Dead or Alive | Ps. Nate Capshaw

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

All right, all right.

All right.

Good morning.

You guys can take your seats.

Go ahead, sit down.

We're here for the Lord, not for me.

Like the lovely gentleman on the screen said, Pastor Keith, my name is Nate and I serve here as one of the pastors at Celebration Church.

So thankful that you're here.

If you're tuning in online, welcome.

We are so thankful that uh you are uh deciding to join us this morning.

You know, after 2020, um not being able to gather for so long, I try and come into the building.

Uh just super thankful and and trying not to take for granted the opportunity that we have to gather because uh this is uh such a special day uh of the week, obviously, as believers, to praise the name and to gather with one another.

Um before uh we go any further though, you know, Pastor Keith asked me to preach, and my first response was no.

Um my first response was no.

Actually, it was no thank you.

But uh, anyways, he he started to he started to encourage me a little bit about this, and I eventually agreed to it, and uh he said, you know, I just want you to preach the gospel.

Just want you to preach the gospel.

So that's what I'm gonna do today.

I'm gonna preach the gospel.

And uh these past couple weeks have been uh they've been challenging, um, they've been nerve-wracking, uh, as you can probably imagine.

But I've been so encouraged by God's word and and just uh his faithfulness to me.

And uh in in in in spite of uh who I am and what I've done, the Lord uh has asked to use me.

So I'm I'm thankful for that opportunity.

And by my side, the entire way has been uh my beautiful wife Jen.

Um she is amazing, yes.

Uh she is the epitome of the term better half.

And if you know Jen, you know that to be true.

Uh she is one of the most selfless, humble, um loving people you will ever meet.

She is a pastor in her own right, even though she won't admit it.

Uh but I love you.

I'm so thankful for you.

Uh and also I just want to take a second to honor our lead pastors, Pastor Keith and Pastor Megan.

I've uh three specific things have come to mind that I've learned from them.

Number one, I've learned perseverance.

I've learned perseverance.

I've learned to push through when it when it doesn't feel like when you don't feel like doing it.

Uh I've I've learned uh what it means to believe, like Hector was talking about, to have faith in spite of circumstance.

They have incredible faith uh and they believe God uh for what he's gonna do.

I also uh have learned to put God first in every aspect of my life because of them.

They model that so well.

Uh anytime uh we're asking Pastor Keith for a decision or anything that we need to move the needle forward in church, he's also he's always resorting to prayer first, and he's always asking God, God's opinion first.

So uh I know that there's probably a little bit of apprehension anytime you ask someone to come and and step uh on this platform or the pulpit, as we would call it back in the day.

Uh but so it's a great honor.

And and I know every pastor probably says that it's an honor, but it truly is uh to know that uh Pastor Keith and Pastor Megan trust me uh to be up here today.

So can we go ahead and honor our lead pastors?

If you would go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 6, we're gonna be looking at the first 11 verses in Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention Romans 6 · chapter mention

Just really quick.

I I've been a part of Celebration Orlando since 2014, just shortly after uh the church launched.

Uh I started serving in 2015, uh, and I've been here ever since.

I I just came on staff a little over two years ago.

So I've been on full staff, full-time staff here at Celebration Church.

This is home for me.

I've been here through the ups, through the downs, everything in between.

I'm so thankful for this house.

I'm thankful for what God is going to do through it.

I um I come from a family of pastors and ministers.

Um so I I'm used to this.

I I know what this is all about.

I'm so thankful for for just God blessing me with the opportunity to be raised in a Christian home.

And uh just so thankful for that opportunity.

If you've if you've been in that, you you know what that's like.

So just so thankful for that.

And uh I don't have anything necessarily profound or revolutionary to share with you this morning.

Uh I'll leave that up to Pastor Keith.

Uh, but I do have good news.

I do have good news.

Anyone sick of being bombarded with bad news?

We got good news this morning.

So uh I figured that this would be a great uh uh passage of scripture to look through off the heels of baptism.

Man, baptism was awesome last week.

It's always so encouraging to see what God does through that.

We can clap for that for sure.

So so whether you were baptized last week, whether you've been a Christian for a day or for a decade, I believe that God has something special for you today.

Uh and I believe uh a lot of times as Christians and we can we can suffer from what I like to call spiritual amnesia.

In other words, we we just kind of forget our place.

We we kind of forget what God's done for us.

I was uh talking to my mom last week on the phone, and my grandfather has Alzheimer's, and thankfully it's not too terrible, but um, she was just explaining to me, she said something very interesting.

She said, you know, your grandmother has to remind your grandfather every day of who he is and what he's done.

She has to remind him every day of who he is and what he's done.

And I think as Christians, it's no different.

We need to be reminded of who we are in Christ and what God has done for us.

Uh uh, I uh I'm also preaching to myself today.

Uh, I'm not just preaching at you, I'm preaching for us, okay?

Everything that I say, I need to hear, okay?

And I want you to know that uh looking through this passage has been incredibly um encouraging to me over the past couple weeks.

Uh just one quick reminder we are participators.

So as I as I pray, I would ask that you actively pray.

As I read the scripture, I would ask that you actively read it.

And as I speak, I would ask that you would listen so that you can hear.

There is a difference between just passively listening and then hearing what God has to say.

This is a uh just some quick context.

The book of Romans is uh uh written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Rome, hence the name Romans, and uh it is after his third missionary journey.

So Paul's been around the block a little bit.

He's an OG, if you will.

Uh he knows he knows the deal.

So he's writing this book for a few reasons.

Number one, uh he he is encouraged by what he's seeing in the church, and he wants to visit Rome on his way to expand his ministry into Spain.

Jen and I would like to expand our ministry into Spain, Lord, you hear our cry.

Uh he hopes to expand his ministry into Spain, and he's just letting them know, hey, I'd like to stop along the way, visit you, and maybe probably scholars think get some financial support.

How many you know the preachers always ask him for money?

Um, anyways, that's not funny, but uh this is also uh this is also probably the longest, or it is the longest, and it's probably some would argue the most systematic in nature.

In other words, it's very structured theologically.

And what we mean by theologically, we mean that uh the the study of the things of God or the study of how humans interact with God.

So this is uh a great book.

Uh, this is one of the first books of the Bible that I actually studied, uh, and it's been, like I've said several times, and super encouraging.

So let's go ahead and dive in Romans chapter 6, verse 1.

Romans 6:1

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?

Of course not.

Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death?

There's that word, baptism.

And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now also we may live new lives.

That's good news.

Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.

We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ, so that sin might lose its power in our lives.

We are no longer slaves to sin.

Can I get an amen on that?

For when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin.

And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.

We are sure, because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again.

Death no longer has any power over him.

When we when he died, he died once to break the power of sin.

But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God.

So you also, this is speaking to the church in Rome, but it's also speaking to us.

So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ.

Isn't that encouraging?

Isn't that good news?

Let's go ahead and pray.

Father, we thank you for the moments that we share today.

Lord, we thank you for each person in this room.

We thank you that you have a plan for their life, regardless of if they know it or not.

Lord, I ask that you would fill me with your spirit right now, that you would speak through me, and that everything I say would be honoring and pleasing to you.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, and everybody said.

Amen.

Anyone a list person?

You like list?

List person, gotta have list.

Yes, got a lot of hands.

Somebody was up there like, yeah, that's me.

I'm a list person.

In fact, I have too many lists.

I've got a to-do list, I've got several to-do lists, as a matter of fact, uh, with you know, things that I need to do and not enough hours in the day.

Uh, I've got a reading list, uh, I've got a list of books that I will never get to because there's a trillion on there.

But nonetheless, I have that list.

I've got a date night list, I've got a uh a list of places that I want to take my wife on a date, and uh thank God we live in Orlando.

I mean, there's just way too many places to go.

But, anyways, I've got that list.

I'm listing out my list to you right now.

Uh but I I have one list in particular, and then I'm not super proud of, and it's a little petty, and Jen makes fun of me for it, but that's okay.

It is my dead to me list.

My dead to me list.

That's right.

Uh my my most recent victim of the debt to me list.

Well, let me explain.

Let me explain.

The debt to me list is organizations or or mainly businesses that I no longer give my money to.

I no longer give them my business.

Um, my most recent victim to the debt to me list was my mechanic.

I uh I know the connotation uh that mechanics may have, and if you're a mechanic in here, I just want to let you know there's only one mechanic on the list, okay?

So uh we love you, we're thankful for you.

But, anyways, my my mechanic is now on the debt to me list.

Uh and it has nothing to do with the service of the vehicle.

Every time I brought my truck in, you know, they always did a great job.

Uh I never had to bring it back for the same problem, and I never had that whole, well, yeah, we fixed it, but we found this, you know what I mean?

And you're like, yeah, right.

But it was never with the service of the vehicle.

It was the customer service.

It was the customer service.

I was always like, man, I'm I'm helping to pay your paycheck that keeps your lights on, and this is how I'm being treated.

But anyways, uh, I was trying to uh be a light in a dark place.

Um so so the what what kind of what kind of was the last straw for me was the last time I was in there.

You know how you you walk into someplace or you're standing next to somebody and and you know that they know that you're there, but they're not acknowledging the fact that they know that you're there.

You know what I'm talking about?

So I'm standing there, I'm standing in front of it, and I'm just trying to be as patient as I can.

And uh, you know, the gentleman, I'll use that term loosely, looks up for uh from his desk and he looks at me and he says, What's up, Metallica?

What's up, Metallica?

Not good morning, sir, how are you?

What's up, Metallica?

I get it.

I have long hair, cool.

You have short hair, I don't call you booblay, but anyways.

You know what I realized about my my list though?

You know, they're not so much dead to me as I am to them.

What what do I mean by that?

I mean they're still doing business.

I I can drive by and still see their establishment.

They're still accepting customers, right?

But w when I get mail sent to my house from them, it goes to the trash.

When I get a phone call from them, it's going to voicemail.

If I get an email, it's being archived.

This is exactly the relationship the believer has with sin.

This is exactly the relationship the believer has with sin.

We're dead to it.

Now, what do we mean when we say sin?

We don't necessarily just mean bad behavior, okay?

Although that is a part of it, that that is in the scope of it, but but the Bible recognizes sin as missing the mark, or or some uh some translations would be crookedness, okay?

Uh whether intentional or out of ignorance, it basically means that we cannot live up to a glorious standard that God has set, okay?

Uh not just necessarily bad behavior, but we are dead to it as a believer because of the grace and goodness of Jesus Christ.

But let's define dead.

The definition for what it means in this passage is it says this death, whether physical or spiritual, means separation, not extinction.

Death to sin is separation from sin's power, not the extinction of sin.

Being dead to sin means being set free from sin.

When's the last time you took orders from a dead man?

When's the last time you took orders from a dead guy?

Why would we take orders from our old self?

Why would we take orders from our dead self?

If you have accepted the free gift of salvation, that's possible by the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Scripture said God remembers your sin no more.

Not the fact that He He can't remember, He chooses to forget.

He chooses to forget.

The Bible says that our sin can be separated as far as the East is from the West.

That's eternal.

Think about that.

Think about how good and graceful God is to us.

How many of you remember things that you've done that you wish you hadn't?

And they they continue to haunt you.

I know my hand is up.

But thank God for his goodness.

Thank God that he chooses to forget it.

What this passage is saying is sin is rendered powerless.

It has no power over us, and it no longer has any authority.

The messages from your old self, they can go straight to the trash.

The calls from your past life, they can go to your voicemail.

We have no obligation to pay sin any attention.

I'm thankful for my new mechanic.

I love my new mechanic.

I can't wait to go in there.

I don't have to give my old one any business.

Look at verse number six.

We know, see, we have to know it.

We have to believe it.

We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives.

We are no longer slaves to sin.

What did baptism signify last week?

It signified dying to our old self, right?

Just as Christ died and being raised out of the water to new life.

To new life.

Here's probably what you're saying.

Yeah, I get it.

Okay, cool.

Uh, you know, there are still areas in my life where I struggle.

You're a pastor, you probably wouldn't know that.

Let me tell you something, man.

I got a list a country mile long of things that God has worked out of my life and continuing to work out of my life.

Okay?

And it's a country mile because it's longer than a regular mile.

What I'm here to tell you is it's not easy, but it's possible.

I'm here to tell you that this is not easy, but it's possible because of the grace of God, because of his goodness to us.

It's not easy, but it's possible.

We still have a choice to make.

We can go back to the old mechanic and give him our business, or we can choose to cling to our new life in Christ.

We can choose to cling to our new life in Christ.

So, what does it mean to be alive in Christ?

Well, let's go to the scriptures.

That's a good place to start.

2 Corinthians 5 21.

God made him, talking about Jesus, who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The righteousness of God.

Did you know that you are justified if you are in Christ?

What is justified means?

It means you are declared righteous, not because of anything you have done, but because you have decided, hey, I'm going to put my trust in Jesus and his finished work and what he has done for me.

When God looks at you, he sees the finished work of Christ.

He does not see who you really are from your sin.

Does that make sense?

Are you tracking with me?

When God looks at you, he sees the finished work of Christ.

Uh, you know, we are in Christ now as believers.

We are in Christ as believers.

A lot of us, we can live between Good Friday and Easter, right?

We can believe that God saved me from death, he saved me from hell, but as far as changing my life goes, yeah, good luck.

We live between Good Friday and Easter.

Why do we believe that God has the power to save us from death, but he doesn't have the power to change us?

To change us into new beings, to change us to the image of his son.

You know, I've heard it put this way a lot of times we are sitting in the cell with the door wide open, just waiting to walk out.

Let's walk through the door.

Let's live our new life in Christ.

Let's embrace this new life in Christ.

It's an entirely new existence.

It's entirely new existence.

You know, the scriptures talk about being born again.

When Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, who was a a Jewish, uh Jewish teacher at the time or a well-known Jew, he says, you must be what?

Born again.

You must be born again.

Jesus didn't just save you from death, he saved you for life.

It's a rebirth.

It's born of the Spirit.

And just because we don't understand necessarily what that means does not mean that it is not true.

You know what happens with newborns as as they grow and as they become toddlers, they have to learn how to walk.

They have to learn how to talk.

It's the same thing with us.

You know, God's not asking you to just make it up.

He empowers us through the Spirit to learn how to walk again, to learn how to talk again.

You know, this this new life presents many different challenges, but it also presents great opportunity.

And the good news, the great news about this is you're not doing it on your loan alone.

You're doing it with the help of the Holy Spirit.

I think there are three characteristics that kind of define this new life in Christ.

And if you're playing preacher bingo, yes, three is always the uh always always the hot number.

Uh number one, number one, uh, it's a life of freedom.

It's a life of freedom.

John chapter 8 says, who the Son sets free is what?

John 8 · chapter mention

Free indeed.

That is good news.

It's not a freedom characterized by um you know being willy-nilly or you know, being careless.

It's a freedom characterized by uh by God's goodness, by God's grace, and and the things that He has set before.

Let me tell you this, guys.

If there's anything in the Bible that that the Lord prohibits or the Lord asks you to correct, it's for your good.

It's for your good.

It's not so that he can it's not so that he can prohibit us from enjoying our life, a life of freedom in Christ, it's all for your good.

Number two, it's a life of abundance.

It's a life of abundance.

John chapter 10 says that he came to give us a rich and satisfying life.

John 10 · chapter mention

A lot of times when we think about think about that, we think about earthly uh wealth or possessions or accumulation, but but but that's not exactly what the scriptures are talking about.

It's talking about a rich and satisfying life.

How many of you are proud are unsatisfied or or you don't feel fulfilled?

Well, God promises that through the power of his son you can have a rich and satisfying life, full of joy, full of peace.

Number three, it's a life eternal.

It's a life eternal.

John chapter 6, for it is my Father's will that all who see his son and believe in him should have what?

John 6 · chapter mention

Eternal life.

I will raise him up on the last day.

You know, eternal life starts now.

You know, it's not a thing in somewhere in the future.

It begins now, it begins today.

Your new life starts now, and and and eventually, yes, we will be raised at the last day.

You know, the scripture teaches that.

There's going to be a new heaven, there's going to be a new earth, and just like we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, he had a new body, therefore we will as well.

Romans chapter 5 talks about uh a comparison between Adam and Jesus.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

The chapter before this, Adam sinned and it caused all who what to fall into that because we were born into that, but now that we can be reborn, we can be what?

We can be born into life, and we can be born into life eternal, and we will have a new resurrected body.

Is that good news or what?

That's awesome.

We can go ahead and uh uh and have the the band join me in a little bit here, but uh how how do we live this out?

How do we live this thing out?

You know, we talked about being we're being dead to sin, but we're being alive in Christ now.

What uh because of his goodness and his grace, how do we live it out?

Number one, we embrace grace.

We embraced grace.

I've heard it said it this way: your biggest challenge is not your duty or your devotion or your discipline.

Your biggest challenge is believing the gospel.

Your biggest challenge is believing the gospel.

John chapter 6, verse 28.

John 6:28

They replied, We want to perform God's works too.

They're talking to Jesus here.

What should we do?

Jesus told them, This is the only work God wants from you.

Believe in the one he has sent.

Now that's just not a cognitive understanding, just to believe, yeah, I believe, I believe Jesus died and rose.

Cool.

I'm set.

No, no.

What it means is true belief is produces true duty, devotion, discipline.

Good works are all byproducts of true belief in the gospel.

The good news that Jesus took your place.

The good news that Jesus took your place.

Number two, stay connected.

You want to know what it means to live out this new life in Christ?

Stay connected.

Stay connected to the word, stay connected to a life of prayer, stay connected to the church.

You know what's changed my life?

All three of those things.

Jesus working in all three of those things.

A habit of constantly reading and meditating on God's word, making it a priority to talk to the Lord, to pray.

And whenever the doors are open, I'm gathering with the believers.

I'm gathering with the church.

You know, uh the church is not just a place to get your fix, it's a place to keep your freedom.

It's a place to keep your freedom.

And what I mean by that is I mean we need one another.

We need the community.

We need community, and we need to we need to stay united under the name of Jesus.

And that's how we do that through the gathering.

Every time these doors were open here at Celebration Church, uh, I was here.

Um share your story.

Share your story.

Let people know what God's done for you, and then they can decide.

Let people know what God.

It doesn't have to be crazy, preachy, or weird.

Just share your story.

Just let them know the goodness of God in your life.

Let them know where you were, let them know where you are now, let them know where you want to be.

And let them know that it's all because of Jesus.

You know that sharing your story not only leads others to salvation, but it encourages you as well.

It reminds you of the goodness of God in your life.

Share your story.

Uh I mentioned earlier that I was born into a home that that honored the Lord, that loved the Lord, and uh I'm so thankful for that and what what God did through my family.

And you know, I'm a third generation pastor.

I got uh my dad was a pastor, my my uncles, my my granddad, and I was always the one like, no, I'm just gonna have a normal job, you know, do the normal, normal nine to five, and here we are.

So but I'm so thankful for it.

But but but it wasn't always probably what you're envisioning.

Uh there were many, many seasons in my life where uh I was given the old mechanic my business, and I wasn't I wasn't living my new life in Christ.

I uh in 2014, uh my wife and I we we were dating at the time.

We were uh out at a UCF Tailgate doing what young adults at UCF Tailgates do.

Having a good time, quote unquote.

And there was a tent out there that somebody had walked by and grabbed some food and some water, and inebriated young adults gravitate towards free food and water.

So uh we went over there and uh talked to them for a little bit, and that tent ended up being the first outreach that Celebration Church Orlando did.

At that time, I had walked away from the Lord.

But let me tell you something.

The Lord never walked away from me.

The Lord never walked away from me.

How different would our community look if we had a group of people that believed we were truly alive?

How different would our neighborhoods look if we lived a life of freedom, a life of abundance, and we knew that we had a life everlasting?

How different would our city look if we embraced this?

If we really, really embraced this.

Not a betting man, but I'd be willing to bet it would look a whole lot different.

The church is not an organization, it is an organism.

It is living.

Why?

Because Christ, through his spirit, lives through his body, which is the church.

Christ, through his spirit, and because of the grace of God, lives through his body, which is us, the church.

Like I said, eternity doesn't start somewhere off in the in the future, it starts now.

We can have an impact here.

We can have an impact here.

Sharing our story, staying connected, and first of all, embracing the good news of the gospel, embracing God's grace, his love for us.

So are we dead or are we alive?

It's both.

We're dead to sin, but we're alive in Christ.

Colossians chapter 3 in the message version says this.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

Your new life, which is your real life, even though invisible to spectators, is with Christ in God.

He is your life.

When Christ, your real life, remember, shows up again on this earth, you'll show up to the real you, the glorious you.

Meanwhile, be content with obscurity like Christ.

The Bible talks about how you know we see things kind of in a uh not in its fullest fruition.

One day we will see that.

But for now, be content.

Like Hector was talking about earlier.

Have that faith.

Live a life of freedom, live a life of abundance, and ultimately a life eternal.

Would you guys bow your head in prayer with me?

You know, maybe uh you're thinking to yourself, uh, that's me.

I need to be reminded of this.

Maybe you're like me, you walked away.

You kind of grew up in it, or maybe somebody shared it with you, and um but but you've walked away.

I can tell you like me that as soon as you turn around, God's standing right there.

I can tell you like me that that maybe you have walked away, but the Lord has not walked away from you.

Or maybe you're thinking, I don't even know what in the world this is all about.

Today is the day of salvation.

Whether you're in this room or or you're watching online and you want to say, man, I want to be dead to sin and I want to be alive to Christ.

I know it's not easy, but I believe that it's possible.

If that's you, would you just slip your hand up right now?

And I just want to pray with you.

Amen.

Amen.

If you're online, just let us know.

Lord, you see the hands.

And Lord, you more importantly, you know the hearts.

The hand doesn't save us, Lord, but it it it is uh uh a sign of what we're we're believing for on the inside.

God, we ask that you uh would save us.

We we believe that we have sinned and fallen short of your glory, but we believe that the Savior has saved us.

For it's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Thanks again for listening.

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