This sermon emphasizes the importance of having a right relationship with God above all else, highlighting the need for genuine love for God, a hunger for God's Word, a lifestyle of prayer, genuine humility, devotion to God's glory, selfless love, separation from the world, spiritual growth, obedient living to God's Word, and repentance of sin as key markers of true conversion and faith.

First and foremost, before anything else, before the benevolence fund, before taking care of the poor, before the homeless ministry, before all these things, you better make sure that the soul is in right relationship with God. Jesus said, you strive to enter the narrow gate. You strive to enter, for many will seek and they will not be able to enter. I talked about this last week. And many will knock and the door will be shut and you will try to get in and I will say, depart from me, I don't even know you. Number one, a love for God. Would a person say, yes, they have a genuine love for God. That person, the evidence in their life, they have a genuine love for God. Many, many, many people, new age movement, other religions, maybe no religions, maybe whatever, say, of course, I love God, Shane. Of course. Absolutely. They love their perception of God. God allows them to do what they want, when they want, to who they want, as often as they want. Everybody loves God. So you have to love, do you love this God, the God of the Bible, the one true and living God. Psalm says that you will love the one true and living God. Think about that. All of our opinions, all of our, what we think God is, all of them can be wrong. Second, we talked about a hunger for God's word. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Jesus said, God's word is truth. It is the embodiment of truth. It is everything. It is truth. God's word is truth. He sent his word and healed them, delivered them from their destruction. The word of God is living and powerful, sharper than a double-edged sword. It discerns. It is the truth of God's word. This has been known to convert more people than anything else. They read the Bible. They stumble across the people witnessing. It is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. So as a believer, you have a hunger for God's word. You don't manufacture it. Truth invites scrutiny. This invites scrutiny. Come, let's talk about it. When people don't want to talk about it, it's because they're in error and they don't know how to defend it. This defends itself. I love to just talk with people with the word of God because you're proclaiming truth. You're living out truth. You're quoting truth. You're going back to truth. When they start saying all these different things, philosophy, and this philosopher said, you're going back to truth. The truth convicts. Let's go back to truth. Those who have a genuine relationship, when they're on the witness stand, and people look at their life, is there a lifestyle of prayer? Continual prayer. Heartfelt prayer. I said this last week. There's a seeking. There's a scheduling. There's a yearning. There's a hunger that cannot be satisfied. Are you convicted right now? You don't pray enough. That's a good thing because that draws you to the foot of the cross tomorrow morning or tonight. It's okay to be convicted, but somebody who's been genuinely converted, there is a prayer life there. They want to pray more. There's their communion with God. And I love to quote E.M. Bounds on this. He said, when faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live. The next witness on the witness stand is genuine humility. A person who has been converted has genuine humility. Look at Proverbs. God hates. God hates a proud look. He puts it right up there with a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, feet that are swift to running to evil, one who sows discord among the brethren, one who bears false witness. But at the top of that list, he says, I hate a proud look. I hate the look of pride. Devotion to God's glory. This is key. Somebody who's been truly converted, when you're on the witness stand, they will say, you truly look for God's glory. You want God to be glorified. Do you say like John the Baptist, he must increase, but I must decrease? Or do you say, I must increase? I must have this big platform. I must be well known. I must be this big name out there. And then I can promote God. Aren't I special? No, no, no. It's all about his glory. Everything we do, it's about Christ and Christ alone. It's about promoting God. Selfless love. That's another hallmark. Somebody who's been truly converted in right relationship with God has selfless love. Remember we said last week, Jesus said, they'll know that you are my disciples by your love for one another, period. Not by how many scriptures you know, not by how often you go to church, but for love for one another. The next thing, separation from the world. Okay, I'm not going to talk much about this because I belabored the point for two or three weeks on holiness. So listen to that. There's a separation from the world. When somebody's been truly converting, they're no longer like the world. Why? Because now the world inside of them, the sinful flesh and the spirit of God inside of them, now there's this big battle raging. And our choices are never free from this conflict. That's what forced Paul to say, those good things I want to do, I don't do. And the things I don't want to do, I do. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of sin and death? And in Romans, Galatians, they all break it down that the spirit gives us different desires than what the flesh gives us. Therefore, he would, Paul would say, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. There's this battle constantly waging and constantly warring inside of us. And we want to separate from the world. We don't want to look just like the world. We don't dress the same way, talk the same way, watch the same things. There's a distinction, there's a difference. Or there should be. See, when there's no distinction, when a person looks just like the world, there's no difference. You have to wonder, has that person been genuinely, truly converted? Spiritual growth. A person will be growing spiritually, or they should. A person should be growing spiritually. Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. So here's a distinction. Because somebody who's been truly converted and somebody who's not, both can play church pretty well for a little while. The person who's not converted comes to church, brings their Bible, sits down. Yes, praise you, brother. Hallelujah, aren't we? They say the right things, they got it down. But over the course of a while, watch them. If there's no growth, there's no change, there's no difference. Have they truly been converted? Because their life will grow. They'll grow in godliness. They don't keep throwing excuses out there. But this, but that, but this, but the church this, but pastors this, but people this. There's no buts in there, you're growing spiritually. A person who has been truly converted, when they're on the witness stand, there is obedient living to the word of God. I want to be careful here because this isn't legalism. This isn't like, oh, I do all these good things. This we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Now that word keep there, I've heard Chuck Swindoll teach on this 10 or 12 years ago, and it's stuck with me ever since. It's almost like a ship keeps its course. I'm going, but see how it still drifts off course now and then, but it's still keeping its course to reach its destination. It's swinging, it uses the compass to get back on track. That's keeping the course. It's not being perfect. It's keeping that course. I see Christ, I'm going to follow him regardless if my spouse leaves, regardless if I got hooked up in this wrong decision. I'm going to follow him. I'm going to keep the course if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know him, which is Christ, but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected. This is how we know him. So I asked, it begs the question, do you keep the course? Are we keeping the course? Or do you say, actually, I don't know what you're talking about. I have no course. I don't know what God's commandments are. There's no love for God in my heart. I just came to church because somebody invited me, or it's because good people do. Then you need to truly know God. Is the last final mark, not only of genuine faith, but is how you can have genuine faith. If you're listening to what I'm saying, and you want what I'm talking about, you know you need a relationship with God. This last point is repentance of sin. Repentance. Us who have been converted, we have an attitude of repentance. We want to repent and get right with God every day. Lord, I'm sorry, repenting, repenting, repenting. But if you don't know God, this is how you have that relationship. You repent of sin. You repent of the way you used to do things. You say, Lord, I need you. Because A.W. Tozer said many years ago, I've said this before, I'll say it again, that the idea that God will pardon a rebel who has not given up his rebellion runs contrary to the scriptures and to common sense. So when we are rebelling against God, God is saying, I want to pardon you. I want to pardon you, but you've got to give up that rebellion. You've got to come to the cross. You've got to say, I repent of my sin. Lord, I need you. You don't have to say some fancy little prayer. You don't have to do this little checklist. You have to just say, Lord, I repent of my sin.