Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Dutch draughtsman, painter, and printmaker. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art and the most important in Dutch art history.
Time to get out
Luke 15:13-14 (NLT)
13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living.14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.
Life is full of “famine.” It is the mercy of God that allows sinners to feel pain. We get in God’s way when we relieve pain before behavior changes. Some people have an attitude; they say, “Have to find out for myself.” You don’t have to find out for yourself; it’s better if you do it, God’s way from the beginning, and then keeps ongoing.
Luke 15:15 (NLT)
15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.
1.This is the greatest!
Good or Bad, there is only one first time.
First time seeing a movie
First time being on your own
First time drunk
First High
First time hearing a great song
God’s blessings increases
The thing about God is when you are walking in his blessing, it increases. God’s gift is getting better and better when you build a relationship on that foundation. The blessing of God when you do things his way as time goes on, the blessing swells.
But all wisdom comes down to one principle: giving up something that you want now for something better later. Sometimes we don’t understand, and we question God, “Why in the world are you not letting me have what I want.” There’s come a day in your life when you and God are going to disagree, and that’s the time when you decide whether you have faith or you don’t have faith.
Satan’s traps decrease
It’s so typical to think that my way is better than God’s way. Why be with one woman when I can be lots of women, but when it comes to the end of that, well, there’s emptiness and loneness. There are deep depression and loneness. The real blessing is one woman married for one year; that is the blessing. God’s gift, unlike the enemy’s blessing, it gets better and better. His blessings grow. Whereas the enemy gets you on a sinful hook, it decreases, so we love more and more.
It is hard to convince someone sin is bad at this stage
When you are in the midst of the party and everything is fun, it’s hard to convince somebody that their life is going the wrong way. Sometimes it’s good to be like the father in the story of the “Prodigal son” and take a step back because the world is going to hurt them. God doesn’t have to break them, but when you live contrary to God’s way, life hurts more than just the truth of it. When you live contrary to God’s plan for your life, you are going to hurt.
2.Blissful ignorance
You can’t even talk to them. When you preach sin to them and don’t want to hear it, it’s wasted breath. All you can do at that place is love them unconditionally and communicate that love to them every chance you get.
Cognitive dissonance, they are living in ignorance. Our culture is living in cognitive dissonance right now.
Example of Cognitive Dissonance.
The vegan will not eat the chicken egg, but they’re pro-abortion, which is cognitive dissonance.
When you bring that up with somebody living that self-delusion, they kind of go of crazy they don’t like it, they get furious.
Romans 1:21 (NLT) 21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.
Creating a religion that everything is okay with what you’re doing because they want to, but part of time still knows that it’s not true. And that’s where that uncomfortable feeling comes from people’s heads, and that’s why they get so angry. They know the truth part of them knows that they’re doing is wrong; the Holy spirit conviction is there.
Let the world and Holy Spirit work on them, and then you love unconditionally.
Anger is the response when you challenge a delusion. They only read and watch things they agree with; they only listen to certain people; they seek out things to reinforce their illusion.
3.It is never enough
Anything without eternal meaning, will leave you longing.
Remember when you are serving God, I can tell you that the adventure you are living today serving Jesus, it gets better and better.
When the shame comes, then you realize, “oh my gosh, my mom and dad were right.”
The wages of sin is death.
One thing that can interrupt the cycle of sin is terrible pain. People can finally get to the end of the rope. The problem isn’t enough. I have seen so many people experience so much pain. The Holy Spirit is our partner in this, the Holy Spirit conviction can interrupt the cycle, but the Holy Spirit exposes the truth in them; there’s going something to happens. In other words, they’re in that moment, and then they realize.
Shame it could be a good thing at the right time; it’s appropriate to feel shame when you’ve been shameful. The heart knows even if the mind denies
Romans 1:19 (NLT) 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.
God makes truth obvious.
You can belong before you believe
Our motto—which we love to put on signs and t-shirts—is “at the Rock you belong before you believe.” We believe that we can love and respect people without having to agree. So, even if you don’t believe in God at all, we would like to have you as part of our family. We trust God to reveal himself to you through the preaching and the way we live our lives.
