Welcome to the Cross Power Church podcast.
You're listening to a service from our church in Campbell, TX.
We pray this message strengthens your faith and points you to the
cross. Now let's join the service.
Have your bibles tonight. I'm going to be in the same
scripture I've been for about four services now.
Can't get off of it. Second Corinthians chapter 5,
verse 17. We ought to know this by now,
huh? Anybody, everybody can quote it,
right? I'm going to back up a few
verses here to 12 and read, been a while since I've read the the
first part of this and you know, this is setting here in Second
Corinthians chapter 5, just after the apostle Paul declares
that we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and
give an account for things done in the body, whether it's good
or bad. A lot of people forget that.
I think, I think a lot of preachers today are forgetting
that if we're going to give an account for what we did in the
body, how much more we're going to give an account for what we
put over the Airways or we put in people's ear.
That's not the truth. And I, yeah, I'm, I'm seeing it
every day, every day. But in Second Corinthians
chapter 5 and verse 12, I'm going to be reading through 17,
but I'm going to try to finish this up tonight.
I know some of y'all's missed some services and it's, it's,
it's hard to get 3 or 4, three or four series in a sermon and
everybody here everything. So I am going to recap a little
bit. But we've been talking about
developing our new spirit. We have a new spirit or we
should Amen when we come to Christ because 2nd Corinthians 5
and 17, we're going to back up to 12.
But it says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new
creation. Old things have passed away and
behold, all things have become new.
That's hard to find a life that all things become new.
It doesn't mean the situation necessarily has changed and it's
a new situation. We'll be waiting till Christ
comes until we have our glorified body and we're in
heaven for those some situations to change because people refuse
to change. But it does say that that
situation, somebody needs this tonight, that that situation
that you're in or whatever that phase of life you're in right
now, it can still become new to you.
Amen. Because God can give you a new
way to defeat that enemy. He can give you a new way to
overcome that trial at that particular time in your life.
And then it can become new very fast.
Being new doesn't always mean it goes away.
But in 2nd Corinthians 5 and 12, let's get what this says.
It says, for we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give
you opportunity to boast on our behalf that you may have an
answer for those who boast in appearance.
And I begin to read that and the Holy Spirit just begin to to
flood me. There's a lot of people today,
There's a lot of Christians today, There's a lot of churches
today that focus on appearance and not in the heart.
He says for if we are beside ourselves, it is for God.
Really get what this means right here.
Or if we are a sound mind, it is for you.
For the love of Christ compels us.
When you think about how much he loves you, and when you think
about where he what, where you were when he came and got you,
it should compel you. He says, because we judge thus,
that if one man died talking about Christ for all men, I love
what this says here, then all died.
If one man died, he's saying we all should die right to the
flesh. And he who died for all that,
those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for
him who died for them. And Rose again, what a powerful
statement. It's very hard to find those
today that aren't living for themselves.
You don't believe me going to restaurant and just said it by
yourself. You know, some people don't like
to eat by their self. Anybody like that.
They, you know, my wife, she doesn't like to go in and eat by
herself. She just never has it.
It's never bothered me. I can go in and if I'm hungry, I
eat and it does and I listen, you know, and you going to
places today and you just begin to listen.
You hear boasting, you hear of the things that are going on in
this life. And you man, I said across and
the guy, I wasn't trying to listen in, but he was so loud
and boisterous, I couldn't help but hear him and what he was
talking about the, the $1,000,000 deals he was making
today at lunch and the things that he was going into and, and,
and the work they were going to do.
And then all of a sudden right after he begins to talk about, I
don't know if it's his current wife or his ex-wife, but he's
giving one of them a lot of money and it's never enough.
And he's doing all the man. I, I could barely sit there.
I started saying, won't you try giving her Jesus, but you got to
have Jesus for you can give Jesus Amen.
But we we hear just it's interesting to hear the things
and to hear the conversation. You'll hear some godly stuff
every now and then. I'm not denying that.
But on the most part, you're going to hear what he said.
They're going to boast about appearance and not have not
things of the heart. But he says here in verse 17.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.
Old things have passed away. Behold, all things become new
and I explained last Wednesday night, I'm going to recap a
little bit. We are to be in Christ.
We talked about that last week. I asked what are you walking in?
We have to be walking in the spirit and to walk in the Spirit
you must abide in the spirit that's to sit to dwell or to
remain in the spirit. See develop this to to develop
the new spirit that the apostle Paul talks about here to be the
new creation. It starts out in the Spirit
because the the Spirit has to has to get control of us and we
have to walk in the spirit for the flesh to change.
The church has become very good at changing the flesh and not
ever changing the Spirit, right? So therefore we have to we can
kind of make the flesh do right, But yet people and the Holy
Spirit connect with the Spirit more than than than the flesh.
So we must abide, we must to sit, we must dwell, and we must
remain in the Spirit to develop this new spirit and this new
creation that we're called to be in Christ Jesus.
And I preached this Sunday on three ways that this happens.
And number one was to walk in love.
We have to walk in love in this Christian walk.
If we do not walk in love, then we're not going to reach anybody
because without love we're just a clanging cymbal that's just
going to make a lot of racket and not bear much fruit.
We have to walk in love. Number one, Write that down and
#2 if you're that's the best way to be recreated is to walk in
love. The second thing I talked about
Sunday was to give the word first place in our life, first
place and final authority. He said I'm the alpha and the
Omega, Omega, I'm the 1st and the last.
Give the word first place in your life and give it final
authority in your life. Jesus knew what he was talking
about there, right? Which he always does.
But Proverbs 3 five and six, it says trust in the Lord, say
trust with me, trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Lean not on your own understanding and all your ways
acknowledge Him and he shall direct your path.
So we're walking in love for giving the word first place in
our life. And then the third thing I
talked about was obey the voice of the Spirit.
And the voice of the Spirit is the written word of God.
He speaks to us through his word.
So when we're doing these three things, our spirit will begin to
be renewed. We will begin to develop our new
spirit. We will begin to be a new
creation in Christ Jesus. But we have to read the word
that is the voice of God and and then we will be his sheep and
we'll begin to know His voice. In John chapter 4 and 24, I
shared this, that God is a spirit and those that worship
Him must worship Him in the flesh.
That ain't what it says in the spirit and in truth.
So that's kind of what I've shared in this series in a
nutshell. A whole lot more but but kind of
close. But I've added a four thing to
it and I'm going to close this out.
Maybe get off the scripture. I don't know tonight, but #4I
prayed about this, and God give me this.
But quit waiting for a better life through someone else.
A lot of people do that. We wait for a better life.
We think we'll be a better person when we get a better
life. But with a better life comes
bigger problems, right? With a different life would come
different problems. But the Holy Spirit give me
these exact words. I'm going to read some of this.
But a better life started when you were born again.
If you're born again, you have a better life, you're going to
heaven and you're not going to hell.
You have a better life, right, because you're born again.
And and we should think about that.
You know, as I was sitting there in that cafe today by myself, I
just closed my eyes while I was eating and I said I was there
one time, I love God. Maybe this guy didn't take it
that he knew who God was, but I was in there trying to please
the flesh and try to trying to work all the time and, and meet
the demands of what this life says and yet hold on to God and
love him a little bit. Amen.
But I was getting there today. I was thinking so greatly that
that that God has created something in me that doesn't
care about the world anymore. And I can honestly say I can.
I just let it pass away because it's going to anyway.
But quit looking for that better life and start living the life
that God has give you, right? But we want that better life.
But a better life started. Write this down when you were
born again. It will start it.
But here's the problem, God, give me this whole passage right
here. I'm going to read to you in the
parking lot. I was waiting and it just hit me
and I began to talk on my phone. I didn't want to forget it
because I knew it was from God. A better life started when you
were born again. But the willingness in our
spirit to become a new creation in Christ must be stirred.
We have to stir it. God does not always stir it.
Amen. You're probably not going to
feel the same feeling you felt the night that you walk the owl,
that God reach way down for you and he delivered you from that
pit that you were in. It was a great feeling, and we
long to feel that feeling again. But we have to be willing in our
spirit to become a new creation. It must be stirred.
We must exercise it. We must long to be the
righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
And as we do that, we give the Holy Spirit free reign to work
in our life. A lot of people are saying I
don't want the Holy Spirit, I want to live this way.
But we can only go this far. We can't go past this point in
my life. I can't give up some of those
things. You know, I got 2 buddies I hunt
when they claimed they were having these bad headaches like
I haven't. And they said they give up sugar
and they drink gallons of coffee.
And my wife said gallons of coffee can cause headaches and
rebound headaches. And they said they quit the
sugar and, and, and and the headache stopped.
And I said what about the coffee?
They said you're meddling now. That's the way we are sometimes.
We think we know what the problem is and there's certain
things we want to give God, but do we really give Him free reign
to work in our life and to perform the changes that must
take place to be this new creation?
There has to be some changes to be a new creation.
I know some people that that got saved and they had a big
mouthful. They got saved.
They've still got a big mouth, right?
I know some people that didn't love nobody.
They talked about everybody and and before they get out of the
parking lot, they're talking about somebody else's business.
That did not change. God will not drop down and
change that. But you have to create and stir
the Spirit and give the Holy Spirit reign to do that right,
to perform the changes that must take place to be this new
creation that Paul talks about so that all things can become
new. But so many times, and yes, even
in the life of Christians and believers that know God, that
love God, we still look for happiness in the changes.
You ready for this? In the changes of others, we get
hung up on what others do. And we think if others would
change. Hello.
You got somebody at work that when you go to work, you're in a
bad mood because of them and you think if they would change, you
would be better. If the kids didn't act like they
did, you would be better. And that's probably true.
But there would be something else that, you know, we wanted
rain, we wanted cool weather. And then the wind blows and we
fuss about it, right? It's human nature.
But quit waiting for people to change.
We're still look for happiness in the changes of others or in
the changes of a career or maybe in retirement.
Retirement's a great thing, I guess, for some people.
But when you get retired, things hurt.
You don't feel like you want, I want to get to retirement.
Why? You're going to be old.
You're going to hurt. You may not have to go to work,
but you're going to hurt. You're going to be old.
You're not going to have as good a life as you do now.
You may have a check coming in every week that you're not
having to get up and go to work for, right?
But you ain't going to be able to get up and go nowhere.
But I want to retire. We live for retirement so we can
be crippled and talk about all the days we clocked in.
Money's no good if you can't walk around and spend it.
Hey, man, they'll spend it. But we do look for those
changes. Oh, if I could just retire.
I can't wait. I hate this place I've spent 40
years hating. Find a new job you love.
Quit living for the day of retirement.
You may die before you retire. Jesus is probably going to come
back before a lot of people retire.
The way it looks to me, right? But we think, and the Lord give
me this, write this down. We think if they would change,
it would change me. Not true, not true.
If they didn't do this, I wouldn't do that.
That starts at a young age, right?
Somebody made me do it. If they wouldn't do this, I
wouldn't do that. But the truth is that it
wouldn't change us at all because this gets deep right
here. Because we wouldn't be a new
creation in Christ Jesus. We would be depending on
something that was created outside the realm of the spirit,
a someones other spirit that depended upon the outside world
or something else that someone has done for me to be a new
creation. Therefore, what I've been
preaching on for four weeks now is all things wouldn't become
new because all things Paul wasn't saying that everything's
going to be new in your life and everything's going to change,
but he said you're the new creation.
So the way that your eyes now look at what's happening to you
in this life become different. And at the at the point of being
born again, you realize that this world is not your home.
You realize that seasons don't come to stay, they come to pass.
You realize that that eternity is your home and what happens in
this life now does not dominate your thought process and who you
are because I find my identity in the born again creation that
I am now. See, we would be we would be a
creation for the other person if this happened.
Quit believing that lie as a child of God because the truth
is you have something on the inside of you that the world
didn't give you and the world can't take it away.
We read about this in second Corinthians chapter 4.
We back up just a little bit in 11 and 12.
He let's go to verse 7. I always back up.
I know I do, but I have to right here because in 2nd Corinthians
4 and seven, it says, but we have this treasure in an earthen
vessel. Do you ever think about the
treasure that you have? Do you ever think about the
person that you are? Now when the person pulls out in
front of and you don't flip them off, you don't curse them and
you don't have to run to the liquor store after work to cope
with the problems that you couldn't cope with.
But now you just have to close your eyes and reach out to
heaven and say a little prayer because you're a new creation in
Christ Jesus, because you have this treasure that's hidden on
the inside of you that the blood of Jesus placed there.
And he says that the excellence of power may be of God and not
of us. And he didn't say that all this
had changed. He said, yes, we are still hard
pressed on every side, yet we're not crushed.
Remember when you were hard pressed in the former life BC
before Christ when you got a little hard pressed, it seems
that life just fell apart. But now you get hard pressed,
but yet you're not crushed. And that's something to praise
God about. We're perplexed but not in
despair. We're persecuted but not
forsaken. And yes, we may be struck down,
but we're not destroyed. Why?
Because we're always carrying about in the body the dying of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That the life of Jesus also may
be manifested in our bodies. For we who live, I love what he
says right here. For we who live are always
delivered to death for Jesus sake, that the life of Jesus
also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
So then death is working in us, but life in you.
And since we have the same spirit of faith according to
what is written, I believed and therefore I spoke, we also
believe and therefore speak, knowing that he who raised up
the Lord Jesus will also. Isn't that powerful to know that
I will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with
you for all things or for our your sakes.
That grace having spread through many calls Thanksgiving to a
bound to the glory of God. Therefore, he says do not lose
heart even though our outward man is perishing yet inward the
inward man is being renewed day by day.
See, we realize this because we're a new creation that are a
lot of afflictions, which is but for a moment is working for us a
far more excellent and eternal weight of glory, while we do not
look at the things which are seen.
You want something to work on this week, Go look at the thing.
Go, go, go not. Look at the things which you
see. Stop believing your eyes, but at
the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporary. That's mind boggling.
They're only temporary. They're not going to last and
they're going to melt with forever and heat and be
destroyed. But the things which are not
seen, the things which we cannot see are eternal.
They're going to last forever. And the only way we're going to
see it is by faith. See, our worship, our happiness
doesn't depend on the outside circumstance.
You know, if, if pastoring a church has taught me anything, I
have learned this. I have learned this.
Have you, Sister Linda, all the times you had to go to church
and step behind the pulpit and all hell was breaking loose in
your life and you got to get up there and you got to preach, you
got to smile, you got to worship God.
I didn't before I started pastoring, I really I'd, I'd
kind of, I'd kind of take a little break from worshiping God
when things went wrong in life sometime.
Anybody ever did that? But see that it doesn't depend
on the outside circumstances or what's going on around us.
Most Christians never reached that point.
That knowing that no, they're just up if things are good and
if God didn't meet it, they're down.
But I know it's about to change. We know it's about to change
because on the inside, because on the outside we're wasting
away, but on the inside we're being renewed.
I love where I love that word He put in there daily.
It's not a long time from now I can be renewed daily.
Philippians 4 and 11 and 12 is another great one to go to.
As we read on, it says not that I speak in regard to need, for I
have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.
That'd be a great characteristic to have, wouldn't it?
He goes on to say. I know how to.
I know how to be a base, and I know how to abound everywhere in
all things. I've learned both to be full and
to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
Most people don't. You know, there's a lot of
people right now not getting a paycheck due to people that's
getting paid not doing their job, right?
Surely somebody could figure out a way to get along, to get the
same things done. But there's people going crazy
because they don't get a paycheck.
And it's rightfully so. But I've been in that situation
all my life, rodeoing, contracting.
But but the thing of it is we got to know where the paycheck
comes from. God, it says that he's the one
that gives us the power to get wealth.
Sure, it takes a job, but he's the one that gives you the power
to get that. Aren't you glad you're a new
creation tonight and you can go on as apostle, as apostle Paul
said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me. Do you remember where you were
when the Savior reached down for you?
Aren't you glad to know that who you are tonight because you know
who he is and Psalms chapter 51. I want to do a little reading
here. It's a great passage of
Scripture. But the reason we we need to
keep this new spirit about us. We have to keep this new spirit
about us is because I've never we we look to the returning of
Christ, but in the returning of Christ there's going to be a
great falling away. The Bible speaks of, I hear it
every, it seems like every few weeks I hear of it churches
closing. That's been around longer than
this one pastor and his wife getting a divorce after 30 years
and having to shut the church down.
And you know the thing that always rings, I've always kept
this at the top of my Christian walk.
And I was sharing on the phone yesterday.
A guy told me he said I like a church, but we, we, we disagree
on on being once saved, always saved.
He said you can't lose your salvation.
I said we don't disagree on that.
I said you word it differently because you think they weren't
saved if they weren't truly if they there, if there wasn't a
change in their life, they weren't truly saved.
And I said I don't discourage people with telling them when
they prayed the sinner's prayer that God didn't move in their
life and there was something different.
But I but, but I said, if you want to sit down and look at the
scripture, I can show you that we don't agree, disagree because
I know you know what the word says.
And if you let me show you, you will, you will see it like I see
it. And I really believe that.
But it's a bad place to live in to think that you're all, you're
sealed for eternity. And no matter what you do on
this earth, it's really prideful because I know without God, I
can do nothing. And I know if I turn my back on
God and walk over, walk the other way, there's no telling
what I would be. And I think that's what keeps us
going. I think that's what fuels the
fire of the believer. And I believe if David could
come back today, and I'm talking about being a a new creation in
Christ Jesus, I used to hear Charles Stanley and Jared, you
might not put this on there tonight.
I don't care if you do. But if I save me some phone
calls, pick you another one to put on the deal, but I really
don't care anymore. The truth's the truth.
I love Charles Stanley, I loved a lot of his teachings.
I think he was a great man of God, but he believed in the
Calvinistic belief of once saved, always saved.
He believed that no matter what you did in this life, you would
not lose your salvation. You would suffer repercussions
in this life. The devil could attack you more
if you send more in this life and and you would you know, you
would have to deal with some of the repercussions of the sin.
What reap what you sowed in this life, but it was never going to
affect your eternal destiny. But when we read about the
judgement seat of Christ that we're going to give an account
of those things and they will be rewarded.
But but I think of David when I think of that because I don't
see how you could have a new created spirit because he would
preach against sin. He would preach all these things
against sin and and then I was listening one day and then he
said, but no matter what you do, nothing can separate you from
God. You have an eternal home in
heaven. You will suffer that.
And I thought, why try, Why pray?
Why overcome all these and all these things?
It just kind of takes the, the, the glory out of it.
But I think a David, David was a king.
David was anointed by God. He was appointed king.
We know that, right? And the Bible teaches that David
was a man after God's own heart. He was the apple of his eye.
And and we know those things. But in Psalms chapter 51, David
wrote a lot of the Psalms. But this Psalm 51 is very
different that David wrote because David wrote the Psalm.
It's believed to be when Nathan the prophet had went to him
after he had had a a marital extramarital affair with
Bathsheba and he had had her husband killed by placing him on
the front battle line so he could take her as his wife and
had a child with her. And we know the story.
The child did not live. God did not allow that to
happen. But David had come to the place
that that I think maybe he, you know, maybe was feeling like he
was OK, but he wrote this Psalm after that happened.
He wrote these things I'm going to read to you in closing
tonight because David now knew how important the new created
spirit that I've been preaching for four weeks about was.
We have to have a new spirit. And he starts out in verse one
of Psalms 51. It says, Have mercy upon me, O
God, according to your love and kindness, and according to your
tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions, wash
me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
And I begin to think about that David was praying something
there that he really had not seen.
He was asking for forgiveness. But let's keep in mind, the
blood of Jesus had not been shed yet.
There had been no nothing that could wipe it away forever.
And David was yet crying out for men.
I this guy beside me when I read this today, he was crying out
for that which we now have. He was crying out that all this
thing that I've done could just be forgotten and and be wiped
away and never I wish I'd have never done.
Can you imagine being a king and being in that place and and, and
having this? I begin to think men of standing
behind the pulpit preaching the gospel every week.
What if I stumbled for a minute? What if I failed?
And what if this was me? And it could be, it could be
you. You could be the one that
they're talking about next week at church that that used to go
to church. Man, they were in tune.
They knew Christ, they knew God and they love God.
But but I don't know what happened to him.
Look at what they're doing now. We could be, you could be the
very next one and never saying you can't come back.
But you, you kill your witness, nobody's going to listen to you.
And all the good that we that we've done for people, it would
just be, it would just be vanished because they look at
the one time you fail. That's why I think about Jimmy
Swaggart many times. What a great, what a great man
to come back. I don't know that I could have
come back from that. Most preachers sit down and say,
well, I failed and I'm done. Yet he went on to do mighty
things of work, work for God. We call it blasphemy.
I've heard people do that because he, he once fell and now
I did that. But I think it's better to get
up and keep going and still leading people to Jesus because
now you can tell somebody, you can take that filthy rag that's
in your life and you can say, look what God did to it.
Look what he made of it because it says that our greatest
righteousness before God is but what filthy rags.
But think about David, how he wrote this.
Go home and read it. I'm not going to read it all,
but I want to go back up here to verse 5.
It said, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity.
He begins to think about his life and in sin my mother
conceived me. Behold, you desire truth and
inward parts and in the hidden part you will make me to know
wisdom. And he said in verse 7, he said,
he said, purge me with hasop. See, David was begging for
cleansing. He was begging forgiveness.
Hasop was a it was a, an Evergreen plant that they use
for purity, kind of like germ X today.
I guess it they would use hasop and they had in their mind that
it would clean. And Davis just pour the hasop
all over me that I shall be cleansed.
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken
may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and
blot out all of my iniquities. He was pleading for the blood
right here. He knew what the blood was
before the blood was shed. But I love what he said right
here. He realized his heart wasn't
clean. See, we have to realize our
heart is not clean apart from Jesus Christ and he's the only
one that can create this in us. He said created me a clean
heart. O God, can you think about David
this this prayer really meant something to David right here.
I failed you. I committed adultery.
I had a man murdered in I was the king.
I'm supposed to know God. I'm supposed to be close to God
and yet this is happening. And look what he said right
here. He said, just create a clean
heart in me, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit.
David knew the importance right here now, after he had fell,
after his life was about to be in shambles, after he had prayed
for God not to take his child, he said, renewing me a
steadfastness. See, there's an importance in
staying steadfast with God. There's importance in coming and
hearing the word of God when you don't feel like it.
Hey, man, there's an importance in staying steadfastness because
when God, when the enemy is trying to keep you from hearing
the word of God, he's trying to keep you from getting faith to
overcome the struggles and the battles that you're facing.
Do not cast me away from your presence, man.
Look what he said right here. Do not take your Holy Spirit
from me. Restore to me the joy of your
salvation. Do you think David thought he
had lost something right here? Sounds like it.
He said restore. I know before I did that there
was something that was wrong in my spirit.
That's why I'm preaching to y'all.
I'm preaching to all these people every week about create
this new thing. You got to stir it.
God will do the work, but you got to stir it and you got to
give the Holy Spirit free reign in your life.
Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your
Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your
salvation and uphold me by Your generous Spirit as you stand
Your feet tonight. This one really got me, he says.
Then I will teach transgressors, transgressors your ways, and
sinners shall be converted to you.
And then awesome. So you after you've had that
clean heart created in you, after you've had that
steadfastness of that new created spirit that we're
talking about, and after you realize that the Holy Spirit has
left you, but it's returned, you got something to to joy about,
but it's a whole lot easier. It's a whole lot easier if we
would do that first, if we would do that first.
Thank God, he loves us where we were at.
Thank God he reached way down. I love to tell young people, you
know, testimonies are great, but you don't have to have one.
You don't have to go through all those bad things if you're just
asking to come into your life. As this song plays.
Would you gather around tonight and thank Him that He reach way
down for you? Would you say God just clean,
Create a clean heart in me tonight?
Thanks for listening to the Cross Powered Church podcast.
May you know that true hope, peace, and salvation can only be
found in Jesus. If you're near Campbell, TX, we
would love for you to join us in person.
You can find service times at crosspowerchurch.com.