Let’s give God some Praise!
Each and every one of us have been in training for the past year. Make no mistake that we are about to embark upon challenges and opportunities that I cannot explain. What I can say to you is that it is important that you are ready for the challenge, it is important that you are prepared for the challenge and it is equally important that you are willing for the challenge. Amen
So my question to each of you today is what type of influence are you going to be?
I am going to take you to what type of influence you do not want to be.
It is important that we understand that our job is to build up and not tear down, to encourage and draw others closer to God. You are going to get the opportunity to bring souls to Christ, to express the greatness and joy that one can only receive through fellowship with Christ.
This is the opportunity of life that you are very quickly about to embark upon.
So it is very important that we are a positive influence to each other and a positive influence to those whom God sends are way. For if we are not, then we have a heavy price to pay.
Luke 17:1, 2
1 Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
Romans 14:13 (KJV)
13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
I need you to get this picture. There is plenty of drama all around us in this world that we live, there is confusion and all types of eliminates to help lead man astray enable them to move in the opposite direction of God.
And if we are found guilty of such and offense then it is a serious violation in the eyes of God.
So your question should be how could I do such a thing? People look at how you live, act, talk, and speak. These are things that set the example. They may hear what you are saying but their impression of you comes from what they observe in you, in and out of the church setting.
How you interact around them, how you talk around them, how you carry yourself when you are not at the church.
This is why so many miss their blessing, this is why so many souls today are lost because of the impressions that they receive about the so called people of God.
The quickest thing to ruin a church is for it to have the reputation of being filled with hypocrites. Hypocrites claim they are all that, but in reality they are living a lie. Those that are struggling to get it right acknowledge I’ve got some faults and I am trying my best to allow the Holy Spirit to get me right.
Hypocrites never tried to change, they just keep pretending because they like living the lie, this is who they are. But those that have a desire to draw closer to God are always at the alter trying to get something in them fixed, trying to correct their lives.
Don’t get to professing that you are saved sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost when sin still is capable of ruling your flesh. Once you are save sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost you have control of your flesh, sin rules no more in you but you rule sin.
Romans 8:1-11 (KJV)
10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
It is time to slay the dragon as they say. You need to understand the strength and authority that you have. Sin has no more rule over you, if you indeed are a child of God and want Christ to be the head of your life then you already have the power, you already have the authority. What you need is the will be power to do so. You must be a willing participant, you must be ready to put on the armor of God and prepare yourself for battle within yourself.
But I need to tell somebody, you got the authority if you have God for those that follow the spirit have control of the flesh. But woe unto them that keep getting in the way, woe unto them that cause division and confusion, woe unto them that stumbling blocks unto others, woe unto them that bring sin around the believers, woe unto them that cause those seeking God to go astray.
It is better that a millstone had been cast about their neck and then thrown into the deepest region of the sea rather than face the wrath of God.
This is a serious thing when it comes to the children of God, and just in case you are confused the children of God have no age barrier or limit. Our job is to be a positive influence in each and every opportunity giving unto us. To help build up the kingdom of God and not tear it down.