文字稿Stand up for what you believe - Andrew Tiner

 


Stand up for what you believe

Well, praise Jesus today, everyone. As some of you may know, I have been banned from YouTube for the last week. It looks like today is the first day that I'm back. Who knows how long that will be? Praise Jesus. As we follow the Lord, we gain both friends and enemies. And just by choosing to stand firmly on one side or the other and not being a politician, you will gain friends and enemies. If you try to ride the middle or walk the fence, you try to appease both peoples, the people on the left, the people on the right and there's a lot of politicians that can do a pretty good job at that. But if we are dedicated to our faith in Jesus Christ, we will be offensive to someone. After all, even Jesus was offensive to many people, obviously the Pharisees.

And if we stand up for the truth of Jesus and just start speaking out what we believe to be true, we will also be in trouble. Apparently, I said something about three years ago that YouTube didn't like, and they blocked me. And they said if it happened again, potentially I could have all my videos deleted. So I encourage you to, if you feel led, watch my videos, download them, repost them if you want. Because my ability and your ability to speak freely about things like Jesus, repentance, what it really means to inherit eternal life, those things are going to be limited. And it seems like they already are here in America. We have known for years that freedom of speech has been limited in, say, North Korea or China, places like that. But it seems it's also coming here to the United States. But while we have the opportunity, let us encourage one another, let us stand up for what we believe to be true, which is that Jesus died on the cross, He resurrected, and he is the only way into everlasting life. And unless we're on the rock of our salvation, then we're going to be wavering to and fro, we're going to be tossed around by every wind of new doctrine. A lot of people are very wishy-washy in their life. If we want to be on the solid rock, we have to let our yes be yes, our no be no and we have to keep our eyes on Jesus. If we're wishy-washy, we will do what the world wants. We will adhere to what people say, what people wish. And for years, I did that. As a paid pastor, I tried to have a bit of integrity. But also, I tried to be a people-pleaser. And what I've learned as I've grown in the world, just in the world marketplace, but also in the kingdom of God with Jesus, you know, working with people, is that you have to have integrity and go off what you believe to be true. So, if you know something to be true in your business, and you go against your conscience, that, I have learned, is a very dangerous thing. It may seem good at the beginning, because you're appeasing someone, but in the long run, you could really do yourself damage. I believe it to be very dangerous to go against your conscience, to go against what you believe to be true. We would do much better to always listen to our conscience, to live according to the conscience God has given us. And when we're not sure, just to pray and say, “Lord, please give me wisdom beyond my years”. Now, obviously, there's times when what we think to be true is not true, and we have to be humble in everything. But we also have to live according to our conscience. And I think a lot of people are not living according to their conscience. Instead of standing up for what they believe, they just go along with the crowd.

I, for one, want to stand up for what I know to be true. How about you? Are you standing up for what you know to be true? Are you standing up for faith in Jesus? Are you standing up for the things that matter and count? Are you honest with people? Are you someone who is willing to make enemies just by default by you standing in the truth? Apparently, I have enemies. I have people that don't agree with me. And that is okay, because in the end, what matters is that I am on Jesus' side, and I have found peace with God. How about you? Do you have peace with God? Do you have the peace that passes all understanding? Is God himself with you? Are you with him? Or do you have peace with men, but is the living God against you? Is he angry with you? Is he upset with you because you are a Christian hypocrite and you're not practicing what you preach and you're not standing for what is truth? May the grace of Jesus be with you.

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