Pastor Ray Bentley Of Maranatha Chapel

Pastor Ray Bentley takes us to First John for an important message in the last hours of the last days. We are living in an hour of crisis, and what John is writing this letter about is that believers must be on guard against the attacks of the enemy. And the last hour actually began in John's day. After the last hour started 2000 years ago.

Some choose not to follow Jesus. Today, pastor Ray Bentley answers their objections. There are many people who say the world, all that spiritual stuff, it's so hard. Yeah, it is, but it's not complicated. It's simple. It's just hard to do. But it's worth it and eternally worth it all. The world will never change. It will always be here.

Worldliness is not a matter of how much money you make or how many things you have. It's a matter of what your heart is actually in love with and what you are attached to. Pastor Ray Bentley points out, A heavenly perspective takes us to the bounty of God's blessings. The future is even better than what you've had up until now, and everything that God has blessed you with up until now has been merely preparation for the great blessings he has in store for you tomorrow.

Sin. A short word with long consequences today on Maranatha Radio. Pastor Ray Bentley helps us recognize its danger. Here's some words that describe what sin does to us. It destroys lives. It's misery. It's poison. The other thing to notice is that sins have separated you from God. And when we are cut off from him, something dies and shrivels within us.

Today, pastor Ray Bentley says First John is a book that encourages us but also holds us accountable. We need to know and understand that the Book of First John is a book of proofs. It isn't so much what I say, it's what I do. I can say one thing and do another. So what I say only carries so much weight.

Coming up today, pastor Ray Bentley reminds us of the primary job description of believers to display the love of God. What is love? To put it simply, love is to put others before ourselves. That's what love is. The world's idea of love is the world and universe revolves around me. And that's not love. That is selfishness. Love is when I put others needs first spread.

One an example of how to live the Christian life. Pastor Ray Bentley says, Look to Jesus. We can live the life that Jesus lived. He is a model for us. Think of the way Jesus lived. That's our example. That's our model of human life. You say, well, yeah, but he's a messiah and he's God. And. No, no, no.

Jesus paid the price for our sins. Pastor Ray Bentley explains the deeper meaning. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. In a sense, do you know what I think that is saying to us is that when we go and stand before God, there's really only one sin that would separate you from God. The only sin that would separate you from God is if you rejected him, refuse his offer of love to cover you with his grace and his mercy, and wrap him with his own spirit.

Pastor Ray Bentley says, we all have a choice about our personal walk of faith. When you walk in the light and have fellowship with God, you have more joy and peace and love and all the fruits of the spirit. You turn your back on God. You dive into the darkness. You're going to be the opposite of love and the opposite of peace.

Pastor Ray Bentley urges us to follow the example of the Apostle John and how we relate to Christ. John came, as did all the other disciples, to the awareness of who Jesus really was. Do you have a personal experience of the reality of the shining glory of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in your heart and in your life?

Pastor Ray Bentley says our words reveal who we are. I start talking, you hear the language in kind of a Southern California lingo. And and then I start telling you about where I was born and I grew up. And the more I talk, the more you get a revelation of who I am. Words reveal who we are to one another.

Today, pastor Ray Bentley warns about the great upheaval of the last days to come. He says it'll catch many off guard. The day of the Lord will hit unbelievers like a thief in the night, but believers are warned in advance. God tells us in advance what will happen. So we don't know the day or the hour, but we do know the general signs.

Watch on the horizon for the future. Pastor Ray Bentley says it's big. The world has already been through cataclysmic events, and the we don't know the day or the hour. We see signs, many signs in the world in our generation right now. What I see forecast in the outline God's given to us is there are some cataclysmic events that are going to come, and the world will never be the same spread.

Pastor Ray Bentley says no matter what. Stand on the promises of God. It doesn't matter what we feel or what it looks like, or what circumstance says. Stand on the Word of God. It is going to happen because God spoke it, and he'll flatten circumstances and rearrange situations and it will come to pass. Isn't that a great piece to know?

Pastor Ray Bentley says God's judgment is decisive, but sometimes is held back because he knows the hearts of his children. God is patient with those who he knows will eventually repent. Turn around and they'll say, Lord, I'm so sorry. I was an insane man, I was crazy. What was I doing? Oh, forgive me Lord. Thank you for your grace and mercy.

Today, pastor Ray Bentley reminds us of the Bible's warnings against false teachers. It just grieves me, though, that there are still people that are susceptible to weird false teachings, false prophets, cults, and then there's money involved, and you kind of pay your way into the upper echelons of deeper secrets and knowledge and all the rest of it. So be watching and be, you know, wary and be warned.

Pastor Ray Bentley says revelation speaks to believers and unbelievers. God says, I love you. I made you. I want you to be adopted and born into my family. I've made a place for you. I want you if you want me. We're together for all of eternity. God loves you. That's the message to the unbeliever, to those who are believers. His message, basically from the book of Revelation, is this. Don't quit. Don't give up.

Some people want to focus on some spiritual experience they've had. Pastor Ray Bentley says, focus on God's Word. The Word of God is even better than an experience because the Word of God abides forever. God says, I've exalted my word above my name. Therefore you do well to take heed to the written word of God. Heed the word as a light that shines in a dark place.

Pastor Ray Bentley says, Jesus wants us to come to him by faith. I want you to know that first we put our faith in Jesus and confess him, and then he gives us the wonderful confirmation of experience. Now, quite honestly, if God wanted to, he could just have sent Jesus burning and dazzling seven times like the sun and everybody go, well, obviously he's the Messiah.

If we're really believers, pastor Ray Bentley says it'll show one of the signs that you're actually born again is that you're growing because you're saved. And you're, like, running from that life of the past that brought you to brokenness and repentance in the first place. So if you're not really wanting to grow, then where is your assurance or confidence that you really know the Lord?