Take a Stand: In Faith

INTRODUCTION

SCRIPTURE: Yet we know that a person is not JUSTIFIED by WORKS of the law but through FAITH in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law NO ONE will be justified. For through the law I DIED to the law, so that I might LIVE to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by FAITH in the son of God, who LOVED me and gave HIMSELF for me.

STORY:

PROPOSITION: We gain salvation when we let go and put our TRUST in Christ ALONE.

INTERROGATIVE: But Cody what about everything that I’ve done? Don’t I have to make up for that? It seems too easy that all we have to do is have faith in Jesus and we are saved, how can that be?

TRANSITION:

POINT 1: Your best attempts of earning your way to God are USELESS.

Paul doesn’t leave anything up to chance with the way that he explains our relationship with the law. Our attempts at earning a right relationship with God are like FILTHY RAGS. They do no good. They don’t serve the purpose that they should. Psalm 143:2 “Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.” You are NOT enough for salvation, but you are VALUABLE to Jesus. While we were sinners Jesus died for the ungodly.

Your belief in Christ and your life SURRENDERED to him brings salvation. What do I mean by surrendering? Because a lot of times (and I have done this in my own head) I think that if we are only called to believe in Jesus that’s too easy. I see people all the time that say they believe in Jesus but they don’t mean it. That’s too easy. I must have to earn it. I have to work for it. I gotta do SOMETHING. But surrender is different. It’s not an outward appearance but an inward posture of your heart. (Everybody get down on your knees and put your hands up) This is a posture of surrender. You have nothing to give to God to make him love you more. You have nothing to do that will make him pursue you more. You have nothing to earn that will make you worthy. God says to surrender. And you will have an opportunity tonight to do that. Work FROM victory not FOR victory.

POINT 2: Jesus didn’t die so you COULD sin, but so that you could be FREE from the grip of sin.

Now the next issue that often comes up when we just tell others that all you have to do is surrender to Christ and He will save you is the license to sin. Which is what some did and some people still do today. You can take the grace of Jesus and justify your sinful habits because of God’s patience. But that’s not what a real experience of the grace of God does for you. Sin is not a PLAYGROUND it’s a LOADED GUN. When we view sin like a playground it is really easy for us to go down the wrong path. What do I mean by that? Well one, we forget that sin was so terrible, so disgusting, so irreversible on our part that God’s Son had to die because of it. Two, we play around with something that God tells us is going to kill us. Three, when we finally come to the realization of what we have been doing Satan uses that as an opportunity to heap so much guilt and shame on your shoulders that you become depressed, you feel worthless, and you run from God instead of running to God. Run TO God not FROM God.

Why would we run back to what Christ died on the cross for?

POINT 3: Your trophies for a MUSTARD SEED.

God wants you to exchange all of your trophies for a mustard seed. What does that mean? It means that Jesus wants you to finally realize that all of your “do gooding” cannot do enough good to get you to heaven. God has done the work FOR YOU through His Son. He wants you to DIE to your efforts of EARNING. Paul had tried the hardest to earn his salvation, and he figured out on the demascus road that ALL of his earning got him to a place where he learned that there was no amount of trophies in his flesh that he could earn that would bring him to heaven. A mustard seed faith matters more than MUSTERED STRENGTH.

APPLICATION: