Awaken Pt3
For more messages and resources by Cameron Conway visit https://conwaychristianresources.com
Who are we waiting for then? What are we afraid of, do we not remember 1 John 5:4
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
Will we stand up and become the plague of holiness that the world has been dreading for 2000 years. The victory is ours; the battle was won at the cross. By the blood of Jesus Christ we have victory over the world and the enemy and their systems. Is it not time to take our spoils of His victory? Or are we content with hiding within our own gates and stained glass walls? As the enemy rapes our land with our full permission, and blessing. “How can you dare make such a statement” you may ask? It’s because we don’t pray! We don’t Forgive! We don’t stand in unity! And we blame God for all of it. If we, the entire church for a single day would take all the energy wasted on fighting ourselves and with God, and focused it for a single day at the enemy. The world would shake as the upper room did at Pentecost. That is why the enemy runs rampant in our lives, we open doors that we refuse to shut. The only prayers we know today are prayers of greed and vengeance. God bless me, bless me no matter the cost bless me, even if it destroys my life bless me. Or we pray for vengeance against those who commit wrongs against us. We have offenses against our brother yet we race to be the first at the altar to give our offerings. Because you know the first one to the altar will get the most anointing!
It seems that in our efforts to become relevant to the “world” we have become the world. In our efforts to become seeker friendly we have betrayed those already among us. We edit our sermons to please all men, lest we offend or accuse one of sin. We blindly through fear of “scaring” or “intimidating” the unbeliever strip away all things that will truly grip his heart. No matter the excuses derived we cannot ignore 1 Corinthians 14:24-25
But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all. 25 And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you.
Yet also we ignore entire chapters in the Word of God because they don’t fit our particular doctrines. Even many of our favorite scriptures are taken out of context from the verses which surround them, they are simply and wistfully forgotten. Are we compromised? Yes! Yes we are, we adopt the worlds systems for the churches finances, government, education, even advertising. Apparently God didn’t know what he was doing when HE birthed the church and raised it up out of nothing and created a powerhouse that swept the planet. We have stage lights, PPV sermons, and power point. We don’t need Holy Spirit it could disrupt my 3 point sermon with 2 examples backed up by 5 scriptures with a somber sounding conclusion with the band playing softly in a minor key. We just know better than God now in our modern enlightened age. We are like the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky’s poem. Somehow we believe the Christ has gotten in the way of our Christianity. No longer is the Western Church of Jesus Christ known for its love but rather for its luxury and bigotry. It hurts me to say these things, for I know many, many people who are shinning examples of true Christianity, true followers of Christ. It just seems to me that they are out numbered, and kept out of places of influence. People who are true, honest, loving, and astute in the Word of God. People who have walked out the great commission, preaching to every creature with signs and fruits following. People who have put aside the fear of men, people who follow John 15:18 “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” That is the attitude of an enemy of the world. This is the attitude of Revelation 12:11
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
The blood of the Lamb, Jesus’ precious blood. The word of their testimony, the proclamation of the Gospel and the entire Word of God. And the sobering thought that they did not love their lives even in the face of death. Have we forgotten Philippians 1:21 ”For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” It isn’t very often in the west that we are asked to die for Christ. In Africa, Asia, South America it is a different story where the seed of the church is not a tax deductible love offering. No rather the seed of the church in these lands is the blood of the martyrs, our brothers and sisters. Their blood does cry out and every place where righteous blood has been shed the Gospel has penetrated and taken hold. Even in the most unlikely, dark and forgotten places. There are muslim clerics who have experience dreams of Christ himself sharing His gospel with them. There are other reports of entire villages sharing the same dream of Christ calling out to them. Or we can look at China with130 million Christians, all of which walk upon land drenched in the blood of the saints. And from the blood an army has risen.
What about us in the west? What are we afraid of? There is no dictator or Saturday morning super villain trying daily to destroy us. No there is just a love for the world, however we are still called to be dead to the world and its lusts. As it says in Mark 4:19 “And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.” And again in Titus 2:11-12 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world”. Or the most blunt verse of them all “James 4:4 “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
Do we not see that we are called to be a light in the darkness, not the grey in the moonlight? God in his mercy to protect us creates these boundary lines between us and the world and its drug called sin. And we all know that sin leads to death, be it physical, emotional, spiritual or in our relationships. Sin kills all it touches, it is the curse of Deuteronomy 28, and Genesis 3. Yet we are fascinated and we refuse to die to it. While brothers and sisters physically die, for the mere right to call on His name, we bow to the world and the sin it peddles. In a smug superficial mask we declare that Christ has set me free from the curse of the law so I’ll be forgiven for all my sins irregardless of how often I transgress. Sin is still sin and it will do all it can to separate you from God, then you from His Body and finally separate you from yours. Is this why we have become shell shocked?
Has sin and its nature become a normal part of our lives? Is the good fight no longer good? Has death become life? Has our television become our moral compass? Has secular music become our code of ethics? Has pop-culture become our doctrine, and our idols our priests? We must return to Jesus our first and only true love. We must cry out to our first teacher the one and only Holy Spirit. Our guiding light bound in the Word of God. We must take our entire being out of Romans chapter 7 and return to Romans chapter 8.
To be continued
For more messages and resources by Cameron Conway visit https://conwaychristianresources.com
