Changing Our World

A few years ago, General Colin Powell, the former Armed Services Chairman of the Joints-Chief-of-Staff, was making a public speech to a packed audience of listeners. During the midst of his speech, which happened to be on the topic of “Race Relations in America,” an overzealous gay rights advocate interrupted the speech by making the statement that African-Americans and Gay America should join forces and unite under one front. The heckler stated, ‘we should unite as one because blacks and gays are both publicly prejudiced and privately persecuted. General Powell’s response was along these lines, ‘we have no common ground in order to unite on, because there is a distinct and innate difference between you and I. You must understand that being black is a state of existence, whereas being homosexual is a state of mind. With regards to the color of my skin, I had no decision in the matter, but based on your implied sexual preference, it appears you have made your choice.’

I started with that story to say to all of us this; everyone in this life has choices which have to be individually made. General Powell had a choice to concede while the overzealous heckler has choice to change. Everyone has choices.

Do you not know that you and I had a choice to make this afternoon? We made an individual choice to come to worship services today. Even though this is the Lord’s Day, all day, God still gave us a choice.

The choices we make daily, can affect us in every area of our lives. They can affect us socially, sacredly and even spiritually. In looking at the spiritual aspect, we have choices to make as to,

Accept Jesus as Savior of our lives

Study God’s word privately and corporately

To live for God completely

If you have not accepted Christ as Savior, make a wise choice and accept him today. And If you have accepted him, there are still choices you need to make.

Even after the point of salvation, you and I have a choice whether we’ll live our lives in spiritual contentment; in scriptural continuance, or whether we’ll live our lives remaining in a sinful condition.

Let me show you what I mean.

Matthew 4:17 records, “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The keywords in that passage are the words “repent” and “kingdom”. Looking at the word “kingdom, we find it’s a compound English word derived from two words (one being the word “king” and the other being “dome”). The word “king” speaks of reign or one with authority, while the word “dome” (where we get our word “dominion”) and it refers to the realm or the area of authority. What’s the point, those which live a life of spiritual contentment are individuals which have repented and asked Jesus to come into their lives as Savior, but don’t allow Christ to be “the king” (reign) of their lives nor have “dominion” (realm) over their lives. These are some of the same folk who don’t give, don’t go and cause divine grief because they have not discovered growth yet. Spiritually content.

But on the other hand, those living their lives in scriptural continuance, are those which make a conscience effort to learn more about Jesus Christ (and His walk, His way, His actions and His attitude). These are the ones which will stand boldly and share openly their faith in the LORD. They know because of their relationship with Jesus and their studies of the scriptures, that when you study God’s precepts and practice God’s principles, then (and only then) will you be a recipient of God’s promises. These are the ones living their lives in scriptural continuance because they have dug in the scriptures.

But then there are those of us which live our lives continuing in a sinful condition. That’s the category most of us fall into. We’re saved, but instead of standing boldly and sharing openly, we clam up out of a choice of fear. The interesting thing is that those living in a continued sinful condition are not afraid of what they might have to say (in regards to witnessing), but rather they are fearful of what might be said to them. Its not a fear based on a lack of faith, but rather a fear brought about by sin.

How can you witness effectively to a friend about what the Bible says regarding adultery, when this same friend knows how you are messing around on your spouse? You just won’t talk about it! The same can be applied to gambling, lying, stealing, etc. The list is endless!

These are the ones living in a continued sinful condition, why? Not because of a lack of discovered growth or inaccurate interpretations while digging from the scriptures, but, rather because of a disobedient disposition.