Sitting In Church Does Not Make You Saved (329) - December 20 2025

The act of sitting on a chair in a Jesus-centered church does not make a person saved. Will some people wait until they feel hell on their back before getting right with God? It is not until life gets challenging that some even call out to God. We are required to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2 verse 12). Other people cannot get saved and repent for you. When Jesus is not a lifestyle, He is not Lord in all areas of your life or in any area. Do not wait until it is too late and be unprepared.

We discuss the following topics:

-Trying to Learn during emergencies, trauma and emotions 
-Jesus put training into place for us to overcome this world In Him, and be prepared
-Some of the Life application benefits from having a lifestyle In Christ to keep you prepared and on the straight and narrow path to the Lord
-To be like Jesus
-Our assignment and what God has called you to, to set the captives free

This program covers the following Scriptures from the Amplified Classic version (AMPC): James 4:14-15, Colossians 3:23, James 1:22, Psalms 27:8, 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18, 2 Timothy 4:2, Matthew 11:15, Philippians 2:12-13, Ephesians 4:11-15, Ephesians 4:14-15, Romans 12:2, Luke 10:19, 1 John 4:4, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 John 4:17, Acts 10:38, Philippians 4:6, Matthew 28:18-20, Isaiah 61:1-3.

Transcript

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) And welcome back to yet another episode of Touch of God. My name is Catrice and I'll be bringing the message to you for this week. For those of you who'd like to follow along with us in the Bible, we use the Amplified Classic Version. This week we will be talking about Sitting in Church Doesn't Make You Saved. Last week on Not Every Door Leads to Life, Part Two, we discussed that Jesus is the door to life if you choose that door. Matthew 7, verse 13 to 14, enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction. And many are those who are entering through it. But the gate is narrow, contracted by pressure, and the way is straightened and compressed that leads away to life. And few are those who find it. Last week's topic, Identifying the Path to Jesus. How can we find the gate that leads to life and the Lord? Who shall enter the gates of the Lord? What are the benefits of seeking the door to life through Jesus? What good is it to gain the world and lose your soul? This week on the Touch of God episode, we'll be discussing Sitting in the Church Doesn't Make You Saved. We'd like to talk about coming to a Jesus-centered church is a big step for many. The Lord loves people so much that he wants them to know he made a way for them to overcome in this world. Jesus set into motion power and authority to set the captive free. There are weapons of warfare that Jesus died for, which can be used right now. Sadly, many have found themselves in church for years and yet not saved or walking in authority. They are not aware that they are not saved. Why? Because there is a belief that just sitting in a Jesus-centered church is enough to get them saved. The act of sitting on a chair does not make a person saved. Sometimes a Jesus-centered church is a once-a-week stop to cleanse guilt and check a box. Sometimes people truly don't know what God is for. It's not until life gets challenging that some even call out to God. Until that moment, they are not into praying, Bible reading, or holiness. They are just living life until life's challenges hit them. That is when they feel an urgency to be desperate for freedom from bondage. God wants His people to be walking with Him before life's emergencies happen. This is why a lifestyle of Jesus is needed. We must allow Jesus to come into our hearts and lives. When a person doesn't let Him into their lives, life is like being in the world. No change happens because that person did not let Jesus into their life to guide their daily lives. Today we will be discussing the following benefits of being a Sayer and a Doer of the Word. Trying to learn during emergencies, trauma, and emotions. Jesus put training into place for us to overcome this world and be prepared. Some of the life application benefits from having a lifestyle in Jesus Christ to keep you prepared and on the straight and narrow path to the Lord. To be like Jesus. Our assignment and what God has called us to, to set the captives free. So let's talk about trying to learn during emergency traumas and emotions. It's story time. In this story, everyone boards a plane to take off on their trip. The airline attendant reviews the instructions in case the plane crashes in water. While she is talking, people are on their phones. People are talking. Some try to get up while she is talking to do something. The airplane attendant kindly repeats that the instructions are listed in a brochure in the area in front of the seat as well. The flight goes well and then suddenly takes a turn into turbulence. The oxygen masks deploys from above. People begin to scream. The plane scrapes the water as it crashes. The emergency exit doors are open. Many people hurry to put on their mask and vest from under the seat. There were some people screaming, help me. I don't know what to do. How do I do this? How do I do that? Everyone was rushing because the time had come and water was flooding the plane. There was no time to even turn to see who knew what. There were seconds before the plane filled with water completely. This is an alarming story for some and for others it is not as alarming. Why? Because there are those who are prepared and those who are not prepared. The people who were not prepared were not ready. They were not ready for the plane to crash because they were not listening. Because a person chooses to listen, they are selecting what they feel is important to them. All the people on the plane were given the same opportunity to learn the instructions. The prepared people carefully listened and made sure they understood the instructions and were ready. The unprepared people called out at the last moment for someone to quickly show them the instructions while the plane was going down and filling with water. Sadly, there simply was not enough time to train people again while the plane filled with water. The story we just heard about the plane is what is happening to so many who are sitting in the Jesus-centered church today. There are those in the church who are listening, taking notes and applying what they have learned. They have attached a value to what Jesus died to bring them. They are the ones who are prepared. There are those who are not prepared, as in the story about the plane crash. The unprepared people seem to think that there was time to learn and to be taught again. How many of us will wait until we feel the flames of hell before we get right with God? Then it might be too late. Like the people on the plane, there might not be time for those in a car accident to repent and take Jesus as their Savior. Don't be unprepared. The reality of the truth is that tomorrow is not promised to anyone. James 4 verses 14 to 15. Yet do not know the least thing about what may happen tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? You are really but a wisp of a vapor, a puff of smoke, a mist that is visible for a little while and then disappears into thin air. You ought to instead to say, if the Lord is willing, we shall live and we shall do this or that thing. We must take advantage of what is offered to us during the time that we have. Hunger for the Lord like never before. Seek him while he still can be found. We can see that in the story about the airplane, time was not something that the unprepared people had. The unprepared also assumed that the teacher would have time while the plane was going down to teach the survival skills they needed again after they did not listen the first time. We can see in the story that there was no time to read a manual. We can see also that in a time of trauma, emergency and emotions, a person might not be able to grasp the fullness of what's expected of them. Let's look at Colossians 3 verse 23, whatever may be your task, work at it heartily from the soul as something done for the Lord and not for men. So this is just referring to when we are given instructions that we must work at the instructions of what we're being given, honor those instructions as if we're getting them from the Lord and we're working for the Lord. Be sayers and doers of the word, James 1 verse 22, but be doers of the word, obey the message and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves into deception by reasoning contrary to the truth. How does this apply to sitting and not learning in a Jesus centered church? When we become sayers and doers of God's word, we can apply the Lord's instructions to our lives. This is why it is so important to have a lifestyle in Christ. We go to church and never bring Jesus into our lives. We are living without Jesus in every part of our lives. He must be applied to every area of your life as Lord over all. What does this look like? You get up every day to pray. You ask God, what should I do today? What should I wear today? Who do I talk to today? Who should I pray for today? We want to be intentional to be in Christ, not just for a moment of prayer, but praying at all times in everything, seeking the Lord's guidance as a necessity. Psalms 27 verse 8, you have said, seek my face, inquire for and require my presence as your vital need. My heart says to you, your face, your presence, Lord, will I seek inquire for and require of necessity and on the authority of your word. So this is saying that they're not only seeking God's face and they're seeking it with necessity, but they're seeking it according to God's word. So we have to be in the word. We have to be seeking God's face and we have to be praying at all times. Let's look at first Thessalonians 5 verse 17 to 18. Be unceasing in prayer, praying perversely. Thank God in everything, no matter what the circumstance may be. Be thankful and give thanks for this is the will of God for you who are in Christ Jesus, the revealer and the mediator of that will. We must have ears to hear the instruction in the church so that we can be prepared in season and out. And that's second Timothy four verse two. Now let's look at Matthew 11 verse 15. He who has ears to hear, let him be listening and let him consider and perceive and comprehend by hearing. So this is talking about if you're sitting in the church, you want to be listening and comprehending and perceiving what is being said to you. You also want to go home and read that scripture and meditate on it so that the words are seeping into you and you're able to comprehend and have understanding. You can pray before you read the Bible and ask the Lord for understanding. There's an opportunity for each person going to a Jesus centered church to be a partaker of the inheritance Jesus left by considering and perceiving and comprehending by hearing because faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. When we do not take advantage of learning, following Jesus, being a disciple of Christ, we won't know what to do for life's emergencies. This is God's way of equipping you. If we do not apply, learn, pursue the training, it is us who will be unprepared. Just like the story about the plane, the unprepared won't know what to do in life's emergencies. Why? Because those unprepared did not take the time to pursue the Lord's teachings in church or in the Bible. We must work out our own salvation. Let's look at Philippians 2, verse 12 to 13, Jesus speaking. Therefore, my dear ones, as you have always obeyed my suggestions, so now not only with the enthusiasm you would show in my presence, but much more because I am absent, work out, cultivate, carry out to the goal and fully complete your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling, self distrust with serious caution, tenderness of conscious watchfulness against temptation, timidity, shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ, not in your own strength, for it is God who is all the while effectually at work in you, energizing and creating in you the power and desire both to will and to work for his good pleasure and satisfaction and delight. Jesus put together training in place for us to overcome this world and to be prepared. In the verse we just read, which is Philippians 2, verse 13, not in our own strength. God is going before us and he's preparing us. So let's look at the training that he's provided. Let's go to Ephesians 4, verse 11 to 15, the gifts of Jesus and his gifts were varied. He himself appointed and gave men to us, some to be apostles, special messengers, some prophets, inspired preachers and expounders, some evangelists, preachers of the gospel, traveling missionaries, some pastors, shepherds of his flock and teachers. His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints, which that's us, consecrated people, that they should do the work of ministering toward building up Christ's body, the church, verse 13, that it might develop until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the full accurate knowledge of the son of God, that we might arrive at really mature manhood, the completeness of personality, which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ's own perfection, the measure of the statute of fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in him. Let's look at Ephesians 4, verse 14 to 15, which is just a continuation of the same verses that I had mentioned. So then we may no longer be children tossed like ships to and from between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, the prey of the cunning and the cleverness of unscrupulous men, gamblers engaged in every shifting form of trickery, inventing errors to mislead. Verse 15, rather, let our lives lovingly express truth in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly, enfolded in love. Let us grow in every way and in all things into him who is the head, even Christ the Messiah, the anointed one. While we're going through this process and God has given us these gifts, we need to apply these gifts to our lives. And that's what helps us to go from just sitting in a church to having life application and doing life with Jesus and having a relationship with Jesus, because this is the important part, because we don't want Jesus to say, I knew you not. Some of the benefits of life application of having a lifestyle in Christ to keep you prepared on the straight and narrow path towards the Lord. Bible reading to renew your mind. Romans 12, verse two, do not be conformed to this world, this age fashioned after and adapted to its external superficial customs, but be transformed, changed by the entire renewal of your mind, by its new ideas and its new attitude so that you may prove for yourselves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect in his sight for you. So Bible reading is going to help you to renew your mind. You're going to learn who the Lord is. You're going to learn what he's done for you. You're going to learn his role in your life. And while you're doing that, he's going to give you lots of benefits that are supernatural, but you have to remain in him. Let's look at the benefit of authority in the Lord. Let's go to Luke 10, verse 19. Behold, I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions and physical and mental strength and ability over all the power that the enemy possesses, and nothing shall in any way harm you. Let's look at 1 John 4, verse 4. Little children, you are of God. You belong to him and have already defeated and overcome them, the agents of the antichrist, because he who lives in you is greater, mightier than he who is in the world. So we're learning who we are in Christ when we read the Bible. And when we're praying, when we know our identity, then we know how to navigate through this life. And when we're in emergencies, we know who we are in Christ and we can use our authority. Let's look some more at identity. 1 Peter 2, verse 9. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, God's own purchase, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So these are just some of the benefits. As you begin to read the Bible, you'll be able to navigate in God's kingdom, which is the spiritual kingdom. So let's start looking at the purpose of what all of this means so that we have understanding and we're not just getting up from our seat thinking, if I get up and I walk around, now I'll be in the Lord. Again, go through everything that we said, be sayers and doers of the word and carefully look at the scriptures that I'm giving you. We want to be like Jesus. 1 John 4, verse 17. In this union, the communion with him, love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us. That we may have confidence for the day of judgment with assurance and boldness to face him because as he is, so are we in this world. So let me repeat that again. As he is, so are we in this world. So as Jesus is, so are we. That's how we're supposed to be in this world. Let's look at how Jesus was in this world. An example of how Jesus was. Let's go and look at Acts 10, verse 38, how God anointed and consecrated Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with strength and ability and power. How he went about doing good and in particular curing all who were harassed and oppressed by the power of the devil for God was with him. So let's look at the benefit of prayer. Let's go to Philippians 4, verse 6. Do not fret or have anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance, in everything by prayer and petition, definite requests with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God and God's peace shall be yours. That tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is that peace, which transcends all understanding shall garrison and Mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 9, verse 8. Jesus desired for the equipping of the saints to reach the ends of the earth through making disciples. Let's go to Matthew 28, verse 18 to 20. Jesus approached and breaking the silence said to them, all authority, all power of rule in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you all the days, perpetually, uniformly, and on every occasion to the very close and consummation of the age. Let's understand our assignment and what God has called all of us to, which is to set the captives free. Let's look at Isaiah 61. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed and qualified me to preach the gospel of good tidings to the meek, the poor and afflicted. He has sent me to bind up and heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the physical, spiritual captives and the opening of the prison and of the eye to those who are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant consolation and joy to those who mourn in Zion, to give them an ornament, a garland or diadem of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment expressive of praise instead of heavy burden and failing spirit, that they may be called oaks of righteousness, lofty, strong, and magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice, and right standing with God, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. Amen. God, we just thank you that in all we do, you may be glorified. Lord, may hearts be changed. May destinies be changed for your glory in Jesus name. Amen.