SPIRITUAL DARKNESS
Sakkie Parsons
I want to tell you something.
I know of a man, he was very religious.
It can really be said of him that he made sure that he had daily contact with our Lord.
In other words, he was really religious, but for all the wrong reasons.
I want to show you a big problem today but it's not new. From the beginning it occurred in Christianity.
You can be very, very religious and at the same time very, very unconverted.
Read with me –
It is Jesus who speaks with Peter here:
LUKE 22:32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."
The New Living Translation reads as follows:
LUKE 22:32 “But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.”
Peter was daily in the presence of Jesus and he did all the right things right, yet at this stage of his life he was unconverted.
It is possible to do the right things for the wrong reasons.
I have to understand –
Knowing God and sitting in church often does not make me a converted person.
I also do very well if I remember:
A church service is exactly that – a service. Or a worship service is exactly this, a worship service to our Lord.
I've shared with people in my life, who go to a service for the only purpose, as they put it:
"To get food for my soul."
It sounds very beautiful but it's a completely wrong way of practicing my religion if it's the number one why I go to a service.
Someone once told me that she no longer goes to a certain church because there is no more ‘fire’ (enthusiasm) in people's worship.
It is such a wrong way of practicing my religion. Then I just go to receive and it is not worship.
We are the light or, if you want, the fire (passionate about Jesus) to this world.
Jesus says:
MAT 5:14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
It is precisely what it means to say, that the people must see Jesus in us. because:
1JHN 1: 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
1JHN 1: 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
I believe that if I'm really converted (reformed) and I'm going to church, I firstly go to church to honour and serve God.
I see it like this:
In my discipleship of Jesus, it first is about God and then for souls for His kingdom.
Anything else is subordinate to this.
I have already said that and I will say that again –
Many people serve God for the wrong reasons:
There are people who serve God because they fear the judgment and hell.
So no one is fooling God.
There are people who serve God so that they may live well (be prosperous) and they try to bribe God as such.
There are people who serve God because they heard that Heaven is such a nice place and they want to go to Heaven for that reason one day.
There are people who serve God because it gives them a platform to be seen.
If I serve our Lord with another viewpoint, anything other than the next two points and in that order, I’m still not converted:
Also note if you read it –
As a child of God, I do not have another option – it is a Godly command:
MAT 22: 37-40
37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
If, in my viewpoint within my religion, I have anything other than that of Jesus
mentions here and in that order, I have a problem – actually a huge problem and I'm like Peter, despite my religion and my knowledge of God and His commandment, whether I want to know it or not, unconverted.
I have to remember there is only one truthful way to worship God.
JHN 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
I also have to remember that I cannot live one way on Sundays and another way during the week.
There are even people who take it so far that if they testify or pray or bring a message, their voice and way of speaking completely changes.
God will not be impressed that way. There is only one way of living and it certainly does not include all kinds of gimmicks or manoeuvrers outside of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
1PE 1:14-19
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,
15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
16 since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."
17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
So, child of God –
What is the answer and solution for you and me?
MAT 3: 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
The New Living Translation reads as follows:
MAT 3:8 Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.EFE 5: 8 For you were once full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!
Therefore, let you and me make a difference wherever we go. In other words, like I have said so many times:
"Let us live it, because we believe it."
Greetings,
Sakkie