To live and die for Christ - Sermon by brother Christian Torres

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Good morning church. It's always a pleasure to be able to teach this congregation, whether it's through Bible study or sermon.
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I absolutely love teaching the Word of God because it is such a privilege. I get to share with you the perfect Word of God.
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Understand that I am very imperfect, but I was tasked with the almost impossible responsibility of teaching you the perfect Word of God.
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And so I pray that as I exegete the Word of God that you don't hear my words, but you hear the
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Lord's Word. The purpose here is for me to introduce you to Christ. Not introduce you to Witten or introduce you to Christian.
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My purpose today is for you to encounter Jesus and all of his beauty. So we're going to be in Romans chapter 14 verse 8.
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So when I was asked to preach a couple months back, it took me just that, a couple months to figure out what
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I wanted to teach. When you have the entire Word of God and you're asked to preach for about 30 -40 minutes, my goodness, where do you stop at?
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Where do you go? And as I was meditating in the book of Romans, I came across this particular verse,
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Romans 14 verse 8. And I'm going to read it twice because it is incredibly powerful.
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Hear the Word of the Lord, Romans chapter 14 verse 8. This is Paul speaking here. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the
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Lord's. I'm going to repeat that one more time. For if we live, we live to the
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Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the
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Lord's. And what caused me to stop when I was reading this verse is this single verse managed to arrest my entire life.
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This single verse managed to command me to surrender my entire life and even my death at the feet of Jesus Christ.
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Just one verse. It wasn't even a passage. All Paul had to say was this one sentence. And right then and there, my entire life is determined.
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That command should dictate every piece of my life. That's amazing.
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And so what I did for you guys this morning is I went into detail on what does it mean to live for Christ?
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What does it mean to die for Christ? And in that last piece, we are the
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Lord's. What does that mean? We are the Lord's. He possesses us.
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He keeps us. There's a lot in that last piece. And I can preach sermons on sermons on just the last part.
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We are the Lord's. We'll get to that in a second. I have three points here.
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I'll start off with the first one. The Lord demands your life.
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He demands all of your life. Now, American Christianity has got this wrong. We think that serving the
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Lord is just a Sunday morning, Wednesday night thing. The real good Christians serve
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God Wednesday nights. The average ordinary Christian serves God Sunday morning.
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Sunday morning is just when we come to meet up. And then we're released. In reality, church should begin when we leave this building.
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That's when we should start acting like Christians to the world. And here, of course, we love each other.
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But you know who needs to see the real love of God? Those people out there. Let me tell you, I worked in food service.
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I worked in food industry. We hated working Sunday afternoon. Hated working because Christians were the worst.
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Large groups. Loud children. No tip. Are you serious?
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That's us. That's what the world knows us. They don't know us by our love. They don't know us by our
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Holy Spirit that we share. They know us by the fact that we don't tip. It is shameful.
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It really is. Christ demands your servitude.
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Christ demands your absolute servitude. And when I was thinking of servitude, my mind immediately went to one person.
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Mary. And Luke chapter 1 verse 35 through 38 tells us this.
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Scholars believe that Mary was around 14 and 15 years old. A young little girl.
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Betrothed to Mary Joseph. The angel Gabriel approaches her and says, don't be afraid.
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You will bear a son and you will call him Jesus and he will be called the son of God. Mary, as a 14 -year -old girl, is going, huh?
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I'm a virgin. First of all, I'm a virgin. So I don't know if Gabriel, I don't know if you know human biology because you're an angel and all, but I am a virgin.
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There's no way I'm going to conceive anything. I want to start in verse 35.
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And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the
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Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called
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Holy, the son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son.
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And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.
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And I want you to hear closely Mary's next words. And Mary said, behold,
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I am the Lord's servant. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed her.
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Mary didn't know how this was going to happen. She didn't know what God was going to do.
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All she knew was the message she received and she said, I am the Lord's servant. I am the Lord's servant.
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And imagine a 14 -year -old girl was told you will bear the son of God in her next words where I am the Lord's servant.
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What kind of servitude is that? That is a perfect example of how we are to be with Christ. Let me tell you right now,
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I don't know everything about Christ. I don't claim to know everything about Christ. There's still so much
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I have to learn. But you know what? I know enough. He has called me so I will serve him.
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I'll leave the impossibility with him because that's what the angel Gabriel said. With God, there is nothing that is impossible.
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So in your life, where is your servitude?
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Where is this mindset of I don't know how it's going to happen. I don't know how
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I'm going to be able to afford rent. I am the Lord's servant. I am in his hands.
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Do you think Mary had plans in her life? Do you think she had goals and dreams? Do you think that bearing the son of God was just a hindrance in those dreams?
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I personally think so. And so I want to take this time for you to stop and think about your own goals and your own dreams and what you want to do with your life.
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Have you spoken to the Lord about your future plans? Have you spoken to the
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Lord about the one you plan to marry? Have you addressed your future? Because right here,
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God had a totally different path than what Mary had thought. The Lord demands your servitude.
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Regardless of impossibility, he demands it. And Mary is a perfect example.
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The second thing, Christ demands abandon in life. He demands that you abandon everything you hold dear in your life.
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A perfect example is found in the Gospel according to Mark chapter 1, where Jesus is walking by the
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Sea of Galilee. And he sees two brothers. He sees Peter and Andrew.
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And he says, Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
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Scripture says that immediately they dropped everything and followed him. Now, that's a pretty big deal because they were fishermen.
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And they just left their fishing boat behind. What does that mean?
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They just left behind the way to support themselves. Now, if you continue reading a little bit further, he calls
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John. And I'd like to read this because this is very interesting. Mark chapter 1, verses 16, let me see.
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No, verse 19. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were in the boat mending the nets.
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And immediately Jesus called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.
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They left behind their way of life. They left behind their family.
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What does Christ demand of you? Now, we live in a very privileged part of the world where if you become a
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Christian, you might not be required to leave your father or mother behind. We have that luxury.
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We have that privilege. But let me tell you right now, in other parts of the world, following Christ means leaving your family.
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And when I mean leaving your family, I mean running away from them because they're out to hunt you down because you're a disgrace.
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Now, don't get me wrong. If a Mormon leaves their faith, they're also leaving behind their family. Jehovah's Witness is the same, but not with the intense persecution that happens in other parts of this world.
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He demands your abandon completely and utterly. If Christ were to call you away from your job, would you leave?
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Even if it meant a pay cut. Understand that in Luke, the angel
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Gabriel said, there is no impossibility with God. God requires your absolute abandon.
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I want to point again. Do you think that the disciples knew everything about Jesus Christ? No. They had probably heard about him.
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They had probably seen a couple miracles, but they didn't know the extent of what Christ was calling them to.
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Let me tell you right now, the disciples were a bunch of losers. A bunch of losers.
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And let me tell you why. When I read scripture, I look at King David. Yeah, David was pretty bad.
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Solomon, yeah, Solomon was pretty bad. Now, when I look at the 12 disciples, I don't think there is a worse bunch in the
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Bible. They got it wrong at almost every single corner. The night that Christ was betrayed, the disciples were having a debate about which one of them was the greatest one.
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When Christ asked them to pray, I need you guys to pray because I'm going to be betrayed tonight.
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Three times the Lord had to wake them up. They didn't understand it.
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They didn't comprehend it. But they had abandoned at least. They were imperfect people following a perfect God.
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And all that the Lord required was abandon. And even when the apostle
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Peter denied Christ three times to his face, three times Christ said,
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Do you love me, Peter? Then feed my sheep. You're not getting out of this so easily.
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You might have denied me three times, but I'm going to reinstate you three times. That almost goes back to Psalms 130 where there is redemption upon redemption for us.
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So we have Mary's example of servitude. We have the disciples' example of abandon.
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Third one is Christ demands repentance. What does that mean that Christ demands repentance?
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Now, after reading the Bible back and forth, let me tell you right now, when
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I think of repentance, my mind goes to the sinful woman who cried at the feet of Christ.
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That, to me, is what repentance looks like. Come with me to Luke chapter 7, verse 36 through 50.
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And I don't want to paraphrase this because it's too beautiful. For context, before we begin reading, this is
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Luke writing this, but he's recalling a part of Jesus' life where he gets invited to eat with a bunch of Pharisees, which is actually very strange.
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It's actually almost out of character for Christ to go and eat with the Pharisees. He was usually eating with the tax collection sinners.
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So right then and there, I'm already thinking, yeah, God's up to something. Because why would Jesus Christ be eating with Pharisees?
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That's not his MO. That's kind of weird. Starting in verse 36. One of the
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Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisees' house and reclined at the table.
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And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at the table of the
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Pharisees, brought an alabaster flask of ointment. And standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed him with the ointment.
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Now check this out. Now when the Pharisee, who had invited Jesus, saw this, he said to himself,
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Ah, if this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who was touching him, for she is a sinner.
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And Jesus answered to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, Say it, teacher.
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Oh, he's not a prophet anymore. He's a teacher. He just debunked him down. A certain money lender had two debtors.
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One owed him 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both.
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Now which do you suppose will love him more? Simon answered, The one, I suppose, who is forgiven more.
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And Jesus responded, You have judged correctly. Then turning around to the woman, he said to Simon, Do you see this woman?
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I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
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You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet.
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You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.
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But he who is forgiven little only loves a little. And he said to her,
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Your sins are forgiven. Then those who were at the table with him began to say among them,
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Who is this who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, Your faith has saved you.
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Go in peace. He looked at the woman and said, Don't you worry about them. Just focus on me.
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Just focus on me. Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace. Don't let these Pharisees bother you. When I think of repentance, I think of this woman.
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Notice how Scripture says that since Christ walked in, she has been kissing his feet. If I read that story correctly,
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Christ was already sitting down, reclining at the table, and then the woman came in. When I read that, that means she was already kissing his feet before she even went to the house.
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On her way through the streets, she was already kissing Christ, already in her heart.
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Now, I want to point out that even Scripture says she was a woman of the city.
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Now, I don't need to go into detail about what you guys might think about what a woman in the city means. She's a sinner.
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It means that everybody in the city knew who she was. She had a reputation. She was popular.
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She was infamous. And when she walked in, all the Pharisees knew exactly who this woman was.
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She knelt at the feet of Christ. According to her and her mind, there was no one else in the room but her and Jesus Christ.
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She didn't care. Let me say something right now. For some of you here, this woman is more justified than some of you.
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There are people who are in this room who have heard the gospel time and time again and still have refused to repent.
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This past Wednesday, Brother Jeremiah was teaching the youth. And after he was done preaching,
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I stood up and I asked, is there anybody here that would like to give their life to Christ? And this one particular youth said, that's a lot of pressure.
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No, a lot of pressure. How about walking into a room full of pastors, being known by the entire city as a sinner, and bowing at the feet of Jesus Christ?
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Keep in mind, a woman's hair, that's how she adorned herself. That was her prized possession.
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That was her beauty. Her beauty didn't matter at the feet of Jesus. My beauty surrendered at your feet.
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A bunch of people in that room and only one person was left justified. One person was left forgiven.
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Everybody else stood condemned because she was forgiven much. And it wasn't the fact that her sins were worse than the
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Pharisees' sins. But in their mind, their sin was better than hers.
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What Christ demands of you, saints, is repentance, and repentance daily.
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It is impossible for you to grow in Christ without repentance. There is no sanctification without repentance.
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Ever wondered why in the Lord's model prayer, He says, forgive us our debts. Every single day, forgive us of our trespasses.
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Because every day, we trespass against Christ. Every single day.
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I dare to say every hour. But we worship a God who is so quick to forgive.
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Who is so calm. Who looks at us as we weep at His feet and said, get up, go in peace.
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Do you know what that is? Do you know peace? Do you have peace in your life today? This woman knew that.
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And I hope that after hearing the word of God, you surrender at the feet of Jesus and you finally leave with peace.
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So Christ demands servitude. Christ demands abandon. And Christ demands repentance.
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Now those are just a handful of things that Christ demands in life. Let's go to the next piece of Romans chapter 14 verse 8.
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And if we die, we die to the Lord. The second thing is, the Lord demands your death.
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Now, when you're reading this, you might be tempted to go, yeah, He demands that you die to yourself.
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He demands that you die to your sin. According to the context, no, He meant physical death.
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Death to yourself, death to sin, that happens while you're alive. He demands your physical death.
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First point I want to make under this point is Christianity brings inherent risk.
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I would not be a good teacher of the word of God if I didn't tell you Christianity is very dangerous, that our church history is built on the blood of the saints, that the reason we have
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Scripture available to us is because the saints in the past bled for it.
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The fact that we have this freedom is because saints bled for this. Eleven out of the twelve apostles were martyred, executed, beheaded.
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Christianity is not a safe thing. And nobody knew this better than the apostle Peter. First Peter chapter 4, verses 12 through 14 states this.
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Beloved, and by the way, he's writing this to you. This letter is for us.
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So it is as if the apostle Peter is up here reading this to you. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trials when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share in Christ's suffering, that you also may rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
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If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
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Christ, in so many parts of the Gospels, told his disciples, if they called me the prince of demons, what do you think they'll call you?
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If they come after me, what do they think about you? They're going to come after you.
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Christ, the most perfect man to ever live, was executed. Where's the cross?
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Over there. Was executed on the cross. And the 11 apostles faced the same thing.
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And the apostle Paul takes this a little bit further, 2 Timothy 3 .12 and says, if you desire to have a godly life, you will be persecuted.
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That's a promise. Now we are told, I remember being told from my childhood, believe the promises of God.
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Believe the promises of God. The promises that will never leave us nor forsake us. How about the promise that we will endure persecution?
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That's a promise. That's not a suggestion. That's not a, it might happen. With the same power and inspiration that we have,
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I will never leave you nor forsake you. He has also promised to you that you will endure persecution.
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This morning, how ready are you for persecution? Are you mentally prepared to turn against your family if you have to, to lose your job if you have to?
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Persecution has been a commonplace thing all throughout history. Let me tell you right now, this piece that we have here is very recent.
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It's very new because for hundreds of years, our people were executed, were martyred.
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It is a blessing that here, at least, we haven't had any martyrs. But to the church in Rome that Paul was writing to, there were plenty of martyrs executed by Nero.
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Even the person writing, you know what's funny, Peter and Paul were both executed by the same person and they wrote, you will endure persecution.
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They lived it out. Their words are written in blood. Fair warning, if you choose to follow the
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Lord Jesus Christ, there is danger. The second part is,
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Christianity attracts death. Christianity is a religion of death.
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We are to, obviously, reject sin, reject ourselves, die to ourselves.
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But there are times when Christ demands your very life. Romans chapter 8 verse 36 states this,
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As it is written, for your name, I'm sorry, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long and we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
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I was doing research a couple months back. My family and I went to a
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Titanic museum and it was very interesting. The Titanic is, it was a fascinating boat.
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It was, you know, the best thing they had back then.
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Now, what caught my attention was a segment in the museum reserved for the ministers on that ship.
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There were three Catholic priests and one Baptist minister on board that ship.
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Just touch this real quick. Those three Catholic priests gave up a spot on a lifeboat so that others may live.
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And if anybody has seen the movie Titanic, there's one particular scene where the Catholic priest is saying the
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Lord's Prayer as the boat is sinking. That is true. Three Catholic priests left behind the safety of the boat, of the lifeboat, and said, no, someone else can take that.
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We're going to remain on the boat and minister to the people who are dying. They gave up their life to minister to the people on the boat.
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Now, let me tell you something. I don't know whether they believed in the three steps of imputation.
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I don't know whether they believed in the triune nature of God. I do know this. They gave up their lives so that others may live.
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Personally, I'm convinced I'm going to see them at the right hand of the Father when I go up because their theology might be a little bent, but their love for Christ and their love for their neighbor motivated them to remain behind, and all three of them died.
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There was also a Baptist pastor, and I recommend that you research this man. His name was
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Pastor John Harper. He was on his way to America to preach at the
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Moody Church with his daughter and niece. He was recently widowed. When he heard that the boat was sinking, he got his daughter and his niece to a lifeboat, and as a widower, he had full right to be part of, to be in the lifeboat with them.
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He said no. He turned around, and he said,
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I have to remain behind and evangelize. So after ensuring that his daughter and his niece were safe, he turned around, and he faced death.
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Witnesses can recall him screaming, women, children, and unsaved into the boats.
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Women, children, and unsaved into the boats. And he kept screaming, believe in the
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Lord Jesus, and thou shall be saved. Mind you, he was preaching to people who were going to die.
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He was preaching salvation to people who were going to die. There was one particular person who did not have a life jacket, and he rejected the gospel.
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He said, I don't believe in that. He took off his life jacket, gave it to him, and said, you're going to need it more than I do.
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When the boat sank, this is in the frigid, cold, Atlantic Ocean.
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Witnesses report that he was in the water, swimming from person to person, saying, believe in the
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Lord Jesus, and thou shall be saved. In the water, continuously evangelizing to people in the water.
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Now, there was one particular person who was on some driftwood or some wreckage.
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I can't remember. And Pastor John swam up to him and said, are you saved?
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And the man said, I am not. And John Harper said, believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shall be saved.
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And he swam away to another person. Now, by God's divine sovereignty, the tides pushed them back together.
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He swam back up to him, and he said to the same person, are you saved? And the person said,
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I am not. And he said, believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shall be saved. A couple minutes later,
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John Harper died. Either he drowned or froze to death, but he died. That man that was evangelized to was rescued from the water.
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He was rescued from the water. And a little while later, they held a survivor's conference in Ontario.
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And he was asked to speak. The man that was saved from the water walked up to the pulpit and said,
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I am the last convert of John Harper, the man who gave up his life for one.
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That one was worth it. That one was worth it. His ministry, the man that was saved said,
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I am the last convert of Pastor John Harper. Because he sacrificed his life,
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I live. Let me tell you, the most dangerous thing wasn't the fact that he was hovering over nothing in the frigid
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Atlantic. It was the fact that he was hovering over the lake of fire. When Pastor John Harper looked at the sinking boat, he didn't see the boat sinking.
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He saw that the harvest was ready. And the Lord said, no.
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Your life, I'm calling your life today. Because there's at least one person that needs to hear your voice.
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And to this day, we have generations of Christians because one man gave his life for the gospel.
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The Lord demands your death. It does bring inherent risk. It does attract death.
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But to finish off, we have the last piece of Romans 14 .8. But whether we live or whether we die, we are the
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Lord's. In life and in death, we are the Lord's. What does it mean to be the
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Lord's? What does that mean to you? I am
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His, meaning I cannot break away from Him. There is nothing I can do.
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I can't out -sin the grace of God. Let me prove it to you. Please follow me to Romans 8 .31
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-39. If you doubt your salvation and you aren't truly saved,
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I need you to pay close attention to this. Because this scripture is powerful.
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This is the Apostle Paul speaking. What shall we say to these things?
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If God is for us, who can stand against us? He did not spare
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His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. How will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?
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Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
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Who is to condemn? Christ, Jesus, is the one who died. More than that,
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He was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
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Church, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, shall distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
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As it is written, for Your name's sake we are killed all the day long.
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We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
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For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
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Lord. One of the things that this type of security gives us is freedom to serve.
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Look, if I am to believe that death will not separate me from the love of Christ, death means nothing to me.
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Death is, I'm moving from this body to the next. I'm moving from this world to the next.
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The beautiful thing is, instant death for me is instant Christ. So, it's so awesome to think, and I pray that this was the mentality for so many martyrs in history, that the moment you cut my throat is the exact moment
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I'm kissing the Lord's feet. Okay, sure, destroy my body.
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I have a new one waiting for me. And you know what? I hope that you repent. I hope that you repent.
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Like the deacon Stephen in the book of Acts, as he was being stoned to death, he said, forgive them this sin.
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Do not hold this sin against them. Two things he said, I see the
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Lord, and I pray that He forgives you your sins. When we are saved like this, we have freedom to forgive abundantly.
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We have freedom to serve. Two things that this passage taught me here is,
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Christ and I are eternally inseparable. I used to believe that you could lose your salvation.
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How arrogant of a thought. How arrogant to think that I can out -sin God's grace.
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And there are some of us here who offend the grace of God by thinking that we can run from it.
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Do you really think that you can out -sin God's love, God's reach? By no means. Look at the disciples.
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If anybody could out -sin the grace of God, it was Peter, who on his last denial of Christ Jesus said,
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I curse myself. I do not know this Lord Jesus Christ. I do not know Him. I swear to you.
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I swear to God, I do not know Him. After that,
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Jesus walks up to him and says, do you love me? We can reject
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Him with our sin and with our rebellion. But God completes what
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He starts. He's not a man that He will give up like us. Because if I was God, I would have given up on myself a long time ago.
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But when I look at scripture, when I look at the loser -ness of the disciples, I'm in good company.
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I'm right where I need to be. My last point here, freely we have received, so freely we will give.
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The Apostle Paul says, if we live, it is completely and utterly to the
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Lord. If we die, it is completely and utterly to the Lord. Regardless of what happens to you, saint, you are the
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Lord's. And He has you. And He will not let you go.
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On His left hand, He holds the moons of Saturn. And on His right, He holds your heart. He will not let you go.
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He is the Good Shepherd. And so I ask you today, where do you find yourself this morning?
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Where do you find yourself? After encountering Jesus, have you encountered Jesus today? I have, just by reading
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His Word. And I'm the one teaching. Have you received the free gift of salvation that was bought at such a price?
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Or will this just be another Sunday for you? If I were to rate my sermon, it'd be, what, a
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B minus? What is your response to this
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Word? Because we are demanded to respond to this. Accept it or deny it.
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But take example from the woman of the street, which I wish the
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Bible would have listed her name because she was no longer known as the woman of the street after that. If you are not a follower of Jesus, I beg you, believe in the
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Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. For you should not be scared of death. You should be scared of what comes after it.
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Your sin needs to be paid for. Repent. There are some of you that I've never even seen come up here on this altar.
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Not even to pray over those who repent. I tell you right now that the person who repents today will walk out feeling justified.
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We'll walk out more justified than some people in this room. Believe in Jesus Christ.
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You are not guaranteed the next hour. If you do believe in Jesus, but you're struggling with your sin, look around you.
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First of all, you're in great company. You're in perfect company. You're right where you need to be.
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There are some people who don't come to church because they continue sinning. Brother, this is where you need to be.
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We're right here. Yeah, we're going to tell you you're doing wrong, but you will never have a better support system than the people in this very room.
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Because we're not going to look at you and go, oh, look at your sin. We're going to go, yeah, been there, done that.
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I'm not better than you at all. I have done that and worse. If you need accountability, please go to the person to your left or to your right and say,
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I need help. The Holy Spirit who runs this church, according to Scripture, established the church as a way of accountability.
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Do you want accountability? You must go to the church. Don't go to the pastor.
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Don't go to the deacon. Go to each other. I promise you, the same Holy Spirit that is in us is the one inside of you.
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And I'm sure there are much better counselors out there than me. Now, if you find that you are a
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Christian and you're doing good before God, like Pastor Jeff says, don't just stand there.
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Actually minister. There are people in this room, if they were to die today, they would go to hell.
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And the only thing standing between them and hell is the grace of God that you're going to share with them through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Whatever spot in life you find yourself in, I ask you that you stand up and you minister.
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If you feel the Spirit of God moving in your life, please don't just sit there. So let us stand up and if the grace of God has moved you, please do not just stand there.