2010..the last 10 years

I can’t believe how fast time flies! I started to ponder on the last 10 years of my life. It’s crazy how a sovereign God can redeem someone like me. I thought back the past 10 years of who i was and how much has changed since 2000. I am almost 31 years old and thankful for the work God has done in my heart.

Who was I?

• I was a man who was full of anger and hatred. (ESV Mark 7:21-23)
  
• I was a man who was caught up in drugs and violence.
• I was a man who didn’t care. (ESV Psalm 10:4)
  
• I was a man who was prideful.( ESV Psalm 10:4)
  
• I was a man who didn’t mind causing pain in someone’s life.
• I was a man who was good at making people feel fear.
• I was a man who had a lot of hurts from the past and held unforgiveness tightly in my heart. (ESV John 20:23)
• I was a man given over to my desires and flesh. (ESV Eph. 2:3, ESV Rom 1:24)
  
• I am totally depraved and couldn’t save myself.

Then something happened and God showed His glory to me. For some reason God wanted to save me from myself. I still wondered why. Why God, would you want to save me? Why would you want to redeem a person like me, that deserves nothing? Why would you choose me and pick me out of the crowd to be redeemed?

The only response I got was “I love you!”

Why God would you love me?? I felt everyone else walked out on me-why would you stay? Again I heard, “I love you!”

It was that point, on July 13, 2007, that my heart changed. It was that point that I wanted to live differently. It was that point I wanted to be different from the world!!

Who I am!

• I am a son! Adopted into the family of God. (ESV Gal. 4, ESV Rom. 1:1-4)
• I am redeemed by the blood of the Lamb! (ESV Gal. 3:13, Gal. 3:26-28)
  
• I am a saint! (ESV Col. 1:12, ESV 1 Cor. 1:2)
• I am made righteous and holy because of Him (ESV Eph. 4:24)
• I am sanctified by Him (ESV Heb. 10:10,14)

In other words…..

I couldn’t save myself! I couldn’t do anything to free myself from the bondages of sin! I didn’t do anything of my own will!

It’s all about Him.

My life does not belong to me.

My life belongs to Him.

My life is about Him.

My God is first in all things.

He is the Redeemer, Restorer, Sanctifier, only One, that can fix all things.

I love my God with all my heart! Lord search my heart out! (ESV Psalm 139:23-24)

May 2010 be devoted to you Lord!

Christ is All,

~Michael

Romans 8:4-8 Part 4, The Theory of Free Will

Do we really have free will or is the reality that we are in submission, either to sin or to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Tonight, I unpack and teach the myth of free will and where do we really stand before Jesus Christ.  And just maybe I will use the word “unpack” a few thousand times more before the end of the podcast.

Romans 8:4-8 Part 1: From Total Depravity…

Take verses 5-8 and lets talk about what it means to not belong to Christ:

For those who live according to the flesh have set their minds on the things of the flesh, you are hostile to God, you do not and cannot submit to God’s law and it is impossible for you to please God. You are going to die.

Romans 8:4-8 Part 1: From Total Depravity (Notes)

Notes from the podcast.

Romans 8:2 God Is All Powerful

It was in God’s omnipotence, that is God has all power and all ability to carry out all of His decrees.  One of His decrees is clearly stated in Romans 8:2, namely “Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.“  So how does God “set you free… from sin and death”?

We will expound on Romans 8:2 using a glimpse God’s power and might in Psalm 139:12-17 and what He does with that power in Psalm 139:19-24 in order to break you free from sin and death.

Note: No audio available.

Romans 6:15-23 Your Old Master Has Been Sorely Defeated

Previously in Romans 6:1-14, Paul debates with us to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ.  Paul keeps driving the point home and wins the argument by setting up a comparison between your old master and God above.

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Romans 6:1-11 We Should Be Dead (Notes)

Notes attached.

Romans 5:12-21 Less Like Adam

The weight of righteousness was initially given to Adam, our first dad.  He failed.  Still, Christ was given the same weight and did not fail.

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Romans 3: All Have Sinned

We finish up the doctrine of sin by comparing our unrighteousness to God’s righteousness. It goes beyond God as the Creator that gives Him the right to judge the world.  God is set apart by any other mortal being or idea in that He is holy and righteous and by that alone, can He rightfully judge.

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Romans 1:18-2:29 Faith in His Righteousness

We speak of faith in His righteousness. But why so much emphasis on the holiness and righteousness of God? It must be known that in His holiness and righteousness, God cannot tolerate and abide by sin.

Romans 1:18-32 (ESV) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Romans 2:1-29 (ESV) Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

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