. Don’t want to live lives of mediocrity. Where we INSIST on living the abundant life.

We are not a bunch of whipped dogs in the kingdom of God. The enemy has taken from us what he does not have the authority to take—and we have given it to him/helped him take it! For many of us we have a pathological fear of confrontation to the point that we will not go and do what needs to be done.

My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will take a billy club to all of us and do what is necessary to get us to wake up and line up to the Word of God. That is what we desperately need!

Just bc you are a church member doesn’t mean you are a child of God. What makes you a Christian is not a profession of faith, but a possession of Faith. We must be a new creation.

If you allow the naysayers to intimidate and silence you, then you will never do anything for Jesus. We are not to be afraid of anyone or anything, but God. Fear is a manifestation of our flesh, of our weakness, of our sinful nature. When we respond with fear, then we respond fleshly. Those that try to make you afraid are in the flesh. I don’t want people to be afraid—I want them to do what’s right. The word of God is Truth!

Salvation is not of works, but of Grace. Salvation is of the Lord. This concept brings unity in the body of Christ and unity implies equality.

Dying for Change

What happens to those who attempt to withstand God? They are destroyed. If you care about someone, you tell them that they are in danger…that they’re about to step off the cliff and that they need to come back. Don’t fight God through your actions, attitude, or words. God resists the proud, but gives Grace to the humble.

The church rejoiced when they were rebuked. How often do we do that? You have to be spiritual to receive a rebuke. A fool ignores correction. The Lord sings over the Redeemed. We ought to rejoice when we see God at work. We ought to grieve/mourn where we do not see God working. We should pray that God works in such a stupendous and miraculous way that everybody knows that it is Him working.

In order for us to change, we have to be confronted. From time to time, someone needs to love Jesus and love us enough to tell us the truth. We have to have that. The power of God can change anyone’s life at any time. You are not beyond the grace of God. He is God! He can do anything that he wants to do. Genuine believers spontaneously rejoice at the salvation of sinners.

We must be careful not to resist the Lord and His Word as we try to maintain control and pursue our personal preferences. We must be guarded and careful. For us to be like that, we must change. We can’t stay like we are and go with God. We must be willing to do whatever it takes to bring Glory to God.

Change—easy to talk about, but never easy to implement. The question becomes “How serious are you about moving on with God?” There is a group of people who will follow God to do whatever He calls them to do… but they are a remnant—of a larger group that under the guise of the “service of God” has been used by the Enemy to destroy the souls of men. I’m going to ask you to make a choice—of which group do you choose to be a part? The group that goes through the motions and plays church or the group that does whatever it takes to reach the lost world for Jesus?

If you are going to go with God and do what He wants , you are going to have to get radical and you’re going to have to change. The children of Israel would never have entered the promised land if they had stayed on the other side of the Jordan River. You have to get your feet wet sometimes—be willing to. Sometimes you have to pick up your sword and take what God has given you.

We must change. We are dying for change. Will you change? Will you follow the Lord?"

I just heard this sermon and was very convicted about how I've been living my life. Change is the hardest path and definitely the one with the most pain--but it is also the path with the greatest Reward--Jesus! All other paths lead to death. Who I am that I think I can withstand God?

If you want to listen to the whole sermon, check it out here http://faithbc.videographybymikeandalicia.com/2009/fbc051009pm.mp3 .