Faithbase

So, God has put something on my heart for the past, past couple days now and I haven't been able to shake it and then I read this article this morning on Facebook that just man, it shook me and it was powerful and II had to say something. This article is about a group of of preacher's wives who took it upon themselves to go visit strip clubs and they didn't go visit strip clubs to to condemn them and rebuke them and to shove Jesus down their throats. They they just simply went to love on them, bring them some gift baskets and just and just fellowship with them. Show them that they're loved and in this article, one of the strippers said something to one of to one of the preacher's wives that even till now II can't, it makes no sense to me and she said, your church is different and the and the preacher's wife, she said, what what do you mean? Like, what does that mean? We're different and she said, you've come here to show me love when there's a church down the street who sends us hate mail and as as a follower of Christ, as a Christian, I can't. People that that take yourselves out of your own world for just a little bit remove yourself from your own selfishness, your own perspective, what you feel life should be about for just a second because there are people in this world who walk around every day who have absolutely no clue what love is because they've never been shown. They've never been shown what unconditional love is. They've never been shown what it's like for someone to care about them regardless of their choices. Okay and most of the time, those people are what we call the deplorables, the sinful, the ones that society has already cast away because they're not like us because they don't live the way we feel that they should because in our minds, we're better than them. So for just a second, take yourself out of your own selfishness and listen to this because I was one of those people, the drug addicts, the drug dealers, the strippers, the prostitutes, the homosexuals, people who walk around every day not ever understanding what it's like to feel loved and for me for what the Bible tells me to do because it's far more. There's more to being a Christian and following a set of rules and thinking that you're better than everybody because the Christ that I follow the Bible that I read, it calls me to love my neighbor the way Christ has loved me. Okay. You see there's a point in my life whenever I was lost in my addiction. I was so lost. I was so lost that I didn't even I couldn't even give you give you an understanding of where I was mentally. I couldn't give you an understanding of where I was was spiritually. I was gone and I was lost and II didn't even want to live anymore. Okay and I remember my mom invited me to church and at this point, I hadn't been to church in a while. Okay. I completely cast God to the side because Iraq gave me a different perspective that caused me to really hate and be mad at God. So I didn't want nothing to do with him, but I love my mom and my mom. She she invited me to church where I say, yeah, I'll go for you because my mom knew I needed it because she's been a spiritual rock of my life for a long time and I remember I went to church right. I went to it was it was Grace Church in humble. I also had the cocaine in my pocket from the night before I was still wearing the same clothes and I remember sitting in the service and the Preacher was talking about how you you take that pain you take everything that you feel about yourself because I promise what you feel about these people. They think ten times and then some you're not going to think anything negative that they already haven't felt about themselves and this sermon was about taking all that and just leaving it at the foot of the cross taking all that pain and that hatred and that resentment towards yourself and just leaving it at the cross and I couldn't shake it. So at the end of the service when everybody what I thought left my mom didn't even see this. I thought nobody was watching. I took that cocaine and I put it on the stage. I put it right in front of the podium because at that point in my life, there was so much pain and hatred and resentment in my heart and I didn't want to live that way no more. You think you think drug addicts choose to be drug addicts. We don't the drugs are taking a hold of us and we can't we can't control it, but I knew I didn't want to live that way anymore and I remember this old man. He came up to me and he said son. I saw what you put on that stage and I want you to know what you just put down does not define you your mistakes do not define you what you think about yourself does not define you because God who we serve who is above all he loves you and I'm here to tell you he gave me the biggest hug I've ever had in my entire life and he said God loves you and I love you and don't you dare let that define who you are you grow from this you move forward because that is not who you are. You're a child of God and he has given you grace and that's forgiving you for things that you haven't even done yet. I see a lot of people talking about change. Oh, I want to change the world. I want to I want to help suicide. I want to I want to I want to make all these changes for people yet you understand you can't change somebody with condemnation with rebuking with guilt and shame you think you're going to change somebody by reminding them what they already think of themselves. That's not how that works. You really want to change somebody show them what they could be remind them what they could be if they themselves made the choice to change because you condemning them and rebuking them is not going to give them a reason to want to how you're going to have somebody change if you're already reminding them of what they already think of themselves all that pain and that darkness and that resentment that's inside of them and all you want to do is remind them of that. Ain't nobody going to change. You know who leads the statistics? The one group of individuals who at the top of the suicide stats, you want to know who that is? It's teenagers. Can you imagine that? Teenagers lead the way in suicide. I can only imagine being a 1314 year old kid going through life with so much pain that they think ending it is how they're going to solve it. Can you imagine the impact that we can make if you just take these people by the hand not condemning them or rebuking them just take them by the hand and show them what it's like to love to love on them and to make them understand that God does not make junk. I don't care if you're a Christian. It doesn't take believing in Christ to love somebody. I don't care if you go to church. I don't care if you believe in God. It doesn't matter what you believe in. It doesn't take believing in anything to just simply take somebody by the hand and show them you are more than this. You are more than your mistakes. You are more than your than your failures. You are more than the resentment and the hatred that you have for yourself because nobody in this world ever hated me more than I hated myself. I promise you that nobody ever thought less of me than I thought of myself. I couldn't even look in the mirror because I just wanted to smash it every time I saw it because of who I thought that I was and if it wasn't for somebody taking me by the hand and showing me the the the the true love of Christ showing me what it's like to be loved without conditions showing me what it's like who even though that man didn't know who I was. He still loved me and I could feel it. I could feel his love. I'll never forget that hug because if it wasn't for that hug, ladies and gentlemen, I wouldn't be here. I was one of those who wanted to commit suicide and I tried. I tried hard. Stop condemning these people, man. Stop rebuking them and give them judgment because who are you to judge anybody? What part of you what what situation in your life makes you think you have the right to judge anybody in this world? We are all sinners and we have all fallen short of the glory of God. So who are we to not show other people the same grace Christ has shown us? You want to change the world? Start with love. That's how you change this world. That's how you get somebody to even want to change as you show them that they are loved. You show them that they're not worthless because they already feel that way. You show them that they're bigger than that pain and that life is bigger than that darkness and help them out. Help them off the ground. Don't kick them while they're down there. Because that's who Christ spent his time with. You open your Bible and you read about Jesus, how he spent his time with the plurals. He ate with him. He sat with him. He fellowshiped with them to the point that the religious elite, the Pharisees, we thought that they were the baddest of the they hated him for it. Of all the commandments that we learn about in the Bible of all the rules that we talk about when it comes to being a Christian, which is not rules. It's just a simply it's just God giving us a better way to live so that we can restore ourselves and find blessings but whatever you wanna call those the greatest of all these commandments that Jesus has given to us. He says it himself as love. That's that's it. How hard is it to just show somebody some love? How hard is it to just simply put aside your own selfishness and your own perspectives and think this person may be dealing with someone that I know nothing about. This person may have some experiences that I've never experienced in my life. So instead of judging you, I'm gonna reach out my hand. I'm gonna pick you up and I'm gonna show you what it's like to love. That's how you change this world. Imagine the impact we can make. Imagine the impact you as one person can make if you just simply show somebody who already feels like a piece of garbage, who already feels like they're not worth it, who already feels like they're deplorable, who already feels like they're the worst of the worst, who already feel that they don't deserve love and show them that they do. You have no idea the impact that could be made. So if you're one of those people and you're listening to me right now for whatever reason and you have that pain in your heart and yet you're lost in that darkness that I was lost in and you feel like life's not worth moving forward because you're not worth it or you feel like you're a piece of garbage who's undeserving of love. I'm here to tell you you're wrong. I don't even know you but I love you as a child of Christ. I love you because you deserve to be loved. Everybody on this planet deserves to be loved and deserves to be shown what it's like to be loved. So instead of condemning people, how about you show them what it's like? How about you be the deciding factor? How about you be that one person who has come through their life, who gives them a reason to get up in the morning, who gives them a reason to wake up and look in the mirror and tell the enemy not today. You're not gonna make me feel like this anymore because I am worth it. I am deserving. I do deserve love. Be the spark in their life that's gonna make them wanna make the choice to change because that's what it takes. It's just love people and it's not hard to get somebody some love. So I challenge you. I challenge you when you go through your day. Find that one person who you know and you can think of. I know they're in your mind right now who you know needs love and show it to them. Give it to them without conditions because you have no idea the impact that you can make by doing that. I assure you. I'm here today because somebody did it for me. Love everybody. That's what's gonna change this world like Martin Luther King said it himself. The only thing that can drive out hate is love. The only thing that can drive out darkness is light and love is the most brightest concept on the face of this planet. Love people. That's how you change this world. Y'all stay frosty and you never forget. Don't you ever forget that Jesus loves you and so do I.