Opening Prayer - Heavenly Father, we thank you for the oppertunity to worship your Son this morning. We know that if He hadn't died on the cross for our sins and arose from the dead, we would have no way to have a future home in Heaven or the privilage of worshiping Him this morning. Please bless us indeed and give us the strength and wisdom to live the way the Bible says we should live. We pray that everyone who reads this sermon who are not saved will become saved before it is too late. For this fourth sermon in this Sunday morning series, we pray that You will help us to not be misled by popular but incorrect theology. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Worship music - Please click the links and sing along if you know the words (You can also click skip ad to go straight to the songs) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gGa1w_bnvM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIEEz9yaukA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eytcxRd0QQg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiYHjBD0SsQ
Popular But Very Wrong
This is a continuation of last Sunday morning's service
Mega churches seems like a great idea, but from my experience, a Big change needs to happen in them.
These pastors are right when they encourage people to witness; although, we shouldn't tell everyone who isn't a Christian to just call upon the name of the Lord (Romans 10:13) because (unlike Jesus) we don't know how prepared or unprepared people's hearts are. People won't become Christians if their hearts aren't prepared (see this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/chap16). There definitely is a possibility that their hearts are prepared, but we are not able to read people’s hearts like Jesus did while He was on the earth (For example, Jesus didn’t witness to everyone the same way because He was able to read their hearts, and He knew how prepared their hearts were. He seemed to make it much harder for the Rich Young Ruler to be a Christian (Luke 18:18-25) than He did for Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). Notice that all Jesus said to Zacchaeus was, “Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.” As a result, he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully (Luke 19:6) and said, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.” (Luke 19:8). Luke 19:6 and 8 prove that Zacchaeus had been saved because in Luke 19:9,10 Jesus said, “And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
The following is an outline to help you witness to others -
Tell people how to become Christians at nursing homes, hospitals, restarunts, stores etc. - If there is an urgent situation, please follow the instructions in this website: http://chriswaug5.wix.com/urgent
If you feel led to witness during planned hospital and/or nursing home visits etc., please follow the instructions in this website: http://chriswaug5.wix.com/planned
If you feel led to ask people if they are a Christian, and they say 'yes', please follow the instructions in this website: http://chriswaug5.wix.com/checking
If you feel led to ask people if they are a Christian, and they say 'no', please follow the instructions in this website: http://chriswaug5.wix.com/asking
If you feel led to ask people if they are a Christian, and they say they are of a different religion, please follow the instructions in this website: http://chriswaug5.wix.com/other
2 Corinthians 5:17-20 have been some of the church's go to verses, and they say, "17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."
The emphasis has been on verses 18-20. The church had seemed to promote that nothing else mattered other than telling people how to become Christians.
Even though Matthew 7:21 means that if someone never began to do God's will (for example, tell other people how to become Christians) "after" they prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, they was never a Christian in the first place, verse 22 seems to state that the people Jesus was addressing really did do God's will after they believed. However, Jesus said in verse 23, "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity (which means sins)." So, it is possible for someone to do God's will after they pray or make a decision to become a Christian, but if that person continually sins like they did before they prayed or made a decision to become a Christian without trying to change their sinful ways, they was never really a Christian either.
This is also described in -
1 Corinthians 13:1-7 which says, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."
Also, someone can trust Jesus' shed blood to erase their sins, but if they had the idea that they was mainly just going to believe in Jesus' work on the cross so they could go to Heaven but knew that they wasn't going to try to follow Jesus (live like Jesus lived) after they believed, with the exception of going to church and reading the Bible every once in a while, they wouldn't make it to Heaven with that motive. In Jesus' day, many believed in Him because of the miracles He performed, but He didn't commit Himself to them. These people believed in Him, but Jesus knew that they wasn't willing to be "committed" to Him and begin to truly follow Him (witness to and/or help others, and when they wasn't doing that, think about the things of God), and as a result, Jesus didn't "commit" Himself to them, and they didn't become Christians (John 2:23-24).
If you have never prayed or made a decision to trust Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into Heaven, you must be willing to follow Jesus from this moment on and for the rest of your life. This website will tell you how - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven
If you have prayed or made a decision to trust Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into Heaven, but you still sin on purpose or have been falling into sin (For a list of many sins, see these websites - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/chap18 and http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtodefeatsatan), please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure
If you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you are not sure that you are really a Christian (Hebrews 11:6, Matthew 21:18-22, 1 John 5:14, and Hebrews 11:1), you need to be sure - please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven