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 is a great day to be listening to the words coming from Jesus. Today we are kicking off a 4-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 is 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 is 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 do not want to miss what is coming next. So hit that bell icon, the subscribe button, etc.

If you are 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 do not worry if anyone comes in in the middle of it, maybe they did not watch the first one, they can always get caught up. We are 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 does not want people that follow Him most of the time, some of the time, or who follow Him when it is 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 are getting mad here, they are driving their car cursing out all the people that are cutting them off or speeding past them or did not use their blinker.

They are angry at home, they complain all the time, they engage in workplace gossip, they are talking about the employees when they are not there, they are thinking they are entitled, they are thinking they are 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 is you, you probably do not recognize it is 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 do not 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 is not right, I cannot handle that type of negativity, it is 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 are 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 do not mean a physical fight, I am talking spiritually, taking it to a spiritual level. We talked about that in another sermon that you really need to check out, it is on temptation and how Jesus was tempted just like you. Check that out, it is 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 is black and white. Jesus is saying one or the other. If you are not with me, you are against me. There is no gray. There is nothing in the middle.

So the next time you are 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 are 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 do not want to post a certain thing because you are worried about people commenting on it or you do not want to say certain things or act certain ways, professing your faith maybe in the workplace or in public, because you do not want to be attacked. You are not 100% with Jesus if you are 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 am not saying you have to do it all the time, what I am 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 is a great question. Now I understand some people, their social media is a business, maybe you are an influencer so it is 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 do not 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 are 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 are not with Him, you are against Him. It is 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 do not 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 is no way.

It is 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 do not even want to be creeping up close to that center line to start being against Him. I am going to be way back here.

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

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

Jesus does not want lukewarm people. That would be here on the half-court line. You cannot be lukewarm, lukewarm is even worse than being cold. The cold people do not know any better. They are unbelievers. If you are a believer you become hot, then all of a sudden you are getting lukewarm, you are on your way back to cold. You knew the good stuff and you rejected it. Do not 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 is 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 are on the fence. Get off of there. He will flick you off that fence. He is going to spit you out of His mouth.

He does not want you. Seriously. You say that is harsh, Jesus wants everyone. Those are His words. He is 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 are going through life and in this physical world, there are two worlds here, we are in a physical realm and we have 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 are getting lower and lower and lower and you are 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 is 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 is 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 cannot be fighting with my co-workers, I cannot be fighting with my boss. No, you are not fighting with your co-workers, you are not fighting with your boss, you are 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 are fighting and attacking someone else, you gotta stand up. You gotta say hey that is unacceptable, Jesus would not want that, boom, solves the problem.

If you just say that is unacceptable, you are 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 do not bring God or religion into the workplace, I will 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 is reprimanding someone and that it is wrong because it is not proper. They did not do anything to deserve whatever is going on and you say hey that is unacceptable, that boss is gonna be like Jesus to Peter, get behind me satan. You are out of line. You gotta bring it up, say hey they did not do anything to deserve that. Do not treat them that way, please. That is not what Jesus would do and then leave it at that.

If they start coming after you then that is 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 is 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 are not with Him, you are against Him. But in this world, there could be other people and if they are not against you, you gotta team up with them, they are for you. They are for you. That is what He was telling the disciples.

It is two different levels. Jesus is in the spiritual, you are either with Him or against Him in the spiritual. We are here on earth. People, if they are not against you, they are for you. Therefore they are with you or against, but if they are not fighting you, they are an ally. Even if they are not involved, they could be on the fence in this world, in the spiritual world you cannot 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 are really salty you put a whole bunch of salt on your mashed potatoes and you eat that, you are like that is too salty. Same way, if you are 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 is not fighting against you, yes they may not be with Christ, but they are still with you. They may like you, they may support you, they may think you are a great person. They are not fighting against you, so they are with you. Now it is your job to get them with Christ. They are with you on this level. Bring them up with you on a spiritual level.

They are on the fence with Christ. They are standing on that half-court line. They are waiting for the ref to put the ball out there early so they can snatch one up before the game begins. They are waiting. They are in the middle. They are 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 are not against you in reality they are for you. But they are probably on the fence with virtual reality. They do not know much about it up here. They do not 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 is 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 are not 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 is real it is just an example and up here they can either be with Jesus or against Jesus. There is no half-court, there is no free throw, it is one field, it is all open, it is not divided like the basketball court gymnasium with the dodgeball line and everybody’s here and here.

It is all one and if they are not with Jesus they are 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 is 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 is number one. Focus on that. Are you with Christ? If you are not 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 are 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 are a child, pray with your parents. Pray with others. That is how you start being with God, being with Jesus. You are 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 is what you gotta find out, where are you? Make the effort to be with Christ and if you are with Him you can sway those people on the fence toward Christ. You say I do not know how to sway them. Just live your life, live your life for Christ.

You are an example, you are a light in the darkness. People like light in the darkness. What is valuable? You want a hundred-dollar bill when it is pitch black and you cannot 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 is 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 are 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 is how you fight, get a little room, go in there, and pray all the time. If you have not seen the movie War Room it is 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 are the light in the darkness. That they would be able to sway the people on the fence who are not 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 are watching this and you are one of those people who is on the fence, you say what, I do not know if I am with Jesus but I am not against Him, I do not want to be against Him. You say I like your messages and I am not helping you with them, but I am not against them. You are on the fence. You are in the middle.

If that is you, you can make a decision today to get off the fence. To come over and be with Jesus. It is 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.