Rejecting Convenience: Embracing True Faith in God

1) "I really didn't come to beat us up. I hope that's not what you're thinking. But there are some things about our world that really messes with me a little bit because it's bleeding into the church maybe just a little bit. And one of the things that really messes with my mind is the entitlement. The entitlement attitude that I owe you or you owe somebody else. Or the victim attitude that I'm a victim of everybody else. And I just want to say this. And, again, I didn't come to beat anybody up. I didn't come to do that. God's going to turn this, and he's going to speak to us, and he's going to help us. But I just want to say that the entitlement. The victim attitude and the victim attitude is not of God." [04:25] (64 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "But, you know, we're not here to be entertained. We are not entitled to feeling the presence of God because there's somebody up here worshiping and magnifying God and sweating and pouring their guts into a song. That's not what church is about. Amen. Amen. If we want to be entertained, let's go home. Let's watch TV. Let's go to the football games and the basketball games. And I don't suggest you do that because I don't do that. But you go right ahead if you want to. If you want to be entertained, you can go and do all that. Amen. But what's happened is that it has become literally a religion of convenience. It's become a religion of convenience." [08:10] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "I want to change this today a little bit because I want to give you the true meaning of convenience. Okay? I want to turn this around. The true meaning of convenience is not so that I can be entertained and get what I want. The true meaning of convenience is opportunity. That's what the true meaning of that word convenience is. In Mark chapter 6, it's about an opportunity, a day of opportunity, a time of opportunity. I came to tell you today that today is a day of opportunity. But what matters is what you do with it, what you do with it." [09:48] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "We have got to make sure that we are not here just to be entertained. We are not here just to go through the motions and to feel good. That's not why we're here. Amen. I don't know why you're here, but I came to magnify Jesus. I came to lift him up. I came to see somebody delivered. I came to see somebody. I came to see somebody healed. I came to see somebody set free. I came to see, I came to see depression go away. I came to see God do miracle signs and wonders. All because that's what happens in a church. Amen. We are not here for convenience sake. We are here because there's an opportunity for us to worship, to magnify, to lift up our God. Amen. That's why we're here." [10:54] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "This is why I tell you all the time. You better be careful what you let your little eyes see. And you better be careful what you let your little ears hear. We used to sing this to the children. But it's good for the adults today. Amen. We better be careful what we're about. Amen. Because there's always an opportunity to do wrong. But there's also that opportunity to do what's right. So Herod, Herod allowed that into his life on that day. And it caused righteousness to be killed. It caused the word of God to be killed. Come on somebody. It caused spiritual truths to die in their midst." [13:32] (56 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "We love David because he did all. He was a man after God's own heart. We love him for that. We love David for all of the things that he did. He brought the ark of the covenant back into Israel. And he danced before the Lord. He was a worshiper. He was a dancer. He was a shouter. Amen. Amen. He did all of the things that we like to talk about. But David also had some things in his life that wasn't so good. David had some convenient days. One of those, he was at home when he should have been out fighting. That's what the Bible declares." [15:03] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "We have a choice to make every single day of our lives. Amen. We can either sit back and let life come to us and the devil come at us and all these things come at us. Or we can come to God and say, God. The first thing that I want you to do. The very first thing you should do every morning is come to God and say, God, here I am. I'm ready for your kingdom today. Amen. Whatever you want me to do today, Lord, that's what I want to do. I'm going to rejoice. I'm going to be glad in this day because you have made this day. Lord, you're the one who created me and does all this stuff in me. Amen. It's an opportunity." [26:19] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "How many times. You still know how many times in your life people are watching you because you told them you go to church. They want to know how you handle stuff. I've seen this over and And over and over in my life. This was a long time ago. I was working in Sepulveda. I was a machinist. I was working at a pipe plant. And I would have this guy come in. And he would come in. And he loved to yell out loud. There would be seven or eight, ten people in our shop. And he would love to yell out loud. Hey, preacher. I had this happen this week. What's your God going to do about it? He loved to do stuff like that." [27:37] (53 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)