Just As You Were Christian...

The last couple of times i taught we talked about how to be saved.


- Salvation
to believe Jesus is the Son of God,Crucified, and rose again. But even the devils do this.

-Repentance
The cost of sin is death,how it can be addicting, How a little sincan take you farther than you want to go,and keep you longer than you want to stay.

I talked about how the devil can't take away our salvation but he can get us to give it up by starting with these little sins.

Tonight I want to talk to you about how to live after were saved.
I'm sure we've all heard the song"Just as I am." The theme of the song is that we need to come to Jesus just as we are. We dont need to clean up our lives for Jesus to be able to save us, He will help us with that after we are saved. This is a great song and a very true song. This is a hang-up with a lot of people. They think that they need to clean up thier lives before they can be saved. But God will help us clean up once we are saved. There's more to the story than this...

Once we get saved we do need to clean up our lives. There has to be a change. Even a good moral person has to change to be a Christian. Our attitude about life,the way we treat others needs to change, Our prioroties need to change.

Alot of people believe that once they are saved they can do whatever they want to do with the rest of their lives and they will still go to heaven. They believe this because there are churches out there that will tell them this.
There are churches that wont preach against sin because it will hurt their attendance...(preach it honey!)

But, as we will see, The Bible is clear that you have to live Christ-like once saved.

(Romans 6:1-2,11-15)
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? ² Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If the world loves you, then your not living close enough to God.We shouldn't feel comfortable around sin.

(John 15:18-19)
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

(James 3:1-13)
Our tongue is hard to control. Can be our attitude,temper,cursings,gossip...etc
We need to control our tongues not to sin.

(Matt. 7:16-21)
A good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit.

Maybe your at church every sunday and here every wednesday, but on the outside you feel like you have to compromise to fit in.
Is this Good Fruit?
Is tis Bad Fruit?
"A Good tree cannot bring forth Bad fruit."
So, based on that, if this is you, you need to re-examine your life. Maybe your not a "good tree".

Maybe your temper is short and you fly off the handle about every little thing. You need to control your temper. The Bible says..."be slow to anger."

Maybe it's your attitude towards authority..(boss,teachers,parents,elders), unless they want you to do something against God's Word.

I'm not talking about a slip-up here and there. I'm taking about not sincerely trying to be a good christian. I'm talking about trying to put God 1st on sunday and you 1st the rest of the week. You cannot serve 2 Masters.

I may have come across as a little harsh in this lesson. But let me assure you that I'm not trying to be mean. This is serious stuff were dealing with. Were talking Eternity in heaven or Hell. This is a Life or Death descision.
The best descision you will ever make is to accept Jesus as your personal Savior. But it doesnt stop there, the Bible is crystal clear that you have to keep sin out of your life.

Someome may tell you that I'm being old fashioned, that this world has changed and that you can live your life how you want to and still make it to heaven. But I have showed you through scripture how false that is.. You must strive for perfection, we must put Christ 1st in our lives...Its what it All boils down to, If we love God most, we'll live like he wants us to.

I need to live better too, we all have room for improvement. But when we do sin, we have an advocate to the Father through Jesus Christ. All we have to do is repent(and true repentance is to admit we are sorry for our actions)

I want to leave you with one final thought...
When Jesus was on the cross, He literally took our sin upon himself. God had to turn his back on his Son because of this sin. If God rejected his own Son because of sin, what makes you think he will overlook your sin and not reject you on Judgement Day?

Good things happen to Bad people...

Good things happen to Bad people, but it changes when they die.

(John 9:4)
I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.

Does our christian living reflect a "just as you were christian lifestyle"
Does it give us a license to sin? No
We will give an account of how we spent our time and resources to God.

(Matt 10:27)
“Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.
We need to know our shepherd's voice and be close enough to hear.

(John 15:11)
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

(Romans 6:1-2)
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? ² Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Lets remember our Christian benefits...

Peace in times of Joy? How do you know if a person is a friend? They are with you when you need something, They are there in times of trouble. These are the times we experience peace. The best blessings happen from victory over trials....We need trials...

Lions Den or Den of Lions

Daniel 6:1-16
- A few things to point out

1) Verse 3 he noticed his excellent spirit. He noticed that something was different about him.
2) People were jealous of what he had that they could not get. So they sought out to get him.

Now to the lesson:
a) (verse 16)- cast him into the "den of lions"
b) Serving God will get you cast into a "den of lions" every now and then. But there is a reason for it:

- It will stregthen you
- To witness to someone else

John 6:1-12

God will allow us to go through certain trials and tests to prove us. These are the "den of lions" tests.
Daniel could have said, "I wont do it again", I'll only worship you, My King."
But then he would have failed the test and wouldn't have been a great witness to these people.
But in doing what he did, he proved his faithfulness in God and was a great witness to all these people.

- Look at Shadrach,Meshach, and Abednego.
- Paul was able to be happy in prison because he was doing what God wanted him to do.

Then we have the martyrs- realizing that even unto death, it is worth it to serve Christ. The martyrs killed for preaching about Jesus. To keep their life, all they had to do was stop preaching. But they realized that God had a purpose for them and it was worth it for them to fufill their purpose even if it took them giving their life to get it done.

You can be a great witness for God when he places you in a "den of lions". Just keep hold of your faith and realize that there is a reason for it. Maybe to strengthen you, maybe to be a witness for someone else.

You cannot be a witness for Christ in a lions den. Did you expect to find a rabbit in there? Of course you got eaten by the lion!

Should someone that's been an alcoholic for 50 years, then became a christian last month, go to a bar with his old crew? That's walking right into temptation with people that are most likely going to try to get you to drink.

Now lets soppose this same man goes to dinner with a few friends and a couple of them have a beer with dinner. Yes, he may be tempted, but this is a scenerio where he is better equipt to fight the temptation and pass the test.

Are you putting yourself into a situation where your most likely to lie?

The point that i want to make with this is that we will have troubles and trials in this life. Christian or sinner, we will all have troubles. But we, especially we as Christians, should do our very best to stay out of 
'lions dens."

You may make it into and out of a few "lions dens" without seeing the lion, but if you go into enough "lions dens" you will get eaten.