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#3, 7 Outcomes of The Gospel (Part 1) (Teaching Series in Ephesians) - Pastor Daniel Batarseh · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

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Fusions chapter 2. And you were dead in the
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trespasses and sins in which you once walked.
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Following the course of this world.
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Following the prince of the power of the air.
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The spirit that is now at work in the sons of Disobedience,
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among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,
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carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and we're by
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Nature children of Wrath like the rest of mankind, but God
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being rich in Mercy because of the great love with which he
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loved us. Even when we were dead in our
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trespasses made us. Us Alive together with Christ by
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Grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated
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us with him in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
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So that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable
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Riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ.
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Jesus, for by Grace, you have been saved through faith and
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this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a
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result of works so that no one may boast for we are his
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workmanship created in Christ Jesus.
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For good works which God prepared beforehand that we
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should walk in them. Amen.
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Father. Again, we ask that this text
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would come alive in our lives. The revelation of the Gospel
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would revive the saved, and it would save the Lost.
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We pray that you would have your way.
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Bring us, Lord bring us to our knees.
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In light of the truth. That we will hear this morning.
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May there be no emphasis on eloquence or in sight.
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But Lord on the Simplicity of the Gospel delivered in the
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power of the Holy Spirit, may you be praised and glorified
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this morning in Jesus name. We pray, amen.
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You may be seated. There are two types of people in
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this world. There are two types of people in
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this world and only two. Those who are abiding in the
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light. And those who are blind in the
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dark. Those who walk on the Narrow
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Path. And those who stumble on the
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broad. Those who are delivered from
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sin. And those who are bound to sin.
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Those who are children of God. And those who are children of
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Wrath. Those who are under the
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influence of the Holy Spirit. And those who are under the
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influence of the spirit of this world, the differentiating
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factor between the ones who are in the realm of Victory.
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Versus those who are in the realm of defeat, is that the
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Victorious ones have tapped into a power that is transferred
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them. From one to another.
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And that power is not something that is self.
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Worked, that power is not purchased by one's own Merit.
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That power is something that is freely given and is received by
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those who would humble themselves to accept it by
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faith. What is that power?
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The Bible is not shy to share what that power is.
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Romans 1:16 tells us for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it
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is the power of God. For salvation to everyone who
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believes the power is the gospel and that gospel produces a
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reality salvation. What is salvation?
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Salvation means Deliverance it means preservation.
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It means safety Paul. Testifies that there is only one
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means and there's only one solution and there is only one
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possibility for salvation and it is through the good news of
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Jesus Christ. And when you ask somebody what
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God has done in their life through the gospel, the number
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one answer you probably will hear his well, he saved me.
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Save you, from what? And it is.
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Probably the number one answer and it is he saved me from hell.
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Which is true. But you, and I need to
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understand this morning that the power of the Gospel is greater
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greater than just being saved from hell, though.
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That truth is wonderful in itself.
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Paul in this chapter reminds the Ephesians of just how powerful
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the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Is he's about to explain in
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detail that faith in this gospel.
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Not only change them in the life to come, but change them in the
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life here. Now, And in chapter 1, we spent
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time talking about the benefits and the blessings that come when
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we are united in Christ of the things that we are destined to
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in the things that we are to experience in their fullness.
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But here he is not speaking about the things that we are to
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experience in the future. He's about to explain and remind
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that there are experiences that you and I have in the immediate
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sense that the gospel is not just something for the future.
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The gospel is something for you. And I today, In this text shed
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so much light. Hear me on what it means to be a
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Christian. That is very important for two
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reasons, number one, because people many people masses of the
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false idea of what it means to be a Christian.
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And amongst many of the wrong ideas, one of them is this.
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Is that I can identify myself as a Christian solely on the idea
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that I understand the theory of what Jesus Christ has done as a
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historical figure at one point in history.
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An intellectual assent, something that just reaches the
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mind, the intellect and James criticized that kind of Faith,
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very sharply and chapter 219 in his epistle and he says, you
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believe God is one, you do well, even the demons believe and
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shudder. And so many people have a
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misconception when they identify themselves as a Christian, not
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realizing that your faith is not something that you just generate
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intellectually. It's something that you put your
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faith and trust in and that changes your life.
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But not only is this text important because it sheds,
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light on wrong ideas of what it means to be a Christian.
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It sheds, light on people who have a not wrong idea.
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But limited idea what I mean by that is there are those who
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understand the gospel but in a limited sense.
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Now, when you hear salvation, a majority of people run to this
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idea that the gospel saves me from certain dangers and
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Destinations. The gospel delivers me from
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these dangers, the gospel Rescues Me From a Certain
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destination and that is partly true.
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Because the full understanding of the Gospel is not that he
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just saves you. From something.
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When we understand the gospel, in its fullness, we also have to
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understand that it positions us for something.
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It positions us for a certain blessing for a certain
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inheritance for a certain destination, so it's not just
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yes I'm delivered. No, it's yes.
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I'm destined through the gospel. So not just from but I am saved
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for And that's what he's about to share in these verses.
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These precious gems. he's about to tell us the beauty of the
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gospel and if we were to bring it even in a visual sense, the
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gospel itself and its effect is like the cross, how The gospel
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has a vertical effect. Any horizontal effect?
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When somebody is saved by the gospel, it changes their stance
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in the Heavenly Realms but it also changes their walk here on
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Earth. And so I have a vertical shift
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and a horizontal shift the cross itself as a picture of what
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happens to a man, when he puts his faith in the finished work
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of Jesus Christ. And Paul goes on to share a
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wealth of information. And today.
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He presents a seven powerful consequences of the Gospel.
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Seven, powerful consequences of the Gospel.
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And let me tell you on a personal level, when I was
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dissecting these consequences, there is no way we can cover all
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seven in one setting. It's just too deep is just too
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profound. It's too impactful to just glaze
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over. So by God's grace, we will try
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to get what we need to get into. But let us take our time to
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study these things. That Paul describes what happens
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to a man, when he puts his faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
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He goes on to share and 2:1 and you were dead.
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You were dead and the trespasses and sins in which you.
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Once walked the number one, consequence of the gospel and
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somebody's life. The result that comes about a
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man or a woman that says I need. Jesus Christ and his saving
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faith. In my life is this that you are
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delivered from the influence of the world consequence.
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Number one, you are delivered from the influence of the world.
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Notice Paul's tense here he's saying you were dead in the
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trespasses and Sins. Not you are you were, he's
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speaking. Of what happened and who they
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were prior to their faith in Christ?
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And he says this very powerful statement you were dead Not, you
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were bad, not that you are morally shifted and your
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understanding of Ethics know you were dead.
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Dead in what sense, not dead in the sense that you had in
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activity, in that you were lifeless dead in a specific way.
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You were dead towards any relation to God, concerning his
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word concerning, his commands concerning his holy spirit, you
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were dead to any association and fellowship with God and to any
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sense of obedience to his commands, lifeless.
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Like a dead person. There is no response when it
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comes to God in your life. There is no eagerness.
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There is no reflex when you think of a dead person.
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What do you think of? Nothing separated from life.
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In the physical death, pay attention, when a man dies
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physically, his spirit is separated from his body.
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That's what happens. If you've ever been to a funeral
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and it was an open casket, you can testify that when you see
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that body, it's like an empty shell.
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There's no life in it because the person, the soul, the spirit
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is not there anymore. It left its Earth suit.
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But listen, that's the physical death.
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When a man dies, spiritually, or when a man is dead spiritually.
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His spirit is separated from God.
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So, in the physical, your spirit is separated from your body.
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When you're spiritual, man, is dead.
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You are separated from God. That's what it means to be
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spiritually dead. And Paul says, boldly, you were
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dead, but they were alive in another sense.
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They were alive in another sense.
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They were alive because they were controlled and influence by
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another source. There was something else that
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was keeping them somewhat alive because he says you walked You
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were walking in the course of this world.
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So you know what that means? You know who you are before
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Christ. You're a Dead Man Walking.
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A zombie so to speak. sure you're walking in this life
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show, you're making decisions in his life show, you're doing your
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day-to-day but really you are lifeless and you are controlled
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and influence and compelled by something else and he says it's
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the world. You were walking in the same
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direction as the world. And what is the world strive
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for? Let's just sum it up in this,
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this world. This Antichrist system.
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This philosophy is a life that is free from the pursuit of
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Joyful, obedience, and intimate, knowledge of the Lord Jesus
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Christ. That's what this world is all
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about. It's free from it joyful
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obedience to Christ, and it desire to pursue an intimate
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knowledge of him. The anthem of this world is this
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eat drink and be merry for tomorrow.
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We die. That is the anthem of this
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generation and every generation before and every generation
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after it. Lets the Lord comes back.
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It's a lifestyle that they choose to live and this is what
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the lifestyle is all about. It's your day-to-day activity
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free from Jesus being any part of it.
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It's your planning of the future with no inspiration to glorify.
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God. It is your emotions, thoughts
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and activities directed towards anything else.
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But Jesus, and your sense of purpose has found and grounded
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and anchored in entertainment. And pleasure.
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And money. And the praise of, man.
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This is what the world lives for.
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And Paul emphatic, Lee declares you once walk that way.
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Pay attention you once walked that way, you know, for Roman
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citizen walked into church this morning from Jesus day.
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He would be absolutely shocked. You know why, why do you think
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he would be shocked? He would be totally stunned by
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the fact that we have crosses hanging around in our buildings
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He would be shocked to see this pulpit.
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And the main reason why Roman citizen or anybody in Jesus, day
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would be totally stunned. By such a thing is because of
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the absolute horror that across turned a man into Some of us in
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here, remember the time. But we went away for just a
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couple days and we got to experience something that I
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never had the experience before. Maybe you've experienced it and
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it was a live animal being slaughtered before we ate it.
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And I thought, the idea seemed normal because how else do you
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get your food? But I never thought I would
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witness it. and when that lamb was purchased, and it was
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brought in front of us, And we looked at it knowing that it was
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going to die, knowing that it was going to die.
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It was pretty disturbing. To see that its neck was slit in
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the blood coming out of it and then to see it tied by its legs
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and dragged over into a tree and thrown over that rope from a
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branch and pull down and seeing that sheep hanging there.
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And seeing it obviously skilled and person with experiencing
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skinning that lamb and then cutting it into pieces and
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laying the guts come out of it. It was a pretty gut-wrenching
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site. But I want you to think about a
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man that was crucified. We have romanticized the cross
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but there is nothing. If we actually had a picture of
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the Cross. If we actually had a painting of
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what it looked like to be crucified, nobody would be
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hanging in their walls, that's for sure.
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Think about a man that was scourged and beaten and
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slaughtered. And when he was nailed upon that
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tree, the open wounds the blood, the the change of color and
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their skin because of the trauma, the open wounds
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depending on how badly they were scores.
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Maybe even the entrails were showing And people would Mock
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and look and would do anything to that person.
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You think about Jesus and Isaiah 52:14?
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It says that he was so marred that he was beyond human
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semblance. He was so disfigured that you
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couldn't even tell he was a man. Now, think about that.
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How badly do you have to be beaten?
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How badly do you need to be tortured for people to look at
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you and not be able to recognize that you are a human being?
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It was hideous. It was a sight of Horror.
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It was nothing that you would be attracted to.
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And you would have to be the most hardened man to be able to
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go to a site of a crucifixion and stay there with a stable
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stomach. But you know what?
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Paul said, he said, one of the most profound statements and
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Galatians 6. He says but for me, far be it
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for me to boast in anything, except in the cross of our Lord,
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Jesus Christ by which pay attention by which the world has
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been crucified to me, and I to the world, in other words,
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Because I had a revelation of the cross of Jesus Christ, you
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know how I see the world. I see it like I saw or
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eyewitness a crucifixion. The same way that a man was
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totally deformed and hideously displayed on a cross.
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Is the same way that Paul saw the world and its course, it's
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totally unattractive to me. It's absolutely hideous.
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There is no sense of attraction in me towards the world because
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it's like something being crucified on a cross.
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Wow. But not only that, if you had a
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friend, or you got a family member that was crucified on a
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cross. You knew one thing, for sure,
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they were never getting off of that cross in the sense that
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they were never coming off a live gone forever and Paul says
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the world is crucified to me, it's gone.
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I have no relationship with anymore.
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I have no hope that I will ever come into contact with the
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world. Again, that is how I see the
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world, you know what's fascinating.
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The Paul says, that's how the world sees me.
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I'm crucified to the world. Total dissociation.
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No sense of attractiveness. No sense of Beauty in it.
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No sense of being compelled, you know, there's so many profession
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Christians today. So many professing Christians
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today, that are not crucified to the world or the world is not
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even crucified to them. The world's not crucified the
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most people today, you know what it is?
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It's compelling to them. Can you really testify this
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morning that the world is crucified to you?
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Can you really say? I look at the world, the same
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way a man, and Jesus, they would look upon a crucifixion.
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Can you really honestly say that?
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Because that's the reality when you get a revelation of Jesus
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Christ, Paul says, by the cross, I see the world as crucified in
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other words because I received the revelation of the glory of
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Christ because I received understanding of his great love
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for me that God himself, sent his son to reconcile me back to
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him and living relationship. The world is absolutely hideous
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and comparison. Now I dare you and challenge you
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to ask a modern Christian, if they really see it that way and
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see what response you get. The Paul said it.
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Paul said, when you get a revelation of the Cross, when
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you truly put your faith and trust when you really come into
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Union with Christ, you see the course of this world
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differently. You see that this world is just
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a strip. Surrounded by flashy lights and
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distractions to keep you long enough.
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Not realizing that this strip is headed off a cliff.
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It's a highway filled with pain regret.
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And shallow pleasures. It's a desert path. filled with
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thirsty people being deceived by faulty mirages of fantasies that
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will satisfy but leave you thirstier and thirstier than
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before, It's ultimately a one more Run, Road freeway to Hell
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heavily occupied. By the masses from different
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nations tribes and tongues. That are Marching on their way
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into an eternal separation from God from his presence.
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When you get saved when this gospel becomes a part of you,
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you look at the course of this world and you don't walk in it
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anymore. You walk in the total opposite
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direction. The number one consequence, when
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you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, that you were
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delivered from the course and the influence of this world.
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You don't walk in it anymore. And this truth of once being
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dead and walking in the direction of this world is
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painted so beautifully with the famous story of The Prodigal
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Son. You know, what the father said?
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When The Prodigal Son came home? He burst forth with joy.
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Why he said the statement he said in Luke 15 for this is my
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son who was dead. And is alive again.
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He was lost and is found and they began to celebrate.
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But, wait a minute, how is he dead?
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He wasn't dead. In fact, you know how it
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describes the sun. It says that he came to his
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father and asked him for everything concerning his
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inheritance. Give me what I deserve
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concerning my inheritance and it says he traveled to a far
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country. And he lived recklessly.
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Now does that sound like a dead person to you?
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Well travel spending on my own Pleasures.
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That's the generation that we're living in acquire more so that I
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can experience more so that I can live more and you know what?
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The Bible describes you dead. Oh you think you're living but
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you're actually a Dead Man Walking You think you have life
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but there is only life when like The Prodigal Son you run back
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into the arms of the father behold.
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He was dead but now he's alive, you will never experience life.
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True life, Abundant Life, Pure Life satisfaction Until you
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realize that your spirit Man is dead and that no matter what you
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do in this life like The Prodigal Son in reality, you're
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eating pigs food in comparison to what you can have in Christ.
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So, don't envy the world. You shouldn't.
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Why? Because what you're looking at
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is Dead Men Walking In Christ, bids us to come to have life.
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Because he delivers you from the influence of this world, he
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delivers you from the course of this world.
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When you have a revelation of the cross, But not only did you
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save you from that the second consequences that he sets you
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free from the authority of Satan.
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He sets, you free from the authority of Satan because he
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says, here you are following the course of this world, following
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the prince of the power of the air, the spirit, that is now at
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work in the sons of Disobedience, what a staggering
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truth. This is what he's saying here,
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that those who follow the course of this world are in reality,
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following the devil, That those who are walking in this course.
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Whether they realize it or not, this world is being energized by
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Satan and his powers. That Satan and his demons and
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his kingdom are orchestrating. These rebellious hearts into
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greater Rebellion against God. And he says, when you're
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following this course, there's somebody leading this marching
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band and it's the Devil Himself. And he says you were following
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the power of the prince of the air.
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And because you were this reality is not part of you, he
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is now at work in the sons of Disobedience.
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Now we had a whole sermon on this, we're not going to spend
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too much time on it, but think about it.
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He is right now at work. What does he do?
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He torments he deceives, he lies he afflicts, he blinds, he
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misguides, he offers false truth.
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He is generating more and more for people to stay on this
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course concerning the world. We should produce a holy anger
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in US. They should produce a holy anger
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in US. because before you and I received in light of this verse,
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You weren't really living for yourself.
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You were actually fulfilling his agenda.
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Say, no, no. There's, there's no way that I
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would live for the devil. Are you kidding me?
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I was just doing my own thing. No.
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You're just in the bottom of the pyramid.
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Scheme friend. You think that you're living for
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yourself but in fact, you're just generating something for
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the person at the top of that pyramid in his name is Satan
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Lucifer, the deceiver of the world.
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Hear me. What is he saying here?
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What does he say to the Pharisees?
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He says, in John 8:44, you are of your father who the devil.
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You are you are of your father, did he identifies the Pharisees?
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The most religious people in that day.
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You know your father is Satan. Jesus was a kind preacher,
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wasn't he? First John 3:8.
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Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil.
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Plain, and simple. That when you live outside of
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the will of God, whether you want to acknowledge it or not,
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whether you want to bury that truth, in your conscious does
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not matter. In reality, you are fulfilling
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Satan's nature and his agenda in this world and what is his
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agenda for you? Not to give glory to God and for
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you to do what Adam and Eve did in the garden to be convinced
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that you are the god of your own life?
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Just control your own life, make your own decisions, make your
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own plans, spend the resources in your time.
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How you want to? And once again that should
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produce a holy anger in you and me because before we were saved,
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we were actually fueling his agenda.
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Before person is saved. The gifts that God has given
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them. They were using it for their own
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Glory, but in reality, they're using it for Satan's Glory,
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robbing it from God's glory, The resources that we receive and we
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were spending on ourselves instead of praying and to how
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God would use them. It was really just fueling
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Satan's agenda and on and on it goes.
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And I wonder How many of us should be stirred by this truth?
28:46
Because if we've given those young years of Our Lives to him
28:50
in an indirect sense, how much more should we give to God with
28:53
the Revelation that he is, Lord of all.
28:56
It's amazing. You meet so many safe people.
28:58
When they get saved, they don't get as radical.
29:00
They were so radical in the world.
29:01
They stayed up all night for the world.
29:06
They work, tirelessly for themselves and then when it
29:09
comes to the kingdom of God, they're lazy and they're just
29:10
not know. It's okay.
29:11
Just going to stroll along. Why?
29:13
You were Radical for Satan, be radical for God.
29:17
They should stir us to know that he does work in the sons of
29:21
Disobedience and that at one point, he was in some indirect
29:25
way without us knowing because we're blind and we were blinded
29:28
rather used us. By robbing us from giving glory
29:34
to God. But now we have a new purpose
29:39
while he works in the sons of Disobedience.
29:41
You know what your 9 to 5 is everyday to destroy the works of
29:44
Satan. Now, he uses you, he fills you
29:47
with his Spirit, he says, now go out into the world because
29:49
that's why Jesus came into the world, to destroy the works of
29:51
the devil, and I, you go With that full minded understanding.
29:59
That I'm not going to waste my life.
30:03
Living for Christ. Safe from the influence of this
30:07
world delivered from the authority of Satan, but this is
30:10
probably one of the most glorious truths of the
30:12
consequences of the gospel. And number three, Saved from the
30:17
power of the flesh. Saved from the power of the
30:22
flesh. He says it here.
30:26
Verse 3, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our
30:29
flesh, carrying out the desires of the body, and the mind, and
30:34
we're by Nature children of Wrath, like the rest of mankind,
30:39
like the rest of mankind. He says you were living you once
30:44
lived in the passions of the Flesh.
30:47
In other words, Not only before Christ.
30:52
Were you walking in the course of this world?
30:54
Not only were you a puppet for Satan.
30:58
You are also a prisoner helplessly overcomed by this
31:02
body. Whatever the flesh demands, the
31:06
flesh cannot resist. When there are urges, when there
31:10
are Temptations we are easily. So given over to it and these
31:14
desires of the carnal body overwhelm us and the
31:17
imaginations of our thoughts plague us So words, such as I
31:25
can't help it. Or is just a part of who I am is
31:31
the common language of those who have not been delivered from the
31:34
flesh. That's the common language.
31:37
That's not the vocabulary of those as we've learned last week
31:41
who have the immeasurable greatness of power that God has
31:43
given us in Christ. But for those who are bound by
31:47
the flesh, I can't help it. I gotta do it.
31:52
I can't stop this craving. And reminds me of a character in
31:57
The Bible, that's a tragic figure in 2nd Samuel 13, verse
32:00
2. And and then who was one of the
32:03
sons of David was so tormented But he made himself ill because
32:08
of his sister Tamar for. She was a virgin and it seemed
32:11
impossible for em to do anything to her.
32:15
He was tormented by the desires of the flesh, it was beyond
32:19
Temptation, it was up session. He came to a place in which he
32:24
was now, so consumed in body and mind that he needed to do,
32:29
whatever he needed to do, in order to fulfill that desire of
32:31
the Flesh and guess what? When he had the wrong friend in
32:34
his life, that fueled the idea he went for it.
32:38
And it's a picture of the man outside of Christ.
32:42
Whatever impulse, whatever. Urge, whatever thought there is
32:46
no ability to fight it, you were so easily given to it and you
32:51
live in that pattern of defeat day after day and week, after
32:55
week and month after month and year after year for your entire
32:57
life. But it's not isolated to sexual
33:01
sin. These passions can overwhelm us
33:06
through anger. You can't control your temper.
33:13
Just takes the right button to push.
33:14
And there goes the wrath of Almighty you.
33:19
Unleashed on a person. These passions can come down to
33:24
the Love of Money that drives you to make every decision.
33:26
You're so cheap. You willing to Rob anybody for
33:30
yourself. You're so driven, you willing to
33:37
step on any relationship to get to that place where you can just
33:40
have a little bit more. These passions can be
33:43
experienced in selfishness where you are, so irritated.
33:47
When the center of attention is not you, or you are extra
33:51
irritated when it's given to somebody else.
33:55
These passions of the flesh can be experienced, unfortunately,
33:59
through drugs and alcohol. These substances that are really
34:02
just symptoms of a deeper issue in which you are bound to
34:06
something. God has given us the ability to
34:10
overcome it by your overcome by his substance.
34:14
That's a pathetic state to be in.
34:18
But it's the reality of the power of the flesh.
34:21
It's a sad place to be in. But Paul makes a bold statement.
34:27
We all once lived. In the passions of the flesh
34:32
that you are living you once lived in that reality, something
34:37
happened. Something happened to us in
34:41
Christ concerning that, but how can it be?
34:46
How can it be? I mean, it's our nature.
34:47
We were born with this adamic nature, Adam and Eve from the
34:51
garden. Took something that was outside
34:54
of them, which was the forbidden fruit and ate it.
34:56
And that very thing that was outside of the now, became a
34:59
part of them. And so, the desire is now for
35:01
the rest of the human race are within us.
35:04
We are enticed by the things that are in us and we have a
35:07
craving for forbidden fruit, that's just who we are.
35:11
That's just our DNA. So how can it be that God
35:14
delivers us? It's like asking a dog.
35:15
Talk to act like a bird. Go fly.
35:19
Sing. It's contrary to its nature.
35:23
And so is it with us when it comes to being free from the
35:26
power of sin? Unless of course, God gives us a
35:28
new nature. That's the transaction that
35:34
happens in the gospel and he prophesied that in Jeremiah 31.
35:38
He says, you know what, I'm gonna do to you.
35:40
I'm going to make an Everlasting Covenant with you.
35:42
I'm gonna put my law within you and I'm going to write it on
35:46
your heart. What does that mean?
35:49
Just picture it. He reaches into that nature of
35:52
yours that heart. That is graffitied with
35:56
Rebellion against God all over it.
35:57
That is so hard and like picking up our Stone from the side of
36:00
the street. He takes that heart, he puts in
36:03
a heart of flesh, but before he puts the heart of Flesh Union
36:05
before he makes that transaction when he does, he takes your
36:07
heart. And he takes the law of God.
36:14
And he writes it. On your heart.
36:18
Every command everything that is given to us every standard.
36:25
He puts it on your heart and then he puts it in you.
36:30
And when he puts it in, you, You know, throb to obey God.
36:37
You now Delight in what you read, it's no longer a
36:41
Taskmaster. It's something that you pursue.
36:45
It's something that you want to do.
36:46
Because that is the supernatural transaction of the Gospel.
36:50
He gives you a new nature. And through that nature, you
36:56
have victory over sin. Because of that heart
37:00
transplant. You are delivered.
37:05
There's this story of somebody that I know very well.
37:11
And they were away with friends. On vacation to a well-known
37:16
Beach. and part of this beach and it's experience was that If
37:23
you swam further away enough, you can actually swim with the
37:27
sea turtles. But legally because this beach
37:33
was so precious with animals and not just animals with coral
37:37
reef. There is this wall of rocks with
37:40
different colors in the water. It was literally a wall and so
37:44
you couldn't swim over. It, lets you touch it and make
37:46
those things stumble off of their place.
37:48
So what you have to do in that beach is that you have to go
37:51
through this little Gap. This little separation between
37:55
the wall, and you would come off the shore and you would swim to
37:58
that Gap and go behind the coral reef.
37:59
So you can go and see all those beautiful fish.
38:02
And so, this young man, decides to go, he was convinced, it was
38:05
a long day, but he was convinced by a friend to do so.
38:09
So he gets into the water and begins to swim.
38:12
And as he swims towards that little Gap and finds himself on
38:16
the other side, he quickly realized that he was more
38:19
exhausted than he thought. And so in the midst of the ice,
38:23
as I think I'm just going to turn back, it's not worth going
38:25
out there because I'm so tired. My body so exhausted, I don't
38:28
know if I'm gonna be able to swim with the fish.
38:30
So I'm just going to go back to the shore and as he turned
38:33
around he quickly realized something.
38:37
He was trapped. He was trapped.
38:42
The waves were so powerful that day.
38:45
That is he tried to swim back. The waves kept pulling him away.
38:52
And his strategy was I'm so far from The Gap.
38:54
I'm just going to try to swim over the coral reefs.
38:56
I know it's illegal but I'm going to try to do it because I
38:58
just need to get back. I'm so tired.
39:02
And as he positioned his body towards the shore, knowing that
39:05
he had to overcome that wall of beautiful precious rocks.
39:09
He thought to himself. I'm just going to go with the
39:12
waves and the waves will push me over and so he tried the wave
39:17
takes him and as he goes instead of going over, it is smash him
39:21
into the rocks and in the wave pulls him back.
39:25
And then he tells himself, I'm just going to wait for the next
39:28
week and the way brings him again, and smash them into the
39:30
Rocks. Now, he's starting to scrape.
39:34
And so he begins to think well this isn't working the way I
39:36
thought these waves I think are are pulling me deeper and I do
39:40
understand why I need to get over this but the waves kept
39:44
doing it beating him and beating him and beat him in all the deal
39:47
was kept in more exhausted, more tired.
39:51
He was trapped, he was overcome and so a second strategy came to
39:56
mind. Okay.
39:56
I think at this point water starting to come into my nose
39:59
water, start to come into my mouth and choking on salt water.
40:02
I need to call out for help. I need to ask somebody from the
40:06
shore to come and rescue me but you know what was blocking that
40:10
it wasn't waves or rocks. It was Pride.
40:14
She was thinking to myself, I are gonna cry.
40:16
All my friends are going to make fun of me for the rest of this
40:18
trip. If I'm gonna cry out, I'm going
40:20
to be that guy in the trip, that almost drowned and the parents
40:23
are going to find out and my parents are going to find out.
40:26
So, you know, I think I'd rather die.
40:30
So with this tension of being overcome by the waves and being
40:33
smashed with this desire of being delivered.
40:37
But also with this pride of not wanting to call out for help, he
40:41
stayed in that place. What seemed to be like an
40:44
eternity, what a picture of sin in somebody's life.
40:50
Somebody that thought they can go out and do something think
40:52
that it was going to please them.
40:53
But in reality, a traps them and when they realize that it traps
40:57
and they think that they can get over in their own power, and
40:59
their own strength, when they only realize that it's
41:02
overcoming, the more and more, and taking them down deeper and
41:05
deeper, And instead of this person crying out for help, they
41:10
think that they can do it in their own strength.
41:13
Listen, you will never be able to overcome the sins of your
41:17
flesh unless Jesus Christ delivers.
41:19
You you might be thinking, what ever happened to that boy that
41:25
teenager Well, you're looking at him.
41:31
Side note in that moment. A prayer.
41:37
My heart went out to God. This is before I was saved,
41:40
said, God, I don't want to die in this water.
41:43
And there is just a blur. We're finally a wave pushed me
41:49
over those rocks. And within a few short moments,
41:53
I realized my feet is touching the sand.
41:57
And I drag my body on that beach, and I felt like, I
41:59
weighed a thousand pounds. And I got into that beach.
42:02
And I fell asleep like a baby. What a beautiful picture of
42:07
Deliverance that when God does save you, he gives you rest.
42:13
Rest. He saves you from the power.
42:18
The flesh. But only when you realize that
42:21
you can't do it on your own strength.
42:24
Only when you realize that he is the one that can take you out of
42:27
that pit and set you on Solid Ground.
42:32
Are you drowning? Are you overcome?
42:37
You'll stay drowning and you will die in your sin unless you
42:41
call out to God for mercy. Do these truths don't end.
42:50
If God could save Reckless, teenager from waves, how much
42:53
more can he save you from the overwhelming powers of sin that
42:57
crash over you day in Day Out? The fourth consequence of the
43:03
Gospel in somebody's life. The first three are glorious
43:09
within themselves safe from the influence of this world
43:12
delivered from the authority of Satan saved from the power of
43:15
the flesh. But the consequence of the
43:18
Gospel centers in these verses with this truth that when you
43:24
truly understand it, you truly experience the expression of
43:28
God's love in your life. He says what?
43:32
Look at verse 4. But God Being rich in Mercy
43:38
because of the great love with which he loved us.
43:41
Even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive
43:44
together, with Christ by Grace, you have been saved.
43:51
Now we know that we are Made Alive together with Christ.
43:54
We just talked about the past few minutes that is the result
43:57
of the Gospel but we can't just focus on the result of the
44:01
Gospel. We have to understand the motive
44:02
behind the gospel. We have to know why he sets us
44:06
free. We have to know why he brings
44:07
life to us, and it says here, clearly because of the great
44:12
love with which he loved us. and every single time I read
44:21
something like that, I'm paralyzed in my thoughts.
44:27
Because it never tells us the reason why he loves us, you'll
44:30
never find that in the Bible. Not once it says he loved us
44:35
with a great love. But the reason for his love
44:39
Shirley was not because we were walking in his ways because we
44:42
were doing the opposite. We were walking in the course of
44:44
this world. Shirley was not because we were
44:47
advancing his kingdom, because we were, in fact, fueling and
44:51
advancing, a kingdom opposite to his.
44:55
He did not love us because we first love his commands.
44:57
In fact, the opposite is true. We delighted and breaking them.
45:02
So how can a holy righteous God in heaven?
45:05
Look down on this Cesspool called Earth with a bunch of
45:08
humans that rebel against him in thought and indeed and sense a
45:12
great love towards them. There's only one answer is
45:20
because he is love. That is the only answer that the
45:24
Bible gives us. The sun, radiates heat it.
45:30
Radiates life, it gives us light.
45:34
And we don't question it because it's the expression of its
45:37
nature. That's what the sun does in the
45:39
same way. God dispenses love without
45:43
measure because it's just the expression of who he is.
45:47
He is love, that's what he does. That's who he is.
45:52
And nothing can ever change that.
45:55
And the expression of his love is so crucial, because it's not
45:58
some sloppy sentimental romantic love.
46:01
It's a love that has action. It's a love that has blood
46:04
behind it. It says for God.
46:07
So loved the world that he gave that he gave the expression of
46:14
his love, was he gives And he gave what The Treasure of
46:20
Heaven. He gave the beloved Son. now we
46:26
all say yes and we nod our heads, but you will not
46:29
experience that truth, if it only reaches your mind, You will
46:35
not experience that kind of a love, if you just hear it, like
46:39
you just heard it and you let it reach here.
46:41
The only way you will be able to really experience it as a
46:43
consequence of the gospels, when you let it reach your heart.
46:46
And the question is, well, how do I bring it from here to here?
46:51
How do I, how do I take it from? Just yes, I understand that.
46:53
Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins to this.
46:56
I would suggest this one truth, the way, you will really feel
47:00
and know that love in your life is when you understand that, he
47:04
died for you personally. See you in a fusions, he's
47:10
speaking generally right? He's saying he died for us.
47:13
He loved us, he delivered us. But that's not the only
47:17
vocabulary and Revelation that Paul.
47:18
The Apostle had. When he goes to the Galatians,
47:22
he says, in Galatians 2:20, we all know it for, I am crucified
47:25
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I
47:27
but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live in the
47:29
flesh by faith in the son of God.
47:31
He loved me and gave himself for me.
47:37
So in Ephesians, he says us, but Paul walked around with this
47:43
understanding. Yeah, but it's also me.
47:46
And he gave himself for me, it's a personalized understanding of
47:51
Jesus sacrifice in your life, your name your life.
47:57
That is who he died for. And until you really ask the
48:00
spirit of wisdom and Revelation to make that known to you, it
48:03
will always stay here. But when you can confidently,
48:07
say that Jesus died for me, fill in your name, fill in your
48:12
address, then you will be able to know that love in your heart.
48:18
God wants us to know, people are scared to say this kind of stuff
48:21
nowadays, because they say it's so centered around, man, and
48:23
Jesus Christ. Died for God's glory.
48:25
Listen. I know he did, but it's clear he
48:27
died for you. He loves you.
48:31
With a great love and he wants you to know that not on a
48:34
corporate level. Not on a worldly.
48:35
Understand that he died for the whole know for you.
48:37
You personally that he had you in mind when he died.
48:42
Did he had you in mind before you even born before the
48:45
foundations of the world? I'm going to die so that I can
48:47
reconcile you and you, and you and you back to the father.
48:53
And we got to take it from this to this.
48:56
How can you go another day with discouragement when you have
48:58
that kind of Revelation? How can you walk around defeated
49:02
when, you know that God Almighty loves.
49:05
You personally took those nails and took those scourging and
49:09
took all of that beating because he had you in mind, stop
49:12
thinking just the world for a second.
49:13
Think about you, you It's kind of a humorous, illustration to
49:24
point this out, but it kind of elaborates it.
49:30
Ben has a funny story, concerning my mom.
49:35
That one day when he was younger as well, he was laying in bed
49:37
and my mom kind of had a routine where she would come to our
49:40
rooms and just kind of talk to us before bed.
49:43
My mother came up to Benjamin and began to just speak to him
49:45
and talk to him. And One night.
49:48
She said, correct me if I'm wrong. you know, Ben I don't
49:54
want you to tell this to your other siblings.
49:57
But I want you to know that there's something special about
49:59
you. There's something special about
50:02
you. And Ben as he explains a story,
50:06
as animated, as he has said that, he was so warmth with that
50:10
truth. That he went to bed so smoothly.
50:14
And so Peacefully. And as my mom is showering him
50:20
with this, love my sister. In the other room was saying,
50:22
mom mom, and now she needs comfort.
50:26
And so she walks over into another room and she failed to
50:29
realize that the rooms are connected.
50:33
And so, as my mom has there been has with his eyes closed, just
50:37
basking in the Revelation that he is the most special one among
50:40
the siblings. And offer suddenly here's my
50:45
mom, threw those thin walls. Saying you know pulling.
50:49
I don't want you to tell this to your siblings.
50:52
But there's something special about you and Ben's eyes open up
50:56
in that moment. It's humorous.
51:01
It's funny. But there's some truth to that
51:04
because I think I know what her intention was.
51:09
I believe that as a parent, she wanted us as children her
51:13
children to know that though. We are.
51:15
Yes, her children and she loves us because we are her Offspring.
51:18
She also wanted us to know that she loves us personally.
51:22
As individuals. That each of us had a special
51:26
place in her heart that each of us was something to her.
51:30
Not that one was greater than the other, I'm sorry.
51:31
Ben but that each of us had a slot in her heart.
51:41
That each of us had a place of meditation in her life.
51:45
And I believe God wants us to do the same thing with the gospel
51:49
is that? Yes, he loves all of us.
51:50
He died for the world but you personally, As one of his
51:56
children, there's a special place in his heart for you.
51:59
You got to know that because when you pray, your voice is
52:04
unique, your problems are unique.
52:06
Your calling is unique. We got to walk with that
52:11
Revelation. Paul said he loved me and gave
52:15
himself for me. You got to know that confidently
52:18
as well. We talked about four
52:22
consequences delivered from the power of the flesh saved from
52:27
the authority of Satan. rescued from the course of this world.
52:34
And we are recipients of the expression of the climactic,
52:38
love of God, the cross. You need to know that.
52:44
Paul in this verse makes a turning point because in these
52:48
verses what we just described, he talks about who we were
52:50
before Christ and what he's delivered us from.
52:52
And next week, we're going to discuss about how he not just
52:55
saved us from, but he also saved us for.
52:59
Let's pray. Paul in this verse makes a
52:46
turning point because in these verses what we just described,
52:49
he talks about who we were before Christ and what he's
52:51
delivered us from. And next week, we're going to
52:53
discuss about how he not just saved us from, but he also saved
52:57
us for. Let's pray.