The Christianity That Cannot Save America

0:00:00 – (Steve Gray): Christianity in America has a form of godliness that’s not working. It’s not bringing the power of God into our lives. In the next More Faith, More Life podcast, I’ll tell you what we have to do next to get it. Hello everybody, and welcome to another More Faith, More Life podcast, your voice for revival. We got a lot of great things to talk about today. These are very, very important times to talk about the right things and to get some truth.

0:00:24 – (Steve Gray): Paul wrote to them. He said, have I now become your enemy because I’ve told you the truth? Well, we need a lot of truth right now and we don’t have a lot, particularly in the church realm. I’m not a big fan of all the things being preached and said and taught because there’s so much drama and opinion and manipulation and all that stuff going on. And so we’re going to talk about that a little bit today.

0:00:52 – (Steve Gray): I mean, I even heard things are being promoted as truth, as drama. I heard one the other day, somebody came on and said, oh, I just want to tell you the truth, that Jesus and Paul never existed. They didn’t exist. They’ve been made up since then. Okay, come on, is that the kind of truth we need? If we come to the conclusion that Paul and Jesus were never real, they were all made up characters, is that going to save our nation?

0:01:22 – (Steve Gray): Is that going to help save our lifestyle that we’re on the close to maybe having changed all across our country? And so that’s why I want to tell you, you can get this now, right? Should I hold it up in the center camera? Revival or Ruin: The Choice Before America. It’s not a long book. I didn’t want to. I was talking to people said a lot of people don’t read books, they just read blurps of short things or whatever. So I didn’t want to make it too long and I don’t want to make it too short, but it’s very, very timely with a lot of truth.

0:01:54 – (Steve Gray): The reason it’s so important is because it’s telling you not what is coming. It’s not saying what is coming. I heard, you know, I’ve heard so many preachers preach these end time prophecies, you know, and all about, you know, get ready, you have to stop sinning because the antichrist is coming. 666 is going to come. And you could be caught and left behind while the rest of us fly. You’re going to be left behind.

0:02:21 – (Steve Gray): And with the mark of the beast and all that, and it’s like, okay, I guess I better get it together like that. But this Is not that at all the spirit of Antichrist that opposes Christ. And the spirit of Antichrist doesn’t just oppose Christ, it is also translated another Christ, a substitute, another one, a different one. And so the spirit of Antichrist is already in the world today. And so we’re not today talking about, well, get ready. Cause something might be coming.

0:02:54 – (Steve Gray): No, it’s here. It is here. What’s here? To change the lifestyle of Americans, the lifestyle of Christianity, to change how the government operates is here. And it does not have you in mind. It does not have your life in mind. And so this book I was talking about, you know, the first responders the other day to some people as we were talking about 9, 11 in New York and first responders and how you have to admire them so much, but they come to save a life, right?

0:03:32 – (Steve Gray): Their job is to save a life. This book is to maintain your lifestyle. The things you like and the things you love, the things you want to be able to do, you’re not going to be able to do. If these changes that are here, they’re here already. But if they overpower our lifestyle, our government, and they get into government, they’re going to overpower it. And you’re not going to have this lifestyle. You say, how do you know that? Well, you need to get this book Revival or Ruin: The Choice Before America, because I talk about the Bolshevik Revolution in there.

0:04:04 – (Steve Gray): We talk about how they. In the Great Depression. Well, we talk about the Great Depression and what happened. We talk about Prohibition and how Prohibition tried to change America by passing laws and it didn’t work. So we’re helping you understand those things. When the Bolshevik Revolution came and other revolutions in other places, they changed everything. They took away what you have, what normal people have.

0:04:33 – (Steve Gray): Don’t think it’s just going to be they’re going to take the money of millionaires or billionaires. They take their money first so you can already feel it. When you feel it, they say, okay, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to take money from the rich. Hey, it sounds like Robin Hood. We’re going to take money from the rich and we’re going to give it to the poor. And we’re going to make it even for everybody. Well, listen, if you study the other revolutions, they didn’t stop with the rich people.

0:04:58 – (Steve Gray): They stopped with. They went through everybody, middle class shopkeepers, tailors, you know, and grocery stores and everything. They went and made you give whatever they say to the government. And then we split it all. We’re going to all split everything even. Except the problem was they didn’t do it evenly. Somebody always comes in. In this case, the revolution, Bolshevik revolution, was Lenin come in and take advantage of that, make all the promises, then get.

0:05:31 – (Steve Gray): Take over the power. And now they live in a palace. They live in luxury. They have their private jets in our day. And all that while they’re dabbing it out to other people because they want to have power. It’s not that they want to help people. They want to have power. Okay, so. So now if you like that, you like that idea, you want it to be fair for everybody and you know entitlements, if you like that, that’s fine. But me personally and the people I love and I care about who have worked to get where they are, to buy a home, to have a car or two, to be able to have some entertainment sometime or go out to eat sometimes, and they like that lifestyle. They go to church, they give their money to the church.

0:06:18 – (Steve Gray): I said, they give their money to the church because they want to. Well, that’s not going to happen. That’s going to be controlled. So all this is happening now. If you like that, that’s your business. This is the United States of America. You get to vote who you want. You get to go and say what you want. You should have freedom of speech. You should be able to protest all those things. But if that’s not what you want, then you’ve got to stop being so complacent and realize that we need to get serious about this.

0:06:50 – (Steve Gray): My opinion is current Christianity, the form that we have of Christianity, is not powerful enough. It’s not influential enough. It’s pretty lame. And it’s got us. It’s sort of like socialism. It’s sort of a socialism thing. Because today’s Christianity, not everywhere, but mostly everywhere. It’s an all about me gospel. You can read about it in the book. It’s all about me. And we make sure. Cause they teach you this and they teach you how to get offerings and how to get people to come to church.

0:07:24 – (Steve Gray): You got to have them come away with not. And they say, well, what’s in it for me? What’s in it for me? You have to give them a what’s in it for me? And the real followers of Jesus in the first century, they say, what’s in it for me? And Jesus says, well, here’s the lineup. Let’s see. You’re going to pick up your cross, you’re going to die to yourself. You’re going to pick up your cross and follow me. Be my disciple. Be a disciplined one.

0:07:52 – (Steve Gray): And at times, you Won’t be like. You’ll be persecuted. You’ll pay a price. Some of you might. Some of you will be killed. Jesus described to Peter what was going to happen to him, how he was going to die. And Peter’s reaction was, well, what about John? And Jesus said, too bad. What’s that to you? You do you follow me? John’s another guy. He’s another. That had nothing to do with you. And so we have to understand what’s going on. All right, so in two Timothy, chapter three, one of my favorite chapters to help people wake up.

0:08:30 – (Steve Gray): It is an all about me description. It starts out, in the last days, there will be terrible times. Okay, we’re there. We’re not waiting for them to come. We’re there. Terrible times. You say, well, I don’t see a beast. I don’t see six. Six. That’s because that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re not talking about you’re going to fly out of here. We’re talking about it’s here, and you’re going to have to deal with it if it comes through, depending on what America does.

0:08:57 – (Steve Gray): The book says, the choice before America. And so in that, it says, in the last days, there will be terrible times. Okay, what are they says? People will be lovers of themselves. Lovers of themselves. And that’s not Christianity. Because people think like, what are you talking about? Aren’t we supposed to love ourselves? Hug ourselves? Right? Care about ourselves? You don’t want us to hate ourselves, do you?

0:09:26 – (Steve Gray): That’s not Christianity. Lovers of self is not the same as dying to self. Trying to find yourself is not the same as losing yourself. So we’re going the wrong direction. And when we go the wrong direction, because people. We’re preaching what people want to hear. The itching ears want to hear, as the Bible says. And so when we do that, it weakens Christianity, all right? And it builds a form that cannot.

0:09:52 – (Steve Gray): A form of religion that cannot stand up against other religions that are completely dedicated. They have a form that they do. The Bible tells us that we should strive, make every effort to continue in the unity of the spirit, to have the unity of the spirit, which is also mentioned in this book. But we don’t have the unity of the spirit. The reason we have unity in Christianity is because we don’t ever have anything to do with each other.

0:10:18 – (Steve Gray): We never get in an argument because we don’t talk to each other. But you go to another religion, I don’t know, you can pick one. I don’t want to just pick Islam because There’s a lot of religions in our country, but, well, you pick the Mormons, okay? You don’t go to the first church of Mormons on the corner and go across town or two blocks away. And then there’s the second church. There’s another church called the Roman Church or the Mormon Church.

0:10:45 – (Steve Gray): And then there’s the, you know, the love of Jesus way, Mormon Church. And you go into them, and each one of them has a different form. It’s called Mormon. But none of it’s the same because everybody’s doing what makes them feel good, what makes them feel comfortable. It’s a convenient gospel, and it’s all about them. And then you go to the other Mormon church, and it’s all about them. They do it. What’s all about them?

0:11:10 – (Steve Gray): You don’t see that in any other religion except Christianity. You don’t see it. They’ve got their form, they’ve got their method, they’ve got what they believe. And all Mormons, and hopefully even, I think all Catholics, too, pretty unified compared to Protestantism, Muslims, you know, all those, they have a form and they all believe alike. They have the unity, and their unity is power and presence everywhere.

0:11:41 – (Steve Gray): But Christianity, no. I can go over here. I don’t know what I’m going to get over there or over there, I may get a Pentecostal church and people are shouting. They may raise their hands and speak in tongues. Or I may go to a church. If you speak in tongues, they’ll throw you out. There are churches like that. They’ll kick you out. You can’t speak in tongues yet. It’s all called Christian. You see the problem?

0:12:03 – (Steve Gray): So when it says lovers of self, lovers of money, and then it talks about other things like rash being rash and anger and selfishness and, you know, all those kinds of things. And it gets down to the bottom of it and it says, here’s the problem. We have people who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. So I go over here and I visit here, visit there. I know this. People never get in an argument with them because they won’t talk to me.

0:12:28 – (Steve Gray): They won’t invite me to anything. And so. And so they love God. If I say, oh, I can’t say, don’t go to that church. Those are bad people. They don’t love God. And yet they’re singing How Great Thou Art on Sunday morning. I’m going to have trouble selling that. But that’s not the problem. The problem is that they don’t love God. The problem is they love pleasure more than God. And so churches tap into that and they start building programs that tap into pleasure.

0:13:02 – (Steve Gray): Now, you may think, I don’t want to say this, really, but a lot of times when you say pleasure, Bible people think, like, intimate, sexual pleasure. That’s not what I’m talking about. No pleasure. They tap into pleasure. Getting together and eating, getting together and sharing our thoughts, getting together and getting to prophesy over people. Right? And so these are not wrong, but it’s the reason we’re doing it that’s wrong.

0:13:32 – (Steve Gray): We’re doing it because people love pleasure more than they love God. So we’re going to be the church, and we’re going to tap into that innocent pleasure, if we want to call it that. Cause God’s not against pleasure. But is that what the church should be doing? And so they tap into pleasure more than lovers of God. All right. And then it says the next line, it says, here’s the problem. They have a form of godliness.

0:14:01 – (Steve Gray): And if you study that word form, I looked up the Greek word and all that, but I can tell you what it is. The form means recognize. They have a recognizable shape to them. Like this denomination, that denomination, first church, second church, whatever. Each denomination has a recognizable shape. Now, it’s similar to everybody else, because everywhere you go, people are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.

0:14:28 – (Steve Gray): I mean, there’s a few exceptions, but that’s generally what the people are. It’s accepted. It’s accepted. And so, you know, they go home and they watch a lot of movies and they’re on their phones five hours a day. Say that’s what they say people are. And they’re watching movies and they’re watching this and they’re doing that. And that’s where they’re getting their pleasure from. Doesn’t mean they won’t go to church on Sunday. They’ll go to one service a week, as, you know, whatever.

0:14:56 – (Steve Gray): And then they’ll go to fellowship stuff with other Christians and do pleasurable stuff, go out to eat, whatever. But the problem is it’s a form. It’s a form of godliness. It’s the appearance that we are godly, okay? But our form. But now, that word godly is a very important word. But one of the things that you can stretch that word out to mean is devotion, complete devotion. Paul called us. Now, this is the same Paul that teaches us to live by faith. You know, it’s by grace and faith and, you know, not by works. And we love all that stuff of Paul.

0:15:32 – (Steve Gray): But Paul said he’s really concerned that we don’t have devotion. Pure and sincere devotion to Christ. Same guy says, that’s what I expect out of you. And we don’t have that today. We have a form of godliness which gives the appearance that we’re all devoted, right? But it’s not happening now. Why am I telling you this? Why am I just. I’m just. I know everything, and I know my church is better than your church or whatever.

0:16:03 – (Steve Gray): No, I’m telling you, this is the form that we have, is not going to be able to stand up against the form that they have, that other religions, other doctrines, other political movements, they all have their own form, but they have devotion. They’re devoted to it. And in the churches today, you can’t hardly get anybody to even volunteer to do anything. They don’t want to give their money. While millions of dollars are being sunk into these other movements.

0:16:36 – (Steve Gray): Millions and millions. You go to the church and somebody throws in two or three dollars or whatever, they don’t want to tithe. They don’t want to hear about 10%, that’s not for today. All these things that lower the level, that show we have lost our sincere devotion. It’s a form of godliness, and it’s shaped so that I go there and I meet you or we talk a little bit. It gives me the idea that you have a form of godliness, but you deny it says, but you deny the power of God.

0:17:09 – (Steve Gray): Your form. Okay, I don’t know who I’m talking to. Their form, a form of godliness, looks like godliness, lacks devotion and is void of the power of God. Denies the power of God, denies it access. It doesn’t deny that God’s powerful. It doesn’t let the power of God come to your church or the. There I am talking about you again. It doesn’t let the power of God get in the church. All right? It’s not going to.

0:17:37 – (Steve Gray): Their form is not made for the power of God. It’s not made for the overall revival. Power of God. That which is absolutely transforming absolutely changes the direction of your life. It exists. It exists in the Bible and it exists in this book. I’ve got a chapter, but that helps you go over some of the great revivals that happened in America. In our country, that absolutely changed. Listen, it changed the direction of our country.

0:18:08 – (Steve Gray): It changed government. It changed who they elected. God’s power. Revival power changed the mind of America and changed the direction, but we’re not there. That’s why this book. Revival or Ruin: The Choice Before America. If we make the wrong choices. You’re going to see a lot of changes that you’re not going to like. And of course we’re fooled because it sounds, you know, it sounds so good. Free this and free and fairness and equality and all that kind of stuff. But when it gets down to it, they’re going to take away the America that, you know.

0:18:50 – (Steve Gray): They’re going to take it away. So that’s why we know that we can’t go with just the outward appearance. This book is to help you maintain, understand. What do I got to do to maintain the lifestyle of America? What do I got to do? Well, you cannot do it with politics. Cannot do it. And that’s what we’re trying to do. Both sides, all sides. They’re trying to change America by. In the power of politics. Politically.

0:19:21 – (Steve Gray): That was not God’s way. And it’s not going to work, okay? Behind some of the politics is religion, okay? It’s not just politics. Look behind it. Look at the religion behind it. Look at the spirit of what’s behind it, okay? Totally devoted people to their religion who are now pushing a politics. Then you go Christianity. Lame, lame Pastors, they’re not teaching you how to walk by the spirit. They’re teaching you how to feel good about yourself, have good feelings.

0:19:56 – (Steve Gray): Love and acceptance, right? Just love and acceptance and validation. You hear that word today? They validate me. And it’s all about me. The gospel all about me. When the others are. It’s all about a movement of God that they are devoted to. So we’ve got to hear this. So we have a form of godliness in Christianity, but it denies the power. And since that, we’re not going to be able to stand up against those who do not deny the power.

0:20:28 – (Steve Gray): Whether it’s another power, demonic power, whatever power you think it is, Christianity cannot stand up to it in its present condition. Cause it’s all about our hurt feelings. We’re all trying to deal with our feelings rather than deny ourselves and follow and be completely, totally devoted to Jesus Christ. Totally devoted. I was speaking the other day to someone about the song. Cause, you know, in Christianity, there’s unconditional surrender, okay? And the word surrender is a funny word.

0:21:04 – (Steve Gray): I grew up in a. I didn’t grow up in it. In my early life, before second grade, third grade, I went to a church that at the end of every service, they came down to the altars and they cried in lots of Kleenex and, you know, blowing their nose. And they would talk. I surrender. I give them, you know, all that to You. I liked it. It was good. It was good form for foundation for me. So I’m not complaining.

0:21:29 – (Steve Gray): But the idea of surrender to them is. Was so simplistic. Like, okay, I just sort of say, I just sort of lean myself towards you and surrender. But what God calls for is unconditional surrender. And what I say in my book is you have people who are saying it’s sentimental, sentimental surrender. While they say I Surrender, they’ve still got a rifle on their back, just in case you’re still carrying a rifle on your back while saying I surrender All.

0:22:01 – (Steve Gray): And so I was talking about the I Surrender all song, which I heard when I was a kid in that church. And I didn’t think about it. Then I sang it too. And then we got some other. A lot of other surrender songs around, you know, I Surrender, I Surrender All. And I think about that, how people, churches do that. They do it at the end of the service. It’s very sentimental. And it says I surrender all. But what’s it really mean? It’s not unconditional because if you walk up to somebody and maybe, you know, maybe they have a drug habit or something and they go, I surrender all.

0:22:34 – (Steve Gray): And they mean they’re going to surrender their drugs up or something like that. Okay, but most of the people singing I Surrender all don’t have a drug problem. So what are they surrendering? What are they surrendering? Nothing. They’re going to go out and live exactly the same way, you know, exactly the same way. They’re going to serve exactly the same way of God’s. They’re going to serve themselves. They’re going to live pleasant lives.

0:22:59 – (Steve Gray): They’re going to live, it’s all about me. And they’re going to live for pleasure and hope that nothing touches our lifestyle right now. Hope that we just continue to do it a good church, friendly pastors, people who make me feel validated. We have home groups and stuff that get together and we have fun together and all that. And you’re just hoping that nothing changes. Well, there are people that want to change it and they want to change it now.

0:23:30 – (Steve Gray): And they’re going to try, okay? They are going to try. And if they fail round one, they’re going to try again, okay? They’re not going away unless we have a revival that touches the spirit of America. We cannot do it politically and we cannot do it by passing laws. We’ve got to do it where first, number one, the churches rise up, the pastors rise up, believers rise up and say, I need to get out of this form of godliness.

0:23:56 – (Steve Gray): That looks good, that has a good appearance. But I have never experienced the power of God, particularly what we call revival. I describe revival in this book. So you’ll want to get it. So if you want this book, Revival or Ruin: The Choice Before America, you can go to https://revivaloruin.com and get it there, or you can go to https://stevegrayministries.com and get it there.

0:24:21 – (Steve Gray): They have two for a certain amount of money. And the reason I say that is I’m not doing this to make money because I’m going to give hundreds away. I’m sorry if you end up buying one, I didn’t give you one. But I’m going to give, I’m giving them away to politicians and influencers in America. And so if you want to get two and give one away, that would be great. Cause that’s a lot what I’m going to do. I’m not doing it to make money.

0:24:46 – (Steve Gray): I’m doing it because I’m trying to wake up America while we’ve still got some time to invest in what true Christianity really is. True love. Not terrible times where people are in love with themselves and just love money and all that stuff and pleasure. But true Christianity that loves God with all the heart, soul, mind and your strength. Right? And so seeking the kingdom of God first doesn’t mean second.

0:25:13 – (Steve Gray): Returning to your first love doesn’t mean second. All these principles that have been, they’ve just been lost. I want them to come back. So revival or ruin, you can get it at either one of those places. Share it. If you want to write a review, I would love to see a review on it. I’d like to see a good review on it. But you have to understand if you’re looking for a feel good book that just tells you you’re okay and entitled to the love of God, this is not the book.

0:25:40 – (Steve Gray): This is the book that’s trying to maintain our lifestyle and telling us how and what we need to do to do that. Then you can say, oh, I think it gave a lot of good points of what the church needs to do instead of just coasting along lame Christianity with no challenges, no expectations, no responsibility at all. Just walking through this rather than picking up our cross and following him. Okay, so anyway, I’ve told enough about that. Got to talk about it a little bit. Hope you’ll get it.

0:26:10 – (Steve Gray): Hope you’ll just believe with me that this is true, this is not. Make believe. Okay? This is not a movie. This is real. And it’s already here. Okay? I hope it’s helped. You just break through. Get the book and get some more help. Until next time, bye-bye.