TEXAS WESTERN JURISDICTION CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST, INC., CONVOCATION 2010 MESSAGE

TEXAS WESTERN JURISDICTION CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST, INC.
CONVOCATION 2010 MESSAGE
7:00 P.M.–JULY 6, 2010

TOPIC: IN JESUS OR OUT OF JESUS
SCRIPTURES: JOHN 15:1-7; REVELATION 3:14-16

We thus far have had a great convocation. And all of you have contributed to making this convocation so great. Of course, God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost worked in, through, and for us to give us this success. Without Jesus, we could and can do nothing. God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost worked through and in this great choir, these great speakers, and now I need to allow God through Jesus and the Holy Ghost to work through me. I hope to do that, and I need all of you to look to Jesus and pray for us all as I speak. As we talk about being in Jesus or out of Jesus we are really talking about freedom–some might even say freedom of choice. But freedom costs. You see, one has to give up some things in order to preserve some other maybe more precious things. Also, one has to be truly committed to something or someone to really be free. A man who chases women, never committing to any one of them, thinks he is free. But is he really? Uncertainty controls him. Distrust controls him. Lust controls him, and demons may really be controlling his thought processes. Is he then really free? The same is true for women who chase men. Are people who claim to be Christians but never join a church really free? Are they in Jesus? Are church hoppers really free? Are they in Jesus? Are people who can’t submit to leadership really free? Are they in Jesus? I think that we can ask many such questions and come to some reasonable consensus on the matters. Freedom costs and being in Jesus costs.

Let us now look at the issue of being out of Jesus. One can be out of Jesus for various reasons:
I. One may never have been in Jesus in the first place.
2. One may have been in Jesus but walked out or jumped out of his hands through deliberately sinning, continually sinning, and denying Jesus in various ways.
3. One may have been in Jesus but acted so compromisingly, so contrarily, was so Luke warm that Jesus just spewed one out or spit the person out of him.
In either of these cases, the person is just out of Jesus. When a person never has been in Jesus in the first place, that person is already dead but may not know it.
When a person who was in Jesus, alive in Jesus, walks out of Jesus through deliberately sinning and denying Jesus in various ways, that person is like a dog that goes back to his own vomit. That person will wither and die because he/she is no longer connected to his/her lifeline.

When a person who was in Jesus, alive in Jesus, is thrown out by Jesus–spewed out, that person really is in bad shape and may have his/her conscience seared by God so that salvation is no longer possible.

In the cases where people walk out of Jesus or are spewed out of Jesus by Jesus, tile Bible says that that person just withers up, shrinks up, and dies to be in the same or worse state than he/she was in before coming alive in Jesus. And in addition to that, according to the Bible, people mistreat them, gather them up and use them in any kind of way, and cast them into the fires of natural life to be burned in their economic loves, to be burned in their personal lives, to be burned in their business lives, to be burned in their family lives, to be burned in their lives with their friends and children. Oh yeah. God sees to it that when we walk out of Jesus or are thrown out of Jesus by Jesus that our lives are miserable and are like a burning fire. We will burn in this life as the result of the actions of men, and will burn in hell by God’s decree. If we walked out of Jesus, repentance and restoration may be possible. However, if we are thrown out of Jesus by Jesus because we are lukewarm, restoration may not be possible.

Being out of Jesus is not freedom, but bondage. and Satan works hard in trying to get us to walk out of Jesus or to have Jesus throw us out of him. Since Jesus said that being lukewarm while we are in him is the reason he will spew us out of him, what does this being lukewarm really mean and how does one become lukewarm? Lukewarm means being neither hot nor cold, but somewhere in the middle. Hot water, for example, becomes lukewarm by not being insulated from the cooler environment, or by being mixed with that which is cooler than it is. Sin is what makes people in Jesus lukewarm. In order for those of us in Jesus not to become lukewarm, we must insulate ourselves or be insulated from sin. Also, we must not mix sin with our holy and righteous lives. We must come out from sin. We must not touch sin.

Some of us may go through the stage of trying to hold on to Jesus while we sin a little bit, or we try to hold on to Jesus while we touch sin. But the Bible lets us know that we are to come out from sin, be separate from sin, not touch sin, and that without holiness, we will become lukewarm and destroy our chances of seeing god. Let me give you some examples of what I am talking about:

1. When a holy man or woman holding on to Jesus looks at persons of the opposite sex (or of the same sex, if he/she is homosexual) and just artistically and aesthetically appreciates them for their beauty, handsomeness, physiques, etc., that is just observation. No sin is involved. There is no threat of becoming lukewarm in Jesus by doing that. One is not touching sin or mixing sin with one’s life in so doing.

2. When a holy man or woman holding on to Jesus looks at persons of the opposite sex (or same sex) and begins to wonder and think about how pleasant it would be to have carnal knowledge of those persons and contemplates such in his/her heart, lusting after them, in other words, then that holy man or woman is touching sin and is in danger of becoming lukewarm in Jesus.

3. When a holy man or woman holding on to Jesus looks at person of the opposite sex (or the same sex) with lust and moves with deliberate speed to fulfill that lust and does have carnal knowledge of and sexual encounters with those persons, then that holy man or woman is mixing sin with holiness and righteousness and becomes lukewarm.

Oh there are other ways to become lukewarm by touching sin and mixing sin with our holy lives while still holding on to Jesus. In so doing, we will be in violation of the commandments to love God with all our might and to love our neighbor as ourselves. I’ll just list a few of them:

I. Becoming slack in our prayer lives because of other things and responsibilities of our natural lives.
2. Attending worship services infrequently because of other obligations and pursuits.
3. Neglecting to read our bibles and not thirst for truth.
4. Holding back on our tithes and offerings in support of God’s work.
5. Neglecting to visit the sick or to be concerned for our brothers and sisters in need one must give up some freedoms to be in Jesus.
Put simply, one must give up the freedom to enjoy tile pleasures of sin in order to be in and remain in Jesus. However, being in Jesus allows us more collective freedoms as the body of Christ and more everlasting freedoms as individuals.

Jesus let us know that those he sets free from the bondage of Satan are free
indeed.

1. They are free to have joy unspeakable and full of glory.
2. They are free to worship god in the beauty of holiness.
3. They are free from the power of Satan to dominate them.
4. They are free from the possibility of ever being possessed by devils.
5. They are free to have their strength renewed and to mount up over the storms of life, the trials and tribulations of life with wings of eagles; free to run and not be weary, and free to walk and not faint.
6. They are free from eternal damnation and personal destruction.
7. They are free to receive great blessings from god in this natural life, and unlimited blessings in the afterlife–so much so that eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, neither have entered into the hearts and minds of men the things god has prepared for those who love h[m and wait for him. and finally,
8. They are free to live forever.

Are we in Jesus or out of Jesus? I strongly suggest and highly recommend) that we strive to get into Jesus, and once we are in Jesus, commit ourselves to remaining in Jesus. For without Jesus, we can do nothing nor will we receive anything good that is everlasting.