Being Made Alive | Selvin Cortez

Being a Christian isn’t about becoming a better version of yourself.

It’s about receiving a new life in Christ. It’s not about what you did. It’s about what He has done.

In this sermon, Pastor Selvin Cortez reminds us that through Jesus, we can go from death to life.  Enjoy the message and be encouraged!

REFERENCE: Ephesians 2:1-8

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Good afternoon, New Life Church. How are you doing? We gotta bring some of that energy back from last week. How are you doing? Yes. Yes, this is day one of year two. Day one of year two. And then we can go deeper and deeper into that. This is the first hour of day one of year two. And we we can go right down. But I don't know if you noticed during uh during the little bumper video, uh one of our one of our guests was there, one of our lead worshipers was there, and uh really excited to see him up on there. Um how he got there, I have no idea, but he made it. He made the cut uh because uh it's gotta be the beard. It's the beard. Uh welcome to New Life Church. It's such an honor and a privilege that you're here with us, taking time out of your Sunday to join us and celebrate what God is doing in our lives, in your lives, and in New Life Church and what God represents for us. And so, yes, we are starting a brand new series called Being a Christian Is. Being a Christian is. And I don't know, I don't know if you've uh you've come across this question, maybe at work, maybe at school. Uh, what does it mean to be a Christian? Um, why do you why do you go to church on Sundays? Like what is this? Is this some sort of a weird thing that you're doing? Or or how do we answer to that question? Being a Christian is, and I'm so excited about this series because this series is going to lead us into Easter. And what does Easter represent? What does, what does the the the moment the cross was lifted high over humanity, what does that represent? What does that mean for us? And so we're gonna lead us into Easter through this series. Being a Christian is, and that answer has, that question has many, many answers. I've heard being a Christian is going to church. And and then and then when people say, Okay, uh Selvin, uh, I'll I'll come I'll come to your church. Uh just tell me, give me the address, and um and I'll show up, I'll be there. And when they come in here and the music is blaring like it was today, and when the shouting is happening, they're like, that's not the church that I grew up in. That's not the church I was expecting to go to. And so what does it mean being a Christian? Is is it believing? Is it going to church? Is it is it trying to live a better life, maybe? And so so I've got this, I've got this idea in my head of um of uh a timeline, sort of a scale on on what it means to be a Christian. And we're gonna put this up on the screen. And um here here we are. What does it mean to be a Christian? Now, now a lot of people think that it it being a Christian means having good morals. Amen. And and and as we look at as we look at this graph right here, where would you put yourself? Would would you go like like down the middle? Like, okay, I'm I'm like right about here. Uh Pastor Selvin is probably over here somewhere. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Uh uh where do you find yourself? Where would you where would you place yourself? More more on this side, or or would you go more on on the good side? Well, I'm not a bad person, but uh I don't think I'm like Billy Graham good, but but I'm gonna be around here somewhere, right? No? Okay, here how about this? Um look at the person next to you. Where would you put them? And then put yourself on the scale. I think that works easier, right? Where would you put the Don't do that, don't do that. Don't don't do that. Um and so often we think that uh being a Christian is being a good person. Being a Christian means uh getting my life in order. Being a Christian means having good morals. Being a Christian is is you know going from worse to better, uh, going from bad to good or going from struggle to improvement. And I remember there there used to be a show uh back in the 90s. Do you guys remember this show? It was called Home Improvement. Home Improvement. That was that was that was a really good show with the neighbor uh in the back. And and uh I remember watching that show and always thinking, you know, do they always have to improve? Like, can't they just finish the improvements of the house? And it was this this dynamic between the family where where they were always fixing something. And I think that often we believe that Christianity is that we're always fixing something. We're we're we're not there, we're not behind a a crystal glass to be observed and studied. Uh, we're always fixing something. Um but but Paul, Paul describes it in a very, very different way. In Ephesians, and that's that's that's where we're gonna land it today. Ephesians chapter 2, it says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins. No, but no amends there, no amends there. Uh and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Notice how he's not saying you were struggling in the sins, he's not saying you were you were failing uh in the sins, he's saying you were dead. And so when I think about this verse and I read this verse, there's something that that changes inside of me, a per a perspective of God over what salvation is. And so you see, Jesus didn't come to make bad people good people. Jesus came to make dead people live. And that's where we were, and that's where we found ourselves. We found ourselves in this moment where where we were without life. And Paul isn't speaking about physical life, he's speaking about a spiritual life that we were without. We did not have. And in fact, we didn't have it because of because of one dude and his and his wife. You remember them? Well, you don't want to remember them? I think when I get to heaven, if I see Adam walking around, I think if I've got one of those chariots, I'm just gonna run them over. We're we're in heaven, so he's gonna, he's not, he's not gonna feel it, but but we're I'm just gonna just, Adam, what were you thinking, brother? Like, come on. And so because of him, because of him, the Bible says that we were dead in our sins and our trespasses. Sin was transferred over, it was imputed onto us freely. It was given to us, and because we were born with a sin nature, the Bible says in Romans 6, it says this. It says, for the wages of sin is death. Now, let's just one second. We've heard we've read this verse a thousand times. If you've been around church, you know this verse. For the wages of sin is death. Now, a wage is something you work for. Every Thursday night or every two weeks on Thursday night, you get your paycheck, right? Yeah, you're getting your paycheck Thursday nights, maybe Friday, maybe Friday. Um, because you work two weeks and on Thursday night it's deposited into your account. The wages of your work are deposited into your account without you knowing. I mean, you know on Friday, you're you're counting on that. You're you're looking on that. Did they mess up? Uh look at your paychecks, guys. Make sure they didn't mess up. Um, but but you're looking at it and you know it's there. You didn't do anything to put it there, you worked and it was put there automatically for you. That's what Paul is saying. That we don't we don't just we don't just get sin imputed on us. In fact, we work towards it. And the wage of that, the work that we're doing towards that cause deserves death. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life. Amen. The free gift of God. As soon as I said free gift, she said, Yay! That's right. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So this is a big, big, heavy topic. I told you, remember a couple of weeks ago, I said, guys, I want you to study Ephesians 1, 2, and 3. And then I thought about it. Let's study it together. Let's study it together. Let's go through Ephesians 1, 2, and 3 together, because this is so powerful that the time I have with you right now isn't enough. So we're gonna go right to it. Um, guys, dead means dead. Dead means dead, and Ephesians, that's what it says. As soon as we start the second chapter of Ephesians, it says here, we're talking about identity, we're talking about what being a Christian is. Paul says this as for you, you and me, all of us, we were dead. You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are uh disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving wrath. Can I get a full amen? You actually said amen to that. That's that's great. Dead means dead. Paul is describing the life that we had before coming to Christ. You see, before coming to Christ, there are three things that we were doing. Number one, we were dead in sin. We were dead in sin. That's that's akin to uh if you've ever seen a tree and a branch falls off the tree. When the branch falls off the tree, in the moment that it falls off the tree, there's still some life to it. In other words, you can still grab that branch and and replant it or replant the seed of that branch and it'll still grow. But the the longer you leave it without its source, the more dead it becomes. And we were in that position, dead without Christ, dead in our sin. Paul then says, We were following the course, your name. Remember Job? Job said, though he slay me, yet will I honor him. Those two words, those two words are like the two most powerful words in the Bible for my life. And then I came across two more words that I think are even more powerful. But God. And the depravity of sin, and the effects that sin has over humanity. You see it in the news, you see it in artists, you see it in politicians, you see it everywhere. The depravity of sin, the thread that links us all back to Adam. But God. Ephesians two, verse four, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive together with Christ. The motivation God had to do this was not pity. The motivation God had to do this was not your striving or your prayers or your actions or your deeds or your thoughts. It wasn't any of that. The motivation, what motivated God to move in your favor was his great love, his great mercy. And that's what we call grace. Grace is the unmerited, unworked favor of God over your life, unearned favor of God over your life. You did nothing to deserve it, you did nothing to keep it, you cannot do anything to keep it. It is God's gift freely given because of his great mercy and love towards you. He loved us in the Son. And throughout the entire Bible, you're gonna find this thread. You're gonna find two simultaneous stories happening throughout the entire book of Genesis all the way down to Revelation. You're gonna find this thread. God wanting to get close to his creation. And his creation, us saying no. The more he tries to get closer, the more we reject him and move him away. But God, and I want to invite you next week, because next week we're gonna have a powerful message on what it means to be under the grace of God. And we're gonna go through the whole Bible and see what that means in this story. Man pushing God away and God coming closer and drawing closer to man. It's gonna be a powerful message, but that's us. And God is saying, this is the turning point of salvation. Him. God came for us. And John chapter 5, verse 24 says this whoever hears the word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He has passed from death to life. And the and so this reiterates our great point that Christ came not to make bad people good, but he came to make dead people live. And that's you and me. Can we praise him two seconds for that? For the life of God that he has given to us, and this story. The story of salvation you have heard before. The story of salvation you have heard before. And I want you to just take a moment to think where is the story of salvation happening in the Bible? Where did it happen? Where did it happen? Story of salvation, dead things coming alive, dead things coming alive. I was dead in my sin, but now I'm alive in Christ. Where did that happen first? It happened when God spoke first. You see, the story of salvation is the story of creation. And in Genesis 1, if you remember Genesis, we're gonna go right to the foundation, right down to the first verse of the Bible. Genesis 1 says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and God said, Let there be light. What does that have to do with salvation? This is the first picture of a world without life. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void. And darkness was over the face of the demon. Light enters creation, and life begins. The first movement in the Bible is that we see darkness covering the earth, and it is void, has no life, and neither has it form. And God made this, and it has no life, and no form, and darkness is over the face of the deep. And God steps in and says, Let there be light. The earth went from darkness to light. Second Corinthians says this, for God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts. Think about this for a second. How much power did God exert over the earth when he made it, over the universe, when he spoke it, and when he said, Let there be light? For those of you that really like to study the Bible, study the word of God, go into Genesis right here in this moment. Let there be light. What does that mean? And if you go into the original Hebrew, what God is saying is, let my son come forward. S O N. Let my son step into this moment. Check it out. It is awesome. How God said, Let there be light, and what he's saying is, let my son step forward into the void, into the emptiness, into the darkness. And that's what happens in our lives. In the darkness, in the emptiness, in the without form, in the void of our lives, God says, Let there be light, let my son step into your life, and let new life surge from. This moment. And there's this graph that I want you to see. This graph of what happened in Genesis versus Ephesians. Look at this. In Genesis, there was great darkness that came over the earth. God speaks. Light appears and life emerges. And Ephesians chapter 2. Sin is covering our lives. Deep darkness. Void, formless. But God, grace appears in our life. And life emerges. A new life in you. This church is not just a translation of Nouvelle Vie. This is what Nouvelle Vie is really all about. It is a new life. The new life of God in you. Now the question now happens: what happened in Genesis when God spoke, let there be light? What happened right after? Life emerged. Great life. Substantial life. Sustaining life. Glorifying life. And God saw all that he made and called it good. And so when the Spirit of God comes over your life, it's not a question of me seeking him. It's actually him seeking us. And when he comes into our life and the Son S-O-N steps into our lives and declares, let there be light. It is not a better you. He's not, he's not making you better. He's giving you life, which means you are a new you. And I know that sounds so paradoxical because I continue to feel what I used to feel. I continue to act the way I used to act. But the reality, church, is that there is a spirit, there is a spirit world that is more real than this one. And in that world, we will live for all eternity. And that world starts today. That moment starts right now where you cease to accept that you are what your what your uh experience determined, that you are what your upbringing determined, that you are what your what your traumas determined. No, you are what God determined. You are a new life in Him. Brand new. Your spirit is now connected with the Spirit of God who wants only the best for you, who wants to guide you and lead you and help you with your decisions. The thoughts that He has for you are greater than you can possibly imagine. But how do we imagine them? How can we connect with that thought? Is when our spirit is alive in us. And when your spirit is alive in you, you start saying, I don't need to eat right now, I need the word of God. I don't need to go over there, I need to go to church. I don't need that friendship, I need more relationship with God. When you start hearing the voice of God in your life, you'll start to live a life that honors God because he wants to build something in you. You see, in the Genesis account, life happened and God gave Adam a purpose and he designed him to do something. God did not send his son to this earth just so that we would escape hell. We are alive for a purpose. God has called us to a purpose in him. God has called you to do something great, and he has put this seed of eternity in you, where you desire not only to see him, but also to serve him. Where you now see the gifts that he has given you, the talents you have are now operating for his glory and for his kingdom and for his purpose. Church, God has something beautiful, wonderful. The Bible says things that ears have never heard or eyes have ever seen are the things that He has prepared for you. When new life comes into your body, a new purpose emerges. Not to feed our flesh, not to think about who we were, but to believe that I am a new creation. I am not the old selvan. I'm a new selvan. And God willing, one day I'm gonna I'm gonna preach and I'm gonna teach you that you've got a special name in heaven, that your name is written on a special little stone. I'm gonna show you that coming up, hopefully in October. But God has called you by name. And I remember if you've been around church for a while, I remember, I remember growing up in the 90s, going to church, and in the 90s, church was this: it was hell is real. If you don't accept Jesus, you're going to hell. And and it's gonna be, it was, it was a doctrine of hell, and and and and it was so intense and and so real and so vibrant. And in Spanish, uh, I remember we had we had this one singer who actually made a song about going there and being left behind and and not making it to heaven, and and when the altar call uh came up, they would play that song, and everybody would rush to the altar. I don't want to be left behind, I don't want to be left behind, Jesus. I accept you. And there were so many conversions in the 90s that it was awesome, it was great to see, and I'm all for it, I'm all for it. Sometimes some people need a little scaring. Um get them into heaven, and I'm all for it, I'm all for it, but there comes a moment in your life where hold on a second. I know I'm not gonna go to hell because I believe in you, and I believe what you did on the cross for me, and I believe you died for me, and that you rose on the third day in victory for my life, for my salvation, for my resurrection. As you were resurrected on the third day, so I too will be resurrected on the third day, and we believe that your salvation is not just a deliverance from eternal separation, your salvation is for a greater purpose, and church God is calling us to that greater purpose. God has declared promises over your life. God has prepared a place, a promise for you, and in that place and in that moment, God wants to bless you and God wants to use you, and God wants you to see his glory and his might operating everywhere you go. So much so, man, if the if you get there, please, please share with me, but so much so, so much power, so much relationship, so much communion, so much, so much uh unity with the Spirit of God, that your shadow would heal the sick. And you're thinking, no, that could never happen. Well it did. But Peter walked with Jesus and his shadow healed the sick, like like like right now. You can't see this, but my shadow is hitting Jonathan's feet right now. And if Jonathan were feeling a certain way, sick, stressed, whatever, anxious, right now, my shadow is in perfect alignment with Jonathan. Can you imagine? I'm just walking by and all of a sudden he feels something. He feels the presence of God, not because of what Selvin did, but because of what Jesus did. Church, you are a reflection of his glory. You have the power of God in you, you have this new identity in Christ, so it is no longer this graphic going from bad to good, going from bad to good. It's coming up, it's coming up, bad to good. It's no longer this graphic going from bad to good, it's not about what I do, it's about what I believe, it's about what he did for me, and I believe that. And will you get to good? Yeah, of course. It's not gonna be of your doing, it's gonna be God operating in you, his good and perfect will. It's gonna be him operating in you, the desire to love your neighbor, it's gonna be him operating in you, the desire, ready for this? Nobody's gonna say amen, I know, but patience on the Montreal streets and with the potholes. Will you get there? Yeah, you will. That's not the goal. You know what is the goal? Christ didn't come to make bad people good, he came to make dead people live. And he did that through the cross. Where creation was reversed. The death that I deserved He took it upon himself. Where I was dead. He now made us alive. Church, you are a new life. Would you stand to your feet with me? Paul's letter to the Ephesians is a masterpiece. There is so much, so much we didn't cover. But it goes on to say this. Verse 8 to 10, for by grace you have been saved through faith. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. You'll eventually get to good. But before you get to good, I want you to know that you are his workmanship. Workmanship means intention. He made you perfect, fearfully, and wonderfully made. He didn't do it, he didn't do it by accident. He didn't do it because well, I got nothing else to do. He didn't do it just because he felt like doing it, he did it out of his great mercy and love and called you. Watch this, his workmanship called you good, saw you in his son, and said, It is good, you are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. So now this new life, it's going to produce in me something to do, and God has put something in you to do, and if you don't know what that is, can I tell you this? It's because there are so many things that you can do. He's given you so many talents and so many gifts. Use one and then move on to two and multiply that to four, move on to three and multiply that to six, move on to five and multiply that to ten, but do not hold on to that one gift that God has given to you because you have a new life in you. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Church, we're gonna sing this song and we're gonna worship God for a second. We're gonna worship him for what he did for us. Because we have this access to God. We have being a Christian is being made new. Being a Christian means being made new, having a new life. Next week, being a Christian is access. And so we're gonna preemptively access heaven right now. And I want you to raise your hands to that to the sky as as high as you can and say, God, thank you. Thank you for what you have done. Thank you for giving me this new life. Thank you, God, that I am a new creation in you. I have this new life. I am not what I used to be. I am somebody new in you. I am not identified by who I was. My defeats, my struggles, are no longer mine, and they no longer determine who I am. You God determine who I am, and for that we praise you! For that, we give you glory! For that, we honor your name, for that we lift you up, you are