Sermon
Salvation, What is it?
Publisher transcript
Transcript
-
You've tuned into a mega church. We are people hungry to
-
encounter God through worship and His Word being witnesses to
-
the world around us. We pray this teaching blesses
-
you and trust God will reveal Himself to you in a new way
-
today. And if you need prayer for
-
healing or breakthrough? Want to find out more about
-
Omega? Get to our website or Facebook
-
page through the links below. This morning I wanted to speak
-
on what is salvation? What is salvation?
-
But before I go into the aspect of salvation, I want to say just
-
a couple of things about Mother's Day.
-
You know, during the worship, I was all emotional.
-
When the baby is born, the first thing the baby knows is the
-
touch of the mother. And when the baby is just born,
-
it recognizes the voice of the mother, smell of the mother.
-
You know, you learn what the world that is surrounding you is
-
through the mother. First contact is the mother.
-
And we have very less atheists and agnostics in the world
-
because of mothers. Because there is something about
-
a mother is that you will see the love of God through the
-
mother. You will see that selfless love
-
of God shining through every mother.
-
Whether the mother has done PhD or did not go to school, it
-
doesn't matter. Mother is mother.
-
In the year 2010 I lost my mother.
-
Mother and I was going to attend the funeral from traveling from
-
New Zealand and I was in the in the flight and I said Sima
-
reminded me, you always wanted to speak at your mother's
-
funeral. So are you going to speak?
-
I said thanks for reminding me. So in the flight I asked the
-
Lord God, what do you want me to speak at the funeral?
-
And the first thing the Holy Spirit spoke to me, you know,
-
that was the year I actually started hearing the Holy Spirit.
-
In the year 2010, I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit
-
for every week that happened, I think in June, July or May.
-
And then in August I lose my mother.
-
And I was traveling in the flight and I asked the Lord,
-
Lord, what do you want me to say?
-
He said, your mother makes all mothers proud.
-
Who? It took me a long time to
-
process it. What does it mean?
-
And he brought to my mind all that she did for us.
-
I'll give you 1 instance. I must be about 10 years of age.
-
I have two sisters, younger to me, and my mother had something
-
called herpes joister, but it's a mealie kind.
-
It looks like a like somebody has applied a paste on her face,
-
You know, it closed her eyes. She couldn't open her eyes.
-
It was just only face, no other part.
-
So she was taken into hospital in one place and my father was
-
in another hospital 150 kilometers apart, and I was home
-
taking care of my two sisters. I don't know anything about what
-
to cook, how to cook. And there's not a guy who who no
-
neighbor came and asked have you had your food?
-
Are you hungry? Can we give you some Dal or
-
rice? Not a person came and asked and
-
I cooked rice on a kerosene stove and there's nothing there
-
to eat. Pickle and rice.
-
You know, pickle is chili, chili powder, you know, all kinds of
-
the mangoes or whatever it is. And 3rd day, my mom was able to
-
open her eyes and the doctor says you are not yet ready to go
-
home. And she says I cannot be here
-
because I got three children at home.
-
They don't know how to survive. And she came running against the
-
medical advice that is the heart of a mother.
-
We were stranded in a place where that's not her language.
-
She couldn't get a job. My father lost his job, and the
-
only hope that we ever have is that mother.
-
So I was thinking about, you know, God.
-
I mean, how do you know who is God?
-
Look at your mother. Most of the time, most of the
-
times there are very, very few mothers who are not so good.
-
You know, the mothers who feed their children with alcohol so
-
that they can keep doing what they are doing, or they are
-
having affairs, or there's very few of them.
-
But the whole world is filled with mothers who give selfless
-
love. And I tell you, the world knows
-
who God is and who, what is the love of God by looking at their
-
mother. And you may think, ha, you are,
-
What are you saying? I don't think so.
-
Go home, sit in a chair and think about God and you ever
-
have any good idea of who God is, his love, selfless love and
-
you will say yes, I don't disagree with that man morning I
-
disagreed, but you know now I agree He is that mother's love
-
will speak volumes. Volumes.
-
The times when you are trying to learn to walk you fall down.
-
Who comforted you? The times when you are trying to
-
learn to run and you skin is off your knees and you're crying and
-
there's a blood coming out? Who comforted you?
-
Who was looking after your morning breakfast, your lunch
-
and dinner and everything on time?
-
Who was washing your clothes? Who was sending you to school,
-
dropping you off, picking you up, watching your games, I tell
-
you is endless, endless kind of things they do and they are not
-
recognized. They are not appreciated.
-
They are not, you know, loud back enough.
-
I just don't have words to say One thing I can tell you, if the
-
world did not have mothers, this is the most bad place to live.
-
The sacrifice they make is there is no value you can put on it.
-
No value. So the beginning, where do you
-
begin your theology class is go home, sit down and say what did
-
my mother do for me and ask the next question is God, I know
-
that you have touched me through my mother.
-
I know that you loved me when she when she was holding me
-
close and breathes her breath on my face.
-
I know that you have loved me when you when she was holding me
-
in the hand, I know you are holding me and when she was
-
clothing me, I am giving me a bath.
-
I know it. You are the one who are caring
-
for me. You showed your love through my
-
mother. So of all the relationships,
-
there is one relationship. The most deep, deep, meaningful
-
is the mother. And so many times he said to
-
God, I would not know you if there is no mother.
-
There was a time I said there is no God, but I know he is there
-
because he made mothers. So you got something to praise
-
God when you go home? Take time, take time to
-
understand this God, the God who is invisible, whom we cannot
-
touch, whom we cannot feel, who sometimes whom you cannot hear.
-
He gives you a glimpse of who He is when you sit down and think
-
about your mom and your dad sometimes.
-
Cool, the worship time I was just so many times wiping my
-
eyes because I was thinking about the sacrifice she did for
-
us and had no relatives, no friends, no one to came and
-
asked me have you had your food for three days?
-
I learned to survive. Sometimes I feel I am self-made
-
man, you know that kind of feeling.
-
That's very proud words to say. But I have learned to walk on my
-
own from the very young age. And there was only one
-
connection, meaningful connection for me to continue to
-
exist, to think of tomorrow, to live.
-
For tomorrow is when you come home.
-
You have that mother. And she hoped that one day I
-
will help her. You know, And God had mercy on
-
us, and He preserved us because of one lady and those words when
-
he spoke to me. Your mother makes all mothers
-
proud. That was too much for me as I
-
didn't know God. You put so much value on one
-
mother and He put that value on every mother.
-
And I tell you, people salute the soldiers who die in the in
-
the in the war field. They go to war and die and they
-
go and salute. But I would say I would salute
-
every mother because they deserve it.
-
They deserve it. They put their life online for
-
the children. Praise God for the mothers.
-
Do we have a slide there? I think these are the words of
-
CS Lewis. We are more wicked and sinful
-
than we ever dared believe, but in Christ we are more loved and
-
accepted than we ever dared hope.
-
Profound words, very profound words.
-
It took me to three or four times to read to understand what
-
CS 2 is saying in these words. So in spite of all, the world is
-
full of darkness and all kinds of things.
-
But you know, the very self is very deceitful.
-
The human heart is deceitful. Who has understood it?
-
Jeremiah laments. Who has understood the heart?
-
It is very deceitful. It is wicked.
-
I did more since after I became a believer that I was a before a
-
believer. That's that speaks volumes about
-
the wickedness of heart Before I came to God, I was very sincere
-
boy, very innocent, but after I became a believer, I wanted to
-
experiment his sin probably at different times and I felt very
-
bad about it. I went back to God.
-
I said God I'm so sorry this is not I hear testimonies they were
-
bad and become good but here I was good and became bad.
-
You know its just not acceptable.
-
So I had to repent so many times.
-
Even today I repent sometimes about certain things I have
-
tried to do or thought to do. You know those kind of things.
-
First thing that we need is need to understand how bad we were
-
before we were saved. Salvation makes no sense unless
-
there is sin. Somebody you know that you got a
-
bumper sticker on your cars, somebody put Jesus saves.
-
Then one day he found somebody scribbled down in which bank?
-
So Jesus says makes no sense. Which bank?
-
So it makes no sense until you know that you are a Sinner.
-
The news that Jesus is a Savior doesn't make sense, so we need
-
to know we are sinners before we can look at God and say you are
-
a saviour. I don't know the Holy Spirit is
-
here. I think I am still feeling it is
-
here. Secondly, we need to understand
-
the depth of salvation. We can be saved like so many
-
times. You know, more than 40 years I
-
am following the lot. But every day I think more about
-
the salvation. I always wonder how much more is
-
there to know? How much more is there to know?
-
There's so much to know about salvation because we are not
-
yet. We are not never going to touch
-
the depths of what salvation is. We can never go and understand
-
the height of it or the width of it.
-
It is so profound. But that comes only when we
-
appreciate or understand how deeply we are sinful.
-
Until then, the salvation doesn't make sense.
-
Until you have experienced what is darkness, then you will have
-
appreciation for light. Until you understand what is
-
bad, you will not appreciate what is good.
-
So salvation makes us into it. It actually recreates you into a
-
new being, belong to a new class, a different class of
-
person. It makes you, it takes you a
-
Sinner destined for hell and puts on you the value son of
-
God, daughter of God, and gives you a hope that you are going to
-
look like Jesus when he appears. And that is a different class.
-
That is a different class and we need to understand that when God
-
is calling you, when Jesus died for you on the cross, when Jesus
-
died for you on the cross, what is really happening is He has
-
seen your miserable condition and He has paid the price of His
-
life being poured out, His body being broken for you and
-
shedding His blood. Why?
-
He is seeing you as a different creature who is going to share
-
with His eternity, Who is going to share in His Holiness, Who is
-
going to share in His glory? And I tell you that is what what
-
has taken him to the cross. You you cannot appreciate the
-
cross until you look at yourself and see how miserable Sinner you
-
are. Primarily all sin is against
-
God. There is no sin that is only
-
affecting the man. OK, strictly speaking, every sin
-
involves God because you are breaking His law.
-
You're breaking His heart, you are breaking what is the
-
goodness He has. He has planned for you.
-
You're working against the good He planned for you, and that is
-
sin. That's basically sin.
-
There are certain sins like gluttony, uncontrolled eating is
-
sin. Why?
-
You're working against your own body.
-
You're working against your own body.
-
And suppose, I mean, I'm not trying to put down anybody here,
-
but you need to have a normal healthy weight that will make
-
your heart function well. Your kidneys will function well.
-
If you are not going to control the weight, you are going to
-
overburden every organ inside. Every organ inside is going to
-
be taxed more. It will work hard to work harder
-
than it has supposed to work. So whether it is sex, whether it
-
is food, whether it is anything over indulgence is we are
-
working against ourselves. So Sydney is in different kinds
-
of things and one of the things I have already illustrated was
-
human heart is highly deceitful, blind.
-
Human heart is blind, it does not see through Gods law, cannot
-
understand holiness of God, cannot understand how Gods love
-
is so great. We can understand it.
-
The moment you understand Gods love, when you understand His
-
Holiness, when you understand who God is all powerful at the
-
same time He has given you the free will to do what you
-
whatever you want to do, you bowl over all together.
-
Because every sin, what it does is it is going to tear you
-
apart. It will either tear you apart or
-
it is when it is done in conjunction with another person
-
it is going to tear both apart. Let's say take an example, a
-
sexual sin where two people come together.
-
I got 2A4 size papers here. I use some glue and stuck them
-
together. When two people come together in
-
physical union, you become one and if you are going to be
-
separated, there is no way you can have everything intact.
-
It is going to tear apart both and that is what we call it as
-
soul tie. A soul tie is formed whenever
-
two people come together and when they are pulled apart it
-
damages both. In the in the case of a rape,
-
the one who is perpetrating the ACT may go Scott free for all
-
external appearances and the one who is victimized will feel more
-
badly and the more impacted by the sin and they carry the
-
trauma with them forever until Jesus intervenes and sets them
-
free. So there is no sin basically
-
that is just affecting only you and every single against God.
-
And the the best example I always think about think of is
-
you can go to a pond that is still throw a stone in the
-
middle and you see the ripples going, spreading out until the
-
ripples go and touch the shore. Every sin leaves ripples in the
-
community, in your own psyche, in your own heart, in your own
-
family, in your own community, everywhere it is going to
-
affect. Take for example, an innocent
-
man standing on the bus stop and somebody comes and takes a knife
-
and jabs it through him and kills the man and just goes
-
because he wanted to have some fun.
-
That is sin. He has taken the life of another
-
man, which is just, very unjustly, without a cause, no
-
provocation. But back home, there's a wife
-
and the two children, and then what happens to them?
-
The only source of livelihood is cut off because that husband is
-
killed by a crack, a cruel guy. And then what I say here is the
-
sin has, the wickedness of sin is it has consequences.
-
And then the son and the daughter, they cannot go to
-
school because there is no money to send them to school or they
-
do not have food, they do not have clothes.
-
And endlessly problems come. And that boy learns that the
-
only way you can survive is being a thug on the streets.
-
You defend yourself and it becomes violent and slowly gets
-
into drugs. And then after 5 or 10 years you
-
have another criminal there walking on the streets.
-
People are afraid of him who created the criminal.
-
The first act of violence has created one more.
-
So there is a consequence that that happens like a ripple.
-
It continues to spread through and it lasts and lasts until
-
somebody shows love. That will not stop.
-
The consequences will not stop until somebody shows love, until
-
God shows love to that man. It is very, very hard to
-
explain. I'll give you a couple of
-
examples how they how these things happen.
-
There's a man called Luis Zamperini.
-
It's very difficult to pronounce Luis Zamperini.
-
He is a war hero who found Crash later.
-
Basically he was a runner and when the when the war was going
-
on to his entire time, I think they stopped him from running
-
and then other things he went as it to fight and he was a fighter
-
plane pilot and his plane was shot so it he had to land on the
-
waters and there were 20 people on the in the flight. 17 were
-
killed. Only three survived among the
-
three. He was one of those guys and he
-
had to struggle hard for 47 days to keep himself afloat, taking
-
hold of some planks or something like that, 47 days.
-
And then ultimately he touched the shores of Japan and there he
-
was taken captive and was put in prison for two years.
-
He was tortured and there was one God who tortured him more
-
than others and he has named him the bird.
-
Actually, this is a movie also made after about this man,
-
Louise Zamperani, the war hero who found Christ.
-
And this man, he was later on set free.
-
And when he came to America, he was he got a welcome, he heroes
-
welcome. He was a hero for all that he
-
has really done so much, but he was full of bitterness inside.
-
He hated the guy who tormented him in Japan and he hated him
-
every day. He had the PTSD, post traumatic
-
stress disorder and he was going through medication and endless
-
kinds of problems he had. And he was proud of how he
-
survived for 47 days on the sea and how he was, he had to catch
-
some raw fish that's flying over and catch it and eat it and
-
drink water, the rain water he has to drink.
-
And he was very proud of the way he survived.
-
But one day he went to Billy Graham's crusade.
-
And when Billy Graham was preaching about it, he
-
understood that his heroism will not him help him to be saved.
-
He did great in his life, but that's not going to save him.
-
So he had to believe in Jesus to be accepted into the heaven.
-
And he had to forgive the tormentors.
-
He had to forgive Japanese. He had to forgive so many
-
things. He has to forgive.
-
So he decided to receive Christ that night.
-
He accepted Christ, abandoned his hatred and addictions.
-
Yeah, addictions because he was not able to cope with the
-
trauma. He got addicted to alcohol.
-
So he had to that night when he stood face to face with Christ,
-
he surrendered everything, all hatred, all the addictions, and
-
he was saved that night and even forgave his captors.
-
His story is told in unbroken path to redemption.
-
A book is written and a movie is made after that guy.
-
So sin comes in so many different ways.
-
The whole world is full of sin and if you have not experienced
-
much of it, praise God for His grace.
-
Praise God. There's another guy by name Mike
-
Lindell. He was an addict.
-
He was addicted to crack cocaine, addict for years.
-
Despite his success in business, his life was falling apart due
-
to addiction. He tried to change through
-
self-discipline and good works, but nothing worked.
-
Nothing worked. And then what happened?
-
In 2009 he finally surrendered to Jesus Christ, realizing that
-
faith, not effort, was a key to transformation.
-
Since then he has remained sober and dedicated his life to
-
helping others overcome addiction through faith-based
-
recovery programs. So I'm telling only one thing I
-
know is that salvation makes sense only when we understand
-
what sin is. Until you understand how bad it
-
is, until you understand how its stealing your life, how it is
-
stealing your joy, stealing its purpose, stealing your destiny,
-
you will not appreciate the salvation.
-
You know being a Christian for so many decades, when I wanted
-
to talk about salvation, what is salvation?
-
I asked myself and I I said do I know what is salvation?
-
Can I put it in the briefest words possible?
-
I was struggling for 2-3 days just to come up with the
-
definition of what is salvation. Salvation.
-
Is it an event or a process? It begins as an event, but it
-
continues as a process. You are saved from your history,
-
from the past. You are saved in the present and
-
you will be saved in the future. So salvation is all-encompassing
-
word and many of us limit our understanding of salvation to
-
deliverance from our past, hurts, sins.
-
No, that's not the only story. It's just a part of the story.
-
It's the beginning of life. It's not the end of life.
-
When Barn Haven died, Directory Barn Heifer was hanged in the in
-
the jail. Ironically, after two weeks the
-
war came to an end. But just before 2 weeks he was
-
hanged. And he said it is the end of my
-
life and the beginning of a new life, beginning of a new life,
-
Eternity you're going to spend with Jesus.
-
And that is what he was looking forward to.
-
And that is how it is we our perspective about death or
-
perspective about the present or perspective about suffering.
-
Everything changes when you meet with Christ.
-
It is a huge transaction. It is a huge transaction.
-
No one can take it lightly. It is not something very
-
frivolous experience. No, it is the very deep
-
experience. So you have got so many times,
-
you know the one of the best stories in the Bible that we
-
have is the prodigal son. Do you know the story?
-
This young son, he wanted his money.
-
I don't want to go to full full-fledged preaching on the
-
prodigal son today, but I want you to focus on one aspect of
-
the story. He was worried about physical
-
pleasure. He was centered around physical
-
pleasure, nothing more. For him, that is the end.
-
That was the end is physical pleasure.
-
So it takes the money, enjoys it.
-
When it is all over, he comes to his senses and I mean he says no
-
livelihood, no food to eat. And he goes to the one local guy
-
and says can you give me a job? So go take care of my pigs, Take
-
care of my pigs. And probably he walked into the
-
place where all the pigs were there and he could not even have
-
the privilege of eating what the pigs were eating, because that
-
is pig's food. He cannot eat it.
-
He wasn't allowed to eat the food.
-
He can see the pigs gouging on it, having a great feast, but
-
himself, he can't touch it. And then he came to census.
-
I tell you, coming to census is one of those experiences,
-
deepest experiences, because that is going to change the
-
future. That's going to change the
-
future. So he realized that his father
-
was well off, had many servants. They had food to eat and spare.
-
So what he was looking at himself was he was seeing a
-
servant in him, in himself. He says, I will go back to my
-
father. Say, Father, I sinned against
-
you, against God. I don't.
-
I'm not worthy to be called your son.
-
Call me a servant. Let me be like a servant, like
-
many other servants are surviving in your house.
-
I want to serve you. I want to eat and live and die.
-
He was able to see himself only as a slave.
-
But the father saw a son. Everybody say he saw a son and I
-
tell you that is how the story changes there.
-
Why is that prodigal son story so powerful?
-
Because it is something that George suppose an individual
-
when he's obsessed with his just stomach.
-
They are obsessed with only stomach.
-
The pleasures of the world, what to wear, what to eat, what is on
-
my head covering me. When you have to be set free
-
from it, God takes you through a system.
-
He takes you through steps and makes you realize that you need
-
himself more than what you are looking for.
-
That's the time you come back to your senses.
-
So the prodigal son he is, though he was seeing a slave in
-
himself. Father saw a son in him.
-
Father saw there was a there's a song.
-
What is his mind? Old age, He says he came running
-
pardon, down the road. He came running down the road
-
with the ring and a robe. What does the ring stand for?
-
Authority. A robe is cover your nakedness
-
to give you protection, to give you decent appearance, to give
-
you the right to be a son. He is giving you righteousness.
-
And I tell you the story is just looks like.
-
So when you just read it for in 2 minutes you can read that
-
story, but you never get the depth of the story.
-
You let us sit down to think about it, maybe 10 more years to
-
think about it, to fully understand what exactly is the
-
story talking about. And I tell you all my life I
-
thought, thought about it every time I think, oh, I know what
-
I'm preaching about it. But I tell you every time God
-
speaks something new from the same story.
-
And what are you seeing in yourself today?
-
Are you seeing a slave? Are you seeing a son?
-
Because when you are aware of the sin, you are only seeing a
-
slave in you. But when you become aware of the
-
Father's love, then you see a son in you.
-
So now we are moving from the mother to the father, you see.
-
So once there was a person who his name was James, an elderly
-
man, and he has spent a lifetime rejecting God.
-
He said I don't want God. I have nothing to do with him.
-
Why do I need God? That's how he lived all his
-
life. But then when he was lying in
-
the hospital bed, his body weak, he whispered to the nurse, I'm
-
afraid, I'm afraid. What happens after I die?
-
I tell you that question he's asking at the wrong time, you
-
should have asked 1020 years before, What happens after I
-
die? So the nurse was a believer, and
-
he shared the gospel, explaining that Jesus had already paid the
-
price for his sins and all he needed was faith.
-
And then what did the man say? With trembling hands, James
-
clasped the hands of the nurse and said, Lord Jesus, if you
-
truly love me, I accept you now. I accept you now.
-
So sometimes we are waiting too long to make the decision, too
-
long to turn to God, too long. I'm saying too long if there's
-
nothing more left to experience in this life after that point.
-
And then that man, he died after some time, very soon.
-
He passed away shortly after, but not in fear.
-
He left this world saved, redeemed and embraced by the
-
love of Christ, just like the thief on the cross, just like
-
thief on the cross. But why should we have a life
-
like a thief rejecting God, revolting at God all our life
-
and turn to him only the last minute.
-
There are two thieves who were hung crashed was hung in the
-
middle and two thieves on both sides and one said, hey, if you
-
are son of God, save yourself, come down and save us.
-
He was also concerned about only his stomach.
-
Like the prodigal son, he is concerned about his flesh,
-
concerned about only his life. He was concerned only about his
-
breath. He was concerned only about
-
physical life. But the other thief looked at
-
Christ and looked at the thief and said, hey, shut up, you
-
don't understand what life is. This man doesn't deserve it.
-
We deserve what we have done, but he doesn't deserve it.
-
And he turned to Christ and said, Remember Me in your
-
Kingdom through the suffering, through the pain, through that
-
hanging up on the cross. It stripped him of everything he
-
was pursuing all his life. That gold, that jewelry that
-
prepare treasures, what he was trying to hunt, what he was
-
trying to steal, he was stripped of it.
-
And when he was on the hang on the cross, he could look at
-
Jesus and see that he has a Kingdom beyond the cross.
-
I tell you, you need your eyes to be open to see that.
-
And that happens when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and
-
convicts you of your sin and righteousness and judgement and
-
then gives you grace to believe in the only one, the Jesus
-
Christ of Nazareth, who can give you life and that is salvation.
-
You turn, you make an about turn, a 180° turn, and you turn
-
to God and pursue him. Pursue Him.
-
He is worthy of everything you see in the Book of Revelation,
-
people casting their crowns at the feet of Jesus.
-
They crown Him. But I tell you, it has to begin
-
now. You don't wait until you go into
-
heaven to put the crown down there.
-
You have to put whatever you have, whatever is valuable,
-
whatever you cherish, whatever you are pursuing, whatever you
-
take pride in, whatever is consuming you, whatever is
-
driving you, put it at the feet of Christ.
-
Then you will be saved. Then you will be saved because
-
that transaction is such a deep experience and it deserves all,
-
all that you have, every tissue, every fiber in your being
-
deserves to be submitted to this Jesus as Lord and Christ of your
-
life. So self destructing behavior.
-
So many things are there. So today we have read from
-
Titus. I want to conclude it now,
-
basically. So in the book of Titans, we see
-
at one time we two were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved
-
by all kinds of passions and pleasures.
-
We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one
-
another. But when the kindness and love
-
of God our Savior appeared, He saved us not because of
-
righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.
-
He saved us through the washing of rebirth, renewed by the Holy
-
Spirit, whom He poured out US generously through Jesus Christ
-
our Savior, so that having been justified by His grace, we might
-
become as having the hope of eternal life.
-
This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to stress these
-
things so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to
-
devote themselves to doing what is good.
-
These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
-
Who is he writing to Paul? To Titus and who is titled his
-
son in the faith, he has come to know the Lord.
-
He nurtured him, he mentored him, he made him like a into a
-
pastor and to take care of people to run errands for him.
-
And he knows what the gospel is and yet he's writing what the
-
gospel is to that man. So it is good for us.
-
If you are a believer, praise God, but take time to evaluate
-
what you believe. Look at it fresh again.
-
Oh, what is my faith? What am I pursuing?
-
Where am I going? What is my destiny?
-
What is the class of people that God wants to make out of me?
-
He, he, just you just not having flesh and blood running around
-
here and there like a you're not on the same like the goat or the
-
cow that is running around. No, He stamped you with his own
-
image. And that image, if you destroy,
-
he will not keep you alive. He will punish you for
-
destroying that image, the image He put upon you.
-
You need to respond to that image and honor it by turning to
-
Christ and affirming His love. And I tell you that is called
-
salvation. So we are made in the image of
-
God, and every sin destroys that image.
-
Every sin destroys that image and there are different views
-
about it. One of the evangelical views is
-
you. When you are tempted by sin, you
-
fight against it, you speak to it, you come and leave you.
-
And there is always I tell you, the way I look at life is like
-
this. You are lust of the flesh, lust
-
of the eyes, pride of life which are internal force that inside
-
fighting against you to take your destiny from heaven to
-
hell. And outside you have got
-
principalities, powers, rules of darkness, wickedness in high
-
places. They are acting outside from
-
from outside to inside to take you from heaven to hell.
-
The good news is you are a soldier recruited to fight this
-
battle, internal battle and external battle.
-
When you understand salvation, you understand power.
-
Until you understand salvation, you don't understand power.
-
And when you want to walk in power, that God by the power of
-
the Holy Spirit, comes upon you, gives you a new vision, gives
-
you a new purpose, gives you a new power, because you cannot
-
live this life in your power. That's not good enough.
-
You need power, help from God himself.
-
And He poured out the Holy Spirit upon the whole world and
-
He is here to help anyone who wants to turn to God to honor
-
Him. He says, Son, let us walk
-
together and takes you by hand and walks with you for the rest
-
of your life. What a great plan God has.
-
I tell you, the more you think about it, the more it will blow
-
your brain. This is not enough.
-
Lifetime is not enough to appreciate the salvation.
-
Let's bow down our heads in prayer now.
-
Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus.
-
I just want to give a small invitation to anybody who wants
-
to say to Jesus, somehow I don't want to throw my life away, but
-
I want to give it to you. I want to appreciate your love
-
for me on the cross. Please forgive me.
-
Come into my heart. That's all.
-
It begins with that simple line. I want to know you, my Lord,
-
make yourself known to me. Come into my heart.
-
I want to experience you. If you pray that prayer this
-
morning, your new journey begins this morning.
-
And if somebody says, I want to pray that prayer today, just
-
slip out your right hand so that I know that you are praying this
-
prayer and I can come along at some time and meet with you and
-
pray with you again. Is anybody who wants to give
-
their life to Jesus this morning, anybody wants to accept
-
the salvation? Father, we have preached the
-
word in the name of Jesus. Holy Spirit, I invite you now to
-
convict us of righteousness, sin and judgment and help us turn to
-
Christ. And for those people who whom we
-
have saved, I pray that he'll open their eyes to see the
-
greatness of salvation. To see destiny is not to live
-
and die and be forgotten, but the destiny is to be transformed
-
into your likeness, to become like You.
-
As we look into your face, we become like you.
-
And one day we are going to be like you.
-
We are going to be light, not darkness.
-
We are going to be righteousness, but not sin.
-
And we are going to be life, not death.
-
And I praise you for the different class into which you
-
are changing us. By your mercy in our hearts, I
-
worship you. Thank you for everyone who knows
-
you may hand me upon them. Holy Spirit, I pray empower
-
them. I pray that you open their eyes.
-
I pray that you put the new power in them so that they will
-
begin to live for you. You only to the glory of your
-
name. Bless everyone today in Jesus
-
mighty name. We ask and everybody says.
-
Thanks for joining us at Omega. If you need prayer for healing
-
or breakthrough, or simply to find out more, please head to
-
our website or Facebook page in the links below.