Call Me "Brother Troublemaker"

I just want to start this message by stating boldly, by prophesying, that some of you reading this are going to come away from it with an attitude.  After allowing this message to sink in, you’re going to draw a line in the sand, and the enemy is going to flee, and you’re going to hit your knees and set some stuff straight. You have been tolerating Satan’s mess long enough, and he has caused grief and pain in your life, but right now in the name of Jesus I say the tables are about to turn.

Matthew 5:8 – “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.”

In the Word Jesus is called the Prince of peace, but we often misunderstand that peace does not mean that Christ was in agreement or that He was in harmony with the spirit or the social environment of His day.  In fact it was said of Him on multiple occasions that there was a division because of Him.

You could say that Jesus caused contention, that He caused irritation, or that He caused disturbances, or you could come right out and say what many would call Him if he were here today, He was a troublemaker.

Jesus said, “I did not come to bring peace but a sword.”

The word sword used here means (Strong’s G3162 macaira: machaira) literally means a large knife but it is used figuratively to mean war.

Matthew 10:34-36 – “I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother and the daughter in-law against her mother in-law and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.”

In other words Jesus was saying that He came to cause trouble, He came to stir the pot of political correctness, and He came to start a fight.  Jesus was essentially telling His followers that He came to force them to choose sides and that because of this many would be on opposite sides with their contemporaries.

When you read the Gospels you can have no doubt that many looked upon Jesus as a troublemaker.  But Jesus wasn’t the first troublemaker sent by God, Elijah was a troublemaker too, during his time as God’s prophet, he forced the children of Israel to choose sides.

I Kings 18:17

“And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?”

Elijah’s very existence irritated Ahab and especially Jezebel.  Elijah Made Ahab miserable, Elijah was a prophet of God and he spoke the truth without compromise, without fear, and without favor.

There is an undeniable need today for servants of God, like Elijah, to stand up in our pulpits, in our government, in our workplaces, in our homes, and in our schools and to declare without compromise or fear, “thus saith the Lord.”

The attitude that dominates our land today is tolerance.  Our children are being taught in school to be agreeable, to be harmonious, to be ‘open-minded’, and to accept anything and everything.  The overwhelming philosophy of our day is ‘don’t rock the boat’ and keep the peace.

Colossians 2:8 (NIV)

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.”

We are at war my friends and too many of us have been taken prisoner, led captive, deceived into accepting a philosophy of ‘go along to get along’ and I don’t know about you, but I feel an anointing stirring in me to become a troublemaker.  I feel an Elijah anointing coming on.

God hasn’t called us to join the ‘PC’ alliance, He hasn’t set us apart to make everyone happy, we’re not supposed to try and find a happy medium where ‘we can all just get along’.  God has called us to draw a line!  He has called us to draw a line between right and wrong, between true and false, between sin and righteousness, and between a dead false religion and the power of God.

For too long now the church has been trying to blend in, to be tolerant, and to not be judgmental.  And as a result of all this hybrid worship the church has become so mixed up that all kinds of worldly and ungodly practices have found their way into our pews, and even worse, they have snuck into our pulpits.

As my daddy used to tell me, “boy you’re hoeing too close to the row,” I know I am, but I know I’m telling the truth.

Social drinking, gambling, homosexuality, shacking up, pornography, and now the church is opening her arms to embrace religions that don’t even recognize Jesus as the Son of God.  They promote the godhood of self, and reject the blood of Jesus as the only remedy for sin.

I can hear the moderates and liberals saying, “Be careful man of God, be careful preaching like that you might stir something up.”

Good!  I pray that before their done reading this a lot of people will get stirred up and share this word with their friends so that even more get stirred up.  I am not writing this to bring peace, but I am writing this because the Spirit of God is on me today to be a troublemaker.  I am not interested in peace today, I want to see a revolution!

The name my momma and daddy gave me is Clayton, but if you want from this day forward, you can call me Brother Troublemaker!

The troublemaker is a person who is usually known for messing things up.  They lay awake at night trying to think up ways to cause confusion and destruction.  They are so committed to this attitude that they become known as “troublemakers.”  Usually when we see them coming we say. “Oh no!  Here comes trouble.”

I wonder what the demons says about you and me.  I wonder if we possess enough of the fire and the power of God that we even disturb the devil.  I wonder if they say, “‘Jesus we know and Paul we know, but who are you?’  Or do they see us coming and say, ‘Oh no!  Here comes trouble.’”

I don’t know about you but I want to be known as a troublemaker.  I want to make trouble for the devil.

I want to make it hard for people to go to hell.  I want to make it hard for people to stay sick.  I want to make it hard for the discouraged and depressed to stay discouraged and depressed.  I want to make it hard for hypocrites to feel comfortable in the house of God. 

You can call me old fashioned, you can say you’re stuck on that same message and you sound like a broken record, but  I know what I am talking about, my testimony is one of compromise.  I haven’t always held to the truth and righteousness, but by the grace of God I am back on the path of righteousness and the Lord has called me to preach repentance to the captive. 

You can claim that I’m spinning my wheels and I’m stuck in the mud, but I’m not stuck in the mud, I’m focused on the blood!

I can’t get away from the message of the cross, I can’t get away from a Savior who shed His blood for me.  It’s the blood that saved me, it’s the blood that delivered me, it’s the blood that heals me, and it’s the blood that broke Satan’s power over my life.

From this point on my mission, my calling, is to make trouble for the devil, I want to tell you in no uncertain terms: I am calling for an army of troublemakers to rise up and join me in this fight to set those who have been led captive free.

Blessed are the troublemakers!

There is a damnable doctrine being preached today called the gospel of inclusion.  It says that everybody is saved, they just don’t know it yet.  This lie teaches that God is love and He would never send anyone to such a horrible place as hell, if there even is such a place.

This deception rips the heart out of Evangelism.  The very heart of evangelism is the recognition that man is a sinner, and that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and that our sins have separated us from God and have condemned us to hell.  But that by believing on Jesus Christ as our sin sacrifice, we are forgiven and redeemed.

I can already hear the liberals say that I am preaching too hard, that my message isn’t soft enough to draw the lost.  Let me tell them something; I’m not running for office, I’m not trying to get your vote, and I’m not trying to make friends, I came to make trouble for the devil and release those in chains.

I want to be a troublemaker like Elijah.