Who God Is: THE MAIN ATTRACTION

There are some things that you are supposed to emphasize in preaching only to someone once they are saved. One of those is heaven; the other is hell.


"WHAT?! HOW ARE WE GOING TO ATTRACT PEOPLE TO THE CHURCH, AND WARN THE OTHERS TO REPENT?!"


God IS the main attraction. Too often you find people flocking to the church to avoid hell fire and so they think "as long as I'm in these four walls and following the rules (*wink *wink) I'll be saved from destruction and inherit this cool place where I smile at people all day; oh look, the floor is made of gold, maybe I can steal a few bars and sell them."


We are not selling people heaven, or working on scare tactics about hell. We are offering relationship. If people are so focused on their fear of hell, or the comfortableness of gold paved streets and giant pearls as gates, they are in a place where relationship takes a backseat. We are telling them that what you will feel and experience is the most important. It is not. What people are rarely told is that while you're there, you will be blown away AT ALL TIMES by how great the presence of God is... and contrary to popular belief, that feeling of being blown away starts here on earth.


Our relationship with God will put us in a position where heaven won't be a bore. Let me explain. Until recently, I would read the descriptions of heaven and the coming of God and would read that there will be people and there are angels that do nothing but sit in front of the throne and are like " Oh God, you're so GOOD!" and "Oh God you're so much better than me!". That didn't appeal to my carnal nature at all. Furthermore, we know that is it possible to be in God's presence and want more. Lucifer himself was the covering of the seat of GOD and yet....


(Exekiel 28:14-16)

“You [Lucifer] were the ANOINTED (which is why we aren't allowed to curse satan himself. See the story of David and Saul)
cherub who covers;
I established you;
You were on the holy mountain of God;
You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created,
Till iniquity was found in you.
16 “By the abundance of your trading
You became filled with violence within,
And you SINNED [He was the first sinner];"

Relationship is the ticket. When you approach somebody on the street, you bring spiritual and physical healing. "God LOVES you. He DIED FOR YOU. He WILL PROTECT you. you just need to tap in through Jesus Christ."


Of course their carnal nature will fight, but think of it like this. The legacy of preaching destruction is a world hardened to the gospel. It is an apathetic church that has loss their fire because the gospel was planted on shallow ground and never took root in RELATIONSHIP (which is good ground) enough to sustain through the good and bad times, and a people that are tired of waiting for a heaven that honestly they don't really believe in. I can never again honestly say to myself or anyone else that God is not real. Why? because I have felt His presence and I talk to him and I GET ANSWERS. Not because I'm anxious to escape hell or anxious to have heaven erase all of my problems. I've only truly been saved a month and that month has rocked my world. I have testimonies in that month that no one can diminish or take away from me. I CAN'T STOP talking about how GOOD God is, and how I know His hand is in my life. In heaven I'll be RIGHT AT HOME...

...not saying I'm perfect or can't fall, but I know that I know that I KNOW that I'm relational with God. That alone is heaven enough.

Who God Is: LORD OVER OUR TRIALS

READ DANIEL 3 FOR CONTEXT

I just listened to this sermon and it just rocked my WORLD. Dan Mohler. DUDE! This man said, in the case of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, if the goal was to protect them from fire, the fourth man (angel or God, it isn't clear) would have combated the fire and put it out. Instead, He gave the boys freedom from the power of the fire so that it was like they never entered it; they didn't even smell like smoke. 

(Dan Mohler)"the fourth man didn't care to put the fire out because he was LORD over it; it wasn't even worth addressing."

WHAT A FREAKING CONCEPT. 

So if that is true in the physical, how much more true is it in the eternal spiritual realm?? God is not necessarily here to save us from trials, but from defeat by trial. Jesus told us we would suffer many things so having God doesn't mean you won't be broke, and have zero control, but according to his word, broke or not, you won't be starving and you will always be provided for. 

Dan Mohler said (and I'm paraphrasing)

"What do I care if I am in the lion's den overnight; He's gonna shut the mouth of every lion. People pray to stay out of the fire because they aren't sure it won't burn, and out of the lion's den because we aren't sure they won't bite".

That is what our faith is supposed to be. Knowing that we will be kept in any situation IS peace. We are not to be or feel vulnerable or exposed, because that suggests that we can be defeated. When we can push past that vulnerability with the knowledge that God has got you, you fully understand the way GOD LOVES YOU. Know who your God is and through Jesus Christ be blameless in His sight and He will take care of you.

Who We Are Called To Be: MEN AND WOMEN OF GOD

Elijah Is a man who knew who he was in God. The man had FAITH both in who God was and in who God said he [Elijah] was. A king of Israel fell and was injured and sent men to go ask the patron god (ha ha cute; demons call themselves god because they're slaves to pride) OF A DIFFERENT COUNTRY if he would recover(Christians today do the same thing: horoscope, mind reading, palm reading, fortunetelling etc) . Let's talk about this. Israel has God, Creator of heaven and earth, yet because this man didn't have faith in what was his by BIRTHRIGHT, look at what a man who did know does to him. 

2 Kings 1:2-4

‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’ 4 Now therefore, thus says the Lord: ‘You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’" 

When they tell the king this he says go back and bring him to me, but go with 50 men to intimidate him. Elijah first addresses who he is as a RESULT of who God is and says to them, 

"If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men"...

...and it did...


...and it did for the second set of fifty too.


It is not until the third captain of fifty says,

"Man of God, please let my life and the life of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your sight. 14 Look, fire has come down from heaven and burned up the first two captains of fifties with their fifties. But let my life now be precious in your sight"

God will HUMBLE your enemies for you (even if they are among his own people; if they are disobedient it is fair game). You just have to know who your God is and who he says you are.

Mini-Lesson: THE ACCUSER

Satan is the accuser of the brethren and the father of pride and lies. You cannot accuse (not to be mistaken with correcting) without pride. It is impossible. You are saying "look at what you are doing that I'm not. I'm better than you." At that point you become an accuser, a liar (because you in fact are no better; we are saved by GRACE, and not of our own selves) and the spitting image of your FATHER.

Mini-Lesson: THE WORD

Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." Who else is He though? " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Notice that all creation started with the Word of God. The Word of God must therefore be truth because "God is not a man that he should lie" and if He were, when God said " Let there be light", there wouldn't be. And being a perfect Word when Jesus said, "Girl, arise!",(though the dead had been raised before) for the first time in human history, Word brought forth life not just in the girl, but in all of us that we might have life "more abundantly". I don't know about you, but I think it's time I learned that WORD

Mini-Lesson: Political Correctness

 Matthew 21:25

And they [pharisees] reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He [Jesus] will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him [John]?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.”

When your focus is not on giving the honest answer, but on giving the politically correct answer, you should know you are already wrong.

 Matthew 21: 31,32

Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him. 

Who We Are: THE BREATH OF GOD

Many people, even self proclaimed Christians, forget that it is the breath of God within us that animates us. It is only natural therefore that we began to die when sin entered in. God said once, "My Spirit will not strive with the spirit of man forever" and then he shortened the regular life span to about 120 years. Why? Because once sin presents itself, something has got to go; the sin, or the Spirit (breath) of God within us. "If you eat of the fruit (disobedience), you will surely die." or in other words, "you make your decision to put sin between you and I, leading to your eventual death". Because God doesn't lie, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is real, but I often wonder if the tree itself has no power, and the knowledge gained was (in the act of disobedience) to be taught to choose.


God loves himself... and seeing that His spirit is what animates you, he loves you too. He can never not love Himself. And He created us to be different so we could represent billions of facets of Himself to love. When you are one with him you still retain your level of intelligence, creativity, style of clothing (regardless of what the pharisees say) and who you are. Just like every child's DNA is the sum total of the DNA of two people, yet they are loved as entities valued at more that the sum total of their parts, God loves you. (by the way, the sum total of any human's parts is worth 160 dollars give or take a few dollars for height and weight. My phone cost more than that. LOVE is what makes you valuable.)


Being free is letting that spirit of God in you to be completely unhampered by sin. Being happy, is expressing EXACTLY who you were created to be without fear, doubt, grudges, pain etc. When a Christian has FAITH they have faith that God has created a way to release their souls so that they can be free to totally love their Daddy, and express it. The power of healing and casting out demons is just being pure enough to reconnect that breath with the Father, and allow Him to flow through you, more than you could ever contain on your own. You connect yourself to the Source and draw from His energy (which by the way is LOVE). That outlet in your wall is virtually limitless energy... as long as it is connected to the source. Put a surge protector (JESUS) on that thing, and you can animate a refrigerator, a laptop (which in turn animates the speakers connected to it) a desk lamp, a phone, two fans among other things (listing things I see in my dorm). And THAT is the truth of the gospel.


Ephesians 5:22-31

2 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29* For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body,[d] of His flesh and of His bones*31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

*God puts throughout nature, metaphors of himself. Roots nourishing the tree?? Who does that? (GOD DOES) That is why ruining the natural order of things is in fact disrespectful to God. The family is an example of how he care for us but when that family is broken the example is crushed and we see the outcome is negative.

Who We Are Called To Be: HAVE FAITH

God punishes those without faith. And He is ironic about it too. 

Sarah laughed when she was told that in her old age, she would have a son, and so, laughingly, God said, okay, but all the younger children will rule the oldest. Isaac ruled Ishmael, Jacob ruled Esau, Judah the fourth son of the lesser loved wife (Leah) is chosen to bring forth the Messiah. 

It gets better.

Zacharias, father of John the Baptist, when told (by an angel... sooo its not like the impossible hadn't already happened) that he in HIS old age would have a son and the son would be named John, he basically replied "prove it to me" and was struck dumb (couldn't talk) until "the day that these things should be performed".... When the child is born, Zacharias was still dumb. When they ask Elisabeth what she is going to name the child, she says John, which goes against the customs of the times (they generally name the child after his father, or some other family member, and everyone THEN went to Zacharias and asked him to write down the name. It is not until he wrote out "John" and confirmed for himself the words of the angel that he got his speech back. The child had already been named AND YET until he agrees that "yes this is happening and this is his name" Zacharias doesn't get his speech back.


BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE

Both Elizabeth and Zacharias were "children of Aaron" which make them (by birthright) of the sect of priest in Israel. That makes John the baptist 100% priest who had the ability according to the old covenant to forgive people their sins (and did by baptism). Aaron had two sons who got drunk one night and disrespected God in his own house (they died) and God ordained from that point that if you were going to be a priest, you weren't allowed to have strong drink (alcohol). One of the things Zacharias was told about his son was that he "shall never drink wine, nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb". God ordained this man a priest FROM CONCEPTION! If God ain't good, WHO IS?

The point is HAVE FAITH

Who We Are Called To Be: PLUGGED IN

The Old Testament is an amazing way to look at God's character and to realize that it DOESN'T CHANGE and that the character of God's chosen are similar as well.


They weren't perfect: Moses struck the rock twice and was therefore not allowed to enter the promised land. David was a man of war and had a thing for married women so his child died. They were sinners, and punished for it...


... But look at their nature. The disobedient Israelites were constantly on the verge of getting wiped out, and Moses intercedes for them so much that he straight up told God "if you wipe them out, then wipe me out to".


When David's son came against him to take his throne and slept with his father, David's wives (publicly) and later died in the civil war that followed, David tore his clothes and said, "I wish it was me".


THAT is the nature of GOD. Don't ever let anyone convince you that God is a hateful and spiteful Being that wants to destroy the world.




HE DOES NOT.




He wants to re-establish a relationship with people. When you are connected to LOVE (GOD IS LOVE) there CANNOT be death. When your phone is connected to the charger, it CANNOT die. But once their is separation, in either case, death begins, and life slowly ebbs away. Once you are dead, if you don't recharge, you are ruined. The phone with no access to a charger is good for nothing but destruction. No matter how much you, or God tries, if you don't choose to recharge, it is trash.


THAT is the reality of Hell.