If I Have Grace, Why Do I Need The Rules? | Grace Church | September 19, 2021

[Music] foreign [Music] jesus story and his forgiveness in our life is the best story that has ever existed it's the best story it's the story that everybody needs and even if you're not religious most of us are drawn to it why because you can fall down and jesus is there to pick you up who doesn't want that who doesn't need that [Music] you are a daughter of the most high god you are a son of the king you don't walk around in darkness all the time you don't walk around in anger all the time we don't walk around in fear all the time [Music] because the lord god almighty is on our side [Music] well hey grace church thank you so much for joining us online if you're here in the house why don't you guys stand up and worship with us [Music] that could ever stand against your mind you've always been with us [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] you've already won show me one thing you can do show [Music] of me breakthrough everything is possible show me one thing that's too hard [Music] [Music] there is a kingdom bound to rise [Applause] show me one thing he can't show [Music] he is possible [Music] [Music] i will dance [Music] disappointment show me show me [Music] possible [Music] [Music] hey good morning grace church how's everybody doing fantastic you guys can actually all be seated hey my name is uh andy lam i have the joy of serving as one of the elders here at grace church we love the fact we get a worship with you guys this morning if you're new around here our mission at grace is to help people take their next step towards christ got two quick things for you to do number one if you're new there's a worship guide on your seat back of it there's a connect card rip it out fill it out drop it off with the offering basket on your way out another step that anybody can take we'll ask you guys start signing up for our fall classes and groups look we got stuff for women for men for kids for parents for seniors for empty nesters there's just something for everybody right now it is our goal here at grace church that you guys start meeting outside of the weekend and so to kind of show you what we mean by that check this video [Music] grace has a house rule called genuine family when we have our grace community group come over i literally feel that i have a genuine family every time you meet my wife sharon and i we started a grace community group around two years ago we were getting plugged in we were serving we were very consistent but we realized we needed to take our next step in grace community that was that was where we needed to go [Music] the issue that a lot of people run into is they'll go to church on the weekend they'll get filled but come tuesday sometimes even monday they run out they run dry and we need to be recharged and how we do that is by being in community sometimes we get six people sometimes we get 10 or 12. sometimes we've had four people and really it just sits down in discussion we have a material that we go through whether it's a book in the bible or maybe it's a different material and then we'll take prayer requests you know we ask what are you struggling with because that's something that repeatedly we're dealing with and what i'm realizing more and more from community is those little conversations about how this other couple is struggling with the same exact thing you're struggling where you may be holding inside all week will come time for community group like wow they argued on the car right over here just like i were arguing right before dinner about the very same thing so that's important so if someone's maybe considering joining a grace community or doing a grace class ask yourself what's your next step because you say like hey i'm in the word i'm being intentional you know i'm going to church i'm going every weekend i think that might be enough but no that's not enough we have to be intentional about hey what's our next steps and for me personally that was serving initially i've never done that before coming to grace and i got filled for that i loved it then it was going to theology and we also did a marriage class and then just keeps going on from there so those next steps everyone has one but it's so important that we seek it and don't just settle i uh i love what killing said there he said we need to seek it and not just settle and so if you're seeking to get plugged into community group here's your next step register for our circle up class it's going to begin wednesday september 29th be at 6 30 p.m there's child care there's food there's no excuses why you can't make it to register for that when you leave there's some tables on the back are in the lobby excuse me sign up there or you can go to discovergrace.com forward slash fall and register there as well now as we hit the part of the service where we get to give back to god a portion of it already belongs to him here's what i would just challenge you to do in this is you're thinking about whether or not you're going to start giving to this church when we look at god's word when we give all that is it's a step of obedience as as mike's always teaching around here it's never about money it's always about trusting god and so when we give it's a step of faith and then we get to realize that we can trust him because he's a good father and listen our goal of why we give here is because of what jesus did for us on the cross we want to fuel the mission of the gospel of central florida there's two things we want to be known for at grace number one we are a church that teaches the word of god and number two there are people that are healed when they come here and so if you don't currently give that's worth clapping for that's why we exist right look if if you don't currently give you can join those who do you can go to discovergrace.comgive you can give to the free grace app if you plan on giving in person there's some baskets in the back go ahead and drop that off on your way out but church join with me as we pray father i just asked that uh grace church would be this this place in orlando father i've just our constant prayers that we would just be this beacon of light would be the speaking of hope that when people come here they would realize there's something different they realize that they can come here and they can be a part no matter where they've come in from in life no matter what they've happened during the week father that you are just there with open arms and it's never about what we do it's always about what your son did for us on the cross and i pray that we would have softened hearts that we we willing to give to that mission lord father we ask all these things in your precious son's name amen stand with us as we continue worshiping [Music] [Music] that surrounds me in just one word the darkness has to retreat [Music] my eyes [Music] [Music] just one word you hear what's broken inside in just one word can you revive every dream in just one touch i feel [Music] my eyes [Applause] [Music] there's nothing [Applause] [Music] there's not a prisoner god [Music] [Music] there's no power like the power of jesus [Music] [Music] for greater things there's no power like the power of jesus let faith arise there's no power [Music] there's no power [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] breakthrough is [Music] oh there's no power like the power of jesus [Music] i will [Music] for believe things there's no power like the power of jesus let faith arise let all agree there's no power like the power of jesus say i will believe for greater things there's no power like the power of jesus that faith [Music] there's no power like the power of jesus no power like the power of jesus [Music] church there is no power like the power of jesus it's the power that is still working and moving today in our lives and it's so good to know today that there's no sin too great there's not a person in this room who is too far gone that the love of god cannot cover them today so let's rest in that as we read along these words of confession christ our lord our light in our life you have freed us from our past and have given us a new identity in you we confess that we often chase after things that only cause our sorrow and destruction open our eyes to see the sin that entangles us you have delivered us to enjoy so much better than we could attain ourselves put to death the realm of flesh in us and awaken us to your beautiful story empower us by your spirit to delight in your holiness may we extend your grace to those around us amen you may be seated god promises to bring healing as we confess our sins and now in a moment of silent confession i just invite you to ask the holy spirit just to reveal to you the ways that you may have sinned and broken your relationship with him communion servers you can take your places grace 5 6 you're dismissed after you take communion but for the rest of us let's just spend a few moments and silently pray this morning as we all prepare our hearts [Music] [Music] amen this morning we have the happy and holy privilege of coming together as christ church to participate and celebrate the sacrament of holy communion as we do this we're reminded of the fact that as we have just confessed our sins and we have emptied ourselves of our fears our worries our concerns and the things that we have sinned against god now we come to be filled with his presence jesus gathered um his disciples his twelve closest friends together in an upper room right before passover right before he was actually go to be crucified they had no idea that he was going to be crucified they had no idea that the father would raise him from the dead the disciples at this point were just completely in the dark and so he gathers bread and gathers some wine he takes them and he says to them this is my body and this is my blood those words have actually stirred controversy throughout the church history as to what was the meaning of them you go back and you look at the earliest church fathers those who when the disciples died passed off their faith to the next generation this is what they believed that somehow in some way that when we gather together and we take this communion in faith that we receive christ how the method the mechanism by which that's transferred we don't know nobody's been able to try to nobody's been able to figure that out and that was one of the things that i love about our faith i'm a teacher and i love to explain things but god is an inexhaustible topic it's impossible to explain god if you could you have a god created in your image not the god of heaven and so when we come right now we come to experience jesus and so when you come to take communion come with expectation in your heart that he's here to fill you to empower you to take your next step toward christ god awaits on the night when jesus was betrayed he gathered together his disciples and he took bread and he blessed it gave it to each one of them and said this is my body which is broken for you take and eat this in remembrance of me after supper he gave them the cup and he said this is my blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins drink this till i return those words are a reminder to the church for the last 2000 years that one day in his perfect timing jesus will return and he comes to take the church home he comes to bring healing and restoration and renewal to all of us who have fallen down and fallen short and as we go to experience him we go to experience him forever and ever and ever in eternity but now we just have a foreshadowing of that this is your first opportunity to take commute here at grace we're welcome we're glad you're here we use the intention method which means you'll take a piece of the wafer dip it in the cup and then you can participate with us if you'll take note on both sides of the stage uh there are tables with cards on them and pens there feel free to come forward and write down any prayer requests you have we would be glad to pray for you our pastors our elders and our staff would be glad to pray for you in any way you see fit so if you'll take notice also that we have communion servers in the back of the room and in the front of the room as they get in place you can come [Music] in the darkness we were waiting without hope and without light till from heaven you came running there was mercy in your eyes to fulfill the law and prophets to a virgin came the word from a throne of endless glory to a cradle in the [Music] praise the father praise the son [Music] god [Music] [Music] church will you stand on worship with us today to reveal the kingdom [Music] to redeem the whole creation you did not despise the cross for even in your suffering you saw to the other side knowing this was our salvation jesus [Music] it open foreign praise the father praise the father raise the sun praise the spirit god of glory [Music] ever [Music] [Music] all of heaven [Music] was born i am free for the love of jesus christ [Music] three [Applause] [Music] [Music] three god of glory oh holy raise forever to the [Music] [Applause] [Music] key to the king of kings [Music] come on even if all you have to say is just jesus jesus i love you jesus you're the reason why we're here today [Music] [Applause] [Music] death could not hold you the veil tore before you you silenced the post of seeing an engraved heavenly you foreign [Applause] is [Music] [Music] what a powerful name it is and now and foreign [Music] the name of jesus christ what what a powerful [Music] what a baby name it is the name of jesus what a powerful name take a moment and pray father thank you so much for our time together here this morning we are grateful to be here thankful that we get to hear from your word lord we recognize that there are parts of us that constantly remain hidden from you not that you don't know them but that we don't offer them so in those parts of us god right now that we don't offer to you we pray that you would come invade those spaces in those places so that we can be more like you on the other side god where there is the need for encouragement this morning let it be found where there is the need for correction let it be found where there is the need for us to take a step let it be done it's in your name we pray amen please be seated wow all right we're continuing in our series uh we're looking at uh the the whole book of romans and if you haven't been to grace before one of the things that we do is we uh read through the bible we teach you the bible verse by verse chapter by chapter because we think that's the best way to know what's in the bible and we believe that the bible is the best way for you to know who god is and so as we uh as we run through this right now we're in a series called um how to get unstuck okay and we're looking at ways in which whether it's theological ideas or it's just emotional uh relational problems that get us stuck in life and that's not where god wants us to be how do we move beyond them how do we get unstuck in life and i think the bible has a ton to talk about and so we're going to look at some of that today go ahead and open your bibles to romans chapter seven um let me talk a little bit about last week last week we were working on some really big ideas some important stuff a couple things just to remind you of last week i introduced you to the idea that everybody operates on a set of rules every person on the planet it doesn't matter by the way if you're in the room right now and you're religious or you're not religious everybody operates on a set of rules right you might actually be pushing back in your mind right now i'm going no not me mike i'm not i don't follow the dumb rules that you guys follow as christians that's not what i do i do my own thing well that's your rule i don't follow dumb rules i do my own thing that's your rule everybody operates on rules we do operate on rules in fact your brain is designed by god to specifically operate that way the brain is designed to produce the minimum amount of work to create the outcome that you desire for it to create like when we were kids when we were kids we basically to learn our multiplication tables and we don't do it any different today we had flash cards we had little papers we have computer and we go over it and over at nine times one is nine nine times two is eighteen nine times three is twenty seven nine times four is thirty six i have a little panic attack that i get one of those wrong right let me just do but but so when someone comes to you today though because you're well past that age of learning that someone says hey what's nine times four you go why you weirdo but but but then but then you go 36 and you don't have to think about it why because the brain takes rules and basically pushes it to your subconscious so that you can operate your attention on everything that's important in an everyday life like in 1985 when i first learned how to drive stick shift my buddy taught me on his volkswagen rabbit and we went out uh in winter park we were driving down the road and i just remember he's like you got to pull off the clutch and push the gas down at the same time you got to make sure you put it in gear listen as the engine revs you put it you know you pull it back and i it took me a while i would drive down doing some of this back and forth and i would grind the gears all right but if you drive stick shift today and you've done it for a while you know that you can get in you turn on the car right you turn on the no you don't you turn on the car you turn on the car and and all of a sudden all of a sudden now you don't have to think about it at all it's an unconscious process why the brain was designed by god specifically to take problems turn them into rules and then make them part of our life and it's no wonder that when god decided that the very first time that he was going to communicate with the world broadly he gave laws he gave rules okay the question is how do we use those rules in such a way that they bring blessing and goodness to our life and the argument that i'm going to build this morning is that god gave us his law for multiple different purposes and if you use it and apply it in the wrong way it becomes a curse to your life if you use it in the right way it's a blessing to your life in fact i will say it is the way to be blessed okay so last week we discovered three things three things basically motivate us let's take a look at those things number one a demand in our life number two a threat in our life and number three a promise in our life and so let's take a look at these they can be again just as a reminder um then a demand is a call to action and it doesn't have to be a demand the way that you and i would think like give me your money right that doesn't it's not like that it can be someone coming to you and saying something like this they can come and say hey um you've got some things going on in your world right now that i'm really worried about i love you i'm for you and i want i want you to make some changes in your life and i'm afraid that if you don't make these changes then what's going to happen is you're not going to be the person that you want to be you're going to end up some places you don't want to be and you're never going to fulfill god's purposes for your life but if you turn things around right now there's great hope for you in the future these are things that we do unconsciously multiple times a day as we come across problems we look at these things and this is everything that we're thinking about like constantly demands demands demands the question is do we have the right set of rules do we have the right authority and are we going to use those in such a way can we use them in such a way to bring blessing i think the answer to that is yes paul is wrestling with this right now he's helping people understand the law in romans 7 7 and this is what it says what shall we say what shall we say then is the law sinful certainly not nevertheless i would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law for i would not have known what covenanting really was if the law had not said you shall not covet so this is the command you shall not covet so what does he say so is the law sinful why is he asking that question because you look at that you go well that doesn't quite make a lot of sense the reason why he's asking this question is because as he has taught these principles that we've looked at so far there were some people who were looking at him going you know what the law is the problem why would it be a problem right here i would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law so when i first came across this verse and i hadn't studied and i was fairly young it was like me 20 years old when i first came across this i thought and i made a conclusion uh wrongly i thought you know what if this is true that i would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law you shall not covet then i wouldn't be responsible for it if i didn't know what it was and so i thought you know what when it comes to the law of god ignorance is bliss it's just kind of like it's kind of like driving down the road really fast you don't know the speed limit so that when you get pulled over then cop says hey do you know what speed limit you're going you're like no and and and and it's truthful and you're fine like like you still might get a ticket but like like integrity wise you can go yes i know absolutely that i i was not versus knowing what the speed limit is and choosing to exceed it which i do all the time right so choose like and when you get pulled over he goes you know this people are like yes i know i was doing wrong absolutely i'm clear on that so maybe it's better for us not to know the law at all not to understand these principles and that would disconnect us from responsibility but that's actually not what's happening people here are looking at this and they're thinking that the law itself is the cause of sin but it's not it's the thing that exposes the sin you need to think of it like this it's like an x-ray when you go to the doctor and there's something wrong with you physically he might look at you and go you know what if you have some localized pain somewhere he might go you know what i don't know what's wrong i can't see it i'm looking at you on the outside you look fine there's nothing really wrong i can't see anything you know what we're gonna do we're gonna take an x-ray and we're gonna take an x-ray because the x-ray can do something that i can't do as a doctor and that is look inside of you and determine if there's some underlying disease or there's some underlying broken bone or something and so when he comes back and goes yeah mike that's right when you were out and about and you fell down when you're playing around you actually fractured your arm see now i'm in a good standing why because i can look at the doctor and go okay i gotta fracture your arm what can we do about that and he can provide treatment and the treatment leads to eventual healing that's exactly what the law does it is an x-ray to show us what's going on on the inside of our heart because we can't see it i look at my life and i go things seem like they're okay and then i hold the law up against it it x-rays my soul looks inside and goes no no there's some spiritual cancer on the inside of you mike and it needs to be dealt with because if it's not cancer just doesn't go away it metastasizes and takes over and then eventually kills and destroys and that is what the law does we hold it up it shows us what's on the inside of us we get clarity about what's on the inside of us then we can get treatment which will eventually lead to some healing in our life and that's exactly what the what the scriptures give to us and so he says what shall we say then is the law sinful well the law is not sinful any more than an x-ray is sinful but what the law does do is the law shows us the spiritual disease beneath the surface it allows us to see ourselves for who we truly are and if we're really intellectually honest we would say that we have an extraordinary capacity for self-delusion everyone operates with a set of rules now here are the questions that we're going to look at here are they the right rules or are you applying and and are you applying them correctly are they the right rules let me just say this some of you need to get unstuck and here's here's a reason why you've held on to rules for a long time in your life that you developed a long time ago to protect yourself that you still carry with you today when it's not necessary to protect yourself in the same way and you need to let them go because they're now damaging your life listen all of us know christians and even non-christians who they might be your acquaintance hopefully they're not your close friend these are these are real these are time suckers these people are like they've got problems all the time right this is the person that constantly like how you doing well the family's falling apart our job is you know and just it's one gripe after another well why is that because they're operating off of an outdated set of rules an outdated set of rules what does that look like so like my father if you've been around a long time you know that my father was like physically emotionally abusive to us growing up as a house of rage is what it was but but here's the thing and this is an excuse for it because i don't think we do excuses here um but my father grew up my grandfather my father was very poor one thing i'm very grateful for my father for is he poor he pulled us out of poverty my grandfather worked in the coal mines of west virginia and back then they didn't have the kind of instrumentation that they have now when they go into the coal mines it's still a very dangerous and difficult job but nonetheless they would go in and they would come out and they would be black you can just go online and take a look at these guys and he died of what's called black lung because he inhaled all of those particulates and so what ends up happening is he dies and my my father is around six or seven years old he's dropped off at an aunt's house by his his mom because she's not sure what to do with him and then she bails and never sees him again and then he goes from one foster because everyone's too poor there he goes from one foster home to the next for his entire life so he developed this like internal ruggedness that was like i have to protect myself and that was legitimate because at that point in time in his life everyone that was supposed to take care of him disappointed him but then he created some rules and we would hear him all the time they came out i will have respect my brother and i heard that all the time i will have respect which means obedience i will have respect or he would say to people who did business with he'd say like you got to respect me we can negotiate but you got to respect me but nobody gets respect all of the time in fact the more respect you get is by being humble not by demanding it but he was this boy who was broken and scared who developed rules that turned into this man that had rules that were outdated that he needed to let go a long time ago the bible says it this way when i was a child i thought like a child i reasoned like a child but when i became a man i put childish things behind me that's what we're called to do so some of you i'm telling you right now it may not be the same thing my father had but you've got those things from the past you made rules and here's what you believe and it's a lie you just say that's just who i am no it's not it's what you think and it's how you adapt it it's not who you are and you need to let go of that and the spirit of the lord will help you let go of that by comparing it to what the scriptures teach us we're supposed to be like and what the law of god does for us is he gives us boundaries and it gives us direction but it has to be done in very specific ways and there's a big problem with this we'll take a look at two theological ideas let's put up justification here two ideas i want you to remember two bible words i'm just these are the only two bible words that i need you to remember justification sanctification write them down put them in your phone whatever right take a picture of this justification happens when god declares you not guilty wow when god declares you not guilty of sin it's god's work done it's god's work alone rather we play no part in it so here's what this means when you especially if you're taking your first steps toward god right now and you're thinking like i just don't know what to do next i'm not sure where to go here's what you need to know relax if you're here and you're interested the lord is already at work in your life he's not hiding okay he's seeking okay he's seeking you and so what happens is what happens is god declares and he's the only person in all of history he's the only person in all of the universe who can do this because when he declares something he says this is true it actually translates into being true okay so god's because he's a king and because because he's a judge he has the ability to declare and so what does he declare he looks down from heaven and my wickedness and my sinfulness and my rebellion against him my disinterest in him my my completely my completely opposite lifestyle to what he wants he says hey michael you are now not guilty anymore and some of you push back in your minds right now and you you go wait a second that's not morally right how can he just say that you're not guilty anymore listen you're missing it hold on he didn't say you were innocent he just said i'm not going to hold you accountable for the sin that you've committed against me it's the most inequitable exchange in all of human history he literally says i'm going to take it on the chin and he did that by sending jesus into the world and dying for your sins when he didn't need to there was no mandate that god had to send jesus in the world to die for your sins but he did it because he loves you he did it because you could not do it for yourself and so here's here's where this here's where this comes in how does this relate to the law well it relates to the law because whenever we try to apply the law whenever we try to apply the law to our salvation it always falls short the only thing that the law has to say to us in terms of our salvation is you can't do it on your own that's it it's over my son comes to me this week and my son's kind of like a minor tick tock star he's got tens of thousands of followers on tick tock and all he does is dance no i'm just kidding he doesn't dance all he does all he does is uh i wish i could dance i you are lucky can i just say that right now if i was coordinated and i could dance like those tick-tock people i would be the dancing pastor and you would be ashamed of me i'm telling you that's just the only reason why i'm not doing it okay no skill at all so so here but but catch us he comes to me he goes dad there's this guy teaching he's like 40 something years old he's teaching on tik tok but he's confusing justification and sanctification and i'm like i love you so much and uh he's confusing justification and sanctification and he's causing people to stumble and he says he says i reached out to him and he and then this guy like sends him back like a voicemail o'connor you're too young to be teaching you probably shouldn't stay and you probably shouldn't be in the teaching arena and i'm like give me your phone so i'm like right and so so so i i'm just blasting this guy i'm like here's where your theology is completely falling apart you basically are taking the concept of justification which is the work of god alone and saying basically here's what he was saying he was saying if you don't believe in this social issue social issues that are close to our hearts if you don't believe in this social issue you can't go to heaven and i was like huh no so so i tore them apart and at the end of it i'm basically like you should be off tick-tock because if you don't understand these basic principles of christianity you shouldn't be a tick-tock teacher you know and the good thing about it listen the good thing about it is this it was connor's instagram not tick tock not mine like i could say whatever i want and i was so harsh and it was awesome i'm like connor you shouldn't be so harsh and it was just it was just like it was awesome it was great watch this justification happens when god declares you not guilty of said he didn't say that you were innocent but what you can't do is go to someone and say hey if you behave god will love you more hey listen right now right now this is so important god can't love you any more than he does right now and the reason for that is because his love is perfect it does not it does it's not going to get it's not going to increase and it's not going to decrease based on your behavior it's simply his sovereign choice to say i love you i declare you not guilty of the crimes against heaven and i've sent my son and his perfect life applies to your sinful life that's why you go to heaven so whenever someone comes to you especially if you're not religious and you hear these christians and sometimes they're out there and maybe they're christians but but a lot of times they're just legalists that people who apply the law in a way that's inappropriate they'll come to you and say if you stop smoking if you stop drinking sleeping with the wrong types of people if you start sleeping with anybody that's not your spouse if you if you if you quit doing drugs then god would love you more that's not true it's not true listen that's what differentiates christianity from every other major religion period every other major religion says here's the path to go to heaven and if you follow this path and you are a good boy and you are a good girl maybe at the end you'll go to heaven god said i sent my son to die for you that's it now let's take a look at it so this guy was doing what he was doing and i blasted him here here's here's what it's like let's put it through our lens of motivation the demand you better obey everything in the bible now listen i i do want you guys to obey the scriptures i do i think it's very important but also know that you can't do it perfectly and you never will but give it all your heart but this is a threat if you don't do it you won't go to heaven whenever someone does that it's misaligned the promise god will be more happy with you if you obey and he will let you go to heaven that's a lie it looks like a promise it's a lie and it's pretty because it looks like i'm doing great things for the lord no no the lord did great things for you okay we don't do great things for the lord we receive the great things that he's done for us it's what we do so here's the principle up on the screen i just want you to like codify this in your hearts and minds the law never applies to issues of salvation for christian they just don't other than basically saying you can't do it on your own right god alone is responsible for our salvation we play no part other than simply to do what to receive it verses 8 and 9 give us some amazing insight as well to human nature fallen human nature it says this but sin seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment produced in me every kind of coveting for apart from the law sin was dead once i was alive apart from the law but when the commandment came sin sprang to life and i died let's take a look at this go back sin seizing right here so this word seizing means to take captive and it means to take authority where it doesn't belong so sin taking authority where it doesn't belong afforded by the commandment produced in me every kind of coveting coveting is loving something too much loving a car too much a house too much even a child too much loving something more than you love god that's that's what that is so it says sin which is not the same thing as the law sees the opportunity afforded by the commandment produced in me so what does that mean well when i was a child my mom used to make these amazing chocolate chip cookies right and she do it all the time and they're probably toll house and uh but she would put him on the counter right she'd put on the counter and she would say michael don't eat these until after dinner because this is an after dinner treat and i was like yes mommy and i just be like and i would walk back and forth and i would look at the cookies and and then i would swipe a cookie right and that's just what happened what's going on right there like what they've actually done giant psychological studies on that go look up the chocolate chip marshmallow experiment okay in psychology it talks about this delayed gratification the whole thing is fascinating i didn't have any of that so but sin seizing the opportunity with the chocolate chip cookies afforded by my mom's commandment don't touch these produced in me notice what sin does it produces ancient puritans they used to say this ancient many many years ago they were puritans and one of the things that they used to say is this they said be killing sin and you or sin will be killing you because sin is always producing something it produces in me what coveting would produce coveting me no no it made you aware of coveting which then made you want it even more that's the whole concept of forbidden fruit why does it become appealing to us all of a sudden because someone said don't do it because the very nature of our sin is that it takes authority where it doesn't belong and it afforded by the commandment produces in us every kind of coveting for apart from the law if there were no law then sin would be dead why because there's no commandment there's no speed limit so i can drive as much as i want so you see how people were confusing it like is this is the is the law the problem or is it sin well the law is not the problem it's an x-ray that shows us our hearts and our hearts are whenever god tells us not to do something we don't want to do that we want to do something different and that takes discipleship and growth for us to be able to move on i want you to see it this way now sanctification now let me just we're turning a corner right now all of what we talked about is justification now we're turning a corner and we're going to talk about sanctification i actually believe that for the christian and and what's the difference justification is a once and for all statement that god makes a declaration you are my my you are now my follower i've declared you not guilty of your sin you're a christian okay and sometimes that that happens prior to us even being aware of it and then we move in the direction of following him after that all right now from that time that he declares you to be righteous for the rest of your life until you see them face to face that's all sanctification spiritual growth so every time you hear the big theological term sanctification just think spiritual growth all right sin seizing the opportunity afforded by the commander produced to me every kind of coveting for apart from the law sin was dead so for us when we start thinking about the law as relates to sanctif or as it relates to justification our salvation it does not apply but when it comes to sanctification let's look at that definition sanctification is the process of spiritual growth and it's cooperative remember we said that justification is about what god does sanctification is cooperative it's about you and god this is where we get the phrase here all the time that i talk about when you show up god shows up the bible says it this way when we draw near to the lord he draws near to us so we have to actually do something taking your next step toward christ means a real life that is spiritual is always in motion they're never standing still spiritually you're either regressing or you're progressing sanctification is the process of spiritual growth and it's cooperative it's you and god together it's god and you working working for good outcomes in your life so that's what's happening now how does the law apply to that here's here's how it applies go back to the analogy that we talked about before our friends who are acquaintances that we know that just live lives filled with drama they have rules that undergird their life and those rules are messed up they're outdated they're messed up or they're just absolutely wrong money's the most important thing beauty will last forever strength is the only thing that matters these are false rules they're lies and we build our life on these lies then the outcomes of our life are distorted twisted and messed up right and so let's take a look at this when it comes to the law the law now becomes for us a set of boundaries if you remember two weeks ago or three weeks ago i talked about the idea that the the moral law of god we talk about civil ceremonial moral law we said the moral law is a reflection of the heart of god right it's a reflection of so when he says i don't want you to lie he's saying that because he's saying i'm a person who will never lie to you you can trust me and because you can trust me and you're my people i want you to be trustworthy and i want others to know that we don't lie together because you're like me and i want you to be like me and so what they do the law now becomes for us in our spiritual growth a boundary in which inside of these boundaries we find ourselves being safe whole and okay when we live outside of these boundaries which you have the permission to do god's not going to drop down from heaven and go don't do that but he'll let you take those steps but if you are outside of the boundaries then what happens is you will suffer the consequences of that and what does that look like increased pain increased drama increased suffering so let's take a look at this and just look at it through a couple of these lenses that we just looked at all right sanctification or spiritual growth here we go the demand is honor god with your money this is just one example honor god with your money right this is what the bible teaches us to do listen if you think your money is yours then god does not have your heart when it comes to money everything the bible the bible teaches us that everything in the earth is the lord's right and so that includes what i possess what i have my children my wife my everything that's the lord's first not mine so i just steward it temporarily right so honor god with your money here's the threat if you don't you won't be trusted with more he who is faithful she who is faithful with little things will be faithful with and trusted with big things more in other words if you don't you won't be trusted with more the promise god blesses those that bless this church we've seen it over and over and over again i mean almost ask any pastor in america ask ask christians in this room there were many christians in this room who are like i just hold on to everything because i live a life of fear and worry why because i don't have enough and you do because if you don't have enough and if you act in faith with god god multiplies it that's not to say we're like prosperity gospel people look sometimes when you write a thousand dollar check to the church guess what you're down a thousand dollars yes it's not hard math it's just not hard like there's no promise you're getting ten thousand back and if you go to that church the lord you know if you go to church then then then that's just a lie okay but we give because we have been given the promise god blesses those that bless his church that's for us so if you look at this here's what you do you look at yourself and you go huh here's a demand that i find in my life here's a threat here's a promise is this consistent with what bible teaches if it is follow it that's how you know right next one here's another one the demand be faithful to your marriage the threat if you don't your wife will kill you [Applause] fact right right amen that's right so so the threat if you don't your wife will kill you what i'm really saying right there is that if you're not faithful guys to your wife and this is not just a guy problem right if if but if you're not faithful to your wife this creates drama no one ever has an affair walks out then that was great regret fear worry destruction the promise you guys i love this i don't know what's going on over here but we need more of it okay so the promise if you are faithful uh you will avoid hurting yourself your kids your wife you will avoid unnecessary pain this right here is generous generational blessing my parents by the time they had me were on their third marriage i've been married now for 28 years i will be i will be married i will be married till death do us part not because we're excellent but because i'm committed to the next generation and the next generation and the disappearance of my father's legacy we're doing it different and you can too you can too so so when we look at this we say well be faithful to your marriage if you don't your wife will kill you and this will bring all kinds of blessing into your life and you will avoid all kinds so again it's a boundary if i live within the boundary wonderful things happen in my life better things happen in my life now take a look at this third one be truthful in business if you're a businesswoman in the church right now be truthful in your business if you're not you're gonna lose credibility people will uh people uh if you're not you will lose credibility the promise is this people will trust you more and more opportunities will be given to you because of your character listen i've heard this over and over again in business sometimes it's not about like right or wrong in this situation sometimes in business you miscalculate and something happens and you're going to come out as a business owner short but you have integrity and honor your promises with other people they will come back the next time because they saw you lose in order to win and that what happens is we are when we are truthful in business or just truthful in life it enhances our cred our credibility not a loss of credibility and blesses our life because you'll have more opportunities because someone will go you know what i can trust that guy because he's been faithful she's been faithful and consistent over and over again because they've been this way in the past i can believe that they'll be this way in the future it's boundary and that boundary keeps us safe inside of it so you can never have someone come to you and say hey make sure you obey this this and this or follow this social issue or follow this candidate or follow this whatever whatever it is if they come to that and it has to do with your salvation you reject it right away that is not true and it's also creating a demand on your life that is unnecessary but there are demands of the bible following jesus is a real thing it means following there are rules and regulations there are there are principles and when we live inside of them it blesses our life it changes us it opens doors for us we become different people now here's a challenge i want you to think about this some of you walk around all the time with outdated rules or maybe just wrong rules altogether here listen that's a giant piece of what's wrong with you emotionally on the inside if you go to counselor you go to therapy sometimes one of the things that we do is we will just pull apart all of those lies that you're holding on to on the inside of you so that you can gain clarity for the first time it's an x-ray that shows you what's going on on the inside of you it allows you to see what you can't see yourself so take some time and here's how you do it really simple process not complicated at all what do you constantly demand of yourself and you know it because it's an urgent demand i must do this i must be this person i have to for some of you like just like for some of you it's your physical condition and you look at yourself and you go i'm not i'm not where instagram tells me i should be and it's just demand after demand put down that stupid donut get on the get on the treadmill do whatever you need to do if the lord tells you to do that do that but if the world tells you to do it put it away put it away you don't have to follow it you don't have to follow it what is the demand that is constantly front and center and how is that demand followed up by the threat and here's what you do first you make them visible to yourself you spend some time thinking about it and then secondly you look at it you go how does it relate to the bible if it's true then you follow it and you yield yourself to it because what we trust is that god actually has a good plan he's a good father and wants beautiful and wonderful things for us and so when we follow him he's not a trickster like the greek gods and turned back around i was just kidding it's actually you should have been a mormon right like like that's not that's not how it works right so so he's trustworthy if he makes a demand it's because it's for your good okay so the law of god now is a boundary for us that we get to look at and say god i will trust you with all my heart mind soul and strength but to compare it to the word if you have this thing inside of you that's saying i've got to be this super crazy amazingly successful person because my dad was or the past was or people look at me and say you have all this potential you need to be this person if it doesn't match up with scripture throw it away you carry around with you right now way too much you're the most connected culture in the world history no one's been as connected or had as many demands on your life as you do at this point in time let it go how do you get unstuck compare what you believe in your rules to what the scripture teaches us and then here's the last verse it says he summarizes the whole thing so then the law is holy it's not bad it's your friend the law is holy which means it is good to accomplish its purpose and the commandment is holy righteous means good and good over and over and over he says the same thing it's good it's good it's good it's good it's good it's an x-ray that shows you what's going on on the inside of you spend some time doing that this week let's pray lord jesus we ask right now that you would take our hearts with all of the brokenness and all of the demands that come along with threats which produce fears and we ask that you help us to hold them up to the truth of the scripture if there are some demands in our world that are right let us submit to them change us your word tells us that we won't be changed by ourselves you will cooperatively work with us to be like you it's not our power alone but we have to show up lord where there are people or even just pressures that are telling us to behave so that you will love us more remind us that you loved us with an ultimate love when you sent jesus into the world there was no higher gift there was no greater sacrifice there was nothing better and so lord hold on to us as we hold on to your word it's in your name we pray amen [Music] amen church if you're serving in the next service you're dismissed for the rest of us [Music] again god yours is the kingdom yours is what a powerful name it is what a powerful name it is the name of jesus christ [Music] [Music] jesus what a powerful babe it is the name of jesus what a powerful name it is the name [Music] [Applause] before you go five or ten minutes this week what's the demand what's the threat compare them to scriptures and you're going to move from a place of being stuck in your life in some areas to unstock and that's going to be you and the holy spirit doing it together and he will empower those changes in your life may god the father the son and the holy spirit bless preserve and keep you may he shine upon you as you live as his people in his world amen god bless you guys we love you and remember good as ahead [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Grace Church Orlando

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Length: 71min 18sec (4278 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021