Warning and Pleading

DEVOTION

 THE BOOK OF ACTS

WARNING AND PLEADING

Acts 2:40-41

40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

NIV

We were warned and pleaded with to save ourselves from this corrupt generation. At least that is what those three thousand were able to say. Can we say the same? Have we been warned and pleaded with to save ourselves from the corrupt generation we live in? Do we even recognize that the generation we live in is corrupt? Although it is true there are some very nice people in this generation, if they do not base their lives on the truth of God, they are corrupt. Even if they seem to be good upstanding people who serve their community, doing all sorts of humanitarian deeds, if they are not serving God, living for God, they are corrupt. They are corrupt because if they are not serving God, they serve their own hearts which are inherently wicked. If we are living too close to them, to their ways, is it possible we might allow some of their ideas, some of their ways, infiltrate into our thinking? If we simple refer to them as the unchurched, are we overlooking the fact they are a corrupt generation and they need to be warned and pleaded with to save their selves from what they belong to? What kind of reaching out to the unchurched are we really doing? Are we just hoping they will notice us, notice our good deeds among them? Are we living too much like them for them to even notice us as believers? Some of this corrupt generation even call themselves Christian because they might attend some church occasionally, but have absolutely no commitment to Christ at all. We need to see they are corrupt; they are men with wicked hearts. That is not to say we should judge them for we too were once a member of this corrupt generation, but we have been saved from it and they have not. We should have pity on them, showing them mercy and grace, demonstrating true love toward them, warning them, pleading with them to accept the provision of God for their salvation. Instead it seems we just go on living among them, in fact, living much like them, and saying nothing to them at all about Jesus. If we love them as God does, we should be warning and pleading with them. 

This is a warning and a pleading to all those who read this message, if you are not saved, if you are not born again, if you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you need to today. If you need help in doing this contact me, and I will pray with you, but you need to be saved from this corrupt generation.