Three Lies

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for um the beautiful voices here. Thank you for this day, Lord. Lord, I just pray that your holy spirit be uh here in in in amongst us, Lord, that the message that you've given me uh is is said in the way you want it said.

Lord, I just pray your hand on everyone in this place in Jesus name. Amen. So, I am glad I'm back for those know I was gone last week. Thank you.

Thank you. Um you know last week uh not only was I out of town but my business got slammed and it was a very busy week and amongst that I was also fighting the Lord on something and um I don't know once [clears throat] you get saved and the Holy Spirit comes into you you know God will begin to work on things and some things you just have to give up. you just have to give up control on, right?

And uh this was in the area of I've it took about six years for me to give up my business and let God really run my business. And uh ever since I did though, when you do release it to God, you can let go. And it's really like I've never had to worry about money again since I gave over my business to the Lord. Okay.

um this church when it was starting after a month or so and there was about you know five people here not counting my kids and um and I I was like stressed about it and and God's like this is my church his church from the beginning I just had to remember that it was his church right so this was um this is about the wrestling last week was about an area that I've been trying to orchestrate myself and I've not been successive, which is since the divorce, a new relationship that actually works, right?

So, um I just wrestled with God all week and finally I just gave up Thursday night and I'm like, you know what, you're going to pick my next wife. Um so, you know, an arranged marriage, God's going to pick my next wife or he's going to choose me to be single, which is fine, too. It when when the tough times come, I can draw on him. I know that he will be there for me.

He just like Paul, you know, was single as well. But, uh, as soon as that happened, the next morning, God gave me a freshen re a revelation, a fresh anointing about this church and about what's happening. And so, um, I'm not going to share that today, but it's it's I got to share with my team first, but God, this is a special place. It's a neat place.

It's a very unique church. And, um, there's very unique and neat and beautiful people here. And God's going to do some neat things in this church and through this church. It may not be a mega church, but you know, um, if Jesus were graded on today's church standard, he'd be a failure, right?

He started with 12, he ended with 11. Gabriel Gabriel reminded me that actually there were only two at the cross. So really, you know, um, by today's standards, it would be a a complete failure. Obviously, he wasn't a failure, but that's kind of [clears throat] that's kind of it.

So, there's exciting things coming. And all of that is to say that has nothing to do with my sermon. My sermon today is called three lies. And um I'm going to talk about some lies that the devil has.

Um the devil is the father of lies. And he sews these things into our lives. And if we embrace what he's sewing, we end up not where we need to be, not where God would have us. And so the first lie, it's that we're not enough.

That somehow we're not good enough for God to love us. Okay? And it's more common than you think. Um I used to when I first got saved, every time I heard Amazing Grace and that part where it said to save a wretch like me, I was like I would just ball because I just felt like I was indeed a wretch, you know.

Um, [clears throat] and I didn't understand back then the fact that God once he saves us, we're no longer that ratch. We're not a cleaned up version of ourselves. We're a new creation. In 1 Corinthians 6:11, it says Paul is talking about some of the the things that, you know, people that were fornicators and adulterers and liars, etc.

And he says, "Such were some of you, but you were washed. You were sanctified. you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit the Holy Spirit of our God. So [clears throat] when you if you truly repent and you come to the Lord and you ask him into your heart, okay, the Holy Spirit comes in, now you've got a piece of God inside of you.

Okay, [clears throat] you're no longer unworthy. Okay, if you're still clinging to the thought that you're not worthy, that you're not good enough, that somehow you have to clean yourself up before God is going to love you. Okay, above what God says. Okay, let's let's look at some of the things God says about you.

All right, first Psalm 139:14, he says, "You are fearfully and wonderfully made." Okay. You're not no small thing. You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Isaiah 43:4 says, "You are precious in my sight." That's God talking to us. You're precious in my sight. Precious.

Okay. Isaiah 49:16. Are you keeping up? You're awesome.

Um it says we're inscribed on the palm of his hands, right? and he laid it out on the cross to show it. He died for you. That's how important you are to him.

He died for you. Let's go New Testament. Matthew 10:30. The very hairs on your head are numbered.

There was a show called Happy Days back in the past if you remember it. The fonts and he had every hair on his head numbered. Not like number 345 was out of place. Crazy.

But um but God actually knows the very hairs on your head. Okay. What a beautiful thing. You're more valuable than the sparrows.

First John 3:1. Let me go there. First John 3:1. Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God.

We're children of God. If you had a kid um or a grandkid, you know how much love there is there. God loves you like that. Okay.

Ephesians 2:10, we are his workmanship. Workmanship. We're works of art. Okay?

He created us. We're works of art. Are you getting the picture? God thinks really well of you.

Okay? And and I could keep going. There's a ton of verses I can go to that talks about it. I'm just going to do one last one.

Deuteronomy uh 76. Go back to the Old Testament. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the earth.

We're a special treasure. We got grafted in to that vine. Okay? We are a special treasure.

So if he says all this and you're still clinging to this fact that you're not good enough, that you're not worthy, that you're not there, you're taking what you think and putting it above what God thinks. Okay? That's egotistical really. Okay, it's a reverse egotism, negative egotism.

Okay, how dare you think less of yourself than what God thinks of you? Right? How dare you? And so, but it happens.

We we we we can be there. I did that for many years. I just didn't think I was I was doing works to try to try to prove that I was lovable. Okay?

And I was already deeply loved. I just didn't know it. In my second book, Perfect Love, I wrote that you can write a mantra out. Okay, your subconscious mind works in such a way that if you repeat something every day for 21 days, it'll begin to believe it as reality.

Okay, if you're really struggling in this area, you can actually start writing down like those verses I just did or or many other verses. If you just Google verses about God's love for us, I mean, you'll get a hundred of them. There's so many of them. And just write them down in a mantra.

And then every morning and every night, just read it when you're in front of the mirror until you finally get deep down in your heart that he loves you, man. He loves you just as you are. And once you finally get it, then the love can overflow. And you're not doing works to prove anything.

You're doing works for love. Okay? Can you guys hear me? I feel like my thing's messed up.

Um, once I finally got it, it opened the doorway to love. And so I want to encourage you if you're thinking that way, you got to you got to change that thought process. What God says about you is what's truth, not what you might think deep down. Okay?

We got to get past that and embrace what God says. But that leads you to the second lie, which is that works can save you. Okay? Um, and this takes many forms.

And at its heart, it's the devil's lie to get the Okay, the goal is to get the of the devil is to to minimize Jesus. Okay, you can call God God, but if you say Jesus, there's something different about that word. Okay, there's something different about that name. And and so there are whole religions that are wrapped around taking Jesus off.

Jehovah's Witnesses, they believe that Jesus is the son of God, but they don't believe he's God. They don't believe in the Trinity. Okay? So when they're out there knocking on doors, they're trying to earn their way to heaven.

Okay? And they're good people. But if they don't when Jesus comes again and they don't bow that knee and they don't ask him into the heart, guess what? they're not going to go to heaven.

Okay? And that's a hard thing for people to grasp. But but it's truth. Okay?

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me." All right? If God's a loving father and you could get to heaven by works, then he wouldn't have to have killed his son.

Jesus would not have had to die. All right? What kind of father would have his son murder for no reason if there was another way there? It's the only way he could save us was to go to that cross.

It's the only way. We're coming up on Easter, which is it's it's a big time. The Mormons, it's the same thing. Joseph Smith was visited by an angel in the 1800s.

We know uh the devil can masquerade as an angel of light. And he was told all these things, the Book of Mormon, that you have to do now to earn your way to heaven. Okay. Um, and again, good people, right?

They look good on the surface. I've known quite a few Mormons. Um, and if they counting on the works to get them there, it's not going to be there. They have to ask Jesus into their heart.

Okay? But it's even more subtle in the Christian world. Pride can creep in. Pride can creep into your works.

you can get saved and then you start doing things and you get involved in the church and all of a sudden you're you're like real proud of how much you're doing for the Lord as if you're really serving the Lord. Okay. Um and it's it's flowing from a an an area of trying to prove or or or just trying to to show and you start looking down on other people that aren't working as hard as you or aren't serving as much as you.

I remember one time, oh no, I I remember lots of times where in the church I was at, the Baptist church I was at, you almost had a guilt if you weren't doing more stuff, you know, for the Lord. And and it it should never flow from it should be so much love coming that you just want to serve God. Okay? The Pharisees were the epitome of this.

Okay? People think the Pharisees were bad. Um, the Pharisees actually were perfect. They they like followed the law perfectly.

So much so that when Jesus said, "Your righteousness must must exceed that of the Pharisees." Okay. The the disciples were like, "How can anyone be saved then?" Because they were on such a pedestal of how how righteous they were.

But they were it was all works, right? They had white they Jesus called them whitewashed tombs. There was no love on the inside. It was all works and they weren't going to go to heaven with that attitude.

Okay? When we do our good deeds in front of everyone, okay, to prove something, it takes the spotlight off of Jesus. Facebook, man. I I've got a friend, man.

He always anything good he does for someone, he's posting it on Facebook. Look, look, look, look, look. Okay, that's not much different than what the Pharisees were doing when they were at the front of the, you know, they were always at the the great seats and everything else. They they made sure everyone heard their prayers, everyone knew they were fasting, etc.

Jesus talks it on the sermon on the mount, Matthew 6 1-4. He says this, "Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your father in heaven. None.

Okay? So, when you do something and you tell someone what you did, you've lost your reward. That's your reward. When you post it on Facebook, look at me, and you get a thumbs up.

That's your reward. Okay? That's it. No reward from God in heaven.

Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets or post it wherever that they may have glory from men. Assuredly I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be done in secret, and your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly. When is that reward happening?

At the be seat judgment. Okay? There's a there's the great white throne judgment and then after that or hell it's just your rewards and the good rewards are rewarded and the things you did while you were saved and the things you did that weren't so good get burnt up. Okay?

And those rewards are eternal rewards. All right? So so when we do things it should be coming from our heart. It should be coming from love.

Here's the craziest thing.

Jesus in John 15 verse5 says apart from me you can do nothing so when we take pride in our works we can't you fixed the tire for an old lady that's great but guess what you who gave you your hands to to do the wrench to take the lug nuts off you know who gave you your your eyes to even see that she had a flat tire and and and all of that right and so we can't even do anything without the Lord so it's crazy for us to take pride in the things and the works that we do.

Works can't save you. So, how do you stay focused on Jesus and avoid pride? Gratitude. Gratitude.

Okay. Gratitude is the antidote to that. Every morning, man, get down on your knees and just start thanking God. There's that song by Seth Schlutoter that talks about um uh counting your blessings, and I can't even count that high.

Okay? There's so many things that God blesses you with. your your eyesight, your nose, your hair, your ears, you know, um your hands, everything. This is these are things that you should thank God about the beautiful weather out there.

Um you know, your kids, just everything. And as you're doing that every day, thanking God on your knees, you pride goes away because you know deep down that you didn't do any of that stuff. That was all God. You can't even make yourself breathe without God giving you that breath.

Right? So that's how you stay focused truly on your knee thinking thanking Jesus for all that he has done keeps pride at the door. You do that and you embrace the love that God has for you and then that love will overflow into works. That's where we should be doing our works is from the overflow of our heart.

Why are you going down there and talking to people about Jesus? Because I just love him so much. I got to tell people about him. Okay.

That's that's the overflow. Third lie that there's not a judgment day in the church today. Jesus is a great helper to help you become successful and help you become wealthy, help you become whatever it is. Okay?

That's not why Jesus came. Okay? Jesus didn't come for you to become a millionaire. Jesus didn't come for that.

Jesus came to save you from hell. Okay? He came to save you from hell. There is a judgment day.

Okay? And and you don't hear preachers preach about it much because people we should talk about you know success seminars and how to be a better husband wife and wrap it up with a couple scriptures but this is an important day when ma in Matthew 24 and 25 Jesus was asked what's going to happen at the end times and he describes the wars and everything then he describes his time coming when he sets it all right and then at the very end chapter 25 he describes the judgment day. Okay? He says he is sitting on a throne.

That's in Revelation is called the great white throne. He's sitting on a throne and all the sheep, the people that are going to heaven on one side, all the goats are on the other side. Okay? The people that are not going to heaven and he sends the goats to hell and he sends the the sheep to heaven.

Okay? In Revelation 20, it's a little bit more specific. Okay? This is John.

Now, in Revelation 20, this is the great white throne judgment, and I'm reading verse 11. Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in books.

The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and the death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one, according to their works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

So the book of life, the lamb's book of life is where you get written down when you ask Jesus into your heart. Okay? You make it into the book of life. Everyone who gets in there gets to go to heaven.

It's crazy. Why do we get to go to heaven? Because what Jesus did on the cross. Not because of our works.

Not because of anything else, because what Jesus did on the cross. And that's the good news. Okay? The good news isn't that Jesus is going to come and help you out with your your struggles today on the thing.

The good news, the actual gospel good news is that Jesus has made a way for you to go to heaven instead of hell. Okay? That's the good news. All right?

When you asked him into your heart and the Holy Spirit came in, you now had a link to eternity. Okay. In your heart, you now have a thing. Are you going to screw up?

Yeah. Yeah. You're you're not perfect just because you asked him into your heart. You're going to screw up.

But you're forgiven. Okay. When you come and ask Jesus into your heart and turn from and weeping and nashing and and and just just distraught over the things that you've done in the past and you ask him to forgive you, he forgives you. He forgives you and he forgets.

Okay? And that's a beautiful, beautiful thing. John 3:3 Jesus says,"Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." God.

We've got to get the Holy Spirit, born again, into our hearts. Okay? If we've done that, we're got a home in heaven coming down. And um I came across a book and I read this poem and it and it messed me up, man.

And uh God's been working in my heart something fierce. Um, and so I'm going to read this for you. It's a poem called My Friend. Okay.

My friend, I Oh, man. It's hard to read. I stand in judgment now and feel that you're to blame somehow. On earth, I walked with you day by day, and never did you point the way.

You knew the Lord in truth and glory, but never did you tell the story. My knowledge then was very dim. You could have led me safe to him. Though we live together here on earth, you never told me of the second birth, the Holy Spirit's second birth.

And now I stand this day condemned because you failed to mention him. You taught me many things. That's true. I called you friend and trusted you.

But I learn now that it's too late. And you could have kept me from this fate. We walked by day and talked by night. And yet you showed me not the light.

You let me live and love and die. You knew I'd never live on high. Yes, I called you friend in life and trusted you through joy and strife. And yet I'm coming to this dreadful end.

I cannot now call you my friend. There's people that we know in our sphere of influence that we've got to tell about Jesus, man. We've got to tell them about Jesus. Imagine what it would be like on that day when Jesus has the sheep here and the goats here and you're here over here with the sheep and you see over there amongst the goats that friend of yours that you're too scared to talk to.

Okay? And and as they're going to hell, we're coming up on Easter. Okay? I want you to invite people.

Okay? I know it can be scary to to to to witness, but we got to do it. We all know people that are in our spheres of influence, okay? We all know people that don't know Jesus, and they need to hear about Jesus, okay?

They need to they need to be saved, man. This is what we're here for. This is what we're supposed to be doing. So, in the back, we've got these things.

Josh is going to hand them to you. I want everyone to take a couple. This is easy. Next week's Easter.

Just these are in invitation cards, okay? It's got the great awareness. Be my guest. It's got our time.

It's got our address. You put your name and phone number so they can call you on the way and you can meet them at the door. Okay? But you invite them to church next week.

All right? Just just give them a card and say, "Hey, man, come on to our church. I'll do the preaching. You just you just bring them in."

Okay? So, you don't have to know anything. You don't have to do anything. Just invite them like you're inviting them to a party.

Okay? Because it is a party. All right? It's going to be a Holy Spirit party.

and let's make this a phenomenal Easter. Let's make it a a resurrection day to remember. Okay? As the band comes on up, I want you to think as we're about to go into a time of reflection, I want you to think about who you can invite.

I want you to be in prayer this week for the service, in prayer for uh the people that we're inviting that will actually show. I want you to be in prayer for me, for your friends. Um, it's not us. Jesus is the people who draw Jesus draws people.

Okay. Um, a friend [snorts] of mine. I didn't I lost track of her. Okay.

But she she was drawn here. How cool is that? Okay. God draws people.

Okay. And he's drawing people amongst you. They say the average person has to hear the gospel message six or seven times before they come. Be one of those six or seven times.

Okay? Just sew your seed. Okay? Remember, you still win when you sew that seed.

If you don't know him, if you're unsure of whether you've asked him into your heart, whether you're whatever, I pray that you come down during this altar call and and I'll be right there and um we can pray and take care of you. Don't want to give God control of it. I want to encourage you to to lay it down. Bring it up here and lay it down.

Okay. Overcome your fear and just lay it down. It's a it's a safe place. All right.

Um let me pray into this time. Heavenly Father, Lord, I just pray over these people. I just pray that your spirit move, Lord. That whatever things they need to give up, they give up.

That uh whatever names are in their hearts that they're they're remembering that need you, that they invite you. and I just pray your hand over this [music] church over these next few months and over this uh upcoming Easter week in Jesus name. Amen.