The Church on Trial Pt. 4
When the Church Put Up With What It Should Have Put Out
Revelation 2:18-23
18) To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19) I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. 20) Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21) I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22) So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23) I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
I want to use as a thought on today again as we continue this series entitled the church on trial. But I want to use as a sub-topic if you will “When the Church put up with what is should have put out.”
My brothers and sisters, when a person is given credit, they are usually told when they have credit through Sears, Macy’s, Visa, etc… what the credit limit is. Whereas they are saying you can spend up to here, but that’s it. When a person gets car insurance, they give you insurance to insure your car. But after so many tickets and accidents, they say that is it. Normally what follows after a sequence of tickets and accidents and failure to pay and all that other stuff, there is a notice that you have been cancelled or terminated.
The limit says, ok, this is how much you have and how much you can spend. Creditors don’t tell you what to buy, how to spend it, when to spend it or the consistency. They just know when you reach that limit, that’s it.
I want to suggest to you on today my brothers and sisters that the church ought and should have a limit on what it tolerates just as well. We reached a point today now where it’s a free-for-all even in the church. We reach a point now where behavior that once did not grace the presences of the doors has now trickled into the church and has made itself at home.
We reach a point now where those in leadership have abandoned their ecclesiastical authority to make everybody happy when ain’t nobody is being saved. We just happy to say we got a full house. I rather have a couple people full of the Holy Spirit than a house full of people that are not saved.
And my brothers and sisters, all of us have what we call a threshold of pain. We say ok, I’ve reached my threshold of pain, I can’t take anymore, this has to change or else something is going to happen. God has reached a point now, where God is saying enough is enough. I’m seeing stuff go on in my church, I’m seeing stuff going on in the walls under which we profess that we believe in Christ that does not represent me and that it’s now time for the church to put some stuff out of the church that does not belong in the church.
And today the church is on the hot seat. The church is on the hot seat because God has called a trial. He has convened a trial and he is pointing out evidence that is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the church is not doing everything that God has told them to do.
A couple weeks ago you will have recalled he brought to trial the church at Ephesus, in the first seven verses of Revelation. And what God says is there is no doubt about that you love me and that you serve me. What God says is look somewhere along the road, you have veered off course and now you have left your first Love.
You know when I look at this church, the church of Ephesus; can I be real about it this morning? This church reminds me of people in the church now. You know how when people 1st joined the church, they were on fire. On Sunday morning, before the Pastor even got here, you were sitting in the parking lot waiting for the church doors to be opened. Now you’re the last person to get here and the first one to leave.
He says somewhere along the road you have left your first love. And it’s evident you have left your first love because now God only gets a part of your service, where as one time God says you used to be here for everything. Now you show up when it convenient for you.
You rather be on the golf course, or at home watching the NBA or the NFL, or this or that reality mess, or whatever you do on Sunday. But God says it is evident that I’m not first place in your life. Because you do me like you do the “do drop in’s.” You just do drop in when it’s convenient for you. God has convicted that church, if you will. God says he’s found them guilty as charged. They have left their first love.
But then if you will, look at the next one in verses 8 – 11, and then God brings what I call the church that suffered. He brought Smyrna if you will to trial. And one thing God did, he rendered a verdict against Smyrna and decided that Smyrna was a storm survivor. And what he says there that in spite of everything that you’re doing in the church, you’re living right, you’re doing everything, you come under persecution, but yet you were strong enough in the word and in the power of God’s might that you were able to overcome all your obstacles.
And I’m wondering right now do I have any storm survivors? That can say Reverend I’ve been through it all. I’ve lost my friends, I’ve lost my job, I don’t even have any credit but God keeps telling me that I will make it. He keeps telling me just keep waiting for me. God says I’m going to heal you. I’m going to bring it back to you, restore you. Just don’t worry about what your credit look like, just don’t worry about what people say about you. Yeah you got to kick some people to the curb. Yeah you not going to popular, but just stay in there, just stand. God says I’ll make sure that everything works out for you. Do I have any storm survivors that can say I’ve survived, I made it? And listen you didn’t make it on your own. It was by God’s grace and by God’s mercy. That’s why you’re here right now.
So God told them, listen I know you’re going through some stuff, but I’ve decreed and declared that you are a storm survivor. But then that brings us to last week if you will where God talked about the church at Pergamum if you will. And God says about the church at Pergamum that it was time for them to repent. It was time for them to clean the house. And what God does with Pergamum if you will, he says listen, first of all I’m not denying the fact that you’re not doing the things I’ve asked you to do. But the problem is you’re tolerating stuff in your house that you know does not measure up to the rules.
They were doing stuff, and listen, that’s the way some folks are now. What people do is say, you know what you can drink, but just don’t drink upstairs. No, drinking downstairs is just as bad as drinking upstairs. Getting high downstairs is just as bad as getting high upstairs. If it’s you’re house, and you’re righteous, it means your house ought to be righteous. Come on somebody and walk with me if you will. It should be at some time you make a blanket statement and stick by that statement like Joshua did when he said, listen choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house we going to serve the Lord.
And so in my house it ain’t no voting whether I’m going to church or not. Everybody going to church. It ain’t no voting whether I’m going to Sunday school. Everybody going to Sunday school. It ain’t no voting whether we going to prayer meeting. When we go to prayer meeting, you go to prayer meeting. Nothing is more important than me making sure that you know who the Lord is and what the Lord has done in your life.
But what he is saying about the church at Pergamum is that the only person that’s righteous in the house, they tolerated sin from everybody else. And because they tolerated sin from everybody else, the house needed to be cleaned up. And I told you on last week, but let me put out there on the table, there are some stuff going on in our house that needed to be cleaned up. Come on just walk with me. Ya’ll getting real quite.
There are some behaviors in the house now, that we tolerate that we know momma and daddy didn’t tolerate. So if they didn’t tolerate it, who’s setting the house rules? Is it you, or is it your child? Because anytime your child can come in at any hour of the night and think that it’s okay, and walk in and say hey what’s up Darrin, we got a problem. That just ain’t going to happen. We got kids now a days that call their momma and daddy by their first names. I tremble just thinking about calling my daddy’s name because I know we didn’t play that stuff.
Yeah, but we have gotten to the point where I kids dictate how they live. They tell you we want a pair of shoes, we give them a pair of shoes. Even though they been suspended a couple of times, they ain’t cleaning their rooms, they not bringing home good grades, but I’m going to reward them for what? For being stupid? I mean I’m trying to get some rationale here. I mean I look at some stuff and I am just being curious. I can’t make sense of getting kid $150 pair of shoes and the kid is bring home F’s on their report cards.
Let me get on with this message. But the problem is, when I look at this, the church at Pergamum, the only person that was righteous refused to correct everybody else. And because they did not correct everybody else, guess what they did. Those people then turned around and tainted and contaminated everybody else.
How you going to be in the bedroom with your husband and your son in the other bedroom with his girlfriend spending the night. I’m just asking. I’m not talking about nobody, I don’t know nothing about nobody, I’m just talking what I’m talking. How you and your child going to be at the club getting tipsy? I’m just asking questions, I don’t know nothing about nothing.
Now because I didn’t correct the first person, they contaminated everybody else. So guess what, now my kids-kids think it’s ok that all of us have a live in boyfriend or girlfriend. They’ve been sitting around long enough.
Look and what has happened is that you done gave up something to people that didn’t really want you. Ya’ll know what I’m talking about. I’m just trying to push it down your row real quietly if you will. I’m trying to keep it above board if you will because at some point in time, why buy the cow when you can have the milk for free? And so then after you done leased yourself for a couple of years, at the end of the lease when they don’t want you, when you could have been with somebody that really wanted you enough to put a ring on it, ain’t nothing left for them. And now you have all of these flashbacks of what that reject did to you when you were leasing him. And so now when the real one comes you don’t know how to treat him so you treat him like the reject.
He said last week to the church at Pergamum you tolerated sin and those people that were doing the sin because you were okay with it. They then turned around and tainted everybody else.
Well today what he is doing my brothers and sisters, he has brought another church to trial. And the thing that I found out to be interesting, is, I can see a lot of church in every church brought to trial. I can see a lot of us in all the people that he’s already charged. Well in today’s church, he has a problem with the church, because the church is putting up with stuff that it should have a long time ago put out. And I want to submit to you today that, that is what is happening to our churches today. We’re putting up with all types of stuff in the church in the name of friendship because we are afraid that if we put that person out, they going to take their money. Take your money with you. It ain’t about you and your money anyway. It’s all about the kingdom of God. It doesn’t matter if we got 10,000 people or 20 people. It’s about people that are sold out, tied up, and tangled up in the name of the Lord. It’s about seeking and saving the lost.
And I need to let you know my brothers and sisters, that as time goes on, you are really going to be put to the test, because if you’re serious about Christ, that means some of the people that you associate yourself with and hanging with, you’re eventually going to have to let go if they are not interested in learning about the kingdom. And I know that’s hard, but Jesus says listen think not that I come to everything being copasetic. I’ve come that I might turn a mother against a daughter, a father against a son, all for the sake of the kingdom. So you ain’t always going to please everybody and you shouldn’t be trying to do it anyways. The person you ought to be pleasing is HIM.
So listen, when the church puts up with what it should have put out, what you’re really saying to God is that you’re okay with those who violate God’s word. When you put up with stuff when they should have been put out, you really telling God in essence that you’re okay with the people violating the word of God in your presence. And that is the problem with the church on today.
I have to tell you, this church looks similar if you will to Pergamum from last week, but there is an exception. See Pergamum tolerated it stuff that was sinful in its house. This house, this church, this community that is being brought to trial right now, this church called Thyatira, is itself involved 100%. It’s not that they are tolerating it, they are actually doing it themselves.
Now the thing I like about God, is that God always finds something good. He always sees the best in us regardless of it looks like at whatever time we look like. So he commends their dedication. Listen he says I know their works, I see your love, I see your service, I see your faith, I see your patience, I see how you served others, he says, but while you’re doing all of that, I still have a problem with you.
There is a Jezebel. You see that right. Around verse 19 & 20. He says you are allowing stuff in the church that’s leading people astray. Are ya’ll hearing what I’m saying? Look if you will at verse 20. Because this problem is critical, because the key person that God points out is Jezebel. And I need to be clear on this, there is a Jezebel in every church. Listen, a Jezebel doesn’t have to always be in a skirt. A Jezebel can be in a suit. A Jezebel doesn’t have to always be vocal and loud. A Jezebel can meet behind closed doors. A Jezebel doesn’t have to be so apparent, a Jezebel does all their work behind the scenes and then they push and geek other people on to come forward and make a fool of themselves on behalf of Jezebel.
Look at what he says in verse 20. He says notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou put up with that woman Jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess. Put a nickel in the meter, I’m coming back to that if you will. He says who then ultimately teaches and seduces my servants to commit fornication and to eat those things sacrificed unto idols.
Now when you look at that word fornication, it does not actually, if you will, mean sex, what it means is that person is leading astray to other types of things that contradicts the God we serve. Now this Jezebel is acquainted, for those of you who are bible readers, to Ahab if you look at 2 Kings Chapter 10. He’s using her as an example because, if you will, this Jezebel in 2 Kings was terror in a skirt and earrings. Oh yes, she ran the place. She dictated everything. Ahab was weak as a twig if you will. And whenever he cried, she stood up for him and she did things. She put the pants on in the house. She ran the show. She dictated everything. Ahab was just a king if you will in title, but Jezebel ran everything, and not only did she run everything but she made her kids to be exact images of her.
This Jezebel, what makes her important my brothers and sisters is that this Jezebel calls herself a prophetess. And when we understand that, it is believed that she was married to the pastor of the church. Which meant she wielded tremendous influence. The difference is, she took that influence and used it for negative gain. She seduced people by her saying things. She enticed people if you will. Understand that it doesn’t have to be a she, it could be a he. A Jezebel can be anybody that leads you away from the teaching of the word of God.
He lifts this person because he wants us to know that there can be people in ecclesiastical positions that can misuse their power and authority. Now we know that and we talk about it, but let’s just put it out there on the rug so we all clear. Everybody that went wasn’t sent. Everybody in the pulpit has not been anointed by God. There are some people that are driving, that are serving, that are teaching, that are hosting, that are ministering if you will that aren’t anointed by God. He says those are Jezebel’s looking for a way to bring the house of God down.
And what he’s saying is that not only do we know it, but we put up with it because when it’s all true, some of us put up with it because some of us is as guilty as they are. Ya’ll ain’t going to hear right there. Let me say it again. The reason why we won’t point them out is because by exposing them it might expose us just as well. And so I’m not going to tell anybody that you went to the club last night cause I was with you at the club last night. I’m not going to tell anybody that you was drinking, because I took the first hit off the bottle. I ain’t going to tell anybody you still getting high because I’m still rolling them and smoking them. I ain’t going to tell nobody if you will that you still creeping and tipping because I’m hoping nobody saw me at Day’s Inn last week. I’m not going to tell anybody, because I don’t want you fronting me out and trying to bust me the same way.
God says, I got a problem. Gods says there is a Jezebel in the place, misleading people from doing everything that I told them to do. You here is the problem. Some of us are gullible enough to fall for it. I mean, we’ve been in church since we were as my papa would say knee-high to a duck. And then this person comes along and flatters you with words and they seem to just rub up against you a little bit, seem to be in your corner and all of a sudden you done told them your whole life story. You told them how much money you got in the bank, how long you live on whatever street. That’s what they were waiting on and now they got you. Now they can start planting seeds. You know the pastor is always talking about shacking up. It’s in the bible. Why wouldn’t he be talking about? What you want him to talk about it? He’s going to be talking about sin.
There’s a problem in the church. See the church put up with what it should have put out. The text says she taught and she seduced God’s people. Even teaching them to eat things sacrifice to idols. In other words it would be like us having Bible Study in the chapel, but then it would be like her, Jezebel in the Sanctuary teaching our youth how to hustle, run game, or how to be a thug. It’s being done in the church. And what’s interesting is that because this is a person of influence that’s wielding their influence and we sit by and tolerate it. It’s not okay to tolerate it. I don’t care who it is. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong. And the church has to get to the point where we stop sitting down. We got to learn how to stand up. And sometimes you got to be willing to stand on your own, but you’re never alone because God is with you.
Look at the atmosphere. It was the church, where people that are sick come to get healed. It was the church where people come for inspiration and edification. The place where people come to get delivered from their sin. The place where people come to get a word from God. It was the church where Jezebel had came in and misused her position of authority and started drawing people away from the word of God.
Now sometimes if we want to be honest and transparent, there are some Jezebel’s that live with us. Ya’ll not going to help me. You ain’t got to go to church every week. Bruh, let me make sure you understand something. You might not believe in church, but the only reason this house is covered in the blood of Jesus is because I am going. And if you was any type of man, you would be taking us every week, but since you ain’t going permit me because I know the word. To know that when I’m praising God, and giving my tithes and offering and praying for you and my kids, my house is covered by the blood of Jesus. If you want to go to hell, you go right ahead to hell, I’m going to heaven. And my kids going to heaven just as well.
See we got to understand that this ain’t no grey matter. This is black and white. Either you’re saved or you’re not saved. Either you going to do what God says or you’re not going to do it. Trying to do a hundred. For the song says Lord I’m running trying get 100 because 99 and a half won’t do. Tell your neighbor it won’t do.
So here is a place where the church, where the spirit of the Lord dwells, righteousness is being taught, and has to be lived. And we got people that are living right under the eyes of the watchful shepherd doing things that contradicts the word of God. And God is saying I got a problem. Because what you’re doing is committing open sin and ain’t nobody saying anything.
I understand why sometimes and down through the years countless souls have been saved, but they don’t want to change. And because they don’t want to change, that’s why they don’t keep coming back. Because here, ain’t no it’s okay to live a certain. It’s not going to be its okay to do this. It’s going to be always what God says because he’s got the final authority.
Listen, I hope that every leader understand why we need standards. I hope that the church now, while saying that I’m reminded that even growing up, and now in this position that God has placed me, even setting elementary standards such as tithes, bible study, and Sunday school has come under attack because we don’t want to rise to God’s standard. We think that it’s okay for a person to join church today and next week they directing the choir. That ain’t the way it flows.
See that’s a huge problem in the church today because we want any and everybody to serve in ministry. We don’t have any problem with anybody getting up here saved today, and preaching in the pulpit next week. That is not the way it works. Can I get a witness?
Okay let me just ask you a question like this. Would you want a person a police officer who has only gone through 1 week of training? To be carrying a gun? Would you want a person, who has completed 1 anatomy class, to come in and do heart surgery on you next week? See, what I’m trying to get you to understand what they did then. See they tolerated stuff in spite of. God is saying be ye holy for I am holy. God is saying there needs to be a standard. It’s the word of God and many people won’t like it because the gospel either draws you or drives you.
God ain’t trying to be popular with everybody, because God still controls the heaven and the earth. Because God will ultimately determine who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. So you can say, I don’t like how God do it, God says fine go to hell. That’s what he’s going to say. I mean you might as well tell the truth and shame the devil. Look if you don’t obey God, he ain’t got nothing else to say. Now I know that sounds cruel, but I’m telling you what the word says. He’s going to say, depart from me, I knew you not.
The penalties of violating God’s word. The church is guilty as charged because it put up with what it should have put out. And because the church put up with what it should have put out, God then says because you put up with it, the second point I want to leave with you is that God is saying you are subject to the penalties of violating God’s word. See you can run all you want, but you can’t hide. Okay, you can think because the ceiling ain’t dropped in on you, and because you ain’t been exposed yet, that God ain’t seeing you, there is a reckoning day for everything.
I like what he says. Look in verse 21. He says: I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. God says, I was longsuffering. I’ve been trying to give her an opportunity but she so much caught up in what she is doing, that that is more important than I am. And then he says behold I will cast her on a bed of suffering and them that commit adultery with her, they going to be committed with her in the great tribulation. He says, except they repent.
So here God says look, not only am I going to get her, but anybody that’s in bed with her committing these sins, if they don’t repent, they going to suffer just as well. And so what I’m going to try to tell you now is that maybe you’re doing some things wrong under the guise claiming that you’re saved, born again, washed in the blood of Jesus. You know it don’t measure, and God is saying I’m giving you a chance to repent today. God is saying, though, if you don’t repent, the same thing I’m going to do to her, it’s going to be done to you.
God says in the text, despite this is going on in the church, and let me be clear about hear, that this can be happening in our homes. We can be tolerating stuff that you know momma and them didn’t bring you up that way. Matter fact can I just suggest this; that sometimes we put up with other people because we think that’s the best we can get. I want to beg to differ. You just don’t have to settle for him that beat you up for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is somebody. And I know he got a good job, and maybe he ain’t putting his hands on you, but he don’t want your Jesus, so at some point you got to ask yourself a question. Is Jesus more important than him, or is he more important that Jesus? Cause what he then does is say, you know what I don’t think you need to be going to church as much as you are?
God says listen, I gave the church, the leader, and this Jezebel time to repent. And he says and yet, they failed to heed my warning. The failed to comply with my word. So sometimes, my brothers and sisters, this is what we believe. We believe because the skies have not opened, and because Jesus has not come back yet, that Jesus is not going to correct us. You going to get corrected.
Matter of fact some people get brazen. Over in Ecclesiastics 8:11, look what it says. This is Solomon, he says because sentence against an evil work is not executed expediently, therefore the hearts of the son of men is fully set in them to do evil. Here’s an example: When we were kids and my momma or grandma would make a cake, I would cut a sliver off the cake. Lord help it if it was chocolate. But everybody knows what a sliver is? A little bitty piece, real thin so she wouldn’t notice it. And because we didn’t think she noticed it we got brazen and cut us off another sliver. It’s not that she didn’t notice it, she was ultimately going to address it, but she saw that I cut a little bit more so then at that point she says who told you to cut some of that cake? And I’m sitting there with chocolate on my face saying nobody. I already know what’s coming because I was caught dead to rights.
And I’m saying to you, you might think that you getting away creeping and tipping, but disease has a way of catching up with you. You might think you’re getting away right now cheating on your job, but the cameras and company has a way of catching up with you. You might think it’s okay facebooking and posting and following your ex’s, and then when you’re spouse comes in acting like they ain’t see you, it has a way of catching up with you. And even if they don’t check your voicemail, and posts and tweets, your sins will ultimately find their way out.
So God is saying the same thing about the church. In this text. That we are putting up with stuff we should’ve put out. Can I make this a little bit more personal if you will? Many believers are putting up with some stuff from folks whom we should have long ago put out; dismissed; let go; cut loose; distance; fed with a long-handled spoon; and because you’ve allowed it, other people have gotten caught up with the web of deceit. It’s now trickled down to everybody and know everybody think it’s okay. Everybody thinks this is the norm. It’s not the norm. God is saying if you’re holy, people need to know you’re holy.
I can tell you right now based on experience, everybody ain’t going to like you. The problem is, even in ministry, not only do we know that a person is sinning, but we got the nerve to rationalize that it’s okay for them to be in ministry and yet they’re not complying to the word of God. God says you’re guilty. You know they wrong, but because they your “friend”, you want them to be in ministry. You know they in sin and you tolerate it. As a leader, God says I am holding you guilty.
And I’m saying to the church right now that we’ve got to be willing to stand in the mist of adversity. Stand even when people don’t like the rules. We didn’t make the rules all we do is live by them. When you do that, everybody ain’t going to be happy.
But I hear God saying loud and clear, it’s time for us to clean house and the house must start with us. And this is what I found out, and maybe I’m wrong. But the reason why we ain’t correct anybody else is because we haven’t checked our own self yet. We know we ain’t living right. We know we ain’t doing right, so it’s easier for me not to correct them because I know when I correct them, they ultimately going to point me out as well. And so I ain’t going to say nothing about you being at the club last night if you ain’t going to say anything about me at the club last night.
God is coming back for a church without a spot or a wrinkle. Those who, however, compromised and allowed unrighteous acts and teaching and behaviors, God says they are going to pay the ultimate penalty.
So my question to you is, and I have to ask this question? Is the church still willing to put up with what it should have put out? If the answer is no, then what that means is that things have to change in your life. It’s got to start with you. You can’t keep making excuses for everybody and for yourself. Ultimately it must be your decision.
Living right. And so for those of you who made that decision, the third point as I must close on this morning, is in verse 24 – 29. God says, for those of you who are making the decision to clean house; that you’re going to live right. And listen I just want to make sure that I ain’t talking about nobody, I’m just talking about what I’m talking about. Because people will walk out saying Pastor was talking about me. No, no, no. All I’m doing is telling you what God says.
Now I know some things I told you on today is right in your face, but guess what, God is right in my face. So because God is in my face, I got to get in your face just as well. As uncomfortable as you is, guess what God is doing? He’s doing the same thing to me.
God is saying, look Jackson, I’m saying to you, you need to make sure South Central is living the way that I asked you to tell them to live. And when they’re not doing it, you need to tell them or I’m going to replace you with somebody else.
So God says listen, when you live right, there is a reward for the faithful. It right there in verse 24 – 29. See everybody in the church ain’t doing everything that I just said. So thank God, for God says for those that ain’t doing it, God says that there is going to be a reward for you. Can you see it right there in the text?
Look at verse 24. He says but unto you I say, and unto the rest of Thyatira, as many has not this doctrine, as many as has not gone to the teaching, gravitated away, abandoned the word of God, has started doing that stuff; God says I’m not going to put this burden on you. If they do wrong, I’m going to deal with them. I’m not going to put the burden on you.
Then he goes a step further and says, he that overcometh and keepth my word to the end I give power over the nations. God says I’m going to bless you. God says I’m going to allow you to rule. When you look in verse 27 & 28, it says something to the effect of I’m going to give you the morning star. Which is Jesus. I’m going to give you the iron brass. Something of that nature. Whatever it means, God is saying, if you’re faithful, God says I’m going to bless you.
Now how many of you want to be blessed? How many of you want to live right? How many of you are tired of making excuses? See sometimes you need to check yourself. Sometimes you need to tell self you need to stop making excuses. You need to get up and go. You need to do what is right. You need to stop blaming everybody else. Everybody ain’t out to make you bad, it’s you yourself. Sometimes you need to get in the mirror and have a talk with self and say, you know what, you need to stop blaming everybody else for where you are. And if you can slap yourself in the mirror, then you need to slap your own self.
God is say its time out for playing. And God is saying its time for the church to get right so we can get on with the business of God. God is calling on the church now to make your mind up who you’re going to serve. Joshua said chose you this day whom you’re going to serve, but as for me and my house we’re going to serve the Lord.
We all going to get up for Sunday school. We all going to bible study. God is saying it’s time to clean the house. And it must start with you. Listen, I don’t know about you, I’ve had some ups and downs, and I’ve gone through some things. But I’ve made my mind up I’m going to keep working on the building. That’s what the songwriter said: I’m working on the building, it’s a true foundation. He says I’m holding up the blood stained banner for my Lord. Just as soon as I get through working on the building, I’m going up to heaven to get my reward.
Is there anybody here willing to make that commitment today? I’m going to stay on the wall. I’m going to keep doing it. I don’t know everything reverend, but the more I come to church, the more I pray, the more I get around people that know the word of God, I’m going to get infected. I’m going to become contaminated with the word of God. I’m going to get the same joy that they got. I’m going to get the same peace they’re getting. Because I’m going to become infected with the word of God. I’m going live by the spirit. I’m going to meditate on the word. I’m going to be living a life of righteousness. Why? Because I’m tired of putting up with stuff I should have put out.
And my brother and sisters, it’s time for all of us. We got some issues, we got some issues with anger, we got issues with envy, and we got issues with all this other stuff, but God wants to put us back together again. God wants to change your life for the better. God wants you to have peace that surpasses all understanding. God wants you to have joy, not just on Sunday, not just on payday, not just on New Year’s, not just on Christmas, not just on your birthday, God wants you to have joy, unspeakable joy.
That joy when things are wrong, you can still praise God. That joy when you got cancer in your body, that you will still lift up your hands and give him the glory. That joy that makes you want to shout when ain’t nobody bothering you. That joy that makes you want to holler every now and then because you recognize the goodness of God. When you think about his goodness, and all he’s done for you, your soul ought to say hallelujah because you know where he’s brought you from. God says this is the time right now.
So today I extend the invitation to you. You might be struggling. You might have some trash in your life. In all my life (trash coming back)
