sin nature

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Don't Let COVID Steal Your Dreams

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Don't Let COVID Steal Your Dreams

How much power have we given to COVID to keep us from doing the things we know God has called us to do? I don’t want to beat you up, I want to encourage you to consider moving forward. Don’t neglect your gift, use it to serve, and find a way to use it now.

“Use whatever gift you have received to serve.” This reminds me of Moses. God called him, and Moses tried to disqualify himself multiple times. When he started to become open to following God, he asked God how he was supposed to accomplish what God was asking him to do. God said, let’s start with what’s in your hands.

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God Wants to Save People, Not Reject Them.

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God Wants to Save People, Not Reject Them.

God wants to save people, He is not looking for a reason to reject people. He is not looking for a reason to reject you. He did everything He could to remove the things He had against you in the sacrifice of Christ, to make life with Him secure by faith rather than works.

BUT

He does seem to give us a warning in Hebrews. I’ll cut to the chase, the warning is; don’t reject Jesus and go back to Old Covenant sacrifices. Yes, that’s the “willful sin” the author of Hebrews warns about, rejecting Jesus and trusting in the blood of goats and bulls rather than Christ.

Now, you don’t have a temple to take your goat to, but you do have your dead works that you think make you clean again with God (more on this in the sermon). Jesus’ lifeblood cleanses you, and God’s circumcision of your old nature makes you new. That alone is your righteousness and your removal of sin.

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We Are More Than Forgiven, We Are Co-Heirs with Christ.

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We Are More Than Forgiven, We Are Co-Heirs with Christ.

Have you ever received an inheritance? Have you taken the time to draft a will for your children? The process requires great detail. You have to list every asset and decide who it goes to. You can place age stipulations or other guidelines if you so choose. Or you can simply pass down all that you have without restriction. God did this. Through inheritance, he gave you everything.

God handcrafted a will for you that is full of great and precious promises. In Christ, God predetermined what He would leave you in His last will and testament. His inheritance makes for a glorious afterlife, but it has benefits now too.

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Jesus Our Substitute, He Died for you and as you.

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Jesus Our Substitute, He Died for you and as you.

Jesus didn’t just die for you, He died as you. He died in your place. He became like you so you could become like Him. He became your sin so you could be righteous. He was diseased so you would be well. He was punished so you could be free. He was rejected so you could be accepted.

Read along with me through these passages. This sermon is more of a meditative walk through Isaish 52:13 through 54:10.

Here is one of my favorite set of promises from this section of scripture. Notice how God defines Himself; your husband, the Lord of Hosts, your redeemer, the God of the earth, the Lord who has mercy. We must allow God to define who He is and how He wants to operate in our lives. In this selection of scripture, He makes Himself more than our Lord, He describes a very personal and intimate relationship. He is our husband, He is the one who has mercy on us.

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God Removed Your diseased Sinful human Nature and washed you clean with the blood of jesus

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God Removed Your diseased Sinful human Nature and washed you clean with the blood of jesus

God performed spiritual surgery in you when you placed your faith in Christ. When you believe in Christ for salvation and the forgiveness of sins, He goes to work. Here’s the procedure you undergo to become born again:

  1. You placed your faith in Christ.

  2. God removes your heart of stone.

  3. He removes the “body of the sins of the flesh.”

  4. He washes you clean with the blood of Christ (This step makes you holy)

  5. He then gives you a new heart.

  6. Next, He places His Spirit in you, joining Himself to you forever.

  7. This makes you acceptable to Him because of His finished work in you. You cannot improve on His work, and you cannot invalidate His work. It’s His work.

  8. You come off His operating table as a new creature, that is now His child, and a co-heir with Jesus, fully equipped with the authority He shares with you, to go into the world doing the works He did and making disciples of all nations.

All of this is possible because God made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21

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What Does It Mean to be Free from Sin?

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What Does It Mean to be Free from Sin?

With freedom from sin comes personal responsibility. Believers have the personal ability to respond to God’s grace rather than continue to live in sin. Response ability.

Under the New Covenant, we are free from sin. We are free from sin in that God is no longer holding our sins against us.

Paul explains in Romans 6 that freedom from sin doesn’t give one an excuse to continue in sin; it’s just the opposite. It’s the opposite because we are under grace.

If you have a traditional understanding of grace, you will not grasp the power of “under grace.” Grace is traditionally defined as unmerited favor. It’s equated to mercy. The sentiment is that God shows you grace even though you deserve punishment. That’s incorrect. Grace and mercy are different. Mercy is undeserved forgiveness, but grace is inner strength.

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