A Sermon from the Badlands and the Prairie of Western South Dakota

Cute little 'live' shooting targets -just like at the fair,
although these little critters don't pop back up when you hit them!

www.scatteredchristians.org

M Paulson

May 23 , 2010
Audio sermon
Video sermon

How do those people 'really' look at us?

• See what the 'crowd' thought of Jesus Christ Himself - why would you think you are any different?
• John 7:12 -
• You really think 'you' can bring folks to the Lord by going back?
• Remember Acts 2:47 - having favour with the people?
• The design for the church today is a place for feeding for the Christians - see Paul - the local church is not designed for lost people - although it seems that most churches today are redesigning their programs, etc. to 'win the lost' and starve the ones already 'born' - as they put it.

So, for those of us who are amongst the 'crowd' - allow me to ask you these:

1.  Does your spirit get stirred with what / whom you see / hear?

• Acts 17:16 -
• We see in Acts 13:50; 14:2; 17:13; 21:27 that is the crowd that gets stirred, not us.
• They may be friendly, etc. but just like when Jesus was in the crowd 'secretly,' the folks thought he was a deceiver.
• They know who we are - they know we still 'go to that church' - believe that ONE Bible teaching - don't like their music - etc. etc. (Well, if you have made any attempt at a solid testimony, anyway).
• They know you don't dress like them - you don't behave like them.
• They don't trust you still!
• We make no ground when we return, we are only showing them we really don't believe what we preach!
• We are only going back for the fun ourselves!

• Acts 18:5 -
• Why are we so willing to participate more and more in the works of darkness?
• Why are we so willing to NOT avoid, withdraw, etc. and actually HAVE company with those we are told NOT to have company with?

But do WE care about those folks - or are we just returning 'for our own sake.'

I know - we get tired of people being stirred because of what we believe and try to live... so instead, we turn to a life that won't stir the others - but in the meantime, we lose our stirring for them.  Before you know it - and most still don't even know it, but we just return to our ways of the past.

Does any of this stir us at all anymore?

• The music?
• Our relatives?
• The people with false bibles, etc.?
• The religious 'church' folks?
• The blindness in others?
• Kids - our own as well as the ones around our kids?
• Other people's actions and testimonies?
• Do you care about your own testimony anymore?
• act / behave?
• look / personal appearance?
• approve or not of what you around?

• Do you just ignore it all and have fun?
• Do you block it out?
• Do you think the world's ways are 'clean'?
• Do you mind being around the immodesty and lack of shamefacedness?
• Do you mind all the sexual innuendoes in the tv programs, ads, community, etc.?
• Do you see the flintiness?
• Do you note the temptation for yourself?
• Have you lost your shamefacedness?
• Have you ever had shamefacedness?
• Are you afraid?
• Are you ashamed?
• Ashamed of what?
• Have you fallen for the Acts 2:47 application for today?
• Is your 'return' working?
• Are folks coming to you now?
• Are folks coming to your church now?
• Are they Bible believers now?
• Did they get a KJB from you?
• Are their kids ok for your kids to be around?
• Is God please with you when you KNOW you are not following Paul's manner of life as commanded by the Risen Saviour?

Turn to Galatians 5:2-17

• verse 2 - Looking to the KJB when it says 'Christ' - we see that following the 'wrong' gospel today would give one no profit
• no power
• no peace
• no prayer results
• no proper pastor / preacher
• the wrong path
• the wrong pattern for their manner of life
• be using a false bible, looking to greek, etc.
• partaking with a perverse people
• following personal pleasures instead of God
• seeking their own praises and self- proclaimed 'perfectness'
• proclaiming a false gospel to others
• following profane and vain babblings
• claiming false promises
• seeking financial prosperity & gain to prove godliness
• be prideful
• not be able to prove any doctrine authoritatively
• would not be prudent towards any evil coming their way
• a false belief as they would not believe the KJB as pure and that which is perfect!
• verse 3
• Ok, if you are going to follow the Gospel 'law' then be sure to follow it all.
• Read ALL of Matthew 5-7 - don't skip ANY of it!
• Take note especially of the following:
• 5:9,10, 18, 19, 20, 22,25, 29, 30,33-40, 44-45, 48; 6:7, 15, 17,18, 22-23, 24-25; 7:6, 13 etc.
• Don't just stop with those verses - read and honor and obey them all!
• Verse 4
• The KJB will become of no effect unto you if you don't rightly divide, etc.
• verses 7-11 - Who did / does hinder you today?
• verse 17 - ... so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
• See Romans 7:15-25
• verse 9 - all because of a 'little leaven' at the beginning!
• Verse 7 - Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
• Verse 10 - I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.

A leavening agent (also leavening or leaven) is any one of a number of substances used in dough and batters that cause a foaming action which lightens and softens the finished product. The leavening agent incorporates gas bubbles into the dough - this may be air incorporated by mechanical means, but usually it is carbon dioxide produced by biological agents, or by chemical agents reacting with moisture, heat, acidity, or other triggers. When a dough or batter is mixed, the starch in the flour mixes with the water in the dough to form a matrix (often supported further by proteins like gluten or other polysaccharides like pentosans or xanthan gum), then gelatinizes and "sets"; the holes left by the gas bubbles remain.

Apply this definition to Christians today.  FLUFFY Christians that have had the gas of this world blown into them thus making them lighter and lighter - fluffier and fluffier, etc.  They look better than they really are, too - the gas of this world works just like leaven in our lives.

Here are some verses that warn us that we can be leavened little by little and not not even be aware of the process taking place - and before you know it, you are just another fluffy Christian willing to be out in the world.  You will be able to justify it any way you can... and you will just look so good... etc.

• Seducing Spirits
• I Timothy 4:1 - Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
• Bewitched
• Galatians 3:1 - O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
• Ministers of Righteousness
• II Corinthians 11:15 - Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
• Angel of Light
• II Corinthians 11:14 - And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
• Flattering Words
• I Thessalonians 2:5 - For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness:
• Proverbs 26:28 - A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin.
• Job 17:5 - He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
• Good Words and Fair Speeches
• Romans 16:18 - For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
• Worldly Wisdom
• I Corinthians 1:21 - For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
• Psychology, etc.
• Colossians 2:8 - Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
• Evil Communications Corrupt
• I Corinthians 15:23 - But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
• Pride
• I Corinthians 14:37 - If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
• II Corinthians 3:5 - Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
• Romans 12:3 - For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
• Galatians 6:3 - For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
• Vain words
• Ephesians 5:6,7 -Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
• Titus 1:10 - For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:
• Evil men and seducers
• II Timothy 3:13 - But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
• Don't see the falling away
• II Thessalonians 2:1-3 - Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
• Not solid on doctrine
• Ephesians 4:14 - That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
• Satan Himself
• Revelation 12:9 - And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
• Revelation 13:14 - And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

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Mike Paulson
Trying to do the work of an evangelist by teaching Paul's gospel of the Risen Saviour!
www.scatteredchristians.org

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The entire King James Bible is written FOR us, but it is not all written TO us!
We learn from the "For" and we learn to apply the 'TO!"