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Fierce Church Sermons
A Hot Take on Misplaced Confidence II | Hot Takes
🔥 HOT TAKE: You can't fix everything on your own... and you were never meant to.
In this week's message from our Hot Takes series, we confront the illusion of self-sufficiency. It's tempting to believe that sheer willpower and personal effort can lead us to progress and set things right. But the truth is, without God, our strength has limits.
💡 In this sermon, you'll discover:
The pitfalls of relying solely on personal power.
The difference between following the law and following God.
How to shift from self-reliance to God-dependence for true transformation.
If you're feeling the weight of trying to manage life alone, this message offers a path to lasting peace and progress through surrendering to God's power.
I want to talk to you a little bit about all the things that might not happen, the things that you might not get, the things that maybe feel like you're hoping for it, but then the time passes and it doesn't happen. I want to talk to you today about untapped potential and the disappointment that comes when it didn't go the way that we thought and the disappointment that comes when it didn't go the way that we thought. So probably about four years ago I think, I went through what I would call some version of a mini midlife crisis. I know I don't look that old, but, yeah for sure I am and I went through one and I didn't even know, like honestly, I didn't know what that was going to be like. I didn't know that that was even what it was at first. I didn't want to buy a car, like there's nothing. I wanted to do that kind of the cliche things you think about when you think about a midlife crisis. All I knew was I was coming to an age and I said in my heart, oh, I think some of the things I thought was going to happen are not going to happen by the time that I thought they never going to happen. I remember looking in the bathroom mirror one morning and be like, well, you ain't going to get any better looking. Best you can do is smile now, buddy, like that's about it. It's downhill from here. And it was little messages like that that just began to make me say, gosh, what, what happened? Like I'm a really type, a kind of a guy I'm very much like hey, let's go take the hill, let's go to war man, let's take a risk, let's do it, let's find out.
Speaker 1:And I began to realize, you know, some of the things you wanted to happen needed to happen by a certain age, or they probably aren't going to happen. If you were going to live to 500, maybe then it could happen, but that's not going to happen because you're not going to become to get over it, because it's not going to happen. I don't know if you've ever had thoughts of like maybe I'm working really hard and maybe I just missed my season, maybe it's just not going to work the way that I thought it was. Maybe you look at the parent you wanted to be and now that season has passed. Maybe you look at the marriage that you dreamed about having and it seems like I don't know that that particular version can ever happen again. I don't know if this can be completed the way that I thought.
Speaker 1:Maybe you just wanted to be like a video influencer and you've tried for a long time and it just hasn't come to pass yet. Maybe you wanted to have that certain job, but the truth is now you're looking around mostly folks younger than you get that role at this point, and so the question becomes what do I do with my disappointment? What do I do with my untapped potential? I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but maybe that boat has sailed. I wanted to be a world changer, but it feels like I can't even change my own house, much less change much of the world. What's up with that?
Speaker 1:And the danger of these kinds of questions is that they can lead us to a version of bitterness, a disappointment that we dwell on, and it gets sour. Because I'm now discontent, because I wanted certain things to happen and I was even kind of living. I was trying to believe I was God's going to do it and I have faith and, dude, your faith totally works Like God works by faith. There's things God will not do until we believe, but sometimes, even when we believe, god says yeah, I appreciate that. That's just not my plan, that's not the way I'm going to go with this. And it's not really necessarily that you did anything wrong or that your faith failed. It's just my plan was different than whatever God's plan ended up being. And it's hard, it's difficult and what we're going to find is you and I can never really make ourselves what we should be, really make ourselves what we should be, but we can trust Jesus to make us what we're supposed to be. We can't really ever trust ourselves to completely, totally best version, make ourselves what we should be, but we can trust Jesus to make us what we're supposed to be.
Speaker 1:We're in a brand new series called Hot Takes and we're talking about Hot Takes. We're talking about hey man here, it's kind of like a video release. Here's my maybe controversial, up to the minute perspective. It might be a little bit pushy, it might be a little bit passion filled, but I'm just going to lay it on you. And God isn't rude or anything like that. He doesn't necessarily have new opinions, but he does have very passionate opinions that he wants to share with us and he's going to share with us from his word.
Speaker 1:And so last weekend we started and we talked about a hot take on misplaced confidence, and we're going to finish that up from a little different angle today. We're also going to talk about a hot take on the Bible a hot take on the Bible, hot take on the environment, hot take on hell and a hot take on mental illness. We're going to get to all of them eventually, but today I want to focus specifically back on what. Does this mean? That I can't necessarily make myself everything I would want to be, but I can trust Jesus to make me what I'm supposed to be. And it goes back to last week's bottom line God wants us to lose confidence in ourselves and gain confidence in him.
Speaker 1:Do you remember we were talking about the Corinthians and Paul was? He was complimenting them on the front end in the beginning of the book of 1 Corinthians, but then he dives in and says you know, you guys are really comparative, you're really comparing gifts and comparing skills and you're weighing one another, you're measuring one another according to what you think should be best. And it's really just kind of whack, because that's not the way you found Jesus at all. In fact, it was by admitting that you don't have much of anything. That's what made you soft enough and humble enough to receive Jesus. So why would it be that he would want you to continue on in your walk with God, with all this confidence and boasting and bragging to one another? And besides, we talked about at the very best, what that leads to ultimately, if it was the best version, is a forgotten fame within a hundred years, like it just goes away for the most part, for most people who have been a part of the history of the human race.
Speaker 1:But we talked about one of the things we can do, one of the wise things to do, one of the things we should do that God would challenge us to do he's challenging us through Paul is to lose confidence first in your own wisdom and make Jesus your wisdom. That's what happens when we come to Christ, when we trust him by grace, through faith. He says your wisdom wasn't enough to even get you to me, so you'll be wise in certain ways, but I want you ultimately to trust me to be your wisdom. I'll lead you to wiser things and I'll make sure that you're energized and given wisdom at the right time. And so that becomes very much a faith walk. It becomes a trust walk. I trust God. He is giving me wisdom right now. I'm trusting that Jesus is wise and he makes me wiser than I am.
Speaker 1:And then, remember we talked about, jesus is my righteousness. That means he's all that I need to be. He's the morally perfect one. So my moral imperfections it's not like I'm trying to top off my imperfections with more perfection no Jesus is a hundred percent, completely, all that I need to rely on and lean on for my moral purity. I have none, he has it all. And we use this illustration that went over some people's heads, but it was having an adamantium-laced skeleton, so that it doesn't matter, it's not something that you put on, it's something that's inside. You can't get rid of Jesus's righteousness once you've trusted him and nothing can beat it. Nothing can beat it out, nothing can beat it away from you.
Speaker 1:And today we're going to go a little bit further. We're talking about the next section of that scripture, which is about our sanctification, our redemption. Those are kind of technical words, so we're going to get into what they mean, but let's just start back with our big idea for today, which is you and I can never make ourselves what we should be, but we can trust Jesus to make us what we're supposed to be. 1 Corinthians 1.30,. But by his doing, by his doing. Everybody say by his doing, by his doing, not my doing, not anybody else's doing, not by birth, not because somebody wanted me to, not just because I decided to one day, not because I became convinced. It was really beyond all that Before that. It was by his doing.
Speaker 1:You are in Christ Jesus, who became to you wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, just as it is written, let him who boasts boast in the Lord. And we talked about how boasting is not just like bragging, it's more, it's a heart set of confidence. I'm boasting, I'm confident, it's a sure thing what God is going to do and who he's going to be, who he promised to be to me. So here's two more brilliant things to lose confidence in and it's really number three, but you call it number one if you want to. Two more brilliant things to lose confidence in. The first one is your own power to progress. Your own power to progress Christ Jesus, who has become to us sanctification from God.
Speaker 1:I'm a big believer in the human spirit. I love that. I live in the time that I live in. I know that there's centuries past when people didn't really believe that people could do anything Like. If you had a thought, you had a new idea, hey, man, shut that down because you're never going to get access to that. Just forget about it. I love that we live in a time where and we believe humans can do powerful stuff, and it's amazing. But even in the midst of the powerful stuff that we can do, there are limits to what we can do.
Speaker 1:And God comes along and he says I know that you think you can just take every hill, but you need to trust me, you need to trust Jesus as your sanctification and sanctification is a big word. That means progress in holiness, progress in Christ-likeness, and you're not going to be able to do that, god says, on your own. Jesus is going to have to do that for you, no matter how zealous you are, however much you think man, you're more passionate than anybody. It doesn't matter, you're going to find out. You're just human, like the rest of us. And God is going to say you can't progress really unless Jesus becomes your progress. And that's even a little bit offensive to the human spirit, because it's like you can't tell me I'll do what I'm going to do. Yeah, I mean, you can believe that deception for a while if you want to. But you just keep trying, you just keep walking. You just see Jesus will convince you after a while. Hey man, I know you tried hard, but boom, there you went again. That just fell down again.
Speaker 1:I know the very thing that you're trying to beat. It doesn't end up being beaten, because Jesus is the one who initiates and completes our sanctification. Jesus is the one that makes it possible. So what this means is, when we come to know Jesus, he makes us instantly legally right with God. He takes all of our sin and says that's all paid for, that's all done. You are no longer guilty. Jesus was guilty. So you're not guilty. That is instantaneous.
Speaker 1:But through life you'll notice there's still sin in me, my body still does sinful things and we're like ah, bless God, I'm going to beat it. No, anything, you've already beaten. You beat it because Jesus caused you to beat it, or beat it through you. And as you keep walking, you're going to find out it's only he that releases you to greater levels of holiness. And that's your whole life. For the whole rest of your life, if you've trusted Christ, you're going to be working out what Jesus has been working in. You're slowly going to be. Some of it's real fast, but a lot of it is after years and years. You're like how is this still in there? It's still in there because Jesus alone is your sanctification. He's the one who makes it possible Jesus comes.
Speaker 1:Because of Jesus, you and I can be God's property. God says this is mine and I don't give up on my stuff, I don't get rid of it. It's my stuff. We become his property. And Jesus, our sanctifier, says I'm going to work in the good and I'm going to suck out the bad over time.
Speaker 1:You ever gotten depressed that you're not perfect yet? That's a very, it's a Christian thing to even think, because most people think they're more perfect than they are. But those who are really being transformed by Christ, you're increasingly aware. You're increasingly, you begin to recognize I am grieving the Spirit of God with the ways that I treat him and the ways that I treat others. And you got to know just so. You don't like, want to give up. That's normal, that's what it's supposed, that's the reality the Bible describes. And through your whole life, jesus is working in the good, and we'll talk about how. But he's also pulling out the evil.
Speaker 1:A way to think about it is Jesus is your autopilot reverser. See, when you come into the world, we've got a certain autopilot. It's a sinful bent. It doesn't mean that everything we do is sinful, but it means everything we could ever do has a little bit of taint of self-serving, self-focus. It's about me, it's about my agenda. I'm still trying to work the angle. I'm not always loving everybody in every situation the exact way that Jesus Christ himself would. I'm still tainted by that sin and I'm still moving forward in that. And that's my autopilot. Now.
Speaker 1:I did a little bit of study because I wanted to make sure I got this right. So pilots out there, feel free to write in and correct me or whatever you're going to do. But the way I understand it is, once the plane is set on autopilot, the pilot can grab the controls and can a little bit cause it to go a different way if he or she wants to. But unless that autopilot is engaged, the moment they let go, that plane is going to go right back to the way that it was going. Here's the thing with us. We have an autopilot that is going a certain way.
Speaker 1:We can try really hard with religious works, with our best strength to say I'm going to get this plane to go God's way, I'm going to do it right. But as soon, baby, you left the strength for a second and it starts going right back toward our old sinful nature, are we hearing that Now Jesus knows how to disengage the autopilot and reprogram it to go his way, so that we start going the way of Jesus. But you and I can't reprogram, we can't disengage the autopilot, we can't reprogram it. But the spirit of Jesus, who is our sanctification? Somebody say my sanctification, he's the one who absolutely can do it. Now here's what happens when we come to know Jesus.
Speaker 1:It's a Bible-y thing. We'll be a little bit Bible-y and theological today, but I know I'm at fear. So I know that you guys like the Bible and I know that you're going to love it. You're going to shout amen like so much, so much amens. You're just going to keep on going. But the Bible teaches that sin, once we come to know Christ, is no longer our master. It is still messing with us, but we're no longer under it the way that one would be under a master.
Speaker 1:Listen to Romans 6.12. We'll read all three verses just because it's all good. Therefore, do not let sin. You who are already knowing Jesus, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness, for sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. You're not under law, you're under grace. You were under law until Jesus released you from the law. That means the enemy, the enemy of your soul, would come and he'd say I'm going to attempt you to disobey the law. And as soon as you do, I'm going to be like, look what you did, you disobeyed the law. And we're going like, oh, I did, I did disobey the law. And that master is beating us down. Only Jesus comes along and he says oh, by the way, I've already fulfilled the law. You're not under the law. Now you're under grace. And so you can turn to your enemy and say, by the way, I'm not under the law, you can't lay the beat down on me, that's not even those rules don't apply to me anymore. Those were fulfilled in Jesus. My heart still wants to obey him, but you don't get to beat me down, because God is not judging me by that law. He judged Christ by that law and freed me to just be without sin in his eyes.
Speaker 1:Some people are like Carter, you're talking crazy. You're talking like people are just going to give themselves to sin. Possibly they might, but that's what the Bible says. It's a little bit scandalous. We're going to go with exactly what the Bible says. I want to show you this from a very old, super dead theologian, but he's really good. People still read him 500 years later, so there's a reason why. It's because it's so good.
Speaker 1:John Calvin says this in his Institutes to Christian Religion Whatever you heard about John Calvin, you should read him before you say anything too bad about him. Here's what he says this sin talking about someone who's already come to know Christ. Sin, though it ceases to reign, ceases not to dwell in them. Accordingly, though, we say that the old man that means the person you used to be apart from Christ, the old man is crucified and the law of sin abolished in the children of God, which it is Romans 6, 6. The remains of sin survive, not to have dominion Remember it won't be your master but to humble them under a consciousness of their infirmity, meaning God. God leaves a little bit in to remind you. Remember I'm your sanctification. You can't do this on your own. You didn't just beat this. I leave stuff in to keep you humble so you recognize it is God, and God alone, who delivers me and sanctifies me and progresses me.
Speaker 1:It is owing to the mercy of God that the saints are not charged with guilt. How many know that's dope? If you're in Christ, you are not charged with guilt anymore. Why? Because Jesus was charged with your guilt and that's already done and God doesn't charge somebody double anymore. Okay, it's already done. So you're not charged with guilt, which otherwise would make them sinners before God, which in one sense, you still sin, but you're no longer a sinner before God.
Speaker 1:Doggone, it gets deep dude, but the deep stuff is good. Can I just tell you we're going to get there. Why doesn't God just deliver us immediately? I think it looks a little bit something like this Occasionally I will go with my dogs and some family members I don't typically walk them because that's what I have kids for, so they're holding the leash, but something will just go insane in one of my dog's minds and they will look at some poo-poo on the ground and they will think the smartest thing in the universe to do is to roll around in it. And so they'll kind of like jump on their back and, yep, let's get full of this stuff. And occasionally one of them is so brilliant, he'll start to chew on it Like it's a piece of apple pie and my skin just crawls and I'm like no, and I'm like no, and I realized you don't know what you're doing, but it's so gross.
Speaker 1:And I think one of the reasons the Lord allows us because when we participate in sin, what we're doing is we're being like I'm going to roll in this poo-poo, that's what we're doing. I'm even going to chew on some of it. And the Lord is reminding us thought you were religious, didn't you? A lot of times you're like a dog that can't stop rolling in and eating poo. Why does he do that? To keep us humble, to keep us humble, to remind us it's God, and God alone that progresses me and sanctifies me, and if anyone's going to do it, I'm going to need him to do it. He wants us to see. This is the only word he wants us to see.
Speaker 1:In some cases in areas of life, you still love poo, you still love poo and we got to have the humility to own that. The reason I like to look at those things is because part of my heart still loves poo. The reason I don't want to have self-control over my anger is because part of my heart still loves that poo, and that should lead to humility and brokenness and laying before the Lord and say, oh Jesus, I don't want to just do right, I want to have the right motive. I want to do what's right because it's right, and I agree with you why it's wrong. You see how God wants sons and daughters. He doesn't just want robots that will just do whatever he says. He wants the heart to be shaped. Come on, somebody.
Speaker 1:When we come to Christ now here's the thing when we do come to Christ, you can tell sanctification is working, because you're really no longer just comfortable with sin. See, before you might have been, you wouldn't have even noticed, you wouldn't have cared that it was poo-poo, but now there's pieces of you that are like oh, I just rolled in that. Ugh, I feel gross. I don't like this there's two people at war inside of you. One's the old man and one's the new one. This is what it says in 1 John 3.9.
Speaker 1:No one who is born of God will continue to sin because God's seed remains in them. They cannot go on sinning because they've been born of God. It doesn't mean that they'll never practically sin again. It means there's a constant like the children of God don't like this. There's something inside of us that makes us say I can't do that, because God is giving us new appetites and new desires and for some reason now, just like you see goodness in it, it inspires you. It's like I want to be better, and not in a condemning way, it is. I look at that person, I look at that woman, I look at that man and I say, ah, they get it. That's who I want to be, because the desires for goodness inside of you are stirring up.
Speaker 1:And here's the powerful promise of sanctification. Here's why it's so dope for Jesus to be your sanctification, because no matter how discouraged you get, no matter how many times you're like ugh, I can't believe I did that again. I can't believe I rolled around in that stuff. I've been walking doing this thing for five years, but I can't believe. I'm back here. Jesus pulls your head to his chest and he reassures you. I promise you I'm going to complete the good work I began. I am your sanctification. I didn't just start it. I'm a completer, I'm an overcomer, I'm a finisher. You can rest assured, no matter how discouraged you get. It doesn't mean God is pleased with the sin, but he also is a great comforter and he says I got you. We're not staying here. My promise of sanctification is a bazillion percent true. You're walking out of this.
Speaker 1:I wanted to think of maybe a way to visualize this and see the value of sanctification versus just being forgiven, and see the value of sanctification versus just being forgiven. Okay, so let's say that you are on the side of a sheer cliff and there's a ledge that you were on, but you fell off it. Have we got a photo of that image of that? You're just, that's you. Okay, you are hanging off the side of that cliff and there's nothing. You don't have any ropes. You don't have any, anything. You're not tied to anything and it's only a matter of time before your forearms are going to wear out.
Speaker 1:Let's just imagine now that Jesus flies in because he can fly. He flies in, he picks you up and he sets you back on the ledge and then he's like bye. If he sets you back on the ledge and only says, bye, dude, you're in trouble. That's what would be true if Jesus just saved you but didn't sanctify you. If he just saved you, okay, here you are back on the ledge, back in a precarious position. I don't know what you're going to do now. Bye, but that's not what he did. He throws you on his back. He says I got you.
Speaker 1:And you notice this AI-produced image that I had Chad Chippity invent. The dude's head is resting on Jesus' shoulder because it's not hard. It's not hard to cling to Jesus. Jesus doesn't even need any footholds because the mountains obey him and they just make it easy and he starts to crawl up all the way to the top. But he's also he's doing something else While he rescues you, he's training your movements, so rescues you. He's training your movements, so you keep your arms on his arms. And he's saying see, I go like this and I go like that. When Jesus is training us in holiness, he's not saying get your act together. He's saying look at me, do what I do, look at my heart. Look how I interact in these situations as you do that. That's you practically being sanctified. You're learning how to be like him, but how many understand it's still all him.
Speaker 1:First, thessalonians 5, 23,. Another idea about this May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through, not you and me. May God himself do it. Sanctify you through and through, not you and me. May God himself do it. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will make sure that we get there.
Speaker 1:How does it work? I want to give us a couple of tips on how this thing works. How do we work it in? Because it's not just you know, just sit there, hopefully. You'll just kind of like percolate into being more like Jesus. That's not typically how it works. The Bible gives us some good strategies on how to do it.
Speaker 1:First, growing in knowledge of God sanctifies us, and I feel like we lose that. I feel like we don't get that. Let me read it to you Colossians 3.10, and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator. Renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator. I'm getting understanding about the image of my creator. I'm getting more and more and more it's being renewed. What am I saying? I'm understanding the facets of who God is more and more, and as I understand more, I'm synchronizing to that more. Where does this show up in real life? It shows up in what we're taking in or what we're avoiding taking in. Let me read you one more scripture and then I'll Give it a little heavier 2 Peter 1, verses 3 and 5.
Speaker 1:His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and goodness. For this very reason, verse 5. Make every effort at your faith, goodness and goodness knowledge. People say you know, I just ain't a book dude man, I don't need all this, just keep it simple for me. Can we Like? Just Jesus loves me, book dude man, I don't need all this, just keep it simple for me, can we? Just Jesus loves me and, dude, that's a bazillion percent the foundation. Yes, jesus loves you In one sense, that's all you need to know. But to progress, dude, god is endless. You've got to keep getting more. He wants to be sought. He wants us to run hard after him.
Speaker 1:That's why, my friends, that's why we read stuff, that's why we join the Bible Recap, that's why we're in God's Word daily, that's why we listen to podcasts, that's why we read books, that's why we listen in on conversations where people are talking about the goodness and the glory of God. Why? Because it's renewing our knowledge of his image and it's making me say, oh, that's how God is, oh, that's how God is. And then, see, I forget. Because it leaks, like the knowledge of God leaks. Why does it leak? Because the world around you is trying to conform you to its image, and so you're constantly bombarded by your death scrolls of all the stupid junk that is actually not God or the worst anti-God, and it's sucking out all the God out of you. And so God says no, renew your image of God in the knowledge of God, devour him, chase him most.
Speaker 1:That means, baby, pour it in and pour it in and pour it in. Something's going to leak. Keep pouring it in, pour it in, my friends. This is why it's such a big deal that I encourage you, why it's such a big deal that I encourage you. Dude, jesus isn't going to stop loving you and he will drag you pretty far.
Speaker 1:But until you get serious, like I'm going to seek God Doesn't mean you do it perfectly, because again, he's going to show you you can't do it perfectly, but until you decide this is a thing that I've got to do. I've got to get more God. I've got to understand him more. He's endless. I don't know what to read. Hey, you know what you got. You got a pastor. You just come to me, I'll tell you what to read. I'll give you a list of 20 books you can read, or whatever makes sense for you.
Speaker 1:What I'm saying about that is there's definitely help, you're not alone. It's not like you can't do it. So, my friends, if you want to get a hold of God, if you want to progress in your sanctification, you've got to decide. Dude, I can't just be watching stupid reels all day, and I like reels, there's nothing wrong with reels. I'm just saying if, like, mostly what's in your brain is bubble gum and not the glories and the ecstasies and the beauties and the power of God, what do you think is going to be going on in your life? Hello, if you want God to get a hold of you more, get a hold of more God. Like, that's how it works and it's not, because then he'll finally be pleased with you. No, baby, it's. Then you'll finally be fulfilling your purpose.
Speaker 1:Now people are like doggone. Here comes somebody who looks like Jesus Because they're sucking in so much God knowledge that they act a whole lot more like him. Well, should we go on? All right, let's go. It's like preacher, preacher, we got it. All right. I'm gonna trust you. Now you got it. How else does God get it? How else does God sanctify us? You're not gonna like this one. You probably like this one.
Speaker 1:Less Trials, sorry, trials. Now, what's positive about this is some of us don't know we're in a trial. We're like this is horrible, and it's not that it's not bad, but you're not seeing the redemptive potential in it Because God brings about trials. So what? So we like stop, drop and listen. Okay, god, I'm going through this trial. How do I act like Jesus would in this trial so I don't need seven more trials like this? How can I make my behavior and my attitude just catch up, so that I'm doing this as best possible way as I can, like the master would do it, and then, as I do that, as I embrace that and we don't have time for me to tell you all my old trial stories.
Speaker 1:Y'all heard about my sickness. You heard about all this stuff. You heard about my dominoes driving and all kinds of just hard factor work, fire watch stuff. Many of you know about that stuff. But all that stuff was about act like Jesus. Give God praise, simmer down, humble yourself, take a big gulp and do what Jesus would do. And what do you know? Sanctification starts to happen. Because he doesn't just like pass. He's not saying just pass the test so I can mark you past, dude, he's working in his character. That's what he's doing. He's working it into the dough. By the way, I'm not mad at you, I'm just passionate.
Speaker 1:Okay, now warning sanctification, as many of you know, can feel ridiculously slow. It takes a long time. People like how are we still here? I don't know, I don't know, I know it's it's. It makes you mental man like it. It really does. It's long. Sorry, hang on to somebody, hold somebody's hand, get around.
Speaker 1:Faith-filled people Say hey, man, stick with it, don't give up. God's going to get you through. And when you're done, when you decide, when you decide, in the midst of that moment I believe Jesus in my sanctification. He's not going to leave me alone here. He's going to bring me through. He's got a purpose and a wise purpose in everything. I believe it. As we do that, as we say, I've got confidence. Jesus is my sanctification. Then, when we get through it, people are going to come up to you and they're like what's up with you, man? Are you crazy? You're going through all this stuff and yet you made it. I can't believe it. And what you're going to say is my boast will be in the Lord, because it was the Lord that brought me through. He inspired me to come through. He dragged me through a lot of the time and he put a song in my mouth to praise him that he's such a good God that he sanctifies me.
Speaker 1:Let's keep going. There's one more. It's less long, but here we go. Y'all still want another one. You want to just go home and you don't want the double dose? All right, here we go. Four brilliant things to lose confidence in. Here's the next one your own power to set right. Your own power to set right, to set it right, to set things right.
Speaker 1:Christ Jesus has become to us redemption from God. Jesus has become to us redemption from God. Redemption is that Jesus is your and my complete deliverer over all the effects and outcomes of sin. It's not just that he's going to like make it all right in the end. It means he's going to take everything that you and I did wrong or experienced, or pain we went through and he says see, I'm the great finisher, I'm the great one who can end a story where everything resolves and it becomes awesome and is fantastic.
Speaker 1:First, he's going to redeem us. Redeem us, buy us back from Satan and sin. For we know 1 John, 5, 19,. We know that we are children of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. That sounds crazy to some people, and it sounds a little bit crazy. Wait. And that the whole world is under the control of the evil one? That sounds crazy to some people and it sounds a little bit crazy. Wait, you mean the whole world's under the control of the enemy. What it means is the enemy is using the world's systems that defy God to keep blinders over a lot of folks' eyes so that they don't look to God, they don't reach out to him. But when we come to Christ, the Lord takes those blinders off and he helps us to see, oh, god is real, I belong to God.
Speaker 1:But he does something else. He says Satan hands off. You don't get to mess with this person anymore. See, satan will come to you with. He's trying to get you afraid. He'll come to tell you hey, if you seek God, the devil's going to hurt you. That's a joke. You can look the devil right in the face and say you're a joke. Here's how I know, because Jesus laid the beat down on you on the cross. Remember when he won? Yeah, he won, and he's still the winner and you still lost.
Speaker 1:And all the devil can do at this point, for the most part, is lie. He'll try to lie, try to get you scared. Hey, you better slow down, you better shut up. And, my friends, if you were in Christ, you say devil, you got nothing on me, you're going to hell, I'm going to heaven. God is blessing every component of my life. The blessing of God chases me down the street and takes me over. Goodness and kindness are going to follow me all the days of my life, everything that happens to me. God works together for my good.
Speaker 1:Devil, all you got is lies. Is that all you got? I mean, I've been doing this a little while now. You didn't think of that before. Why didn't you do anything yet? It's because you're not going to do anything, because I'm surrounded in glorious light, because I belong to the boss, I belong to the champion, I belong to King Jesus. So you can just zip your lip because I ain't going to do nothing. Check it out. I'm going to follow God harder. I'm going to go after it fiercer. You ain't going to stop me, devil. So you just go ahead and get in my way and watch me wear you out, watch me wear you down, watch me push right past. And so the Lord redeems us out of his lie system. He redeems us into check it out.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, you're going to get to the point you ever get grieved by your lack of sanctification. Here's what God gives you in redemption. You and I are going to walk into the day where you have a brand new body that is no longer influenced by sin. You were redeemed out of sin. Sin is no longer a deal. You're redeemed out of a body that doesn't work Sometimes. You're redeemed into a body that's beautiful and just like Jesus Christ. You're redeemed into a community where dude, just imagine this for a half a second, where everybody loves everybody all the time. Nobody ever triggers anybody. In fact, everyone's stumbling over themselves to love other people around them. That's what you're being redeemed into. You're being redeemed into a perfect, perfect story. You're being redeemed into the face of God. You're going to see him face to face. That's because Jesus Christ has become to us redemption and it's going to be you. You're going to see. You're. Oh my gosh, I'm way smarter now. I'm way more able to comprehend the glories of God man. It was dark down on earth, but now that I see him face to face, oh my gosh, it's so much more beautiful and wonderful than anything I ever thought. That's what you're redeemed into. Let me give you one example. And then we're going to close.
Speaker 1:Some of you have seen the movie or read the book 12 Years a Slave, and you know it's about this man that is a free man, but he's taken slave, brought to the American South, and he's a slave for 12 years, and so he loses his family, he loses his wife, he loses his kids, he loses all kinds of great things that are going on in his life. He's taken away and held captive by a wretch of a man, but after 12 years, the authorities come and they grab him out and they say, no, this was always illegitimate dude. This guy's coming back with us and we're redeeming him. Somebody say redeeming? We're redeeming him back into his good life. He meets his family again. There's still pain, but he gets to meet his grandchild. He's now in a let's see that next slide, please. Uh, he's now in the better life. He's redeemed into what is a far better life than the horrible life that he just had a few days ago.
Speaker 1:Yo, in a heavenly way that's. You're in my story, dude. Right now you're in the crappy fields. You're in the place where you get whooped by trial and disease and evil people and all kind of your own sin and you're getting laid, you're spacked around and God says because of Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is your redemption, I'm taking you to a place where all that becomes not much more than a memory. You can still remember, but your memory is. God is so glorious that he delivered me out of that. Jesus Christ is your sanctification and your redemption.
Speaker 1:Do you see how humbling it is? Do you see how it doesn't make any sense to boast to fellow Corinthians or fellow fiercers or anybody else If Jesus is the one who shepherded the whole thing from front to back. He was our wisdom, he was our righteousness, he was our sanctification, he was our redemption. Then where is there possibly boasting? Nowhere, nowhere appropriate. Think about Jesus. Jesus is 33 years old and he has unlimited potential. What could Jesus do if he stayed alive? Like how many miracles would he do? How much could he influence? He had so much more potential, but he didn't choose his human potential, he chose God's will.
Speaker 1:So I want to encourage those of you who are maybe a little bit disappointed with the way things didn't go or how God didn't bring it along the way that maybe you'd hoped. I feel that, but do you know what's true? God is going to redeem all that, all the things that you wish could have happened and didn't happen. He's still going to get the glory for it, everything that you did wrong, that you're still feel awkward about. My friend Jesus is so good. He's going to make that untrue and bless you somehow in the future because of heaven and heaven is better by far. What am I saying? You don't need to have that all redeemed here, dude. This is the nasty field. This isn't the real place. So it's okay that you didn't become everything you were supposed to become. Jesus didn't ever become everything that he could have become. He became everything he was supposed to become by submitting to the Father's will, and so there's a letting go.
Speaker 1:I trust that Jesus is my redemption for all the hard stuff. I don't understand it now, but I don't need to understand everything to trust him now. Can somebody say amen? I know that was deep, but let's pray that it goes in all the way. Let's bow our heads, god, heavenly stuff is beyond us in so many ways. I thank you that you are giving us understanding this morning.
Speaker 1:I pray in Jesus' name that the promise that you will not leave us where we are, but will carry on to completion the good work that you've began would echo in our bones. And, master, I pray for those who are a little bit sad of what didn't happen. I pray that they'd still have faith to believe for all that can happen, but they'd also have rejoicing faith of all that you wisely kept them away from, because you've got a better redemptive plan. Lord, I pray for those that are hurting, those who maybe even are suffering physical pain. I pray that you would point their hearts and their minds onto the redemption that is drawing near, the redemption that is theirs in Christ. I thank you, Lord, that you are going to carry on a completion, the very good work that you began Make us a little bit strange here on earth, make us not make all that much sense to everybody, because our hope is so grounded and we're so boasting in someone else who has done everything for us that we needed to be done In Jesus' name, amen.
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