Paul warned Timothy, "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths" (2 Timothy 4:3–4). That time is here. Our culture would rather be entertained than taught, and a message that's loud, emotional, and flattering gets more of a hearing than one that calls for repentance. That's why so many people are "tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes" (Ephesians 4:14). When people don't know the Word, the most exciting voice in the room is the one they follow. The same thing shows up in how many people live. They keep their pet sins for Saturday night and show up at church on Sunday, without ever really surrendering to God or following Him. All of us stumble and fall at times, and God's grace is real for the one who truly repents. But choosing the same sin again and again, and asking forgiveness each time with no intention of changing, isn't repentance. It's treating God like a magic genie whose job is to wipe the slate clean so we can go back to what we love. That isn't faith. It's walking away from Him while still using His name, and that's the road to apostasy. The answer is not a more exciting message but a surrendered heart that hears the truth and obeys it. And the clock is ticking. When Jesus rose from the grave, the countdown to His return began, and Scripture has called the time since then "the last days" (Hebrews 1:2). No one can set the date: "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only" (Matthew 24:36). Still, He told us to watch for the signs, and "when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates" (Matthew 24:33). We're seeing those signs now. Someone may seem to get away with their sin for a day, a year, or five years, but every one of those days brings them closer to standing before Him. Jesus warned about the servant who says, "My master is delayed," and goes back to his sin, only to have his master return "on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know" (Matthew 24:48–50). So live today as if He's coming tomorrow. And if He doesn't come today, that doesn't mean you got away with anything. It means God gave you one more day to get right with Him, and you're one day closer to His return.

I wish that I had this advice when I was raising my boys!!!!

Christ drew a line, and grace put you on His side of it. In John 8 He tells the woman, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on sin no more.” Forgiveness is on one side; the old life is on the other. You cannot keep a foot in both. You were named a saint before anyone handed you a list of rules. That name means set apart. It is who you are in Christ, not something you earn after you clean up. The same Lord who lifts the condemnation is the one who says do not go back. There is a verse that should stop you cold. One day Jesus will look at many people who claimed His name and say, “Depart from me. I don’t know who you are.” God knew the person you were meant to become before you were even in the womb. The real question is whether you are becoming that person or turning into someone else by the choices you keep making. You would not expect your spouse to be fine with you entertaining an old relationship. So why do we entertain the sin Jesus calls us to leave behind? Following Him means wholehearted surrender, not divided devotion. Holiness is not the price you pay to get in. It is how you stay where grace already put you. He chose you before the world began so you would live holy and blameless before Him. That shows up as a real desire to please Him each day, to obey the Bible as best you can, and to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading instead of the world’s patterns. Both feet stay in the kingdom. There is no pet sin on the weekends and no going back to what He delivered you from. The countdown to the end started the day Jesus rose. Every day He does not come is one day closer. What side of the line are you on, and who are you becoming?

Welcome Matt, glad to have you aboard!!

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