======================================================================== ABUNDANT LIFE IN CHRIST by Donny Coulter ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of studying and understanding God's word for spiritual growth and maturity. It highlights the journey from the old life of sin to the new life in Christ, focusing on the power of salvation, progressive sanctification, and the ultimate glorification believers will experience. The sermon encourages believers to press forward, forget past failures, access the power of God, and live in holiness, ultimately aiming for the upward call in Christ Jesus. Duration: 54:43 Topics: "Spiritual Growth", "Power of Salvation" Scripture References: Philippians 3:13, Romans 6:22, 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 2 Corinthians 5:8, Colossians 3:4, Romans 3:28, Romans 5:1, Ephesians 1:18, Ephesians 2:4, Colossians 1:19, 1 John 3:1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of studying and understanding God's word for spiritual growth and maturity. It highlights the journey from the old life of sin to the new life in Christ, focusing on the power of salvation, progressive sanctification, and the ultimate glorification believers will experience. The sermon encourages believers to press forward, forget past failures, access the power of God, and live in holiness, ultimately aiming for the upward call in Christ Jesus. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Today, we are, I don't think I'm on the tape, today we are, we're gonna do a Bible study together. It's gonna have some Bible teaching. Now you've got, you should have in your bulletin, you should have a load of verses to look at. I'm gonna issue a personal challenge to everyone. One, I don't care what your maturity level is in Christ. I want to challenge everyone this week to take home your bulletin and to begin to study. Spend some time this week studying. You can't tell me that you don't have 15 minutes, 20 minutes that you can give away two or three times this week to put into studying, memorizing and understanding God's word and God's truth when it comes to your salvation. Because if we do not understand the depth, the riches, the power of the salvation that we have received from God, then we will always and forever live as weak, defeated believers. I do not believe for one moment that God saved us to be weak, defeated believers. Do you? As a matter of fact, we've talked recently about the verse in John 10, 10 that says that Jesus came that we might have life and have just a little bit. Is that what it says? No, it says that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly. Young people, listen. You're looking for this life, you're looking for exuberance, you're looking for abundance in life, happiness and joy and Jesus says he's brought it. It's here because of him. Now, we're gonna go through some very basic stuff today. All right, so it's basic in terms of many of you will know the truths that we're going to talk about. I don't know how many of us know how to put it all into one picture in our lives. And so I want us to be able to see the truth that many of us know in one picture, okay? And so we're just gonna do some basic theology about salvation. That's what, and the reason is, we're gonna find out as we read these verses in Ephesians, we're gonna find out why. So let's pray and then we're gonna get started. Father, thank you for your word and I pray that your word here would stand above every thought, that it would stand above every idea that we have developed on our own, everything that we feel good about or that we think that we have established, I pray that it would take second seat to your word. I pray, Father, for those that are young in Christ. I pray that they would see this truth today, God, so the truth about their salvation, so that they can move forward in their life and achieve the will of God, their sanctification. I pray, Father, that for all of us, there are many of us that have learned and know these terms and what they mean in scripture, but we have lost touch with them. I pray that you would bring us back to the simplicity of our salvation and then, God, may you bring us into the depths of the power that's been made available to us because of it. I pray, Father, that you would open our eyes, the eyes of our understanding this morning, that we might be able to know you and know the hope of our calling, God. Lord, that we might be able to experience the wonder of your power in our lives. May we do that now, I pray. May your word have its work in our lives as the Holy Spirit brings it to life and empowers it in us. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Read Ephesians chapter one, verse 15 with me, starting with verse 15. Now, we've read this a couple of times. Even read it last week at Easter. Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Now, what is he praying for them? Look what he's praying for them, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you. How many of us are included in that one word, you? Every one of us. So, if you're here today and you are a believer, then this is for you. Now, let me ask you a question. Does it say anything here about your experience level in Jesus? Nothing. Does it say anything about being a brand new baby Jesus Christian? Or does it say anything about being a full-grown Jesus Christian? It just says, here's my prayer for you, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you, no matter where you are in your spiritual journey, that God may give to you. Now, look what he prays for God to give to the believers. He says, I pray that God would give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Notice those two words. He says, I'm praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ would give to every one of you. Now, he did not say that Donny would give it or that Paul would give it, but that God would give to every one of you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, that you would be wise, and that you would have the things that God needs to reveal to you revealed. We're not talking about some spiritual revelation that no one has ever received. We're not talking about that kind of revelation, first time revealed. We're talking about something that God has revealed since Jesus died, was buried, and rose again, and he wants to reveal the beauty and the power of that to you. So he says that God may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in what? In the knowledge of him. Now, I want you to notice as we're walking through this how Paul is building a foundation to make a statement that refers to power that we've been talking about, okay? So he's building a foundation that if you want to access the things that he's talking about, then we must have a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him. That ought to be your ultimate goal in your life is to know Christ. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, Paul says. That I may know him. And so Paul is praying for them the same thing that he prays for and lives for in his life. His aspiration in his life, as we talked about, his aspiration is to know him. And so he says, I want God to give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, in the knowledge of Jesus. Look at verse 18. That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. So he says, I want you to have the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you might know him and when you know him, the eyes of your understanding will be enlightened. The darkness will be removed from your eyes and you will see the light. You will see the revelation of Christ. Look what it says. Why do we need this enlightenment? Why do we need our eyes to be opened and enlightened so that we may know, number one, that we may know the hope of his calling? And we talked about that. That we may know the hope of his calling. Look at the second one. And what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? Did you know that you're rich? Did you know that? And this is why he's saying, I want you to have the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of him so that you can know the hope of your calling. You have an eternal hope in the calling of God. When he spoke life into your dead bones and your dead body, you had hope. And that's what he's saying. The hope of our calling and that you may know the riches. What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? You're rich, folks. You have everything you need. God, in 2 Peter chapter one, we talked about it recently, 2 Peter chapter one, that God has given you divine power. You, divine power. So that you can live life and be godly. So he says that I want you to know what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and then verse 19. In what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe? Stop. Pay attention. This is how I think that you can try to understand the word. So the Bible is, if you take a look at a section of scripture like this, read it in its context, and then break it down. Start looking at every part of what you've read. And look what he says in verse 19. In what is the exceeding greatness of whose power? His power. This is God power. This is supernatural power. What is the exceeding greatness? In other words, you cannot understand really the amount of power that is available in God. The exceeding greatness. Now look how God defines the exceeding greatness of his power. Look at verse 20. This is how we know the incredible greatness of the power, verse 20, which worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. We're talking about the same power, the great power, the exceeding great power of God that raised Jesus from the dead. That's the power that he's talking about. Please do not rob yourself. Let's not rob ourselves of an experience and access to something that belongs to us. That this incredible, exceeding greatness of power that raised Jesus from the dead. That's how the great power is defined. It raised Jesus from the dead. And look what he says about that power. It's God's power and his exceedingly great power and it raised Jesus from the dead. Now look what he says. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power? Towards who? Who is it? That's us as believers. That's who it is. That this is an exceeding great power to you and to me. It's to us who believe. That is to the person who just became a believer like Ruby last week. To those of us that have been serving the Lord for a very long time. That the exceeding greatness of his power has been given to us according to the working of his mighty power. So I want to establish that there is a power that is accessible. We've been talking about this now for what, three weeks? That there is a power that is accessible to you because we have been called, you remember? We have been called to walk worthy. That's why we still have this up here. And to walk worthy means that if this is the life of Christ over here and this is the life of Donny over here, the word to walk worthy means to be in balance with. To balance the scale. To be of the same weight as. And so when Paul says, walk worthy of the gospel. Walk worthy of the Lord. Walk worthy of the calling. Walk worthy of God. When he says those kind of things, he's telling you and me it's almost an impossible task. Isn't it? When you think, when we really think about that, that if this is the life of Christ and this is the life of Donny, it looks like this all the time. Well see, that's what I don't like about this one. It only goes just a little bit. Mine went really high to illustrate the point. So here's the life of Christ in my life and we've been commanded to walk worthy. We've been commanded to be holy as I am holy. You remember that command? And that command is to who? Us, as believers. So if God is giving us command to live like this and to live holy, do you think that he would tell you something like that and then say, okay, go ahead, help yourself, try it. Knowing how weak I am and how self- centered I am often, how selfish I am and how prideful I am and how angry I am and how mean I am, and I'm supposed to do that all on my own. God has not left you alone in your own weaknesses to do this. God has given to you and me a power. Now, I want us to try to understand why we need that power and how it works in our life. So we're gonna go through and build just a basic understanding of the theology of our salvation. First of all, let's look at this. Our old life. The old life is the life that is lived without God. It's a life that is lived and directed by sin. We sin because we are slaves to sin. That's who we are. We are sinners. In the old life, we, me and you, were sinners and we were absolutely controlled and bound by our own sin and that life has an ultimate end, doesn't it? That life has an ultimate end and that ultimate end is permanent separation from God. That's what death is. Death is to be forever separated from God in this sense of the old life. Death is separation. And when we die in our old life, in our sins, when we die, then we are forever separated from God. That is permanent separation. There is no second chance when you die. And ultimately, folks, if you are living this life, this old life, then you are ultimately doomed for a place that the scripture defines as hell. I know we don't like hearing words like that anymore because it's offensive and hurtful, but it is the truth. That if you are living a life without Christ and you die in your sins, you will permanently be separated from God forever in a place called hell. Don't believe me? Look what the word says. Matthew chapter 13 and verse 40 to 42. Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The son of man will send out his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness and will cast them into the furnace of fire and there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Look at Revelation 20 and verse 15. And anyone not found in the book of life is cast into a lake of fire. Luke chapter 10, or Luke chapter 12, Matthew chapter 10, say something to this effect. Don't fear people who can hurt your body, but fear God who can destroy both the body and soul in hell. So if you want to live an old life, a life that is controlled by sin, this is your ultimate destination. But you don't have to do it. You don't have to do that. You don't have to go there. It doesn't have to be done. We don't have to, to fear God anymore. We can come to him and have faith. Now watch, this is the old life. This is my ultimate destination in my old life is hell and permanent separation from God. But I listen to the spirit of God as he whispers in my name and convicts me of my sin. And I have this crisis of belief. I have this time when I experience a crisis of belief. There is my faith. I have this faith that is amazing and it comes into my life. Now there are some things that happen immediately when you have that crisis of faith. Now you have a new life that is no longer an old life. It is a new life in Christ. That's instantly. That is not something that you wait on. You are now a new creation. We'll see it in a moment. I want to walk through some verses so that we get it. But here's this point of faith. And when I have that point of faith, there are many things that take place at the very moment that that happens. Now watch. That is, this is my positional salvation, okay? This is the position of my salvation. Because of my salvation, I have a position with God and it's a beautiful position. It means that in that place, the penalty of my sin has been paid. In other words, what's the penalty of sin? Hell. The penalty of sin is separation from God. And the penalty for my sin is paid in the twinkling of an eye, the flash of faith. It's gone. It's forgiven. And there are so many things, and we don't have time today, in the short time I have. We don't have time today to talk about all of the things that come at the very moment. But let's highlight a couple of them, can we? Look at 1 John chapter three and verse one. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God. Instantly, at the moment of faith, you become a child of God. Hallelujah. I mean, I should, I wish if we were a Pentecostal church, we'd be jumping up and down, shouting all over the place right now. Because think about the beauty of that statement that I who was a child of the devil is now a child of God. I have become a child of God. I'm a child of the King. Instantly, that takes place. Look at Galatians chapter four, verse six and seven. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts. Instantly, the spirit is sent forth in your hearts. And he cries out, Abba, Father, you are a child. Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but you are a son and a daughter. And if the son or a daughter, then you are an heir of God through Christ. Sound like Ephesians? The riches of his glory of our inheritance in him. Wow, beautiful stuff. A child of God. And all the things that come along with it, the inheritance that comes along with being a child of God, it's mine. Instantly, look at Ephesians chapter two, verses four through six. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Instantly, when you have that faith, you receive the life of Christ. You who were dead are now alive. And not only that, but instantly, you are made to sit together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Isn't that wonderful news? The news of your salvation. How incredible. Look at Colossians chapter one, verse 19. For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell. That is, the Father believed that all the fullness of the Godhead should dwell in Christ, and by him, by Christ, to reconcile all things to himself. By him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross. Instantly, instantly, folks, there is a reconciliation between you and God. When you have that place of faith, this is all because of the blood of Christ. Instantly, you receive that reconciliation. You are brought back into relationship with God. Instantly, it happens. Colossians chapter three and verse three. For you died and your life is hidden in Christ. For you died and your life is hidden in Christ. Think for a moment that when that old man that we just looked at, that old life, is dead. Now we have new life, right? And because of the new life, my new life is in Christ, and my life, my old self, my ugliness is hid in Christ so that when God looks at me, who does he see? He sees Christ. My life is hid in Christ. Instantly, my life is hid in Jesus. Romans six, verses six through eight. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. What happens? What happens at the very moment of salvation, that thing that you've been bound with your entire life, that we call sin, that bondage that you have lived under, and walked under, and slept under, and ate under your entire life, when you come to that place of faith, that bond is broken, that bondage is broken, and you are set free. You are no longer a slave to sin. No longer. Now, that means if I am set free then from sin, that I am free to do something else. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse 16 and 17. Therefore, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him, thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things become new. Instantly, folks, do not forget this. Do not let this go away. If you are a young believer, don't forget that you are a new creation. You are not the old self anymore. Even though the old self still likes to beak at you, don't let him. You turn around and say, I'm a new creation. In Christ, I am a new creation. I am a new creature. Now, look what he says. Romans three and verse 28. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. That word justify means to be declared righteous. It means to be acquitted of your sin. Here's what that means. That means that if we had a blackboard up here today, and it listed your old self, and you were to stand here and say, this is me, and you come to a place of, and your blackboard's gonna be just as full as mine, and you say, come to a place of faith, and when you come to that place of faith, the scripture says that God justifies you in Christ. He declares you to be righteous. That means to be acquitted without prejudice means that everything on the board is erased. All of it is gone. Everything has disappeared. Now, I'm clean and clear, and that's why I can stand in the very presence of God because I have been declared by God to be righteous. You have been acquitted from your sins. Isn't that beautiful? Well, if we, there's a reason why I'm going through this because we get tripped up here. In a lot of these places, in this struggle to mature as a believer, we get tripped up, and we forget some of these very basic truths, and I want us to remember the basic truths that you have been justified apart from the deeds of the law. You didn't earn it. It is acquittal without prejudice. Look at Romans chapter five and verse one. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. All that stuff at the moment of salvation, all this stuff takes place, and there's more, but all of this stuff that takes place means that I have peace with God. I've spent my whole life up until that moment of faith being an enemy of God, and now I am free. Now I am free to have a relationship with God. I am at peace with God. Amen? That is your new life, and look, folks, that is not something that you earn along the way, and there's so much more. That's not something that you grow into. These are things that happened at the moment of faith. It became yours, and there's so much more we could talk about. Now ultimately, this new life is headed towards an ultimate destination too, isn't it? Our new life has an ultimate end as well. Let's talk about that for a moment. I'm gonna live my life, and I'm gonna die, and I'm gonna die in my new life, and when I die in my new life, something's going to happen. Because of everything that happened at the point of my salvation, because everything that happened there, I'm going to experience a permanent glorification. In other words, my sin and the flesh and everything that still bugs me and haunts me is going to be gone, and I am going to be like Christ. I will have no sin. I will feel no sin. I will experience no sin. I will be just like him. Ultimate, permanent, and that is a permanent thing. I will never, ever again struggle with sin. Can you imagine the day that you wake up in heaven and know that, oh, the freedom of absolutely no sin will be amazing, won't it? It'll be absolutely incredible. And therefore, we are saved from the very presence of sin in our lives. You will never have to deal with the presence of sin again. So, one of the wonderful advantages of being freed from the penalty of sin is ultimately someday, whether by rapture or death, I'm going to be freed from the very presence of sin because of my permanent glorification that happens when I get there. All exciting and wonderful, isn't it? We've got so many songs about heaven that talk about being freed from sin and no more pain and tears and sorrows and no more sickness and all that stuff that we sing about heaven, right? We're gonna get to see our friends and our family, but you know what? They're gonna have to take second seat because I want to see them. Don't you? I want to go straight to the throne. I don't know how all that stuff's gonna work. I'm gonna get up there, I'm gonna say, Mama, you gotta wait, because I can see my mama. Daddy's been there a long time, but you're gonna have to wait because I want to see it. And that is the ultimate end, but unfortunately, we're still here, aren't we? And we have this crazy command to live holy and to walk worthy, crazy command to God that we have to do this, but He has given us the power to be able to live it out and to exercise it in our lives. Let's look at some of the verses that talk about glorification. 2 Corinthians 5, in verse eight, we are confident, yes, well-pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Colossians 3, in verse four, when Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory, amen? Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, amen? We shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. Our glorification, but in the process, we've got to obey the commands of God. That is what we've been talking about for a long time. I've termed it here progressive sanctification. It is our progressive sanctification. Sanctification is being set apart and it is not an instantaneous thing in the practical side of our life. On the practical side of our life, we are learning to mature in our faith, in our battle, in our mind with sin. We are learning that. And so we have this progressive sanctification. That means from the time that I have this crisis of faith, this belief in Christ, and the time that I enter into my glorification, that there is this need to be sanctified, to be set apart. And the expectation is, is that my life will gradually and continually change and be conformed, Romans 8, to the life of Christ. Do you believe it? The purpose of God is to conform you to the image of Jesus. So if you believe that, then your whole life is spent from the time of faith until the time of glorification, your whole life is spent in doing what we're talking about, learning to walk worthy, learning to obey the command of holiness. That's what your life is. That's what we're doing. So it's our progressive sanctification. It is not something that is instantaneous. All those things are instantaneous. And our glorification's going to be instantaneous. But this is a process. It progresses throughout our lives. And the reason why it's that way, let me, I've said this before, and those that have heard me preach have heard me say this multiple times, but I want to be, I want to be so obedient to the work of the Spirit in my life and accessing the power of God in my life that when it comes time for me to cross over from this life into my glorification, I want there to be as little change as possible. Do you? Do you want to mature in your walk with God so much that there is as little change in this life to the next? Well, God has given you the ability to do that. God has given you the power to be able to do that. He has given you power over sin. We are saved from the penalty of sin. Someday we will be saved from the presence of sin. And today we are given the power to do that. We are given the power over sin. And sin's power over us has been broken. You can live with a goal of maturity in Christ. New life. That is your new life. You understand that? Do we get that? And that's the life that we, God has called us to. Look at some verses that tell us this. First Thessalonians chapter four and verse three. For this is the will of God. This is the will of God, your sanctification. Your setting apart. Now within the context, he goes on to talk about sexual immorality and controlling yourself. But this is the will of God, your sanctification. Look at Romans chapter six, verse 20. For when you were, I want you to notice the way this is constructed. Do you see how it's constructed? For when you were, is that present or past tense? There you go. You gotta catch things like this when you read the word of God. He says, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regards to righteousness. In other words, you could not be righteous because you were a slave to sin. And what fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, remember the picture? The old life and the end is death. Separation from God for eternity. But now, you were slaves, but now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to what? To holiness. Wait, does that help us with the command? Be holy, for I am holy. You've been set free from sin so that you might bear the fruit of holiness. So that point of salvation gave you all these things and now you've been set free from it so that you can live in holiness. And the end, what's the end? Everlasting life and glorification. You get the pictures now? You see how they're all connected? All right, progressive sanctification. What a wonderful thing that God has commanded us to be holy, to walk worthy, and he has given us the power, according to Ephesians and 2 Peter chapter one, he has given us the power to be able to live this out. Do you want that power? Now, you have access to that power just like I do, right? You got it, I got it, you got it, we got it. Let's see, let me get my pen in the right color if I can find it. Oh, there it is. How many of your lives look like that line? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Your life look like that? Just an easy, steady move straight up into my glorification, right? Your life look like that? No, you know what your life looks like? Because it looks like mine, that's what it looks like. Is that the way it looks? Yep, now theologically, we look like the big solid yellow line, but that's the way my life, in a practical sense, that's the way my life looks, doesn't it? Also, in a practical sense, this is the way God wants your life to look. You new believers, you're gonna struggle, you're gonna have a hard time, and you're gonna be bouncing back from that old life and the new life and the old life and the new life as you learn to, but then, as you learn to mature and respond to the Spirit, it should look like this. Make sense? That's what our life should look like. And that's what we're talking about when I say that I want to become, when it comes to my permanent glorification, the changeover, I want there to be as little change as possible in that. And that is the intention of the power of God. That is why that we are going over and over and over again these kinds of things so that we get it. That's why we're doing basic theology, so that we get it. That's why, but even in this, when your life looks like this it's hard, isn't it, to remember what happened at the moment of salvation? It's hard to remember all of those truths, isn't it? Look at Philippians. Philippians chapter three. And the attitude of Paul, and I think if there's anybody that I want to aspire to be like that is not Jesus, it would be Paul. Look what he says, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on. Do you see a man here in this statement, do you see a man that says, my life is a solid, straight line on the way to glorification? I do not, I do not see that. I see a man that's admitting just like we are that our line looks like this. But also, he's not satisfied with a line looking like this all the time, is he? Look what he says. That I may hold on, but I press on. That I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brothers, I do not count myself to have apprehended. I am not there yet. But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. Let me take you back. Say this is where I'm at right now in my life. What is Paul telling us to do? Forgetting everything that's back here. Forgetting everything that's back there. Forgetting those things which are behind. Look what he says. I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do. This is what I'm going, this is what I do. Forgetting those things which are behind. Because why? Because those things which are behind drag me down and make me miserable. They make me forget what happened at the moment of my salvation. They make me think that God doesn't like me anymore. That God doesn't love me. That God doesn't appreciate me. That God has abandoned me. Because my line looks so wiggly and squiggly, God doesn't appreciate me anymore. And Paul says, I forget those things, and I'm reaching forward to those things which are ahead. Do you see it? And what's ahead? My ultimate glorification. That's what's ahead, and I'm striving for that. I am to be conformed to the image of Christ, and someday I'm going to have the image of Christ. We read it. But Paul says, I'm reaching forward, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let as many of us, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind. What mind is he talking about? Forgetting those things which are behind, pressing on towards those things which are before, ahead. Let us have that kind of mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal this to you. I pray that for anybody that struggles with not moving ahead and not maturing in your faith, that God would reveal whatever you have thought that is otherwise. That God will reveal, nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, and let us be of the same mind. You know what Satan wants to do to you? When you fall, when your line gets jiggly, here's what Satan wants to do to you. Young Christians, especially, listen. Old Christians, remember that Satan wants you to feel guilty and condemned. That's his pure intention for you, is to experience and know guilt to the fullest. Now, the spirit will convict us, but the devil wants to condemn us, and he uses that guilt that we feel against us, and instead of making a progression upward on our line, you remember our line? Instead of making a progression upward, now we're looking at stairway. Our progression becomes downward, doesn't it? When you start to give in to the trip of the enemy that says, you're no good, I told you you can never succeed, see there, you're always going to be an alcoholic. You're always going to be a person who lusts for others. You're always gonna give in to that, Donny. We listen to that, and we experience guilt and condemnation, and there is no pressing forward in that, is there? Don't let the enemy win. Please don't let the enemy win in this process, because we have the Holy Spirit who is active and real in your life, who, by the way, indwelled you at the red star. At the moment of faith, the Holy Spirit indwelt you, and he has made his abode there, and he is in the process of bringing conviction in your life rather than condemnation. He brings conviction, and when he brings conviction, we confess our sins, we agree with God that we are wrong, and then we repent, we turn away from those sins, and as we respond that way, as we learned last week, then the power of God gives me the ability to be able to move forward, and then my life becomes like this. That's maturity. Do you want to mature in your faith? I want us to be a body of mature believers. I want us to be men and women, young people, who are striving to move forward to the upward high call of God. Is that what you're striving for? Is that what you desire? You desire that in this life more than anything? We need to, we have to. Don't let the enemy win. Listen, this power is available to every one of us. Let me say to some of us, do not let your past experiences rob you from experiencing and accessing the power of God that's already yours. Here's what I mean. Don't let your past failures, don't yet let your squiggly lines prevent you from doing what you need to do to access the power that is yours. Don't. Your past experiences, maybe your past teachings. Somebody's taught you about a different power. Look, I came from a Pentecostal church, and they taught about a different kind of power. Sort of, kind of. Not a power I could understand and read in the scriptures. And I'm not saying that that's what Pentecostals do, don't get me wrong, I'm just saying that that's what I grew up in. I was told some crazy extra- biblical things about the power of God. Because of your past experiences, don't let that hinder you from moving and accessing this power. Don't let your uninformed former knowledge today, you have received a picture of your salvation, and why you are able to do this. I hope that's what you've got out of this. That this is why you are able to do what God says. To walk worthy and live holy. Don't let your former understanding, your former uninformed knowledge, don't let it prevent you from growing in faith and living in the power of God. Folks, do you want to live in the power of God? It's yours. Live in it. Access it by faith. It's ours. The exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe. It's yours. Now, as we move into the practical side of this, and the practical side is going to be laying aside, putting away, putting off. Before we can ever get to those kinds of things, we have to establish these truths, don't we? Because if God's going to tell us to lay aside anger and malice, if he's going to tell us to do that, then he's given us, we have to know and believe by the spirit of wisdom of him and the knowledge of him, that we have to believe with eyes wide open that we can do it. Do you believe you can do it? Let me pray for you. Father, I pray right now. There may be someone here today that has not experienced salvation as we have seen it today. They are living the old life, and they are ultimately headed to a place of eternal separation and damnation called hell. I pray, Father, that they might see the permanency of that, and may they turn away from their sin and to you. God, I pray that you would set them free, that they would find salvation. For those of us that have been saved, whether we're new or young in the faith, I pray that you would help us to enjoy all the beauty of what we've seen today, the beauty of our salvation, the beginning, the end, and everything that goes in between. I pray that you would help us to enjoy the beauty of that. And God, I pray for those who are struggling with sin in their lives, that they would not give up, but they would turn and press towards the cause called the high call. God, I pray that you would encourage them to do that, set them free to be able to do it. And God, I pray that you'd help us to fulfill Galatians, that we would help the weaker. Those who are struggling, God may, those of us who have overcome certain sins in our lives, help us to be the ones who uphold, the ones who stand with and support. I pray that you would help us to do that. And God, we'll live out the beauty of a body. God, how wonderful this will be when we learn to live it on a consistent basis. Thank you for it. Thank you for the power to do so. We ask these things now in Jesus' name. Amen. I think we're past time here. So if you're okay with not singing that last song, we're gonna call it done. I took way long. I knew it would. Is that okay? We survived. Most of you are awake. Next Sunday, listen, if you're not in Sunday school right now, next Sunday, George made mention of a meeting. Next Sunday is Sunday, the May 1st. Pizza's going to be provided here for that. And if you're thinking about helping with Sunday school, if you're considering that, or if you're a helper or a teacher, we need you to be here for next Sunday, right after the service, and we'll have lunch for you so that we can go. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/8Ht_z_f41HU.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/donny-coulter/abundant-life-in-christ/ ========================================================================