Love Your Neighbor

Love

I came to the stunning realization the other day that I do not love people. I only have time and care for people who are to some advantage to me. The exception to this, is people who I do not expect anything out of. If I do not expect anything from a particular person, except maybe to be used, then when they do something selfish or wrong, I am not hurt, because I never expected anything from them in the first place.

The realization of this was quite astounding to me, being a pastor, thinking that I love everyone. The wonderful thing, has been experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in actually changing my ways and loving people because of the command to love my neighbor rather than because it is my job or because of what they can do for me.

One of the struggles for me is spending time on people, even if it only means a few minutes, on those who offer no return on ‘my investment.’
So many thoughts could come out of this, but I guess the best one, is I am sure glad that Jesus didn’t love me in the same way. Romans 5:6-8 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Not only has He done this, but in His grace, He enables us to love that Samaritan beaten up on the side of the road. Thank you Lord.

Luke 10:25-37 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?" 27 So he answered and said, "'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND,' and 'YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'" 28 And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live." 29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30 Then Jesus answered and said: "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.' 36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?" 37 And he said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Confession of Faith

Psalms 107:1-2 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. 2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy.

Public speaking is a terror to many people. Getting in front of people and having to talk, while they gaze on you makes some people physically ill. It is this truth that must be balanced with Mat 10:33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. AND Romans 10:9-10 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” As well as many other Scriptures that make the case for the need of the redeemed of the Lord to be always ready to give an answer to any and every man of the hope that is within you.

If you cannot share your faith, especially amongst those who claim to be in that faith, perhaps you need to examine whether you are in the faith at all.

Perhaps some of you think I am being harsh in my assessment of testimonies. But let me tell you, Jesus is going to be harsh when MANY chime in with their testimonies of 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' Yes, Jesus will say, those are great stories but that is not the new birth, that is not salvation! You are headed for hell because I never knew you.

There are always going to be Judas’ and tares that sneak in with the wheat, but those who have been saved by the grace of God, filled with the Holy Spirit of God will submit to their Lord and be able to confess Him by baptism and public declaration of faith and hope in Him. Not to mention, they will have a lifestyle to go along with their public proclomation of being ‘delivered from the power of darkness and conveyed into the kingdom of the Son.’

A Word from Junior Church

“When I was four or five, my mother prayed with me to accept Jesus as my Savior. When I was twelve, I went forward and rededicated my life to the Lord. College was really hard on my faith as I fell in with the partying crowd. Then I went through an ugly divorce (or more) and fell away from the Lord. But now I want to get back to church and do what I know to be right.”

If I have heard that testimony once, I have heard it 20 times. It is often followed by the person coming to church for a few weeks and then they begin to miss a few Sundays for work, camping, and family in town, followed by 2-6 months of no-shows, and then usually, they wind up at another church for a brief season of no commitment.

So let me get this straight. God saved you at 4 and you proceeded to live the majority of the next 40 years of your life in rebellion to Him?

What about the verses in the Bible that teach when God saves a person, He does it to conform them to the image of His Son – to make them look more and more like Jesus? Romans 8:29

What about the verses that talk about how when you become a good tree, you will produce good fruit and cannot bring forth bad fruit? Matt. 7:17

What about the verses in the Bible that talk about when God has a Son that He loves, He will chasten them and bring about sanctification in their life? Heb 12:6 FOR WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE CHASTENS, AND SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES."

I believe the answer to these questions is that you need to examine yourself to see whether you are really in the faith or not. You can say whatever you want to but I do not believe that children are converted at the ages of 4-5. God can do whatever He wants and save whoever he wants, but a 4 year old needs to be converted just like a 40 year old with the same gospel, and I don’t see it happening with ANYWHERE near the frequency that so many claim. I have children that are bright and surrounded by the gospel and Scripture more than many I know and the fact is they are not spiritually able to discern the weight of the gospel.
Decisional Regeneration is a plague upon the name of Christ and is filling our churches with lost people.

A Word of testimony

Psalms 107:1-3 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. 2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy, 3 And gathered out of the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south.

Colossians 1:12-13 Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

In the eight or so years that I have been converted I have been amongst many professing Christians in many different churches. In that time, I have come to see the importance of a personal testimony of salvation. Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

What I have found astonishing is that many, dare I say most, who profess Christianity do not have one. And if we include testimonies like those along the lines of, “A great peace came over me and then the phone rang and it was my son I hadn’t talked to in 12 years so I know something must have happened.” I would say the percentage of credible testimonies of salvation to be around 10 percent.

One of the practices that I believe a church should practice in admitting a person for church membership is to require the people to give their testimony to the assembled church. What I have found when I have asked people to do this is quite interesting. I will write more on that in another post.

When hearing a person’s testimony of salvation, I find it more than the norm for people to immediately begin speaking about the pastor. When so and so was the pastor I got saved. When pastor so and so came to the church we did too… Amazing how many people tie their conversion experience to a man who prayed with them and often fail to mention anything about conviction of sin, repentance, belief, faith or even Jesus Christ, God or the Holy Spirit. Call me old fashioned but I believe a person’s salvation testimony of when they were converted ought to include a reference to Jesus Christ.
And so I continue to re-state what, interestingly enough, was said in the message that God used to convert me: “Sombody's lost, in these churches!”