Gillette Abundant Life Church
Conviction, not a bad thing!
Take a couple of hands before your seat and say, "Man, I'm glad I came to church today." Man, I don't know about you, but this is a neat place. This is a good place. God is here in such a wonderful way, praise God, praise God, hallelujah Jesus. Man, it's wonderful to be in the presence of the Lord, expectation, and you can be seated. God bless you. So good to have you here today, praise God, praise God. Over here, you were wearing a red hat, weren't you? Minded me when I was a kid. I had a red hat just like that when I was going to slavery right, and I thought that was cool. Thanks for the memory. Thanks God. We do have a special guest here today. He is one of the greatest painters this city has ever seen. I'm serious. We've had him do work for us over the years, and he is just marvelous. You're going to pay me for this advertisement, right? Okay, just so you know. But Greg Perkins is among us, and I'm just so glad that you're here today. It's so good to see you. Yes. Travis. Yeah, I didn't quite recognize you. You came back. Good for you. Good for you. We're so glad to have you here today. And this is a good place. I'm going to do a little promotion. Can I do that before I go into a lesson? I'm going to talk about conviction this morning, and it's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. Praise God. A lot of times we look at conviction the same way we look at holiness and go, "Oh, man, I've got to do all these things." No, it's a favoritism from God, and hopefully you'll recognize that this morning in Jesus' name. First of all, I want to recommend some things to you. I try to read, go through the Bible several times a year. That's just what I do, my ritual. I listen to it. I read it. I study it. I mean, I just, I can't get enough of the Bible. And so I appreciate that, and I would never want to take away from your reading or studying the Bible. That's your foremost. You want to do that. Make that a, maybe a kind of a pledge or maybe a commitment this next year. We're going to be here hosting a breakfast that we do every year called those that go through the Bible in its entirety at least once a year. We host a breakfast that'll be in January, but make your plans to do that. Every time you go through the Word of God, I'm telling you something, God gives you some things. He opens up your eyes. Can somebody that knows what I'm talking about saying, "Man, it's the truth." But with the help of the Bible, there are people that God has put in my life. And because we live way out here on the edge, you know, we're not at the edge of the world. But if you get up high enough, you can see it from here, right? You really can. But it's a beautiful place to live. I don't have a problem living in Wyoming. But a lot of times you're not able to get places and stuff like that. So books, tapes, things like that through the years have been just a godsent for me. And I try to personally, I just have a goal of trying to get through at least one book a month. A lot of them are devotionals, and what I mean by that is their books that give you increments. They give you a little bit at a time. And I recommend that. One of them I would, and I'd say this one here is wore out. I think I've been through this two or three times. This guy, J. Mark Jordan, is one of my favorite. He just is a communicator. And he has a book out of what it's been out for quite a while. It's called "Some Christian You Are." And don't mess with the title. It's a good thing. But there's a hundred different lessons in here. A hundred of them. And you could take one of these a day. Easy. And it would really, really feed your soul. And so I recommend this. This is really one of those things that can really help you. It helps me. I want people in my life. I've got several people that speak to my heart on a regular basis. And I thank God for that. Amen. Obviously the Holy Ghost is the most important, so in Jesus' name. Another book that I would recommend for every person in this place. Well, this one I would too. Especially in the times that we're living in. The scripture teaches us in the 24th chapter of the book of Matthew, probably one of the most extensive dysentery, or what am I thinking of? What is it? Great. Whatever she said. Of the end times. And it really does. Jesus just kind of lays it right out. But a lot of times we get confused. And we get ahead of the program and that type of thing. And so a lot of times you got to be careful when you're studying end times. But one of the things that I know that it's very, very prominent in the end times is Jesus said because iniquity would abound. And iniquity itself will. It's really a lot of, it's not the devil, it's you and me. We try to insert our will into the things of God and we make our plans and then we get disappointed because God wants to do what he wants to do. And sometimes we get messed up. And so offenses are going to come. But this one here will really, really, really open up your eyes to what's going on in the world today. It's called the bait of Satan. And this is a classic. This one here talks about the ways that some of the traps that get set in your life. And I would highly recommend you reading this book at least in the next year because this will help you for things that are going to come. Because unless you're going to live up in a mountain someplace and never visit with people or anything like that, you might go a little while without getting offended. But sooner or later you're going to offend you. It's just how it works. And so the antidote is not to get to a place where we don't get offended. That's what a lot of people do. This is what a lot of people's view of Christianity is. God put me someplace where I never have any pressure. I don't have any pain. I don't have any problems. That's our idea. And that's not what God's idea is because He wants you to grow. He wants you to grow not only in His grace but in His understanding and His knowledge. And so a lot of times through the trials and the errors praise God, this is what can help us in Jesus' name. And so think about these things. Get yourself back to reading or listening or something and put some good things. One of the things that God will do for you and I on a regular basis if we want Him to is He will renew our minds. I'm serious folks. He will give you a perspective. He will give you energy. He will give you power. He will give you all of those things and much, much more in the name of Jesus. And that's what God wants to do for you in this next coming year. I don't know when Jesus is coming back. I don't know how many times I've changed my mind. Every time I read and I study and I do a lot on a regular basis, the end time events. But my goodness, sometimes I go, whoa, I thought that was going to happen or that was going to happen. And so what I'm going to do is just hang around until He comes back, amen. But until that time I'm going to have to protect myself and so are you in Jesus' name. And so God wants to become a source in your life. That's what He wants to do. He's not your worst enemy. He's not, amen, but sometimes we treat what He does like that. And so hopefully the Lord will help you in the name of Jesus. Now, what I've done today, and I'm going to, again, I'm going to promote because I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but I live with the mister. I do. Oh yeah. Yeah, she is the Christmas mister. She is right up there on that booth. She didn't look like it this morning, but she is. And she loves Christmas and she promotes it around our house. She even got me involved in it yesterday. I went out and bought two. What are they called? Ornaments. All right, God, Cory, he's back there, a good thing. But he made me look bad. He's going to say, "Do you see that on Facebook where Cody was helping them set up the Christmas tree?" You know, and I'm going, "Oh boy, here we go." Here we go. But, you know, and I'm not here to say, "Yay or nay" about any of that stuff, but it is the Christmas season. Whether you like it or not. And one of the things that I feel like we can do during this Christmas season is we can make the best use of our opportunities. Let me show you something in Scripture here, and maybe this will help you, praise God. Go to Galatians chapter number 10, I believe it is. Galatians chapter number 10, I can get it. No, Galatians chapter 6. If you found Galatians chapter 10, you probably need to get your new Bible. I'm messing with you good today, and I really am praise God. But Galatians chapter 6 and verse 10, there we go, I knew we'd get there sooner or later. The Bible says, actually, let me begin reading in verse number 8. Look at Galatians chapter 6 and verse 8, it says there, it says, "For he that soeth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption." It says, "But he," it says, "that soeth to the Spirit," and that word is capitalized as talking about the Spirit of God, "shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." Do you see that? That's good news. It says in verse number 9, "And let us not be weary and well-doing for induced season, we shall reap if we faint not." So sometimes you're going to have to keep doing the right thing and maybe not catch any rewards, okay? But here's one thing I want you to consider during this Christmas season, this one right here, 2024. It says, "As we have therefore opportunity," look at that. That word just means occasion. It just means that there's something going to come our way, maybe a door will open or something like that. It says, "Let us do good unto how many?" Just the ones that like us. Yeah, you know, I'm just playing words here. The bottom line is, it says, "Do good to all men." And so during this season, maybe, I did a little experimenting yesterday when I got done studying here. She had a little list that I went on to Hobby Lobby, it was the last place I wanted to go. But I did, you know, what do you do, you know, that's where she said you'd find it. So I went in there and I did a little experimenting. I thought, "Well, I'm going to go in here and see what's going on." And the place was packed, all kinds of people in there. So I thought to myself, "I am going to intentionally smile." I've walked on the aisles and I smiled. And I wish I'd had a clicker or a calculator. I got to believe it was probably a good, probably 60 to 70 percent of the people that I smiled at. They smiled back. See what I'm talking about? It didn't cost me anything. Just needed a little attitude adjustment. And so again, I don't know what good that does. I mean, I'm not here to be the author or the finisher of it. I'm just saying, "That's what we can do. We can put on these kind of things and God can help us." Now let me give you five things here that you can think about. Now I'm going to get to my Bible study here in just a little bit, praise God. But I just want you to consider five things that probably are going to come your way this Christmas season. The first one is family gatherings. Yeah, sometimes they can be a challenge, can't they? They really can. But I do believe that if we could, you know, adjust our attitude, praise God. And I believe in family gatherings, this is an opportunity to deliver a powerful positive message, not in the way we preach, but in the way we act. And if you've got to fake it for a while, go ahead. That's not hypocrisy, by the way. That's just trying to get you out of that whatever you're in. And I'm telling you something like yesterday, I notice people begin to smile. It's catchy. Amen. And I'm going to tell you something I believe that God can open up some doors. Another thing, that's number one, number two, is gift giving. Amen. I understand, you know, we don't worship gifts, we don't worship Christmas trees or anything like that. We worship the, we worship Almighty God. But the bottom line is this is an opportunity that maybe you open up a door. Consider gifts, you know, like Bibles, you know, like doing something for somebody. The other day we got a knock on the door and went to the door and here was this beautiful young lady with a pan full of rolls. Yeah, I see you, and I thought to myself, wow. And I mean, I'm just saying, what a simple thing, but what a door that could open. And so I understand gift giving has gone, you know, to the moon and back, you know. But the bottom line is it's not a bad thing. And it's a time of the year where you can really begin to stick out a little bit. Another thing, and this is going to, the third thing is, this might sound a little bit old fashioned, but Christmas cards. I understand, you know, that we don't do it the same way anymore, but take the opportunity maybe to communicate, very Scott, I got a daughter that's battling cancer right now, and she's really going through it, you know, and that type of thing, and I want to mess with that right now. But the Lord led me to sit down and write a handwritten letter to her, not typed, not walk talking into my phone, but writing it down, and as I would write it down, God began to inspire me what to tell her, man, I'm telling the Holy Ghost right now. And you could do the same thing, praise God, I put that prayer cloth in there, it wasn't two days later, and she got it, she texted me. But the bottom line is she said, thank you, thank you so much for doing this, thank you so much. Now she knows, and so this is what I'm talking about, you know, you and I, we can communicate with people during this time, and maybe we can give them something, praise God. The fourth thing is what I've already alluded to, you know, ask the Lord to help you to be a little more friendly. I got people that want everybody else to be friendly to them. But man, I got one of the souriest dispositions in the world, nobody in here, nobody in Wyoming, but those are people probably in Iowa, in Illinois, those are the places where those people are at, nobody in Wyoming is like that, okay? But I'm just saying, why don't you try it? Try being a little more friendly this year, because if anybody has anything to celebrate Christmas about, come on folks, you and I do. My goodness, we know what this is all about. I got the baptism of the Holy Ghost in October, amen, baptized in Jesus' name. And so my first Christmas was about a month and a half after that, two months after that. And I mean to tell you folks, it was the most glorious Christmas I'd ever had in my life. Man alive. And so this is what you and I, we can take the opportunity, praise God. And the fifth thing, this is something you can consider, is talking about the incarnation of the mighty God in Christ. I understand you're not going to get everybody to open up to you that at one, but I believe it's a good subject matter. Do you really know what this Christmas is all about? You know, instead of debating whether Jesus was born on the 25th of December and I just say, do you know what this is all about? This is about the birth of Christ. Do you know who he was? He was God manifest in the flesh. And I mean to tell you folks, you watch the doors come open, praise God, and you'll be able to witness, praise God to people like you have never witnessed before. Now, I understand, I can't make you do this. And that wasn't my intention of bringing this to you. But along with, you know, Christmas for Christ and giving at Christmas time and that type of thing, I believe that God does want to use this year in your life, praise God. Do you believe that? Yes. I want you just to lift up your hands right now and we're going to pray and ask the Lord to help us with that. Father, in the name of Jesus, right now, help us to respond to your words. Yes. To believe, Lord, I pray in Jesus' name that you've got good things, Lord, for us this year, Jesus. We teach in every part of person who's having every family, Lord, we have good plans for us. Let's try this. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Have the faith in Jesus' name for what you want to raise God. Praise God. Praise God. Hallelujah. Jesus. Oh, I feel the anointing of the Lord has just settled on several people here. God is going to. God is going to open up a door for you. There's going to be people that God will lead into your life, praise God, and it will never be the same again. Never be the same again in Jesus' name, praise God. Praise God. I want you to look at the book of Ephesians. I'm going to read a couple of scriptures here, and then we're going to look at the subject of conviction. That's one of the things I pray for in my own personal life. Every day I want my, I don't want God to get rid of conviction. I want God to increase it. But more than just increase conviction, I want to know what to do with it. Sometimes after getting a little upset or thinking that God doesn't like you or whatever the case is that comes sometimes with conviction, we need to realize, what are you trying to do here, God? You're trying to ruin my day? No, he's not trying to ruin your day. He's really trying to enhance it. And I'll tell you what conviction will do. Look at Ephesians chapter number six. Ephesians chapter number six. Let me show you what true conviction will do. The Bible says in Ephesians 6 and 10, it says, "Finally, my brother, it says, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might." Would you like that today? Would you like to be strong like God? Amen. This is what's available to you. And what I'm learning, this is what real conviction will do for me. It'll help me not to be weak, not to be despondent. It'll help me to be strong. And this is what God wants to do, praise God. I mentioned here a few weeks back about ways in which God communicates to us. And one of the ways that God communicates to us that I have found when people come into an apostolic church that they have to be healed is through the conscience, the still small voice. God doesn't want to yell at you. He just would like to whisper. He'd like to be able to wake you up at night and just talk to you. And it's the conscience that can receive that. But a lot of people's conscience have been bruised, it's been beaten, it's been abused, whatever the case is. And I don't want to sound negative here today, but I believe that God can heal it and will heal the conscience. Amen. And this is where we can really become strong, is that we can begin to hear the voice of God. Amen. If you study the book of the Revelation, the chapters you should study, first are the first three, because they're written to the church. They're written to people like you and I. What does God expect from us? And I'm not going to go into the details, but every one of those churches, every one of those places in the second and third chapter, it finishes up by saying, "Let he that have an ear hear what the Spirit is saying." Amen. And that's really what God wants for you. That's how you and I can become strong. And a lot of times God will communicate it to us through the conscience by way of conviction. That's what he will do. And so God isn't trying to make your day bad, he's just trying to help you to understand that there's some danger that's lurking over there. There's some things that if you overuse this, you're going to get further and further away from God. All kinds of things like that. And so this is what God wants to do. He wants to restore, I believe he's going to do it this morning. He wants to restore the respect for God-given conviction. And hopefully you will receive this. Hopefully God will help you to understand that. Now let me go to the book of John, the Gospel of John, chapter number eight. And this is a beautiful example of how it works. Amen. I'm not going to go into the entire story there. But the bottom line is this is what we see. We see that Jesus doing some teaching was misunderstood, misconstrued. I mean to tell you, the things of God can be easily misunderstood. And so that's why sometimes we need to get straightened out and God will straighten us out by conviction. Now these guys had an alternative motive here in this eight chapter. They wanted to catch Jesus. They want to make him look bad. And they wanted to really, really eliminate his ministry. And as God does so many times, he turned it completely around to where they saw the things of God. Now I won't go into the details about the woman and how she was caught and that type of thing. This is what I want you to see, praise God. The Bible says in verse number seven, eight and seven, this is John, the Gospel. It says, "So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and he said unto them, communication, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Now at the first glance at that sentence, we'd think, "What's the problem there?" But there was a problem with it. And here's what was going to straighten it out. The Bible says, "And again he stooped down and rode on the ground." And verse number nine, something happened here that I want you to consider. It says, "And they which heard it," amen, "being convicted." Do you see that? Amen. The Word of God was doing something. And what it was, it was convicting. Now the Word convicted or conviction, that type of thing, it's only found once in the Bible. But a lot of times it refers to other things, you know, in the Bible, that type of thing. One of them, I'm going to give you here in just a second, but I want you to see the Bible says they were convicted how? By their own conscience. So many times we want God to deal with the next person when he's really dealing with us. Come on, I know that's simple. I know that's profound, but my goodness, that's how it works, God will deal with you. And then what are you going to do with it? Well, yeah, you can think 3 or 4 or 8, 10 people that, man, they really need it worse than I do. Well, maybe God's already dealing with them. I don't know. But you can rest assured that God is dealing with you, amen. And boy, for the next five seconds, you're vulnerable. You can begin to dismiss, you can begin to make excuses, you can begin to do all kinds of things. But what I'm asking the Lord to do in this service with this teaching is to remind you that this is God speaking to you. This is really happening, amen. Even though you want to put it on the back burner for the 130th time, even though you want to avoid it in that type of thing, God is speaking to your heart right now. Come on, does anybody want to get more sensitive to that? Go ahead and lift up your hands and ask Him. Come on, ask Him right now. Oh, yeah. Right now, this can happen to you. This can get restored. God, I pray for the healing of consciences right now that the conscience is being healed right now. It's being restored that it can receive with meekness the engrafted word that's able to save the soul right now in this place. Right now, restore that. Oh, hallelujah. My goodness. Thank you, Jesus, for this. Oh, thank you, Jesus. Wow. Wow. Man, that's powerful. Man, that's powerful what God is doing right in this place right here. I believe He's able to go over the Internet right now and touch people right on the Internet in Jesus' name. Yes. Praise God. And so that example in John chapter number eight, read it for yourself, you know, and you can find yourself in it. Maybe not in the exact situation, but there's been times when we didn't want to do something and we wanted something else to take the place and God would begin to convict us. Amen. And maybe, and hopefully, and I believe so, this next week that you're going to begin to recognize that. This is what brought me to you people. This is what brought me to the understanding that I needed to be baptized, that I needed His Holy Ghost. Come on, folks, I won't go into the details of my life, but I'm going to tell you something. I know what it's like to take the Word of God and shift it around and use it for my own use, and how God will begin to convict you and God will begin to straighten you out. Because, you know, the Bible talks about conviction in a different way, praise God. And one of the places that it talks about this, let me read this for you in John chapter number 16, chapter number, chapter 16 and verses 7 and 8, I'll show you what I'm talking about here. Jesus is doing some teaching here in John. He said, "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth," verse 7, "it is expedient for you that I go away." Now Jesus is telling him this. He said, "For if I go not away," he said, "the comforter will not come unto you." It says, "But if I depart, I will send him unto you, and when he is come, he will reprove." Now there's another word that could be used interchangeably with conviction. It's reproving. The Bible says the Word of God is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction and righteousness. That's what the Word of God will do. I listed four of them. Remember that a few months ago? A man were the conscience, the Word, praise God, the Word of God, rather, the spirit of God, and then the man or the person of God. This is what God uses mainly to communicate to his people. A man. And so this is what you got. And so in the midst of all of that, sometimes the person, sometimes the spirit, sometimes the Word will feed your conscience with a conviction. Amen. But a lot of times we don't know what that is. We don't really know what that is. We think that it's just that circumstances that I'm going through, or it's just a situation that I find myself in. Can somebody say, "Man," and I've misunderstood it from time to time too. But let me show you something here, praise God, because conviction is essential to your character, praise God, amen. And so what God wants to do is he really does want to help you to understand that. Now I know if you're aware of this or not, I used this example a long time ago, and I'm going to use it again today. Over 50 years ago, back I think in 1972, there was an Amish farmer who refused to send his children to the Wisconsin public schools because it was against his religious conviction. Okay? Following me now? Back in 1972. And the state of Wisconsin sued him. Back then they didn't like that. Iowa was the same way, by the way. And it says, "In both times, he lost, and he was facing jail and possible loss of his children to a state, a sign, foster them." They're going to come and take his kids. Now think about that. Find yourself doing a hard play, a rock and a hard play, so there's one right there. It's what would you do? Yeah. So he appealed, and what's the final appeal that we have in this country? That's why I thank God for this administration. I'm not political. I just thank God for conservative judges. That's all I'm going to see about that. Where is God? So this guy, this farmer, he appealed to the Supreme Court. It was his last resort. And he was told that the First Amendment protected, I don't know if you knew this or not, his religious convictions. Wow. It is okay to live in this country, isn't it? Thank God for America. Yeah. And so here he is, you know, and the Supreme Court said, "You don't have to send your kids to public school." And in this landmark 1972 case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a person, now listen to this, religious convictions, that's why conviction is important. It says, "Are protected by the First Amendment of the United States, but one's religious preferences are not." And that's where sometimes we misunderstand. Because every one of us in this place have preferences, come on. We all do. But I'm going to tell you something. The court will not look at your preferences, like it will look at you with your convictions. That's why God is busy trying to instill deep-rooted convictions in our lives. Now, I don't know if you ever, if you realize this or not, but this is what God is trying to do in this lesson period right here. Come on. I'm not going to just teach a lesson. I want to minister. There's somebody here today. This is going to make a difference for the rest of your life. This is going to make a difference between just believing or willy-nilly to having strong beliefs in the things of God. And God wants to help you with this in the name of Jesus, praise God. So let's look at that subject, preferences versus convictions. How does that look? Well, the Supreme Court at that time issued a paper in their determination of it. And of course, I'm not going to take their word above God's word, but I think in this rare instance, they were agreeing with God. What am I talking about here? Well, let me bring it to you, praise God. First of all, the court stated, now they brought back this reading to them. This is how they ruled and this is why they ruled. And we're talking about convictions versus preferences. And they stated, they said, the court stated that one cannot hold a belief unless one can somehow describe that belief. It can't be just something that you think is possible or something you come up with. You got to be able to prove it, amen. And you and I, we got Bible that can help us to do that. Can you say amen? Do you know what the Scripture teaches us in 1 Peter? Put 1 Peter chapter number 3 and verse number 15 up there. Let me show you this. God has already helped us to understand that this is important to our convictions. The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 15, it says, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts." Somebody say amen. Be ready. Come on. Let's get ready, praise God. It says, it says, "And be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks at you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." That's our mandate, folks. That's why I don't just come to church and say, "Well, that's enough for me for the rest of the week or for the rest of the month." No. I want you to study. That's why I mention these books. That's why I said, read that Bible. That's up to you. You're going to have to take the initiative, praise God, to put down USA today or whatever it is that's in your life and you're going to have to grab this Bible and say, "I need to prove some things to my own self in the name of Jesus." Come on. This is what God wants to do for you this next year. He wants to help you to become strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Come on. That's what He can do with this. Oh, hallelujah. Reach over and touch the person next to you if it's proper and pray for them right now. Help them to understand this is important. This is important. We don't want to just have good preferences. Oh, hallelujah. Come on, I'm telling you, God is putting down some roots here. There's some roots that are going down right now. This is the why. We're getting that three-letter word question answered. The why. Come on. This is what God is doing in this session right here. Why do we need good convictions? Come on, because you and I, we can stand before magistrates. We can stand before the law. We can stand before a lot of things, praise God, as long as we've got deep-rooted convictions. We can prove them in the name of Jesus by the word of the Lord. Oh, hallelujah, praise God, praise God, amen. Second of all, now this is the Supreme Court that's writing this, okay? Second of all, they put down, they said, the court required, now again, convictions versus preference preferences. The court required that beliefs must be individually and personally held. What does that mean? That means you can't go by my convictions. You can't go by his conviction. There's our her convictions. That's one of the things that impressed me about the apostolic move. Yes, it's a collective body. Yes, I understand we can find faith and support when we come to church. But praise God, I got to go out there and live for God myself. I got to go into my work area every day and every week, praise God, and I got to live for God in the name of Jesus. Yes, that's a huge challenge, but I'm going to tell you something. When you begin to do that, God was going to put down a root system in your life like you've never had before. It's God. That's what God wants to do. So the court said, you can't have convictions based on somebody else. You've got to hold them personally, praise God. And this is what God wants to do. You know, the scripture teaches us in 2 Corinthians chapter number 5, you don't have to put it up there. I'm just going to read it. It says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." You and I individually are going to stand before God and we're going to give an account. Does that scare you? Sometimes. But sometimes it assures me that I got a lot to live for, praise God. I got a lot to work on. I don't have to look for another job Monday morning. I already got one. It's called living for God. Come on. This is what God wants to do. He wants to take it off your mom and dad's church or maybe somebody else's church and he wants to put it in your lap, praise God, and he wants you to become convinced in the name of Jesus. Now, I understand we can't force people to do this, but I'm going to tell you something. You talk about a witness, that is a witness when somebody knows what they believe, praise God, and they're going to stand on what they believe no matter who comes against them. That's called apostolic, folks. Amen. When you got denomination after denomination, I'm not finding fault, but you got them going backwards, going backwards, going backwards. They don't believe that anymore. That isn't true anymore. Listen to me, folks. I'm sick and tired of that. The Bible is true in the name of Jesus. God wants to put that right smack dab between your ears. And that's what makes a difference. That's what they said, praise God. That would make a difference. Now, I'm talking about the Supreme Court now. And so the third thing the court established was that beliefs fall into one or two categories. Here's where they begin to differentiate, that beliefs fall into the categories of either you're convicted or there are a preference. So how are we going to tell the difference? Well, there's a foolproof case of that, U.S. courts. Only conviction in the U.S. courts that is, only convictions are protected by the Constitution. So you might be put up in front street by it. But listen to this, a preference is a very strong belief. I'm not saying it's not. It is. But listen, we can hold a preference with a great intensity in strength. You know? Listen, let me give you an answer. I have preferred the Chicago Bears for about 50-some-odd years. That I helped them Thursday? Enough about that, okay? But it goes on to say how strong, though, how strong are those things? In the court's opinion, strong enough that one would give all of their wealth to support it. Strong enough that a person would energetically tell others about their faith. Strong enough that one would go into full service to propagate their belief. And yet in the eyes of the court, such a person may still be operating on a preference and not a conviction. So that's why we better be sure. Now, though a preference may be very strongly, may be a very strongly held belief, according to the Supreme Court, listen to this. A preference is a belief that one will change under certain conditions. And that's the foolproof way. Don't tell me that God won't send something your way that might be a little challenging. Don't tell me that God won't test you. Don't tell me, not that he needs to know, but so that you can understand that you really do have a firm conviction of this thing. Amen. I'll never forget. The Monday after I got baptized on a Thursday, I got the Holy Ghost on a Sunday night. I went to work on Second Shift, and I was involved in some Bible studies out there. The very first time I went there, you know, after I got the Holy Ghost, praise God. And I mean to tell you, I had like four or five of these guys standing around when I was telling people about what happened to me, you know, how it works, you know, you're talking about joy, you know, wanting to tell people, that's the way it is. You get the things of God, man. I mean, it's just you want to tell everybody. But I saw these guys getting mad and mad and mad. And I'll never forget, after the Bible study, they all approached me and kind of given on a semi-circle and got around me, and he said, "What are you saying? What are you telling these people?" And I'm going, "What? All I'm telling is what happened to me." And they said, "Well, that doesn't happen anymore." I'm going, "Whoa, folks, I was blown away. Somebody was trying to tell me I didn't get the Holy Ghost. And I'd only had less than 36 hours. But I'm going to tell you something. There was something inside of me. Even in that beginning stage, they came after me. They said, "It isn't true. It doesn't happen. You're lying. This doesn't happen." And man, I mean to tell you, something inside of me rose up. And man, I wanted to say a whole lot of stuff. Yeah, but finally, after they all got done, I believed this is the wisdom of God. He gave me these words, simple words. He said, "Well, listen, listen, guys." I said, "I'm sorry that you feel this way about what happened to me, but I'm going to tell you right now, you came too late because I experienced this and I know I experienced it and you're not going to talk me out of it in the name of Jesus. That's what I'm talking about." And listen, I wasn't in the church for 10 years. I'd only been in the church not even a week. That's what God will do with His plan. He will put something in you that nobody can take away. And so this is the thing that stands to test. Can you be talked out of what you got? Well, then it wasn't a conviction. It was a preference. And I'm not here to put you down. I'm just saying, trade that preference in for a conviction. Let God begin to deal with your heart the way He wants to deal with you. Come on, somebody needs to lift up their hand right now and they need to recognize what God is doing. Come on, He loves you. He cares for you. Hallelujah, Jesus. Praise God. Lots of stuff that I could say about this one. Listen, I could say things about peer pressure. I could say things about family pressure. I could say things about a threat of a lawsuit. Ben there, praise God. I could talk about jail threatening and threatened of death. This is what happened to people in the church. Thank God. We don't get a whole lot of that around here in America, but listen to me. It might be coming. And that's why I'm not trying to threaten you. I'm trying to help you to be ready. Are you ready to give an answer? Praise God. God is trying to prepare in each and every one of you. And I'm not asking you to take my word for it. I'm asking you to get back in this Bible the way God communicates to us and check it out. Come on. That's what I did. The first year that I was filled with the Holy Ghost, I probably went through the book. I asked probably 10 or 15 times. And the reason I did that is I wanted to make sure that whatever I got, they got in the name of Jesus. And after a while, I'm going to tell you something I was convinced. And that's what you can be too. Praise God. And so yes, yes, beliefs. Number four, the court ruled that if you require other people to stand with you before you stand, your beliefs are preferences. That's why sometimes you're going to have to stand alone where you're at. Now, I could go into that one, but I'm counting you right now. God can give you the strength to do that. And then the fifth thing, the fifth thing the court stated, and this is talking about their ruling, is it said the court states that you have no right to say you have a conviction unless you live that conviction on a consistent basis. And that one is another one of those proving, I'm not talking perfection here, folks. I'm not talking about never making a mistake. But come on, after you've known what this truth is for a year or two, is somebody been able to come and grab that out of your hand, I hope not. I'm telling you, God wants to help us in Jesus' name. Put up on the thing, and this is one of my last scriptures. Look at James chapter number two. Somebody say, "Amen." With the help of the Lord, I've tried to convey what God has put on my heart to you today. And I hope that you will receive this in Jesus' name. The Bible says in verse number 16, second chapter of James, verse 16. It says, "And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be you warmed and filled. With not standing, you give them not those things which are needful to the body. What does it profit?" Now, he's talking about the distribution of goods. And he said, "There's a difference between locking up to somebody and recognizing the need they have and saying, 'Yeah, hopefully it'll work out for you.'" And then walking away. When you really do have the means to give to them, that should be convicting. Well, the Bible goes on to say in verse 18, "Yea a man may say thou has faith and I have works." And he says, "Show me thy faith without thy works and I will show you my faith by my works." What am I talking about? They work hand in hand. And the reason I'm saying this is that's the same way convictions are. If you are really convicted about something, you will live that. Not because, boy, better I'm going to go to hell, that might be a good motivation for the first couple of months. I'm not saying I hadn't used that one before. But after a while, I don't know about you, but I get tired of that. There was something that happened in my development with God. If I can put it that way. About the second year I was in the church. I can't quite put my finger on the exact date, but there was about a month or two that all of a sudden something began to accelerate in my life. I thought, "Man, what's going on? Man, I'm coming to church trying to pay my tie and doing everything that I could do it on that kind of thing." All of a sudden it's just fresh revelation started to come. And one of the things that I've been able to point it back to was I finally got to a place in this where you didn't have to tell me to come to church. You didn't have to tell me to read my Bible. You didn't have to threaten me that I was going to go to hell if I didn't show up at prayer meeting. Now listen folks, we've used those methods and I apologize for that. I don't use them anymore, but you'd be surprised among people that will use that kind of stuff. And I've just realized, praise God, that something needs to take place and it took place in me just as sure as I spoke in tongues when I got the Holy Ghost. And that was I developed a want to. I wanted to come to church. I wanted to be in prayer meeting. I wanted to read my Bible. I wanted to do the things of God. Now this is what I'm talking about. This is what good old fashioned root bound conviction will help us with. It will help us to develop the want to. Because as James put it with faith and works, he said in verse number 19, "Thou believe us that there is one God." Can somebody say amen? It says, "Thou believe us well." The devil's even believe. It says, "And tremble." And that's how we were one that, "Oh, we believe, but boy, I'm going to get out of place so that I didn't want to go to hell." See, we got to pass that. And that's why God wants to help us to recognize that convictions aren't a bad thing for you. It is a good thing that God will establish in your heart in Jesus' name. And so it says praise God in verse 20, "But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead." And so this is what it is. If your life is your life, you're going to be run by convictions. And those convictions that better be from God. That's why as a pastor, oh my goodness, you should talk about wanting to go crazy sometimes. You know, you've got people that have all kinds of ideas and convictions. And I'm not here to reign on your parade. But listen, before you're going to get behind this thing and start teaching them as you better do this stuff, you better find them in the Word of God. That's what we got to do. Biblical convictions are okay. And they will keep you safe in the name of Jesus. That's what God wants to do. And let me give you one more thing to think about. Look at Luke chapter number six. Luke chapter number six, and let me show you what will begin to happen. Amen. Not because you're so great, but because God is so great. Can you say amen? Luke chapter number six, I need to get an iPad where I can just push a button. Yeah. Look at Luke chapter number six, and look at verse number, okay. Look at verse 42, six and 42. It says, either how canest thou say to thy brother, brother, let me pull out the mouth that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdess not the beam that is in thine own eye. He said thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shall thou see clearly to pull out the mouth that is in thy brother's eye. I have found that convictions, biblical convictions, helped me to see myself and to see you a whole lot more clear. Because the Scripture goes on to say in verse 43, for a good tree, bringeth not forth corrupt fruit. Neither does the corrupt tree bring forth good fruit, can happen. It says, for every tree is known by his own fruit, for a thorn's men do not gather figs neither of a bramble bush gather they grapes. Now you can begin to understand, in the third chapter of the book of Matthew, I won't go there, but here's John the Baptist, and his ministry is Hoppen and Poppen. People are coming to him, and I mean to tell you, the whole countryside knew what was going on. He was baptizing them left and right, but all of a sudden, I don't know if it was in the morning or the afternoon session, but he stands up and he says, whoa, wait a minute. We're not baptizing anybody else until I get done with this lesson. And the lesson was read it for yourself. He said, bring forth fruit, meat for repentance. I understand, folks, we can fake it, we can do all kinds of things, but sooner or later, if God is doing something in your life, you are going to begin to produce godly things. That will happen, my friend, because the Bible says there in verse 45, it says, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart, bring forth that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart, bring forth that which is evil for the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaketh. Sooner or later, it's going to come to the surface, and it's going to be there. Would you stand with me today? I know this has been a lengthy lesson, and I usually don't go quite this long with one lesson, but nevertheless, I felt the spirit of the Lord prompt me today to deliver this, and I had no idea who was going to be here and who wasn't. So don't try and go in home saying, "Yeah, I was there," and he'd know. This one was already put in in my coffers last night before you got here. But the thing that really in my opinion right now that needs to happen, and you can do this if you want, that's why I'm going to open up this whole area down here. This whole area down here is going to be called an altar area. And if you feel like God has spoke to your heart, whether by conviction or maybe whatever means, nobody's going to look. But I want you to get out of that chair right now, and I want you to come down here because we're going to respond to God's Word. Come on. I believe that God is here to do great things in the name of Jesus. And I'm not going to lay my hands on you and shake you in that type of thing. I'm just going to invite you, praise God, to come down here and begin to lift up your hands and your voice right now to the Lord. Come on. I tell you, today is the day. That's what I'm talking about right now. We can settle a lot of things here in the next 30 seconds. Come on. We can receive this. We can say, God, I'm not going to deny it anymore. That's beautiful. Come on. I feel again that river of living water is in this place right now. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Is it a conviction or a preference?