Strong Foundation 8-9-2026

Welcome to the Life Family Church Sermon Podcast.

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Now let's get right to the message.

Spiritually, there are two mirrors I want to bring out today.

Sometimes, um, I'll be honest with you, sometimes I look at the mirror now that I'm getting older and I'm like, man, you sure have changed.

You sure have changed.

But yes, I just wanted to bring out to your attention that a mirror does not talk, it does not change you, it simply reflects who you are.

Um there's there's two laws I bring up here, and I think this will what I'm tying this into, I think will bless you.

The law shows you your sin.

So we're talking about the law of Moses.

The law of Moses shows you your sin, it shows you your inadequacies, it reveals your failure, it tells you what's wrong with you.

How you've fallen short, you've sinned, you're guilty.

Romans 3, verse 20 talks about how, for by the law sin is revealed.

Romans 3:20

Did you know that the law was not sent to be a blessing for you?

The law was there to reveal that you were an old dirty sinner, that you were messed up, that you just look horrible.

That's what the law was there for.

God orchestrated the law to reveal sin, to show you who you were.

Now, the law was also called our schoolmaster, it was called our tutor.

A tutor is one who trains you and teaches you so that you can pass the test, right?

But a tutor was never meant to be with you forever.

Do you still have your fourth grade tutor?

Is that is that tutor just still hanging out with you?

Or did you pass the test and move on?

Well, that's exactly what the law was meant to be.

It was meant to be your tutor, it was meant to show you something, and then you were supposed to move on.

You were supposed to learn and grow and develop an understanding that you cannot do it apart from God's grace.

The law, it was a mirror.

But in just imagine standing in front of that mirror called the law all day, and you're looking at this mirror, and the whole time you're looking at this mirror, you're saying, I'm ugly, I'm ugly, I'm ugly, I'm ugly, I'm inadequate, I'm no good, I'm a failure, I'm a loser, nobody loves me, I'm messed up.

That's exactly what that law was doing to the people.

The law was reflecting who you were before Christ.

I don't want to make, I don't want to mix this up.

I want you to know your condition before Christ Jesus was messed up.

It was hopeless.

You were on your way to hell with no way out.

And you could not go past the jail and collect$200.

You couldn't make it out.

You were stuck.

The mirror can show you that you were dirty, but it can't provide a way out.

That's why people who are still under the law, who still practice the law today, they're full of condemnation and guilt and shame.

And unfortunately, in the church today, there's still people who operate under condemnation, guilt, and shame because the devil still wants to remind you every day that you're no good.

Look at what you did, look at your past, look at look at all the things you did wrong, look at your kids that you raised.

They didn't turn out the way that you wanted them to.

Look at the problems in your life.

It's your fault, your fault, you're no good.

This is all the reflection that the law wants to bring in your life, and it wants to bring that condemnation and sin consciousness.

You need the water of the word to wash away the sin, the guilt, the shame, and the inferiority, and to present you before God clean and holy.

The law can reveal sin, but grace is the only thing that can actually clean it.

There's two mirrors, two images.

The first mirror says, look at what you have done.

The second mirror says, look at what Christ has done.

The first mirror reveals your failure.

The second mirror reveals your righteousness.

James 1, verse 23 through 25, it compares the word of God to a mirror.

James 1:23–25

The word of God is a mirror, and what it does, it reflects back to you who you are now that you are in Christ Jesus.

But still today, people read the word of God through the lens of the old covenant.

They read the word through the lens of the law, and all they see is how bad they really are.

And that is not what the word of God was sent to reveal to you.

It was sent to reveal to you a new covenant based on better promises.

But there is something important about a mirror.

You don't look into a mirror to become somebody else.

You look into the mirror to discover who you already are.

The word shows you who you are now that you are in Christ Jesus.

So what happens when you look into the wrong mirror spiritually?

You become obsessed with your failures.

You become sin conscience.

You wake up thinking, I failed yesterday, I messed up again, God must be disappointed in me.

But I want to remind you, in 2 Corinthians 5.21, it says, for he, everybody say he.

It didn't say ye, it said he.

He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Now, let's take the mirror a step further.

There are two natures.

All right.

So now we're talking about a nature.

Before Christ, we had the nature of the old man.

But in Christ, we became a new creature.

2 Corinthians 5.17, therefore, if anyone's in Christ, he is a new creature.

Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new.

So let's think about this.

Think about a pig for a moment.

How many of y'all have ever raised hogs?

I see, oh man, a lot more than I thought.

All right.

So if I put some slop out there, how long do you think it would take before that pig jumps in that slot?

Not very long, right?

He's going to instantly jump it.

Why?

Because that is the pig.

Just a pig.

That's what pigs do.

Nobody has to tell the pig, go get dirty.

The pig said, that's where I want to be.

I want to be in that slop.

I want to be as nasty and muddy as I can be.

That's exactly who it is, because that's the pig's nature.

But a sheep is different.

A sheep can fall into the mud, a sheep can get dirty, but the sheep doesn't look at the mud and say, This is where I belong.

Why?

Because it's not the sheep's nature.

The sheep has a different nature than a pig.

Amen.

And we're not pigs.

The Bible calls us sheep.

Are you going to get messy sometimes?

Yes.

Are you going to make mistakes?

Yes.

But that is not your nature.

We don't desire to wake up every morning and go and make a mess of things.

We wake up in the morning wanting to give God glory and give God honor, but we do make mistakes.

But that does not, and I'm going to put a very hard exclamation point, that does not change your nature, who you are in Christ.

Amen.

Why?

Because God loves you.

He sent his son.

His son came to dwell on the inside of you when you received him, and you have now a new nature in Christ Jesus.

That is where we belong.

A believer may stumble, a believer may fall, a believer may get dirty, but getting dirty doesn't change the nature God gave you.

The enemy wants you to look at the mud and say, That's who I am.

The gospel says that's not who you are anymore.

You are a new creature and you have been made righteous.

Now there are two laws.

There's the law of sin and death, and the law of the spirit of life.

For the law, this is Romans 8, 2, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Notice the scripture says there's two laws.

The first law says sin produces death.

The law says that sin produces death.

The second law says the spirit produces life and peace.

Think about it.

I was thinking earlier about gravity.

If I was to throw this Bible in the air, guess what?

It's going to come crashing down.

You don't have to pray for this Bible.

If I throw it up in the air, you don't have to pray for it to come down.

It's going to come down.

Why?

Because that's a that's nature.

That's law.

If I was to pick up Ava and sling her, as far as I could sling her, she would scream and she would hit the ground.

Boom.

I don't have to pray.

God please let her hit the ground.

God, please let her hit the ground.

It's going to happen.

Your nature, the law of the spirit of life and peace, works automatically.

It works automatically.

You don't have to ask God to give me life and peace when that's in your new nature.

It's who you are.

As long as you're walking according to the word of God, according to your new nature, you automatically, by default, walk in life and peace.

But if you're walking according to the law of sin and death, guess what?

You're walking and your reflection of who you think you are in that mirror of sin and death automatically produces sin and death in your life.

That's why condemnation worketh death.

You were not meant in Christ to walk in condemnation and guilt.

You're not meant to spend time with sin, you're meant to spend time with your Savior.

You're not meant to spend time in grief and in anguish, you're meant to spend time with Jesus.

He brings life, he brings peace.

If there's anything that brings depression, anxiety, or fear or doubt in your life, that is not the spirit of life and peace.

So you need to get back into the law, the spirit of God's law, the word of God, and start reflecting who you truly are.

Get joyful, get fired up, stir yourself up into your new nature.

I told these guys when we were out here worship before we were praying back here.

And I told them, I'm like, you know, let's worship out of our new nature.

Let's not worship out of a conscience that says I'm guilty and I've made mistakes this week.

Let's just cast off those thoughts.

Let's walk out there full of righteousness, full of holiness, full of peace, joy.

Stir yourself up and get ready to go because that's who you are in the spirit.

God sees you for who you are in the spirit.

He's not seeing you for no dirty, nasty, rotten sinner you used to be.

You have a new nature, new creation.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

I don't know about you, but by this time I have on my notes that by this time I'm gonna have to hold up because there's gonna be too many people shouting, running, and dancing.

An airplane can fly based on a different law.

It can defy the law of gravity.

Why?

Because there's another law at work.

Come on, somebody.

There's another law at work.

There's another law at work, and that law for an airplane is the law of lift and thrust.

Gravity's still there.

Amen.

If you turn off those engines, guess what's gonna happen?

You're gonna begin to fall automatically, right?

Well, let me tell you something.

If you turn off the word, guess what's gonna happen in your life?

By default, you automatically start sinking.

If you stop looking at yourself through the mirror of the word of God, then you stop remembering who you really are and you start to fall.

Because that is a nature, and that I mean, that is a law of nature.

Automatic.

So I'm gonna say something.

You can automatically live more pure and holy just by looking at the mirror of the Word of God and reflecting who you really are in Christ than you could ever do or try or to attempt on your own.

You do not overcome sin by being more sin conscious.

You don't overcome poverty by thinking about how poor you are.

You don't overcome sickness by talking about sickness, watching videos about sickness, meditating on sickness, studying about the sickness.

That is not how you overcome sickness.

You don't get free from eating cake by watching people online making and baking cakes, and you're studying how they're doing this, and you're like, I'm overcoming this temptation to watch and eat cakes.

I mean, by the moment you get out there and you go somewhere where they have cakes, you're like, give me some of that cake.

Amen.

And that's exactly how it is when it's sin.

When you're sin conscious, that's exactly how you respond.

The moment you get the opportunity to sin, you're gonna fall.

Why?

Because that's all you think about.

Get your mind off of failures, get your mind off the past, get your mind on those things.

Stay, your mind needs to be stayed on the Lord.

Amen.

You overcome sin by walking in the Spirit and becoming conscious of Christ.

So stop spending time with your sin and start spending time with Jesus.

Amen.

Glory to God.

Do you know how hard that is to do, though?

Because your body, your mind tells you you need to spend time and spend, you need to be guilty for a while.

You need to you need to feel really bad for what you did.

Come on.

Does anybody agree?

Isn't that how you feel?

I did something really bad.

I I said something I shouldn't.

I need to feel bad about that.

Because if I don't feel bad about it, I can't really repent of it.

That's not true.

That's a lie from the devil.

You don't have to feel bad or guilty over sin.

You simply need to get back to Jesus.

Because he's the only one that can overcome.

You can't overcome without him.

So what's the point in spending time with your sin?

Hang out with Jesus.

Amen.

There's two covenants.

Now we're going to a covenant.

The Bible doesn't merely give us two different sets of rules, it gives us two covenants.

Hebrews 8:6, it talks about this.

Hebrews 8:6

He's the mediator of a better covenant, which is established on better promises.

The old covenant was written on tables or tablets of stone.

So if you remember the old covenant when God gave Moses the tablets, they were written on stone with God's hand.

But the new covenant was written in our hearts.

The new covenant was written on our hearts.

The old covenant says, do this and you will live.

The new covenant reveals it is finished.

It is finished.

It's done.

You don't have to do a thing.

Jesus already did it all.

The new covenant reveals that it is finished.

Now I want to emphasize that because a lot of people still think they need to add to it to get God to be pleased with them.

It is finished means it is finished.

There is nothing left to be done.

When Jesus finished, he rose from the dead, he ascended on high, and he sat down at the right hand of the Father.

Meaning his work was complete.

Nothing else to do.

So when we're praying, Jesus, come and do this, Jesus, come and do this, Jesus, come down.

We want you to come down and fix this.

He'll just say, Love you, but I've already done that.

It's time for you to take what I've already provided you through my grace and believe by faith.

And just kick unbelief out the door.

Under the old covenant, the priest stood repeatedly offering sacrifices.

All the time.

There was so many sacrifices going up constantly.

There was blood flowing all the time because they had to kill a lamb all the time.

Sin was everywhere.

Under the new covenant, Jesus offered himself once.

Everybody say, one time.

One time.

I love it because he's not going to come back and do it again.

The next time he comes back, he's coming back for a spotless bride.

And guess what?

That's you and I.

But one time he came down and he was a sacrifice.

One time he paid for your sickness and disease, he does not have to do it again.

He will not take another stripe on his back.

He's already did it, so you don't have to beg him for healing.

You don't have to beg him for salvation.

You simply believe that he provided it and receive it by faith and take hold and get ready for your journey.

Hebrews 10, 14, it says, For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

That's the difference.

The old covenant continually reminds people of sin.

The new covenant points people to the finished work of Christ Jesus.

Now, what are you looking at?

Yeah, what are y'all looking at?

Two mirrors.

The mirror of the law, the mirror of Christ.

Are you looking at two natures?

The old man or the new creation?

Two laws?

Are you looking at the law of sin and death or the law of the spirit of life?

Two covenants.

The covenant of the old covenant and the new covenant.

Here's the questions I want to ask.

Which mirror are you looking into today?

Because the mirror you keep looking into will affect how you see yourself.

If all you see is your failure, you will develop, like I said earlier, a sin consciousness.

But if you continue to look into the finished work of Christ, you'll develop a Christ consciousness.

The gospel isn't telling you to pretend that you are righteous.

The gospel's telling you that you are righteous.

Romans 5 17.

Says those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through one Jesus Christ.

You don't reign in life because you're perfect.

You reign in life because you've received a gift.

Righteousness isn't something that we earn, it's something you receive.

You didn't work your way into Christ.

You couldn't work hard enough to get there.

There's nothing you could have done to meet the standard of Jesus Christ.

Did you know what the standard was?

The standard is perfection.

Perfection.

True holiness without any sin whatsoever.

None of us had the ability to meet the standards of perfection.

The standard was God Himself.

So if someone says, Well, I'm a good person, does that make them righteous?

I'm a good man.

I do good things.

I help the need, needs of people.

I don't say very many cuss words.

I don't beat my wife, or you know, I'm a good person.

Does being a good person get you to heaven?

No, it does not.

You can be a good person.

In fact, you can be the best person in this world and still die and go to hell.

Who wants to be the best person in the world and go to hell?

You don't need your sin change.

You need your nature change.

When you look at yourself in the mirror of the word of God, and you struggle through a sin consciousness.

And it's hard because you read the word and then you try to figure out exactly where do I fit in this.

Where's where I'm making so many mistakes?

How do I fix it?

How do I fix it?

And there's where the problem starts.

Stop trying to be pure.

Stop trying to be healed.

Stop trying to be rich.

Stop trying.

Live from your new nature, who you are.

Stop focusing on failures.

Start focusing on freedom in Jesus.

He's the only way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.

The devil's going to constantly try to convince you that you're no good, that you'll never make it, that you're just a failure.

But I like to say, remember years ago there was a song Carmen saying, you know, when the devil tells you of your past, you remind him of his future.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's all stand up this morning.

I'm gonna get a little personal.

That mirror came from a bathroom I just remodeled.

And all these scratches and bumps and splinters came from a basement that I'm now remodeling.

But I I just want to remind you, there's there was years in my life, I mean years, where I struggled.

I loved the Lord with all my heart.

I I wouldn't I would not have for a moment thought that anybody could love the Lord as much as I did.

I mean, when I was a kid, I remember being 10, 11, 12 years old, dancing around the church with a tambourine, shouting in the spirit.

I loved the Lord.

I did.

I mean, I I cut my teeth on my mom's piano while she's playing up there, worshiping the Lord.

I'm sitting right beside her, pecking on the piano, seeing people worship.

I've been in church my entire life.

I've been in Pentecostal churches all my life.

I've seen the Spirit of God come in and the whole area, everybody's on the ground.

Just I've seen so many amazing things.

But I struggled because when I got to be about a teenager, I started to, well, a little bit younger than that, probably 11, 12 in that time frame, I started to realize really what sin was.

And I realized I was having a hard time getting over it.

Having a hard time overcoming sin.

And it took me years to be taught how to live guilty and shameful.

Because that's all I ever heard when I heard the preacher preach.

All I ever heard was, you're no good because you sinned, you're unrighteous, and you need to get saved and born again and rededicate your life.

I don't know how many times I rededicated my life.

How many of y'all ever rededicated, then rededicated, then rededicated, rededicated?

How many of y'all have been baptized more than once?

Come on, yeah.

All the rededicating, all the coming back to the Lord, coming back to all that, it's fine.

But it's not biblical.

Because once you come to the Lord the first time, it's a done deal.

You're new in Christ, you have a new nature.

You don't have to be baptized again.

In fact, you didn't even have to be baptized, you did it because you love Jesus and wanted to follow through with the word.

But when you come to Jesus, you're born again and you're saved and you're righteous and you have a new nature in Christ.

Simply, what I needed is I needed someone to open up the Word of God to me and show me in the Word where I was righteous and declare to me that you have a new nature in Christ.

And once I started hearing that message, I'm going to tell you something.

The Bible came alive.

And now when I read it, I read the Bible in the light of the gospel.

I don't read it in the light of the law.

When I worship, I'm worshiping from this side of the cross.

I'm not worshiping from the law side.

I'm worshiping over here where Jesus has already accomplished everything.

See, too many of the too much of the church is still living in the old.

But boy, that shadow, whoo! I'm gonna give that shadow a big old hug.

Come here, shadow.

How silly would that be?

But there's a lot of the church even today that are still hugging shadows.

We're still hugging the law and saying, oh, it's so good.

Oh, give me more of it.

I need that old hard-nosed fire brimstone preaching so I can feel guilty about what I'm an old dirty sinner.

I don't, that's not what we need.

We need to realize who we are in Christ Jesus so that we can start responding to his goodness, so that we can get a hold of the real thing.

Amen.

I don't know if this helped anybody, but man, this really helped me when I was in a situation where I was always facing guilt and shame.

So praise God.

Let's just lift our hands and thank God that we have a new covenant based on better promises.

And that we're no longer hugging shadows.

We're no longer walking in the old, but we're walking in the new.

And all the things that I've been focusing on, I'm no longer focusing on those things anymore.

I'm focusing on the finished work of Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus, for finishing the work.

Now I don't worship because I have to.

I worship because I get to.

I don't give because I have to.

I give because I want to.

I don't give because if I don't, I'm just gonna I'm gonna lose everything.

I don't, that's not why I don't, that's not why I give.

I give because I love Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Lord.

That I'm not chasing after healing, I'm chasing after Jesus.

I'm getting my mind off of all the things that are wrong in life, and I'm focusing on you, Jesus, the author and the finisher of my faith.

Thank you, Jesus.

Hallelujah.

Praise you, Jesus.

Lord, I love you.

Thank you, Jesus.

Lord, I pray that this word will sink into our hearts so we can get a hold of this and we won't let it go.

Jesus' name.

Hallelujah.

Had this roll around in my spirit while I was praying.

There's a season coming up of politics.

It's coming, it's coming quickly, and it's gonna get nasty.

But I want to remind you of something.

Don't get your attention on all the negative things that are happening in our world today.

Because we have a new nature.

And our new nature thinks on things that are right, thinks on things that are pure, thinks on things of a good report, thinks on things that are lovely, thinks on things that are peaceful and have a good report.

If you're consuming the news constantly, I would encourage you.

All that will bring you is doubt and unbelief.

And we need to kick doubt and unbelief out the door.

Because that is what's stopping us from receiving everything God has promised us through His Word.

Amen.

If I could right now, I would bring somebody up here to show you an illustration of what it looks like to kick something out the door.

Do I have any volunteers right here?

Yeah.

Amen.

Well, if you're in here and you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and you've never been born again, that is the first step into your new nature.

You have to receive Jesus.

If you've never done that, that is the moment that you have to walk through by faith and receive what He's given you.

If you've not done that, I want to make sure you've done it.

So if you would come up, step out from where you are.

I want to pray with you and lead you to Jesus.

Anybody in here?

Amen.

Amen.

There's a day coming.

There's a day coming.

There's a day that's that's coming soon and very soon that we're gonna start seeing people that are coming into this church that are gonna be full of guilt, full of shame, and full of pain.

And they need Jesus.

Amen.

Come up here, sweetheart.

Amen.

Have you ever received Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

No.

Are you ready today?

You know He loves you.

I tell people all the time, God is not mad at you.

You know that?

People might be mad, situations might be bad, but God loves you.

Will you pray with me?

Repeat this.

Say for God, dear Lord Jesus.

I know that I've made all kinds of mistakes.

And Lord, I repent.

I change based on what you did for me.

Lord, I ask you to forgive me of all my sins.

And I receive you.

I receive you as my Lord and Savior.

I can't do it on my own.

I need you, Jesus.

And I call on you.

Jesus' name.

The sin curse is broken.

Sin has no more power over you.

Jesus' name.

You're healed in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Praise the Lord.

Thank you, Jesus.

A lot sooner than I thought.

But there is, it's going to get more and more because people need to hear the message of righteousness.

People need to know who they are in Christ.

For too many years we've been taught what we're what how bad we are and how much we make mistakes, and all people preach about is how bad the world is.

They hear all that the world's going to hell in a handbasket.

Yes, but they need to hear the gospel.

They need to hear the good news.

It's not good news to tell people they're going to hell.

It's good news to say Jesus is made a way that you can walk away from hell.

Amen.

And that young lady is now a child of God and born again and on her way to heaven.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, Jesus.

And I can make you stand up all day long, but I'm not going to do that.

But boy, I could do this all day long.

If I could preach any message for the rest of my life, it would be the message of righteousness because that changed my life.

It really did.

I grew up thinking I was so bad.

And I was probably better than most, but I still felt so guilty all the time.

Stop feeling guilty.

We don't operate by what we feel, we operate by faith in Jesus.

Amen.

Y'all better get out of here before I keep on going.

Amen.

So y'all better run right now.

Love you all.

We'll see you Wednesday.

Thanks for listening.

We hope that this message helps you draw closer to God as you walk out your faith.

We'll see you next week.