Weekly Scriptures | Sermon Notes | Sermon Video
Maybe it’s happened to you before, both applause and persecution, celebration and suffering. Can you imagine the successive occurrence of these polar opposites? One moment you are being extolled, the next you are being stoned. And quite frankly, it is easy to understand that perseverance in the midst of persecution is an admirable quality. But, what may be even more difficult, and therefore more commendable, is when you don’t become a victim of your own fame. When the whole world wants to applaud you, how do you respond? When praise, acclamation, admiration, adulation, compliments, and tribute are forthcoming, do you accept the worship, draw attention to yourself, soak it up, or deflect it away?
Maybe you are the one offering worship. Do you turn leaders into idols? Do you bow in the wrong direction, worshiping the worship? Are you applauding the worship, the one who worships, or the One being worshiped? Are you involved in Christian idolatry or the Christian faith. Is Y’shua the Lord of your life or one of the many objects of your idolatry, your religion? That’s a scary thought. Are you addicted to the truth or are you addicted to the experience.
The journey never turns out the way you’ve planned. You can certainly be confident that you are called and you can certainly be sure of your destination, but the road you will travel has many questions strewn along the path, many roadblocks, a myriad of twists and turns. There will be victories and some losses along the way; there will be persecution and there will be many things to tempt you, maybe none worse than the temptation to become full of yourself, imagining, “I’m all that!” Or possibly you tempt another by fostering that idea about him, “He’s all that!” Don’t do either, but rather, bow your knees only to the Father of your Lord Y’shua the Messiah, from whom the whole family of mankind receives breath. And, if you are ever tempted to boast or to feed someone’s boasting, do this instead; boast in the Lord. For it is not someone who commends himself that is approved by God, but the one whom the Lord commends. That says it all!
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