Conviction

 Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.” Acts 24:25......"We get convicted and want to change, but not more than we want to stay the same." Patrick Morley

I once had a man in my congregation come up to me after a sermon and rebuke me, not gently, about what I'd just preached. I knew that the message would be convicting for the people, and for me as well, but even so, I wasn't quite prepared for what he said. I don't remember much of it, except for his ending words. He told me, "I come to church to feel good." In effect, he was telling me, "don't preach anything that makes me feel bad, especially about myself."

I think our churches are filled these days with people who have some shade of that same feeling. We don't want to feel bad, convicted, or guilty. We want a Jesus that takes us as we are, and doesn't fuss at us about what we're not. He tells us how much He loves us, all He has for us, all the while looking the other way concerning our indiscretions. Read that, "our sins." We want to know and focus on His grace, but we don't want to dwell upon His discipline. We want the constantly affirming Jesus. We don't want to be around the Jesus who rebukes, even when He does so in love.

There's a lot of talk about the "cancel culture" these days. Such has been going on in the church for quite a while now. Examine Paul's words to the Roman governor, Felix. Righteousness, self-control, the judgement to come. How many in our fellowships would respond any differently than Felix did if these became common elements in the preaching from our pulpits in these days? Felix was under heavy conviction from the Holy Spirit. His response was to run from God. Paul didn't change his message in order to keep him. I'm afraid that too often, for fear of losing people, we do. We have.

The thing is, if we understood how the Spirit works through His bringing conviction to our hearts, we would rejoice in what He means to do through it. Someone said that "in His presence, we see ourselves as we are." We can see all the inner corruption present within. Yet, at the same time, it was said, "but in His face and heart, we see ourselves as we can be." This is what He means to do through His bringing conviction to us concerning our lack, our need, and yes, our sin. Like Peter, when he first began to realize who Christ truly was, we want Him to depart from us because we realize in His holy presence how unholy we are. Yet Peter remained before Him because he had to have also seen in the face and heart of Christ, all that he could be in Him. This was shown when Jesus told him that his name would no longer be Simon, but Peter, "the rock." He was anything but a rock then, but in time, through His grace, he would be.

So, as concerns us, you and me, how do we respond to His convicting grace? Do we, like Felix, send the voice He is speaking through away, telling them we'll deal with it "at a more convenient time?" A time that almost never comes. Or, do we, as He intends, melt before Him, confess our sin and need, turn from it, and receive His cleansing Spirit, and work of inner transformation. If we'll do so, we'll realize that the message that didn't make us "feel good," yielded through our yielding, a greater good than we could have ever believed. Where has He been bringing conviction to you in your life? How do you respond? Like Felix......or Peter?

Blessings,

Pastor O