The word; The power to save.

Reflect back to the life you were living before you were convicted to give your lives to Jesus.

Before you came to the end of yourself.

Before you were ready to fully surrender:

Did you go to church?

Did you tell people that you believe in Jesus?

Did you read your bible?

Were you living a life pleasing to God?

Today, if you’ve came to Christ; are you living a life honoring God or are you still seeking your own will and satisfying your own desires?

Story example:

Our son got a dinosaur mask for his birthday that makes a dinosaur noise when you open your mouth.

He can put that mask on and play dinosaur for hours chasing his sister or the dogs and, in that moment, he's not Woodson he's a dinosaur.

As adults, were probably not wearing costumes and playing princess or wearing dinosaur masks and pretending to be a dinosaur but we do wear other kinds of masks.

 We put on masks to hide our struggles, our fears, our weaknesses.

We’re not playing pretend dinosaurs anymore, but we do still play pretend.

We pretend to have it all together.

We pretend our faith is strong when inside we’re wrestling with doubt.

We pretend we’re joyful when our hearts are heavy.

We pretend to have a great relationship with God when really you can’t hear Him at all.

Titis 1:16

16 Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live.

When Saul was persecuting Christians, God met him on the road to Damascus.

Sauls whole life was changed from that encounter with God.

Saul was a sinful man; until God redeemed him and gave him new life.

Are you still on the road to Damascus or are you Paul?

Have you been changed or are the scales still on your eyes?

Galatians 4:8-9

8 But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. 9 But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?

James 1:21

21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.

22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

Titis 1:16

16 Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live.

When you get saved; don’t let that be it.

There should be a change in you; how you live how you act, you should be growing your faith by reading the word of God increasing your knowledge about Him and what the bible actually says, you should be developing fruits and putting off the fruits of the flesh. 

FRUITS OF THE FLESH

Galatians 5:19-21

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: [a]adultery, [b]fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, [c]murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Are you still practicing these things in your life?

 FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT

Galatians 5:22-25

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 [g]gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Which do you have more of? Fruits of the flesh or fruits of the spirit?

Scripture

Going back to James 1:22

22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must DO what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

This is what James is talking about when he says you cant just listen to the words you must DO what it says otherwise you’re just fooling yourselves.

**Ask kids to close their eyes to reflect on when God saved them**

I want you to remember that feeling that you had when God convicted you to change and come to Him.

 That feeling when God put it on your heart to draw near to Him, to come back to him, and for some of you, to come to Him for the very first time.

Remember His presence, those chills bumps, your heart pounding, those tears, that overwhelming emotion that you felt from our all powerful loving most holy God.

**Have kids open there eyes**

He saved from an eternity in hell, because that’s where we were ALL going.

YOU have been bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus if you have accepted Him as Lord and savior of your life and your faith is in Jesus and what He paid for us on that cross.

Remember what He has done for you, remember that overwhelming love and joy that you felt in that moment.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

You have become new.

If you believe that He has the power to save your life, why would you return to the same things you were doing when you were lost?

Scripture

James 1 goes on to say in verse 23-27

23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.

**** 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

- So we should not only being hearing the word of God we should be DOING it. When we KNOW the word,we are able to WALK in it, to do it.

26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. 27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

-If you claim to be religious, but don’t control your tongue: what’s some of the hurtful things that come out of your mouths? Are they for building others up or tearing others down? Are they curse words? Think about that “CURSES”, is that what’s coming out of your mouth?

It says “you are fooling yourselves and your religion is worthless” BE AWARE, BE WATCHING, BE EVALUATING YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.

Verse 27 says

REFUSING TO LET THE WORLD CORRUPT YOU.

When you know the word, when you study it, when your choices start to reflect the word of God and you start obeying what it says;

You’re not easily angered anymore, youre more patient, youre kinder to your fellow brother, you’re loving to others and start to lift up others rather than tearing others down.

You’re not falling into the pattern of the world

-Gosspiping

-Drama

-Negativity

You’re standing out

Why?

 Because you have become not only a hearer of the word but a doer of the word.

A FOLLOWER of Christ and your foundation is becoming solid.

SCRIPTURE (the importance of knowing the word of God/ reading the bible)

Galatians 1:6-10

6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert[a] the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be [b]accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.

How do you know if someone if preaching to you a lie if you never read for yourself?

You don’t.

The religious leaders in the day of Paul, (This is after Jesus is crucified), tried to twist Grace and how exactly we could get grace.

There were people who believed that Jesus Christ was the son of God BUT believed that you had to earn Gods grace by keeping the law of Moses.

ASK: How do we receive Gods grace?

Scripture tells us in

Ephesians 2:8-9

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Gods grace was freely given to us. We can not do anything to earn it .

It is a free gift that we receive when we accept him into our hearts and as Lord of our life.

We believe in Jesus Christ and His grace has been given to us freely through our faith in Jesus and what He paid for us on the cross.

Scripture tells us that Grace is the gift of God and that we receive it through faith, it is not by anything that we ourselves can physically do lest anyone should boast/ brag.

We are not saved because we try to do everything right and perfect and try to follow the commandments and the word perfectly without ever messing up, thats impossible!

We are still flesh; we will still mess up the only difference you need to sort out is this:

Has your nature changed?

When you have been saved, God has given you a new nature.

Your new intent should be: I don’t want to sin against God, I love Him so much I don’t want to fall back into old ways because you have been redeemed right?

Will you fail? YES.

Will you mess up? YES.

But will you cry out to Him when you do?

Will you ask for forgiveness and genuinely mean it and feel sorry for what you did?

Will He give you forgiveness? Yes, He will.

But if you continue to sin and sin and sin and sin and sin and do nothing to turn from it; your nature has not changed.

Galatians 5:19-21 tells us very clearly

19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Will God forgive you, yes He will, but you have turn from these sins not continue in them.

Acts 3:19

19 Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.

2 Corinthians 7:10

10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

Godly sorrow is that conviction that lets us know we need to change and what leads us to repentance which leads us to salvation!

But sorrow for the world; missing the past, yearning for the world and trends and following your own desires, produces death.

CLOSE

Grace is not permission to sin.

When you have been changed, when you fear God and love Him so much that you only want to do what He wants you to do, you have the power to obey Him.

You have strength and faith to follow him in trough situations, to do hard things because the Father will never leave you nor forsake you.

You trust in His plans, your foundation is strong because you have built your foundation on His word.

Are you building your foundation

Or are you saying you want to be healed, yet not taking His hand.