Accepted, Forgiven, and Empowered

Hi, this is Pastor Daniel Bracken. You're listening to Kings Alaska Podcast. I hope the Word encourages you and you get a touch from God that brings transformation and equips you to experience life with people, power and purpose. Thank you for joining us. Enjoy the word Luke 15, the first 10 verses out of the new living translation.

It says tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people, even eating with them. So Jesus told them a story. If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won't he leave the 99 others in the wilderness and go search for the one that is lost until he finds it?

When he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors saying, rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep. In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over the 99 others who are righteous and haven't strayed away. Verse 8 Or suppose a woman has 10 silver coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it?

And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin. In the same way there is a joy in the presence of God angels, even when one sinner repents. Lord, I thank you Father for your word. Let it speak to us tonight. Let it have an everlasting change in our hearts.

Let it be written on our hearts and steered on our minds that we would leave here knowing you deeper and being further in your presence as a result of it. In Jesus name you guys can be seated. Like Dr. David said, my name is Minister Eric. My wife, Pastor Vicki and I lead our Transformations ministry here along with along with several other community team ministries along with the Lighthouse which is our women's transitional housing program and the Dream center which is our men's Bible based, Bible based. I like that residential treatment center and it's been a joy and an honor to be a part of this church over these last 12 years and be offered the platforms of ministry.

Really the opportunity to serve that I've been given. I'm forever grateful for this house. I'm grateful for a team of pastors and ministers and believers that will come alongside and encourage you. Some of my Greatest memories of this church was early on in Lucille building. Pastor Vince, the great Pastor Vince, whose presence we miss here lately.

Pastor Vince used to sit right directly in front of us. Vicki, my wife, was on staff, so we had staff seating. And we were always seated right behind the venison. And he would turn around and prophesy over me and say, you're going to preach one day. Thank you, Pastor.

But I don't see it. And he told me, you know those. Those drives you're taking to. To Valdez when I worked in the oil field? He said, God's going to speak to you on those drives, and he's going to use that time to give you a message right in your heart and you're going to preach.

And because of, you know, the people like that in our lives, that would build me up and prophesy over me. It's just. It's an amazing thing. And if you don't have a church family, this is a great one. I'm just saying, be a part of it.

You need it. And so this word I wanted to share with you tonight starts off by saying. He starts off by saying. So whenever I got into Luke 15, I would automatically gravitate towards the third parable Jesus told, which was the parable of the prodigal Son. I didn't read it tonight because of time.

It's just. It was too much. And he told three amazing parables that showed the heart of a Father, of a holy God for lost sinners. But I kind of skipped over what I wanted to highlight tonight or what God spoke to me to share with you guys tonight. And that's the way the chapter starts out.

He says, tax collectors and notorious sinners often came to hear Jesus teach. That's a profound statement because I understand why people often came to see Jesus perform, is what we kind of highlight. You know, we're a Pentecostal Church and we. We focus on the works of Christ, and we should. He did many amazing things.

He healed people. He. He cast out demons, delivered people. But Luke points out that sinners often came to hear him speak. It's like, what is he saying?

What is a holy God, God on the earth saying to lost and broken, notorious sinners? What message would he be saying to them that has them coming back again and again to hear more? I understand people came to see miracles and to be healed, but he said they came to hear him teach and they were interested in what he had to say, not only what he had to do, for sure, but why did they come to hear him, what was he saying? And then he goes right into three parables about lost people being found. The heart of a holy God for lost sinners.

And I can understand why sinners would come to hear that. I get that. What an encouraging word to hear a parable like the lost sheep or the lost coin or the lost son. Especially if you're one who's walked a sinful lifestyle, which I did before. And many of us have.

We come into this place broken. Many of us do. I preach at Transformations, which is a ministry that is geared towards people recovering from addiction. So a lot of us come in lost and broken. That was my story, my background.

I preach in prison. People who've lived lives and they're living out a penalty for a lifestyle of sin that they've led. So I get that. And I get that that's why that would appeal to them. But that's not all Jesus taught.

As a matter of fact, he taught a lot of other things. And it said they often came to hear him teach. Not that they only came to hear him when he was teaching a parable about a holy God reaching out to a lost and broken people. He said he often. Luke says he.

They often came to hear him teach. So tax collectors and sinners came to hear him, but so did Pharisees and religious te and teachers of religious law. He mentions them also. And of course, they complained about Jesus associating with sinners, which they often did. And Jesus rebukes them often in the Gospels.

You see that, him rebuking Pharisees and teachers of the religious law. But it's something I want to. I just want to reel in, because a lot of times we speak about that. And I can hear the people with my background or the. Maybe the guys in prison, they kind of.

They kind of laid up and they're like, yeah, give it to the religious guys. Listen, they were all broken. They were just all sinners. Some were lost in rebellion, some were lost in religion. And when you look at Jesus, he had a heart for all people.

He had a heart for the rich young ruler. He fit that profile. The Pharisees and teachers of the religious law. I think the only real difference between the two groups is that some were there to hear the good news of the gospel and receive the hope, the hope of a new life. And some were there just to see what was going on and to look for a problem.

That hasn't changed a whole lot. You'll still find both of those groups of people in church. Praise God. Jesus loves Them all.

Why did they often come to hear Him?

Obviously, they longed to hear the words he was saying. He was saying something to the tax collectors and notorious sinners that they longed to hear that kept them coming back time and time again to hear more.

God on the earth, who's outside of time, seen the beginning from the end, spent 33 years on this earth. And whatever he was saying, it appealed to notorious sinners, to tax collectors, to the addicts, to the prostitutes, to the criminals. They came back time and time again to hear him speak. Yeah, he taught things like the parables we just read that showed them the Father's heart for the lost. And there was a rejoicing in heaven when one person turns to God.

I titled this message accepted, forgiven, and empowered. That's the accepted part. When he teaches on those parables like the Prodigal Son, and he shows God's heart for the lost and broken sinner, that it didn't really matter where they. Where they walked at or what they had done, that God's heart was for them, that he met them right where they were at and they rejoiced in heaven When. When.

When he held out his hand and offered them a relationship, they're accepted. But he also taught a lot about the need for repentance. We're forgiven. We're accepted and we're forgiven. Jesus carried a message about repentance and the need for forgiveness and living holy.

We're empowered because he didn't just teach parables like the lost sheep, the lost coin, and lost son. He taught a lot of other things. He said things like this, like he said in Luke 13:5, Unless you repent, you too will all perish. That's a hard word. Not something I think prostitutes would flock into here.

But they did you ever ask yourself why? Why would they. Why would they come to hear that? In Matthew 4:17, it says, from that time on, Jesus began to preach, repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. He taught and said things that were hard and seemingly hard to understand.

And on the surface, you wouldn't think would be things sinners would come to hear time and time again. But they did.

So you can get this idea that if they're coming to hear him speak, maybe he condoned sin or maybe he made them feel all right about living in their sin. And that's not at all what his message was. We know that because he said, we have. We have four gospels full of what Jesus taught and preached. And in Matthew 5, verses 21 and 22, he said things like this.

You have heard that our ancestors were told, you must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment. But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment. If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger in the fires of hell.

Yeah, Jesus didn't condone sin. He actually upped the ante on holiness. Seems like a strange message to attract sinners. But it did. They flocked to him.

They craved the words he was speaking. He said things like. In verse 27, it continues on. You have heard the commandment that says you must not commit adultery. But I see anyone that even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

And in verse 43, you have heard the law that says, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.

Why would notorious sinners come to hear that word? Why would anybody to feel condemnation? Listen. He upped the ante on holiness, that it was almost unattainable. Like, like, like.

Who can do that? Like Jesus. What are you doing? You know, we're struggling. You just got done telling parables about the lost coin, the lost sheep, and how God has a longing for lost and broken sinners.

Now you're gonna say things like, I'm to love my enemies, that even if I look on a woman with love, I've already committed adultery in my heart. Why would he say those things? And why would I come back to hear it?

And we know some did leave, some Left offended. John 6 said it. Even many of his disciples left. He said some hard things, and people did leave, but a lot of them stayed. And those who stayed to hear the whole message, they could see and feel that Jesus taught with an authority they had never experienced.

If they wanted to feel condemnation, they could go hear the Pharisees and teachers of religious law speak. That's not who they were flocking to. That was one of the reasons they hated him. They were flocking to hear Jesus speak, God speak, Saying things that were seemingly impossible for them to live by. Seemingly.

But when he spoke, he offered him something different. It wasn't a list of rules to live by.

Jesus offered them the hope of a transformed life.

That's why notorious sinners, that's why criminals, addicts, prostitutes, tax collectors, the thieves flocked to hear him speak because they didn't want to be how they were. They didn't want to live a life of sin.

We see guys come into the dream center and women come into the lighthouse the same way I came in.

Not looking for a loophole around the punishment for my sin. That's not why I came into the kingdom. It's not what attracted me to God at all. What attracted me to him was the hope of a different life. The reason tax collectors and notorious sinners often came to hear him teach was because he offered them hope to be able to change.

He didn't just say, you to love your enemies. If you look on a woman with flesh, you've committed adultery. He gave them a way to live free from it. It's what they wanted. Nobody grows up and says, I want to be a prostitute.

They find themselves, find ourselves in these positions, in these places because of doors we opened. Maybe even when we were kids, maybe even when there wasn't our fault, maybe even things we had nothing to do with. But it opened a door of evil in our lives. And we walked down a path that the enemy just wreaked havoc in our lives. And we found ourselves in a place where we were trapped.

We hated ourselves, we hated our lives. We had no idea how to live free from it. That's why sinners flocked to Jesus because He offered them hope of a different life.

And the people who stuck around that didn't leave offended at the words he was saying got to experience just that. They heard the message of the possibility to change, to live free from it.

And when they heard the whole message, they got it all. Acceptance. They got acceptance through the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son. He told them the heart of a holy God that had for them, even in their brokenness, even in their perversion, even while they were lost, they did nothing to have to clean themselves up to come to God, but simply come to Him. And he accepts them just the way they are.

But then he offers them forgiveness through repentance. If they repent, they can be forgiven of their sins for a purpose, not just to live free from guilt and shame. As amazing as that is, there's a purpose for the forgiveness. The purpose is that you would be cleansed and made perfectly holy. The Bible says that in the moment you accept him as your Savior, that that you call upon him and that the price he paid was enough.

When you accept that in your heart, that you're made in that moment perfectly holy for the purpose of being filled with His Spirit. And that's how you can live free from the sin that's entangled your life is by the Power of His Holy Spirit. It's forgiveness. It's acceptance. It's forgiveness.

It's an empowerment.

And First John 1:9, it says, if we confess our sins to him and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. I know. This is Christianity 101. Sometimes Christianity one on one does the heart really good because we can make it a lot more complicated than it really is. He's faithful.

If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Faithful means he'll do it time and time again. He's faithful. He's not going to turn you away when you repent to him and and confess your sins to Him. He's faithful to forgive you.

But just how is that just? How is it just for God to pretend like your sins don't exist? Well, it's just because he doesn't. That's not what justice is. That's not what he's doing.

He's not pretending like your sins don't exist. He's not winking at your sin. He's not making light of it. It's just justice. He's faithful and just.

Just is justice. And why is it just because the price has been paid. He hasn't forgotten about your sin. He hasn't pretended like it doesn't exist. He himself took the place for the punishment.

His wrath was poured out upon Jesus Christ. That's justice. I'll tell the guys in prison and they agree with, hey, justice is you do the crime, you do the time. That's justice. You do the crime, you do the time twice.

That's injustice. That's why it's just for him to forgive your sins. Because the punishment has already been paid by Jesus Christ. If you poured it out on you, that would be unjust. And he's not an unjust God.

It's why we can walk in the confidence. Then we've been forgiven and made holy. Oh, this is important because a lot of believers don't truly understand this. If they did, there'd be a lot more smiles going on in this place because we'd understand how good the good news actually is. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

If he held it against me, he would be unjust because Jesus Christ paid the price for it. And I've put my faith and hope in him as my Savior. And if you have too, then the same thing applies to you. You are no longer guilty.

Forgiveness for the reason of being made holy. This is about Positioning ourselves back into a rightful place with him, that we could be filled with his spirit. The whole book is God's redemptive plan to restore his relationship with us. It's the whole. It's the whole Word.

And through that forgiveness, we find empowerment to live free from those things that plagues us. We don't change to earn it. That's backwards. We change because we can.

We do a ministry called Transformations. We've done it for 10 years. Every week we have somebody come and share their testimony of what God's done in their life. I've heard hundreds. I stopped counting a couple years ago.

It was over 500 just so I could say I've heard over 500 testimonies. But we have. It's been hundreds. I've never heard one testimony. I'm not saying there isn't any.

So if this is your testimony, okay. I just have never heard anybody share a testimony that went anything like this. I was living my life of sin, and I was really enjoying it. My life was fruitful. I was happy, I was fulfilled, and I really liked it.

But I was afraid of going to hell, so I wanted to find a loophole around the punishment. I've never heard it. I've always heard the sin brought me to a place where I hated myself. I hated my life, even if it wasn't that intense. It brought me to a place where I was hollow.

And I knew I was missing something every time I've heard that. So people walk through the doors, not looking for a way to continue on walking in their sin. Listen, I understand we go through battles where we battle our flesh and we have moments where our flesh wants to be gratified and our sinful nature wants. Is still. Is still fighting for power.

All that. I'm not denying that. I'm not saying that doesn't exist. Of course it does. But at the core as a believer, we want to live holy.

It's what brought us through the doors in the first place. If we were happy with the way we were living, would have never walked through the doors. I mean, come on. I don't want to get up at 4:45 on Sunday mornings because I got nothing better to do. It's because I.

This relationship that I have with Jesus Christ brought me a freedom that I can walk in that I never thought was possible. Possible.

We want to live free from it. And he allows us to. In John 14, 15, 17, Jesus says this. In verse 15, he says, if you love me, obey my commandments. So often I heard, I hear that read.

And then we stop there. If you love me, obey my commandments. Yeah, praise God. But we miss the most important part, which he follows up with. In verse 16, he says, and I will ask the Father and he will give you another, an advocate who will never leave you.

He's telling us, listen, it's possible. It's possible to obey my commandments now that you've been forgiven and made holy, because my spirit can now live on the inside of you. I will send him. I'm going away. And I'll send another one who is more powerful, the advocate who will be with you.

He will never leave you. And the reason he is more powerful, because he will never leave you. He can be with you at all times because he dwells on the inside of you. Amen. In verse 17, he is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth.

The world cannot receive him because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him. But you know him because he lives with you now and later will be in you. Jesus is saying, I'm with you now, but I'm leaving it. When I leave, he will be in you. The greatest part of being a believer, and a part that I missed for the first, I don't know, little while as a believer, was that the spirit of God dwells on the inside of me.

He dwells on the inside of you. It's what gives us the power. I couldn't explain how. It's Sunday night, fam. This isn't transformations Minister, Eric.

Sometimes I let things fly and I'm like, ooh. I couldn't understand how when I lived in my addiction before I became a Christian, I wanted to be clean. I did because it was destroying my life. And I would. I would wake up in the morning or I would say to myself, never again.

Never again am I gonna do that. Never again am I gonna use that. Never again am I gonna go for that. By one o' clock that afternoon, I was already going for it. Years I did that.

And then I had an encounter with Jesus Christ and everything changed. And I couldn't quite explain why, how now I could live free from it until I realized it's because the spirit of God dwelt on the inside of me. And now I'm no longer fighting this battle on my own, but now I carry the spirit of God into every situation that I'm in. And it's the same thing for every one of you guys. Every one of you in here that's battling an addiction or a sin issue that you've never been able to find freedom from.

You have to remind yourself, tell yourself and live it, that the Spirit of God dwells on the inside of you. When I began to understand that, and I began to understand that wherever I went, the spirit of God went. Whatever I put in front of these eyes, I was putting before God. Every situation I went into, I was taking God into that situation with me. I was no longer somebody that had had to cry out for him to come.

Because when I walked through the doors, he was already there. And the truth is, if you're a spirit filled believer, then when you walk through the doors, God has already shown up. I know we sing songs for the presence of God to come, and I get that. And we're looking to experience more. But if we begin to have a revelation of who we really are, we would begin to understand that the Spirit, Spirit of God showed up the minute we walked through the door.

Because this is where he dwells. And once I began to find, began to understand that, I couldn't get away from it. It's like everywhere in the Word I look, I can't even open the thing without seeing some sort of a reference to it. Even in the Old Testament, in Ezekiel 36:27, he says, and I will put my spirit in you so that where in you. I will put my spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.

It's how we can do it. By the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling on the inside of us. Philippians 2:13. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him. We're not to white knuckle it through sin issues.

We can draw on the power of God that dwells on the inside of us. Second Peter 1, verses 3 and 4 says, By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the One who called us to Himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share in his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires.

That's truth.

And it's the power. It's the power in the testimonies we hear every week at Transformations when people come and share about what God's done in their lives and how he's given them victory. It's the power that we hear in cadence. Testimonies, he says God changed me and I'm walking in a newness of life. What I received it when I was at Jesus.

And I know, and I appreciate the thank yous that you've given to me and Raphael. But we know where the powers come from. It's come from the Holy Spirit. And when you got into the Word, like Raphael says, become a devourer of the Word, that spirit began to grow in you. And we watched you change.

And it's a beautiful thing. There's nothing better than seeing the lights come on and somebody that's lost and broken, because I know what that feels like.

I've shared my testimony in here before, but there's an aspect of it that I want to hit on just for a minute. Was 22 years ago, 2004. I was in my apartment. I was strung out. I'm gonna shoot high.

I know there's kids in here. My kids are all in here. I was at the lowest point of my life. I was strung out, hopeless, at seemingly probably the worst night of my life. I felt hollow, felt hopeless.

And Jesus Christ met me in my apartment that night. I was alone. And through a vision I had in the mirror, God showed me what I looked in the mirror. And I was really horrified by the man I saw. And he gave me a vision of myself at about six, when I was six years old.

I saw myself when I was six and I was taken aback. And that happened three times that he showed me what I was like when I was at six, six year old boy. And it was his way of showing me how he saw me. I believe it was. He gave me a vision, just for a minute of how he saw me and that my heart would soften for that boy in the mirror.

That Erica that I used to be, that one that had hopes and dreams for the future, the one that believed he could be a good man, have a family and do something with his life. And I stood there, the man who had destroyed that kid. And something changed in me. And I walked out of my room. I picked up a book that was on my end table.

It was called the Prayer of Jabez, written by Bruce Wilkerson. My sister had dropped it off a couple weeks earlier. And I started reading that book. And that's how I got saved. God spoke to me through that book.

It was a story out of Jabez. There's really only a couple verses about Jabez in the Bible. It's out of First Corinthians, 4, 10. And it reads as this. It says Jabez Cried out to God of Israel, oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory.

Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain, or that I may not cause pain. Another translation says. And then it says, and God granted his request. And when I read that, I began to be filled with hope that God could grant my request. And my request was that he could change my life.

And I believed that night still lost, still broken. But what hope? That God can change my life. And it changed the entire trajectory of my life. I put it this way.

It's the night where my life stopped going like this and started going like this. And I've never been the same since. It's not always been easy. But that was the night he changed me and that I encountered the presence of Jesus Christ. I became cleansed that night because I put my faith and hope as Jesus Christ, as my Savior.

And in that moment, the Bible says I became perfectly holy. As a matter of fact, his redemptive work was so complete in me that he saw me seated at the right hand of the Father in the seated in heaven. That's what the Bible says. That a God outside of time, how can he see us that way? How can a God.

I was still listen the next morning. I was still addicted. I was still broken, I was still perverted. I was still all the things I was that night. But I had a hope.

How could he see me as perfectly holy? Because he's outside of time, that's how. Because he can see the end work. He can see the redemptive work. Because in that moment, I became justified by the blood of Christ.

Pastor Daniel puts it as a justified, never sinned. That was the moment I became justified by the blood of Christ. And in that moment, I also started walking in the process. Pastor Daniel, if you were here this morning, he started. He talked about the process of sanctification.

I began walking out this process of sanctification, which is the process that he takes on, where he turns us more and more into his image. It's a journey we go on. It's a process we live.

It's a different way to live.

The reason notorious sinners often came to hear him was that he offered them something they had never been offered before. A transformed life. It's what he offers all of us.

It's not just forgiveness. As great as forgiveness is, forgiveness is a great gift, right? That I wouldn't have to live full of shame and guilt of the things I've committed. But it's so much bigger than that. In that moment you accept him as your savior.

He makes you perfectly holy. And because of that holiness, his spirit can now live on the inside of you. It can now dwell on the inside of you. It couldn't before because you were of a sin filled vessel. But once you accept the forgiveness and you repent and turn and claim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you walk in that, you're cleansed.

Your wash. He's faithful and just. We covered that. Why is it just? Because Jesus Christ already paid the price for all my sin.

Then I stand, free from guilt, holy in the eyes of a holy God and filled with his spirit. Then I begin to walk out this process in which the power of his spirit gives me freedom from areas that I was once plagued in. Well, we don't do it perfectly. We still have the old fallen nature we have to deal with, right? It's the old Romans 7, battle within.

But we find victory.

We find victory and begin to look different. That's why notorious sinners often came to hear Jesus speak. Because he offered them a way to change.

He saw them healed and whole. He saw the new Caden when the old Caden was still there. He saw the new Eric when the old Eric was still there. He'll see the new you. You transformed, walking in his glory, free from the addictions, free from the perversions, free from the sin that's entangled.

Oh, you have a problem with it, but he doesn't Listen, this is why it's so important and why so many people struggling, why the enemy's work so hard to get us to forget this truth is because if you can keep us convinced that we're still a disappointment to God, we'll never walk in true freedom. We'll never experience the. The fullness that God has for us in our lives. We have to just. There's a point where you have to lay down the feelings and pick up the facts.

The facts are you've been cleansed and made perfectly well. I don't feel perfectly. It doesn't matter how you feel. The facts say that you are. Lay that down.

Pick it up. You begin to walk into confidence where instead of running to him, running from him in your struggle, you'll bring it to him because you know he already sees you as holy. You're not a disappointment because you can't be. Because the facts is you've been justified by Christ even while you're being sanctified. I'm passionate about this because I struggled with it.

Listen, I was fully Convinced that night I met him in my apartment, that was the most wicked I ever was. I mean, I've never been more entangled in sin than I was that night. Since that night, because we started the process, I began to walk out. Was the last time I sinned it. No, no.

But I was never fully engulfed like I was that night ever again. I was convinced that night that he loved me and accepted me just the way I was. You couldn't talk me out of it. By the next morning, I was so. I had a hope and a joy.

I was on my floor, laughing in my kitchen. I was so full of joy because I felt like it was the first time I felt anything good in years. And I was convinced that he loved me. But something happened. I began going to church.

And that's not a knock on church. Sure, I love church. Church has made the difference. I'm part of one. Obviously I'm here.

But I began to. I began to get religion in here. And what can happen is we can get to a place. And I say we because I've heard this testimony also for many people. I've walked people through this process of trying to get broken free from this.

We can get to this place where we say, okay, thank you for saving me. Like, I really needed that. There's no way I could have done that myself. I really needed that. Thank you, Lord.

But I'll take it from here. I got it now. I know better, right? I've been cleansed, I've been forgiven. I got your spirit on the inside of me.

I think I can handle it from here. And so we walk out this process thinking that because we've been saved, because we know better, that if we're still struggling in an area, it's something now I have to be ashamed of. It's something that now I have to try to hide from him instead of taking it to him when I was already once convinced, when I was the most evil I ever was, that he loved me and accepted me just the way I was. Why too then, now that I'm in this process, I've been already transformed. Transformed in areas to look more and more like his glorious image.

Am I fully there? No, I'm not going to be fully there till. Till he returns, until that glorious day, I stand before him in a. In a. In a new body, in a new spirit, all that.

Right. But because I'm in that process, I'm not fully there yet. And I still have these struggles that now I feel like I have to be ashamed in his Presence. We're missing something.

We're justified even while we're being sanctified. He'll walk you through this process of being turned more and more into his glorious image. And you never stop being justified in that process. Yes, you're gonna battle. Yes, there's gonna be a Win some, lose some.

I'm not gonna prophesy that over you, because the truth is, we have the power to win them all. Haven't met anybody that has. Just saying. If we're going to be honest, we all have struggles. Do the struggles change?

Of course. If my struggles look the same as they did 18 years ago, there's something wrong. If this was transformations, I'd get more into that, but it's not, so I'll keep those in here. If you want to know more, you can come on a Tuesday night. I'm just saying my struggles don't look like they used to.

And yours won't either, because he'll walk you through this process and there'll be a noticeable change. And it's not you earning his favor because you never lost it, because you never stopped being justified, because you've been faithful and just to forgive your sins if you. If you'll repent to them and bring them to here. Listen, this is so important because the only way we continue to get free and continue. Part of the process is, is that the Holy Spirit brings to you and will highlight things in your life that you need to change.

There was things I struggled with. Listen, there was obvious things 22 years ago, right? You didn't need a theological degree to see that I lived in gross sin, right? But as the process change, there's other things that are in here that I didn't even know that were in here. And it'll highlight those things and it'll be like, ooh, ow, ah.

And I'll see. And I'll Sudden. I'll see an ugly place in myself that I didn't know existed. If I'm not fully convinced that I'm justified by his blood, that he already sees me as holy, I'm gonna try to hide. I'm gonna try to hide it from.

I'm gonna try to pretend it doesn't exist. I'm certainly not gonna bring it up. Up in my prayer time. I'm not going to bring it to him because I already think he's probably disappointed in me because I'm still struggling with that. That's why it's so important to.

To remember you're justified. You're already holy. Bring it to him. And he's what, faithful and just to forgive your sins? Because Jesus Christ paid the price.

It's Christianity 101, and that's what I felt God got bring asked me to bring to you guys tonight to just a reminder that, listen, even in this process of sanctification, you're justified. You don't stop being justified in the process. It's a beautiful thing. And if we live that way, man, we'd be smiling a lot more often, wouldn't be because it's that good. It's the gospel.

It's the good news.

Sobriety and deliverance from addictions isn't the end goal. It's just the beginning. It's the baseline. The goal, as Raphael put it, of what we've been called to do is to help people walk out in the plan and purpose God has for your life. Because there's no greater joy than doing the things he's called you to do.

It's so much easier to stay free from sin and going after those things of the flesh, even though there's times that are hard. It's so much easier when you're enjoying the life you're walking. And you want to know the secret to enjoying it? Walk in the plan and purpose he has for you, he has things for you to do with the giftings he's put on the inside of you. And when you begin to walk that out, you begin to experience a joy and a power that you can never find in anything else.

And all of a sudden, staying clean and staying sober, that's not hard. It's not hard at all. Because in order to not, I'd have to give up what he has me walking in. This is one of my greatest joys, is to do this, is to bring the word of God and share what he's done in my life. I'm gonna have a hard time doing this, living my old lifestyle.

Is that clear enough? It's not transformations, Eric.

First you have to accept him as your Lord and Savior. You have to call on him. You have to turn to him. You have to trust him.

He really has one requirement for salvation, and that's that we will trust Him. That when he says what he did was enough, we just simply believe it. We accept Jesus. That's what it is to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. It means we turn to him and we believe the price he paid was enough for me to be cleansed.

And it's really not that odd that that would be the only requirement that he has. Because if you read the story in the beginning, he had us placed in a garden, really, with one requirement that we would trust him. That if we ate the fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, that we would surely die. Really, one job, just to trust him. Doesn't it make sense that in order to be redeemed, to be brought back into a right relationship with him, he would have one requirement that we trust him.

And so we lead you guys in a prayer. The prayer I prayed that night in my apartment by myself. We lead you guys in this prayer because the Bible says that if we believe in our heart and confess with our mouths that he is Lord and that. That Christ was raised from the dead, that we would be saved. So I'll lead you guys in a prayer.

Not that it's a magical prayer, that it's a magical set of words, but it's. The confession of the mouth is to help you confess with your mouth. Listen, we preach messages that you would believe in your heart. I'm hoping something out of the Word of God spoke to you tonight that would get you to just trust him when he says the price he paid was enough, that he's faithful and just to forgive you. When you repent and turn to him, he's just.

It's justice. His. His justice has been served because the price has already been. His wrath has already been poured out upon Jesus Christ that you can be forgiven and that you simply have to acknowledge that and turn to him and repent of your sin. Which simply means, lord, I'm a sinner.

I know that. I don't. I don't know. Like I said, I preach in transformations in prison. I don't have to convince people of their sinful there.

I just don't. Like, they already all know, like, as much as I did. I'm like, yeah, I know I'm horrible. Show me how not to be horrible. That's what I need.

So maybe this is different here. I don't know. Maybe there's people who need to be convinced of that. I'm sure. Maybe.

But mostly I don't think so. We just have to admit we're sinners. Come to him and say, lord, I believe that the price you paid was enough. Thank you for paying the price for me. That I could be saved and be cleansed.

Lord, I believe that in the moment I say yes to you, I've been made perfectly holy, and by that holiness, I'll be cleansed. That your spirit of God could. That your spirit can dwell on the inside of me and that I can walk free from the addictions, from the perversions, from the sin that has so entangled me and kept me bound. I believe that oh Lord, put my faith in you. If that's you, I want you to raise your hand if you're going to make that commitment tonight.

That you just want to put your faith and hope in him as your Savior and that you would believe on him that he. That he's cleansed you and that. That what he said, his word is enough, that he's faithful and just to forgive your sins. I'm going to ask you guys to raise your hand if you want to make a declaration. If it's the first time, praise God.

If you just want to recommit your faith tonight, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand. I'm going to ask all you guys to repeat after me. I'm going to lead you in a prayer. Say, lord, I thank you that you sent your son to pay the price for me. I confess and repent of my sin tonight.

And I thank you God, that I've been cleansed. I thank you Lord, that you raised Jesus Christ from the dead and that through that I can be cleansed and made holy. Fill me with your spirit in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you guys for listening.

I love you guys. Well, I hope you were encouraged by God's word. Thank you again for listening to Kings Alaska Podcast. God bless you. For more great content, go to Casey, Alaska.

And may God's face shine upon you and give you peace.