Pulpit Power Podcast

Do you know how to deal with the negative people in your life? Do you let them intimidate you and bring you down? Are you in fear of man and often compromise your convictions? If someone criticizes you, don't let it get to you and just see if they have wisdom or if they are just bitter. If you run across the critics, who are bitter and negative, just move on and press forward. We are not to please man, but are suppose to please God.

Do you wonder if the church that Jesus started, is still around today? Jesus promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against His church. The word church is derived from the Greek word "ecclesia", which means an assembly of called believers. The church is visible, and not invisible as some denomations try to teach. The church is founded on the foundation of Jesus Christ, and without Him the church will crumble. Are you part of a local New Testament Church?

Have you prayed for something and it seemed like God was not listening to your prayer? Maybe the answer to your prayers was not want you had wanted? When you pray do you pray for God's will to be done? While you are praying, you need to learn how to patiently wait for that answer. If you are burdened and praying, have a good attitude and don't be so dramatic! While you are waiting and praying, make sure you are making plans for when God opens that door or closes it.

Are you a pew warmer or a Christian who is ambitious? Are you afraid of what others might think, or do you just do what God tells you? Is your wall standing up strong or has it fallen and it needs to be repaired? Is your heart heavy over the lost souls in the world?

Are you mourning the loss of a precious loved one? Do you mourn for your lost loved ones? Is your heart broken? When we lose that precious person, we mourn for the loss! With their death, it becomes a reality that life is short. We should be mourning over lost souls and trying to win them. Tragedy will bond our hearts together and will make us grow up! We can even break God's heart! Have you broken God's heart here lately?

Who do you think the founder of the New Testament Church is? Do you think it is Peter, John the Baptist, or Martin Luther? The founder of the New Testament church is Jesus Christ, himself. He said "Upon this rock, I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH". Jesus is the foundation of a New Testament Church. Churches that are "biblical" are where people meet in one place. Universal churches do not meet the standard. Churches have to be able to reproduce their selves, be able to finance their selves, and be able to self-govern. In a New Testament Church, there is one body, one faith, one spirit, and one God. He does not say you can have 3 different religions in the same building or even have 2 different gods.

When someone looks at your life, do they know you are a Christian? Are you a self-centered saint? When you were first saved, you wanted to share it with everyone. Those who are not saved, are blinded and don't know a lot about being saved. Some people don't like the idea of being responsible for someone else's soul. Everyone is watching you, rather you like it or not. Do you live the Christian life before the world?

Are you unstable? Do you seem to wobble in your Christian walk? Would you like to be stable and steadfast in your walk? Reading the Bible and going to church will help us be stable in our walk! To be a "strong" Christian, we need to have: faith, virtue, self-control, patience, godliness, kindness, and love. As we are growing, we need to be careful to not set ourselves up to fall.

Do you want to be everybody's friend/buddy? Do you try to pacify friends and family? There is no way, you can pacify everyone. There will be people you will irritate, because of the different stands you take or opinions you have. Don't compromise your stand for anyone! You can't be pleasing everyone. Instead of pleasing man, who is impossible to please, we should strive to please God!

Has God been "yelling" at you to repent of your sins? Do you think that you don't have to repent because you are saved? Do you sometimes think that God is "letting" others get by with sin but you always feel guilty? No matter how BIG or small our sins are, we should be repenting of our sins. Others might be "getting away" with their sin, but know that God is watching and knows when everyone commits sin. We need to repent of our sins and be right with God. Remember that God will NEVER sweep anything under the carpet.

Have you spiritually died in your Christian walk? Have you lost your zeal? We should follow Jesus as our modeled zeal in our Christian walk! While we are being zealous for Jesus, we need to be careful that it is not misguided. There are some small trivial things we should not be zealous over. We need to be zealous in our good works, BUT only as a born-again Christian. Jesus paid for our sins at the cross, and good works CANNOT get us into heaven! Are you ZEALOUS for God?