How To Lose While Trying To Win

I enjoy winning. If I lose a game I feel deflated, as if I have wasted some of my time on actually playing the game. It’s not about having fun or spending time with friends and family, I want to win. Of course, I am partially joking, but we all would admit that winning is better than losing. That is why, as a Christian and as a pastor I want to win. Too often I see Christians who are trying hard to experience personal victories but never will because they are going about it the wrong way. I’ve listed three things here that will keep you from experiencing personal victories every single time.

Anger

James 1:20, “For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”

Nothing spiritual has ever been accomplished out of an angry heart. Yet I see pastors motivate out of anger and I see Christians who walk into church with anger in their hearts. Some Christians try to make their angry disposition sound spiritual by saying that they have righteous indignation, but they do not fool God and they mostly do not fool other people, they are just angry. God will not use an angry Christian. And if you think you will experience spiritual victories while harboring anger in your heart, you are in for a disappointment.

Faithlessness

Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him…”

There is no room for doubt in the Christian life. God wants you to have faith in him. I think one of the biggest lies given to Christians today is that all you need is a little faith and God can do great things. That is not what Jesus was saying when he talked about the mustard seed. He said he can use a little faith, not that we can have just a little faith. What’s the difference? Let me ask you this: That mustard seed that produced a mighty tree, was it half a seed, a small part of a seed, or a full seed? Obviously, it had to be a full seed. I am not going to plant my garden and cut my seeds into tiny pieces before planting them, nothing would happen. The same is true with your faith, do not give a small chunk of your faith to God, completely trust Him. Yes, all of your faith is still very little faith (just a little faith…), but God does not want some of it, God wants all of it. Why are Christians not experiencing spiritual victories? Because they do not fully trust God. 

Distractions and Sin

Hebrews 12:1, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us”

It saddens me how many people try to live the successful Christian life while still holding on to sin. You cannot have it both ways, a college professor used to always say to my class, “There are only two choices on the shelf, pleasing God and pleasing self!” You cannot hold on to sin and be a victorious Christian. Along those lines, you cannot have distractions and be a victorious Christian. Notice that the verse differentiates between weights and sins. This is telling me that there are some things in life that are not necessarily sin but slow me down in my spiritual race. Let me ask you, what is slowing you down in your walk with God? What is decreasing your fervency? Get rid of it!

Pride

James 4:6, “…God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”

Possibly the biggest problem that Christians face is pride. Pride comes naturally to us because we are naturally sinful people. But we see that God resists the proud. What does that mean? It actually means that he is actively opposing the proud, not passively, actively. To give you an idea of this, my son loves playing outside and he loves getting dirty while doing so. I have had trouble lately getting him inside to take a bath. He will kick and cry, he will fight me so that he can stay inside and play some more. What is he doing? He is resisting me. The big difference between my son and God though, is that God has the power to resist me. I can punish my son and put him in time out for his resistance, but I certainly cannot do that to God. Let me ask you, do you want God actively working on your behalf (he giveth grace to the humble) or do you want him actively working against you? The answer should be obvious. Yet many Christians find themselves trying to live the Christian life and constantly running into a brick wall because God is resisting their heart of pride.

Those are a few things that hinder our walk with God and stop us from being victorious. Can you think of any more? Tell me in the comments!

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My Three Favorite Verses On Eternal Security

There is a false teaching that is spreading all over Christian churches today that has created great destruction in people’s walk with God, and that is the false teaching that one can lost their salvation. Preachers all across America are telling their churches that if you sin after you get saved then you have to confess in order to continue to be saved. This belief yields itself to a lack of certainty in the Christian life. As I read my Bible, I see that God wants me to have certainty in my beliefs and in my future. 1st John 5:13 says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” That passage tells me that God wants me to be certain about my eternity. In this post, I would like to highlight three different passages in the Bible that show me that I am eternal secure in my salvation

Ephesians 4:30, “…sealed unto the day of redemption.”

This may be my favorite Bible verse on the matter of eternal security. This passage tells us that we are sealed unto the day of redemption. The “day of redemption” being referred to in this verse is the day that the transaction of our salvation is completed, and that is the day we arrive in Heaven to be with the Lord. So we are sealed until the day we are in Heaven with Jesus. But what does “sealed” mean. This is where the truth gets amazing! To be sealed means to be marked for ownership or to be held securely. When you accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you put yourself under the ownership of God, and the fact that we are sealed means that nothing will change that until the day of our redemption. There was a practical illustration of this in Bible days, that Paul may have been alluding to: When lumber was being sent from one place to another the person who owned the wood to sell would put his mark (or seal) on it, this mark would indicate that it was his. The only time the seal could be taken off of the shipment of wood would be when it arrived to the person to whom it was being sold to. Do you see the simple truth here? When I got saved, I was sealed. That seal can only come off once I reach Heaven, because that is my final destination. You would get upset if you had a loved one who tried to mail a package to you but instead of it getting to you, instead it went to the mean neighbor across the street. The same is true here, you have a specific destination that God had you starting toward once you got saved. It can’t be Hell, it certainly is Heaven. Do not forget that you are sealed.

John 10:29, “…no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”

We often use this group of verses as proof of the deity of Christ, and of course, this is a go-to passage for that. It is spelled out plain and simple. But this is also a passage about eternal security. First, let’s identify the “them” in this passage. Several verses previous to this, Jesus is referring to his “sheep”, when he says, “My sheep hear my voice…” The “them” in this verse is the sheep. Who are the sheep? Those that believe on Jesus, in other words, those that are saved. That makes me a sheep! Pretty cool. This also makes sense because of what we saw from Ephesians 4:30, we belong to God once we are saved. All of that being said, this verse tells me that since I am saved, I have been placed in the hand of God and no man is able to pluck me out of the Father’s hand. There is not a single person in this world that can make you “unsaved”. Let me ask you something: Are you a person? I’m sure the answer is “yes”. If you are a person, than you are a part of this “no man” category that this verse refers to. You cannot do anything to be taken out of the hand of God once you are saved.

I like to explain it this way. What if I were to go out today and commit a heinous crime, let’s say that I killed someone (remember, this is just an illustration, I have never actually killed anyone). After I commit the crime I call my dad and tell him what I did. Now, would my dad be happy with me? No way! He would be incredibly disappointed in me. But would I still be his son? Of course I would. Ultimately, nothing could change the fact that I am my father’s son. I have his DNA inside of me, his blood runs through my veins. It doesn’t matter what happens in life, I will forever be the son of my father. When you got saved, you became a child of God, Jesus’ blood covers you and accounts for you. You are securely held in the Father’s hand, and no one, not even you, can change that. You cannot be plucked.

1st John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

This truth is very simple. When you got saved, you were cleansed from all unrighteousness. Does the verse say, “All past unrighteousnesses”? No! It says “all”. I once heard a preachers say, “all means all and that is all that all means”! Very true statement. When I asked Jesus to save me, he cleansed me from all unrighteousness past, present, and future. After all, future unrighteousnesses are a part of “all”, aren’t they? You may ask, “How can that be?” But let me rebuttal with a question of my own, “How can it not be?” How long ago did Jesus die on that old rugged cross? It almost 2000 years ago. I do not know a single person on this planet who has lived for 2000 years, that means this, every sin that you ever committed was committed in the future for Jesus. Your past sins were committed in the cross’s future. Remember, God transcends both time and space, therefore, he is able to cleanse us of our sins, even before they are committed. When I came to Jesus and confessed my sin to Him and believed that he would save me from them, not only did he save me from my past, but also from my future. The Bible calls those of us that are saved “justified”. Justified means to be “declared righteous”. When I got saved, I was declared righteous before God, that is what makes it possible for me to go to Heaven. But how can I be declared righteous? It isn’t because of anything I did, it is because Jesus cleansed me from my unrighteousnesses. I can only be righteous by not being unrighteous, and that is what Jesus did for me when he saved me, took away my unrighteousnesses.

Ultimately, you need to understand the essence of salvation. Salvation has nothing to do with you but it has everything to do with Jesus. Salvation is not dependent on your goodness or the thing that you do, it is dependent on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. If I can be saved by the grace of God, but then lose my salvation because of bad works, then ultimately Jesus’ death was in vain (Galatians 2:21). You are not saved by grace and then kept by works, that doesn’t make any sense (Romans 3:28, Galatians 3:1-5) Salvation is either all about Jesus and his saving grace or it isn’t really salvation at all. And that is enough for me to believe that what God promises he will do, that he will do. The Gospel is simple, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”, let’s not add man’s doctrine because we think God’s plan is to simple. I am saved by grace, through faith, and not by works. In just the same way, I am kept saved, I am eternally secure because of the grace of God.

If you have any topics for me to write about in "My Three Favorite" series, let me know in the comments!

Curtis King is the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Hartwell, GA

3 Major Problems With Modern, American Christians

I am so thankful that God had me to be born in the United States of America. I will not say that the USA is not without its flaws, because there are many, but I can still say that, for the most part, the USA is a good nation. I have life, liberty, and I can pursue happiness in a way that is not common in many other places in the world. I am also thankful to be a Christian. I praise the Lord every day that he, in mercy and grace, came down to this world to die on a cross in order to save a wretched sinner like me.  Being an American and being a Christian are two of the most important aspects of my life, but unfortunately, when blended together, it produces something that I am not proud of: being a modern, American Christian.

It doesn’t take a incredibly insightful person to see that an overwhelming majority of Christians in the United States are heading the wrong way. And as I look over the spiritual landscape of the churches and Christians in our country I see three major problems:

A Lack of Biblical Understanding

I have found that there is a severe lack of Biblical understanding in the churches across our nation. People do not know their Bibles. Unfortunately, we do our best to teach our children to memorize Bible verses and learn Biblical principles at a very young age through programs such as Awana, Masters Club, Kings Kids, etc. But we neglect to learn more about the Bible as adults. It is unfortunate that I can ask the average person who has been saved for 30 years or more to show me from the Bible proof of the deity of Christ, and most will not be able to show me, they wouldn’t really know where to start. A lack of Biblical understanding produces weak Christians. And it is because of weak Christians that false doctrines such as Calvinism, the Prosperity Gospel, relativism, and liberal textual criticism have found a foothold. It is very easy to swallow false doctrine when you don’t know true Biblical doctrine. I believe that there are two main reasons why there is a lack of Biblical understanding in our modern, American churches. First, there is a lack of personal Bible reading. Bible reading may be one of the most neglected parts of the Christian life. Many do not read their Bible regularly and those that do read it regularly often read very little. Let me ask you: how are you supposed to understand the Bible if you never read it? The second reason, there is a lack of solid Biblical preaching. Understand today, I am not saying that every pastor is guilty of this. I know many pastors who are very thorough in their preaching of the Bible and do their best to feed their flocks. But I have seen, time and time again, preachers who are more concerned with being sensational than being doctrinal, or producing emotion instead of producing conviction, or tickling ears instead of breaking hearts. Too many preachers fear to get in their pulpits and preach “Thus saith the Lord” because it may mean ruffling a few feathers. If you are in a church like that, you need to leave at once and never look back. Find a solid, Bible preaching church. There is a lack of Biblical understanding among modern, American Christians because of a lack of personal Bible reading and a lack of Bible preaching.

2nd Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

A Lack of Godly Service

When I was a child, there was a lady in our church who sang this one song once every year or so. The title of the song was, “My House is Full, But My Field is Empty”. That song has stuck with me all throughout my childhood and into my adult life. It is a shame that the message of this song is very true. I firmly believe that God has given each Christian the capacity to serve Him in some way. It doesn’t matter how old, young, rich or poor, God has called us to serve. When I used to teach children’s church I would tell the kids that they cannot be too young to be a soul winner. I brought my first soul to Christ when I was just 7 years old. I wasn’t a theological scholar, I wasn’t a “super Christian”, I was just a little boy who loved Jesus and wanted to see my classmate go to Heaven. If 7 year old Curtis King can do it, then you can do it. It is a shame though, that across America on Sunday morning there are a lot of full churches, but then on Monday through Saturday there are no Christians to be seen! No one is being a witness for Christ, no one wants to pick up people and drive them to church, no one wants to go the extra mile and actually DO something for Jesus. Yes, the house is full on Sunday but the field is very, very empty the rest of the week. I think what may be the problem is how Christians perceive the Christian life. I know, I have seen with my own eyes, Christians who treat going to church on Sunday morning as if it is their duty as a Christian. They treat Sunday as if it is their “Christian day” but then every other day of the week is a “normal person day”. Let me tell you something, Jesus does not want you to just be a Christian at church on Sunday. Jesus wants you to be a Christian all the time, no matter the day, time, or situation.

I fear that most Christians do not see the need to serve the Lord. I heard a statement once that says that 10 percent of the people in a church end up doing 90 percent of the work. I cannot disagree with that statement. Too many Christians come up with some sort of excuse to not serve, “I am to busy,”, “I don’t know how,” or, “We pay the preacher to do that.” None of those excuses will have any weight on judgement day.

John 4:35, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”

A Lack of Powerful Prayer

Christians in America are not getting their prayers answered. Do you know why? Most Christians in America are not praying. I tire of hearing Christians pray these vague, nonspecific prayers such as, “Bless so-and-so,” or “Be with so-and-so”! Do you know what those prayers mean? Absolutely nothing. They can mean just about whatever you want them to mean but at the same time mean nothing. Many Christians have convinced themselves that God doesn’t really answer prayer, therefore they pray these vague, general prayers, just to stay safe. I tire of hearing Christians give the terribly unBiblical excuse that God always answers, but sometimes he says yes, sometimes he says no, and sometimes he says to wait. I’m sorry, but my Bible tells me that if I ask ANYTHING of the Father in the name of Christ (or within the will of Christ) he WILL give it to me.Yes, that requires that I be filled with the Spirit, which in turn will mean that I will pray for what the Spirit would have me to pray for, but God says that He will honor that prayer. Why then do we settle to not pray?

God convicted me about this last year. I spent so much time worrying about the needs in our church until one day I was convicted to start praying about them. I wrote a list of the needs that our church had. It is a very specific list. Would you believe after several months of praying for very specific needs for our church, God miraculously provided answers to two of them! I prayed that God would give us a van to pick up people for church and he gave us one. I prayed for funds to fix a major flooding problem that the church basement has and God provided. God still answers specific, Spirit-filled prayers. Unfortunately, most Christians are content with praying vague, empty prayers. Ultimately, those vague, empty prayers are simply the fruit of a lack of faith in an all-powerful God.

John 14:13, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

These three major problems all lie under one major problem in modern Christian America, and that is a lack of commitment to the cause of Christ. Christ does not want me to be a Sunday Christian, he wants me to be an everyday Christian. If I am to be a disciple of Christ every day, it means that I am going to read my Bible and learn it, it means that I am going to serve the Lord, and it means that I am going to be a person with enough faith to pray and expect and answer. We do not live in a time that allows for uncommitted Christians. Allow me to ask you this question as I close this post: Is your all on the altar? Today, you must determine to give the Lord every single aspect of your life. Let’s break the destructive trend that has been set over the past few decades and commit ourselves to Christ.

Pastor King is the Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Hartwell, GA

Three Spirits That Will Destroy A Church- Part 1

A statistic came out several years ago that said that 80% of churches in the United States have either grown stagnant, are declining, or are sharply declining in their attendance. Many have speculated that we are living in a “post-Christian” era in this country. I can also attest to this statistic. I have had the privilege of growing up in churches that were actively reaching their communities for the cause of Christ and seeing people getting saved and added to the church, but for every church that I have seen that was like that, there would be ten others who were the opposite. Churches that hadn’t seen anyone saved in many years, churches that used their baptistries as a storage area, churches that were focused on the wrong things, churches that got into more arguments about where the money was going than they would pray with each other for the lost souls of their communities. Died and dying churches. And for every dying church, there would be excuses for why they were dying, such as, “We are in a hard area,” or, “Nobody wants to hear the Bible anymore,” or, “Everybody in our town is already saved.” In my short time in ministry, I have learned that excuses are just what they sound like, Excuses. The problem very rarely lies in the unsaved in town, or in the town that the church is in. Most often the reason why a church is declining is in the spirit of the church. I believe that any Christian I'd talk to would tell me that they want to see their church grow and that they want to see people get saved, that’s normal, there are not many people in any churches that would say differently than that. Unfortunately there is a spirit that takes over a church and when that spirit take over, a church is as good as destroyed unless there is a miraculous intervention. I would like to talk to you about three spirits that will destroy any church if we allow them to.

1. A spirit of doubt- Matthew 14:28-31

Matthew 14:28-31, “And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. ²⁹ And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. ³¹ And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”

We know from the context of this passage that the disciples were on the Sea of Galilee when a storm came. Jesus was not with them at the time, and so they feared. They were doing everything they could do just to stay alive, when out in the distance they see a man walking on the water. Of course, they began to be even more afraid because they thought they were seeing a ghost. But then the person walking on the water says, “Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid.” The disciples recognized that it was Jesus who was talking to them. Peter, who was the vocal one in the group then speaks, “If it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.” What was Peter saying? Basically, “If it’s really you, Lord, let me walk on the water too!” What a bold thing to request! We make fun of Peter often for his brashness and his wide-open mouth, but this is one of those instances where Peter was practicing an extreme faith in Jesus that we all should have. Jesus bids him to come, so Peter steps out onto the water, and sure enough, he is walking. Peter was walking on the water! Wow! So Peter starts walking toward Jesus but as he is walking, he looks around himself. He sees the waves, and the storm. He feels the wind as it blows onto him. Peter finally realizes what he is doing and becomes afraid, and as he did, he began to sink. Of course, Jesus saves Peter from drowning and asks chides him for his lack of faith.

As we read that passage in the Bible, many of us would ask ourselves, “How could Peter start off so strong but then finish so weak. After all, it took a great amount of faith to step out onto the waters in the first place, but it took a lack of faith, or doubt, to start sinking. As Peter stood on the water, in the middle of a miracle, he looked around at the circumstances and began to doubt the strength of God, and that is when he sank.

We have a lot of churches today that are sinking because of a lack of faith in God. They want to see God bless, and they want to see people get saved and baptized and added to the church, but they don’t believe that God can do that anymore. I have talked to many preachers and laymen alike and I have heard depressing expressions of doubt. If I had a penny for every time I heard someone say, “Times have changed and no one wants to hear the Gospel anymore,” I’d be a rich man! Unfortunately, we have bought into a mindset that since we live in the last days, no one is going to respond to what we have to say. People use 2nd Timothy 4:3 as an excuse as to why people are not getting saved, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” And do not get me wrong, I understand that we live in a time where people are particularly closed to the message of the Gospel, but I also believe that I serve a God who is able to overcome those obstacles as long as I simply believe that he can. Peter’s walking on the water was directly linked to his faith in Jesus, when Peter started to doubt, he began to sink.

Do you want to see miracles happen in your church? Have faith! If you do not believe that people can get saved or that lives can be changed than the chances are that no one will. You and your church will sink just like Peter did.

I can’t help but think about the days in the past when great men of God stepped out in faith to start a church. They claimed a town for Jesus Christ and built a church, fully believing that God was going to do great things. I particularly think of Dr. Roland Garlick, who was the founding pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Hartwell, GA, the church I pastor. Dr. Garlick was a man who saw the need for an independent Baptist church in Hartwell, GA, so he took a group of 20 people and started Calvary Baptist Church. With the help of some church members, he built the building that we still worship in today, and he brought the attendance of the church from 20 up to 150. How was he able to do that? Because he believed in a God who could do that. Yes, times have changed; but I still serve a powerful God who can break the heart of stone and can perform miracles. Stop focusing on the wind and waves, stop concerning yourself with the obstacles and trust in God!

You may be reading this and thinking, “But Pastor King, it’s too late now. After years of doubt, I don’t think our church can turn around. We are as good as dead.” I want you to notice something. Peter was drowning, but Jesus came and rescued him. Peter would have died had it not been for the rescuing hand of Jesus Christ. I see many churches that are taking their final breathes, and I honestly believe that even in those final moments Jesus can still come and rescue the church that has a restored faith in Him. For instance, many of us know of Lancaster Baptist Church. I went to college there and learned a lot about the ministry from there. When Pastor Chappell became pastor there over 25 years ago, there were about 20 people, they were in a great amount of debt, they were renting their building out to another church, while they met in the upper room of the church. Things were looking bleak and from the outside looking in, any of us would have said that there is no hope for that church to survive. But what happened? A young man came into that church, believing that he served a God that could do great things. And guess what! God DID do great things. And Pastor Chappell would be the first to tell you that it didn’t happen because of anything he did, the church grew and people got saved because he serves a God who is powerful to save.

Before I move on, you may be sitting here and you may think that you have faith that God can bless your church. Let me ask you something: What are you doing to show that faith? Faith requires action. Abraham believed God, and because he believed God he left the city of Ur to the place where God promised. Abraham could have sat around in Ur and said, “Oh, yes, I believe God!” but if he didn’t get up and go, he wouldn't have seen the great miracles that he did. Do you believe that God can bless your church? Then you need to pray for your church. You need to go out soul winning. You need to invite your unsaved friends, family, and co-workers to church. You need to be faithful. Actions speak louder than words. Let’s be sure that our actions match up to the faith we claim we have. God can do great things, we need to believe that he can do them.

This is part one of my three part series on the Three Spirits That Will Destroy A Church. In the upcoming weeks, stay tuned for the next part of this series!