Live Unashamed for Christ

Good evening. What a joy it is to be here with you this evening.

I am very excited to be here, this is my first time here at Camp Galilee and I am very thankful to my good friend and brother in Christ Gary Clark for asking me to come preach here tonight.

I am also very thankful he kept asking me to come for the week as it has already been a wonderful week with much more to come!!!!!!!

You guys, today’s youth have it rough

you live in a society where satan doesn’t even hide anymore

society and culture have gone so far away from God that sin is celebrated and godliness is condemned......sound familiar?

Isaiah 5:20

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

That perfectly describes this time on earth especially here in the USA

evil is called good and good is called evil

That is the backdrop of where you are being brought up and living today

It makes it even more important then that God’s children....Christians....live unashamed for Christ

Lets Pray

Living Unashamed for Christ.

That is exactly what Christians should be doing each and every minute of every day

As I was praying about what to bring this evening one verse stood out and I knew it was the verse God wanted me to focus on

Philippians 1:20

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“as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.”

As I wrote the words of this verse on paper God made it very clear this was what He wanted me to bring to you.

I love the whole conversation in Philippians 1:19-30 but felt called to focus on verse 20

God began to bring other scriptures to mind and give me an outline for this message.

For me that is usually how God brings me a message. I get a topic, in this case Gary gave it to me as the theme of camp Unashamed.

What a wonderful theme.......a theme that needs to be more than a theme for you when you leave here Friday morning.

It needs to be a true lifestyle

People are dying and going to hell and you have the answer....JESUS......we must be doers of the world and proclaim the gospel without shame and fear

I pray each of you comes to a point you can do that when you leave here Friday

This evening I want to look at 3 main points....3 truths....3 applications one must take to live unashamed for Christ

1. You Must Accept Jesus

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You cannot live unashamed for Christ and the Gospel until you have accepted Jesus through the Holy Spirit awakening you to the truth of the Gospel

What is the truth of the gospel?

Romans 3:23

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“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

All…you…me…anyone alive has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God…everyone except Jesus…no exceptions

You each know this is true......many have sinned since they have been in this chapel this evening.....hateful thoughts, lustful thoughts, speaking or thinking curse words, maybe even feeling the Holy Spirit tugging on your heart and telling Him to shut up and leave you alone

We all sin. We will all continue to sin.

Here is the problem with sin.....well there are many but spiritually here is the problem for you with sin

Romans 6:23

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“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

the wages of sin is death.....all have sinned..the payment…the only way to be justified is through death…death of a perfect sacrifice.....one you cannot be because of your sin

Because of your sin you are doomed to hell

This is a pretty bleak outlook…you…I…have sinned and to be justified there must be a perfect death.....you and I are far from perfect because of our sin so we are doomed to hell

But God is the God of love and He had a plan and He set that plan into motion for you and for me

Romans 5:8

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“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God made a way where there was no way.

He showed us how much He loves us by sending Jesus to die in our place....while we were sinners....enemies of God…WOW

I want you to understand what happened on the cross

So many times we focus on the physical beating that Jesus took.....He took a beating that would kill almost anyone else

They had a cat of nine tails, a whip with 9 separate strands of leather on them on the end of each strand there was shards of glass, metal, bone, rocks, all sharpened and designed to inflict injury

He was beaten repeatedly with that

He had a crown of thorns with long thorns shoved into his skull

We should focus on those things but it pails in comparison to what happened on the cross

Not just the cross itself as it was a well designed killing machine that killed very slowly........

That was bad but what was worse was this

2 Corinthians 5:21

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

I want you to understand this. Jesus lived a perfect life

He was fully God

He was fully human

He felt everything we feel

emotions

temptations

hunger

sadness

all of it including temptation yet He never sinned

However to pay the sin debt of the whole world Jesus had to take that sin upon himself in order to die for it to pay the price

Not only did he take it the Bible says here He became our sin

He knows your sin better than you do

He became sin.....the perfect lamb willingly becoming your sin so He could die in your place

That is what happened on the cross for you

What a loving and wonderful God

Romans 10:9–10

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“because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

That is how you are saved

confess....make Jesus Lord and Savior

repent of your sins and sinful ways.....repentance must happen before confession and salvation can happen

repentance means you agree that you are a sinner and because of that sin you deserve death and hell

you truly believe Jesus lived a perfect life…died a on the cross as a perfect sacrifice in your place and my place so you make Him Lord.....you die to sin

you die to the world

you die to yourself

Then you believe God raised Jesus from the dead granting you eternal life

That is salvation but God doesn’t stop there

Romans 8:1

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“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Not only are you saved but you are free from condemnation because of what Christ Jesus did for you no the cross

He became your sin

He bought you

You accepted his offer of forgiveness

you, through the Holy Spirit applied His blood to your sin debt

You are justified

just as if you never sinned

That is who you are as a Christian

That is the only way to begin to live unashamed for Christ

if you have never done that before God is calling you to do that this evening

2. You Must Be Grounded In God’s Word

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Once you are saved you are good

your price has been paid and applied to your sin debt

you are justified

you are free from the power of sin and death

you are free from the power of satan and his demons

you are provided for and protected by God Himself because of Jesus

you are good but God wants you to grow

God wants you to enjoy relationship with Him on earth

God begins the sanctification process as soon as you are saved

That begins by you making God’s Word top priority in your life and here is why

2 Timothy 3:16–17

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“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

God’s Word was breathed out by Him

Human writers wrote God’s breath down through the power of the Holy Spirit

How could a child of God not want to be in the Word everyday…it is literally His breath!!!!!!

God’s Word in infallible…without contradiction…written by 40 authors over thousands of years and still able to change lives today!

God breathed and perfect!

Without God’s Word and the Holy Spirit teaching it to you you will never grow

3. You Must Live in His power

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2 Corinthians 12:9–10

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

you and I are weak

we can do nothing on our own power

everything in the world and society screams you do you

you make something of yourself

wrong

Jesus said in

Mark 10:18 “And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

your flesh is evil

your heart is evil as Mr Greer reminded us Sunday night

Jeremiah says desperately evil and wicked

when you live for you you live for evil

so many today inside the church that claim to be christians are good with sin

they justify it

they make excuses

they for sure don’t repent of it

repnet means to change one’s mind and direction

when you sin you reject God

you place a barrier between you and God

you cannot live unashamed for Jesus if you are okay with sin

James 1:12–15 “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Sin comes from within

this is why you must live in Gods power

when you realize your flesh is tempting you

you have a choice to make

sin is always a choice

do I live in my flesh and ashamed of Jesus or do you deny yourself and in your weakness allow Jesus to make you strong

it all comes down to who you live for

I want to get very personal with you

i was saved at 9 years old

i grew up in church and a strong Christian home

i was active in youth groups and church

But I never truly understood Jesus

i for sure live ashamed of Him

my parents divorced and I had a lot of hate in my heart for my father

after my parents divorced my dad moved to New Hampshire

I felt even more abandoned than I did through the divorce

i still looked good on the outside but inside I was a wreck

i felt unworthy and worthless

i didn’t really have friends because I shut down emotionally

i was a loner the sports came along and I could get rewarded for being violent

football was my thing because i found popularity

i found friends

I found more anger

most were my friends not because of me but because of what I could do for them in sports

football became my life

I was going to play college football and going to be an nfl player

i continued on living fake lives

Josh at school

Josh at church

josh on football field

all fake versions of the true Josh I was so ashamed of

i got to college and found alcohol

drank away my football opportunity at William Jewell

then drank away my track opportunity at Missouri state

going back for just a second I need to mention that in my early teens I found pornography and that started a 20 +year addiction

jump ahead to mid 20s and I am married

have kids and still drinking still addicted to porn

still fake josh

fake Josh at church

fake Josh at home

fake Josh at work

horribly ashamed unworthy Josh in reality

jump ahead again to aug 2015

my little brother went to a men’s encounter and came back different

he loved Jesus different

he loved me different

he loved his wife and kids different

he asked me to go in nov and I said yes

he was surprised and asked why I said yes so quick

i said because you are different and either have found a cult or it is what I have been searching for for the last 20 years

it was real

i left that weeekend with Jesus being real to me I understood what my salvation meant

i understood the freedom I had in Christ

i was finally unashamed of Jesus and because of Jesus I was unashamed of me in all my junk

Jesus took my porn addiction

Jesus took my alcohol addiction

Jesus took my tobacco addiction

all gone in an instant

since that moment He has continued to work in my life and make me into He created me to be

show the life house video

that was me chasing all those things

fighting Jesus while He was waiting to destroy my sin

that is how you live unashamed for Christ is you live in the Freedom that comes from knowing Jesus is who sets you free

Galatians 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

that is how you live unashamed for Jesus

if you don’t know Him tonight is the night

maybe you have been like me living ashamed of Jesus and ashamed of you

living in sin despite claiming Jesus

you can leave here tonight forgiven and free

the choice is all yours