Are you Living on the Edge ?
Luke 11:23-26
If there’s one thing that I can tell you tonight, it’s this... God is the one who will deliver you from the clutches of sin and shame....or in other words the devil..
Every new believer when they’re born again, they come to Jesus Christ the exact same way that every one else does...
I’ve always heard that no matter how rich or how poor or how smart or how dumb you might be...Living at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ puts you and me right on the same level....AMEN
Romans Chapter 3 says:
There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, there is none that doeth good, no, not one!!!!
There’s not one here tonight that can stand before God and declare being worthy,
Of being there....We’re not worthy!!!
And it don’t matter if you’re a millionaire or a beggar....And it don’t matter if you live in a mansion or underneath a bridge....
And it don’t matter if you’re short or tall....
Fat or skinny... working or unemployed
pretty or ugly....or a Hollywood model...
The most important fact of the matter tonight is, there ain’t none of us here that’s worthy of Heaven or anything in it or around it....
And you know what else...We all have to repent of our sins in the same way....and we all have to fall on our face when we get in the presence of God, Just like everybody else.
The field that we play in for Jesus Christ is all one level......AMEN
And tonight if you want to go to Heaven and see Jesus you have to repent....SIMPLE...
God sent His only Son Jesus Christ from the throne of Glory, to come and die for you and for me...Jesus shed His blood, willingly, so that we could find our way to be in the presence of God and live forever......
And again....Its all one level playing field
for those who would come to Jesus Christ!!!!
I thank God for all of you here tonight who are saved, and have the Lord Jesus Christ living in your hearts...
Thank God that one day you answered the door of your heart when He knocked...
Thank God that when the Holy Ghost came
and He gently tugged at your heart and begged you to come to Christ....
You said come on in......
Ain’t it wonderful to have our Salvation!!
Salvation is deliverance from sin and its consequences.....
Before we go on with tonight’s sermon...
Let me ask you a question
Where are you living right now???
Are you as close to the Lord now as the day you were saved?....Has your relationship with Jesus Christ grown stronger or weaker?
Today we find so many people who claim to be living for Jesus and they Love Him, but still we see that they are living on the edge of hell tonight!!!!!
In our Bible Jesus uses the example of marriage’s to teach us the relationship of Him and how the Church should be!!!
Those of you that’s married, are you closer to your wives or husbands now or were you closer on your wedding day???
Has your love grown together or have you grown apart???
It don’t matter if you’ve been married for 50 years or just a few days, your relationship with your spouse should be changing. You should be learning new things about each other every day, And growing everyday...
And your love should be getting deeper and stronger every day.....
Marriages should grow stronger and couples should be changing into something different than what they were when they were single.
And in today’s sinful world most of us think about the same way...we think about planning for the future, and we have the same desire’s of being together for many years....
If that’s not the way your marriage is going then you need to get a checkup from the neck up, and you better be planning your future with God, and seeking His face, and asking for His help....and be prayed up!!
I didn’t mean to get off on marriage....
But the main problem with marriage today, is its so more powerful in the lives of Christians around the world.
That problem is one of a personal commitment: to either your marriage partner, or to God...
Every relationship whether its your friend, or your spouse, or your children, or with our Lord Jesus Christ...
They rise or fall based on the amount of time and commitment to that relationship..
Half hearted commitments to Christ as well as to a marriage are destined for failure...
Your spouse wants all or nothing, and
God wants all of you or none of you!!!!...
Do you think that a halfhearted commitment to God; will get you through those pearly gates, on to those wonderful streets of Gold in Heaven??
Let me give you a perfect example of living on the edge of hell tonight....
Just this past year I’ve preached revivals all over
and seen people come forward and give their life to the Lord.....
And then 6 or 8 months later I’m back in that same town preaching again and that same person from 6 mos ago comes forward again....and re-dedicates their life to Christ.
And all along you find out their shacking up and doing drugs and smoking dope.....And drinking and partying with their buddies...
DO YOU HONESTLY THINK THEY ARE GONNA GO TO HEAVEN???
I DON’T THINK SO......
I WONDER IF THEY THINK, THEY’RE GOING TO HEAVEN!!!!!!
How long do you think that God is gonna continue to let this world go on like it’s going?????
Today in America same sex marriages have already been performed....Do you think that they will go to heaven without repenting???
Today in America there have been queers and lesbians given the position of Bishop in our Churches.....Do you think they will go to heaven without repenting????
Today we’ve heard of sex crimes being committed within the Churches in America
Do you think they will go to Heaven without repenting??????I DON’T THINK SO!!!!!!!
Tonight I want each and every one of us to examine ourselves....
How much real commitment are we giving to Jesus Christ tonight!!!!
How much time have we spent today praying and talking to God and pruning our personal relationship with Him tonight????
How many times have you stopped and listened to hear God’s voice this week????
How many days, do you let go by, without trying to be more and more like Jesus????
People listen to me tonight....If you go days and days without being around your family and without listening to them, How long before you’ll lose that family.....And You Grow Apart from Them??
If you go days and days without talking to God, How long before that relationship will be left by the wayside......
Today far to many of us think that money, and things of this world are the most important things in this life.....
We think that providing a good lifestyle proves our love and makes us feel worthy.
Listen to me tonight people.....
Money, and toys, and houses, and cars, and worldly possessions, are not the things that prove our love to our families, or to God...
There’s not anything tonight that will take the place of the touch of your hand, or your hugging arms, or the look of love in your eyes....and your heart giving that love and commitment with your family and your God tonight...That they so badly need and desire.
Go ahead, neglect your family, and chase your dreams, and then watch as you lose the very things that’s most important to you in the whole world....
Our world is filled with those who will give up what they want most of all....Just
to have what they want right now!!!!
Our salvation can be compared to in this very same way tonight.....
On one hand we claim to love the Lord, and we show our love for Him by attending church once a week, or when its convenient.
Or when we feel like it....
And we think we’ve really done something when we put 5 dollars in the offering plate..
We claim to love Jesus Christ
We claim that we want to be just like Him
We claim that we are ready to spend eternity, in Heaven.....
But all the time we’re living so close to the world that sometimes its hard to even see Jesus, much less hear his voice!!!!!
Do you think you can hang out with your ole, drinking, and doping buddies, and still remain strong with Jesus Christ???
I DON’T THINK SO!!!!!
See it don’t work that way.....
God delivers us from our old life and then we turn around and jump right back in the miry clay and get all stuck up, all over again...And then God has to take us by the hand and with His all mighty power, pull us out again, and stand us back on the solid rock of Jesus Christ again...
But you want me to tell you something???
God will not make you serve Him!!!!
Just in the past year I’ve seen so many people who once loved the Lord with all their heart and then they began to slowly slip away until they finally began to
live on the edge of hell....
And its not something that happens overnight....
Maybe it was only missing church one Sunday!! and then the next thing you know you miss praying and talking to God
and then you neglect your study of God’s word....
And then it’s weeks and then months since you’ve even thought about your bible or how Jesus died for you and how sweet Heaven is gonna be.....
How quickly we forget......
Then the next thing you know you’re stopping off at the bar with your buddies and drinking, and cussing, again and finally, your back is turned completely on God..
This is the kind of person that’s living on the edge of hell..So close to hell if they’ll listen they can probably hear the screams.
How quickly we forget the warnings that have come directly from the lips of Jesus;
these words are recorded in His word....
Tonight in our reading it said....
He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth....
And the scary part in our reading tonight said:
Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and listen;
and the last state of that man is worse than the first.....
These warnings should act as a huge stop sign for us when we begin to slip away from our personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
I know that there’s lots of us who get caught up in our lives....
We have to work, or go to school.....
But there’s always time for God people
If you just try the least bit.....
You Can Always make time for God.....
Some of us were hooked on alcohol, or drugs or, sexual immorality.
God has lifted us out of that slimy pit of sin that once overpowered us....
He set us on that solid rock and saved us from that certain death, and yet we still turn our backs on Him...and we think we can still make it on our own.......
Paul said the flesh is weak but the spirit is ready......
I don’t think that there’s any of us that haven’t really chose to follow Christ....
We just allow satan to come to us in our moments of weakness, in those times of trouble, heartache, sorrow, sickness and when were hurting and need help....that’s when the devil will bring old friends around.
That’s the time that he knows that you’re most likely to stumble and fall and do something that you normally wouldn’t do....
Those old desires begin to come back as satan tempts us....he plays with our minds and convinces us that one puff, or one pill, or one drink, will make you feel so much better.
But all along we don’t realize just how far that one time will put us in a spin that only God can get us out of.........
THERE’S SOMEBODY THAT REALLY NEEDS TO HEAR THIS TONIGHT......
Sin will take us further than we wanted to go
it will keep us longer than we wanted to stay
it will cost us more than we wanted to pay
and then it will leave us in the pits of despair again and again and again......
If we continue down that road our whole life, that Jesus Christ has been blessing, now begins to come unraveled.....
Next thing you know you’ll have to go to the check cashing places every time you turn around.....
You’ll be back to the pawn shop
getting money for your worldly treasures...
How many Christians have been destroyed by just allowing the devil to tempt them with one little sin;.....
How many homes are broken and divided???
How many children don’t have mommy or daddy around the way that God intended??
How many mommies and daddies cry themselves to sleep wondering what happened, and why did this have to happen to me?????
The Bible warns us about satan it says:
The enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy..
And he comes to destroy your life, your family, your happy home, your job, your church, and especially your personal relationship with Jesus.....
Just for a minute think about the bad times
sin has cost you and multiply it by seven...
And try to imagine how bad that would be.
I know someone personally right now that has lived this scripture out in the last six months.........
The guilty feelings will be a lot more stronger....and the sorrow we face will be more hurtful, and the suffering and loneliness will be intensified, and worst of all trying to come back to God is seven times harder, than the first time....
1st John 2:1 says:
my little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous....
2nd Peter 3:9 says:
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance....
Jesus won’t interfere with your power to choose tonight...It’s all in your hands...
He won’t force you to do right or wrong...
He won’t grab the pill, or the needle, or the bottle of alcohol from your hands....
He won’t stop the dirty language that comes out of your mouth...
He will let you do what ever you want to do.
And I thank God that He will always make a way for us to come crawling back to Him...
I don’t know who this message was for tonight....I don’t know your hearts.
But there’s somebody here that it hit home with.....
What are you gonna do with Jesus tonight?
Will you continue to ignore his warnings?
Will you turn your back on Jesus tonight?
Will you let the unclean spirits back into your life and let that spirit bring seven times more bad with him???
Are you gonna put everything dear in your life in jeopardy???
Are you gonna yield to the devil’s temptation’s and allow him to destroy every blessing you’ve got from God???
The Choice is yours tonight.....
Don’t let the devil stop you from coming clean tonight......
The Bible says:
Now is the appointed time......
Don’t let your time slip on by tonight.....
Will you come now .....there’s no promise of tomorrow.......
