Are You With Or Against? Who Do You Serve Sermon Series Part 1 of 4

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries, my name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you for being with us today. It’s a great day to be listening to the words coming from Jesus. Today we are kicking off a four-part sermon series.

So I hope you continue to be with us for the next four weeks or three weeks. If you count this one, it is four weeks obviously, but the next three weeks. Because it’s an excellent sermon series on who do you serve.

You got to think about that. Who do you serve in life? Now before we dive into this, if this is your first time with us, great, it’s going to be an excellent sermon series but take advantage of the like buttons and the subscribe buttons wherever you are listening and getting this content because you don’t want to miss what is coming next. So hit that bell icon, the subscribe button, etc.

If you’re a returning visitor, please use those share icons. This is the week to do it. Share with others, get it on your social media to bring more people in so they can catch the beginning of this sermon series and stay with us all the way through it.

But don’t worry if anyone comes in in the middle of it, maybe they didn’t watch the first one, they can always get caught up. We’re gonna have a playlist on the YouTube channel that is called, “Who Do You Serve” and they can watch all of them right there.

All right, today number one we are kicking it off. Jesus wants followers that are 100% with Him, 100%. He doesn’t want people that follow Him most of the time, some of the time, or who follow Him when it’s convenient. That is one we see a lot.

People are like, “Yeah I follow Jesus.” They talk about Jesus. They sing worship songs. They got the worship music playing in the background at work, in the office, whatever. But then as life goes on, things may happen.

They are chewing out someone. They’re getting mad here. They’re driving their car cursing out all the people that are cutting them off or speeding past them or did not use their blinker. They’re angry at home. They complain all the time.

They engage in workplace gossip. They’re talking about the employees when they’re not there. They’re thinking they’re entitled. They’re thinking they’re better than everyone else.

Oh you and me, we gotta stick together, and they just have all of these toxic interactions with other people. Now if that’s you, you probably don’t recognize it’s you. But I bet you might be thinking of someone else who that fits in your life.

Now if that is so, maybe this would be a good time to share this with them or for you, even better than sharing this, for you to start to be an example to that person. Make sure you don’t have any of that.

When they start doing that with you, when they start complaining to you, when they start gossiping about others or trying to get involved in drama, you just say that’s not right, I cannot handle that type of negativity, it’s not healthy and it does no good, it has no benefit.

Then pretty soon they will be like, “Yeah, that guy, he never likes when people gossip,” and then maybe they will be gossiping about you, but guess what, who cares? You’re not engaging in that behavior. You got to be 100% with God. He wants an army. He does. He wants an army of dedicated believers who are ready to fight.

Now, of course, I don’t mean a physical fight, I’m talking spiritually, taking it to a spiritual level. We talked about that in another sermon that you really need to check out, it’s on temptation and how Jesus was tempted just like you.

Check that out, it’s on our YouTube channel. He took the fight to a spiritual level. He brought it beyond the physical, metaphysical level. You can do it too. Take these fights in a spiritual world.

Luke 11:23, Jesus says, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” What do you think that means? It’s black and white. Jesus is saying one or the other. If you’re not with me, you’re against me. There is no gray. There is nothing in the middle.

So the next time you’re thinking of sharing a Bible verse on your Facebook or sharing one of these sermons or maybe another video or posting about a great Bible message or a celebrity that stood up for their faith or anything like that, maybe a movie you’re going to share, and then you think, “Wait a minute if so and so sees that” and then you do not share it. How often does that happen? That happens a lot.

You think, “Well what would other people think” or you don’t want to post a certain thing because you’re worried about people commenting on it or you don’t want to say certain things or act certain ways, professing your faith maybe in the workplace or in public, because you don’t want to be attacked. You aren’t 100% with Jesus if you’re behaving that way.

Therefore, I challenge you. I challenge you to get out there and do it the next time you think of doing something. Or when someone asks you to share something or post something, I’m not saying you have to do it all the time, what I’m saying is that your social media is an excellent tool to reach way more people than you can by yourself.

How are you using it? Are you using it effectively and with the intent of reaching others for the Kingdom of God, or are you using it to build your own personal self?

It’s a great question. Now, I understand some people, their social media is a business, maybe you’re an influencer so it’s your personal brand and yes, you are posting to build that personal brand and your followers expect a certain thing. So for you to deviate from that, yes I understand that could be detrimental to your business.

But guess what every now and then you could slip something in when you do a video or when you would post something for your followers. You could put a reel on there that says what you believe in.

You could let your light shine and let it be known what you do. You don’t necessarily have to share other people’s content on your influencer page, but maybe on your personal socials that is where you could let it come out.

The question is what are you doing? What are you using it for? Are you using it to build yourself or to build God? Even in your life, if you’re worried about what someone else might think or say when you do something, who are you building? Who are you serving? You have to ally yourself with Christ. You really do, you must. If you aren’t with Him, you are against Him. It’s very simple.

Where do you want to be? Do you want to be with Him or against Him? I want to be with Him 100%. I don’t want to be against Him at all. I don’t even want to have the chance of slipping over to the against-Him side. There’s no way.

It’s like when you have dodgeball in the gym and there is the middle line, the half-court line, everybody lines up against this wall, everybody lines up against this wall. If this is the with and this is the against, I want to be against the wall all the time so that I am with Him. I don’t even want to be creeping up close to that center line to start being against Him. I’m going to be way back here.

Why? Because I’m 100% with Jesus. That’s where I want to be. That’s where you want to be. Get there if you’re here in the middle, between half and the zero. You’re maybe at a quarter, you are at the free throw line, get back. Get back. Be with Jesus 100%. There’s no middle ground.

You can’t be standing on the half-court line. That is the fence. You have people who are on the fence, you can’t be on the fence. You got to be with or against. You can’t be on the fence. You’re either hot or you’re cold, with, against. There’s nothing in the middle. So guess what, if you’re not with, you’re against. If you’re not hot, then you’re cold. That’s the facts. If you’re not hot, you’re cold.

Jesus doesn’t want lukewarm people. That would be here on the half-court line. You can’t be lukewarm, lukewarm is even worse than being cold. The cold people don’t know any better. They’re unbelievers. If you’re a believer. You become hot. Then all of a sudden you’re getting lukewarm, you’re on your way back to cold. You knew the good stuff and you rejected it. Don’t reject it, take it back.

Get it in your life, be hot. We had a sermon on that called, “Be Hot.” Check it out. It’s worth watching. Revelation 3:16, get your Bible. Revelation 3:16 says, “So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

Guess what, this is Jesus speaking. Because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, you are on the half-court line, you’re on the fence. Get off of there. He will flick you off that fence. He’s going to spit you out of His mouth.

He doesn’t want you. Seriously. You say, “That’s harsh, Jesus wants everyone.” Those are His words. He’s about to spit you out of His mouth. What are you going to do about it? Be hot. Get over on the hot side. Jesus wants you to be with Him 100% of the time. In the same way, He says, whoever is not against you is also for you though.

So you have, whoever is not with me is against me, but then in Luke 9:50, so turn there, Luke 9:50 Jesus is saying, “‘Whoever is not against you, is with you,’ He says. ‘Do not stop him.’” Jesus said for whoever is not against you is for you.

So kind of the reverse but this is different, we have two scenarios here. One where Jesus is saying, “Hey, whoever is not with me is against me.” Another where he is saying, “Whoever is not against you is for you.”

Which means, if you’re going through life, and in this physical world, there are two worlds here, we are in a physical realm and we’ve got a spiritual realm. Your job is always to fight in the spiritual realm. You got to be winning souls. You got to be sharing Jesus. You need to be fighting spiritually.

When you start getting attacked in the physical realm, you start feeling beat down, you start feeling depressed, you start feeling like work is overwhelming, you’re getting lower and lower and lower and you’re getting beat down, what do you need to do? You gotta take that to the spiritual realm.

You got to recognize the source of the problem. You say, “The source of the problem is my co-worker or my boss.” That’s not the source of the problem. The source of the problem is evil. The enemy, the demons, satan, whoever is behind that evil in your life, behind that co-worker, behind your boss, behind wherever that is coming from, that’s the root of the problem.

You gotta fight that. You gotta fight that. Why do you need to fight? Well, and how do you fight it? You start, you say, “Hey I can’t be fighting with my co-workers, I can’t be fighting with my boss.”

No, you aren’t fighting with your co-workers, you’re not fighting with your boss, you’re fighting with the evil behind or inside your co-workers or your boss. How do you do it? Scripture. Share Jesus. Be the light.

When they start attacking you, when they start chewing you out for no reason, when they’re fighting and attacking someone else, you gotta stand up. You gotta say, “Hey that’s unacceptable, Jesus would not want that.” Boom. Solves the problem.

If you just say that’s unacceptable, you’re out of line, bring Jesus into it and let Him take over that fight. You think that you can do it on your own. You say, “No,I don’t bring God or religion into the workplace, I’ll get in trouble for that.” You want to do it on your own. You probably will get in trouble.

You go up to your boss who’s reprimanding someone and that it’s wrong because it’s not proper. They didn’t do anything to deserve whatever is going on and you say, “Hey, that’s unacceptable.”

That boss is gonna be like Jesus to Peter, “Get behind me Satan.” You’re out of line. You gotta bring it up, say “Hey they didn’t do anything to deserve that. Don’t treat them that way, please. That’s not what Jesus would do,” and then leave it at that.

If they start coming after you then that’s when you gotta step it up, bring in the Scripture, bring in how you live your life, and guess what? Sometimes in this world, yes there may be trouble, maybe you get fired for that, but then you were not supposed to be there anyway. As long as you are doing it correctly and with Jesus.

Otherwise, other times you may bring that up, this person might get so mad. They walk away and then they start thinking about it because Jesus is going to work on them. You brought it in. That’s how you fight. You gotta take it to the spiritual level and let God fight for you. We talked a whole sermon about that, “Let God fight For You.” Check it out.

Do you get what Jesus is saying? If you’re not with Him, you’re against Him. But in this world, there could be other people and if they aren’t against you, you gotta team up with them, they’re for you. They’re for you. That’s what He was telling the disciples.

It’s two different levels. Jesus is in the spiritual, you are either with Him or against Him in the spiritual. We’re here on Earth. People, if they’re not against you, they’re for you. Therefore they are with you or against, but if they aren’t fighting you, they’re an ally. Even if they aren’t involved, they could be on the fence in this world, in the spiritual world you can’t be on the fence, you have to be moving.

You got to be hot. You gotta have that fire inside of you. You need to be the light. You got to be salty. Guess what if you’re really salty you put a whole bunch of salt on your mashed potatoes and you eat that, you’re like “That’s too salty.” Same way, if you’re salty you might be kind of giving people a bitter face once in a while.

God says you got to be salty though. Keep it in mind here though, on Earth, if someone isn’t fighting against you, yes they may not be with Christ, but they’re still with you. They may like you. They may support you. They may think you’re a great person. They’re not fighting against you, so they’re with you. Now it’s your job to get them with Christ. They’re with you on this level. Bring them up with you on a spiritual level.

They’re on the fence with Christ. They’re standing on that half-court line. They’re waiting for the ref to put the ball out there early so they can snatch one up before the game begins. They’re waiting.

They’re in the middle. They’re on the fence. Yank them over. Get them on the with-you side. Get them on the with-Jesus side so that you can bring them to that spiritual level and they can start fighting with Jesus. They can be hot.

I know this could be somewhat confusing but think of it as two realms. A lot of movies are going on with alternate dimensions and extra places and everything so maybe it is a little more relatable now because maybe you have seen those movies.

Or all this craziness going on or with all of the metaverse stuff happening online where you have all these extra worlds and lands that you can literally go to the VR virtual reality. Think of it like that.

You got reality, people if they aren’t against you, in reality, they’re for you. But they’re probably on the fence with virtual reality. They don’t know much about it up here. They don’t know much about the spiritual realm. They are living here in reality.

Your job anytime something happens you want to be fighting in virtual reality. Why? This is what’s going on, controlling everything else, kind of like a matrix or something. You got a lot of analogies you can choose from. You got to take the fight here.

So these people who aren’t against you that are on the fence, you want to introduce them to the spiritual. You want to bring Jesus to them and get them into this level, this dimension, this new space, the spiritual realm, virtual reality I mean, but it’s real; it’s just an example and up here they can either be with Jesus or against Jesus.

There is no half-court, there’s no free throw. It’s one field, it’s all open, it’s not divided like the basketball court gymnasium with the dodgeball line and everybody’s here and here.

It’s all one and if they’re not with Jesus, they’re against Jesus. So you got to bring them here. How do you do it? Share, be an example, be the light, be the salt. Yes, it’s a little confusing. If you have questions, comment below, maybe you have got a great analogy from a movie or from something going on or a VR or the metaverse, put it down there for others. Your analogy could help other people understand what is going on really in reality.

The bottom line is what you need to worry about, not really worry about, but what you need to be concerned with is whether or not you are with Christ. That is your concern. Are you with Christ? That’s number one. Focus on that. Are you with Christ? If you aren’t with Him, you are against Him. That means every single day, you need to be making an effort to be with Him.

How do you be with Christ? Application right here. Read your Bible daily. Pray multiple times a day. Not simply daily when you wake up in the morning. Pray. Ask God to be with you as you go through your day. Keep praying before you go to bed. Pray. Teach others to do the same.

If you’re a parent, do it with your kids. If you have a spouse, do it with your spouse, significant other, do it with them. If you’re a child, pray with your parents. Pray with others. That’s how you start being with God, being with Jesus. You’re with Him when you do all of this stuff all day long. How could you be against Him if you are actively living for Him?

That’s what you gotta find out, where are you? Make the effort to be with Christ and if you’re with Him, you can sway those people on the fence toward Christ. You say “I don’t know how to sway them.” Just live your life, live your life for Christ.

You’re an example, you’re a light in the darkness. People like light in the darkness. What’s valuable? You want a hundred-dollar bill when it’s pitch black and you can’t see where you are going? Sure, take it, you might not be able to even reach it.

But if I say, “Hey I got a little cigarette lighter,” you would probably be like “Here’s my hundred dollar bill, take it.” Because you want the light so you can see where you are going and others will follow you.

To follow that light because you got the only one. If you’re that light, they will follow you, they will follow you. Be committed to God. You can watch a whole playlist on it here on how to commit to God.

Be fully committed, study the Scripture, read your Bible, pray, share the gospel, and do what it says then you will be with Jesus. You gotta do it. You can always pray, have a war room in your house. That’s how you fight, get a little room, go in there, and pray all the time. If you haven’t seen the movie “War Room,” it’s a great one. People who are with God can do many incredible things.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for this time together. I ask that each and every person out there who is watching or listening, that they would examine their heart and their mind and their life. Do a little soul-searching and find out if they are truly with you. Are they hot? Are they full of salt and light?

Lord, I pray that that answer would be “Yes,” that they would make it “Yes.” That every single day they would make a conscious and willing effort to be living with you and for you every single moment of every single day, that they would be the salt. That they would be the light.

That others will follow them because they’re the light in the darkness. That they would be able to sway the people on the fence who aren’t against them. Then they must be for them. That they would sway them and bring them with you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hey, if you’re watching this and you’re one of those people who’s on the fence, you say, What, I don’t know if I’m with Jesus but I’m not against Him. I don’t want to be against Him.” You say, “I like your messages and I’m not helping you with them, but I’m not against them.” You are on the fence. You’re in the middle.

If that’s you, you can make a decision today to get off the fence. To come over and be with Jesus. It’s really simple, all you have to do is say a prayer. You pray, “Dear Jesus, I want you to come into my life. I want to be with you, please forgive me for my sins. Thank you for dying for me. I want to live my life for you for the rest of my life.” You say “Amen.”

Now if you need help with that, if you have questions about that, comment below, send us a message, reach out, talk to your local church, talk to someone. This can happen, you can be with Jesus and He will change your life. God bless.