Convenience Or Conviction?

Today I am going to start with a question. It is a question that will make us do some soul searching. I ask you today, what motivates your behavior? But to understand the complexity of the question that I have just asked, we will first have to know the definition of this small word “behavior.” The word behavior is defined as 1. A: the manner of conducting oneself, B: anything that an organism does involving action and response to stimulation, C: the response of an individual, group, or species to its environment, 2. the way in which someone behaves; also: an instance of such behavior, the way in which something functions or operates. With this definition in mind, I want us to ask ourselves again, what motivates my behavior? This is a question that we should be asking ourselves as Christians because oftentimes, human behavior is motivated by that which offends God. The problem is that many believers fail to recognize or simply ignore the danger that exists in allowing oneself to be motivated by that which is condemned by God. The danger may or may not be something that will manifest itself in the immediate future, but of one thing that we can be sure is that it will manifest itself. Of one thing that we can be sure is that sooner or later our behavior and our actions will catch up to us. With this in mind let’s now turn to the word of God to see the message that He has in store for us.

Mathew 7:21-27 - Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. 24Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

As I stated just a minute ago, there are a large number of believers in the body of Christ that ignore or simply disregard the consequences of their behavior. There are a large number of believers in the body of Christ that continue to act and behave in a fashion that is not accepted by God, and the consequences of this is very evident in the first three verses that we are studying today. But let’s break this down into smaller sections to fully comprehend the meaning of His words. First we see that He tells us “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” What we see reflected here simply put, is the spiritual condition of the body of Christ in our days. I say this because there are numerous congregations that are full of people, there are numerous congregations that are full of professing believers, but in fact they are not. There are numerous congregations that are full of people that have accepted the Lord, but that fail to live the way that God intends them to live. There are numerous congregations that are full of people, who are there because it has become convenient, and not because they have received conviction of their actions. There are numerous congregations that are full of people that although they profess His name, they are unwilling to change. But the truth of the matter is that unless a change occurs, then you have nothing. This is something that is very well reflected in John 3:3 when we read "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Here the Lord tells us that we must be born again, in other words we need to start from scratch. Think about this for a second or two. When an infant is born, what knowledge or behavior does he have? Of course the answer to that question is none. At the time of birth the infant is totally innocent, the infant does not know the difference between right and wrong, and does not have the capability to do wrong. The knowledge and the capability to do wrong is something that is learned later in life. The knowledge and capability to do wrong is something that develops according to the behavior of those around him or her. Now, I want to stop here for a second to clarify something.