Day 2606 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Matthew 11:28 NIV

I've been hammering this whole progressive, prosperous, and in many, many ways false teaching that so many are sharing and so many are being led off course by these days. The more I learn about it, the more I hear these speakers and what they're saying, the more I feel this need to help people see that it's not what Christ came to give us. He came to offer us freedom and salvation. But this progressive religion is only settling for furthering our desire for worldly things. We have to wake up and see the tremendous dangers in spinning the Gospel of Christ in order to meet our desires.

I want everyone to take a minute and think back to why you ever turned to Christ in the first place. Or maybe you haven't made the decision yet. If you're in that group who are still on the fence or not quite sure, what made you interested in Christ? I think we all get distracted more easily than we'd probably care to admit. I think we all fall for the tricks and deception of material things and worldly comforts more often than we may realize. And that's why this prosperity thing is so popular and so alluring. It caters to our human side and draws us to think about ourselves and what we want.

But that's why I want you to stop and think about why you ever became interested and willing in giving Christ a chance. It wasn't because you were just bored and wanted to try something a little different. It wasn't because you had suddenly lost all interest in the glitter and gold of this world we're living in. It wasn't because it was popular and you felt like fitting with what everyone else seemed to be doing. If you're anything like me, you turned to Christ because you were tired of living your life chasing the things of this world only to be let down again, and again, and again.

We ask Christ into our hearts because we're tired of running the same race that everyone else is running that only leads to empty promises and shattered hope. We give Him a chance to teach us something new because we're worn out from all the let downs and aggravation and disappointment that this world sells as fun and enjoyable. We choose a life of faith because we know that this world has nothing that ever managed to bring us lasting joy or happiness or fulfillment. We surrender to Jesus because we're tired of looking for something in this world that just isn't there and we're desperate for the hope that we heard could be found in His promises.

So that leaves me with a question. If we turned to Christ because we were tired of wandering the broken roads of this world in search for something worthwhile to bring us joy and peace that we have simply never found down here, then why are we willing to entertain a false gospel that makes room for the worldly desires and comforts that we prayed for Jesus to help us break away from following? If we finally managed to realize that our hope, our joy, our rest are not found anywhere on this earth, then why are we still trying to bring it along with us? If we truly want something different than what everyone else is searching for in this broken world, then why are we asking Jesus to help us find all the worldly prosperity and popularity that we were once tired of chasing after?

Friends, it's time that we stop trying to find ways to do two drastically different things at the same time. It's time that we stop looking for a message that offers us both eternal peace and worldly prosperity. It's time that we stop expecting the Gospel to give us everything we want and understand that part of the foundation of the Gospel is that everything we want is what separated us from our Father to begin with. We don't need a gospel that makes room for worldly stuff. We don't need a faith that is willing to let us continue searching for something else to bring us joy. We need to go all in on following Christ, because it’s only when we make Him Lord of our lives that we will finally find freedom from worldly desires.

We can't ask Him to share room in our lives with the wants and wishes of this world. He doesn't need a roommate in our hearts!

Again, our faith is something we chose to pursue and prioritize because we were worn and weary from the lives that we had lived according to the ways of this world. Stop looking back to see what you've left behind. Stop asking God to give you what you used to want. Stop trying to bend and twist the Gospel of Christ to better accommodate what you want it to mean and what you want it to offer. As Colossians 2:6 tells us, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him. Not in this world. Not based on what this world wants. Not built upon the old dreams you once had in a life that you were ready and willing to lay down and bury in a grave so that you could be given a new chance to start over and do it differently.

Folks, remember why you started. It wasn't to find everything you had spent so long looking for. It was because you were tired of looking for something that clearly will never be found in this place. Don't let yourself be distracted or led astray by some message that claims to offer everything you want. Remember that everything you had once desired led you to that broken place where you turned to Christ and asked Him to lead you to something different. We are not who we once were, and these lives we now live in Christ cannot be lived for what we once desired. He gave us that freedom, the healing, the hope that we were so desperate to find. He deserves our whole heart. Don't give any of it back to the world or the way of life that He delivered you from living.

Any "gospel" that offers you all the wealth and riches and worldly peace you could ever desire is only keeping the focus on you and this world that we're living these lives in for the moment. Don't settle for that. Christ paid for so much more than that!

#LeaveNoSoulUntold