Kelly Durant’s Sermon Quotes by Subject

Kelly Durant’s Sermon Quotes by Subject

Accusations

Those with a quick mentality to accuse are influenced by Satan who is known as, “the accuser of the saints”. People who are too quick to accuse, too quick to judge without all the facts, and afterwards never allow for an explanation, a reconnection, or reconciliation to determine if they were fair or wrong in their accusations, judgment, or reasoning for their out of control feelings are classified as being “fools” according to the Word of God in Proverbs 29:11 A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.

Apologetics

All your life as a Christian you will be challenged, made fun of, and provoked by those who have everything in their minds mixed up, these are the people with their minds fashioned by the corrupt worldviews of the day and false doctrines. How intellectually prepared are you to defend Christ? To defend you must be opinionated; you have a right to believe what you choose! Never let another person intimidate you that you must accept heresy!

Appreciation                                                                                                                                       

And Jesus said that Mary Magdalene is to be honored; it was pure thankfulness and love in her tears! Think about it, in your lifetime a few times you may have a few shed tears out of thankfulness for something someone special did for you. But his is extreme purity and holiness; this is a passionate crying repentance and love for Jesus as He wishes to see it! I wish there existed more people with this same passion and appreciation today!

Availability 

Usually it is only 3 to 5% of the church people that make their selves available to help with important projects volunteering. Making your own schedule and priorities secondary to the wishes of those being served is a noble act that will gain you heavenly rewards. But the people who are unavailable and always busy with their own things all the time probably wonder why God is not very available for them. Loving God means loving and serving others He created.

Bitterness

Unthankful bitter people lose their perspective of what others suffer. Bitter people are always self-focused. The disciples were not thankful for the tears that washed Jesus’ feet, they were indignant. Bitterness can come in when it is exposed one does not have a radical and total dedication in honoring Christ and someone else beside you does.

Competiveness

Young people and many adults are extremely competitive! They want to show off that they are the best, that they are better than the teacher, better than the preacher and supreme in all things. When they meet someone in their world, in the school or church, that seems more influential, more beautiful, or more talented, the first reaction is to hate them and destroy them. Everywhere, in schools, in jobs, in churches, we see this superiority immaturity! Competition is often nothing but pure hatred out of pride desiring the humiliation of a person who did not desire to do the work to compete fairly in the first place!

Capitalism or Socialism

Corrupt leaders will always be administrating the wealth they have confiscated either by high taxes, or property acquisition. Corruption in all systems has always been, and will always be, that is why Jesus said the “poor will always be with you”. But did Jesus promote a taking from the rich to give to the poor from the passage we just read? Luke 18:22 He in fact did, but within the context of sharing it for the fair & equal distribution in God’s Kingdom! It was to provide for the needs of the desperate poor and the disciples! But this was also about being a test of love. Did he love God and his neighbor enough to share it all? In God’s Kingdom there are many mansions, Jesus idea is that sharing all the wealth makes everyone rich here and in heaven, and with Jesus system there is no lower class of degraded poor! The young man appeared perfect in regards to the law, but he was disobedient, loving money more than God & others!

Church

The church, or this new loving group of called out ones that Jesus established, were designed to be a movement of follower teachers. They were sent to do God’s Kingdom work, to pray, preach, heal, and recruit souls that would teach others to follow Jesus as well. Jesus did not leave engineering plans and then ask his disciples to build impressive structures and then get people to come visit the extravagant cathedral so they could hear God’s word. The early disciples had many places where to meet, such as in homes. The emphasis was to “go” and preach the gospel to every creature. Expensive to maintain, luxurious structures distract the money and the mission away from getting out as Jesus did who made everyplace He went a temple, a place where God is. 

Compassion

They say that giving a beggar a piece of bread is a civil duty, but to give him a bread with butter on it, now that is compassion! Compassion is a divine quality something that is in all cultures with a certain measure, but the sad thing is that it is also very much diminishing in most cultures today. The level of the spiritual development of a culture or people can be measured by how much compassion they have. Being realistic, only Christians throughout time have proven over and over to be the ones to truly shell out millions and with an army of volunteers when there is a need or crisis. As a Christian how much compassion do you express? How much compassion does this community have? It lacks a lot!

Contributions

There is a hymn that says, I gave my life for you, what have you given to me? The Bible makes it clear we are to show our thanks to Jesus by giving Him our whole life, our time, our money and everything for His work! People that choose churches that only ask them their money contribution are getting robbed of blessings! There is a joy in serving others, in the giving of our lives in service as Jesus’ disciples did. But contributions here and there will never give you back the great joy and satisfaction you deserve to be getting as when you contribute all you can.

Correction

Today we live in a society that does not discipline nor correct people for their wrong as they need it! Quite often the right ones who justifiably want to correct someone, to expose the damage and wrong doing, end up with the punishment of ridicule and frustration instead! We live in a world were good is proclaimed as bad and the bad is exalted as good!

Culture

Racial and cultural relations are broken all the time because people are not willing to observe and respect the formalities and customs that are within the culture of the other! The rivalry between tribes, nations, and tongues has been going on ever since the beginning of time but what is our role as a Christian? How should we respond to others different than ourselves? Try to be “one” of them as Paul says to be as a Greek to the Greek, and as a Roman to the Roman.

Discipline

How many people have you ever heard give testimonies of how it was when they were disciplined by God? Here is a big problem: Many people are so unspiritual they do not even perceive when the Lord is dealing with them and understand when things do not come out right that there is a purpose. And the other problem: when people are corrected, they hide it from others so they will appear perfect. Neither way is right. 

Evangelism

 When we as Christians practice evangelism, it is very real like the sewer in the parable.  In Matt 13:3-8   there are 4 seeds and only one turned out to be the amazing one in four to give fruit! What we could conclude is, this is a crazy investment! I get little reward back for all the effort, I get waste and unthankfulness! Only 25% good if that much! But the rewards are in heaven!

Fathers

The first step for a man to be capable of being a good father is for him to recognize that he has a Father over him, who is God. If he gives honor and respect to someone over him, then he becomes a good example to his children and they will in turn honor and respect him. It works both ways, if he doesn’t honor God or anyone, his children will not learn to honor nor respect him and men, or fathers, reap what they sew.

Friends

So, mark out the names of the friends on your list who are not walking in love, or in other words, not living their lives in sacrifice to their family and others as God wants. You do not need friends who are not close to God. Even if only the pastor’s name is the only one left on your list, at least you will have Jesus and one more person on earth to look to whom you can trust and never regret knowing. In life we will always have friends, but who are friends are greatly affects our spiritual walk! Better quality than quantity and the honestly good over the ones with dubious motives who can end up draining the life out of you with their troubles or interest.

Entitlements

Some people believe they should benefit from what others have and should give up. This type of entitlement thinking wants the government, or the church, or their parents, or their husband or their wife or relatives to be continually giving to them all what they want just because they see them as richer, and having more than them. This one type of relationship from this unbiblical way of thinking and acting creates resentments, bitterness, and division. In Genesis the ones taking the best land by being selfish later paid a higher price. To share is Biblical but to share it with people who will appreciate it and not waste it.

Expectations

Some people have the expectation that we will serve them all the time, and that we will keep producing more bread and fish for them as they produce nothing; no souls won to the Lord, no friends converted to Jesus or the church. How sad their souls will be for eternity with nothing stored up in the bank of heaven! People expect, but do they give what is expected of them?

Family 

Jesus confirms that our greater family, the true common blood Christians near us, are the true family we have in God. Family is also friends, not just the relatives we inherited in our lives from our parents. Jesus makes it clear since He said,“I am your friend”, and He was a friend better than a brother, He laid down His life for you and me! He also expects the same standard from us towards our Christian brothers and sisters! Real families love each other and give their lives for each other!

Foolish Men

You can be a man with money, with power, with fame, and with much education, but without submitting to God’s wisdom you can be reduced to being an embarrassing fool! Many men reduce their lives to being in hell now and in hell hereafter, because they allow pride, selfishness, and lust, and to control them.  It destroys not just their life, but the lives of those closest to them!

Greed

What did the scripture say about the man who got a little prosperity and was rich? He wanted even more! When he had no problems, when God was good to Him, what was his attitude? Did he go to the temple and thank God for his prosperity? No! He became more and more selfish, he wanted to build bigger barns! And what provoked God’s wrath on his life? What caused God to decide to not only let Him loose everything but cut his life short? He had a heart that only could think about himself and no one else! He wanted to enjoy life without the bother of seeking or thanking God who gave him his life and his prosperity in the first place!

Hypocrites

People claim there are hypocrites in the church and they do not want to go to church. That’s like saying I do not want to see the doctor because his lobby is full of sick people! And true there always are a few hypocrites everywhere, in families, public office, etc., but usually those accusing are the not converted. They are people overcome with minds that mirror the hypocritical world. Hypocrites? These always are the other people, right? See your own!

Independence Celebrations

Jesus is very interested in the liberty and spiritual freedom of each of us! He wants us to have an Independence Day celebration!  When you first repented and received Jesus that was your Independence Day of sin and death, and it is your rebirth into the family of God with eternal life!

Immigrants

Jesus was an immigrant! He left his celestial home in heaven to come down to this poor unjust earth to be one of us! How many of you are immigrants? How many of you know how hard it is to be an immigrant? Like the immigrants, Jesus Christ had to arrive in humble circumstances! He was amongst the poorest of the poor born where the animals are born, in a manager.

Kingdom of God

Are you so presumptuous to assume that you are bound for heaven? Flesh and blood cannot inherit the “kingdom of God”! In other words you will not enter in if you are who you are now as only the holy, only the pure in heart, only the peacemakers, only the humble, only the merciful, only the honest and just, only the loving and persecuted for God will enter in! If you don’t have these qualities now, you won’t just instantly gain them there in heaven.  Jesus in Matthew 16:19 reveals that how you are now is how you will eternally remain!

Loyalty

Imagine, all of the disciples saw His miracles, they had heard all of His teachings, they probably were proud to boast that they were followers of the newest wave, at how Jesus was so popular. But now, what happens when his teaching no longer makes them feel good? What happen when a certain sermon suddenly makes Him unpopular & persecuted?  Their loyalty went out the door, and Jesus makes it clear they never believed in the beginning.

Nature

If you look up In the Bible the word tree, or look up references to the stars, animals, or any of God’s creatures or creation, you will find that there are hundreds and hundreds of these examples that display the majesty of God. All nature is used in the Bible as a spiritual metaphor as well. It is the devil’s role to try and destroy everything God made, as much as possible, be it the souls of people or any nature life as well!

New Year’s Goals

What you and I see from year to year is that some people are progressing in their walk with God being more loving, winning more people to His mission while others seem to be getting more self-centered, and farther away from God! Some people are looking more towards the things of the earth, and some are seeking more the things of God.  What goals have you made?

Perceptions

Perceptions of people, what they think about you and I, are what mess us up relationally. Godly guided people will understand more and speak more for the things of God in others, but most people do not perceive the whole picture as God does. The perceptions people deduct will cause them to speak up but notice it is usually over what is of their own self interests.  

Prophets

Paul’s definition implies that a prophet is one who follows all the word of God! A believer and transmitter of the message will follow the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the Godly counsel of fellow Christians. All Christians who share God’s message are in reality prophets! But what is a prophet? Isn’t that one of those Pentecostals who suddenly stand up in the middle of church service and yell out a verse or some phrase that tells everyone what they are supposed to do? No, that is not a prophet but a manipulator!  

 

Punishment

I want to ask you does any child just say, Oh I am so happy you are punishing me? No! No one likes punishment and the problem with some people is they have never let God do what He needs to do to clean out the rottenness in their life. They are like the dental patient who stops the dentists work and says, you know what, I don’t like pain so just leave that tooth alone, I’m out of here! But the rot will cause death! We all must learn to appreciate God’s corrections.

Relations With People

Working with people can easily be compared to the job of the snake charmer who dances the cobra with a flute! Most of the times it seems like everyone is happy, and you are happy and a lot is getting done for the kingdom of God, and then suddenly someone makes a human mistake, and then the flow of work & the music gets interrupted and then the fangs come out! Most people are not even aware of their own vicious nature when things do not go as they want them too!  People do not even perceive their own pride nor see with God’s spirit when they attack others with unkind words or defend their actions which are not according to God’s spirit!

Sadness

Sometimes God wants us to cry and be sad not over what sadness we feel from our circumstances but over the sadness He feels over us because we are proud and not clean and obedient. Everyone has a heart that needs a washing by tears but for the right reasons. It is sad that we are not in love with God more, wanting to be closer to Him in prayer and in His Word more every day!

Sin

There are many Christians that accept Jesus but they really never ask God to clean them totally inside. They want to keep having their little sins of gossip and greediness. The drug addicts and prostitutes, and really bad people understand what it means to give it all up to God, but the problem is with many people who grow up in the church, and they think they have not done too much to be so bad and wrong, is that they do not see their own faults. Sadly, there are those here, and there are Christians around the world that go to church but they never do confess their sins and live fully changed lives.

Soldiers

The Christian Soldiers of all churches are a small minority group but they have the privileged and elect status of a Soldier because they are willing to march out there into danger into their neighborhoods just as Jesus did to love the unlovely, to heal the wounded, and to preach the truth of the gospel! Soldiers fight battles with the truth against the dominant evil and each time and place requires its own tactical strategy for effectiveness. 

Teachers

In reality we are all teachers! We are all students too, but we are all teaching something just by our actions! This is evident by the way we live, the habits we repeat in our homes daily; everything we do is teaching someone close to us, our children, our spouses, our friends, what our character is made of whether it be truthfulness or hypocrisy. Whether we are authentically sweet and kind and gentle and loving, or whether we are loud mouthed complainers, unthankful and critical of everything behind closed doors!

Time

Decades pass us by. Returning to my hometown to revisit old neighborhoods is like time travel. The old neighbor next door who drove the old ‘57 Chevy for years finally bought a new Oldsmobile in the 80’s, and now that one is an already antique! Time on all of us without fail takes its toll and degenerates people and communities but only leaders with a vision to renovate and conserve that worth saving bring better circumstances. Everything before our eyes is rusting away, but God is in the renovating, saving, and conserving the good business.  

Uneducated-ness

Proverbs 1:22  How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners (accusers) delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? The verse is basically making it clear that people who are simple and not intelligent enjoy being conflictive with others and are happy when they can bring up a subject that they can speak scornfully about to you, or of someone else. They only show their ignorance. Here is the sad part we observe more and more: Many Christians remain with simple minds due to their lack of educating themselves with the Word of God and they don’t even recognize their own ignorance! Some Christians today only hear a sermon every other week and they never open their Bibles and this keeps them simple, uneducated, and in danger of retaining a small mind and loud opinion that is more carnal than spiritual.

Vision

Your vision influences your personal life and walk with the Lord. Some people have the vision just to maintain enough in life to just get by; some want just enough of God to keep them out of hell, while others want all the blessings they can get out of the Lord! Like in the Prayer of Jabez, his family had a past of suffering, like you may have had, but he wanted prosperity and protection from evil, and God gave it to him! Vision invites reaction, either mediocre or great!

Compassion: Without Love, One Is Guilty of Hate

Compassion: Without Love, One Is Guilty of Hate

Compassion: Without it you are Guilty of Hate        Kelly Durant 

I Jn 3:14-18 

1 John 3:14-18 New King James Version (NKJV)

14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. 15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

 

2.Compassion is sympathy for the suffering and a desire to help!

They say that giving a beggar a piece of bread is a civil duty, but to give him a bread with butter on it, now that is compassion! Compassion is a divine quality something that is in all cultures with a certain measure, but the damaging thing today is that it is something very much lacking in many cultures. 

 

The level of the spiritual, cultural, and moral development of any culture or people could be measured by how much compassion they have on others, especially on others different from their own selves! Reflect on history, I deduct that it has been mostly Christians throughout time that have proven over and over to be the ones to lead and to help when there is a dire need or severe crisis. 

 

Today I want you to ask yourself, how much compassion do I have? How much compassion does this community have? I think it still lacks all that is needed!

 

3. Are you the center of your universe, or is Jesu’s love at the center? 

In order to have compassion, you must have the ability to put yourself into the shoes of the other person. This takes not just a creative mind, but a willing heart! 

 

Think about what is inside of you. If you are only full of your own wants, your own needs, then you are self-focused. You have your-self as the center of your life, or at the center of the universe. This selfishness is what causes societies to come unglued and people start hating each other due to a lack of love. 

 

But if you have Jesus at the center of your life & heart, you will have the same heart of compassion and love that He has, and you will be willing to help anyone, anytime, of any race, just like in the story of the Good Samaritan.

4. Do you, to get what you want, throw a childlike temper tantrum, or do you intimidate and bully, or in hypocrisy spread hate on others who won’t treat you as a king or queen? Being self-focused is hate focused! Having no love means having no God of love in your life which means no salvation either! The verses today, 1 John 3:14,15 have within their context the relationship of how hate is connected to refusing to help someone in need and God equivocates this as murder. 

 

What is the difference between an adult and a child? A child only wants to get what he wants no matter the situation and they scream to get it. Some kids, even as big as teenagers will yell to their parents, “I hate you!” just to try and get what they want from them. We know, we lived through 5 of them!

 

Un-Christian indoctrinated by the world people do not care if you or the government doesn’t have the money or conditions to please them giving them all the power and money they want; they just want what they want and they therefore try to take it by aggressive force! Haters, and those who accuse others over their class or race are harboring death in their souls. They attract demon possessions and often become murders as stated in 1 John 3:15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

 

 

5. Hate=Murder: not giving to others in need! In the state of Alaska, where mostly whites and brown natives share the roads, if a person is on the street with a car motor stalled, by law you must stop and pick up that person. The reason for this is that person could actually freeze to death and die in some -30 below 0 temperatures within 10 minutes!

 

Not helping someone with a need is heartless and insensitive and it could cause their death.  But a real sacrifice to help someone with a need, that is a must, and sacrificial people will often receive honor and praise for being compassionate and saving someone’s life or situation!

 

Only love, not hate makes you pass from death to life! What we do in this life brings us either praise or scorn from God and from those around us. The people who let their selves be touched by Jesus’ love to the point that they want to be like Him, reveals they have entered into life with Him. However, hate, which is a violent rejection, is a carnal, natural occurring human quality, but no one admires this horrible quality unless they are brainwashed by Satan’s people. Terrorists, racists, and warmongerers, are those that bring death and suffering to others and themselves. Everyone is on one path or the other, life, or death! 

 

6. Ask yourself, who do you hate secretly? Have you ever really tried to look deep into your heart as to why you do not like someone or somebody or a certain people? You may have an undiscovered bitterness; everyone does, and you need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what that is so you can be free from it or it will condemn your soul to hell!

 

Hate manifests itself in bitterness, violence, and a non-stop stream of words that criticize, demean, and divide. Sadly, we see an increase of this of late!

 

These things separate you from the God of love. We hear in the media the hate of races but I have discovered many people secretly hate pastors, or sincere Christian leaders because they are envious of their power and influence over people. 

 

They are jealous over the love they receive because they cannot get love because they do not sew love to reap it! So, they want to destroy anyone loving not being willing to love and sacrifice themselves as Jesus did. Jesus warned that if they hated Him, they will hate you and me as well.

 

7. To get love and compassion you and I must give our lives in service to Jesus! There is no noble society where selfishness is worshipped as virtue, all cultures value the sacrifice of others. But sacrifice to be honored by God should be done in the way as Jesus defined it in Matthew 25, caring for the hungry, thirsty, and poor; caring for the imprisoned and the destitute. 

 

Compare what Jesus taught to this bad example of sacrifice: In India, with the Hindu religion, the tradition has been that wives will allow their selves to be burned alive with their husbands’ dead bodies when they are at their funerals! 

 

That is a type of sacrifice our God of love does not desire! Laying down your life for Jesus means doing as he did, and that was in loving serving sacrifice. But these poor ladies do this because their idea of God is sadly totally distorted from the truth of God. Terrorists operate in the same way praising sacrifice when it involves murder. Do you see how important it is to follow how Jesus defines what compassion and sacrifice really should be?

 

8. By their fruits you will know them! (Matt 7:20) The people that do good things for others and claim they do it for the love of our Lord Jesus, and it is obvious are not seeking glory, compensation, or recognition, should be honored as true and good. Those that do real deeds of compassion must be motivated out of their love for God. In the Salvation Army this ‘love for God’ is even in our mission statement.

 

Notice how in the community every now and then some persons may comment terrible things about someone doing good, and why? These critics obviously have an evil heart and do not understand how people can be sincere in doing good works, that people do good because of pure love. Bad people always falsely accuse, and often these same ones got helped by the ones they criticize! 

 

I have experienced at times hateful words that came from nowhere! For example, there might be a volunteer helping us many days and then later in comes to light that some others would be secretly accusing that they were getting their rent paid by us to help them. Do you see how evil minds fabricate lies? Usually, people who accuse falsely have never been ones to do good works and help with a sincere heart, have you ever noticed that? 

 

9. The compassion of the world?! Satan is compassionate, in his own way, have you ever thought about that? He wants to show you and me he is more just and loving than God. However, in his ‘social justice scheme of things, the sharing of the goods from the rich to give to the poor, or from one people group to another, he murders millions! 

 

Satan works hard with his demons to run this world’s government systems, usurping God’s authority, and how does he do it? He establishes political systems of abusive that with murderous power give some crumbs to the poor to show how he will take care of the people better than what God’s people can.

 

Communism, the forced sharing of wealth offends God (it is imitating and mocking Acts 2:44.45) and enslaves everyone since it puts a gun in the face of those who worked to get what they have in order to give it to those who did not work or do anything to deserve it. What makes these traitors and terrorist feel worthy of these stolen goods is their faithfulness to worship their horrible socialist (or religious) leaders as gods for being so compassionate. Abhorrent, don’t you think? 

 

10. Excuses or compassion? In the end Satan convinces people to follow corrupt systems of false hopes when God’s people are doing too little to help. With all the churches in the United States, you would think there should not be a need that the government give a check to the unemployed or sick. Christians are supposed to be taking care of each other and of others outside of the church who are suffering. 

 

In the New Testament recall God’s sharing system: Acts 2:44-45⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. If we’re not helping each other, then we are failing God, and he will accept no excuses.

 

Love implies action! Compassion! Think a minute, what evidence is there for you to prove you have showed compassion to someone? Could you tell me about something you have done recently, and do you have a habit of helping those in need? If you are not in action, if there are not deeds to back up your words of good wishes for others, then compassion to you is just an esoteric term, not a tangible reality manifested in this world. It is not too late to get busy for the Lord!

 

11. Start with us: The SA is known for its compassion. I probably have told you many times that I love the Salvation’s Army way of serving others. Imagine you are not just being a part of a church but a part of a massive social work with over 3 million Soldiers and volunteers, with thousands of shelters, rehab centers, schools, and assistance happening world-wide! For me it is the most compassionate church that exists, that is why I choose to belong to it. But our compassion is limited to each person’s willingness to express it and what you do does affects a piece of the whole picture. It makes you proud to have a good name, right? But how sad when people may report that a certain work is doing nothing to help anyone in need!

 

People with compassion are full of love and compassion is a fruit of that love. Choose today how you are going to live, showing mercy as God shows mercy, or being hard hearted? Consider this: Proverbs 21:13 ¹³Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard. God will deal with each person by how they have dealt with those he has created, your fellow man. Jesus said Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 

 

12. People without love & compassion have never had a repentance! I am convinced by the verses of today, that those who do not love and help others in need are still full of hate and this makes them guilty before God as being a murderer. 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

 

Those who selfishly only take care of themselves and never show compassion will discover God is angry with them and they will have no part in heaven! If you have the doubt that you are not full of compassion, that you are cold hearted, and you really do not care if your brother or sister’s suffering, then come and pray and ask God to break and remake you. 

 

In heaven there will only be those who have shown compassion which was motivated by their love for Jesus. The ones who have been rich and shared their riches will have rewards in heaven too if they have believed as Zacchaeus did. All the disciples had it, and every true authentic Christian will have testimonies of helping others too as a proof of their love for God, Jesus, and their neighbor! Now is our prayer time to ask the Lord for forgiveness if he is reminding you of sometime that you failed someone with a need. Or if the Lord has not converted your heart, then come and ask for Him to change it today!

Thanksgiving: True Compassion and Gratitude

Thanksgiving: True Compassion and Gratitude           by Kelly Durant 11-19-23

I John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but indeed and in truth.3

2. How many of you have ever seen beggars? I mean hungry ones with very sad faces? There are a lot of them in South America and each day I had to have a few pesos ready to give out. If you don’t help you are going to feel very bad thinking about how you did not help someone in need! Right? But you can always observe hundreds that do not care at all and just walk on by!

The first Pilgrim Colonists in 1621 in this country were literally dying of hunger after arriving to this land from England. They arrived in the summer and did not have time to plant for the harvest and they had no provisions for the winter. Immigrants seem to always have a hard time no matter where they move to! Right? 

A Cuban I shared a coffee with one time told me he was so poor when he got to Miami that he would catch pigeons on the beach in order to be able to eat! Sometimes we are unaware of how poor some people around us actually are! Also, never judge, appearances deceive!

3. We can be thankful for Thanksgiving Day because it has shaped Americans as a culture to remember to be grateful to God and to be compassionate! Americans have historically been one of the most generous helping people on earth giving over 500 billion to individuals or charity each year! Half of that goes to churches! This is one reason why Satan has been working so hard to divide and destroy our faith and this country! “Tolerance” the past few years seems to apply for every type of religion and all types of evil but “tolerance” is not offered to Christians the ones helping ministries with billions per year! But Satan controls multi-trillions through his despots!

The Native American Indians, and historically most cultures in the world, have a tradition of celebrating the fall harvests which sustains them through winter. It is a time of sharing and generosity! Even pagan European cultures, apart from Christian ones,  knew there was a God that provided and they had festivals as well. It was Pres. Abraham Lincoln that made Thanksgiving Day an official holiday in 1863 to, as in his words, “remember Almighty God”. But it had been celebrated for over 160 years prior to that! 

4. It is amazing how the Indians showed compassion on these new strange white immigrants. Everyone today should celebrate this act of compassion and gratitude to God and should express gratitude to our remaining noble Natives! Thanksgiving Day should be a day in which we recognize God’s mercy through others and this should prompt us to show compassion on someone less fortunate in our society.

The essence of being a Christian is that we are supposed to live out compassion and gratitude in our every action, and often we do meet others that know and practice it innately because they are spiritual. Most people still have a God consciousness and God sees all. How much more Christians must do it!

The scripture of today, of showing compassion, was in its essence being practiced by a people that at that time were being called ‘savages’. Interesting God’s humor in how He used so called “savages” to save the Christians from hunger by throwing a big party and feast! But that set the stage for how every immigrant should be: compassionate ever since that Thanksgiving day!

5. This nation, founded by Christians, currently still lives with this standard and tradition of compassion and it is established as an example for all generations so that we must keep the tradition going always being compassionate and feeding and caring for others. I would like to suggest that when we show the less fortunate compassion that we not forget that this includes the widows, the homeless, and the immigrants. (the ones the Bible names repeatedly)

But for the cold hearted and compassionless, hear this warning: Proverbs 21:13  Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.

These Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe gave an example of how all people can without any discrimination of race and class appreciate one another, love and share, and thank God that He is keeping them alive! The best way to connect is to share a meal with someone!

6. Think about this, God feels deep pain when he spares lives life and then later these same people become proud and greedy and forget Him! In other words, God gets angry and judges severely people who are non-compassionate and unthankful!

Where do we find evidence of this? In the O.T., Moses freed 6 million Jews from the slavery of Egypt and how did these people respond? Did they praise Him every day? No! They complained constantly against God, they built idols to worship any god except the One who had saved them! Their punishment was to wander lost 40 years in the desert and never reach the promised land!

God has a way of judging and destroying the nations that are unthankful to Him! All the world’s super powers of the past, Egypt, Persia (Iran), Greece, and Rome, look at them today! They are still bankrupt, in turmoil, and divided! They have been cursed for several thousand years now because their people became aggressors to steal, enslave, and exploit instead of being people who were loving and giving, compassionate worshipping our true God Jehova!

7. Many Native tribes were peaceful and loving and spiritual, but others were war-like and they would invade and kill those in other tribes. This was the same scenario as in Europe where the white tribes of peaceful people were invaded by Vandals, Vikings, Germanic, and other barbarous war like Caucasian people. Today those past aggressor’s powers have faded away. And why is that?  Because it was prophesized by Jesus in Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.  But there are still not enough meek ones yet! The evidence is there, God humbles or He exalts nations! It’s all in accordance to how much they obey God.

Are we becoming a nation that is more overrun by greedy deceitful aggressors that will scam and rob and even kill old ladies to steal? Are we as a nation losing our protection and blessings from God because too many people have stopped being compassionate people who thank God for their lives? How have Christians have gone wrong to be deceived to follow false doctrines?

8. Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. I propose to you that as many as half of today’s so called Christians are no longer reading and following Biblical principles but rather they are following men and teachings that are filling them with bitternesses and destruction.  Many so called churches are now accepting false ideas and politics and the erroneous liberation theologies. They want justice, but in their own revengeful way and it is painful to see these deceptions at work making people divisive, unfriendly, and isolated. 

We believe that the despairing needs of others is solved by obeying Jesus example, and that is having a heart to God and a hand to man! We help as in I John 3:16!

Yet the modern trend is to believe that social justice, which may or may not include caring for the poor, should be by force and carried out by imposing on the prosperous ones steep penalties, taxes and laws so that it permits the shifting of the wealth to themselves. Covetousness is against God’s law but many break it. This is a sign of the times. What the anti-Christ will do?

9. Daniel 11:24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

What it amounts to is Satan has always wanted to prove He is as good as God to show compassion. Satan wants to appear compassionate! God’s way is the sacrificial way, the laying down of your life for others, the giving of your time, talent, and treasure to others giving them the gospel of salvation in love due to your gratitude to God.  True Christians willingly share with those in need!

10. Satan’s imitation of compassion is destructive and like the warmongering aggressors. Historically between Russia, China, and the rest, 100 million or more have died under atheist Communism. The lie of all lies is that the government under some despot dictator who says he cares for the poor is going to really care for the poor. He robs from the rich but never really shares it. It never happens! We have not seen a model of true compassion happen yet. We have witnessed Russia, China, Vietnam, N. Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela as they give crumbs to the masses of people while the leaders live in ultra-luxury.

 Jesus exposed Satan in John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. 

God’s compassion is not bound by a race, religion, or place. Jesus example of the Good Samaritan points this out!  Compassion must be put into practice by those that know God or otherwise the world’s (or Satan’s) idea of compassion becomes a method of oppression and destruction! 

11.The world can be divided into 2 types of people, the Satanic self-righteous condemning greedy destructive and imposing types who want to take from you yet boast they are compassionate, or the sharing spirit–filled caring compassionate and loving type that thanks God for everything and spreads the blessings. Which type are you? 

In the end, you are either practicing compassion from God or you are not! If not, then you are comparable to the soon to disappear war-like selfish people of the past that forcibly took what they coveted to consume and destroy. Only the meek will inherit the earth!

Only Jesus love can change hearts that are hell bent on stealing, invading, killing, and disrespecting other races and cultures! These atrocities still continue on today in the world in our metropolis mega cities, and in all countries everywhere. Let’s practice sharing with all! Let us pray for a return to a thankfulness to God and a practice of real compassion! On Thanksgiving Day we are reminded of it so practice Thanksgivingness today as it is needed more than ever! We must always thank God for He is limitlessly good!

 

Selfishness…The Current World Trend Killing Love & All of Us!

Selfishness…The Current World Trend Killing Love         Kelly Durant 8-28-13

1 John 3:17 But whoso hath this world's good, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?

2., 3. (Picture of the 2 tied horses trying to eat 2 piles of hay) Each horse here is pulling the rope to his side, but they cannot reach his pile of hay to eat, but then finally they agree to eat together on one side at a time, then they can eat both piles. A visual of how selfishness doesn’t allow for anything good to happen!

Selfishness is placing concern with one’s self or one’s own self-interests above the well-being or interests of others. Doesn’t that describe many people you and I know! The goal of the Christian is to die to our own flesh and from the death of our ego and self, allow Christ to live in you (and me!) As described by C.S. Lewis, one of the greatest Christian apologists and former atheist of our modern day, “Selfishness is the opposite of altruism or selflessness”. Our goal is to have a love that is so sacrificial, so dedicated, that it has no limits to what it will give for the good of others in our church and community.

To define selfishness in psychological terms, it points to a lack of empathy. People who don’t care for others well-being or feelings are capable of ugly manipulation and they might even be a psychopath who have no behavioral controls, empathy, or remorse, and these anti-social unChristlike behaviors are very damaging to family and social relations.  

4.I researched in Wikipedia and found the “Game Theory” outcome of social interaction.“Given two actors, oneself and someone else, there are four types of possible behavior directly impacting the welfare of the actors: selfishness, altruism, spite, and cooperation. Selfishness is harming someone else in order to help oneself; altruism is harming oneself in order to help someone else; spite is harming oneself in order to harm someone else; cooperation is helping someone else and also helping oneself.” 

We conclude in the cartoon picture that our horses learned cooperation, are we any smarter than horses? Some people are, yet some are stubbornly selfish! Psalm 32:9

Do not be like the horse or like the mule, Which have no understanding, Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, Else they will not come near you.

5. Today in the entire world we in observe governments, religions, and authorities in community clubs, sports teams, and all groups plagued by a small select group of callus and calculating people who are prideful and corrupt. They are participating in the group functions, not for the common good of all, which is the premise of the existence of the group, but they are participating in the community entity for their own personal selfish interests. In the press we hear about their scandals daily!

The current unprecedented corruption, which is pure selfishness, is at an all-time high in all sectors of the community in all countries. Selfishness foments hate and division in communities and in relationships of any kind. Selfishness is an abomination to God because it is an indifference to the suffering and destruction of our fellow human beings. It is in the end selfishness is the absence of love which is an absence of God, for God is love! (I John 4: 8) We live in a world headed for the apocalypse due to the absent of the knowledge of God! 

6. The attitude and trends today in the world are functioning on the worship of materialism and greed within an essentially spiritually devoid social environment. There is the increasing antichrist spirit out there that projects itself through the main media, movies, popular music, and polished advertising. The message is if one can’t get all of what one wants, then one is justified to get it however means possible disregarding the abuse done to others. (to sin horribly is obviously no issue!) What a nobody you are if you are not living the romanced stereotypical high-life of the Hollywood role models, drugged, divorced and in and out of rehab centers! 

The current abominable and accepted attitude is that somebody is going to have to pay for your unmet selfish expectations! What sick self-serving-ness! Theft, perversion, and abuse within society and even some family members is killing our previously healthy society, and Christians need to rise up and confront the self-serving evil doers! Get involved! If not stopped, we will see more and more people joining in the organized crime destroying you and me to get what they want!

The unrealistic lifestyles of the extravagant few plant the seeds of selfishness and dissatisfaction within the common populous. The lifestyles of the top 100 politicians, sports and movie stars are offensive are unattainable by the 99.99 % of us. This dynamic of extremes seems to give some people the idea that they have the right to disrespect those around them and use you for their ambitions; it’s the callus idea that is okay to grab whatever they can from you or someone a little better off than what they are because you have more than what they have and they deserve what you have just for the taking! It started in Russian in 1917 and spread to a dozen places like China, Cuba, Latin America, and now it’s in our society here! Don’t forget the commandment, Exodus 20:17

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

7. Extreme selfishness, or narcissism, is increasing in our society and, like gas on the fire, the media loves to provoke the class warfare, race warfare, the ‘fight for your own’ divisive messages. This is Satan’s old plot is to divide and conquer! Jesus describes our current day in Matthew 24:12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. 

We are in this terrible situation as a society due to a lack of love. God is love and love is not an option: it is something you should just do because God commanded it! Sadly, selfish unloving people of laugh and joke that they will party with friends in hell, but the reality is hell is a place absent of God, and the fire of pure darkness is on souls in solitary confinement being a perpetual torment. I do not wish hell on anyone! I want to save them with Jesus! In Jude we read that there are souls in chains in perpetual darkness, that the punished eternal souls will remain there without love. Hell is the product of a selfishness!

You have heard the phrase ‘live and let live’, that is what love does with no self- motivations. The highest law of God is to love Him and your neighbor yourself, but few people, we deduct from observation, really learn in this life: how to love another as much as they love their own self! Most people, sadly, are just selfish!

8. I recommend that you (myself included) personally cry out to God and ask Him to give you and me more love for others! If you love as he commanded, everyone around you will feel it, people will see your authentic-ness and get a blessing from you, and you will have good works to back up your proof of love. A Christian that does not love is not a real Christian and is a person living in sin! People see others sins but usually do not see their own. Selfish people are actually insane, blinded by their own ambitions!

The people in the world are without excuses today for their unloving, selfish behavior! Before Jesus walked the earth, people might have said, well, no prophet or man of God has given us an example of total love and sacrifice so I don’t have to love and sacrifice. But when Jesus came and freely performed miraculous healings, gave us life transforming teachings, and the example of laying down his life and dying on the cross, no one can deny anymore that that was not pure love!

Sadly, there are too many people out there who are too quick to complain about sacrificing a few hours, or a few dollars to help a needy cause or the church. It is up to us as Christians to change this selfish attitude by being an example ourselves of love and sacrifice. The selfish unloving people will eventually be ashamed and we, in contempt, will observe the reaping of their consequences. God expects each one of us to do our part to shine His love!

9. Remember the rich young ruler that claimed he was perfect and obeyed God in every way? Jesus challenged him to not be selfish and to give it all away to the poor. Matt 19: 20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? 21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. 

Jesus on purpose made an example of how not-to-be out of this young man who probably lived out the rest of his life feeling guilty to prove that you cannot boast “I am in good with God” for all my obedience without a total commitment which will love until it hurts. Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You can’t serve God and riches. Jesus made it clear that you are either selfish, or selfless, and to prove you are identifying with His love, He requires proof of it, proof of a life that you sacrifice for God’s use.

Jesus knew that the world would always be plagued by successful & rich selfish ambitious people who are good intentioned (but ineffective), un-sacrificial, and self-centered, so he brought to light that God will not tolerate selfishness and a lack of compassion on the suffering. Compassion is love and God requires it.

 10. What has caused Christianity to be rejected by some people today? Some of the disdain is from jealousy of the church’s combined wealth, power and influence, some rejection comes from a clash of worldviews from another religion’s belief system, and some rejection has some justifiable roots because Christians have not been loving, sharing, and compassionate with others. 

Like it or not, quite a few people have had a bad experience with the Christians; this is due to someone being rude to them when they tried to connect, or someone was indifferent when they were suffering needing help, or someone did some selfish act proving to them that Christians are false and hypocrites. How sad! Never let yourself be guilty of being a stumbling block for others!

The churches of today should do what Gideon did when he chose his army of 300. Judges 7: 6 Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. 7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” 8 So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others. 

As Christians maybe we should just count on the generous and dedicated few to get things done! Often times you can accomplish more with less and we don’t need massive mega-churches, mega-governments, or community groups that are infested with selfish self-serving, unproductive, unloving, non-soul-winning people. Christianity gets a bad rap over the prideful selfish unloving uncompassionate people who boast their own goodness yet they refuse to surrender all to Jesus proving their love and compassion. Expose it: change it!

11. Here is what is making everyone fed up and sick with all the entities in society: the deduction that selfish people are doing things not the right way, but in their own comfortable and unproductive way being out-of-touch, with no accountability rendered for what they do. God has entrusted each of us who are Christians with talents and treasures and if we are selfish with them we will always be spiritually immature, deficient, and without rewards in heaven. 

This verse is important in Proverbs 11:24 One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. 

Are you sharing your love and your personal things when necessary? 

Ask God if you have been heeding the conviction of the Holy Spirit to give more of yourself, sacrificing more for God and others as time goes on. The only way to change the world is to be the change yourself! 

When someone hears about how you sacrificially served another in need with food, or something, it brings conviction and then others want to get on board too! Selflessness breeds more selflessness and this means simply catching the love of Jesus and transmitting it on to others who will do the same! Are you a selfish psychopathic condemned reject …useful to no one not even God, or are you a loving, serving, generous imitator of Jesus generous love and compassion?