Luke 12

I'm teaching through the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, I have to admit that I have been inspired by a book by Ted Haggard, "Letters From Dad"...we're only two weeks into the study, but I have to say, I've been deeply impacted by the Word of the Lord. In the first two verses Jesus warns His disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and to be real, to live authentic lives, in the next two verses we are reminded to fear God, to be more aware of Him who is able to destroy both our natural and spiritual lives...Four simple verses suddenly put everything into perspective! Jesus is calling us to live the red words, not just read them and do whatever we want, He is calling us to be the church not just do church. Recently I heard of a book by Larry Stockstill called "The Remnant", in this book he states that American church has learned how to build crowds, churches are growing, in fact, there are over 300,000 churches in America, yet of that number of churches, 20% of the pastors are dealing with some secret sin, that around 75,000 men of God struggling in their walk with God, and if they're struggling, what are their members doing? And if the church is doing so wonderful, why is the world so dark? Don't misunderstand, I'm not a doomsday prophet, not a negative Neil that believes the sky is falling...great things are happening and the Lord is blessing, there's just much more to be done, and the church must rise to the occasion! The people just spoke to in Luke 12 would also be the same people Luke would record to have turned the world upside down! The church has the greatest opportunity it has ever had...will we step up, step out, and step over into the Promised Land?