Endurance, Pt.6

You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols. (1Pe 4:3 NLT)

Every believer must have some kind of “conversion” experience, a time when they confessed (openly admitted) their sin and turned from their sin to follow Jesus.  This could happen at a young age or an old age, but it must happen (John3:3).

Before I met and gave my life to Jesus Christ I was exactly as the Scripture above states: I enjoyed immorality and lust, feasting, drunkenness, and wild parties, and my terrible worship of idols (things I obeyed more than God; things I was enslaved to other than God).  For me I was a slave to addiction, to fear, to selfishness, to immorality, to lust, to self-absorbed sex, to lying, to cheating, to secrecy, to shame, and to guilt.

BUT…JESUS HAS CHANGED ALL OF THAT.  I still struggle in plenty of ways, BUT…JESUS IS STILL CHANGING ME.  I find that the more I admit my own sin and my need for the Savior, the more He redeems me and takes the “pressure to be perfect” off of me!

The Gospel really is good news!  I really am forgiven, and as a leader, WE MUST BANK ON THAT MORE THAN ANYONE!  Often times I don’t pause to really reflect on the very message I preach every week – THE GOSPEL REALLY IS GOOD NEWS!  Thank you, Jesus!!

If you want to lose endurance and leak joy – then spend your life pretending to be perfect, pretending that you don’t need any help, pretending that you don’t need accountability, pretending that you don’t need to set goals, pretending that you have all the answers.