God wants you to be fully committed to Him. He wants you to live for Him in everything you do. You need to be on fire for Christ 24/7/365. How do you do it?
Pray. Read your Bible. Fellowship with other believers. Have discussions with them. Speak to other people about the Bible. Share Jesus. Go to church. Basically, DO the things that you have learned in these sermons.
It starts with making a conscious decision to prioritize your relationship with God above all else. This means putting Him first in every aspect of your life – from the way you spend your time, to the choices you make and even down to the words that come out of your mouth.
When we fully commit ourselves to God, we open up our hearts and minds for His guidance and direction. We become vessels through which He can work miracles in our lives and those around us.
So don’t hold back any longer! Take that leap of faith today by surrendering yourself completely to Christ.
Start off your new year with a new mindset. Make a resolution to live on fire for Christ!
Referenced Verses:
Isaiah 29:13
Matthew 23:2-4
Proverbs 16:3
Psalm 119:11
Psalm 119:105
Video Transcript
If you are watching this at a later date and it is a replay or something like that, then no matter what time of year it is, this is a great time to choose to start actively living for Jesus.
Hit that subscribe button, hit the like button, take advantage of the links in the description below to follow us on social media, and start engaging in some discussion, some conversation with others so that you can learn more and do more for our savior Jesus Christ.
Today we are talking about how you have to live for Jesus, all of you. He wants all of you. He does not want part of you, He does not want you on Sunday only, He wants you all the time, 24/7/365. God wants all of you.
Now does that mean you need to be out there, “Hey Jesus loves you,” all the time like the Jehovah’s Witness or the Mormons that come to the door when you turn the lights out and do not answer or all of that kind of stuff? No, it just means that God wants all of you all the time.
You need to always be thinking about Him, always be reading, meditating on the Word day and night, and when you can talk about Him, share Him. Put Him on your social media. Then it is there 24/7/365 for people to comment on and you can come back later and reply.
I know I might have come off a little excited there, a little bit too much maybe for some people, but that is okay. I want you to have that excitement in your life as you go forward through this year as you start coming through and living for Jesus. I want you to be filled. I want you to be on fire.
There is a card right here about a sermon that we did years ago called “Be Hot.” You will notice I look different then. It is called “Be Hot.” You got to be hot, you got to be on fire for Christ, every part of your body, every moment of every day.
Isaiah 29:13 [says], “The LORD says, ‘These people come near to me with their mouth, they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on human rules they have been taught.’”
That is tragic. God is saying “People come near me with their mouths and honor me with their lips,” they are praising God but their hearts are far away because they are following traditions. They are following religious practices rather than Him, do not let that be you.
Follow Him. Do what He says. You need to say one thing and do the same thing, not the so-called saying “Do as I say and not as I do.” You have to practice what you preach. Same with me. Same with everyone here.
I am telling you how you should live, what you should do, that you got to be on fire for Christ 24/7. Well if this is the only day that I act like this or that I do that or that I think about the Bible or that I read, then I am not practicing what I am preaching. That is wrong. I got to practice what I preach.
I am in the Word every day. I am talking to people about Jesus all the time, whether they know it or not I am talking about Jesus. A lot of times a lot of people might be like, “Boy, that guy’s a little weird.”
Now of course I am not shoving it down their throats, but when they are talking about life, maybe I am talking about some of the lessons in the Bible without specifically saying they are from the Bible.
Then as they ask for more I will say, “Well, actually, that came from the Bible.” Oh wow. You see you can talk about Jesus without them knowing that is what you are doing. You can do it and then when the time is right you can bring it up.
All the time be thinking about the Word, thinking about verses. When things happen in your life, triggers a Bible verse, triggers a Bible verse. Someone starts complaining, boom—do everything without complaining. You are scrubbing the toilet, all right, I am working for the Lord. All the time, Bible verses.
You look in the mirror—oh, reminds you of a passage of James, we did a sermon on it. You could check it out, it is called “Remember Your Face.” God wants you to do and say. Say and do the same thing.
Jesus had something to say about this. Matthew Chapter 23 Verses 2 and 4, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat, so you must obey them and do everything they tell you to do. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on people’s shoulders. But they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”
They themselves are not even willing to lift a finger to move them. Jesus says, “Do not do what they do, but you have to do what they say. But do not be like them.” We are going to have a sermon on that in the future called “Be Not A Pharisee.” It will be here. Come back, check it out [and] stay tuned for that. Hit the subscribe button to be alerted. That is gonna be a great sermon, be not a pharisee.
God wants you to say and do the same thing. He wants you to be living for Him, exactly like James says: you got to be a doer of the Word. Be a doer of the Word. Do not simply study it, do.
You need to follow Him with all your heart. God wants your whole heart. He does not want you to be like, “Alright you get this part, my wife gets this, my family gets this and my money, but God this is you.” No. He wants the whole thing.
He wants all of you, your whole heart. Not the heart of a religion. He wants you. He does not want you to follow some religion. He wants you to be devoted to Him. You need to be committed to God in your heart.
Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the LORD in all you do, and your plans will succeed.” If you commit to Him 100%, that means that everything that you want is exactly what God wants. Then what will happen? Your plans will succeed. Why? Because your plans are going to align directly with God’s. They are going to succeed.
It is when you start doing your own thing, that your plans do not succeed. When you start doing things that God does not want you to do, things start going wrong. They start falling apart. You need to be close to Him. We talked about that a long long time ago as well. Commit to the Lord. Check it out, it is on our YouTube channel or use the card above.
When you commit to Him, you will know what to do. You will know what God wants you to do. Blindly following the practices and the principles of some religion is useless. Now I am not saying religion is useless, we had a sermon series about the importance of your role in church and how you are a part of the body of Christ. The church is all of us. That is why God wants all of us. Because we are all members of the church and it cannot be done without you.
Just as the hand cannot say to the head or the foot, leave me be. It is all of us; we have to work together in unison and form one church. You have to go to church and associate with other believers, fellowship with them.
Check out that sermon series in a card above or navigate to our YouTube channel and find the playlist. It is important. Being the church and the body of Christ and gathering together with other believers is an important part of your walk with Christ.
But blindly doing what they say or following tradition and not knowing why that is, that is useless. Why is it useless? Well, for example, religion says that you have to read this book, the Bible.
God also says you have to read this book, the Bible. But if you leave this Bible on your shelf and you never read it, it is useless. Why is it useless? By the definition of the word, it has no use. You are not using it. This book has no value.
When you start to use it, when you start to read it, pretty soon it will have so much value to you that it is invaluable. You will start to memorize it and know it and understand it. Now all of a sudden it is full of use, it becomes useful. It is no longer useless because you are not using it, it is full of use because you are using it all the time. It is useful to you and it changes your life exactly like a tool.
You try to take a screw out with a hammer, that hammer is useless for that task. If you let your hammer sit there and never use it, it is useless. God wants you to know what you are doing every single day within your church, your group, your religion.
Do you guys have traditions? Great, why do you have those traditions? Baptism? Why are you doing it? Why are you getting baptized? Do you understand it?
Communion? Why are you eating the bread? Why are you drinking the cup? If you do and you completely understand it, then it has use. But if you are just blindly doing it, it is useless; it has no use for you because it does not mean anything. It is not significant to you.
Do you understand where I am going with this? If you do not, comment below. And if you do, comment below. I love hearing and seeing the support and the other ideas and perspectives. Useless or useful. If you sit around on the couch all day and do nothing, you are kind of useless. But if you go out and do stuff you are useful; you are using what God has given you.
That is what God wants. That is what He is saying. He is saying, within your religion or your beliefs, it needs to be full of use. You need to know and understand why you do the things you do so they are useful to growing you in your walk with Christ.
In the same way, you need to be out there using the things that God has given you so that you are full of use. You are a doer of the Word. You are not simply speaking and saying, “Do as I say not as I do.”
Because I am sitting on the couch all day being use-less, I have less use. No, get out there and do and be full of use. You need to know and understand why you are doing what you are doing and make sure that it is in your heart, it has to be in your heart.
Psalm 119:11, great verse, says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” You got to hide this Word in your heart. You got to use it. Do not let your Bible sit there collecting dust never having use. Use it. Hide the Word in your heart so that you do not sin against God. You do not need religion to do that for you.
Religion is a part of worshiping God. It is not the only part. Make sure you remember that and you understand everything. What is its use in your walk with Christ? Remember to check out that sermon series, it will be very useful for you in that regard. If you study the Bible and you talk to God, He will reveal everything to you.
Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” It is very very important. Why is it important? The Bible is here to guide us. God’s Word is here to guide us. What is His Word? It is the Bible. But it is also through prayer. We can pray to God and He can speak to us revealing things to us.
The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. That means that you could read the same verse today and read the same verse next week and get two different meanings from it because of what is happening in your life and how God is using it to speak to you. That is why you should always read the Bible.
You say, “Well, I have read the Bible once before.” Read it again. It is alive. Use it. Follow God in everything, with everything, your whole self, 100%, and worship through your heart, not through traditions or religious practices. Worship from your heart.
Yes, of course, you can do that within a religion. Christianity for example, or you can be a Lutheran or you can be an Evangelical free church or Non-Denominational or whatever the brand is, but worship comes from the heart. True worship comes from your heart. Hide God’s Word in your heart. Do what He says with all of you, 24/7/365; start this year living and doing everything you can for God.
Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, I pray a great blessing upon each and every person watching and listening to this message. That they would be inspired and motivated to start using more of themselves for you. That they would be full of use for the Kingdom of God. That they would be active and filled with a fire inside of them. That they would be on fire for you.
That they would say and do rather than simply say and not do. That they would be great examples and lead by example. That they would 24/7/365 be living for You in their thoughts, in their minds and their hearts, in their actions, in their words. In everything they do, it would all be for You. Lord, give them guidance and strength and wisdom and knowledge to be able to continue doing that. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Thanks so much for being here. I really hope that you share this message with others as a part of living for Christ, and if you do not want to do that, that is fine but I really encourage you to do something all the time, 24/7/365. God bless.
