[MUSIC PLAYING] Hello and welcome
to this message from Skip Heitzig of
Calvary Albuquerque. We pray that you are
encouraged by this teaching. If you are, we'd love
to hear about it. E-mail us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And if you'd like to support
this ministry financially, you can give online securely
at calvaryabq.org/giving. The idea most people
have about saints is that they've died and
attained special status because of their unusual accomplishments
while they lived on the earth. As we continue the
series "Technicolor Joy," we learned that nothing
could have been further from Paul's mind when
he wrote to the living saints in Philippi. Now we invite you to
turn in your Bibles to the Philippians chapter 1
as Skip begins the message, "Newsflash, You're a Saint." Philippians chapter 1. Let's pause and pray. Father, we do pray that
You would help us now. Help us to understand
the words that have been written by Paul,
ultimately by Your Spirit. And Father, we
pray that You would speak to each one
who has come, those who are watching
on the internet, or listening by radio. Father we do pray that
we would be changed into the image, Lord, into
Your purpose, Your plan for us, in Jesus' name. Amen. Philippians chapter
1 verse 1 and 2 read, "Paul and Timothy,
bondservants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints
in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with
the bishops and deacons; Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the most
misunderstood words in all of the Christian language
is a word found in verse 1. It's the word saint. Now I grew up hearing a lot
about saints in the church that I was raised in. But I always thought a
saint was a dead person who was made into a statue. [LAUGHTER] I didn't understand what
the biblical significance or definition of a saint was. Now the way it turns out
is you won't get much help from the Webster's dictionary. If you want to find
out what a saint is, according to
Webster's dictionary, it is not the same according
to the New Testament. Webster's dictionary
defines a saint as someone officially
recognized through canonization as being preeminent
for holiness. Second definition
according to Webster, it's one of the spirits of the
departed who are now in heaven. In other words, according
to Webster's dictionary, a saint is a near perfect
person now dead in heaven. Well how did all
that come about? It came about throughout
church history when early on, third
century, fourth century a.d., because the persecution
was so rampant. The killing of
Christians was so rampant that it was believed
that anybody who died as a Christian martyr
would be declared a saint. But then as time went
on the Vatican in Rome decided there needs to be a
process so that unworthy people don't get declared saints. So they came up with a
process of canonization. Now if you want
to become a saint, according to that
process, there's a few things you have to do. Number one, you have to
die and wait five years. During that time, a
local devotional group grows up around your memory. They discuss your
life and they want to emulate things about you. That's number one. Number two, your life is then
investigated by local bishops to see if you are worthy
of the title saint. Number three, your case
is sent to the Vatican to a special group
called the congregation for the causes of the saints. There is a group called that. They will review your case. Number four, people start
praying to you for a miracle, so you better cough one up. They start praying
to you for a miracle. If the miracle occurs,
it is investigated. Fifth, the Vatican, if
the miracle is legit, the Vatican then
declares you blessed and officially declares
that you are in heaven. Though, by now, you've
known that for some time. And you are then given a feast
day to celebrate your life. A special note, if
you were a martyr, you will skip all the
intermediate steps and just be declared blessed. And then sixth, if you
can do another miracle, that'll push you over the edge. Now you will be canonized a
saint, declared officially a saint, and you will be in what
is called the great communion of the saints. That's how you become a saint
according to the Vatican. That's an elaborate process. It's going to take
you some time. I've got a better idea. Trust in Jesus Christ
now and skip the line. [LAUGHTER] That is a New Testament
idea of a saint. The New Testament-- the
New Testament knows nothing of canonizing a dead person. It knows everything about
recognizing a living person. You see, Paul the Apostle
writes to saints in the book of Philippians chapter 1. He writes to saints in the
book of Romans chapter 1. He writes to saints in the
book of Colossians chapter 1. And he writes to the Corinthians
and he calls them saints. If you know anything
about Corinth, or the Corinthian church,
you know that the term saint has a latitude then. Saints who are at Corinth. When Paul was writing
these letters, he wasn't writing
the dead people. It's not like he's
the kid in Sixth Sense who said, "I see dead people." Paul was writing to
living, breathing saints, those who
are on the earth and declared to be God's people,
set apart as God's people. Not only is there an elaborate
process of canonisation in that church, the
church I grew up in that I have just
mentioned, but there are saints that are given
sort of jurisdiction over special areas in life. They're called patron saints. They're guardians
of special areas. I grew up with us knowing about
St. Christopher, the patron saint of travel, Saint
Anthony, the patron saint of lost things, St.
Jude, the patron saint of difficult circumstances. But if you do a little
research on this, and you'll find it
interesting, you will find hundreds and
hundreds of patron saints over virtually every
possible category in life. Some are quite surprising. For example, there
is saint Barbara, who is the patron
saint of fireworks. There is saint Isidore
of Seville, the patron saint of the internet. I kid you not, I
had to triple check this at a few different sources
to make sure I was accurate. There is saint Drogo
who is the patron saint of unattractive people. [LAUGHTER] Hey, everybody needs a saint. [LAUGHTER] And then there is
saint Genesius of Rome, who is the patron saint
of actors and comedians. And we all know they
need a lot of help. [LAUGHTER] Now most people do not
associate sainthood with what we noted last week as
the theme of this letter which is joy. When most people
think of a saint, they think of somebody sort
of gloomy and sad and serious, like all those saints portrayed
in ancient Christian art. So allow me, with you, to look
back at Philippians chapter 1. And let me give you
some qualities that describe a Biblical
saint, a Biblical saint. First quality Is
this, a saint is somebody who belongs to
two spheres, two spheres. Look at, in verse 1,
"Paul and Timothy, bondsman's of Jesus Christ, to
all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi." They are in Christ,
that's the first address. They're in Philippi,
that's the second address. So think of it this way, God's
people have dual citizenship. We live here. We live here on this earth. But according to
Paul, we live and move and have our being in Him. So I have a physical
address here in town. I also have a spiritual
address in Christ. And because of that I have an
eventual address in heaven. So you may live at 1611
Comanche Court Northeast. That's your physical address. Jesus said, "In My Father's
house there are many mansions, and I'm going there to
prepare a place for you. So you might live on earth,
but you long for heaven. You dwell on earth, but
you're destined for glory, as we will read about
when we get to chapter 3, whenever that will be. In verse 20 Paul will say, "for
our citizenship is in heaven. " So it's good, and we'll look
at each address a little deeper in a moment. But it's good to
think of yourself as having two addresses,
living in this world with two different spheres, in Christ,
but in wherever I live, Albuquerque. Now let me say a word to those
of you who consider yourself as living only in one
address, a physical address. You're bound to this earth. You live for the
pleasures of this earth. You are not in Christ,
and you have no intention of ever being in Christ. You are content to go to
church from time to time to take part in whatever
your family wants to, but you're not weak like
those members of your family that have accepted Jesus Christ. You're content with just
living for the here and now. If that is your stance,
if that is your posture, then let me just
encourage you to make sure that you suck all
of the pleasure you can out of your earthly
address because it's the last good time
you'll ever have. You might as well get all the
gusto right now, right here, and just take every ounce
of fun you can out of it. But Paul believed that he could
live in the sphere of the here and now, but also
in Christ, knowing that he would be in heaven and
it would add a fuller life. And that's what brought him joy. Look at the spiritual
address mentioned in verse 1, "to all the saints
in Christ Jesus." Now 87 times in
your New Testament is that phrase
"in Christ Jesus." It's repeated over and over. We are in Christ Jesus,
which means simply, we are united to His life. The life of Jesus
Christ is in you. And so when Jesus prayed
in John 17 to His Father He said, "Father, I in You
and You in Me that they," his followers,
"may be one in Us." It's very unique to
the Christian life to say you are in Christ. You will never find a Buddhist
saying I am in Buddha. They'll follow the
teachings of that leader, but they're not in Buddha. You'll never hear a Muslim
saying I'm in Mohammad. Or a Mormon saying I'm in Joseph
Smith or I'm in Brigham Young. Or a Jehovah Witness saying
I'm in Charles Taze Russell. Or a Christian Science saying
I'm in Mary Baker Eddy. But you'll find a
Christian, like Paul, saying you are in Christ Jesus. You share the same life as Him. Galatians chapter
2 verse 20 Paul says, "I have been
crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live,
but Christ who lives in me. And the life that I
now live in the flesh I live by faith
in the Son of God Who loved me and
gave Himself for me." So what that means
is though we are in this world we're not of this
world because we're in Christ. You see when you're in this
world and you're in Christ, you're in this world,
but not of this world. Which means as you
live in this world you live with a light touch,
a light touch in this world, because you're only
passing through it. It's not your permanent home. It's simply transitory. It's temporary. You're on your way to
something far better. I want you listen to a
portion of a letter written from the second century a.d. to a man by the
name of Diognetus, who was actually the
tutor of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor. And this letter to
him was describing Christians that were the new
phenomenon in the Roman Empire. This author says to this
unbelieving Roman government official these words,
"Christians are not marked out from the rest of mankind
by their country, or by their speech,
or by their customs. They dwell in cities
both Greek and barbarian, as each has his
own lot, following the customs of the region
in clothing and in food and in outward things
of life generally, yet they manifest the wonderful
and openly paradoxical character of their own state. They inhabit the
lands of their birth, but as temporary
residents thereof. And they take their share of
all their responsibilities as citizens and endure all
the disabilities as aliens. Every foreign land
is their native land, and every native land
is as a foreign land. They pass their
days upon the earth, but their citizenship
is in heaven." What a testimony. They live responsibly here, but
their citizenship is in heaven. That's important
because some have accused Christians
of being so heavenly minded they're no earthly good. And to that Paul
would say, well you haven't understood the
next part of the address. They're not only
in Christ Jesus, but notice what it says in
verse 1, who are in Philippi. In other words,
on this earth, you happen to be
citizens of the Roman Empire in the Roman colony
called the city of Philippi. So we are residents
of two realms. In this case, if we
were in Philippi, we're in Christ,
but in Philippi. So because we're
residents of two realms, we should live responsible
in both realms. Be responsible citizens
in Christ and in Philippi. Jesus prayed this,
"my prayer--", praying to his
Father in John 17, "my prayer is not that You
take them out of the world, but that You keep them
from the evil one." Please understand his heart cry. Father, don't take
them out of this world, just keep them from the evil
one while they're in this world. In other words,
Jesus never intended for you to live in a cave,
or a monastery as a hermit, and to be un-involved
and disassociated from your world
and your society. In fact, Jesus said
this, and it must have startled his disciples. Jesus said, "behold, I am
sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves." if I heard that, I
would have said, "why?" You don't love me very much
if You want to send me You sheep in the midst of wolves. You must-- You must be cruel. No, He's kind. He loves wolves so much
that sending His sheep out in the midst of them may
turn some of those wolves into some of His sheep. That's the purpose of it. But this then becomes
a struggle to us. Part of our struggle is knowing
how to balance both passports. I'm in Christ, but
I'm in Albuquerque. I'm in Christ, but
I'm in Philippi. So we have
responsibilities to both. How do we balance that? One of the ways we
balance it is make sure that you are talking to
Christ about your Philippi, and talking to Philippi
about your Christ. When you talk to Jesus,
when you pray to Him, tell him about your neighbors,
your neighborhood, your city, the problems in your city. Pray about where you live. And then tell your
Philippi about your Christ. Tell people who don't
know the Lord about what following Jesus is like. That will keep you and I in the
balance of carrying responsibly two passports in this dual
citizenship in which we live. We're responsible
to him, but we're responsible in our culture. Back in the days of what is
called the Jesus movement, I always feel like
I need to explain that nowadays because
that's so old from memory, the Jesus movement was
a phenomenon in the 60s and 70s were by thousands
upon thousands of young people were coming to Christ in droves,
especially on the west coast. It was a phenomenon. But we all believed that
Jesus was coming soon. I still believe that. But we believed what that
man is He's coming so soon, might as well just do nothing,
just sit around and wait for him. Just enjoy yourself
because He'll be here, well, any minute. So it created a lot of people
who were irresponsible. And I remember when I
announced to some of my friends that I was going
to go to college. And they go, college? Jesus will come back before
you graduate from college. I said, well, if he does
He'll find me a college. And last time I
checked, colleges need to hear about Jesus. They're not like the bastion
of righteousness and goodness. I feel colleges
need a good witness, so that's where I'm going to be. And if He comes back
before I am done, fine. Jesus said He was coming, but He
also said occupy until I come. Stay responsible. Stay busy. Stay involved. Stay engaged. So we are in Christ,
but we are in Philippi, a saint belongs to two spheres. There is a second quality of a
saint, a New Testament saint, a saint behaves submissively. In other words a
saint is a servant. Again notice in verse 1, I
know I touched on it last week. But there's always more
in a verse, you know, so I did one verse
last week, I'm doing verse 1 and 2 this week. But just look at that word. Paul and Timothy, bond
servants of Jesus Christ. Don't you love how Paul
introduces himself? He didn't say, Paul
and Timothy, big wigs. Or Dr. Paul and Dr.
Timothy, eminent theologians writing to you low lifers
in Philippi who really don't know theology like I do. He came as low as you can get. We are bond slaves
of Jesus Christ. Now Paul is writing as a
slave, as a servant, to saints. But look at it this way,
he's writing as a servant to servants. You see throughout this book
he is going to encourage them to become like Him. Chapter 2 he's going to
say let this mind be in you which was also even
in Jesus Christ, who being in the form
of God, did not think it robbery to be the
same-- on the same par as God. But He emptied himself
and became a bond servant. So be servants like
Jesus was a servant and like I am His servant. So he's writing as a
servant to servants. Now when they heard the term
bond slave or bondservant, it sounded different to their
ears than it does to our ears. We have eradicated
slavery in our culture. In the Roman Empire slavery was
40% of the population still. 40% of people in
the Roman Empire were owned by other human
beings at that time. But it was an enforced
kind of a slavery. They were often despised
and slaves were regarded as simply a piece of property. Now there was a
slavery even in Judaism in the religious sector. But if you know
your Old Testament you know that you could
have a slave for six years. You had to treat them
very kindly and then on the seventh year
you released them. But if the slave
loved the master, you remember there
was a ceremony? The slave could
say no, no, no, I want to serve my Master
for the rest of my life. Well the ceremony was you take
your slave to the doorpost and you run a spike
through his earlobe. Or an awl, like you'd get
an earring, you pierce it. And you would designate
that person is a servant voluntarily for life. That's the idea of a New
Testament bondservant. I'm a bondservant of Jesus
not because I have to. I signed up for this, I want to. A voluntary bondservant
bound willfully to Christ. Now this is
important terminology because there is
another New Testament term that you hear a lot,
or read a lot in the New Testament, is the word redeem. Christians are fond of
saying, "I'm redeemed." We don't always
understand what it means. Redeem, used 20 times
in the New Testament, means to go to the slave market,
and pay a price for that slave, releasing that slave from the
slave market to be your slave. So here's what redeem means. When you say I'm
redeemed by Jesus, it doesn't mean I'm
set free to be me. I'm set free so I can
do whatever I want, no. You are redeemed from the slave
market to be a slave of Jesus. You're called to a higher
slavery, that's what it means. Romans chapter 6 Paul says,
"Once you were slaves of sin, but now you have obeyed
with all your heart the new teaching that
God has given you. Now you are free from
sin, your old master, and you have become
slaves to your new master, righteousness." So being a believer
means you've defected. You ran away from
your old master, sin, used by Satan to keep you
bound, keep you in fetters. You ran from that to a
higher form of slavery. To willingly obey Him, that's
what surrendering your life to Jesus means. You are free to be His slave,
bondservants of Jesus Christ. I've always loved the story
about the husband and wife, they were talking about going
to the Holy Land on a tour, and the husband got all
amped, got so excited. "Say, I can't wait, let's go,
come on let's go to Israel, let's go to the Holy Land." And he said, "can you imagine
standing on Mount Sinai and just shouting
the 10 commandments." And his wife, not
so excited to go and wanting to save a little
bit of money, she goes, "I think it would be better if
we just stayed home and kept the 10 commandments." Now I don't want to give
that little illustration to dissuade you if
you want to sign up for our tour going to Israel. [LAUGHTER] Now I think you can do both. I think you can
obey them at home but then go see it and
shout it from that mountain. So being a saint then is not
having an emotional goosebump. Being a saint is having
a submissive heart. That's part of sainthood. It's a living,
breathing person who lives in two spheres,
in Christ, in Philippi, but is submissive to
the commands of Christ. Jesus said, if you love Me,
you'll keep My commandments. You know one of the
things I love about you is your excitement and worship. Some of you are
very, very excited and emotional in worship. And I always think that God
is the most worthy being in the universe and
should be told so, and our expression
shouldn't be lackluster, it should be all in. However, it's not
how high you jump, it's how straight you walk
when you hit the ground. It's wonderful to get all
excited about worship, but it's better when you
get more excited about doing what He said to do. That's a saint. A saint behaves submissively. There is a third quality
I want you to notice. A saint believes
in the Scriptures. A saint believes
in the Scriptures. Now N not going to refer to
a particular verse in verse 1 and 2, or word. I want you to step back for a
moment from these two verses and consider the whole
book of Philippians, for just a moment, the
whole book, a letter. Paul wrote four chapters,
104 verses to be exact, in our bibles. And that is the letter
to the Philippian church. It's a short letter, or a
moderately sized letter, piece of correspondence. Now when they received the
letter, you know what they did? They read it. Ah, but they didn't just
read it, they obeyed it. And then they did
something else, they circulated it to
other congregations. You know why they did that? It wasn't just
because Paul wrote it. They actually believed that what
Paul was writing was from God. That it was the Scripture. That we apply it and we share it
and we use it in discipleship. Because we believe that
the writings of Paul, they believe from an early stage
on, was directly from the Lord. So when Peter writes
his letter in 2nd Peter, he refers to Paul's
writings as Scripture. The Thessalonian church,
Paul noted to them, when you received
my teaching you received it not
just as human words, but as it is in fact,
the very Word of God. And Paul believed,
he was confident, that he wrote with
God's authority. Now look at verse 2,
"grace and peace to you," notice the authority base behind
him, "from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." Now all of that to
say this, saints are not people who
glow in the dark. Saints are not people
who live perfect lives. Saints are not
people who go through an elaborate canonization
process over years. Saints are people
who believe that God has no problem superintending
the writing of a book. God has no problem making sure
that human authors like Paul and Peter and John wrote what
the Divine Author intended. So that the words of these
authors can at the same time be the very Word of God. Because that's how the
early church took it, this is God's Word to us. A saint believes the Scriptures. Now I know there are no patron
saints, but if there were, I'd want to be the patron
saint of Bible readers. I love people who
love their Bibles. I love people who
ask Bible questions. I love people who are always
immersed in the things of God and the Scriptures. I've been reading the
Bible now for 44 years, and every single time
I open my Bible I find something to wow over. I didn't notice that. Look at that. Or trying to reorient
myself to understand how it all fits together. I did a funeral sometime
back of a former staff member who was a former
member of our pastoral staff. And he was a leader
of a great group for years, a leader
of the navigator's, great, great
discipleship ministry. And he memorized whole
portions of Scripture. I was always amazed sitting
and talking to George and having him
counsel, or just how well he knew the Scriptures. And it was a part of
his everyday life. And he spent so much daily
time, not only memorizing, but being able to
communicate them. So I did his funeral, and after
I was done with the funeral, his family walked up to
me and handed me this-- his Bible, his Bible. I thought, oh man, this is--
you sure you want me to have it? He goes, oh George would
want you to have it. So I have his Bible and as
I received it with humility I thought how much of this Book
was stored in that man's heart? It was just a part of
the fabric of his life. Which leads me to ask
us all a question, what is your attitude
toward the Book? Does the Book occupy a
prominent position in your life? Is it the Book or is it a book? How important is it? Now I will say this,
your love for the Bible is directly proportional to
your relationship to Its Author. Your love for the
Bible is directly proportional to your
relationship to Its Author, to God. Here's an example,
there was a woman who bought a book from her
bookstore, a local bookstore. She started reading a few
pages, then a chapter. She couldn't make it
past a chapter or two. She put the book down
because she said it was dull, it was boring, she was done with
it, until she met the author. She met the author, a
friendship struck up, then a romantic
relationship developed. They were both unattached, now
they're romantically attached. Suddenly, she was
looking for that book. And when she read that book
it was a different book. She wanted to turn over every
phrase and every sentence and wonder what
did he mean by that and what's that
experience about. What made the difference? Love, a love
relationship, love was now the interpreter of that book. And so let me just say this,
what if from now on you saw the Bible as a love
letter from God to you? If you started seeing the
Bible as a love letter from God to you, I dare say we
would all read It differently. We wouldn't just
read in the Bible, we would feed on the Bible. What did He mean by that? What is that phrase all about? What's this experience? So a saint believes
in the Scriptures. And here's a fourth
and final quality. A saint benefits spiritually,
that's the second verse. Paul writes, "grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ." He is wishing that they
will experience God's grace and enjoy God's peace. Now I know, I know, this
is a typical salutation. It's a typical
ancient salutation. You could look up
thousands of letters from antiquity, thousands
of papyri fragments. And you will find a very similar
orientation, which by the way, I like the way old letters
were written like this. And here's why, it's going
to sound kind of dumb, but they put their name,
the author puts the name, at the beginning. You know when we write a
letter we say, dear so and so, we write the letter,
and at the very end we go, signed, and put our name. So what I do whenever
I get a letter, what's the first thing I do? I turn it over to find
out who it's from. So it's just awfully nice that
we begin Paul and Timothy. Okay, now I know who wrote it. To the saints at
Philippi, okay now I know who it's addressed to. It's all there in
one little sentence. But what Paul does is
Paul combines greetings from the Western world and
greetings from the Middle Eastern world, and combines
them into one greeting. And then he tweaks
it a little bit. Let me explain that. The common Greek greeting 2000
years ago in the Greek speaking world was the word rejoice. Rejoice. Chara they would say in Greek. Chara, you'd see
somebody, chara, rejoice. In the Middle East, in
Israel, when you saw somebody you'd say peace. Shalom. Hello and goodbye. Shalom. Shalom. So what Paul does is he combines
the Western chara and shalom, puts them together, but he
changes the word rejoice chara into a very similar
word, charis, which is grace. Not just rejoice,
but grace and peace. These are called the Siamese
twins of the New Testament, because you always
find them together. You always find grace
and peace together, and the order is never reversed. You'll never find
peace and grace. You know why that is? Because it's grace
that produces peace. God's grace produces peace. When you have experienced
the grace of God you start experiencing
the peace of God. Grace is the fountain,
peace is the stream that flows from the
fountain of grace. So let me ask you, do
you have peace today? Is there peace in your heart? Because if there is
not peace in your heart could it be that you've not
experienced the grace of God? Did you know that Caesar
Augustus, the Emperor of Rome, once heard that there was
a man in that city of Rome who, though he had
many problems in life and was sky high in debt,
slept like a baby every night. And that intrigued the Caesar. So he demanded that that
man be brought before him. And when he did, Caesar
offered to buy that man's bed. [LAUGHTER] He thought that was the answer
to a good night's sleep. It's a Tempur-Pedic mattress. It's the right Sleep Number. But that is not the answer. The ability to sleep with a
clear conscience and a heart at ease comes from
understanding the grace of God. And that settles the peace. Romans 5 verse 1,
"Therefore, we have been justified through
faith," that's God's grace, "and so we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ," grace and then peace. So news flash, if you're
a believer in Jesus Christ this morning, if you belong
to Christ, you are saint. You can nudge your wife
and go I'm a saint. [APPLAUSE] Remember that,
husband, I'm a saint. [APPLAUSE] So it's perfectly
appropriate if you want to call me saint
Skip from now on. [LAUGHTER] Just saying, it's
got a ring to it. [LAUGHTER] Biblical. Somebody asked a little boy
if he knew what a saint was. And the little boy was raised
in a traditional church and all he knew were
stained glass windows. He goes I know what a saint is,
it's a person the light shines through. He's on to something, isn't he? The light of the Gospel,
the light of Christ, shines through you. Imperfect perhaps, certainly,
but the light shines through. So you and I, we are
saints in Christ Jesus, in Philippi or Albuquerque
or wherever we might live. Now the word saint means
holy or the most holy thing. Hagios. And I know you're going, "yeah
man I don't feel that way." And your wife's going, "and
you don't act that way." But I want you to know
God sees you that way. And the reason God
sees you that way is because you are in Christ. So you might want to
think of it this way, God sees you through
rose colored glasses. God sees you through
blood stained glasses. Because of what Jesus
did for you on the cross, He sees you in Christ, and
He sees you as righteous. Not because of what you've done,
but because of what He's done. He sees you through
rose colored glasses. And He says you're a Saint. So when you think about it then,
there's really only two kinds of people in the world,
saints and ain'ts. You're either a
Saint or you ain't. And I hope He is. Father, thank You for the
clear and uplifting reality that those who trust in You
are regarded by You as saints, set apart, wholly
different, unique. Because You see as
in Christ Jesus, You see us through
blood stained glasses. We are Yours. Imperfect, yes. But we are Yours. We live in two spheres, carrying
two different passports, submitting willingly to
You, believing Your Word in the Scriptures, and
enjoying the benefits, great peace brought on by
great grace, amazing grace. And that produces a joy. Lord, I pray that You
would show us more and more that being indentured servants
to You, being slaves of Christ, brings the highest
freedom possible. In Jesus' name, amen. [MUSIC PLAYING] As believers, we're
living saints too. Did the message impact your
relationship with Christ? Let us know. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And just a reminder, you can
give financially to this work at calvaryabq.org/giving. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calgary Albuquerque.
