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Nov. 28, 2023

The Dangers of Covenant Mixing and the Power of God's Grace

The Dangers of Covenant Mixing and the Power of God's Grace
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CityLight NYC Church

Get ready to unravel the mysteries of the Old and New Covenants in the Bible. We promise you an enlightening journey where you will comprehend the importance of living under the New Covenant, as opposed to mixing it with the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant symbolizes the law - a mirror to show humanity their inability to reach God’s holy standard. On the other hand, the New Covenant, embodied by Sarah, represents grace - a finished work that assures believers their acceptance and approval by God. Through this exploration, you'll appreciate the significance of these two covenants and understand why they can't coexist.

We continue this spiritual exploration by addressing the consequences of mixing the covenants, a common mistake that often clouds our understanding of God's grace. We expose the misconception of needing to add to the completed work on the cross for salvation. As believers, God’s favor is already upon us; we don't need to earn it through our efforts. Our conversation takes you back to the early church, using examples like circumcision to illustrate how this issue has persisted. We share our personal struggles with this mindset, nudging you to consistently evaluate your motives and actions in light of God's grace.

Lastly, we dissect the vital topic of faith and its connection to our relationship with God. We eradicate the misunderstanding that God’s help is earned by works, underlining that our salvation and righteousness are anchored solely on Jesus' completed work on the cross. Your faith, nurtured through love, is a key to experiencing God's grace fully. Remember, you don't have to overburden yourself with trying to meet a standard; instead, embrace the love and grace of God. This episode promises to be a spiritual feast, and we can't wait for you to partake in it!

Transcript
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How many of you are righteous and have rights standing with God?

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Let me see your hand.

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You have it right now.

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You are saved right now because faith says I have it now.

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Hope says hope is great, but hope is in the future, hope is for tomorrow.

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But now faith says I have it now.

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So you say I believe in Jesus, I believe that he died on the cross for my salvation.

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You're saved now.

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Welcome to the City Light Church podcast.

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Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us.

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If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at CityLightNYCcom.

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That's CityLightNYCcom.

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Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds.

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As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace and that he has a real hope and a future for you.

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We're in the middle of a series on Galatians.

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We don't often do a series here, but when we do, it's usually on Galatians.

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And here we are right now in the middle.

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We're in chapter five.

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So let me do a brief recap for the benefit of everyone, including the first-time guest and those of you who've been here for every single service of this series.

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We call it the Clash of the Covenants, the clash between the Old Covenant system of God's law and the New Covenant system of God's grace.

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And you'll see, throughout the New Testament you'll see clashes of it, but nowhere like in the book of Galatians, where that's the primary thing, over and over and over again.

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That's addressed and there's such benefits to really understanding the New Covenant of God's grace and actually living there, as opposed to what we too often find, which is a mixing of the two different systems.

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And Paul says that if you mix, you actually get nothing.

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You have now nullified and frustrated the grace of God, and if there's mixture in your life, you're actually not mixing, but you're living under the Old Covenant system of the law.

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You might say what's so bad about that?

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Well, I'll define the Old Covenant system of God's law for you.

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It is a system I use that word system because that's one of the definitions for dispensation a system of order.

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It's a way in which we would relate to God, and it was based on our ability to keep God's law.

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Hint, we didn't have any.

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We constantly, under the system of law, kept falling and coming up short.

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And so, under the Old Covenant system of law, you endeavored and attempted to be approved onto God, based on your own lawkeeping, based on your own holiness, based on your own strength and effort.

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It really was a system designed to show us up.

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That was the pretty definition.

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Here's a more vernacular definition, just kind of off the cup it's a system meant to show you up and cure you of your pride, where you would keep falling and realize that you're not all.

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That.

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That's it.

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It's a system where you realize you're not all, that You're stripped of your pride.

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You realize that there is a holy standard that's imposed upon you, but you are not giving any ability to meet and rise up to that holy standard, and so it forces you to look to a Savior, it forces you to look to God, who can now do for you on this side of the cross.

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He can do for you what you could never do for yourself.

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Under the new Covenant system you're already past tense.

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There's a rest in ED, past tense, completed, finished.

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Under the new Covenant system you already past tense are totally approved unto God.

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You're accepted, you're forgiven, not based on what you've done or anything that you could ever do, but based on what he has done for you already.

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Amen.

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And so we just finished Galatians, chapter four, where Paul.

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He talked about Abraham and Abraham's wife Sarah, and how they were given a promise that they were going to have Isaac.

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And Paul himself says Isaac is representative of the new Covenant.

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In fact, isaac's name means laughter because when you fully are living in the new Covenant, you'll have joy.

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Amen, you'll have a lot of laughter.

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This is what the world even notices that whenever there is religion there's no joy.

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And the old Covenant system of the law is religious Religion.

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The very word means back to bondage.

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What's the bondage?

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The bondage is that you have to work, you have to push, you have to try, you have to.

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The burden is on you.

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You have to cross every T and dot every I.

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It's exhausting.

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But Isaac means laughter because under the new Covenant you realize, just like the song we sang, he did all the work for you and passed that victory on to you.

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That brings a ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ha.

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That's why I believe the Holy Spirit touches some people to laugh in service.

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By the way, the Holy Spirit wants to touch all people and fill them with joy.

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Some people yield and laugh Amen, because letting you know the new Covenant, it's a completed work.

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He contrasts Sarah, who had Isaac and that's the new Covenant, with Hagar, who had Ishmael.

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That was a product of the flesh, a product of self-effort, and he says that's symbolic of the old Covenant system of the law.

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And then he says you cannot have them live in the tent.

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What was the word back then?

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The word was drive out, cast out.

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Hagar and Ishmael.

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They cannot live together in the same room, in the same house.

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They can't be together in the same tent.

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What's Paul saying?

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He's saying you cannot have the old Covenant system and the new Covenant system in the same tent.

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You cannot have any mixture.

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Pick one and go all in.

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Then, if you want to be approved unto God, based on your own self-effort, based on your holiness, then go all in.

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The only catch is under the system of law if you're guilty of breaking it on not only one area, you're guilty of breaking the entire thing.

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So you have to be perfect forever on this side of heaven, without one slip up.

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Who's ready to take that challenge on?

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Oh well, welcome to the new Covenant then.

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Under the new Covenant, he's already kept the law and its perfection for you and transferred that victory over to you Amen.

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So let's continue on.

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In Galatians, chapter five, he spent all this time describing and illustrating and declaring this great liberty that we have as a result of grace, as a result of the completed work of Jesus under the new Covenant, and his admonition is for us to stand firmly.

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Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

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What's the yoke of bondage?

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It's living under the old system of the law and another place, in Corinthians, he called that system the ministry of death.

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It keeps producing death in you.

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If you're looking at yourself and trusting in yourself and taking on the responsibility of trying to please God, it's going to bring death.

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So what's the solution?

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Shouldn't I be trying to please God?

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You should realize that when you put your faith in Jesus, you already are totally pleasing to him.

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So, even with all my stuff, yes, yes, he sees you through a lens of the blood of Jesus.

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He sees you in Christ.

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There's nothing you could do to cause him to love you anymore.

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There's nothing you could do to add to the already finished work.

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There's nothing you could do to manipulate him into making you more righteous.

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It's done.

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And now out of that now flows fruit, not works, but fruit Fruit, and you look more like Jesus and you act more like Jesus.

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But the motivation is different.

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It's not because you're trying to get God to approve of you more, it's because you're resting that you already are approved.

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Do you see the difference?

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It's a huge difference.

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It'll make a huge difference in your peace.

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It'll make a huge difference in the way you receive prayer.

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Answers to prayer, verse two.

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Indeed, I, paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, christ will profit you nothing.

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Now, here he was dealing with these Judaizers who came in and they told the believing Christians it's nice that you believe in Jesus, but you also have to do something.

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This sounds like church to me.

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Nice that you receive Jesus.

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I feel like in church we do this, this bait and switch tactic.

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We tell people salvation is free, your forgiveness is free and we get them in the door, we get them in the seat and then we do the bait.

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We got them in with the bait, then we do the switch Okay, but now in order to stay saved.

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And then we make them work.

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And we make them work and we put all this law on them to extract more stuff from them more work, more money, more whatever and it produces death in them.

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And they've been guilted and manipulated and their motive is now all off.

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They're trying to add to the finished work of the cross.

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They're working.

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They think that if I do X, Y, z, then God is obligated to do ABC for me.

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And it's this weird transactional relationship.

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It's wrong, it's off, it produces death.

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Amen, Go back, just keep it there.

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Thank you, because a lot of people get hung up with if you become circumcised, christ will profit you nothing, because that was the problem that they were dealing with.

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They were saying you have to also be circumcised.

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Now, that's not the problem.

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Today we don't have any group coming in, thankfully, and telling all the men in the church, but we do have other teachings, other preachers, also the sound of our own head.

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That will always side with the system of the law.

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The way we've been brought up, our fallen nature, our unredeemed mind, will always side with the system of the law, so that we will think we have to add to the completed work when the whole declaration of the new covenant, the declaration that he reiterates over and over again in Galatians, is Jesus plus nothing equals everything, not Jesus plus the stuff that you do, hallelujah.

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Let's keep reading verse three, and I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised, who adds to the finished work of the cross that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.

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You gotta do the whole thing now.

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And if you're living that way, he says you have become in the next verse.

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You've become in the next verse, you've become estranged from Christ.

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The Bible says when you're saved you're married to Jesus.

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But if you turn your eyes onto yourself and your own strength, your own self effort, and you think that you fit into that equation of salvation, he's taking you out of the equation.

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All you have to do is receive.

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That's great news.

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You wanna get all involved Now?

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You're divorced from Christ.

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You who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace.

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Look at that phrase fallen from grace.

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Have you ever seen that phrase fallen from grace before?

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Whenever a pastor falls, the next day, the headlines are so and so falls from grace.

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But why don't we let the Bible define the Bible?

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And that's not how the Bible uses that statement.

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Falling from grace never in the Bible means that you fell into sin.

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Look how Paul uses it.

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It means that you're mixing the covenants.

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It means that you're not living under grace.

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That's what it means to fall from grace.

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When we were in Guatemala, we try to go back every year.

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We're going again in February.

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We've partnered with the Guatemala mission since 2009.

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And I would notice some folks lying in the street, totally drunk out of their mind, and I asked the missionary about them and he said oh yeah, the church gave up on them and they told them that they've fallen from grace and maybe you've heard that statement fallen from grace with regard to somebody who fell into sin.

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And I asked about the stories and the stories when something like they went back to alcohol, the church said oh no, you've fallen from grace.

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And then guess where they ended up?

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They ended up drinking more alcohol and they ended up sleeping in the gutter for 16 hours a day.

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And now the church has turned their back and I'm saying, oh, you've fallen from grace.

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If you sin, you don't have to sin, but should you fall, the Bible never says you fell from grace.

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In fact, if you're a Christian and you fall, you fall into the arms of a loving savior.

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He still loves you, you're still forgiven.

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But when you hear the lie that you've fallen from grace, it only forces you into sin even further.

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Falling from grace means that you've turned your back on grace.

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Falling from grace means that you're mixing covenants.

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Falling from grace means you're trusting in yourself.

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I'm so glad God is stable, unlike us.

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God is strong, unlike us.

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I'm so glad he's not moody like us, up and down emotional, like us.

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We talk about these things.

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I know they might not be unrelatable, but a good thing, you know, because circumcision isn't relatable right now.

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No group is going to come in from the outside protesting us, because some men may not be, but all of us.

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I do this inventory of my life on the daily.

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What am I doing where I think I'm scoring points with the big guy?

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What am I doing where I feel that I can maybe get God to look at me more favorably?

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That's mixing the covenants.

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We do this kind of stuff all the time.

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I shared in the first service.

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I'll share it here.

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We were on vacation this summer, went to Montenegro, then went to Bosnia.

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We were in Sarajevo and I just said very frankly when I'm on vacation, my prayer life is very different.

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It's not exactly like I'm waking up in the morning and pressing in for several hours.

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You know, I'm chilling.

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My prayer life is holding my wife's hand and going, oh, hallelujah.

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Oh, you know, lord, this is so beautiful.

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Praise the Lord, get a cappuccino, jesus, I love you and we're just enjoying, you know.

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And we're doing that for days and one night we're going to bed.

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It's midnight in the Sarajevo hotel room and my phone rings and I see that it's my neighbor.

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My stomach just dropped.

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It's my neighbor from New York.

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I pick up the phone.

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I hear hey, man, big flood, lots of rain, your place is totally flooded.

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So is mine.

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I'm across the Atlantic Ocean and the first thing that I hear is because you're not praying like you should be.

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Oh, now you're going to come to God and ask Him to help.

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Now you're going to come and ask for a miracle.

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I heard that.

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This is me, I'm the preacher of grace, but I heard that voice, I heard that satanic.

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Do you think you're going to now just go into prayer mode and you're going to just activate God's?

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No, see, there's people who think like if they were to get a call like that, they think, well, I can't now come to God.

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I'm not in the right place with Him.

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You're in the right place with Him, so they think I need to pay in some way.

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So they go.

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Okay, maybe I'll fast, maybe I'll first warm up with a three hour little prayer session just to show God that I mean business and that I'm serious and that really I just got distracted with Europe.

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But really his heart is mine and mine is his, and I'll show him it's still the same homie and they'll work and they'll work and then at the end they'll go also.

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God, my place flooded and maybe you can come and help me out with that.

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Haven't I showed you how that's mixing you?

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Let some Judaizing something come into your life.

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I'm there at midnight.

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I'm not feeling particularly spiritual.

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I'd baklava all over me, we're on vacay and hotel room hanging out.

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I thought I thought I had that.

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I went.

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No, jesus, you are good Jesus, you are solid, you are stable and you're not relating to me based on my works.

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You're relating to me based on the finished, completed, done work of the cross.

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Do you believe that?

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And I had to just do a reship, lord, I am as qualified right now to receive answers to prayer as I would be if I was in the middle of a missions trip and a simultaneous 40 day fast.

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Amen.

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If you think differently, it's only because of emotions.

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It's only because of the feelings and the thoughts swirling about in your own head and emotions go up and down.

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You might wake up on a Wednesday.

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You know I don't feel like God is with me, because it's ugly and raining outside and somehow you think God.

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No, his word doesn't change, amen.

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And if you're looking to Jesus, you've not fallen from grace.

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You don't fall from grace by slipping on a sinful banana peel.

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You fall from grace when you make the decision to depart from grace and to allow mixture.

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I keep using that word.

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It's not because I made it up.

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That's the cry of Galatians no mixture, no mixture allowed.

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Get them out of the same tent.

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They can't even live under the same roof.

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Verse five For we, through the spirit, eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

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Remember how many of you are righteous right now and every hand don't make me run around this place how many of you are righteous and have rights standing with God.

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Let me see your hand.

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You have it right now.

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You are saved right now because faith says I have it now.

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Hope says hope is great, but hope is in the future.

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Hope is where tomorrow.

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But now faith says I have it now.

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So you say I believe in Jesus, I believe that he died on the cross for my salvation.

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You're saved now, at the same time it's in the future.

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This is why Paul can say over and over again that the devil has been defeated past tense.

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But then in Romans he says and the God of peace will crush Satan shortly underneath your feet, kind of putting it in the future.

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We say oh, contradiction in the Bible.

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Which one is it?

20:07.980 --> 20:10.464
The answer is yes, it's both.

20:11.800 --> 20:25.063
He has already delivered past tense you from the power of darkness, but on that final day, when Satan will be cast into the lake of fire, that'll find its apex, that'll find its complete fulfillment, amen.

20:25.940 --> 20:26.924
Just like with our salvation.

20:26.964 --> 20:27.646
We're saved now.

20:28.180 --> 20:34.651
We have righteousness now, but on that day we'll see the culmination of our salvation, hallelujah.

20:35.060 --> 20:40.062
So that's why he says, through the Spirit, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

20:41.460 --> 20:43.467
It's both now and in the future.

20:44.580 --> 20:58.128
For in Christ Jesus, verse six for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love.

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Faith working through love, everything you've ever received from the Lord.

21:05.304 --> 21:07.262
You know how you got it by faith.

21:08.780 --> 21:12.305
Salvation you receive by faith, answers to prayer by faith.

21:13.060 --> 21:16.951
Jesus was the ultimate faith preacher, preached a lot on faith everywhere he went.

21:17.380 --> 21:19.405
It's like he had a faithometer.

21:21.880 --> 21:23.104
He would detect people's faith.

21:24.328 --> 21:25.210
He had a faithometer.

21:25.400 --> 21:26.084
It was in his own spirit.

21:26.942 --> 21:30.568
Oh you of little faith, oh you great is your faith.

21:31.040 --> 21:35.989
To some people you don't want to hear him say this he said where is your faith?

21:37.153 --> 21:40.846
Not little, not great, I don't even is this thing on.

21:43.460 --> 21:47.910
And he would say according to your faith, be it unto you in proportion to your.

21:49.240 --> 21:56.005
So that means I want to have robust, strong faith, because I will receive from heaven in proportion to my faith.

21:57.080 --> 22:00.890
How do I get an active, robust faith?

22:01.800 --> 22:05.223
One thing that I'm allergic to is a lot of praying with no, I got to see results.

22:09.420 --> 22:20.665
Prayer is not a time, especially group prayer, where we just kind of all become social together and let's have a little time with God and maybe, per chance, maybe one out of 10 of the things we ask for will get answered.

22:20.880 --> 22:22.606
No, every one of those things should be answered.

22:23.860 --> 22:25.205
So how do we get robust faith?

22:25.526 --> 22:26.148
How does it work?

22:26.660 --> 22:27.725
I'm so glad you asked.

22:28.180 --> 22:29.846
I'm so glad the apostle Paul answered.

22:30.540 --> 22:33.167
Faith works by love.

22:35.120 --> 22:40.842
Now, everything that we get, we see it through that filter, through that lens of the system of law.

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So typically you'll read something like this and you'll immediately put a works burden on yourself.

22:47.340 --> 22:48.666
You'll say, oh, I know what the Bible is saying.

22:49.080 --> 22:55.486
It's saying that if I'm more loving to people, then my faith will work, and maybe you've heard it even preached that way.

22:55.860 --> 22:56.483
Is your faith not?

22:56.960 --> 23:00.264
Are you tired Not getting answered a prayer?

23:00.760 --> 23:02.125
Is your faith not working?

23:02.900 --> 23:05.248
Try being nicer to people, love them.

23:05.920 --> 23:07.723
Dial 1-800-NICE-TO-PEOPLE.

23:13.620 --> 23:15.166
That's not what the scripture is talking about.

23:16.140 --> 23:17.024
Faith works by love.

23:17.460 --> 23:22.412
Your faith will work when you are receiving the love of God Love of God.

23:23.000 --> 23:34.825
By the way, the byproduct of receiving the love of God, besides robust faith, is that you'll have his love to give away and as a byproduct, you'll be kinder, you'll be gentler, you'll be more loving to all the people that are in your life.

23:35.300 --> 23:40.652
And here the emphasis is on you receiving mega doses of the love of God.

23:41.060 --> 23:45.170
When you're really drinking of the love of God, your faith will be strong.

23:45.980 --> 23:48.745
So chug, chug, chug.

23:48.785 --> 23:50.128
Become a daily sipper.

23:53.260 --> 23:57.903
Wake up in the morning and take a big chug of the love of God Right before breakfast.

23:58.244 --> 24:01.363
Take a big chug of the love of God All throughout the day.

24:02.660 --> 24:03.904
Chug, receive his love.

24:04.426 --> 24:05.189
How do you do that?

24:05.701 --> 24:07.347
I don't know what works for you.

24:07.900 --> 24:08.844
I know what works for me.

24:09.620 --> 24:12.168
You got to figure out this is the part where we get into relationship.

24:12.880 --> 24:15.467
You got to figure out how to dance with Jesus.

24:16.940 --> 24:18.586
You got to figure out what works for you.

24:19.540 --> 24:24.385
And here's the thing so many people get stuck early on in the Christianity because they don't know how to explore that.

24:25.340 --> 24:26.284
How do I relate to him?

24:26.680 --> 24:35.367
And they keep him at arm's length and they keep it all like clinical and distant and artificial, get loose with him a little bit.

24:36.860 --> 24:44.165
And so for me one day it might be reading the Psalms and I'm like, oh, I'll see his love for me in the Psalms.

24:44.620 --> 24:48.049
The next day I might just wake up and praying tongues in the shower the whole time.

24:49.020 --> 24:56.025
The next day it could be that I'm just silent before him the next day or season, not literally a day, I'm not.

24:57.327 --> 24:58.650
I'm erratic, but not that erratic.

24:59.111 --> 25:07.748
There's seasons, there's, there were seasons where I would just talk for hours a day and there are seasons where I couldn't even say anything.

25:07.940 --> 25:08.783
I didn't feel like I should.

25:09.485 --> 25:10.829
I'd just be quiet, I'd just sit there.

25:11.540 --> 25:14.865
I'd just think about his goodness, think about what he did for me on the cross.

25:15.700 --> 25:19.443
Either way, get to a place and you have freedom, you've been forgiven.

25:20.620 --> 25:23.031
Get to a place where you're like a sponge and you know how to.

25:23.995 --> 25:27.268
You know how to pull on the love of God all throughout the day.

25:27.580 --> 25:34.233
The enemy does not want you encountering the love of God on the daily, and NYC is not here to help.

25:35.061 --> 25:42.025
I am convinced now, safe to say, there are parts of the country that are more conducive to receiving God's love.

25:43.201 --> 25:44.504
Nyc is not high on the list.

25:48.700 --> 25:53.809
Just, I feel like you need to have the gladiator arm or sharpen your elbows and you, just you get it.

25:53.829 --> 25:55.191
We all have our defenses on.

25:55.692 --> 25:56.694
Take a chill, just chill.

25:57.300 --> 25:58.065
I'm going to keep you safe.

26:00.140 --> 26:00.561
You don't have.

26:00.782 --> 26:02.066
You have to receive his love.

26:02.106 --> 26:02.869
This isn't a choice.

26:03.200 --> 26:05.164
If you don't, you're going to dry up and your faith will be.

26:06.167 --> 26:07.610
They'll always be like a short circuit.

26:07.670 --> 26:08.351
It won't be working.

26:10.281 --> 26:17.877
So, hallelujah, women tend to receive the love of God quicker, easier.

26:18.906 --> 26:24.730
Men, we've been messed up, we've heard wrong things and we've hardened up and man figure it out.

26:25.706 --> 26:27.667
Talk to him, yell at him.

26:27.787 --> 26:28.810
He's not, he's not offended.

26:29.131 --> 26:29.773
Read the Psalms.

26:30.194 --> 26:31.738
Half of them are people shouting at God.

26:33.546 --> 26:35.372
It's true, he will.

26:35.393 --> 26:36.605
He's not, he's not scared of you.

26:38.409 --> 26:42.258
He will show himself loving and strong on your behalf, amen.

26:44.606 --> 26:47.510
Next verse so faith works through love.

26:48.011 --> 26:48.834
Receive his love.

26:49.175 --> 26:49.917
Your faith will work.

26:51.006 --> 26:54.385
Whenever I feel like my faith isn't working, that's the first place I go.

26:54.806 --> 26:56.452
Am I really receiving the love of God?

26:56.472 --> 26:56.794
And then I'll.

26:56.854 --> 26:59.925
And then I'll always notice and all the dark periods of my life.

27:00.286 --> 27:01.612
They have the same thing in common.

27:03.168 --> 27:11.233
The same thing that's in common is I took my eyes off of his love for me and I made it about something else.

27:11.373 --> 27:18.135
It could be so many other things, so often a works mentality of performing for him, trying to win his approval.

27:18.596 --> 27:19.919
Oh, you've fallen from grace.

27:22.446 --> 27:23.429
You ran well.

27:23.930 --> 27:24.733
Who hindered?

27:25.194 --> 27:32.865
That's a military, a strategic military term where they would come in and Break up the roads going in and out of the city to lay siege of the city.

27:33.366 --> 27:34.469
He's saying who did that to you?

27:34.509 --> 27:42.116
You were on a road called grace and you allowed someone To destroy it and to prevent you, to hinder you.

27:43.527 --> 27:45.234
Who hindered you from obeying the truth.

27:46.687 --> 27:54.385
The covenant mixers, the Judaizers it's usually not an outside group today, it's the voice of our own mind.

27:56.710 --> 28:21.951
Verse 8 this persuasion, this persuasion To mix the two systems, to mix the two covenants, to rely on yourself to try to serve God in your own strength, to add to the finished work of the cross, this persuasion does not come from him who calls you a little leaven Leavens the whole lump.

28:23.829 --> 28:25.354
Mom, do you remember all that bread you made?

28:25.394 --> 28:25.996
When I was a kid?

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My mom was baking fresh bread before it was cool to bake fresh bread, before the hipsters were baking bread and a little apartment in Forest Hills, queens.

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My mom was breaking fresh bread and I come up to the kitchen counter and I'd look and she'd take a little yeast, a little Leaven and it'll leaven the whole lump, the whole loaf of bread.

28:46.767 --> 28:54.878
Here's what the Apostle Paul is saying a little Law is too much, it'll mess up the whole loaf of bread.

28:55.886 --> 28:59.717
But preachers love, because they secretly don't trust you.

29:02.167 --> 29:04.537
You know, I don't want you to get too uppity in your freedom.

29:04.717 --> 29:05.501
I'll lose control.

29:06.083 --> 29:11.380
So I Gotta, I gotta, mix this great gospel of grace and freedom.

29:11.801 --> 29:15.450
I gotta remember emerald Bam kick it up a notch, throw a little dash.

29:16.492 --> 29:18.196
No, I gotta stop doing my like.

29:18.276 --> 29:19.578
90s and early 2000s.

29:19.739 --> 29:24.134
I just, you know, as you get older your jokes don't progress and so it loses.

29:24.274 --> 29:29.089
20 years goes by like this and Well, the 30s.

29:29.149 --> 29:34.666
I was like that's funny, pre.

29:34.947 --> 29:35.791
Or let me, let me try again.

29:37.245 --> 29:40.725
Preachers are notorious for salt and peppering.

29:42.309 --> 29:45.517
They're teachings and churches with the system of law.

29:46.726 --> 29:54.738
Really, because we don't trust you, we can get a lot more work and a lot more money out of you if we mix some law with it.

29:58.046 --> 29:59.853
I'm saying the stuff I'm not supposed to say.

29:59.873 --> 30:00.695
You should be loving this.

30:03.347 --> 30:05.587
It's not right, it's wrong.

30:05.968 --> 30:06.789
It leads to death.

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It leads to being estranged and divorced from Christ.

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It leads to death and frustration inside of you.

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Preachers feel let me try to rephrase that maybe I lost you with 11 analogy.

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Try another way.

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It's gonna come out the same way.

30:25.308 --> 30:36.065
We, we, we Feel that you're not to be trusted with, really, the freedom of grace and the liberty of grace.

30:36.446 --> 30:40.857
So we try to temper God's amazing grace with some good old-fashioned law.

30:43.127 --> 30:51.745
You have to, you have to, you have to, and that's what the old system of law is thou shalt, thou shalt, thou shalt.

30:52.087 --> 30:56.105
We read just the other week that the new covenant isn't about you, it's not about me.

30:56.526 --> 30:59.613
The finger isn't wagging at you saying thou shalt not, thou shalt not.

30:59.974 --> 31:11.180
He, when he establishes the new covenant, says I Will form a new covenant with you, I will take out the heart of stone, I will put in a heart of flesh.

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I want his, I will not my.

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You must I Fail?

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He doesn't fail.

31:18.512 --> 31:23.185
So what this is saying is stay away from the leaven.

31:24.789 --> 31:26.313
You smell that system of law.

31:27.075 --> 31:31.149
Get it away, because a little will leaven the whole lump.

31:32.593 --> 31:34.698
And hopefully we try to present everything that way.

31:36.746 --> 31:41.357
For example, pastor James, he made an invitation for people to come and help with Christmas decorating.

31:42.466 --> 31:48.874
We want to see this whole place up, you know, like Radio City back in the day, and we really need some people to come and help.

31:49.094 --> 31:52.205
Pastor Moe is gonna have the hot cocoa going and decorate this whole place up.

31:52.706 --> 31:54.110
Do you notice how he presented that?

31:54.170 --> 31:57.017
You may not have even heard him because he just said if you can come.

31:57.966 --> 32:00.050
He didn't say how many of you love Jesus.

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Give me a J, j, give me an E.

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Get everybody hyped up.

32:04.018 --> 32:04.979
Everybody love Jesus.

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All right now.

32:07.448 --> 32:10.696
If you really love Jesus, you're gonna come and show it and help decorate.

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Everybody, pass the sign-up sheet up and down.

32:14.613 --> 32:21.153
This stuff happens all the time to manipulate you, to guilt you, to To extract something out of you.

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No, we're gonna trust here's a novel idea we're gonna trust the Holy Spirit inside of you.

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Ah, do you know?

32:30.789 --> 32:33.306
Our church is death-free, hallelujah.

32:33.326 --> 32:38.258
That's rare for churches, and it's not because we're whipping people telling them that if they don't hide they're gonna be cursed.

32:41.567 --> 32:58.433
It's not like our church is that free and we're in barely, but we have staff and we have numerous International missions projects that we give generously to, and you, thankfully, in nearly 22 years, not once have I had to stand here and say it's been a bad year for City Line.

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We may not be around unless, unless you reach into your pocket and dig real deep.

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What are we doing?

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We're trusting the Holy Spirit, under the new covenant, to speak to his people.

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That means my primary job, then, is to make sure that you are full of the word and full of the Spirit, so we can get the job done.

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Amen, hallelujah.

33:21.568 --> 33:24.990
Verse 10 Is this helping you?

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I?

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There's a lot of things I can teach, and of course I have and I will.

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But I don't know anything better To get you on the road to victory, to get you.

33:36.176 --> 33:39.285
Here's a novel idea, also to get you enjoying your salvation.

33:39.305 --> 33:46.485
Salvation, then, a proper understanding of the finished work of the cross and the new covenant of his grace.

33:46.626 --> 33:47.899
I can't think of anything better.

33:47.919 --> 33:56.893
And I didn't get it till I was a few years old in the Lord, and I was simultaneously Joyous and very upset that they didn't tell me sooner.

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Why didn't they tell me sooner?

33:59.866 --> 34:01.131
Turns out, they weren't hiding it from me.

34:01.151 --> 34:03.158
They themselves didn't know they were.

34:03.920 --> 34:05.104
They were victims of victims.

34:05.124 --> 34:10.057
I have confidence in you, in the Lord.

34:10.178 --> 34:11.341
You see how that throws that in.

34:11.902 --> 34:14.009
So I have confidence in you, well, really, in the Lord, in you.

34:15.926 --> 34:17.630
And if you have confidence in me, adjust that.

34:17.730 --> 34:21.538
Have confidence in the Jesus in me, have confidence in the Jesus in you.

34:21.886 --> 34:26.458
I've confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind.

34:26.886 --> 34:32.009
But he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.

34:33.446 --> 34:38.979
Now the Bible says there is therefore now a little bit of condemnation to those who are in Christ.

34:40.006 --> 34:40.849
No condemnation.

34:40.910 --> 34:42.154
Condemnation means judgment.

34:44.245 --> 34:48.509
Jesus was totally judged, totally condemned.

34:49.231 --> 34:54.025
The wrath of God that you and I deserved, that wrath was exhausted on Jesus.

34:55.345 --> 35:00.468
So is there any more condemnation and judgment left for the person who is in Christ?

35:06.252 --> 35:12.207
No, there is no more judgment, no more condemnation.

35:12.650 --> 35:16.993
God cannot condemn you when he has already condemned your sin in Jesus.

35:18.170 --> 35:18.492
Amen.

35:19.170 --> 35:24.097
The whole story of the children of Israel fleeing Egypt and the Passover lamb.

35:24.530 --> 35:33.377
They were told to slay the first born lamb and apply the blood to the doorposts, and when the death angel came, he would pass over the house with the blood.

35:33.417 --> 35:33.678
Why?

35:34.310 --> 35:36.998
Death cannot come where death has already been.

35:38.030 --> 35:41.460
Judgment cannot come to you where you have already been judged.

35:41.890 --> 35:44.278
You have already been judged, but in the person of Jesus.

35:44.750 --> 35:46.677
You wanna know what that judgment looks like, how severe.

35:47.070 --> 35:51.782
Look at the Son of God whipped, beaten, brutalized, pierced.

35:52.150 --> 35:55.998
That was the judgment that we deserved, and he was separated from God, the Father, on the cross.

35:56.450 --> 36:01.776
That's really where the pain was, where he cried out Eloi, eloi, lama Sabachtini.

36:01.816 --> 36:03.615
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

36:03.730 --> 36:08.455
So that you would never be judged and God would never turn his back on you and you would never be forsaken.

36:09.810 --> 36:14.133
But yet here Paul says to those who trouble you there is a judgment.

36:14.990 --> 36:16.677
Uh-huh, this is important.

36:17.190 --> 36:17.973
What's happening here?

36:18.630 --> 36:21.675
Well, for the person who is in Christ, there is no condemnation.

36:22.610 --> 36:26.955
But for those who are now mixing the covenants, the Bible says several things.

36:27.070 --> 36:29.598
They're estranged or divorced from Jesus.

36:30.430 --> 36:32.377
They have nullified the grace of God.

36:33.070 --> 36:35.097
They no longer qualify for no judgment.

36:35.810 --> 36:37.517
For anyone who mixes the covenant.

36:37.990 --> 36:42.815
They're fair game for the law, and the law demands justice.

36:44.510 --> 36:50.577
So he says to those covenant mixers who are bothering you, they're gonna be judged because they're not hidden away in Christ.

36:55.570 --> 36:58.059
I think the proper response right now is just inwardly go.

36:58.150 --> 36:59.415
Thank you, lord, I'm hidden in Christ.

37:00.270 --> 37:01.234
I receive your grace.

37:03.720 --> 37:11.030
By your grace, I will continually live under the new covenant, with no mixture, hallelujah.

37:11.778 --> 37:12.101
It's just.

37:12.182 --> 37:23.159
It's almost hilarious, because this is the only time where I feel like I have to fight and wrestle with people to see them happier, more free, enjoying salvation.

37:23.831 --> 37:25.590
And there are some folk who would get upset at this.

37:26.914 --> 37:30.183
No, don't take the pain out of my Christianity.

37:30.203 --> 37:33.271
Christianity, don't.

37:33.291 --> 37:34.636
It's supposed to be hard.

37:36.350 --> 37:38.157
All my life I've been on that treadmill.

37:38.550 --> 37:40.016
Don't tell me I didn't have to be.

37:40.650 --> 37:41.673
All that was for nothing.

37:44.760 --> 37:45.362
Verse 11.

37:47.330 --> 37:52.897
And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution?

37:53.318 --> 37:57.820
Some of them were saying hey, paul, we heard you got Timothy circumcised.

37:58.290 --> 38:00.257
So you are preaching circumcision, and that's true.

38:00.850 --> 38:10.136
Paul took a young pastor, timothy, and they were preaching to a bunch of Jewish people and Timothy had to get circumcised because the Jews wouldn't receive him if he didn't.

38:11.050 --> 38:15.017
So I imagine the conversation went something like Timothy, you sure you wanna go on this mission trip with me?

38:15.570 --> 38:16.474
Yes, paul, I really do.

38:17.310 --> 38:20.957
How far are you prepared to go to fulfill the call of God on your life?

38:21.630 --> 38:25.256
Because those folks over there, they're not gonna hear a word you say unless you get circumcised.

38:25.350 --> 38:27.657
Timothy said you know, I'm prepared to go all the way.

38:29.070 --> 38:30.055
So he got circumcised.

38:30.290 --> 38:33.980
But he didn't get circumcised to be approved unto God.

38:34.490 --> 38:44.300
He didn't do something extra to get forgiven by God, he just did this because it was a cultural thing and he was taught as Paul to be all things to all men.

38:45.790 --> 38:46.533
You see the difference.

38:47.470 --> 38:52.939
It's always a question of motive, like we're gonna go on a 21 day fast come the new year.

38:54.340 --> 38:56.977
I haven't even gotten Christmas fat yet and I'm looking forward to it.

38:57.815 --> 39:00.510
I can't wait for the 21 days of fasting.

39:01.258 --> 39:03.936
We'll all be praying together every single night via Zoom meeting.

39:03.976 --> 39:18.743
It's lovely time, but with fasting, for example, so many Christians treated like it's a hunger strike and if they suffer enough through fasting, they're gonna twist God's arm into releasing a blessing that normally he's just keeping back from them.

39:20.901 --> 39:21.630
Fasting doesn't change God.

39:22.393 --> 39:24.721
It changes you, it aligns you.

39:26.932 --> 39:29.380
Hey men, you see the difference in motivation.

39:30.272 --> 39:34.223
Now we're fasting out of a love motive.

39:36.413 --> 39:39.650
We're fasting not to change his mind.

39:40.352 --> 39:44.002
We realize his mind is always good towards us.

39:44.752 --> 39:47.760
But we're fasting because it causes us to focus on him.

39:48.812 --> 39:53.082
It causes us our spirit to come alive.

39:55.190 --> 39:55.933
Why do I still?

39:55.973 --> 39:57.559
Why are they still wanting to kill me?

39:59.850 --> 40:01.135
I actually preached circumcision.

40:01.195 --> 40:01.597
He didn't.

40:02.130 --> 40:04.057
Then the offense of the cross has ceased.

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And then verse 12, the other week I joked and said I'd love a little plaque for my desk of one of Paul's quotes in an earlier chapter where he says have I become your enemy Now that I tell you the truth?

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And I said it kind of as a joke.

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And just this Friday night a precious couple from our church came and blessed me with that plaque and I love it and it's right now in my office on the desk.

40:30.750 --> 40:31.574
But I thought after that.

40:31.614 --> 40:33.896
I thought, oh, I should have asked for this in the plaque.

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This is the better verse this has.

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Maybe we'll just get a giant plaque.

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When we get our own building, we'll hang that in the men's restroom.

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If you don't know what I'm talking about, put on your seatbelt.

40:50.430 --> 40:54.217
Here's what Paul is saying, because his problem is covenant mixers.

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Right, covenant mixers rob you of your liberty in Christ.

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They rob you of your freedom.

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They don't get you to receive the love of God.

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They add to the finished work of the cross.

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And here's what Paul is saying.

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I could wish.

41:07.898 --> 41:08.700
That's him being nice.

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He didn't say I wish, but he's saying they drive me so crazy and they're so evil.

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I could wish that those who trouble you, who want you circumcised, would even cut themselves off.

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Yes, he's talking about that.

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Do you get what Paul is talking about?

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Mom Sounds crazy, right, paul?

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The holy apostle Paul, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, said that what's the takeaway from that?

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That this is serious.

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Okay, some of you still don't get it.

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He's saying that those people who like to just take a little off the top of your circumcision, they should go all the way chop, chop, chop and emasculate themselves.

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Can you believe that, bro?

41:54.376 --> 41:55.318
That's what he's saying.

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I know pearl clutching right here in the third row.

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Oh, oh, oh, oh, paul.

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Do you know who the Bible was written by?

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You think it was written by a bunch of poets and cloistered seminarian scholars.

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These were barbarians.

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Actually, paul was the most academic of all of them.

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Some of you, man, you need to read that book the Barbarian Way and realize that the gospel was spread and Christianity was formed really by poet warriors and by men who weren't afraid to get their hands dirty and beam.

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Men and all that's trying to get squashed now and it's label as toxic masculinity.

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Yet men would be the first to run into a fire, first one to rescue a baby, first one to just break to get killed in wars, to advance the gospel, to have their own lives taken.

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Don't shout me down, because I'm preaching the truth, amen.

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And sometimes under that a little bit of this comes out Amen, don't tune me out, but he didn't really mean it.

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He said I could wish he tempered it All right.

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Verse 13, everybody after Sarah's gonna Google.

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Did Paul really mean that?

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Yeah, he did.

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There's a lot of things theologians disagree about.

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85% of them agree that that's what he was talking about.

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The others wear ladies dresses, anyway.

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Verse five, chapter five, verse 13.

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For you, brethren, have been called to liberty Only.

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Do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flag Only.

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Do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another.

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He's saying, because grace, grace can be abused.

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It doesn't mean it should be, but only do you know, only when you really love someone, only when you really give them your heart, only when you really make yourself vulnerable, you now have lost power.

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Huh, that other person cannot really hurt you.

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But that's really what true love is.

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And he's given you himself and put you under a system of grace.

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You can abuse it, should you?

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He says no, god forbid.

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And allow that grace now to have a working in you to where you allow it to change you and you become more like Jesus.

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Hallelujah, verse 14.

44:40.695 --> 44:45.919
Hey, on that note of grace, changing you and making you more like Jesus, I've shared before.

44:47.515 --> 44:49.722
I've offended my wife with that Paul thing.

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She's gone.

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I'll make it up to you, babe.

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Tonight we're gonna read the song of Solomon by the fireplace.

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I didn't mean that in that way.

45:01.175 --> 45:04.162
I literally meant I didn't Come back.

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I didn't.

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Pastor James, you're terrible.

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I didn't mean it like that.

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I was sharing.

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Listen, come back to me, don't tune out.

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With transformation, I've had the Lord.

45:24.557 --> 45:28.702
When I first got saved, some sins just like fell off of me without any effort.

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Others persisted and then they were like deep hooks inside of me and obviously I still haven't arrived.

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But I'm better.

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I'm better with regard to holiness, better than where I once was.

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The Lord is shaping me and molding me and changing me, and you too.

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But here's what I've noticed no, especially the heavy sins.

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I mean by heavy, I mean heavy for me.

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They persisted.

45:55.235 --> 46:01.816
It's like I can't shake them off, and then the Lord would deliver me and the hook would shh their sins.

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I thought I'd never be free of them.

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They're gone.

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None of those ever came.

46:07.402 --> 46:08.244
Those deliverances.

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They never came when I was trying to change, never.

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They never came when I said you know what I really need to clean my act up.

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Let me take a step back, quote unquote work on myself.

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And really they always came when I put my eyes on Jesus.

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I fell in love with him, I was receiving his love, I got caught up in the things of Jesus and then, like weeks later, it hit me.

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Wait, that sin that was plaguing me, it's gone.

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It's gone.

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When did he do that?

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It's gone.

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He did that.

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But I wasn't trying, I was just receiving Jesus.

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That's how it'll happen.

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That's how it does happen.

46:50.135 --> 46:57.260
That's why a pastor's primary job is to get you to receive more of God's love and enjoy Jesus, and that's where the transformation comes.

46:59.835 --> 47:04.797
For all the laws fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself Verse 15,.

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But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another.

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I say then and here he gives the entire key to the new covenant it's called walking in the spirit.

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I say then walk in the spirit.

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Just say that with me.

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Please walk in the spirit.

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When you walk in the spirit, you won't fulfill the desires of the flesh.

47:36.355 --> 47:38.243
So how do you walk in the spirit?

47:38.295 --> 47:40.142
What does it mean to walk in the spirit?

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What does walking in the spirit mean, I was told.

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Walking in the spirit means read your Bible every day, worship every day, come to church.

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That's walking in the spirit.

47:57.035 --> 47:58.380
That is not walking in the spirit.

47:58.995 --> 48:02.569
That is the fruit of walking in the spirit.

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But we're infamous for always analyzing the fruit, never getting to the root.

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Walking in the spirit means living under grace.

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It means following the Holy Spirit.

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By the way.

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Do you know what the Holy Spirit's job is, what his primary job is?

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Jesus said it in John 14, when he first talked about the Holy Spirit, he said the Holy Spirit will come and he will testify of me.

48:25.795 --> 48:32.183
So the Holy Spirit's primary job, before being helper, comforter, the paracletos, all that stuff he always points the way to Jesus.

48:32.835 --> 48:34.801
When the Holy Spirit comes, he says look at Jesus.

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This is what Jesus has done, this is what Jesus brings.

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To walk in the spirit is to look at Jesus.

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Take your eyes off of yourself, look at Jesus, cling to Jesus.

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Basically live under grace.

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To walk according to the flesh means you're walking in your own strength.

48:53.215 --> 48:55.623
That's being under the old covenant system of the law.

48:57.155 --> 49:00.165
So walking in the spirit is walking the new covenant.

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Walk under grace.

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When you're walking in the spirit, then you won't fulfill the desires of the flesh.

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The power of sin is broken under grace.

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When you're under the system of the law, the power of sin is heated up and amplified.

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That's why Paul said not me.

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Paul said the strength of sin is in the law.

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You show me a church that's heavy on the system of the law and I will show you an army of closet sinners An army?

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They're not that way.

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On Sunday, come on, how are you doing Welcome?

49:41.338 --> 49:43.044
And you won't see many relationships.

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Many because they all keep private because they don't want anybody to know what they're secretly up to.

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But can you believe there can be a new covenant church that doesn't downplace sin, that doesn't compromise on calling sin sin?

49:55.703 --> 50:08.008
Yet at the same time, we recognize that we're all works of God in progress and we give you space to grow and develop and nobody's gonna condemn you, nobody's gonna be mean to you, nobody's gonna be harsh with you.

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But we understand that we're all at different places, ultimately going to the same destination.

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J-e-s-u-s.

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Wow, sounds exceedingly new covenant church-y to me.

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Hallelujah, I say.

50:25.204 --> 50:30.059
Then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh Verse 17,.

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For the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

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Verse 18,.

50:44.031 --> 50:49.659
But if you are led by God, if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.

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So to walk in the spirit means you're not walking under the law, you're walking under grace.

50:58.806 --> 51:06.457
Hallelujah, verse 19,.

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Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, sex outside of the marriage, covenant, fornication, sex before marriage, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery.

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Sorcery in Revelation is translated from the Greek pharmacia, which is drug use, where we get pharmacy from.

51:33.355 --> 51:37.205
But here sorcery is actually witchcraft.

51:37.835 --> 51:42.002
And do you know what all these flavors of the flesh, all these works of the flesh have in common?

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Nobody has to teach them to you.

51:45.135 --> 51:45.778
They're in your flesh.

51:46.515 --> 51:51.464
Thankfully, your flesh has been crucified with Christ, if you will receive that and appropriate it daily by faith.

51:53.075 --> 51:57.622
But what this means is that you can take any group of people from any continent, any place.

51:57.735 --> 52:01.802
You put them on a remote island and all of this stuff will come out of them.

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It's a murder.

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I would never murder it, yes, yes, you would.

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Just the environment wasn't right, but it's there.

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That also means you can take a group of people, you put them on that island, come back a hundred years and they're all practicing witchcraft.

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Remember, mom, when you first got saved.

52:19.875 --> 52:23.659
Remember the reading, the Turkish cups that you put upside down.

52:24.515 --> 52:28.222
These are things no one had to teach my Mom that this is stuff that was just in our Balkan culture.

52:29.515 --> 52:33.179
Did you, did they do that in my they did All the time right.

52:33.515 --> 52:35.663
The Turkish cup of coffee is very muddy at the bottom.

52:35.735 --> 52:39.837
They flip it upside down and then they would divine their future by looking at it.

52:39.897 --> 52:43.922
It looked like hieroglyphic images in there and it seems innocent, right and playful.

52:44.795 --> 52:51.240
But you're really entering a realm that God has an ordained for you to enter, and you can open the door and give way to spirits, and it is witchcraft.

52:54.235 --> 52:59.697
My Mom's not a witch, you can see she.

52:59.938 --> 53:03.998
I got my humor from her, though what's my point?

53:04.575 --> 53:30.323
It's in the flesh Jealousy's outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

53:32.315 --> 53:38.905
He says the exact same thing, I believe, in three, possibly four different places where he'll do this.

53:39.055 --> 53:53.521
He'll list these flavors of the flesh and he'll list these sins, and whenever I read the list, the mood in the atmosphere just goes down, cause you found yourself somewhere here.

53:53.555 --> 53:56.440
If you didn't, you're not being totally honest, there's something that's off.

53:57.775 --> 54:02.699
So you go, oh, and I try not to look at it, and I notice I'm looking at the floor as I read down the list.

54:03.155 --> 54:08.205
No eye contact Each time.

54:08.285 --> 54:12.124
What he's saying is what the supposition is.

54:12.224 --> 54:19.099
Is that if you're practicing notice he says practicing, you're practicing, it's part of your life, it's habitual.

54:19.160 --> 54:20.900
You don't even care, you're not even convicted.

54:21.356 --> 54:24.205
If that's you, then you're not saved.

54:26.016 --> 54:28.255
If you're living like this, you are not saved.

54:28.335 --> 54:33.242
You may come to church, you may do churchy things, but you need to really get saved.

54:33.636 --> 54:36.184
Only when you get saved, you actually hate sin.

54:39.595 --> 54:41.300
Do you still sometimes have trouble with sin?

54:41.681 --> 54:43.546
Yeah, what's the solution?

54:43.635 --> 54:44.479
What's the antidote?

54:44.735 --> 54:48.618
More of God's love, more of His grace, more of His goodness.

54:49.000 --> 54:49.882
Say, how long does it take?

54:49.983 --> 54:50.344
I don't know.

54:52.215 --> 54:53.460
He surprises me every time.

54:54.476 --> 54:56.959
Some things I thought I'd be plaguing in my whole life, he got rid of.

54:58.096 --> 54:59.695
Some other things that seem easy on paper.

54:59.715 --> 55:00.738
It's like are things still there?

55:04.996 --> 55:09.819
So so good, so so patient, so so merciful, so so loving?

55:11.335 --> 55:12.097
Verse 22,.

55:13.140 --> 55:16.797
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, worshiping.

55:16.817 --> 55:17.339
Come on up.

55:17.700 --> 55:23.446
Long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

55:23.595 --> 55:31.863
Again such there is no law, and those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

55:32.195 --> 55:36.927
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

55:37.395 --> 55:42.981
Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

55:43.723 --> 55:50.539
Hallelujah, I want you to just sing this next song, okay, I wanna pray for you.

55:55.006 --> 56:04.802
I hope that you will receive this invitation to walk down the path of grace and not mix, and to allow him to trust him enough to do a transformative work in you.

56:05.135 --> 56:13.301
To be Christ-like is a pleasure, to be Christ-like is a joy, and the wages of sin is still death.

56:15.575 --> 56:23.377
But the way to overcome sin is not by trying real hard, not by going to where you get flogged every Sunday by a preacher who's gonna wave his index finger in your face.

56:25.175 --> 56:26.820
It's gonna come from that relationship with him.

56:28.335 --> 56:31.846
Father, teach us to enjoy salvation.

56:32.095 --> 56:33.801
Teach us to enjoy Jesus.

56:34.855 --> 56:39.623
Teach us to be recipients of all that you purchased for us with your own blood.

56:41.436 --> 56:46.303
We love you, but, even more importantly, we receive your love for us.

56:47.866 --> 56:48.127
Amen.

56:48.695 --> 56:50.863
This is the City Light Church podcast.

56:51.295 --> 56:59.922
If you've missed any part of today's message or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansic in City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyccom.

57:00.895 --> 57:02.761
That's citylightnyccom.

57:04.095 --> 57:07.104
Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime.

57:07.595 --> 57:09.101
We would love to connect with you.

57:10.055 --> 57:17.582
We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace.

57:18.435 --> 57:19.299
Thank you for listening.

57:19.835 --> 57:25.341
Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.