Thank God for His Grace - Pastor Rob Urban

Welcome to the Logan City Christian Church podcast where we bring God's Word to you

weekly.

We pray that what you hear will bring clarity to your situation and open doors in your life.

Enjoy the message.

Thank you, Ron, for yesterday morning, the men's breakfast.

There's such great ministry in this church and I'm just so pleased about that.

It's just great.

Really, really good.

You know that Jesus is alive, right?

Alive forevermore.

And we're here because of that.

We don't serve a dead religion.

We serve a living, a living God.

And there are times that we are faced with various situations.

Thank you, Graham, for your testimony.

So encouraging.

We can face situations that may seem to be insurmountable, no hope, that there's no way

out and many of us encounter that at least once in our life.

But there's always an answer.

God always has an answer for your life.

Today I want to minister on this subject.

Thank God for His grace.

Thank God for His grace.

His grace is so amazing as we'll be reminded today and maybe if we hear it for the first

time, understand who God really is through His wonderful work of grace.

And there's deliverance in the house of God this morning.

I don't say that lightly, I say it because it's true.

And God is so amazing how He ministers to people.

And I think, you know, a person said to me today, how would you describe a guy that was

in a really bad way, never known God before and had experienced such a difficult life?

He said, how would you explain God to me?

And he said, without saying God is love.

He said, I hear it all the time.

And I said, well, that's not an easy thing that you've asked.

But God is kind.

God is gentle.

God is truth.

God is light.

God really cares for your soul.

And He cares for our soul.

And you might say, how do you know, how can you, what evidence can you give me that God

really does love me?

All we have to do is to look a little bit that way and see the cross of Calvary that

a man didn't have to but he did.

But he gave his life for yours.

And he gave his life for mine.

And he gave his life for the entire world.

You might say, how much then does Jesus love me?

He said this much.

And he stretched out his arms.

And he died for you.

He died for you so that you may live.

And not live a life of mediocre, but to live a life of prosperity, I mean prosperity in

the right sense.

That God is for you.

And if God is for you, who or what can be against you?

And here is the creator of the universe who's right behind you, who's right in front of

you, who's right beside you, he's inside of you if you are truly born again.

So who else do we need?

The very person who spoke this world into existence is with you.

The very one who gave of his life is with you.

And not only is he with you, his great grace, which I'm going to explain in the next 15,

20 minutes, that is so freely given to you and to me and to every single person in this

world, his great grace toward you is more than enough.

It's more than what we will ever, ever need in this life.

I'd like to read Romans chapter five, and I'm going to read from verse one.

Prior to that, apostle Paul gives an exposition on faith and Abraham, the father of faith,

and that here is Abraham, he's around a hundred years of age, and God says to him, he said,

look, I've got some news for you, Abraham, that he didn't have any children of his own,

biological children, and God says to him, you're going to be a dad.

And not only are you going to be a dad, you're going to be a father of many nations.

And I want to share this, that there may be times that you feel that you're getting on

in life and you think, what is God going to do with me?

Never give up because God has not finished with you.

Now, I'm not going to say you're going to start having children at the age of a hundred

and walking around like a rooster wherever you go, but what I am saying is this, is that

don't take it that you're a certain age that it's all over.

No, no, it's that God doesn't see age.

He doesn't gauge things by your age.

He gauges it by your heart and your enthusiasm and your willingness to just stretch out and

do just that little bit more for Jesus.

And so it's speaking about how Abraham, he, above all things, he just said, well, you

know what?

I'm near a hundred.

I don't know how this is going to work, but I believe God.

I believe God.

And it was accounted to him being righteous simply because he believed.

And so Romans chapter five from verse one, because where you see it start with a therefore,

there's a connecting, that's a connector.

It's like, according to what has just been said, therefore having been justified.

So we need to find out what was previously said.

As they say, when you see a therefore, you have to find out why the, why the therefore

is therefore.

And I just explained it to you.

So let's start from chapter five, verse one.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus

Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into his grace in which we stand and

rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

When we give thanks to God for his incredible grace, we remember all of the wonderful things

that God has done in your life.

Maybe you're here today or you're listening online and you have not yet encountered the

saving grace of God.

Today is a good day for you then, because at the end of this meeting, there will be

an opportunity for each and every person to experience this wonderful grace of God, the

saving grace of God.

And it's so freely given to every single person.

And I believe many times people pass by it because we haven't understood what is on offer

for humanity.

So this morning, I just want to, and I feel in my spirit to open up just a few passages

of scripture this morning and just trust that the Holy Spirit, who is the author of the

word of God, is going to bring to light the word in your life this morning and just illuminate

with just light the truth of God's word and how much God really does love you.

You know, people say, how could God love me?

Surely, he doesn't know the things that I've done in my life.

I want to address that this morning as well, because God knows everything.

And in spite of us, he still loves us, because that's his nature.

He will never leave you and he'll never forsake you.

And whoever calls on the name of Jesus, the Bible says, will be saved, not might be, will

be.

And so we serve an incredible God.

We have this incredible gospel freely given to us.

And if we would just believe in the true gospel, the true gospel of Jesus Christ, so it says,

for having been justified by faith.

See, here is the thing.

What does it mean to be justified by faith?

30 years ago or so, when I came to the Lord, just like Abram believed God that he's with

his promise that you will be a father of many nations, Chantelle, when she shared the gospel

with me for nine and a half years.

I mean, I was a bit of a slow thinker, but it took nine and a half years for this gospel

to sink in.

But let me tell you, when the gospel touched the bottom of that splintery wooden barrel,

it began to germinate.

God needs a heart, a heart that is open.

And I believe a heart that is emptied of all kinds of religion and philosophies, emptied

of everything so that there that Christ, when his word is preached, that it takes root inside

of us and begins to grow.

And that was certainly my case.

But when I said just before that we've been justified by faith, what does that really

mean?

You see, justification is a work of grace.

Grace is God's love in action.

It's as simple as that.

Being justified, the word justified actually comes from a legal term like a court, in a

court setting, that if you can imagine that a criminal is brought in to be tried in court

and they're guilty.

They're guilty.

And for some reason, the magistrate pardons this guilty prisoner.

Let's take it now into Christianity.

That there are going to be, and let me put it this way, every single person will one

day stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and give an account for our life, every single

one of us.

There's no exception.

Every one of us will give account.

And if we get to that place without our sins being, as they say, absolved or being forgiven

through Christ, we are not going to be in a very good place.

And this is why the gospel of Christ needs to be preached throughout this world.

As many of you know, that through COVID and other things, I wasn't a promoter of rallies

and protests.

Through that time, this church and many others set their heart to a season of evangelism.

Let me tell you, we saw a lot of people come into the kingdom and while others are out

there protesting, there was a remnant of those going out and using the season that we were

in to sow the gospel.

And it was a season of plenty of souls.

It was wonderful.

So in a time of darkness, God's relying on his church to do a work.

When we look at the early church, they were persecuted under death.

They were murdered, thrown to lions.

They were strapped on posts at night, covered in wax and lit as human torches through the

night.

And the average person walked by, hearing the screams of people burning to death and

thought nothing of it.

Yet the early church never protested.

The early church never raised a standard against the authorities of that day because they already

knew that we already under the authority of Christ.

There is no higher authority.

And they knew like they knew that our job is not to jump over and to do things in human

strength.

Our job is to pray to God who created the heavens and earth that do we believe that

when we pray that God hears and that God moves, and we've been asked to pray for our government,

not criticise, and fresh and bitter water cannot come out of the same spring.

And so we can't do both.

I remember the day that the Lord woke me up to this fact.

And I've been, I believe, a better person since.

You can be one or the other, but we can't be both.

And so through this time of COVID, many people were justified.

So what does justified mean?

The day that you and I stand before Jesus, there will be that hearing and there may be

a sentence as the devil would come and say to God, but Rob did this and Rob did that

and Rob did all of those things.

He even admitted it.

Then I would stand, we would stand before the Lord.

He would say, yes, but he's been washed in my blood.

He's been acquitted.

He's been justified.

Devil there's something that you've forgotten that he now is a child of God, that you are

a child of God.

And on that day when you gave your life to Christ and you asked him to forgive you of

all your sin, Christ did exactly that, acquitted you, pardoned you.

It was a legal and a very spiritual thing that took place.

And from the time that you and I, when we came to an altar or at home or wherever it

may have been that we gave our life to Christ, from the time that you got up and wiped your

wet eyes dry, you wiped them dry, from that time that you got up and walked on, you were

acquitted.

You were innocent.

You were pardoned, not by a lawyer or a magistrate here on earth, but by God Almighty, by God

Himself.

He says, no, I have forgiven him.

I have forgiven you.

Therefore you stand before Almighty God justified, just as if you have never ever sinned once

in your life.

Isn't that something?

That is something to be, to shout about, to be excited about because we have been justified,

we have been forgiven.

And how the devil try and works on our past and trying to bring our past into our present

and the times we already know the coming day, it's going to be in our future.

Oh, but if the church of God would grab hold of this every day, devil, I've been justified.

Yes, that was me, past tense.

That's not me, present tense.

Christ has forgiven me.

As far as the East is from the West, so too has he forgotten all of my past, all of your

past.

Is this ministering to somebody this morning?

Why don't you just praise God and shout something because it's gospel.

It really is.

And so Jesus or the Word of God says here, therefore having been justified by faith,

and what do we do?

Did I have to sell my house and all my assets and give it to the church so that I could

be in favor with God?

No, no, no, no, that's a false religion.

You give money and then that way your sins will be absolved according to how much you

give.

That is not the church of Jesus Christ.

That's not it.

And if you've ever been caught in that, you will find this one thing, that while you've

got money, you feel like maybe I'm in right standing with God, but when you're broke,

you feel lousy because you think I've got nothing to give, so therefore I'm a hopeless

sinner.

Salvation does not come through works.

It doesn't come through how much money can be given to the church.

It's none of those things.

It's by faith and faith alone, by believing, believing, and I'm presenting to you the gospel

of Jesus Christ today, that He died for you.

He gave His life for you.

That whoever calls on the name of Jesus, He said, you will be saved.

You'll be saved, you'll be claimed, you'll be given a new nature.

All your past will be gone.

Your future, your present and future, wonderful in God's kingdom.

And it all would come to your life today if you would just say, Lord, I believe you at

your word.

Now, the next challenge that'll happen, I guarantee you this, is the thing, I'm not

worthy.

I'm not worthy.

You know what?

We're not.

Because that.

But He made you worthy by what He did for you.

Can you imagine?

Like I was listening to Mick this morning in the prisons and taking communion into the

prisons, I just, I'd never heard that.

I just thought, Christ is everywhere, reaching out everywhere.

But how many in the prisons would feel that they're not worthy?

In fact, John, up the back there, same, into prisons.

Sorry to wake you up there, brother, but that's okay.

I'm kidding.

That was a joke.

I'm letting you know today, Christ has made you worthy.

And the reason why we feel unworthy is because there's nothing we can do in our natural strength

to make us worthy, and we know that.

So therefore, we've got to rely on what someone else has done for us and lean totally on Him,

which is Jesus.

And the only way that we can experience that if we give our life to Him, it's the only

way.

There are no other ways.

Jesus said, you know, in the gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus said, I am the

John 14:6

way and I am the truth and I am the life and nobody can get to God the Father except through

Him.

There's no other way.

I know I've said this before, but one guy was saying to me, are you Christians are so

narrow minded?

You think you're the only ones that have the only way.

He said to me, you're so narrow minded, you can look through a keel with both eyes at

the same time.

And I thought that was pretty funny.

But sometimes the truth of the gospel makes it look like that.

It can.

You see, we're living in a day, an hour today that there are people see it as there are

truths around.

And my truth doesn't have to be your truth.

And your truth doesn't have to be my truth.

And if we can respect each other's truths, that way we can coexist together and we can

live in tolerance and acceptance.

That's the world we're living in today.

And as soon as somebody says, actually, the Bible says you're automatically branded a

religious fanatic.

There is only one truth.

Jesus said, I am the way.

In other words, he said, if you're looking for a way to make peace with God, there's

only ever been one way and only will ever be one way.

And Jesus is saying, I'm the way.

So if you want to get to God, to be at peace with God, Jesus is your only person.

He's the only one.

He is the only one.

God provided one way for humanity to make peace with God, one way.

And it's not even a religion.

It's a way of life.

It's a relationship.

God's word makes it clear that if you call upon the name of Jesus as your first step

and yield your life to him, you'll experience that pathway is such a beautiful place.

So Jesus said, I am the way.

And he said, I am the truth.

So if he is the truth, anything that tries to resist or project otherwise as to the truth

of Jesus, then automatically makes it a lie.

I was 30 years of age when I got saved and I believed a lie.

I believed, oh, well, everyone told us that, you know, in school, we evolved from monkeys.

Praise the Lord.

Isn't that a great motivator for self-esteem?

To wonder the world is a problem with self-esteem and motivation.

Why are you down today?

Oh, my great-great-grandfather was that much more of an ape than I am and it's just not

helping me a lot.

Can you imagine the theory of evolution?

That's all that ever graduated to only a theory.

The theory of evolution is such a lie.

And it takes more to believe the whole story of these possibilities covered with billions

of years because that's where it hides.

It hides in this timeframe that no one really knows exactly how it happened.

But it happened in this timeframe when we didn't, when we had our back to it, weren't

looking but it happened.

No, it didn't.

You see, the Bible says in the beginning, God created.

In the beginning.

Praise God.

And so we have been justified by faith.

If you truly have made Christ your Lord and Savior, you have been justified.

You have been acquitted of everything that you've done wrong in your life.

It's been paid for when Jesus died on the cross and God raised him from the dead.

Jesus rose as the high priest.

And in Hebrews chapter 9, it makes it clear how he himself presented his own blood into

Hebrews 9 · chapter mention

heaven in the mercy seat, the place where the blood would be poured to make peace for

a nation in the Old Testament.

Well, guess what?

The original one's in heaven.

And right now, the mercy seat in heaven, the blood of Jesus is there right now.

It's not in a shroud somewhere or on a face covering.

It's not, you know, anywhere else.

No, it is in heaven.

And Jesus being the sacrifice, Jesus being the very firstly, the person, innocent, born

of a virgin, 100% God, 100% man, when he showed us how to live life, how to do relationships.

And he taught us so many things.

And we have his word to continue this on a daily basis.

And then he himself gave himself as an offering for sin, that he himself became the spotless

sacrifice without spot and blemish.

And then when he was crucified, he paid the price for our sin.

He went to the grave, totally relying on God himself to raise Jesus from the dead.

See, Jesus' mission was to do what God showed him to do.

He was going to the grave.

And he was so reliant on God and God's faithfulness that God was going to raise him from the dead.

We know that on the third day that Christ rose from the dead.

He rose victoriously, far above all sin, sickness, disease, and everything that has a name in

this world that is of the devil.

It is subject to the name and the authority of the name of Jesus.

And so when Jesus was raised from the dead, he then took on the role of the high priest

to present his own blood, who was the sacrifice, into heaven to atone for the sin of the world.

In other words, to pay the price for our sin.

This is grace.

And so therefore, because when you and I, you know, when I was 30 years of age and I

came to Christ and I asked him to forgive me of my sin, not knowing then but I realize

now, I was making a claim on the blood of Jesus that is eternally in heaven on the mercy

scene.

If you haven't met Christ yet and you do not yet know Christ, today is going to be a great

day for you because you too, this opportunity given, you too, can ask Christ to forgive

you and all of your sins will be washed away, totally forgiven, all because of this great

grace.

How often do we thank God for his grace?

Wonderful grace, the grace of God.

But it goes on to say, having been justified by faith, wonderful victory.

It says we now have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Prior to our salvation, mankind, there was no way that he or she were at peace with God.

And that's why we see so many different religions and so many different philosophies and ways

of life to try and fill that void in the heart of mankind.

So man's always searching for something, depending upon what he finds takes him to where it will

lead him.

But I want to let you know today that Christ himself is the only answer to bridge that

gap from humanity that was once so broken and in sin to be at peace with God.

It's only Jesus.

It's only Jesus.

There's nobody else, there never will be anybody else.

It's him or it's nothing.

And I really believe that in my heart today that there are going to be some that you're

going to say yes to Jesus because he's your only option.

He's your only option.

But to have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, that word peace is the Greek

word RNA, which actually means to join together all the broken pieces.

So many come to Christ broken, life destroying and breaking people.

You see the devil is a tyrant, he's cruel, he's merciless.

He comes to do nothing else but to steal, to kill and to destroy.

That Jesus came to give life and life in its abundance.

And Jesus in this salvation that we've been justified as if we'd never ever sinned, we

come into the family of God and there God begins to put all the broken pieces together

in one's life so that you can be whole again.

Wholeness only comes through Christ.

Salvation only comes through Christ.

Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace, we have wholeness, we are put

back together originally how God designed us to be with the absence of guilt and shame

of the things that we've done wrong in the past.

How good is that?

Come on somebody, somebody say something because this is good news, it is the gospel.

Praise be to God.

And so for us that have been saved for a number of years, how often do we give thanks for

God's grace?

So what is God's grace?

God's grace is His favour toward you that has no limit.

His favour toward you and it doesn't have a limit.

Another expression of grace, I've shared this from this pulpit before, that it's Christ

leaning forward trying to get your attention to say, here I am.

Hello, I'm here.

Leaning toward you to bestow upon you great favour, great blessing of God.

And it's in the setting that if a person was walking along and there were a line of people

and one person's trying to offer you a pamphlet on some Eastern meditation and someone with

border and someone with this and somebody with that and they're all just standing there

but grace is Jesus reaching out in front of all of those others and say, hey, I'm here.

I'm what you need.

I'm the one that you're looking for.

And He's making Himself so available and obvious to see to choose Him.

That's grace.

Grace is also an empowering ability.

We read in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 how Apostle Paul was going through so many tests and trials

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

and almost you can hear him saying, Lord, all I'm ever doing is preaching the gospel

and doing what you called me to do.

And it seems like since I started, all I'm doing is being persecuted.

So Paul prayed this prayer three times, Lord, I want you to take the persecution away from

the ministry, away from my life so that I don't have any distractions with persecution

so I can get on with what you called me to do.

And he prayed three times.

And Jesus kind of like seems like He didn't even hear him, which He did, but He said,

Paul, my grace is sufficient for you.

My empowering ability, my favor, I'm always going to be with you.

I'll never leave you nor forsake you that when you signed up, I said I would be with

you and I'll be with you to the end.

Have you ever been in a place where you felt that God's left you behind and got interested

in somebody else and just like, oh, I'm just here, I'm left by myself?

Anyone ever felt that before?

Amen.

Well, guess what?

He hasn't.

He's still there.

He is still there.

And He will always be there.

Praise be to God.

Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we also have access by faith

into His grace.

You know, I remember saying to Chantelle a number of times that she was saying, you know,

Jesus is calling you.

You know, you've heard the whole gospel.

You know what my thing was that was hindering me?

Because I figured that if God is holy like He is and that, you know, Creator of the universe

and He has order and this is what was going in my mind, then I need to get my life cleaned

up first so I can be respectable so that when I come to Jesus to get saved that I'm not

disrespecting Him.

Has anyone done that before?

I tried from drinking around a carton of beer a day.

I got back to maybe half of that.

And I tried.

I thought I'll try and be nice.

I'll try and do this.

I'll try and do that.

You know, I was wearing myself out with the trying.

Nothing worked.

The more I tried, the harder it got.

It's because I didn't understand grace.

And I remember one particular night I said to Chantelle, if I feel the same way, I'm

going to give my life to Jesus tomorrow.

And that night started a series of about three to six months, I can't remember exactly,

being attacked by demons.

At night when I was asleep, visitations of the demonic and it was horrible.

But I remember this one night I had enough.

Had been on substance and drink that day.

And I went, tried to go to sleep.

I was too scared to sleep.

It was really, really a dreadful thing.

And I said to Chantelle, because I had another one of those things that would just come into

my bedroom, physical form, and just try to finish me off.

And that night was a big one.

And we went into the dining room, I think it was, was at the dining room at 2am in the

morning.

In your PJs, you've been drinking all day and I gave my life to Jesus like that.

It was so foreign to me.

I thought, how could anyone disrespect God?

Now I didn't decide like, I'm going to get drunk and I'm going to, you know, and then

so that I'll go to God like I never intended it to be that way.

And I don't think that would be the right thing to do.

But it was the state that I was in.

I understand.

Jesus just wants you to come as you are.

Broken in pieces.

And that day that I gave my life to Christ, oh let me tell you, I've said it before a

hundred times if not more.

It felt like someone grabbed inside of me and pulled this dead man out of me and I felt

so different.

You see the following day and the days after, I wasn't bound by alcohol.

I wasn't bound by anything anymore.

There was a habit still there that I habitually went to do it and then realised I don't need

it because I had peace.

What was missing in my life was now there, full to overflowing.

Folks, if you're trying to find peace any other avenue apart from Jesus, you're going

to be disappointed.

The only way you can be at peace with God is through Jesus Christ.

It's the only way.

I remember the next day because we had a palm farm, we didn't grow palms, there's palm trees

and I went down there and for the first time I watched a spider spin a web and my eyes

started leaking.

I don't know about you guys but a lot of us fellas, we're brought up, real men don't cry.

Anyone ever know that one?

Real men don't cry.

Well guess what, when Jesus gets hold of your heart and begins to soften it, real men do

cry.

And it's okay for real men to cry.

And I watched the spider spin a web and the trees were beautiful and the grass was green

and I'm thinking how long has it been like this?

It's just a new day for me.

You see God will do a work in your life right now if you give your life to him.

It'll be a new day.

A new day.

Verse three, sorry I haven't finished verse two, we have access by faith into his grace

in which we stand.

As another message there, I don't have time, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Not only that but we also glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation produces perseverance

and perseverance character and character hope.

Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by

the Holy Spirit who has given to us.

Look there is just so much more there that I could get into.

We just don't have time but I will say this, that if you're going through tribulation and

tough times, God's grace is more than enough to get you through.

Is more than enough.

Is more than enough.

Can I just finish on one scripture?

It'll probably only be about five minutes but I feel it's just really important that

I share this because here is the thing that for me it took a while for the realization

to hit me that I was saved by grace and not anything that I did.

Some of us guys, I don't know about ladies, I've never been a lady and I'm not intending

to.

I was born a man, I'll stay a man and I'm happy with that.

Praise the Lord.

But as men we like to try and fix things, work things out and fix everything.

And when we come to spiritual things we realize that nobody can fix spiritual things apart

from Jesus.

It's the only way.

And for some of us men it's a humbling thing to actually accept that.

But once we do, it's done and we receive and understand that for ladies you know when you

say oh Jesus loves you, you know you'll be his bride at the catching away.

Have you ever thought what it feels like for a guy to read that?

I'm going to be the bride?

We know what it means but I want to read something here because I'm trying to put this the best

way with the most impact.

So many walk away from Christ or are discouraged because we just can't get over that hump of

our past life.

It's a big deal, trust me.

For those of us here today who have been pastoring for quite some time, you know what I'm talking

about.

And the devil tries to tie up people so tightly that they can't move.

And I believe that we as Christians, we all have a ministry.

It's one thing to lead someone to Christ and that's wonderful but the next step is to disciple

them, to lead them from darkness to light so that they understand.

And in John chapter 11 we read the story where Jesus, one of his favourite family friends,

John 11 · chapter mention

you know there was Lazarus and Martha and Mary and then Jesus gets the message, Lazarus

has died and Jesus was really upset.

So Jesus in a few days makes his way back there and one of the sisters said Jesus if

you were here you wouldn't have died.

Jesus just didn't entertain those things at all but this is what he did.

Here was Lazarus in the grave.

He'd been there four days and one of them said Lord if you think you're going to raise

him from the dead, I mean I'm putting this in my own words, he'd been there four days,

he's going to smell.

Jesus is focused but he said something to them that I believe is speaking to us today.

He said to them you need to roll that stone away.

Jesus wasn't going to do it and I think there are times in our lives that maybe we haven't

realised there's something we have to do.

I need to roll a stone away.

You see that stone represents finality, death, it'll never live again.

And our faith in Jesus Christ is one of the first steps to say my Lord is with me.

There is life beyond that stone but I will roll that stone away.

It's not works, it's faith.

And the second thing that happened, Jesus cried out and said Lazarus come forth and

out he came alive bound hand and foot.

And Jesus did not then say praise the Lord it's all done, hallelujah, everyone back to

business as usual.

No he said loose him and untie him.

And to me this is one of the most important things that I think is being missed in discipleship

and in Christianity today.

We get people saved but they need to be loosed.

Untie them, untie them and that takes one on one.

That is another realm of grace.

A lot of those bandages are a person's past.

You cannot allow a past to define their future.

You cannot walk backwards into the future.

So what I have to just read is three verses that when I read this as a newly saved Christian,

wow, I didn't understand a lot of the words but I got the message and let me read this

to you.

From 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 9 I'll close from here, that's my first close.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived.

Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor sodomites nor thieves

nor covetous nor drunkards nor revelers nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

And unfortunately too many people stop at verse 10 and do not read the grace loaded

in verse 11.

And such were some of you but you were washed but you were sanctified but you were justified

in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our Lord.

So what am I saying here today?

The church of Jesus Christ today around the world, the church universal has in their congregations

people that were fornicators but now are born again Christians that love God, serve God,

have been forgiven, washed clean.

There are idolaters and adulterers that one time came to Christ and confessed their sin

to him and Christ forgave them.

They were washed, they were cleansed, they were forgiven, they were sanctified waiting

for the glorious day of the return of Jesus.

And within the congregations around the world there'd be idolaters as I've mentioned before

and adulterers.

There'll be homosexuals and sodomites, ones that lived that lifestyle that chose to come

to Jesus and Jesus forgave them, He washed them clean, He set them apart and with a new

heart and a new nature that they are in churches today around the world.

There's a living testimony of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They're free, they're forgiven, they're not to look back but to look forward.

Jesus loves all people, the Christian church loves all people, no exception.

But I notice here how the Bible's making it clear that these people obviously at some

point came to Christ, that Christ loved them enough not to leave them as they were but

to lead them onto greatness, into holiness, into children of the living God.

And around the world thieves, covetous people, drunkards, I was one of them.

Revelers, people that are just like the slanderers and just not nice people, extortionists, they'll

rip you off while they're making a promise.

Such were some of these people in the world but they encountered the grace of God and

He changed them, their life totally changed.

Now that doesn't make you feel like jumping up and doing a lap around the block, nothing

will.

Because such were some of us and today I want to present to you and offer to you and those

watching online that if you feel today that you're unworthy or not making the grade, well

guess what?

There's an answer to that and His name is Jesus.

I'm going to give an altar call, an altar call is when I give an opportunity for those

to respond, to just raise your hand and say yes that is me, I'm ready for that today.

I need this, I need Jesus.

Let me say this, don't let it go another day, don't let it go nine and a half years like

me, it's just like what is wrong with you boy?

When I received Christ I realized why did it take so long?

It wasn't God, it was me.

Praise God.

When Christ saves you, He saves you, He forgives you and you're accepted into the family of

God.

Look there's so much more I could say about the gospel, we're out of time.

So that's today, today is the day of salvation.

Now I want you to be bold, be strong in your decision today because either way we're going

to make a choice.

This morning you're going to make a choice yes or no to Jesus, it's as simple as that.

But if you choose to say yes to Jesus I can guarantee you this much, you are going to

experience a peace in your heart that you've never experienced before, a wholeness, contentment

that Christ is with you and He is never ever ever going to leave you.

Amen?

Amen?

Amen.

Well can we all just stand, if you're able, if you're not able to stand stay seated.

I'm going to make this very easy this morning but it's up to you from here.

I'm going to lead you through a prayer very similar to the one that Shantel led me in

some 30 years ago.

Can you imagine 30 years ago?

I don't look a day over 40 or a bit and if you truly mean from your heart what you're

about to pray the greatest miracle that can ever happen to any human being will happen

to you today.

It'll happen for you and that is this grace, this forgiveness, this justification just

as if you've never sinned.

How good is that?

How good is that?

All right if we could just do this for a sec in respect to the Lord if we bow our heads you

can close your eyes if you wish, you don't have to.

I'm going to pray a prayer and I'm not going to ask if you, I'm asking if you can repeat

this after me and if you do and you mean it from your heart Jesus is going to do a wonderful

work in your life today.

Are you ready?

Okay please follow me in prayer.

Father God I come to you in the name of Jesus.

I believe in my heart and I confess with my mouth that you Jesus are the Son of God and

you died for me.

God did you raise him from the dead for me.

This day I confess everything I've done wrong before you Lord and I ask that you would forgive

me and justify me just as if I have never sinned once in my life.

Jesus I give my life to you.

Amen.

Now while every eyes closed and every head bowed or if you've prayed that prayer for

the first time today can you do something for me?

Very quickly raise your hand up very quickly.

Let me, I see that hand over there, I see that hand over there, I see three hands, are

there any more?

Anyone here this morning?

I see two hands over there, I see another one here.

Oh thank you Jesus.

I thank you Jesus.

Praise be to God.

You can put your hand down, praise be to God.

I'm going to ask you to do a second thing if you would be so bold.

I feel in my spirit to pray for you.

Would you be so bold to come forward and let me pray for you?

Allow me to, would you do that?

Just come just quickly.

Don't be shy and if you're shy just get someone that you came with whatever take you would

drag them down and say hey I'm a chicken today just come with me.

That's okay, it's all right.

Amen.

Praise the Lord.

And some more, and some more, there's some more.

Isn't it a wonderful thing to see salvation in the house of God?

Praise God.

Thank you for joining us.

We pray God's richest blessing on your life.

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You can also find us at LoganCityChristianChurch.com.

See you next week.