It Is Time: It Is Time for You to Take a Stand for Christ and God's Kingdom

By Chris Louis Henry du Preez Jr.

It Is Time is essentially a sermon compilation in which the author shares what God has put on his heart to share with those who read this book. Keeping in mind the times we live in today, it is time to turn back to the one that gave His life for the whole of humanity.

In these sermons, the author teaches you who God is and shows you all the marvelous aspects of the Gospel you want to know. He will also introduce you to and tell you about who Jesus is in simple language that you will understand. His prayer is that as you read this book, you will be blessed by the good news he shares with you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781512715194

Chris Louis Henry du Preez Jr.

Chris Louis Henry duPreez, Jr. is from Johannesburg, South Africa. He has a bachelor’s degree in business and commerce. He also recently graduated with his second bachelor’s degree in arts majoring in Bible and theology at the AFM Seminary, which is a study center of Global School of Theology. He is currently busy with his master of art degree in biblical studies at Global School of Theology Western Cape.

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Copyright © 2015 Chris Louis Henry du Preez Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-1520-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1521-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1519-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015916641

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/20/2015

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

It Is Time … for an Introduction

It Is Time to Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

It’s Time to Stand Up for Christ. Be the Witnesses He Has Asked For

It Is Time to Take Action for Christ and for God’s Kingdom

Your Christian Life Is Not Just a Lifestyle. It Is Also a Journey

Through the Blood of Christ, There Is a Renewed Covenant

In Christ You Have New Life

He Chose the Nails so He Could Save You and Me

Everlasting Life or Everlasting Death—Take Your Pick

Are You a Fan or a Follower?

Being in Step with the God of the Nations

Jesus Did Not Mean Good-Bye; Jesus Meant until He Sees Us Again

The Present Factor of the Kingdom of God

Jesus—The Name That Is Above Every Other Name

Who Am I in Christ? Solving the Biggest Identity Crisis!

There Is Nobody Like Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God

Your Excuses Are Meaningless to God

Do Not Lose Courage. Keep Fighting the Good Fight of Faith

Putting Your Faith in Jesus is Better than Anything Else

You Will Thrive When You Dig Yourself into God’s Word

You Will Thrive When You Share the Gospel of Jesus Christ

God’s Mission to the World

God Is Calling You to Salvation

Intimate Worship in Spirit and in Truth

The Holy Spirit Is Alive and He Is Still at Work in Us Today

Let the Light of Christ Shine through You so that God Can Be Glorified

He Is Risen. He Is Coming Back Soon. Are You Ready?

Bibliography

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, Copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the Amplified Bible, copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

All Scripture quotations in this publications are from The Message. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) Copyright © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.

Dedication

First, I would like to dedicate this book to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He carried me through as I worked on this book. Second, I would like to dedicate this book to anyone who has always wondered about the good news of Jesus Christ. I really hope you will be blessed as you read.

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the following important people in my life. First and foremost, I acknowledge my two wonderful parents. Mom and Dad, I could not have asked for better parents. God was very good to me when He gave you to me.

I also want to acknowledge five people who were very dear to me and are now waiting for the rest of us in the presence of God Almighty, our heavenly Father: Tannie Natashia, Oupa Willie, Ouma Claudia, Ouma Clarissa, and my cousin Chris Luther. I love you, and I continue to miss you every day.

The final words that my late cousin wrote about me on his Facebook page, I took as prophetic words. This is the beginning of great things for God and His kingdom.

It Is Time … for an Introduction

Greetings, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Before you dive into the rest of this book, I would like to give you an overview of what to expect. Before I can do that, I need to give you my personal testimony so that you know how this book came about.

My journey with the Lord started in the latter part of 2010. I was visiting my late aunt in Mossel Bay, Western Cape Province, South Africa. It is a small coastal town. I left there to take a marketing job at a hotel in a town called Grahamstown. I did not have the job for longer than two weeks. God needed to meet with me and reveal to me that He had a purpose for my life. Before that could happen though, I had to give my life to Jesus Christ and accept Him as my Lord and Savior. Deep inside of me, I knew it was time. However, it was very hard for me to get to that point. I received help from the Holy Spirit, who convicted me of my sins, and from Jesus, who kept knocking on the door of my heart.

I can remember the moment as if it were yesterday. It was a Wednesday night. I was down and out. I had two choices: go completely in the way of the world, or repent and make a 180-degree turn to walk the road with Jesus. I chose the latter. I fell on my knees. I wept before God and asked Him to forgive me of my sins. Then I asked Jesus to become my Lord and Savior. I told Him I was willing to obey His every word.

The following evening, I was asleep in my bed. All of a sudden, I woke up and saw a being that filled nearly the whole room. He was whiter than the purest white. He had a crown on his head and wings on his shoulders. Immediately, I went to my knees and worshipped him. He told me to stand up and not be afraid. He was a messenger from the Most High God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth and my heavenly Father. The messenger said that he bore a message for me. My name had been forever written in the Book of Life, and God had a purpose for my life. He required my full-time services. Little did I know what would happen next.

The next day the boss called me in and told me that he felt that he did not need my services anymore. I was allowed to stay one more night to pack my bags. Just as God planned it, I got a place on a flight from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg. I also got place on the bus from Grahamstown to Port Elizabeth. Looking back now, I know that God had His hand in the matter.

I went home and also went on holiday with my family. The following year, I started to go to church at an AFM just down the road from us. AFM stands for Apostolic Faith Mission, South Africa’s biggest Pentecostal church. In March 2011, I was baptized. Three months later, in the week of Pentecost, I was empowered by the Holy Spirit for full-time ministry. The Lord showed me where He needed me: among the youth. He used my dad to say that He wanted me to work for Him full-time in the ministry.

I started theological training, studying God’s Word. It really showed me who the Godhead is. Theological training also fed me spiritually and brought me closer to Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

As I grew deeper in faith, God spoke to my heart and I wrote down what He said. I thought the material would form the sermons I would share when I preached from a pulpit. However, looking back now, I realize that He was preparing me to publish my first book. Once I had enough material, God told me it was time to share it with the world.

Now I am sharing God’s heart as He showed it to me. This book is about what it means to know God intimately through faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and it is about the fact that His second coming is imminent. If you have been asking when the time will arrive to accept His gift of everlasting life, then I want to tell you that it has arrived. It is time for you to make a decision for or against Christ. My prayer is that, as you proceed through this book, God will speak to you much as He spoke to me. May He reveal Himself to you in ways you have never dreamed about. I pray God’s blessing over every aspect of your life so that He can use you to be a blessing to others.

It is time for you to take a stand for what is right. It is time for you to put your hand up, to ask God to fix you and use you as a light in a broken world. It is time.

It Is Time to Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

Have you ever thought about what it takes to really be a follower of Jesus? Have you ever thought what you have to do?

Well, to be seen as a follower of the Alpha and the Omega does not take a lot of effort. We must just ask Jesus to be our Lord and our Savior. We need to leave all sins behind us and take up our crosses and follow Jesus. That is what I want to share with you today. It might sound very difficult, but I can assure you—as difficult as it may seem, it will be worth it at the end. God has given all the instructions we need to follow His written Word, the Bible.

There is one key Scripture passage that I have in mind: And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who lose his life for My sake will find it (Matt. 10:38–39 NKJV)

The Message translation puts the verse this way: If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.

Jesus says that if a person is one of His disciples, then that person should give his or her whole life to Him. If he or she does not want to give every aspect of life to Jesus, then the person is not worthy to be called a disciple of Christ.

The Christian walk is not easy, but it will be worth it at the end. When you and I make a decision for Christ, we need to know that what we are choosing won’t be easy. In a sense we make a decision to lose our lives for the sake of Christ, in order to get them back.

When we decide to become true believers in Christ, we have to take up our crosses and follow Him. We must be able to handle the most extreme circumstances. For example, in certain countries, people are sentenced to death because they decided to take on Jesus as their Lord and Savior. To a lesser extent, you and I must risk our relationships with our families in order to have a relationship with God through our faith in Jesus Christ.

In Jesus’s day, a criminal who carried his cross to the place of crucifixion was admitting, in a tacit way, that the Roman Empire was correct in executing its death sentence on him. Similarly, when we decide to follow Jesus with all our hearts and minds, we admit that Jesus is the only One who has the right over our lives.

In other words, in order for us to be worthy and righteous in the sight of God, we need to deny our sinful natures. We need to take up a life that is good and pleasing to Him. Irrespective of the consequences, we will be worthy to be called disciples of Christ when we follow in Christ’s footsteps. We will receive an eternal life in His presence when we decide to suffer for the sake of Christ. And when I say suffer, I don’t mean be poor. That is a different sermon for another day.

You might wonder, How do I take up my cross to follow Jesus? You might wonder, Where do I fit in all of this? I want to give you three principles you can implement to take up your cross and follow Jesus:

• put down your troubles and run the race of faith;

• give