True Desire to Live in God's Grace

SF.10.26.2012 True desire to live in God’s grace. Do I believe that I have been washed in the blood of Christ and have been set free from the burden of sin? Do each of you believe that you been washed in the blood? Living in the grace of God and having been set free from your sin, are you now desiring to live in God’s will? What are the things that you refuse to let go of? Why are you being stubborn? Why are you refusing to change your thoughts? You make demands, you have desires, the work you desire to accomplish. You say that you live in faith, according to God’s Word and in obedience, but when I speak to you individually, you are not doing so. We sing hymns that say that we need not the world and that our eyes are only upon our Lord, but are we living in this way, only desiring Jesus? We do not. When things do not go our way we get upset and it kills us. We blame God for our circumstance. We complain to him. We tell him that this is not what we have asked for in faith. We believe that faith is doing what we want to do. That has nothing to do with God. We ask God to move out of the way. We tell Him to move aside so that we can attain all that we desire. Then later we will start to follow Jesus. This is how we are. We believe that we have faith. This is what the devil delights in. The devil tells us that we can start believing tomorrow. Or he also tells us to enjoy your life when you are young and when you're older that's when you will start follow Jesus. He tells us that we never denied Jesus. This is the same as not believing in Jesus. Because we desire to live how we want to, the words of the devil are easily accepted by us. We take pleasure in the thought. We are not saying that we will not believe in Jesus. We are not saying that we will not live by faith. We do want to live by faith so we say. We say we do want to believe in Jesus. We say we do want to obey God. We say that if he gives us purpose that we will fulfill our purpose. But we tell Him to wait. To wait a little bit. We think that we have the right to say these things. But God does not want us later He wants us now. God desires that we obey Him now. Not tomorrow but today. This very moment. When he speaks His commands. The moment you realize and see Him. But we do not desire to do this. It is because we have many things that we desire in our hearts. At first it may seem that you have none of these things. But the more you open up, the deeper you look into yourself the more your desires come to light. Everyone's true desire is hidden deep within themselves. When we first start expressing ourselves we make ourselves presentable and cover up our deep desires. But as conversations go deeper our true desires are exposed. And then when our desires are exposed we are embarrassed and deny the truth. We must realize that that is what is in us. Do you really want to believe in Jesus? Do you truly want to obey God? Do you really want to live in his grace and live your life for Him? Examine yourself. Are you really living the life of faith? Sometimes I ask God, "why is it that people do not want to follow you?" I understand that in the past you did not know God. But to know Him and see Him but not obey is a difficult life to live. I keep teaching you that to live in obedience is much easier, but you think that disobedience is easier. You complain that it is too difficult to follow God. But I am telling you from my experience that it is not difficult. Disobedience is much more difficult. In disobedience there is pain and suffering. When you did not know God it is possible that life was not so difficult. Once you meet Him then know Him and then you start to step away from Him your life becomes more difficult and I do not understand why you would continue to do so. Then we start to make excuses saying that we are weak and unable. Who says that you are weak? God tells us to obey Him. He does not call us to make excuses of our weakness. That is the devil speaking to you. God gives us as much as we can handle. He does not ask of us things that we cannot do. God tells us to do the things that we are able to do, each according to their strength their faith and their abilities, but you say you are unable. God does not train you like he trains me and He will not command you to do things that he commands me to do. God commands each of you according to your abilities but when you tell Him you are unable you are ignoring God. To say that God does not know you means that you do not know God. God knows us better than we know ourselves. God knows the number of hairs on our head but we refuse to believe this. We complain that God does not know us and that is why he is asking us to do these things. We say that we are unable to do these things. What are we saying to God? Are you acknowledging God? You are not. We tell God that he does not know us. We say parents know their children, but they do not know everything. We confess there is nothing that God does not know. But when it comes to us we say He does not know us. God does not tell you to do something because He does not know you. You are not where you are you do not go through the training because He does not know you. You suffer through trials and hardships because you put yourself there in disobedience. You put yourself there but you blame God for being there. This is not right. What path will you choose? Will you acknowledge God for who He is and follow Him or will you live in disobedience and rebel against Him? How will you acknowledge God in your life? God is not unfamiliar with you nor is He unfamiliar with me. He knows us all too well. In each of your lives how much recognition are you giving to God? In your life are you following God? Are you allowing him to guide you? Are you grateful and filled with joy? Are you complaining to God saying he does not know you? Are you complaining about your circumstance in life? Are you blaming God for your circumstance in life? When our Lord comes to judge us there will be great trouble. We think that we have done nothing wrong so that there will be no judgment for us. We tell Him that we are living well. We tell Him that we are giving Him good worship, that we are honoring Him. We tell Him that we are praying to Him, So we ask Him not to come and bring judgment on us. When there is too much sin and the time is come, judgment will be handed out. When we study Old Testament, why are there trials and hardships? It is because the people turned away from God. They sinned against God. They did not obey him. They did not glorify God and that is why they continued in their suffering. We are the same. Why are we told that it is the end of times? There is too much sin. Fellow believers are telling us that we have exceeded the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. We say this and then think that this does not affect us. That is why we tell God that He should not come right now. If you came tonight you would have a lot to worry about, is that not so? Whether he comes tonight, tomorrow, next month, next year, 10 years from now or 100 years from now each of us should be ready to go when we are called. There is no chance after death. There is an order to birth but there is no order in dying. Of course there are more older people who die first. But even in today's age there are many young people who are dying. We do not know when we will die. We must always be ready to die. We should be ready but we think that we will not die. We think that there is no reason for you to die today. What guarantee do you have that you will not die today? What guarantee do you have that you will live through today? If you say that you will not die, what makes you so sure that you will live? What guarantee do you have that you will not die tonight? There is none. Do people die in auto accidents because they want to? They do not. Some people who pray may know around their time of death but most do not know. You may think that if you know when you are goings to die then you will repent at that time, but you do not know when you are going to die. You will not repent at that time. If you could do that how great would that be, but what if you aren't able to repent, what if you miss the opportunity to repent and you fail to attain heaven and eternal life? How much do you desire to truly be with Jesus, to be free from the burden of sin and be washed clean by His blood? What is frustrating is to think that you are living in faith when you have no faith. You are deceived but you do not know it. Deep inside yourself you know if you have true faith or if you do not. If deep inside you do not know if you have faith or do not, then you do not have faith. This is a serious problem. God does not acknowledge our faith because we say certain things with our mouths. Do you really believe in Jesus? Can you stand before God? Do you really want to walk with Him? God is asking us if we are really willing to abandon all the world and to walk with Him. What is your reply? God is asking, "Are you willing to leave the world and follow Me? Through all trials, suffering, paths of thorns, through persecution, are you willing to pick up the cross and follow Me?" This is what God requires of us. This is the victory we seek in our lives in faith. We would like to think that God will spare us. We want to be raptured. In order to be raptured you must be victorious in the trials. You must have faith to be raptured. Our Lord tells us that to be with Him there will be suffering. It is the narrow path. Not anyone can go this path. Only those who go with Jesus can go this path. You cannot go on this path by yourself. But we like to tell out Lord that we will go by ourselves. We cannot. If I do not have wheelchair I cannot move around. I am together with this wheelchair. You cannot go without our Lord. I am starting to walk. On my own I am unable. I need a cane to help me walk and be stable. Unless I hold on to something I am unable to move on my own. Likewise, I am unable to go on this path unless I hold onto Jesus. You may think because you move around on your own that you can go on this path by yourself. Because you don't need a cane you think you are able. Yes, physically you are able, but without Jesus you will not be able to go on your own. If you are truly a believer you cannot go on this path on your own. Without Jesus you cannot go on this path. You must go together with Jesus. This path is difficult. It is the path of the cross. There is pain and suffering. You will not be given recognition. This is the path of faith. This is the path of God's grace. This is the path of love. Love you desire is to do whatever you want but that is not love. God's love is sacrifice. To abandon everything is to love God. But we try to hold onto everything and also love God. We desire to be loved by others but we refuse to give others love. It is because we do not want to make sacrifices. Love is sacrifice but the love we desire is recognition by others. We want others to serve us. This is the love we want. This is why we fight with our spouses. We want our wives to do everything for us. We want our husbands to do everything for us. Children want their parents to do everything for them and think that this is love. This is why children think that their parents do not love them. Parents also think their children do not love them. Parents talk about the sacrifices that they have made for their children but their children do not return the love. People are misunderstanding what love is. Love is sacrifice. I must die so that I can love. God's love was to die on the cross. That is love. So if we want to love God we must abandon everything. But do we abandon everything? We have a hard time abandoning things for our neighbors. How much do we sacrifice for our spouses when we are to be one with them? If it is God's grace that has cleansed you and freed from your sins what more do you want from God? You are free from sin. All your burdens have been lifted. You have been given hope. You have been given joy. You have been given hope for eternity and to be with God. What more do you want? What are you still desiring? Stop being selfish. You are being foolish in the things that you want. If you truly believe that you have been cleansed from your sins by the blood of Jesus then you must let go of everything and live in love. You must die to yourself. You must sacrifice. Then you can attain Heaven. It does not belong to someone else. It is yours. Heaven is not a place where you can take someone with you. You cannot get into Heaven because your wife is going or because your husband is going or your children are going or because of your parents. Faith belongs to the individual. But we do share our faith as parents teach their children, and as spouses pray for each other and are one with each other. Although faith is individual it does not mean that you are to be only concerned about yourself. We are commanded to share the gospel. I pray that we live victoriously in Jesus.