Sermon

Salvation, What is it?

Omega Church NZ

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  1. You've tuned into a mega church. We are people hungry to

  2. encounter God through worship and His Word being witnesses to

  3. the world around us. We pray this teaching blesses

  4. you and trust God will reveal Himself to you in a new way

  5. today. And if you need prayer for

  6. healing or breakthrough? Want to find out more about

  7. Omega? Get to our website or Facebook

  8. page through the links below. This morning I wanted to speak

  9. on what is salvation? What is salvation?

  10. But before I go into the aspect of salvation, I want to say just

  11. a couple of things about Mother's Day.

  12. You know, during the worship, I was all emotional.

  13. When the baby is born, the first thing the baby knows is the

  14. touch of the mother. And when the baby is just born,

  15. it recognizes the voice of the mother, smell of the mother.

  16. You know, you learn what the world that is surrounding you is

  17. through the mother. First contact is the mother.

  18. And we have very less atheists and agnostics in the world

  19. because of mothers. Because there is something about

  20. a mother is that you will see the love of God through the

  21. mother. You will see that selfless love

  22. of God shining through every mother.

  23. Whether the mother has done PhD or did not go to school, it

  24. doesn't matter. Mother is mother.

  25. In the year 2010 I lost my mother.

  26. Mother and I was going to attend the funeral from traveling from

  27. New Zealand and I was in the in the flight and I said Sima

  28. reminded me, you always wanted to speak at your mother's

  29. funeral. So are you going to speak?

  30. I said thanks for reminding me. So in the flight I asked the

  31. Lord God, what do you want me to speak at the funeral?

  32. And the first thing the Holy Spirit spoke to me, you know,

  33. that was the year I actually started hearing the Holy Spirit.

  34. In the year 2010, I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit

  35. for every week that happened, I think in June, July or May.

  36. And then in August I lose my mother.

  37. And I was traveling in the flight and I asked the Lord,

  38. Lord, what do you want me to say?

  39. He said, your mother makes all mothers proud.

  40. Who? It took me a long time to

  41. process it. What does it mean?

  42. And he brought to my mind all that she did for us.

  43. I'll give you 1 instance. I must be about 10 years of age.

  44. I have two sisters, younger to me, and my mother had something

  45. called herpes joister, but it's a mealie kind.

  46. It looks like a like somebody has applied a paste on her face,

  47. You know, it closed her eyes. She couldn't open her eyes.

  48. It was just only face, no other part.

  49. So she was taken into hospital in one place and my father was

  50. in another hospital 150 kilometers apart, and I was home

  51. taking care of my two sisters. I don't know anything about what

  52. to cook, how to cook. And there's not a guy who who no

  53. neighbor came and asked have you had your food?

  54. Are you hungry? Can we give you some Dal or

  55. rice? Not a person came and asked and

  56. I cooked rice on a kerosene stove and there's nothing there

  57. to eat. Pickle and rice.

  58. You know, pickle is chili, chili powder, you know, all kinds of

  59. the mangoes or whatever it is. And 3rd day, my mom was able to

  60. open her eyes and the doctor says you are not yet ready to go

  61. home. And she says I cannot be here

  62. because I got three children at home.

  63. They don't know how to survive. And she came running against the

  64. medical advice that is the heart of a mother.

  65. We were stranded in a place where that's not her language.

  66. She couldn't get a job. My father lost his job, and the

  67. only hope that we ever have is that mother.

  68. So I was thinking about, you know, God.

  69. I mean, how do you know who is God?

  70. Look at your mother. Most of the time, most of the

  71. times there are very, very few mothers who are not so good.

  72. You know, the mothers who feed their children with alcohol so

  73. that they can keep doing what they are doing, or they are

  74. having affairs, or there's very few of them.

  75. But the whole world is filled with mothers who give selfless

  76. love. And I tell you, the world knows

  77. who God is and who, what is the love of God by looking at their

  78. mother. And you may think, ha, you are,

  79. What are you saying? I don't think so.

  80. Go home, sit in a chair and think about God and you ever

  81. have any good idea of who God is, his love, selfless love and

  82. you will say yes, I don't disagree with that man morning I

  83. disagreed, but you know now I agree He is that mother's love

  84. will speak volumes. Volumes.

  85. The times when you are trying to learn to walk you fall down.

  86. Who comforted you? The times when you are trying to

  87. learn to run and you skin is off your knees and you're crying and

  88. there's a blood coming out? Who comforted you?

  89. Who was looking after your morning breakfast, your lunch

  90. and dinner and everything on time?

  91. Who was washing your clothes? Who was sending you to school,

  92. dropping you off, picking you up, watching your games, I tell

  93. you is endless, endless kind of things they do and they are not

  94. recognized. They are not appreciated.

  95. They are not, you know, loud back enough.

  96. I just don't have words to say One thing I can tell you, if the

  97. world did not have mothers, this is the most bad place to live.

  98. The sacrifice they make is there is no value you can put on it.

  99. No value. So the beginning, where do you

  100. begin your theology class is go home, sit down and say what did

  101. my mother do for me and ask the next question is God, I know

  102. that you have touched me through my mother.

  103. I know that you loved me when she when she was holding me

  104. close and breathes her breath on my face.

  105. I know that you have loved me when you when she was holding me

  106. in the hand, I know you are holding me and when she was

  107. clothing me, I am giving me a bath.

  108. I know it. You are the one who are caring

  109. for me. You showed your love through my

  110. mother. So of all the relationships,

  111. there is one relationship. The most deep, deep, meaningful

  112. is the mother. And so many times he said to

  113. God, I would not know you if there is no mother.

  114. There was a time I said there is no God, but I know he is there

  115. because he made mothers. So you got something to praise

  116. God when you go home? Take time, take time to

  117. understand this God, the God who is invisible, whom we cannot

  118. touch, whom we cannot feel, who sometimes whom you cannot hear.

  119. He gives you a glimpse of who He is when you sit down and think

  120. about your mom and your dad sometimes.

  121. Cool, the worship time I was just so many times wiping my

  122. eyes because I was thinking about the sacrifice she did for

  123. us and had no relatives, no friends, no one to came and

  124. asked me have you had your food for three days?

  125. I learned to survive. Sometimes I feel I am self-made

  126. man, you know that kind of feeling.

  127. That's very proud words to say. But I have learned to walk on my

  128. own from the very young age. And there was only one

  129. connection, meaningful connection for me to continue to

  130. exist, to think of tomorrow, to live.

  131. For tomorrow is when you come home.

  132. You have that mother. And she hoped that one day I

  133. will help her. You know, And God had mercy on

  134. us, and He preserved us because of one lady and those words when

  135. he spoke to me. Your mother makes all mothers

  136. proud. That was too much for me as I

  137. didn't know God. You put so much value on one

  138. mother and He put that value on every mother.

  139. And I tell you, people salute the soldiers who die in the in

  140. the in the war field. They go to war and die and they

  141. go and salute. But I would say I would salute

  142. every mother because they deserve it.

  143. They deserve it. They put their life online for

  144. the children. Praise God for the mothers.

  145. Do we have a slide there? I think these are the words of

  146. CS Lewis. We are more wicked and sinful

  147. than we ever dared believe, but in Christ we are more loved and

  148. accepted than we ever dared hope.

  149. Profound words, very profound words.

  150. It took me to three or four times to read to understand what

  151. CS 2 is saying in these words. So in spite of all, the world is

  152. full of darkness and all kinds of things.

  153. But you know, the very self is very deceitful.

  154. The human heart is deceitful. Who has understood it?

  155. Jeremiah laments. Who has understood the heart?

  156. It is very deceitful. It is wicked.

  157. I did more since after I became a believer that I was a before a

  158. believer. That's that speaks volumes about

  159. the wickedness of heart Before I came to God, I was very sincere

  160. boy, very innocent, but after I became a believer, I wanted to

  161. experiment his sin probably at different times and I felt very

  162. bad about it. I went back to God.

  163. I said God I'm so sorry this is not I hear testimonies they were

  164. bad and become good but here I was good and became bad.

  165. You know its just not acceptable.

  166. So I had to repent so many times.

  167. Even today I repent sometimes about certain things I have

  168. tried to do or thought to do. You know those kind of things.

  169. First thing that we need is need to understand how bad we were

  170. before we were saved. Salvation makes no sense unless

  171. there is sin. Somebody you know that you got a

  172. bumper sticker on your cars, somebody put Jesus saves.

  173. Then one day he found somebody scribbled down in which bank?

  174. So Jesus says makes no sense. Which bank?

  175. So it makes no sense until you know that you are a Sinner.

  176. The news that Jesus is a Savior doesn't make sense, so we need

  177. to know we are sinners before we can look at God and say you are

  178. a saviour. I don't know the Holy Spirit is

  179. here. I think I am still feeling it is

  180. here. Secondly, we need to understand

  181. the depth of salvation. We can be saved like so many

  182. times. You know, more than 40 years I

  183. am following the lot. But every day I think more about

  184. the salvation. I always wonder how much more is

  185. there to know? How much more is there to know?

  186. There's so much to know about salvation because we are not

  187. yet. We are not never going to touch

  188. the depths of what salvation is. We can never go and understand

  189. the height of it or the width of it.

  190. It is so profound. But that comes only when we

  191. appreciate or understand how deeply we are sinful.

  192. Until then, the salvation doesn't make sense.

  193. Until you have experienced what is darkness, then you will have

  194. appreciation for light. Until you understand what is

  195. bad, you will not appreciate what is good.

  196. So salvation makes us into it. It actually recreates you into a

  197. new being, belong to a new class, a different class of

  198. person. It makes you, it takes you a

  199. Sinner destined for hell and puts on you the value son of

  200. God, daughter of God, and gives you a hope that you are going to

  201. look like Jesus when he appears. And that is a different class.

  202. That is a different class and we need to understand that when God

  203. is calling you, when Jesus died for you on the cross, when Jesus

  204. died for you on the cross, what is really happening is He has

  205. seen your miserable condition and He has paid the price of His

  206. life being poured out, His body being broken for you and

  207. shedding His blood. Why?

  208. He is seeing you as a different creature who is going to share

  209. with His eternity, Who is going to share in His Holiness, Who is

  210. going to share in His glory? And I tell you that is what what

  211. has taken him to the cross. You you cannot appreciate the

  212. cross until you look at yourself and see how miserable Sinner you

  213. are. Primarily all sin is against

  214. God. There is no sin that is only

  215. affecting the man. OK, strictly speaking, every sin

  216. involves God because you are breaking His law.

  217. You're breaking His heart, you are breaking what is the

  218. goodness He has. He has planned for you.

  219. You're working against the good He planned for you, and that is

  220. sin. That's basically sin.

  221. There are certain sins like gluttony, uncontrolled eating is

  222. sin. Why?

  223. You're working against your own body.

  224. You're working against your own body.

  225. And suppose, I mean, I'm not trying to put down anybody here,

  226. but you need to have a normal healthy weight that will make

  227. your heart function well. Your kidneys will function well.

  228. If you are not going to control the weight, you are going to

  229. overburden every organ inside. Every organ inside is going to

  230. be taxed more. It will work hard to work harder

  231. than it has supposed to work. So whether it is sex, whether it

  232. is food, whether it is anything over indulgence is we are

  233. working against ourselves. So Sydney is in different kinds

  234. of things and one of the things I have already illustrated was

  235. human heart is highly deceitful, blind.

  236. Human heart is blind, it does not see through Gods law, cannot

  237. understand holiness of God, cannot understand how Gods love

  238. is so great. We can understand it.

  239. The moment you understand Gods love, when you understand His

  240. Holiness, when you understand who God is all powerful at the

  241. same time He has given you the free will to do what you

  242. whatever you want to do, you bowl over all together.

  243. Because every sin, what it does is it is going to tear you

  244. apart. It will either tear you apart or

  245. it is when it is done in conjunction with another person

  246. it is going to tear both apart. Let's say take an example, a

  247. sexual sin where two people come together.

  248. I got 2A4 size papers here. I use some glue and stuck them

  249. together. When two people come together in

  250. physical union, you become one and if you are going to be

  251. separated, there is no way you can have everything intact.

  252. It is going to tear apart both and that is what we call it as

  253. soul tie. A soul tie is formed whenever

  254. two people come together and when they are pulled apart it

  255. damages both. In the in the case of a rape,

  256. the one who is perpetrating the ACT may go Scott free for all

  257. external appearances and the one who is victimized will feel more

  258. badly and the more impacted by the sin and they carry the

  259. trauma with them forever until Jesus intervenes and sets them

  260. free. So there is no sin basically

  261. that is just affecting only you and every single against God.

  262. And the the best example I always think about think of is

  263. you can go to a pond that is still throw a stone in the

  264. middle and you see the ripples going, spreading out until the

  265. ripples go and touch the shore. Every sin leaves ripples in the

  266. community, in your own psyche, in your own heart, in your own

  267. family, in your own community, everywhere it is going to

  268. affect. Take for example, an innocent

  269. man standing on the bus stop and somebody comes and takes a knife

  270. and jabs it through him and kills the man and just goes

  271. because he wanted to have some fun.

  272. That is sin. He has taken the life of another

  273. man, which is just, very unjustly, without a cause, no

  274. provocation. But back home, there's a wife

  275. and the two children, and then what happens to them?

  276. The only source of livelihood is cut off because that husband is

  277. killed by a crack, a cruel guy. And then what I say here is the

  278. sin has, the wickedness of sin is it has consequences.

  279. And then the son and the daughter, they cannot go to

  280. school because there is no money to send them to school or they

  281. do not have food, they do not have clothes.

  282. And endlessly problems come. And that boy learns that the

  283. only way you can survive is being a thug on the streets.

  284. You defend yourself and it becomes violent and slowly gets

  285. into drugs. And then after 5 or 10 years you

  286. have another criminal there walking on the streets.

  287. People are afraid of him who created the criminal.

  288. The first act of violence has created one more.

  289. So there is a consequence that that happens like a ripple.

  290. It continues to spread through and it lasts and lasts until

  291. somebody shows love. That will not stop.

  292. The consequences will not stop until somebody shows love, until

  293. God shows love to that man. It is very, very hard to

  294. explain. I'll give you a couple of

  295. examples how they how these things happen.

  296. There's a man called Luis Zamperini.

  297. It's very difficult to pronounce Luis Zamperini.

  298. He is a war hero who found Crash later.

  299. Basically he was a runner and when the when the war was going

  300. on to his entire time, I think they stopped him from running

  301. and then other things he went as it to fight and he was a fighter

  302. plane pilot and his plane was shot so it he had to land on the

  303. waters and there were 20 people on the in the flight. 17 were

  304. killed. Only three survived among the

  305. three. He was one of those guys and he

  306. had to struggle hard for 47 days to keep himself afloat, taking

  307. hold of some planks or something like that, 47 days.

  308. And then ultimately he touched the shores of Japan and there he

  309. was taken captive and was put in prison for two years.

  310. He was tortured and there was one God who tortured him more

  311. than others and he has named him the bird.

  312. Actually, this is a movie also made after about this man,

  313. Louise Zamperani, the war hero who found Christ.

  314. And this man, he was later on set free.

  315. And when he came to America, he was he got a welcome, he heroes

  316. welcome. He was a hero for all that he

  317. has really done so much, but he was full of bitterness inside.

  318. He hated the guy who tormented him in Japan and he hated him

  319. every day. He had the PTSD, post traumatic

  320. stress disorder and he was going through medication and endless

  321. kinds of problems he had. And he was proud of how he

  322. survived for 47 days on the sea and how he was, he had to catch

  323. some raw fish that's flying over and catch it and eat it and

  324. drink water, the rain water he has to drink.

  325. And he was very proud of the way he survived.

  326. But one day he went to Billy Graham's crusade.

  327. And when Billy Graham was preaching about it, he

  328. understood that his heroism will not him help him to be saved.

  329. He did great in his life, but that's not going to save him.

  330. So he had to believe in Jesus to be accepted into the heaven.

  331. And he had to forgive the tormentors.

  332. He had to forgive Japanese. He had to forgive so many

  333. things. He has to forgive.

  334. So he decided to receive Christ that night.

  335. He accepted Christ, abandoned his hatred and addictions.

  336. Yeah, addictions because he was not able to cope with the

  337. trauma. He got addicted to alcohol.

  338. So he had to that night when he stood face to face with Christ,

  339. he surrendered everything, all hatred, all the addictions, and

  340. he was saved that night and even forgave his captors.

  341. His story is told in unbroken path to redemption.

  342. A book is written and a movie is made after that guy.

  343. So sin comes in so many different ways.

  344. The whole world is full of sin and if you have not experienced

  345. much of it, praise God for His grace.

  346. Praise God. There's another guy by name Mike

  347. Lindell. He was an addict.

  348. He was addicted to crack cocaine, addict for years.

  349. Despite his success in business, his life was falling apart due

  350. to addiction. He tried to change through

  351. self-discipline and good works, but nothing worked.

  352. Nothing worked. And then what happened?

  353. In 2009 he finally surrendered to Jesus Christ, realizing that

  354. faith, not effort, was a key to transformation.

  355. Since then he has remained sober and dedicated his life to

  356. helping others overcome addiction through faith-based

  357. recovery programs. So I'm telling only one thing I

  358. know is that salvation makes sense only when we understand

  359. what sin is. Until you understand how bad it

  360. is, until you understand how its stealing your life, how it is

  361. stealing your joy, stealing its purpose, stealing your destiny,

  362. you will not appreciate the salvation.

  363. You know being a Christian for so many decades, when I wanted

  364. to talk about salvation, what is salvation?

  365. I asked myself and I I said do I know what is salvation?

  366. Can I put it in the briefest words possible?

  367. I was struggling for 2-3 days just to come up with the

  368. definition of what is salvation. Salvation.

  369. Is it an event or a process? It begins as an event, but it

  370. continues as a process. You are saved from your history,

  371. from the past. You are saved in the present and

  372. you will be saved in the future. So salvation is all-encompassing

  373. word and many of us limit our understanding of salvation to

  374. deliverance from our past, hurts, sins.

  375. No, that's not the only story. It's just a part of the story.

  376. It's the beginning of life. It's not the end of life.

  377. When Barn Haven died, Directory Barn Heifer was hanged in the in

  378. the jail. Ironically, after two weeks the

  379. war came to an end. But just before 2 weeks he was

  380. hanged. And he said it is the end of my

  381. life and the beginning of a new life, beginning of a new life,

  382. Eternity you're going to spend with Jesus.

  383. And that is what he was looking forward to.

  384. And that is how it is we our perspective about death or

  385. perspective about the present or perspective about suffering.

  386. Everything changes when you meet with Christ.

  387. It is a huge transaction. It is a huge transaction.

  388. No one can take it lightly. It is not something very

  389. frivolous experience. No, it is the very deep

  390. experience. So you have got so many times,

  391. you know the one of the best stories in the Bible that we

  392. have is the prodigal son. Do you know the story?

  393. This young son, he wanted his money.

  394. I don't want to go to full full-fledged preaching on the

  395. prodigal son today, but I want you to focus on one aspect of

  396. the story. He was worried about physical

  397. pleasure. He was centered around physical

  398. pleasure, nothing more. For him, that is the end.

  399. That was the end is physical pleasure.

  400. So it takes the money, enjoys it.

  401. When it is all over, he comes to his senses and I mean he says no

  402. livelihood, no food to eat. And he goes to the one local guy

  403. and says can you give me a job? So go take care of my pigs, Take

  404. care of my pigs. And probably he walked into the

  405. place where all the pigs were there and he could not even have

  406. the privilege of eating what the pigs were eating, because that

  407. is pig's food. He cannot eat it.

  408. He wasn't allowed to eat the food.

  409. He can see the pigs gouging on it, having a great feast, but

  410. himself, he can't touch it. And then he came to census.

  411. I tell you, coming to census is one of those experiences,

  412. deepest experiences, because that is going to change the

  413. future. That's going to change the

  414. future. So he realized that his father

  415. was well off, had many servants. They had food to eat and spare.

  416. So what he was looking at himself was he was seeing a

  417. servant in him, in himself. He says, I will go back to my

  418. father. Say, Father, I sinned against

  419. you, against God. I don't.

  420. I'm not worthy to be called your son.

  421. Call me a servant. Let me be like a servant, like

  422. many other servants are surviving in your house.

  423. I want to serve you. I want to eat and live and die.

  424. He was able to see himself only as a slave.

  425. But the father saw a son. Everybody say he saw a son and I

  426. tell you that is how the story changes there.

  427. Why is that prodigal son story so powerful?

  428. Because it is something that George suppose an individual

  429. when he's obsessed with his just stomach.

  430. They are obsessed with only stomach.

  431. The pleasures of the world, what to wear, what to eat, what is on

  432. my head covering me. When you have to be set free

  433. from it, God takes you through a system.

  434. He takes you through steps and makes you realize that you need

  435. himself more than what you are looking for.

  436. That's the time you come back to your senses.

  437. So the prodigal son he is, though he was seeing a slave in

  438. himself. Father saw a son in him.

  439. Father saw there was a there's a song.

  440. What is his mind? Old age, He says he came running

  441. pardon, down the road. He came running down the road

  442. with the ring and a robe. What does the ring stand for?

  443. Authority. A robe is cover your nakedness

  444. to give you protection, to give you decent appearance, to give

  445. you the right to be a son. He is giving you righteousness.

  446. And I tell you the story is just looks like.

  447. So when you just read it for in 2 minutes you can read that

  448. story, but you never get the depth of the story.

  449. You let us sit down to think about it, maybe 10 more years to

  450. think about it, to fully understand what exactly is the

  451. story talking about. And I tell you all my life I

  452. thought, thought about it every time I think, oh, I know what

  453. I'm preaching about it. But I tell you every time God

  454. speaks something new from the same story.

  455. And what are you seeing in yourself today?

  456. Are you seeing a slave? Are you seeing a son?

  457. Because when you are aware of the sin, you are only seeing a

  458. slave in you. But when you become aware of the

  459. Father's love, then you see a son in you.

  460. So now we are moving from the mother to the father, you see.

  461. So once there was a person who his name was James, an elderly

  462. man, and he has spent a lifetime rejecting God.

  463. He said I don't want God. I have nothing to do with him.

  464. Why do I need God? That's how he lived all his

  465. life. But then when he was lying in

  466. the hospital bed, his body weak, he whispered to the nurse, I'm

  467. afraid, I'm afraid. What happens after I die?

  468. I tell you that question he's asking at the wrong time, you

  469. should have asked 1020 years before, What happens after I

  470. die? So the nurse was a believer, and

  471. he shared the gospel, explaining that Jesus had already paid the

  472. price for his sins and all he needed was faith.

  473. And then what did the man say? With trembling hands, James

  474. clasped the hands of the nurse and said, Lord Jesus, if you

  475. truly love me, I accept you now. I accept you now.

  476. So sometimes we are waiting too long to make the decision, too

  477. long to turn to God, too long. I'm saying too long if there's

  478. nothing more left to experience in this life after that point.

  479. And then that man, he died after some time, very soon.

  480. He passed away shortly after, but not in fear.

  481. He left this world saved, redeemed and embraced by the

  482. love of Christ, just like the thief on the cross, just like

  483. thief on the cross. But why should we have a life

  484. like a thief rejecting God, revolting at God all our life

  485. and turn to him only the last minute.

  486. There are two thieves who were hung crashed was hung in the

  487. middle and two thieves on both sides and one said, hey, if you

  488. are son of God, save yourself, come down and save us.

  489. He was also concerned about only his stomach.

  490. Like the prodigal son, he is concerned about his flesh,

  491. concerned about only his life. He was concerned only about his

  492. breath. He was concerned only about

  493. physical life. But the other thief looked at

  494. Christ and looked at the thief and said, hey, shut up, you

  495. don't understand what life is. This man doesn't deserve it.

  496. We deserve what we have done, but he doesn't deserve it.

  497. And he turned to Christ and said, Remember Me in your

  498. Kingdom through the suffering, through the pain, through that

  499. hanging up on the cross. It stripped him of everything he

  500. was pursuing all his life. That gold, that jewelry that

  501. prepare treasures, what he was trying to hunt, what he was

  502. trying to steal, he was stripped of it.

  503. And when he was on the hang on the cross, he could look at

  504. Jesus and see that he has a Kingdom beyond the cross.

  505. I tell you, you need your eyes to be open to see that.

  506. And that happens when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and

  507. convicts you of your sin and righteousness and judgement and

  508. then gives you grace to believe in the only one, the Jesus

  509. Christ of Nazareth, who can give you life and that is salvation.

  510. You turn, you make an about turn, a 180° turn, and you turn

  511. to God and pursue him. Pursue Him.

  512. He is worthy of everything you see in the Book of Revelation,

  513. people casting their crowns at the feet of Jesus.

  514. They crown Him. But I tell you, it has to begin

  515. now. You don't wait until you go into

  516. heaven to put the crown down there.

  517. You have to put whatever you have, whatever is valuable,

  518. whatever you cherish, whatever you are pursuing, whatever you

  519. take pride in, whatever is consuming you, whatever is

  520. driving you, put it at the feet of Christ.

  521. Then you will be saved. Then you will be saved because

  522. that transaction is such a deep experience and it deserves all,

  523. all that you have, every tissue, every fiber in your being

  524. deserves to be submitted to this Jesus as Lord and Christ of your

  525. life. So self destructing behavior.

  526. So many things are there. So today we have read from

  527. Titus. I want to conclude it now,

  528. basically. So in the book of Titans, we see

  529. at one time we two were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved

  530. by all kinds of passions and pleasures.

  531. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one

  532. another. But when the kindness and love

  533. of God our Savior appeared, He saved us not because of

  534. righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.

  535. He saved us through the washing of rebirth, renewed by the Holy

  536. Spirit, whom He poured out US generously through Jesus Christ

  537. our Savior, so that having been justified by His grace, we might

  538. become as having the hope of eternal life.

  539. This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to stress these

  540. things so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to

  541. devote themselves to doing what is good.

  542. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

  543. Who is he writing to Paul? To Titus and who is titled his

  544. son in the faith, he has come to know the Lord.

  545. He nurtured him, he mentored him, he made him like a into a

  546. pastor and to take care of people to run errands for him.

  547. And he knows what the gospel is and yet he's writing what the

  548. gospel is to that man. So it is good for us.

  549. If you are a believer, praise God, but take time to evaluate

  550. what you believe. Look at it fresh again.

  551. Oh, what is my faith? What am I pursuing?

  552. Where am I going? What is my destiny?

  553. What is the class of people that God wants to make out of me?

  554. He, he, just you just not having flesh and blood running around

  555. here and there like a you're not on the same like the goat or the

  556. cow that is running around. No, He stamped you with his own

  557. image. And that image, if you destroy,

  558. he will not keep you alive. He will punish you for

  559. destroying that image, the image He put upon you.

  560. You need to respond to that image and honor it by turning to

  561. Christ and affirming His love. And I tell you that is called

  562. salvation. So we are made in the image of

  563. God, and every sin destroys that image.

  564. Every sin destroys that image and there are different views

  565. about it. One of the evangelical views is

  566. you. When you are tempted by sin, you

  567. fight against it, you speak to it, you come and leave you.

  568. And there is always I tell you, the way I look at life is like

  569. this. You are lust of the flesh, lust

  570. of the eyes, pride of life which are internal force that inside

  571. fighting against you to take your destiny from heaven to

  572. hell. And outside you have got

  573. principalities, powers, rules of darkness, wickedness in high

  574. places. They are acting outside from

  575. from outside to inside to take you from heaven to hell.

  576. The good news is you are a soldier recruited to fight this

  577. battle, internal battle and external battle.

  578. When you understand salvation, you understand power.

  579. Until you understand salvation, you don't understand power.

  580. And when you want to walk in power, that God by the power of

  581. the Holy Spirit, comes upon you, gives you a new vision, gives

  582. you a new purpose, gives you a new power, because you cannot

  583. live this life in your power. That's not good enough.

  584. You need power, help from God himself.

  585. And He poured out the Holy Spirit upon the whole world and

  586. He is here to help anyone who wants to turn to God to honor

  587. Him. He says, Son, let us walk

  588. together and takes you by hand and walks with you for the rest

  589. of your life. What a great plan God has.

  590. I tell you, the more you think about it, the more it will blow

  591. your brain. This is not enough.

  592. Lifetime is not enough to appreciate the salvation.

  593. Let's bow down our heads in prayer now.

  594. Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus.

  595. I just want to give a small invitation to anybody who wants

  596. to say to Jesus, somehow I don't want to throw my life away, but

  597. I want to give it to you. I want to appreciate your love

  598. for me on the cross. Please forgive me.

  599. Come into my heart. That's all.

  600. It begins with that simple line. I want to know you, my Lord,

  601. make yourself known to me. Come into my heart.

  602. I want to experience you. If you pray that prayer this

  603. morning, your new journey begins this morning.

  604. And if somebody says, I want to pray that prayer today, just

  605. slip out your right hand so that I know that you are praying this

  606. prayer and I can come along at some time and meet with you and

  607. pray with you again. Is anybody who wants to give

  608. their life to Jesus this morning, anybody wants to accept

  609. the salvation? Father, we have preached the

  610. word in the name of Jesus. Holy Spirit, I invite you now to

  611. convict us of righteousness, sin and judgment and help us turn to

  612. Christ. And for those people who whom we

  613. have saved, I pray that he'll open their eyes to see the

  614. greatness of salvation. To see destiny is not to live

  615. and die and be forgotten, but the destiny is to be transformed

  616. into your likeness, to become like You.

  617. As we look into your face, we become like you.

  618. And one day we are going to be like you.

  619. We are going to be light, not darkness.

  620. We are going to be righteousness, but not sin.

  621. And we are going to be life, not death.

  622. And I praise you for the different class into which you

  623. are changing us. By your mercy in our hearts, I

  624. worship you. Thank you for everyone who knows

  625. you may hand me upon them. Holy Spirit, I pray empower

  626. them. I pray that you open their eyes.

  627. I pray that you put the new power in them so that they will

  628. begin to live for you. You only to the glory of your

  629. name. Bless everyone today in Jesus

  630. mighty name. We ask and everybody says.

  631. Thanks for joining us at Omega. If you need prayer for healing

  632. or breakthrough, or simply to find out more, please head to

  633. our website or Facebook page in the links below.