Part I: Stop Running From God

Hey you!!!

Yes you my brother, my sister reading this… Stop Running From God!!

Question...

What’s your price?

Seriously.

What will it take for you to compromise what God called holy?

What will keep you from walking in the way of the Lord?

Is it...

Acceptance? We love to feel accepted, which is why we join sororities and fraternities.. looking for brother and sisterhoods outside of community with God's people. Creating our own oaths to things not of God...to feel like we belong.

A relationship? Been here!! Compromise my body, my purity, to feel accepted in a relationship because if we don't sleep with them, they'll leave.

Sex?

Money? Drugs?

Attention?

Popularity?

Comfort?

The desire to fit in?

You have to understand something... you are not common.

You were set apart.

You were chosen.

You were bought with a price.

“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

— 1 Corinthians 6:20, KJV

And that price wasn’t money. It wasn’t silver or gold.

It was the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold… But with the precious blood of Christ…”

— 1 Peter 1:18–19, KJV

So again I ask

What’s your price?

Because the enemy would love to convince you to exchange something Jesus purchased with His blood for something temporary.

The Enemy Wants to Make What Is Sacred Common

"Sin thrives in environments where sin has become the norm" (Pastor Travis Greene)

When everybody is doing it, eventually nobody questions it.

When everybody is sleeping around, sexual immorality becomes “normal.”

When everybody is getting drunk, drunkenness becomes “just having fun.”

When everybody is cussing, fighting, smoking, dressing provocatively, gossiping, lying, compromising, and living according to the flesh, holiness starts looking strange.

And that is exactly what the enemy wants.

The enemy’s job is to make what is sacred to God become common to you.

If he can make you stop seeing your body as sacred, you will treat it as common.

If he can make you stop seeing your calling as sacred, you will treat it as optional.

If he can make you stop seeing obedience as sacred, you will begin negotiating with God.

But Romans 12 tells us:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

— Romans 12:1, KJV

Your body is an offering.

But Scripture says:

“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you… and ye are not your own?”

— 1 Corinthians 6:19, KJV

You are not your own.

That destroys the lie that says, “My body, my choice, so I can do whatever I want with it.”

According to Scripture, if you belong to Christ, your body belongs to God.

We cannot sleep with whoever we want.

We cannot put whatever we want into our bodies.

We cannot use our mouths however we want.

We cannot live however we want and then call Jesus Lord.

That is the deception of sin.. it tells you freedom means doing whatever you want.

But Jesus teaches us that true freedom is found in Him and Him alone.

Stop Conforming

Romans 12 doesn’t stop with our bodies.

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

— Romans 12:2, KJV

Some of us are exhausted because we keep trying to conform to environments God never called us to fit into.

You’re trying to talk like them.

Dress like them.

Think like them.

Date like them.

Party like them.

Live like them.

And the whole time, something inside of you knows....

This isn’t me anymore.

Boy have I been here personally. Certain conversations I can't even entertain and certain people I can no longer hang around. Not because I think that I am better than them, No. It's because I am different and God has moved so heavily in my life, my heart, and my spirit through my obedience and total surrender. I love them, speak, and pray for their salvation. Truth is we are all loved by Our Heavenly Father and He desires for all of His childrent to come back to Him.

So I encourage you to stop pretending to be someone you’re not.

You don’t fit in because God set you apart.

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people…”

— 1 Peter 2:9, KJV

You are peculiar.

Different.

Set apart.

Chosen.

So stop being ashamed when you cannot comfortably participate in what everybody else considers normal.

Your discomfort is evidence that God is calling you higher.

If you got this far we want to thank you for being on this journey and be prepared for Part II. This is just an introduction to what God is doing within this mini-series.

The Surrendered Walk

-Obedience Over Compromise