SPEAKER_00: Okay, my friends, if you have your Bibles, I want you to open up wherever you want.
SPEAKER_00: Just pick a pick pick a passage.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're gonna go to the book of Colossians.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we've been in what we're calling summer strong.
SPEAKER_00: Summer strong, not summer weak, summer strong.
SPEAKER_00: And these entire these last few months have been pushing me forward in my walk with God.
SPEAKER_00: I pray they've been doing the same for you.
SPEAKER_00: So we read through the book of Joshua in uh what was that?
SPEAKER_00: That was June, and then the book of Acts in July, and now in the month of August, we're work walking through what we say, giants enjoy protein and cardio.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so we're gonna be in Colossians chapter one today.
SPEAKER_00: If you did not bring your Bible, we're gonna put the verses on the screen so you can follow along with us, Colossians chapter one, verse number three.
SPEAKER_00: It says, We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Quick little side note uh theologians believe that this is not a church that Paul planted, this is a church that he heard about.
SPEAKER_00: He heard about their faith, he heard about their commitment to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so he's writing this letter of encouragement to them uh through through word of mouth.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God's people, the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say true message, the true message of the gospel that has come to you.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world, just as it has been, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it, and truly understood God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Go with me, say in chapter one to verse number 19.
SPEAKER_00: It says, For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, in Christ, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You guys tired of verses yet?
SPEAKER_00: Can I keep going?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, verse number 21.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
SPEAKER_00: But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish, and free from accusation.
SPEAKER_00: If you like to take notes, uh the title of today is I need you to get this.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to get this.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to your neighbor and say, I need you to get this.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, turn to your second choice.
SPEAKER_00: Tell them, I need you to get this.
SPEAKER_00: Tell them it wasn't personal.
SPEAKER_00: Their breast stank.
SPEAKER_00: So you just you had to turn the other way.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to get this.
SPEAKER_00: I uh I'm I'm excited to jump into uh these verses as I was as I was studying.
SPEAKER_00: I actually had so many different thoughts uh coming to me, and uh, and I thought maybe they were all these different messages, but as I as I sat there and praying for praying for our church family, uh it became clear to me that that all of this uh was really for one message.
SPEAKER_00: Uh honestly, I was like, man, is this message practical enough?
SPEAKER_00: Because I do like messages to be able to be lived out on Monday.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't want you just coming to church on Sunday thinking I'm okay I'm holy on Sunday, then on Monday through you know Saturday I'm ratchet.
SPEAKER_00: Uh what I heard on Sunday doesn't impact my life at all.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want that.
SPEAKER_00: I want what we're sharing, what what's being preached here to actually be able to help your marriage or help you as a single person or or help you as a student.
SPEAKER_00: I I want you to help you in your business, your career.
SPEAKER_00: I really want that.
SPEAKER_00: Um but that's not the ultimate goal.
SPEAKER_00: The ultimate goal is I want you to look like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want him to capture your heart.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to become the man or woman of God that he's called you to be.
SPEAKER_00: So whether or not it it impacts your your Monday in that really practical way, I just have to trust the Holy Spirit that he'll say to you what you need to hear, that the right thing will drop into your heart, that your eyes will be open the way they need to be open, as my eyes and my heart were open this week.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna dig into some scriptures today, and I pray, I pray in Jesus' name that you're able to hear what God wants you to hear.
SPEAKER_00: Go back with me to Colossians chapter one, verse number six, uh, real quick.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see some things that I've underlined.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna show you some verses that I that I've underlined, chapter one, verse number six.
SPEAKER_00: I underline this truly understood God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Truly understood God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Go with me over to verse number 20.
SPEAKER_00: I underlined something else over there.
SPEAKER_00: Um making peace through his blood shed on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Making peace through his blood shed on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Verse number 22.
SPEAKER_00: Here's something else I have underlined.
SPEAKER_00: Free from accusation.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, um does anybody remember Kmart?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm dating myself here, I recognize that, okay?
SPEAKER_00: This is for all of us old heads.
SPEAKER_00: Kmart.
SPEAKER_00: Kids, y'all don't know, you don't know about Kmart, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Kmart is now out of business.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's like it was Walmart before before Walmart.
SPEAKER_00: And they had something at Kmart that was phenomenal.
SPEAKER_00: Layaway.
SPEAKER_00: Come on now.
SPEAKER_00: Layaway.
SPEAKER_00: What is layaway, you might ask?
SPEAKER_00: This is when you're at the store with your mom, like, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom.
SPEAKER_00: I need that, I need that, I need that, I need that.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, Well, I'm not buying that for you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, come on, mom, come on, mom, come on, mom.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, I don't have the money for that.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, mom, come on, come on, mom.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, okay, I'll put it on layaway.
SPEAKER_00: Which means she goes to the counter with your jeans or the shoes or whatever, and she says, I want to put this on layaway.
SPEAKER_00: That means it's set aside for you, but you don't own it yet.
SPEAKER_00: What she starts to do is she makes payments on it.
SPEAKER_00: Weekly payments, monthly payments, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now it's set aside for you.
SPEAKER_00: If she stops making the payments, it goes back on the rack.
SPEAKER_00: It's not yours any longer.
SPEAKER_00: But if she keeps making the payments, one day you're wearing those new, we used to call them Skippies, you know, they're just raggedy shoes from Kmart.
SPEAKER_00: There were no J's there back in the day.
SPEAKER_00: That's layaway.
SPEAKER_00: Nowadays, we don't really use layaway, we use credit a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Credit is when you go and you swipe your card and you have your Bank of America or your Chase card or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's Fargo, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: You have your credit card and you say, Oh, I like those shoes, but I don't have any money for it.
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
SPEAKER_00: Let me go ahead, I'll put it on credit.
SPEAKER_00: And then you swipe.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all got really tense when I just said that right there.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of us live, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't really have the money for it, I'll pay it later.
SPEAKER_00: So you swipe it, and you now have it, and you technically own it, but really you're still making payments on it.
SPEAKER_00: There'll be a day that you won't have that debt anymore if you keep making the payments.
SPEAKER_00: That's credit.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's another thing that's even better for a lot of us, and Dave Ramsey would tell you it is that's that debit card.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you swipe your debit card, the money automatically comes out of your account and you own the thing immediately.
SPEAKER_00: You're not making any payments on that.
SPEAKER_00: But if you have a thousand dollars and you buy something for$200, you now have$800.
SPEAKER_00: We we get this.
SPEAKER_00: So this is you got layaway, you got credit, and you also have debit.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I feel like going off verse number six, when he says, I need you to truly understand God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are thinking God's grace is layaway.
SPEAKER_00: I make payments on this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't own it just yet.
SPEAKER_00: And if I can make enough payments and be consistent enough in my payments, then I'll own it and then it'll be mine.
SPEAKER_00: But it's mine because I paid for it.
SPEAKER_00: It's mine because I was consistent in my payments.
SPEAKER_00: You don't truly understand God's grace, it's not layaway.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us think it's credit.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, now, now I'm I'm in debt.
SPEAKER_00: It's mine, but man, I still gotta pay on it.
SPEAKER_00: I uh I'm it's just kind of hovering over my head.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, you you didn't pay for God's grace, you don't truly understand God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's not it's not a credit card, and it's not a debit card either.
SPEAKER_00: Where you think now that you you now have less because you earned it, you cannot have less.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, I'll tell you this, I'll tell you this.
SPEAKER_00: God, in his infinite power and wisdom and grace, he does not do layaway, he does not do credit, he does not do debit.
SPEAKER_00: What God did is he gave you a gift.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God did, and God said, I purchased this, and when I purchased it, I do not have any less of me because I purchased this.
SPEAKER_00: God cannot go down in his account because he's God no matter what.
SPEAKER_00: So when he gives grace, he does not have less grace because he is immutable, he cannot change.
SPEAKER_00: So I need you to truly understand the gospel of grace that you're not making payments on this, you're not in debt per se, and you're not the one that now has lost something in your account.
SPEAKER_00: You need to understand that God said, I purchased this for you of my own free will, and I'm bringing it to you, and I'm offering you this gift.
SPEAKER_00: Open it.
SPEAKER_00: It's for you.
SPEAKER_00: Open it.
SPEAKER_00: And don't just open it and go, oh man, that's too nice for me.
SPEAKER_00: Put it back in the box and then live your life outside of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: No, open it, and put it on.
SPEAKER_00: What he has given you as a free gift.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot make enough payments, and God's account does not go down.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard some erroneous theology, like, no, I don't need God's forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: He can give that to somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: As if the forgiveness that God has can be exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: Once he gives it to you, he still has enough for me.
SPEAKER_00: And when he gives it to me, he still has enough for my kids and your kids and my friends and your friends.
SPEAKER_00: His account can never go down.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to truly understand God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's some lies out here in our world today.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I can't spend all the time with you that I'd like to when you're scrolling through Instagram or TikTok or YouTube, and there's this short, and somebody says something, and they've got a book, or they've got this platform, or they've got this thing, or that thing, and they, well, since all these people are following them, they must be right.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, there's a lot of people with a lot of followers, but they're still not right.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to make sure we are always getting back to this glorious book right here, centered on the person of Jesus Christ, and this is the final authority.
SPEAKER_00: I need us to truly understand God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: And as we do, I pray that our eyes continue to be opened.
SPEAKER_00: Now keep on going with me until this next verse.
SPEAKER_00: This next verse, uh, verse number 20.
SPEAKER_00: It says, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: By making peace through his blood shed on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the the words here in the NIV are you know making peace, and this really captures the the Greek word here because it's not just that Jesus brought peace, it's that Jesus made peace.
SPEAKER_00: Like there was a disconnection between God and humanity, and Jesus reconciled, He made peace.
SPEAKER_00: There was not a way between us and God, and Jesus came and made a way for us.
SPEAKER_00: I I looked up um the Golden Gate Bridge.
SPEAKER_00: My wife is uh born in San Francisco, raised in Sacramento.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so I looked up the Golden Gate Bridge, uh, it popped into my head, and I was like, when was that made?
SPEAKER_00: And it was made in the 19 um 1937 or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: I think it could open.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but there was this massive chasm between one side of San Francisco and this other side, and people were just going through on ferries all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And then when automobiles, more people started having automobiles, there was not really a way to get across.
SPEAKER_00: They had to put their cars on the ferry, and it was just taking forever and ever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: If somebody wanted to get to the other side, they had to drive hundreds of miles all the way around.
SPEAKER_00: So they had the idea: let's build this golden gate bridge.
SPEAKER_00: And when they built the bridge, it cut down the time, and now everyone could get from one side to the other.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to understand that Jesus is that Golden Gate Bridge, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: And what he did on the cross, now what took forever for you to get to God, it doesn't take forever anymore.
SPEAKER_00: It's by grace through faith in Jesus that you are made new.
SPEAKER_00: He made a way, he made it.
SPEAKER_00: So now this bridge has happened, but there's something else happening on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: There is making peace with God through his, what's the what's the Bible say here?
SPEAKER_00: Through his blood shed on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you another verse in chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Go with me to verse number 13 of Colossians chapter 2, verse number 13.
SPEAKER_00: It says this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, when you were dead in your sins, when you were dead in your sins, not like just a bad person, but when you were dead in your sins.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus didn't didn't come to make bad people good, he came to make dead people alive.
SPEAKER_00: When you were dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us.
SPEAKER_00: He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, uh let me have my papers real quick, please.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so on the cross, he's nailed our sins to the cross, is what's being communicated here.
SPEAKER_00: So so I got some sins that uh some of some of y'all are dealing with.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the first one.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: This is Frisco.
SPEAKER_00: Last, lost, las, las, las, las, lust.
SPEAKER_00: Let me see.
SPEAKER_00: Uh greed, oh Dallas.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is us.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going through, kidding.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we were all battling, you know, different things.
SPEAKER_00: I got some other ones too.
SPEAKER_00: What's my other one?
SPEAKER_00: Um, worry.
SPEAKER_00: Worry.
SPEAKER_00: So the Bible here tells us that he uh he took the things that stood opposed to us in God.
SPEAKER_00: And he nailed them to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So follow me here.
SPEAKER_00: He nailed it to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He took he took our lust and nailed it to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He took our greed, nailed it to the to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he took our pride.
SPEAKER_00: Pride.
SPEAKER_00: Nailed it.
SPEAKER_00: Nailed it to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Took our worry.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, worry is a sin.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Jesus is like, hey, look at these lilies.
SPEAKER_00: You see how God takes care of them?
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna take care of you.
SPEAKER_00: Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, everything else will be added to you.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to worry about tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow has enough problems of his own.
SPEAKER_00: You don't even need to worry.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to worry.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus is teaching us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is teaching, I got you.
SPEAKER_00: I got you.
SPEAKER_00: The birds, they're not worried.
SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't be worried.
SPEAKER_00: Because your words more than birds is what Jesus actually teaches.
SPEAKER_00: Here we are still.
SPEAKER_00: Worry.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, last one, selfishness.
SPEAKER_00: Man, this is for the newlyweds.
SPEAKER_00: Remember when you were single?
SPEAKER_00: You were single, and you thought, I think I'm really gonna bless somebody when they marry me.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, wow, God, what you have done with me is gonna bless somebody's life.
SPEAKER_00: Like they've never been blessed before.
SPEAKER_00: And now you're kind of fighting with each other because you didn't realize how selfish you actually were.
SPEAKER_00: All these things, all these things, and and there's a whole nother list.
SPEAKER_00: This is why uh here at Sherlot City, we're not trying to point at other people's sins.
SPEAKER_00: Like because you're dealing with that, you know God must be really, really mad at you.
SPEAKER_00: No, we all got stuff.
SPEAKER_00: There's not one person under the sound of my voice that doesn't have something.
SPEAKER_00: This week, something.
SPEAKER_00: This week didn't honor God the way we wanted to.
SPEAKER_00: This week did not say what we ought to have, what we should have said, didn't do what we should have done, or we did something we wish we wouldn't have done.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, all of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, so we're not a church that's pointing at people saying you're the worst of the worst.
SPEAKER_00: We're instead saying we're pointing at Jesus saying he's the best of the best.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're doing here.
SPEAKER_00: And I know we got to deal with things and confront sins, do not get me wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And if a relationship is broken and fractured and things need to be dealt with, they definitely need to be dealt with.
SPEAKER_00: But we're not judging people like we're looking down on other people.
SPEAKER_00: We are all at the foot of the cross in need of God's grace and truly understanding his grace.
SPEAKER_00: So now everything that we have done wrong has been nailed to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Now go back to Colossians chapter one, verse number twenty.
SPEAKER_00: What else is on the cross?
SPEAKER_00: Making peace through his what?
SPEAKER_00: His blood that's been shed on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: So now you have two things on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You've got your sins and my sins, and we also have the blood of Jesus on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Both of these things meet at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And for many of us, we are believing the lie that when our sins met the blood of Jesus on the cross, our sins are somehow more powerful than the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But I need you to understand and truly understand God's grace that when your sins and my sins met the blood of Jesus Christ on that cross, it wasn't even a fight.
SPEAKER_00: The blood of Jesus every single time defeats and overcomes every single sin that I committed and that you committed.
SPEAKER_00: There is another thing that you have battled in your life, there is another problem that you have had, there is not something you have done or someone has done to you that once it gets on the cross, the blood of Jesus runs the other way.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, the blood of Jesus runs right towards it and says you bow your knees after the authority of who I am and where I'm from.
SPEAKER_00: Every single one of us are free because of the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't even a fight.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I wanna I wanna um tell you a quick little story.
SPEAKER_00: This week, something happened at church with two guys on staff.
SPEAKER_00: One guy's name is Chris, the other guy's name is Kemuell.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Chris, I've known for man, gosh, number of years now, maybe seven years or so, something like that.
SPEAKER_00: Cameo, I've known since he was a little kid.
SPEAKER_00: I've known Cameo since he was five years old.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Chris, I found out from his wife, he likes to yap about how he can beat everybody in a race.
SPEAKER_00: This is like his thing.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know this was his thing.
SPEAKER_00: I've known him for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: He's never said to me, hey, early on a race.
SPEAKER_00: He's never said that to me.
SPEAKER_00: But I found out from his wife, he does this all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Somehow he'll take a conversation, I don't know, about whatever, and bring it and make it about, hey, I'll beat you in a race.
SPEAKER_00: So he is yapping.
SPEAKER_00: Camel, I'll beat you in a race.
SPEAKER_00: Now, um, these two guys who are on staff at this church, I love these guys a whole bunch.
SPEAKER_00: I know Camel, I said he was five years old.
SPEAKER_00: His uh mom and dad are uh campus pastors at our Frisco campus.
SPEAKER_00: Cameo is at the Oak Cliff uh campus, he's the campus coordinator there.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but Tuesday of this week during work hours, okay?
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to be saving souls.
SPEAKER_00: I get a video, I get a video of these two guys in the parking lot racing, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So I get this video, I see Kim and Chris racing.
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you this video, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna show you what happened this Tuesday at our Dallas location in the parking lot this past week.
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead, play that video.
SPEAKER_00: Play that video for me.
SPEAKER_00: Play that video.
SPEAKER_00: Watch this, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna know who is who real quick.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna know who's who did you see that?
SPEAKER_00: Watch how watch how Kim looks back at Chris.
SPEAKER_00: You see, you'll see this, but we put it in a slow mo.
SPEAKER_00: He looks back.
SPEAKER_00: Fool yapping, you're over here yapping.
SPEAKER_00: Camuel was wearing loafers, okay?
SPEAKER_00: He did not even put on tennis shoes.
SPEAKER_00: Your boy was wearing loafers and absolutely demolished him when your sins met the blood of Jesus on the cross, and your sins are yapping and yapping and yapping and yapping.
SPEAKER_00: The blood of Jesus look back and you can beat me, you never put anybody to beat me.
SPEAKER_00: I've always had more power than you.
SPEAKER_00: You have your destiny to think you can come against me.
SPEAKER_00: I need this picture in your head when you have made a mistake or fallen or done something you wish you wouldn't have done, and you are thinking some lie that the blood of Jesus has somehow lost its power.
SPEAKER_00: This is the blood that gives me strength from day to day, and it will never ever lose its power.
SPEAKER_00: It reaches from the highest mountain, it flows to the lowest valley.
SPEAKER_00: You and I are part of this battle, and we're just watching Jesus do what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_00: You don't even have to be the one to win the fight because Jesus won it for you, but you do have to be the one that puts your faith in Jesus to say, Lord, I believe what you did for me is true.
SPEAKER_00: I know there's some dark things that we have done.
SPEAKER_00: I know there's some dark things that have been done to us, and every one of those things have been nailed to this cross, and the blood of Jesus met every one of those things, and it always wins the race.
SPEAKER_00: Every time, every time, every time.
SPEAKER_00: Every time, every time.
SPEAKER_00: Peace made by Jesus through his blood that was shed on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, go with me to this next verse.
SPEAKER_00: Go with me to this next verse.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all still with me?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, you still with me?
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this look at this, look at this now, look at this.
SPEAKER_00: Verse number 23.
SPEAKER_00: Free from accusation.
SPEAKER_00: Um you're in the Bible, you you can and you're reading it, you'll see, and we talked about this some last week, with the full armor of God, how the devil is scheming to try to try to get you, to try to knock you off course.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's not what we might call big sins, whatever that means.
SPEAKER_00: But it can even be the little things that he just sees.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we talked about the scouting report that the devil can have on you to try to figure out your tendencies.
SPEAKER_00: He's looking at your tendencies and go, oh, okay, I can get him here, I can get her there.
SPEAKER_00: And there's some tendencies that I have that you don't have, and some tendencies you have that I don't have.
SPEAKER_00: But the devil in his scheming, trying to figure out how do I get this son and daughter of God to not trust the Lord anymore, to not follow hard after Jesus, to maybe even just live a lukewarm, mundane Christian life rather than going all in for the glory of Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Scheming, scheming, scheming.
SPEAKER_00: The word devil uh in the Greek, it means accuser.
SPEAKER_00: Same thing in Hebrew.
SPEAKER_00: It means accuser.
SPEAKER_00: It can also uh connect with like slanderer.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me in the book of Revelation, last book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation chapter 12, verse number 10, I believe.
SPEAKER_00: Let me see if I'm got that right.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, Revelation chapter 12, verse number 10.
SPEAKER_00: Again, last book of the Bible, chapter 12, verse number 10.
SPEAKER_00: Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: For the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses them, accuses them before our God, day and night, has been hurled down.
SPEAKER_00: The picture here is if in God's courtroom there's a prosecutor.
SPEAKER_00: And the prosecutor is the devil, the accuser.
SPEAKER_00: Day and night, walking up to God, going, You see what he did.
SPEAKER_00: You see what she did.
SPEAKER_00: You see how they said that they're a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: They're not living like one.
SPEAKER_00: You see it.
SPEAKER_00: You see how they had that chance to share your light and your love with somebody, but they didn't.
SPEAKER_00: They got scared.
SPEAKER_00: You see how they're intimidated to talk about you.
SPEAKER_00: You see it.
SPEAKER_00: You you see that they keep falling into that same sin over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: You see it.
SPEAKER_00: They keep saying, I'm never grabbing that bottle again, but they always go back to it.
SPEAKER_00: You see it, God.
SPEAKER_00: Accusing.
SPEAKER_00: These are some of the things that are running through our minds sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: There's some of the reasons some of us are like, I'm not even coming to church anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get things right with God before I come back.
SPEAKER_00: I'll get everything right, and then I'll come back to church, and then then then I'll be good to go.
SPEAKER_00: God, let me clean myself up first, and then I'll come back.
SPEAKER_00: I I can't show my face again.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want anybody to know what I've been navigating and what I've been walking through.
SPEAKER_00: I I was once on the top of the mountain, but now things are not where they used to be anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I I I've I've lost some battles, I've I've lost some opportunities, my my life is kind of falling apart all in front of me.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just go ahead and get myself right, then I'll come back.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the enemy accusing, accusing, accusing, accusing.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us it takes us so much effort and energy just to go to a connect group or ask somebody for prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Because the accusations are real.
SPEAKER_00: You look at that ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend, or look at your kids and feel like I wasn't there for them the way I want it to be.
SPEAKER_00: Look at your spouse and go, man, I messed up on my last marriage.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to mess up in this one.
SPEAKER_00: Still carrying so much weight.
SPEAKER_00: I am shocked at how much guilt is weighing on the shoulders of God's sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: I'm shocked.
SPEAKER_00: I also get it.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'm like, girl, you know better.
SPEAKER_00: You know better.
SPEAKER_00: When I don't do better, there's an accuser going, you don't deserve anything that God has given you.
SPEAKER_00: So we begin to live way down.
SPEAKER_00: We're like, hey, God's your father, he loves you.
SPEAKER_00: We're like, no.
SPEAKER_00: We're like, hey, pray prayers of faith, God's on your side.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Because this accuser, man, best prosecuting turn attorney that there's ever been.
SPEAKER_00: But the text here tells us, even though the accuser's going day and night, that there's a day that's coming that this accuser is snatched by the back of the neck.
SPEAKER_00: Like a coach would grab uh a middle linebacker and be like, hey, what do you get over here?
SPEAKER_00: And he takes him, and there's a day that's coming where this liar and this accuser, his mouth will be shut forever, and he will be hurled down.
SPEAKER_00: And First Thessalonians tells us that the sky is going to break open and that it's gonna be the voice of the archangel and the trumpet sound, and the dead in Christ will rise first, and those of us who are alive will be caught up to meet him in the air.
SPEAKER_00: Now the victory is already secure, but the devil's still yapping.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a day that his mouth will be shut forever.
SPEAKER_00: But until that day comes, he can keep on shouting as much as he wants to shout.
SPEAKER_00: Because Colossians chapter 1 tells us that you and I are free from accusation, and it's not because we didn't do it, it's because of what the blood of Jesus did over what we did, and the grace of God is present for every single one of us.
SPEAKER_00: You're free from accusation, free from it.
SPEAKER_00: No longer a cage of guilt, no longer a cage of condemnation, no longer a cage of I don't measure up.
SPEAKER_00: You never measured up, I never measured up.
SPEAKER_00: It was never by our works, anyway.
SPEAKER_00: It was always by the grace of Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to truly understand God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: But I got a warning for you.
SPEAKER_00: Got a warning, and it's found in Colossians.
SPEAKER_00: Go back with me to chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter one, there's a warning the apostle Paul gives.
SPEAKER_00: Again, verse number 22, but now he has reconciled, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation.
SPEAKER_00: Verse number 23.
SPEAKER_00: If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: There's a warning, you can move away from this.
SPEAKER_00: You can move away from this hope.
SPEAKER_00: You don't lose your salvation by works.
SPEAKER_00: Fully secure in Christ, but there's a lot of followers of Jesus who are fully saved but have drifted from the hope that is found in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want us drifting, church.
SPEAKER_00: I want us established and firm.
SPEAKER_00: Last verse here, I'm reading it in the message version.
SPEAKER_00: Some more thought-for-thought translation.
SPEAKER_00: It says, You don't walk away from a gift like that, you stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned into the message.
SPEAKER_00: Careful not to be distracted or diverted.
SPEAKER_00: There is no other message.
SPEAKER_00: Just this one.
SPEAKER_00: It's by grace, through faith in Jesus, that you're saved.
SPEAKER_00: And you and I are free from accusation.
SPEAKER_00: That's the word of the Lord for every single one of us.
SPEAKER_00: Do me a favor, family, bow your heads for a moment if you would not mind.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, in the additional seating online, in this room, bow your head for just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: If you're under the sound of my voice, you've never given your heart and your life to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You never made them first, you never made them number one.
SPEAKER_00: But you're under the sound of my voice right now.
SPEAKER_00: You're saying, I don't want to go my own way, I want to go the way of Jesus on the count of three.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to do something simple but something bold.
SPEAKER_00: You've never given your heart to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: At one point in time you did, and you've turned another direction.
SPEAKER_00: Today you're saying, I want to rededicate my life to serving Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about where you baptize or do you have a Bible?
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking, do you want to follow the path and the person of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness of your sins, turning from your own direction.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible uses the word repent.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you, you've never given your heart to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: At one point in time, he did and you slipped away.
SPEAKER_00: Today you're saying, I want to give my heart and my life to him on the counter three.
SPEAKER_00: Just throw your hand in the air, ready.
SPEAKER_00: One, two, three.
SPEAKER_00: Just lift your hand up, you're saying, Yep, that's me.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give my heart and my life to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, friends, in the balcony, an addition, additional seating.
SPEAKER_00: You're saying, Yeah, that's me.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give my heart and my life to Christ right now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna stop running.
SPEAKER_00: Today's the day for me.
SPEAKER_00: Today's the day.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone, do me a favor, put your hand over your heart if you would not mind.
SPEAKER_00: I want everyone to repeat this prayer out loud after me.
SPEAKER_00: Say, Dear Jesus, I ask you to forgive me of all my sins.
SPEAKER_00: I admit I've made mistakes.
SPEAKER_00: And today I give you my heart.
SPEAKER_00: I give you my life.
SPEAKER_00: Give me the power to live for you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_00: Can we lift our heads up, clap our hands?