Apostle Tracey Robinson All Rights Reserved 2023

The Word of God teaches us that if we are going to be a follower of Jesus Christ to display Him, be a demonstrator of Him, and to have His character, nature, behavior, and mannerism we must be discipled, pick up our cross, and follow Him willingly.

• Christ Jesus is a divider. He DOES NOT come to make your life fun.
• When Christ Jesus is birth, buried, and resurrected in you He will divide and separate you for His Namesake. This is the conflict of truth!

St Matthew 10:34-39

34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother-in-law.

• Variance here means a difference against; discrepancy, hence dissension; discord.

36 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

• Jesus is telling every born-again believer, new creature in Him that your family, flesh, and blood relatives will be your foe, your enemy that will become hostile toward you because of His Namesake in you.
• You are no longer bearing the name of the carnal man and its nature, that is the god of sin, rebellion, and worldliness.

37 He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me.

39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it.

• Giving up your carnal worth and its ways that reject the knowledge of God will surely give you true life a known reason to live.
• The conditions of being a disciple of Christ Jesus requires self-denial and self-sacrifice to your Will, the flesh, the world, and the devil.
• Satan counts on you to hold on to and withhold the pleasures and lust of your flesh while saying that you are born-again and highly favored.
• Discipleship in Christ requires bearing your own cross.

St Matthew 16:24-26

24 Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it.

26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

• Sin is unprofitable and you must be willing to lose the life of your old nature in the knowledge of good and evil through the lost of you losing self to gain the Will of God in Christ Jesus.
• Gaining the Will of God over your Will is a win, win for everyone that names the name of Jesus in Spirit and in Truth.
• When we lose self, we become the sacrifice being offered up and surrendered unto God in Spirit and in Truth.
• You must be willing to lose yourself totally to the spiritual conforming transformation process of God in you as a new creature in Christ to become like Jesus.
• Tradition and religion with religious people that are believers have come to the compromising state in their heart that they must be able to have fun as a born-again, new creature in Christ Jesus.
• They even portray a way that seems right that says “fake it until you make it” in this Salvation plan of God.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

• Sin is deceptive! Sin and its allurements are pleasing to the 5-senses of man (Genesis 3:6) and is the evil way that will lead him to death, not just a natural death but a spiritual death.
• You may say well, I was born in sin and spiritually dead already. This is true! But the soul that sins and keeps on sinning shall die.
• Why? Because all souls belong to the Lord God, Ezekiel 18:4. The soul of our fathers, also the soul of the son all belong to the Lord God.
• Even if you choose to sell out to Satan your soul still belongs to God and sins penalty for it is death.
• Man was already born in sin spiritually dead to the things of God and His Will. So, man tries to continue to keep his entanglement with the world and the devil through his flesh, its lust, desires, habits, and behaviors by way of the Word and Will of God.
• Saints are attracted to the entanglements of their flesh and its pleasures. And they “feel” good when they can entangle or keep others entangled with them. “The more the merry” Satan says so let’s have fun.
• We are still dealing with the same sin of man called rebellion and rejection. We are still being deceived by the devil since the Garden. We are still in a place in our Will whereas we choose to do what we want and desire with the bear minimum of God’s righteousness on display.
• Tradition and religious people are used by the devil to make you feel comfortable in your lukewarm state of sin; comfortable in your decisions and choices of being distracted by the sin and cares of this world, which is only operated and function by the Will of Satan.
• Believers that are still in care of the world and have pleasures that relate to the world and its carnality are having fun and they are happy.
• Fun defined as enjoyment, amusement, or lighthearted pleasure; amusing, entertaining, or enjoyable; joke or tease; a source of fun; playful behavior or good humor; behavior or an activity that is intended purely for amusement and should not be interpreted as having serious or malicious purposes; of a place or event providing entertainment or leisure activities for children.
• Fun and happiness replaces the knowledge that many keep rejecting about Christ and requires them to change to be more like Christ.
• Fun is an instrument used by the devil to keep you the believer distracted from the Truth that works in your transformation process.
• Fun is a wile of the devil! What are wiles? Devious or cunning stratagems (tricks, ploys, schemes) employed in manipulating or persuading someone to do what one wants.
• Employed by the systems of this world, the flesh, and the devil through and in your family and foes.
• Here is the fun test:

• What does fun have to do with Salvation? Is Jesus fun? Was it fun for Jesus to take on the sins of man to restore him back into reconciliation with God the Father? If it was meant to be fun for you and me, where is it written in the scriptures?

Isaiah 53:5 says but He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.

• Verse 6 is the fun part for man that says we were like sheep go astray; we turned everyone of us to our own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. This must be the fun that we get from what Jesus did.
• The cost Jesus paid for the souls of man was it fun? Where does the scriptures state that we are to have fun in Salvation from what Jesus did to make us free?
• Did Jesus have fun going to the Cross? Did Jesus’ suffering and sacrificing Himself to the Will of God for all mankind have fun in doing so?
• In all the beatings, the lies, the mistreatment, the deception, the abuse, etc., that was all designed and permitted by God to happen to Jesus to crucify and conquer the flesh once and for all period by taking away all its power of deceit, deception, and denial so that we may know the Father, but was that fun?
• Now if all this was made to be fun for Jesus, then we have a right as heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ to enjoy ourselves with never having to willingly obey to fulfill the Will of God in us individually and corporately. That is if it was fun for Jesus!

1 John 3:7-9

7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He (Christ) is righteous.

• Whose pattern are we imitating and following?

8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

• Satan’s defeat in you in through the crucifying of your flesh.
• Is fun a sin? Yes, it is especially when it lures and attracts you out of the spiritual boundaries of God’s Will to bring you into a place of pleasure for your flesh: that is the lust of your flesh, the lust of your eyes, and the pride of your life that you take while having fun.

9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

• Is your born-again confession of God? Or is it of a god?
• What enjoyment does God receive from each of us when we have fun? Does your fun keep you walking in the Spirit and not fulfilling the lust of your flesh? If not, what is its purpose to you as a new creature in Christ? Who is the author of your fun?
• Is fun a distraction to the Will of God? Yes, it is! Any form of fun is a distraction that will lead us from our attention to God.
• How do you know that you are distracted? The response that you get from the people you are funning with will let you know upfront “it don’t take all of that.”
• Is fun a way of thinking for the new creature in you that has been awakened? Or is it the way of thinking for the old Adamic nature that we all were born in that excluded God and His Will?
• Is it fun to mimic, mark, pretend that you are in Christ Jesus, and you have taken on His sufferings and sacrifices?
• If Jesus really found fun or had fun in restoring you back to the life of kingship, then continue to have your fun with the devil.
• The Old Testament is filled with examples of Israel turning from God to pursue their own lust and desires. What about you and your portrayal of fun in the New Testament?

Ecclesiastes 2:11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands has wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

• This whole chapter two is Solomon speaking against the futility of seeking pleasures by his hand; about the vanity of the human course of man’s life; and of the cheerful use of what man has accumulated with his hands.
• Vanity is the state or quality of being vain; excessive pride over one’s appearance or accomplishments; conceit; something that is vain, futile, or worthless; character or quality of being vain; emptiness, a state of emptiness.

1 Peter 4:1-9

1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;

• This is a lot of the problem with believers they have not suffered in their flesh to cease from sin according to the Will of God; they have self-afflicted themselves in their flesh due to compromising the Gospel to think that is or was according to the Will of God and His method of suffering that met with no transforming into a new creature in Him.
• You must suffer for your flesh to die and be crucified.
• You must suffer just as Christ suffered in the flesh to kill your flesh and its sin.

2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the Will of God.

• Living as a new creature in Christ cannot be lived through your human flesh, its lust, appetites, desires, habits, behaviors, and mannerism to live for what God Wills.

3 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the Will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:

• This was the life of your old man and its sinful nature without God and His righteousness.
• These things should be your past and not a part of your present as a new creature.

4 Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:

• The world, the flesh, and the devil should think it is a strange and an unusual thing that you no longer walk with them hand in hand to the same excess of rioting and as they abuse you and speak evil of you.

5 Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.

6 For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit.

7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer.

• Keep a sound mind, self-restrained, and alert to always be prayerful and ready to pray.

8 And above all things have fervent, charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

• Have an intense and unfailing love for one another that is for your brother and sisters in Christ.
• Proverbs 10:21 says hatred stirs up contentions, but love covers all transgressions.

9 Use hospitality one to another without grudging.

• Practice hospitality toward those that of the household of faith; be hospitable, be a lover of strangers, with brotherly affection for the unknown guests, the foreigners, the poor, and all others who will come your way who are of the Body of Christ. Do it without grudging and complaining as you represent Christ our Lord.
• Having a spiritual mind is what will subdue and keeps the flesh subdued.
• The scriptures paint the portrait of Christian life as a new life one of suffering and seriousness, seeming to leave no room for fun, laughter, and lightheartedness.
• If we are having fun, we are not seriously thinking about Christ.
• During the times that we are living in every born-again believer that is a new creature in Christ must live a spiritual life that demands being always sober.

1 Peter 5:8 -9 8 Be sober, be vigilant: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 9 Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

• We must spiritually mature to have a mind that will be sober and will resist the tempter and his works through flesh.
• What the world, the flesh, and the devil call good, you should be calling it evil.
• If something or someone is popular, per say it must be wrong.
• Because of the poor balance in the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ it has been easy for many in tradition and religion to overemphasize and ignore the dangers of having fun and finding enjoyment in normal activities like the world and of the world.
• But just how serious do you as a born-again believer take your walk in Christ?
• Is your Salvation pleasure and seeking pleasure instead of being transformed to live a life on the earth as a new creature, under the leadership and guidance of the Holy Spirit? If pleasure seeking is your goal, then what will be your outcome?
• God does not and did not call us to a new life of happy and fun. Instead, our lives are to be sealed and marked with a joy that is unique and not of this world yet will attract the world to come to Jesus.
• We all should have a life that is full of joy, peace of mind that will reflect who Jesus Christ is and His life in us regardless of our current circumstances, situations, or issues.
• Fun is for the flesh and is used to distract every believer from accepting and knowing the Will of God.
• Having joy and peace are not the same as fun.
• Fun and its distractions are designed and created by the devil through man to hinder our spiritual connection to the Father.
• Tradition and religion have deceived many in believing that God’s plan called Salvation was only designed for them to have fun in Him.
• How do you have fun in God that is not an imitation, mimic, or a lust of the world’s way and doings?  

Amen

Wednesday, November 8, 2023