Introduction:
Know Your Salvation (1 Corinthians 1:1-9)
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GRACE. (1 Cor 1:4)
Ephesians 2:8 – For by grace you have been saved through faith.
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GIFTED. (1 Cor 1:5-7a)
Ephesians 6:19 – <praying> also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel...
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GUILTLESS. (1 Cor 1:7b-9)
2 Corinthians 5:21 – For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:46-00:52
Today is our ministry year kickoff, and that also means that today is our anniversary.
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(congregation cheering)
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So today we are celebrating 14 years of Harvest Bible Chapel, and we're like a lot of 14-year-olds.
01:12-01:14
We've come a long way.
01:17-01:21
But we have a long way to go, right?
01:22-01:23
What kind of church is this?
01:24-01:26
We sit on four pillars we have from the beginning.
01:28-01:32
We've proclaimed the authority of God's word without apology, that's what kind of church this is.
01:33-01:37
We lift high the name of Jesus in worship, that's what kind of church this is.
01:38-01:42
We believe firmly in the power of prayer, that's what kind of church this is.
01:42-01:46
And we share the good news of Jesus with boldness.
01:48-01:54
Those are the four pillars this church was resting on when it was planted by God's grace.
01:56-02:00
Those are the four pillars today, may it always be.
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So I want you to open up your Bibles to 1 Corinthians.
02:07-02:08
And we're just gonna pause.
02:08-02:20
I want you to just please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's word, and I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us today.
02:21-02:22
All right, let's just take a moment.
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Father in heaven, as we get into your word now, I pray that your spirit would work with your word, in the hearts of every person here.
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In the hearts of every person that is streaming or going to be listening to this podcast later.
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Father, thanks to the technologies we have in our day.
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This goes out to so many people all over the planet.
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And we thank you that you've given us opportunity.
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And we wanna use that opportunity to exalt your word.
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to exalt your Son.
03:16-03:18
Father, it has to start right here.
03:21-03:29
Father, incline our hearts towards nothing but your glory.
03:31-03:32
We pray in Jesus' name.
03:33-03:42
All of God's people said, "Amen." Amen, a couple of decades ago, Aaron and I were doing foster care.
03:43-03:49
And for about a year and a half, we had a brother and sister, they were five and seven.
03:52-03:57
And it was at the time, it was the worst case of child abuse in Butler County.
03:59-04:03
I don't know if that's still the case, but it was at the time.
04:05-04:11
But the five-year-old boy was pretty broken when he came to us.
04:11-04:13
He couldn't even talk, really.
04:14-04:25
And we tried our hardest to give them some semblance of a normal childhood, you know?
04:27-04:36
Well, one of the things that we did to that end was we signed our five-year-old, his name is Walter, we signed him up for soccer.
04:38-04:44
And I played soccer in high school and in college, so I was asked to help coach the team.
04:44-04:48
Now, anybody ever coach five-year-olds in soccer?
04:50-05:01
It's a real hoot, because coaches have to be on the field with the kids, okay, not on the side shouting instructions.
05:01-05:04
Well, you're standing on the field with the kids, and you have to run.
05:05-05:06
And did you ever see five-year-olds play soccer?
05:08-05:11
Okay, it's not like World Cup where they're all like spread out and passing.
05:11-05:15
It's just this wave of kids chasing the ball.
05:19-05:24
Well, we were really trying to get, really trying to get Walter to embrace this, right?
05:24-05:25
It was a big part of my childhood.
05:29-05:30
Just wasn't clicking.
05:32-05:34
The kids would run by with the ball.
05:34-05:43
We're like, "Walter, get the ball, get the ball." And Walter would run a couple of steps and he'd go, "They're too fast." Like, "Walter, look at that.
05:43-05:44
"Come on, come on, get the ball.
05:45-05:51
"They're too fast." And then he would get increasingly frustrated.
05:51-05:54
Walter's big insult for people was to call them naked.
05:56-06:07
So the kids would run by him like, "Walter, get the ball." He goes, "They're naked, they're naked, they're naked." And I'm like, actually they're clothed, but we need you to hustle, right?
06:07-06:10
And I don't know if this is great parenting or not, probably not.
06:11-06:16
But at one point, Aaron and I offered Walter 25 cents for every time he even touched the ball.
06:19-06:20
We paid out zero.
06:24-06:30
Well, the other coach, she was the mama, the goalie.
06:31-06:33
And before the first game, she pulled me aside.
06:33-06:35
She goes, "I just wanna warn you." I can't remember her son's name.
06:36-06:37
We'll call him Joey.
06:37-06:55
She goes, "I just wanna warn you." She goes, "Joey doesn't like getting scored on." I'm like, "Well, that makes sense." She goes, "No, he really, really overreacts." Like, "Well, good to know." Well, sure enough, we got scored on.
06:57-07:00
And to say that the kid lost his mind is an understatement.
07:01-07:04
He started ripping his clothes, like trying to rip his jersey off.
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(yells)
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And it was this scene.
07:09-07:11
It was like he was turning into the Hulk.
07:12-07:12
And I'm watching this.
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I'm like, oh man, what is going on here?
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And then all of a sudden I realized, wait a minute.
07:19-07:20
Where did Walter go?
07:21-07:23
All of a sudden I lost the foster kid.
07:23-07:24
You don't wanna tell the agency that.
07:24-07:25
I'm like, where did he go?
07:26-07:27
Where is he?
07:27-07:28
Then I looked down.
07:29-07:31
Walter is celebrating with the other team.
07:33-07:35
Hugs and high fives and...
07:42-07:46
This unity on the soccer team, it was funny.
07:49-07:54
But you know, when there's disunity in the church, it's not so funny.
07:55-07:56
And let's be honest.
08:00-08:03
We're a lot like those kids in the soccer team sometimes, aren't we?
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Irrationally losing our minds over stupid things, calling people names, not wanting to participate.
08:17-08:20
That's the theme of this first stretch in 1 Corinthians.
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You're going to be hearing this a lot because it's important to the heart of God, so it's It's important to the heart of the leaders in this church.
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Get unified.
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Church, we need to get unified.
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The first Corinthians was written to the church in Corinth.
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And you have to understand a little bit about their background.
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The city of Corinth was corrupt.
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Like how corrupt were they?
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They were so corrupt that the city's very name became synonymous with immorality.
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They were known for their temple to the false goddess, Aphrodite, the goddess of love.
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And they had about a thousand priestesses who served as prostitutes.
09:16-09:22
So you can imagine what passed for worship in Corinth.
09:26-09:34
Well, it's in that backdrop that the apostle Paul planted a church, you can read about this, little homework assignment for you, Acts chapter 18.
09:35-09:40
Go home and read it, not right now, but go home and read it, and you'll see how the church was planted.
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So you have this church planted in this horrible city, and the church, the church itself was absolutely perfect.
09:50-09:56
They just had two problems, bad doctrine and bad behavior.
09:57-10:00
Other than that, they were perfect.
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What the Corinthian church needed was unity and purity.
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So look at chapter one, verse one.
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Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother Sostenes, to the Church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Jesus Christ.
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This church had a lot of problems.
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And we're gonna be getting into that.
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And if you're familiar with God's word at all, you know.
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And it's so interesting to me that Paul starts this letter saying, "Hey, you Christians, those of you in Christ Jesus, "You are sanctified." That word means holy.
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It means set apart.
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And then he goes, he calls them saints.
11:27-11:29
Again, the word means holy.
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Saint is a name for all true Christians, by the way.
11:35-11:59
And when you look at this little introduction, you're like, "Wow, Paul, that's quite a thing to say "when you consider the rest of the book." And we're gonna see as we go through this, but these Christians were worldly and they were divisive and there was sexual sin and the list goes on and on and on.
11:59-12:02
They were just, they were so messed up in so many ways.
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And why in the world would Paul kick this letter off by saying, "You sanctified saints, you." Like, why would he start that way?
12:20-12:22
Was it to butter them up?
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Like, I'm about to lay the hammer down, so I'm just gonna make you feel good on the front.
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That wasn't it.
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Was Paul just ignoring all their problems?
12:35-12:48
Like, maybe if I don't mention it, they'll go, "No, that's certainly not it." So why did he start by calling them sanctified saints?
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Why?
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Because it was true.
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Wait, wait, wait.
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How can they be holy and still struggle with being holy?
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Well, biblically, when we talk about holiness, holiness is two things.
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There's positional holiness, and there is practical holiness.
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Positional holiness is when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, when you believe in him, when you are born again, God pronounces you holy.
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In God's eyes, he's looking at you through the lens of Jesus Christ.
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And from God's perspective, he says, "You are perfectly holy." We're gonna talk more about that in just a couple of minutes.
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So while we are positionally holy, practical holiness, that is the growing, living like Christ, growing in Christlikeness, doing the things that honor the Lord, growing in maturity as a Christian.
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Put it this way, the Christian life is growing to be what God already pronounced you to be.
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That's what the Christian life is.
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It's growing to be what God already pronounced you to be.
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It's like joining the army.
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When you enlist in the army, as soon as you enlist, you are a soldier.
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So why go to bootcamp?
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Why do you go to bootcamp?
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So they make you a soldier.
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You're like, wait, I thought I already was.
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You are.
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That's what the army does.
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They're making you what they've called you to be.
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That's what God does in holiness.
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He's pronounced you holy in Jesus and your sanctification, your growth, your maturity.
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He is making you what he's already pronounced you to be.
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So now do you understand why Paul started the letter this way?
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Paul says, "Corinthians, this is who you are.
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This is your identity.
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You are holy people." So we're gonna get to this down the road.
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Paul's saying, "If you're holy, why are you acting unholy?" Sin is inconsistent with who you are.
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So if we, Corinthian church, if we harvest Bible chapel, If we are going to be unified and purified, it has to start here.
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You have to know your salvation.
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That's where Paul starts.
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So on your outline, I want you to draw three words down.
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Know your salvation.
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Now, this passage we're looking at today says so much in just a few short verses.
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Says so much about salvation.
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The Bible itself says so much about salvation, but you're gonna see here in this passage, knowing salvation is really knowing three Gs, all right?
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Your cell phone might need five Gs, God only needs three, all right?
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Know your salvation, three Gs, it's all straight from the text, okay?
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Here's what you have to know about your salvation.
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If you're gonna grow in unity and purity, here's what you have to know about your salvation.
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Number one, write this word down, grace.
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Grace.
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Look at verse 4.
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I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus.
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And I've got to tell you as a pastor, I love that.
16:59-17:16
He says, "I give thanks for you." Again, the church had so many issues that Paul needed to deal with, but notice he didn't see them for where they are.
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He saw them for who they are.
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So I give thanks for you.
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Why?
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Actually, that word in the Greek refers to being given something at a moment of time in the past.
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You know, I'm thankful for you because at one point in your past, you were given one of the most beautiful words in the whole Bible.
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The word is grace.
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You were given grace.
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You know, that's a word that we throw around a lot in church.
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Sometimes we don't wrestle down what exactly it means.
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You look up a theology textbook, "Grace is unmerited favor." It is undeserved kindness.
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But you know, the best definition of grace I've ever heard is this, "Grace is God giving to you what He requires from you.
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That's grace.
18:24-18:29
God giving to you what He requires from you.
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What does God require from you?
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Holiness, righteousness, perfection.
18:37-18:39
God requires that.
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We don't have it.
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Grace is God giving that to us in Jesus Christ.
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And sometimes we mix up grace with other concepts in the Bible like longsuffering and mercy and things like that.
18:59-19:12
My favorite illustration, some of you have heard this before, you're gonna hear it again, that helps me to really understand what grace is, is this, imagine that you have a teenage son.
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Some of you do, and some of you did, Some of you will, and some of you can use your imaginations.
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But imagine you have a teenage son and your teenage son goes to a party.
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And at this party, there's another boy, same age as your son, who hates your son.
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Something stupid, probably over a girl, and murders your son.
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Cold-blooded murder, unprovoked murder.
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this other kid murders your son.
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Now, if you track that kid down that murdered your son, if you track him down and you kill him, that is called vengeance.
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But if you track him down and you help the law, you help the police get him arrested.
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That's called justice.
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But if you track him down, help the police get him arrested, and you show up at his court date, and somehow, somehow, you're able to convince the judge to just let him go.
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Like, just let him go.
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That's called mercy.
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But, if you help the police track him down, arrest him, and you show up at his court date and somehow, somehow you convince the judge to allow you to adopt that kid as your own and raise him as your own son. That's called grace.
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And understand, that's what God has done for us in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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We have sinned against Him, and we killed His Son.
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And what's God's response to that?
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God's response is, "I want to adopt you." That is grace.
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The Bible tells us, Ephesians chapter two, "For by grace you have been saved through faith." By grace we have been saved, we've been adopted, we've been regenerated, we've been sanctified.
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It's all grace.
21:56-22:00
Grace isn't withheld because of our sin.
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God is able to be gracious to us because Jesus Christ took away our sin.
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Our part is faith.
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That's our part.
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Faith is believing in Jesus.
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It's believing Jesus is who he said he is.
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He is God in the flesh.
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It's believing that Jesus accomplished what He said He would accomplish.
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That His death on the cross was to pay the penalty for my sin and for your sin.
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He rose from the dead to give us eternal life.
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It's believing that.
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It's receiving that.
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Our part is faith.
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God has done all the work in Christ.
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His grace. Now that this is look this is so fundamental but at the same time it's so hard to believe and it's so hard to believe because every single area of our lives are performance-based. Every single one, right? My boss is happy with me when I perform. My teacher at school is happy with me when I perform. My family is happy with me when I perform. Every area of life, it's just I got to do stuff to make somebody happy.
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we bring that thinking into the church.
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Like what do I have to do to make God happy?
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Listen, salvation is not based on your performance.
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It's based on Jesus Christ's performance.
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So as we start this stretch, as Paul starts this stretch in 1 Corinthians, telling the Corinthian church, telling Harvest Bible Chapel today, get unified.
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You have to know your salvation.
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And you have to understand grace because it's only when you understand this that you take the first step to unity.
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What does this have to do with unity?
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Grace puts us all on the same level.
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We don't have time to do this, but I'd sure like to.
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I'd like to get every Christian to line up here like we do for communion.
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We will be doing that.
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I'd like to get every Christian to line up here, just have testimony time.
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How were you saved?
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By grace?
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Not because you were special or you worked for it?
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Oh, that's awesome, me too.
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Next.
24:59-25:00
How were you saved?
25:01-25:02
Oh, by grace?
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Not because you were special or did anything to earn it?
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Oh, me too.
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Next.
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Do you see what that does?
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None of us deserve to be saved.
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None of us.
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None of us are any better than another.
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And we're not gonna get unified until we come to grips with that.
25:31-25:33
We're all on the same level.
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We all in Christ are recipients of grace.
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So first thing you need to know about salvation, the second one, number two, write this word down, gifted.
25:50-25:50
Gifted.
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Look at verse five through the first part of verse seven.
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Paul says that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech, in all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift." You are not lacking in any spiritual gift.
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You see, grace speaks to the past.
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That's what was received.
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David speaks to the present.
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You are saved to serve.
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Notice Paul says you are enriched, you are not lacking any gift.
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Jesus, Paul is telling us here, Jesus has gifted you everything that you need to serve him.
26:59-27:01
You're like, well, can you be more specific?
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was more specific, actually. Do you notice that? What is that? Verse 5, "All speech and all knowledge." These are two of the gifts that he highlights here. First of all, you were gifted with all speech. You were gifted with the ability to speak the truth. All knowledge.
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You are gifted with all knowledge.
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That doesn't mean you know everything.
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That means you know everything that you need to know pertaining to the gospel.
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So here's what Paul's saying, "Listen, church, you have been gifted to speak and you have been gifted with knowing what to say.
27:48-28:00
So the question is, how are you using that?" You have the gift, if you're a Christian.
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How are you using that?
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Like here at this church, it can be used in teaching and preaching.
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All speech, all knowledge, it can be used in Harvest Academy, teaching the kids back there while we're teaching in here.
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It can be used in small group.
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It can be used in youth group, in conferences, in prayer services, in workshops, in precepts, in our witnessing.
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You've been given a gift, how are you using it?
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Because the reality is the biggest problem with most Christians is not that we don't know what to say.
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Our problem is just opening our mouths and saying it.
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I hear that all the time when it comes to witnessing.
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Well, I don't really witness 'cause I don't know what to say.
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If you don't know enough to share, then you probably don't know enough to be saved.
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Look what Paul says in Ephesians 6, 19.
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He's talking about prayer.
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He says, "Praying also for me that words may be given to me "in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim "the mystery of the gospel." You see that?
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Paul didn't say, "Pray that I can't speak "or pray that I would know what to say." He says, "I need boldness." Our fourth pillar, sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness.
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That's what we need to be praying for.
29:52-29:59
Boldness isn't jerkiness, it's not obnoxiousness, it's just confidence in God's calling and God's gifting.
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It's just confidence to say, look, God gave me a message and he gave me the knowledge of what I'm supposed to say, so I'm just gonna open my mouth and I'm gonna say it.
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And again, if you know enough to be saved then you know enough to share.
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Share what you know.
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Look at verse 6 again.
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I love this.
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He says, "Even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you." What's he saying?
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He's saying the people of Jesus using the gifts of Jesus is confirmation that Jesus is at work in the church.
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When I was little, my dad, for Christmas one year, he wanted magnifying goggles.
30:57-31:04
Because dad, he was gonna undertake this hobby of putting boats in bottles.
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Have you ever seen these things?
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Where you have like a bottle and there's like a boat inside?
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You're like, "How'd it get in there?" You know what I'm talking about?
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"Well, my dad was like, 'I'm gonna make those, "and I need magnifying goggles.'" Like I said, I was just a little kid.
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I'm like, "I'm gonna get those for dad." Now, listen, I can tell already you're not impressed.
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So I gotta remind you of something.
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This was pre-internet.
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I know right now you can get on your phone and get on Amazon's or Etsy or whatever, I don't know, But you can, eBay, you can get on there and you can probably right now find me 500 pairs of magnifying goggles.
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This was pre-internet.
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This was pre-smartphone.
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This was pre-cell phone.
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All right, so I'm like, I'm going to find those for him.
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And you know, it took me forever.
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Making phone calls and going to different stores and talking to people and tracking.
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And do you know, I found a pair of them.
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I went to a jewelry repair store and I found them.
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And I saved my money.
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Those weren't cheap.
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I saved my money, especially for a little kid.
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I saved my money.
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And I bought those magnifying glasses.
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I bought them for dad for Christmas.
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I gotta tell you, I can't think of a gift that I was more excited to give in my life.
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'Cause he wanted them and couldn't get them, but I tracked them down.
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And I was so, I was so proud to give Dad those magnifying goggles for Christmas.
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Oh, my father died in 2003, and you know when somebody passes away and you start to kinda go through their stuff.
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and figure out what to do with all that.
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Found those magnifying goggles.
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Still in the box.
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Never used.
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And I wonder, church, when Jesus returns, How many boxes of magnifying goggles is he going to find?
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I wonder when Jesus returns, how many of his gifts that he gave to his people is he going to return and find?
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Oh, we had them.
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We didn't use them.
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You have been gifted so much.
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We're gonna talk about this later, the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
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We're gonna talk about this later in 1 Corinthians.
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But have you been using the gifts that God gave you?
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Listen, if your mindset is this, you know what, Pastor Jeff?
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I just attend church.
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My spiritual gift is attendance.
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My spiritual gift is warming a seat.
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And you know, I just leave the ministry to the professionals.
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I don't really have a gift.
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That's bad news.
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Because not having a gift means you're not saved because he tells us right here that Jesus' people are enriched in Him.
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Paul is saying, church, you have everything you need.
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Everything has been gifted to you to minister to each other and to reach the world.
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So look, there's no bench warmers on this team.
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On this team, listen, if you're saved, you're starting.
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All right, don't call the other players naked.
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All right, if you're saved, you're starting.
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Get unified, get unified.
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You know, the biggest unity killer in the church is selfishness.
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My wants, my desires, my preferences, And especially in this culture where we are right now, right here, geographically where we are, this is, it's a horrible place.
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Because the mindset of most church goers in this area is church is the place that I go to get.
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And I'm going to this church because they have better coffee.
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And I'm going to this church because, you know, they have a zip line for their youth group.
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And I'm going to this church because they have fog machines and laser lights.
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And we have this idea that church is the place that I go to get.
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And that is completely foreign to the Bible.
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Church is not the place you go to get, church is a place you go to give.
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And anything you receive here is bonus.
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But the mindset has to be church is a place I go to give.
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You're expected to, it's why you're saved, and it's why you have been gifted.
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Know your salvation.
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The three Gs, grace, gifted, one more.
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guiltless.
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Guiltless.
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Pick up second part of verse seven, where he says, "As you wait for the revealing "of our Lord Jesus Christ." That Greek word for wait means to wait eagerly, right?
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I don't have to sell you on that.
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There's a big difference between the way a kid is waiting to open his birthday presents versus the way that kid's dad is waiting at the DMV.
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Right?
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This is wait eagerly.
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It's this idea of anticipation, like, oh, he's coming.
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He's coming.
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I can't wait.
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I cannot wait.
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Jesus is coming and I cannot wait.
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Do you see that?
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What are we waiting for?
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the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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I don't know if you noticed, but Jesus Christ is mocked now.
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He's about to show up.
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And he's going to make everything right.
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And he's going to make everything new.
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Excited for that?
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I sure am.
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Look at verse eight.
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He says, "Who will sustain you to the end?" Who will sustain you to the end?
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If you believe that you can lose your salvation, I want you to explain that verse to me.
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Will sustain you to the end.
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Did you ever wonder if you're gonna make it?
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Did you ever wonder?
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Am I going to make it to the end?
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Loving Jesus, following Jesus, serving Jesus, am I going to make it?
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Listen, if you are legitimately born again in Christ, you will make it.
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On the authority of the word of God, you are going to make it.
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because you didn't work to earn your salvation and you can't work to keep your salvation.
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And here very plainly, God's word tells us that Jesus will sustain you to the end.
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Like how?
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That's his responsibility, right?
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He's gonna get you there.
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You're like, okay, well maybe he's gonna get me there, Pastor Jeff, but I got a lot to answer for When I stand before God, when I stand before God, he's going to tell me how disappointed he is in me.
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God's gonna tell me how upset he is with me.
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And I've had people tell me, "Pastor Jeff, "you know what, when we're in line to get to heaven, "don't be standing behind me." Because God is, he's got a lot of stuff that he's gonna, he's really gonna let me have it.
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You don't wanna stand behind me in line to get to heaven.
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Well, let's keep reading, shall we?
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"Who will sustain you to the end," look at this, "guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." Guiltless.
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"In that day when you stand before Christ, it is not going to be for him to tell you how badly you messed up." In Christ, what does your Bible say?
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You have no guilt.
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2 Corinthians 5, 21 says, "For our sake, God, He made Him, Jesus, God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." There's a trade that's going on here.
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Jesus took our sin on himself on the cross to the point that somehow he has personified sin here.
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He took our sin, what did he give us in exchange so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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Do you see that this grace, it didn't just take away your sin.
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God's grace made you as righteous as God himself is.
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And look, you can talk to me about the Trinity and creation and predestination, and I've never lost a moment's sleep over any of those things.
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To me, this is the most baffling doctrine in the entire Bible, the fact that God would take a piece of dirt sinner like me and because of Jesus Christ, "He would pronounce me as righteous as He is." I don't even have the ability to explain how awesome that is.
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Guiltless.
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He's going to sustain you until the day that you stand before Him when He pronounces you guiltless.
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You're like, "You sure about that?" Well, look at verse 9. "God is faithful. By whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." Yeah, I am sure about that, because it's not based on my ability, and it's not based on my integrity. It's based on God's ability, and it's based on God's integrity, He called you to this, the fellowship of His Son. You've got to know your salvation. And you see, it's past, present, and future, right? It's justification, sanctification, It's just, in this particular passage, it's grace, gifts, and guiltless.
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And for them then, and for us now, this isn't new information.
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But these are foundational truths that we seem to forget about over time.
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Because church harvests Bible chapel like the Corinthians over time, we tend to forget about our identity in Jesus Christ.
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We forget that we were lost, hell-bound sinners saved by His grace.
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We forget that we are here to serve, not to be served.
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We forget that Jesus Christ is coming soon.
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And we forget that this is Jesus' church, not our church.
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And when we forget these things, unity goes out the window because we start to think the church is about us.
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Know your salvation.
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It's Jesus.
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It's Jesus.
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It's his grace.
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It's his gifts.
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It's his fellowship.
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So our worship team makes their way forward and our communion servers.
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You know, Jesus gave us a way to remind us of all these truths that unite us in him.
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That's what I love about the Lord's table.
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Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me." This keeps bringing us back.
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When we are tempted to think this is about us, when we are tempted to think that we are contributing to our salvation, when we are tempted to think that God doesn't love us and we need to figure stuff out, this brings us back to the foundational truths of the way God purchased your salvation.
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And what it means for us today.
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
If the Bible is so clear that we are saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8), why do so many people insist on earning your salvation or hold the idea that good people go to heaven?
Explain 1 Cor 1:5 in your own words. How does this apply to your personal walk with Christ?
What does 1 Cor 1:8 say about the doctrine of eternal security (once saved, always saved)?
Why do you think Paul starts this letter by calling them sanctified (1 Cor 1:2) and reminding them of their salvation (1 Cor 1:4-6)?
Breakout
Pray for one another.