It’s Time to Pull the Plug

 

Genesis 3:1-7

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

What can you do to go to heaven?

Physically? Nothing.

Grace – Favor or kindness shown without regard to the worth or merit of the one who receives it and in spite of what that same person deserves. Grace is one of the key attributes of God.

Exodus 34:6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

Therefore, grace is almost always associated with mercy, love, compassion, and patience as the source of help and with deliverance from distress.

Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Righteousness-the act of being morally right or justifiable.

How many people have you run off by preaching righteousness, instead of experience?

List one time in the New Testament that Jesus dealt with standards before He dealt with the heart.

It’s not in there!

Yes, I still believe that there is a walk that you must live, but it is not primary!

Your relationship is the most important thing in your life!

How can you fix someone you haven’t loved? How do you skin a fish before you catch it? What makes you better than everyone else?

Nothing!

I have heard the comments:

“There’s no way God could use her, look at her.”

“You know they do not live right, look at them.”

We have become the Pharisees of our day.

Matthew 23:22-36

22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.

23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.

28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,

30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:

35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

Because of these feelings, we have sold ourselves a song of righteousness, and have neglected our relationship with God.

We feel good because we live right.

God loves you in sin, out of sin, and any other way you want to come to Him.

There is nothing that you can do to make God to love you any less, and there is nothing that you can do to make Him love you anymore.

God loves the sinner as much as He loves you!

I feel sorry for anyone who smokes or drinks, because 9 out of 10 times, if they come to our church, we will hit them. Yet we leave gluttony, temperance, time, no prayer, lack of family time, emotional abuse, cheating on your taxes, and many other just as equally wrong things alone.

We Have Become Hypocrites!

For every reason smoking and drinking are wrong, so are numerous other things wrong, but never mentioned.  Why?

We do them…

Church has become a life support system for most of its constituency. Every service we must get another shot, or another dose to make it to next week. Why, you ask? There’s no relationship!

Everything looks good on the outside, but the inside is rotten and full of spiritual cancer.

What is Christianity? Rules & regulations? Do’s & don’ts?

No!

It’s a personal experience with God, that starts and establishes a relationship with God.

Look at the church of Corinth: mother’s sleeping with son in laws, all kinds of sexual immoralities, backbiting, lying, stealing, and all kinds of other sins running rampant in the church. Yet Paul still refered to them as a church.

They would have never made it in our day and age!

Grace will be what takes us to heaven, not how good we are, or how good we act!