Conviction Versus Preference Sermon by Herson Gonzalez, John 21:15-17

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Conviction Versus Preference

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Conviction Versus Preference Series

Contributed by Herson Gonzalez on Mar 20, 2006 (message contributor)

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Scripture: John 21:15-17

Denomination: Pentecostal

Summary: There is a difference between a conviction and a preference. A preference is a very strong belief, held with great strength, but a belief that you will change under the right circumstances. A conviction is a belief that you will not change.

SEVEN AREAS WE NEED TO CHANGE IN ORDER TO CHANGE OUR LIVES

CALVARY WORSHIP CENTER

MARCH 19, 2006

Pastor Herson Gonzalez

Without a plan for change, all we will do is talk about changing all our lives, but we will stay the same. All of the singing and the praying and the preaching and the shouting in the world will not change you without a PLAN!

How many of us Love the Lord today? Ever ask yourself how you could love God so much but just keep hurting Him?

1. Mind = Repentance

2. Convictions = Faith & Love

3. Expectations of the Future

4. Activity

5. Conduct

6. Effort

7. Life

Battle Is Your Calling

When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become sin; you must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith.

CONVICTION VERSUS PREFERENCE

There is a difference between a conviction and a preference. A preference is a very strong belief, held with great strength. A preference is a strong belief, but a belief that you will change under the right circumstances. Circumstances such as:

1) Peer pressure; if your beliefs are such that other people stand with you before you will stand, your beliefs are preferences, not convictions,

2) Family pressure

3) Lawsuits

4) Jail

5) Threat of death; would you die for your beliefs?

A conviction is a belief that you will not change. Why? A man believes that his God requires it of him.

Preferences aren’t lead by the Holy Spirit, Convictions are. A conviction is not something that you discover; it is something that you purpose in your heart.

Convictions on the inside will always show up on the outside, in a person’s lifestyle.

To violate a conviction would be a sin.

Preferences become weak when faced with extreme crisis.

Conviction makes you do things that aren’t always popular

Story of Naomi, Ruth & Orpa

Naomi and her husband left Bethlhem with their two sons. The husband dies. The boys marry to girls from the land of Moab; Ruth and Orpa.

The two sons die and Naomi must return home unsure of her own future so she tells the girls to go back to their mother’s house.

Ruth 1:14

14 Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, …

Orpa’s Preference was to stay with her mother-in-law. We know this by the tears she sheds. But her husband died before she could have children. There was nothing in it for her to stay with Naomi. So in the end she gave her a kiss and left her. A preference crumbles in crisis.

…but Ruth clung to her.

Underneath the water of preferences lies the solid ground of conviction.

“I know that the Law says I have every right to leave you… I know you can’t give me another husband. I know it makes more sense for me to leave you all by yourself to die …but my convictions force me to stay with you.”

“You gave me your son and now he is dead. Your Husband is dead… Orpa just left you…who will care for you Naomi if I leave you now?”

15 And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”

16 But Ruth said:

“ Entreat me not to leave you,

Or to turn back from following after you;

For wherever you go, I will go;

And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;

Your people shall be my people,

And your God, my God.

17 Where you die, I will die,

And there will I be buried.

The LORD do so to me, and more also,