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The Secret to Living by Faith

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The Secret to Living by Faith

The just shall live by faith, but you must know that you are justified to approach God for grace confidently. When you believe you are justified, you'll live by faith. When you live by faith, you'll access grace. When you access to grace, you will live by his spirit and obey him from the heart. You must be convinced that you are justified through the blood of Christ so you will remain confident before God and not disqualify yourself from receiving from him.

Ephesians 3:12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

Our faith is not in our faith, it’s in him. Living by faith is not living by the strength of my ability to believe. Living by faith is living persuaded of all that Jesus has accomplished on my behalf. If I am facing something in life that Jesus affected on the cross, I have the right to believe that what Jesus paid for should be the reality in my life rather than the temporary circumstance I may be facing.

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Be Bold and Confident When You Approach God

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Be Bold and Confident When You Approach God

God wants to help you when you are weak, but you must be bold enough to go to Him when you need help. Don’t allow the guilt and shame of failure to keep you from going to God. He already knows what you’re going through, and He already punished Jesus for your mistake.

You know we can go to Him for mercy after we sin, but do you know you can go to Him for grace before you fail? There’s even better news; you don’t just go to God for help in failure, continually asking for forgiveness; you can walk away changed. There is mercy to forgive and grace to help strengthen you, so you don’t repeat the same sin habits. That is the power of grace.

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What the Recent Killing of 8 People in Atlanta Area Spas Tells Us About Sin and Guilt

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What the Recent Killing of 8 People in Atlanta Area Spas Tells Us About Sin and Guilt

I’m heartbroken over these killings. The young man that murdered 8 people said he did it because he had a sex addiction and he was trying to eliminate the source of temptation.

This is an extreme example of the fruit of guilt and shame related to sin. If you do not process your guilt and get help from God, you will in some way destroy your life. Christ dealt with our guilt for our sin before God, but we must receive grace to help in time of need for us to process it.

I want you to know you don’t have to continually struggle with the guilt of sin. You can not only be forgiven but you can overcome those life-controlling issues that make you feel ashamed.

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How to have Spiritual Strength

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How to have Spiritual Strength

I think it’s safe to say that you want God’s will accomplished in your life. Am I right?

To live the way He would lead you to live and see His will accomplished in your life, you must follow him when He leads. The problem is; we don’t always yield to His leading. You want to in your mind, but your heart sometimes desires another way. Not because your heart is evil, but because your heart may be more persuaded of your own understanding in any given area.

I have more good news, you follow God better than you realize. I’m positive that you follow God regularly without even being aware of it. As a new creature in Christ, you are hard-wired to follow God from the heart without intellectualizing the process. Seeing, hearing, and obeying God from the heart is natural for you as a child of God.

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Grace Is Greater Than Mercy

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Grace Is Greater Than Mercy

We were under the Law, but now we are under grace. We used to be under a system where we had to live up to a certain standard to qualify for God's blessings. Now we are in a relationship with God in which He has made us His children and has given us His kingdom. He has given us everything He has, through Christ.

The issue is that what He has given us is primarily spiritual. Everything that Jesus paid for in our atonement is in us right now, in spiritual seed form. As we exercise faith in Christ, we make room in our hearts and lives for our inheritance to manifest from spiritual seed form to something tangible or substantive in our lives.

Faith doesn't make God move or cause Him to give us things, faith hosts God's presence within our inner man and allows God's spiritual power of grace to build His character and promises into our lives.

God is not withholding anything from us, but what He has given us must be received by grace through faith.

So how do we access grace by faith and experience the power of grace in our lives?

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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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