I understand the Church hurt you, and now you may be a home-alone Christian. I have a message entitled, 'If you are disillusioned about the church, it is because you have an illusion of the church.' The Church is not always a safe place. If you come to Church, you will get wounded sooner or later. But we are wounded no matter where we go, to Church or somewhere secular. So why not return to Church, where healing also occurs? It is better to be injured by a friend than kissed by the enemy. And the comfort you are receiving by staying away from a body of believers is the enemy of your soul, not your friend. Come back to the body of Christ and get healed.

The Church is both religious and relational. Yet, we get to choose which one we are. The Church will always have rulekeepers who lack grace and relationship. The Church will also have the grace healers found in relationships who know pain ensues when boundaries are not respected. To be in a relationship with Jesus means to also be in a relationship with His Church. If you live longer than the thief on the cross, more is expected of you. Don't die at home alone.

I know that the Church has lost her salt for many. Churches of our day are irrelevant to our culture because we have lost our unique identity to solve the hopelessness of society. We are another cog in the system that doesn't give a way out. So, the Church is disdained. People have an illusion of what the Church is thus are disillusioned when it does not conform to their expectation. For many reasons, people don't know the value of the church and its local body.

One reason people have left the Church is thinking it is an educational institution. Why attend and go through useless traditions when we can streamline knowledge through a book or podcast?

Another reason people have left the Church is because it doesn't meet their social service needs. Government and secular services do a better job of meeting temporal needs. People have flipped the major and minor commissions of the Church. The primary function of the Church is to make disciples. Secondary care is for people's natural needs. Even Jesus said you follow me because I gave you bread, not because I offer signs of eternal life. Most people don't want spiritual help. They want their natural needs met. The Church cannot meet the insatiable demands of the flesh. Neither can the government, but that is another lesson.

We are saved by grace through faith and not works, lest we boast. Everything from God is by grace. If it is by work, then it cannot be by grace because work earns a payday. Again, everything in the Kingdom of God is paid for by the grace of God and not the works of men. There are works, the privilege of being a citizen in the Kingdom of God. We are rewarded for excellence but not payment for work rendered. We cannot add anything to the finished work on the cross.

I do not believe a person can lose their salvation like you do a set of keys. I do, however, think we can neglect the gift of salvation as if it has no value to us, thus opting out or surrendering all the benefits that come with the death and resurrection of Jesus.

We don't lose our free will at the new birth. We must live a lifetime of surrendering our will to be done in so much that the Father's will is done. Around 1948, the church age changed seasons from the Philadelphia church age to the Laodicea church age or, as I call it, the Lackadaisical Church. Like the year's seasons, Spring is scheduled for March 20th, but it may come early or late, and both winter and Spring coexist for a while. So has the Church of Philadelphia and Laodicea.

In the last few generations, we have transitioned from a brotherly love church to a self-loving church. We went from the greatest generation who laid down their life as a sign of greater love to a generation of self-love. We saw a generation who shed their blood for freedom in WWII and today's generation who are shedding their freedom for blood in the streets of America.

Now, onto what discipleship and age-appropriate Lordship are. How many disciples did Jesus have? You answered short if you thought twelve like many people would answer. It is written that the resurrected Jesus appeared to five hundred-plus disciples. Remember, Jesus chose the twelve apostles of the Lamb from a group of many disciples.

In simplest terms, a disciple turns away from leading himself to surrendering leadership to Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

Every time we go to church, we are discipled, at least for those with ears to hear. Every time we read the Bible, listen to a biblical podcast, or read a gospel post on the internet or magazine, we are discipled.

Some believe that discipleship is relinquishing control to another person or establishment. A falling in line with the doctrine or traditions of certain religious men. Some bring up fear with accountability and shepherding. Accountability and leadership are important, but it should not violate free will and conscience. The fear is legitimate but shouldn’t stop us from discipleship in the way God intended.

People shy away from discipleship because of experiencing an out-of-control pastor or teacher. I once had a pastor calling people awol or MIA if they didn't notify him when they would miss a meeting. I find it respectful to tell leadership whether I can make it, but it is not owed and must certainly not be demanded. Also, I am not talking about leadership roles or breaking commitments. I mean, the pastor wanted control of people's lives. He wanted Lordship. Lordship only belongs to the Lord and not a man. I can't even be Lord in my own life if I am going to follow Jesus, so why would I choose another flesh and blood person to lord over me? God set up authorities that we are to submit to but not as if they are Lord, owners of our souls.

Our Lord and Savior commanded us to go into all the world and make disciples. But in our haste and microwave society, we want to rush to the good part and focus on conversions. Everyone likes a baby! They are so innocent and refreshing.

But discipleship doesn't begin with the born-again experience. There must be conception first. A seed must be sown before there can be fruit.

At what point were the disciples born again or saved? A theologian may say at Pentecost. Others may say the disciples were saved when Jesus breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit, a renewed picture of the garden when God breathed into the nostrils of the first man, and he became a living soul.

Still, others may say when Jesus asked the disciples who do you say that I am? Peter then hears from the Spirit of God and no longer second-hand revelation from flesh and blood. And we can't forget Nathan, who knew at his first meeting with Jesus. But conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit. Our work is discipleship like Jesus did until the disciples start hearing from the Holy Spirit.

Allow me to preach from God's creation of the heavens and the Earth. God created the Sun for the greater light of the day and the stars and the moon for the lesser night light. The Sun is a star but much brighter and is the star that gives Earth life. The stars are angels that have been given their light to serve God and His kingdom, which are the inheritors of salvation, us. The moon has no light but only reflects the light of the Sun and has a dark side that receives no sunlight. Again, the Sun is Jesus. The stars are the angels, and the moon is the fallen man.

Many people have come into the presence of Jesus in His earthly ministry, and our day of churches walked out shining with the glory of God because of what they heard. And you would think, indeed, they have been born-again and love God. But as the moon circles around the Earth and the Earth circles the Sun, we see an awful dark side of man. And here, we begin to make up our doctrines by observing man's behavior rather than the timeless Word of God.

We forget Moses, who, just like us, fallen and in need of a born-again experience, saw the things of God on that mountain and came down shinning with the glory of God, a light so bright that a veil was required among the people.

You were auto-enrolled in discipleship school when you became born-again in Christ Jesus. There is no waiting period where Jesus is Savior; then, one day, He becomes Lord, and then you become His disciple. Salvation without Lordship is a manmade doctrine or religious construct based on the intention of the will with no regard to internal change or the eternal Word of God. The outside remains dirty because the inside didn’t change. But the person seems sincere in their words and declarations but are not concerned with a dirty diaper. And there are who are changed in a moment and are concerned about their outside but are left in their burial clothes as Lazarus was until Jesus commanded them to change him. Many believers are neglected because that have not been told the need for discipleship.

Paul, an apostle, tells us several times not to argue over words as they do not lead to righteous living. So, rather than be a word police when I hear someone say Jesus is my Savior but not yet my Lord, I let them define what they say before redirecting appropriately.

Last week, I talked about this man-made class and the division of the saints, the believers, and the disciples. Many in the church have falsely communicated, if not said outright, that believers receive the gift of salvation and that the disciples are either in the ministry or those looking for extra credit as overachievers. Jesus gave the Great Commission to make disciples, not subjective believers. We should know who belongs to God or the devil by their fruit, not their statement of faith or their truth.

I am giving an abstract view of the gospel so that your salvation does not rely on the cunningness of words but on the grace of God in Christ Jesus. In God's power, one is saved and not through intellectual understanding. The concrete gospel in John 3:16, Romans 10:8-10 and many other scriptures is good and leads us to the One and only Savior Jesus. But many are hearers of scriptures and not doers, so they stop with the reading of the scripture and do not do what it says to do. They think they have eternal life in the scripture they know but will not go to the Savior the scripture speaks of.

Jesus did not come to earth with a warrant and a guilty verdict of man's sinfulness. Jesus came to save, not judge. Jesus came to save those with a godly sorrow and a contrite heart. Jesus did not come to save those who have an admission of guilt but lack godly sorrow and a justification for continual sin.

Many people in prison and jails across this nation today have confessed their guilt but have no sorrow for what they did. These sinners claim their guilt, justify why, and then pay the time for the crime, waiting to get out to continue life on their terms. Like many baby Christians, they are not justified in Christ Jesus as if they never sinned but self-justified in their sin—an admission of sin but no repentance. Yes, I'm guilty of breaking the law, but I am justified in why I did it and continue it! Like the adulterer who blames his wife for cheating, my wife wasn't fulfilling her duties, so I had to go outside the covenant to meet my needs. The husband admits his guilt and then justifies it.

Most Christians have done just that; they made themselves at home in this fallen and falling world. We have taken a bite out of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, just like our first parents. Instead of heeding warnings that our life is a vapor, here today, gone tomorrow. We have put away our tents and camps to no longer take the pilgrimage with Abraham, looking for a better city to come, the New Jerusalem. We instead settle where we are and look to reform what we have.

God gives us a glimpse of what He has for the humble, and the devil comes right away to give us a glimpse of what we can have in a micro-moment. It is often the same vision but a quicker timeline because we are without patience and want it now. Instead of worshipping God through serving Him only, we bow down in front of the god of this world and serve ourselves.

So, we Christians have made this world our home. We reform, refurbish, and renovate. And in doing so, we forget we are in this world but not of it. Instead of seeking God for His will to be done, we plan alongside the world for our will to be done over the seventy or eighty years we believe we have. We are not seeking God to redeem our time but living our time as if we have all the time in the world. We don't need to redeem the time if God doesn't have a definite time to return. There is a set time even if there is a slight delay.

And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity. – Luke 13:22-27

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, - 1 Timothy 4:1-2

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, - Hebrews 3:12-14

September 11, 2001, 9/11 is a day to remember. Of the 2,977 people who died that day, I want to remember the estimated 200 jumpers.

When the plane hit the first tower, all elevators and stairwells to the upper floors were demolished; there was no going down to save yourself and no first responders going up to the rescue. Because of the fire, no helicopter rescues were possible. The only way to escape the inferno was to jump.

The Twin Towers were about one-quarter a mile high, 1,368 feet tall, or 110 stories. The media stayed away mostly from broadcasting the jumpers. You can find some pictures and videos, but the jumps were so horrendous that the public couldn't stomach the visual.

The firefighters who gathered for direction at the doors of the Twin Towers would hear these thuds, thinking it was debris falling about, aghast that it was the bodies of men and women. Every few seconds, there would be a thud. Bodies of husbands and wives, sisters and brothers, friends and schoolmates were smashing to the ground. A few people jumped together, holding hands. The first firefighter casualty was a falling jumper.

What is it that the public couldn't stomach, the view of people jumping to their deaths, that the jumpers found falling a more tolerable death? I must paint a picture that I can only imagine why they chose to jump.