Salvation 101 | Ps. Nate Capshaw

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you for joining us.

To learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting, follow us on social media using the handle at Celebration ORL or visit our website, celebrationorl.org.

Okay.

Good morning.

How's everyone doing?

You're doing good?

Awesome.

Um, if if uh this is your first time here at Celebration Orlando, welcome.

So thankful that you're here.

If I haven't had the chance to meet you, uh my name's Nate.

Uh I'm one of the pastors here, so thankful that you're here.

Speaking of pastors, uh, want to extend a welcome to all of you as well.

On behalf of our lead pastors, Pastor Keith and Pastor Megan.

Um, they are taking a little bit of time off for a little bit of rest this month, and so uh you may not see them uh quite as much.

They'll be a little bit in and out, but uh we are so thankful for them and this opportunity that they get to take a little bit of time off.

Uh, if you're joining us online, welcome.

So glad that you're with us as well.

If you are in the Orlando area, uh we'd love to have you here at the Orlando Museum of Art at either 9 or 10:30 a.m.

Again, a welcome to all of you who may not be uh familiar with our typical setting today uh is going to look a little bit different, and and the rest of the month will look a little bit different uh as we start our new series called Summer School.

The the idea, the premise behind this is to create a little bit more of a classroom feel as opposed to a sanctuary.

Uh this is meant to be a little bit more educational than inspirational.

Now, I hope you're inspired, obviously, by uh the word of God, but uh just want to switch things up just a little bit and and and uh present um some topics uh in a different form or fashion.

Does that sound okay with you guys?

Sound good with you guys?

Okay, cool.

Sweet.

Uh what else do I need to cover?

Accompanying this are first of all some notebooks that we're gonna pass out.

So if the ushers wouldn't mind coming down uh to the bottom here.

So these are gifts for you.

Uh so the first container that's gonna come down is gonna be uh a notebook.

The second one that's gonna come down is going to be a pen.

Um there is no obligation to grab these.

You don't have to take them if you don't want to take notes throughout the series, um, but you are more than welcome to do so to grab one of these.

Uh and also just kind of um a way to document uh what we're gonna do here over the next several weeks.

Uh another thing that is uh accompanying our series is uh ask a question.

So out in the lobby, you're gonna see an area that you can uh drop any question that you have as it pertains to theology or the church or questions about spirituality and God, about faith, anything kind of within that realm.

Uh there's a little jar out there.

You just jot your question down, your name, and your email.

And what we're gonna do is we're gonna respond to those questions to the best of our ability via email uh throughout the weeks, the the next five weeks.

Now, you can obviously ask questions for the rest of the year if you want to, but uh just in this time, we'll we'll just be kind of uh collecting those and then uh shooting back responses to you guys via email.

Um now there may be, we don't know everything, okay?

So there may be questions that you have that we're unsure of the answer, but our goal in all of this is to just equip you to help you to find the answer that that you're kind of searching for.

Also, out in the courtyard, what you're gonna see is a table full of resources.

Now, this is a resource list that we've kind of curated in-house that we believe can be beneficial to you and your understanding of God.

Uh, and so take a peek at those, see something that kind of piques your interest, and uh there's a link on a QR code that you can scan that'll take you right uh to the book uh where you can get those as well.

Obviously, if there's something that you don't see out there that you're interested in, uh just let us know.

And again, we're here to help and serve you and to equip you the best to our ability and point you in the right direction.

Sound good on that?

So, first of all, we got the notebooks coming down the roads right now.

We've got the lobby element where you can ask a question and you can also look at resources available to you for you can a little bit of a deeper dive.

And then finally, we're doing After the Message Live, a live recording of our After the Message podcast.

If you're unfamiliar with this, After the Message is a segment on our podcast where typically it's Pastor Keith and myself, where we just have a little bit more of a dialogue.

It gives us a little bit more time to unpack what we're talking about here on a Sunday, but in a conversation format and just to be able to chew on the the topics and the subjects that we cover on a Sunday morning.

But this is gonna be special because we're inviting you to come be a part of it and in the moment ask questions live uh to Vinny and myself, mainly Vinny.

Vinny's gonna answer most of the questions, and I'll just, you know, try and do my best to sound uh eloquent.

So um, so yeah, sign up for that.

There's a link there that you can register your seat.

Space is limited, so I would text the word or the letters ATM after the message.

I would text the words ATM and sequence, letters ATM and sequence there, and that will kick back a link to you where you can register your seat to be a part of After the Message Live.

Sound good to everybody in here on that front as well?

Okay, great.

Um personal disclaimer, this is this is not my tendency, uh, this sort of format, not necessarily even my personal preference.

I would much rather write a speech or an essay and deliver that to you on a Sunday morning.

Um, so this is stretching me uh a little bit to say the least.

And so I would just ask uh for your patience and uh perhaps a little bit of your encouragement uh as we move along here.

Can I get an amen to that?

Okay.

Sounds like a good uh spot for me to pray, so let's go ahead and bow our heads in prayer.

Holy God, we thank you for just even this ability to gather here this morning, and we recognize what a privilege it is to do so in your name.

Lord, we we thank you just sincerely for your word and the fact that you've provided it to us uh in order to reveal yourself.

And God, we ask that you would be with us this morning.

Speak to us uh both individually and collectively.

Uh Lord, I pray uh specifically that you would use me in these next few moments to glorify and to honor your name uh and speak the words that you have for us.

It's in Jesus' name and everybody.

Said Amen.

Um if you look around the room, or perhaps I would encourage you, kind of on your way out the door today, uh, you'll notice something really unique and awesome uh about our church.

We we are a very diverse church.

And typically when we talk about diversity, we tend to go to race and ethnicity.

And as you can see, yes, that is that is totally true of our church.

However, one one facet or other facets that make it even more unique is other levels of diversity being socioeconomic.

We have a wide array of ranges represented.

Uh, but another really cool thing about Celebration Orlando, particularly, is uh our diversity in our religious backgrounds.

There's a there's a lot of different church upbringings and denominations represented here uh in this room.

Uh as a matter of fact, let me go ahead and just actually I don't need that.

Let's take a poll.

Any any Catholics, any former Catholics in the room, recovering Catholics in the room?

Peace be with you.

Uh any Baptists, any former Baptists?

I'm a backroom Baptist myself.

All right.

What about Methodists?

We got any Methodists, any former Methodists?

Okay.

All right, Episcopalian, Episcopalian, there we go.

That's what I'm talking about.

Where are my Pentecostals at?

Yeah.

You can all you always know the Pentecostals, right?

They're the loudest.

Okay, cool.

Is anybody celebration church was your first church?

First church you ever came to, this this type of church?

No?

Anyone?

Okay.

What?

Yo, James! Let's go.

T-shirts in the mail, dude.

Um, in regards to our church, Pastor Keith has kind of written a statement that that helps embody who we are.

And the first sentence of that is we are a non-denominational, multicultural, multi-generational, Christ-centric, kingdom-minded church.

A beautiful representation of who we are, but I want to focus on that first identifier being non-denominational.

Um the when we talk about denominations, we're talking about um whenever you're walking into a denominational church, you're automatically, if you know, if you know what the that that denomination is, you're assuming what they believe based off the fact that they are in that denomination, right?

So because they distinguish themselves off of a denomination, there are certain doctrines that they hold to, certain ways that they express themselves, right?

Okay, so the thing with a non-denominational church, and the the reason this is so uncommon for us and the diversity for us is there are unique challenges to this.

There's there's beauty to denominations because for me it works great, because like, all right, I know the writings on the wall, basically, there's no question.

For us, there can be unique challenges as a non-denominational church, especially for the shepherds that are up here, the teachers and the preachers, because what we're trying to do is we're trying, knowing the diversity in the room, speak the language that we can all kind of understand.

Does that make sense?

So we're not necessarily um we're not necessarily like making it more palatable.

We're just wanting to make sure that everybody's hearing the same thing.

And so that that provides a unique challenge for us.

It's something that is beautiful, again, and we want to protect and and we want to hold on to this diversity because we believe it's a true representation of the kingdom of God.

But it does present unique challenges.

And that's not to say that as a non-denominational church, we're we're flippant or cavalier with what we believe.

We're just able to have the freedom to pull from different camps or or different um sects of the faith in order to form our understanding, in order to learn and glean wisdom from other thinkers.

Does that make sense?

Um, and so we actually have very uh very strong doctrines that that we hold to and believe, and we believe that those are orthodox, and you can find those on our website actually if you're if you're curious as to what those things are.

They're they're very plainly listed.

The beautiful thing about what I think we try to do really well here at Celebration Orlando is actually a statement that's that's pretty well known, and it goes like this we want to have unity in the essentials, we want to have liberty in the non-essentials, and we want to have charity in all things, or we want to have love and grace in all things regarding the faith.

Um, what's an essential?

Uh, Jesus is the Son of God, he's the only way to the Father.

The Bible is the written and inspired word of God.

Uh God is the creator of everything seen and unseen.

Okay, those are essentials.

Those are things that we're just not gonna veer off of, okay?

That's those are examples.

A non-essential.

Can I listen to Justin Bieber?

Uh are tattoos okay, like those types of things.

And that's a little tongue-in-cheek, but you you kind of get where I'm going with those non non non-essentials.

You can make an argument for for a lot of things, okay?

Somebody just said no, you can't listen to Justin Bieber.

Um so what when we're talking about that, we're really talking about theology.

And and theology is important.

Uh a brief um definition or more of a uh a pretty simple definition, I guess, of theology is this the study of God as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ and the Scripture.

So the study of God as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ and the Scripture.

That is theology.

And there are obviously many different um many different representations and schools of thought when it comes to when it comes to theology.

I think Francis um Fjorza, he's a Catholic theologian, he gives us a great way to interact with it.

And so he says this.

It's a pretty uh extended quote, but I think I think you'll uh benefit from it.

Says, quote, theology is a fragile discipline in that it is both academic and related to faith.

As an academic discipline, theology shares all the scholarly goals of other academic disciplines, those being it strives for historical exactitude.

Okay, so we're not just making up stuff historically.

We want to make sure that we're being historically accurate when we're doing theology.

Um, it strives for conceptual rigor.

Again, we want to really think through what we're talking about, what we're saying, what we're stating.

We want to be rigorous in our thought process.

We don't want to be flippant towards it.

Systematic consistency, okay?

There's an essence or there's an element of logical sense to what we're talking about when it comes to theology.

It's not all ethereal and ambiguous and just this spiritual realm that you can just make up whatever you want, okay?

Um and then consistency and interpretive clarity.

When we're interpreting the Bible and the scriptures through theology, it just needs to be clear, it needs to make sense.

And and that obviously evolves and changes through the generations, through the decades, through time.

Not that the truth of it changes, but the clarity at which and the how we communicate changes.

Does that make sense?

Okay, cool.

So he goes on to say, it is much more, uh he says uh theology shares the fragility of faith itself.

It is much more hope than science.

Faith uh is, you know, the this uh hope, much more hope than science.

It's much more like a raft bobbing upon the ways of the sea than a pyramid based on solid ground.

Now, those last couple statements may like you know not make you feel so like we stand on the solid word of God.

Like nobody's he's referring to theology here.

He's not talking about uh the truth of the Bible, the truth of who God is.

And so I know that a raft floats, but there can be waves and it can be uh treacherous at times.

Okay, so when he's referring to theology, and guys, by definition, if we're talking about uh if we're talking about God and his uh his nature being transcendent, in other words, he he transcends time and space, we're talking about almost an impossible endeavor here.

And and that's why his and that's why he graciously has revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ and also graciously revealed himself to us in the scriptures.

God doesn't owe us anything.

What why why should he?

But because of his grace and because of his great love for us, he has chosen to do so here.

Now, sometimes we can get frustrated because we want more, but we have to trust that to the extent that he wants to reveal himself, these are the two best ways to do that, and that's what theology is concerned with, okay?

And the rest of it just has to come to our our trust and love in God, knowing that he is infinitely knowable.

There's always more to learn about God.

Are you tracking with me so far?

Okay.

So why then?

Why, if I can't know it all, if I can't fully understand it, why even take this endeavor in the first place?

I raised my hand, I came to the altar, I'm not, you know, I'm going to heaven.

What's the point?

Great question.

It's to know God accurately.

To know God as accurately as we possibly can.

Uh, there's someone that runs a theology school online, and he says this, and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say his name because he may have stolen the quote from somebody else, but he says, I can know God accurately, but I can't know God fully.

Or I can't know God exhaustively.

I can't know everything there is to know about God, but I can know him accurately, and that's what we're striving to do here in theology.

So to know God accurately does what?

It helps us live full and fruitful lives.

Knowing God accurately helps us live full and fruitful lives.

It helps us understand who He is, who I am, why I'm here, what I'm supposed to do, which in turn leads to the fullness of life that God has intended for us, and the fruit that comes from that fullness of life, which in turn is a light to the rest of the world.

Which, when we're lights to the rest of the world, they then have the opportunity to know God, to live full and fruitful lives, and to be lights to the rest of the world.

And we see how this works systematically, as we would say.

I want to caution everyone in here, because for lack of a better way to put it, there is a dark side to this.

And that dark side could be discouragement, confusion.

You can start you you talk about YouTube rabbit holes, you know, or rabbit trails.

Um and it's all it's all out there, and there's so many different viewpoints, and there's there's so many different ways to think about it, which is great and it's awesome because it exercises us and it keeps us engaged, uh, but it can be discouraging, and it can be uh difficult, uh a difficult road to go down.

But uh one of the some of the best advice I ever got when I started to be a little bit more aggressive in my study and my pursuit of the things of God was from Vinny.

And he said, Man, learn God with your heart and not with your head.

And he wasn't telling me to check my brain at the door because I need my intellect in order to understand.

What he was telling me is you love God with your heart and not your head.

Once you uh understand the information with your mind, uh let it sink down into your heart so that you can know him better and live a full and fruitful life and love him even more.

Uh and there are a lot of people that know a lot about God that do not love him.

And we've said it in here before, the demons know the scriptures.

The demons know the scriptures, and they quote them, maybe out of context, but uh they quote them.

Anytime I do get discouraged or kind of veer off, or um even get a little bit depressed, even because it's like, I don't, I just want the answer.

Uh, I always go back to the apostles' creed.

Uh the apostles' creed uh is just the core tenets of of our faith.

And if you if you aren't sure of that, I would suggest that you kind of look up what the apostles' creed is and even memorize it.

You know, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born to the Virgin Mary, etc.

etc.

So I would encourage you to truly uh try and memorize that because in your moments of uncertainty, in your moments of uh potential confusion, you can just go back, okay, you know, I believe in God the Father Almighty.

I believe in Jesus Christ Christ, his son, our Lord, and move on from there and get some uh encouragement.

The next thing I'll say about this is uh actually St.

Augustine has a beautiful way of putting uh what this is.

He says, understanding is the reward of faith.

Therefore, do not seek to understand in order to know, but believe in order that you may understand.

So this is counterintuitive to our empirically data driven world, specifically in the West.

You know, give me the facts, tell me everything I need to know about it, and then I'll believe you.

God asked for a step of faith.

He asks us to trust him by faith, and through that, we can then have a uh a true understanding.

A true love and a true belief in Him.

Okay?

Okay.

Today we're going to be talking about salvation.

And after I sent my notes in with the title Salvation 101, I started thinking it would probably be a much better way to describe this as an introduction to salvation.

Because there we're not even going to, we're not even going to scratch the surface.

It's more like a graze.

We're just going to kind of graze it a little bit.

So a lot of a lot of this, this is just an overview of salvation.

And a lot of it you probably heard before.

What we're going to attempt to do today is to just bring some order to it, to provide a little bit of order, what we would term the ordosalutis, or like the Latin word for the order of salvation.

Okay.

So the study of salvation is soteriology.

Soteri, uh, hopefully I don't spell this wrong.

Soteriology.

Definition for that is the branch of theology that deals with salvation.

In Christianity, it's concerned with the fall of humankind in sin, grace and eternal life, the redemptive role of God in human history, and the atonement in Christ.

Branch of theology that deals with salvation in Christianity, it's concerned with the fall of human mankind in sin, grace and eternal life, the redemptive role of God in human history, and the atonement in Christ.

We get this term soteriology from uh the Greek uh sotira.

And uh, you like that little R-roll there?

So um it renders salvation or wholeness, safety, and my personal favorite, uh rescue.

Rescue.

So if there's a need for a rescue, what do we what do we need to be rescued from?

Just shout it out.

What do we need to be rescued from?

Sin?

What else?

Death.

Hell.

Anything else?

Ourselves.

Think about that for a second.

Typically, whenever I'm trying to trying to figure something out, I'd like to go back to the origin story.

And in this case, we're going back to the garden.

Genesis 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, right?

He creates everything seen and unseen.

He places man in the garden, man and woman in the garden, and he gives them instructions.

He he gives them instructions for how to cultivate it, how to what we, you know, some translations subdue the earth, um, how to how to conduct themselves as well.

And he also provides some parameters.

He provides some warnings.

Here, here's what we need to avoid.

Well, we know how the story goes.

They they decide to uh reject a portion of those instructions and uh go their own way uh in a sense, and that's where sin enters the pictures.

That's where uh sin has its foot in the door.

Now, when I refer to sin, I'm not just talking about your bad decisions or a poor choice that you made.

That's just a component of it.

Um sin is a much more complex topic or a much more complex subject.

What the Bible would sometimes refer to as the power of sin.

There's a force behind sin, okay?

And since it got its foot in the door, it's it's subsequently begun to infect and pollute and permeate every aspect of the world.

Hence the need for rescue.

So today, again, we're gonna go through the order of salvation.

Again, this is just a brief overview.

And depending on what camp you ascribe to, uh, there are different ways in which people list the order.

Again, we're gonna look at the essentials of it, not necessarily the systematic order in which it takes place.

But the order which we go in is one that I think kind of makes the most sense, at least to my understanding, uh, as it is today.

So the first in the order of sin, or the order of salvation, not the order of sin, repentance.

Repentance.

Simple definition for that is a turning away from sin and toward God, involving godly sorrow over sin, confession of it, and the resolve to avoid it.

I'm gonna get a workout taking these caps off.

Jeez.

So we have sorrow.

It literally just came off, guys.

Oh, you're supposed to twist it off.

We have sorrow for our sin.

Okay?

We have confession, and then we have resolve.

A lot of times we start here, we we we end here with repentance.

I'm sorry, right?

And that's needed, godly sorrow is needed, but then it's time to move into the confession stage of repentance and and actively voice that, even verbally, that you're sorry for for the sin in your life, the things that maybe have even been done to you or that you have done.

You confess that, and now you have a resolve to avoid it at all costs.

Okay?

So this is the first step is our repentance of that.

Acts 26, this is the apostle Paul uh speaking about recounting his encounter with Jesus, and he says this, well, this is Jesus speaking to him, and I will rescue you, Paul, from both your own people and the Gentiles.

Yes, I'm sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.

Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God's people, who are set apart by faith in me.

So the first in our order is repentance.

It requires sorrow for our sin, godly sorrow, by God opening our eyes to it, our our confession of that, and then our resolve to avoid it at all costs.

Okay, got that?

Next is regeneration.

Should have been a doctor with this handwriting.

Regeneration.

The transformation of a person's spiritual condition from death to life to the work of the Holy Spirit.

I'll say that again.

Regeneration is the transformation of a personal spiritual condition from death to life to the work of the Holy Spirit.

We learn about this particularly in John chapter 3, a familiar passage with uh when Nicodemus visits Jesus, and Jesus replies to a question being asked, and he says, I tell you the truth, unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.

John 3 · chapter mention

What do you mean?

exclaimed Nicodemus.

I would have said the same thing.

How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?

Jesus replies, I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the spirit.

Humans can produce only human life.

But the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

So don't be surprised when I say you must be born again.

So Jesus is telling us about the two births, the two possibilities here, the two components of our life.

It's both physical and spiritual.

So we have spiritual.

So we have our our consciousness, our awareness, etc., that we get when we are born into this physical world.

But Jesus is talking about a new birth, a rebirth that is required in order to be awakened to his kingdom.

And that second birth is what takes place at regeneration.

So we would may refer to that uh in the old school days as a quickening of the spirit, an awakening of the spirit in order that we may know God.

Okay?

So first we've got repentance, then we've got regeneration.

Now the buzzword that every theologian loves to talk about is justification.

Sorry, Joe.

Justification.

Justification is the process by which people are made righteous in the sight of God.

The process by which people are made righteous in the sight of God.

Another familiar passage, Romans chapter 3, for everyone has sinned.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

We all fall short of God's glorious standards.

Yet God in his grace freely makes us right in his sight.

He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin.

People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.

This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past.

That's a whole nother can of worms.

For he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time.

God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is what?

Fair and just.

And he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

So a lot of times when we're when we refer to justification, we like to hone in on the the courtroom or the legal language of being uh being a verdict being handed down as not guilty, right?

We we talk about that a lot.

Like God looks at us and he sees what Jesus did for us, and and we are we are by his grace rendered not guilty.

And that that is one component of it.

But oftentimes what we don't talk about is the justice part of it.

There had to be, there had to be punishment for sin.

If God is truly just, there had to be punishment for sin.

It can't just be swept under the rug.

Okay?

So for a moment, I want you to think about everything that's wrong with you.

I know, fun, right?

Think about everything that's wrong with you.

Now, you know, think about everything that is potentially wrong with everybody in this room.

Orange County, Florida, the nation, and the world.

Now think about everything that has ever been wrong with anybody and everything that will ever be wrong for anybody else in the future.

There's a consequence to that.

But the holy Son of God, the purest representation of what a human being is was the one who bore that punishment.

God's justice was laid out on Jesus.

All that sin that we that we have committed in past and the future was put on him.

He bore that.

He wore that for you and for me and for everybody else.

The brutality of the cross wasn't just the way in which it took place, it wasn't just the mechanics of it, although it was bloody and brutal.

It was the fact that every sin that was ever committed was laid out on the perfect Son of God.

And that's justice.

However, because of that, if we believe that it's not my doing or my my way to rectify that, but I believe that Jesus is the one who has rectified that, we are then proclaimed not guilty in the justification process.

That's something to give God praise for in this room right now, right?

So we've got repentance, regeneration, justification, what we would what we would coin as uh or some theologians refer to as even imputed righteousness.

It's almost as if like righteousness is embalmed into you and now and now you are just and righteous.

The next is sanctification.

Sanctification.

Next in the order is sanctification.

Uh a simple definition for that: sanctification is the divine act of making believers holy.

This includes both positional holiness and progressive holiness.

This includes both positional and progressive.

Sanctification is the divine act of making believers holy.

Ephesians 1 3 through 8 says, All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms, because we are united with Christ.

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.

This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

Verse number four, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

And that is the first part of sanctification, positional sanctification.

So upon repentance and regeneration, we are not only declared righteous because of God's justice that was done at the cross, we are then sanctified or we are made holy.

As if we are Jesus, holy.

Don't call the heretical police on me, but that's what I believe the scripture is is teaching here.

In that moment, positionally holy.

And then through what the Apostle Paul refers to here as the adoption into God's family, that's where the progressive sanctification starts to take place, right?

Because if you're brought out of a situation that may not be the best for you, and you're entered or you're placed into a new family, you're accepted or adopted into a new family, there's a new way of doing things.

There's a new language that you need to speak.

There's a certain way that that family will conduct itself.

And in the kingdom, in God's family, there's a certain way that that's done through progressive sanctification by power of the Holy Spirit.

Tracking with me still?

Okay.

So we have both sanctification being positional and progressive, the final, glorification.

Glorification.

Definition for that is the final state of a Christian in the order of salvation, what we're talking about today, sharing in God's glory in heaven and ultimately in the new earth.

Second Corinthians 5 says, For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down, that is the body when we die and leave this earthly body, we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God Himself and not by human hands.

We grow weary in our present bodies.

Someone has said, Amen.

And we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.

For we will put on heavenly bodies, we will not be spirits without bodies.

This is something that we haven't really done a good job at, especially in the past couple hundred years, is talking about that.

Like this isn't just some ethrial sort of ambiguous reality.

This is this is a real tangible reality that we're going to be able to be a part of as those who are in Christ.

Verse number four, while we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it's not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that close up, that clothe us.

Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.

God Himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee, he has given us his Holy Spirit.

So we see here again a real physical and spiritual reality to this glorification process.

Okay.

Yes, heaven is a great place, and I want to be, and I want to be there for sure.

I want to be uh, you know, to be absent with the body is to be present with the Lord.

But there is, whether we see it or not, a redeeming that's happening and will ultimately take happen will ultimately happen in the glorification process of a new earth.

God is doing a redemption act on the physical that we see as well.

So we don't just die and go to heaven, and that's no, there's a this whole thing, if we go back to the origin story, was heaven and earth intersecting, right?

In the garden, walking with God uh in perfect harmony.

And that's what that glorification process is all about.

Repentance, we have sorrow for our sin, we confess that openly, and then we have the resolve to avoid that regeneration, both the physical reality and our and our birth as a human being, which then the rebirth being the spiritual reality.

That's where we get the term born-again Christian, if you've ever heard of that.

I'm a born-again Christian.

And then you have justification, God's justice had to be done.

We couldn't sweep sin under the rug.

God had to execute justice, but instead of doing that upon us, he chose to do that on his perfect and holy son, the one who could actually uh bring about a rendering of not guilty, right?

Imputing us with righteousness.

The sanctification process taking place, I forgot to write this, both positionally and progressively.

Okay?

Both here and now I am declared holy as if I am Jesus.

And then also as I move forward and walk with the Spirit, I become more and more like him in my true representation of him on the earth, and then glorification, both of physical and spiritual reality as well.

Here's what I want to leave you with as we begin to close.

This all begins and ends with God.

It all begins and ends with God.

Let me show you what I'm talking about.

Repentance in Acts chapter 26.

Acts 26 · chapter mention

You don't have to put it on the screen, but just what we read earlier.

Yes, I'm sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes.

I am sending you, Jesus, to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.

Regeneration, John 3, what we just read.

Humans cannot produce, humans can only reproduce human life.

But the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

Justification, Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

Sanctification, Ephesians 1, what we just read.

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

And then glorification, 2 Corinthians 5, we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God Himself and not by human hands.

Church, salvation is a microcosm of God's ultimate plan for complete cosmic redemption.

You are a walking, talking representation of what God is going to do throughout the entire cosmos.

That is to redeem it.

That is to put it back to its original state before sin entered the picture.

It begins and ends with God.

That's why we worship Him.

That's why in times past you've heard us say, guys, get here on time so that we can sing all four songs together and worship our holy God because of what He's done for us.

That's why we bring our tithe and our offering.

That's why we serve our neighbor.

Those are the just the outpourings of what God has already done for us.

This is just a signpost to what God will do.

And I can't wait to see it come to fruition.

Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

I'm gonna read.

Of your disobedience and your many sins.

You used to live in sin just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander of the powers in the unseen world.

He's the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.

All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature.

By our very nature, we were subject to God's anger, just like everyone else.

But God, but God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.

It is only by God's grace that you have been saved.

For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.

So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness towards us, as shown in all he has done for us, who are united with Christ Jesus.

God saved you by his grace when you believed.

And you can't take credit for this.

It is a gift from God.

Salvation is not a reward for the good things you've done, so none of us can boast about it.

But we are God's masterpiece.

He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.

If that is not a great summation of the order of salvation, I'm not really sure what is.

Will you bow your heads in prayer with me?

Lord God, we just come to you with gratitude and sincere thankfulness.

And we thank you for the gift of salvation.

We thank you for the opportunity we have to be a part of your family, Lord.

Uh if anybody's in here right now, you guys can keep your heads down.

But if you know, like I need to accept that free gift, I need to express my repentance so that I can be redeemed, so that I can be justified, so that I can be sanctified and ultimately glorified.

We just slip up a hand here in this moment right here.

Amen.

Amen.

God, you see the hands, and most importantly, you know the hearts and you know their willingness to want to accept you as the Savior and their Lord.

I ask that you would help them walk this out, God.

Give them the grace they need.

It's in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, Amen.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

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