Peter Tan-Chi - Overcome Blurred Morality
Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Today, we continue our series on Life Detox. This is the second to the last episode. By next week, I will close the entire series on Life Detox, but today I find this so important that I want to share this with all of you from my heart. What do I mean? Detox deals with removing poisons, toxins from our lives. Why? Because toxins will eventually kill us; it will destroy us, it will impact us negatively. The topic today has to do with blurred morality. What do I mean? This is one of the most dangerous toxins that's happening today. We are not able to see clearly.
What do we mean by blurred? Blurred comes from the word hazy, foggy, not clear, it's muddy. In Tagalog, it's called "malabo". You don't see things clearly. The opposite of blurred is clear, distinct. What do we mean by morality? It's a set of standards that we believe in and we follow to guide our behavior. It is what determines what is right, and what is wrong. For example, murder is wrong. Stealing is wrong. Rape is wrong. Lying is wrong. That is the meaning of morality. We all have our set of moralities. The only problem is who determines what is right or wrong. Is it culture? Is it tradition? Is it society? Or is it God? This is so important, the foundation of our morality.
Can you imagine if morality is determined by society? What's going to happen? If you study sociology and you study history, you will notice years ago, slavery is a common practice in almost every culture all over the world, no exception. Slavery was accepted. In Germany, you have 6 million Jews who were killed. Do you know how they defended their actions? The Nazi officers were using society. They were saying, "This is what was practiced". You see, when you allow society to determine values, it can be dangerous. It can be the tyranny of the majority. But praise God, 2000 years ago, Jesus came. Slowly but surely, Christianity transformed the moral fiber of Europe, eventually America, and it impacted the rest of the world.
Why is it wrong to steal? Why is it wrong to murder? Why is it wrong to rape a young woman? You see, you find all of that in the Bible. People don't realize our morality comes from the word of God. Today, people are brainwashed to believe the following: "No one has the right to tell me what is right or wrong". That is what we meant by blurred morality today. "What is true for you may not be true for me. I cannot decide to tell you what is right or wrong for you. You must decide yourself what is right or wrong". In other words, it is now something personal; morality is no longer absolute. It's all relative. It is even wrong to impose your moral values on someone else.
This is the common belief of blurred morality: "I have the right to do anything I want. As long as I'm not hurting anyone". In other words, there is no such thing as absolute morality. Morality is now blurred. And the reason is we confuse morality with love and tolerance. For people to be loving is to accept everybody as is where is. "Don't judge them, let them do what they want to do in the name of love. As long as no one gets hurt". What is tolerance? Tolerance from a Biblical perspective is respect for others. You do not have to share their beliefs or their values or their lifestyle, but you treat them with respect. Today, to be tolerant means you cannot correct people. You just have to accept whatever they are doing in the name of tolerance and love.
What's the root problem of blurred morality? We confuse truth with beliefs. What do I mean? What's the difference between truth and beliefs? If I were to ask you how much is in this jar, this jar is full of coins. One-peso coins, five-peso coins. Notice the answer can no longer be based on belief, because my question is very specific. How much is in this jar? According to the owner, it's PHP1,421. What do you notice? The answer is precise: PHP1,421, meaning truth must be based on facts. Truth must be based on reality. Truth is not dependent on what you like to believe, it's not based on feelings. Truth is not dependent on whether you like it or you don't like it.
How do we overcome blurred morality? First, you have to understand truth is important. It matters. It impacts your life. It impacts your future. It can impact eternity. I'm reminded of what happened recently, when a building collapsed in Florida. I used to visit that place. It's a very popular tourist destination because it's beside the beach. The only problem was this: that building was not built according to standards, meaning it violated building codes. And you know what happened? When you violate standards, eventually there'll be consequences. Believe it or not, it took 40 years before the building would collapse. When it finally collapsed, 98 people died. What a waste of unnecessary death. And what is sad today is the reality of what's happening even in the Christian community.
If you look at this chart, you will notice, this is God, if this is God's standard, the word of God, the teachings of Jesus, and this is the church, and this is the world's standards, the secular values of the world. In the time of Jesus, He was considered radical, why? He respected women. He respected children. He taught them what's wrong with polygamy. He taught them what's wrong with sexual immorality. Jesus was radical. And the early church, if you study church history, you can see how the church was able to influence the world by moving the world closer and closer to God's standard. Why? Because they understood we have to be salt and light because moral standards are real.
They knew what is right and what is wrong. That's why they learned to love their enemies. And that is how Rome was conquered by Christianity. Today, what is sad is the church is now compromising in our desire to be popular, in our desire to be accepted, what's happening? We are not moving the world to God's standards, we are the one moving closer and closer to what the world believes in. If you look at what's happening to Christianity today, statistically, the divorce rate, immortality, there's hardly any difference! What is so sad is we have forgotten that there is such a thing as absolute morality. The topic today is how to overcome blurred morality.
I want to share with you the three R's. This will help you overcome blurred morality. The first R: realize truth matters. Truth is important. It matters. Second: learn to reject, learn to resist the lies of Satan. And number three: recognize God's goodness. What does it mean? I'm going to explain to you one by one. In John 8:31-32, Jesus wanted His disciples to understand the importance of truth; truth matters. And this is what He said: I want you to notice the following: according to Jesus, He's telling the Jews who believe in Him that it is not enough just to have a mental assent. To believe in the head is not enough. He's saying, "You want to be My disciples? This is what you must do: 'if you continue in My word'". Apparently, intellectual belief is one thing, but to believe from the heart is to obey, to follow the teachings of Jesus. And Jesus is telling us: who are true disciples?
Notice, if you continue. A way of life, not perfection, continue as a way of life "in My word, (in His teachings, not human teachings; in His teachings), then you are", notice, "truly (the emphasis is TRULY) disciples of Mine", meaning there are counterfeit disciples. But if you want to be a true disciple of Jesus, you have to be God-centered on His word. Be centered on the word of Jesus. And notice what will happen, these are the blessings, this is the by-product: The word "know" here comes from the word "you'll experience this". Not intellectually. In your life, in your heart, you would know. You become intimate. You will know the truth. Truth exists. "And the truth will make you free".
My goodness! Free from what? Free from blurred morality. Free from blurred vision. You'll learn to see what life is all about. And the context of John 8 has to do with sin. According to Jesus, if you continue reading it, they were asking Jesus, "Free from what"? And Jesus said, "He who commits sin is a slave of sin. But if the Son will set you free, you'll be free indeed". So knowing the truth is equal to knowing Jesus, knowing the Son; and by knowing the Son, the Bible says you will be set free: free from addiction, free from the slavery of fear, anger, bitterness, all kinds of sin. That is what God offers us. That's why in order to experience the reality of overcoming blurred morality, you must know truth matters.
Truth is important. That's why Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life". Jesus is very emphatic. And this is where you begin to understand what is truth. Truth is not dependent on feelings. When Jesus said, "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life," no one comes to the Father except through Him, He's making a very dogmatic, narrow statement. Either it is true, or it is not true. So what is truth? Truth is objective. It's anchored on the word of God. It is not based on what majority believes in. It is not dependent on what you think or what you believe. It is not dependent on whether you like it or you don't like it, whether you agree or you don't agree. It has nothing to do with how you personally feel, because truth is truth. And God is saying you will know truth when you know God's word. What does it mean, truth matters? Why should you know the word of God?
In Genesis chapter 3:1-3, let's read: The first statement that is coming out of the mouth of Satan is an attack on the truth of God's word. Satan said, "Has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'"? He twisted the word of God. God did not say that. But notice how he twisted it: "'You shall not eat from any tree'"? Now, you and I know Eve did not exactly repeat the teachings of God completely. She kind of exaggerated. It's so important that you must know the word of God. The question is this: what makes it right for Adam and Eve to eat certain fruit and not to eat a particular fruit? Who gave them permission?
Now you understand: God is the Creator, He's the designer, and He knows what is best. And when God says something, my friend, He has the authority, He sets the rules... The reason why there is absolute morality is because you have a sovereign God who has the power and the wisdom to issue rules and commandments. It's always for our protection. You don't invent truth, we discover truth. The same thing when it comes to God's moral laws. What makes it wrong to murder? To lie? To show disrespect to parents? Simple. God issued the decree. And ultimate truth cannot come from mankind. It cannot come from the wisdom of men. It can only come from God who made us, who designed us, who knows what is best for us.
The second principle I'd like you to learn to overcome blurred morality is the principle of rejecting the lies of Satan. You must learn to know the truth so that you can reject the lies of Satan. Do you remember Jesus, when He was tempered? How did Jesus overcome the lies of Satan? By quoting Scriptures. You must know the clear teaching of God's word, because God makes it very clear what is right and what is wrong. Satan is a deceiver. He's not only a liar, the Bible tells us, he is a schemer, he is a deceiver. What do I mean? Let's look at Genesis. What was the second statement of Satan? This is what he said: Can you see how Satan is lying? God said, "If you eat that, you will die". Satan is saying, "Uh-uh, you will not die".
You see, the Bible is very clear. Jesus tells us, tells His disciples about Satan, about the devil. Jesus said That is why God is very strict. The Bible is very clear in the book of Revelation: no liar will inherit the kingdom of God, because lying is the very nature of Satan; and God is saying, "I want us to be truthful". I praise God, we have an amazing God who wants us to be truthful, to be honest. I praise God that the Bible describes God who will never lie. In the book of Titus, it says God will never lie, but Satan is a liar. That's why today, if you see what's happening in the world, you have a lot of fake news. Why? Because they lie through their teeth as if nothing is going to happen. Satan is a liar and a deceiver.
What do we mean when the Bible talks about Satan as a liar and a deceiver? He gives false promises. He tells us things that are not true. For example, he promises counterfeit happiness. Do you know why people will compromise their moral values? Because in their desire, they want to be happy, but they're deceived into thinking that what they do will bring them real happiness. My friend, there's a big difference between pleasure and happiness. God wants us to experience real joy, real happiness for eternity. For Satan's lies, it's all about temporal pleasure. But the problem is this: they are counterfeit. Eventually they will hurt you. I like this illustration: when you want to get rid of ants in your house, I call them sugar-coated poison.
There are certain chemicals that you can buy where you attract the ants and they will go into that box and they eat it. You know why? Because it tastes good for them. They don't die immediately. The purpose is to get rid of the entire colony. That is what Satan will do to us. He gives you sugar-coated poison. And when you disobey God's word, it may feel good, and you think it's okay. It's not okay. Slowly but surely it will destroy your soul. It will destroy you. No wonder the Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 4, here is a warning: "For the time will come", the Bible is explicit. In other words, the day will come when people will not want to listen to the truth, and notice what it says: And this is what's happening today.
Satan is influencing the world through media, through social media, through all kinds of movies, to desensitize us so that eventually we turn our ears, "to turn away their ears from the truth", because we're so brainwashed into thinking what's wrong is right and what's right is wrong, "and turn aside to myths". How do we turn our ears from the truth? You will notice today, cancel culture is very popular. When you don't agree with somebody, you write them off. You don't want to discuss. That is Satan's way of preventing people from having discussion, having intelligent dialogue so that we can arrive at the truth. Therefore be careful in cancelling anybody just because you disagree with them. And if they cancel you, don't give up, keep reaching out.
Remember Jesus said, "and the truth will set you free". Keep loving people. Don't be intimidated by cancel culture. Examples of lies of Satan: Sounds logical, huh? Look at that kind of logic. Sounds good! So what's wrong with it if everyone is doing it? Nobody's getting hurt. You only live once. Sounds good! My friend, this is what's happening today. They want us to believe violation of God's truth has no consequences. It doesn't matter. Friends, be careful, because the Bible warns us in Proverbs 14:12: Notice what the Bible is saying: In other words, don't have a short-term mentality.
See the big picture. You've got to see the heart of God. When God gives us rules, it's always for our protection. Satan is a deceiver. The lies of Satan are so attractive, you know why? He's saying happiness means you must have freedom, free to do whatever you want to do. God's word, religion, Christianity, rules are very restrictive. And what do you notice? Those kinds of lies, counterfeit freedom is thinking you can do whatever you feel like doing without any consequences. No rules, no boundaries. Guess what's going to happen? You have seen this with your own eyes. Let's take the example of drugs.
When you were younger, you were thinking, "Wow, I am free; I can take drugs," without realizing eventually you become enslaved. You become a drug addict. Pornography. Wow! The pleasure it gives you. Eventually you become addicted to pornography. It impacts your sex life. Alcohol. Nothing wrong with drinking, but if you don't understand the principle, you get drunk and pretty soon you become an alcoholic. You see, God gives us rules for our protection. Now you begin to understand when God created the birds, they're meant to fly.
So birds are happiest when they fly. You don't put the bird in the water and tell the birds, "You know what? You need to enjoy water". No, they were not designed for water. They were designed to fly. The same thing with the fish. A fish is designed by God to enjoy water. You don't tell the fish, "I'm going to get you out of the water; I want you to experience what it means to live in the land". My friend, the fish will die. God made you and me for holiness. God made you and me to know Him, to enjoy Him. Once we fail to understand God's design and we look for happiness, nothing wrong to look for happiness, but if you look for happiness in the wrong place, the wrong way, the end will be disaster.
The third principle I'd like you to learn is to recognize the goodness of God. What does it mean to recognize? I like what A. W. Tozer said: What you think about God is most important. For some people they think God is a cosmic KJ. They think that God just likes to give rules to make us miserable. No, no, no. You must recognize rules are there because of the goodness of God. Recognize God's goodness; learn to see God's love, God's goodness all over the place. It depends on your perspective. What do I mean?
Let's look at Genesis 3:5 and 6. You will notice Satan was attacking the very character of God, the very goodness of God. Satan is saying, You know what Satan is saying? "God is depriving you. God is not good! He is preventing you from experiencing what is good for you". Satan is telling Eve, "God is depriving you of something that you deserve". Satan is appealing to Eve that "you disobey God, because God is not after your best interests". Notice what happened in verse six. What happened? The woman fell to the lies of Satan. She focused on his lies without realizing Genesis 2. What is Genesis 2? What Eve was discovering, that the tree was good for food, delight for the eyes, ladies and gentlemen, God offered that in Genesis 2.
Let me read for you the goodness of God, which Satan did not highlight. In Genesis 2:8: Notice the goodness of God. He planted a garden, probably the most beautiful garden you can ever see or imagine. Do you notice? What did God do? He planted all kinds of trees. What kind of trees? Notice: "every tree that is pleasing to the sight..." Wow, it's a delight to the eyes, "and good for food"! Wow! That is already what God provided in the context of adam and Eve, saying, "Hey, I want to enjoy life"! And then he added There are two trees mentioned here: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But do you notice something? Because in God's desire, in His plan, He does not want us to be robots.
So God gave us a choice. Why? God could have made us into robots. No problem, where we don't have to choose to follow Him or not to follow Him, we don't have to choose to obey Him or not to obey Him, we don't have to choose to trust Him or not to trust Him. We can just be robots. But once we are just robots, we cease to become human. What makes us human is our will, to choose yes or no. Notice the next verse. Now this is the amazing command: notice, from any tree. Satan did the opposite. Satan is simply saying, "Are you telling me you cannot eat from those trees"? He did the opposite. God is saying "from any tree of the garden you may eat". Any tree. Wow! All kinds of trees: chico. Wow! Apple, oranges, mango, durian. Wow! Except, notice: God was very clear.
God sets rules for our protection so that we will learn to make good choices. To recognize the goodness of God, you need to change your perspective. When it comes to the commandments of God, when it comes to the word of God, especially all of His rules, they are meant to protect us. They are meant to help us to enjoy, maximize our pleasure and life. My best example is a basketball game. In the Philippines, we all play basketball. What do you notice? In order to enjoy a basketball game, you have rules. How many can play in the court? How many seconds can you hold the ball? What are the things prohibited? Kicking. Grabbing somebody.
Why do you have such rules? To protect us and to promote maximum enjoyment. Recognize the goodness of God. When you read the Bible, realize all of these rules are there to protect us, especially when it comes to rules about sex and about marriage. God invented sex, He invented marriage, and God is saying these are the ground rules. Why? For your protection, for your enjoyment. That is why I encourage everybody: read Psalm 34. How will you know, if I bake a cake and I tell you, "This cake is delicious, this cake is good"? By looking at it? Yeah, but you won't really know it is good. The same thing with God. How do you know God is good? How do you know that He really wants our best interest? What does it mean to taste and see?
Notice the next verse. "Blessed is the man who takes refuge", meaning you put your trust and your faith in Him. You take refuge. He becomes the object of your trust and your faith. To taste the Lord, it's like the cake, you eat it. God wants you to invite Jesus to come into your heart, and that's why the only way to know the goodness of God is to have an encounter. Not religion; a personal relationship with Him. "O taste and see that the Lord is good". He's not talking about religion, he's talking about a personal relationship with God. And that's why Jesus tells us That's the purpose of Jesus: to give us life, to give to us abundantly.
How do you know the goodness of God? How do you know God really loves you? He came to give us life. The opposite of His purpose is the devil, he's the one to steal, kill, destroy. How many lives have been destroyed today? Just look around us. A lot of people, they've lost their family, they've lost their health because of violation of following God's truth. And that's why this message is very crucial. There are two ways to be fooled, two ways. According to this author, one is to believe what is not true, and there are many people today that are being deceived. And the other is to refuse to believe what is true out of pride, out of wanting a certain lifestyle, you refuse to believe what is true. That's why our role is to speak the truth in love.
How do we apply this blurred morality message? I want us to learn to speak the truth in love. We are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head. To be like Christ, you need to learn to speak the truth in love. Notice two important words: when you speak truth in love. What does that mean? Sometimes, we speak the truth in anger, in pride, judging people; or you can speak the truth in love. For some of us, it's all about love. And because of love, we try to avoid the truth, we don't want to hurt people. Many of us have a wrong view of what love is. You see what is love to you? Because you hear this: "Because of love, we should be allowed to do this".
Love is to seek the welfare of the others. Love is to seek what is good for the others. Not lust, which is self-centered love. Distorted love is about being self-centered. "I do not want to hurt them. I don't want to tell them the truth". Is that really love or is it self-love? Think about it. If you love somebody, why will you not tell them the truth? If you really care for somebody? If you're afraid that they'll get angry at you, my friend, you are not loving them, you are loving yourself. You have to understand what true love is. When it comes to discussing the elephant in the room, what do I mean? The elephant in the room is something that's very obvious, but people don't like to talk about it. I'm referring to sexual sin: adultery, immorality, fornication, LGBTQ+ issue. These are sensitive issues, and this is the elephant in the room.
How do we put this into practice? I'd like to help you. I'd like you to know I'm sharing this out of love, and this is not my own personal view. I want to share with you how much God loves you and what He wants you to know. What do I mean? Let's look at the Bible. You will notice how the apostle Paul addressed the issue of sexual immorality. He did not just focus on LGBTQ+, he talked about all kinds of sexual immorality, all kinds of sin. And that is something we need to understand: in the eyes of God, sin is sin. God loves sinners, and he wants to address this to everybody today, the importance of overcoming blurred morality.
Let's look at what it says. Here is an amazing warning. Out of love, he now tells them the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Very clear. The Bible is very clear. You will not go to heaven if you are unrighteous. What does it mean to be unrighteous? In other words, don't be deceived by the devil. Don't be deceived by society. Don't be fooled. "Neither", notice now, sexual immorality, "fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God". Do you notice something? The sins are treated the same. Perhaps some of you are struggling with adultery, not homosexuality. Perhaps some of you are struggling with covetousness, but not idolatry. Or you're an adulterer, whatever it is, God is saying you need to repent.
And then here is the good news: Notice the grammar: it is a certainty that there is hope, there is salvation for people who used to live a lifestyle of sin. You were washed, completely cleansed. That's the idea of "washed". All your sins are forgiven. Washed. You were sanctified, not just remove; sanctified means what? Made holy in the eyes of God, set apart for God. You were justified. The word "justified" is a legal term. You are declared not guilty. Wow! What an amazing promise that all of us sinners, including me, can have this amazing assurance of salvation, of forgiveness. "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God". I want you to focus on "such were some of you, but", notice the word, "but", "you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified". That's the good news.
So how do you apply this? Speak the truth in love. I've asked my wife to share with us her experience in speaking the truth in love. As Peter shared, we are to share the truth and love. We have to realize that God loves everyone. As it says, "God so loved the world", that includes all of us who've ever been born, who are living now, and whoever will be born, "that He gave Jesus His Son to die for us so that we could have everlasting life". So when we share the gospel, we have to share it in love with whomever we're speaking.
So let me share a story with you to illustrate what I'm saying. And also I'm going to use the acronym, L.O.V.E. Many years ago, over 20 years ago, a mother called me panicking. She said, "Deonna, my daughter who's just 15, has run away with her friend and her girlfriend, and I don't know where they are. Can you find her and go talk to her"?
And I thought, how would I find her? So we prayed together. It was impossible, but by God's grace, we were able to locate where she was. So without her knowing I was coming, I went to the house. It was quite a ways away; I drove myself, knocked on the door and the lady was surprised, but she let me in. And the girl was sleeping. So I prayed, "Lord, how do I share with her"? And in a little while the girl came down, she was quite surprised to see me. And she said, "Oh, Tita (Auntie), why are you here"? I said, "I'm here to let you know that God really loves you. And it's His love that compelled me to come here to share with you".
So the first letter L: you have to let them know that God really loves them. And the reality is I felt the love of God in my heart for her. What did I do next? So she just kind of looked at me and I said, "So, can you tell me your story? Tell me about your friend. What are your plans"? It's called O: open communication. And I let her talk, and she told me, "Well, I really love this girl, and we want to have a life together. We plan to get a job in the military and we plan to support ourselves and have a family". So as I listened to her, I said, "Well, can I share God's word with you"? It's called open God's word. I said, "This is not really between you and your parents or you and me. It's really ultimately between you and God. I know you believe in God.
So what does God have to say? So let's open the Bible and read". And I let her read the passage that Peter had read earlier in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. It says, "do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God"? And I let her read the verses that no immoral person, homosexual, adulterer, et cetera, will inherit the kingdom of God. And I said, "With the choices that you're making, what is God telling you"? So she said, "Well, God is saying that if I, if I choose this lifestyle, I won't have eternal life". I said, "Really? Are you sure of that"? She said, "Yes, I see that". And then I said, "Let me ask you a question: do you really love this girl"? She said, "Of course! I love her, I want to have a life with her".
I said, "Really? Do you really love her or are you just loving yourself"? She said, "No, I really love her". I said, "Well, if you really love her, then you will break off this relationship because staying in this relationship is going to cause you eternal destruction. And the reality is God loves you, that's why He sent me here to tell you the truth. You have a choice to make". I said, "But the good news is that you can have victory in Christ. And the next verse says that 'such were some of you', this was your lifestyle, 'but you have been washed, you have been justified, you've been sanctified.'" Do you know, as I was talking to her and she was listening to me, I could see her thinking.
And then the last thing I did E: I encouraged her to really trust in Jesus Christ, to really believe in His love and His plan for her life, and to really embrace Him as her Lord and Savior. And you know, she prayed with me. And when she prayed, I saw something happen in her eyes. I didn't know what it was, I didn't know if she'd really trusted Jesus, I just entrusted her to Jesus. But I said, "I love you and I'm here for you, and anytime you need me, just call". And I left. And that was the last I'd ever heard of the story. Peter and I were on our way to Baguio last year, and on our way, we stopped at a gas station to go to the restroom.
There was a group of people sitting at a table and one of the ladies stood up and came to me and she said, "Deonna"! And I thought, "Oh, she knows me". I said, "How do you know me"? She said, "You know, you shared the Gospel. You talked to my sister years ago when she ran away with her friend. And I want to tell you what happened". And I said, "Well, what happened? I've been praying for her". She said she went home and she broke off the relationship with that girl when she understood the love of God and His plan for her, and she went off to college, she graduated, and then she became a missionary, and she is serving God these last 20 years. It really touched my heart because what wins is love, we all are sinners. We are not to judge others but we are to love them enough, take the risk enough to teach them and share with them the love of God, the truth of God in love.
And the Bible says that He who began a good work in us, will complete it. That's his job. And so I pray that if any of you are struggling out there, this is not a judgment. This is to let you know that I'm a sinner who's found the love of God and the joy of doing things his way and the gift of eternal life. And I want to pass that onto you because He loves you more than you can ever imagine. God bless you. Praise God for His love. Have you recognized the goodness of God in your life? How do you recognize His goodness? You receive Him. It's important that you receive God's goodness through Jesus. And that's why He wants you to come to Him.
Remember, Jesus died on the cross not to lower God's moral standards but to lift us up, to enable us to live up to His moral standards. Why? Because God knows there is no real happiness, no real joy, apart from following God's standards. There is no real happiness without holiness. So Jesus died so that we will have the power and the desire and the ability to live up to God's standards. The solution is never to compromise or lower God's standards. That will result in blurred values. The solution is simple: to come to Jesus, to surrender to Him, all our failures, and to trust Him now to forgive our sins, to experience His love and grace, and to have the power to obey Him through the Holy Spirit. And my friend at the end of the day, life is really about choices.
That's why it is important for you to know: What do we mean? God's standard for happiness, for joy, yes, it's not easy. In fact, it is supernatural. However, God has given us the power, and that's why you need to understand: the Christian ideals for many people have never been tried because what we have is religion. It has been found difficult, why? Because you have not tried it. To try it is to surrender everything to Jesus. This is my encouragement. God wants us to make a choice, because at the end, life is about choices. You choose eventually what to believe. You can choose to believe yourself, you can choose to believe human opinions, or you can choose to believe the promises of God, the promises of Jesus.
Life is about choices, but remember: choices have consequences. And for me, the consequences are so real and so important. Choose eternal life. Beware of falling in the lies of Satan, because the consequences have eternal implications. In Deuteronomy 30:19, God tells us to make a choice. The Bible says, How do you choose life? By loving the Lord, important thing; know Him. Realize, recognize His goodness by loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice and holding fast to Him. And how do you do that? I want to pray for you. I want you to surrender your life to Jesus. He loves you. We love you. We don't condemn you. God loves you. Let's pray:
Lord Jesus, I realize my life has been empty. I realized that apart from You, I cannot find real happiness. Today, I surrender my will, my desire. I now invite You to come into my life. Lord, change my heart, change my desire. I accept Your gift of forgiveness. I accept your gift of eternal life. Thank You for dying on the cross by loving me, and help me to love You back. In Jesus' name, we all pray. Amen.