Kingdom Truths I Dont Believe in.

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Kingdom Truths That I Don’t Believe InTonight I don’t want to preach but I do want to make a confession.  I don’t want to try to stir you again with an eloquent message about God and His purpose, plan and promise for your life I just want to make an admission to the lies I have lived.Isa 29:13 The Lord says: These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. §  You see I claim to believe in God and His Word.  §  I profess to trust the truth of the bible and hold fast to the facts therein. §  I assume to acknowledge the undeniable, utmost reliable, absolutely dependable legitimacy of God’s given ordinances. But I’m WRONG!!!The exhaustive list of things, about God and the ever living word I don’t believe in is shocking. I find that my confession and my convictions are vastly different and I want to come clean tonight. Here are a few things I have claimed to believe in the past, but realise I don’t.-------------------------------------------------------------1.     God.I believe in a god but not the One written in and experienced through the bible. The god I believe in is more like something I invented to appease soothe and pacify my conscience.  You see the God of the bible is incredibly massive, powerful and demanding.  Psalm 95:3 “For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods.” The god I have invented is much more of a gimmie, gimmie god who offers a gimmie, gimmie gospel. You see it makes so much more sense seeing as how He is totally distant and overly powerful, obviously He exists simply to satisfy me and fulfil all me desires.  Yet the bible would have you believe that because of His enormity that He must have you and no compromise will ever be acceptable. If you give Him all your so-called needs and than give Him the rest of you and everything you could ever need, want or desire will be yours and never forget that it was for His good pleasure that you were created and never the reverse. Phil 2:13 For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Psalm 29The voice of the Lord is over the waters;The God of glory thunders;The voice of the Lord is powerful;The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire.The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;And in His temple everyone says, “Glory!”The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood,And the Lord sits as King forever.” But the god I believe is quite small and insignificant. He doesn’t even scare me like the God in the bible would.  The God of the bible is a HOLY God of absolute power and dominion but I refuse to believe in this kind of God with my unholy actions. I will continue to profess Him with my mouth but deny Him with my behaviour.  You must understand my god is more like a servant than a master. In fact if there was nothing in it for me I wouldn’t even bother to know him. The God of the bible is above everything. He holds the world in the palm of His hands. He stretches out His arm across the universe. He filled with power and wonder He has eyes of fire and a voice like thunder. He deserves and demands fear and respect, worship and exaltation. But my god is more like a puppy or a circus clown. Irrelevant until I want something. If I want a trick I will tell it to perform. If it wants something for me it’s always going to cost him. I call the shots and make the decisions regarding my life.  My god doesn’t mention sacrifice, surrender or suffering. He doesn’t demand obedience or paying any kind of price. He doesn’t require offerings or tithes. He is subordinate to my bidding and my feelings.§  He speaks when he’s spoken to.§  He obeys when he’s required to.§  He saves me because he is obliged to. §  He is merely required as a source of help and assistance. Outside that I don’t need him.§  He doesn’t concern himself with my sin or anyone else’s. I’m much happier with my own god than adopting the biblical model. My god is so much easier to get along with. The god I’ve invented is far more concerned with my temporary enjoyment than with my eternal salvation. But the God of the bible always overlooks my current comfort in order to offer everlasting communion with Him. If I believed in the God of the bible I would have to wake in the morning with His praise on my lips and in the evening I would have to lie down still praising Him because of the endlessness of His power. Wow I’m glad I got out of that!!!The bible has also been known to say: Jer 23:23Am I a God near at hand,” says the Lord, And not God afar off?” Isa 50:8He is near, who justifies me: who will contend with me?”-------------------------------------------------------------2.     Heaven & Hell.Now before you get all upset at me, I do believe in life after death. Sure there is some kind of afterlife I don’t deny that but in my belief system there is not the ecstasy and thrill of heaven nor the agony and misery of hell.  That’s probably just some fictional fairytale depicted in the bible to make Christians seem so much more elite than the rest of the world. I mean the bible is really the only source in the world that claims to have the goods on a so called heaven and hell. For Christians if you don’t believe in their God you simply end up in hell. If you do happen to acknowledge God you end up in heaven no middle ground. In almost all other religions you at least get a 2nd chance or get sent back or something. It says; Matthew 13:42“The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He, who has ears to hear, let him hear!” To be plainly honest I don’t think I have ever met anyone who really believes in it all. The far reaching assumption that somewhere in a distant realm there is a place of absolute elation and bliss, a place where God exists in all His array and splendour is ever present and worshipped, A place where time and space are irrelevant and all that matters is the presence of a loving, living creator. Do you think if such a place exists and Christians have the so-called monopoly on it they would be a little more courteous in sharing such news with the rest of the world?  Do you think if I believed in such a place of unimaginable euphoria, I would spend much more of my time actually informing others of the way to get there? If it was all true, Christians would have to be a little more selfless in keeping things of this nature to themselves and not worrying about a little criticism or rejection inside or outside the church.If heaven were real would Christians who claim to believe in it, behave as if this life and this world were all there was? Would they seek with all their might the petty accolades of this world when there’s eternity to live for??? Would they live so much for the gratification and applause of mortal man and a finite reward? Would they still place so much importance on money, people, belongings, promotions, reputations and everything else in this temporary world they live in? I can’t believe in heaven. In it’s reality, its legitimacy, in its authenticity. I certainly don’t! By my words I pretend but by my actions I deny it all!!! I want to confess that me and the rest of Christendom are pretenders!!!Hell I once watched a movie once, called ‘Luther’. It’s a great portrayal of that great reformist. A particular scene showed a man selling indulgences and he light up a flame torch and put his hand right in the fire and held his hand it there for a while. His face grimaced and contorted as the pain became absolutely unbearable. Than he began to explain to the whole crowd that such were the agonies of hell and why would anyone want someone they know to go there. But fret not due to the Roman Church’s authority they could purchase their past family members freedom for a fee. This is complete heresy according to the bible. But I realised while I saw the man with his hand in the fire that I don’t believe in hell at all. Who’s kidding themselves here?  I have taken the easiest option and just removed it from my theological standing altogether. The bible teaches that hell is a place in the spirit realm where all those who deny Christ and His saving love and mercy will be sent, due to their lack of humility and refusal to accept their need of a saviour.  Hell is eternal separation of God. According to the bible if one doesn’t choose God in life they can’t choose Him in death. The bible describes hell as a place of eternal (That’s right, everlasting) torture and agony. A place of never ending fire where an unrepentant sinner will have to abide without relief. My afterlife is obviously void of anything resembling Hell. It would seem to me that many Christians are much the same. You see if I was to confess the truth of hell I would have to live like most of the people around me are heading there. For me to believe in hell I would have to also believe that you and I become the world’s only hope for salvation. Not that we can or do save them but we have the knowledge of the One who can save them and yet we sit silent and watch them slide by the thousands down the slippery slope of eternal devastation. One senior pastor said this week at a meeting I attended: “I think sometimes we just take things too seriously!” I would say he is much like me and just refuses to believe in hell for if we do believe in hell and remain in our course of self indulgence the casualties will not be in the thousands of the millions…  Sometimes I like to pretend I believe in it, even preaching about it sometimes but I know I don’t it’s too hard. Why would I preach the only gospel under heaven that can save in the face of such opposition?  The only reason I would do that is because I believe in hell. Therefore clearly I don’t!!! -------------------------------------------------------------3.     Revival!“We need another Pentecost. I don’t know if we want it but we need it.” Leonard Ravenhill And you’d think that in all my ramblings on Pentecost and the great outpourings and the awakenings that are to come than I would believe in Revival but I have found that I don’t believe in it at all. Sure I believe they have happened; Wesley, Whitfield, Edwards, Finney, Roberts all saw amazing revivals. The 1st century church certainly was in revival and even parts of the world today are certainly in revival.But do I believe in revival in my life, my church or my city??? The answer is a loud resounding NO!  I would like too. But I have an inkling of the cost and because it is so big I plainly decline. “None for me thank you I’ll pass.” The offer is on the table. It has been since the days of Acts. But we have created our own norm. Back than the word revival wasn’t even used because it was everyday life. You couldn’t ask one of the first disciples if they were believing for a revival. They were in it. But as Leonard Ravenhill says: “There are no sales at God’s table, the price for revival is the same today as it’s always been, TRAVAIL!” But not me I don’t believe it. It’s irrelevant. I’m saved and maybe I’ll assist one or two others but to be used by God in such a huge way would mean I would have to give up so many things. It means I would have to give up me! I would have to pray, intercede, witness, hear God’s voice and obey. Are you kidding do you know how hard that would be?Someone else can do it surely. I’m just not called to it... It’s not my ministry. I’ll show you my kind of church.§  No hungry stomachs. (Fasting)§  No calloused knees. (Like the apostle James)§  No teary eyes. (Brokenness)§  No outlandish praise.§  No worship that is so intense you almost deny your very existence on earth.§  No relentless hours of intercession.§  No humbling or self-effacing alter calls.§  No conviction.§  No righteous standards.§  No lack of sleep or leisure. No! No! No! No! There is absolutely no need for any of that. Cause I don’t believe in revival. -------------------------------------------------------------A prominent actor was once asked by an eminent preacher; “What is the reason for the difference between you and me? You are appearing before crowds night after night with fiction, and the crowds come wherever you go. I am preaching the essential and unchangeable truth, and I am not getting any crowd at all." The actor’s answer was this: "This is quite simple. I can tell you the difference between us. I present my fiction as though it were truth; you present your truth as though it were fiction."   You see I have scrutinized my life and found these conclusions to be true. I am a liar and a deceiver. I have for so long claimed to believe these truths implicitly. But the evidence of my life would speak quite a different story. My actions and convictions are contrary to what I have claimed to believe and I think that tonight I will just confess and repent to everyone for depicting a Christianity that’s so far fetched from what I truly believe. David Hume, 18th century British philosopher who rejected historic Christianity, once met a friend hurrying along a London street and asked where he was going. The friend said he was off to hear George Whitfield preach. "But surely you don't believe what Whitfield preaches do you?" "No, I don't, but he does."  But it’s not over there. No this is just the beginning. You see I am determined to change. I am resolute that I will reflect God in all His reality and truth. I will believe the bible’s depiction of Heaven and hell and not one invented by my own compromising flesh. And finally I will ask God to help me to pay the price for a revival He has so long awaited for. What about you? The band DC Talk once stated: “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and walk out the door, and deny him with their life style. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

 

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