Lost, Saved, Marked

0:00 Ephesians 2, eight, for by grace are you saved through faith, that not by of yourselves, but it is a gift from God. We all once were lost, but then we were found. There's a song about that, isn't there? Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. I've heard different versions of that, but I'm not gonna go there right now.

Maybe, I won't do it for the, but, the amazing grace matches a lot of different tunes that you and I all know, but I'm not doing that today. Vanita's shaking her head, cause you don't want me to go there. But it's a gift from God. The harvest, last week we talked a little bit

about the harvest, harvest only matters to the people who are lost. Salvation is a gift bought by the blood of Jesus and the church keeps two signs of it, the water and the table. When we did communion a few months ago, we all gathered around the table and we took communion together. We also know that water baptism

is a very important of our journey with Christ. So this week, we're gonna go through a few of the fundamentals, the fall of man, the salvation of man and the ordinance of the church. But before we get started on that, does everybody, what did the pirate have, why does the pirate have trouble learning the alphabet?

He keeps getting lost at sea. So last week we laid the foundation of the word, the one God and the son. This way we're gonna talk about how we got lost, how we got found and the two signs that mark those who have been found. Genesis 1 26 to 27, the fall of man.

And God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fall of the air, over the cattle and over the earth and over every creeping thing that creep us above the earth. That does include the snakes and the spiders.

Some people are deathly afraid of the snakes and the spiders. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he, him, male and female and created he, them. One thing that's interesting and I just never, if you put the things in order, we know what that God created man.

3:05 God created man first and then he created Eve, created woman. And we are all made in God's image. He made us for good. He made us for him. But when we had, when Adam and Eve sinned, when Adam sinned, I mean, we know what Eve did it for. But she ate the fruit first,

but we'll talk about that in just a minute. But the fall didn't erase the image that God created. Sin didn't change our image, the image that God created in us. Sin doesn't change that image, it changed our relationship. Genesis 2 17, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that are not eat of it,

for in that day thou eatest thereof shall surely die. We've all heard the story of Adam and Eve and how the sin came upon us. But in my studies again, and I had to look, God spoke to Adam and told him not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Eve wasn't even here yet.

He told Adam not to eat. But then Eve came along and when the woman saw the tree, it was good for food and it was pleasure to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise. She took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband and he did eat.

One of the things though, is that Eve would deceive by the devil. He told her some things that he didn't want, if you eat of the fruit, you become God like he is. Eve was simply deceived, but God never told Eve not to eat from the tree. He told Adam, Adam was responsible

for Eve eating of that fruit. The other thing is that God spoke directly to Adam and told him not to eat of it. So he was in total disobedience when he ate of that fruit. Eve was deceived, Eve was fooled, but Adam heard it directly from God and he still chose to eat from that fruit.

But not only did Adam sin that day, man sinned that day for we are all the sons of Adam. But in Genesis 3, six, notice how it works. She saw, she desired it, she took it and she shared it. Sin is rarely loud, it looks reasonable. Sin is easy to share, sin is easy to share.

6:39 Eve shared it with Adam that day and forever man's life has been changed. Now when Adam was here, he walked upon the earth and God went ahead and made all these creatures, he made all these, the fishes of the sea, the fly, the birds that would fly, all the creatures, all those walking upon the earth

and spiders and everything. We know God created it all. But Adam was alone and Adam asked God, he said, God, I need the perfect soulmate to walk this life with me, to walk this journey that you have given me to live in your kingdom, to live in paradise. And God told Adam, he said,

well, it's gonna cost you an arm and a leg. And Adam thought about it for a little while, he said, what can I get for a rib? I guess I'll put that one in the archives so we know. Romans five says, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin

and so death passed upon all men that have, for that have all sinned. So when Adam sinned that day, he brought the sin upon every man and we've been struggling with that ever since. He didn't say to Adam, we inherited it, but we confirmed it. The day Adam sinned, he gave that same sin

to each and every one of us. Sin shows up fast after the garden. They eat of the fruit. In the next chapter, we find about a murder, then a flood, then babble. If man's left alone, they will fail. Without God's guidance, they will fall into sin and humanity will fail. Sin is spread through man.

We can blame the devil. Yes, he's responsible, but the devil's using each and every one of us if we allow him to, if we give our lives to Christ and continue to repent, continually fill our lives with the spirit of God and the word of God, and it doesn't leave much room for the death.

The more we fill our hearts with his word, with his love, with his compassion, the less room that the enemy has to sink into our hearts and destroy us. Not only does it destroy us, it destroys others that we come in contact with. The garden, I know Laura likes to have a garden.

9:48 So if you want a garden, then you don't do anything with it. You can plow the land and you can plow the ground and till the ground and do all that, but if you don't plant any seed, what happens? Does it grow fruit? Does it grow vegetables? It grows weeds. It grows weeds.

Now, are any of those weeds edible? Dandelions are? I had an uncle that used to make dandelion wine, so I know they are. But if you want an abundance of fruit and vegetables, you've got to plant the seeds in that garden. The point is, if you don't do anything at all, it's gonna grow weeds.

And each year though, those weeds will get worse. In the springtime, the weeds will come, but does it just one week stay for that whole year? Through that whole summer, more and more weeds are gonna come. And then they're gonna go dormant for a while during the season, but the next year, they're gonna come up with even more weeds

until someone intervenes and plows down those weeds, chills those weeds up and then puts good seed into that garden. If it's left alone, it will grow weeds. If human lives are left alone, they will grow sin. And like I said, it's just like the garden that is plowed up but never planted, it will start with one weed,

will grow to 10 weeds, will grow to 100 weeds until it's so out of control that you're, it's a desperate situation now. And too many of us or too many people come to Christ after they've lived all that desperation. Stop explaining your sin away. It's easy to make excuses for the sin that we've become comfortable

and we like to stay in there. But repentance is key to keeping the heart chilled, keeping the heart flexible so that God can use you. We have to continually stay in the mode of repentance. Repentance is like that chill that tills up the ground. We have to continually stir up those things inside of us.

God will help that, God will do that. He'll stir up all those things inside of us that we need to, like when you first become a Christian, you don't know all the things that are in your life that are evil yet because you're still learning. But as time goes on, I know I don't do the same things

12:35 that I did as a young Christian. So we have to continually keep the till in our, so it's tilling up our spirit and our minds so that we continually repent and know that, and allow God to change us in that repentance. Romans, therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation,

even so by the righteousness of the one free gift upon all men unto justification in life. Adam was participated, Adam and Eve participated in our fall to sin. But luckily we know a man that was sent to redeem us from that sin. God loves us enough that he was not gonna let us die in that sin.

He loves us enough that he wasn't gonna allow us to go to hell, he gave us a way out. One man's disobedience lost it for all of humanity, but one man's obedience brought it all back. It cost him his blood, but Jesus died on the cross to redeem us from our sin. What Adam caused when he ate of that fruit,

he brought sin upon all mankind, but Jesus became our Redeemer and we are all washed by the blood and we are set free from that sin. If we continue to repent of our sin, God will use us and guide us in changes, not just for our own obedience, but for the obedience of others

that we come in contact with. Again, I tell you that salvation is not just for us, it's for those we haven't even met yet. The spirit of God that had been planted inside of us is not only for us to hoard, but it's for us to use to minister to those who are still lost.

Mark 10 45, the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life as a ransom for many. If you watch TV shows and the detective shows and you'll see that somebody was kidnapped, right? And sometimes they hold a ransom for that to get their loved ones back.

A ransom is a price paid to free a captive. Jesus was that ransom to set us free. Did you hear the other day about the kidnapping? Joe knows. They're looking for him, looking for him, but he did wake up, so. But one man's disobedience caused our father to send his only son to set us free.

16:03 1 John 4, 9 and 10, and this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son unto the world that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be propitiation for our sins.

This is where Vanita does much better than me because she could pronounce that right. God moved first, he sent his son to set us free. In John 3, we see, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. We must be born again to see the kingdom of God.

We must be born again. In Titus, he says, the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. By grace through faith, not of works, let any man should boast. Jesus was sent to redeem us of our sins and set us free. We must say repentance and remission of our sins. Whosoever shall call upon my name,

the name of the Lord shall be saved. Repentance is a change of our mind and it turns us around. And Wednesday, we talked about forgiveness and repentance. I can forgive you if you've hurt me, okay? You know, you may say something to me, you know, and I won't look at anybody in particular,

but you know, when somebody hurts you, you can, you know, you can, or if you hurt somebody, you can ask for forgiveness. But if we repent, that means we change direction and we don't do it again. If you ask for forgiveness for the same thing over and over again, you're not making a change,

but we need to make a repentance, stay in the mode of repentance so that we change directions and we stop doing the things that have gotten us in trouble to start with. The harvest is near. We're watching all the, I saw in the news last night, they were talking about, you know how they have

the frost warnings, freeze warnings? And last night they were saying that on the weather, they said that that would be the very last frost warning that they were given for the season. It's not that the frost is going away, the harvest is going away. The harvest is still ripe for the taking, but we have to make ourselves available

19:07 to reap that harvest. And the harvest isn't just for, the harvest of the spirit of man isn't for us, it's for the harvesting. In Romans 10 it says, how shall they hear without a preacher? We all can become preachers when we minister and share our witness, our testimony with those we come in contact with.

How will the harvest happen if somebody doesn't pick that harvest or reap that harvest? If we go back to the garden, if we did put seeds in the garden, instead of letting the weeds grow, those seeds will grow into carrots and potatoes and lettuce and Dawn's favorite cucumbers. But if we just watch that, if we just stay,

okay, September comes along October and we got great, beautiful tomatoes sitting there, big red tomatoes. They're just sitting there and as they sit there long enough, they'll become overweight and the plants will start to die and they'll fall back into the ground. An important step was missed here. Nobody harvested the fruit. That's what's happening to man

because of the sin that Adam did, that sin rested on all of us and people are sitting around us today. They're standing, I don't know where they're at. They could be in front of their TV set. They could be out in the garden, out in the yard, in their car driving by. Those people are sitting there waiting to be harvested.

It does no one. You can plant the seed, but if you don't reap it, the harvest is gonna go spoiled. It goes back into the ground. Unfortunately for man, if they don't repent of their sin and they're missed out on the harvest, their life, they spend eternity in hell and we don't want that.

We want everybody to have the opportunity to make it into heaven just like we are, to be joint heirs with us. The fall of man, the salvation of man, those are the fundamental. Matthew 28, 19, So, a command by Jesus in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The six, so we talked about the inspired word of God,

the one true God, deity of Jesus, the fall of man, salvation of man, those are the first five. And the sixth one is the ordinance of the church. And that really speaks about water baptism and communion. Mark 16, 16, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. I do wanna clarify that

22:39 because people will get mixed up in here because we get to heaven through our belief in Jesus, knowing that he died and gave his life for us on the cross. But he's also demanding us to be baptized in water as well. It's not like some churches do. You know, if we did like some churches that we could do,

I could do a baptism right now here. I mean, I can just sprinkle a little bit of water, but that's not the baptism that we believe in. I talked to you before about my friend Kevin that he was my college roommate that we got to know each other again after 40 years. And he's serving Christ now because of the influence

that I had on his life just in the last few years. And he's telling me a story that he met a pastor oh, a few years ago at a, I think he met him at Home Depot or something, but he's a retired pastor and he invited Kevin to go to his church. And at that church, they were taking communion one week

and he wasn't allowed to take communion because it had nothing to do with his relationship with God. It had to do with that he couldn't partake in communion because he wasn't a member of the church or he didn't go through this six week training course to understand all the, they wouldn't let him take communion.

And the same pastor, my friend Kevin has a new granddaughter and she's only a few months old or probably almost a year now, but his pastor friend had him convinced that he, well, he did have him kind of because he called me and asked me about it, but that he needed to, that baby needed to be baptized.

Children are not, at that age, they're not accountable for knowing what they're doing yet. We believe in dedications, but when we do a dedication of a baby, we were dedicating that the parents and the family to raise that child in the word of God. So that's more on the parents helping to guide that child

to become a Christian and get to heaven. The baptism has to be a choice made by the individuals. I can't decide for my grandson that he should be baptized. He should be, but that's something that he has to make the decision on his own. He has to know what his relationship is with God

25:35 before he can be baptized. There's a lot of different representations on using water and being baptized. We know that Jesus, John the Baptist, we know that he was the one that baptized Jesus. And he said he was not worthy of the man that was coming yet it was the purpose of John the Baptist

to baptize Jesus. But I was looking at the story of an Exodus that of course the word Exodus means exit, but how Moses when he came to the Red Sea and they had to part the Red Sea so they could cross. They were crossing over from slavery into the wilderness. They knew where they had come from

but they didn't know where exactly they were going but the sea parted that they could go into the wilderness. It was better than where they had been before. But then they got into the wilderness and they moaned and complained. That's where the 10 commandments come in here. But there had to be another parting of water

for them to get to the promise. I think some of you saw a post I did this last week that it's time for us to stop. I actually preached it and that's where the quote comes from. But it's time for us to stop standing at the edge of the water. Whether it's the Red Sea that's taking you

out of slavery into the wilderness or it's taking you from the wilderness to the promised land. We need to stop standing on the edge but it's time for us to get our feet wet. The river Jordan did not part until the priest stepped in. They had to do that by faith. They didn't stand here and wait.

Well, maybe we're gonna go one apart. The army at Jericho, they marched around the wall. They didn't wait for the walls to fall and then start walking or start going towards Jericho. They stood around and marched around that and they blew the trumpets. They really didn't know what God was gonna do but boom, the walls fell.

They didn't just get in trouble but they sank into the ground so they could just cross over easily. In Corinthians, and we've heard this before often as we eat this bread and drink of this cup you shall shoot the Lord's death till you come. This is a remembrance of the sacrifice that was made.

28:32 This is, we will quote this a lot when we do communion. There's a lot of different verses that can be used for communion, but this is probably the most popular but it's about having the relationship with Christ that we never forget the sacrifice that was made. That's what communion is. And we come to the table,

the very first communion I ever did since being pastor was we gathered around the table and we took communion together because Christ has called us to the table to take communion, to have a relationship not only with him, but a relationship with one another as we do a family and we serve and we had that remembrance together

and we come to the table and remember it so what God has done for us. 2 Peter 1.4, partakers of the divine nature whereby are given unto exceeding great and precious promises that by these we might be partakers. Do you ever go to the restaurant just to watch people eat? But these you might be partakers of the divine nature

having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust or through sin. I know it sounds silly, but do you go to the restaurant to watch other people eat? We all need to be participants with what God has for us. We all participate in communion because we all have the, it's a commandment that we remember

what was sacrificed for us that day. Israel went through the Red Sea and then they went through the Jordan. They went through the water once to get to the wilderness and through the water again to get to the promised land. There's people out here today that they haven't made it to the promised land yet.

Some of them may be in slavery and bondage from sin but they've crossed over the Red Sea and they've crossed over through the first water through the first turmoil and now they're in the wilderness and they think that's all it is. That's where they should finish their life. They shouldn't seek anything else.

They get into the wilderness, they know that they're better than where they were yesterday but that's where a lot of us think in our own minds, I don't want what's good, I want what's best. God doesn't wanna give you what is good, he wants to give you what's best. Sometimes we get to, we prayed and prayed and prayed

31:42 that God, if we talk about financing, we pray and pray that God, I'm making $20,000 a year and God gives us $50,000 a year and we think that's all that, he answered that prayer and I'm satisfied now. Ephesians 3.20, one of my favorite verses is exceedingly abundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine.

He will give us, because we don't know, we don't know the awesomeness of God. We only know what the world around us has portrayed that it didn't really find us, whether you're abundant, if you live life in poverty or rich, had nothing to do with the amount of money you make. I'm just telling you that right now.

Had nothing to do with the amount of money you make. It has to do with what you use, what God has given you. Don't try to keep up with the Joneses. All the Joneses just put in a swimming pool, I wanna have a swimming pool. They just got a Mercedes Benz, I'm gonna get a Mercedes Benz.

I got a $50,000 increase and I can buy a $50,000 car. That's society today. You survived with that Volkswagen you were driving, but now all of a sudden you think you need, because I deserve it. Now I'm not trying to be negative, but that's what society has become today. If we still live in the 20K and God has given us 50K,

what could God do with that 30K? And I tell everybody to do that. That's just my two cents in the whole conversation. Don't just cross over into the wilderness, cross into the land of paradise. Even at that, they saw, they didn't think they could conquer it anyways because they saw the giants in the land.

They didn't see God. We have recorded the, is it David or is it Young David, the movie, the cartoon that the grandkids will always. And then we have a really good portrayal of the life of David. But they talk about David confronts Goliath and David never said once about how big Goliath was

or how he could be defeated about all the armor and how big he was and how tall he was and how many battles he won. He, what David focused once was, but I serve a God who is greater. I serve a God that says, he will fight my battles for me. I serve a God that can do exceedingly abundantly

34:44 more than I could ever ask and imagine. And he trusted God and God defeated that enemy. God defeated that giant. What's the giant in your life today that you keep saying, I can't win this battle because of the giants. I want you to focus today on God and say, God, I don't know how,

but I trust you enough that you are gonna find the solution to my problem and you're gonna defeat that giant for me. It's easy for God to do, but it's hard for us to do. I'm thankful that God is with us and among us and helping us. I'm not thankful for the fall of man, but it happened.

But I am thankful for the salvation of man that God found a way to set us off free and save us from our sins. And we know that was by the blood of Jesus. these six walls here, this building, this building is not going to heaven. See what I'm saying? This is just a church building,

but the church is you and I, and we are all going to heaven. If we give our life to him, the walls are gonna stumble. Someday these walls are gonna fall down. This isn't the church. And I believe it was built on a solid rock, but still it's not ever gonna make it to,

the church isn't, these walls aren't gonna make it to heaven, but you and I will. As we leave here today, I want you to just think in your own mind and your own heart, have you settled for what is good and stop striving for what is best? I want you to start expecting

to see the miracles that God has for us. I know you have been, some of you have been, but it is a long wait, and we can grow weary, but I won't let us ever stop expecting for what God to do. Like I've always, like I've been saying since I've took over as your pastor,

that the latter glory is gonna be so much greater than the former glory. I don't know what that is, but I am expecting. I am walking expecting. Our parking lot's not gonna be big enough. I read a story about a church, they had grown so much that they, and I don't know how many chairs,

37:39 we actually have more chairs in storage, but I don't know how many chairs we have out right now, but we may have 120 chairs, I don't know, I'm making up a number, but they did, they had their sanctuary was full with chairs. They had no more room for any more chairs. So, but because God was blessing them

and people were coming in, they went and bought smaller chairs. Has anybody ever gone to a football game at the University of Michigan? It holds, it's the biggest stadium for seating in the country. And I've gone to Lambeau Field and I don't think Ford Field has this, but they have benches. And on the benches,

they'll put like, this is seat 12, this is seat 13, this is seat 14. But when you, and I know Michigan does this, cause I've never been there, but a friend of mine told me, but if you sit in seat 11, I mean, you're literally like this, you have no room either side

and seat 12 is next to you, there you can, so where we have two chairs, you can get three. But they had no more room and they're still in transition to do an expansion, but they had to go buy smaller chairs. Father, I thank you today for bringing us here today, Lord, just to,

and giving me the ability and the anointing and the spirit of God to share what you have wanted for your children to hear today, Lord. Father, just continue to help us along on this journey, Lord. There's something, others have told, have spoken to me, our fellow members, everybody's feeling something new is taking place.

We don't know what it is or when it is Lord, but we know that you know. Help us to be better friends of you, have a better relationship with you that we trust you completely, Lord. That you are gonna do that new thing, that you are gonna bring that, that ladder glory is gonna be greater than the former.

We trust in you today, Lord. Help us as we go out throughout this week, Lord. Help us in our workplaces, in our school places, in the grocery stores, in our cars and on our bicycles, Lord. Let us focus our relationship on you and protect us and guide us and bring us back again next week, Lord.

40:32 But let this not just be a Christ on Sunday, let it to be a Christ on Monday, Tuesday and the rest of the week, Lord. Bring us home safely, Lord and just protect us and guide us. And we pray that the evil one keeps his distance. We pray a wall around each and every one of these

people here today, Lord, that you protect them and help them be protected. We don't have to put on the full armor of God each day because we should go to bed with the armor on and wake up with the armor on. Lord, we love you today. And we thank you for the love that you have given to us.

Let it continue to pour upon us that we may let that love pour upon those, our friends and our families that need to know you, Lord. We thank you.