May 11, 2025 • 41 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bless the Strangers, Part three and for the next few
weeks we will be finishing this series. And in this series,
we are in the Book of Ephesians, and I want
to talk about the nature, the true nature of our salvation,
the true nature of our salvation. I think that a
lot of people are confused about what it means to
be a Christian. And I think a lot of people
are confused about what it means to become a Christian.
I think if you ask the average person outside the church,
(00:22):
they have no clue. They'll say, They'll say, oh, that's
when you get religion, that's when you become a conversion,
that's when you start, you know, you try to change.
Even some Christians will say those kind of things. And
what we need to remember is we've got to understand
what the Bible says about our salvation. What are we?
Who are we? Ephesians Chapter Ephesians. The Book of a
Fijians breaks down into two nicely divided sections, Ephesians one
(00:43):
to three and Ephesians four to six. And what we
do is Christians when we go to the Book of Ahesians.
And I've talked about this in the series already, is
we go to the last three chapters, because the last
three chapters tell us what to do. The last three
chapters tell wives, respect your husbands, husbands, love your wives, children,
nobody your parents, parents, Rachel chod In fight the good
fight of faith, rusting against flesh and blood, spiritual armor,
(01:04):
all that kind of We love those passagors because all
the pastors tell us what we what we should do.
But Ephesian chapter one to three is filled with theology,
is filled with doctrine, is filled with truth about who
we are. And the reason why we're only going through
Ephesians one to three is because instead of skipping over that,
we're gonna dig deep into it and discover who we
are so that we can do what God wants us
(01:26):
to do. And that's what this series has been about.
Ephesians Chapter one we talked about in two weeks. We're
gonna spend two weeks in a Fiesian chapter two, and
we're Fesian chapter two one to ten. Let's stand together
at both of our locations that are watching this message,
stand together for the reading of God's word. Defiesian chapter two,
verse one, And you were dead, somebody say dead. That's
not my saying. That's in the Bible. Okay, And you
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were dead in the trust, passes and sins in which
you once walked. Now there's another word coming up right
after walk. What's that next word? Anybody, get your Bible open? Following,
somebody say, Following, he says, and you were dead and
your trespasses and sins in which he once walked, following
the course of this world, Following the Prince of the
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power of the air, the spirit that is now at
work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all
once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out
the desires of the body and the mind, and were
by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
But God, those two words change everything. But God, being
rich in mercy, because of the great love with which
(02:30):
He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have
been saved. And He raised us up with Him and
seated us with Christ in the heavenly places in Christ,
so that in the coming ages He might show the
immeasurable greatness, measurable sorry, the immeasurable riches of His grace
and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, for by grace
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you have been saved through faith. For by grace you've
been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not of work, so
that no one may boast, for we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God
prepared and advance for us to do. This is the
reading of God's word. Let's pray together, Father in Heaven,
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guide our time together. Let my words be what you
want and to be, and nothing of what you don't,
and help us to see Jesus, Him and Him only
as money name. We pray, And everybody said, hey, man, God,
bless you have a seat at both our locations. The
true nature of our salvation. So he spent two weeks
on Ephesians one. And I want to remind you of
a couple of things. Ephesians one write this down. Is
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our salvation from Heaven's perspective, our salvation. That's what Ephesians
one is. Who we are blessed with every spiritual blessing
in Christ Jesus. Who are we? We are chosen in
Him from before the foundation of the world. In other words,
God knew you before the world was created. That our
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salvation is not our doing. It is God's idea that
there is an eternal destiny from heaven applied to every
person who names the name of Christ as Lord. As
Ephesians IE, we have forgive us of sins redemption. We
have spiritual power and inheritance in Christ. We have future
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glory in the Holy Spirit. So Ephesians one is the vertical,
the heavenly view of a God who came to save us.
Ephesians chapter two is our salvation from Earth's perspective, the horizontal,
the linear, the linear view. Where did God bring us from?
What has God brought us to? And what are we
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becoming in Christ? And so here's what Paul's going to
do in a Phiesia chapter two. He's going to back
the truck up because we all are right here, right
now on June. The small hand is covering my number
six June sixth, twenty twenty one. And here's who we
are right now. But here's what Paul's gonna do in
Ephigians two. He's going to back the truck up beep,
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and he's gonna show us where did we come from?
Do you know where you came from what do you
think of when you think of humankind? What do you
think of when you think of yourself? That's an important question,
by the way, that's an important question to God. He
wants you to view yourself properly. He wants you to
have a right view of you. So here's what I'd
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like to do, little social experiment. Everybody watching at all
of our locations. Close your eyes for a moment. Don't
bow your heads, that'll come later. Don't buy it. Just
close your eyes. Yeah, everybody doing this, nobody looking, And
I want you to just picture yourself standing in front
of you. Just you, Okay, Now, three questions keeping your
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eyes closed, be honest. How many of you look at
yourself and say bad? Just bad? Put your hand up? Mmmm? Okay,
put your hands down. How many of you look at
yourself and say, not so bad. I gotta improve some things.
Put your hand up. Mm hmmm, put your hands down.
(06:10):
And number three question, how many of you look at
you you say perfect man, Just put your hands up,
perfect people, perfect people. Yeah, a mother is presently putting
her child's hand down. That's gonna yeah, We're gonna cover that.
Open your hand, open your eyes, open your eyes yeah,
we're gonna cover that in just a moment. All right, here,
here's here's the reality of the human condition. There are
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three classic views of humankind. There are three classic views
of humankind. And is it okay? Now, I'm gonna I'm
gonna get a little scientific on you. We're gonna break
out the whiteboard. You know what science when the whiteboard
is involved. Uh okay, So let's discuss this. I want
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you to write these things down. Three classic views of humankind.
Everybody falls into one of these views. The first view
is that humankind is basically good. Write it down, the humankind,
that human kind, humans are basically good. Now, there are
only a few groups of people that believe this. The
first group of people that believes this are what I
call childless people, because the moment that you have a
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baby is gonna disavow you of this view. Amen, Parents,
prosperity TV, preachers, preachers on TV believe this. By the way,
preachers on TV, you say, pastor aren't you on TV? Yes,
but I'm one of those rare breeze that actually preaches
the Bible on TV. And preachers on TV believe that
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you can have you can claim, you can name you
can get it. You're supposed to be healthy, wealthy, sexy
and blessed all the time because you're good and God
just loves you. He loves you, He just madly in
love with you. He loves you just the way you are. Okay,
that's that's what they say. Okay. And then there's a
prophet of our time, very well known prophet that believes this,
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and her name is oprah So And there's a lot
of there's a lot of parents that actually believe this,
and I call them morons. Okay, So there is there
is an attitude, there is a mentality that is bred
through believing that people are good. People are basically good.
There's a few bad apples like Hitler and Mao, but
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everybody else is good. Okay. So this is the mentality
that it breeds. Write it down, entitlement. I am a
good person and you are living in this squadrant, you
are living in this section. If you are constantly asking
why is God letting this happen to me? You believe
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you deserve better. You believe that you should have a nice, wonderful,
blasted life because you believe you're a good person. And really,
what you need to do is call your mother as
soon as you get home, say to mom, is there
anything wrong with me? And listen, because she loves you
enough to tell you that you There are people that
live in this entitle mentality and they struggle with life
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and they rarely, they rarely are ever really happy because
they just think they're supposed to have more. The second
idea of basic humanity is that humans are sick they
need help. So these are educators, these are healthcare workers,
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These are counselors, counselors or therapists. Sometimes it's a preacher
too that falls into this. Some preachers believe this, and
most importantly politicians. Sorry, if that's not right, there we go.
(10:09):
Is that right? Yeah? Politicians believe this and if you
vote for me, I'll help you. I'll make you better. Uh,
not just healthcare, mental health care. I need to take
a mental health care break. I need my mental health
is struggling. And what happens is when we know we're
sick and we don't know what's going to fix the education,
and then we get the education and we still feel sick.
(10:30):
Something's swising. And then we get health care and we
don't get that and there's still something wrong, and we
go and see the care counselor in the caraperces it's
still help, but it's not really. I'm not fixed. And
the preacher doesn't have much to say. Maybe or may
he does, I don't know. He helps me once a day,
once a week. He doesn't work that much. And then
the politician, you know, he's asking me to vote for
this guy or that girl or this person, and that's
gonna fix me. And so we vote. And this is
what our country does. A pendulum swings from the left
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to the right, from the left to the right. More government,
less government, more because we don't know. We can't make
up our mind which one's gonna fix us. More government,
let's government. We don't know, and we just keep bouncing
back and forth because we always do this as Americans.
We do sickness exchange, and this breeds a mentality entitlement
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for good. But when you're sick, the mentality is an
anxious mentality. This is where our society's epidemic of anxiety
comes from. I know something's wrong, I don't know what
it is, and somebody needs to fix it. And we'll
look to two groups of people to fix it. We'll
look to two groups of people's self, which is a
disaster or society itself. And here's what a lot of
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people are doing right now in our country. Society is broken.
The system doesn't work for everybody. And what we need
to do is we need to redefine society so that
it works for everybody. Loo this is where we are
right now as a country. Parents, listen to me. Listen
to me very carefully. Right now, coming to a public
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school near you. Is something called critical race theory. You
need to be aware of this. It's rooted in Marxism.
Marx came up with critical theory. Critical theory believes that
the system is broken, and because of the broken system,
there is poverty and inequity, and so people need the
system re engineered to make sure that everybody gets the
same slice of the pie. Now, this has not worked,
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not once, mind you, in any country across the world.
But for some reason, Americans, the same Americans who say
that we are not an exceptional country, also believe that
if we try socialism and communism we'll get it right.
You can't have it both ways. We're either exceptional or
we're not. We either can get it right or we
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can got it and critical race theory, just as the
word race to critical theory, which is rooted in Marxism,
which believes that there are oppressors white people, and there
are oppressed everybody else, including listen carefully, non white people,
sexual minorities. Because this is what it's really about. Making
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sure that we upend every structure and every system that
exists currently so that we can redefine the human society
and fix everybody's problems. Is a promise that will never
be fulfilled. Here's why. Because when you believe that human
beings are sick, guess who's running the current system sick people.
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And if you turn to different people to fix the
current sick system after you've already identified that everybody is
currently sick, you are just doing sickness exchange. And parents
need to understand what the critical race theory educational curriculum
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teaches your kids. They actually teach your kids that you
parents are dissenters because you might not agree with what
the public school is teaching your kids. Now you're welcome
to believe this. It's a boatload of crap and it's
rooted in Marxist communism. But I don't want to believe
that because there's a deeper problem than sickness in the
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human race. Here's the last category you get to boot
the side from three basic classic views of humankind is
that humans are bad. Now, there are a few people
that live here as well. The people that live here
are murderers because that's why they kill, because they're bad,
and they believe there's people that are bad. School shooters.
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The suicidal live here. Not a happy group. Over on
this side, a lot of preachers live here. Okay, racists
live here because they're and usually racists say, well, there's
a bad group of people and we're the only good people.
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Humanity is about we need to wipe out the bad people.
And a lot of politics goes into this as well.
Here's what this creates. It creates a defeated mentality. Oops, yeah, defeated.
So what's the use We're all bad? Life sucks, move on,
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or I might as well just kill myself, or maybe
I kill them and will be fixed. I could really
concern with the people who think that civil war is
a good idea because people will die and we gotta
be careful about what we champion as people. Sickness exchange
is real, So what is the view that the Bible holds.
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Here's the view. Go back to your Bibles with me.
In the Ephesians, chapter two, verse one, what's the view?
And you were good? No, and you were sick and
you were No, you were dead. The Bible actually adds
a fourth category over here. And you thought the Bible
would be over here wrong or over here No, over here, No,
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you are d e a d dead. I got a
friend that's gonna help me preach this morning. I want
you to welcome them out. We don't know their gender,
their non binary, so we shall refer to them as they.
This is who you were before Jesus saved you. This
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is who you were. You were dead in trespasses and sins.
Christianity is not about good people becoming better people. Christianity
is not about sick people becoming healthy people. Christianity is
not about bad people becoming good people. Christianity is about
dead people becoming alive. People want to till you understand
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that this is who you were, you will never turn
to the cure. Here's the problem with dead people. They
don't respond to truth. They don't respond to anything, watch nothing.
Here's another problem with dead people. They fall for anything.
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If someone tells them a lie loud enough and often enough,
they believe it. If a politician campaigns on it and wins,
they think it was the right idea. When my Bible
tells me that most of the time the votes chose
the wrong person. They'll listen to the education system because
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somebody said it, and they have initials after their name,
so they must be experts on the human condition. They'll
fall for anything. They'll go with the flow because they're dead.
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Let me bring it through Ephesians two one to three
a little bit more. Write this down here scriptures diagnosis
Number one, we followed the world before Christ. We are followers.
We just follow whatever the world does. We fall for anything.
Paul says it in verse two, following the course of
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this world. Number two, we were influenced by the devil.
This is what scripture teach us. You don't have to
believe in a personal devil. I do. And the scripture
says that we followed the prince of the power of
the air. That's a fancy way of saying there is
this atmospheric evil around us. There is somebody in charge
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of it. His name is Satan. Now get your satanology right.
Satan can't be everywhere once. He's not omnipresent, and Satan
does not have all power. He's not omnipotent. And Satan
is not omniscient, meaning he does not know your thoughts.
But what Satan does have is a legion of demons
that's spread around the world and spread misinformation and lies
and lock people up in bondage and in garbage and
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doesn't ever let them out. And this is why Christians,
the Bible says, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers,
because they are following the prints of the power of
the air. This is why you're gonna watch out who
you hang out with. This is why you're gonna watch
out who you live with. That's why you're gonna watch
out who you date. Parents, please be parents. There is
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a battle going on for your children. I don't think
you understand there's a battle going on for your children.
You can't be power yes if dads. You can't act
like it's not real. You can'tnot pray, you can'tnot know
the Bible anymore. You can't afford to be an ignorant
Christian and expect me or our ministries in the in
the youth to do the job of a parent for you.
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You've got to fight for your children. You've got to
fight against that devil. You've got to claim them in Jesus' name.
As for me and my house, we will serve the law.
And I don't understand parents. They will wake up at
four stinking am to bring their sons to hockey practice
and their daughters to ballet practice. But then the church
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service is optional. And these are the parents that our
elders will have to deal with later on in life
when they're crying tears at this altar because their kids
don't want anything to do with Jesus. Well, you taught
them that hockey in ballet were more important. That's the
course of this world. That's the prince of the power
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of the year, and that is not who we are anymore.
Number three, we were driven by the flesh. The reason
why we fall back into the ways of the world
is because we still have the flesh. Every chreatan will
struggle with the flesh until we die. Paul the Apostle says,
I do this, this is thing to want to do. I
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hate the things that I do, the good that I
want to do. I don't do. What is that. That's
the body of death, that's the flesh. Before Christ, we
had no choice. And notice how he puts it there.
He says verse three. We once lived in the passions
of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the what
the body and the mind both both an interesting that
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the Bible says that there's body, bodily desires and mental desires,
and sometimes they're in conflict with each other, which is
how we get transgenderism. Sometimes my mind thinks my body
is something that's not And this is nothing new. This
is as old as the ancients. It was called gnosticism.
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I believe that the spiritual world is real and the
material world is irrelevant. And the scriptures cut across narcissism
on the first page of the Bible, when God makes
all creation and says it is good. Your body is
the body God wanted you to have. Now he does
not take responsibility for what you made of it these
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past forty to fifty plus years. But he decided what
body you'd have, He decided what mind you'd have. And
the only way to have peace in your mind and
peace in your body is to give it to the
one who made it. But unless you have Christ, you
just follow You just follow your passions. You just go
with the flow. If your body wants you eat, if
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your body desires you drink, If your body wants sex
with whoever and whatever, you do it because that's who
you are. That's what we had before Christ. Number four,
we were running from God. Here's how Paul puts it, and
we were in verse three, by nature children of what's
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the next word, wrath. We don't need to talk about
wrath in the Bible, but we need to talk about
wrath because the wrath of God is the consequences that
we incur upon ourselves for running from God. And when
you disobeate God, you have to understand that there is
going to be physical ailments, mental ailments, spiritual ailments to
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those societal ailments. You cannot run and play fast and
loose with your marriage and expect it to go well
with you. You cannot watch pornography for four hours a
night and expect to wake up with peace the next morning.
That lack of peace is the wrath of God. You
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cannot charge your credit card for the dress and the
shoes that you just had to have and get the
bill the next month and say, why is God letting
this happen to me? You did it? And the wrath
of God is the inevitable consequensis from disobeying the laws
of God. I'll make it even simpler to show you
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that I'm not telling you anything that you don't already understand.
If you go to John Hancock Tower after church today
and go to the top floor and jump off, because
you believe my body my choice. I'm a personal, autonomous
human being. I have freedom, I have free will. I
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can do what I want with my life. Sure you
can jump off and see what happens. The pancake that
you will become on the ground below is the wrath
of God. Because as true as the law of gravity is,
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so is the law of sex and money and materialism
and stuff and love. The same God that created gravity
created sexual morality. And if you break his commands, you suffer.
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So we run from God. And the reason why we
run from God is because we know that the consequences
come from God. By the way, when Noah got into
the ark, who sent the flood, not the devil God?
And the reality that we think is everything bad that
happens to us is because the Devil's out to get us. No,
sometimes it's just we're stupid and we run from God
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and we get what we deserve. No one, absolutely, no
one is ambivalent toward God. We either love him with
all of our heart, soul, mind and strength because Jesus
has changed us, or we hate him and run from
him because we don't want to do what he says
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and we don't like the consequences we get. This is
what by, This is what, summing it all up, summing
it all up. I gotta get back to the sun.
Here's what we are. We are dead and without Jesus,
we are dead fish flowing downstream. That's who we are.
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This will go wherever the strongest, loudest, most obnoxious current
is flowing because it can't stop. And I share all
this with you for this simple reason. There's no such
thing as an individual. No one is making their own choices.
You're here because of influences, and you believe what you
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believe because of influences. You didn't come up with that.
Someone else taught you that. Someone else told you that.
And our world loves to talk about freedom and they're
full of it, because there really is no personal freedom,
and there really is no individuality. There is just conformity
to what the powerful people have decided we should be
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conformed to. I'll give you an example. It's Pride Month
and some of you you'll probably already have to hear
with this stuff, and I get it. But here's the deal.
They talk about diversity, They talk about celebrating our uniqueness.
They talk about celebrating us who we are, our undeniable.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Identities, and they expect everyone who doesn't even agree with
it to celebrate it because, after all, they love to
say diversity is our greatest strength.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
And they are full of crap. Because if you are
in a businessor in a school that's doing that right now,
here's a little assignment for you. Show up tomorrow morning
and go to your boss or go to your teacher
and say, for Pride Month, I would like to celebrate
my unchangeable identity of being a born again Christian and
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see how accepting and tolerant they really are. There's no
such thing as individuality. I hate to break it to
you Instagram influencers. Unless we understand our true condition, we
will never seek the true solution unless we understand who
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we really are before Christ will never turn to Christ.
Let me put it this way. If you got cancer,
tail and all is not going to fix it. If
you know you got cancer, you need radiology, you need
you need chemotherapy, you need someone who can give you
the right solution. And unfortunately, in the American Church, we
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have turned from identifying the real problem and we have
turned into a false solution. Like Jeremiah said in his day,
the prophets ease the wound of my people lightly. They
don't tell them the truth. They don't tell them what's
really going on in their heart. And this is why
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the society gets more and more corrupted because instead of
the Church being the salt and the light, we are
flowing with the darkness and doing what they do. And
it's time for the Church to stop this and start
saying this is the truth. Jesus is the way. Unless
a man be born again, he'll never see the Kingdom
of Heaven, repent and believe the good news of Jesus.
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We got to get back to this, and I'm passionate
about it because I see what's happening in the American Church.
I'm disgusted. I'm sick of it. We've got to tell
people the truth. We've got to tell people the truth
conditions so that we can point them to the true solution.
So understanding your true salvation in four points number one,
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salvation is about God bringing dead people to life. Who
was I before Jesus dead? Who am I now alive?
That's why I don't go with the flow. That's why
I don't believe everything. Doctor Fauci says, Oh, I know,
I brought his name up again. I know. I'm sorry.
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Some of you are big fans. Good for you. I
believe what the Bible says. All men are liars. Everyone's
lying about something. This is why if you put your
faith in a TV preacher, eventually they'll let you down
because they're lying about something. Put your faith in an
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educator who's gonna let you down. They're gonna lie about something.
There's only one who is true, and it is God.
And you have every right. You have every right in
this church to measure every word that I say from
this pulpe and against this book. And if I don't
agree with this book, ignore me. Let God be true
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in every man a liar. I gotta get back to
the point. How did I get to, doctor Fauci. Yeah,
Salvations about God making dead people alive verse four. But
God being rich in mercy. Somebody say mercy because of
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the great love. Somebody say, love with which He loved
us even when we were dinner and trespasses, made us
alive together with Christ by grace. Somebody say grace. You've
been saying three words, three important words. Letter A. Mercy
is God not giving us what we deserve. We're not
good people, We're dead people. Dead people deserve the grave.
Jesus comes to give us resurrection, this mercy, so I'm
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one O three Verse ten says he does not deal
with it according to our sins, no repay us according
to our iniquities. Every day a human being who does
not believe in Jesus does not go to Hell is
a day of mercy. There are some people sitting here
right now, sitting in one's talca. Right now, you are
dangling over the fires of hell. And every day you
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know it, you feel it. You are lost, you are empty,
you are undone, and unless you're pent and turn to Jesus,
you will be eternally condemned. But God is rich in mercy.
And the fact that you are listening right now is
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God saying stop running and return. Let her be grace.
Is God God giving us what we don't deserve. Whenever
we're blessed, its grace, the fruits of the spirit, or
is grace. It's the ministry of the spirit. This church
is a blessing. It's God's grace. Rome Is five two
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says because of faith, Christ has brought us into this
place of undeserved privilege, undeserved. And now we stand confidely,
joyfully looking forward to God's glory. Let her see his love,
which is God's unconditioned response towards sinners. The message of
the Cross is God loves the world, He loves sinners.
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He only loves sinners because sinners are already confined. And
if you're here today and you feel like Gosh, I
feel guilt. Good your sinner, return and respond to the
love of God. When the prodigal son came back to
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his father in Luke chapter fifteen, he came with a
rehearsed speech. He said, I will return to my father,
and I will tell my father I have sinned against Heaven,
against you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called
your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.
I'll serve in your house. I'll be a slave for you.
And when he comes back to his father, the Bible
says that he gets the first part of the words out, father,
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I've sinned against Heaven, against you, and the father interrupts
him and says, quick, get the fat at calf and
kill him. Put a rope on his back, put the
ringer on his finger, put the sandals on his feet.
This son of mine was lost and is found. He
was dead and he's alive. Let's celebrate. God does not
make slaves slaves. He makes slaves sons, and he brings
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you back into the house. Guys, he loves you one
John four nineteen. We love because He first loved us. Understand, friends,
is not about you getting better, It's about you becoming alive.
I gotta skip ahead so I can get through this message.
Number two. Salvation is about God making earthly people into
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a heavenly nation. We are not of this world. And
if you feel a growing a strange to this world,
if you feel like you don't belong, congratulations, you're probably
a Christian. He says this. He raised us up verse six.
He raised us up with Christ. He seated us with
Christ in the heavenly places. This is verse six, what
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is our position before God in heaven. That means that
we will never really be comfortable on earth. Are you
following this? Control freaks, listen to me. You will never
be comfortable here. Moms, listen to me, because that's who
I was really talking about. You will never be comfortable here.
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It will never be exactly what you want. Your marriage
will never be exactly what you want. Your kids will
never be exactly what they want, Your life will never
be exactly what you want, and your house will never
be pottery barn. You will always be disappointed. You will
always feel the strange. You will always feel like the
world is not right. That's because it's not your home.
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Joice and be glad and look to heaven. My eternal
destination is rooted in one day, the day Jesus Christ
returns to this earth. I am not looking forward to
the return of a politician. Stop it. I am looking
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forward to the return of Jesus Christ. He is my savior.
He is coming from heaven. Look with me in the
verse here in Philippians three eighteen. For many of whom
I have often told you, and tell you now with
tears walk his enemies of the Cross of Christ. Their
end is destruction, their God is their belly, and their
glory is in their shame, with minds set on what
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earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from
heaven we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
would transform our lowly body and make us like his
glorious body. Number three, Salvation is about God making an
undeserving people a grateful people. The well, let me get
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to the text first, and then I'll explain that in
just a second. Verse eight. This is this should be
memorized by every Christian, for by grace you have been
saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves. It
is the gift of God, not of works. That no
one can boast, right, no boasting in heaven. You know
what there is in heaven, thanksgiving. So the primary attitude
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of a Christian is gratitude. We are thankful people because
we didn't earn it, we didn't deserve it. God loved
us when we did not love him. God called us
when we ran from him, and God brought us home
when we rebelled against him. It's not of works, but
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no one may what. There's gonna be no boasting in heaven.
Nobody's gonna be looking around heaven saying I did it.
Jeremiah nine twenty three says, Thus says the Lord, Let
not the man wise man boasts in his wisdom. Let
not the mighty man boasting his strength. Let not the
rich man boasts and his riches. But let him who
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boast boast in this that he understands and he knows me.
The only thing that I have pride in is the
love of God. Then, before and finally, salvation is about
God making hopeless people useless, useful people useful. So I
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love the last verse that we read, and I want
to just bear in on it a little bit. Right
here in verse Tenna says, for we are His workmanship.
Somebody say workmanship, workmanship, Okay, we're gonna get to that.
And just like created in Christ Jesus for good works,
not saved by works, saved four good works. Wish God
prepared in advance or beforehand, that we should walk in
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the word workmanship is a beautiful Greek word. It's the
word poem or poem. It's the word that we get
poem from. I think about a poem. What is a poem?
Poem is a paragraph. It's a paragraph of words, it's
a paragraph of connected sentences. But the difference between a
regular paragraph and a poem is that a poem has rhyme, meter, design, harmony, synergy, rhythm.
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All the words of the poem work together for something
bigger than the poem, than the words. If you're not
in Christ Jesus, your life is a long run on
sentence that never has a point. If you are in
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Christ Jesus, here's what he does. He puts the words
in order. He gives it rhyme, he gives it meaning,
he gives it meter, he gives it, he gives it order,
he gives it structure, he gives it harmony, he gives
it beauty. And he makes the days of your life
all work together for something bigger. And that's who we are,
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and that's what God has done with every single person
in this room who names the name of Christ as
Lord and savior. Sermon in a sentence, we are saved
from God's wrath by God's grace or God's plan, because
there is one last flood coming on this planet. And
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it's not a flood of water, it's a flood of fire.
And if you're not in Christ, it's over. But the
scriptures us that through Christ he saves us from the wrath,
that is, to come repent, believe the good news, and
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know your home in Jesus.
Bless the Strangers, Part three and for the next few
weeks we will be finishing this series. And in this series,
we are in the Book of Ephesians, and I want
to talk about the nature, the true nature of our salvation,
the true nature of our salvation. I think that a
lot of people are confused about what it means to
be a Christian. And I think a lot of people
are confused about what it means to become a Christian.
I think if you ask the average person outside the church,
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they have no clue. They'll say, They'll say, oh, that's
when you get religion, that's when you become a conversion,
that's when you start, you know, you try to change.
Even some Christians will say those kind of things. And
what we need to remember is we've got to understand
what the Bible says about our salvation. What are we?
Who are we? Ephesians Chapter Ephesians. The Book of a
Fijians breaks down into two nicely divided sections, Ephesians one
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to three and Ephesians four to six. And what we
do is Christians when we go to the Book of Ahesians.
And I've talked about this in the series already, is
we go to the last three chapters, because the last
three chapters tell us what to do. The last three
chapters tell wives, respect your husbands, husbands, love your wives, children,
nobody your parents, parents, Rachel chod In fight the good
fight of faith, rusting against flesh and blood, spiritual armor,
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all that kind of We love those passagors because all
the pastors tell us what we what we should do.
But Ephesian chapter one to three is filled with theology,
is filled with doctrine, is filled with truth about who
we are. And the reason why we're only going through
Ephesians one to three is because instead of skipping over that,
we're gonna dig deep into it and discover who we
are so that we can do what God wants us
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to do. And that's what this series has been about.
Ephesians Chapter one we talked about in two weeks. We're
gonna spend two weeks in a Fiesian chapter two, and
we're Fesian chapter two one to ten. Let's stand together
at both of our locations that are watching this message,
stand together for the reading of God's word. Defiesian chapter two,
verse one, And you were dead, somebody say dead. That's
not my saying. That's in the Bible. Okay, And you
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were dead in the trust, passes and sins in which
you once walked. Now there's another word coming up right
after walk. What's that next word? Anybody, get your Bible open? Following,
somebody say, Following, he says, and you were dead and
your trespasses and sins in which he once walked, following
the course of this world, Following the Prince of the
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power of the air, the spirit that is now at
work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all
once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out
the desires of the body and the mind, and were
by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
But God, those two words change everything. But God, being
rich in mercy, because of the great love with which
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He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have
been saved. And He raised us up with Him and
seated us with Christ in the heavenly places in Christ,
so that in the coming ages He might show the
immeasurable greatness, measurable sorry, the immeasurable riches of His grace
and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, for by grace
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you have been saved through faith. For by grace you've
been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not of work, so
that no one may boast, for we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God
prepared and advance for us to do. This is the
reading of God's word. Let's pray together, Father in Heaven,
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guide our time together. Let my words be what you
want and to be, and nothing of what you don't,
and help us to see Jesus, Him and Him only
as money name. We pray, And everybody said, hey, man, God,
bless you have a seat at both our locations. The
true nature of our salvation. So he spent two weeks
on Ephesians one. And I want to remind you of
a couple of things. Ephesians one write this down. Is
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our salvation from Heaven's perspective, our salvation. That's what Ephesians
one is. Who we are blessed with every spiritual blessing
in Christ Jesus. Who are we? We are chosen in
Him from before the foundation of the world. In other words,
God knew you before the world was created. That our
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salvation is not our doing. It is God's idea that
there is an eternal destiny from heaven applied to every
person who names the name of Christ as Lord. As
Ephesians IE, we have forgive us of sins redemption. We
have spiritual power and inheritance in Christ. We have future
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glory in the Holy Spirit. So Ephesians one is the vertical,
the heavenly view of a God who came to save us.
Ephesians chapter two is our salvation from Earth's perspective, the horizontal,
the linear, the linear view. Where did God bring us from?
What has God brought us to? And what are we
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becoming in Christ? And so here's what Paul's going to
do in a Phiesia chapter two. He's going to back
the truck up because we all are right here, right
now on June. The small hand is covering my number
six June sixth, twenty twenty one. And here's who we
are right now. But here's what Paul's gonna do in
Ephigians two. He's going to back the truck up beep,
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and he's gonna show us where did we come from?
Do you know where you came from what do you
think of when you think of humankind? What do you
think of when you think of yourself? That's an important question,
by the way, that's an important question to God. He
wants you to view yourself properly. He wants you to
have a right view of you. So here's what I'd
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like to do, little social experiment. Everybody watching at all
of our locations. Close your eyes for a moment. Don't
bow your heads, that'll come later. Don't buy it. Just
close your eyes. Yeah, everybody doing this, nobody looking, And
I want you to just picture yourself standing in front
of you. Just you, Okay, Now, three questions keeping your
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eyes closed, be honest. How many of you look at
yourself and say bad? Just bad? Put your hand up? Mmmm? Okay,
put your hands down. How many of you look at
yourself and say, not so bad. I gotta improve some things.
Put your hand up. Mm hmmm, put your hands down.
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And number three question, how many of you look at
you you say perfect man, Just put your hands up,
perfect people, perfect people. Yeah, a mother is presently putting
her child's hand down. That's gonna yeah, We're gonna cover that.
Open your hand, open your eyes, open your eyes yeah,
we're gonna cover that in just a moment. All right, here,
here's here's the reality of the human condition. There are
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three classic views of humankind. There are three classic views
of humankind. And is it okay? Now, I'm gonna I'm
gonna get a little scientific on you. We're gonna break
out the whiteboard. You know what science when the whiteboard
is involved. Uh okay, So let's discuss this. I want
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you to write these things down. Three classic views of humankind.
Everybody falls into one of these views. The first view
is that humankind is basically good. Write it down, the humankind,
that human kind, humans are basically good. Now, there are
only a few groups of people that believe this. The
first group of people that believes this are what I
call childless people, because the moment that you have a
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baby is gonna disavow you of this view. Amen, Parents,
prosperity TV, preachers, preachers on TV believe this. By the way,
preachers on TV, you say, pastor aren't you on TV? Yes,
but I'm one of those rare breeze that actually preaches
the Bible on TV. And preachers on TV believe that
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you can have you can claim, you can name you
can get it. You're supposed to be healthy, wealthy, sexy
and blessed all the time because you're good and God
just loves you. He loves you, He just madly in
love with you. He loves you just the way you are. Okay,
that's that's what they say. Okay. And then there's a
prophet of our time, very well known prophet that believes this,
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and her name is oprah So And there's a lot
of there's a lot of parents that actually believe this,
and I call them morons. Okay, So there is there
is an attitude, there is a mentality that is bred
through believing that people are good. People are basically good.
There's a few bad apples like Hitler and Mao, but
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everybody else is good. Okay. So this is the mentality
that it breeds. Write it down, entitlement. I am a
good person and you are living in this squadrant, you
are living in this section. If you are constantly asking
why is God letting this happen to me? You believe
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you deserve better. You believe that you should have a nice, wonderful,
blasted life because you believe you're a good person. And really,
what you need to do is call your mother as
soon as you get home, say to mom, is there
anything wrong with me? And listen, because she loves you
enough to tell you that you There are people that
live in this entitle mentality and they struggle with life
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and they rarely, they rarely are ever really happy because
they just think they're supposed to have more. The second
idea of basic humanity is that humans are sick they
need help. So these are educators, these are healthcare workers,
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These are counselors, counselors or therapists. Sometimes it's a preacher
too that falls into this. Some preachers believe this, and
most importantly politicians. Sorry, if that's not right, there we go.
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Is that right? Yeah? Politicians believe this and if you
vote for me, I'll help you. I'll make you better. Uh,
not just healthcare, mental health care. I need to take
a mental health care break. I need my mental health
is struggling. And what happens is when we know we're
sick and we don't know what's going to fix the education,
and then we get the education and we still feel sick.
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Something's swising. And then we get health care and we
don't get that and there's still something wrong, and we
go and see the care counselor in the caraperces it's
still help, but it's not really. I'm not fixed. And
the preacher doesn't have much to say. Maybe or may
he does, I don't know. He helps me once a day,
once a week. He doesn't work that much. And then
the politician, you know, he's asking me to vote for
this guy or that girl or this person, and that's
gonna fix me. And so we vote. And this is
what our country does. A pendulum swings from the left
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to the right, from the left to the right. More government,
less government, more because we don't know. We can't make
up our mind which one's gonna fix us. More government,
let's government. We don't know, and we just keep bouncing
back and forth because we always do this as Americans.
We do sickness exchange, and this breeds a mentality entitlement
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for good. But when you're sick, the mentality is an
anxious mentality. This is where our society's epidemic of anxiety
comes from. I know something's wrong, I don't know what
it is, and somebody needs to fix it. And we'll
look to two groups of people to fix it. We'll
look to two groups of people's self, which is a
disaster or society itself. And here's what a lot of
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people are doing right now in our country. Society is broken.
The system doesn't work for everybody. And what we need
to do is we need to redefine society so that
it works for everybody. Loo this is where we are
right now as a country. Parents, listen to me. Listen
to me very carefully. Right now, coming to a public
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school near you. Is something called critical race theory. You
need to be aware of this. It's rooted in Marxism.
Marx came up with critical theory. Critical theory believes that
the system is broken, and because of the broken system,
there is poverty and inequity, and so people need the
system re engineered to make sure that everybody gets the
same slice of the pie. Now, this has not worked,
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not once, mind you, in any country across the world.
But for some reason, Americans, the same Americans who say
that we are not an exceptional country, also believe that
if we try socialism and communism we'll get it right.
You can't have it both ways. We're either exceptional or
we're not. We either can get it right or we
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can got it and critical race theory, just as the
word race to critical theory, which is rooted in Marxism,
which believes that there are oppressors white people, and there
are oppressed everybody else, including listen carefully, non white people,
sexual minorities. Because this is what it's really about. Making
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sure that we upend every structure and every system that
exists currently so that we can redefine the human society
and fix everybody's problems. Is a promise that will never
be fulfilled. Here's why. Because when you believe that human
beings are sick, guess who's running the current system sick people.
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And if you turn to different people to fix the
current sick system after you've already identified that everybody is
currently sick, you are just doing sickness exchange. And parents
need to understand what the critical race theory educational curriculum
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teaches your kids. They actually teach your kids that you
parents are dissenters because you might not agree with what
the public school is teaching your kids. Now you're welcome
to believe this. It's a boatload of crap and it's
rooted in Marxist communism. But I don't want to believe
that because there's a deeper problem than sickness in the
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human race. Here's the last category you get to boot
the side from three basic classic views of humankind is
that humans are bad. Now, there are a few people
that live here as well. The people that live here
are murderers because that's why they kill, because they're bad,
and they believe there's people that are bad. School shooters.
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The suicidal live here. Not a happy group. Over on
this side, a lot of preachers live here. Okay, racists
live here because they're and usually racists say, well, there's
a bad group of people and we're the only good people.
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Humanity is about we need to wipe out the bad people.
And a lot of politics goes into this as well.
Here's what this creates. It creates a defeated mentality. Oops, yeah, defeated.
So what's the use We're all bad? Life sucks, move on,
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or I might as well just kill myself, or maybe
I kill them and will be fixed. I could really
concern with the people who think that civil war is
a good idea because people will die and we gotta
be careful about what we champion as people. Sickness exchange
is real, So what is the view that the Bible holds.
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Here's the view. Go back to your Bibles with me.
In the Ephesians, chapter two, verse one, what's the view?
And you were good? No, and you were sick and
you were No, you were dead. The Bible actually adds
a fourth category over here. And you thought the Bible
would be over here wrong or over here No, over here, No,
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you are d e a d dead. I got a
friend that's gonna help me preach this morning. I want
you to welcome them out. We don't know their gender,
their non binary, so we shall refer to them as they.
This is who you were before Jesus saved you. This
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is who you were. You were dead in trespasses and sins.
Christianity is not about good people becoming better people. Christianity
is not about sick people becoming healthy people. Christianity is
not about bad people becoming good people. Christianity is about
dead people becoming alive. People want to till you understand
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that this is who you were, you will never turn
to the cure. Here's the problem with dead people. They
don't respond to truth. They don't respond to anything, watch nothing.
Here's another problem with dead people. They fall for anything.
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If someone tells them a lie loud enough and often enough,
they believe it. If a politician campaigns on it and wins,
they think it was the right idea. When my Bible
tells me that most of the time the votes chose
the wrong person. They'll listen to the education system because
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somebody said it, and they have initials after their name,
so they must be experts on the human condition. They'll
fall for anything. They'll go with the flow because they're dead.
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Let me bring it through Ephesians two one to three
a little bit more. Write this down here scriptures diagnosis
Number one, we followed the world before Christ. We are followers.
We just follow whatever the world does. We fall for anything.
Paul says it in verse two, following the course of
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this world. Number two, we were influenced by the devil.
This is what scripture teach us. You don't have to
believe in a personal devil. I do. And the scripture
says that we followed the prince of the power of
the air. That's a fancy way of saying there is
this atmospheric evil around us. There is somebody in charge
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of it. His name is Satan. Now get your satanology right.
Satan can't be everywhere once. He's not omnipresent, and Satan
does not have all power. He's not omnipotent. And Satan
is not omniscient, meaning he does not know your thoughts.
But what Satan does have is a legion of demons
that's spread around the world and spread misinformation and lies
and lock people up in bondage and in garbage and
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doesn't ever let them out. And this is why Christians,
the Bible says, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers,
because they are following the prints of the power of
the air. This is why you're gonna watch out who
you hang out with. This is why you're gonna watch
out who you live with. That's why you're gonna watch
out who you date. Parents, please be parents. There is
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a battle going on for your children. I don't think
you understand there's a battle going on for your children.
You can't be power yes if dads. You can't act
like it's not real. You can'tnot pray, you can'tnot know
the Bible anymore. You can't afford to be an ignorant
Christian and expect me or our ministries in the in
the youth to do the job of a parent for you.
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You've got to fight for your children. You've got to
fight against that devil. You've got to claim them in Jesus' name.
As for me and my house, we will serve the law.
And I don't understand parents. They will wake up at
four stinking am to bring their sons to hockey practice
and their daughters to ballet practice. But then the church
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service is optional. And these are the parents that our
elders will have to deal with later on in life
when they're crying tears at this altar because their kids
don't want anything to do with Jesus. Well, you taught
them that hockey in ballet were more important. That's the
course of this world. That's the prince of the power
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of the year, and that is not who we are anymore.
Number three, we were driven by the flesh. The reason
why we fall back into the ways of the world
is because we still have the flesh. Every chreatan will
struggle with the flesh until we die. Paul the Apostle says,
I do this, this is thing to want to do. I
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hate the things that I do, the good that I
want to do. I don't do. What is that. That's
the body of death, that's the flesh. Before Christ, we
had no choice. And notice how he puts it there.
He says verse three. We once lived in the passions
of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the what
the body and the mind both both an interesting that
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the Bible says that there's body, bodily desires and mental desires,
and sometimes they're in conflict with each other, which is
how we get transgenderism. Sometimes my mind thinks my body
is something that's not And this is nothing new. This
is as old as the ancients. It was called gnosticism.
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I believe that the spiritual world is real and the
material world is irrelevant. And the scriptures cut across narcissism
on the first page of the Bible, when God makes
all creation and says it is good. Your body is
the body God wanted you to have. Now he does
not take responsibility for what you made of it these
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past forty to fifty plus years. But he decided what
body you'd have, He decided what mind you'd have. And
the only way to have peace in your mind and
peace in your body is to give it to the
one who made it. But unless you have Christ, you
just follow You just follow your passions. You just go
with the flow. If your body wants you eat, if
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your body desires you drink, If your body wants sex
with whoever and whatever, you do it because that's who
you are. That's what we had before Christ. Number four,
we were running from God. Here's how Paul puts it, and
we were in verse three, by nature children of what's
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the next word, wrath. We don't need to talk about
wrath in the Bible, but we need to talk about
wrath because the wrath of God is the consequences that
we incur upon ourselves for running from God. And when
you disobeate God, you have to understand that there is
going to be physical ailments, mental ailments, spiritual ailments to
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those societal ailments. You cannot run and play fast and
loose with your marriage and expect it to go well
with you. You cannot watch pornography for four hours a
night and expect to wake up with peace the next morning.
That lack of peace is the wrath of God. You
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cannot charge your credit card for the dress and the
shoes that you just had to have and get the
bill the next month and say, why is God letting
this happen to me? You did it? And the wrath
of God is the inevitable consequensis from disobeying the laws
of God. I'll make it even simpler to show you
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that I'm not telling you anything that you don't already understand.
If you go to John Hancock Tower after church today
and go to the top floor and jump off, because
you believe my body my choice. I'm a personal, autonomous
human being. I have freedom, I have free will. I
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can do what I want with my life. Sure you
can jump off and see what happens. The pancake that
you will become on the ground below is the wrath
of God. Because as true as the law of gravity is,
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so is the law of sex and money and materialism
and stuff and love. The same God that created gravity
created sexual morality. And if you break his commands, you suffer.
(25:24):
So we run from God. And the reason why we
run from God is because we know that the consequences
come from God. By the way, when Noah got into
the ark, who sent the flood, not the devil God?
And the reality that we think is everything bad that
happens to us is because the Devil's out to get us. No,
sometimes it's just we're stupid and we run from God
(25:46):
and we get what we deserve. No one, absolutely, no
one is ambivalent toward God. We either love him with
all of our heart, soul, mind and strength because Jesus
has changed us, or we hate him and run from
him because we don't want to do what he says
(26:10):
and we don't like the consequences we get. This is
what by, This is what, summing it all up, summing
it all up. I gotta get back to the sun.
Here's what we are. We are dead and without Jesus,
we are dead fish flowing downstream. That's who we are.
(26:36):
This will go wherever the strongest, loudest, most obnoxious current
is flowing because it can't stop. And I share all
this with you for this simple reason. There's no such
thing as an individual. No one is making their own choices.
You're here because of influences, and you believe what you
(26:56):
believe because of influences. You didn't come up with that.
Someone else taught you that. Someone else told you that.
And our world loves to talk about freedom and they're
full of it, because there really is no personal freedom,
and there really is no individuality. There is just conformity
to what the powerful people have decided we should be
(27:17):
conformed to. I'll give you an example. It's Pride Month
and some of you you'll probably already have to hear
with this stuff, and I get it. But here's the deal.
They talk about diversity, They talk about celebrating our uniqueness.
They talk about celebrating us who we are, our undeniable.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Identities, and they expect everyone who doesn't even agree with
it to celebrate it because, after all, they love to
say diversity is our greatest strength.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
And they are full of crap. Because if you are
in a businessor in a school that's doing that right now,
here's a little assignment for you. Show up tomorrow morning
and go to your boss or go to your teacher
and say, for Pride Month, I would like to celebrate
my unchangeable identity of being a born again Christian and
(28:12):
see how accepting and tolerant they really are. There's no
such thing as individuality. I hate to break it to
you Instagram influencers. Unless we understand our true condition, we
will never seek the true solution unless we understand who
(28:34):
we really are before Christ will never turn to Christ.
Let me put it this way. If you got cancer,
tail and all is not going to fix it. If
you know you got cancer, you need radiology, you need
you need chemotherapy, you need someone who can give you
the right solution. And unfortunately, in the American Church, we
(28:56):
have turned from identifying the real problem and we have
turned into a false solution. Like Jeremiah said in his day,
the prophets ease the wound of my people lightly. They
don't tell them the truth. They don't tell them what's
really going on in their heart. And this is why
(29:16):
the society gets more and more corrupted because instead of
the Church being the salt and the light, we are
flowing with the darkness and doing what they do. And
it's time for the Church to stop this and start
saying this is the truth. Jesus is the way. Unless
a man be born again, he'll never see the Kingdom
of Heaven, repent and believe the good news of Jesus.
(29:42):
We got to get back to this, and I'm passionate
about it because I see what's happening in the American Church.
I'm disgusted. I'm sick of it. We've got to tell
people the truth. We've got to tell people the truth
conditions so that we can point them to the true solution.
So understanding your true salvation in four points number one,
(30:02):
salvation is about God bringing dead people to life. Who
was I before Jesus dead? Who am I now alive?
That's why I don't go with the flow. That's why
I don't believe everything. Doctor Fauci says, Oh, I know,
I brought his name up again. I know. I'm sorry.
(30:25):
Some of you are big fans. Good for you. I
believe what the Bible says. All men are liars. Everyone's
lying about something. This is why if you put your
faith in a TV preacher, eventually they'll let you down
because they're lying about something. Put your faith in an
(30:49):
educator who's gonna let you down. They're gonna lie about something.
There's only one who is true, and it is God.
And you have every right. You have every right in
this church to measure every word that I say from
this pulpe and against this book. And if I don't
agree with this book, ignore me. Let God be true
(31:09):
in every man a liar. I gotta get back to
the point. How did I get to, doctor Fauci. Yeah,
Salvations about God making dead people alive verse four. But
God being rich in mercy. Somebody say mercy because of
(31:31):
the great love. Somebody say, love with which He loved
us even when we were dinner and trespasses, made us
alive together with Christ by grace. Somebody say grace. You've
been saying three words, three important words. Letter A. Mercy
is God not giving us what we deserve. We're not
good people, We're dead people. Dead people deserve the grave.
Jesus comes to give us resurrection, this mercy, so I'm
(31:58):
one O three Verse ten says he does not deal
with it according to our sins, no repay us according
to our iniquities. Every day a human being who does
not believe in Jesus does not go to Hell is
a day of mercy. There are some people sitting here
right now, sitting in one's talca. Right now, you are
dangling over the fires of hell. And every day you
(32:22):
know it, you feel it. You are lost, you are empty,
you are undone, and unless you're pent and turn to Jesus,
you will be eternally condemned. But God is rich in mercy.
And the fact that you are listening right now is
(32:42):
God saying stop running and return. Let her be grace.
Is God God giving us what we don't deserve. Whenever
we're blessed, its grace, the fruits of the spirit, or
is grace. It's the ministry of the spirit. This church
is a blessing. It's God's grace. Rome Is five two
(33:04):
says because of faith, Christ has brought us into this
place of undeserved privilege, undeserved. And now we stand confidely,
joyfully looking forward to God's glory. Let her see his love,
which is God's unconditioned response towards sinners. The message of
the Cross is God loves the world, He loves sinners.
(33:27):
He only loves sinners because sinners are already confined. And
if you're here today and you feel like Gosh, I
feel guilt. Good your sinner, return and respond to the
love of God. When the prodigal son came back to
(33:47):
his father in Luke chapter fifteen, he came with a
rehearsed speech. He said, I will return to my father,
and I will tell my father I have sinned against Heaven,
against you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called
your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.
I'll serve in your house. I'll be a slave for you.
And when he comes back to his father, the Bible
says that he gets the first part of the words out, father,
(34:08):
I've sinned against Heaven, against you, and the father interrupts
him and says, quick, get the fat at calf and
kill him. Put a rope on his back, put the
ringer on his finger, put the sandals on his feet.
This son of mine was lost and is found. He
was dead and he's alive. Let's celebrate. God does not
make slaves slaves. He makes slaves sons, and he brings
(34:31):
you back into the house. Guys, he loves you one
John four nineteen. We love because He first loved us. Understand, friends,
is not about you getting better, It's about you becoming alive.
I gotta skip ahead so I can get through this message.
Number two. Salvation is about God making earthly people into
(34:54):
a heavenly nation. We are not of this world. And
if you feel a growing a strange to this world,
if you feel like you don't belong, congratulations, you're probably
a Christian. He says this. He raised us up verse six.
He raised us up with Christ. He seated us with
Christ in the heavenly places. This is verse six, what
(35:17):
is our position before God in heaven. That means that
we will never really be comfortable on earth. Are you
following this? Control freaks, listen to me. You will never
be comfortable here. Moms, listen to me, because that's who
I was really talking about. You will never be comfortable here.
(35:40):
It will never be exactly what you want. Your marriage
will never be exactly what you want. Your kids will
never be exactly what they want, Your life will never
be exactly what you want, and your house will never
be pottery barn. You will always be disappointed. You will
always feel the strange. You will always feel like the
world is not right. That's because it's not your home.
(36:00):
Joice and be glad and look to heaven. My eternal
destination is rooted in one day, the day Jesus Christ
returns to this earth. I am not looking forward to
the return of a politician. Stop it. I am looking
(36:21):
forward to the return of Jesus Christ. He is my savior.
He is coming from heaven. Look with me in the
verse here in Philippians three eighteen. For many of whom
I have often told you, and tell you now with
tears walk his enemies of the Cross of Christ. Their
end is destruction, their God is their belly, and their
glory is in their shame, with minds set on what
(36:42):
earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from
heaven we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
would transform our lowly body and make us like his
glorious body. Number three, Salvation is about God making an
undeserving people a grateful people. The well, let me get
(37:08):
to the text first, and then I'll explain that in
just a second. Verse eight. This is this should be
memorized by every Christian, for by grace you have been
saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves. It
is the gift of God, not of works. That no
one can boast, right, no boasting in heaven. You know
what there is in heaven, thanksgiving. So the primary attitude
(37:38):
of a Christian is gratitude. We are thankful people because
we didn't earn it, we didn't deserve it. God loved
us when we did not love him. God called us
when we ran from him, and God brought us home
when we rebelled against him. It's not of works, but
(38:00):
no one may what. There's gonna be no boasting in heaven.
Nobody's gonna be looking around heaven saying I did it.
Jeremiah nine twenty three says, Thus says the Lord, Let
not the man wise man boasts in his wisdom. Let
not the mighty man boasting his strength. Let not the
rich man boasts and his riches. But let him who
(38:20):
boast boast in this that he understands and he knows me.
The only thing that I have pride in is the
love of God. Then, before and finally, salvation is about
God making hopeless people useless, useful people useful. So I
(38:44):
love the last verse that we read, and I want
to just bear in on it a little bit. Right
here in verse Tenna says, for we are His workmanship.
Somebody say workmanship, workmanship, Okay, we're gonna get to that.
And just like created in Christ Jesus for good works,
not saved by works, saved four good works. Wish God
prepared in advance or beforehand, that we should walk in
(39:07):
the word workmanship is a beautiful Greek word. It's the
word poem or poem. It's the word that we get
poem from. I think about a poem. What is a poem?
Poem is a paragraph. It's a paragraph of words, it's
a paragraph of connected sentences. But the difference between a
regular paragraph and a poem is that a poem has rhyme, meter, design, harmony, synergy, rhythm.
(39:36):
All the words of the poem work together for something
bigger than the poem, than the words. If you're not
in Christ Jesus, your life is a long run on
sentence that never has a point. If you are in
(40:01):
Christ Jesus, here's what he does. He puts the words
in order. He gives it rhyme, he gives it meaning,
he gives it meter, he gives it, he gives it order,
he gives it structure, he gives it harmony, he gives
it beauty. And he makes the days of your life
all work together for something bigger. And that's who we are,
(40:24):
and that's what God has done with every single person
in this room who names the name of Christ as
Lord and savior. Sermon in a sentence, we are saved
from God's wrath by God's grace or God's plan, because
there is one last flood coming on this planet. And
(40:49):
it's not a flood of water, it's a flood of fire.
And if you're not in Christ, it's over. But the
scriptures us that through Christ he saves us from the wrath,
that is, to come repent, believe the good news, and
(41:11):
know your home in Jesus.
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