In Christ's own words

Carrying our cross and repentance are things that Christ calls all Christians to do. You don't speak a few words and you on your way to heaven. We are to have a daily walk with God. 

email: RuggedTruthGodsWord@gmail.com

God has a super huge plan. We all have to do our part as He assigns to us. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, brothers and sisters in the Lord, and hopeful people gonna be joining the family soon, come to salvation, have your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I know that's just a bunch of words to somebody that doesn't know the Lord, but that's eternal life, is exactly what that is. And everybody has to deal with the idea of either eternal life or eternal death. And if you don't deal with it, you're choosing eternal death. Christ gave us a few uh instructions while he was here, and one of them is in Luke chapter 9, verse 23, and he says we must deny ourselves and take up our cross daily. I've heard so many preachers say, oh, we can't do anything for ourselves, we can't do this, we can't do, we don't have to do anything, all we do is speak the words. No, we don't just speak the words. You know, and believing is not that either. In the book of James, uh, chapter 2, verse 19, it says, even the demons believe. Taking up our cross just means moment by moment by moment living for Christ. We share our faith as often as we can. It just means telling people what Christ has done for us to help us. Each one of us has had things that we've done in the past and we're not proud of. Everybody has. But God has thrown it out when you ask Him for forgiveness in the name of Jesus. In Hebrews 8 verse 12, it says God will remember our sins no more. He'll forgive us and remember them no more. Humans can't uh we can forgive through the Lord, but we don't forget. God is able to even forget our past iniquities when we're covered with the the blood, the blood of his son Christ. And another thing that call that Christ calls his followers to do is repent. That just means changing your mind, changing your heart about what you're wanting to do. You get away from the sinful stuff, you don't want to do it anymore. We stumble sometimes. That's what forgiveness is for. It's a continual forgiveness Christ gives us. In Luke 5.32, Christ calls us to repentance. And repentance is for ourselves, but carrying our cross is for others also. We uh part of carrying our own cross, everybody has to carry their own cross. Just like Christ carried his cross, we carry our cross, we carry it through life. And part of that is when we testify and we witness to people, it's no big thing. We're just telling a story of what Christ has done for us. The main job that Christians are to do is to tell people that they're on the way to hell. In so many words, uh, you don't just blast it right in their face, but you tell them that they're on a bad path in a loving way. You convince them, you show them in the word. For everybody that's ever been born is on the path to hell. Everybody. There was only one person that wasn't, that was Christ, and he was murdered because Satan couldn't have perfection in the world, that's for sure. And in Colossians uh chapter 4, verses 5 and 6, we've got to uh watch how we conduct ourselves uh toward outsiders, toward the non-believers. The way we speak, the way we act, it's all part of carrying our cross. We present our witness and they watch us closely, whether we realize it or not, but in our very actions is a good witness, and there are a lot of people that come to know the Lord just by the way Christians conduct themselves in normal life, from work and everywhere, and out in the yard, uh associating with neighbors, uh dealing with people on the streets. God is not a big, ugly, mean guy that just wants to judge everybody. He doesn't want to judge anybody, but we're causing it to come down on our own heads by not accepting the gift that he's offered in the blood of his son being shed. It's a gift for everyone. He doesn't want to judge anyone, but unless we follow Christ, and that's through repent repentance, asking for forgiveness, and walking with him daily. Daily, moment by moment, and keeping the open line of communication with him, like it we're instructed in uh 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, pray continually. Just this means keeping an open line of communication. It'll keep you out of a lot of trouble that way too. But God will direct you if you just want to keep an open line with him, he'll be more than happy to do that with you. And God is able to do this. We can't even wrap our minds around all of that because we can hardly carry on one conversation at a time. But God, He, this is God, the creator of everything. He can, and He's willing to talk to everyone. If everybody talked at the same time, He'd be all right with that. He wouldn't be confused or nothing, believe it. But it's very important to know, and look up what I'm saying in the Bible for yourself, but to know that it's not just a few words you say, because that would be like uh there are a lot of churches that uh they'll put the word out there, but they don't have any good follow-up. They don't help people grow in their faith. They they tell them how to get saved, and it's just like the uh the parable of the sower when he goes out to sow in Matthew 13, 3 to 9, when some of the seed fell on rocky places, like it says in uh Matthew 13 and 5, and it sprang up quickly. That's like people get all excited, oh yeah, and they got big tears going on. But unless you grow that faith, it's going to be gobbled up by Satan, and there is no salvation there. The Lord Himself says it. It's not a one-time just speak a few words, oh, I got a broken heart, oh, I'm so sorry. Uh, people in court, when they get caught, uh, they have a broken heart, and well, at least they show they have a broken heart, but you have to continually follow Christ. It's a daily situation. You start it in the morning and you go to sleep with it on your mind. You read in the morning, you read in the evening, and you concentrate on the Lord. You just keep your mind pure by keeping your open line of communication with God. And part of carrying our cross is being of a forgiving nature, being quick to forgive. That's really hard to do. It really is. We have to pray over that, and sometimes people do big bad things to us, and we have to forgive. Christ tells us that we have to forgive to be forgiven. And in Matthew 6 verse 14, it says that we have to forgive others for the Father to forgive us. That's a verse that's skipped over quite a lot, but the Lord Himself said this. It's very hard to do. Very, very hard to do, especially if it's something really nasty or terrible that's been done to us. But we go to God and we say, God, I can't forgive them. But then He'll let you know that you have to forgive them. And He'll work with you. And then you just have to start saying it to yourself, whether you mean it or not, and just start saying, I forgive you, and say their name, I forgive you. I forgive you. It's going to be in an angry way at first, but you just keep saying it. I forgive you. I forgive you. And just keep saying it. And the Lord will work with this, He will He will help you with this, and He will soften you in this toward that person. I've had this myself. It's been very difficult for some of the things that happened in my childhood. I didn't know it was still there, but I was so angry, and the Lord showed me, and I had to just forgive. Now it doesn't mean you have to go trust in the people or even liking them. You but you have to forgive them. Forgiveness is like a uh unforgiveness, I'll say, is like carrying battery acid in yourself, and you just splash it all over everything inside of you, it'll eat you up. And that is part of carrying our own cross is forgiveness. Forgiveness is some real good medicine, brothers and sisters, real good medicine. You'll find if you can forgive, it will start healing you, and you'll start feeling better about the situation. It's not a perfect, we're in a fallen world and terrible things happen. But we have to be careful because that forgiveness, it will it will splash around like battery acid, and it'll numb us even. We'll say, I'm not, I'm not being angry, I'm not, but you are. And we have to look inside ourselves. And sometimes it's a real bad situation that you've had to deal with, and it's it would be considered by the world to be unforgivable. Well, we have to. I've read through the gospels, you know, not just John. John was the first book I got started in, but I went back through and I've read the gospels and some just read them and you'll see what Christ is saying. Don't take people's word for it, don't even take my word for it. Look it up for yourself, brothers and sisters. You'll see that I'm not lying here. Christ says we have to repent and take up our cross and follow Him daily. Don't believe it when people tell you, oh, you don't have to do anything. All you have to do is say this and then just and mean it and you're good. No, you can mean it, but it's not what Christ said. Listen to Christ over man, listen to Christ over me. Sometimes I get sideways and I don't mean to, but listen to Christ. Read the gospels for yourself and see what it says. It is a peaceful life, brothers and sisters. When you turn yourself over to Christ, it is a peaceful life. All the turbulence going around, acting things acting crazy and all this, the world falling apart. Just close your eyes. And or if you're driving, don't close your eyes. Just talk to the Lord. Say, Lord, you've got my back. I'm yours. And even praise him. Just do little praises like what I like to do when I can't think of anything. Things are real hectic. I just start saying, You are wonderful, Lord. You are precious. You are the Almighty. You are worthy of all praise. Something to that effect. And I tell you what, you start getting uplifted, brothers and sisters. And I think that's part of our carrying our cross also. Praising the Lord. Okay, brothers and sisters. I could keep talking about this, but I'm going to get off of here for now. People like having short things to listen to. So this is Brother Rick, and I pray the good Lord face, his face shine down upon you. I pray he forgives you of your sins. And until next time, I love you in the name of Jesus Christ.