This message is directed to those who are professing Christian.

But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. Numbers 32:23

It has taken me 40 years to gradually realize that sin is not only hated by God but very bad for us. And even after 40 years, I still have to fight bad behavior that keeps plaguing me. And because of this, it makes it very hard for me to write this. I do not feel qualified to be the one who explains what the Bible says about this subject because, in many ways, I feel like I fail to live up to how the bible says we need to act. However, due to His incredible grace He has granted me in overcoming so many things, I realize that He wants me to still warn you of the dangers of making peace with your sins. I have seen too many Christians destroyed by their repeated sinful behavior.

He loves us but He hates sin. He knows how it destroys His children and sin caused Him to allow His son to be put to death on the cross to save us. God’s grace was not given to us to casually go our own way without any concern over our sinful behavior.

In this passage in Numbers, Israel went 40 years in the wilderness because of their rebellion against God. They missed the blessing God had for them because they would not forsake their sin. A whole generation missed entering the promised land.

God takes it more seriously than we do. He gets angry about it.

And the Lord’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone. Numbers 32:13

This does not mean He still does not love His people. Of course He still loves us. Just like we get angry at our kids, so does He. However, we cannot expect that we can get away with it forever. He is long-suffering but there is a point in time that we will have to account for unrepentant sin.

We think we can continue in our sins but unless we get an understanding that we need a healthy fear of God, a very frightening thing will happen to us. At some God appointed time, He may remove His presence from us. I have seen this happen.

And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him. Judges 16:20

Samson was a mighty man of God that refused to forsake his sin. God removed His presence from him, and Samson did not realize it. If it happened to him, it can happen to you. I personally have witnessed this occur to men of God with large ministries who get caught up in sin and lose the anointing of the Holy Spirit but continue to preach like nothing was wrong. And many followers, including myself, are slow to recognize that something is wrong until they get exposed.

We must fight our sins and not compromise. We have to become determined to conquer our evil thoughts and behavior. No matter how many times we fail, we must be determined to stop bad behavior. This is a decision all believers need to do if they truly love God.

This is what is so amazing about King David in the bible. He screwed up pretty bad. He committed adultery but also had her husband killed. But when the prophet Nathan confronted him, he repented. He did not try to excuse it, but faced it. Psalms 51 is the most powerful example of a man committed to turning away from his sins and receiving God’s forgiveness. He was not just sorry, he repented and begged God not to take His presence away from him. Take a look at what David said when he recognized how he sinned.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!  Psalms 51:2

Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.  Psalms 51:11

What troubles me is what I see in the church today. Many make excuses for their sin rather than to determine never to sin again. The world has a right to call us hypocrites when we casually treat people poorly and act like it’s no big deal.

If you struggle with repeated sins, study Psalms 51. Read it, pray it till the power of God gives you the ability to repent. If you are a believer, you do not want to lose His presence. And understand, it could happen to you without even realizing it!

The first thing you must do is to quit making excuses for the bad, sinful behavior and acknowledge that what you did was wrong. Most of us immediately try to defend ourselves and start comparing ourselves with how someone else acted. We try to explain away our wrongs by faulting others for what they did wrong first. We play the blame game. When you just admit you did wrong, you will resolve any situation much quicker. It does not matter what anyone else did. You do not have to give anyone the power over you to make you do something wrong. I don’t care what they did, you don’t have to sin too. Acknowledge your sin.

Do you realize how much quicker an argument between two married people would dissolve if this was done? I’m not talking about admitting you did something you did not do, I’m talking about putting a stop to Satan’s plan to bring chaos and destruction. Just put a stop to the devil’s plan by acknowledging you screwed up. Forget about what they did before you. Forget about whether they misunderstood you as it doesn’t matter either. You just need to take charge and stop any further destruction. This is what makes a true man or woman of God who has decided to allow God to sanctify them by removing sinful behavior.

Secondly, as a believer, we need to understand we should never rely on ourselves to do the right thing. In our flesh, we are sinners. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to fill us and empower us to do the right thing.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5

If you are a believer, you must recognize that we have the Holy Spirit who is our great helper, so let Him help. Paul tells us:

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Galatians 5:17

Remember, Jesus knows how weak our flesh is as He lived as a man, not just As God. He was both God and man. One of the great mysteries of the gospel. He was tempted in all the ways we are, yet He did not sin. He is our example and we must keep pursuing to be more like Him. Striving to improve your character is a path that we should all take until the day we die. He wants to prepare us to be empowered to be His witness and end our walk on earth ready for eternity.

Your life does not need to end in disaster

“And the angel said, “don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn’t here ! He is risen from the dead ! Look this is where they laid his body. Now, go tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you before he died.” Mark 16:6-7 NLT

Why do you think the messenger, when he told these three women to go tell the disciples, added “including Peter ?” Wasn’t he one of Jesus disciples? Or was it possible that Peter had assumed he lost the privilege of being called one of his disciples? After all, he had just betrayed and denied Jesus three times. He had failed Jesus and acted like he never knew him.

Just maybe this messenger knew that Peter would really need a little extra encouragement that Jesus still considered Peter one of his disciples. Even though he denied Jesus, Jesus was not going to deny him.

Have you ever thought about the fact that at this point in time there was not much difference between what Judas did and what Peter did? They both betrayed him.

They both failed Jesus. The difference is how they responded to what they did. We need to understand that we all have failed Jesus. What are we going to do about it?

Have you ever thought about the fact that if Judas had repented, he could have been the most powerful disciple of all ?

These two disciples took what they had done and decided to do two very different things. One repented and was filled with the Holy Spirit and the other stayed condemned and ended up dying a horrible death.

Satan’s goal is get us to the place of despair where we will give up and die. He takes the truth and twists it where we make the decision that we are horrible and deserve nothing good. We see this with how many people decide to commit suicide or go on a rampage and commit mass murders. This is his plan, this is his goal.

The truth is we are failures and we do mess up. But the rest of the story is that Jesus rose from the grave in order that we can to ! You don’t have to stay in your despair, you can allow Jesus to raise you from the dead, just like he did Peter.

The key is, as you become sorry for how you have failed, you reach out to Jesus and ask Him to help you succeed. This is the whole purpose to Jesus telling the disciples to wait around til you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

We cannot succeed without His help. The good news is all you have to do to get His help is to ask for it ! “For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13 Nasb

We need to remember who we have living inside us! “You dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4

You need to put the past behind and go forward in the power of His Spirit. The best is yet to come!

Reasons for the cancellation of our summer mission trips.

It is June 2020 and our world has been turned upside down due to the cornona virus and, on top of that, we have had an event that has sparked outrage over the killing of a black man by a white cop. This message is not about those important issues but just referring to them to present the context for what I’m about to talk about.

Every summer for 14 straight summers I have lead a team to New orleans to conduct an outreach in a neighborhood by the french quarter. Over the years we have seen the Lord do amazing things. Working with a local church and being supported by YWAM new orleans we were still planning to go back this summer.

As the time came closer it became evident we were not supposed to go. I do not like retreating and giving into the the enemy so I was resisting this decision. As I was praying about the trip, God spoke to me that I was not ready for what’s coming. This startled me and I began to wonder why He would say that. In prayer, I felt that the Lord began to show me that what we have seen with the virus and riots were just the beginning of the chaos that was coming to America and I needed to begin to spend more time in prayer and His word. So that’s why we cancelled our summer trip and I began to spend more time entering the presence of God.

To further compound my frustrations I began to realize that I would also need to cancel taking a team to the republican and democratic conventions. I was extremely concerned because I felt like He told me to go to both of them this summer. Again, I heard him continue to tell me that I was not ready for what’s coming. Now I was really upset as I could of sworn He told me to go. In prayer I began to realize He never told me to go but rather I just made the decision because when we went the the Trump convention is 2016 it was one of the most powerful and effective mission trips I have ever experienced.

So that leads me to this very urgent call to the body of Christ. Due to how our nation has turned its back on God, I believe we are headed into some very hard and troubling times and we all need to press into His presence and become equipped to deal with what is headed our way.

This is an urgent call for the church to repent and turn from our wicked ways. Yes our wicked ways, not the country or non believers wicked ways, our wicked ways.

We have loved to to quote 2 Chronicles 7:14 for over 20 years now with regard to what needs to happen for God to save America. The church has done some of what is said, but not all.

” And my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

My thoughts briefly on this prayer. The church has done some of this prayer but not all. I do not see any evidence the the church has done two important elements in this prayer.

1. We have not humbled ourselves. I see too much arrogance and pointing of fingers on the wickedness of others. We need to repent. Too many are acting so sure they know what’s going on and I just think it comes from a proud and arrogant attitude that needs to be broken.
2. We have not turned from our wicked ways. Besides arrogance, I see to many leaders in the church who are caught up in sin. Whether its pride, greed, building their own kingdom, lust and porography, we have got to get our own house in order. I am not just pointing fingers as I am also working on many issues in my own life as well.

I believe that He has began to plant within me the need to fear Him and realize the need to do things His way. Got to stop bad behavior and quit spending time watching tv or the news, etc. Get control of our time.

If we do this, I believe He will watch over us and we will be prepared for what’s coming, even if God does not save our land. We cannot count on that. We know He loves America but if we do not do what He says, we may lose America. That does not mean we will need to experience His wrath if we, as individuals are fully committed to Him.

It’s time to pray and do what He says.